This was another full and busy week!
We had a meeting with all the mission leadership and then zone conference the
following day. There were a lot of good things discussed there about our culture
and obedience and what we can do as leaders to help others change.
El Rancho ward is going well!! Irene
is progressing so fast! I was sad to leave my last YSA ward but it is really
cool because our ward now has a lot of YSA in it. Most of the Hispanic kids like
to stay in the Spanish ward and don't go to the YSA ward. And so we have good
group of YSA and most of them are ward missionaries and our ward mission leader
is young and so it’s a lot of fun. Irene went to high school with a lot of them
and so it has just been perfect fellowship. We have been working a lot with
Irene about faith and courage and following the Holy Ghost. She told her mom
this last week that she went to a Mormon church and now she is going to tell
her next that she is getting baptized. She also has to tell her other church as
well that she is leaving and becoming a Mormon. So there are a lot of hard things
she has to do, but she is so strong! She worked graveyard Saturday night and
still came for all three hours of church. We went on a hike with her and the
sister missionaries and people from our ward last week on p-day and we are
planning a bike trip to Lake Las Vegas for next week! So it's a lot of fun
stuff and great fellowship for her. She also is a photographer and so she takes
good pictures and we even recruited her for our ward activity to take pictures.
The activity we had was a plan of
salvation night. I did this a year ago in my last Spanish ward. We had
everyone get on a "plane" and then we all died and they got to go
through the different kingdoms of glory and learn about where they wanted to
go. Outer darkness was crazy! Nancy, a member of our ward, went all out for it.
We had strobe lights and fog and scary music haha! And the other two kingdoms
were desanimado as well. And so when everyone got to the celestial kingdom they
were very excited! And it showed the stark contrast that is between where God
dwells and the other kingdoms. We had around 50 people there and 5-7 of them
were investigators! So that was a neat activity.
This last week, as well, I went back
to my old area on exchanges with the assistants. It was great to be back in that
ward. They threw a "surprise" birthday party for me and at the party
there were 4 of my recent converts and 1 investigator! That was just so
cool to see them still going strong! I was able to go out with Ross, one of my
recent converts, to some lessons afterwards! He is not scared at all to share
the gospel its great!
This week we saw some miracles in
finding and teaching some people that have real intent. One lady was a member
referral and she came to church on Sunday and we were a little worried what she
would think because the power had gone out and so the chapel was dark and there
was no AC. Ha but she didn't mind and the power came on later and she stayed
all three hours and even signed up on our dinner calendar to feed us! Also at
church a former investigator came and we were able to teach her afterwards. And
it was so cool because now she is ready and we set her with a baptismal date for
August! So the Lord is always ready to bless us.
The Spanish is coming little by
little. Sadly I won't have as much time as I really want to get fluent. But I
can understand most of it (depending on who is speaking) and can express myself
to some degree and so I will try to hold onto that throughout my life.
In the zone this week we are going
to talk about change and how important it is to always be progressing and
changing. We are going to talk about our founding fathers and the last change
and effect they had in this country. And then in a zone meeting tomorrow we are
making our own zone constitution with a bill of rights about how we will
proselyte, be obedient, and be sustainable. And then everyone will write their
own personal Declaration of Independence from all things carnal that hold us
back and sign it and we are going to put it on a huge flag! Here is our
preamble:
"We the missionaries of the
Nevada Las Vegas North Zone, in order to be more perfect disciples of Jesus
Christ, establish exact obedience, insure long term sustainable growth, preach
repentance and baptize convert, promote the spiritual welfare, secure the
blessing of God to ourselves and our posterity, do sustain and establish this
constitution for the North Zone.”
I can't believe my mission is almost
to a close. I am so excited to apply all the things I have learned on my
mission for the rest of my life. To be a covenant keeper in a world that makes
it hard. I am excited to see all of you and share with you my testimony face to
face. I can boldly say that you won't even recognize me because of the person
God has helped me to become through the enabling power of the Atonement of
Jesus Christ. I have two weeks left and it's time to make them the best two
weeks of my mission! We always have to keep growing! I love you all.
Elder Clark
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