Weeks 90 & 91

Week #91

Mother,

The week was super good. All we do everyday is teach. We are so so busy it is incredible. We found a new investigator this week her name is Carrie. We have known her from The Pat Porter Centre where we do service some time. She's a really good lady. Her concern was why are there so many churches in this world and why do they all teach from the bible but interpret it differently and put their own wisdom in it. So we shared the restoration with her and her exact words were; "I was put to ease as you shared this with me." The spirit was really strong in the lesson. I just made a lot of sense to her. We will be teaching her again this week.

We were also able to teach Kevin and our lesson was really good he is really starting to understand a lot and bring up more questions. We see the Peters through out the week and we are able to share messages with them too.

We saw Denise Freisen this week and her family.  Denise is less active and her son is not a member.  We had a good lesson with them and so we are going over this Friday to visit, and we are going to skateboard and play basketball with her son and we are getting the son involved for this Friday. It will be a way to soften Denise's heart and get her to feel welcomed and loved by the members.

Things are really happening here. I am so grateful that I was able to to be in this area it has been a huge roller coaster, but it has been worth it.

We had church in our apartment this Sunday. We had a total attendance of 27 PEOPLE!! we had four investigators there as well and Denise Freisen and her family came as well. We had Renate Peters give a talk too! And it was super good we assigned her a topic to speak on how a relationship with Christ had helped her. It is growing! We are really establishing the church. President Thomas told us we were his heros. He said that there is not many missionaries who get to establish the church like this anymore.  After our good news that we told him he said he would immediately talk to the stake president about renting a building and getting the sacrament out here. No hand can stop this work.

We went out to the Peters on Saturday and we had a wonderful Mennonite meal. We cooked ribs and pork chops over the fire and had some German soup that I forget the name of.

My heart if full.
Love you mother :)
-Elder Clark






Week #90

Mother,
The week couldn't have gone better. Elder Erickson and I have really changed this area into something. We started at scratch and were asked to establish the church in the city of Steinbach. And we have really done it. This was like the most frustrating time and hard time of my life... we tried all we could, couldn't tract, or even street contact. Walking and talking with people in our path was pointless because it was -50 or -40 all the time and everyone was inside. We just kept going at it and sticking with it, and now we are having like 16-24 people coming out to our little cottage meeting in our apartment.
Sunday we had 4 investigators, and we are going to have a non member be one of the speakers for our cottage meeting this Sunday. When the stake president heard about our first meeting in Steinbach "His eye-brows raised in shock."This whole week all we have been doing is teaching. We are still trying to work with the Peters. They  love us so much and have taken us in as family and have defended us in the community. They are reading The Book of Mormon and coming to church.
But anyway we are teaching a lot. we are teaching our next door neighbor Matt, he is a really good guy and we always talk in the parking lot when he pulls in. We taught him in his apartment the other day. He is receptive. We were also able to meet with Denise Freisen a less active member of the church. she is super nice, but is struggling with finding her way back so we are going to  try and help her. she has a son who is 12 years of age and is not a member he wants to learn as well so we will be teaching him too. Other than that we are doing really good here. We are seeing miracles. We have a standard in our mission for new investigators and investigators attending sacrament, and Elder Erickson and I have been hitting standard 3 times in a row now. God is really blessing us.

I cannot explain what I have learned so far in Steinbach. I logically and spiritually know that the church is true. God will have his church established. The community is 70% Mennonite and and the rest of the population is really strong christian, and only 2 member families in the city of steinbach.....and we are still teaching and having people attend our meetings.....Gods church will be established. We visited a less active Filipino this week. His name is Hennu and his wife is not a member.  When ever we stop by their home the kids always run to the door and say, "the elders are here! the elders are here!" the kids love us and they want to come to church. So there is a great opportunity there.

I got some brown Italian shoes for 2 dollars at the thrift store the other day. They are as nice as dads shoes. They are made in Italy. I will send some pictures of a Mennonite drink that we have you will get a kick out of this. Things are going wonderful.  I really do know that the church is true.

Love you so much mom :)
-Elder Clark