Week #1

I've made it safe and sound to Canada Winnipeg! This place is flat, no mountains. So my first area that im serving in is a place called Dauphin. Dauphin has been closed for like a long time and my

companion and I are reopening it, and we are the only missionaries in Dauphin. It's a small town but they consider it a city now. There are a lot of roman catholics and catholics, and ukranians. My companion is Elder Ronald and he's from Alberta, and he's the district leader! He's such a

good guy I couldn't have asked for a better companion. Dauphin is about 4 and a half hours from Winnipeg and everyone in the mission has cars. So far the missionaries that have to go to moosejaw or regina have like a 7 hour drive...haha and twin falls minnesota is part of the mission so i will

most likely be going there at some point, but not sure when. I'll be in Dauphin for 12 weeks and then who knows where I'll be after that. We arrived in Dauphin on friday. We have no tracking record books and no area books. We are pretty much starting from scratch because we are

re-opening Dauphin. We have to wait until tomorrow to get all these things when we go to the district meeting. Our mission is a 100% Preach My Gospel mission so I don't really get time to read The Book of Mormon I just study the scriptures that are in Preach My Gospel. So we got a map of the city and said a prayer and picked where we felt we should go. We picked 4th Ave and asked for miracles. We ran into so many inactive members on this street it was amazing and most of them have a brother sister or wife who is interested in the church! We were so excited. Then we ran into this lady, Florida Runners haha. There are quite a few natives up here. and she says that she's an ex member and that "she dont believe in no prophet joseph

smith who had 5 wives" haha oh i wanted to talk lummi so bad. But it was sad to see how she has gone astray from the church. At the end of the day we went to Forest Ave and before we got out of the car we said another prayer and asked for miricales, and right when we got out of the car this lady

said she's been waiting for us elders. Her name was Julie Stanley and she's a member but hasnt been to church in 4 years. She has 5 kids who aren't baptized and her daughter especially is very interested in the church. it was so amazing! She wants us to come over and to share messages. 

On saturday we continued tracking and not a lot happened but we taught 4 lessons just with people who were outside or in their house. It was pretty neat! Then we were tracking and tracking and nothing really happened. We came to this house and knocked on the door and a lady opened it up and we

said we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ and she said oh no thanks I have my own church. But then she said, You boys hungry? Have you had any supper eh? We said no and she asked if we

wanted any and we said sure! haha so we had dinner with them and there were 7 family members in the house. They fed us ribs and steak and vegetables from the garden, and we talked with them and laughed with them. Their mom was turning 85 so they had us for cake too. We offered to help clean up but they said no. My companion then said, "well we've got to get going, but its

tradition that we share a message after a meal." So they gathered all 7 people into the kitchen and we taught them the restoration! It was so great. You could see they smilies it brought to their faces and they were all quiet, no interruptions at all.

Sunday we went to church. You should see this church! It's a little tiny branch and only 20 people come. It's about the size of the dollar store but maybe a little smaller. It's great! Oh and the people in the city of Dauphin are so friendly. The people at church are my favorite. I love their last names, very canadian. And they talk super canadian too. I've already got into the habbit of saying eh and my

O's somtimes sound funny especially when i say home or Atonement. So, after church we had a meeting with the branch president and we told him about all that was happening and he was sooo impressed he couldn't believe it. So we definetly have a good trust between the members and the branch president and ward leaders. Also before we got to Dauphin we stayed at the

branch presidents house so we already got to meet him. President and Sister Beaumont are great and we met Brother and Sister Drinkwater while we were there too. Ok so after church we had a bunch of

appointments to go to at 5:00 pm so we called it the "5 O'clock Run." All of our appointments fell through and no one was home. So we decided to go see the guy with the guitar that we met on the street yesterday. So we go there and there's this lady sitting outside smoking and we say hello and she says "Leisa's inside, Lesia's inside." My companion and I both looked at eachother with confusion on our faces and then she said it again "Lesia's inside, Lesia's inside." So we go in there and we say

uhhh Lesia and then the phone rang. You should have seen this house. The mirrors were hanging to the side, and walls were dented and the wood was chipped on the walls and floor. We talked to her and then we taught her the restoration. We asked her if she thought what we were teaching her was true and she said yes.... we told her about The Book of Mormon and hows it's comparable to the Bible but brings us closer to our savior and she said do you have a copy? and we gave her a Book of Mormon and she wants to learn more! Our next visit with her is this Saturday. I know that the lord does preapare the people and that because we fasted and prayed for miracles He gave us Miracles. I never expected to see this in my life... this is amazing. I know that god lives. I have had people yell at me and shut the door in face. I have already had people say you can get the heck off my porch before i sick my dog on you. I have experienced so much in these three days without an area book or tracking book. I love the gospel.
Oh and I got myself a big black parka with furr on the hood like an eskimo, and i got it for free so I'll be in good shape. I guess most of the missionaries don't wear boots in the winter because the snow is so dry. They just wear really warm socks and their church shoes and go out and trackt. I only get mail every 6 weeks :( 

I love and miss you and all of you so much but I know I need to be here. I'll talk to you next monday.

All is well

-Elder Clark