Monday, July 7, 2014

Week #100

Mother,
Well this is the last email you will get from me as a missionary. I am so excited to see all of you again!! I miss you all a lot.

Hope this is a good one.  I sure think it is.

Well I have worked hard until the end. This last week was fantastic. Elder Simister and I have been teaching so much. We still walk a lot and we do not let anyone pass us. We teach a lot of people on the street and also those that we are working with. We taught Uli and Stephen the German couple and we will teach them again. We also found a family this week and they are very ready. The wife had problems with the bible because she felt that there was a lot of stuff missing from it. We were so excited as we shared the restoration with them. We will see them this Thursday.

We taught Chris and got him all ready for baptism. Chris was baptized on Saturday July 5th. I was able to baptize him, it was wonderful. After his baptism we finally got to go meet with Joshua Giesbrecht, the media referral we received. So we went and taught him and well, he taught us the restoration...haha. he told us his story: he said that as he was starting to search for the truth that he was confused about why there was so many churches.  He said he came to a realization that there was an apostasy and that the priesthood was lost. He said he came to realize that God had a physical body and that he was a resurrected being. And that God and the Son were separate. So he got introduced to the church through YouTube and he said that when he started learning about the doctrine of the church that everything just made sense. He said that he felt like he knew all of this already and that he had been taught it before (pre existence).

So we left that appointment amazed. Elder Simister and I said he needs to be baptized. So we called our mission president and he said baptize him. So we talked to Josh on the phone about being baptized and he said yes. So he came to church yesterday and loved it. After church we turned on the water to fill the font and as it was filling we taught him all the lessons, president interviewed him and then we baptized him.  What an incredible experience, I am still in shock. We met with him on Saturday at 7 and then baptized him on Sunday at 4, not even a 24 hour period! What a great way to finish my mission.

I testify that the work is hastening it is real and the restoration happened.
Love you all and cant wait to see you!!!!! :) :)
-Elder Clark

Monday, June 30, 2014

Week #99

Mother,

well it is true I will be coming home in 12 days. I love my mission mom. I just got an email from dad about my topic for my talk when I return. I am happy with the topic and will have some great experiences to share and talk about.

Sounds like things are good there. The weather here is bad we have been having lots of storms lately.  Its typical though usually June you get a lot of storms and then July is really hot and so I am glad I won't be here for that hot weather. 
We had a good week. Chris passed his baptism interview and he will be getting baptized this Saturday. Our week is really booked and I am afraid that this week will go by in the blink of an eye. And then I will be home.
We have been walking everywhere, which is good because we are able to talk to a lot of people and testify of the restoration. We were able to find some families this week too. The only problem that we have is that a lot of people we run into speak German and not really good English.  We run into a lot of Filipinos and we are able to speak to them in Tagalog.

Everything is going well. We are very busy, and still teaching Manny.

well I love you and cant wait to see you
the church is true
-Elder Clark :)

Week #98

well we had a really crazy and good week. We were out of our area for most of the week because we had to go down to International Falls Minnesota to help with the flooding down here. Its was really bad there was a lot of people loosing their homes, but we got most of the houses all sandbagged so the houses should be fine.  When we got back to our area we were able to still see miracles we taught all day Friday and found 2 investigators they are Filipino. Saturday we went to summer in the city to go to the Valdez booth to get food we got it for free since we are the elders ha. But after that we went to Winnipeg for destiny's baptism.  We got the font ready but we had a problem the water was freezing we couldn't figure how to get it running. We tried everything even went to the hot water tank and it wasn't working. So I told everyone we should pray so we all knelt down and prayed and after the prayer we got up and as we were walking back to the font I saw this breaker panel.  I opened it up and there was a switch that said hot water.....but it was on it wasn't off and so for some reason I just switched it off and then back on and hot water started pouring out! Haha. I love it when little small miracles happen. that is about it for our week. This week we are getting Chris ready for baptism. We have another baptism coming up in 2 weeks so we are just getting him ready for his interview for baptism.
It was really nice to visit an old area of mine and see some great people before I finish my mission.    

I know that the church is true.
> love ya mom and love ya everyone
> -Elder Clark

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Week #97

Mother

Our week was super super good.

 Monday we met with Denise and she just broke down and started crying as we were teaching The Plan of Salvation.  As we listened to the spirit and let her talk we watched Mountains to Climb with her, a Mormon message and then we testified to her that God loves her. After that meeting with her she has been on fire! She is changing so much and her life is going so much better. Her son Chris is still excited for baptism.  This Saturday is destiny's baptism and I will be baptizing her :)

Other than that we were just super busy. We found a family to teach through a less active member and we wile be seeing them this Tuesday.  On Wednesday we had a bunch of appointments fall through and so we went out in faith. We contacted a bunch of people and taught lessons on the street. One of the persons we contacted was Filipino so I got to speak to her in Tagalog :) she was impressed and would like to meet with us. It was a really good day.

The next day was zone conference and I gave my farewell testimony...... its was weird and sad for me. Mom this has been the most exciting and most rewarding 2 years of my life. I love my mission.

We played basketball with Chris and Julian again and we were able to teach Chris the rest of  The Plan of Salvation.  He remembered all of it, hes a smart kid. And then on Saturday we taught a Filipino man named Manny and we taught him the first couple of principles in Tagalog and then switched to English because he could speak English.  Still fun and we will be meeting with him Friday,

life is good and the gospel and this church is indeed true :)
love ya mom :)
-Elder Clark

Sunday, June 15, 2014

Week #96

Hello mother,

Well where to start with my week. Elder Simister and I are having so much fun.
This week we played basketball at the steinbach Mennonite church. And once we left we had every ones respect from that church. Elder Simister is insanely good at basketball. So it was neat to see the change after we left. We walked a lot this week to our activities or service and along the way we talked to people on the streets. We found 3 people that we are meeting with on Tuesday. Now that the snow is gone and its summer  people are starting to walk, its perfect for us to be outside.
We taught Denise and Chris and we taught the plan of salvation. We set a baptismal date for Chris on July 5th. And destiny is also getting baptized (the other elders investigator) on the 21st of June. She asked that I baptize her. I first started teaching her in Steinbach.

We played a lot of basketball outside this week. It was perfect.  The courts are just full of our Filipino friends and so we went and played them in basketball ( Elder Simister is pro at basketball) and so they like us and want us to come more and play. So that will be a great opportunity to find people.  We also met with a guy out in Lorette, which is 30 min out of town. We taught him.

Last Monday we got a media referral for a guy who wants to get baptized, We contacted him and he really wants to get baptized. He is driving truck right now, so we are going to either call and teach him over the phone or Skype and then just baptize him when he gets home. So yeah things are going good.

well the church is true!
-Elder Clark

Monday, June 2, 2014

Week #95

Hello mother,


My new companions name is Elder Simister. He is solid. We have already known each other for a while so we are pretty good friends. Elder Erickson and his parents came to take us out to eat lunch in Steinbach. It was really fun to see and meet his parents, and then later that night we went to the Peter's home with the Ericksons and had a big supper.

So far things are going good with Elder Simister. We are really trying hard to establish this church here even more by finding more people to teach. We are literally seeing miracles.

Other than that we cooked for our German friends from Germany a steak dinner last night and they loved it. We were able to share a message with them and we will be going back to see them next week.

This week is busy and full of great activities. Don't worry about me not being focused. I signed up for these 2 years because I came to love god, and now on my mission I have grown to understand and love god with all my heart so I will finish these 2 years strong for him. I am doing it for him, and that's how it has been my whole mission and it will stay that way until the badge comes off.

Love you and all of you with all my heart
-Elder Clark

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Week #94

Mother,

Well the week has been good and weird at the same time. Its been good we have kept busy. Its just weird because Elder Erickson is saying good bye to a lot of people. I am staying super focused though. So my new companion is Elder Simister!!!!! He is a great missionary.  I know him really well and we are pretty good friends. I am so excited.  We are going to work work work. Elder Simister had a scholarship for basketball he played basketball for Dixie state University.  There is a huge group of Filipinos that play basketball outside around 7:00 they will be amazed! Ha.
We met with Denise Freisen who is a returning less active that we have been working with. We taught her on Friday and we had Brother Larson with us. We watched the restoration with her and then we got in the topic of God, and heaven and hell. And the lessons was kinda of going all over. But then Brother Larson mentioned about temple work and why we do it, so everyone can be taught the gospel and receive the ordinances as well. And her eyes got all big and she started balling and balling. She said she was struggling about the temple. She didn't know why it was important she said she felt the spirit so strong!! It was an amazing experience for all of us. Her and her son came to church and the spirit is really working on her.

Speaking of church......One of our companionship goal before Elder Erickson left was to have 30 people at out meeting. Well yesterday WE HAD 30 PEOPLE ATTEND OUR MEETING. We had 6 investigators and a less active family. The stake president heard the news and is making an appointment with Brother Valdez to start talking about Steinbach and where to go from here and what the next steps need to be.

the work is real
Love all of you so much:)
-Elder Clark