Week #21

This week has just been so crazy. Last Monday we barely even had a P-day and then Tuesday and Wednesday we were at the church assisting President Thomas while he was doing interviews with all the missionaries. That's where you saw me shining that sister's shoes. Then on Thursday we had Zone conference and that was really fun. We did a white elephant exchange and guess what I bought for my gift? I bought a pair of XL men's white underwear from value village.... and guess who picked my present?? A sister missionary! Oh it was so perfect and funny. Elder McDanel and I were just laughing so hard!! And all the senior missionaries that work in the office were laughing too because we showed them our gifts before hand.

 

After that we went on a sleigh ride as a zone and it was really fun! Cold, but very fun. The Clark's sent me a Christmas picture of all of them together. That was nice. Thanks for sending me my CTR ring! I thought I lost that.

 

So on Friday, we put together a sports night at the church to try and get less actives, members, and non-members. It was a good turn out for our first time! We had about 25 people show up and now we are teaching a family because of it! So we are going to keep doing it like twice a transfer!! There is a lot of changes happening in the CWM but they are really good! I had an interview with President and he said that he wants to send Elder McDanel back out in the field for the rest of his mission since he only has 6 months left, and basically what he told me is that I'm not going anywhere soon....soo we will see how it works out. 

 

Saturday we just planned like crazy! Which is good because because we have been so busy we just haven't had anytime to plan. Then on Sunday we took this Filipino kid with us to go visit his friends that he brought to sports night (which is that family that we are teaching now) But it was super good because he is 13 and just wants to do missionary work with us!

 

My mission has been really interesting so far. But I love it. I absolutely know that this is the Lord's work. I have seen so many life changes and I love it. I was thinking about why I was out here, just kind of pondering on the reasons why I came out and I know I'm out here because I love my savior. I'm not out here to change or to say I went on a mission. I just want to serve the Lord and do whatever he asks of me. When I read your letter the other day it was comforting, because I don't know everything but it really reminded me of the Scripture 2 Nephi 28:30:

"For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."

 

I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.

 

 

All is well,

-Elder Clark

Week #20

So this last week we were in Saskatchewan for Zone conference, so we had to be in the church with the missionaries that were getting interviewed and show them like a video for driving and then go out and check their cars. Then when we had zone conference we did about a 10-15 minute portion. It was a great time. Elder McDanel served up in Regina for a long time and so we went and visited some members he knew and they took us out to Montana's and it was really good, then after that we went to the temple and we went as a zone. It was a super neat experience I liked it a lot. 

So we left Regina on Saturday and here is a crazy/neat story. Ok so we are driving back to the peg and Elder McDanel says "I gotta pee" and there was no washrooms near by. So he slammed on the breaks and pulled over to this road and there was another little road that had trees by it and so he wanted to go that way so the trees would block him peeing haha. So we pull in there and then he says no we might get stuck. So he pulls out and goes up this road, but there is no other place to pee so we go back to the road we were on and we drive to the trees and then all of the sudden we get stuck. It was bad we were STUCK! So we start digging ourselves out and nothing is working and so he says Elder lets just go to that house and ask for a shovel. We go there and this lady is home and she says "Well I'm very busy but that's my only shovel so bring it back". Wo we go and we dig ourselves out and finally we get out. We were stuck for about an hour and a half. So we go return the shovel and we end up talking to the lady for like almost an hour and she is so prepared for the gospel. She didn't even know we were missionaries and her eyes were just lighting up she said she loves the Mormon church and follows it because of its morals and etc. But it was so neat I know that we both had the prompting to go to that house for a reason. And her neighbor is like 5 miles away and so she would have never seen any other missionaries come to her house. So we are going back up to Regina for exchanges with the ZL's on new years and we are going to stop by her on the way. So usually it takes about 3 hohours to drive from Regina to Brandon but it took us 6 hours because we got stuck. But it was a super neat experience.

So on Saturday we finally got home to the office and then we planned and then we got a call from the sisters to see if we could teach their investigator Mani who is an East Indian. They needed us to teach because they couldn't find fellowship. So we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and it was one of the most spiritual lessons I had ever been in. This guy Mani was crying because he was feeling the spirit super strong, in fact all of us were crying. I bore my testimony on how much this gospel makes me happy and he looks up at me and says "how long did it take you to be happy". I said a while, but through this gospel it is possible. Mani never believed in God. But I know that this church and this gospel is the true church and gospel, because I had witnessed someone who never believed in God and was very consistent in his culture and his traditional beliefs feel the spirit of God and cry and say....."I have never felt so happy, this makes me want to follow God." We invited him to be baptized but never set a date. I love that guy.

Last night we taught our investigators Takuma and Roel and those guys are great. It was a really good lesson. Roel is the man. I love Filipinos, they treat you like family. My Tagalog (Filipino language) is getting pretty good!
I love being a missionary. I know without a doubt in my mind that this is the Lord's work.

All is well,

-Elder Clark

Week #19

I will be headed up to Saskatchewan tomorrow for Zone conference it is pretty neat when you get to see all of the mission. The only part I haven't seen is Ontario but soon enough I will.

Well yesterday it was -35 outside......and today it's about -30 wow it is cold. You go out and it's not too bad but then less than a minute your face is freezing. The other day we went to Dairy Queen to get a blizzard and when the guy handed me my blizzard he said...would you like a serviette with that? And I said eh? And he said a serviette and I was like what is he talking about? Does he mean like sprinkles on my blizzard? Well I don't want that, who would put sprinkles on a blizzard and so I said no thank you and then when I walked out the door I realized that he was asking if I would like a napkin.

We had those guys come from the MTC to basically evaluate and see how the mission is doing. They went on an exchange with us, since we are the assistants... but it turned out to be really really good! I learned so much from them! Then we just had meetings after meetings! Busy busy. Something really neat that happened was Elder Montoya (a zone leader) and I were in McDonald's and when we left I turned around and said to this lady "Hello how is your day going", but she didn't answer....I thought hmm maybe she just doesn't want to talk. Then I see this guy looking at us so before I go I feel prompted to leave him a mormon.org card...when I did that the lady came rushing over and looked at the card and just liked grabbed it from him. I pulled one out and said would you like one and she shook her head saying yes yes! It turns out that she was deaf... and so when I talked to her she couldn't hear me and just didn't know what to say. It's so neat how God puts you in the time and place ya know? Also the guy from the MTC said that we taught one of the best lessons he had ever seen, and he teared up when he said it. It was a great humbling experience for me.

So we taught the family from Nigeria again! They are doing great, and also we taught our Filipino investigator Roel! We had a super good lesson with him yesterday the spirit was just there so strong :)) and also today at church I met a Filipino guy named Scott! Super good guy and has style! He cuts hair for a living and he cuts famous people's hair. He cuts the jets (hockey team) hair and also he has cut Mac Miller's DJ's hair a bunch of times!! Pretty neat eh?

Right now we are teaching Belatu (a lady from Sudan) and we are teaching her son. Belatu is already baptized but her son isn't and so we are working with him and getting him ready, he is 8 years old. They are such great people, I love that family a lot and it's hard to go over and see them sometimes because their place is full of bugs and cockroaches :(( but they are just such a great family and are strong in the gospel. 

I had a really good week though. I love this gospel with all of my heart. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and the the Bible and Book of Mormon complete each other and that is what we call the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are a lot of changes happening in our mission right now! Things are going to get crazy, but I am excited for it 

All is well,
-Elder Clark

Week #18

Here it has just been snowing and it was -24 this week.....my face was numb. I had to buy a parka, because the one I got when I first came into the mission was just way too big for me. This one is really nice it goes down to my knees.

Well we had a really good week. We had meetings and what not, but we really fit in some time to go finding. We went to the town houses, which are just the best, and we ended up finding 2 investigators there and then later that night we were calling Brother Richard for fellowship for a lesson that we had tomorrow, and we call him and he says "I'm just learning Japanese with my roommate right now" and I say "hey I took Japanese in high school" and so he told me to talk to his roommate Takuma. So I said the only words that I know but then we were like you should teach us Japanese and we said we will be there in 15 minutes. So we show up and we end up teaching both of his roommates. Their names are Roel, who is Filipino, and Takuma. They are both 2 new investigators! Takuma doesn't believe much in religion though, but we invited them to the Christmas devotional.

So at the Christmas devotional only Takuma and Brother Richard showed up because Roel had to work. But at the end of it I was talking to Takuma and asking him what he thought and he said it was different but he liked it. We then asked him how he felt. He said he felt really peaceful and felt like clean water. We told him that was the Spirit of God. We asked him if he would like to always have that feeling and he said yes, but how is it possible? We talked about baptism and told him that when we teach him more we can help him understand how he can have those feelings. It was a great miracle. I really know that this is the Lord's work.

The bishop from the Dalhousie Ward invited us to their Christmas party, and it was a Filipino Christmas! It was the best thing ever. That was some really good food. All the Filipinos cooked food and did a whole program of stuff, it was a lot of fun. I love the Filipinos!

We got all of transfer planning done and this next transfer we will be sooo busy.....Also i am feeling a little under the weather today so I hope I can get back on my feet real quick, because we have those brethren coming from the MTC tomorrow.

All is well,
-Elder Clark