Wow. This area is crazy. Like crazy good.

Address:

Elder Jeffrey Clark
North Carolina Raleigh Mission
3220 Broadstone Way
Apex, NC 27502

My new companion is Elder W, from Spanish Fork, Utah. He wants to study math and become a professor, and he denied scholarships to Harvard and Yale to come out here, and instead deferred a scholarship to Utah State. He has been out about 3 months, and I am his "follow up trainer" (his second companion basically). Poor man, just hardly has been out on his mission and already has to teach me about his area. We get along really well though, and he has even more of a logical mind than me.

Now for the area. I didn't find out until President announced in the chapel with all of the missionaries where I was going. Then when he called my name he said "Sister Clark" so I completely forgot where he said I was going because I was laughing too hard. So because of that I got sent to New Zealand and never came back. Oh and I also saw J (Sister J) at transfer meeting and got to talk to her a little bit. Anyways, I finally found out where I was going and said goodbye to my good friends, and headed out to Apex. It is a really nice area. On the way in town the sign said "Welcome to Apex: the #9 best place to live in the country, and the #1 place to live in North Carolina" according to some magazine of some sort. So yeah it is pretty nice.

When we got to the apartment (when I get my camera back I will have to take you on a video tour of it) I found out that it is the nicest missionary apartment in the entire mission. And no joke, it is. I didn't know that humans even lived in apartments this nice. It has a dishwasher and a giant spa tub and a washer and dryer... it looks brand new. It has that new apartment smell. And no cockroaches or anything. It is quite the change from Spring Lake.

Then, to add even more, as soon as I had my things set down, we had to walk about a mile and a half to the church, so that is really close! When we got near the church building, I realized something that still blows my mind... It was the one right next to the temple. I serve in the only temple ward in the mission! Every single day we get to see the sacred house of the Lord, and the mighty angel Moroni standing on top. It is about 100 yards from me as we speak, because we use the computers in the church.

You think that is all? Haha nope. I drive a 2013 Chevy Cruze (and I actually get to drive now because I am the senior companion) that is the ONLY royal blue car in the mission. Spoil me more and I would be a lump of potatoes.

The ward here is huge (numbers wise), and will probably be split soon (like they have been saying with the Rocklin 1st ward for years). It reminds me a lot of my home ward. They do incredible missionary work. I think we have gotten 4 or 5 referrals from members just this week! They bring friends to church a lot and have people over for family home evenings and send missionaries to all of their friends that would possibly listen. That is the hard part though. It is such a nice area that people are pretty comfortable with everything so they don't understand why they need it. Yet. The Bishopric and Stake Presidency are really involved in the work, and they are working on some things requested by Elder Ballard (I think) in a letter he sent them. It is amazing how the hastening is hitting. They all just got invited to read the Book of Mormon in five months, memorize all of the Book of Mormon scripture mastery's, and share 5 copies of the Book of Mormon (1 a month) in sacrament meeting yesterday. All by May 31. Pretty crazy, but I think you could do it.

Finally, I know long letter, but finally, we have a baptism on Saturday! It is someone who has really prepared herself for this message, and her daughter. They are incredible, and have just eaten up the lessons. They are so ready. She actually referred herself on mormon.org because she was finding out things about the church that she liked. It is an amazing story! More on them next week!

Anyways, yes I am spoiled and really loving it here. But I still can't help but feel for the people in rougher places like Spring Lake. I am still really humbled by my experiences and by my mission. I love it.

Love you all!
Elder Jeffy Clark

P.S. It is cold here like Kansas - 25 tomorrow and wind chill because of humidity. I love it :)