Happy 4th!

Man another week! We were able to weed out some of our investigators this week. It has been really neat. We have been able to find a lot of families to start teaching. So we are excited to start teaching them and see them progress. Sadly. one family we met that was super solid (the dad had already read the Book of Mormon) gave us a wrong address. But we are going to know the doors where they live and God will put them in our path if they are ready.

So around Wednesday this last week I got a text from my old area sayings this guy named Patrick was going to be getting baptized. I met him when I was serving in the Whitney Ranch Ward in Green Valley. The family he is living with took him off the streets and got him off drugs and got him living a normal life style. He had never slept in a bed until he moved in there. His life was crazy. And we started teaching him and at times there just seemed to be no hope he would change. He ran away many times and went back to his old life and we never knew if he would come back.

Well he did come back and left other times. But eventually he slowly got off the drugs and then the last thing was tobacco and he just overcame that and he asked me to baptize this last week. What a privilege that was. I was so honored to do that for him. It's such a miracle to see the change the atonement can have on someone. I love him to death and am so proud of him. We also had a baptism in our area and she was a sweet kind lady and it was so wonderful to see her change as well. She even bore her testimony at church on Sunday.

Truly, it's the change in other people that motivates me to continue to grow and change myself as well as share this with everyone. Yesterday I just fasted out of gratitude for my mission, it was my last fast Sunday and I felt it such a great love for my mission. I have truly grown and changed so much and it's helped me realize how much more I need to grow.

To be frank, before my mission, I was very complacent. And didn't feel I had much to work on, but as I have grown I have really seen how much I truly need to work on.  A member in a lesson we had explained it so well. She said it was like a dark room. You didn't know if it was messy or clean. And as the door opened light was let into the room. If the door was only cracked then you could only see a little of the mess that was in the room. And as it opened bigger and bigger then you could see all of the mess in the room.

That light is the light of Christ more in our lives. As we come unto to Christ we are humbled and we see our weaknesses more and more and then they become strengths. I have loved my mission! It has truly been a wonderful experience. It's hard sometimes looking at these younger missionaries and see that at times they don't understand the importance of this great work. It has been wonderful to talk with them and encourage them to change more on their mission to be obedient and to follow Christ. We cannot do this work without Him.

I love you all and hope you have a great week

Elder Clark