Week #36

This week had a lot of ups and downs, but overall it was a good week! It was actually very eventful! 

Monday and Tuesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. I went with elder Reynolds he is awesome and about ready to go home. We first taught some lady at the family history library and helped her find more names because she loves doing it! While we were there some guy from Columbia was having trouble or needed the help the the senior missionary helping him couldn't speak Spanish so she came up and asked us so I said yeah I it a shot, he was so cute, so I helped him log on and then he sat there and told me all about his family and he was showing me pics and everything. 

Wednesday we went and helped at SOVA, a Jewish food bank. it is so fun to go there and every time we walk in all the Jews go ELDERS!!!! Then at the end they let us take whatever we want! We also had Jorge's baptismal interview. My boy elder Vega came up to do. We waited at the church for an hour for him to come.. so elder Vega told me let's just go to his house. So we went over to his house and elder Vega did the interview,and I sat in the kitchen and talked to Jorge's wife. About an hour they came into the kitchen and said he will be baptized!

Thursday we had zone conference. It was just a mini one. The AP's asked me if I would give the first vision. Ugh that's the worst one to do I would much rather say a prayer or give a talk. It was super good tho! Learned a lot! After ZC we went to the temple to watch candy participate in temple baptisms!! Holy cow that was awesome to see her do that and help others who did not get the chance here on this life. She wants to go again!

For some reason I love talking to hobos, I think it's because Hollywood is in rich abundance and you just don't know what you're going to get when you say hey how are you today! I feel bad for them because the people here are not  nice to anyone especially these people. We talked to this one hobo outside of 7-11 and we said hey do you want anything? He said no no I am good, so we just said alright we are going to go get a drink! And as we were walking in in he yelled tuna fish! We guessed he was talking to us so we bought him a tuna fish sandwich a water and some chips. Then we watched him eat it and I lost my appetite lol.  I usually ask them if they would pull a rickshaw because they have an infinite street knowledge 

Saturday was the zone blitz! It was so so fun we did a little bit better than last time too! We found 59 people that want to hear our message. The last phase my different companion and I went and worked in Beverly Hills.. that's was intimidating but you just have to get in there a go raw and show those people you have no fear or else they will not talk to you. 

Sunday was suppose to be Jorge's baptism. He backed out.. it was super sad. We had the program talks and everything ready. We called him and he just said I just need to read more of the Book of Mormon. He knows all of this is true but he just needs to see that he is ready. This was something that helped me so much right before I took the sacrament yesterday I had the most comforting feeling I have ever felt, and then a thought came in that said elder Clark you are going to be so blessed for your efforts out here. Made me tear up a little because I felt so good made me know that God loves me and I know that without a doubt! 

Love you all have a good week!

1&2 ate with a super cool couple on exchanges! They are here for an internship for the summer! Reminded me of K&J!!

3&4 the zone blitz round 2

Peace&Blessings 

Week #35

¿Cwackaz o quakers?

This week was a really good one a lot happened and we made some big progress with our investigators Jorge and Mikey!!

First Tuesday. Tuesday was a really weird day we talked to this one guy looking for his less-active mom and he stops mid sentence and goes do either of you have any neck or back pain? We both said no. Then he asked if we have any knee pain. I said I use to because of basketball but that's been over a year ago so the pain just slowly went away with time. Then we started talking about faith and what not then he stops again and goes pointing at my knees and says, in the holy name of Jesus Christ I command that your knee be healed, all the ligaments tendons, cartilage be restored and to be strong. He stopped and looked at me and asked did you feel any warmth or heat in your knee? Or did you feel and tingling? So I told him NOPE. My knee is in shipshape. We had a good talk about the priesthood and how it was restored to the church tho! 

After that we are walking back to the car and this homeless black dude rode past us and stopped came back and said are y'all cwackaz? I said excuse me? Are y'all cwackaz? I laughed and said yep yep we are crackers sir. Then my companion says no no elder Clark are we quakers? Ohhhhh no sir we aren't quakers we are mormons then he rode away... 

now to our investigators! Jorge has made some big changes in his life and is ready to change for God and Jesus Christ! We is preparing to be baptized on Sunday! Mikey walked from his house to mutual! WALKED so we had a decent lesson with him about the restoration so progress with him too!!

Thursday we had interviews with President Haynie. What. A. Man. Then we had weekly planning and as we are beginning we get a call, elder Thomson answers it and they person asked for elder Talmage.. he said this is elder Thomson. He wanted elder talmage tho so I got the phone and it turned out it was Buckys dad Bubba!!! He said let go to breakfast tomorrow at the best breakfast place in LA! So we said let's do it!!! 

So on Saturday we went to the griddle cafe on sunset. Not was Bubba right it's the best breakfast place in LA! It was super nice to see him and talk to him he gave us some advice but he mostly had us laughing 😂. What a man. 

Then on Sunday of course got to skype the fam. It was awesome to see all of the! I love them so much!! They are the best! 

Also got a call that there has been a midcycle transfer... so elder Thomson is leaving today:( and my new companion will be elder Lawton. 

This last week I have been reading the end of 1st Nephi and it talks about how his brothers are 'past feeling' I thought about that for a while. Then it talks about when they are on the boat and God literally had to almost kill them to get them to realize they need to humble themselves. It's so important that we don't reach this point. Passed feeling feeling the Holy Ghost. We need to constantly be checking our lives and make sure the things we are doing are making us worthy for that constant companion we need. Of course God is going to give us ways so we can have the Holy Ghost with us. He was also given us boundaries to where if we step outside of these boundaries we risk loosing it, of muffling the still small voice of it. The Holy Ghost is real. It can always be our constant companion and comforter if we are following the commandments of God and working to strengthen it in our lives. I have many experiences out here when I do realize that was the Holy Ghost and I do not want to loose this precious privilege! 

Love you all! Have a good week! 

Pics from the week

1. The new and improved LA zone
2. what happens when elder Thomson doesn't make his bed in the morning. 
3. Wrecked 
4. " gather round PLV'S its story time!!"
5. The legend. Bubba Schrader.

Peace&Blessings 

Week #34

The first week of the transfer is already over?.. this week went by so fast I barely even remember what happened. We had a ton of lessons, I had ZLC and I testified of something I never thought I would have to testify about..

First our boy Mikey came to mutual! He rode his bike all they way from his house! So we went to mutual instead of teaching the Book of Mormon class! Mikey goes off the main everyday. The English missionaries asked who our investigator was and we pointed him out and one of the elders go "that's him?! I threw the football with that kid in the street" Mikey is seriously so cool and he is such a little street rat. Things are looking good with him, his parents gave us permissions to teach him plus he agreed to meet with us 45 mins before mutual starts to teach him!

We also made big moves with our other investigator Jorge! We taught the word of wisdom and he told us he left most of that stuff behind 2 months ago!! We were so pumped! Just darn coffee is what we need to work on now! Plus out boi came to church yesterday for the third time so he is good to go!

Now to the thing I thought I wouldn't have to testify about every... we were talking to the Armenian guy for a while, he was a little out there but we started talking about religion and God. He goes on to say God and Jesus were both gay.. he said in Armenia God and gay are the same word. So then he goes on to say "we never hear about gods wife and you know the guy that gave Jesus all that money? That was his boyfriend" I cut him off because I was just feeling disgusting inside listening to him talk about this. I just simply said to him "sir I can testify that God and Jesus Christ aren't gay" my boi elder Thomson lost it. He thought it was funny and I did to because I never thought I would have to testify about that. It was a great convo to say the least. 

Have a good week love you all! 

Only one pic this week:( sorry I will do better 

Nice view of the sign and the observatory!

Peace&Blessings 

Week #33

This was the last of the transfer so we tried to go as hard as we could because we didn't know what was going to happen at the end of the week. 

I went on exchanges with elder fierro, he is from Oaxaca (waahaca) Mexico he only have a transfer and a half left. Super hard working missionary plus we is the funniest cutest little monkey no real big miracle but we did have an odd convo about weed. We were walking by this lady opened get up her gate and I hawked how her day was going she said "freaking awesome!" So I asked why she goes on to say she is going to buy weed and how great it is and what not  I pretending like I knew something about it couldn't do it I have no clue. So I tried to share the restoration something I do know about but she was more focused on her "good stuff" as she called it. Elder fierro was dying the rest of the night! He kept saying what if president Haynie was there for that convo the entire time. 

We had a super cool miracle this week we got a referral from the visitor center! So we went over and taught them! They are so cool and ready to change because they have had a lot of stuff happen to them lately and they are ready! Brittany is white but learned Spanish for her husband Julio!! Brittany knows a ton about the church she has already been to all of the church history sites and Julio lives the idea of eternal families!! We are going back this week and I cannot wait!!

Funny story, we were teaching our recent concerts candy and margarita. As elder Thomson was saying the closing prayer, well for some reason latinos like to whisper while others are praying. It is usually just like "si señor" and stuff like that. So while elder Thompson was praying margarita was whispering then all of the sudden you hear from candy SHHHHH. i started laughing after that but it was a great lesson to say the least. 

We also set a baptismal date with our homie Chris!! He is 17 and he is ready! He read the restoration pamphlet and he like remember word for word what Christ said to Joseph smith and everything! I thought it was super cool what he said. He said as I was reading the pamphlet it didn't seem knew to me, it just seemed like a review. I thought that was so cool because those are the elect. The ones who know this is true deep down and it sounds familiar. He is the elect. And we are so excited to work with him more!! 

Also one last thing elder Thomson and I are stating I am pumped for another 6 weeks here! We are going to see the fruits of our labors this next transfer I know it!

Church is true. The priesthood is real. Prophets and apostles are on the earth  today. So happy and humble I can be a missionary right now. 

Pics!

1-3. Our hike we did last p day 

1. If you can't already tell by this pic but I am having a blast out here in CA!

Peace&Blessings