Ups and Downs

April 28, 2014

This week has probably been the hardest week of my mission. The twin girls we had on date for Saturday fell off date because of their parents. We're not completely sure why, but all we know is that they want them to wait. :/ It's been really hard on Elder Bischoff and me because we don't really know what to do. One moment everything was fine and they were progressing, and now it's hard to even get hold of them. We're just gonna keep trying to show them that we love and care about them and hopefully they'll see and understand that. I got sick this week and because of that we weren't able to go out and work for 2 days. It was the worst feeling in the world not being able to do anything. I felt bad for Bischoff because all my body could do was sleep. I think that's why I got sick in the first place, not getting enough sleep. Anyways, that made our week just that much harder. We had another devotional this week from President Hallstrom, who is in the quorum of the seventy first presidency. He talked to us about not just "being" missionary and members of the church, but fully "becoming" one. It was really interesting and motivational to "become" all that we can be and not just taking a back seat. Then we had a mission-wide service project on Saturday. It was Comcast Cares day, and we volunteered with 700 other people to do community service at a local junior high. It rained all day on us, so that made things a little more interesting. All of the missionaries had fun with it though. It was cool to change up our routine and go out and work for several hours. We picked up a new investigator this week!! We've been visiting a lady from Kentucky, and her non-member friend just moved in with her from there. She moved straight out of Lexington. She even lived in Nashville for a time. They are both nurses and awesome southern people. It makes me feel like home when we go over there. She even keeps saying that we need to marry her daughter and come over for biscuits and gravy. She's so funny. We just barely started sharing the Gospel with her friend, so we hope she can feel the Spirit and the truthfulness of what we share. Hazel is still progressing really well. Several people have told us that it's obvious that she's feeling the Spirit. Her surgery is coming up on May 7th, so keep her in your prayers. Elder Bischoff is loving it here. The members are starting to gain trust and love in us, and that's so important. I love and miss all of you!! I hope you all are doing your best to be amazing member missionaries. I pray for all of you everyday to have missionary opportunities. I deeply love and miss my sweet Taylor Lindsey and our turd of a dog, Ralphie! :)

Love, Elder Clark

Elder Clark's parents received a very special letter this week. The letter is attached here as well as photos from the service project and devotional!

JOY IN SERVICE

Well, another week's flown by.... I can't believe how strange time feels out here. I don't think I'll ever get used to it. We had a pretty eventful week that was full of fun and learning. We've continued working with the twin girls that are on date for this upcoming Saturday. They've been progressing and learning a lot, so we hope they're ready for Saturday. Hazel is just surprising me more and more every time we see her. She's just so nice and responsive to everything we teach her and talk to her about. She participates in Gospel Principles so much and it seems like she's been a member for years.... It's just been such a miracle and a huge testimony builder for Elder Bischoff and me. We did quite a bit of service this week. It's that time of year, so everyone is out doing yard work. We helped everyone from investigators, less-actives, members, and even non-members. We cut a few lawns, helped with some gardens, and helped people move a lot of boxes to storage and what not. Service has really become one of my favorite things about missionary work. People are so defensive about talking to us, but when they see that we just want to serve them it really changes their attitude. They see how we actually care and love them instead of them thinking that we just want more numbers in our church; especially because it was Easter week. We just got to go around showing and telling people how grateful we are for the Savior. If any of you haven't seen the Church's Easter video, then go do it. It's on the Mormonchannel.com. So on Thursday this last week, Clayton M. Christensen came to give our mission a devotional. He wrote the book, "Power of Everyday Missionaries". I also recommend reading that. It's amazing. Anyways, he led a discussion with us on how we can be better intertwined in our wards and stakes. We learned a lot of cool ideas like, asking if we could fill in for the primary chorister. That way he/she can go to a Sunday school class that they never get to, and we get to meet the primary kids. It was all about building relationships with people in the ward and hastening missionary work. He was such a cool guy. You could just tell how smart and spiritual he was by the way he held himself and spoke. I think we have another devotional this week with another 70 authority, so we're looking forward to that. I love and miss all of you! I keep you all in my prayers. I love and miss my sweet Taylor and my puppy Ralphie sooooooo much!

Love, Elder Clark

THE WORK CONTINUES

Well, this week hasn't been too eventful, but it has been very spiritually uplifting. We put one of our investigators, Hazel, on date for the first week in June. It's a long way away, but it's because she has a major brain surgery in the beginning of May to remove a non-cancerous tumor. It's been really fun teaching her. She's been so sweet and receptive to what we've taught her. She's even recognizing the Spirit and the promptings it's giving her. We taught her the Plan of Salvation this week, and she said that the Three Degrees of Glory brought her a lot of peace and comfort. THAT'S THE SPIRIT YALL!!!! Haha, it's so cool to see those little miracles happen and how they affect other's lives.

We've been working with a lot of less-actives this week and trying to provide as much service as we can. We want to really get involved in the community and meet as many people in the neighborhood as possible. There's like three return missionaries in this area that have been going out with us, teaching and meeting new people, so they've been helping a lot. It's been cool to hear their stories and the things they learned on their mission. There's a lot of work to be done in this area, and I feel like we're just starting to scratch the surface. But we have the momentum going and it feels good to see the members starting to get trust in the missionaries. I love and miss all of you. I hope everyone is doing as much as they can to hasten the work. To hasten His work. Being missionary minded is the first step to doing that. Love everyone and be the example that you all are!

I hope and pray for everyone back home every day. Especially, Taylor and Ralphie. :)

Love, Elder Clark

SERVICE IN HOLLADAY

So I love my new area of course.... I'm in Holladay now, in the Highland Stake. It's a really nice and pretty area, plus I'm really close to Sugar House so that's nice. It has a big shopping area that makes everything we need in a convenient distance. I really miss my old area, but who wouldn't? I mean, I was so close to everything meaning, Temple Square and church headquarters, and I had so many General Authorities in my area that were all such spiritual power houses. My new companion is super nice and humble. He's been out 5 months, so we’re both in that new missionary phase still. His name is Elder Bischoff. We get along great though. He's from Goldendale Washington, which is a super tiny town in South-East Washington. We're on bikes now in our new area, but our area is less than 1 square mile so it's not bad at all.... haha. We live with members in a part of their house that they've sectioned off for an independent apartment. It's really nice and comfortable. The work has been really good so far. This area hasn't seen any baptisms in over 4 months, and we put twin, 10 year-old girls on date for baptism for the 26th of this month. Their older brother is really interested too. He's 17 and we're gonna play basketball with him and some of his friends along with the young men in the ward. We're excited because we asked if being baptized is something he's interested in and he said yes. He has a really good friend that's about to go on a mission, so that helps a lot. We just picked up a new investigator this week that is super solid. Her name is Hazel. She went to conference, she read the Book of Mormon assignment we gave her, she prayed about that reading, and she's already willing to give up coffee. She's really nice and we've been progressing with her a lot already after just 2 lessons. Conference weekend was so amazing. I don't think I've ever gotten more out of conference than I did this past weekend. It's amazing how easy it is to relate everything the General Authorities say to yourself and what you're going through. We ended up with 14 conference tickets, but gave a lot of them to our investigators that could go with fellow shippers and some less-actives. We went to the Priesthood Session and loved it. We got to watch all of the other ones at members’ houses and our senior missionary couple. We have 2 couples that we work rather closely to, the Henricksens and the Browns. They're both awesome couples and they really help us out a lot. We've been working a lot with members this week and trying to establish a good relationship with them. It's so important to have trust from the members. They're the key to missionary work. If every single member trusted the missionaries enough to have them teach their friends and family, missionary work would explode. So that's what we want, is for the members to trust that we'll do a good job teaching the people they care about. I loved the talk Elder Nelson gave in the Saturday afternoon session. He spoke about the importance of being securely tied to God. We have to ask ourselves what we're tied to. What it is we lean on in times of trouble. He said, "There is safety in the Lord". I love that. No matter what, there's always safety, comfort, and happiness in the Lord. How do we apply this? By living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Striving to follow His example and live the teachings that He taught are what's important in this life. That's what we should be tied to; Faith, Repentance, Baptism (sacrament if we're already baptized), Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost (having a closer relationship with the Spirit if we've already been given the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. These are the things that have helped me in these first 2 months, and they will continue to help me throughout the next 2 years. I can testify of the truthfulness of these things. I can bear witness that if we tie ourselves to Christ and His teachings, that we'll find true happiness in our lives, and that when those trials come, we'll be firm and steady in what we know and live. I love and miss all of you as always, and of course I love and miss Taylor and our not-so-much a puppy anymore, Ralphie, with allllll my heart. :)

Love, Elder Clark