Week #24

This week we had supper with a less active lady and she is the best. Her boyfriend is a really good cook he makes the best Italian food. Then we did transfer planning with president and Elder McDanel is going to Warroad, Minnesota serving with the best person ever Elder Wolford!!! I love that kid so much! He is sooo weird!! But he is the best he just makes you laugh. But Elder Moojalsky will be serving with me as the new assistant!! I am so excited! He is a really great elder and we get along really good. I really know that he is supposed to be in the office with me. His name was in the back of my mind a couple days before transfer planning and when his picture was put up to mine is just felt right. I am a little nervous  though because I have to run the show now, everything is on me now. But I know it will work out. 

I had a neat experience the last couple of days were I was just praying and asking Heavenly Father for guidance just with all the stress I was going through, and I had a dream where I went teaching with these other elders and when they were teaching this lady the first thing they said was, "so you need to read the Book of Mormon and D&C and we want you to be baptized. What's holding you back?" And they were saying all of this without letting her speak..... and I was yelling at the elders saying "the first few moments with an investigator are really important, investigators must learn to trust you!!!" ( of course i would never yell though) but I said that exact same thing it says in PMG with How To Begin Teaching. I didn't think much of the dream until last night. Elder McDanel and I went to a supper appointment with some other elders and they were teaching this less active brother and his wife is not a member. They were teaching the sabbath day, and it just looked like all they wanted was a result. It didn't seem like they cared about the guy. While one elder taught, the other one zoned out. When we came out of the lesson we talked about it and were saying how they could have taught his wife and just all these other things. And I randomly said "their focus was about getting a result, rather than establishing a relationship." It just hit me that it tied into my dream. It was a testimony to me that revelation is real and that the Lord is there for me and is helping me see and learn things so that when I have to present training I will know what to do. The Lord is just so neat. I love this gospel a lot. 

This week I ate Balut! It is an undeveloped duck egg that the Filipinos eat! So I cracked open the egg and inside was a baby duck fetus... You could see its eyes, feet, body and beak! And I ate that whole thing. I smashed it. It was pretty insane when I was first eating it. I thought i was gonna throw up but I just did it! I will send pictures as soon as I get them from the other elders. 

Then this week we were able to have sports night again and it was a really good turn out. Our investigators came and they brought their family and cousins and we got 4 new investigators from it. So we were able to go and teach them, it was really neat.

For the rest of my life I am always going to live by this, (it's found in PMG pg 4):
Honor Christ name by your actions.

All is well, 

-Elder Clark

Week #23

The Filipino food is very good I'm going to be eating balut on Friday which is that undeveloped duck egg. I will video tape it and send it to you or something. 

This week was just crazy, not a lot happened. We have been in Regina from Monday-Thursday. We got home around 9:00 pm on Thursday, then the following morning we went to the walk in clinic because Elder McDanel wasn't feeling good. That was the worst thing ever we had to wait for like 4 hours. Canadian health care = horrible. So he goes to see the doctor and I'm in the waiting place making phone calls to set up appointments with investigators and this guy over hears me on the phone and says, "So how long you been out?" I said 6 months and he said "you have 2 years right?" and I said yep sure do. I then asked him what he knew about missionaries and he said well my whole family is Mormon but I'm baptist, and I was like oh right on. So then we start having a friendly conversation and he starts pulling out his scriptures and starts bashing with me I was so mad. We talked about Joseph Smith a lot and he said the The Book of Mormon is made up because there is no physical evidence of the plates that it was written on and that the Bible had evidence because we still have all the scrolls. So I then asked him what the definition of faith was....and he stumbled over his words and was saying well uhh in Hebrews 11 uhhh it says uhhh that faith is the evidence for things which are hoped for and not seen, it was neat because he had nothing to say after that, but soon after that he just kept going to scriptures. I bore my testimony that I knew The Book of Mormon was true. As I was sitting there listening to him I realized to myself that this guy has no idea what I have gone through. I have seen people change and witnessed them receive a witness that The Book of Mormon is true. I know that The Book of Mormon is true and that it truly is another witness of Jesus Christ. The bible says that "out of the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established." The old testament and new testament being the 2 witnesses and the Book or Mormon being the third witness of Jesus Christ and his gospel. So that made me mad but whatever I know who I am and I can never deny what I know to be true.

Later that day we traveled to Minnesota with President to assist him in some interviews and look at some areas to put missionaries in. While we were down there I realized how cheap things are in America. We didn't get back until 11:30 that night.

Saturday we were dead....I'm so tired it's ridiculous. We have just been going non-stop traveling without taking a break. We barley have P-Days just time to email and then we are out and about. later that night we had a fireside and Tamara who is less-active showed up! It was so great to see her! We are going over to her place for supper and her boyfriend is going to cook us supper he's a really good guy. Oh so here is something crazy. We stopped by Raul and Aiylnn our Filipino investigators and they just fed us again, only they fed us this crazy weird meal. It was pig with a bunch of stuff in it and then rice and you eat it together. It was super good. Very strange, but really good. Also, I have been drinking poison....(Pepsi)

Sunday we had church and it was good. Church starts at 12:30 now so it feels like our day is wasted but it was a really good day, saw a miracle. I had the thought to stop by Sister Demarchi's. It was a good thing that we did, because her fire place was going crazy and we were able to fix it, if we wouldn't have gone over there she would have had a house full of smoke and would have been breathing all that in. I didn't think of it as a prompting until after so I'm glad that I was just going about doing good.

Well that was my week. I got to go to the temple again in Regina and that was really good. This week will be pretty busy though. We have transfer planning starting Tuesday-Thursday and it's a pretty big transfer so we will see what happens. If Elders McDanel does get transferred then I would be the senior comp but with leadership assistants or zone leaders there is no junior or senior comp everyone is equal.

I sure know that this work is true :)

All is well,
-Elder Clark

Week #22

Well this week had been a crazy one. After I got done talking to the family we went over to a Filipino family's home and had a Christmas lunch there, wow it was really good. After that we had supper at Belatu's and she made her spicy chicken and it was even hotter this time. Wednesday was boxing day, which is basically like black Friday and it was crazy everyone was gone shopping so we didn't do to much that day. Thursday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders and I went with Elder Moojalsky. We stopped by this guy named Kelly and he is a really interesting character. After that we went and visited another person, but he ended up not being home, and so we tracted around his house and we ended up tracting into a family from the Congo and we taught them. The spirit was really strong and amazing, miracles took place. They wanted us to come back and the mother speaks french and cannot speak English, but can understand it really good and at the end of the lesson she turned to her kids and talked to them and they said, "my mom said thank you for coming because we have all been spiritually fed, and that you have planted a seed in good soil." It was super neat! After that we went to a supper appointment with the Liston family (a Filipino family) the food was still really good like always. The Filipinos are funny people and they treat you like family I love them a lot. They wanted to take a picture after so we did and it was a good thing I brought my camera. On Friday we planned for a bit and then had a meeting with president. All I can say is that this transfer is going to be a wild one.



Saturday we taught those kids we met from our sports night activity and it went really good. It was the second time we taught them and they want us to keep coming over and teaching them. The oldest one is 15 and he is friends with one of the young men in the ward. After that we went and met with some elders to see how they were doing and we took them out to Dairy Queen. We then stopped by a less active who we were trying to get a hold of forever and she was finally home, what a blessing it was! 



Sunday was crazy though! We had one of our less-active members who we have been teaching show up to church!! and she hasn't been coming to church for a very long time so it was good to see her. After church we had an appointment with Belatu and she made this super good food it was like a thick pancake that looked like a sponge and tasted like sourdough bread and spicy meat and salad and you just ate it with your hands. It was really good. Oh also on Saturday we went and visited a Filipino former investigator and they ended up feeding us Filipino spaghetti! Wow it sure was good and now we are going to be seeing them again soon. 



I'll be in Regina today until Thursday for exchanges with the Zone leaders and then we will be having Zone leader Council up here as well, Tomorrow we are going to America with President!! We are going to help him look for some new areas to put missionaries in. Transfer planning is next week.... should be an interesting one. My face is getting fat! I have been eating out so much because we are always on the road! 


All is well,

-Elder Clark

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