Christmas and Golfing in the Sand

HOHOHOla!! (I know, that was lame)

Well, just like that my first Christmas on the mission has come and gone! I guess I really only have one more to go, but I am so grateful for this time of year and all that it does the help people grow closer to Christ! Christmas is a very special day, even for missionaries! We woke up, studied and had breakfast. Then we went out to work and had a huge dinner and then called our folks. I guess that was a pretty special day for missionaries! I was so grateful to call home and talk to my family. I truly have a testimony that families are eternal and that God has given them to us for a very specific purpose. There is no better place to learn about Christ than in the family.

Christmas in Quartzsite is a very different day than anywhere else in the world. Instead of a family dinner, they all met up and had a big potluck and man, oh, man, did I eat!! I ate so much food for dinner I was so full, but hey what are New Years resolutions for? To lose weight.  A lot of the families here are just as lonely as we are because they are not with the rest of their families for the holiday season. After we talked to our folks we went to visit a family where the wife is a recent convert and the husband, who has been a member all his life, is just getting back into the church. They are just an awesome family! As we were leaving the wife was tearing up because she was so touched that we came to see her on Christmas. That really hit me. As a missionary and for the rest of my life, it’s really not about me or whether I have a good Christmas, but the best Christmas I can have is lifting the heart of someone else or giving a helping hand. That is obvious, but it is truly meaningful and life changing when you see it firsthand.

The rest of the week just flew by! On Friday we helped a single lady in our ward build beds for her daughters with a family friend. There are not a lot of young families in town and the ones that are here usually have a rough situation they are dealing with. It was great to help them even though it took a little longer then we were expecting and the house didn't exactly have the best living conditions. I don't think they have heard the primary song about cleaning up on Saturday to get ready for Sunday! But that's okay - I have heard that song a lot and it still didn't always motivate me!!

We are trying to do a lot of service here in town because that is how we are going to get our name out and find more people to teach. We serve a lot in the food bank which is good. They tell us they couldn't do it without us and we have recently been getting more ideas about how we can serve so hopefully those will start and help us find more. We have also started playing games for an hour on Saturday with the local kids and that has been great. They all need to get out more and do things and have some fun! Hopefully, we can continue to do good in the town.

The missionary work is slow here but things are progressing. Our main investigator is really close to being baptized but he is just sick a lot. We are working with him and he should be there soon! On Sunday we experienced a miracle. Earlier in the week we had talked to a family and they were talking about this lady they were helping and how she could use the gospel. We were going to meet her but hadn't had the chance to yet. On Sunday she had come to church and found us. She asked us when could we start meeting with her! That was just amazing and on top of that we talked to a guy whose wife is down here for surgery and she wants to get baptized too! The Lord is blessing us and hopefully we can work hard and have faith and we will be able to help this area out even more!

For P-day today, we went sand golfing. I got better by the end, but it was a little wierd. I took some pictures for you to enjoy. 

I hope you all have a great week and be safe on New Years!

Elder Clark

Breakfast! Elder Clark and Elder McMullin

 

Sand Golfing