New Beginnings

Howdy family, how y'all doin' this mornin'?

 

Oh wait, I'm not serving in the west. I am definitely serving in the NORTH! In a foreign land called PASSAIC, where there are a lot of HISPANICS... so let me try that one over again.

 

Buenas dias querida familia, como estan?

 

Wow, what a week. Honestly, it was such a long week. One of the longer weeks of my mission, BUT in the best way possible. It was a great week. I mean, Monday and Tuesday morning was pretty hard. We went to go see Ivonne and the Garcia family and that was so hard to say goodbye. I hugged Ivonne so tight and we promised we would stay in contact and I gave her a little gift. The Garcias were especially hard. They really became like family to me. We were over there visiting someone every day and we always went over on Monday nights for Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening). They helped me develop such a strong testimony of Noche de Hogar. All of the kids are in their 20s, but they still take the time to gather together on Monday nights and share a gospel message and play with each other and the spirit is just so happy... Even though in my eyes, they would have no reason to be happy at all. They don't speak English, they are dirt poor and they all live in 2 rooms. They really changed my life and it was hard to say goodbye. I felt like I was leaving with unfinished work, but it was so out of my hands. I am praying that I will go back to Morristown to end my mission. It was really touching the relationship they had with Sister Smedley though. Julio cried when she told him and they all started crying. Sister Smedley was very special for them and she had a really special relationship with them. She cried... And she NEVER cries. I think it was good for me to see that because I kind of learned from it. That is all I want. To love the people I serve so much that it is that hard to say goodbye. So, with that in mind, I am so determined to just love everyone in Passaic to pieces and give them everything I have.

 

Tuesday was hard, too. It took us all morning to pack, of course, but it was nice to just have that last few hours to just talk with my companions who became my two best friends in the short six weeks we were together. We got all packed up, loaded the car up and took our short little 10 minute drive to transfer conference. We had to stop on the way to get some ice cream of course. ;) ha ha. We got to the chapel and Neena, one of the members in Morristown, was there waiting for us to say goodbye to sister Smedley and me. She brought us a picture that she printed out of one of the family home evenings with her and a bag of really delicious cookies. It was so sweet! Then, the really tough part came. Transfer conference. It was a mission wide transfer conference, so all of the missionaries were there, even the ones not getting transferred just to say goodbye to President and Sister Jeppson. So so sad. We were also saying goodbye to a lot of spectacular missionaries who have really made a difference in my mission. One being Elder Lattuga, my last district leader. He was great and super fun. Gonna miss him like crazy! And my zone leaders in Perth Amboy, Elder Larson and Elder Jester. They taught me so much! man. It's hard losing people you love! Then in 6 weeks, I lose 3 of my companions, my best friends. I am trying not to think about it! waaahhhh. But the whole transfer conference was great. All the Seniors in the office are leaving as well, which is sad. They had this mission down. But, we also got to meet the new senior couple, I know they will be great and will get the hang of it. Departing testimonies always remind me of how close and united we are as a mission, because anyone who is not a missionary would probably have no idea what people are talking about we are all just laughing together and saying ridiculous things that you only learn in New Jersey. I loved every minute. I also loved just sitting in between my two companions for the last time. When transfers came, we squeezed each others hands super tight waiting for our big moment. To my surprise, my name got called very first. I was shocked, but I shot up out of my seat then Sister Haycock's name got called and we got doubled in to Passaic. We got some pretty good cheers for that one. Passaic has been closed down for sisters for about 3 weeks because one of the sisters had to go home for health issues :( so everyone was just waiting to see who would get doubled in there. I guess people were excited it was us. ha ha. Sister Smedley was flipping out. She was so excited because she was trained in Passaic and she loved it so I had actually heard quite a bit about it from her. So I was actually pretty excited, too. I think that is when the nervousness faded. I knew where I was going and with whom. Sister Heule got Sister Summers and Sister Heule as companions in Motown and Sister Smedley got transfered to Plainfield with Sister Brown. I'm excited about this companerismo. They're gonna kill it. Then President and Sister Jeppson shared their departing testimonies. They were brief but powerful, and we all departed. President Jeppson was standing in the foyer hugging everyone and getting pictures with us. It was such a loving thing for him to do since he was being swarmed by 250 smelly misioneros. But all the sisters were so excited because we got to hug him for the first time! All the sisters were giving him a huge squeeze. It was nice. I went up and hugged him so tight and he hugged me back so tight then he looked at me and said "Sister Clark, I love you much and I am just so proud of you."  Then he shook my hand and had to move on to one of the other 250, but wow, my heart melted! I love that man!

 

It took us a while to get our car figured out because another area was using our car, then someone else drove off with our house keys, which we needed so we had to wait FOREVER to even leave Morristown. It was practically empty by the time we left. BUT, the Garcia family showed up to play soccer so I got to get one last hug from everyone and say bye. I was really thankful I got to see them again. It was kind of funny because sister Heule drove up and she said " I have a surprise for you, guess who is coming to play soccer?" Then their van drove up and I took off running down the parking lot and they jumped out of the van. I basically attacked Ana. It was fun.

 

We made it to Passaic around 8:30 and went to get subway with the zone leaders Elder Leon and Elder Hanson. They are super nice and they prepared the area so nice for us. Then they led us to our apartment. Our apartment is sweet! Members live both above us and below us and they just adore us. It is kind of fun being a missionary because everyone just adores you, not gonna lie. ha ha But it is a super cool old house and we live on the second floor. Gotta send you some pictures. There are stained glass windows and it has been a missionary apartment for a long time, so missionaries have left things around... Like there is a bagel hanging from the window seal. I don't even want to know how long it has been there. And there are scrabble magnets on the fridge and we have scrabble with all the missionary names that have lived there. It's pretty sweet.

 

Anyways. My district leader is Elder Perez. I don't know if you remember, but I served in Perth Amboy with him for 3 transfers, so I absolutely love him. I am so thankful he is my district leader. He set some really good expectations and standards for us that really helped me and Sister Haycock to push ourselves this week. The mission standard is 20 lessons a week. Our district standard is 21. Our mission standard for contacting is 10 a day. Our district standard is 15, so obviously he expects nothing but the best. I really like it. Also, I am very happy to announce that in the 5 days that we were in our area, both completely new, we achieved this goal. Yep, we got 21 lessons in 5 days. It was sweet. We worked our tails off. We did some hard core contacting and some fun street lessons. We have almost no investigators, so I think this is going to be our life for the next couple of weeks until we get some solid investigators to teach. I am excited though. We got to meet a lot of the members. I already love everyone we have met. There is this family that the branch pres asked us to visit, so we went over and they were super cool. They're a bit less active, but the oldest daughter is 20 and she isn't a member and her mom said that she never comes out to listen to the missionaries. We asked if she would go get her just so we could say hi, so the daughter came out and we introduced ourselves and got a conversation going with her. She is super cool and we actually had  a lot in common, so we asked her if she would stay while we just shared a short Mormon message and she said sure, and she stayed and talked to us about her beliefs and her theories and stuff and she said that she would be there when we go back on Wednesday! I am so excited to be friends with this girl and teach her. It's gonna be sweet!

 

Passaic is definitely not Morristown. It's a little more like West New York, but sketchier. BUT that means that there is a lot of Hispanics. AND it means that I can buy the Hispanic food that I have been craving ever since I left WNY. I'm super excited. Also, this is random, but there is a TON of Polish people. Everyone we meet is either Hispanic or Polish. We walk up thinking that they're white, but they're actually polish. We gotta get in the habit of carrying a Polish BOM.

 

Also, random story, the other day we saw a man walking around with a huge snake rapped around his neck... so weird. Kinda creepy. Also, I can't wait to send you pics, there is a TON of really awesome old churches. One looks like it could be in India... Kind of like the palace in Aladdin. It looks exactly like that. I loooove it. Also, Passaic is the home of the dirtiest river EVER. Its woooonderful for my missionary purpose, but I don't think I would ever like to live here. ha ha ha.

 

So, I just realized that I have hardly said anything about my companion. She is AWESOME. Her name is Sister Haycock and she is from Colorado. She is a super hard worker. She is going to work my tail off, I'm super excited. She studied Spanish for like  6 years before the mission so she is soooo good. She's going to help me out a lot. She was actually our sister training leader in Elizabeth when I was in Motown and she trained sister Heule. She and sister Heule opened Kearney for the sisters. The first sister area in Neawark, so she's got a pretty impressive resume. We're going to have a great transfer together!

 

Ok, one thing that is definitely amusing about being in Passaic is the excitement of the world cup. In Morristown we didn't really see it because there wasn't a lot of high populated Spanish areas. Like we would see flags and people wearing shirts and we would definitely talk to people about it all the time... But here in Passaic, it is a full out party. You know exactly who the winner is the second the game is over. There is a full on party in the streets. People outside singing and dancing and running with flags. Cars honking. Music blaring. Bars completely crowded with celebration. It is kind of hilarious. I looooooove it. The only problem.. Not a whole people want to talk about Jesus Christ after the games... Oh funny story. So on Wednesday we had an appointment already set for us with this family, so we go over and they let us in, but then the hermana is like... Oh hermanas, it's a bad time, the game is starting right now. Ecuador was playing and she was from Ecuador. We were like "uhhh, ok that's fine but can we just share something like really quick. 5 little minutes?" Then she was like... oh okay. So she turned the TV down and we asked her if she would pray, but then she looked at the TV and let out a shriek and said, wait, hermanas, we have to listen to the Ecuador anthem first. and she turned the TV up so loud and we had to wait until it was over. Then after the closing prayer she booted us out so fast! It was kind of hilarious! 

 

Well, I hope you all have a spectacular week! Love yous!

-Sister Clark

I Am Leaving Morristown!

Hola familia! I hope you are all doing well..

Wow, I don't really know what to say. I am having really weird emotions. On Thursday we texted the assistants to ask them how many planners we needed to prepare for the next transfer. They told us 3 so we got really excited because we thought we were staying together for the next transfer. Last night we got the transfer text at 11:09. We were all almost asleep but we jumped out of bed to read it. That was a bad idea. It's always so hard to sleep after reading the transfer texts. But... Sister Smedley and I are getting transferred, Sister Heule is staying here in Morristown and two new sisters are coming in.

Our District

We're silly!

I am honestly really upset. It is kind of hard for me to trust in the Lord right now. I feel like my faith is lacking. I really hate saying that, but I really felt like I was supposed to stay in Morristown. I loved it so much. And I don't want to leave the Garcia family and Ivonne. I love them way too much. It is really hard to leave. Also my companions. This has been the best companionship for me. I love my companions. We had a lot of struggles this transfer, but we grew so much and we really love each other. It's going to be hard, but I know it will be Ok. On Friday I went to go see President Jeppson for a couple of minutes and he gave me a blessing. He kind of prepped me for what was going to come. It's hard to explain, but I think he has had this planed since before I got sent to Morristown. And President Taggert is coming in this week, so really the whole mission is changing around. Everyone is getting moved around and it all seems weird to us, but I know that President Jeppson is putting us where we need to be for President Taggart. It's just really weird to think about. It is going to be hard to say goodbye to the Jeppsons. It's finally starting to hit me. When we went to the mission home on Friday, it was almost empty. It was this cozy warm home. It made me sad. The way President Jeppson has been talking to me lately though, during the past transfer, makes me feel like there is a very specific plan for the rest of my mission and he knows what it is. I just have to have faith in that, even if it's not what I thought I wanted.

Me, Jenny and Sister Huele

OOOOOH!! EXCITING NEWS!! SISTER SCHAEFER GOT CALLED TO BE A SISTER TRAINING LEADER!! She is the first one in the mission that has been called as an STL before they have trained. I am seriously so excited for her. She called me and Sister Smedley on Saturday and told us. She asked Smeds for advice because Sister Smedley was her STL when she was in north branch. We talked for a while and got super excited for her. I really hope that we get to do some exchanges together. That would be the best! I would be so excited. I'm so proud of my MTC comp. She is doing GREAT things in the mission. Its really cool to watch other missionaries grow.

I feel unsettled leaving this area and it's weird. Maybe that means that I will come back in the future and end my mission here or something. That happens sometimes. But, I'm going to miss teaching Ivonne and the Garcia family. We taught them almost everyday. They kind of became our family here. Alonso didn't get baptized. I don't think I'll get to see him get baptized. It will probably be next transfer. There is just so much work to do there with that family and I am really sad I can't help. Oh well. I will help a lot of other people.

Morristown Members

There is so much potential in Morristown and so many things that I wanted to do. There are a lot of people that we were planning on starting teaching that I was really excited about... I guess I just have to trust in the sisters that come in and trust that God sent them there.

I like to tease Sister Smedley with trunky jokes.

On Thursday, Sister Smedley laid on the ground for like 3 hours because she was trunky and we had to talk her through it. Going home is hard. I never wanna go home. No offense family. We basically laid on the floor with her and told her how great she is and how she will do great things when she gets home. Then we decided to do our transfer cleaning instead of transfer planning so we could get less distracted by the trunkiness... But then we ended up cleaning for 7 hours. It was some hard core deep cleaning... But somehow it is already messy again. Waaaaaahhhh.

The assistants trying to find our keys yesterday.

We really had a lot of fun every day this week. We always have fun. Our trio goes along so well together. I just can't really think of anything noteworthy. We have been focusing really hard on our contacting this week and so we did our best to contact everyone and we had some really cool ones. One was this lady who is actually a member. She got baptized when she was young in Columbia, then came here and got lost. We are trying to find her records. She is actually really good friends with our 1st counselor in the Branch so when we saw him on Sunday he told us that she told him about us and about how we have an appointment and he would like to come with us. I wish I could see what comes out of that. It was definitely not chance that we found her. She is waaaayyy cool too. ugh. We were knocking doors out in Boonton a few days ago and this Lady opened a door and she just invited us right in. We went in, then she introduced herself and she said she knew exactly who we were because she has met with missionaries before. She wasn't really interested though because they are Muslim and they're actually from Jordan. They were super nice though and they gave us some really interesting food. People are really cool. I kind of love meeting new people. 

 

We went to get some froyo. I'm going to miss this froyo place here in Motown. We came here a lot to wind down.

Julian, Yenny's boyfriend, wants to start meeting with us one on one and progressing towards activation. We had a really good night with him and Alonso a couple of nights ago. I love them soooooo much. We were just super real with them and we talked to them about life and God. It was super chill. Then a couple of days later we were talking to their mom and she told us all about how they came to the U.S. and it was such a crazy story. They were led here by the hand of God because of the covenants they made when they were sealed in the temple in Honduras. They were brought here so they could reactivate and the rest could be baptized and sealed to them. They have an incredible story. We read 2 Nephi 1:5-6 with her. It was powerful. I know that this country really is blessed and every single person that has entered this country was led by the hand of God. Unfortunately, there are a lot who don't survive the journey. I think a lot more than we realize. I am thankful for all of the people I teach here in the Spanish program. They were led here by God because he has a specific purpose for them. It's a neat thing. Oh yeah, Julio, the dad of that family, blessed the sacrament yesterday. I felt the spirit so strong seeing him bless the sacrament. He has come a long way to be able to do that. It is amazing!!

Ivonne's kids are still crazy. I am really going to miss chasing them around church all the time. We are always searching for them when they get lost and they run away from us and stuff. It's frustrating but it's super funny sometimes. Man, I am really going to miss those kids.

Well, that's about it. I will talk to you next week and let you know where I am. My guess... I am getting doubled in somewhere with Sister Haycock. :)

Bye love you all, have a great week... Pray for me!

Love,

Sister Clark

PS: Shout out to the Smedleys. I'm glad you like my letters. I like your daughter, she is the best. She changed my life, so thank you for raising her well. She will do great things.

Elders are Weird

Hola familia!

Primero, quiero decir FELIZ DIA DEL PADRE PAPI!! Te quiero mucho. Tengo un papa maravillosa. Y tengo muchos mas hombres en mi vida que son incredibles. Gracias Ryan y Rod tambien que son dos hombres queme han ayudado mucho en mi vida. Muchas gracias a todos. Les quiero mucho.

Well, it is hard to go into English mode sometimes. Happy Fathers day to all the men in my life! I love you Dad, Rod and Ryan!

This week went by really fast... I don't even know. On Tuesday after emails we had a lot of studying and just kind of boring work to do... Like language study and phone calls and stuff... Missionary work is so diverse. There is a lot of paper work and record keeping and phone time and planning and a lot of really boring things... But I kind of love it. It is fun as long as you make it fun. We got a new investigator! We contacted this guy in Boonton a couple of weeks ago and we set an appointment with  him for Tuesday. We went over to his house and he was happy to see us. We got along so well with him. El me cae bien. He opened right up to us about a lot of things in his life and we were able to effectively relate all of it to the gospel.

Something that I have learned recently is the importance of listening to everything people say. You can always relate the gospel of Jesus Christ to anything people say. It is kind of a hard skill to learn, but I think we did really well with it while we were teaching him and it made all the difference. We brought this member named Obdeli with us. They are the same age, about 25, and they both have a child in their countries. We related them being so far away from their kids to us being so far away from our Father in Heaven. They were really touched by it and the spirit was really strong. We pointed it out to him several times. He said the closing prayer and it was beautiful. We have an appointment with him tomorrow. Yesterday I was texting him and he was eager and joking with us. It was funny. I asked him if we could come see him on Tuesday. He said absolutely, how about 6:04. I said, wow, how specific... what happens if we show up at 6:07. He laughed and said not acceptable. He is a funny guy. I am really excited to be teaching him. Later that night we had a really good lesson with Alonso. He still won't accept a baptismal date, which is kind of sad. He just keeps saying yes, hermanas, but I still don't know when. He is reading the Book of Mormon a lot now though and we talk to him everyday. I love him. He is already so faithful to the church! It is hard to understand why people so solid like him who have such a strong testimony but it just is so hard for them to get baptized. He keeps telling us that it will be very soon though. Man I love him, he's the best!

Alonso playing with Ivonne's daughter, Alixa, during Sacrament meeting. He is SO cute with her.

Wednesday we had another lesson with Ivonne. We taught her about spiritual gifts and callings in the church. We are ready to get her a calling. She is going to be a great help to the ward. We also found an investigator who kind of fell of the face of the planet for a few weeks. His name is David and he was the first person I taught here in Motown. He is so cool, he is a teenager and he's from Mexico. We had a really good lesson with him and he has some really good desires in his life. He is moving to New York though for the summer... We were kind of bummed because that means that we can't teach him... But when we asked him where, he surprisingly said he is going to New City, which happens to be the only part of New York that is in our mission! We were so excited! He agreed to meeting with the elders up there and he is really excited. After that we did a really fun Noche de hogar with the Garcia family and another family in the branch that is in the elder's area. It was so much fun. We brought stuff to make s'mores... of course they had never had those. Its kind of an American thing. We had a lot of fun teaching them how to do it. They made some awesome food too, as always. I really like food from Honduras! It's yummy, they make really good carne.

Thursday was a great day! We got weekly planning in a few hours and we were out working. It was our walking day and we had to walk into Morristown to visit a recent convert named Nina. She is one of my favorite people to teach, she is so funny. She has this sass that my sisters would LOVE. She is Puerto Rican, which means she is hilarious. We went over to her house and she was showing us this new cool machine that she got where you put fruit into it and it turns it into ice cream.. Literally. It just turns the fruit into ice cream. You don't have to put anything else in it. It was really yummy too. We like to mess around with her. We asked her for her ipad so we could read something with her, then when she went into the other room to get it, we snuck into the kitchen. She came out and was so confused. We heard her in the other room. she stopped then she was like "Sisters?" It was so hard not to laugh. She walked in and we scared her. Sister Smedley has a canker on her tongue so she has been talking with a lisp the last couple of days. Nina has been getting a crack out of it. She keeps teasing her and telling her that she sounds like she is from Spain, which is sort of true.

On Friday we had a really intense chastity lesson with Yenny and Julian. Julian basically just told Yenny straight up that he doesn't want to marry her. It was really sad for all of us. I feel so bad for this girl. She doesn't have anyone else here. We need to try to figure out what we are going to do to help her. She might end up going back to Honduras, which would be good for her, but sad for us. I hope she can figure it out though. She has so much potential for good in her life.

Also on Friday we had our all mission activity! The whole mission got together here in Morristown and we played a bunch of games and stuff. It was way fun. Every zone had to wear a certain color, and when we walked in the church they gave us a piece of duct tape which meant which group we would be in. There was a few different games that all the groups rotated through. 

 

Us with Elders Larsen and Lattuga at the Mission Conference

 

Me and Elder Cuevas... we purposely look gross because we had Popsicles in our mouths

 

Me and Sister Schaefer!

 

Trio pride at the mission conference. Everyone else wishes they were a trio.

 

 My favorite was volleyball. We played volleyball with this HUGE GIANT volleyball... It took like 5 people at a time to hit the thing, but it was super fun! I wish I would have taken a picture of it. Then we had a really yummy lunch. Then we had skits. Every zone had to come up with a skit. Ours was hilarious. We were acting out President and Sister Jeppson going to the mission office, so we kind of made fun of the seniors in the mission office because they are so funny. There was a lot of really good skits. We have a really creative/funny mission. The Newark zone had this part where they were talking about some of the clicks in that zone and they had some trunky missionaries. There was some missionaries who will be leaving next week and they were sitting in suit cases talking about home, then the narrator missionary, said, I am joining the trunky missionaries and then one of the trunky sisters said, "Hey president Jeppson, we saved you a seat!" Everyone gasped and started cracking up! It was so funny! After the skits we had the fireside. President and Sister Jeppson sang us all of the songs that they sang us for the zone conferences. It was so cute. I love it when they sing. All of the songs were so familiar and warm. It was so funny. All of the sisters sit in the front rows, and we all had our cameras out and were crying. Then President Jeppson got up and told us his incredible life/conversion story. I loved every second and I have so much respect for him. I feel so blessed to have had him for a mission president. The spirit was so strong and I am going to miss the Jeppsons so much. It was really sad to know that would be the last meeting we would have with them..

 

Last night we wanted to do something fun for father's day, so we cut out a ton of hearts and heart attacked the Jeppsons. We rang the doorbell and booked it to the car. We closed the door to the car right as Sister Jeppson was opening the door. I saw her waving at us through the back window as we sped away. It was funny. It was fun to do that for President though. He is a great Father for the NJMM. WE also made Julio Garcia  fathers day card and gave him a tie. :)

I covered my arm with hearts for the door

President Jeppson's door!

This explains our companionship really well.

Sister Huele and Me

We met this really interesting man this week who was trying to convince us that Satan was a woman... yeah. uh huh. The son of the morning was a woman. pleeeeeeasaaaaase.

On Saturday we had a busy morning doing some service for the branch president's family. They have the cutest family ever! They are pretty much English, none of their kids really know Spanish, but they are in our branch because it needs the support. They are a really good family though. I love watching the way the mom interacts with her kids. It was a fun morning to be with them and help them out and to be around some younger kids who remind me of my nieces and nephews who I miss so much!

After that we had a correlation meeting - then we remembered that we had to make 2 dozen sugar cookies for the father's day party after church. It was kind of stressful and it took us like 4 hours because as missionaries we really don't have any stuff for cookies. It took us a while to hunt down a cookie cutter shaped like a ginger bread man, which is what we were asked to make. Surprisingly the elders had one... Elders have the strangest things.. but more about that later. So we make all the cookie dough and we put the first batch in the oven. Our oven is broken and it doesn't really bake things evenly, so we were just having our fingers crossed that it would work. No it failed horribly. They were the blackest most burnt cookies I have ever seen. So we kind of had a little freak out moment, then we decided to call the Assistants, who live right next door to us. They said we could use their oven. They always have their front door unlocked, but we didn't have keys to their building... which was kind of a problem for us... so to get into their apartment, we had to climb up the fire escape and break in through their bedroom window. It was sort of hilarious. We climb up this huge latter and get through all the windows and Elder Jone's bed is right up against the window, so we had to climb onto his bed to get into the house. It was so funny when we opened the window and saw his bed because he has a blanket with cats and dogs on it.... Ahahhahaha Elders. Their apartment smelled really bad too. And they left the iron on. It was hilarious being in there for almost an hour and a half to bake and frost our cookies. It was so weird being in an elder's apartment.... Elders have the strangest things. They have a full gym... Like a bench with a ton of weights, an ab work out thing, pull up bars and we opened one of the cupboards and it was FULL of huge barrels of protein powder... There was like 6 huge bottles of it. We were laughing so hard. Also, they have a bb gun... A BB GUN!! WHAT IS IT WITH ELDERS AND GUNS!! How do you even get a bb gun and a full gym on your mission... Then next to the bb gun they have a dear head. A DEAR HEAD.... A DEAR HEAD. I don't understand. To understand the next funny thing we found, you have to understand these Elders. They are a trio too. Elder Jones is really tall and he likes hunting and stuff, Elder Hughes is kind of intense and works really hard and is into boxing, Elder Nielsen is a full on cowboy... like from Vernal Utah and likes roping and has an accent and is just hilarious... So we walk onto their balcony and there is a full saddle, a fake cow for roping and a bunch of ropes.... HOW DO YOU HAVE A FULL SADDLE ON YOUR MISSION!! I think it is against the rules to ride horses. ahahahah. Elders crack me up. We felt like such women while we were in there. We were disgusted with the mess so we cleaned up all of their dishes and their stove and oven and things, we cleaned the dust under their desks, turned off the iron and sprayed Febreeze everywhere and we left them cookies. It was kind of hilarious, but they really appreciated it. Oh yeah, the best part, on our way out, we look by the door, and there is a full machete knife sitting right next to the door... What? I don't even want to know????

This pictures of the elders makes me so happy!

The subway!

Last night, Sister Smedley stayed up until like 11:30 talking and we got really tired, so we finally decide to go to bed. At 12:04 I am finally starting to drift off to sleep and the phone starts ringing. It was the assistants... I was kind of out of it so I didn't answer, then we get a text, so I look and it is Elder Hughes telling us that we left our car light on. I read it out loud and we all screamed. We were so mad and tired. So I texted him "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" then he replied back "ahahahaha its ok, come to the window and toss us your keys and we'll turn it off for you!" So we crawl out of bed and go find the key, we go to the window that is facing the parking lot and open it. We see the 3 elders outside... They looked like tired little puppies - it was kind of cute. We could tell they were exhausted. They had their shirts untucked and unbuttoned and their hair was crazy. Elder Nielsen had his rope out and he was roping Elder Jones. It was kinda funny. I dropped the keys out and Elder Hughes barely missed them so they shattered on the ground... They all just let out this "awwhwhhh" then they were like... "uhhh, don't worry sisters, its totally fixable... just go to bed, well fix the keys, then turn the light off." We were all just cracking up. We decided to stay by the window while they fixed the keys. I had my head out the window and I was talking to Elder Nielsen and he was like, "Guess what Sister! WE ROPED A DEAR TONIGHT!" Then they all start cracking up and told us about how they roped a dear and they have it on video for proof. I am really excited to see this video. It must be an adventure to be an assistant. Roping dear and not getting home until 12 at night because of transfer planning and what not. It is fun to be their neighbors.

Me and Sister Smedley in NYC...I just like this picture because it's so bad.

Activity with the yout and the Elders. We got pizza and Froyo with the youth. super fun night

Ivonne got confirmed yesterday! She is now a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! YAY!!

Well, that's about all! I hope you all have a great week! I love you!

-Sister Clark

Hey Family!

IVONNE GOT BAPTIZED ON SUNDAY!!! 

It was so exciting! She is so adorable! We went over to talk to her and prepare her for the big day on Saturday morning and I'm really glad that Sister Smedley thought to ask her if she had white underwear or not. She was cracking up, but she didn't have any and she had to go to work soon so we had to go buy her white underwear for her baptism. It was so funny. 

Ivonne and her Aunt Marta on Saturday morning.

Ivonne is the cutest! I wish you all could meet her. She laughs all the time and she has the cutest laugh. When she came up out of the water she had the hugest smile on her face. We met her at the top of the stairs of the font and she was BEAMING. We asked her how she felt and she said grateful. After the baptism, we sang "when I am baptized" I played the guitar, Elder Packer played the piano and Sister Smedley, Heule and Elder Latugga sang. It was nice. She cried, it was so adorable. 

 

Garcia Family front row for the baptism.

 

Us and Ivonne before her baptism.

Last night we went to go see her. She had this new glow about her and she was very content. We brought Hermano Carvajal, the ward mission leader with us. Those two have become very good friends. She asked him about the consecrated oil on his key chain and he started to explain blessings to her then I felt really strongly that I needed to ask Hermano Carvajal for a blessing right there, so I did. Before the blessing he was explaining to her how it would work and showing her the oil and stuff. I told him a little bit about how I have depression and anxiety and have some medication and went to see the doctor. He gave me a beautiful blessing. It was the first blessing I've ever gotten in Spanish. I loved it. I understood every word and the spirit was really strong. I got some really neat counsel that I have never gotten in a blessing before, so that was cool. After the blessing I looked up and Ivonne was bawling. She said she wanted to share her testimony with me and she just opened up to me. She told me about how she struggled with the same things for a while and she has some other help issues then how she started meeting with the missionaries and everything got better for her because she knows she is doing what God wants her to do. It was a really strong testimony. I looooooove Ivonne. 

 

We painted this family's house and we painted the plan of salvation on their wall to teach them. It was fun

 

Ana Garcia and Carmen reading. Carmen's glasses are broken, kinda funny.

On Friday we had some exchanges. Sister Heule went to Elizabeth with the Sister Training Leaders so it was just me and Sister Smedley for the day. It was so weird to be back into just a normal companionship. I definitely missed Sister Heule. Sister Smedley and I found a SWEEEEET new investigator though. We went to this apartment complex to contact a referral but they weren't home. The neighbor was sitting outside on a chair so we asked her if she knew of anyone who speaks Spanish living in that apartment complex. She said that the people that lived downstairs right below her spoke Spanish and that they were really nice. We headed down there and knocked on the door. A man named Rolando answered. He is from Bolivia. Its cool because he is the first person I have taught from Bolivia. He invited us in right away and he said that he is definitely interested in learning more about what we teach. He has a little son and a daughter who was born prematurely and is still in the hospital right now. We set another appointment and we are looking forward to go back. He was really really cool and interested. Oh yeah, and he is married and he's a DOCTOR. I can't wait to teach him. Finding new investigators is the best feeling. 

 

 

On Tuesday we got to go on our zone temple trip. Like always it was awesome. We met at Newark at 8am. It was so early! We had yo wake up at 5 to be ready on time. We took the train from the Penn Station up into Manhattan. It was the first time I have ever taken the subway. It was pretty cool. We walked like 30 blocks to get to the temple which was fun because everyone is so different in New York. I love all the culture. We walked through time square and there was this cool art show thing in the street. We saw a guy who was tight rope walking... well sort of. He was balancing on a chair on a rope... If that makes sense. I'll send a picture. 

The tight rope guy. so weird.

Me in New York, bruthuh!

 The session was awesome! The spirit in the temple is one of my favorite things in the world! I think what stuck out to me the most this session was sacrifice. I learned a lot about sacrifice and about love. Especially from Eve. After the session we took pictures outside of the temple and got some food at the stands outside. It took us forever to get back to Newark because we don't really know how to use the subways. Finally we got back to Newark and it was sooooo cloudy. On the way back to the Newark chapel it started pouring rain. I'm just happy that we were close to the car. We still got soaked though.

Sister Heule and I are cute...especially  me with the New York breeze blowing in my hair.

 

Sister Smedley....nuff said.

 This week we finally got the chance to talk to Julian and Yenny about marriage. Yenny is one of our investigators and she wants to get baptized really bad but she can't because her boyfriend Julian, who is an inactive member doesn't want to marry her. We decided to have a lesson with them together and it went really well. We talked to them about how prayer and church together will strengthen their relationship. I think he is getting a little bit closer to going to church. They prayed together, so that was good. After the lesson we asked Julian about marrying Yenny. He said he wanted to get married, but not in this moment... My response was "oh okay so next week you can get married?" and they cracked up. It was funny. But we got him to promise that he would think about it. I really hope we can get them married.

Yesterday our investigator Isdeyber was supposed to get his divorce finalized so he can get remarried and baptized, but when we called him last night, he said that the hearing went really bad. He had filled out all the paper work wrong or something, so we have to do it again. Its kind of frustrating, but were gonna keep working on it. Within the next couple of weeks we are planning on having 1 divorce and 2 weddings. 

 

We got some ice cream at Walmart before a lesson and decided to make mustaches.   You gotta have fun sometimes. Laughing is good stress relief!

 We have some busy weeks ahead, but things are going really well. I looooooove being a missionary. 

 

Sister Smedley drew this on my feet during language study...we could probably have more effective studies.

 Also, shout out to the greatest momma in the world! Happy happy birthday mom. I love you sooooooo much!

Hope you all have a great week!

-Sister Clark

 

New Jersey fog is kid of awesome...we got out of the car and ran through it on the way home.

 

 

Excited/Sad

Hey family!

 

We have a shortened p-day because we are going to the temple to morrow! I AM SO EXCITED!! BUT, it's sad because we only have until 3 to do our p-day. waaahhhhh. Our p-day ends at 3, so that means we are choosing to shorten our email time so that we can finish our shopping and cleaning so we don't run into proselyting time... Something that I am learning from this is that this gospel = sacrifice... Think about that for a second. It's so true. Everything about being a member of the church is sacrifice. I'm not complaining though. I feel so privileged. Just a thought. :)

 

This week was really fun, but it was also such a struggle. We are having some struggles in our companionship. Not with our relationship, but with health. One of my companions is very sick... That is actually why we were put into a trio, because President was deciding whether or not to send her home. It is really hard emotionally, physically, and hard on the work. I am learning a lot about love though. I love my companions a lot.... But sometimes that means I have to do what is best for them, whether it's what I want or not.

 

We had a lot of fun though this week. Sister Smedley and I are pranksters. We are having super awesome prank wars. A few days ago she put honey on the floor outside of the bathroom door... It was a very sticky situation for me... We dyed laughing. We also found a pair of large whitey-tighteys in our laundry... and they had skid marks. It was so gross but so hilarious at the same time. At least they were clean.... We just have no idea how they got there. Oh the joys of the laundry mat!

 

I have to go. Short pday. I love you all sooooo much! Have a great week!

 

-Sister Clark