Ok I love you family! you are all so great! So this week was crazy because it was almost a mini vacation from a mission, yet it wasn't but it's hard to explain so I guess I'll just start my letter and hope you understand.
Life is good here in ol Toms River New Jersey. It's CRAZY to think mom and dad were in DC.. super close considering I was in New York this week.....(cliff hanger)
Monday
So monday after e-mail we went on an exchange and lo and behold it was with the spanish sisters again. So sister Kimball and I headed to the spanish area With Sister Stevens. she's been on the mission for 4 weeks now and she was already having to lead the exchange. can you say stress city? haha considering I have no idea how to speak spanish and neither does she..Sister Kimball can speak Portuguese so that was a help but as we drove around trying to figure out where to go it made me appreciate my trainer so much. haha but the exchange turned out to be amazing!! the greatest thing about the spirit, is that it is the same, no matter what language you speak. so we sat in this less actives home and sister kimball just starts speaking in portuege and they understood!!! I had a proud sibling moment watching her teach in a language that she hasn't practiced in so long. the lesson was incredible and I just got to partake of the spirit. I'm learning some Portuguese phrases just for kicks and giggles. I'm SO HAPPY to be speaking english.. what a blessing. I get very confused. but the exchange was great. It ended with a dinner apointment with the spanish elders. One of wich looks SO MUCH LIKE CHRISTOPHER... so I just go to sit there and watch christopher teach a lesson. It was a tender mercy for me to feel like I was in a lesson with him. the spirit was so strong. It's so fun to be serving with my dear brother.
Tuesday
ok this was the day before our all mission party and we were in charge of making a cake. I guess all my years of watching cake boss paid off. We had the barnaget sisters stay overnight with us and we made this cake. it is shaped like new Jersey and we put a superman action figure on the cake and used white out for his hair and gave him a name tag.. it was president Jeppson. when he saw this he laughed so hard. we also got little army men and put tags on them like we were the army of helamen. (spoiler aleart our cake won the contest!!!) we then had our sleep over and awoke at 4 the next morning to head up to morristown for the all mission party
Wednesday
As we were driving up I was thinking about all the fun sporting activities that we would be partaking in and i was getting so excited and i just mentally made the decision to play sports even if it hurt. but the first thing that happened when we got there president comes up and shakes our hands. he grabs mine with both of his and asked how my knee was doing I told him and he made me promise him that I wouldn't play anything to hurt my knee further. I love president so much it's crazy the revelation he receives for each of us. Heavenly Father knew the intentions of my heart then told president not to let me. that was a testimony builder for me. I love president and the mission party was really fun. i watched lots of sporting events. met a lot of missionaries. we ate food had skits and then had a devotional by president garff the temple president of the manhattan temple. he talked about how the church houses for weekly worship are for the ward and building unity and sacrament. but the temple is a personal experience. he basically gave us permission to think of ourselves in the temple... which was perfect leading into TEMPLE TRIP!!!! (Mom and dad I had a mini heart attack thinking you were thinking about going to new york.. we probably would see eachother haha crazy!) but we went home to find i got a package from mom. they always come exactly when I need them. so thank you! and the c.d.'s have been very enjoyed. my companions say thank you.
Thursday.
Oh what an adventure to ride the trian in the humidity and strange strange smells. (reminded me so much of europe) we rode up with our district. on the way we met a man named rick. He loves peanut butter and he was happy to meet some nice people. He's looking for religion.. for those of you know the movie Nacho Lebro.. he is the equivalent of a jersey nacho lebro.. hahah he was a professional spanish wrestler and he just was so hilarious. He agreed to meet with us and we are excited to teach him! we rode up to the temple and had to run through manhatan to try to make our session it was stressful and crazy but the instiant we walked into the temple it was clean.. and peacefull and pure... wow I've missed it so much. We just sat in peace. We missed our session but we got to stay there all day so I did baptisms first. and it was flash backs of when cami and I went to do baptisms in the new york temple. I remember that temple experience for me, i felt the spirit stronger then any other baptisms i've ever done. I asked cami if she felt it and she agreed. it's cool to see now that it was the spirit foretelling of me being on a mission here and how it's my mission temple!!! wow incredible!! I love baptisms, we then did an endowment session and the we sat the in the celestial room for a long time. it was one of the coolest experience (besides being with my family in the temple) to be sitting in a room full of missionaries in the temple.. wow the power and love and quite revereance that was there was incredible. I received some personal revelation and it was so so so awesome. We then did sealings (as children not to eachother) i'm so blessed to be sealed to my family forever. there are so many people here who want that. Like Anthony. we met him on the train ride home. our conversation started off with us asking how he was doing he replied "If I was any happier I'd be twins" but we ended up talking to him and he just led us through a lesson basically asking us all the questions you would want a dream investigator to ask. we talked about families being sealed forever he loves his family so much. and he quit smoking the same day we met him. can you say GOLDEN!! I can... golden! he just sat there and said "I saw... no I felt you guys come in.. your just so pure.." My heart was so happy. I knew it was from us attending the temple and the reason he was willling to talk with us. wow I will keep you posted on our meetings with him. oh and he's studied religion for years and he told us that out of all the religions ours makes the most sence and seems to be the most correct... jaw dropping. We have so many crazy experiences with people coming up to us and us talking to awesome people I LOVE NEW JERSEY!! so many people to teach so little time.... It hurts my heart to think transfers are coming up.. my companions and I don't talk about it cause we love eachother so much. so many people comment on how well we get along. ugh I can't talk about it. I need to stay here just a little longer to teach these people! we love them so much. anyways temple trip was incredible and we got really really close to our district. we bonded and had a fun time!.
Friday
Weekly planning again.. woot woot haha 5 hours of talking about investigators and making plans wich actually is just stupendous. we then went and taught wanda about the atonement. you know those lessons that you prepare and as you teach you just realilze it was more for you then for them.. man I needed that lesson.. mom thank you for your testimony on the atonement I know it is real. It's just using it and being willing to use it, submitting your strength and letting him heal you. that's all it's about. it's there it's ready, we have to allow ourselves to be healed and be helped. we then drove to sister garretsons and jammed out to prince of Egypt. oh it does the heart some good. dad do you remember that trip to grover where for 4 hours all we listened to was the prince of egypt sound track? I think of that trip often. I love music. it can uplift and inspire and comfort in so many ways. We then went to sister garretsons and practiced singing a song for zone meeting. she was our choir director and she just makes me laugh.
Saturday.
taught joan, it was good, we served her and we always love her. we then went to the library to look up some talks on mormon.org. as we are sitting there this asian man leans over and looks over the top of our computer screens and asks if we are mormon. we tell him we are. he gets so excited and wants us to come give him the lessons. he took them in college but he moved and was just so excited to see us. he made sure we had the right number by calling us and then saving it in his phone. and then he took a picutre of us.. I feel like everyone should be that excited to see missionaries hahaha... ok you have to understand toms river is a blessed area.. things like this don't just happen on missions.. it's crazy blessings. the prayers and work pay off. thank you for your prayers. I pray christopher will be able to find people and that the lord will place in his path people ready to be taught. on the way to the car we met 2 more men who came up and talked to us about coming to church. which is so good cause we need preistood in our ward. It is 70% less active. and lots of the actives are elderly women. but we love them lots,, but we need men! We then had a lesson with a member and a less active she made us grilled cheese.. yummmm. we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and the last scripture the spanish elder used Moroni 7: 46 and he replaced the word charity with Jesus Christ. it was such an amazing experience. Without Christ we are nothing! We are helpless without the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know it and i've seen it. then on the way out we got attacked by mosquitos. oh ok so there was some accident or something in new jersey were these asian mosquitos got over here and they are vicious! they will bite night and day and they keep bighting. i'll give you a visual saturday night we were leaving a lesson and we had to put the elders bikes in our car and we literally had to be constantly swatting and dancing to get away from mosquitos. PURE CRAZINESS. but then as we drove home I sat and watched the fire flies and just peaceful. to step back and see the beauty and blessings when your not being distracted by the things that don't matter. instead of slow down and smell the roses. step back and see the fireflies.
Sunday-Excellent, another exchange with sister Stevens except she came english and we just love our ward.
Monday-The reason I"m writing so late cause we had an orientation about ellis island this morning to get us ready to go work!!!! SO EXCITED! we were supposed to go on the island but we couldn't today so next time we will..
all in all incredible week.
Family I love you and friends as well. STAY STRONG AND STAND STRONG IN WHAT YOU BELIEVE. don't become complacent, always strive to be better and improve. thats what happens to so many members here they get comfortable where they're at and then they stop coming.. it hurts my heart. we will get them. By remembering our savior and his atonement for each one of us. not just for our sins but for everything. happiness sadness, discouragement. He is your best friend, he is becoming mine!
I love you all! CLEAR EYES FULL HEART CAN'T LOSE!
LOVE Sister Clark
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