This week started out good,
then it got super rough, then it got super good again! It was what I
would call a roller coaster week. A lot of really good things came out
of it though.
Monday was fun. We did an exchange with the English sisters
that work in our same area. It was so weird to do an exchange but stay
in my area.... It was English, which I don't really like, but it was fun!
We taught someone that Sister Haycock and I actually contacted once.
That was kind of cool.
On Monday after emails we had a really fun zone activity.
I had gotten a box earlier that morning from my sister to celebrate my
year mark and there was little Twinkies dressed up like "minionaries"
All the missionaries in my zone loved that and I gave them all one. I
have a picture that Ill try to send sometime. I don't have a card reader,
so I haven't been sending very many pictures. After that we went to
Patterson falls. If you have never heard of it, go look it up on Google -
its really cool. Patterson is this really old city in NJ and there is a
random waterfall right in the middle of the city. It is actually
basically where the united states began. Alexander Hamilton discussed
with George Washington how they were going to start the country up right
there and they began silk factories there that were powered by that
waterfall. At one point it was one of the main sources of power. I LOOVE
all of the neat history there is here in NJ.
Wednesday was my sort of year mark. WE decided to celebrate that day because Thursday
was our walking day and there is nothing to do when you have to walk...
But we went down to west Milford to go see Sis Haycocks cousin. That
was so fun. We got to teach her part of the first lesson, which was so
cool. It is such a privilege to teach family members because all of a
sudden it is so much more important. It was really fun to make that
drive up there too. It is 2 hours through straight up forest and there
are SO MANY lakes. It is so beautiful! I'll take pictures this week. We
are going back tomorrow.
After seeing Sarah, we came back to our area and we went to a place
called Carvel to get ice cream. They have these nutella sundays that I
am absolutely obsessed with. The ice cream is nutella flavored and it is
so smooth and rich then it has hot nutella on the top and these crunchy
chocolates inside of it. SO DELICIOUS!!! Now my mouth is watering... I
just might have to go get another one to celebrate pday. :)
Thursday
is our walking day and probably one of my favorite days of the week. It
is one of those days that we always have set because we see the same
people, which I like. WE always go see China our recent convert at 10 in
the morning, which is always a nice change from the normal studies. We
always get really good contacts on that walk to her house too. We taught
2 street lessons on our way to and from China's house, so we got 3
lessons before noon.
Our weekly planning was a little bit rough. Sis Haycock and I started
fighting for some reason and it lasted all day and kind of into the next
day. It was not fun. We had two really good lessons that night though,
which was a miracle since there was tension between us. But we went to
go see one of my favorite families which is the Lopez family. We started
the plan of salvation and talked about our purpose in life and how God
has a plan for us. WE watched the Mormon message called "Gods greatest
creation" It is such a good one. GO watch it. I really love those Mormon
messages, I hope y'all are familiar with them! We have been committing a
lot of our members to share one on their Facebooks. It's a great way to
share the gospel! I invite you all to do that! One of my favorites is
called "Earthly Father Heavenly Father" then there is a really funny one
about marshmallows that we use sometimes.... there is a lot of good
ones. SHARE ONE!!!!! Use them for family home evening! They are great to
teach a principle.
Friday
we had a very much needed exchange. Sis Haycock and I were just so
tired of fighting but we couldn't stop. It was so weird. Our exchange was
at 2, but we needed something to do before that but we didn't feel like
we had the spirit, so we went to the library to do mormon.org
time and watch Mormon messages. That made us both feel so much better.
We got out of the library and didn't hate each other, which was good. I had
an exchange with Sister Dahl, who came here to Passaic with me. She is
so darn cute and she looks exactly like Shannon Jones - I kid you not. So
weird. I'll send you a pic then you can compare and tell me what you
think. She is a total cow girl which was fun. We had some good horse
talk. She does rodeos and she has some awesome pictures of her roping
cows. It was her first Spanish exchange and she is an English sister, so
she was so excited. We started off with an appointment with the Lazaro
family, which is known for feeding the missionaries a TON of food. Hno
kept on teasing her that she was eating raccoon. It was so funny.
Everyone was laughing so hard because I had to translate it for her, so I
would laugh before I even said it and we would all be laughing and she
was just so confused. We were all laughing so hard though. Then we went
to visit this less active woman named Socorro. She is so darn funny. She
has the Puerto Rican sass. She doesn't let anyone tell her how it is
unless you prove it in the scriptures. It is so hilarious. She is always
preachin to me. I love it though. She is way strong and I look up to
her a lot. She was speaking English to sister Dahl. I love it when
English sisters come into the area because everyone tries to speak
English and it is just so cute! It is the cutest thing ever! They will
not try to speak English around us because they know we know Spanish, so
it is always such a surprise of how much English they know... Anyways,
Socorro bought us a TON of Dominican food. It was really yummy but it
was SO MUCH FOOD!! Sister Dahl didn't even know what to do. I am used to
it because I'm in the Spanish program...so I taught her how to do stomach
stretches and make room. There is a lot of different things you can do.
But she was just dying. I was teaching Socorro while we were eating, so I
was really focused on our conversation because it got pretty deep, but
every once in a while I would look over at sister Dahl and she would had
the most worried look on her face, and she would just be pushing her
mountain of food around on her plate and she would give me a "save me"
face every once in a while and it was so hard not to laugh. Good thing I
know the trick is just to ask if you can take it home. They like that
because it means that you liked it. Sis Dahl was so grateful when I told
her that. hahahahaha. We were laughing so hard after. We also found a
snake... random side note. But I felt so honored to get to be with Sister Dahl when she experienced "Hispanic tummy" for the first time....
It's like a thing. A real thing. You get fed so much Hispanic food that
it just hardens in your stomach and never digests. I told her that it
was called Hispanic tummy and she just laughed and didn't think I was
serious until we went to play soccer the next morning and she was
telling sister Monson about her tummy and how hard it was and sister Monson, without even thinking, was just like... "oh yeah, its called
Hispanic tummy." It was so perfect. We were laughing so hard. Being a
Spanish missionary is the best.
Friday
Sis Haycock and I got back together and we were so glad to be back
together and we apologized and we set goals on how we can help
each other use our talents because we do work so differently. We have had
a great time since then and we have been working so hard together and
been having such a fun time. On Friday
night our ward mission leader invited us over to eat. We were with the Passaic elders too, so it was all 6 of us missionaries over there in his
little apartment. His family is from Mexico so they made us tacos. They
were so yummy! They made really good salsa. I am going to have to learn
how to make this salsa. Katie, you would love it. Anyways, I guess they
do this tradition where you eat as many as you can. Its kind of like a
contest. The last sister that was here, Sister Jossie, has won so far.
Everyone always talks about it. She ate 22 tacos. The elders can only
get up to like 4. I don't understand it because Sister Jossie is SO
SMALL! Like teeny tiny. I am still trying to figure out where she put
those 22 tacos. hahaha. I only ate 4. I was so full. I am such a wuss.
Sis haycock ate 8. Elder Leon ate the most- he ate 15. It was way fun.
Then of course like all Mexicans do, they always tell us, "if you really
want to learn Spanish you have to eat a chili tostada" We usually say
no just because we know how hot they are, but this time the elders
talked us into it.... So they got out this fresh chili tostada. It was
nice and ripe. Sis haycock took the first bite then I took the second
one and we just passed it around. It was hilarious because sis Haycock
was chewing it and she was like "it's not even bad you guys, whats the
big deal?" Then all of a sudden her face got super red and she just
started crying so hard then we all just started crying and screaming for
water. They got out this huge pitcher of water for us and they only had
a teeny bit of milk - so Elder Leon, Sister Haycock and I were passing
around this teeny cup of milk and some plums and tortillas to try to get
the oil from the pepper out of our mouth. It hurt so bad, but everyone
was cracking up. It was so funny. We have it all on video. I will have
to try to figure out a way to get it to you because it is so darn
funny. Were literally just screaming and fanning our selves and passing
around milk and plums. When we went home all we could say was "GROSSS I
can't believe we shared a glass of milk and a plum with elder Leon!" Then
we would just laugh harder.
Yesterday was just another fun day at church. Everyone kept
asking us about the chili and laughing so hard. Everyone heard about it.
Most importantly was that Marcial came to church! He loved it. He is
seriously so converted through the Book of Mormon it is incredible. He
says when ever he isn't home he is just thinking about going back home
and reading the book of Mormon. He is half way through for the second
time reading it. HE has only been investigating the church for 1 month.
He keeps telling us about how he has seen such significant changes in
his life and how it has improved so much. The biggest blessing being
that he was without work for 9 months but how we promised him if he
acted on our message that god would bless him with a job. He started his
first week of work last week and he loves it. It is a really good job
and he has Sundays off for church. We committed him for baptism but we
can't set a date yet because he wants his "friend" from Peru to be here
for it, and she will be here sometime in September for sure- we just don't
know what day yet. He is so funny because he is trying to tell us she
isn't his girlfriend, but we know she is, we have talked to her on the
phone. She is super cool. She is an active member of the church and they
talk about the gospel a lot. I swear it is going to be the best day of
my life when they get sealed in the temple. I will even go to Peru if I
have to to be there. He is so cute because he tells us how he considers
us his very good friends. He said he is already sad because he realizes
that we are going to have to leave sooner or later and he asked for our
phone number and address at home because he drives to the western states
a lot for his work and he wants to come visit. HE IS SO AWESOME!! I can't
even explain it to you. He is definitely going to have to meet you all
when he comes to visit. He speaks almost fluent English too, so you
would all absolutely adore him.... I am also calling that he will either
be a patriarch or a sealer. I am calling it!!
Alright, well that is it for this week. Love you and miss you
all a ton! Keep strong, family, and share the gospel in any way that you
can!!
-Sister Clark
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