Happy Easter everyone!!!!

Happy Easter everyone!!!!

 

 

 

​I sent home some of these pressed pennies I got, but at a dinner appointment of ours they had a fully functioning souvenir machine from Disney Land! Whoa! They were just like "yeah, it's whatever." I was impressed at least, and Sister Hoffman was so excited she was literally jumping up and down. Also, we were in casual clothes because every Tuesday we have Service Day, and it's kind of my favorite day- we get to do fun projects like painting, and plus, no skirts! YES.

This week we got to go rollerblading too with the ________ ward! YES!!!! It's hard to tell from the picture but this was taken at the rink. It was so much fun, I hope you can tell I was excited!!!! :D Everyone in the area was there and we saw so many of our investigators and so many people we'd been trying to get in contact with. A little 9 year old girl named H_____ is someone in particular we'd been trying to catch with her grandparents at home, and she was there. She skated right up to me and held my hand and we skated together for the rest of the night- yeah, my heart was stolen right out of my chest.

 

There's a lot of people and kids I'm meeting out here that live in such sad situations. It's been kind of a slap in the face realizing that there's so many people out here that have it so rough- you wouldn't think there would be just from driving through this cute little small town. I didn't at first. What I've been thinking about went right along with the huge service theme in the General Women's Conference broadcast- it was as if they were talking straight to me! I've felt kind of small this week realizing that there is only so much that I can do to help, but I'm coming to see more that what I do have to offer is the Good News, that Christ lives and loves us all. He knows all of us personally- He knows us by name, and He knows everything that goes on behind our closed doors. He is anxious to help us and He misses us- all we have to do is get down on our knees and He can prove to us that He really is right there. 

K_____and J_____ have it rough right now too, and they need Him by their side more than anything right now. K_____ had seizures for 3 days and she's in the ICU, and J____ is exhausted from worry. Please pray with me for them. Their lives are changing the more that they're living the Gospel and they tell us that they're just so much happier when they go to church and read their scriptures- and then hard times hit. But that's just how life goes, isn't it? I can't wait for J____ to get baptized- not because I just want to put a baptism check mark on my record and feel good, but because one year after he enters into that baptismal covenant he and K____ can go to the Temple to be sealed for all eternity. I can't wait for that day when they sit inside the House of the Lord and really feel their God right there with them- I've felt it!

 

There's so much that's been going on this week that I haven't had time to type about, like my first Zone Conference, just how amazing General Women's Conference really was, our painting project at the H_____'s house, I caught the flu on Thursday (but I'm recovering just fine!), we had a fantastic Easter at the S______'s house and had an egg hunt with them... it's truly been a great week :) I've been really humbled this week too, sometimes it's a little hard to swallow when the Lord tells you to shape up certain things in your life, but at the same time it's been exactly what I've needed. I didn't realize just how prideful I was until the Lord sat me down and said, "Girl, look around you for just a second." And I have been looking more, and seeing more of what I need to do to feed the Lord's sheep in my area. There is so much to do, and so little time! But I'm so grateful I have this time to do what I can!

​

~Sister Clark     

After a while, what do I even put for a title for this week...?‏

Everyone!! Guess what?!?! The Gospel is true!!!!!!!! Really, it is!!!!!!!!!! I love it more and more with every passing day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just want to shout it from the tops of the mountains out here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

 

We saw so many miracles this week!!!!!! We also found two and a half investigators as well! We found a girl named S____ walking and we pulled over and asked for directions, and she ended up inviting us over for dinner. Whoa! And then in church we spotted one of the former investigators we'd been trying to get in contact with and got a return appointment with him. Whoa!! For the "half" investigator, we were at our solid investigator's house (T____) and their brother came over with his wife. She said "oh hey, I'd been meaning to find some sister missionaries to teach me, here's my number." Whoa!!! We're still not sure if they want to come to I____ for lessons or meet with the sisters in Pocatello, but it was a really neat miracle all the same :D

Speaking of miracles, J____ and K_____ have finally decided on a date to get married! Yay!! They said it's August 6th....! Not so yay! But we brought up the option again of them just getting that piece of paper in the bishop's office making them "legal", and while at first they didn't like that idea at all, now they're considering it!!!!! THAT is a miracle!!!!! If they do that, Jeff could get baptized this month!!!!!!!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!! He's really our favorite, don't tell anyone :D (**I believe Sis. Clark's urgency is so that they are living the Law of Chastity and to help him be worthy to be baptized, not to rush the baptism itself so much**)

 

Our family history fair is coming along nicely as well, we're really excited about it. We're calling it "The Missing Piece: Where Do You Fit?", and we got our flyers just today! Hahaha and I've fully repented for feeling prideful about thinking Sister Hoffman and I are running the whole thing, because in all reality, the stake is now the real deal putting it on. We've been pat on the head and told to help our individual wards with their own assignments, and I'm actually really relieved that so much of the responsibility has been taken off our shoulders. Delegating is wonderful!!

 

We had a 24 hr stomach bug this Friday, but we survived and we hit the ground running :) I was only nauseas the whole day, thank goodness, but Sister Hoffman got hit harder poor girl. But like I said, we're all good now! 

 

I've been reading Jesus the Christ and really tearing the Book of Mormon apart lately... actually quite literally tearing it apart. I've copied Elder Nielsen's idea and started gluing pages of the Book of Mormon in a notebook and really studying it page by page and writing a lot of notes beside the pages. It hurts me as an English major to tear out the pages of the book, even if they're out of the cheap blue ones, but I've learned so many things already, and I'm not even halfway through 1 Nephi! Ah, serving a mission is just so great. No pictures this week because we're scrubs and keep forgetting, but it was a really good week :)

(**Sis. Clark didn't send any pictures but her mother got one from a sweet lady in her area :)  She and her companion helped someone who was ill and cleaned her house for her.)

 

 

Love you all!

~Sister Clark

Officially been out for two months!!!‏

So I've been really protected on my mission... I took a shower with this little guy in the picture and didn't realize it until I got out and put my contacts in....... I was not a happy camper. Luckily he drowned or something and never bit me....... If I told people just how many times I pray for protection from spiders, nobody would take me seriously.... But hey, Sister Hoffman got bit 3 times by a spider we found dead in her bed, but I'm still ok, so I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing ;)

 

I've seen several miracles this week, I'm really excited. J____and K____ still hadn't prayed together about setting a date to get married so J_____ could get baptized, and they were being very non-commitable about it. But one night we went in planning on teaching him about tithing and fasting, and instead we felt prompted to teach the Law of Chastity again. At the exact same moment, Sister Hoffman and I both had the impression that we should tell them to pray for 10 minutes and we'd leave so they could do that. While we were sitting in the car waiting for them, I've never prayed more fervently for another person before... When we went back in, they said they still weren't sure on a date, but K____ was so much more at peace about having a civil wedding so they could start working towards going to the temple to be sealed together. That moment was very powerful, and their reactions were HUGE!!!! We're so excited!!

 

Sister Hoffman and I are also now planning a family history fair, and at first it was just going to be for ______ area, but now it's a stake thing. Woohoo! We got special permission to work with the Elders over the other half of the stake, and as it turned out, both sets of us missionaries had the same idea at the same time. That was a miracle to me. The only difference is that Sister Hoffman and I went into the meeting with the stake president to set it up with a rough draft of the program, a potential day and time, a place, a few ideas for naming the event, 30+ people we'd already called to the meeting we were setting up that night... we were ready to roll. Not to look down on elders, but the elders knew they wanted to do a family history thing and they came with a few blank stares.... I personally think sisters are amazing, but I'm biased. (Wow I know I'm bragging.... I'll go and repent now, sorry world...)

 

(At a Family History Center with other missionaries)

But really, this week has been a fantastic week. I'm really looking forward to this stake event, I can just smell the miracles around the corner. I'm always amazed when we're in a lesson, or like for this stake event for example, when totally different people have the same inspiration at the same time. It goes to show who's really in charge here. The newness of being on a mission has finally worn off, I was wondering when that'd happen, but now I'm on the upswing and just excited to do my duty as a representative of Jesus Christ. My favorite days are Sundays, because we're always crazy busy that day, and I always come home exhausted but absolutely happy and satisfied. In Galations 5:22 it says "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, lonsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith..." I can definitely see how this is happening directly in my life. When I have the Spirit with me and I'm serving the Lord with all of my might, mind, heart and strength, I'm happy. Just happy. Being a missionary is so great. 

 

Love you all! Till next week!

~Sister Clark

"I'm walking on sunshine, whoooa..."

 

This week has been a really good week and very busy in the best of ways :) In the picture, this is when we worked on electric fencing for a cow pasture for a member on our Service Day. Sister Hoffman is gazing off into the distance like a model and I'm like "how does this hammer thing work?" Hahahaha! And by the way, transfer calls came and went and Sister Hoffman and I are staying in _____! Yay!!! I've got another 6 weeks at least to love this area and my wonderful "mom"!

 

 Sister Hoffman is becoming my best friend on my mission, I love her to death.

For this same member, her horse got out and got itself tangled in some barbed wire and cut its legs, poor thing... glad we happened to be there to help! Apparently the member posted a picture of us with her horse on the Idaho Pocatello Mission page on Facebook. Oh! And while we were trying to contact someone, we found their poor dog all skin and bones and just starving... we had two muffins in our car so we fed them to him, and he scarfed them down in a second. We're saving animals this week as well as souls!

 

Hehehe and also... we got massages this week..... B) See, a member told us that her less-active daughter was coming to her house on Sunday and we should come too to talk to her and all... her daughter needed 10 hrs of massage practice on her way to getting certified, so we talked about the Gospel and got some free pampering while we were at it..... it was heavenly. Yeah, you should be jealous.

So we started teaching another family this week, we're really excited :) The Robinsons actually called us and said "hey we want to be re-activated in the church, so could you come and teach us the lessons again?" WHOA!! I love their family, they're working on coming to church consistently again so they can go to the temple and be sealed together for all eternity. 

 

Speaking of eternity, we had our zone training this week and they really, really emphasized the importance of family history, and they even want us to start using it as a door approach. We've started using it more and two separate people we visited this week weren't interested in talking to us at first, but then we asked them about their family history and they opened right up to the point where we exchanged numbers and were invited to come back. One of our investigators who never cries, ended up really emotional in the lesson when we taught him about how he can do those saving ordinances for his family after he's baptized. The Spirit of Elijah is very powerful, I'm really excited to see how else we can better get people excited about family history and geneology work :) Everyone at home, work on some family history this week, even if you only index one name! Family History work is the EASIEST form of missionary work- when you find these people you can take them right to the temple and they'll most likely accept all of their work being done. Trying to get the living to go to the temple is much harder haha :)

 

Remember how important the small and simple things are- always read your scriptures, always always pray, and going to church is critical because you need to partake of the sacrament. If you stop doing one of these three key things, life is going to be much harder to deal with- and it's hard enough! Focus on the basics and everything else always falls into place one way or another :)

 

Love y'all!

 

Sister Clark