I Heart U.C

Hey familia!

Wow email time flew by today! I took some time to email some of my old companions! I seriously miss them like crazy! Its weird to think about, but after this transfer, I will only have one companion still in the mission with me. Sister Heule will still be here but everyone else will be home. That is super gross and it makes me feel old, so were gonna stop thinking about that now...

Anyways, seriously, I think one of the greatest blessings that I have gotten out of my mission is my companions. I cant wait for y'all to meet my companions. Holy stink, they are just the greatest people I know.

This week was super weird. I was kinda sick for a while, so we were in the house a lot, and we just kind of had an off week, but it was good. Sister Jorgensen and I get along so well together and we have fun. I am teaching her how to play the guitar so we are literally playing the guitar every free second that we have. I love it. I haven't played the guitar this much in so long. It definitely helps me with stress.

We have this really neat investigator named Byron. He is from Guatemala and I just wish you could all meet him because it is so hard to explain people and how great they are and how much I love him.... but lets just say that I love him a lot. We talk to him every day and we meet with him almost every day. He is just so funny and he is kind of like an older brother to us. We sort of treat him like our baby. We are always super preocupado for him and how he is doing and calling him every second to make sure that he is OK and everything. Its so funny. He wants to get baptized really bad, but due to some things in his past, he has to be approved by Salt Lake, so it could take a really long time. For now we are just teaching him and having fun with him and making sure that he is behaving himself. The ward here loves him.

I really love the ward down here. It is fun to be back in a ward. Wards and branches are sooooo different.

On Friday morning we did a blitz in west new York.. so all of the missionaries in our zone and a tone of west new York members went and tried to find everyone on the ward list who was inactive. It was super fun to be back in WNY and with the members. I love being this close to where I was born. Its close enough but far enough away. It's good that I am not in a different ward. I would be way too distracted if I was back in the WNY ward. Union City ward is so much fun too. I feel like everyone that I have taught in all of my areas has some connection to the union city ward, because union city is like the spot. It's the lugar. All the Hispanics have something going on in Union City. So we see some people from my other areas every once in a while. It's fun being here. It's a hard area though just because there is so much people. It's hard to chose who we are going to talk to and everything..

It's kinda scary down here sometimes too... because it is a pretty populated city. There is a lot of sketchy business going on sometimes. The other day this guy tried to give me and my compa 100$ each. It was kinda creepy. Also, muchachos are just dumb and bad language is gross and it gives me the heebie jeebies.

Yesterday I did an exchange with Sister Weinstock in Bayonne... which was kind of weird because it was a Sunday, but it was super fun. Bayonne is a Spanglish branch, so half of the members speak English half speak Spanish and there was only like 20 members. Get this, the church was in the back of a quick check gas station. Classic. I love New Jersey. Were growing! It was super fun. I had to translate the meeting. It was super fun. I felt really official because they had translators, so I had to sit in the back and whisper into the translator for all the little Hispanos. I loved it. Then right after church there was a random Hispanic day parade and there were these really cool dancers with really cool costumes on. I think they were from Bolivia. They were jamming to their Hispanic music. I loved it. I cant even explain to you the obsession that I have with Spanish music. I am so excited to just listen to all of the Spanish music that I want. Its funny because we just know the popular Spanish music because the people we teach area always playing it and the stores on Bergenline are blasting it and everything. So were always just like singing random Spanish music then were like.... what is this? Who are we? I would have never sung Spanish music before my mission. Well, I was crazy back then. I'm obsessed with Spanish and with Hispanics.

Also random fact. On the mission you kind of go through different phases with your different companions based on how your personalities mesh together. I have gone through some pretty funny food phases with companions... like with sister martin it was grilled cheese and pancakes, with sister Orton it was refried beans, with sister Weinstock it was rice, with Smeds it was Pasta.... But this is definitely my favorite... So sis Jorgensen and I both just have no idea how to cook.... so we are just kind of acknowledging that fact together and just kind of creating things... anyways we are obsessed with corn right now and we also get crackers and sandwich meat and cheese and stuff, but get this: we were experimenting and we decided that we wanted to put some refried beans and Valentine sauce on our crackers with our turkey and cheese on the cracker and seriously... best thing ever. That was a really good decision on our part. so if you want to know what I eat for lunch every day. That's it. I'll make it for y'all when I get home. :)

Well, that's just about all for this week. These computers that we use in  Seacaucus have a 2 hour count down and when your done it just shuts the computer off and I only have 8 minutes and it is kind of stressing me out. I have 6 minutes left.

I love you all so much and I will talk to you next week! Behave yourselves and don't forget to pray and read your scriptures every day! It's really important!

-Sister Clark

My Life is so Weird

What a week. I don't even know what to say except that this week was pure craziness... in a really good way though. My life is honestly just getting so weird now. I cant really remember pre-mission life... and I don't really like thinking about home. its so strange. I used to think about home ALL THE TIME... but like, it is just not appealing anymore.... in the least offensive way possible... Anyways. I just had to get that out. I just feel weird. So now, the moment you have all been waiting for! TRANSFERS! So Monday was Sis Haycock's last Pday and last day as a missionary. She still had  lots of MSF money, so we headed to Walmart after emails and bought like 7 galleons of ice cream to take to the zone activity. It was great! all the ice cream We had a lot of fun with our zone. Zone 1 had some good times together, I miss those missionaries a ton!  Zone 1 We just played soccer and we played the guitar. There is a lot of really musically talented missionaries in that zone, so I loooved that. Elder Perez (my district leader) and I brought our guitars and we sang with Sister Webb and Elder Aspinall. Elder Aspinall is the zone leader in zone 1 and he is Samoan and he has the most amazing tenor voice. It is so clear and beautiful, so us four sang together and it was sooooo beautiful. I loved every second of it. Elder Perez has a fantastic voice too... his voice is kind of old fashion sounding... kind of like Michael Buble but better. Sis Webb sang the Melody and I sang the alto. We sang the song "Angel band". It was sooooooo beautiful. I miss them! Needless to say it was  a great last Pday in zone one.  Elder Flores and Elder Perez Sister Haycock's bday party. We made her this cake! Then she shared it with Elder Perez because it was his Bday, tambien Our last dinner appointment with the Lazaro family. We had our last lesson in Passaic with the Mooney family. They are the part member family where the husband is really sick and he has been really humbled recently by his illness so he has been listening to us. It was such a good lesson.  Last Lesson in Passaic We have grown to love this family so much in the past few weeks that we have been teaching the husband. The spirit was so strong, and he had been reading the Book of Mormon! Marcial convinced him that he needed to read! AHHHH CLASSIC! I am so excited about that. Marcial is seriously the best member missionary I know. Tuesday morning we woke up and started packing. We packed until 10 then we went to McDonald's to get breakfast with the zone. Our last activity together. It was so fun. We all just talked, laughed, took pictures and signed each other's journals. Elder Obley is so cute! He drew some really cool Samoan flowers in my journal! I was super excited about that.  Elder Obley After breakfast we kept on packing and we cleaned the apartment pretty good for the new elders who were gonna come in. It took FOREVER!! Then we left..... It was the weirdest feeling.... I had never been doubled out before. I didn't like it. Its not the same as just getting transferred. When you get transferred, at least your companion is still in your old area, so you kind of trust them that they know what they are doing and that they know the needs of everyone you are teaching... But getting doubled out of Passaic was so hard because we just had to trust the Lord. We put everything we had into that area and we were blessed so much because of it. That area was blessed and we had really strong connections with the people. It was really hard to just leave it and trust some Elders that we don't even know to take care of it... Hmmmm. I still don't really know how I feel about it. Anyways. Driving to transfer conference was great. I drove and Sister Haycock let me drive on Her Tiwi card because she was never going to drive again so it didn't matter if she got red dotted... so basically we got to speed all the way to transfer conference. It was the best! I haven't sped since I was at home. It was thrilling. hahaha Tiwi was having a cow though. Transfer Conference was different. It was my first transfer conference with President Taggart, so of course he did a couple of little things different, but it was still a really good meeting. So many good friends left this transfer. I feel like I don't even know any of the missionaries in the mission anymore and that is kind of gross. Oh well.  When transfers actually start though, it is so stressful! Seriously the worst anxiety ever just waiting for your name so you can know your destiny.... and for me it was even more stressful because I knew this is probably going to be my last area... so it has to be good.... Oh I wasn't disappointed. It's definitely a good one. Get this. I am serving in..... UNION CITY Yeah. CLASSIC. Remember how I was born in West New York 49-62? Well, I'm back!! Hello Union City 37-49 I'm back on the lovely Hudson front and it is just as beautiful as when I left it. I have mixed emotions about this. Part of me is super excited... well actually most of me is super excited... then there's this other part of me that is like "Wow, God must have a sense of humor sending me back to a walking area in the winter.... yeah, real funny." GAH flip. I hate the winter. Just kidding. I am going to love it. But really though. It's gonna be so cold. I need some boots. Winter is sneaking up on us here in Jersey. It all of a sudden got pretty chilly this week. The weather is giving me whiplash. It was so hot 2 weeks ago that I had to shower twice a day and now I need to wear a jacket outside. Really Jersey? Over it. I am so stoked to be out here serving in Union City. My companion is great too. Get this, I am still the junior companion! YESSSSS. Been the Junior Companion my whole mission and I'm not even mad about it. I just like being a missionary :) My companions name is Sister Jorgensen and she is so great! Loooove her. She goes home this transfer, so I get the lovely opportunity to kill my companion again. Missionaries are going to start thinking I'm like a serial killer or something. Noooooone wants to be my compa. Sister Jorgensen in Passaic So Sister Jorgensen is from Vegas and she is 10 inches taller than me and she has glasses like me and she is super outgoing, funny and she is  a great missionary. Were gonna have a lot of fun together. I'm stoked. She started her Mission in Passaic and she stayed there for 6 months, too, so we are both obsessed with Passaic, which is fun because we can talk about the people and stuff like that. Also, on Saturday I got to go back to Passaic for the "Passaic day of service". It was so fun. Hna Jorgensen and I were so excited to see everyone. A bunch of the members of the branch showed up and were helping and 4 zones of missionaries went too, so we got to see all of them.  Mi compa Hna Joregenson Y yo Best part though, MARCIAL CAME!! It was so good to see him! It had been like a whole 4 days. haha. But really though. It was good to see him and to introduce him to my new compa and everything. He is the best.  Marical and me at Service (don't judge, I didn't shower before and it was windy) After service some of the other missionaries who had previously served in Passaic went over to the Bravo's house for lunch. She made us tacos. I seriously love tacos. Y'all don't understand. Real Mexican tacos are my favorite thing ever. She made such yummy tacos. It was so fun going down there and just chillin' with her family and some other missionaries over there.  It is fun being back over here on the Hudson because I have seriously seen so many people from West New York. I saw Hna Suarez and Hno Paillaman and the Obispo and Schoendorf families, and the Cedillos. The Cedillos literally live one street out of my area.... I might just have to go see them again for my birthday :) hahaha. hmmmmm. But really though. It might happen. I was so excited to see them. They all just gave me the hugest hug and they were excited that I actually speak Spanish now! I could barely say anything when I served there, but now we can actually communicate. It felt nice to talk to them. :) There is this West New York member named Hermana Teran. I don't know if you remember the story about how Hna Martin and I lost our phone and we were freezing cold and she came and saved us and gave us coats? Well, that's her. She moved to Union City so she is in my area now. We went to go see her this week, and when she came to get the door for us and she saw me, her face just lighted up. She was so excited! She squeezed me so tight and we talked for a long time. She was really excited about my Spanish, too. hahaha. AHHH I love this. My first day of church was great. Union City has a ward, which is different. I haven't served in a ward since WNY. It's definitely a lot of fun though. We have 2 really really good investigators here. I love them already. One's name is Byron and he is so prepared. He is this cute little short guy from Guatemala. He wants to get baptized so bad. He has been having some baptismal interviews and he is going to have to wait for a while... which is sad. We don't know how long he'll wait, but we have a feeling it might be for quite a while. But in the mean time, we'll just keep teaching him. The ward loves him too. We also are teaching a 16 year old girl named Sedney. She is so stinkin' cute. She is so prepared. She goes to seminary and she reads the Book of Mormon. She would be baptized but her mom wont let her, so she has to wait until she is 18. It's the worst. Oh well. It will be fun teaching her though. She is so cute. Other than that we are just in the finding stage. It is so different in a walking area. There is always 100 people within your vision, so you have to pick and chose who you are going to talk to and that is really hard. Ugh - it is so hard to contact here. It's going to take some getting used to. I love how everyone speaks Spanish here though. I seriously can't wait to bring you all down here to the Hudson.... oh it is so great. It is SO HISPANIC. Everyone Hispanic lives in either Union City or West New York. All of the propaganda and everything is in Spanish. I'm loving it. It's kinda sketchy though. My compa and I get along pretty well. I am teaching her how to play the guitar. It is way fun. Every night at 9:30, after planning, we just hurry put on our PJs and lay on our beds and play the guitar and sing and write in our journals. It's super fun having someone to do music with. You all know how much I love music. I taught her a Jimmy Eat World song and a Taylor Swift song this week. She is making good progress! Well, that's about all I've got this week. I'm just learning the area and the people and I am loving it. Change is hard, but it is good. Hope you all are happy and that you have a good week. Love you! -Sister Clark Sister Haycock's and Sister Webb's hotseat. It was a good one :)

Taco Queen

So.... I have some bad news.

Transfers are this week. I have been dreading this week all transfer!! My companion Sister Haycock is leaving me!! It is the woooorst. Shes going to her home in Colorado. I don't know why this is so hard for me, but I have been so sad lately. We have just had the craziest transfers together. The past 3 transfers of my mission have just been so weird and a huge trial of my faith, but the hugest blessing. I went to Morristown for one transfer and had the time of my life. It was hard for me to leave that area because I felt like I had just gotten there, but then I came here.... Sister Haycock and I got doubled in, which for those of you that don't know what that means, we both were new to the area, so we built it up ourselves and we made it our own area. It was so much fun. It was really crazy that we were doubled in together because we are two pretty seasoned missionaries. I don't know. It was just cool... then we worked so stinkin hard here. We worked and worked and worked, and I absolutely fell in love with Passaic. It was weird to think about Sister Haycock leaving and someone else being here with me because Passaic just feels like our area... Kind of like our baby and I didn't really want to share it with someone else. I don't know, maybe im just weird... but at the same time, I was really excited to stay here and probably end my mission in Passaic because I just love it so much here....

Sister Haycock and me with our Jersey shirts and hipster glasses.

BUT, we got some really bad news on Thursday. Let me just start from the beginning of the day. I woke up on Thursday morning, and I was just exhausted from the start. I was just so tired! On Thursday mornings, we always go see our recent convert, China, at 10 am, so we did our studies. (they were really sleepy studies for me) Then we went to China's, which we had to walk there because Thursday is our walking day, so that took a lot of time and energy, and we got back to our apartment around noon. Then I was SUPER tired, so I took my lunch break, set my alarm for 1 hour and climbed into bed and DIED. I slept so hard. Sister Haycock was in the other room eating her lunch and reading the Book of Mormon.... Then while she was having her lunch break, she got a phone call... from the assistants to the President, who had some news for us.... They called about 10 minutes before I was supposed to wake up... But sister haycock couldn't wait for 10 minutes until I woke up to tell me the news, so she comes into the bedroom and wakes me up. She sits on my bed, puts her hand on my leg and says... "Sister Clark... I have some bad news for you." Me still laying in my bed having no idea what could have possibly happened, "ok what?" Sister Haycock, "the assistants called, we're getting doubled out."

(doubled out= when both missionaries leave the area and two new missionaries take their place or get "doubled in")

Silence.

Me: "wait.. what? We can't be getting doubled out. We just got doubled in. You're joking. You're not funny."

Sister Haycock: "No really, Elder Nielsen called and we are getting doubled out."

Me: "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" As I slam my face into my pillow and scream/cry/flip out. It was kind of a dramatic reaction. Sister Haycock makes fun of me for it. Words don't do it justice. But basically, I flipped out. 

So... We kind of just sat there for a while/ moped around our apartment really confused and sad. Then we had to start our transfer planning... We had only scheduled in time for our regular transfer planning... But now we had to prepare our area to get doubled out (We are both leaving the area and two new missionaries are coming in our place), which means that we had to go through our whole entire area book and make sure all of the records were up to date and write notes and advice for the missionaries coming. We had to make a letter of random things they would need to know, like how Elsa lives below us, the trash comes on Tuesday and Friday, Elsa puts our mail downstairs at the weird entrance, we never use the front door, the bedroom door is broken, we visit China every Thursday at 10, Hna Echeverria every Thursday at 4, Hna Lopez every Thursday at 7 and just so many other details about every single person that we work with.... just things that they wouldn't know.

That was kind of sad.. It just showed me how hard we worked in this area and how much progress we saw. We know this area so well. We know exactly where everyone lives, we know all about the members and silly things like how to get into their houses (Hispanics have really weird doors that are hard to find). ahhhhhhh it was depressing... Then we had to schedule in time for me to pack... That took forever. Sister Haycock was already packed because she knew she was going to be leaving so she started a long time ago.. Me on the other hand, we were 100% positive that i was going to die in Passaic, so my stuff was just everywhere.

We didn't do that all in one day though. On Thursday we stopped and went to our Thursday appointments (hna Echeverria and hna Lopez). We decided that we didn't really want to tell people that we were both leaving because that would make it hard for them to focus... So we just had normal lessons with them but inside my heart was kind of breaking. Hna Echeverria made us really yummy steak and soup and we had a really good lesson with her. It was hard for me to love her at first when I got here, but now I love her so much, she has grown a lot. Then we went to the Lopez but they weren't there for some reason, which is really weird, so we just left. While we were standing on their street trying to figure out if we should do our back ups or just go home and plan/pack, the Paterson English sisters pulled up. (they work in the same area as us) They rolled down the window and shouted at us excitedly; "GUESS WHAT SISTERS, THIS IS SO CRAZY! WE'RE GETTING DOUBLED OUT!!"

Me and Sister Haycock's mouths dropped... 

Us; "NO! YOU'RE JOKING! We're getting doubled out too!!"

All of us: "AHHHHHHHHHH WHAT IS GOING ON!!" 

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Them:"The Rutherford Sisters are getting doubled out too!" (there are two sets of English sisters that work in our area, the Paterson sisters and the Rutherford sisters)

We were so/still are so confused. Then the Paterson sisters told us that they were actually on their way to go meet the Rutherford sisters at Rita's and asked us if we wanted to come. We didn't have to think twice about it, we jumped in the car. We met the sisters there at Rita's and just flipped out together while we ate our feelings. Then we went home and planned the rest of our weekend and how we were going to see everyone that we wanted to see and pack and clean everything before Tuesday... So much work.

We had a fun weekend though!

On Friday we went to see the Albarracin family... A really awesome active family in our branch. They are from Peru and Hna always makes us the best food. Peru has the best food on the earth. She has two kids named Alexandra (8) and Jeffrey (5) and they are so crazy! They are hilarious though. I love playing with them. Jeffrey has ADHD or something, so he is way crazy. I looove playing with them.

Me and Jeffrey. I'm obsessed with this kid.

Right when we got there, they pulled us into the living room and we had some ice cream with them... then they played doctor with me. They put a bunch of pillows and band aids all over me and they were checking my heart beat and my temperature and my blood pressure. It was hilarious... While they were doing that, Sister Haycock shared a  message with Hna Albarracin. hahaha. I guess my job was distracting the kids. :) then after we said the prayer, Alexandra just looked at us with puppy eyes and was like "I LOOOOVE painting peoples faces, but my mom never lets me put my make up on her" so we decided to let her put make up on us... It was HILARIOUS!! Jeffrey joined in on the fun too. Alexandra just COATED our eyes with a thousand colors of eye shadow and she put this bright pink sparkly lipstick on us. Then Jefferey just went crazy.  He was just putting the eye shadow all over our faces. He was mostly doing it to Sister Haycock though, so I said "Jeffrey, I need some too, so that I can be pretty!" Then he just looked at me and batted his long eye lashes and said, "You're already pretty!" Then he looked at Sister Haycock and said, "you're almost pretty!" Then he just kept putting the makeup all over her face in HUGE chunks. ahahaha. It was hilarious. We were cracking up. Especially Hermana Albarracin. Then they were painting our fingernails and I said, "wow, Jeffrey, that is so gorgeous, thank you!" Then he looked up and said, "No you're gorgeous!" then he looked at Sister Haycock and said, "And you are gorgeous too!" Then continued working hard on the finger nails... It was quite the adventure.

After the kids did our makeup.

This week I probably ate the most food of my whole mission. On Friday we got fed massive amounts of Mexican food by the Lazaro family, then hna Albarracin gave us sandwiches, ice cream and a protein shake, then at our last appointment Hna gave us HUGE glasses of orange juice.... The heart burn was crazy that night. Just think about it. A ton of Mexican food then a ton of orange juice.

Me and the Garcias (our branch mission leader)

Then on Saturday night we had correlation at the Garcia's house and they made us tacos again.... Oh man we went crazy with the tacos. Elder Obley and I ate 11 each, then Elder Aspinall broke the taco record, he ate 31 tacos. Sister Haycock ate 24 tacos. She broke the sister taco record. Elder Perez ate 28 tacos and Elder Hansen ate 18.... It was crazy. They ran out of meat. As a whole, we ate 32 pounds of meat. SO CRAZY!

Elder Aspinall and sis Hay after they ate 31 and 24 tacos. Taco champions.

Sis Haycock is my hero!

haha

Marcial got confirmed and is now a happy member of the church.

Our recent convert Martin blessed the sacrament for the first time. I'm so proud :)

Well, gotta go, love you all! have a great week!!

-Sister Clark

"You're Killin me Smalls"

Hey there familia.

It was really kind of a slow week. I don't really even know what to write about, haha. I feel like time is just going by so fast now, its kinda trippin me out. It was kind of a rough week, but it was still good. It was just rough because the fact that Sister Haycock is going home is kind of starting to hit us. She had her departing interview with President Taggart on Saturday morning and that is when it really hit her. She basically got released... but not really. Idk, its weird. She came home and she was just exhausted after that. Emotionally, physically, mentally. When she got home from her interview, she just laid on the floor and started laughing. She was laughing so hard and she couldn't stop. It was hilarious. She was like delirious. She is honestly losing her mind because she just doesn't even know what to do with herself. I have a video of her laughing :) hahahaha

Sister Haycock and I started up an English class up here in Passaic. I haven't taught an English class since I was in West New York, I forgot how much fun it is! We have like 3 or 4 regular students right now since it is just starting, but were trying to get the word out. It is so funny because one of the counselors in our branch presidency comes to the class and he doesn't speak ANY English. We had to teach him how to say hello. hehe This week we taught them the alphabet. They have a really hard time pronouncing the letters, so we spell them out phonetically and they get so excited. When the hermano finally got through with the whole alphabet he had the hugest smile on his face and he was telling us how he was sure he could have a conversation in English now. Bless his heart.

On Wednesday Sister Haycock and Sister Webb had their departing missionary temple trip. A week before you leave your mission, all the departing missionaries go to the temple with the Taggarts, so they got to go to that. Sister Webb's companion and I were companions for the day. It was fun because we have the exact same area the only difference is that we are Spanish and they are English. They live a couple of streets down from us. Anyways, we had two appointments for Spanish and two for English. They were all really good appointments it was just a little bit crazy trying to balance both of our areas. We had a lot of fun together though. Sister Greenall is so funny. We went and got sonic after our 4th appointment while we were waiting for the sisters to get back. It had been forever since I had sonic. It was nice to have a cranberry limeade. It reminded me of home after a long day at school.

Thursday was pretty crazy. We started the day off with a noon appointment with this family in the ward named the Calderon family... They took us to a buffet in Lodi. It was crazy. They thought it was the coolest thing that you could eat all you want for the same price. They made us get 3 plates of food then they made me eat two bowls of ice cream. hahaha they're so funny. We were so full though, and it took way longer than we thought it would and we had  the Echeverrias after that, and she always feeds us a ton of food.... So we were kind of dreading that. We were so full from that Buffet. We went to the Echeverrias like 30 min after that appointment. Hna Echeverrias grandkids were there again. We seriously love those little girls so much, they are just so cute. I will have to take a picture when we go see them tomorrow. She made really yummy spaghetti. I don't understand why everything that Hispanics cook is so yummy. I don't normally like spaghetti. hmmmm. We had a really fun lesson with the Lopez family. We talked to them about how to set goals. We had a lot of fun just joking around with them too. We made Abby sing for us. She has such a pretty voice. I'm going to try to convince her to sing with me at church. Then.... They fed us too. We weren't expecting that. They have never feed us before... well except for ice cream sometimes, but that doesn't count. So basically.... we were just dying at the end of the day. We had major Hispanic tummy.

Saturday Sister Haycock and Webb had their departing interview with President Taggart, so Sister Greenall and I got to hang out again for the afternoon. They left the apartment at like 7, so we just did our studies... but Sister Greenall was sick, so she was in bed all morning and I did my studies... For like 4 hours. It was beautiful. Probably the most peaceful 4 hours of my mission :)

Saturday night we went to our correlation meeting and we had to stay at the church for a while while we filled the font up for Marcial. Our baptismal font is kind of cool. You fill it up the night before and it heats up over night. It takes a long time to fill those things up though. Then we went to see Marcial. It was so fun. He was so excited for his baptism the next day. He was so happy. When he said the prayer before we left he thanked God that he was finally going to be a member of his church. He is seriously the best.

So now for the moment you have all been waiting for.

          MARCIAL'S BAPTISM!

Definitely the highlight of my mission and probably my life. He came to church all dressed up in his suit. He looked so good. He was GLOWING. Everyone was talking to him and congratulating him. He fits right into this branch. Its like he has always been a member of the church. After the second hour, Sister Haycock and I headed into the kitchen to make all the sandwiches for after the baptism. The Garcias brought the sandwiches. They were super yummy. I don't know why Hispanics make such good Hispanics... but they were ham with this weird cheese and of course, jalepenos (the Garcia are Mexican). So yummy.... but while we were in the middle of making the sandwiches and the elders come into the kitchen. They had a baptism that day as well, so Marcial's baptism was a double baptism. The elders baptised a cute 15 year old girl named Alexa... so the elders walk in the kitchen and were just like "uh sisters... we need your help. Alexa is having some trouble changing into her jumpsuit" So we go into the changing area by the font and cute little Alexa is in there and she is just standing there looking at the jumpsuit. We ask her "did you bring an extra pair of underwear?" Her: "no, the Elders didn't tell me!" ahahahha classic Elder Baptism fail. haha. We asked her where she lived. She lived like 30 minutes away walking and we weren't allowed to drive her.. this was a problem. We asked her if there was anyone at her house. She said her grandma would be there.... so Sister Haycock and I jumped in our car and sped to her house. We got there and explained to the grandma the situation praying that she would let us in. Just picture us standing in this little hallway explaining to this little Mexican abuela that we needed to come in and look through her granddaughter's underwear. It was quite comical. She just laughed and let us in and helped us find some underwear for her. We made it back just in time. She changed and the program started. Her and Marcial sat up front. I led the music, a hermano in the ward gave a talk, then Alexa was baptized. Then Marcial. It was amazing. The spirit was so strong. The whole branch was there to support them. There wasn't enough seats for them. 

After the baptism we all had the sandwiches and soda. Marcial was so happy. It was the perfect day. 

Monday was super fun! Sisters Haycock and Webb had their Ellis island trip, so it was another day with Sister Greenall. That's why I didn't get my emails done. We had fun though. We went to the Patterson chapel for the zone activity. We also got to do some secret Birthday shopping for SISTER HAYCOCKS BIRTHDAY!!! Her birthday was Tuesday. So we got some decorating stuff and we decorated the church for her so that when she came to district meetings the next day we could surprise her, then we went down into Passaic to try to find this store that sells new jersey merchandise... we couldn't find it anywhere. We were driving/walking around Passaic for like an hour trying to find it.... which if you don't know what Passaic is like, just picture Mexico. :) It was crazy. We finally found it though at 5:30... so we only had 30 minutes to get by her birthday present then get back to the apartment... we barely made it. haha. It was a struggle hiding that stuff from Sister Haycock since they were waiting for us at the apartment. I did it though. She had no idea I planned stuff for her birthday. She forgot it was her birthday. hahahaha. I got up in the middle of the night and I made her a card and got the stuff all ready for her when she woke up in the morning. 

Tuesday, she wakes up and walks right past all of the stuff, still drowsy... then she comes back into the living room with her exercise stuff on and she was just like... WHAAAAAT? Its my birthday? hahaha. i got her an I <3 Jersey shirt and some hipster glasses. She was super excited. It was a fun morning. Then we went to district meeting. Sister Haycock bought everyone Little Cesar's pizza because its her last week and she has so much MSF money. The Shaws (the senior couple) brought cakes then Sister Webb and Greenall brought the cake that Sister Greenall and I got on Monday.... So there was a lot of pizza and cake. Then Sister Haycock and Sister Webb had their hot seats. It was so fun. She was so surprised when she walked in there for her hot seat and it was all decorated for her birthday. hehehehe. Their hot seats were so good. They are super great missionaries and they had some GREAT stories to share with us about their missions. We didn't even get back to our area until like 3:30 because it was just such a huge party. It was way fun though. Then last night, we took Marcial with us to go teach with us. It was his first team up experience!! He was so excited. He brought an AMAZING spirit into the home when he shared his testimony of the Book of Mormon with this family. We took him to see a part member family. The wife and kids are members and the husband isn't. They are going through a really hard time because they think he has stomach cancer and they are doing all these tests and things. He is pretty strong catholic, but he has been reading the Book of Mormon with his wife and we have been visiting them often for the past couple of weeks. We couldn't get him to read on his own though... But Marcial just shared his story and told him about how he had to read the Book of Mormon by himself. The spirit was incredible. Marcial is seriously the coolest! They were really touched by him. Hno Mooney is excited to read the Book of Mormon now. ....

gah. I am obsessed with Marcial. He is way to cool. haha You all have to meet him. You will love him.

Well that's all for now family. I don't have very much time this week. I love you and miss you all so much! Have a good week!

-Sister Clark

Busy Week!

Hey family, wow, we had such a busy week down here in Passaic. It was one of the best weeks of my mission though, that's for sure. We had so much fun and saw so many blessings. We were really into our zone goal of getting at least 70 contacts a week and 700 as a zone... It really shouldn't have been - as hard as it was, it was only 10 contacts per companionship, but there was a lot of companionships that just weren't doing it, which is dumb.. but Sister Haycock and I were in contact with the zone leaders constantly, who would let us know how many contacts we had as a zone every day and how far behind we were from the goal, then Sister Haycock and I would pick up the slack and do their contacts for them. It was a lot of fun for us. We got 285 contacts, so that was super awesome.

 

On Sunday night we still needed almost 200 contacts as a zone to make our goal of 700 for the week, so Sister Haycock and I set a goal for ourselves to beat our high score of 107 contacts two weeks ago and to get 108 to help save our zone. We walked to and from church, then all of our appointments juked us so we were on the streets for the rest of the day. The weather here in New Jersey is so weird, it cannot make up its mind. It was super hot and sticky in the morning on our way to church and it was a bit over cast, then when we left church it was hot all the way home. We took an hour for lunch and went back outside and it was perfectly clear outside, then within 45 minutes of being outside it started pouring rain, and of course we didn't have our umbrellas with us because we were walking and the skies were clear when we left. We got SOAKED. It was so fun. New Jersey rain is incredible. It pours and there are just huge rivers in the streets. Sister Haycock and I were in Garfield in this interesting little neighborhood/community where there are a lot of Hispanics, Italians and Polish people. When it started raining, we ran to take shelter under a shade thing by the door to some Italian thrift store. While we were standing there looking at our planners trying to decide what we were going to do this cute little old lady walks out of the store and was standing under the shade with us. She barely spoke any English, she spoke Italian, which we actually understand pretty well. She was absolutely adorable. She had these big glasses and just talked and talked to us in Italian and we would show her pictures of Christ and she got the hugest smile on her face, so we taught her a little bit, were not sure how much she understood, we were speaking half Spanish, half English, which ever she understood better, since Spanish is closer to Italian than English. We prayed with her and she got the biggest smile on her face and gave us big hugs. She wanted us to come into the store with her so that we wouldn't be out in the rain, but we told her that we needed to go. She told us to wait, she ran into the store and came out with her umbrella for us. It was so nice of her! She made us take her umbrella with her, we told her we would bring it back, so that is on our list of things to do. We made a really cute friend because of the rain. :)

 

So after the random 30 minute downpour, it was an absolutely gorgeous night. We went home, changed our clothes then got back to work. We ended up getting 108 contacts and 9 lessons that day and we found 2 inactive members that weren't on our branch records because they were baptized at a young age in their own country. That was really cool, we were definitely guided by the spirit to find those people, they were complete miracles. One of the less active members actually has two names, so she was in our area book under the potential section, but we had actually contacted her on the street a couple of weeks ago and got her address without knowing it was the same person, so when we went to her house we found out that she was actually already a member and her mom is a member as well, but her little brother is not, there could be some potential there. We found 2 new investigators who had sincere interest in the book of Mormon and we found a really cool guy named Will. He is a high school English teacher and he promised us he would read the book of Mormon cover to cover and that he has a strong testimony of the power of prayer. He was way cool, we passed his info along to the English sisters. Hopefully they will get in touch with him soon.

 

We have just seen so many blessings from contacting and making spiritual connections with people in contacts. Our zone leaders promised us that if we did our contacts every day we would be blessed with more investigators, more baptismal dates and more happiness. We have definitely seen all of those things. Our teaching pool more than doubled, we are being led to amazing prepared people and inactive members. We are seeing miracles every day. This month we will be focusing on inviting more people to be baptized. We know that we will see that increase in baptismal dates as we teach the people that we have found this month and continue to find more people. It's amazing how many people there are who want to know, we just have to find them and have the faith to talk to them... whether we are missionaries or just friends.

 

So, basically, Sunday was one of the best days of my whole mission. We worked so hard and we were on our feet the entire day except for the 3 short hours we were in church.... which I actually taught gospel principles, so I was still on my feet, ha ha. Sister Haycock and I got home and we did our nightly planning in 10 minutes then just passed out on the floor. We were dead tired and we agreed that it was probably the most tired we had been. While I was laying there on the floor, this random memory came to my head. When I was younger, my parents got my brother Nick and I Disneyland passes for Christmas for new year's weekend. We had so much fun that weekend. On New Years eve, my mom and Rod left Disney land early because they were so tired and they didn't want to stay up until midnight. Nick and I stayed out in Disney land until midnight that night and we had so much fun. That night when Nick and I came into the hotel room I took of my shoes and my feet hurt SO BAD and I was just dead tired, so I climbed into bed as quick as I could. My feet have never hurt that bad until Sunday night after that huge day that we had. Literally, I couldn't feel my toes. :) it was awesome. We took showers and went to bed early.

 

So, that was basically the highlight of the week. Oh yeah, Marcial passed his baptismal interview, that was cool. We have his recommend stuck to our fridge so we don't lose it between now and next Sunday. :) He is so excited and everyone is excited for him. Everything is basically ready, there are a lot of people participating. It will be a great day, can't wait to tell you all about it next week.

 

We also got to go up to Hewitt to go see Sister Haycock's family for the last time before she leaves. It was so much fun. They took us to this cute little town and we had lunch and went to go get ice cream at this really cool little ice cream place. Where they live is right at the top of Jersey and this ice cream shop was at the top of this big hill where you can see an incredible view of New York country side. It is so incredibly beautiful and green. I'll send a picture next week.

 

Oh big news! I finally mastered rolling my "r"s. I am officially Hispanic now :) Marcial helped me out and showed me how to hold my tongue. He is the BEST! He and Sister Haycock kept on laughing at my face when I was trying to do it because I was so concentrated, then when I finally did it we cheered. It was like when a baby says their first word or something. hahaha

 

We had some really weird contacts this week. We contacted some guy named Reynaldo and I'm not entirely sure he was accountable... He kept trying to preach to us and he gave us these pamphlets and he read Matt 12 to us. The whole chapter... it took forever. we kept on trying to stop him but he just kept going. Then the best part, while he was reading, a few kids passed us in bicycles and he looked up and said, "God and Jesus love you kids, and so do I!" Then he just kept on reading. Sister Haycock looked at each other and we had to concentrate so hard on not just dying laughing. Then we met this crazy guy in Passaic that told us that he was "the messenger" then he asked us if there was anything that we wanted to ask him. we were confused so we asked him what people usually asked him. He said people don't ask him questions, he usually has to ask them questions, so then we were just really confused. Then he started talking about a swear word... the B.S. swear word. He just kept on saying it, so we were like, don't say that, then he was like, God says that word. Then he was like, "If God came down and said B.S. would you believe he was God?" and we were like.... uh... bye. ha ha he was so weird.. He said so many weird things. He actually thought he was one of Gods messengers. Bless his heart.

 

I have been practicing my Dominican accent. It is getting pretty good. Today we had zone meeting and during our role plays, I was pretending to be our investigator, Tanya,who is Dominican and the elders were teaching me about baptism and so while they were teaching me, I just blurted out randomly "Tu estas bautisado?" in a really good Dominican accent and they just cracked up. They lost it. They said that it was really good. ha ha. Now we just keep saying that to each other.

 

Sister Haycock and I found this really good gelato place down the street from our house. It is seriously amazing. We decided it is probably better than Rita's. They have really good lemon, coconut and hazelnut flavors, plus a bunch more, but those are my favorites. We are eating so much ice cream because it is so stinkin' hot and sticky outside. We have just come to peace with the fact as soon as we walk outside, we will be wet for the rest of the day because it has been so humid lately. It is disgusting! We just keep laughing because at the end of the day, we come home and take our purses off and we have this huge sweat stain across our bodies from where the strap for our purses go. It is quite humorous.... we just can't take our purses off ever throughout the day or else people will see it. ha ha

 

I love you all and miss you like crazy! have a good week!! Pray that Marcial's baptism goes well! I'll talk to you next week!

 

-Sister Clark