My Half Way Mark!!

Hola familia!!

Today is my halfway mark!! I cant believe it! 9 months down, 9 to go. I texted Sister Schaefer this morning (my MTC companion) and wished her a happy half way mark. She called me and we talked a little bit about our good times in Mexico. I LOVE that she is only like an hour away from me. We've gone through this whole mission together and its good to have someone to talk to about it.

So, it has been a crazy and eventful week... I didn't get to send out an email on Monday because we went to Morristown to listen to Elder L. Tom Perry. Yep, that's right. You read that right. An apostle of the Lord came to the New Jersey Morristown mission to talk to us! It was the NEATEST experience I have ever had. I got to shake his hand! His hands are HUGE. He is also older than Elder Smith! For once Elder Smith wasn't the oldest man in the room. It was so funny!

But, I didn't get to email on Monday and now its Thursday, which means that I don't even remember what to tell you all about last week because the last 3 days have been SO INCREDIBLE! SO i guess ill just talk about the last 3 days... it may make next Monday's email a little bit boring though because these past 3 days have definitely been the highlight of the week.

So as I mentioned, on Monday we saw Elder L. Tom Perry. We left for Morristown at about 11 and we got to the Stake center at around 12:15. Almost all of the missionaries arrived at the same time.  I LOVE meetings where we are all together. WE pulled into the parking lot and right then I saw Sister Schaefer and we ran across the parking lot to hug each other. Then I saw Sister Martin, then Sister Orton, then Sister Weinstock and the Sister Training Leaders then Elder Blanco and Elder Cuevas and Elder Benson and Elder Christensen and the list just goes on and on. It is a crazy party when we are all together because we just love each other! I love it. We were in our seats by 1230 and dead silent studying and praying trying to invite the spirit. Elder Perry arrived around 12:50 and we all stood. There was an amazing spirit in the room. HE was so fun! He wanted to meet all of us so we stood up by rows and walked up there and shook his hand. IT took about 30 minutes to meet all of the missionaries. 

Then we opened the meeting and President Jeppson introduced the mission to him. It was so fun. We have the best mission! He would say something like, stand up if you are 20, or stand up if you are from South America and things like that. It is always so fun to see all of the diversity in the mission. Then he gave his speech that he always gives us about how God only sends his finest missionaries here because it is the best mission in the world. Its always really awesome when he does that because we have some great New Jersey pride and it is 100% true! 

Then Sister Jeppson spoke, she is always so cute and she always writes songs so she just breaks into song in the middle of her talk and it is so cute! We all just crack up laughing. This time she sang little mermaids "part of that world" but she sang "look at this book, isn't it neat" as she held up a Book of Mormon. Then Elder Perry spoke and he spoke a lot about the priesthood. It was so awesome. President Jeppson promised us that if we opened our hearts, that our faith would be strengthened  by 3 o'clock.. It was so true. I felt my testimony and my faith strengthening by the second.

He talked about the priesthood keys and how the apostles hold the priesthood but only the prophet holds all of the keys and they all work under his direction. He talked about how he was visiting Rome and how all of the statues of Peter depict him holding keys and how he was there with President Kimball and he told the people that he held the exact same keys that were given to Peter and that he is holding in this statue and now President Monson holds those keys. He also spoke to us about how the apostles interact with each other and mentor each other and exercise their priesthood. I learned so many things that I never new! He said they all have their number and order that they sit and walk and go through doors. He said he would never think about entering a room before Elder Packer or sitting in a chair that wasn't his. He also talked about how the church receives revelation and how the Prophet is the only one who can approve new doctrine. He talked about what he is doing with the different governments right now and things like that. It was proof to me of how much the work of the Lord really is hastening in every land. There are some incredible things coming in the future! I was just AMAZED by everything he told us. He also talked about what it means when the general authorities bear their "special witness" That was really neat. I know that he is an apostle and that we have a living prophet today who does hold all of the priesthood keys. It is such a huge blessing! I am so thankful for this knowledge that I have. I just learned so much. I took about 8 pages of notes! hahaha. I have been reading them all week too and learning even more as I study them and the scripture references he gave. IT was the greatest experience.

Then Tuesday we had our district meetings and a pretty average day. District meetings were really good though. We were all still high from the spirit of hearing from an apostle. We all had that fire and we renewed it in each other. We talked about our consecration contracts and what we need to do to become a better missionary. There are A LOT of things I will be working on this week. I am seeing such huge changes in my self as a result from consecration. It is neat. I have been memorizing a scripture every day and it has made such a difference in our teaching and we have been striving our hardest to get out of our apartment on time and to stay out proselyting until 9. IT is way cool to see the blessings from this consecration. This week Elder Christensen, our district leader, committed us to invite at least 4 people to get baptized this week. He promised us that if we would do it, we would find one person who was prepared to for baptism. I AM SO EXCITED to do this. I TRUST in these promised blessings that our leaders give us. I have seen the hugest miracles from them. When president Jeppson promised us that our teaching pool would double if we contacted 10 people a day, it happened. Our teaching pool is SIGNIFICANTLY larger and then when Elder Christensen promised us that if we asked everyone we talked to for referrals we would receive a referral every single day, then we got 7 referrals that week. I have seen NEAT miracles as a result of having the faith to do the things that my leaders ask of me. I love those promised blessings, they are 100% real. I love giving promised blessings too. Giving promised blessings is my favorite part of teaching.. So, when you are taught by a missionary, take the commitment they leave with you and pay attention to the blessings they promise you, they are VERY inspired and they WILL be fulfilled according to your faith.

Yesterday, we had zone conference for zones 9 and 10. IT was the most powerful meeting I have been to on my whole mission. The spirit was so strong throughout the whole thing. Sister Jeppson ALWAYS begins zone meetings by doing something silly. When it was her turn to speak, all of the missionaries leaned forward just waiting to see what she was going to do. My first zone conference she dressed up like a hot dog for Halloween, then my second zone conference she dressed up like a pirate and talked about manners. This time she took of her suit coat and she had a blue tee shirt on that said, "this looks like a job for superman!" and she put on a cake, then began. "THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB FOR SUPER AWESOME!!" it was hilarious. She talked about "drops of awesome" and how awesome we really are. How in fact we really are SUPER awesome. Then President Jeppson gave the most amazing practically two hour training on the atonement and consecration. IT WAS SO NEAT! WE reviewed the things Elder Perry taught us and how we can apply it to our area. We talked about how the time is now to hasten the work. There is a lot of things we will be doing differently to improve our work. It was awesome. One of the highlights for me though was the discussions we had. He had some scriptures and he chose a couple of people to read them out loud then say their thoughts. We read in Heleman 5 and the spirit was so strong. The sister reading it broke into tears at the end then president Jeppson asked her, "Sister, what are you feeling right now" then in a tearful voice, she said "I feel like I LOVE what I do" and we all tearfully nodded and cried in agreement. She said "last night we talked to a man who was just so mean to us and it was so hard, but that is not important. I still just love what I do with all of my heart". It is so true. It is so hard, but I realized in that moment, that I really do love what I do. There is nothing better.

I LOVE what I do because I know it is so true. I know Jesus Christ is the son of God and that he suffered for me in Gethsemane. Without him, I would never be able to return to live with my Father again. He taught us exactly what we need to do. We need to have faith, repent, be baptized, receive the gift of the holy ghost and endure to the end. That is the only way we can ever return to our Heavenly Father. So many people do not know that. I am so happy to be sharing that with them. I hope you can all share that with them as well. They need it. It doesn't matter if they are mean or if they judge us. It simply does not matter. Christ payed the ultimate price for us and people need to know about it and come unto him. Like it says in Alma 7:13, this is the testimony that is in me.

I love you all and hope you had  a great week! I'll talk to you on Monday!!

-Sister Clark