Week #42

Well this week was so good.

 

On Monday we had taught a less active family and we had shown the Mormon message "Forgiveness: My Burden Was Made Light". And after we watched it they said the greatest thing ever and this is the exact words. "wow I feel like I got slapped in the face, because I don't even have it as bad as other people." The family had been offended but after this lesson they are more receptive to going to church now. The spirit was so strong in that lesson it was amazing.

 

The rest of the week we were just still keeping busy, teaching less actives! Man, the work is busy and moving. I am tired every morning, we are out all day teaching and finding. We taught a less active member and we set a goal with her to make it to the temple! So we are going to help her really change her life around. So we met with Zach this week. We read 2 Nephi 31 and we just asked him bluntly what he expects to get out of meeting with us now. I asked him what was on his mind.....and he said: what makes this church truer than the catholic church. We taught him by the spirit and taught him about the Book of Mormon and asked him what he felt as he prayed about the Book of Mormon. He said "a burning sensation and chills throughout my body". We then taught him more and invited him to act and follow his Savior. He is getting baptized again! he will be baptized on June 15th!

 

This week I had maybe one of the greatest experiences of my mission There is a less active member and he only comes to church so he can get food. His mom is a member. All he likes to do is hunt and fish. He is a big fella with a big mustache and has orange stained fingers from smoking cigarettes. He is real  rough around the edges and likes to joke...a lot. He had called us and wanted us to come by. Everything is basically going wrong in his life, and I had the prompting to ask him if he would like a blessing. He said yes, I was surprised by his answer. Then I gave him a blessing and after the blessing tears were streaming down his face. And I thought to myself..."wow this man only comes to church so he can get food and his fingers are stained orange from cigarettes, but yet by the power of the priesthood he breaks down and feels the spirit" (See them as they can become.) God know us personally and individually and loves us. I am grateful to have the priesthood of God.

 

We are getting these people back to church! If we have to walk them or do anything to get them back to church then we will do it! We have had such a great week. I cut Elder Camarena's hair last night! I am good at cutting hair I made him look real good! ha.

 

Can you believe that after this transfer I will be out a year.....were is the time going....

 

I testify that the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth.

 

All is well,

-Elder Clark

 

 

Week #41

You know a mission is not peaches and creams. We had this guy come up to us yesterday and just swear at us and drop the f word for no reason he just didn't like us. We didn't knock on his door or anything. But it is ok I have learned to be really bold and direct with people...I think I got that from Elder McDanel.

 

It really is hard sometimes to want to tract when you know you're gonna get a door slammed in your face, but you just got to get over it.

 

Well this week was really good. We tracted this week. It had been a while since the mission had tracted. So now, the mission has brought back tracting, but not just like go tract all day. We do what is called smart tracting. We tract around a less actives house or a members house because you never know who is prepared around a member or less active. We didn't find anyone from it, but it was really fun just to get out and tract again.

 

We are still teaching less actives, and it is going great! We also found another less active member who we have been trying to get a hold of. We taught Father Wayne too, the Anglican minister! He has some crazy concerns, he doesn't believe in the atonement, he thinks it was child abuse yet he preaches it on Sunday. he said that the Anglican church is now re-thinking the atonement because it doesn't appeal to the world these days, I personally think it doesn't appeal to his church and members because of their history of child abuse with in the church. In essence we can look at this as Apostasy a turning away from an eternal truth to conform to men's own wisdom in order to bring more people in to their church. We are still working with him until we feel that we should stop, You never know.

 

Also, we Taught Karen this week. Her boyfriend, who is the atheist, sat in for the lesson and even asked questions. We are going to have family home evening with them today and share a spiritual thought. She also came to church this Sunday with her kid, now we just need to get her to keep coming to church.

 

This Sunday was a miracle! We had again 5 less actives with a total of 12 people all together at church, not including the missionaries. The Maki's came to church again for the second time in a row. They have been less active for 13 years! The Lord is good. Also Holly Olson, who is in a wheel chair, said that she wouldn't be able to walk to church with us because it was raining really hard out side and there was thunder and lighting. We told her that god would provide away if she really wanted to come to church. We prayed and asked that it wouldn't rain when we walked with her to church. We walked the whole way to church with her and it didn't rain and then shortly after we were in the church building the rain came down and started pouring. Prayer is real.

 

This morning we taught a less active former branch president. We shared the article "Trial of your Faith". We boldly told him at the end that he needed to come to church and that the branch needed him. He opened up to us, which was good.

 

Well one sad thing that happened this week is that Zach said he wanted to wait until he was 18 to be baptized. He expressed the concern that his whole family is Catholic and that he would lose family over it. We tried to do all we could, bore testimony and did everything, but his choice remained the same. He still wants to meet though and come to church, so we will see what happens. I know and testify that Zach has received a witness that the Book of Mormon is true. These are his own words: "I felt a burning sensation in my heart." I know this work and gospel is true and I love it. 

 

All is well,

-Elder Clark 

 

Week #40

So this week we were able to just teach a lot. On Wednesday however, we had to go into Winnipeg for a training meeting and it was really good. It opened up my eyes and gave me a sharper focus.
So we have been teaching these less active members and we told them that we only eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and so they told us to try a peanut butter and mayo sandwich......they said it was really good and that it tastes like a dill pickle sandwich. I said to myself no way!! So I tried it....it was so gross! Man it was nasty. I didn't tell that story last night because I thought that dad would faint because he hates mayo. I'll tell you what though, the only food that members do give us is moose meat! It tastes good too, but really gamey. We helped out a less active and he gave us some moose steak so we will see how it is.

So on Thursday we went to Raine Crest to go meet Father Wayne, the Anglican Minister. We had a great talk with him and at the end we invited him to hear the gospel. He agreed. He texted us later that day and asked if we could meet tonight and we said yes! Because we are missionaries and we do that hah. So we taught him and at the end of the lesson he said "I have doubts about my own faith. I have read the Book of Mormon and it has great teaching in it, and I love that it tells us to seek ponder and pray to know if it is true". He has a hangup with the bible too. So we asked if we could continue to teach him and he told us that we could. So we are going to be teaching him again this week.

We taught Zach again this week and he is still doing really well! He feels the spirit so much in our lessons! He is just prepared. On Sunday we went and delivered a flower to his mom and also delivered flowers to less actives for Mother's Day. They all loved it and it softened their hearts for sure. We had 15 people at church too on Sunday! Wow what a miracle because the first day I got there, there was only like 4 people! The Lord is good.

 

All is well,

-Elder Clark

Week #39

Well this week we have just been teaching teaching teaching! Mainly we are teaching less actives because we need to get them back. But we have been teaching Zach still, the guy that we found on the street. So we taught him and every time we teach him, he just feels the spirit so strong, it is amazing. The first time we taught him he said "I feel calm and peaceful". The second time we taught him he said that it felt like his heart was expanding. We invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. He did so, and the third time we taught him hen said he prayed about it and felt a burning in his heart and chills through out all of his body. We invited him to be baptized, he has a date for the first of June! :) He wants us to teach his family, too! The Lord is good.

I had a couple branch presidency meetings......never thought that would ever happen on my mission. I guess being an assistant and consoling with President prepared me for this. But everything is going really good here. We are working as hard as we can, walking everywhere. We got some volunteer service for helping coach a soccer team! Which is great because Elder Camarena loves soccer and can play it good. But think how many families will be at soccer practice! We can share the gospel with them.

So we were able to jam with this less active's boyfriend and he trusts us a lot now. We were having a conversation and some how prayer was brought up and he said "No way, you can't say that. Prayer isn't real, that doesn't happen". I then shared my experience about me crashing my car in the ditch and how the power of prayer helped me. After I was done sharing my personal experience his whole attitude changed, just a complete 180! It was so neat. He is very anti religion. We are slowly working with him.

Well we taught a lot of less actives like I said, and none of them came to church this Sunday. There was only 4 members at church that were sitting in the seats. Zach came though and he loved it. But still, they were all committed to come and then something came up :( it breaks my heart. I think about these people every night. We need to always nourish our testimony and stand strong or else the fiery darts from the adversary will break us down.


All is well,
-Elder Clark
P.S. I was rusty when I was playing the drum, embarrassing.

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.