9.4.13: Week of Change

deep fried oreos on the board walk

Ok first off. I have the best family ever. Thank you for all the letters and all the updates. I love hearing about the fun and challenging experiences back home. It reminds me of where I come from and how grateful I am to be here to share what I know with these people.

-Also...what is up with these kids growing up so fast... I'm not ok with it! they sound like they are just loving life. thank you for all the pictures! they all look like they are so big!

Ok I'll start at the beginning of my week

smurf fire hydrants

This week was a blur of emotions and fast paceness... (yes that's not a word but it describes my week) All the craziness started Monday night when Sister Kimball got a call from President Jeppson... The time has come. Her visa finally came. All I could do was sit there and cry. I love her so much but I was so happy for her. The expression of relief and love on her face is something I will never forget. She has been a wonderful helper here and will be seriously missed. Brazil doesn't know whats going to hit them. So the week was just flooded with craziness trying to get her packed and ready to go.

Then on Wednesday we got another call from President Jeppson. Sister Richardson was called as a Sister Training leader. (no surprise there she's incredible) so that just added to the craziness. But we still taught the people and said lots of painful goodbyes. We first taught Wanda.. funny story so we were sitting waiting to start the lesson and we found a vhs on her table. She told us she brought this home from the church but she doesn't have the 'technology' to work it. We opened it up and looked at the vhs and she said "I've never seen one of those before". We were in shock. Then Sister Richardson leans over to me and whispers "she was a nun." it was funny. Wanda thought it was funny as well. We also then went to Joans. She gave us those shirts that look like they fit on a doll then they stretch to fit you. ya we had fun with those haha. It was very sweet of her she told us it hides all her 'rumple dumbles'. Toms river people are funny. We taught brother Weignburg this week. he lives in a mental insittuion, and I kid you not, It looks like the Tower of Terror in Disney land. (i'll send pictures). but he has the biggest heart and just wants the gospel back in his life so much. so we will be back there again. 

Me and the gold spartan...Jersey style (turned out to be a jewish womans car)

Friday was RAEGANS BAPTISM!!!!! oh man she was just glowing the whole time! the ward members welcomed her in with love and with so much support. we were so grateful for the ward. It made the stressful day worth it. (background info) sister Richardson had to go to her sister training leader meeting so it left sister kimball I and a new trainie together to figure out everything we needed to do for Raegans baptism... and sister kimball had brazil on the brain so I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off. but it turned out great... even though the water was green. hey it's just baptism by emersion.. it can be by green goop instead of water... can't it? ok it wasn't that green but still, we had some laughs. We love Raegan and she was so happy to be baptized. Saturday we went down to the shore and taught a less active and her husband. he committed to read. it was pretty cool! we also went and got Deep Fried Oreos...and yes they were delicious! it was bad how good they were. Sunday was a great day, it wasn't to crazy but the love and the spirit was so strong. We went to the Higgins for one last time after church and they gave us frames and expressed there love for us and all we've done for them. I LOVE THEM!!! then monday morning the transfer text came. Sister Richardson was being transferred. I am leading the area in toms river. we franticly packed and drove sister kimball up to the mission home and said our goodbyes. it was quick but hard. then we came back and packed for sister Richardson as well. We had a zone activity in there somewhere where we played ultimate frisbee. it was great!. 

Tuesday.. yesterday. Transfer Conference. We sat there nervously and waited to hear our futures. Sister Richardson is going up to caldwell. And I'm staying down here. My new companion is Sister Morrison. She is a legend of the mission. everyone loves her. so I"m supper excited. (she's friends with Elder Holland,,, no big deal) she's great and a lot of fun. I'm super nervous to lead the area but i'm excited to grow and to stretch and for the new phase of my mission. it's still surreal to me that our trio is split up. but we enjoyed every moment of it. transfer conference ended with us singing "God be with you till we meet again" ya sister Richardson and I didn't make it past the first 4 words. I'm really going to miss them. We've seen so many miracles together and they have a special place in my heart.

But life is good. Sister Morrison and I are going to light the World on fire with the spirit:) thank you for all your love and suport. It means the world to me.! Love you all! Keep the Faith!

Love,

Sister Clark

clear eyes full heart, can't lose

Shirts from Joan

cleaning the font before the baptism

REAGAN!! 

Reagan's baptism! 

Sister Brown! 

the Villanueva's

8.12.13: Weekly Letter

ok so basically I felt so sick to my stomach all week (not literally) because my letter last week was so rushed and it was such a good week that I didn't even scratch the surface.  So this week I decided to write my letter first then respond to all others. So here we go.

This is the Higgins :) 

Monday

I got a wonderful package from my dearest mother. It made me so happy as I opened it and looked at the contents. It reminded me of home. It was a good uplifter and starter for the busy week. So after letter writing we went shopping! We live really close to a mall so we went there.  It is so weird shopping in a mall when you are a missonary.. We just felt like we were 3 girls shopping in the mall. We even got a pretzel to top off our day. Then after our long shopping trip,we got back to work. We headed over to a recent convert's house that we have not been able to teach or meet with since we've been there. Lo and behold she was home (!!!) and she let us in. her name is Hannah. She is 16. She has a little dog that looks like a lion. Ok one thing about being in Toms River is it has made me realize how much I love dogs. So many cats here that when I see a dog I get more excited than the dog. My companions make fun of me, but it's true. I'm a dog lover.  So we taught Hannah about the importance of the Book of Mormon. She joined the church because her older sister Kayla went to college in Florida, joined the church and didn't tell them until she came home.  Hannah started investigating then she joned.  Her sister is now gone to college at UVU in utah. I think hannah's motivation went with her. We will change that. :) After Hannah we headed to a referral that we've been trying to contact forever. and lo and behold, they were just getting home from 6 Flags!! Her son Anthony, he's 7, jumped out of the car and was like. 'Are you here to talk about God with us?' he runs over to his mom. Mommy can I please talk about God with them? we went inside and talked to Danielle (mom) and she was so cool! Her son is just dynamite. He told us he's going to be like us when he grows up. Telling people about God. He's a cutie. Sister Richardson and him ended up having a wall sit competition at the end. We didn't have time to teach a lesson so we set up a time to see her which is today! woot! We're excited.  We then went over to our classic higgins teaching lesson. we taught about the word of wisdom.  They are totally in on it! We asked them if they thought of a date to be married.. they said December . sad day. So we won't be here and he won't be baptized for a while. but we will see what we can do to change that. Then we headed to get a 'doctors proscribed' (not really) Rita's for my knee. it helped a lot. :)

Sister R's Birthday

Tuesday

Today we had our first zone meeting of this transfer. the cool part about this one is that president and sister Jeppson were there! They were there to have interviews with each one of our missionaries in zone 10 (the southern part). Oh how I love my southern zone. :) We have a new zone leader who is awkward but funny. we went to have accountibiltiy and we went outisde with our testimonies of the Book of Mormon in hand he brought out ballons and gave them to each of us.  We tied our testimonies to the ballon to celebrate that we met our baptismal goal for the month and to celebrate the awesomness which is our zone:) we set them free.. they didn't take off the ground. In the words of Sister Jeppson "well.. it was a cute idea" "our testimonies are just to strong" haha it was fun tho. Then I had the opportunity to have my interview with president. He is just so awesome. I love president. He is so incredible. He asked me how I was doing. He committed me to call for physical therapy ( oh president... using missionary tactics against me) and he also asked me why I was still here on a mission. I was taken back by this question but in my heart I knew. I'm here to serve my King. There is a work for me to do.  These people I've met are keeping me here. The love I'm gaining for them is keeping me here. We proceeded to talk more and it was a great interview. Goodness.. so much love for my mission I just can't contain it. After interviews we headed to Sister Armstrong's for dinner. As we taught her a lesson she broke out into song. She always gets the biggest smile on her face when we teach. She truly loves the Lord and loves serving people. Our day ended with an unexpected water fight, thanks to mamma clarks mini squirt guns. haha It lasted for a good long time. The best part was when Sister Kimball runs out of our room with a plastic bag over her head to keep her hair dry. hahah ya that didn't work. Those little squirt guns soaked us!! We had lots of fun. Thanks momma clark:)

1. Water Fight (yes it happened thanks for the squirt guns)

Wednesday

So I woke up on wednesday morning. and I just had a crazy maine going on (crazy hair) so I have been thinking about cutting my hair for a while because it's so hot. So I did it. Sister R cut off 5 inches. I didn't reallize how long it was untill it was gone. But in a strange way it was a way for me to show heavenly father my dedication to my mission-- a physical way to 'roll up my   sleeves and get to work'. Just to forget about myself and go to work. And as strange as this sounds, it's been working. I've felt so happy, more focused and more love for these poeple. I have a long way to go. but slowly and surely i'm getting there. :) 

So we went to Wanda's after to weed her lawn.. ok her rocks I guess you could say. She has a rock lawn that weeds just keep poping up. we have been weeding her yard ever since we got here. I decided to make a parable of Wanda's weeds. It has to do with sin. ok basically sometimes. we look at our lives and see all these weeds of sin we think, "whats the point? why try to get rid of them if we know they will grow back?"or, "there's to many, it's a hopeless cause." yet we still weed. We repent we use the atonement for those breif moments when the yard is completely cleared. Those moments of clarity is when the spirit speaks to us, and we learn and grow.  Altough we know that more weeds will grow, none of us are perfect. But we have to start somewhere and through Jesus Christ we have the ability to be weed free.  How beautiful we will be in the sight of God. :) That is my parable of Wanda's weeds. We then had other lessons and we met with Wayne again. He brought a friend who has short term memory loss. Yes.. a modern day Dori! She reminded me so much of Dori it was great!

Thursday

I got to watch The Testaments! woot! I dont' know why I love that movie so much. I guess it's just seeing the Savior visit the people and just to feel so connected and imagining how great the day will be when we can thrust our hands into his hands and in his side and know it was for us. We also went and taught a lady named Sharon. she's very religious and she let us in and was basically telling us to make sure we search for truth to. She told us that we might be deceived.  Her closing prayer prayed that we would know truth. It was a good moment for all of us to truly know that we know this is true. We know Joseph Smith is a prophet and that Christ's church is on the earth today. We then came home had a good planning session then went on a cricket hunt outside our room.

The Anwanders

Friday

We drove around, taught lessons. I hit a seagull with the car.. I repented.. it was raining like crazy. We attempted to change a tire. Then we headed to Raegan's to teach her a lesson. She has been feasting upon the word. She's been so busy but finally she's ready to have us teach her again. We taught the plan of salvation. She loved it. She tried to say all the kindgoms names but then she said pointing to Celestial " I'll just remember this one cause that's where I want to be." She accepted a date for AUGUST 30TH!!!! we're so excited and so was she. She pulled out her calendar and circled it and made plans to come to church every sunday! She's a rock! We love her.

Saturday

Today I realized the power of singing. We sung a lot in lessons and as we did the world was quite. We had people come up and talk to us. Singing and music can really bring the spirit. We had a lesson with Paul. He wanted to bible bash. We just sat calmly and told him to pray about it. Then he bashed on the apostles and we all defended them. It was a cool moment. But ya, this was a happy day. We were just happy. We went to the Lowery's for dinner. this is the man who bore his testimony and said that we were his new role models in life. They are they cutest couple. They've only been married for 3 years but they are older. They are so cute. As we ate dinner with them, they were just telling us advice of life. It was fun. We then taught Brother Mosely, a less active member, about the Priesthood. As we taught, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for all the worthy priesthood holders I have in my life. Thank you family and friends who have honored and served many with the priesthood which you hold. It truly has blessed my life. I'm gald I had the opportunity to sit back and really think and reflect on how it has blessed my life.

me with isabell amiee's daughter

Sunday

Pure craziness WE HAD 9 PEOPLE AT CHURCH!!! Luckily we have 3 of us to divide and conquer.  It turned out well, but needless to say were were all exhuasted by the end of the day.  Before sacrament meeting brother Lowery gathered us all up he had a note in his hand and some goldfish packets. he told us about how when he was ward mission leader how he would instruct his missionaries to wrtie notes for memebers and people he handed us all goldfish and told us to eat one each time we make someone smile. He held this thank you note in his hand and said it was the best note he has ever gotten. He had tears in his eyes as he sat down. I had prayed that morning to ask if I was really making a difference in the ward, if I was having any effect on these members. This was an answer to my prayer because I wrote that note.. What a blessing to see the fruit of your labor. It helps a lot. We headed west for our appointments and 2 canceled so we headed to see a less active family. They were home. Oh my goodness words can not describe how much I love this family. I just relate so well to them and I just get a long so well. they have an alaskan huskey (my dream dog) and I just felt so comfortable. I'm so determined to help them come back to church. I sat and thought about how this could be the family why I'm here in toms river and if they are, I will do my best to serve the Lord.

The Fitsmaurice's 

 

What a great week. I'm sorry this is so long but life is good. The Lord has blessed us with so many miracles. I love this gospel The church Is true, the book is blue and God is Mormon:)

I love you all!

I would like to extend a challenge. For everyone reading this e-mail. LETS FLOOD THE EARTH WITH THE BOOK OF MORMON.

Everyone who is in the challenge is to give away 1 book of mormon by the end of the year. I will follow up at the end of the year but I would love to hear experiences and testimonies from it as well. By the testimonies of others we grow stronger! Lets work together and get this work moving!

Clear eyes full heart, can't lose!!:)

Love sister Clark

Krispy creams is so much better. but dunkin doughnuts is still ok

8.5.13

Ok.... this week was so great! I know I say that about every week. I just, oh man, I'm verry happy and life is good. Missions are great! I highly recomend them! haha I'll get right down to business.

Monday

We had our classic p-day: go home, sleep, do our thing, but after p-day was done we went to the Higgins.... We walked into their home and it just has a complete happiness about it.  Eric was happy, Krystall was happy, the kids were happy.  Oh man just such a difference from the first time we met them.  Krystall had wrote down some questions she had for us about sacrament. we talked about them then we started our lesson about the Law of Chasity. the Big Cahuna.. They are living together with 2 kids not married but engaged.  As we taught the spirit was there and Krystal talked about how they discussed getting married soon so Eric could be baptized .. so Sister K comes in and extends the baptismal invite to Eric and happily he says. "ya I'd like to do that". We had to use all our power not to jump up and down. We were grinning from ear to ear. Krystal made fun of us saying. You all are jumping for joy inside.. We didn't deny it.  W e all laughed and were so happy. Krystal expressed her sincere happiness as she's been living the gospel again. I asked Eric what made him decide to get baptized. He said he saw a lot of his prayers answered and he feels different and he knows its the holy ghost telling him it's right. OH MAN!!!! He was almost crying. We were all just smiling. They are going to be sealed someday and.. words can not express how much I love them both. We went and got celebatory Rita's.. yum!

Tuesday

We taught a lot of our people and it went well. we taught a less active lady who was smoking and it was blowing in our faces as we tried to sing. We were running out of air.. mom you would have hated it.. (for the sake of time i'll write quicker about everyday)

Wednesday

we did service for sister Rowe.  She gave us all dog book marks to remember her and Cuddles, her dog. My companion's are cute.. mine is a creepy dog. I stare at it everyday and it makes me laugh.

We taught Ray, a new investigator.  He's going to be a tough one to crack but he told us he feels something when we come over.. that's a start!

Joan...we cleaned, she started to ask about prophets.. We are getting to her.

ok I have no more time so I'm going to skip to sunday:( best day ever! most spiritual fulfilling experience of my mission, as Krystal stood up and bore her testimony of how happy she was to be back in the church and how she's greatful for us sister missionaries. We were all crying. The closing song was called to serve. We had no hope! ah I  love her THIS IS WHY I'M HERE

I have 2 minutes left. but we went to ellis island on saturday it was fun. we are meeting new people life is good oh and we went to carlos's bakery on the way home! i'll send pictures next week. I'm sorry I have no time left. I love you all! Heavenly Father loves us CHRIST LIVES! The church is true.!

Love, Sister Clark

7.29.13 : Toms River Transfer 2

This week flew by!!!! I can't believe it's already p-day already. My body can believe it but my mind is trying to catch up! It was a very busy week. Non stop. Today we've decided to just stay home and sleep and write letters for p-day. Ya I'm probably going to sleep for most of the day hahaha. Sleep is good. take it all in! Sounds like it was a great week back home! Little Henry's Blessings. He is a little blessing himself. I loved to hear about the impromptu choir. Sounds like an awesome idea. That's basically how it is in Toms River ward. Just whoever wants to just gets up and sings. Oh I love my ward. They are incredible. This week went by so fast I think I'll only share a few experiences but it was great!

Monday

Monday was a hard day. It was the last day of our district being all together. We have gotten so close to each other it was so hard to say goodbye. Elder Maglbey our district leader had to go home to have knee surgery. He is greatly missed. He was a great leader and excellent example to all of us. We decided to end on a happy note, so we all met at the chapel and ate lasagna, root beer floats, chips and cake and fruit snacks... basically anything we could find that we could make a meal together. We ate food talked and then went into the gym to play some SPORTS!!! and I played! oh man I was grinning from ear to ear. My companions are more of the cheerleader type so I played basketball and volleyball and ultimate four square with some of the uninjured elders. IT WAS SO FUN! I loved it. very therapeutic that's for sure. After we played for a couple hours we had Elder Magbley's goodbye testimony and hot seat. We all stood in a circle and sang God be with you till me meet again. I don't know what we were thinking. that song and my Sunday allergies, we should have known we all would be crying by the end. We knelt in prayer and said goodbye. It will be a fun day when we can all hang out again after the mission.

We then had dinner at a members house. It was fun we had a spiritual lesson and at the end they let me borrow there keyboard... haha so I sit in our apartment on the floor trying to pick out songs. It's very out of tune but it's fun to play I'm grateful for the kindness that was shown to me by letting me borrow it.

Tuesday

New people in the district. We were placed in a district with the Spanish elders and sisters. We will grow to love them. It's very different but all is well. We will do work!!!!

Wednesday

We spent the whole day by the shore. Oh man it is so beautiful. We knocked on beach houses and visited some recent converts. The beach houses are like a movie. The people are nice too. We had some less actives feed us stake and potatoes (just like a home cooked meal!) and then took us out for ice cream.

Thursday

SISTER Richardson's BIRthday!

OK so not only was it her birthday but we had an amazing experience I will never forget.

. It is one of those experiences that you look back on your mission and remember that you truly were just a tool in the Lords hands. So last Sunday we received a referral to go see a less active member who lives down in Whiting. We unfortunately don't make it down there that often, but as we looked at our schedule we decided to set aside a day to go and visit people down there. So on Thursday after planning we headed out. We were running a little late and we almost considered just going to our next appointment rather than stop by this referral. But we decided to go and stop by. As we parked our car and walked up to the door I saw this house and I just felt something. The less actives granddaughter answered the door, asked who we were and then went into the back to go talk to Marry Argust (the less active member). We were let in and lead into the back room where she was sitting on her bed. As she saw us her whole countenance just lit up, she stood up in unbelief and hugged and kissed each of us and she started to cry saying "I can't believe it, I just can't believe it." We sat down and she proceeded to tell us that she was just on the phone with her sister and she was telling her if the Mormons didn't come today she was done with the church. And a minute later we knocked on her door and she saw us out here window and started to cry. Wow so cool! Such an amazing experience. As we talked to her we found out she moved here a year ago but has been in and out of the hospital for 1/2 of that time. So most of the ward members didn't know her and just assumed she was less active. She is a very faithful member she just hasn't been able to come to church. She still wears her garments and set aside money for tithing. She was reaching out for help, asking for blessings and the sacrament to be brought to her for 1/2 a year and nothing happened. It hurt my heart to see this lady just trying to do what’s right and not having any support. We shared a scripture with her in 1 Nephi 22:25 about how Christ knows his sheep and they are numbered. We talked about how he leaves the 99 to go find the 1. And she looked at us and started to cry as she said "I'm the one." Oh my goodness. My heart was filled with so much gratitude that we went to go see her. And that the Lord had led us to her. The Lord knows and numbers his sheep. It was a big testimony builder for me about that. Anyways it was incredible.  So neat!

We then went to Brother Mosely. He is a dog lover, the nicest man you'll ever meet. He likes to paint and he loves wolves.. we get along just nicely haha he joined the church when President Kimball was president and he was so thrilled that Sister Kimball was related. As he prayed he thanked heavenly father for prophets and he started to cry. Wow So many tender moments. we then went to Applebees for dinner for sister R. It was good.

Friday

We meet 2 ladies from the Philippines. one of which was named Alma... ok how perfect. We told her about the Book of Mormon they were both so excited but they are just here on vacation so they gave us there address and had us promise we would write. They promised they would go find the missionaries and go talk to them. SO COOL!

Saturday

Was a day with the ward. We had a day of service where we donated 683 books to a local pantry. This pantry is run by a mom. just watching her was a testimony of the power that one person has to impact many lives. We then had a talent show that night. Ah I wish I could have recorded it and sent it home. Elvis was there,, we had some singing, some flexible people. It was so successful. I LOVE THIS WARD. We had all the members we just adore come up to us and talk to us after. One of which Sister Huestead comes up to me with a big smile on her face and gives me a hug and says. I Gave a Book of Mormon out. We all got so excited. It was awesome! Ward unity helps people grow in the gospel.

Then Sunday was good as well. There were a lot of lessons and things that happened in between, it is all a blur. haha it was a great week. I think the biggest thing I learned and saw was the Lord knows his sheep. He knows all of his children by name and he cares for them so much. He needs our help to show this love. I know he will never leave us alone when we need him and rely and trust in him. I know this church is true. It is so neat to have my testimony grow more and more everyday of that fact. Life is good! I love you all so much! thank you for all your love and support and all you do.

THE CHURCH IS TRUE! CLEAR EYES FULL HEART,,, CAN'T LOSE

LOVE SISTER CLARK

7.22.13 : tutagang!!! (all is well)

GUESS WHO'S STAYING IN TOMS RIVER WITH THE 2 BEST COMPANIONS EVER!!!!!!!! (Pointing to myself) this girl!!!!!!!! yes thats right. last night was the dreaded transfer texts to see who was going and who is staying, basically the fate of our mission in the hands of a sprint phone.. another reason why no to like sprint.. haha jk  but we were informed last night that we would all be staying together!!! we tackeled each other in Joy. We know we have a lot of work to do and we are excited to get going and to get started! our work is not done! we get another transfer together (p.s. this usually doesn't happen.. you usually don't stay with your trainer after your done being trained) that brings me to my next point.. I"M A normal missionary!!! well... i'm not normal.. i'm still myself but i'm no longer a baby.. I'm in the big girl pants now! i'm so glad i get to stay with my companions. anyways we are verry excited. This week wasn't supper eventful so the letter might not be that long. plus I'm lacking on time.. plus.. I want to send pictures. so here we go.

First off just so you know.. it was really hot in Jersey.. at one point 110 with humitity.. you literally walk outside and feel like you stepped into a got tub. sticky hot humidity. It was 'haseh calor' (verry hot in broken spanish). but i'm getting a nifty tan line on my wrist from my watch. i'm becoming a true missionary hahahh.

Monday.

p-day was awesome. I don't remember if I talked about it. but we spent a lot of our day sitting on the edge of toms river writting letters to friends and family. it was very relaxing.

tuedsay.

Another incredible district meeting and awesomeness as always. we talked about the book of mormon yet again. as i'm sitting there reading it the spirit just confirmed to me again and again the truth of the words we read. It is true. it is powerful and it changes lives. we then taught the anwanders and wayne. which were good powerful lessons. they are another reason why i'm so happy we are staying in toms river. we need more time with them. then we had dinner with the Grovers.. yes the grovers. bringing me back to my roots. they were so nice and fed us so much food!!!! every meal we have here is eaither hot dogs or some sort of pasta. it's great, i'm not complaining it's always good. but it's so neat to hear peoples converstions stories. it gives me so much hope for the people we are working with. ok in sad news.. Kevin.. our rock start who we've been teaching since we came here. he disapeared. He ran away to california.. it broke our hearts. we have a chart with all our investigatros to track there progress and we had to move him to mists of darkness the other day. I understand what brian was saying about people breaking your heart. we love him a lot. I just hope and pray that missionaries will find him and he will accept it someday. I have faith he will be given another oporunity to learn again.

Wednesday.

3 month mark!! i've been out for 3 months! it may not seem like that long but it was a monumental day for me haha. and as always i got a package just when i needed it! oh man thank you so much for the darling pictures and letters! I love you all so much! on wednesday we took the higgins family (less active, and investigator and there 2 children) on a church tour. there little boy anikan (yes like star wars) just walked around like he owned the place. it was amazing to see Eric (investigators) light up as he watched his son just be completely at home and point to pictures of Jesus and smile. we sat in the chapel as i tried to play a hymn and the spirit is alway so strong in the chapel. we taught the gospel of jesus christ and it was an amazing lesson. He commiteed to cmoe to church! yes! and so did sister Higgins!. wow such an amazing family! we then ran over to angelics, we gave her hugs.. she was so stressed out. we set up a time to meet with her and told her that one of us might be transfered,she sunk as she told us she doesn't want us to leave. and she likes us the best. man we had a lot of moments like that just made me so happy and broke my heart at the same time.. not knowing what my fate was going to be.

thursday.

we rode our bikes. and did planning. it was fun. my companions are just silly hahah I love them so much. we set some killer goals for this coming week! LOOK OUT TOMS RIVER!

Friday

so I didn't tell you cause i didn't know until tuesday but i went to ELLIS ISLAND for real this time.. not only to ellis island but to LIBERTY ISLAND!! yes.. i went to the statue of liberety! we usually go to ellis island to help with geneology but becuase of sandy it is just completely abandoned. it's sad to see but we rode a ferry to liberty island. it was the weirdest feeling getting on a boat.. it was athorized but it was still crazy!!! i was on a boat.. on water. thats not allowed! but the statue of liberty was so neat! people from all over the world flock to the statue! I can't wait for the day when people flock to the church like that! the only bummer about our service is we are not allowed to prosolyeite.. so many people we wanted to talk to and we just had to be friendly and smile and hope they asked us questions. I had a lady come up to me and thank me for the service our church has done in geneology and how it has blessed her family. i was dying not be able to talk with her about the gospel... We stood outside and took peoples e-mail addresses to get a certificate for coming to the island.. it wasn't family history work at all but we were doing service non the less. it was so hot. all us sisters were hot sweety messes thats for sure. I'm so greatful for the freedoms we enjoy in this country and just to be here in America! I love the good U.s. of A. I've been reading in nephi and it just testifies over and over agian about how this is a promised land. of liberty. i'm verry greatful for it.

Saturday

was so busy. it was soo good. we saw a parrot drinking out of a bottle on a persons shoulder while they were 

driving. we were just teaching and running from apointment to apointment.

Suday

Great as always! we walked into the chapel to see the higgins there!!! to see them all in church clothes and anikan (2) with all his toys like a champ! oh my goodness my heart was filled with so much joy to see them there. then AMIEE CAME! see's a recent convert and she is so coooool!! we love her. she hasn't been to church for like 5 months but she finally made it! we were so happy to see her there! oh my goodness. my heart... to much love.. can't take it!!! so cool to see them there. definatly a moment i'll never forget.

sad news. one of our investigators evelyn, she's 96 catholic lady who lets us come over and talk with her. we were informed she had a stroke.. so on sunday we went to go visit her. she was not doing well at all. there's nothing they can do for her. so we went and we sung for her and her family. he held our hands and just cried. We love her so much. I know heavnly father knows the goodness of her heart and even tho she didn't get a chance to be baptised in this life,, she will make it to the celestial kingdom. We love her a lot. we then went to sister garretsons. oh man she is a funny lady. we talked about Jesus Christ. and we took funny pictures with her just in case any of us leave. then we met 2 new investigators. this week was great but this coming week is going to be eppic. our district is getting 4 new elders and 1 new sister! i'm excited to see toms river grow and see some of the fruits of our labors.I love you all a lot! thanks for your love and prayers 

THE CHURCH IS TRUE!

Love SISTER CLARK

7.15.13 : Another Great Week!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MITTERS!!! I love you!!! Wow this week was incredible.  Every week is but this one was exceptionaly great! oh man I just never want to leave Toms River. I'm loving the mission. I'm seeing a change in myself, i'm still the same person but i'm becoming a better version of myself, a more magnified in who I am and what I believe. Missions change people, who knew? haha ok but i'll just jump into the week.

Monday

Well as I've told you and sent pictures we went Crabbing. It was actually a lot more fun than I even thought. what you do is you tie chicken wings (uncooked) to a string and put it in the water and the crabs just grab on. we caught so many crabs! it was so fun. I will admit it's nothing like fishing with some willow and string. But i did think about that a lot as we sat on the dock. I was a pro dad and grandpa you'd be impressed. Who knew I would be in Jersey catching crabs. I didn't know I would be doing that and being a fisher of men as well. We had full intentions of cooking them and eating them but then there was a tragic 'Krusty Krab' (spongebob) epidemic and they all died the next morning... ya we don't know how to take care of crabs but we caught around 30 but kept only like 14 to feed our whole district. but after crabbing we went out to find some less actives. sister kimball got another rock stuck in her eye and then we decided to knock this one door of a beutiful. big beach house. we shared who we were and she was like "i appreciate that because i'm a jehova's witness"........ she let us in and we talked with her and her family. they were really nice but man it's just not the same beliefs at all.. at one point in our meeting their little 4 year old boy was pretending to be a dog and we was walking around on his hands and feet. he came up next to me while i was sitting at the table. everyone else was distracted so he came up and barked at me. i looked down and silently barked back. then he started putting his little hand on my leg like sammy does when she wants attention. so i just kinda ignored him then this little Jehovah's witness boy bit me in the bum... yes it was a weird experience one i will never forget hahahah so I never would have thought i would be bit by a little Jehova's witness.... back to spiritual stuff. we taught the higgins. the less active family who just had the baby her husband has been taking the lessons. and as we came in there was a total difference about him. when we came in he sat down and was holding his book of mormon completely ingaded. do you want to know what caused the change? THE BOOK OF MORMON! we've seen this pattern all week of our investigators who are improving because they read the book of mormon. there is a strong power in that book. it has been our montly focus as a mission and i've learned so much. I know without a doubt that it is true and it changes lives. it is our biggest and greatest tool in the work. wow it's so cool. anyways we talked to Eric higgins and asked him if he wanted to continuely learn more and he said. of course! wahooo! new investigator (we got 5 this week. we are so bussy we are going crazy!)

Tuesday

ok brace yourself for the best district meeting that every exsisted in missionary work. Words can not describe how incredible it was. We started off practicing contacting using the book of mormon then we came back in the room and there were questions on the board asking us why we came on a mission. what's keeping us here and stuff like that. as we silently wrote down our answers Elder Mageliby started testifying of our calling. and our promise we made to give it everything we have and to leave everything else behind. We talked about the title of liberty and as he spoke it was like elder holland power status. it was incredible. he even at one point tore off his shirt (he was wearing 2 no worries) and he held it up in the air and on it was written the title of liberty and he had us all pray and recommit ourselfes to be here and we all signed it and got supper pumped! it was incredible!! wow i get chills just remembering it. we then headed to do some service for a less active laddy. the whole time in my head i was singing pocahauntas "dig a dig a dig a digity dig" we were shoveling and raking rocks in his driveway for 3 hours. I was named rake lady as I evened out the rocks and leveled them. it reminded me of our yard work where we named christopher steer manure man. but it was really fun. we had the elders with us and we work verry hard. It's nothing like pickin rocks in idaho but it was pretty close to that. so we worked then they fed us one of her friends came over and was so curious about our beliefs she was so cool. we got her phone number and we are planning on going to talk to her more!

Wednesday

I woke up with a new zeal after the awesome district meeting. I woke up and made as many phone calls as I could while sister kimball was doing her language study. we taught some of our investigators and we contacted and testified of the book of mormon. we saw an albino squirl and then we did some church tours with 2 of our investigators and 2 members came to help. we took the tour and ended in the chapel where we sat in silence for a 7 minutes as i played the piano.. i'm abit rusty i haven't played since i was home. but the spirit was still there so strong!! we then taught about the gospel of jesus christ and both our investigators, Raegan and Angelic, committed to be baptised. We are still working on dates with them. they need to come to church. they will! we know they will. we then went and taught divina. the girl we met our first week here who we though had moved away but ran up to us last week and talked with us. we talked to her and her brother in law listened in and they were both eager and excited to read the book of mormon. People just keep coming up to us and talking to us asking us who we are. Our name tags have been one of our biggest miracles this week.

Thursday

FREE SLURPEE DAY we went and got free slurpees after planning.

friday

zone conference. President taught about the apostasty and basically proved that the church is true. no big deal. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!! then after sister kimball and I were alone sister richardson was on an exchange. we led the area and i drove for my 3rd time. it's really not to bad. in toms river it's nothing compared to real jersey drving. but we went and taught the higgins again. they had been reading and praying every night together!!!! wow!!! they were happy and eric said that he's more inclide to be baptised now! sister kimball that night expressed our deep love for eachother and apriceations. emotions have been crazy as we all are worried about transfers. we don't know what's going to happen but we are enjoying the moments we have together. we love eachother so much. the mission is amazed of how well we get along. that's not usually what happens in trios.

Saturday

We taught paul. the man from taiwan who met us 2 weeks ago and was so excited he took pictures of us. we taught and he is a bible buff. he's from taiwan so my heart was filled with joy thinking of saide, meg, and josh teaching people like him.

sunday

Always great. we had a Fiesta and made burittos and put american flags in them. it was good! we loved it

Well I love you all family! I have to finish some more letter but THE CHURCH IS TRUE! Please everyone read the book of mormon every day! it will bring peace and strength! we are so blessed to have it!

Love sister Clark

clear eyes full heart, can't lose!