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.