Happy Halloween from Idaho!

It was a dark and stormy night.......

Jk. The weather has been beautiful out here!! I love Fall :D It's my favorite season and everyone is giving us pumpkin EVERYTHING. Life is good.

Speaking of food, I saw a miracle this week. On Saturday, I woke up throwing up and feeling super nasty, but that night a member called our parents and asked us what our favorite meals are, and then she brought me my favorite meal and cake on the day I was feeling my worst!! I felt like my momma was right there with me, and I just cried. God is good- He orchestrates even bringing us our favorite foods when we feel down.

So our fish are missing... some horrible, terrible murderer stole them away and dumped the bodies in the canal... Geez, people go crazy on Halloween...

Speaking of that, actually there's been real life horror stories going on. We found a strange House of Dolls and I included a pic of what was in the window..... what in the heck............. and lately there's been a lot of people dressed as clowns threatening kids at schools around Pocatello. I HATE CLOWNS. Geez. Scary stuff is happening around town....

K_____ came to church on his own, for the second time in a row!!!! We're so excited for him. And we keep finding a ton of people to teach- how is God so good?! :D We had our MLC meeting this week and I learned a lot- I'll talk more about that next week because I'm so excited to put it to the test and see miracles stem from it. Just remember- Faith=Action.

Love you!!

 

 

Love,
Sister Clark

WHY IS IT ALMOST HALLOWEEN?

Next Monday I'll be in ______ watching the Cokeville Miracle as a mission and then having a Q&A with Ron Hartley, the main character in the movie. I'm super excited but..... WHERE IS TIME GOING?! Geez. Everything they tell me is true- once you're halfway through with your mission, the rest flies by in a blink.

This week, we've adopted 12 guppy fish! K____ was getting evicted, unfortunately, and so he was like "here, take my fish". So we were like "sure." I'll have to send a picture next week! Especially since now we only have 11 fish... better get that picture soon. We're not good at keeping fish...

Also this week, K____ came to church!!!! YESSS!!!!! That's the hardest thing to get people to do! It was the Primary Program and everything- hearing the children sing and hearing their sweet simple testimonies was so powerful.

L_____ is my favorite less-active lady in the universe. Last week we challenged her to pray to know if God was there and if she's truly watched over and cared for (she deals a lot with depression and self-harm), and when we came this week she was HAPPY!!! She was making jokes, laughing, her face was bright... we asked her what was going on, and she said she took the challenge- then she starts to cry. She told us about how she felt while she prayed all this week and how comforted she's been. A court battle went bad fighting for custody of her kids, but she was still upbeat and positive and knew that things were going the way God wanted them to. Now, she's going to come with us to teach other people!!!! We're so excited :D So many good lessons were taught this week.

This week was also super great because I got a package!!! All the way from my best friend in Ghana!!! Woohoo! It's the most beat up beautiful thing in the world. Next to my Preach My Gospel book, it's falling apart... haha!

So this month I started the Book of Mormon over again from the beginning, on October 1st. I'm in Alma 43 now, and I'm hoping to finish by the 31st!!! It will be the 4th time in my life reading through the book- I'm so excited. I LOVE THIS BOOK.

Favorite random quote: "Coincidences are miracles in which God wishes to remain anonymous." ~some wise soul

To explain one pic, we were "Boo-ed" by some neighbors- Halloween traditions are super fun :D I'm really looking forward to the holidays, even if the time passing by so fast is trippy!

Love you all! Keep on keeping on! Hold true to the faith. *mic drop*

 

Look at my comp, she cute!

Love,

Sister Clark

Hump Dayyyyyy

This week has been GREAT!!!!! We found about 3 or 4 new people to teach who are really curious about the Gospel. I'm so excited for them!!! I don't have a lot of time to talk about how much of a miracle finding each of them was, but just know that they were direct evidences to me of how much God is invested in each of our lives, and how much He cares about us as His children :)

 

I've learned so much, AGAIN, this week. 

 

First and foremost, Sister Jarvis is amazing!!!!! She's so dedicated and obedient and spiritual and loving and great.... obviously, I love my MTC comp!!! We're crushing the area. We teach really well together too- our companionship was so inspired.

 

I've been getting a lot better about testifying at people's doorsteps about what I hold dear to my heart, instead of being kinda shy and awkward about it until I get to know a person a little bit better. But nope, now I'm just like "Hey, how are you? Listen, this is the Book of Mormon, and this has changed my life, let me tell you my story...." And a lot of people have been listening to us. My teaching skills are getting better and we're both getting better at listening to the promptings of the Spirit.

 

So many times this week, we both looked at each other and said at the same time, "We need to go that way." We'd walk in that direction and then we'd run into someone just leaving their house, or we'd knock on a door and the person behind it was so prepared to hear the Gospel and be receptive to it! I'm learning to follow every prompting or idea that I get, even if I'm not sure if it's from the Spirit or not- IT WORKS. A lot of promptings, I'm finding, are mostly tests to see if we'll follow, before we're trusted with the big ones leading us right to the people who are ready to hear and follow the Gospel.

I've been praying for confidence in myself, for more ability and capability in following the Spirit, and for more joy and peace in my life. The scriptures say "...ask and ye shall receive; knock and it shall be opened unto you..." D&C 4:7  IT. IS. REAL. I've been getting everything I've been praying for, because I've been diligently asking in faith and doing everything I can to follow what the scriptures tell us to do. The promises are real and they work. Try them out!!

 

Both Sister Jarvis' and mine Hump Days were on the 13th! We hit 9 months- halfway done...... my opinion of that is kinda like :(:  It was a really good day though- we were so busy that we took our Hump Day pictures a few days after.  Haha. Please forgive the prego-pics signifying the last 9 months we have left to labor... but at the same time, enjoy.

 

I love you all! Keep on keeping on!

 

Love,

Sister Clark

 

 

 

Hello again, world!!

Can I just say, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY AGAIN. 

OK, now I'm done.

But really, I'm back in action and I love it. We're teaching and preaching and on our feet all day again. YUSS.

We saw a miracle with D_____!! We took a girl preparing for her mission, M_____, with us to teach him one day and Sister Bueno and I were giving her the low-down on him, and being super negative. We were saying things like "bet you $10 he hasn't prayed like we asked him to, again..." 

We walked into the lesson and the first thing D_____ says is "hey! I have a story for you girls." So we sit down and he starts telling us about how he was reading in the Book of Mormon every day (wow) and started quoting 1 Nephi to us (wow!) and then he said he prayed specifically about the LDS religion and asked God if this was the one he needed to be baptized in (WOW!). He told us about how he received a burning in his chest and just this huge sense of peace and determination to go forward........ MESSAGE RECEIVED. HUMBLE PIE EATEN.

 

He's working hard now to get to baptism, and quit smoking and get to church! He gets the Gospel and he loves it. But the coolest thing is how he prayed about joining the church- he said he asked Heavenly Father how he could help other people, and his answer was to join the church and be baptized to help himself, and then he could help others more. He's 100% on board because he's so excited to get a calling and serve and teach....... WOW. 

We also ate dinner with the T_____ who invited their friend over, a less active member of the church looking to come back and get her life in order so she can help her 7 year old daughter not make the same mistakes in life that she made. We shared the Because He Lives video with her and testified of how much God loves us and how like in the story of Alma's people when they were made slaves to the Lamanites, the Lord may not necessarily take our burdens away but He can make them light, as if we can't even feel the burdens on our backs. She was crying, we were crying, and we'll start teaching her and do the best we can to help her get back on track :)

Side note- one of our dinners this week was really interesting. We show up and everyone is running out of the apartment among fire alarms and billowing smoke. We were like "umm.... is this the V_____'s house...?" It was them XD They let their 9 year old put the pizza boxes in the oven to keep them warm, and he put the breadsticks directly on the element, so that caught on fire in like 5 seconds... it was great! Pizza wasn't burned though, so it was all ok :)

We also saw K____ again for the first time in a while! He's so humble and really needs God back in his life he tells us, and he's excited to read more in the Book of Mormon. We'll see him again this Sunday. We're so excited for him!

Last but not least, I have news about transfers. Sister Bueno is heading out to cover the Young Single Adult stake over at ISU campus, and I'll be training Sister Jarvis how to be a Sister Training Leader. SISTER JARVIS IS MY NEW COMPANION!!!!!! For those of you who don't remember, she was my MTC (missionary training center) companion!!! My very first one, but only for 13 days. I love her!!! I'm so excited!!!! :'D It's funny though that they expect me to teach her what to do as an STL.... hahaha we didn't have exchanges this past transfer because of the temple stuff going on and overcoming the plague, etc. So we'll both be figuring this out together. We're going to Crush this!!!!

I sent a random pic of a few of my fellow MLC peoples (missionary leadership council). Keep on keeping on, y'all!!

 

Love,

Sister Clark

Back in Action!

How is General Conference so AMAZING?!?!?!

 

Ah. Seriously. I'm so inspired and so pumped and so ready to GO.

 

To backtrack a bit before I dive into the rest of the week, I just want to say that I love the Brower family in F_____, and I miss them already. Sister Brower started to cry when we left- they were the greatest. Leaving was sad, but our last day was by far the BEST day. We normally just greeted people and answered questions in the reception tent, but the last day we were able to give the actual tours through the temple!

 

It was so cool, and I learned so much- plus, we mostly took the handicap groups through, and with only maybe 5-8 people at a time we could really talk with them. The Spirit of the Lord is so strong in His house, even before it's dedicated. I literally watched as the Spirit pricked their hearts, especially in the Sealing and Celestial rooms.

Saturday morning we left and got home just in time for Conference, and we took time after that to unpack and honestly, nap a little. We were so dead, and I accidentally fell asleep during a talk D: I was devastated, but I'll go back and read all the talks as soon as they're out so it's ok. Sunday we finished up Conference and then we actually proselyted!!!!!! IT FELT SO GOOD!! We talked with one family, the B_____s, on their doorstep for an hour. They're a hilarious family, and we have high hopes for them :)

I hope this will make sense, but for the first time General Conference felt real to me. This time around, every single topic and every single challenge and encouragement seemed like it was just for me. It wasn't a bunch of speakers talking about problems far away across the world or about things I don't have an issue with- EVERYTHING was relevant to me. When they looked at the screen, I felt like they were looking me in the eye. Several deep questions I had were answered, and fears and secret worries were assured. I hadn't even fully realized or written out my questions or concerns like I did last time, but the Lord still answered them because I was willing to listen, and I'm willing to act on my answers. 

 

I have a lot to do, but I don't feel stressed out about all the things I want to do in my life anymore- I don't feel overwhelmed. I just feel an overwhelming sense of trust and love for my Father in Heaven. It truly is a miracle to me. I'm letting go of my worries, like will I ever get married, will I make it to school, will I be happy and successful in life... I'm turning it all over to the Lord and really trying to give up everything for Him. Even if I had to give up my family or I lost something like that for Him, I would be willing to because I know that we are an eternal family, and no power on earth can separate us forever. If I lost EVERYTHING in my life that I hold dear right now this very second, it would be hard, but it wouldn't be over. I would be ok, because I know the Lord is merciful and loving, and He would take care of me. I'll only end up filled with joy if I trust in Him. That's the sweet irony of sacrifice for the Gospel- everything you give only comes back to you 1,000 times better and enriches your life.

This especially hit me this morning when I got online to email, and saw that my Dad was in a bad car accident and rolled the vehicle. The car was totaled, but my precious Daddy is 100% fine. No scratches, no bruises, nothing. In fact, he got a new truck out of this whole deal, so he's pretty happy! But even though I was filled with dread wondering what happened to him when I first saw the email, I wasn't filled with panic. I knew even if the worst had happened, he would be ok and my family would be ok and I would be ok. Sad, but ok, and still able to feel joy.

This is why I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints- the joy of Christ fills my soul at all times as long as I'm striving to do what He's asked me to do. And He hasn't asked me to do much. Taking my testimony and going further to be converted to the Lord fills me with joy and peace. Trust is scary, but only at first. I love my God with all my heart and all my soul. This kind of true happiness and true peace only comes from Him. I want to share this with everyone I can as much as I can- please listen to me, I beg of you. Come unto Christ. Let. Him. Heal. You. Do whatever you need to do to become closer to Him. No sacrifice, nothing is worth more than coming to know Him. Everything you give Him only comes back to you 10 fold, so don't be afraid of taking any "plunge" or leap of faith. Just do it. Keep the commandments and pray to Him- He misses you. He loves you. I testify of this with all my heart. PLEASE, I'm begging you, find this same joy that I have found. 

Find HIM.

I promise you that you will find Him, and it will be worth every second spent on your knees, every second reading His word, every second working to be more like Him, every second TRYING.

I love you all. In 10 days, I'll only have 9 more months before I can give most of you a big hug :) Stay fresh.

Love,

Sister Clark