Week #38

We taught Zach this week, one of our new investigators, it went really good too. We will be teaching him this Wednesday. So this Thursday we went and played with the bag pipe band and at the end they wanted me to play on one of their drums and they filmed me and put me on their website or Facebook page haha it's the Fort Frances Pipers or Bagpipe Band. So that will be good because then the whole town of Fort Frances will know who we are. We are going to go back and try and teach the guy who is in charge of it. Oh also....we taught a pastor this week...and we taught him in his Church. It was a really neat experience. No matter how much he tried to discredit anything we bore testimony and he sat silent. He said we could come back so we are going to try and be his friend.

There was a lot of good stuff that happened this week too. We were just so busy because we relied on the Lord and asked to stay busy and be teaching and finding and the Lord has provided a way. He always does in his own time. We helped Brother Olson move on Saturday and his brother came and helped too. Let me tell you something....it's like hanging around Uncle Doug and Bob! I love it! I feel at home here. It rains, there are seagulls, and there is a big lake. Everyone is a red neck though!! It is the best. They're really nice too. We taught this less active, Holly, who is in a wheel chair and lives with her mom. She had a poster of Justin Beiber on the wall and I asked her if she liked him. Of course she said yes. I said yeah he is actually a really good singer, the guy can sing. So she thinks I like Justin Beiber now haha and we are great friends now. She gave me a Justin Beiber poster too and I had her sign it. It was funny haha. On Sunday we had 10 people at church. It was great! We walked and pushed Holly to church and her mom walked with us. We are trying to get a train of walkers to church with us. We are trying to do whatever we can to get these people back to church, but the most important thing is that they need a friend. We are also taking members with us to appointments.

So we were in Winnipeg for a bit. Before we left, a family from Winnipeg wanted me over for dinner. The Abbott family had us over for dinner yesterday night. They love me haha it's great. There son, Kyle, and I have become really good friends. When I first got into Winnipeg Kyle wouldn't talk to me that much and he didn't really come to church a lot either. But a phone call every now and then telling him that I cared had an impact on him. Sooner or later he would always talk to me and sit by me. We became great friends and he is 15. So Kyle's soccer coach had just died and they wanted me to come over to surprise him. He was happy to see me and after dinner I testified of the plan of salvation and bore my testimony and told my story of Landon Harless. I gave him a tie and man I just love making people happy and changing their attitude.

All is well,
-Elder Clark

Week #37

Well this Sunday I was called to be the second counselor in the Branch Presidency. Should be an adventure.

This week was amazing we saw so many miracles.
 This week was a slow week for less active work, but we were busy every single day as we finished going through all of our formers and looking for service opportunities. On Tuesday we went to a funeral to support a less active member because her brother had passed away and she really appreciated that. While we were looking for service we went to the Rainy Crest center and asked for volunteer opportunities. The lady said that the volunteer person wasn't in but she asked us what things we could do and I said I play music. She then said oh well if you want you could go play that piano and so I thought sure why not. So I sat down and started playing the piano and the next thing that I noticed was that a worker was wheeling out a bunch of old people to hear me play haha she must have wheeled out like 15 or 20 old people and the next thing I knew people were coming up and talking to us asking where we were from. There must have been like 4 or 5 workers or people that were visiting the centre that came up and talked to us. I played the piano for like 45 minutes, and it gave us a huge opportunity to tell them that we were missionaries from our church.

Also walking and talking with everyone is the way to go. We were walking home and we saw this kid sitting by a building on the main street and three other adults were standing with him. The kid had a drum pad and some drum sticks so I said Elder lets go talk to him. I go up and say are you a drummer?! He said he was and I told him that I was too. I asked him "hey do you want me to show you a neat trick?" so he gave me his sticks and pad and I pulled out this really fancy drum trick and the guys around were amazed haha. They said that they were a bag pipe marching band and we talked with them for a bit and continued on our way. Then as we were walking I was stopped dead in my tracks and the thought came to mind to go back. So I went back and said , if you need any drum instruction or help I would be more than happy to and it would be for free and the guy was super happy and said yeah come back next Thursday at 6:30. So we are gonna go this Thursday.

We were able to meet with a less active member and resolve their concerns that they had. We gave one of them a blessing and it was such a neat experience he asked me to give him the blessing for his back and he has like ankle problems. After the blessing the lady said she was feeling chills the whole time and the guy I gave the blessing to said he just felt a sense of comfort over him and that everything would work out and be ok. Lindsay is in a wheel chair and we told her we would push her all the way to church if we had to so we are going to walk with them next Sunday. The guy Zach that we contacted on the street told us to come by on Saturday @ 12:00. We went and he wasn't home :( so we were walking all day Saturday and I see this guy way in front of us with a hat and I think to myself, that's Zach! We crossed the bridge and he was no where and I mean no where to be seen. So we started walking to go visit this man Jeff who is a pastor I think just might want to bash with us...haha but after him we walked out and that same guy with the hat is walking in front of us so I speed walked as fast as I could with the little legs that I have and try not to be weird so people don't think we were trying to chase him haha but it turns out it was Zach and we got his number and we are going to teach him this Wednesday at the church.

There is a lot of work to do here, but the area is moving with less active work and that is our focus, because there is only like 6 members...and so we have to get all the less actives back, and stay.

I love this work from the bottom of my heart and everyday is an adventure. I have come to know my father in heaven more and more each day and learned the reality of patience and faith. I know that through obedience there are blessings, but with exact obedience, there are miracles. God is real.

By the way it is April and still cold and still snowing and yeah that's the great white north for ya. 
All is well, 
-Elder Clark

Week #36

I am transferred and loving life, it is good to get out of the office.

We live in the states but we are moving into an apartment in Fort Frances on Wednesday.

 

This week has been absolutely crazy. But we have seen miracles. On Tuesday we met with the Branch President and it went really well. We have the same vision for the branch, which is good. He told us to go visit this less active family, the Osters. So we went and knocked on their door around 7:00 and no answer so we walked to our next appointment to go see this fella. He is a little bit different, I think he has some form of like mental illness or something. So this was our second time to go see him, last time we visited him we just read with him. Elder Camarena was all excited being a new missionary and all, but I tried to tell him that we shouldn't teach him because he has some crazy ideas and that he is just literally crazy. It was funny, I could remember being that new missionary and so I said ok fine we will read with him one more time. So we went to go see him and we buzzed at his apartment building and he asked us if we brought him a suit coat, like one of ours and we said no we were too busy and so he told us to F off and that he didn't want to see us anymore haha all because we wouldn't give him our suits....haha it was funny. He was a strange guy. So we were out of things to do and the Osters weren't home and so I said ok lets walk back to the Oster's and all of the sudden this car pulls up and talks to us and it turns out that is was the Osters!! What a miracle. They invited us over so we walked to their place and the wife is from Chile so Elder Camarena and her would speak Spanish. 
We have taught them twice now and they are thinking about coming back to church! They are such a great family :)

 

We have taught a lot of less actives this week and so it has been really good. We have been walking everywhere, because we don't tract and so we have just been talking with everyone and it is really good. If I could, I would walk the rest of my mission, because you can talk with everyone. We are trying to get involved with the community so we are going to attend a city council meeting. Other than that we have worked with former investigators and most of them have moved or aren't interested. So I said to Elder Camarena, "Elder, we're walking because I want to put in a full day of work". I especially want Elder Camarena to have a full day of work. He is doing great to by the way. He teaches me some things in Spanish!

 

We went and taught this less active lady, Karen, and she has two kids and a boyfriend and she said that her boyfriend isn't receptive to the missionaries at all. So I asked if he would be receptive to us specifically and she said no and that he is usually busy with his band. I then asked what he plays. She said he plays guitar and drums. So then I was like No way, I play drums! I told her to tell him that I would come over and jam with him. She was really excited and said that he would like that. Now her boyfriend said we could come over anytime. So I am going to jam with him, show him what I got on the drums, and then teach him the Gospel! haha :)

 

We went to church today. The branch is big. It has a half court gym and a chapel. Only three members showed up at the beginning and we ended with 7 members... we have some work to do. I have never seen anything like this.

 

Last night we were walking to a less active and on the way we passed this guy with an orange hat that was on the other side of the road and I wanted to go talk to him, but he passed us too quickly. So this less active wasn't home so we walked over to a place to volunteer for service and we were on a completely different road and the same guy with the orange hat was walking. But he was walking towards us now. So I talked to him and he told us that his mom just got diagnosed with MS and he said that we could come over next Saturday and share a message with them

 

Well everything is going great here it is still cold and it is still snowing. I love this gospel and know it is true. 

 

All is well,

-Elder Clark

P.S. On Mondays one of the members, who is from Scotland, takes us out to Hardee's and buys us lunch. This is every Monday! The funny thing is that a bunch of other members and people are there and they all sit there and apparently they go there every day. It felt like I was in Seinfeld. They just all hangout and talk about nothing and random stuff. They are all old too! I love it haha it feels like I'm right there in the show.

Week #35

Well this week was absolutely crazy! On Monday we didn't even have a p-day. I was mad haha but it was good because we helped a member with his home teaching. On Tuesday we did transfer planning and I am getting transferred. I am no longer an assistant. Which I am excited about because I needed to get out of the office, it was just wearing on me haha. On Wednesday we finished transfer planning and then we had to do more things for transfers.

On Thursday we had to plan for our portion for ZLC because we left on Friday for Regina. But it took us so long to plan everything. The plans that we made for our portion just didn't seem right. We had been studying for it the whole week. We finally finished it the next morning. Throughout the week we were able to do service at Misercordia and play bingo with the old folks, and we also were able to have a couple of appointments. We haven't seen peter in a while but we are going to still work with him.

So on Friday we left for Regina and Sister Olsen, one of the senior couples in the office, bought me some Mountain Dew for our 6 hour road trip to Regina! I was happy. So we got to Regina and our portion in ZLC just went amazing. President said it was the best ZLC he had ever been to since he got in the mission. We just hit it right out of the park. After ZLC we went to the temple and the neat thing was that there were members from our ward in the session so it was really good.

We continued ZLC on Saturday and then headed back to Winnipeg. But first we went out to Sushi, it was really good. We got back late Saturday night. On Sunday we had a Family home evening with Jessica and her family and it went really well. Her husband even sat in for it. I am so tired, we have been up till like 12 the past 4 days just planning and getting things done. I am exhausted....

Well I guess you probably want to know were I am getting transferred too eh? Ok I will now be serving in........Fort Francis Ontario, and I will be training a new missionary. So the neat thing is that I will actually be living in International Falls and then driving across the border to work in Fort Francis. So food will be way cheaper. Also the branch needs some building up! President told me that I will either be a counselor in the Branch Presidency or the Elders Quorum president, or both... But I think it will be a neat experience for me. Kind of scary but I am excited. I honestly wasn't expecting any of it at all because I for sure thought I would be in the office for one more transfer but I guess not. I can't wait to train and be in the field and just do work!

I didn't even know it was Easter yesterday by the way...hahah it just seemed like a normal day, but I think it seemed that way because I think about the savior everyday. 

Time is flying by and I don't like it.

All is well,

-Elder Clark 

Week #34

I am so tired.

This week we went up to Regina and Saskatoon. We went there for exchanges. When we were done in Regina we left the next morning to head up to Saskatoon. The whole time we drove it was like a blizzard. You couldn't see the road at all but it was ok we made it safe. But still it was really crazy. We saw a semi in a ditch turned on its side with another semi that had run into it while it was on its side. I hope everyone was ok.

While we were in Saskatoon, I went on an exchange with one of the district leaders, because one of the zone leaders was sick. It was a really good exchange. We taught this Muslim guy, and that was ok he talked a lot haha. But after that we went and taught this lady, Tracy, and it was really good. We taught her about prayer and tears were just running down her face the whole time. I had to teach the whole lesson though because the elder I was with wouldn't teach or hardly say anything. I was kind of mad and had to correct him after. It was a good exchange, though. I was able to help him out, he is a good elder.

After that we drove home and didn't get home until about 9:30 on Friday. On Saturday we went to go teach Jessica but her dog ran away and so we went to go look for the dog. Turns out that the dog was found and was at the pound. And so she was mad because she was going to go on a trip for her birthday with the kids but they had to spend money to get the dog out. They came to church on Sunday, but left right after sacrament meeting. Her husband drove her to church and just waited outside until the first meeting was over. So they were leaving to go somewhere and they got pulled over and both of the kids weren't wearing seat belts and so they got a 600 dollar fine..... she was so mad, she was texting us and just venting haha. Because of this she couldn't go on her trip anymore. So she called us and left a message and said that something really good has happened, and we were kind of worried that this whole thing might have ruined her church experience. So, we called her back and she said "I can't go on my trip anymore and so I told my husband that for my birthday present you don't have to spend a dime, I want you to either go to church with me, or sit in with the missionaries". So we are going to teach him this Wednesday!!!! I'm so excited. She is progressing so much!

Well today hasn't really been a p-day at all but that is ok. Tuesday we have to move stuff into apartments and then we are transfer planning with President and that will all get finished up by Wednesday. Then on Friday we are going to Regina for a zone leader conference and so we won't be back until Saturday night, and then the next week is transfers and so it is going to be a pretty crazy week.

All is well,

-Elder Clark

Week #33

Well Peter didn't get baptized :( He just doesn't want to disobey his mother and yeah she is just against him getting baptized in this church :/ So it has been a pretty rough week.

Tuesday-Wednesday we had to work in the office and take phone calls because the senior couples were gone in Regina. So I got to be a secretary for a bit. Later that night on Wednesday we went and taught Jessica and her family and they are coming along. They are slowly progressing and it is good, because they need it. 

The Relief Society president asked us to make like a Preach My Gospel challenge thing for the members. So on Thursday we put our heads together and started planning this PMG challenge. We were able to finish it too, it looks really good. So it's the first 12 weeks as a new missionary and instead of training a missionary it is basically like training members to be missionaries. They just study a section in Preach My Gospel for a week and then they have little applications. So for example one of the weeks is study Lesson 1 in Chapter 3 of PMG and then the application is to memorize Joseph Smith's description of the first vision. It is going to be really good and I think it will help the ward out a ton. 

On Friday we were able to teach Jessica again and that went really good. I think she is finally understanding what we are teaching. Then we went and taught Peter. We watched The Restoration with him and he felt the spirit a lot.....he is just struggling with opposition...:/ But Saturday we went to the other baptism that was happening and brought Jessica. She really liked it a lot. Then on Sunday Jessica and all of the kids came to church! And they all dressed up! I was happy to see all of them there.

After church we had supper at a member's house and they had the other elders over as well and one of the elders is brand new this is his first transfer and it is just funny. After supper we all went out to get in our cars and it was snowing and so everyone in Winnipeg will go to four way stops and do u-turns while pulling the e-brake so they don't run into a snow bank, and so there was this car that was doing that and the new elder was talking to his companion saying "Elder I think we better get out of here". He was all scared for some reason and he was just like staring at the people and I was like Elder they're not going to kill you, they are just turning around in their car, get in your car haha. It was just funny.

So after all of that we went to go see if we could contact this family the Huntinghawks (native family) and they are impossible to get a hold of. They don't have a buzzer on their door to get in the apartment and they never, and I mean NEVER, answer the phone and we had been trying all week calling and calling and stopping by. So we go there and we just plan to like camp out for a bit and if we see anyone go in or come out we were just going to get out of the car and sneak into the building. So we are waiting and waiting, and I say "Elder just watch me for a second, I'm just going to go bang on the door". So I bang on the door and I say "Heavenly Father, please just provide a way" and all of the sudden this kid comes around the building and I say "hey do you live here" he says yes. I say could you let us in we are looking for our friends the Huntinghawks. And he says oh well I'm a Huntinghawk. I was like no way! hah I looked at Elder Moojalsky in the car and waved to him to come out. We met them and were able to set up a time to visit them. There really is a God in Heaven.

All is well, 

-Elder Clark

Week #32

Well this week was pretty crazy... like always.

Tuesday we had exchanges with the south zone leaders and I went with Elder Vanisi. We played bingo with some old people for service, it was really fun. After that we taught Peter and it was really good. On Wednesday we had exchanges with the North Zone, And I went to the North end....Which is a really really crazy place, but it was fine we were protected! :) 

Thursday, we finished with exchanges, and we had a missionary go home :( so he stayed in the office with us and on Wednesday we have another one going home for medical reasons. President is gone this week so we have to take him to the airport and make sure he gets taken care of. Also President and the senior couples in the office will be in Regina for couples conference this week, so we have to work in the office.........not looking forward to it. I'm hoping that we can just get a bunch of appointments in the evening. 

But anyway on Thursday it was crazy, we were just really really busy. So, president had some of his family here and they were going to Disney on Ice so we had to drop him off and he had to be picked up at 6:00. So we were out and about visiting members and finding less actives, and I had the prompting to go give one of our member cards to the bishop's wife. So we go there and she had like huge 6 foot piles of snow blocking her walk way to the street. We climbed over it and we were able to give her one of our member cards. She said that she needed that snow gone, as we could already tell she did haha, so we said OK we will be back. So it is like 4:50 and it takes 15 minuets to get from our place to hers and we have to pick up president at 6:00 and we can't be late. So we get home, grab some shovels, and its 5:05. We get to her place at 5:20 get out of the car and just start shoveling the big 6 foot pile of snow.......by the time we got done, it was 5:25......we did it in 5 minuets my ARMS WERE DYING. I thought my hands were going to bleed because it was cold outside too and I forgot my gloves. So we go talk to her and she tells us to go shovel a less active's walk which turns out to be 4 doors down from her, so we tell her that we would come back and do it later tonight. So we get home and it is 5:45 so we were perfectly on time for picking up President. After that we had an appointment at 7:00 and it went until 8:30 because it went really good, but we had to pick up President at 9:15 and we still had to shovel that less active's walk, so we drive down and this time it took us about 20 min to get to her house. We get there by like 8:50 we get out and this time it took us 10 minuets to shovel because we were just so weak, so we get done by like 9 go talk to the lady and she is super thankful for what we did and wants to have us over, and we were only 5 minuets late picking up President. It was a crazy day.

Friday we were able to teach Peter and he came out to the ward potluck, and he shared his testimony with us....wow it was just so powerful :) Saturday he had his baptismal interview and he is all good to go.

Sunday....wasn't the best day, we went over to Peter's to get him up because we forgot to let him know it was daylight savings, and he is just facing some opposition right now. He told his mom in Nigeria that he was going to get baptized and she is not happy at all.... :( So today we are going to visit Peter and just help him out a bit, I think everything will be ok though :) 


I am really hoping everything goes good with peter he is like my best friend! 

All is well, 

-Elder Clark