So Much Food!

Looove Looove Loooooove! ahha. I just am in Loooooooove. I love loving missionary work and I love Passaic. and I love my companion and I love the gospel!!

I feel like that is really all I can say about my life right now. Its all just love. Trying to have Love being the motivation for my mission. It is definitely a good thing. I gave a training on Love at district meeting last Tuesday and I learned a lot as I prepared to teach my district. I think the biggest demonstration of how much God loves us enough to send his son, to suffer for us. To leave him while he suffered. That would be the worst. I cant imagine it. I am thankful for it though, because if he hadn't been willing to do that, I would never ever return to him. Without Jesus Christ, birth would be a terrible thing. Every day would be one step closer to death.... then what? Absolutely nothing. Life would be so hopeless and terrible without Christ. And there are people who don't even realize that... People who just live day by day with no beliefs. No hope in anything. YOLO is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. I regret that ever coming out of my mouth.

This week was great! We are pushing our selves to do the best we can. I have a companion who is really good at that. Sister Haycock is so funny. She is always going 100 miles an hour. She is a fixer and she has to get everything done and meet all of her goals and our goals. I love it. Its motivating. Last week we met our district goal to teach 84 lessons as a district. We actually over reached our goal, we taught 85. It was great. This week we our goals were to one up all of our personal numbers and get a district total of 86. Sister Haycock and I worked really hard to get 22 lessons and put in our part to get that 86. We also worked hard to get in 8 as a KI score. On Sunday our KI score was 6 so we needed 2 more member presents or a new investigator or something. We had it in our plans, but our plans cancelled and so we prayed that we would be able to meet our goals. We were blessed with a new investigator and a surprise member present lesson, we also got to teach a lost inactive member. He was super cool. God is awesome.

When I got called to be here in Passaic, I had so many missionaries come up to me at transfer conference and tell me how fat I was going to get because people feed the missionaries so much there. Sister Haycock and I thought it was all a huge lie, because we didn't get fed for the whole first week and a half.... Oh boy, it was not a lie. The food started coming this week and it will not stop. On Wednesday we made an appointment with a family in the ward from Peru. We went over there and she told us that she had made a rice that all of the missionaries made. So we sat down and she brought out these huge overflowing plates of rice. There had to at least be a pound of rice on each plate. It was super yummy, but I have never wanted to throw up so bad on my mission. My stomach is so small. hahahaha. Sister Haycock and I just had to keep looking at each other and give a little encouragement to each other when she turned around then smile and eat another bite. hahahah oh man, the joys of being a missionary "just one more bite"

Then on Friday, we got fed by the Lazaro family. I had actually heard about how much this family feeds the missionaries. I went in knowing that I would have to eat a lot of food, but for some reason, it was still a surprise when Hna Lazaro brought out this huge plate of food.... Probably 3/4ths the amount of rice from the day before and 3 chicken legs smothered in Alfredo sauce with salsa... IT was so delicious! Oh it was so good. Mexicans make the BEST food. I loved it... But I couldn't finish it. I ate 2 and a half chicken legs and more than half of the rice, but after that I just could not eat anymore. They just laughed and politely took my plate away. They are so nice. They said they like to feed the missionaries once a week. They are a super cute family. There are two younger girls who are 11 and 13. They're super cute... but the 11 year old sure is sassy. She is always texting us and calling us. She makes the appointments. We originally had the appointment set for Wednesday, but she texted us and told us that we couldn't come over Wednesday afternoon because she had a Dr. appointment at 2, so we asked her if we could come over on Wednesday night, and she was just like "hermanas, what did I tell you about Wednesday?" as soon as we read it we were just like... wow. Sassy! We were cracking up.

We laughed so much this week! It is so good to finally feel like we are getting the hang of things, but it is fun to still get to know people at the same time. We were asked by our branch president to go visit this less active woman this week named Soccoro who lives in the elders area. We called her and set up an appointment she said the only day she could see us was Thursday evening, which is our walking day (we cant use our car on Thursdays). We thought it would be pretty close since it is in the Elders area and we live pretty close to their area... Wow we were so wrong. We figured we could leave the apartment at 530. 30 minutes before the appointment which was at 6. We went out to the car and got the map and made our route. The GPS said it was only like 2 miles so we figured we could get there in 30-40 minutes.... WE WERE SO WRONG!! It was the longest walk! We were a good 45 minutes late. hahahaha. We got led by the GPS all through Passaic and down this sketchy road and we crossed the Passaic river at least 3 times. hahahaha.

WE made it though. This woman was SOOO COOL! I am so glad we get to teach her! We shared a message with her and to try to get her relate a little more, I tried using reverse psychology on her by telling her some things about my life. She came and sat down right next to me and talked to me forever about how she had all of these problems in her life that she has gotten through because of Christ and how I can do anything and how I need to just look in the mirror and love myself. It was kind of hilarious... But I hope she learned and that she applies what she taught me. That is kind of what I was going for. Sometimes you have to trick people into learning what you want them to learn. Some people don't really want to listen to what we want to say, so you just have to make them say it themselves. It made me laugh. She is awesome. During the lesson it started POURING rain and Sister Haycock and I were praying that she had a car. So right after the lesson, we were just like, "well, we better go, its a long walk home!" and we said it kind of exaggerating then she just said, "hermanitas, you are not walking all that way in the rain, I will drive you home, but first let me feed you!" We had actually planned to go see another family that night, but we had to cancel with them because there was no way we were going to walk all that way in the pouring rain and we were not turning down a ride. She fed us chicken, salad and toast, grapes, cherries and watermelon. She just made us plates and sat down and watched us eat. That is one thing about the Hispanic culture that took me a while to get used too. When Hispanics cook for you they fill up your plate full of food, then they just sit at the table and watch you eat. I have never had someone eat with me when they fed me. It is kind of hilarious... but It kind of makes me feel pressured, because I know if I don't eat every bite and enjoy it, they're probably going to be offended. It also makes it hard to pull any sneaky food pass offs to your comp or put something disgusting into a napkin or a bag in your purse if they are watching you eat.... Ok, that is another subject though.

Back to Socorro... So she made us all this food and while she was watching us eat it, she was telling us all about her life and how she has had some food problems in the past and her doctor has her on this special diet. She starts to tell us about how she loves grapes, but she is only allowed to eat 1 maybe 2 grapes a day because it takes the whole day for your stomach to digest a grape. As soon as she said that, Sister Haycock and I looked at each other and we had to try so hard not to just die laughing: 1st reason, we were both had a mouth full of grapes, 2nd reason, Sister haycock ate like 40 frozen grapes earlier that afternoon during weekly planning. Then she told us about how she only eats 1 cup of rice a week because rice makes you fat. Again, Sister Haycock and I looked at each other and had to laugh because of how much rice we eat.

On Monday night, all of our appointments canceled on us, so we just ended up contacting on this street in Garfield where there are a ton of Hispanics. We saw this Hispanic guy who was standing outside with a bird, so we figured that the bird would be a good conversation starter for us. So we go up to him and ask him about his bird. Turns out he is from Peru and apparently EVERYONE in Peru has birds. We started talking to him a little more about his life and religion and everything. When we introduced ourselves he said that he knew who we were because his wife's parents are actually members of the church in Peru! He introduced us to his wife and we talked to them some more. It turns out that the wife's father is like a bishop or something. They said that they had met missionaries various times and they told them they could come over, but they never came. We set an appointment with them and we will be there this time. Were going over tonight. We stopped by last night to confirm with them but we actually met their son, who is in college. He was pretty cool. We taught him a door lesson and he said he would remind his parents and come tonight. It was a pretty cool find! BUT, the funny part of this story, the whole time we were talking to him, his bird who was just chillin outside with him on the side walk was literally trying to eat me. And he wouldn't do anything except just laugh at me. They were all just laughing at me. No one even tried to save me! Not even my companion. I just kept yelling "your bird is attacking me!" "your bird is eating me!" then they would just laugh harder... Then he kicks the bird and says too me "you wont believe what he eats, guess what he eats" so we guessed seeds, but he says "nope, he actually eats chicken!" My response:"Oh like my feet!" They all just cracked up laughing. It was super funny. They are a good family.... even though they just let their bird eat me.

We also met this really cool part member family this week. WE went over to their house and we thought they were all members so we share the message just sharing a message about missionary work, and at the end of the lesson, we bring up the temple and asked them if they were sealed in the temple, then the wife just blurts out "I'm not Mormon, I'm catholic". We were so shocked. We almost fell off the couch. It turns out the oldest daughter Loren, who is 16 isn't a member either! Only the dad and the two younger kids. I was so excited! I really want to teach the daughter! She just came from the DR doesn't speak English and she hasn't been taught by missionaries before, but they come to church with the family. The mom doesn't want to be baptized because she is stubborn about being catholic, but we could teach the daughter and she might wan too get baptized. I'm super excited. She is the CUTEST girl ever. She has sass just like her mom. They are a funny family. I fell in love with them. They had this hilarious family argument in front of us and they were all calling each other out about one thing or another. Everyone was laughing and there was a lot of love in the home. We stopped by on Saturday night to remind them to come to church. Only the mom was home, but she stood outside and talked our ears off for a good hour and a half about their family and how they work together and stuff. They are a super cool family. I'm excited to love them more than I already do over time.

Early in the week we got a referral from the Patterson sisters of a less active member in their records who didn't speak English. So we went over there expecting it to be a less active who wasn't really interested in going back to church... that's how most of the less active members are, sadly, but we got there and she was so excited to see us! She said, oh "hermanitas lindas!" and she invited us right in and told us all about how she was baptized with her mother in union city and how her mother was just the most wonderful woman in the world and she read the book of Mormon so many times and she went to church every Sunday and preached to people.. but how shortly after she had gotten baptized she stopped going to church while her mother kept going and growing. She told us about how she wants to be just like her mother and is so excited and she wants us to come over every Tuesday and Friday to teach her and to help her. She said she is absolutely willing and excited to do her part in reading the book of Mormon and everything. She was just so cute and energetic and she had the most adorable voice! In her prayer she said, "I'm so thankful for the hermanitas and that they can teach me. Help me to grow so I can be just like my mamita." It was so adorable! I am absolutely obsessed with her and the way she calls us hermanitas lindas.

We have this really awesome investigator named Marcial. He was a referral from his member friend in Peru. He has lived here in the US for a really long time and he speaks fluent English and everything. He is very intelligent and he loves reading the book of Mormon, but more for the history part. WE thought he wouldn't really feel the spirit because he always talks to us about trying to prove the book of Mormon historically and everything and he thinks that is all so fascinating. WE asked him to read Moroni 10 and pray. He said he would. We went back over a few days later and he had read and he has been praying. He told us that he has felt so much peace in his life as he has been reading the book of Mormon and he enjoys it so much. He made a whole tree of all the descendants of Nephi and where they lived and stuff. We asked him some questions and he told us that he really truly believes that it is true, factually and everything, but he has never been a spiritual person, so he doesn't really know what it means for him spiritually and that he does recognize that he feels peace and he isn't worried about the future. He also said that he has never changed religions before, so this would be something new for him. I'm so excited for him! he is waaaayyy cool. Keep him in your prayers!

You all have asked about the 4th of July. It was great! I really enjoyed being here in NJ for the fourth. It all started here.  The day was pretty average, we visited people and taught lessons. In the evening we met as a zone at 730 at the Passaic chapel. We all followed each other in this huge train of missionary cars to a street that the elders had picked out that we could park at. IT was funny because it was by their apartment, but the street was closed, so they moved the closed sign and let us all in. It was super smart on their part, because all the other streets were full of cars who had already parked earlier for the firework show. Those Elders, they're funny guys. We walked to this park and we watched the fireworks together. It was super fun. It was a huge crowd of people, so we would hold our books of Mormon up in the air so we could find each other in the crowd. That was kinda cool. There was just all these books of Mormon in the air in this sea of people. It made me feel more patriotic too.

Zone on the 4th

Book of Mormon at the fireworks!

The book of Mormon really is the story of America. More people should read it. We owe everything to the Nephites and the Lamanties. They're great. The fireworks were great as always and I had a great time just laughing and being happy with my zone and mingling with other people.

This week it rained so much! On Wednesday it rained all day and we only have one umbrella so we were just squished together under an umbrella. We got completely drenched. My favorite rain moment: we were getting in the car to go to an appointment and there was literally a river in the street. Sister Haycock was trying to put her stuff int he back seat, but she dropped her pros BOM in the river so she shrieked and picked it up, but when she bent over all of her pass along cards fell out and started flowing down the river. I was already sitting down in the car so I just got to watch her shriek as she ran down the river chasing after the pass along cards. It was hilarious.

We had a lot of really funny things that we said this week. While we were talking to the Hernandez family, Hno was telling us about how he did an eating contest, but he was asking us what you would call someone who just eats a ton. We didn't really know what he was talking about and we couldn't think of a word, then my companion just blurts out "probably a Glutten or a Binger" I just looked at her so confused and they all started cracking up at my reaction.

Line of the week:

We were visiting this Mexican family in our branch and we were just kind of getting to know them. They asked us what our favorite food was. We thought about it for a second then sister haycock answered that she really liked enchiladas. They all looked at me and I thought for a second then without hesitation I said "pancakes!" and they all thought it was the most hilarious thing ever. They were laughing so hard. They said next time we come they'll make us enchiladas and pancakes. hahaha

Wow that was a long email, but I'm just so happy! I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

-Sister Clark