Missionaries are put in the right apartments

I just realized that I keep forgetting to talk about my neighbors! We have some really amazing neighbors here in Perth Amboy and they have become a really huge part of our lives. They are not members and they are American. It is a Mom and her 3 daughters who are 9, 7 and 5. The middle daughter who is 7 actually has a tumor in her brain which causes her to be blind, so as you can imagine, this mom has her hands full. She is an incredible mom though, she just loves her girls. The girls LOVE us. They will watch us from their window and whenever we go over to their house they just tackle us and they pull us in all different directions to show us their toys and games and to play with them. WE LOVE them.

 

We try to serve them in any way that we possibly can. We take her trash out and lately she has been calling us when she needs something, which is so great for us. The daughter had chemo for her tumor a year ago and her tumor stopped growing and they said that she would probably be safe for a couple of years, but last week the mom pulled us into the house and she was in tears because at her doctors appointment her tests had shown that her tumor has begun to grow again and that she has to go back into treatment. She is starting to have some small seizures too. Its hard. Yesterday was the oldest girls birthday so we went to her birthday party. It was so cute, but it just felt sad though because the other one has to start her treatments on Tuesday.

 

 This morning we decorated her door for her birthday, we could hear them get so excited when they left for school this morning it was so cute. Today we are going to buy a frame because we found a really neat picture of Christ when he blessed the Nephite children that we want to give to them. We think the mom will really like it and it will be something that can comfort her as her daughter starts treatment tomorrow. Hopefully her heart will soften and be open to our message some day because she always tells us politely that she's not really interested in religion. We are hoping that it will come with a lot of service and showing love for them.

SERVE YOUR NEIGHBORS! It is important!

Snow, snow and more snow!

Buenas dias!

Uggghhhh we got so much snow here this week. On Tuesday we were supposed to have our district meetings at 11:30, but it started snowing around 10:00 so they had us park our cars and they ended up having to stay parked ALL DAY because the snow was so bad. It snowed so much. We had to cancel all of our appointments because they were just too far for us to walk. We had to brainstorm of all of the people who lived close by that we could tough out the weather for. We ended up going to see Sharon, one of the girls in the Relief Society presidency... Its so weird, I just recently learned that she's only like 20, so were the same age.

We had our district meetings on Wednesday and then after we went out and did our visiting teaching. Sister Smith (the really old one) is our companion so we took them with us. We went and found this really neat inactive lady. She has been inactive for around 20 years. She is from Uruguay so she has a really thick accent so it's kind of hard to understand sometimes, but she really, really loved having us come over to visit her. She is really sick and she has cancer and depression and cataracts. She isn't even super old either. It was a really good appointment and the Smiths get so excited when we ask them to go teach with us, its adorable. The sister that we went to go visit made us this really, really good pineapple cake... it was heavenly. I just wanted to eat the whole cake hahaha.

Line of the week:

The Smiths were driving us home from this appointment and some how they got on the subject of people that they dated in high school.

Sister Smith: "You know, there is one boy in high school that I wouldn't mind running into again.... if I were a widow of course."

Elder Smith: (gives her a look) "Oh really.... well, all of the girls that I dated in high school are dead."
 

ahahahahahahahahahaha I am never going to get over his dying jokes... We couldn't even hold in our laughter. They are so funny.

I have gotten to know our investigators really well this week. There is this one woman that we visited on Friday night. She is from the DR and her sisters are members. We went to go teach her and she had read all of the folletos that we gave her and her other reading assignments and she just had so many good questions for us. She had this desire to know that I had never seen before. Her intent of learning the truth was so so so neat. She was on the edge of her seat the whole time we were there and when she would read, she would read the verse two or three times to really understand it. We asked her to prepare for baptism in about a month and she said yes. She prayed about it after our lesson and it was so sincere. We all took a moment to wait after the prayer and we could just feel the spirit testifying to her that this was Gods will. It was such a neat thing to see. She came to church on Sunday and had a really good experience. I am so happy for her and I want her to be baptized so bad. I am praying really really hard for her.

We have this other guy who is from Puerto Rico but he speaks English with us. He is such a cool guy. He's one of those guys that you just know has to be baptized its just a matter of when. He's been coming to church every week for about 5 months and he is practically part of the branch already. He loves church. With some people though, baptism is just a really hard thing, I'm not really sure why. We met with him and talked with him a long time about it though and he let us know some of his real concerns. I'm so glad that he finally did that because now we know how to help him. He is a really neat guy and the spirit testified to me that he has a really amazing potential in this church. I'm excited to keep teaching him and see where he goes.

On Friday we had a 6 lesson day. It was so awesome! We usually struggle to get a 3 lesson day, but that's what our average is. About 3 lessons a day and the mission standard is 20 lessons a week. We had 2 0 lesson days because there was two snow days and we still managed to get 19 lessons! it was so great. I love teaching! We also found two really neat people. Hopefully we can get teaching them soon.

It was a pretty good week. Missions are hard, but when you see the spirit testify to people and change people, it makes everything so worth it. Its the best feeling in the world.

I hope you all have a good week. I love you and miss you!

-Sister Clark

Week 2 in Perth Amboy

Well, week two is down! I conquered it, but wow, it was a tough week. I got really sick with a cold and I could hardly breathe for  two days! We had to stay inside on Monday and Tuesday so I could sleep it off. It was not fun. It's hard being sick in the Spanish program because people are so touchy and they give besitos.. which is when they kiss you on the cheek. You can tell them not to do it because you're sick but they either still do it, or they get offended. hmmmmm.

I am getting to know the area a lot better. It is pretty nice. There are a lot of really strange colored houses here in New Jersey. I have met all of the investigators now. There are 2 who are very very close to baptism. For one he has come to church for months now, he just has some concerns that he needs addressed and the other one has had all of the lessons and she has a testimony of the prophet and the Book of Mormon and everything, but she just won't come to church for some reason. She promised us she would come this week though, so we will see how that goes. We have been trying to get her some friends in the branch to help her out with that. We think she is just nervous because the last time she went they taught all about tithing and we think that scared her off. We will have to talk to her about that next time.

So really neat experience last night. There is this active woman in our ward who comes out to teach with us all the time. She has a son who is living with her who is not a member and she really wants him to be baptized. The only problem is that he has a little bit of a hard heart right now and doesn't really like to listen to us. We have a very good relationship with him though. We will go over and just talk to him forever and he loves us. But when we share a message he will just leave or watch the TV or pretend not to listen. Last night we shared a message about Christ and about the atonement. He opened up to us so much and he told us about all of these miracles he has seen in his life and about how he know that there is a God and he has been saved many times. It was super neat. We are really hoping that he will soften up to us more and we can continue to know what to share while we are there so he will listen and continue to open up to us. Pray for him, he has some very hard struggles going on, but I really think I can help him. I'm excited and so so so happy about that.

I love you all and hope you have a really good week!

Rebecca Clark

Also, family! I left out the information about our senior couple that is serving in our zone. Oh man, you all are going to get a kick out of this. Their names are the Smiths. Elder smith is 87 and sister Smith is 79!! ahahahahaha they are SO OLD. Usually senior couples are in their 50s-60s, ya know? And they're way funny. He just keeps on chuggin along. He always makes dying jokes though and all of the missionaries don't know if were supposed to laugh or not... its hilarious The other day they were driving us out to lunch (yes they drive us sometimes... its scary hehehe) and he was getting road rage. He made the comment to his wife "I'm going to have a hard time driving you home in my coffin" bahahahaha. He always makes coffin jokes. Its just way too funny. :)

A New Beginning!

So, I know you are all probably waiting to hear where I am, so here it goes!! I am in Perth Amboy with Sister Wienstock!! Woooo, it is a neat area and I am driving now so that will take a lot of getting used too!! It is a neat area though and I am loving it! We have a small little branch here that has some really neat people. We have A LOT of investigators here and we have been teaching them a lot this week, which has been really good. There are a few who are really close to baptism, which is exciting.

 

Our church building is so interesting... It isn't actually a church building, it is just a random building that the church bought and turned into a church building. It is really small and has a pretty nice inside. It is two story and carpeted and nice just like a regular church building its just weird... and there are bars on the windows, which is pretty hilarious. It totally cracks me up.

 

It will be so much fun to work in a branch rather than a ward. The members here are so strong and awesome, I have loved everyone that I have met so far and they have been very welcoming. Everyone is so excited that I am coming from West New York. Everyone here knows at least 1 person from that ward because it is so big and because WNY has so many Hispanics, everyone in this branch has some kind of connection there, which as been so fun for me.. It is also interesting because in May through June the sisters who were serving there in West New York were Sisters Simpson, Summers and Solomon. The next place that Sister Solomon went after WNY was here to Perth Amboy, so that is a fun connection to make. Everyone thinks that maybe I might be following in the footsteps of Sister Solomon, which would be AWESOME!! She trained here in Perth Amboy, then she went down to, I think, Lake Town because she was called as a sister training leader... So if I follow in her footsteps I will train here in PA next transfer, then be a sister training leader... Wow those are some pretty big shoes to fill, I can't complain - she is an incredible missionary..

 

Well, that is about all I have to report on this week... I don't have any photos here yet either.. whooops, hopefully next week!!

 

Love you all!!

 

-Sister Clark

Feliz Ano Nuevo!!

Hola mi familia! Feliz ano nuevo!!

New Year's here in the mission was kind of lame to be perfectly honest. All of our appointments juked us and we were kind of fed up by the end of the day, so at 8 we went to Dunkin Donuts, got some hot chocolate and muffins and doughnuts, and then headed down to boulevard east and sat down and looked at the view, ate  and talked for about 30 min until we had to head home... because we still had to be in casa a las 9. The ward party didn't start until 10 pm, so we didn't get to go... because let's be honest, they're Hispanics so of course the party went on all night. Hispanics never stop partying. I love it. I was sad we had to miss it. 

The rest of the week was pretty normal. Teaching, finding, then more teaching. We found a really awesome Lady. We have this inactive member that we see often, who is really neat and she is from Cuba. She's like 83 and she has a really INCREDIBLE story... (I'll save that for later, I'm sending her story in a letter to my sisters... there is never enough time in emails for all of these cool stories I've learned) anyways. We showed up at her house and her cousin was over... So then we felt prompted to teach the plan of salvation, and this inactive member doesn't know ANYTHING about the gospel... she is really like teaching an investigator.... So as we were teaching the plan of salvation she asked all of the right questions... it was amazing. We could tell her cousin REALLY felt the spirit as she sat in on the lesson and listened from the other end of the table... as the lesson went on she just kept scooting closer and closer... then we taught her how to pray. Yep.. we got a new investigator that night. We're going to keep meeting with her.. then we went over to the same members house a different day and she gave us a referral of her sister... basically this inactive member is a GOLD MINE!! and we are helping her do her family history too. So cool. A lot of neat miracles are coming for this area.... 

BUT... I'm leaving. Yep, I'm getting transferred. Training calls usually go out on Thursday nights and the trainer meeting is usually on Friday. So we were waiting on Thursday, we had the phone on loud and we were getting so anxious and antsy, but no one called... SO what do we do? We have to do a little bit of transfer gossip.. so we go to our source, Sister Schwendiman, who is friends with the people in the mission office... She said she hadn't heard of ANYONE getting training calls yet... hmmm. So, they didn't do training calls on Thursday because the weather wouldn't permit them to have the training meeting that Friday... So we were thinking maybe Friday night training calls would go out... But the same thing happened. So then Finally Saturday night came... we were a wreck by then. Were planning on Saturday night, then we get finished... more time passes its 9:40... we figure either the calls aren't going out again, or that we are safe because president usually goes in order of zone and we are zone one... so we are feeling a little bit relieved, Sister Orton is in the bathroom getting ready for bed and I'm just sitting on the couch writing in my journal, then we hear it... THE PHONE. ahhhh! I look down and there it is 0.0 President Jeppson. "SISTER ORTON GET IN HERE PRESIDENT IS CALLING!! Hello, this is Sister Clark" "Hello Sister Clark this is President Jeppson, how is your knee doing" then he goes on and on and on and we talk and talk and talk... Sister Orton thinks she is safe so she just kind of lets out a sigh of relief and I'm thinking... oh shoot I'm training... then he says "Sister Clark may I please speak with Sister Orton?" "YES, President, YES YOU MAY!!!" hehehehe Sister Orton is training and I am safe!! woooooooo. I'm glad. I don't feel ready to train yet. I would be a nervous wreck right now if I was training... I think I might train next transfer though. Hopefully I'll be ready. 

So Sister Orton is training in West New York and I am getting transferred tomorrow. I have no idea where I'm going, it is such a weird feeling. I have to say my goodbyes and pack up all of my stuff tonight. I'm excited though! I get to see other areas of the mission and meet and find new people. It's going to be awesome. We are thinking I might go to either Patterson or Dover... I don't really know what other areas are opening up. Y'all will just have to wait until next week to find out. CLIFFHANGER!!

Well, I love you and hope you have a spectacular week... Pray that I get a good area and a good companion!!

-Sister Clark