Week 4 In West New York!!

HOLA!!!

COMO ESTAN!!!!

BIEN? 

BIEN!

Everything is going very well here in West New York. Not much exciting news or stories for y'all this week though. It was kind of a boring week to be honest... Well... Boring for mission standards. I'm sure that if I saw half of the things I saw this week in my regular life, I would have considered it to be a very, very interesting week. haha. 

 

Our view of New Your city on our morning jog.

 

 

SOOO Beautiful!! Serving in West New York is the best!!!

 

...Ok I look gross because it was 6:30 a.m. BUT here is me and the skyline!

I survived my first exchange! It was fun. Sister Biolena came here to WNY with me. Shes a great missionary from the Philippines. I learned a ton from her, and I survived being the only Spanish speaker!! Barely though. We mostly taught in English that day, lucky for me. I really, really missed Sister Martin, though. I was very, very happy to be reunited with her the next day. 

Things are going pretty well with our investigators for the most part... I feel kind of stuck on that one family though still. Hmmmm. I know things will work out, I just need to have more faith and work a little harder. 

Last night we visited this cute little old lady in our ward. We got lost trying to find her apartment and we ended up walking like 10 blocks in the wrong direction then we had to turn around and walk back. hahaha ughhhhh. Sister Missionary probs!!!! She was so cute though and so fun to visit. She lived in a really nice fancy apartment building. She lived on the 8th floor, and when we got there, she let us in and raced to the window. She was so excited to show us her view of New York City. It was adorable. Mom, I know you would have thought she was just the cutest thing. 

My Spanish is getting better... I think. haha. I am talking a little bit more during lessons and I am saying things other than just bearing my testimony, which is good. I am learning SOOOO much in my personal studies now. I think I am truly starting what it means to actually feast upon the words of Christ. I learn something completely mind blowing every time I read the scriptures, and sometimes I feel like... "WOW, how long has this been here? Was this always in the scriptures?" haha. We can always learn something new when we read the BOM. I love reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon side by side too. Its really neat how much they go hand in hand and support each other. 

 

One of the cool old churches here in WNY. This building is 150 years old!!

 

The old church!

This week we had another trip to Morristown. We got to ride in the "man van" again with the elders.

Shopping with the elders!! They're so goofy. Elder Blanco is from Mexico so he was singing some songs in Spanish for us. So funny! It was fun for me to play the guitar a little bit, too. ha ha ha

They told us that they think that we are the first sisters to ever get to ride in their van. Kinda funny. Its always an experience to go on trips with them. We were listening to Disney music, then "Winnie the Pooh" came on while we were driving though Newark. One of the elders said that we must be the first people to drive through Newark listening to Winnie the Pooh. hahahaha. So true.

Well, I love you all and hope you have a spectacular week. Thanks for being such a great and supportive family!

-Hermana Clark

Hola!!

Hola!!

Como estan!! How is everyone doing??? I hope you all had a fantastic week! I know I did, but every week is good when you're serving the Lord!! Unfortunately though, I don't have any interesting library stories to share with y'all this week. The librarian is having a bad day, so she isn't really saying much :( hahaha love her though!

Photo from the mission blog of incoming missionaries

So this week, where do I begin? It feels like a lot happened this week, but we didn't really get that much accomplished unfortunately. Well, we got stuff accomplished, but we didn't do as much as last week. This week we had two all day training meetings in Morristown on Thursday and Friday. We are in a walking area, so we had to figure out how to get down there. Luckily, there is a cute sister trio in our district who came and picked us up and drove us there. They were so sweet to do that because it is about 45 minutes out of their way. We have the best district. I don't remember if I told you guys but it's the sister trio, us and then elders, so its 5 sisters and 2 elders. hahahaha The elders must feel super weird during district meetings, but they're so awesome. Our district leader, Elder Cuevas is just this big loving guy, then his companion, Elder Wasden, was actually in the Mexico MTC with me! I love being around Elder Wasden because his Spanish is much worse than mine, it makes me feel good about myself. hahahaha poor Elder.

Anyways, the training meetings were so fun! It was zones 1-5 I think, so there was like 70ish missionaries. We met in Morristown and we got training on how to be better teachers. We did a ton of role plays. I don't really like role plays, but they helped a lot. We got a ton of food too, which was awesome. I miss American food! haha. We had my favorite too! Lasagna and BBQ sandwiches! MMMMM.

This photo was taken by Sister Jeppson and posted on her blog.

President and Sister Jeppson and the Senior couples are so awesome! President Jeppson is such a good speaker. I always feel so inspired when he talks to us and Sister Jeppson is soooo loving. I always feel loved whenever they are around. It is so cute, President Jeppson just sits up there in the front while the missionaries are giving the trainings and he just grins like a proud pappa. And he should too, there are some pretty fantastic missionaries here in New Jersey. I am so happy to be a part of this work, and I am so glad to be serving in New Jersey. Its the perfect place for me.

West New York is a great place to be right now! So many people who are prepared! I don't remember if I have mentioned this before, but the missionaries in the ward teach an English class during the week. It is on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There are 3 sets of missionaries, so we just switch days usually. There is supposed to be a teacher who is a member of the ward, but she is sick a lot so we have to take over a lot. I LOVE THE ENGLISH CLASS!! They are so darn cute when they try to speak English. (I hope that is how people feel about me when I try to speak Spanish, hehe.) But Sister Martin and I have really grown to love the people in the class. Most of them aren't members, so it is a really great place for us to try to pick up investigators. We are going to make fliers about la noche de hogar (family home evening) so we can invite them all to attend. We are in charge of la noche de hogar every week, its super fun too. Were going to try to get a lot more people to come. It's a good way to get the members to invite their friends. BUT, last week, during la clase de ingles, I was teaching with Elder Wasden because Sister Martin was doing the correlation meeting with the ward mission leader in the lobby. I was turned around to the board, and one of the members was yelling at me to get my attention "HERMANA, HERMANA" Then she pointed at a non member who was in the class, "quiere un libro de Mormon!" ahahaha. She was yelling at me! It was funny, but I got to give this random guy a libro de Mormon. He turned out to be SUPER interested, so I explained a little bit, then when Sis. Martin came back in, we scheduled an appointment with him for the following week. So we met with him this week on I think Monday or Tuesday. His name is Alfredo and he is from Guatemala. He is such an awesome guy! We had a really really good first lesson with him and we just kind of got to know him a little bit and we established our expectations with him. A member was with us and he bore his testimony, it was awesome. We asked him to read the introduction. So then we met with him the next day, he didn't know what the introduction was, but he read the first chapter in 1 Nefi, which was good too. We talked a little bit about what he read, then we read the intro with him, and just told him all about the Book of Mormon. He was so awesome, and he understood it perfectly. We left him with the commitment to read 2 Nefi 31, which talks about the Doctrine of Christ. The next day, we were at one of the training meetings in Morristown, but he called us in the middle. We called him back during one of our snack breaks and he said that he had read 2 Nefi chapters 29-32 and he was wondering what he should read next! We were so excited! He read more than we asked him to and he was calling us during work wanting to know what else to do! He is seriously so awesome!! We told him to just start from the beginning. We were supposed to meet with him on Friday night, but he ended up canceling because he got off of work late, but on Saturday night, he came to la noche de hogar. He met some members and we shared a message about los profetas. We played the game telephone, and we related it to how sometimes a message gets interpreted differently by different people, that is why we need a prophet to guide us. Everyone had a lot of fun. Then Hermana Suarez brought some pudding and cookies for desert. We had some of the ward members who were there help us give Alfredo a tour of the church. They are so funny because they are so bold. Hermana Teran told Alfredo "This is where we come on Sundays because its a commandment of God" It was so funny the way she said it. then Alfredo was like "all day" Then she said "si" then one of the other members who was with us was like "we're only here for an hour" ahahahhaa. They're so funny. I love them. And we got to show him the baptismal font too. It was cool. We are hoping to put him on date tonight. We prayed about it and we really feel like we should invite him to be baptized on 27 de Octubre. I really feel like he will except. He's so awesome.

Also, other investigators. We have this really awesome family who the other sisters were teaching. I really feel like there have been things happening to try to keep us from visiting them because we only met with them once last week. The second we walked into their home though, we felt the spirit literally like a wave. It was so strong. We had been trying to visit with them for a long time, but things kept happening. We were really nervous about the family because the sister who was in WNY before us told that Olinda, (the woman), was really attached to them and that she might struggle listening to other missionaries. But we met with them, and they are so awesome and so prepared. 

Adiel (the man) is praying and fasting to get work off so he can attend church, but he reads el libro de Mormon every day. She tries to read every day, but says its hard because she has to look after their daughter and she needs to work and stuff. I don't know how to explain it, but Sister Martin and I feel something so strong when ever we discuss this family. We were planning for them the other night and we decided that we needed to pray about their baptismal date. They had already accepted the date of 13 de Octubre, but we were having doubts because we are having a hard time keeping in daily contact with them, and we need to teach them more, and they need to attend church more. So we knelt down and prayed for them. It was my first time praying about a baptismal date. We prayed for them, and we just poured out everything we knew about them and what we thought, then we asked to know what date they should be baptized on. While we were praying, I felt an overwhelming amount of love for them, and I knew how important they were to our Father in Heaven. Then, I just knew that it was his desire for them to be baptized on October 13th. I can't even explain it, I just knew. Sister Martin spoke first, and asked me what I was thinking, I told her October 13th, and she said she felt the same way. WE just knew. Soooo. Things still aren't really going that well. We were supposed to meet with them tonight, but they literally just called us while I was typing this and canceled, but we set another appointment with them. We need a lot of prayers with this family. I feel the spirit so strong, and I know they need to be baptized. I love them so much. Pray for them, and pray for us to know what they need and to know what to do to help them. We don't really know what to do, we just know what the Lord wants, and so now we need to figure out how to do it.

Hmmmmmm. Ok, funny story now! So on Saturday, we went to see the Colombian woman in our ward who cooks the best food. She was the one who we had my first dinner appointment with and she just shoveled the food onto my plate. hahahaha. OHHH man shes interesting. She is really really sick, unfortunately, and this week she had a surgery on her eyes. We had been teaching one of her friends in her home, and we had an appointment set to teach them again in her home on Saturday, which we had confirmed with her a couple of hours earlier, so we went over there, with a lesson planned to teach them. We got there and rang the door bell. We hear "Hermanas" so we look up, then all of a sudden there are keys flying at our faces. She threw her house keys from her 3rd floor bedroom window, Luckily Sister Martin caught them. hahaha. We come in, then shes screaming at us from upstairs to come up to see her. We go up there and she is in her PJs and she looks awful. She was in really bad shape from her surgery. She was freaking out because her eyes were bleeding... It wasn't actually that bad, but she was being a little dramatic about it. But, we sang a hymn for her and we prayed, then we hear the door bell, and she says that the elders are here. We had no idea, but apparently she invited the elders over at the same time. So we threw them the keys out the window, then they come up, and they had a member named Hans with them... So the 5 of us are just sitting there awkwardly and shes freaking out about her eyes. Then she yells at the Elder, instructing him to come take her blood pressure... Sister Martin and I were confused, we were like "What? Elder Wasden, When did you learn how to take vitals" His reply: "Last night while we were here visiting Oni." We wanted to crack up laughing so bad, but we managed to keep a straight face. So he took her blood pressure and it was super high, so she started freaking out even worse. She grabbed the phone, then before we knew it she was calling 911, then there were police coming up the stairs. They talked to her, and she wanted to be taken to the hospital.... We didn't really know what to do and we were all just kind of confused. So we go down stairs, she gets in the police car and started throwing up out the door. Then the police man just kind of grabbed Hans to go with them. So Hans and Oni race off down the street with the police and us four missionaries were just left standing there confused about what had just happened... Then we all look at each other and Elder Cueva was all like "AHhhh man! Hans was supposed to be our team up for the rest of the day!" and we all just started cracking up!!!

I swear, after my mission, nothing is going to phase me. The strangest things happen every day. I love it though. I'm so thankful for Sister Martin. She is so much fun to laugh with. We get home and just remember everything that happened that day and we laugh and laugh. It's the best. You've got to have a good sense of humor out here.

On Saturday we got to do a service project. My first service project of the mission! We went down to Passaic and picked up trash at the park. It was soooo crazy how much trash there was in one park!

Photo credit: Sister Jeppson

Sister Martin and I were cleaning the playground area, I was on one side, she was on the other. I was bending over, picking up some Popsicle sticks or something then all of a sudden I hear "Hey, Sister Clark! What do you think we should do with this mattress!" Me: "Oh I don't know.... WAIT, WHAT!!" ahahahha. There was literally a mattress, just chillin at the play ground. We laughed for a while then carried to the fence and kind of propped it up by the trashcans so that maybe the garbage could pick it up. Then a little while later, a young family wanders into the park. There's a little girl playing and her dads just chillin. Then we see him walk over to the mattress, pick it up, then carry it back to the park. Then he changed his kids diaper on the mattress. Then he just left it there. We were like ahhhhhhh what is happening!!! ahahahhaa. Seriously. Nothing will phase me after my mission. WEIRD THINGS HAPPEN ALL THE TIME!!!!

Alright, well that's all I have time for this week. I love you all. I am very happy here, and I enjoyed reading all of my emails and letter this week. Thank you for all that you do.

-Hermana Clark

Week 2

Well family, I conquered my second week as a missionary in New Jersey. I didn't think it was possible, but It was definitely better than my first week. Its seriously just so great here. I love West New York, and I LOVE the people here. Our monthly focus for the mission is love, so we have been really praying to have a charity and love for everyone. I can feel it every day. I can feel Christs love for me, and I can feel his love for the people that I come in contact with. Its really neat. I remember one day a couple of weeks after I got my mission call, I was at home thinking about what it would be like to be a missionary here in New Jersey. I remember posting something on facebook where I said that I was in love with a place that I had never been and with people I had never met. It is so awesome to be here now and think about that, because now I'm here, and I know the people, and I love them more than I ever thought was possible.

 

 

 Sister Martin and I saw so many miracles this week. Missionary work in and of its self is a miracle. We were talking about how it says in the scriptures that we will always be clothed and fed. THAT is so true. A couple of nights ago, it was like 8 o'clock and our appointment juked us, so we were just going to walk home. We hadn't eaten since lunch that day, so we were so hungry. Neither of us have any money. Ha Martins mission card is empty and I left my mission card in the van when we got dropped off in WNY, so the Union City sisters have it. Then, on top of having no money, we were basically out of groceries. We weren't really sure what we were going to eat. So we were walking down Bergenline then all of a sudden we here, "SISTERS!!", then we saw Sister Suarez, parked on the side of the road, she was in her car talking to a member named Saskia. She took us out to dinner, it was so sweet. Then we got another text from Hermana Cordova, saying to come by her home because she had groceries for us. Ha Suarez drove us to her house and she came out with this HUGE bag of groceries for us. It was the sweetest thing! The members here are the best. I am so thankful for them and all that they do for us. Today Hermana Suarez took us to do our laundry, she paid for our laundry, then she took us shopping too. It was so sweet of her. Its hard for us to get around because we don't have a car. We rely on her a lot and she is always willing to help. Shes the best!

 

I gave away two Books of Mormon!! It was so awesome. On Tuesday morning we got a call from a member at 6:21 a.m. She said she had a referral for us and to come to her home for lunch so we could teach her. So we headed down to her house, but they weren't there. We were kind of upset, but Sister Martin reached in her bag and said "Sister Clark, you haven't given away a BOM yet, this would be a great opportunity" She told me to just listen to the spirit, and we would be guided as to who to give it too. We walked down the street a little bit and I saw a man by a tree. I felt the spirit nudge a little bit, then Sister Martin spoke up and said that we should talk to him. We introduced ourselves then he told us about how he has this whole theory about God and Jesus Christ. It was very interesting. He was a very very intelligent man. I gave him the BOM and I explained it a little bit. He read the introduction right there and was amazed. He just kept saying that it was so interesting. He said that he would read more. We left him our number and he said he would definitely call us when he read more. BUT, hes from Cuba and he is only visiting his son here in NJ for a couple of weeks and he doesn't have a phone so he is kind of hard to get in contact with. Then a few days later, we had the appointment that we were supposed to have the Tuesday before, so then after the appointment, we were walking down the street and we noticed that we were coming up on where we found Sebastian, then the phone rang. We answered and it was him!! We told him that we were actually just right outside his house, so he came out. He read the introduction and the testimonies in the front and he studied the pictures very closely. He had a lot to say and he was very interested in the book. We taught him some more. He is leaving this week though for a while, but he said he would be back soon and that he would call us when he gets back. I hope he does, because hes a really neat guy. He was a miracle!

 

It is so neat living here. I wake up every day and I'm so grateful to be here. I never thought I would be living within sight of New York City. I love it! Especially at night! Last night we went to visit the familia Cedillo again. I don't remember if I talked about them last week, but they are new members who got baptized in January. They live on blvd East, which is right across from NYC. We loved it because we get to walk there and see the great view the whole way there. Its night time too so the lights are beautiful. We had a really awesome lesson with them about the importance of prophets and temples. They are going to have their year mark soon, so we want them to be able to go to the temple very soon. The spirit was awesome and they are definitely going to be getting to the temple!

 

Well, I don't have very much time. But just know that I love the work. I'm so caught up that it is hard to even remember what life is like back at home. I love it here and I am definitely having some very good times with Sister Martin, and we see miracles every day. I hope you are all doing well. 

 

I realized that I didn't send some of the other pictures that I have from the CCM. I really wanted to send these but I just forgot.

 

We may or may not have gotten stuck in this elevator...oops. hahaha

I don't remember if I sent this, but this is us with Fernando, the Jarritos Cafeteria worker.

 

JULIE, THIS IS FOR YOU!! Hermana Christensen and I rock the ugly night gowns!

I'm in West New York, NJ!

Dear Family,

 

Well, as you all know, I have made it safely to New Jersey and I am proud to announce that I am serving in the area of WEST NEW YORK! Can you guys believe that? I'm serving in West New York!

 

Sooooo, on Tuesday morning, after receiving an amazing night's sleep, I woke up and had some great breakfast made by Sister Jeppson and the Elders that are the Assistants to the President. After that, we all had some orientation stuff then a meeting with President Jeppson. President Jeppson is seriously so awesome. He told us a little bit about the mission then he sang us a song. ALSO!!! He said we could practice what ever instruments we know how to play on p-days, so I would really love it if you guys could figure out some way to send me my guitar. Playing the guitar here would be so awesome. After the meeting we took some arrival photos with Pres. and Sis. Jeppson. They have this cute scrap book that they put together with pictures of all the missionaries they've had. Then we hopped in the van and headed to the transfer conference.

 

Transfer meeting was quite the experience. All of us new missionaries arrived and then the trainers arrived. It was so cool to see them all arrive and we were all excited to meet each other, but we didn't find out who were going to be companions after a training and a lunch. The lunch was so good, we had some lasagna and salad and stuff, then we all headed back into the meeting room so that President Jeppson could announce who would be paired up together. 

 

My companera Hermana Martin and Me

My trainers name is Sister Martin. She is sooooooo great and I love her to death. She is all the things that I was praying for in a trainer. We still didn't know where we were going to be serving though, because we were going to be "doubled in", which means that we are both new to the area. So after we were paired up we headed to the chapel for the actual transfer meeting. The chapel was FULL of missionaries who were all going to be transferred and receive new companions. It was so fun to hear them all scream with excitement when Pres. Jeppson called out who would be companions and where they would be going. They finally called out mine and sister Martin's names and we freaked out when he said West New York. We didn't really know where it would be. We thought we would actually be serving in the State of New York, but the city of West New York is actually in New Jersey.

 

A little bit about West New York: WNY is one of the few walking areas of the mission, so we will definitely be getting our exercise in. Hopefully enough exercise to keep off the weight from the massive amounts of food that the members here are feeding us. Almost everybody living here speaks Spanish. Actually about 90% of the population here is Latino, so we are definitely the minority. It was kind of weird to get used to at first, but I love it because we can just walk up to someone on the sidewalk and speak to them in Spanish. So hopefully my Spanish grows a ton while I am here. Ok, now for the exciting part. West New York is right across the Hudson, so we can see New York City! We can even see parts of it from our little apartment. We live about a block away from the Hudson, so we like to run down there in the mornings and just look at the City. It is so Beautiful. I am in love!! I never thought I would be living within view of New York City. 

 

Our apartment!

Our apartment is such an interesting place. We live in the upstairs floor of this little house thing. It is so funky and it has so much character. I'll send you all more pictures of the inside next week. Everybody here lives in apartments that are really small, but I'm sure they cost a fortune. It is interesting to me because I've never lived in a city like this before. We have to be buzzed in where ever we go. I hate standing in the little door ways though. They are claustrophobic and hot. It is so cool, because even though everyone here lives in these teeny/crappy little apartments here, they are so willing to share everything they have with us.

 

The members here are incredible. They're so funny. Sister Martin is new to the area too, so a lot of time this week was spent trying to call members of the ward and visit some less actives so that we could get to know everybody. Sister Martin is way excited because we have members calling us and asking if they can team up with us or drive us places, which she said never happened in her old area. Literally, everyone here LOVES us. We call them and they just go"OHHH HERMANITA". Its so funny. It makes me happy when they call us that. They also LOVE to feed us. On Wednesday night we went to visit a woman named Onny. She is a member of the ward and the sisters that were here before us had set us an appointment with her that was later in the evening. We went over there and she gave us the hugest hugs and she told us that her home was our home. I cant even tell you how often people tell us that its so cute. She also said that she was like our mom. I LOVE HER. Shes awesome. She loves to cook and she made us some really good food. She made some meat with rice and beans and fried bananas. She is Colombian, so it was Colombian food and it was so yummy. We had already eaten though because we didn't know that she was going to feed us. I was really full already, so she let us take our food and I only took a little bit and she just grabbed my plate and shoveled all of this food onto it. I seriously wanted to cry because I thought I was going to have to eat it all. But luckily she asked if we wanted to take it home. It was way good though.

 

Funny story, on Wednesday night we went out to eat with this member named Jeanette and she took us to this Cuban restaurant, well the next night we were doing team ups with sister Cordova and we were about to head to the church. She asked us if we were hungry, which everyone always asks, then she insisted on buying us some food, and she took us to the same Cuban restaurant that we had eaten at the night before. It was so funny. Sis. Martin and I were cracking up, but we didn't say anything. I really like the food here. We eat a lot of Cuban food and Colombian food. A couple nights ago another member, sister Torres  and her husband took us to a little sandwich place that is right down the street from our apartment.

 

 It was the best sandwich ever! I think it was Colombian. She also bought us Colombian soda, it was way good. It's funny because our relief society president lives in the apartment that is right on top of that sandwich shop. People just live in apartments that are above all of the little tiendas in the city. It is very interesting.

 

Last night we visited the sweetest family. They're names are the Cedillos. We showed up a little bit late because we have to get used to giving ourselves enough time to walk and we don't really know the area very well yet so we get kind of lost. But they live on the street that is on the Hudson, so we got to have the best view of the city while we were walking to and from the appointment. We could also see the city from their front window. They lived in a really cool area and they are the sweetest family. We came in and she immediately offered us juice then she made us some sandwiches. I don't know what it is, but these Latinos make the best sandwiches. It was so yummy. Then after the lesson, she just pulled out this jug of orange juice for us to take home. It was so funny.

 

The members love us and the people on the street actually love us, which is kinda funny. There is this guy that just sits in front of his door on Broadway all day, so whenever we pass him he shakes our hand. Then there is this little fruit stand that we walk by sometimes. Yesterday the guy at the fruit stand stopped us and just gave us coconuts with a straw and so we just stayed and talked to him for a couple of minutes while we drank from the coconuts. We were on our way to an appointment though, so we didn't have that much time, but he insisted that we take some oranges with us, too. He was awesome. People here are so funny, they just kind of tell us what to do.

 

Also, just a funny little side note... Before we left the CCM, Has. Christensen, Faw, Schaefer & me gave Fernando (the Jarritos Janitor) a little thank you card with our emails and FaceBooks on it. HE EMAILED US!! I was am so excited! He's awesome and I miss him so much! I really miss the whole CCM to be honest. It was so much fun. But I absolutely adore New Jersey too :)

I am absolutely terrible at Spanish. Its so hard. UGGHHH. Sister Martin is awesome though and she is really patient with me. The members are really patient as well. They just smile at me and act like they know what I'm saying. And I pretend to know what they're saying too. Its funny. They keep telling me "little by little". I just wish I could wake up tomorrow and know Spanish. But unfortunately it doesn't work like this. SOO, I gotta keep studying and studying and speaking and speaking. Speaking scares me though. Hopefully I get over that fear soon. I've actually done a few street contacts though. I introduce ourselves as missionaries then I say that we have a message, then if they respond, Ha Martin listens and responds back because I usually don't know what they said. hahahaha oh man. Missionary life is so interesting sometimes. It is definitely not boring, that's for sure.

There's another Sister Clark in the NJMM!

Well, I just want you all to know that I am happy and I am working hard. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I know without a doubt that it is true. Don't worry about me. I've got about 5 new moms, and the members take excellent care of us.

 

I love you all so much!

 

-Hermana Clark

Final Photos From CCM

CUTEST THING EVER! They woke up at 3 AM and came over in their PJs to say goodbye to us. They had tired eyes and they were cute like puppies. I miss them! BEST district ever!

District 11-C with our branch President and his wife, Presidente & Sister Jewell. They invited us over on Sunday night for some ice cream Sundaes. They told us fun stories. It was such a good time!

Hola from Mexico!

Elder Hatch! He's from Gilbert!!

Me y Elder Peterson

Me y Elder Tews

Me with Hermana Faw. Take good care of her, Arizona!

Schmutz for the Ladies!

Us with Hermana Wheelright and Hermana Maxwell

Elder Quack! ("WE HAVE A 23-19!!")

Our cute Latina friends that lived in our casa.

Two Tongans and the White girls :)  (aka the training sisters)

This is how Elders y Hermanas hug.

Our last full class picture in front of the sign. With our teachers :)

Es un buen dia!

Hola family!

Good news!! Since I'm leaving in the morning so I have a few minutes to send ya a short email. Sooo... I'm leaving for the Mexico City airport at 3:30 tomorrow morning and I will be heading to Georgia, then from there I'll go to New Jersey. It's going to be a long day of travel. It's so cool though, when I traveled here, to Mexico City, I didn't know any Spanish. Tomorrow when I leave Mexico City, hopefully I will be able to find someone to give a pass along card or el libro de mormon to, all in Spanish!!
 

I'm so excited to leave and get into the field, but it is going to be hard to leave the CCM. I have had such a great experience here and I'm going  to miss the beauty and the spirit present here at the CCM. I'm mostly going to miss my district, teachers, and my friends here. I don't have my card reader for my camera here with me, so I cant send y'all pictures right now, but I will next week, for sure. Ive got some really good ones! Me and Hermanas Faw, Christensen, and Schaefer got a picture with Fernando, the worker that gave us Jarritos and cake. He is so awesome! We talk to him every day during meal times. He told us that if we need anything at all, to just ask him. He has our backs. When ever we need some ranch or ketchup or something and they didn't put it out for everybody, we go back and ask him and he sneaks us some :) We are sad to say our goodbye tonight at dinner. We are going to give him our names and our emails and he said he would add us on facebook. We're super excited!

OK, so there have been so many fun things that have happened since Wednesday, so its a good thing I get to email you today, because I'm sure by my next Pday I'm going to have so much more to tell you all... SO, Ill start with the sleep over.

Me and Hermana Schaefer had a sleep over with Hermanas Christensen & Faw on Thursday night. Seriously, the funnest thing ever. I don't think were actually allowed to do that, but it was super fun. We had the lights off by 10:30 so we wouldn't break any rules, but we stayed up until like 12:30 just talking. We talked about everything and we laughed soooo hard. I don't remember who said it, but somebody wrote me and told me that "you will never cry harder or laugh harder than you do on your mission" This is so true. We laughed so hard together. AND!! Guess what!!! Julie, I have been so excited to tell you this. HERMANA CHRISTENSEN HAS A WALMART NIGHT GOWN!!!! She has the exact same one that Julie has but it is hot pink and mine is light pink. We were so excited and we wore our matching night gowns all night. We took a picture, so I'll send it next week :) Hey, speaking of the nightgown, Katie, can you send me the pictures of when we put Worchestershire sauce in Julies maple syrup? I think about that all the time and it is one of my favorite stories to tell!! I need some pics! hahahhaha

On Friday we had in field orientation ALL DAY!! It was such a tiring day. We literally had orientation from 8 in the morning to 9 at night. It was fun though. We did a ton of workshops and things that prepared us for the field. It was funny too, because after the workshops everybody would meet in the seminary building and do an introduction to a new subject. All of us Americans were with the Latinos and there was a Latino that was doing the presentation in Spanish, so we had to have headphones with a translator. One of the teachers here was translating the meeting and he was seriously soooo funny. At the last meeting we were all just really tired and kind of done with the whole day, so before the meeting started and we were all putting on our headphones and stuff, he started talking to us and he was like "Hey, everyone keeps making fun of you guys because you're intimidated by the Latinos. You guys  need to start raising your hands to answer the questions" So we were all laughing, then somebody went up to the front and told him that if he gave us the answers, we would raise our hands. So during the presentation, he would say the answer into the headphones so we knew how to answer in Spanish, so all of us would raise our hands, then we would say his answer word for word, then we would all totally bust up laughing. All the Latinos were so confused as to why we were laughing. It was hilarious and definitely a good way to end a long day.

On Friday, which was infield orientation day, we had about an hour break after dinner before we needed to head back to our workshops. It was a very much needed break. Me, H. Schaefer, Hs Christensen & Faw and Elders Smith, Anderson, Ludlow and Quackenbush decided to come into the Thomas S. Monson building to try to find a piano. We came into the building and we decided to use the creepy elevator. There is one elevator here and it is this creepy freight elevator. We tried to all fit in it, but it didn't really work, so it was just us hermanas in it and it stopped while we were on it!! We were freaking out! But luckily it started working again after about a minute. It was funny though.

My district has this joke that has been going on, where whenever one of the elders touches us or something on accident, they yell "WE HAVE A 23-19" Like in Monsters Inc. When the monsters accidentally touched the children. It's sooooo funny. Elder Quackenbush started it. A couple of days ago, it was raining super hard, so everyone had their umbrellas out and everyone was soaking wet. H. Schaefer and I were in the comedor for lunch and here, at the CCM, the sisters get to cut the elders in line. So H. Schaefer and I were making our way to the front of the line and we saw Elder Quackenbush standing in line by himself so we decided to say hello. We went up to him and said hello, and he got this funny look on his face then he was like "AHH GIRLS, FLIRTING, NOOO WE HAVE A 23-19!!!" Then he ejected his umbrella and the water splashed all over Hermana Schaefer and me. Everyone turned and looked at us. It was so funny! I'm going to miss him, he keeps us laughing all day. And the other night, H. Schaefer and I were walking to our casa across one of the basketball courts with him and Elder Ludlow. Elder Quack thought it would be a good idea to try to throw his umbrella over the fence, but it got caught on the fence at the very top and he yelled out "OH SCHNOZBERRIES!". hahahahha We could not stop laughing. He had to climb the top of the fence to get his umbrella. I'm going to miss my district elders so much!

We have a little get together with the Branch President tonight. Its called Sundays on Sunday. Were going to have Ice Cream Sundays and say our goodbyes. I'm so excited to have some ice cream! Its going to be sad to say goodbye to President Jewell though, he was a great branch president. Basically, if you didn't get it before, today is a really happy, sad, fun day. hahah.

I think it is going to be hardest for me to say goodbye to the elders in my district though. We've spent all day every day together since we've been here. I hope we can still continue to be friends when we get home. It's going to be really hard to say goodbye to Hermana Faw and Hermana Christensen too. But they're going to my home though, so I know they're going to have a great time! And H. Christensen lives in Bountiful so I'm sure I'll see her again. We have to say goodbye to our teachers tonight too. They are stopping by our classroom later so we can get a group photo. They're awesome and I'm so thankful for all the work they put into teaching us.

UGH, I really wish I could send you all the pictures!! Ill try to sneak back in here later if I can and send them really fast.

It is so crazy to think that my time here at the CCM is over. I'm so excited to get to New Jersey and meet my mission president and my trainer. I really hope that I get a trainer who is patient. I really struggle with Spanish. I know it will get better though as long as I am diligent with my studies and I speak it as much as I can.

Well, Ive gotta go now. Ive got a lot to do tonight. Were packing and we might go to the devotional and the movie. I don't know though. Were trying to decide if we actually want to go to bed or not since were leaving at 330. We might just go to Hermana Faw & Christensen's when we finish packing and hang out with them for a while.

I'll talk to you all next week, In New Jersey!!

Love you all

-Hermana Clark