Wedding Bells

March 9, 2015

Wedding bells are ringing!! I don’t even know if there will be bells, but oh well! So after a stressful week of planning a wedding and teaching lessons our investigators are getting married this Saturday! I will be so relieved when it’s all over – it has been quite a ride, but I am so happy for them and what all this means in their lives. They hope to go to the temple in a year to be sealed. Sort of a funny story about that - When our investigator first heard about being sealed in the temple he thought it meant like we were “sealed” in the temple with our wives forever. So he was picturing in his mind that we were sealed in the temple just as mummies were buried in tombs. Haha - we had a good laugh about that one! They are some really amazing people and have a very hard and interesting life so it has been quite the adventure teaching them and working with them. Luckily they got the relief society involved for the reception and wedding because, oh man, two 18 year old Elders planning a wedding is a disaster!

We have another investigator who is doing well and progressing towards baptism, but she hasn’t come to church recently and so that has been very, very frustrating. We have been able to get her the Book of Mormon on CDs and that will hopefully help her progress to where she needs to be for her baptism. It is amazing how the Book of Mormon can change our lives by reading that simple book and praying to know of its truthfulness. In the lives of our investigators we can truly see when they are changed based on how much they read. It’s a big difference compared to those that don’t read. That is why Joseph Smith said that the book of Mormon is the "keystone of our religion".

Things are still staying pretty busy here, although every week people are slowing heading back up north. It is very weird to have a branch where the members leave you and not the other way around as it is normally anywhere else you go. It is sad to see a lot of them go. It’s a very interesting ward because there is no stability - it is just always in motion. It makes it hard to get to know everyone but I am getting to know a good chunk of the people and what a blessing that is. I am thoroughly convinced you can find good people where ever you go -some of the best people, I believe! It’s also sad that some may not live too much longer...but I don’t tell them that!

This area is a puzzle for us. Luckily this week at a zone meeting we were able to get some new ideas on how we can find more people to teach and I know as we are diligent the Lord will bless us. We know that we will be leaving this area the next transfer and so I want to get as much work done as we can and leave it good and ready for the next season! If we have faith in the Lord no matter what the circumstance is, if it’s his will, we will be blessed!

We have started biking a lot more and my companion borrowed a bike from a member. A real nice bike with a nice old man seat to go with it! We have enjoyed cruising around on our bikes and talking to more people on the street. In Preach My Gospel there is an analogy of a fisherman (so naturally I would like it) and it talks about how one fisherman can leave his house and only have his fishing line in the water for a couple hours out of the total 12 hours he is gone. Then another fisherman has his line in the water for 10 of those 12 hours and how much more successful he was and how many more fish he caught. It is the same in missionary work. We can be gone from the apartment all day, but if our line is not in the water for as long as we can have it be, then we won’t find as much success. I really like that analogy and I even take it a step further and say well, the more lines I have in the water the better, and so the more ways we have to find people and touch their lives more effectively the better.

I hope you all have a great week and that I survive this week leading up to the wedding! It is going to be a fun day-that’s for sure!! Keep working hard!

Elder Clark

Our Christmas present from Logan - a great caricature.

From the email to Logan: My wife said, Hello, hello, hello.

Was nice meeting you, wish you the best. Keep safe and " looking

to Jesus the Author and Finisher of your faith." Jerry and Carol Greene.

Pretty attractive face - hijole!

New missionary bike we found!! I wasn't wearing a helmet-oops!

The Carter Family! Kyle has downs and is just awesome. I gave him a pass along card of Jesus Christ and he was so happy. He was giving me high fives and knuckles in priesthood and whenever I saw him he would just get super happy and laugh and I would give him a huge hug! Man, I loved that guy. They left this week and I was sad! He always made me smile! He loved cowboys so he always wore boots. 

The investigator baptism that Logan missed. He is a great guy!

In a little cave we drove to during while we were golfing.

Cliff Drawings

Grinding corn like the Indians! (There is a cord in the way.)

Exploring in a jeep! Don't worry, I wasn't driving it was just parked! Just having fun!

Brother Limb, but we call him twig or I sometimes say sapling, haha!

Brother Boyce!

This is His Work

March 2, 2015

March Madness is starting!!!! Oh man let me tell you, it’s madness over here! It is raining! But also we had a really good week full of miracles and blessings from the Lord. We were definitely busy this week and we had a lot to do so I was happy with the work that we did get done.

We were on exchanges on Tuesday and we had a big lesson with a young couple we are working with. We had the lucky chance of teaching the law of chastity, but it went really well and we are working with them. The man will be baptized soon after they get married! They are a really fun couple and I think all the elderly folk here are enjoying seeing them at church. It’s been amazing for them, that in their circumstances, the Lord is blessing them. We were talking to them on Friday and they said they couldn’t see a way that it was going to work, but now they have found a more stable place to live and a new job. All types of little blessings are coming into their lives. We shared with them the scripture in 1 Nephi 3:7-

7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

Another great thing that happened this week was one of the investigators from my last area who I had been teaching a lot just got baptized! I really wanted to go up and see him be baptized and he asked me to confirm him, but there was just no way I could get up to Vegas to do that. But I am still happy for him and everyone said all went well and that he is super happy! It is hard at times because we want people to accept the gospel right away, and some people just need some time. And we don’t always see the seeds that we plant in people’s lives - So don’t ever give up on anyone!

We also had a really spiritual lesson with a gal we have been teaching for a while. She finally was able to move into a trailer and so we just stopped by real quick and as we began teaching her she told of an experience that happened to her earlier in the day. There was a man that she had hired to help her move in and he was getting very frustrated and mad and was yelling and cursing and so she asked him to leave. She said it really had a big impact on her and that afterwards she said a prayer that she would be comforted and then we showed up. She was touched by the spirit and had tears in her eyes as she told us about this answer to her prayer. As we continued to talk to her, we were able to promise her that her fears of the water would go away through faith in Christ and we set her with a baptismal date for April 2^nd, her birthday!! We are super excited for her, even though she didn’t come to church yesterday, but I guess we will forgive her.

I will close with a very spiritual experience that I had; one of the most spiritual of my mission. It is about priesthood blessings and it really showed me that the priesthood and being guided by the spirit is so real and that they are not my words I speak during a priesthood blessing, but Christ’s words. We were at a member’s house and he had been having a really hard day and had been fighting with his wife. He said that he just had a lot of anger at the moment and so we talked for a little while and then he asked for a blessing. As I gave him a blessing I really tried to just clear my mind and go off the spirit and not say what I thought he needed but what the Lord needed him to hear. As I did that, I said things that didn’t seem exactly right to me, but after the blessing he sat quiet for a little bit and then he stood up with tears in his eyes and said, "You just quoted part of my Patriarchal Blessing exactly." I was filled with the spirit and I knew that the Lord was the one speaking and that it was what he needed to hear.

I hope you all have a great week! We are doing really well down here and staying dry mostly! I love you all!

Elder Clark

Since I wasn't sure if  I was leaving and the Lawter's were going to be out of town, we took this picture. It reminds me of a hobbit house! I just look a lot bigger then I am because they are short and have a small house.

Our golfing buddies. Some of the happiest people I know of in this world!

In the Right Place at the Right Time

So, as always, the Lord blesses you after you remain faithful during times of adversity. This week has been a real blessing compared to the last couple weeks we have had. We were able to really see some amazing miracles.

We had tracted into this one couple and the wife was very interested. We have been teaching her pretty frequently. Although she didn’t make it to church, it was great to find someone new that we could begin teaching. She has just soaked up everything we say to her and so hopefully we will be able to help her progress. 

But the biggest miracle of the week happened a couple days later. We were out walking around the town talking to people and as we were almost back to our trailer to get a bite to eat this car pulled over and a lady in her 20s and this guy with her start talking to us from their car (miracle in itself that they were young!!!) and she said that she was a member and was wanting to go back to church and was wondering where to find it. And then after we talked a little more she said that her boyfriend wanted to join the church and so we set up an appointment with them. It was just amazing as we walked away and starting talking about what had just happened - we were truly in the right place at the right time. If we would have walked somewhere else or taken longer anywhere else during the day and hadn’t been right there as they drove by we may have never have met them. It’s just amazing how the Lord knows everything and He knows exactly how He needs things to be done. That is why it is so important we listen to the promptings and be obedient. We met with them the other day and he is being baptized March 14th! It’s just crazy how the Lord can bless us.

It is coming to the end of our transfer and it is just crazy how fast truly flies. Doing the Lord’s work just makes everything go faster. I remember that a month used to seem like a long time, but man it sure seems to fly by very quickly now and the people here tell me to wait until I am their age and I am sure they are right! I am not sure whether I will be here another transfer or if they will close the area down yet or if I stay. But either way it will be good. I love the people here so much. It’s just hard because now we are already saying goodbye to a lot of people that we really like. It’s weird being in a ward where they leave you and not the other way around.

We have lots of meetings this upcoming week and will be driving up to Vegas on Thursday so we will be very busy! I hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Clark

With the Cloward's

With the Petersen's

 
 

Children are Alive in Christ

As always, every week is filled with so much going on it is just hard to know where to start! This week has been really good, but also very challenging. It seems that no matter what part of life we are in, there are trials. But I know they all come for a reason.

Hearing of Lucy has really saddened my day, but I know all is well. We are in the hands of the Lord constantly and He gives us agency to choose, and at times, people choose wrong and that affects people. But other times, things just happen, like with Lucy and there is nothing no one could have done better. Heavenly Father knows everything that goes on in our life and Christ has suffered for all of these moments. So I hope Amanda and Robby, and all the family can take comfort in Christ’s atonement. It is real, more real then we may ever know at times. The Lord has a plan for Lucy and I know it’s where she needs to be. You guys are the most amazing family ever, how whenever anything happens you are all together. I have always loved this scripture and I know Lucy is on the recovery and that she will do just fine, but in Moroni 8: 22 it reads:

For behold that all little children are alive in Christ, and also all they that are without the law. For the power of redemption cometh on all them that have no law; wherefore, he that is not condemned, or he that is under no condemnation, cannot repent; and unto such baptism availeth nothing—

I know all children whether in this life or the next are the ones to come are alive in Christ! That is why their testimonies are so sweet. I love you all and my prayers go out to you and Lucy.

This has also been a rough week in the mission field. Lots of people that we thought were interested but just aren’t.

So a few stories...

This week we began meeting with this man. He has a whole truck full of problems - word of wisdom, depression, suicidal, cancer most likely, you name it. But we go to his little trailer and have had a few lessons with him. He really missed his mother and so we had talked a lot about the plan of salvation with him. But then the next day we showed up and he had a friend over and was all mad and probably drunk and high and he was yelling at us and then the next second saying that he was going to come to church. We had a member with us and it was just a crazy experience. I was just trying to get out of there. My companion dubbed his trailer Uncle Tom’s cabin! Our member thought that was great and so he told his friends and wife about his experience at Uncle Tom’s cabin!

We also had a lesson with this other investigator and we were going to do the faith rocket - we call it. It is where we burn a tea bag on the persons hand and then at the last second it floats off their hand, but you have to have these special tea bags to do it. I thought we had them, but oh man was I wrong. I lit the tea bag in her hand and it went right down and burned her hand! Ahh- luckily it wasn’t too bad, but man it was funny.

Other than having all our investigators call us and say they are not interested, we had some pretty interesting lessons on Saturday. In the morning we had a lesson with a guy. it was really a miracle that we found him. I had seen him in the post office a few months ago and we just ran into him outside a members house one day and gave him a Book of Mormon. He was all excited and we got a lesson set up with him. We get to the lesson which was held at the church and we start talking and teaching and well, we find out that he has already been baptized! Like 6 years ago when he was 20, which was totally great, but just crazy because I didn’t think he was. We will still help him, but he is not an investigator anymore. Then that afternoon we had another lesson with a young guy, he is 19 and he seemed very interested and we started teaching about the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon and he was so, so excited. And guess what? We found out he was baptized 6 years ago as well when he was 13 haha! So that was really even more frustrating, but he is a cool guy and so maybe we will take him with us to lessons. It would and it would be cool to get him on a mission. I am sure the Lord had us meet them for a reason, so we will see how that goes. At times it is hard because we want to baptize people, but reactivating someone and getting him on a mission can have an even deeper impact then I could know; it would change his life and so many others! So, I am trying to stay positive on that and praying we find more people to teach that are real investigators.

I do not know how much longer they will keep our area open as it is typically only a seasonal area because of the snow birds, and the drastically decreasing missionaries in our mission down from 250 to 180 and going down even more. We will see what the future holds in the next couple weeks. But I love this area and I love my mission. Every day is filled with a purpose and it’s the most important purpose one could have and that really motivates me. I just love the people in my area and pray and hope for them daily! I love you all and keep up your efforts to hasten the Lord’s work!

Elder Clark

 

Part of my desert golfing crew. I got a hole in one today on a par 4 - so that was really cool!