I just wanted to write and say you are the BESTEST. anyways. everything seems to be going well and in order back in Rocklin, except of course nobody going hunting?!?! what is that??!?!?!!!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!! Oh i know what it is. everyone just wants the reward of eating really good fresh meat and they dont want the sacrifice of doing it. thats okay though because heaven works the same way. you believe and youre in. NOT!!!!!! GO GET EM!!!!!! (to make an analogy) the work is worth the result. trust us. i havent seen heaven, but scriptures makes it sound amazing. even just feeling God's love/presence is amazing so how much better is heaven then?!

i tell you, there are two places that can feel like heaven on earth. 1st is in the temple, where you are doing more of God's work. kids, go see the temple! riley, go do baptisms! parents, you just went this week but go again every single month! its just a couple hours of your time but its so incredible. i only get to go twice a year, and i know thats not quite enough. along with that, do family history! even what is already on familysearch.org is quite amazing. dad and mom i think you should ask the grandparents for all the information they know and have on their history so none of it is lost with time too! we had a lesson yesterday in church on that. anyways, i digress. 2nd is the home. you can make your home the next best to the temple if you treat it that way! the spirit of members' homes are amazing. just incredible. something our mission is emphasizing is that lessons, as many as probable, should be taught in members' homes. i would encourage you as a family to get to know people that the missionaries are teaching in rocklin (or better yet have them teach one of your friends) and let them come over for a family night! they will love it, guaranteed because yall are the funnest family west of the mississippi (if you go far enough west of the mississippi you end up east of the mississippi... the world is weird in that way). also, some advice that has really helped me: dont be so afraid of offending somebody that you miss the opportunity to help them know what they are missing. we know what they are missing, and we know how they can get it! this is a joyful work, one that replaces sadness with endless happiness! people really do not know what they are missing!

here is what i really wanted to tell everyone: we had a great week! sister g got confirmed yesterday, and it was a really powerful blessing that was given to her. she felt so good and so happy. we are doing everything in our power to help her get fellowshipped and home taught and motivated to keep learning and working towards the temple. we also had kind of a crazy experience this week! we went by a family that is really fun and crazy. it is a dad returning to activity who has a long pony tail and is in a rock band that sings about the holy ghost and what not and then his son is one of our investigators. they are hilarious together. anyways we went to visit them, and found the dad outside with a cage and two vicious cats in it. he said he called the pound and had quite a struggle getting them in the cage. we picked up the cage to move it and they escaped out the bottom. uh oh. they went psycho and sprinted around like sadie does when shes excited. then the animal control lady came by and grabbed them around the neck with these things that looked like trash picker uppers, and they went even more beserk and started clawing at everything and flipping and twisting.... it was crazy but she finally got them into the cages and off to the pound. the rest of that day was so crazy that we left at 11am and didnt get back to the apartment until 830pm, and hadnt had time for dinner before that.... good stories, fun times.

well, next week may be my last with elder bagley. transfers are happening tuesday, and he will probably be heading off to somewhere else since he has been in this area for 7 1/2 months now. thats a long time. but i will probably stick around here and learn the area even better. ill let yall know what is happening next week. as for my address, i forgot to tell you about that. the mission wants us to have mail sent to our apartment addresses now instead of the mission office, because there are way too many missionaries getting mail now. this mission has grown a lot. i think there were 45ish new missionaries last transfer and only 10 or 15 went home. holy cats thats a lot. the mission has over 150 i think. and its only about 1/3 of north carolina. the best third of course.

i love yall and hope you are having a wonderful time with everything! the best advice i can give is to keep being an example and doing the best you can to get closer to God and Jesus Christ.

love,
elder clark

ps jabari parkers uncle is our area 70 (elder parker)! he spoke at a fireside last night and was hilarious and dynamic! it was amazing.
pps a lot of the ward calls me superman now because im elder clark and they think i look like bruce wayne haha
ppps i love you!