Last Week in the Rob Squad

Well, unexpectedly, I am getting transferred for my last transfer! I thought I was going to stay in the office until I went home, but God's plans were otherwise. My time in the office, and especially my time in the Robindale YSA Ward, have been great and I have learned so much from these last three transfers. I have loved this ward! Never have I felt so apart of a ward. I honestly felt like it was my home ward. I was invested in the members and the work and everything just fell into place as we were able to be instruments in the Lord's hands to bring many unto Christ. I have met so many people and have seen many changed by the atonement of Christ in this area. From member madness with the members doing missionary work, to converts who are truly converted to the Lord and His church. I look back and am without words at all the blessings God has poured out upon us. I am truly grateful for the hand God has had in my life and throughout my mission.

I am very sad to leave this area and for all the wonderful people that I have met. But it will be exciting to come back for some more baptisms and on exchanges to see all these people I have come to love so much. And then to keep in contact with them throughout the rest of my life. I think spending my last six weeks in Spanish will be good as that is what the Lord called me to speak. I am excited to dedicate myself to the language and plan to only study and speak Spanish as much as I possibly can. I am excited to apply all that I learned in the office with those in my zone and to have much more of an one on one impact with the missionaries. To be more of a minister and not so much as an administrator. 

I really don’t know what to say, but that I love being a missionary and that I have enjoyed seeing so many people’s lives change these last 4 months. It is a miracle that with all the other things we do on a day to day basis for the mission that we even have time to proselyte. But the Lord has put so many people in our path; just random street contacts and referrals that have just turned out to be people that really wanted and needed the gospel.

We had a fireside this weekend and it was a member from one of my last wards speaking to all the YSA in the region. He was part of swat and a convert to the gospel and just gave an incredible talk. But one part that stuck out to me the most was when he kept bringing up "real intent". He told of when he was reading and praying to find out if the Book of Mormon was true and wasn’t getting any answers that a friend told him to go see a bishop and ask him. And so he found the nearest bishop and since he didn’t have transportation he figured out how long it would take him to walk there. He walked hours to speak to a man he had never met before because he wanted to know if this was true. After receiving advice, he met back up with the missionaries who had first taught him. And to do so he had to hitch hike 3 hours to find them. Then later, as a member, he wanted to get his patriarchal blessing and he had to make a five hour drive to get there. He talked about how those were moments of real intent. That he would do anything to know and receive the truth.

As I pondered this, I thought of how often we talk about having real intent to find out if the church is true, but how often do we have real intent in our day to day lives and in exercising faith in god and in receiving answers to our questions? That we pray a lot as missionaries to find people to teach but do we work at every cost to find them? Will we do whatever it takes to fulfill the prayers we have offered up to god? So it was a very good fireside and I have enjoyed all the many activities we have been able to take our investigators to that have helped them on their own path.

Being in the office was never easy, but I learned a lot about looking ahead and being strategic and how to influence people in a very hands off way and through asking inspired questions. I learned a lot about not just jumping into things but really looking at things in depth. The Lord has truly blessed me with so many opportunities to grow on my mission and he never lets me get comfortable. 

I am excited to serve until the end and I know I will apply the things I have learned here to the rest of my life. That’s the real test; to take these things and apply them the rest of our lives.

Elder Clark

On the Road from Ithaca to Jesus Christ

Sorry it has taken me so long to write again, but things have been amazing over here and we are seeing the Lord's hand in all we do.

I will try and cover the two weeks of material best I can. And I can't believe how fast this transfer has gone by! With all the things we do day to day it just flies by. We went on two exchanges this last week and had meeting with President Snow and had to prepare a training for a meeting we have this upcoming week, as well as take care of some emergency transfers. So we are staying very, very busy and all the while trying to set the example in our area. I have learned a lot about how to take on a lot and not get stressed, but to just focus on the task at hand. President Snow is very good at thinking things through and trying to get the whole picture. It has been a great experience learning more about leadership, and it is very humbling to learn from mistakes.

A cool experience we had a couple weeks ago was with a family ward in our stake who was wanting their young men to go out with the elders in the area and so we took out two young men but one happened to not even be a member. One of his friends had just invited him that night. And it was so cool to see how this nonmember was brave and talked to more people on the street about the Book of Mormon then the member we had with us. It must have been a wake-up call for that member. As we were walking and talking to people, we would teach the nonmember. He said he really enjoyed the experience, and he didn't really know if God existed but that this was a positive experience. At one door a lady opened up and said in a harsh tone "I am an atheist" and then the nonmember chimed back "Me Too!" Haha He said he would be a good mediator for the people we talked to! The missionaries took down his info and so hopefully he will accept the gospel and go be an awesome missionary.

We have recently started teaching this really cool guy! His mom is from Madagascar! Which is pretty unique. When we first met him it was a referral from a family ward missionaries for his younger brother, but we ran into him instead. And when I talked to him the first time he said he was agnostic and not that interested. But we were able to give him a Book of Mormon and he said we could come back and from them on it was game over. He is so solid and loves everything we share. He had a job on Sunday and so we started helping him look for a new job. We took him to a job fair and he got some good leads, but later that week he texted us and said he had called his supervisor and just told him that he wasn't going to be able to work on Sundays. And then he also got a new job, so the Lord blessed him. We also took him to the temple yesterday morning and that was very neat. He is getting baptized at the end of the month.

Last night we had two amazing baptisms. One was Michael; he was the one who was being taught by an area seventy. We actually had a lesson with Elder Larkin, the area seventy, and his wife with Michael this past week. That was really neat. Elder Larkin knew the scriptures very well. Michael is awesome. He has a Christian background and knew the Bible very well. He just grew so much as he studied the Book of Mormon. His baptism was awesome. He had a lot of people from the west side of Vegas drive over for his baptism. Elder Larkin was able to baptize him and it was just a great service!

And then right after that service we had Teddy's baptism. Teddy is just an awesome guy. He is very logical and he had asked me some very interesting questions which he wanted to learn about and get answers to in my talk I was to give about baptism. He has always been intrigued his whole life with the physical state of Israel and so he wanted to know how his baptism would help him gather physically and spiritually the house of Israel. It's not many people who have that in depth understanding at their baptism. But the best part and most spiritual part of the whole service was at the very end when he bore his testimony about his conversion process. I will take a few moments to recount what he said because it was so very powerful and it was the most emotion I have ever seen him show, and his testimony was solely based on his free will to follow Christ. The spirit overwhelmed me and the entire room as he spoke.

This is his story:

I was raised a Catholic and went to church every Sunday and went to a Catholic school, but none of it was my choice and so at the age 17 I began to fall away from my belief in a God and make choices that were not correct. I eventually went to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. I didn't know then how close I was to where the church began. The liberal atmosphere at that school taught me much and my intelligence grew as I studied. But all the while I continued to make sub optimal decisions and I did not have true agency and control over my thoughts and actions and lusts. Eventually, I moved too Dolan Springs Arizona and started working in the medical marijuana industry. I felt my actions were justified as I was helping others receive medicine. But as I watched more and more bad people come through and to not even use it for its correct purposes I decided to leave and I made my way back up to New York. Eventually, I decided to travel Israel. I have always been interested in the physical state of Israel and didn't learn much about the spiritual until now. But as I was there I tried to cross the border into Israel and I was denied as I had no real time period or purpose. That was a wake-up call for me. And so eventually I made my way back to Dolan Springs and the first week I was there the missionaries came to my door. Just earlier that week I had written a paper on faith for school, so I was open to listening to them. But I found a job and then moved the Vegas where I met the missionaries here and continued to grow and get back to my Father in Heaven. This time though, it was my choice. I used my agency to pray and read and come to church. One lesson, the elders told me I needed to pray every single day and to read as well. So I committed to read and start the Book of Mormon over. As I was walking to the bus stop listening to the first chapter of Nephi and praying about if the book was true I saw a New Testament laying on the ground. I thought that was ironic and then a few hours later my sister who was going to need surgery and my family had no health insurance texted me and said that she didn't need any surgery. I have made my choice to follow Christ this day. I know the Book of Mormon to be true, it has filled me. But I still always had doubts and a questions I was considering was how I could combine my liberal knowledge I had gained at the university with the things I have learned in this institution. This past week I was reading about the founder of Cornell University and in the 1800s he had traveled to Russia and spoke with a very renowned philosopher, [can’t remember name], and the philosopher asked the founder what he thought of Mormonism, and the Founder responded saying many negative things and how they were polygamist. Then the philosopher responded saying " I am saddened to hear of someone of your stature to feel such a way, because Mormonism has the purest religion and if the members of its church abide by the principles beings taught there it will go forth and fill the earth. If it makes it past three or four generations it will never fall as other nations have before but it will fill the earth." That was the last thing I needed to know In order to continue this path I have chosen to take. I know Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God and that this is the Lord’s church.

That is a rough paraphrasing of what he said, but I wanted to share because it was one of the most powerful moments in my mission. I will have Teddy write up his conversion story for me. I know God prepares people.

Elder Clark

Only 119 degrees on June 5th!

Teddy's Baptism

 

Michael's Baptism

Ross's Baptism

Ross and Luis

Another week has come and gone! This one just flew by! I don't even hardly remember what happened this week.

We had two baptisms this last week and both were awesome. The first one, the guy was so happy, He was actually out of town for the weekend and got back just before his confirmation, but he still went and had a great time.

The second one, I was able to baptize him. He said that he had called his mom the morning of his baptism and that she told him that he was going to hell. He said he never felt better in his whole life he was so excited for his baptism. I felt the spirit very strongly as he went down into the water. When he came back up again, we had a big wet bear hug! The water was a bit cold. While we were changing, I told him he could bear his testimony if he wanted, but I failed to tell him when. And so when we walked out of the restroom, he just started bearing his testimony, and it was so awesome. It was very spiritual and he was really funny! I am so excited for his progression.

I love you all and hope you have a great week! I am loving serving the Lord. It's not easy, but it's worth it. I am constantly being humbled as I serve with the mission president and I just pray that the mission can continue to see success.

Elder Clark

Glory Like Ammon

I wish I could describe how awesome this last week was! Partially because it was full of so many miracles and also because it's hard to remember back a week.

Well this week the Lord blessed us to learn how to use our iPad planners more effectively, and we were able to help teach the zone leaders. I can honestly say this was the first week of my mission since we have had the iPad’s that I really enjoyed planning on them compared to the old paper we used to have. That was a miracle we saw with the missionaries this week, and it really helped out a lot of the zone leaders plans as well.

Also our area is just going crazy! We have the most solid people I have ever taught before and we have so many of them! We will be having two baptisms this week and one of which we weren't even entirely sure if the guy was going to be baptized. He is 18, but worried about offending his mom with his decision to join the church. We had a lesson and addressed his concern and after my companion read a scripture he said "Well I guess I need to be baptized then". We also had a recent convert with us who was able to share her experience and how her dad wasn't particularly happy with her decisions to join the church either.

Then one night at the church, we had a lesson with some sister missionaries who had an investigator they were going to pass off to us His name was Wu. Wu is from China and only speaks a small amount of English. We got to the lesson a little earlier and were waiting at the church for this lesson to happen. While we were waiting, a random guy came to the door and was trying to come in, and so we opened the door for him and stared talking to him. He was a 23 year old from Russia named Dean. We began speaking to him and he said that he had driven by this church many times and that for some reason today he was prompted to come and see what it was about. He spoke of a hard past and a desire to have hope in his life. He came from a traditionally Muslim family but never really practiced, nor did his parents. He never really got involved in any religion and didn't have a strong back ground in Christ. We ended up having a lesson with him, as well as Wu. Dean wanted to meet again the very next day and now he is preparing for baptism. As I was pondering this miracle, I was thinking of my patriarchal blessing which talks about my mission and how the Lord will prepare people for me and my companion to teach with the spirit, but it also mentions that I would gain a love for mankind. Before my mission, I took that phrase to mean I would most likely serve in a foreign place, but when I was called to Vegas I still wasn't sure what that meant. But as I served in Spanish areas, I grew to love the people, as well as the people of Las Vegas, in general. But in one night the Lord put two people in our path from different parts of the world. It was so cool to see that prophecy unfold before my eyes and continue to develop.

My hope and my prayer is that we can continue to stay humble and give thanks to Him.

It reminds me of Ammon in Chapter 26 of Alma:

14 Yea, we have reason to praise him forever, for he is the Most High God, and has loosed our brethren from the chains of hell.

15 Yea, they were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction; but behold, he has brought them into his everlasting light, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.

16 Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.

My goal is to baptize weekly until I return from my mission and I know that as I glory in God and not of myself and always depending on the agency of others, the Lord will hear my cries. As it stands right now, we should have baptisms weekly until June 18th! God is truly wonderful

Elder Clark

Elder Holland's Visit

Well things have been really busy! Ranging from a visit from an apostle, to transfers, and a referral from an area seventy on the west side.

It was a crazy experience to have Elder Jeffery R. Holland come and visit our mission. We spent the days prior working with the APs from the West mission to prepare. It was pretty cool to meet them; they were cool guys. It's so interesting to see how different missions are run. The day of the conference with Elder Holland was pretty exciting. We had the chapel all set up and ready early, and then we locked all the doors to the church as we had people arriving as early as 11:00 a.m. The meeting started at 2:00 p.m., so we kept everyone outside and when it was time to get set up for the picture we had to funnel them in -- all 180 of them in the foyer and the hall! We told them to all be quiet and we had the office staff helping us keep them all under control. It got really hot in there but everything went great! We were all set up for the picture and then afterward we were able to shake hands with Elder Holland and the other authorities who were with him, which included President Lynn G Robbins, Elder Larkin, and later that night, Elder Stoddard.

That week we had pulled up the new AP, Elder Green, as Elder Thorne was going to be leaving the office and so Elder Green and I were able to sit in the very front row, and then Elder Thorne joined us after he finished conducting the meeting. That was a very neat experience for him. And it was great for us; we were right next to Elder Holland for two straight hours!

There was a lot that he said that was very powerful and impacting. He is just so good at bringing the scriptures to life. He teaches you new insights from scriptures that you have read a thousand times. The majority of what he spoke about was about getting down to the level our investigators are at. He used an example of Christ doing that in the New Testament and that was really neat. But there was a couple moments when he really threw down. He was standing right in front of me on the stand and he shouted to everyone and I mean shouted! He had a mic hooked up and everything. He said "You have no right to abuse the image of a missionary." He had been telling us how the members view us as perfect, and he made it clear that we had no right to change the opinion of the members. It was also very neat because in the beginning he said, “As I shook your hand, I interviewed every single one of you.” He continued to say that he is proud of the Las Vegas missions because they are full of the spirit. He also said that there are some that he could see were struggling, but that he knew they could do it! It was really neat to just see how much the spirit really spoke to him.

Later that night, after we got back from eating carne asada from our investigator Allyson's mom, we went to the YSA conference that Elder Holland was going to be at. It was at our normal chapel and so we got a few of our investigators there! That was another great meeting. He talked about happiness being a destination and that in this life we will not arrive at happiness but strive for it. That it is about the pursuit of happiness. In 2 Nephi, they lived after the manner of happiness. They weren't necessarily happy all the time but they were living in a manner that would bring them happiness. It was so funny because the he actually started his talk with a joke, and it was like the one dad likes to tell with the frog and the butterfly, but it had to do with an orchestra and everyone thought he was going to relate it into a talk but he simply just told a joke! So that was pretty funny. It was a great experience for our investigators to come and see him speak! One of them leaned over to my companion during the fireside and told him that she wanted to stop cussing, so that was a cool miracle!

We have seen just so many miracles! These last two weeks we have barely had any time to proselyte -basically only Saturday and Sunday and then a couple hours every night during the week. We have been putting in almost twenty hour days this last week! One day we had to get up at 4 am and then we weren’t able to go to bed until midnight or later with only an hour nap on a couch to get us by! But even with all these things, the Lord has just blessed us immensely. Last Sunday Elder Green and I set goals of how we wanted to grow our faith and we were praying and fasting for it. I was specifically praying for more people to be ready to be baptized as this ward would take care of them! Then in third hour of church, our bishop came and grabbed us and took us to his office to meet a guy named Michael, who wasn't a member. At that same time, another member grabbed me and told me his non member girlfriend was at church and that she wanted to meet with us. And so in third hour on Sunday we had two lessons! Michael had been invited by Elder Larkin, an area seventy on the west side of Vegas, to learn more about the gospel. When we met with Elder Larken, we learned that Michael had been having lessons at his house every week and then he had given him the instructions on how to find the chapel in his area and it was our chapel! The other day I called Elder Larkin to update him and he is going to join us for some lessons! That will be really neat. We will be setting Michael for baptism today at church.

Another awesome referral came from Dolan Springs, Arizona; another little town in our mission. It is a miracle that a YSA came from that little town. His name is Teddy and he is super awesome. He is a software engineer and so he is very technical about everything. We were having a lesson with him and he said that he just wasn't too sure yet about the Book of Mormon and Joseph smith. He had already read all of 1 Nephi and studied a lot. We asked him if he had specifically prayed about it and he said no, so that was our commitment to him. The next day he texted us and asked if he could do the audio version to study as he likes to walk a lot. That night at Institute he told us how he got an answer to his prayers. He had started the Book of Mormon over and this time prayed before and after he read. He said as he was walking he found a New Testament on the street, and that was funny to him because the Book of Mormon and the New Testament both testify of Christ. And then he said that a couple hours later when he was still listening to it, his sister, who was supposed to have a surgery, texted him and said that she didn't need it anymore! He felt like both of those incidents were answers to his prayers. It was an awesome miracle.

In these last three months that I will be a full time representative of the Lord, I am excited for all the people we can help come to Christ. Elder Holland said that as missionaries we are apostolic extensions of the Quorum of the Twelve. We carry Christ’s name on our chest, and I am proud to wear it. I know this gospel is true. It is undeniable that the Book of Mormon is the word of God! I have lots of goals of how I want to finish my mission and I know the Lord will bless me for it!

Elder Clark

Las Vegas Mission AP's and West Las Vegas Mission AP's

AP's - Las Vegas and Las Vegas West Mission

Missionaries waiting outside

Waiting inside for Elder Holland - Photo Time

Many Blessings and iMessage Lessons Learned

I can't even explain how blessed we were this week! Coming off of conference with the many messages we received and the answers to our questions was awesome. Every time, I am shocked at how fast the brethren answer the questions that I prepare.

This week we have been extremely busy and we were able to witness many miracles. We had one investigator that completely changed her life around and was baptized this last Friday. A month ago when we would go over to teach her sister, she would go to her room and smoke pot while we were there. And then out of nowhere she started sitting in with us during the lessons. And even when her sister didn't come to church or FHE, she did. Where as in the past, she only came with her sister. She started reading the Book of Mormon and gained a testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel and she committed to live the commandments and she made a complete shift in her life. Being clean before her baptism was the longest she had gone without smoking since she was a young teen. It was amazing the day she was baptized and the transformation she has had. Her sister, who is also investigating, was hit super hard by her conversion. And she asked me to baptize her! Afterwards when I was changing, I realized I had forgotten an extra white shirt as mine was soaked. I was beginning to get a bit worried as I had no shirt to wear back out and everyone was waiting for me to change. So it came down to two options, wear my completely soaked white shirt and just come out sopping wet, or, as I frantically looked around and prayed for a solution...I saw a dry baptismal suit which had been left behind, hanging up. I hurriedly put that on and then put my suit on over that. The baptismal suit was a bit small and the pants hit me at and the waist line was around my belly button, but it was an old one and had a collar and a pocket! It was a bit puffy under my suit, but it did the trick!

Then this week we were just blessed to get so many member referrals. At a dinner we had a member bring a friend who is super interested in the gospel, then a member from out of town met a guy and we started teaching him today, and then our dinner tonight sent us to her neighbor who is a less active family with a 19 year old son who is not a member! My prayers have been answered in full as I plead with the Lord to put people in our path who are ready for baptism, as this ward can retain everyone we teach! And then tonight at our last stop, we met two Filipino girls who were super nice and interested and accepted the invitation to be baptized. We taught them the whole first lesson all from their doorstep! I knew as we began talking that they would accept the gospel! It was a cool experience.

In the mission there has been an iPad crisis! Missionaries are coming out with terrible habits. When I came out on my mission we were lucky to have a "fast" from technology for over a year. And so we learned independence from texting thumbs, and gained the desire to read papers scriptures! We actually carried paper scriptures with us! But these new young missionaries are getting caught up in bad habits and are even falling prey to being disobedient and using the iMessage capability in an inappropriate way. As the crisis has come to our attention I have learned many valuable lessons from other missionary’s mistakes, my mission president and the missionary department. 1.) I never want to be a slave to my device. I have to catch myself on this one all the time! But when I come home I want to continue good habits with technology. We can't let them control us, and before my mission mine totally did! But it won't when I come home. Put it down for a moment, read paper scriptures, do something else, have a face to face conversation. Don't be caught scrolling through pointless social media! 2.) Don't make haste decisions and actions. Our first reaction was to shut down iMessage.  My comp and I compiled a pros and cons list, and there were plenty of both, but one of our biggest concerns was taking away the agency of the missionary's and how they use their devices. Our president talked with the mission department and we learned of many missions who have shut down the iMessage. We were advised to do all we can to teach correct principles and help them want to live the law for the right reason; in other words, to fix the root of the problem not just the symptom. And so our president asked has to create a roll out plan to better teach the missionaries coming in and also the current ones on how to better use technology. Where my first instinct was to shut it off, I now want to invite all of us to be better at using technology!

Have a great week!

Elder Clark

P-Day Hike

Elder Clark and the Puffy Suit