i have had such an incredible week i just want to tell the world about it. i have seriously grown so much and become so much different and stronger. i dont think you guys would even recognize me. but thats not important. i am leaving on monday at 330am so the next time i write home i will be out in the field! go raleigh! my companions still nice and awesome and musical and we get along just fine. Him and like 10 other people i know are going to raleigh on our same flight so thats gonna be awesome and goofy and fun if those are the right words. its amazing how powerful the spirit is here. its a whole different experience than i have ever felt before. i have actually had some experiences that are so powerful and amazing i dont think i could even write them. also, you wouldnt believe how much heidi is here helping me. she comes and hangs out with me all the time and keeps my spirits up when it gets hard. in fact she has had such an impact that me and a lot of my roommates have started purple tie thursdays and say they are going to do it their whole missions. i definitely am.
anyways, the work has been hard but great. we have had a lot of practice teaching each other, our teachers, and some people (mostly nonmembers) who act like investigators for us. some of them and i think ours are actually real investigators now!
stories. so we taught a lesson to one guy who had some mormon friends and he wanted to come closer to God. we tried to teach him prayer and the plan of salvation the first time, but that didnt hit him. the second time, we planned on teaching him more in depth on the gospel, when i felt like we should teach the restoration. that day we committed him to baptism! it was so powerful, even knowing this guy was one of the teachers.
then this other guy. he was an atheist that hated organized religion and i dont think he was acting at all. im almost sure he was just a volunteer from the street. but he talked a lot about his beliefs and would get anywhere with us the first lesson. the second one, he told us at the beginning that he thought about what we said and prayed to see if anyone was really out there and he felt something. then he talked about these dreams he used to have where he would get shot up in a whirlwind and thrown across the galaxy until he approached what seemed like the center of all energy and creation in the universe, when a gentle hand pushed him back down to earth. i asked what the power was trying to tell him, and he said that he knew that he was out there and had the truth, but that this man wasnt quite ready for it yet. so he kept on talking about his experiences with this and others, and about his religion background. he said he thought a lot of religions were hypocritical and didnt follow what they taught or didnt help people and were selfish churches and what not. so we asked if he thought Jesus had a church on the earth when he lived, and he came around and agreed that he would have. then i asked him what it would mean to him if that church was completely restored today, and the spirit was so strong that my hands shook as i talked. he said that he would want to learn more! if we had more time i would have talked about the restoration and probably asked him to be baptized but he had to get ready for work so we had to take off. we left him with a book of mormon to read some things and got him to commit to church on sunday! its just too bad we are getting transferred across the country because i would have loved to have taught him more.
its amazing what you can find out about a person if you learn to love them as Father does. it doesnt matter their situation, if they have said or done something to offend you, or anything of the sort, it just matters that you dont judge them and you look at their potential. i am ready to serve in North Carolina and so happy to have this opportunity. i love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Clark
ps i saw teri pyne today and she gave me doughnuts!!! also the mcguires have sent me brownies and cinnamon rolls and i love them so much. so does all of my district and everyone else too haha
pps dad could you tell me some stories about joe please? i would love to know some stuff about him.
ppps i love you
pppps i have seen jake a couple times now and it has been really exciting to see him and jeriann and jamie all over the mtc
ppppps dad. did you teach or baptize anyone with the last name goes? i met a missionary named elder goes from brazil and his dad was a convert around your time in campinas!
pppppps i always pick fake fights with this 6'4" 260 pound hammer/discus/javelin thrower from byu and he is awesome and hilarious and we scare the crud out of people. thats all
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