Departing Trips!

Hey familia, one week down only one more to go. Can you believe it is my last week as a missionary? I cant believe it either. As you can all probably imagine I am going crazy with emotions. Mostly good though :) Im just looking back on my whole mission and it is amazing to think about all of the things I have experienced out here. I loooove it. 

This week was great! It went by so fast and it was kind of crazy. On Tuesday we had the departing temple trip. It was so crazy that I actually went on the departing trip. Killing my last two companions I sent them on their departing trips and just stayed in my area but this time it was my turn. It was so much fun, I had a blast. Our zone leaders dropped me off at the secaucus library at 745 and we headed down to Manhattan to the temple. There were 16 of us and about half of us were in one van with President Taggart and the other half in another van with Sister Taggart. We were in President Taggarts van. I pretty much hung out with Sister Duke all day since we are good friends. It was such a trunky van ride... Everyone was just talking about what thier plans are at home. It was pretty exciting. We got to the temple like an hour early, the traffic was surprisingly really good for it being a few days before thanksgiving. We got to hang out in front of the temple for a while and take pictures. The weather was perfect! We didnt really even need coats. Then we all got in our whites and waited for a while for our session. There is a really cool upstairs part in the Manhattan temple. We went up there and looked at all of the beautiful paintings. It was just so nice to be inside the temple for a while away from the world. Then we did our session. It was a beautiful session and it was fun to be in there with all the departing missionaries and with the Taggarts. Marisol and her mom came down. They barely missed our session but they did some other ordinances while they waited for us and they met us in the celestial room. It was so neat to see Marisol in there right when we went in. Sister Duke cried. We are all so proud of her. After that we all stayed in our whites and went into the chapel where we had a question and answer session with the temple president. That was really neat and I learned a lot about the temple. Then we changed and had lunch in the church above the temple. We had sandwhiches and cupcakes. IT was nice to just hang out with everyone. After that we went to take a walk through central park. While we were on the way to central park we got a call from the Dunns (the senior couple in Bayonne) and they said that they had a really important appointment for Sister Duke to be on the news announcing the Christmas program and they needed her in Jersey City at 5 ready to go. That was a huge change of plans since it was only like 3 and we werent even planning on being home until 6. Everyone was excited to walk through central park and didnt want to leave early so President Taggart looked up the subway systems on his phone, slipped us a $20 and told us to go run and catch the subways. Before we left we walked through central park with the group. IT was really neat. I had never been to central park before. There was these 3 guys that were dancing hip hop and performing and there was a pretty big group that had formed to watch them. They started pulling people in to dance with them and they ended up pulling one of the elders in and they were dancing to "baby got back" by sir mix alot. IT was seriously so funny. Sister Taggart wasnt watching when they pulled him in but she walked over and when she saw him she was just like "NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" hahaha. I have a really funny video of it. IT was so hilarious. Then we went and took pictures with the Taggarts then Sister Duke and I had to take off. Everyone else stayed in central park for a while before they drove home. It was so crazy being let loose in Manhattan with Duke. WE literally had no idea what we were doing or where we were going but somehow we found our way to the subway. We had to ask a lot of people inside the station how to use the subway. It was super funny, but somehow we made it back to jersey city right at 5 and our companions picked us up. Then the next hour was the craziest most stressful hour of my mission... I dont even know how to explain what happened,... but to make a long story short. It wasnt a news station we were going to it was the city court and we went to the city council meeting to invite the coucil members to the christmas program. Elder dunn was having a cow and he only wanted one companionships of elders and one companionship of sisters to go and somehow I got dragged into going with Sister Duke and Sister Galvan and Monsen went back to bayonne. It was sooooo crazy to sit in on the city council meeting in Jersey City. There are some CRAZY people that live in Jersey City... But the elders that serve there some how have a really good relationship with the secretary of the council so she pulled us aside about 2 hours into the meeting and appologized for how long it was taking and she told us a little bit about everything that was going on, then she took us into the office and she gave us some dinner. Then we went back into the meeting and it lasted about another hour and a half. Sister Duke was the last one to speak and it went so well. It totally brightened the whole mood of the court room. It was way cool and she offered service to the city. It was well worth all of the stress and the time. WE didnt get out until like 10 at night. THe dunns gave us a ride to the Bayonne apartment. SIster Galvan and I just ended up staying the night at Bayonne since it was way to late to drive all the way back to U.C. I slept on the floor with Duke. WHen we woke up in the morning it was snowing and there was a text sent out to the mission that all the cars needed to be parked. WE called the assistants really quick and explained the situation to them and they gave the bayonne sisters to drive us home really fast. We made it home at about 730. The real storm started later on so we were lucky we got home. 

Wednesday we were so tired as you can imagine and we really just didnt feel good. IT was kind of a slow day. 

Thursday was so much fun. WE started out with the TUrkey bowl from 8am-12pm. WE went down to passaic and played with zones 1 and 2. It snowed so hard the whole time but it was a lot of fun. After that we went home got ready then headed to the church. We spent the whole day at the church helping the Sorianos decorate the cultural hall for Marisol's farewell party. SHe had it all decorated so cute. It was fun to be there and just hang out with Marisol and her cousin Sedney. THen we had our first thanksgiving dinner with the Hernandez. That was so crazy. THey would not stop talking and we tried to leave their house for like 45 minutes straight but they wouldnt let us leave so we ended up being an hour late for thanksgiving with the sorianos becaus we stayed at the hernandez for 2 hours. IT was so fun to go to the sorianos though. WE just had fun hangin out and chatting with them. THeyre like another family out here. I absolutely adore sedney our investigator. I think she has the strongest faith out of anyone I have ever met before. We were literally just savoring every single second we could get with Marisol before she left. Union CIty isnt the same without her. 

The next day was Marisols farwell party. THAt was so much fun. Hispanics seriously know how to throw amazing parties. THe missionaries and I put together a special song for her. We sang her the song that the Jeppsons always used to sing us at the end of every meeting. SHe cried. Then we gave her the book of mormon that Hna Galvan and I made for her. We gave her the commitment to always have a book of mormon in her hands for her whole mission. THen we had so much food. Hno Cayetano catered the party and the food was incredible. THere was a few different kinds of meat and salad and of course rice and some pasta. Hno Jimenez was the d.j. so of course there was good music and dancing. I dont know what it is about hispanics, but they all know how to dance. I think it is in their blood. I got to show off my bachata moves that Hna galvan is teaching me. :)

Saturday was a really good day. IT was Byron's birthday. WE made him a cake and wrote his name on it with m&ms. He was so excited when he saw it. Then Marcial came down from passaic to see me. HE took us out to eat at noches de colombia. IT was so awesome to see him. He is doing so well and is a good strong member of the branch. He just got a calling as the sunday school president and he blesses the sacrament every week. WE talked for a long time. IT was hard to say goodbye to him but I promised that Id be back when he gets his endowment next year. HE is going to the temple to do baptisms for the first time in a couple of weeks. Im so excited for him! wooo hooo!! Then we had a really really good lesson with our investigator Jimmy. We taught him the whole restoration and he accepted baptism. THen we went out to dinner with our ward mission leader hermano ronco. It was so much fun. We got to know him really well and he is really fun to joke around with. WE had a really cool time teaching him as well. We talked to him about the importance of praying specifically and we shared our experience about our street lesson last week. The spirti was super strong and he cried. WE made some really great goals for the ward with him. He is a GREAT ward mission leader.

Sunday was long. We were at the church at 8 to see Marisol get set apart. THat was a really neat experience and I feel so honored that she invited us. She is one incredible missionary. The spirit was amazing and experiencing that gave me a renued excitement for missionary work and reminded me of the day that I got set apart. Then she gave her farewell talk in church. It was very good. My companion translated to english for her for some of her friends that went. After church we went and saw her and studied preach my gospel with her for the last time. We took mate for her to drink too. It was so funny. SHe hated it!

Also, I got my own stuff for MATE!! Im so excited. Im making yall drink mate with me when I get home :)

Yesterday was amazing! We had our departing liberty island trip. Sister Duke picked us up and we headed down to Marisols to see her for the last time before she left for the airport that afternoon. IT was so sad and hard to say goodbye to her but so exciting at the same time just because we are so proud of her and excited for her mission.... SHe really is going to be an amazing missionary. Then we met with the other departing missionaries in newark and headed to ellis island. WE got like an hour to go through the museum which was cool because I had never been upstairs. Then we went on the ferry over to liberty island to see the statue. WE got to go up to the top of the pedistal. That was fun. My legs hurt from the stairs though. On the ferry ride back sister taggart got up and made the whole ferry do the wave. IT was so funny. We were laughing so hard. SHe is crazy. Then we went to the 9/11 memorial. IT was absolutely beautiful. We looked at the skyline for a bit and hung out there. THen we went and had lunch in Bayonne. THen we went to see the rusian tear drop. THat thing is huge and really neat! then we went to newark to this really really cool catholic cathederal. I think that was my favorite part. It is really old and amazingly beautiful. We walked all around the inside and learned about some of the catholic traditions and then we sung hymns. It was beautiful and the spirit was strong the whole time. A very beautiful spirit of faithfulness that we felt in the cathederal. President Taggart talked to us a little bit about what is going on in the world right now and what we need to do and our responsibilities as christians to stand with our values and to stand with other christians reguardless of their religions. IT was very powerful.THen we headed back to the newark chapel to get picked up. I had my departing interview with President Taggart. WE talked for about 45 minutes and he gave me some very good cousel about my life and we talked about my mission and about all the things that I have learned and how I can apply them when I go home. AFter that we got picked up by SIster MOnsen and Galvan. THere was terrible traffic on the way home but SIster DUke and I had some fun in the backseat taking really weird pictures on her camera. We were just feeling kind of crazy. WE laughed really hard though. IT is so weird... AFter my departing interview I really feel like it is all over. I dont feel like a missionary anymore... I mean i do, Iknow im not released, but I just feel like it is the end. ITs a cool feeling. I think everything is starting to hit me and I am starting to transition just a teeny bit. 

Today we had my last district meeting. I Did my hot seat... that was fun. hahaha I told a lot of fun stories and it was fun to think about my mission and share mission stories with my zone. ITs weird to think that is what they are to me now. Just my mission stories. I loved it though. And we all drank mate while I was telling stories out of my mate cup :) hahaha It was a good day. IT is going to be a good week. ITs going to be busy and kind of stressful but Im gong to try to just live it upand have fun. Next week will be my last email! It is weird to thinkt aht in a week from now I will be home! AHHH! Im excited to see you all. 

I love you and miss you! Talk to you next week!! (on email then later in person!! :)

con amor,

Sister Clark

I'm Starting To See Things Clearer

This week was a week of learning for me. Now that my mission is coming to an end everything is starting to make sense to me. I am starting to see clearer and clearer how God was in every single detail during every single moment of my mission. Through all of my trials and during all of my success, it was all part of His plan. It is so so so incredible to me and I feel so humbled that He called me to be here in New Jersey from July 3013 - December 2014. It will always be so much more than just a dash in time for me. It says in my patriarchal blessing that there wont be a day in my life when I don't reflect on my mission experiences. I know that is so true. I will be forever thankful for all of the things I have experienced out here in el campo del senor.

We had such a fun week! On Monday it was pouring rain all day, so we just relaxed in our apartment for a long time. It was so nice to just have some down time in the apartment, chilling on the couch, watching the rain fall, listening to music and talking to the compa. We decided that it would be worth it to hit Bergenline for a little while to do some shopping since I only have 3 more weeks to do everything I want to do in Union city. It was crazy because it was raining but it was so fun. I got a sweet union city hoodie and I also might have indulged and bought a really cute dress at New York and Company for my homecoming.... It was half off, I had to do it! :) I was super excited. Then after Pday we went to the Quesadas house to go teach cute little Isabel who is getting baptized in 2 weeks. She is so stinkin cute. Her mom went to go take her older brother to a school activity so we hung out with Isabel in the stairwell because we couldn't go into her house without another woman. It was so much fun just hanging out with Isabel. She is seriously such a smart little girl. She was reciting poetry to us and she made a poem using our names. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ using the teabag. It was so much fun and she loooooved the teabag analogy. She made us do it again. We went and did our contacts after that. We were determined this week to increase our numbers and do a lot of contacting. While we were walking Hermana Galvan stepped on a huge poop on the sidewalk. IT was so so so funny. We were laughing so hard and we had to take a picture. Then Marisol came over to our apartment to give us mail while we were doing planning. We made a Happy Birthday video for my niece Ava. I really hope that she got it! We were laughing really hard.

Tuesday we had our district meetings, it was pretty good. The assistants were there and we had fun showing Elder Wilcox the videos that we made last weekend. Everyone was cracking up. Everyone in our zone is Spanish so we can all joke around about Spanish which is pretty fun. Everyone is pretty amazed at how I can do Spanish accents. Sister Galvan and I are always talking with different accents, so she has taught me how to do a really impressive Dominican accent and an Argentina accent. I'm not as good as her, but I'm pretty good for a gringa. We had our exchanges with the Bayonne sisters today. I had an exchange with Sister Monsen. I was so excited. I love sister monsen so much. She is one of the few missionaries still on the mission that I actually know. She was in Zone 1 with me serving in Patterson while I was in Passaic, so it was super fun to spend the day with her. We had a crazy day. We got juked by one of their investigators in Bayonne so we were knocking doors and someone let us in and we were having a really good discussion with them for like an hour. They were very strong Christians so they were super into the discussion.... until we started talking about the restoration and the book of Mormon... Holy cow. The lady went off on a rant to us about how the only thing that matters is your relationship with Christ and how you don't need to  be baptized to get to heaven and about how prophets don't exist and all of this stuff.... she was literally yelling at us and the spirit was gone. Sister Monsen just stopped her and bore her testimony to her and I testified of her words and added my witness to her words and they couldn't say anything back to us... It was silent for a second then the guy looked at us and was like, "I'm sorry, you girls are nice but as a Christian I have to rebuke you because you are teaching false doctrine". We were shocked at his boldness and we were just like... ok well we need to leave now. We fulfilled our purpose here, our purpose isn't to argue or convince people it is to invite people to come unto Christ... Then they started apologizing to us and trying to be friends with us. They gave us their emails and stuff and said they wanted to be friends with us and they prayed for us that we would be able to "find the truth".... It was such a crazy experience. Sister monsen and I just went out to our car and we were honestly really mad and sort of offended for a little while. We had to have a huge rant fest for a second so we went to McDonalds and got mcflurries and went home because it was like 830. It was a good experience because even though they were saying really crazy stuff to us, we weren't effected by it because our testimonies in Christ are so firm. I learned a lot by Sister Monsens example in that lesson. She didn't argue with them at all even though they were being so rude to two innocent 21 year old girls. She just looked at them and testified powerfully of Christ and the atonement. It really turned everything around and we fulfilled our purpose as representatives of Jesus Christ. It was a cool learning experience, but I think it was really scary as well.... We literally feel like Satan was in the room because their hearts were so hard, but we also felt the spirit and angels strengthening us as well as we testified... They told us that they would see us at the judgment bar and that we would be damned for trying to teach them false doctrine... All I can say about that is that I am so thankful for my testimony of the my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and of the restoration of the gospel. Nobody can try to tell me that it didn't happen because I know without a doubt that it did.. and that's all I have to say about that.

Wednesday I spent the morning in Bayonne with Monsen. We taught an English class in Bayonne to a really cool investigator that they have. It was a lot of fun. I haven't really taught much English while I have been here in Union City so it was fun to do that again. Then we drove back here to U.C. to exchange back. I am really so grateful for Sister Duke and Monsen. It is so good to have leaders that I actually love and know that they love me back. They are two fantastic missionaries. Duke and I are excited to go to the temple together tomorrow as well for the departing trip. Im glad that I will be doing all of the departing stuff with one of my friends. Wednesday night we had a super good night. WE were feeling super motivated and we got a ton of contacts and we had fun preaching on the streets of Union City. We knocked a really scary house... I am pretty sure that it is haunted. all the plants are over grown and the paint is chippy and it was huge and just super creepy. We were so creeped out. Ill try to get a picture of it before I leave. Then we taught Byron at dunkin donuts because no one was home for us to teach him in their house. It was a really really good lesson. Probably one of the lessons of my mission that I will remember forever. We had a really deep discussion with him about the Atonement. We were in the middle of crowded noisy dunkin donuts but we were in a bubble. It was like the we couldn't hear anything else, there was no distractions. I felt really prompted during the lesson to testify that the atonement was individual and I told him that Christ suffered for him individually not generally. He started to tell us about how he was sad that he couldn't be baptized for a while and he told us about how much he has changed since he came here from Guatemala and he knows that God lives because he was led here by God so that he could learn about the Gospel. I saw him then and I all of a sudden loved him so much more. I got a small glimpse of how much God loves him. He looked up at us and said, "do you really understand how much Christ loves you to suffer for you specifically? I don't know if I could do that for my own brother." And I knew that he understood the atonement in that moment. I think I started to understand the atonement in that small moment as well. I felt an overwhelming sense of love and felt for a second a small part of what the savior must have felt as I looked at Byron and I thought about everything that Sister Galvan and I sacrificed so that we could come to New Jersey and teach Byron on November 19th at 800 in Dunkin Donuts and everything that He sacrificed so that he could come to this country and listen and act on the message we have shared with him. The gospel is so much greater than I am able to comprehend. 

Thursday we had our weekly planning and we did our Mormon.org time. We went to the Union City library and transferred all of our music and pictures that we have onto each others flash drives... I have accumulated so many photos and pictures on my mission. It is insane... Im out of space on all of my memory cards and flash drives. I guess you could say my time here is pretty well documented. Im thankful for technology :) Hna Galvan hooked me up with some good Spanish music from her pre-mission life. Im so stoked to listen to it when I get home. She hooked me up with some romeo santos and prince Royce. Im way too stoked. After that the happy mood was ruined because we got dropped by one of our investigators. Worst feeling ever. Its really sad. But we headed out and  did all our backups and contacted lots of people and made a ton of random phone calls. A really cool potential named Jose called us back and set an appointment with us. Then we went to go see Veronica. WE had a really good lesson with her and the bishopric went with us and convinced her husband to let her go to the temple in December. Such a huge miracle. Her husband is kind of crazy. She is so excited and has the biggest desire to go to the temple I have ever seen. Its so awesome.

Friday was an awesome day. WE did our shopping with the Union City missionaries. Hna Galvan and I were the first sisters done with shopping... its a miracle. We always finish last... but the elders bribed us with a candy bar for which ever sisters finished shopping the fastest... We finished at the same time as the elders and we ran down the parking lot to get to the van before them. It was so funny. They were super impressed and they gave us a milky way :) We sat with them and waited like 30 minutes for the sisters to finish their shopping.... I realized how the elders must feel always waiting for the sisters to finish shopping. haha. Then we went to the church and practiced the song that we are singing for Marisol's farewell next week. Super stoked for that. She is going to love it. Then we taught that kid Jose who called us back. He is super cool and super solid. He is from Honduras and he is 23 and wants to change his life around. He has potential to progress. We committed him to another appointment. Then we had the thanksgiving party with the ward. That was pure craziness. We took Mariam with us... That Egyptian lady that we contacted last week before interviews. She is so cute. She talks so much though. We hooked her up with some English members and she had the time of her life. She was in the kitchen helping us with the turkey and everything. Im going to miss ward activities in the Spanish wards. Hispanics sure do know how to party. I love watching them dance. They don't take fiestas lightly.

Saturday we had a great day planned out. All of our appointments were confirmed and the sun was out. It was a beautiful day. We had a really cool miracle. AT 1 o'clock we didn't have anything set so we decided that we really wanted to teach a street lesson at that time so we wrote street lesson in our plans. We decided to make it a little bit more specific so we wrote "street lesson on 49th and Hudson" and we prayed and asked God to put someone on 49th and Hudson that we could teach at 1:00. So we went to 49th and Hudson at 1:00 and as we were walking by the corner some guy waved at us. We walked past and sister galvan and I looked at each other and said "do you think we should contact him" then we looked up and the license plate in front of us said "duh" so we took that as our answer and turned around and walked back to him. We introduced ourselves and he knew who we were. We had a really good lesson with him about the restoration. He had a lot of good things to say and he understood the doctrine that we were teaching him and he was interested. We set a return appointment with him and we left him with a prayer. AT the end of the prayer he was almost crying and said he was excited for our return appointment. It was such a huge miracle. We had a street lesson at exactly1:00 on the corner of 49th and Hudson. Evidence to me that god does hear our prayers and answers us. He lives to give us blessings. I know that. Then we went and randomly decided that since we were in the area that we would stop by this less active member who we hadn't seen all transfer. Miraculously she was actually home and let us in. When she saw that it was us at the door she gave us huge hugs and said that she had just been thinking about us and how it had been a long time since we had come to see her and that we barely caught her on time because she had just gotten home from running errands. She was so thankful for the visit and she said we were an answer to her prayers. That was a super cool experience as well. Then we went to go to see Marisol and teach her in Preach My Gospel. Cant believe she only has 1 week until she goes on her mission. So proud of that girl. We ended up staying there the rest of the night because her mom needed help making the decorations for her farewell party. It was an awesome day because we had 4 set appointments but they all cancelled but we ended up being exactly where we needed to be at the right time.

Yesterday wasn't exactly the greatest sunday ive had on my  mission but it was still good. WE only had one investigator at church :( but that's ok, were gonna keep workin hard and do better next week. We taught the Cayetano family then we went and taught a member named Lisandro Rivera. I had never gone to go visit him before because everyone tells us that his mom doesn't like it when we come, but we went and it was kind of awkward at frist but his mom warmed up to us and she loooves us now. She listened to the message that we shared too and they gave us tacos. It was such a cool miracle. Now we are counting her as an investigator because she invited us back over next Sunday. SO COOL!! The lord is blessing us so much and I am soooo thankful. Then when we got home last night Marcial called me and told me that he got called to be the Sunday school president! He is so happy and I am so proud of him! We talked for like 30 minutes. He made my day. He is going to try to come to union city to see me on Saturday so that he can say goodbye and see me one more time before I go home. I love talking to him. He made my whole mission worth it. IT is little things like when he calls me that make everything we go through as missionaries worth it. Kind of like my paycheck.

Today we are going to Hoboken with Marisol, Monsen and Duke. It should be fun. Maybe we'll go see cake boss :) I guess yall will have to find out next week. I'm excited though. It should be fun to go out on the town for one of my last pdays here in Jersey.

Life is Beautiful! I hope you all have a great week. I love you all! Talk to ya later!

-Sister Clark

Three More Weeks!

As always, the work is moving forward here in Union City New Jersey. I am so blessed to be apart of it. I had a lot of fun with the people we teach and especially with my companion Hermana Galvan. It is such a huge blessing that she was sent here to be my companion right now. We have a lot of fun together, which is really good. I am happy to be ending my mission on a good note! We are working hard and seeing miracles!

We are teaching this cute little girl in the ward, her name is Isabel. She is 7 but she is turning 8 next week so we are giving her all of the lessons before she gets baptized. she lives in the bottom of our area in a place calledNnorth Bergen. North Bergen is the nicer part of our area and we have to walk kind of far to get there. It was already dark when we left so we were kind of creeped out about walking far in the dark, so Marisol taught us a shortcut through a park... It turned out to be way creepier. We had to walk through this creepy covered alley way and there were these creepy boys down there smoking weed, so that was awkward... but we made it out alive! ha ha always an adventure on the mission. It has been so much fun. We taught Isabel about the plan of salvation and she was so cute. It amazes me how bright all of these little kids are. She is amazingly intelligent because she speaks both English and Spanish fluently. It is so amazing how these little kids do that. I want to give my kids that same opportunity. Anyways, we used the little paper dolls to teach her and she loved it, then we let her borrow the pictures so that she could teach it to her family for family home evening. After we finished teaching her we had dinner with her family. Her mom made us really yummy empenadas. Isabel was so cute and she absolutely loves us. She was showing off for us and was showing us how she has all of the articles of faith memorized. It was so cute. I love it when little kids speak in Spanish. Then she was showing us this dance that she and her friend made up and a little toot snuck out and we were laughing so hard. She ran and hid behind her mom and she was laughing so hard and her mom was laughing. It was seriously so funny. Little kids are the best. I can't wait to be home and be around my cute nieces and nephews! 

On Tuesday we had our zone meeting. It was my last zone meeting so that was kind of emotional but it was very good. I really loved it. Elder Beus and Elder Packer trained us on our monthly focus which is consecration. I am so thankful for this monthly focus because I really want to be focused and consecrated for these last 3 weeks of my mission because I know that we can see some big miracles here in Union City this transfer, we just have to be very focused on the work. They read this really cool poem called "the dash" that talks about how we all have our time here on earth that will eventually be marked on our tomb stones as a dash between our years and how we need to make the best of our dash because only the people who know us will know what the dash represented. They related it to our missions. Soon my mission will be over and it will just be July 2013-Dec1014 and I want to be able to say that during my dash I showed the pure love of Christ and that I was obedient to his will. It was very interesting to think about and it gave me a new perspective on these last 3 weeks of "my dash". 

 

After zone meeting we all went to Wendys for lunch. On the way down there I was sitting in the back seat of the van with Hna Galvan and Hna Stone and we were taking double chin pictures. It was SO FUNNY! The elders were like, what the? Then, we all had coupons for free frostys. I feel bad for the people that worked there who had to give all 20 something of us free frostys. ha ha. It was fun. After zone meeting Hermana Galvan and I hit the streets and we had it in our plans to go down into North Bergen to try some former investigators and try to work that area down there. We got so lost a couple of times, but we had good contacts from asking people for directions. We actually had a really cool miracle. We asked this random lady for directions and she actually turned out to be an inactive member and she gave us her phone number and address so we can go visit her. That was cool. Then we knocked a formers door and she opened and let us in and we taught her and she was willing to let us come back to teach her again.  

 

After that we went to go visit the Hernandez family (the crazy Colombians) I will never get tired of visiting them... They're just so weird. In a good way though :). It was Hna Galvan's first time visiting them and it was so much fun because she is Hispanic as well, so everyone just jokes with us more now and I feel like i am learning so much more Spanish with her. I am learning little sayings and how to joke around with people. Hno Hernandez just kept on making fun of her accent and some of the Argentinean cultures. It was so funny. We were just laughing the whole time. We played a game with them where they had to draw themselves but the paper was on top of their heads so they couldn't see. It was so fun. They also have this cute family living with them. They are members and his name is Alan and he is like 23 or something and is seriously the cutest kid ever. WE were all laughing so hard. Our stomachs hurt from laughing so hard when we got out of the appointment. After visiting them we went to see Marisol at the same creepy park in North Bergen that we had to walk through the night before. We are helping her prepare for her mission... she leaves in 2 weeks! It is so crazy. I am going to miss her like crazy, but she is serving in California so maybe ill be able to make a surprise visit down there. haa.

Wednesday was a crazy day. We had interviews with President Taggart at 1:00 at the Union City church. We did our normal studies then we had to head down to the church since it takes like 30 minutes to walk there and we wanted to give ourselves time to contact. We ended up contacting this really cool lady named Mariam from Israel. She asked us for a Bible in English we gave her a Book of Mormon. She was so happy. She spoke very little English because she has only been here for a little over a year. Her kids and husband are still in Israel and she is providing for them and going to college. She said she has been praying for the word of god since she got to this country. She took our planners and wrote her information in it and made sure that we had a set appointment with her and she wouldn't let us leave with out promising her that we would call her. So cute! 

 

We barely made it to our interviews on time. The interviews went well... sort of. For the last couple of months I have been having very strong promptings that I need to return home from my mission a transfer early, and it has been causing me a lot of stress. I had been talking to President and Sister Taggart about it but I had decided the week earlier that I wanted to finish my full mission, but all throughout the week I felt really uneasy about it. I couldn't stop thinking about it and it just didn't feel right at all. It was making me nervous and I was planning on talking to President about it during the interview but I just got too nervous, so I didn't. Then I had my interview with Sister Taggart and the same thing. Side note: Their daughter was going in to labor during our interviews so between interviews they would be on the phone with her. While president Taggart was in an interview with an elder she pulled us aside and let us listen on speaker phone. It was so cool! It was really cute seeing how excited they were and everything. :) Anyways, after the interview while we were walking home Hna Galvan and I were talking about what P.T. told us and she told me that President Taggart told her that he was expecting me to come and tell him that I needed to go home early and he was very surprised when I didn't. Then he told her to tell me that He and Sister Taggart would support me in my decision and that they felt very strongly like my work here in New Jersey was finished. Then Hna Galvan told me that Sister Taggart told me the very same thing, that she and President Taggart felt like my work here was done, but that it was up to me and they would support me. As soon as I heard that my heart stopped. We crossed the street and sat down at some benches at the park and we talked about it. I knew exactly what I needed to do. I felt the spirit saying to me very directly that I needed to turn around and go tell President Taggart that I needed to go home... SO that is exactly what I did. I turned around and we went back to the church. When I got there it was like the Taggarts where there waiting for me, like they knew all along that I was going to come back. I told President Taggart and he was very loving and he said that he would take care of everything and he told me that I have served a very honorable mission... Then just like that, my release date changed. It is so weird for me to think about. When I left the church after that I felt an overwhelming feeling of peace and I knew that I had done exactly what the Lord wants me to do. I have felt good all week ever since the decision has been made. For the first time in the last couple of months since I have been feeling these promptings I feel stress free. It feels great and I am so excited to come home. It was hard for me to understand why I need to go home early and I still don't know why but I do know that I have done my best here in New Jersey and that I served a full time mission because I did what my Heavenly Father sent me here to do. 

Thursday was a great day. We had our weekly planning, which was really good. Hna Galvan are turning this area around. It was kind of struggling for a while but we have seen some huge miracles the last couple of weeks. It has been exciting to plan for the future and getting a glimpse of what God wants for this area and how he wants us to do His work. Missionary work is very exciting. I am going to miss all of the excitement. During planning we got a ring at the door bell and got a special visit from Marisol and Sister Schwendiman. I don't know if y'all remember sister Schwendiman, but she was almost my trainer but she ended up training Sister Schaefer instead and she served in Union City for 5 transfers and she just recently went home in August. She was here visiting for the weekend so she could go to a wedding in Brunswick and so that she could go to the temple with Marisol. It was so fun talking to her and it was just what I needed because she went home a transfer early from her mission to so she was able to talk to me about it a little bit and she just made me feel so much better because I was feeling like leaving early meant that I didn't endure and things like that, but she told me that she felt the same way but that it is not true at all and that I need to listen to what God is saying and just do it and that everything has gone well for her since she went home. It was really good to hear that from her and it made me feel so much better. 

 

After planning we went to go visit Hna Betancourt a less active member. It was raining outside so she invited us into her house, which is kind of unusual we usually teach her outside. It was really neat because her mom wandered in and listened. Her mom isn't a member and has never showed interest before, but we were teaching the plan of salvation and she asked us to start the lesson over and she was very interested. She loved it! She said she might even come to church next week. IT was pretty cool. Then we went to go visit the Cayetano family. We watched a movie with them and talked to them about preparing to be sealed in the temple when they complete a year. They are the cutest family ever!! I seriously love them so much. 

Friday was an awesome day. We kind of had a slow morning for what ever reason and we actually ended up leaving the house a little bit late... it was kind of weird but it all turned out good. We needed to go to Wells Fargo for Sister Galvan so she could set up her account so her family could send her money from Argentina. So we went to this Wells Fargo on 35 and Park Ave right outside of our area. This really funny guy named Lenny helped us. It took like an hour and a half because we got along so well with this guy. He was so funny and he was Dominican, so of course we started talking about accents. He was teaching us how to have a perfect Dominican accent because hna Galvan and I told him that we were practicing our Dominican accents. It was so much fun and we were laughing so hard. He was a really cool guy and we gave him a card and talked to him a bit about the gospel. We are going back to see him next week because Hna Galvan has to have him scan her passport. WE are so excited. We made a fun new friend.  After that we met Marisol on Bergenline and went to Dunkin Donuts with her. She was snapchatting hna Jorgensen, so that was funny. I miss her like crazy! Then we went to go visit Veronica. Her husband ended up leaving so we were alone with her which was a huge miracle because he distracts from the spirit so much. We taught her a really good lesson and the spirit was super strong. She is preparing to go to the temple this month and she is so excited. She said she feels like everything in her life is leading her to the temple right now. It was so neat to see the change in her within the last month since she has been preparing to go to the temple. I can't even explain it. After Veronica we went to go see Byron. He walked us home. We taught him a quick lesson and discussed a lot of different things with him. I love Byron so much. He is such a good guy. I really wish he could get baptized, but we just have to trust in the lord that he will be baptized in His time. 

Saturday was the weirdest day.... We went and taught Bryan, the Dominican kid. He is growing on me, which is weird because I kind of hated him at first. He is really great though and has sincere interest in the gospel. He just takes a lot of patience sometimes. Then we had mormon.org time then we went to the church to clean. It was Veronica's turn to clean, but she cant because she isn't feeling very well because of her pregnancy so we told her that we would be happy to do it. We cleaned the bathrooms really deep. It took us a good 2 hours. I don't think anyone has cleaned the bathroom in forever. Then we cleaned the baptismal font... It was so disgusting. I don't think it has ever been cleaned, which is sad because its like the most important part of the church! We cleaned it though and it is sparkling and ready for the next baptism.... which is hopefully Bryan :) Then we went and taught this potential named Jimmy... He was a really cool guy but he just talks so much. We taught him a bit and he was really interested and he just kept on going off about his life and about different things. We tried ending the lesson like 6 times because we had to leave to get to another appointment but he just kept on talking. It was the worst. I was so anxious that I totally shredded the Styrofoam cup he gave me with water in it and I couldn't stop moving and tapping my feet. IT was the worst. We were trapped! We didn't make it to our last appointment and we ended up getting out of his house at 8:50. AS soon as he shut the door I took of running down the street shouting "were finally free!!" and hna Galvan was laughing so hard. We were going so crazy because we got so antsy in there because he just wouldn't stop talking! We decided to go get some pan de bono then head home. Then when we got home we were so hyper and we could hardly focus on planning. We finished really quick then went into the living room and started making weird videos... I really wish I could send you all videos, but you are in for a real treat when I get home.... Lets just say that Hna Galvan and I are secretly Dominican. Then she taught me how to dance bachata. Literally, having a Hispanic companion is the greatest thing in the world because she is teaching me cool things like how to dance bachata and this other weird dance that they do in Argentina, she makes really yummy food and she is going to teach me how to make empenadas, milanesas, tacos durados and papa la huancaina. I'm so stoked. She also got me into drinking mate. I <3 Argentina. Literally I'm obsessed. I seriously have the greatest companion ever and I am so thankful and blessed.

This Sunday was literally insane because we had so many investigators at church. All of them came, which was awesome, but it was some of their first days which is hard because we have to be with them and show them around and introduce them to members but we also have to stay together and we cant be two places at once and then we have to try to track everyone down and it is just pure craziness. I can definitely say that Sunday is the most stressful day of the week for a missionary. I am looking forward to a normal low key day of rest. But until then, let the craziness continue. It turned out to be really good. We taught Bryan during the last hour and it was a crazy lesson because these kids wanted to team up with us but they were so obnoxious and wouldn't be quiet and it was so distracting. Hna Galvan and I were trying so hard not to just throw them out of the church. IT was a real test of our patience. It is so hard to have Christlike love sometimes, especially with obnoxious young preteen boys who are in love with you and wont leave your side for two seconds and ruin your lessons. Oh well. It turned out OK. 

So that is basically it for this week. It was so great. I am really trying to enjoy the last couple of weeks I have out here and I am so excited to see what happens here. The future is so bright in Union City. A lot of things are changing for the better and we are seeing miracles every day. It has been so humbling to look back on the last 16 months and see how God was in every single detail, from where I was, to what I was doing, who my companions were and everything. It is such a humbling experience to be doing the work of the Lord, especially here in New Jersey, what I used to think was the armpit of America. I love it so much and I know that God does too. I know that God loves every single one of His children and His work will go forth until they have all been given the opportunity to learn about His son Jesus Christ and His gospel. The gospel is so truly beautiful and I am so humbled to be representing my savior and redeemer, Jesus Christ. I wouldn't give these 16 months for anything in the whole world. They are so very precious to me. 

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! 

con mucho amor,

Hermana Clark xoxo

Photos and More Photos

I want to start off by sending some pictures from last transfer! I hardly sent any, so here they are!

Our weird acupuncture.

The packers. They are both related to Elder Packer, the apostle.

We goth this ice cream, but we both forgot our wallets, so the guy just gave it to us. We felt really bad.

Walking down Boulevard East

A five-year-old's birthday party. Hispanics know how to throw a party.

I got my ears pierced!!!

Dr. Gabrielcito. The cutest kid ever.

Halloween cookies from my mom.

Trying not to freeze to death during studies

The Cayetanos. My second family  :)

Byron's first time trying Managu

We are really productive in our PEC meetings. 7:30 am every Sunday morning.

Me and Jorgie on the Jersey shore before we went to six flags

 

Me, Sam and Duke walking into six flags

Waiting in line for a ride

After the Trial of Your Faith

This week was crazy to say the least. Another roller coaster week... I didn't go to six flags this time though. It started off fine. On Monday after emails we went and hung out at Marisol's house. Sister Duke and Sister Monsen came up from Bayonne to see me for my birthday. They got me half baked ice cream. It was so sweet. We just hung out and laughed. They are so great. Then we went and taught the Hernandez family. It was so fun. They are the crazy Colombians that sing all the time. They had another family over for family home evening and the Hermana made us sopas. They were so yummy.

Tuesday was my Birthday! It was such a fun day. Everything about it was perfect. We had district meetings and the cute Union City Hermanas made me a chocolate cake. We went to five guys for lunch, then we went back to our areas to work. We took a walk down boulevard East and Marisol came and found us and she bought me a pumpkin pie, so we ate pumpkin pie in her car and hung out for a little while. Then we went to go see the Hernandez family again. They invited me over for a birthday dinner. Hermana Hernandez made me really yummy potatoes with cheese. It was so good. Then she made this really nasty cake that I had to try to get down.... I couldn't chew it, i just had to swallow it. hahaha good times. You sacrifice so much for these people. Then the Cayetanos invited us over for a birthday surprise. We went over and everything was tranquilo. They were just sitting on the couch and we shared a quick message with them, then they take me into the kitchen and it was all decorated with balloons and Edwin made me the cutest birthday card/poster and they were playing birthday music. 

They also got me a beautiful birthday cake that said "happy birthday Hna Clark". They are seriously the sweetest family I have ever met. They do so much for the missionaries. It was so much fun. We had cake and she made Mole. It was all so yummy. Tres leche cake is so so so good. I had a really fun night. I wouldn't have had my 21st birthday any other way or with anyone else. The Cayetanos are like my second family. In every area, you find this family that you just love so much that kind of become your favorites. That is the Cayetanos for me. :) 

 

Wednesday was kind of crazy..... I don't really want to go into details right now, but our area is struggling and I have been struggling a little bit so we got emergency transferred. I stayed in Union City and my companion got transferred to Jersey City. My new companions name is Sister Galvan, so I am not training any more. I am really really happy with this transfer. It all turned out really well and really inspired. Sister Galvan has a year out on her mission, so she is a pretty experienced missionary and she is actually from Argentina. I looooooove her so much. It is so fun to have a native companion. She has the cutest Spanish accent and she is teaching me so much about culture. We get along so well and we became friends very quickly. I am excited for the rest of the transfer. We are looking forward to working hard together.

Thursday was a really great day. We had weekly planning and it was raining outside, so we ended up staying inside for most of the night. We went through our whole area book. Our area book was a complete disaster. We actually had 3 area books because there was so many progress records and teaching records and everything. It was so insane. We managed to condense it in to just one area book and it is so neat and organized now and we made a list of so many people that we want to try to teach and we came up with so many ideas for our area and ideas of how to find people and help this ward out. Our area needs a lot of miracles and we were able to find a lot of ideas by going through the area book. It was a great night. Then we went and we taught this really cute little family. One thing I love about Hispanics is that before their kids get baptized they always have them receive the missionary lessons, so the kids down here know so much about the gospel. We are preparing this cute 7 year old girl for baptism so we went to her house and taught her the restoration. Then we hung out with Marisol for a little while. She is so much fun and helps us out with the work so much.

Friday was kind of a sad day. Hna Galvan has a sinus infection so she was in bed for most of the day. Missionary work is really boring when you have to stay inside. Saturday was a normal day and so was Sunday.

It was kind of a slow week for us, but things should be picking up really soon. Sister Galvan and I actually decided to give that guy Brian a chance (the one that called Jorgensen and I his mujeres). He comes to church every single week and he really does want to learn, even though he is kind of a silly kid. We were able to set him on baptismal date for the end of this month. I'm really excited for him, he is ready for baptism and I would be really happy if we could help him turn his life around. He just needs people to love him for who he is.

I am happy and I am loving my mission. Sister Galvan is a great companion for me, we laugh a lot! Missionary work is so much fun when you laugh a lot. I love union city and I love the people so much. Life really couldn't be better. Every week has its ups and downs and my mission sure has been full of trials, but I have learned so much and I am thankful for every trial that has come my way because it has made me who i am now. I can honestly say now that I am a completely different person than I was when I started my mission and I love that. I am so humbled to be here in New Jersey representing Jesus Christ and sharing the beautiful restored gospel with God's children.

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week.

-Sister Clark xoxo

I'm Training

So this week had to be one of the most stressful weeks of my mission. It is hard to move on and adapt to change out here on the mission. With the end of last transfer I have suddenly become super super old on the mission. I didn't feel that old last transfer because my companion was still older than me. Now all of my companions that I have had are home from the mission, which is super weird and to be honest it kind of makes me feel a little bit trunky. I'm trying to push through though. I am actually getting really excited to come home. I am so in love with Union City though. It is a really hard area. Probably one of the hardest areas that I have had on my whole mission. It has been hard for me to adjust to union city because I had so much success this summer. I was in Morristown and Passaic and we had 2 baptisms and we were finding people right and left almost all summer, but now I'm here in Union City and we have 2 investigators who cant get baptized and it is so hard to find people. That has been a little bit of a hard adjustment, but I really love the members down here and the 2 investigators that we have are so amazing and I love them so much.   Monday we went to Marisol's house and hung out and jumped on her trampoline. It was so much fun. I haven't jumped on a trampoline in forever! It turned out to be a fun pday. Then we went and visited Hermana Campusano and the Cayetanos. It was Sister Jorgensens last night on the mission. That was emotional. Then on Tuesday morning we packed up Jorgensen's bags and got everything all ready to go for her. I had to be in Morristown at like 1030 to pick up my trainee. Tuesday was the longest day of my life. Seriously such a long day. I don't think I have ever cried that much on my mission either. It was actually really hard for me to say goodbye to this group. It was really hard to say goodbye to Sister Jorgensen. She helped me a lot. So that basically sums up Tuesday for me. ALOT OF TEARS.   I have been reflecting on my mission a lot this week and reflecting on all of the people that I have had the opportunity to teach and it is so amazing and rewarding to think about. My mission has been such a humbling experience for me. I love these people so much I would literally do anything in the world for them. I talked to Marcial for almost an hour last night. He is doing really well and he blessed the sacrament for the first time yesterday. He loved it. He was telling me about how he is doing with his scripture studies. He is so into deep doctrine, it is absolutely hilarious. Rod is going to love him. He told me that we are welcome to stay in his house anytime we want to come up and visit New Jersey and that he would take us to go see all of the sites out here. I told him that I really want him to come down to see a live session of general conference with me sometime and that we could go see some of the temples in Utah. He was really excited about that. He said he really wants to come to Arizona some time too and I told him that our home is his home and that we will take him to go see the grand canyon. He is seriously the best. He said he is going to come down here to Union City before I go home so that he can say goodbye. He said he wants to come to the airport when I leave also. ha ha. He is the best. So I am training, my companions name is Hermana Vernon and she is from Arizona as well and she loves pancakes just like me. To tell you the truth, I really did not want to train and it is really hard. I'm not really a huge fan. I really prefer being a regular missionary. I have been so blessed my entire mission to have just been a regular missionary without callings and stuff. It is proof to me that God knows me really well. It was kind of a slow week due to Halloween. We had to be in our apartments by 6 on both Thursday and Friday night because it gets kind of crazy on Halloween. On Thursday night my companion went to bed right at 6 because she is so tired. Poor thing. I stayed up and talked to almost all of my old companions on the phone. It was fun talking to them. I also wrote some letters. It was nice to just relax for a few hours. On Friday we went and taught Sedney at Marisol's house. She is so cute. We read Alma 26 with her and she really loved it. Then Sister Monsen and Sister Duke came over to hang out with us. I am seriously so excited that Sister Monsen and Sister Duke are companions. I was praying that Sister Monsen would be my sister training leader because she is one of the few sisters on the mission that I actually know. I love her so much and it is fun that she is with sister duke because I love sister duke a lot too. We just hung out and sister Vernon made pancakes. It was really nice of them to come over and hang out with us for a little while.      On Saturday we had a relief society activity that ended up taking almost all day. It was pretty fun. They had some really yummy breakfast, so that was good. After the activity we stayed to help clean up and then Sister Weinstock just showed up out of nowhere. I seriously had a cow. Her mom came to pick her up so she and her mom are staying here in New Jersey for a week or so before she goes home. I talked to her for a long time and her mom went on a team up with the other Union City sisters, so she ended up hanging out with us for like 3 hours. It was so fun to see her. She was a fun companion. We reminisced a lot about our time together in Perth Amboy. That was such a good area. Then later that night we went and taught the Byron over at the Cayetano's house. Seriously love them so much. We opened my birthday package that my sisters sent me. I let Isabel and Edwin open all of the presents and they had fun doing that. I got 3 cute cardigans, a leopard belt, leggings, a beanie and some candy and of course letters. It was such a fun birthday! The Cayetanos also invited me over tomorrow night to spend my actual birthday with them. I am really excited for that. They are such a special family. So so so special. There is no one else I would rather spend my 21st birthday with. I feel so blessed :) Yesterday was a crazy Sunday. The other U.C. sisters had a baptism. Sister Harris is training and she has only been on the mission for 3 months, so she didn't really know how to run the baptism, so I had to help out a lot. During the last two hours of church we were running around trying to get everything set up. We had to fill the font, put up chairs and make programs. The programs were a disaster. Sister Harris and I were running around for an hour trying to find a computer with a printer that actually worked, then finding paper. Seriously, I feel like baptisms never run smoothly. ha ha. Next time I am at home and there is a baptism, I am going to appreciate the missionaries and all that they do to put together a baptism in a different way. Other than that, it all went smooth and it was a very good baptismal service. That is really all there is to report on this week. I'm just trying to put my trust in God and finish my mission strong. Hopefully next week is better. I love you all and hope you have a good week! -Sister Clark