Oh my goodness. So much to say and so little time to say it. This week has been an up and down roller coaster for sure... My companion and i started teaching 2 investigators this week. One of them is one of our teachers that just acts like an investigator that he taught on his mission. The other one is hired by the MTC to come here and let missionaries talk to them. It's called TRC. So our TRC investigator is Thrijae(Three-jay). He's from California and was going to Stanford and playing volleyball until his best friend's father got really sick. He then decided to move with his best friend's family out here to Utah to attend BYU. He HATES it here. He feels like no one really cares about him. He told us that everyone is so fake and when they find out that he's not a member they treat him so differently. Sad huh? So our first appointment was on Tuesday. He wouldn't even let us in the door. We sat at his door for like 10 minutes just talking to him and trying to get him to let us share a quick message. He FINALLY let us in, but he wouldn't really talk much. He put up this wall between us and just kept calling us fake and that we didn't really care about him. So that was rough. We left feeling so defeated and discouraged because he came up to us afterwards and asked us not to ever come back. At one point, he even said he would rather talk to other missionaries instead of us. That was the worst I've felt the entire time I have been here. I had NO IDEA what to do. We had another appointment on Wednesday, but he cancelled..... -_- So Thursday rolls around, and we still have no idea what to do or say to this investigator. We've prayed and studied like crazy just for him, but still nothing... Thank goodness for Brother Jake Reiss. Brother Reiss is a return missionary that works as an area manager over our building floor of classrooms. He's our teacher's boss's boss. Anyways, he was on a documentary series called the District, so he's basically a celebrity here. The District was done by the church to show what missionaries actually go through. It's pretty intense. You can look it up and watch it I think. So Brother Reiss comes into our classroom on Thursday afternoon right before our appointment and asks if anyone needs help with anything. Consider our prayers answered. He laid everything out for us perfectly. We had told him about our experience with Thrijae the day before and so he knew what we were struggling with. That night with Thrijae was so amazing. I don't even remember what we said, but we got him to open up so much that he was balling his eyes out in front of us. He told us about his brother's death and how he feels responsible. He's going through tremendous depression and thinks that no one could ever love him for what he's done. Hello!!! The Gospel is perfect for you!! So as we were closing up he asked if we would say a prayer with him. HE ASKED US!! Boom. The Gospel is true. the spirit works in crazy ways. We only had one more appointment with him and that was on Saturday. We were so pumped and prepared, and thought that we had the perfect lesson for him. We get there, and he says he doesn't want to talk to us and that he's going to meet with other missionaries.... We literally had to chaise him down and force it out of him why he wouldn't talk to us. He told us that he prayed on his own and got an answer that there is a God and that He loves him. He called his family and told them about his experience and that he was meeting with the missionaries, and they literally laughed at him. He told us that his family was threatening to disown him, and said his brothers threatened to go out and hurt missionaries if he continued. We were kind of dumb founded... but the spirit helped us talk to him and we let him know that we cared for him and wanted him to be happy. We explained how we were getting transferred and that this was the last time we were meeting with him. He asked us if we really cared about him and if we really believed that he could see his brother again. We bore our testimony to him and hugged to say goodbye, but as we were leaving he asked us for a blessing. We had offered him one the previous night when he told us his life story, but he declined and said maybe another time. So we gave him a blessing of comfort and said our goodbyes. What an awesome experience though... I can't wait to get out in the field and start doing that all the time. So Tuesday we had a really good devotional by one of the 70. I sang in the choir again for that and really enjoyed it. Sunday night, we had a fireside taught by Mathew Holland, Elder Holland's son. It was Sister Holland's birthday, so ELDER HOLLAND WAS THERE!!! He talked to us briefly and introduced his son. Mathew Holland talked about Joseph Smith and the institute choir sang at different parts of his talk. It was really spiritual and testimony building. The MTC Choir doesn't normally sing on Sunday night, but we got to because of this special night. The MTC Choir and Institute Choir sang "Praise To the Man" together at the end of the talk. It was so powerful. I didn't see this, but everyone came up to me afterwards and said that the cameras zoomed directly in on my face as we were singing. Because of that, 2 return missionaries from Nashville came up to me afterwards and said hi. they recognized me on the screen and wanted to come say hi. They weren't wearing tags anymore, so i forgot their names but I recognized them both. It was so nice to see them. I also discovered that Elder Tyler Lodwick from Mount Juliet is on the floor right above me, so we've chatted a few times about home. I'm so excited to leave tomorrow morning. It feels like I've been here forever, but at the same time it feels like I just got here. I've been so blessed with the teachers I have had here and the fellow missionaries in my zone. I can't wait to get out there and do the Lord's work!!! I love you all and miss you all. I keep everyone back home in my prayers, especially my lovely girlfriend and puppy. :)

Love, Elder Clark