Week #5

Churches Chicken Is Inspired
This week has gone by so fast! And this week we have been teaching
more and I am feeling more comfortable sharing and participating in
lessons. Which is a huge blessing

Tuesday we got woken up to a 3.1 earthquake! They happened every two
hours nothing big just moved the floor a little! And this continued
all throughout the morning and our studies it was cool but scary at
the same time! Haha

Friday night the ward I cover (Hermosa Liahona) had a multi cultural
party! There was a mariachi band and different booths set up from
different Latino countries like Peru, El Salvador, Mexico etc... Each
booth had food from that country and there was just a ton of food in
general... All of it was awful I tried everything but it was all
nasty. So I came home and had a bowl of cereal. Blessed. But this
party was a huge success because there was a lot of recent converts
less-actives and investigators there. It was huge for us to go up and
talk to them or just for them to mingle with ward members. It was a
fun night and Latinos know how to party and have a good time and I
will leave it at that...

People have some pretty weird things in their front yards like Easter
island heads  we have seen a goat or a little boy going to the
bathroom but my favorite were this signs that had some explicit
wording on it they were so funny I had to take a pic I couldn't decide
the subject name for this week because these signs were so funny! To
say the least "tenemos una salvaje aquí" (we have a savage here)

Saturday we had an appointment to go up to the visitor center at the
temple in Santa Monica but the family that we were going to take up to
it got In a huge fight and backed out at the last minute... We were
both pretty bummed because we were both so excited for them because we
know this visit could really help them grow closer to God. Since we
both felt really bad my companion said lets go to Church's Chicken,
because that's all I have been talking about it since I've been here
because it was mentioned in a rap song (Jon Little should know which
song I'm talking about). So we went to Church's Chicken for dinner and
a little bit of a pick us up. While we were eating some lady came up
and started to talk to us and she wants us to come and talk with her
friend that we found out is a less-active member! So we got a member
referral from a non-member and we are hoping to go and visit with this
lady this week! After our dinner we were feeling pretty good and we
went and had a stellar lesson with a man named Edwin! He is a new
investigator and this was our first lesson with him. He speaks both
English and Spanish so this is good practice for me to get better at
my Spanish because we asked him to correct us whenever we say
something wrong.

My favorite thing on the Mish is when people from across the street or
from anywhere yell "Hey Elders!" Because we get avoided a lot as
missionaries and we get a lot of people that don't want to talk to us.
So it's nice when people on the street acknowledge you or give you a
honk driving down the street. I really enjoy it and it brings me a lot
of happiness. So I challenge you guys when you see a set of
missionaries honk or say "Hey Elders!" because I know they will love
it!

My companion and I are going hard everyday trying to reach out to
uncontested referrals and we get tired a lot but then I just say "well
sitting here won't do us no good no how" who can name the movie? (I
know my dad and my uncle Mike can)  but missionary work is tough and
it's exhausting. But it is worth it  at moments it's hard and I just
want to go take a nap. But at the end of the day when I look back at
the day I think about the conversations I had with people or the
lessons I taught and I wouldn't have had those experiences if we just
stayed in our apartment and slept. But this is the greatest experience
I have had in my life I am learning so much about this gospel and
myself and I am so grateful for this experience I have. This gospel is
so important to me now and I am so grateful to be apart of this church
and for the opportunity I have to be apart of this church

Peace and Blessings

Elder Clark