Week #86

Hello mother,

well our week was really good. We were just extremely busy this week which is wonderful. Every day was busy.
On Monday we visited Jeannine which was good, both her and her mom are reading The Book of Mormon. On Tuesdays the zone leaders came down for exchanges and we had hot chocolate with Renate.  They have become like family to us and so we don't teach them every time. Its kind of a love serve teach process.  But its working.   Tuesday evening we went to open mic night and I killed it on the drums! I still got it. And some of our investigators came to watch. It was a good way to get out in the community because they see this Mormon missionary get on the drums and kill it, not trying to be vain glorious or anything, but it gave all of the people a different perspective showing them that we are normal.

On Wednesday we had a really neat miracle happen. We were walking to an appointment and this blue car pulled over and said hey I'm an inactive member of the church and I want to start meeting with you guys. She has some sons that are non members so there is a huge opportunity there for us. God still continues to amaze me.

Thursday we found a new investigator.  His name is Kevin and we met him at the soup kitchen. He is reading and praying about The Book of Mormon. And Friday was a busy day! We went out to Jason's farm. And we shoveled goat poop and then gave the goats vaccination s and trimmed their hooves. But it went good he likes us. Then we went and split wood for a lady that we met at envision (place where we do service) and she fed us dinner and everything.  Things are happening.

Starting this Sunday or next we will be having meetings!!! :) we did it we accomplished our vision, now we have a new vision and new goals. We are going to baptize!

I had an interview with president talking about the end of my mission and yeah....it was weird. But he asked me if I wanted to stay in Steinbach. And I said I would like to. So I will probably end my mission here in Steinbach. Transfer calls are next week and then the week after that the whole mission is going to Regina for a mission conference.  An apostle is coming.  Don't know which one it is, but it will be neat. 

I will take more pictures and send them to ya next week. I know that this gospel is true. I have never had so much peace and joy in my life. When I get back all I want in my life is the joy from living the principles of the gospel, and being successful in my career life.

Love you and love all of you.
-Elder Clark

Week #85

Hello mother,

well this week was really good and very busy we had a lot of appointments this week. We started off the week by meeting with a members cousin. There is a member here in town named Nicole, she recently moved here from Alberta and she has a lot of family in and around Steinbach. Her cousins name is Mark he is a really good guy he had us over for supper and we had a really good time he likes us a lot and we shared a short message, good things to come and he agreed with everything we shared with him. He needs help finishing his basement so hopefully we will get to help him out. He is really busy he is a doctor for farm animals or I think sells medicine to farmers.

On Tuesday we had lunch with Jeannine and following that a little bit later we had dinner with the Fisk family. They are a great family. Wednesday we saw Gord, who is a less active, and we taught him about the atonement he said he is wiling to come to church he said he has a nurse come and check on him on Sunday and he never knows when, so that's why he cant make it right now, he's like 82 he is old but looks young. Following that night we made the Valdez family dinner and we had a feast. Sadly though they told us that Johnny the father of the De Vera family doesn't want us to come and do teachings any more he is not wiling but Marlyn and the daughter are really receptive and really want to learn more. Opposition in all things hey?

We had a really good lesson with Jeannine. We shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then we got into a really deep conversation about why we were here and what we knew to be true. We bore our testimonies about the plan of salvation and the restoration the spirit was so strong.  Jeannine said that that night she couldn't sleep and that she was writing in her journal everything that happened that night and what she felt.

Thursday we met with this guy Malcolm he is a native fella and he was telling Jeannine that he didn't like Mormon missionaries because he goes to Jeannine's roommates bible study. Any way he walked out of the bible study and we were talking with him and he was saying how he liked hip hop so I threw him a beat and said I used to produce a lot of music back home and so he wanted us to come over so we went over and I made him a really good beat and now he likes us and wants us to come over more so we will turn this opportunity into teaching very soon.

Saturday we went to the Peters for dinner and it was really really good we had a lot of spiritual conversations.  We gave Renate a Book of Mormon and we wrote our testimonies in it and we got a text from her later that night saying that as she was reading our words of what we wrote she was just crying.  They are progressing.  Still slow progress but it is real growth with them.

Well that's it for my week it was a really good week and this one will be great as well  :)

Hope all is going well I love you mom and I love and miss all of you :)

On Sunday, March 23, 2014, Kay Clark <teamclark7@q.com> wrote:
> Hi Robert,

Weeks #83 & 84

 Hello mother,

Well we are still in the process of having a branch and looks like it is going to happen! So we are very excited about that. I have really realized that I have had success in every area I have served and I thank my God for that. There is no way we could have done any of it with out him. We have become great friends with so many people. Right now we are working with 23 non members...!! That's who we have in our pool.  All of them we found through referrals and through lacing. We all have a really good relationship with all of them its really good. And 8 of them are investigating.

We are going to see the De Veers on Thursday!!! It has been forever since we have seen them. But Marlyn finally got a couple days off and she would like for us to come over,  so this is great news. They are a solid family. And now with us starting to have a branch here they will be able to come to church and eventually get to baptism.

We are going out to Jason's farm this Friday, he is a Mennonite and his whole family wants to feed us, that will be great. Mennonites make really good food.
One miracle that we had this week is that Renate, the mother of the family we are teaching would like to start reading The Book of  Mormon which is good because she was the hardest lol. She has become our German mother it is so fun! She hooks us up with eggs for 50 cents a dozen.  So we have 84 eggs in our fridge that only cost 7 dollars. The family is still slow progress but its the right kind of progress.

I think one of the reasons Elder Erickson and I have been really successful here is because we know how to adapt to different areas.  And a lot of missionaries have trouble with that. We don't street contact or tract here because it would be like if two Baptists showed up in Provo Utah and started preaching......they would get shunned lol and so it would be the same for us. And so we think of the most effective way to find. And we are doing it.

Everything is going really good I love being out here but I know my time is coming to an end and I am excited to see all of you I wont lie haha :) but if I could I would serve for another 2 years lol. The gospel is true and the power of the atonement is real and can heal us. The Book of Mormon is true and leads us to have more faith in the Savior. I am not discouraged about school momecause I have come to know, that with any set back or trail in life you just have to look up,  because "if you can look up, you can get."

Love you and all of you so much :)
-Elder Clark








Hello mother,

I am still in Steinbach.

 We have been working hard doing service and gaining relationships out here and it is working. The Peters are doing good. We taught them using the apostasy cups and at the end as we prayed we prayed sincerely for God to bless them and the mom Renate teared up and the family felt the spirit.  Its working, just slow. We also are going out to a farm on Friday to help this Mennonite fella and he loves us and his whole family wants to feed us. They were a referral from a member. We are trying to lace through members and investigators and it is working. The city will still continue to hate us but there is a lot of people so far that love us.

As we have struggled and struggled to establish the church here, we just had to trust in Gods timing.  Every thing we have done here was 100% what God has wanted us to do. The reason why I am saying all of this, is because we are doing it mom! Its working! We are now in the process of holding meetings out in Steinbach!!!! We are in the process of starting a branch here. We will be holding a sacrament meeting.....in our apartment! We will start holding meetings. We are just waiting to hear from the mission president so hopefully we can start this Sunday or next Sunday.

We are establishing the church!

It has been a good week. Full of fun and a whole bunch of mixed feelings.  I sure know that this church is true. And that its all in Gods time. It was just different for me because my whole mission I have seen great success,  but here I just thought nothing was happening but we continued to work at it and now things are happening.  When we get the church started here the Peters said they would come! So we are excited. 

I love you mom and all of you so much.

-Elder Clark

Week #82

Hello mother,

Well the week was good.

We taught Jeannie this week. We shared the restoration with her and she accepted everything we taught her which was neat. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was excited to read it. We just got done watching Prophet of the Restoration with her, it went good. Jeannine is the daughter of the German Mennonite family that we are teaching.  We also taught the family the restoration.  It went OK. It will be a slow progress.  But it is going good.

Other than that nothing really new has happened.  We are just trying everything that we can to do the lords work. I think sometimes when we are trying all that we can to have success, we have to be willing to work for nothing.  Meaning its his will and work. We are willing to do all we can even if its not the result that we want. 

We did teach Gordy this week and found out that his wife is a member too and we taught them both. So that is good news. So we will see where it goes. 

Elder Erickson and I are going to try and sit in on some council meetings in some towns outside of Steinbach and be a presence. We are going to do all we can to get more involved with the community, and change the hearts here.  We will establish the church here. We are......determined. 

I don't know what else to write I'm sorry my letters are getting so much more shorter. I love all of you and I love the work and the lord. Its true. 

I hope all is going well.  I will keep praying for the business. 

Love you

-Elder Clark

Week #81

Hi mother,

Well the week has been a lot better. We have had some struggles  just trying to build the church here. We had a lot of success this week. Elder Erickson and I are both determined to have success here. We want to "succeed as bad as we want to breathe." We were really busy this week with service activities and appointments. We taught the peters (the German Mennonite family) on Saturday night and they are our new investigators! We have appointments with them all through out the week. We taught them about faith and answered questions that they had about our faith. What a neat experience it has been being able to help establish the church where there is no church.  It feels like the old days where the mission president sends you out and says "alright well establish the church and make it happen." 

I don't think we will have a branch here for a while though, but we will still continue to build the church. And so far it is going really good. The community knows we are here. Everyone at service loves us. So it is going really good.

We got in contact with the De Vears the Filipino family so hopefully we will be teaching them this week.

I am glad that this work helps you stretch and grow. All I want to do in life is succeed in everything I do and my mission has really taught me that. I have been able to put in all my effort in everything I have done here, some things didn't work at all, and so we reevaluated and went back to work. I am grateful for this time of my life.

Last night we had a miracle. We got a call from a member and we ended up going to see an unknown less active member that wants to come back to church.  We will be seeing him sometime this week.

Well I know that prayer is real and that the answer isn't always given right away. But it does come. I have found power through the scriptures, they are true. The only way to know if anything is true is to ask god if it is. Either it is or it isn't. But it is and I testify that it is true.

Love you and all of you so much. :)

-elder Clark

Week #80

Hi mother,

Well my week was horrible...... I was sick all week until Friday I had the flu.... :( this is the first time I have ever been sick on my mission. I was on my death bed we couldn't keep anything down. We slept and just rested all week, until Friday when we felt decent enough to go paint for service. But it was bad we were so dumb....we figured since we weren't keeping anything down we should just eat some fast food since we have been working out and on a health diet, so we got fast food and it was just dumb, we were just throwing it up.

Steinbach is going good though. We got in contact with our Filipino investigators through the Valdez family so hopefully we will be meeting with them soon. Other than that things are going OK, its just really hard here, I'm not discouraged just confused of what to do next. We aren't really seeing success here at all. This area does not compare to any other area that I have served in. I feel small and out numbered here. We are struggling but Elder Erickson and I keep thinking about ways to improve so we keep trying and trying there is no giving up. I guess trials and challenges like this is what makes men out of mere boys.

I feel your prayers for me so thank you so much. I am still giving it all I have and we are doing our best here. I know that things will get better we just have to have faith and hope things will get better.

I bear you my testimony that we are the only true church on the face of the earth and that no one can stop this work. I love how a group of pastors have to have a meeting and council together on how they are going to stop four 20 year old boys. The restoration is real and Christ lives. 

Love you and all of you so much

-elder Clark

week #78 & 79

Hello mother,

 6  of the main churches have a board where all the pastors meet together and discuss things. We have heard that they are working really hard to not let us volunteer at certain places. We feel this is  one of the main reasons why we are not having success here. The only way for us to succeed here is to go about doing good everywhere we go and to be non threatening. 

So we confirmed it through prayer and through the scriptures and  I called an immediate district meeting and we discussed. And  we came up with......"The Ammon Project" ( I came up with the name)  so basically we are trying to become the communities friends and go about and do good everyday and it is working. So far we have had so many opportunities to serve and do good and more people are starting to like us.  

We shoveled and chipped this ladies driveway and it turns out that she knows Elder Erickson's relatives. She wants to meet with us again. Also the places where we volunteer are going good and we are asking the people there how we can serve them outside of volunteering. We will go to city council and I will literally tell the Mayor that I am his slave and I will do anything for him and ask him how we can serve him. 

This place is the hardest area that we have in the mission. I am serious nothing compares to it.

We have seen a lot of success this week and we are meeting with our Filipino people this week. And we will teach them.

Facebook is going supper good. We have set up so many appointments through it and have gotten other elders referrals through it. It is a great tool if you use it wisely.

I know that Christ lives that this is the lords work. I know by the power of the holy ghost that the Book of Mormon is true I really do. Prayer is real it works. I know that god never forsakes us. 

I love you mom and I love you family

-Elder Clark

 

 Hello mother,

We have a lot of service going on as well as appointments.  We aren't close to any baptisms. It will be hard to have baptisms out here because we don't have a church out here. But we will still expect to have baptisms. So it will be an adventure. I think I will finish , my mission here with Elder Erickson. I wonder if president will keep me here because I am learning Tagalog. But lately we haven't had any success with the Filipinos they are so busy with work.

The Ammon project is going good we are always trying to improve it. We have made a good friend in the community. Her name is Renate, she is a German Mennonite and she stood up for us at the board meeting when they talked about us. We will teach her and her family soon. This area is literally all about building relationships its really different.

We found a new investigator this week her name is Treena. She teaches us how to paint and we just share a little message after. This week we have an appointment with her and I will ask her to paint the restoration for me, so then hopefully she might feel the spirit when she paints. Clever hey?

This whole week I have been reflecting on all the experiences that I have had on my mission and they have been amazing. I am so glad I came on a mission, and that everything I have done out here has been hard. Every area that I have had has been such a challenge and I have been able to rise above and see success. I am just very grateful for this time I have had.  I know the church to be true that the power of prayer is real. 

I love you and all of you so much.

-elder Clark