I Love Morristown

Hey family! Everything is going great up here in Morristown. Still in love with my new area and Companions. Estoy bien contenta.

 

Our first picture together when we were dropping Sister Snow off at the mission home at 5 AM...all of the departing elders saw us looking like this. It was great.

We went to Ellis Island last week!

So much happened this week! We taught a lot of great lessons! All of my areas have been so different regarding who we teach. In my last area, we focused a lot on less active members and getting them back to church. We saw a lot of success too, it was really great. Here, we teach so many investigators. I feel like all we do is teach investigators. Most of our lessons are either teaching investigators with a member present, or teaching just investigators. We only got 1 less active lesson last week! So crazy, but I absolutely love it. These investigators here are so incredible. There are a few that want to get baptized so badly, but they have some tricky situations to work out before they can be baptized.

This week we were planning on having Alonso be baptized. He is 22 and from Honduras. He is the sweetest kid. I love him to pieces. He has a really strong testimony and he is very sincere and he always reads and prays. He knows that the gospel and the restoration is true, he has born his testimony to us several times. It was really hard for us to get him on date though. We would ask him at every lesson and he would just smile and say, "no se hermanitas". It was a little bit frustrating. We have seen him almost every day so we have a really good relationship and a lot of trust. BUT, on Monday night, we went over with the intention to get him to commit to baptism on the 25 which was the date that we prayed about and felt so strongly was the right date for him. We didn't have an appointment set up but we just went over to his house. He lives with his family who are all from Honduras. His parents are members and joined the church in Honduras and were sealed in the temple. His father came to the US about 10 years ago for work and his family stayed in Honduras so they were separated for years which caused them to go inactive in the church. He has two brothers, his older brother Julian is a member as well, but him and his younger brother are not members. Julian's girlfriend Jenni also lives with them and she is a progressing investigator as well. So we go over to their house every day and we always have someone to teach and they are all progressing and the parents are returning to church and preparing to go back to the temple... anyways. on Monday, we went over without an appointment and they were in the middle of family home evening. It was so adorable! And Ana the mom just happened to be teaching about baptism and conformation. It was super neat! We read in Mosiah 18 and it hit Alonso so hard. Then I asked the question that it says in the scripture, "que esta impidiendole" which means, what is keeping you from getting baptized. The room got so quiet and the spirit came so strong. He and his younger brother thought about it really deeply, then he answered, "nada hermanitas" We got so happy, then we did the baptismal invite. He smiled and was quiet for a little bit then he said he would pray about it. On Wednesday night we went back over to get him set for sure on date. WE had a member with us. We talked to him for about 45 minutes and he really opened up about his fears of getting baptized. He was so sincere and he wants to get baptized for the right reasons and he wants to be ready. He just doesn't understand that he is ready. We asked him 6 times to be baptized and he just kept saying "no se" then we would talk to him about it a little bit. We asked him for the last time before we had to go, but we asked him in the words of Jesus Christ. He was quiet then he just let out a really sincere "si" and we all laughed and cheered and it was so exciting! We went back over the next night and taught Julian's girlfriend Jenni and Alonso was excited about his upcoming baptism. That night we actually had Sister Jeppson with us on a team up to teach Jenni. It was so cool having her as a team up. We had to translate for her, but her spirit was so strong and its amazing how she has the ability to love so many people. It was a great lesson!

Me, Sister Jeppson, Jenni, Sister Huele and Sister Smedley. It was fun having Sister Jeppson with us in a lesson.

On Saturday night we were going to go see him, but he called us telling us that he was at the laundry mat so we couldn't come see him. He also told us that he changed his mind and he didn't feel prepared. We talked to him for a long while on the phone. He said he didn't feel prepared because he had never seen a baptism before, so he wasn't really knowing what to expect. We tried to think about when the next scheduled baptism was but we couldn't think of any coming up soon. We were making plans of bringing a video over to show him. On Sunday he came to church and while we were in gospel principals we stepped out to go get a drink. On the way to the drinking fountain, we heard the baptismal font filling up. WE got so excited. The English elders told us they were having a baptism that day! We took Alonso to that baptism and he loved it. HE felt the spirit even though it wasn't in his language. Then he had his baptismal interview and he did great. It boosted his confidence so much. He passed with flying colors. He can get baptized any day now. His baptismal recommend is good for a month. We told him that he just needs to call us and let us know and we would do it. He said it was going to be very quickly, but he just needs to work something out. I can feel that it is going to be so quick, hopefully this week. We want to try to get it for Friday night because the branch is having a family home evening that night, so it would be good to have the baptism then have that party afterwards. Hmmmm. Well see what happens. I am so happy for him though. I feel so honored to teach him and his family.

Last week we contacted this really cool kid in Madison. His name is Jayce. He is 19 and going to college down here. He said he didn't really believe in God or in Christ but would like to learn more so he can figure it out. We gave him a Book of Mormon then set an appointment with him. We had our appointment with him on Friday night. Sister Smedley and I were on an exchange with Sister Larsen and Sister Heule was in Elizabeth. We taught on a picnic table under a tree in front of a museum. In the middle of the lesson it started pouring rain, but we didn't get wet hardly at all because we were under the tree. It was super cool. Also, between the 3 days since we gave him a book of Mormon, he read until 2 Nephi 29. It was so cool! he was into learning, but his only concern is that he doesn't agree with our stand on gay marriage... We gave him the website for Mormons and gays and he said he had already read the whole thing, so he has been doing a lot of research. Were going to teach him some more this week. Also, something kinda cool, he is leaving in a month to live in Arequipa Peru for the summer. I'm totally going to hand him over to Mckaela <3

Our investigator Ivonne is so incredible! I seriously have no idea where she came from. She is so pure. She is one of those people who was born to be a member of the church. She has problems getting to church so she takes the train. She was supposed to come this Sunday, but she couldn't find the church. It was so sad. This morning she called us and apologized that she didn't come because she couldn't find it still. We set it up for one of the members in Madison to take the train with her then a taxi to church. WE told her about what we set up and she got so excited. She is so stoked for her baptism too! She wants us to come over all the time and she is seriously perfect!! I'm so excited for her to get baptized soon!

On Saturday morning we got asked by the union city elders to accompany one of the members down there to go visit her daughter in the hospital in Morristown. We agreed and we set it up with the member. We thought that it would be just some kind of normal hospital visit, but we pulled up to the address of the hospital that she gave us and we came to realize that we were actually visiting a psychiatric hospital... We read the sign, then had a little freak out moment and headed inside. We got some badges and got permission to go upstairs. We went upstairs and got let into her special unit. She was in this closed room with a ton of tables. Her name was Norma and her moms name was Tomasa....

It was seriously the scariest moment of my life! We walked in then she started screaming and cursing at us and slapping around chairs. The nurse introduced us to her and asked if it was OK if we stayed. She calmed down and said yes but we had to sit in certain chairs... I was the one closest to her, so I was basically the shield for my companions. We tried talking to her a little bit and asking her simple questions like her favorite color and things. She was fine for a while, but her mood would change really rapidly. It was kind of like walking on egg shells. We asked if we could say a prayer  and they said yes. We were on an exchange with Sister Larson at the time, so she started to offer the prayer. AS she was praying Norma stood up and started cursing and slamming the chairs around... It was awkward we didn't know what to do so we kept praying. Then Norma left the room. It was so hard not to laugh because we didn't know what to do. Norma came back in and we tried to share a scripture but she was just getting mad so we left. We were laughing all the way down the hallway just because of how crazy mission life is. Also on the way out some creepy guy came up to us and asked if we would come visit him... we just kind of smiled and walked away. we could not get out of there fast enough.. I'm not really sure what was wrong with Norma, but it made me very thankful that I am mentally healthy.

Sister Smedley, Sister Larson, and Me after we went to visit Norma.

I think that is all of the really exciting things that happened this week. Other than laughing with my companions non stop. It feels so good to be laughing so much. Last night I got up to go to the bathroom at around 11 so Smedley and Heule were still awake. I came back into the room and crawled into my bed. Sister Smedley had crawled into my bed while I was gone and she scared me to death. We were all busting up. Then sister Heule is super skittish so sister Smedley went up to her bed to apologize but sister Heule didn't see her so she screamed. It was super funny. I got some funny ones. We also had a 2 hour long comp inventory last night. It was kind of hilarious, but nice. We are really good friends and have a lot of honesty.

Oh yeah, We found this really cute cupcake place in Boonton! We got cupcakes and they were so YUMMY! I know you would have loved them Katie and Julie. I took pictures for you!

 



Trio Magic!





Me and Sister Smedley with our cupcakes!





Well, I love you and miss you all! I hope you have a great week!

-Sister Clark

I am so in LOVE

Hey family.... I just have to say I am really, really frustrated right now... because I just wrote you all a really good email that was like 3 pages long and super detailed and I spent like 45 minutes on it... then I spazed out or something and hit a button and it all ERASED! I am so mad right now... ughghhghghghghghgh. Oh well. I just have to try to remember everything I said. grr.

 

Ysael and James, the two boys that I taught how to pray.

 

James. This kid is so precious. I miss him so much.

Irma, Hermana Throcky and Yo

Hmmm. Well. I am so so so in love with my new area, but I've got to go in order of the story before I get into that.

 

Transfer Conference: Tuesday morning we barely made it to transfer conference on time because I made the dumb decision to start packing the morning of, then we got locked out of our apartment, but luckily Beatriz came to the rescue and taught us how to pick a lock. :) So anyways, we got to transfer conference right on time on Tuesday, and Sister Schaefer saved me a seat <3 We started off the way we always do, singing "How Firm a fFoundation." I looooove singing that with missionaries. Then we went into transfers. President started right from zone one and went down area to area. We have so much fun. We can try to guess where we're going, but were always wrong and it ends up being a huge surprise. You hear your name, then shock runs through your body and you shooot off your seat and wave at your new comp and everyone ooohs and ahhhs and sometime screams and its funny. I am so interested to see how it is in other missions, because here in the NJMM I feel like the unity and love we have between all the missionaries is pretty unique. I love it though.

 

The Morristown Elders Packer and Lattuga. I actually was in the MTC with Elder Packer and he came out with me, so I am super excited to be with him. He plays the piano lie a boss and he drew this sweet Mario rendition of the plan of salvation. Gotta love those elders.

 

But anyways. President starts from 1 and goes down the zones all the way to 10. Most exciting 20 minutes ever. He gets down to zone 3 and calls sister Schaefer's name. She shoots up completely shocked. I HAD A HEART ATTACK!! SISTER SCHAEFER GOT DOUBLED IN TO WEST NEW YORK! Everyone flipped out and started cracking up! I shot up and gave her the hugest hug! Everyone was laughing at our reaction because they all know we came out together and we are bffs and she is going to the area I was born in. I am so excited for her. Then he kept going down the line. He made it down to zone 8. As it gets further down the zones it gets more nerve racking because your options start slimming down. I was positive I was going to Lakewood which is in zone 12. Then out of no where.... President pauses for a second, adjusts his glasses, then gives me a look. Still pauses then he says my name. I stand up... then he says sister Heule she stands up... Everyone was in complete shock. He was calling us to the area Morristown, but that made no sense because if sister Heule and I were going to Morristown, that would mean that we were getting doubled in, which didn't make any sense... then he pauses then calls sister Smedley. She shoots up with the hugest grin on her face and turns around and gives us fives! Everyone oooohed and laughed. President starts chuckling because of how confused everyone was and how excited we were. Then he said with a chuckle in his voice "Sister Smedley emailed me last week and told me how much she would love to have a trio in Morristown, so here you go Sister Smedley" then we all laughed and he moved on. I WAS SO EXCITED!!! This is going to sound weird, but I really really wanted both sister Heule and sister Smedley as companions. I was praying for companions like them and I was so excited to be in a trio...

 



All of us sisters in Zone 9! I love them like my own sisters.



 

My new district Leader, Elder Lattuga. He's awesome!

anywhoo... transfer conference ends and we get all of our stuff into our cars.... It was embarrassing how much stuff I had. I had 3 suit cases, 3 crate boxes and a laundry bag full of stuff. I am accumulating stuff so bad, I need to start sending some boxes home. But we had to use 3 cars because we had all of my stuff and sister Heule's stuff and the other 2 cars that we were using had stuff too... PLUS since were in Morristown, that means that people stay at our apartment sometimes, so we had Sister Snow staying with us that night. She was a temple square missionary who served here in NJ with us for 3 transfers on her outbound mission but is now returning to her mission in temple square.. So if you go to temple square, look for sister Snow, she is a New Jersey Morristown Missionary :) Sooooo, we get all our stuff loaded into our apartment then headed out to teach. The first investigator I met here's name is David. He is 17 and from Mexico and so adorable. He understands so much and soaks it all up like a sponge. So cute. I loved him to death. Then we went out around Morristown. Funny story : we are driving home from that appointment that night and I am in the front with sister Smedley, she is driving, all of a sudden she just starts screaming and laughing hysterically and pulls over. We have no idea what is going on, then she just screams, and points "that spider is on the inside of the car!" Then I see it, this HUGE spider crawling on the inside of the windshield. We all start screaming hysterically and jump out of the car on the side of a busy road.... Sister Smedley and I are terrified of spiders, but sister Heule just jumped out and grabs her shoe and smashes it. We were cracking up so hard. It was a great ice breaker for us as companions.

 

Our one weakness as a companionship...We are all equally messy. Hahaha  I <3 them!

 

I am having so much fun with these two.. We were made for each other. We are so completely different but in the best way. I haven't laughed as much as I have this week in my whole mission. It didn't take very long for us to become best friends. Serving here in Morristown with this trio with Sisters Smedley and Heule is quickly becoming my favorite area and companionship. We are working like crazy. It's amazing because we not only have so much fun together, but we work so well together because we each have so many different talents that we are just this powerhouse trio. We have some AMAZING investigators here. I have fallen in love with everyone that I have met. We have 5 progressing investigators right now and we have found some awesome people this week. We are doing our 10 contacts a day really well. Last night around 8:15 we realized that we still hadn't done our 10 contacts so we just looked at each other and without saying anything just hopped in the car and drove to a busy street, hopped out and started contacting like crazy. We contacted 15 people in 20 minutes then went home and got home on time.... and they were like quality family contacts, too. It was so awesome. We work really hard together and have really high expectations of each other, which I love. We can almost kind of just look at each other and communicate. It's weird. And we are super honest too. I JUST LOVE THIS COMPANIONSHIP!! Can't even tell you.

 

On Thursday we had interviews with president Jeppson, which was cool because we live like 5 minutes away from the mission home... but anyways, it rained all that day, so we had been out working our tails off in the rain so we had interviews with rain hair and we just looked bad, then as we were leaving, sister Jeppson pulls out these garbage bags, cuts a hole in them and puts them over our heads. It was so funny. WE looked like astronauts or something. Sister Jeppson is so cute... I am so excited because we are taking her to go teach with us on Thursday night. It's going to be awesome. I love living close to the Jeppsons.

 

Me and Sister Smeds with our bags from Sister Jeppson.

 

Trio magic. We cute.

 

I saw Perth Amboy on Friday night at a Relief Society meeting. This is the Perth Amboy RS sisters and all the sisters who have served in Perth Amboy previously. So me, sister Solomon and Sister Haddock.

Me and Sister Webb.

Me, Sister Web, and Sister Haddock. We had a zone lunch with the sisters on our last pday in PA and we had WAY too much fun taking weird pictures.

 

 

We were doing this thing where you just make all these faces in a row then take a random picture of which ever face you happen to be making...I basically almost peed my pants laughing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was about to take my last picture with Sisters Webb and Collins, but Sister Collins had something in her teeth that wouldn't come out so I had to help our out a bit. It was way funny!

What else... oh yeah...  Morristown is where all the really rich people live, so our area just has all these huge houses and it is so green! There are rivers and forests everywhere and our area is huge! We cover a bunch of towns surrounding Morristown. The elders are in actual Morristown because it's a walking area. We have all the areas surrounding it and parts of Morristown... Funny story though, Snooky from Jersey Shore lives in our area. I was dying when sister Smedley told me that. We're gonna go find her. Get ready Jersey Shore.

 

There are SO MANY bridges in NJ, but they are beautiful.

Some crazy shop in Newark.

When L. Tom Perry was here, he went to a diner and gave this guy a card...WE found him!! Milagros!!

 

There is this river right next to our apartments, so for "morning exercises" we go and skip rocks. They are teaching me how to skip rocks. It's so funny. It's not really exercise, but it gets us out in the morning in the fresh air, and we usually run down to the river. I love it. There is also this huge like meadow thing by our apartments.. It's beautiful. Morristown is simply gorgeous. I love it.

 

Fun thing about being in the trio, is that there isn't very many of us, so people call us the trio, and they like know who we are... we also get to do this thing called the triangle, which means that we can form this triangle and cover more distance because I can see one, then the one can see the other. I don't know if that makes sense, but you can cover more ground with a trio. You can also get in to any home because there are 3 women, which is a mission rule. You can't be alone with a man unless there are 3 women. It made it hard to teach male investigators because you would always have to bring a female member. With trios you don't have to do that. You can also do splits much easier and do 2 lessons at once. Just send one in the companionship out with a member while the other two go somewhere else. Basically trios=my favorite thing in the world. Especially my trio. We were meant to be companions.

 

Also, we have a baptism next Sunday! I'm super excited. There is this incredible part member family and they have been having so many miracles in their family. Two of the kids are going to get baptized this transfer. They are both in their 20s and we go over there to teach them almost every night. I am so in love with this family. There is this phrase in Spanish that goes like this " me cae bien" which means that you fit well with me. That's the only way I can describe this family. They're so great.

 

Well, that's just about all I've got for this week. Next week expect lots of trio adventures! I love you all! Have a great week.

 

-Sister Clark

 

Ramon and Estrella's house. The place and the people I miss the most about Perth Amboy. Biggest finding miracle on my whole mission and the most powerful lessons I ever taught happened right here at this house on the corner of Passic Street.

Me and Megs

Me, Victoria and Megan.

 

I Am Being Transferred

NJ Pride

I feel like it is always the same story on the last Thursday night of the transfer... But somehow  it is never any less exciting for me. This transfer, both Sister Throckmorton and I felt like we had very high chances of training, so we were super anxious.

The transfer text...dun dun dun.

Every Thursday, we hold a weekly planning session as a companionship, which normally lasts about 3 hours. In this time we discuss every single investigator and member that we teach regularly and we plan their lessons for the week. We discuss our contacts that we had in the week and the people who could potentially become investigators and we discuss ways to find new people to teach. If you go to PMG (Preach My Gospel) chapter 8 you can read all about what this planning consists of. It is kind of a long process, but it is usually pretty fun. We can tend to get kind of restless and do crazy things.... we also eat a lot. BUT on the last Thursday of the transfer it is like 10x worse because we have to do the transfer planning. It adds on another 2 hours to fill out all of the information in our new planners and to plan all of the activities for the month and to completely update the area book. Then after all of that planning, we have to do TAC, which takes another 2ish hours. Basically we don't really leave the apartment. So much fun though!

 

Me and Throcky during TAC right after we got the training call.

 

In addition to all of that fun stuff we have the trainer calls, which normally go out on Thursday night because the Trainers meeting is almost always on Friday morning. We had just barely put on our p-day clothes to start cleaning. Sister Throckmorton was in the bathroom. I heard the phone. We had heard the phone go off 3 times that day already and every single time we jumped to go see if it was President Jeppson. This time, I didn't really feel like it could be him. I go and look at the phone and I saw the oh so familiar 0.0 President Jeppson light up on the screen.... I think my heart will race every single time. I answered, "Hello, this is Sister Clark" "Hi Sister Clark, how is your TAC going?" "Oh, its going very well President Jeppson, what can I do for you today?" "Well, Sister Clark, I need to speak with your companion" "Absolutely President Jeppson, please hold." Put the phone on mute.. die a little. Say a gratitude prayer that I am not training... "SISTER THROCKMORTON, PRESIDENT JEPPSON WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!" I scream at my companion through the bathroom door. I don't hear anything.... then the door swings open. She thought I was kidding.... I was so so serious. I showed her the phone and she had a little freak out moment, then answers the phone. She got called to train! hahaha so funny. I have now answered the phone for 4 training calls for my companions. I am getting used to speaking with President Jeppson on the phone. I guess I have just been blessed with AWESOME companions! Who knows, maybe in 6 weeks he'll be calling for me.... You never know. The suspense kills me.


Sheila and Me

Beatriz, me and Wellington. My favorites!

Paula and family.

Sillies

 

Other than that, it was a pretty average week. We went to the zone meeting which was AWESOME! Our monthly focus is on faith and the STLs made a cute planner cover for the zone goal. The zone goal is to one up our Key Indicator scores every week. It's going to be awesome and a huge test of our faith. Our monthly scripture is Moroni 7:33-34. So awesome, I love it. After our Zone meeting, we had the hot seats for Elder Christensen and Elder Romrell, who are leaving on Wednesday :( SO SAD! I don't know if I have ever told y'all about a hot seat. On the last zone meeting of the transfer, the missionaries who are going home have what is called a "hot seat" where you put a couch on top of a table and they sit up there and all the missionaries in the zone get to sit around them and ask them what ever questions that they want about their missions. IT is so FUNNY! There are always some quality stories and great advice. I was super sad though, because this time my district leader Elder Christensen was leaving! It's sad to see him go. He has been my district leader for 2 transfers... I have only had 2 district leaders on my whole mission, which is kind of strange... normally people switch districts every 1 or 2 transfers. I'm just super BLESSED because I have had the 2 GREATEST district leaders in the whole mission and I was blessed to have them both for 3 transfers each. But, anyways they just told awesome stories about almost getting jumped in Trenton by gangsters, but escaping by the power of the word of God, casting out devils, and of course lots of randomly naked people in the streets... New Jersey is insane, then you've got to have the most embarrassing moments and the moments where you laughed the hardest with your companion, I guess one of them peed their pants from laughing so hard and the other one's companion broke a hole in the wall with his rock hard bum. Good times. That is what a mission is all about. The good times.

Sheila, the recent convert of the Elders, making the tostadas for the mother's day activity. On Sunday, the primary invited all the Relief Society in for a lunch. It was WAY cute!

The Presidencia and Me. I am going to miss these 3 like crazy. Best Relief Society Presidency I've ever seen!

Hermana Cruz and me <3

OOOOOH MONDAY!! I can't forget  about Monday. Last Monday after emails, we had the FUNNEST p-day I have had on my whole mission. We had a zone activity. The whole zone came down here to Perth Amboy and we headed down to the beach to play Foosball... Literally, one of the Elders found a broken Foosball table in a dumpster so he took it home, fixed it and it is as good as new...

Elder Platt and Sister Collins, an intense game. Sister Collins couldn't handle the defeat.

 

I am amazed at some of the random things that Elders have. It was so much fun though! We just brought the Foosball table down to the beach and played Foosball and ate pizza on the shores of good ole Perth Amboy.

 

Look who it is! Hermana, Martinez, mi mama <3

 

Of course all of us sisters headed down to the waters edge and wrote in the sand and took some epic jumping pictures.

 

My STLs, Sisters Webb and Collins. LOOOOOVE them.

 

NJMM Pride

 

 

 I think these are some of my favorite sisters that I have ever served around, it's going to be rough to leave them! I'm the only sister getting transferred in the zone. Waaaaahhh :( We had a lot of fun though. I brought my guitar and Sister Webb sang. She has an awesome voice. It was really fun to play the guitar and take pictures and just chill with some of my favorite sisters. The Elders were taking weird pictures... Like the little mermaid and King Triton pictures... I think that is what they were going for... I don't ask anymore.

 

 

I told you they were weird...this is pretty normal

 

 

 

 It's just always weird. hahahaha. Oh elders. It was hard to leave when P-Day was over. We wanted to stay there all day. Oh well, there is work to be done!

 

Celenia returned home yesterday from the D.R. and is ready for baptism soon! So excited for her!

 

It's going to be so sad to leave all of our awesome investigators. We really have some jewels down here in P.A., but I will keep you updated on how they are doing and when they get baptized!

 

Well, gotta go! Love you all!

-Sister Clark

 

These dark babies are killing me. I want to steal them. Look at that hair!

 

May!!!



Sister T made me this sign for my halfway mark



 

Katie sent me a Rita's gift card for my halfway! we were super stoked! Tahks, Katie.

 

I can't believe it's MAY! The summer is coming here in New Jersey. It's starting to get pretty humid and I am not sure how I feel about it. Yuck. I am not looking forward to this humidity. We got SO MUCH RAIN this week! It was so much fun though! Rain just makes missionary work more fun, especially when it's not cold rain. Cold rain isn't as fun.

 

We got so SOAKED!

 

It was a pretty slow week around here. Celenia left for the DR to get married, she is coming back on May 11, so hopefully there will be a baptism quickly following that. I am so excited for her. She is amazing! We got to meet with Ramon and Estrella and we had a really serious talk with them about keeping their commitments and the importance of reading the things we ask them to read and things like that. We got the vibe from them that they really want to read and to keep learning. We weren't sure for a little while because they weren't really doing their homework. We called them a couple of days later and they said that they read the plan of salvation pamphlet and the scriptures in the back together as a family with their 3 boys and they loved it! I'm so excited! It is really neat that they did that. We ask them every time we see them if they will follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized and they always say yes... They just haven't come to church. It is so hard to get people to church sometimes. Once they start coming to church, I think things will start moving very quickly for them. They are such a neat family and I just love them so much because I found them and it was such a miracle. They are such a miracle.

 



We made a banana cream pie for weekly planning!



Sorry it's a bit blurry and we look crazy

We had it planned this week to go on an exchange with our Sister Training Leaders on Friday of this week, but on Tuesday night at about 10:15, we got a text from them saying that they couldn't do it on Friday because they had a meeting, and they asked us if we could do it the next day. We said sure and we threw our stuff together to do this exchange. It was kind of crazy and last minute, but that's just missionary life. Everything is kind of crazy and last minute. You just have to do what you have to do. Good times for sure.

 

Wednesday was the day it rained ALL DAY! Literally it was raining when I woke up and it was raining when I went to bed, no pauses in between. I have never seen so much rain in my life. BUT, anyways, on Wednesday we get up, study and we had 2 appointments before our exchange at 3. We met the Sisters at the Perth Amboy capilla... (I forgot how to say that in English... sorry family). (Mom looked it up- chapel) We exchanged super quickly in the pouring rain, trying not to get our stuff wet. Sister Webb came to Perth Amboy with Sister Throckmorton and I went down to East Brunswick with Sister Collins. I HAD SUCH A GOOD TIME!! It was the Best Exchange of my whole mission... I feel like I say that every time, but this one was really good. I had already been down to this area before on my exchange with Sister Varble, so I was a little bit familiar with the area. Sister Collins is a newly called Sister Training Leader and I didn't know her before she got put down here with Sister Webb in East Brunswick at the beginning of the transfer. I had been really impressed by her though as I spoke with her at zone meetings and I know her daughter Sister Paight, who was in my district for my first two transfers of my mission, so I was SO excited to go out with her for the day and learn some of her tricks and skills and what not.

 

We drove down to East Brunswick, which is about a 30 minute drive and we talked and got to know each other a little bit... we were starving though. They had a crazy morning because they were actually on an exchange the day before and were just barely exchanging back. They were together for about 30 minutes on the drive to Perth Amboy. That life must be crazy. The STLs do 2 or more exchanges per week. I don't know how they do it. Anyways, she had  a crazy morning/afternoon and hadn't even eaten yet, so we had a little lunch brake and we went to this place called Mancini's pizza. The missionaries in Brunswick areas go there a lot and we go there for zone lunch sometimes, so the workers there know the missionaries. The sisters have an investigator who goes there every day and he has been promising that he would get them a shirt but he hasn't, so while we were ordering, Sister Collins asked the cashier, "so how can we get one of those cool Mancini shirts" and he said, well, what size do you want? We told him our size and then he just gave them to us. We were shocked... He gave them to us for free! We were so stoked! It as pretty funny. It was a great start to the rest of the exchange. We enjoyed our pizza then we headed out to an apartment complex where there were some appointments scheduled.

 

The day wasn't really scheduled out very well because Sister Webb was there the day before and sister Collins was in Princeton so we just had to kind of do what felt right. All the appointments around there juked, so we decided to get in our 10 contacts for the day.... IN THE POURING RAIN!! We knocked tons of doors and everyone told us we were crazy. We taught one guy in his doorway, we couldn't go inside because there wasn't a woman. We were DRIPPING! Then we found an area that had the hallways covered, so we decided to try those. We started from the top and worked our way down. We weren't having much luck, then we knocked this door and this guy named Archie answered. He invited us in right away, but we couldn't enter because there wasn't a woman present, so he just came right outside in the rain with us. He was really interested. He told us how he had been through some hard things in his life and he wants to strengthen his relationship with God. He was born Muslim and he was planning on starting to practice again, but he said he wants to explore other things. He said that he recently started praying every day and this morning he was praying that he would have somebody to talk to, and he knew as soon as the doorbell rang that his prayers were being answered. We taught him about the restoration and read him a scripture. He was in awe and he looked at us and said, "I am so thankful that you two sisters came over today and taught me in the rain, can you come back tomorrow" so we scheduled an appointment with him the next day. I haven't followed up with them yet on how it went, but I'm going to see the sisters and I'm excited to see how it went.

 

Sister Collins and me.

 



After that we went to the church for mutual to see if anyone brought some non member friends... and we really had to use the bathroom. Church buildings are life SAVERS! There wasn't really anyone there, but we talked to some members for a while and we went into the family history center and the lady helped me learn how to do family history, which I really needed because we are trying to get that started here in Perth Amboy. No one has done it before... then we had to leave because we had a lesson planned with an investigator named Bob at 8:30. Bob lives in the same apartment complex as the sisters, so when we pulled into their spot at the complex, we saw that the door of our apartment was WIDE OPEN!! It was so scary. We were super scared and we didn't know what to do... and we were late for the appointment, so we called the elders and they said they would come check the apartment as soon as they got home, which would be around 9 or a little after because the traffic was bad due to the rain... We said ok and so we decided that we would just leave it open because we were too freaked out and go to our appointment. We started to say a prayer in the car before we left. In the middle of the prayer we hear this huge BAM! right on the hood of the car. We both screamed so loud and jumped. It scared us to death. It scared the guy who slammed our car to death too. we rolled down the window and he said that he was the neighbor and he just wanted to let us know that the door had been open all day. Which freaked us out even more. We ran to Bobs and had a pretty good lesson with him. I taught his wife in Spanish, she's from Colombia. Then we headed home around 9:30. The elders still weren't there because they were stuck in traffic because the freeway flooded.

 





  

Bob made us the WIERDEST brownies



 

 

We started our nightly planning in the car. The elders finally got there around 10 and checked our apartment. They said nothing looked wrong and it looked like the door just blew open from the wind. We headed inside and finished our nightly planning. We barely finished by 10:30. The lights have to be out by 10:30 but we hadn't even eaten dinner or gotten ready for bed. so we turned off all the lights and got a flashlight and ate some left over pizza in the light of the flashlight and were just cracking up about how crazy our day was and how soaking wet we were. We got in bed around 11 but didn't even end up going to sleep until around 1 because we were talking so much. Sister Collins fell asleep mid sentence because she was so tired. It was funny. She is super cool and we had a lot of fun together and got along really well and had a lot of random things in common. Is what I needed! Its always fun to make a new friend.

Cute Planner!

 

 The next day we did our comp study and you always get an extra hour on exchanges so the Sisters can give you a training and kind of criticize you and help you set goals to improve. Sister Collins helped me SO MUCH! I had felt like I was kind of stuck in my missionary work and I got to talk to her about it a little bit and she knew exactly what to say and taught me something really cool about goals and desires and stuff and we were able to set some really good goals for me which have helped so much! It was so cool that this exchange was exactly what I needed to get out of the little rut I was in and that Sister Collins was able to help me. I'm not sure if anyone else could have helped me like she did. God puts us where we need to be and when so we can learn.

 

 

We got to go through the Ironbound to get to the Newark chapel. It's crazy down there in Newark!                           There's a reason only Elders serve there!

On Saturday night we got to go down to Newark for the Saturday night session of Stake conference. It was such a good conference! It was all about missionary work. President and Sister Jeppson spoke and one of our Sister Training Leaders in the short hills area spoke. She did a particularly good job representing the NJMM. President Jeppson had all the missionaries stand, which was about 40ish of us and he bore a testimony in our behalf of the gospel of Jesus Christ while we were standing. The spirit was so strong and it was really neat. I was so proud to be a missionary. Then President Jeppson looked at us and told us that he was proud of us. There is no better feeling than when President Jeppson tells you he's proud of you... Except for when maybe God says it :)

 

We had a member who went with us and she was so motivated that she went and ordered a copy of preach my gospel right then and then she came out with us on a team up last night. We contacted this one guy and she gave him a Book of Mormon, asked him to read it, set a return appointment AND asked him for referrals. It was awesome, and the guy was super interested and wants us to come back. MEMBERS ARE THE BEST!! Members are so important. and in the words of Sister Boudesoque, who spoke at our stake conference "Members, you are so important to missionary work and to the missionaries. We LOVE you and we are here because of you" I couldn't say it any better. Its 100% true. I hope you all are doing your member missionary work and have a family mission plan. If you need help, ASK THE MISSIONARIES... They will be happy to help you. That's what they're there for.  I think before my mission I always had the mindset that the missionaries need the member's help - that they rely on members for food and for referrals and what not, but I have learned that it's the opposite. Its really the members that need the help of the missionaries. The missionaries aren't serving missions so that they can receive help from members, they're serving missions so that they can help the members and strengthen the WARD. Well, at least that's why I'm serving a mission. Just a thought :)

I got to go to Manhattan this week! Super cool! I love that place.

It was SUPER flooded.

I got an AWESOME package from my sisters. I was so happy and am still super happy! Gotta love those packages!

 

WE love packages!!

 

 

 

Well, that's about all I've got for now. It was a great week, I hope you all had a great week also. I love you all!

Have a great week and don't forget to read in the Book of Mormon EVERY DAY! Its really important!

-Sister Clark

 

 

Weirdest dry cleaning sign ever. We crack up every time we see it.

 

 

 

We found the cutest kittens. I was DYING!