Boooo Germany!

Seriously so upset about the world cup. I think Sister Haycock and I are poor sports... Because we happened to catch the last glimpse of the game and we kind of wanted to cry. We were just like, "SHUT THAT TV OFF and give us some ice cream so we can eat our feelings."

hahah but really though. SO upset. 

It's kind of a funny story actually. We have been so into the world cup down here because it is the only way you can actually get people to talk to you... but of course, we are going to be cheering for Latin America... Everyone was so pumped about Argentina. So, on Sunday we realize that the game would be going on and that it would be really hard to see anyone the whole afternoon... so we thought we would play it smart and set an appointment with the oldest people in our branch, Hermano y Hermana Valencia. They have to be at least 100 years old. So we set an appointment with them and they are so excited because they always get so excited when we come to visit them.

 Ha, world cup. We out smarted you.

Ha. I learned a very valuable lesson that day. 

You cannot outsmart the world cup. 

No matter how hard you try, the world cup is more important than the missionaries :( wahhhhh. We just want people to love us. 

We get to the Valencia's house and of course, cute little 100 year old hermano Valencia is GLUED to the TV watching the world cup. And since he is 100 years old, the volume is ALL THE WAY UP. I couldn't even hear myself think. If I wanted to ignore the world cup, I was in the wrong place.

We had to just make the best of the situation, so we just started trash talking Germany with Hermano Valencia. He got a kick out of it. He was so into it. hahahah. That only lasted like 5 minutes though because we had to try to stay focused... so we started talking to hermana Valencia, who really couldn't care less about the world cup. She is a talker. Ones she starts going she never stops. hehe. Since the volume was up all the way, it was hard to understand her, so we really just ended up singing primary songs in our heads trying to block the game out and looking into her eyes and nodding like we heard what she was saying. Bless her heart. She gave us cute little soccer ball chocolates. She puts her chocolate in the freezer. hehehe. Right before we left, we happened to catch the very end of the game. We were so bummed. 

Basically the world cup was the highlight of the week and it's all we heard about from anyone. I'm kind of sad that it is over now, I guess its just back to talking about the weather. 

I met the Taggarts this week. They are so great. On Wednesday we had "Meet the Taggarts" for zones 1&2. They are so darn cute. They brought their two daughters with them. Emily is 17 and Sophie is I think 10 or 11. I forgot which one, but they are adorable. Emily introduced the whole family to us. They have 4 older kids who are married with families. She told us a little bit about who they are and where they come from and things like that. They sure are a cute family.. Then Sophie gets up and she speaks Chinese! She was in Chinese immersion class. It was super cool. Sister Taggart is great too. She is so real and she loves the mission already. She has a strong testimony and is very cute. President Taggart is great. He isn't a baptist preacher like President Jeppson, but he has a really strong spirit when he speaks. He has high expectations for the mission and he wants to keep everything that the Jeppsons built up and build upon it. It is really great that they want to do that, because we have a very obedient hard working mission and I don't want that to change. 

This morning we had our personal interviews with them both. I love them even more now. I was talking one on one with Sister Taggart for a while and she is so real! I really love her a lot. President Taggart is just so willing to do what ever he can to help us personally and to help the mission. They are humble and open to suggestions and help since we have a little bit more experience than them right now. I love it. It is good change. 

 

On Tuesday we had our zone meeting and our monthly focus was introduced to us. I am obsessed with this months focus. It is so good. Our focus this month is called "spiritual connections" It is about making a spiritual connection with the people we contact and the people we teach by asking them inspired questions. President Taggart taught us that we have been endowed with power from on high and that we are literally the Lord's hands and feet. We are his servants and as such he is willing to give us what ever is necessary to finish his work in a way that is pleasing to him. It all depends on our faith and our trust in him. We talked a lot about the scripture D&C 82:10. Our zone goals this month are to literally "Bind the Lord" To do that, we are promising the lord that we will contact at least 10 people that day or who ever we see. As we do that we ask him specifically in every prayer that as we do that, that he will put 2 people in our path that day who are prepared to hear the gospel. There are 9 million people in new jersey. There ARE prepared people here. We don't know where they are, but the Lord does that is why we are asking him to put them in our path if we promise to contact everyone we see. We are seeing huge miracles from this.


 We went home to our area that day feeling so uplifted and ready to bind the lord. We left our car with a prayer, Binding the lord to give us 2 people if we contacted everyone we saw. We were on an empty street called Keasler st and we had an appointment to visit Lillian, one of our less active members from Peru. We got to her door and she juked us. She forgot about the appointment. As we were walking back to the car, we saw this kid on a skateboard, so we ran after him. He wasn't interested. Then I saw a guy poke his head out of his door as we walked past. We turned around and knocked on his door. He didn't answer, so we took that as a not interested. Then right as we get back to the car, we saw a guy all the way down the street where we had just come from. Sister Haycock and I looked at each other each thinking the same thing "we promised" so we turn around and head back down the street. We were kind of trying to run without making a lot of noise.. he didn't notice that we were awkwardly stalking him thank goodness. He gets to the door of his house and so we call out to him. He stops and talks to us for a second but then tells us that he wasn't interested. We turn around and start walking back to the car. Out of the corner of our eyes, we see a little Hispanic man laying some concrete at the side of someone's house. It was kind of an awkward place to contact someone because we had to go a little bit out of our path to talk to him and into someone's yard and we knew that he didn't live there and that he was probably working... but we promised the lord. So we did it anyways. We went up to talk to him but something weird came out of sister haycocks mouth... "she said, hey, would you like to learn how you can make your prayers more meaningful?" and he looked up at us and said, "yeah!" And we set an appointment with him. BEST ZONE GOAL EVER! It worked! It actually worked. We went and taught him on Friday night and it was such a good solid first lesson. We taught the whole restoration and we asked him soul searching questions and he was so deep in thought and he was asking us questions and he said yes to baptism and he said that he was ready to act on the message to know if it was true and he said the closing prayer! This guy is so cool! His name is Alberto and he is from Mexico. He is actually from Mexico City so I got to talk to him about that. EVERYONE knows where Benemeritos is. haha. 

We found someone else later that night too. Everyday we have been finding 2 people who do not flat out reject us. They either let us teach them a little bit right there but aren't ready quite yet, or they let us give their info to other missionaries because they live in a different area or they speak English. Even if they aren't for sister Haycock and me specifically to teach, we are finding 2 people a day with open hearts that we can make a spiritual connection with. It is so cool!

I know that the Lord is bound when we do what he says!

Oh yeah, I forgot. I got super sick this week! I woke up on Thursday with really bad congestion. I went and got some Musinex and I was out cold for 2 1/2 days. It was the worst! I slept so much. And I had a fever too, which is not fun when there is only one tiny little window air conditioner and one fan in your whole apartment. It is so hot down here... I do not like humidity! I feel like I am just wet and sticky all day. I hope you all appreciate the dry heat.

Thursday we had a really rough morning. It's our walking day and we had an appointment set at 10 with some investigators. While we were on our way to their house, we were trying to do our contacting. We saw this older black woman sweeping her porch. We contacted her and she said, oh yeah, hey sisters, come inside. So we went inside and we started teaching her. We started with a prayer then kind of started in with the first lesson. It turns out that she had been taught by the English sisters previously and said that she believes the book of Mormon is true. She has read the whole thing and the doctrine and covenants and the bible. BUT she suddenly got really rude with us and started yelling at us and telling us about how she doesn't agree with us because she has been to all of the churches and she just goes where ever she wants on Sundays because she believes that they are all true... It was so weird. The spirit was gone. Like super gone and Sister Haycock and I started to feel a little bit scared, so we were trying to get out. I started to bear my testimony I said. "Well, I know that Christ lives and that Joseph smith saw God and Jesus Christ" She agreed and said yes, then I said, "I know that they told him that none of the churches were true" then she interrupted me and said, "I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT!" and she was like yelling in my face.... Then sister Haycock said  "alright we have to go, my companion's going to say a prayer now." So I said the prayer then we booked it out of her house as fast as we could... That lady was so scary. There was zero spirit in her house. I did not like it.


So we were both a little bit shaken up by that, then we got to the investigators house and they juked us. They weren't home, so we start heading back home and we are still contacting. We saw this cute little old man sitting outside so we went to talk to him. As we are talking to him this other man comes down the street and starts talking to our contact. He was talking to him about a shower head, so we assumed that he lived in his house. We just waited until they were done talking so that we could try to share our message or give them a card or something... Then something weird happened. The guy turns and looks at us and he says, "I have something for you girls." He reaches in his fanny pack and he pulls out these cards and hands them to us. Right as soon as we saw him reach in his fanny pack, we recognized him. We had met him before. He is an anti. The first time we met him, we talked to him a little bit, but he just kept on bashing us so we left. This time however, he gave us the cards, then turns to the cute little old man and says, "do you know what these two girls believe? They believe that Jesus Christ and Satan are brothers, can you believe that?" Then he looks at us and he says "how can you live with yourselves? How can you possibly believe something like that?" and he just starts yelling at us and bashing us like crazy, before we even had time to say anything to him at all. We just looked at him and said, "we hope you two have a nice day," and turned around and walked away. Right then he started getting louder and mocking us saying "oh you see how they're walking away? They don't want to come face me. They think they're better than us" and he just went on and on and on. He just kept on getting louder and louder the further away we got. I swear we could hear him for forever. Just saying the most offensive things. I looked back and I saw the little old man he was talking to and he looked sad. He looked like he felt bad for us. It was awful. I really wanted to just take my badge off and give him a little piece of my mind.... I didn't though, because I had the words of a talk that I had read in my study ringing through my mind. A talk by Elder Holland given in the last general conference. and I remembered one of my favorite scriptures found in 2 Nephi 9:14 "But, behold, the righteous, the saints of the Holy One of Israel, they who have believed in the Holy One of Israel, they who have endured the crosses of the world, and despised the shame of it, they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever." And then I remembered the talk given in the priesthood session by President Monson about having the courage to defend your faith and defend Christ. I knew right then that we had done the right thing by enduring it and just walking away with a smile. It is not always easy, but they rejected Jesus Christ at first. He knows what it is like to be offended and rejected. He suffered below that all. Am I any better than him? Absolutely not. It isn't easy, but it is always worth it. God ALWAYS fulfills his promises as long as we are faithful to him. I believe in that with my whole soul. 

Later that day, we were talking to the other sisters in our zone. The Spanish sisters in Patterson. Their names are sister Stansel and sister Monson. Sister Monson is this adorable little girl who is the same height as me and is just cute and sassy, and she was telling us about how they had the WORST week last week. They were rejected by EVERYONE and no one let them teach them. They only taught 7 lessons. And on top of that, one day while they were walking down the street in Patterson, she all of a sudden felt herself get drenched in something wet and sticky.... It didn't take her long to realize that it was some sort of green slime. It turns out, that someone who was living in a second story apartment saw them coming and dumped out a huge bucket of some nasty stuff that was in their house right on top of sister Monson. PEOPLE ARE SO RUDE!!! These sisters are the best. Shout out to sister Monson for dealing with the slime. 

Well, gotta go! I love you all and hope you have a great week. be nice to the missionaries!

-Sister Clark

 

 

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

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