NEW ADVENTURE ON THE HORIZON

Well, I found out last night that I'm getting transferred tomorrow. I won't know where I'm going or who my companion is going to be until tomorrow at transfers. I'm kind of bummed since I only got to be here for 1 transfer.... But at the same time, I think it'll be really good for me to go somewhere new and have new experiences. So I'm excited to see where I'm going and who I'll be with! I know it'll be what God wants for me and that it'll be where he wants me. Elder Ackley is sad that we won't get to be together for his last 6 weeks, but he's staying in this area and training someone new. He'll have fun training again for his last transfer. Anyways, this has been a great week! We put a woman on date for baptism the first night we met her. Her name is Joe Johnson. She's super nice, and really wants to get baptized. It was such a miracle that we found her and put her on date. she was like, "Yeah, I want you guys to teach me everything so I can get baptized". We were like..... OKAY!!! :D So that was super exciting. We've been planning a temple tour with one of our wards for awhile now, so tonight we're meeting a huge group of people on temple square for a tour. We had all the members of the ward invite friends and family that are less-active or non-members. We're pretty excited about it actually. This is the same ward that Elder Holland is in. He was at church on Sunday by the way.... Such a weird experience to have a fast and testimony meeting with an Apostle of the Lord sitting on the stand. It's like having the Apostle Peter at church with you on Sunday. So intimidating, but at the same time it's such a spiritual experience. So we got to meet him after church, and he totally said, "good luck Elder" and then smacked me on the butt. Basically, an apostle touched my butt. Pretty cool, right? So I'll be sure to let everyone know where my new area is next week and how I'm loving it. I'll be sure to tell everyone about my new companion as well. I love and miss everyone!.. especially my sweet and loving Taylor Lindsey and our puppy. :)

THE SPIRIT OF GOD LIKE A FIRE IS BURNING

Well, I'm in the last week of my first transfer as a full-time missionary of the Salt Lake City East Mission. I can't even begin to describe how fast the past 5 weeks have gone by. It feels like yesterday I was unpacking my bags and meeting all these new people, and now I've just about finished my first transfer. I won't know until next Monday whether or not I'll be transferred, but I really hope that I don't and I don't think I will. Elder Ackley and I are getting so close. I feel like we're getting closer and closer every day. He has a really funny sense of humor and I think we're both starting to feed off each other's jokes or funny comments. I would be pretty sad to get transferred already, but I would make it alright. This week has been great. We've made a lot of progress with our investigators. I think we'll be able to put a family that we've been teaching on date for baptism. We got really close with them on the last lesson we taught them. We're hoping to take them to a General Conference Session. I think that would be a really neat experience to see them feel the spirit by listening to a prophet of God talk. I feel like my own testimony has been growing more and more with every lesson we teach by the Spirit. It's such a cool and spiritual moment when the spirit prompts us to ask a question or invite someone to do something that really touches and affects them. We've seen that a lot with the less-actives that we've been working with. A lot of people just forget what their testimony is and what the spirit felt like. It's crazy, but very uplifting to bring that back to them. The Lord really does use us as His tool in this great and marvelous work. I see that more every day. I emailed Elder Jolley today just to see how he was doing. It was the first day I talked to him since the MTC. He sent me back the most touching email. Here's part of it, 

"I know you know all this. But I will say it anyway because I want to. Elder Clark the experience we had in the MTC will be one I will always cherish. You were a good friend to me when I needed it and some of things that got me through my anxiety and dark feelings, were the lessons we taught together and the undeniable spirit we felt in that combination of heart. I know that if you are true to the man I know you are inside, you will be an invaluable resource in the Lords vineyard raising up and preparing his children who live in the midst of Zion. They know not where to find it. They may think they know. BUT THEY DO NOT."

Obviously, this brought me to tears. Elder Jolley was a huge example to me in the MTC. I felt like I learned and grew more from being with him than anything else. We really did teach with great unity and the spirit was so strong the whole time. He will always be a great friend that I hope to keep in contact with. Anyways, I love and miss all of you back home, and of course, Taylor and my puppy Ralphie are always in my thoughts and prayers.

Another Awesome Week for Elder Clark - Photos from Zone Conference

This has been the busiest week of my mission so far!!! Oh boy... My companion and i have seen so many miracle this week. We've gotten 5 new investigators and they all have great potential. It just seems like so many opportunities have been given to us this week to find people and start teaching them. I think we've booked our schedule pretty full next week for teaching appointments. A lot of the investigators we have right now are kind of in a plateau of growth and progression. We've been praying and studying a lot for them, but it's just hard. So the new investigators that we got this week were super exciting for us. I feel like it's been a huge blessing. We had zone conference and mission conference this week, Both were super spiritual experiences that i learned and grew so much from. I feel like i'm already starting to build relationships with other missionaries and the mission staff. It makes you feel like you're a lot more a part of the mission when you get to know others and they start to know you. It's just felt really good to meet so many new friends that are all great people. It makes you feel like you're apart of something really cool. Elder Perry came and spoke to us at mission conference and that was so amazing. He doesn't seem as old as he is.... He's so full of life and he's so fast!!!! He moves around like a little old race car. Anyways, he was really funny. He taught us about the importance of a strong companionship. We go out and teach in 2's for a reason. The spirit was so strong, but of course that's how it's going to be when an Apostle of the Lord is talking to you... We bumped into Elder Oaks again.... I don't know how i'm going to get used to that... OH! Apparently, we're going to get tickets for each session of conference. Our mission is going to give us some, plus the Stake that we're in always takes care of the missionaries for conference. We'll be able to take a few investigators as well. So we're pretty excited about that. I can't believe that I've been in the field for a month already. The spiritual growth has been so cool to recognize and see within myself and my companionship. I'm really hoping we don't get transferred, because next transfer will be Elder Ackley's last and i would like to be with him. Plus this is a great missionary-minded area. The leaders are so good and really understand what we're doing here. The first 6 weeks of my mission have flown by so fast. I'm loving every bit of it though. I love and miss everyone back home, especially my loving and caring Taylor and our puppy. :)

Elder Clark's email on March 10, 2014

I can't believe how fast this week flew by..... It seems like yesterday I was writing my last blog email....  It's been a great week here in the Avenues. The weather has seemed like spring, so I've mostly been wearing just my white shirts. The baptism on Saturday went great! Mario is such a great guy. He has had so many trials come into his life in the past month, but he has hung onto his testimony the whole time. He asked me to baptize him, so that was really special to me. I feel like we became friends really fast, and it was crazy how fast I grew to love and care about him. He's living in a really bad part of downtown. There's homeless people everywhere, drugs, prostitution, and all of that, so it's kind of scary when we go down there. But we always seem to find someone who wants a blessing or copy of the Book of Mormon. So now we're just gonna try to work with him and the church to get him out of there. Sooo, my crazy story for this week..... We were going to an appointment at an apartment complex on State Street right across from Temple Square. We were riding up the elevator and when we got to our floor the door opened and Elder Oaks was just standing there. My companion and I were so dumb-founded. We didn't know what to say at all. He was just like, Hey Elders! It was so cool to see an apostle of the Lord in such a casual experience. Apparently he lives in that building, and was going a floor above his to borrow some cold medicine for his wife. SO COOL!! Who knew an apostle's wife could even get sick?!?!?! Anyways, we had a mission wide temple session this morning at 6:30. It was so cool to be in the Salt Lake temple. It's so gorgeous and it's really cool to think about the history behind it. The live session was different.... I think I prefer the video. It was cool to see a lot of the missionaries that I was in the MTC with though! I love my mission presidency. They are all such spiritual giants, and my mission Mom, Sister Eberhart(which is the wife of the mission President) is so funny. She's such a ball of energy and just cracks me up every time I see her. The work is picking up the more we're here. We don't have anyone on date as of now, but we know we will shortly. We're working with some real solid investigators right now. We had dinner with the son of the Presiding Bishop and one of our ward mission leaders is the son of a general authority. Needless to say, I'm surrounded by very spiritual people. We had Stake Conference in the Tabernacle on Temple Square this past weekend. That was a really neat experience. How many missionaries in the world get to have a church service in the tabernacle??? It's so awesome to be so close to church headquarters. I've toured Temple Square a few times already. It's such a good tool to use for our investigators. I can't believe it's already been over a month since I've been out. Time seems to go by so much faster here. Thank you everyone for all the support and love you've been sending me. I really appreciate it! I will remember to keep everyone in my prayers. I love and miss all of you!! I love and miss Taylor and Ralphie soooo much!

Love, Elder Clark

A

Can you all believe that I've already been gone a whole month?!?! That is just the most insane thought that has gone through my mind the past few days. Time goes by so differently out here. I have loved every bit of my mission so far. My companion and I are really getting to know the members in our stake and starting to build a good bond between us. We've already started planning stake wide missionary activities and challenges for the members to get excited. We have several progressing investigators right now that we are really excited for and are hoping to put on date this week to be baptized. We have Mario's baptism this Saturday and we are so pumped for that. He is probably the most solid investigator in the world. He gets so happy and excited when we talk about his baptism coming up. He even bore his testimony yesterday at church... Like, such a solid guy. I'll take pictures at the baptism so that I can post them next week. So I'm really starting to get settled into the missionary life and really enjoying it. My companion and I run 2 miles every morning, and then do our studies before we go out for appointments. I think I've paid for one meal while I've been here and only spent like 10 dollars on groceries, so that tells you how generous everyone is here to the missionaries. I've had to eat 2 dinners twice now.... I hate that... It's the worst thing in the world.... You don't want to be rude, but you also don't want to die from over eating. The weather has been amazing so far. It's felt like spring, and I've just been wearing my white dress shirts around. My area is the closest area in our mission to the huge Deseret bookstore downtown, so I'll be going there today to get a few things. Anyways, I'm loving it here and my companion is a beast so that's helping me a lot. I know I'm getting a lot of support and prayers from home as well, so that's always a boost. OH! I started to learn how to play the Ukulele. My companion is teaching me. I really don't have much time to practice, but at lunch or before we go to bed. I think I might buy one as my birthday present to myself. So Mom if you love me, you'll send me money for my birthday so I can buy one, because they are like 100 dollars... Anyways... sorry this update is so scatterbrained and random. I'm just really excited and happy about things, plus I don't get very much time to write these things so that makes it worse. My address is 215 10th avenue, SLC, UT 84103 just in case anyone wants to write me. My email address is taylorc@myldmail.net. I don't know if everyone has that or not, I'm sure my mom has gotten that out to people but just in case. I love and miss you all you much. I pray for everyone back home just as much as you all pray for me. As always,I pray for my sweet puppy Ralphie and my just as sweet Taylor maybe a little more than everyone else... ;)

LOVE, Elder Clark

Taylor's arrival at his mission along with other new missionaries.