i wish i had more time to write! we spent all our time today doing this:

oh well i guess it was worth it to be able to say i have caught fish all across america! that is a little brim i guess. its supposedly pretty tasty so we will fry it up sometime soon! 

so this week, we were supposed to have sister g confirmed, but she couldnt make it to church because her daughter and brother couldnt take care of the grandkids at home, and she couldnt bring them to church with her. too bad, but she will get to be confirmed this week. i am not worried about her. we taught her a few times this week and everything went well, and she shines so brightly its amazing. i cant believe it. we are very proud of her. 

we also had some crazy things happen this week! we randomly were able to teach a ton of lessons and had a lot in members homes, which is something my mission is really emphasizing lately because of the spirit that is in members homes and the fellowshipping that couldnt happen anywhere else. we also met someone that said she was one of 5 or so witches in north carolina. she was a very nice person and just normal looking and acting! we are looking forward to teaching her and finding out how that goes, because she is a pagan but believes in Jesus. i also was able to introduce elder b to IHOP this week! he has never had it before.. crazy huh? there is also a family in the ward that i love, and i realized why this week. its because they are from vegas, so they are just great and their daughters are like 10 and 8 and the older one is just like amy beeston, the younger one is just like grace beeston. its hilarious to go over to their house because the little girls are crazy and funny and do all sorts of stuff that remind me of hanging out with the beeston cousins when i was littler. 

anyways, i am really glad everyone is doing so well back at home, except you riley! get better you hoser! you have a birthday to be healthy for. I also realized today, exactly 9 years ago, we moved into rocklin ca for the first time. has it really been that long? am i really old enough to be on a mission? im not sure but im here. 

i love you all and keep me updated on everything! and yappy smurfday to the one that plays foosball. 

love,

elder clark

sounds like it was kind of a tough week! i really hope that everything works out and everyone ends up happy. how is preschool and school and everything going?

this was quite the week for us. we were busy all day tuesday, on wednesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders (so i got to go down to hope mills with a zone leader, they live in a giant new pansy palace apartment) on thursday we met up with a man that had just walked six hours home and then fixed his neighbors a/c... what a man he is. then on friday i realized that i was 1/10 done with my mission. i am wondering where that went. i dont have any clue how it could go any faster, but i really dont want it to. i have already learned more than in my entire life combined. i dont know if i have said that before but it is true. and it keeps getting even better too.

then saturday!! we had our first baptism on my mission this week! sister g. she is the woman that had her leg amputated because of diabetes, so my companion and i had to carry her in the water, and then i helped her on the way up from under the water after my companion dunked her. it was great fun and we got it right the first time haha. she is an amazing woman and there is a lot i can and have learned from her. its incredible how much she has grown even since i first met her two months ago. at the baptism though, we had quite the confusion. the bishop forgot to be there or send somebody to the baptism, so we were bishopric-less when it began. i went on an emergency exchange with brother s (the 28 year old equivalent of matthew hodgson as in amazingly incredibly smart, kind of sounds like him too) and we called and called and called. we got ahold of the 2nd counselor, who was in hawaii, meaning it was 4am there. he talked to the stake president, who called and authorized the baptism at about 10:45 (it started at 10) meanwhile, everyone else had to delay, so we had both talks and an extra one by elder b and some prelude music while they waited on the word that it was okay to proceed. then finally we got it.

then on sunday, we had stake conference. it was really really great. by the way i look forward to church stake and missionary meetings more than ever in my life now. something important that i picked up: dont get caught up in the presentation or repetition of words or ideas. make sure you really understand the doctrine behind it. take repentance for example. when i think of that word, i think "repent ye children of the devil for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!" that word has always been associated with being scary to me, so thats what i think of. what it really should bring to mind is "come unto christ, and become sons of God, that ye may inherit the kingdom of heaven" because that is what it means. its a change of heart. it is the same thing with ordinances. dont get caught up in the presentation of it, make sure you know the why.

my imagination is getting very vivid, so i am able to really internalize the scriptures now. i can read something and get the story in my mind now, because i have learned so much more about these things. elder holland calls it "scriptural liberty" when he takes it and puts it in his own words, describing the event as it might have happened, and i would really suggest it. its an incredible experience when you can internalize these stories and better understand how it applies to you.

anyways, YOU ARE THE BEST. just a heads up. :) i love you all so so much you dont even know. have a wonderful week!!!

love,
elder jeff clark

wow. heavenly fathers blessings for me have been like a waterfall. on full blast. with extra gravity and tacos. i think that whatever yall are doing right back home has hit me and is now helping me get more blessings. this week we finally have sister g's baptism all set up. she is so ready and really excited, even though she is nervous about being baptized with only one leg. hopefully elder bagley doesnt drop her in the water...

we had quite the weird week though. monday wasnt really a normal preparation day, which is why i emailed tuesday, and we went to the temple friday. i dont know if i said anything last week about it, but we also started to do online proselyting for elder bagley y this week. it is just the district leaders for the next couple weeks, and they get on facebook and are learning effective ways to proselyte on there. its very interesting. i usually just get on mormon.org and help the online work there. i am developing a profile that everyone will be able to look at! and then in two weeks ish i will be getting on my facebook to start cleaning it up and making friends with the local church members and investigators! isnt that crazy?!?! the work really is hastening, so we need to be faster too. but not too fast, "for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength." just keep it under 100 dad.

then the temple! it was amazing. here is elder bagley and i there. its very small, but incredible nonetheless.


and i understand a lot more of it too, especially because there is a couple in our ward that is like really incredibly smart. they both study arabic (hebrew in cursive) and the relationship between early christian theology and mormonism, so i have learned quite a bit. in fact, he has shown me how every religion i can think of branches off from the original church, and has proved historically many many times how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is very very very very very very very very old. very old. its really interesting. one interesting thing is that in older languages, there are two different words for 'hell'. one is hades (temporary hell) and the other is a weird word that i cant remember (permanent). however, in english there is one word, so many people just assume they are always
 talking about the same place. but theyre not! another thing is that the greeks and romans took the concept of human deification and ran with it, which is why they worshiped many many gods. they began to associate great people who had died with objects and praised them as deity. crazy huh? but it all goes back to the truth. one faith, one Savior, one plan for all of us. having already known that spiritually, its interesting to have it confirmed logically as well.

i have learned so much out here. and a lot of it is what i have learned about myself. i think what stuck out to me for this week is that sometimes we are left to figure out a problem or situation for ourselves, but that doesnt mean that God is not watching over us. Even if we do not have the spirit telling us every little thing we should do (which we shouldnt because then we arent choosing for ourselves), we can still trust that as long as we are doing what we know to be right, everything will work out just fine. God will take care of us and step in when we really are in need and have done our part. thats the key though, is doing our part. that doesnt mean we need to be perfect today, but it means we need to make small steps in the right direction every day. i once heard that progression is like a downwards escalator. we constantly need to move forward, or we will be heading back down. and when you get hungry...

sometimes you just need to be a man about it.

well, i know its a long letter, and im sorry because thats so much to read, but i hope its good and uplifting. i love you with all of my heart and pray for you and am doing the best i can to bring a good name to the clarks out here. any questions or suggestions of things to write about let me know!

love,
elder jeffrey clark

the more I know my comp, the more I think he is like tyler. at least how he is right now, probably not how he was in high school. but we are having a great time together. we are able to inspire each other to work hard, and to be obedient. he says he is intimidated by how fast I have learned how to be on a mission, so I have been trying to decide whether that is a good thing or a bad thing haha. I think it is good because I was even able to train a missionary on Friday who had only been out for a few days, while elder b was learning how to use facebook with all the other leaders. yeah so that's pretty new.. we are beginning to use facebook to proselyte.. so its starting with just the leadership, but in 3 weeks ish I will be getting on facebook as well. they say we can either clean up our old ones or make a new one. considering how much things are probably on my old one that I don't want to deal with, I will probably just make a new one.

I have to get off soon, but I do want to tell you how our friend G is doing. she had her baptismal interview on sunday and she was SO EXCITED. she could not stop smiling on the way home. she is coming along so well. I have learned a lot from her. she has gotten a lot of courage and faith, and I have never once heard her complain about her financial situation or her amputated leg or anything. its just amazing how humble she is. she also reads her book of Mormon more than I do. I think anyways, according to what she says.

I have learned so much and changed a lot too. and I am thankful every day for everything yall have done to prepare me for this and for the rest of my life.
I love you so much and thanks for everything!
I will talk to you next week.
love,
Elder Clark

the baptism didnt quite work out this week. poor sister g got cold feet and didnt make the interview. so, it will most likely be happening in two saturdays since that is the soonest we can get the interview and everything set up for her. pray for sister gary! shes a fighter she can make it. So, birthday. my birthday was pretty great. we were able to teach five lessons that day and were really busy all day. it was perfect. no time to be trunky when you have too much to do to even remember why you would be trunky! if you dont know, trunky means missing home, like your bags are still in the trunk. or already if youre about to leave back home.

anyways, i learned a lot about will power this week, especially in teaching others about it. when other missionaries struggle, i find that they are usually struggling with their will power. if you think about it, there is nothing more influential in your own life than your will. you can choose whether or not you want to act on certain promptings or feelings that you get from either side of the spectrum. you can push your body to do more than it thinks it is capable of. you can drown out thoughts of nervousness, sadness, unworthiness, and others just by simply having a strong will. its definitely something that everyone needs to work on developing, especially in the Lord's work. We need to have a will stronger than any temporal influence, and align that with our Heavenly Father's will for us. that is our ultimate goal. think how easy this life would be if everyone realized the strength of their will. It is quite literally more powerful than any outside force. when our body fails, our will can still press forward. isnt it amazing?

along those lines, the only thing that you can really control is your attitude about things. bad things will happen. guaranteed. what does that mean? it means you have an opportunity to grow, to increase your faith and your will power and your knowledge. You can use everything that happens to you as a motivator. bad or good. but, if you look at it negatively, you can also be the most powerful obstacle for yourself. remember that riley, kyle and austin. theres nothing impossible to you if you put your trust in the Lord and in yourself. nothing.

on a less intense note, i love north carolina. its beautiful and lovely and has great people. i am loving missionary work, and there is nothing else i would rather be doing. i just hope it doesnt keep going this fast!!!

i love you all so much.

love,
elder clark

HOLY CATS the transfer is in a week. I cant believe how fast that went.. you are the only one that has written me so far. and thank you so much for sending me austins email as well. he is going to be great and grow more than he will ever know at this point. I feel that I have already reached a point in my mission that I am forgetting how things are back at home. should I be nervous about this? im not sure... but I have only been out a month and a half. just imagine how its going to be in a year or so! im nervous for that.

are you a young womens leader now? I am confused. maybe im tired too. who nose. you are reading pretty fast though. I started rereading (and highlighting and tallying my highlights) the book of Mormon my first day out in the field and I am only to 2 nephi 28. slow poke I know. but I would suggest doing what I am with the book of Mormon if you haven't already! you take a new copy (probably a cheap one from lds.org) and write your testimony in the front, then read through highlighting every reference to the godhead in one color, any of their words in another color, their attributes in another color, doctrine and principles of the gospel in another, and missionary attributes/calls to repentance and action in another color. then keep a tally. it is amazing how much you don't realize is there. where I am now I have already tallied 1300 or so references to deity. barely 100 pages in. that's 13ish a page! wow. anyways after you finish this one I would suggest doing that. I am also starting this new thing that I read a chapter about Christ every single day for the rest of my mission. there is a list of most of them in Preach My Gospel under the plan of salvation lesson. its been really powerful and helped increase my understanding of the Atonement and the gospel in general. certain experiences make me realize that all things are centered in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I heard a quote this week from Brigham Young that said anything that is actual truth is our belief as Mormons. I thought about that, and its true! well my shoes are black.. that's true right? yes it is because Jesus Christ organized light and matter in a way that to the human eye, my shoes look black. interesting how that works right? there isn't a thing that cant be attributed back to the gospel, which is why we believe everything that is actually truth.

anyways, Im ranting. I do want to say though, I am becoming very southern. (not really) the other day, I went to eat some hot dogs. I looked at the packaging, and THEY ARE CHICKEN HOT DOGS. Like they really sell chicken hot dogs and I bought them and ate them. then I realized I ate them on bread for a bun and with both barbeque sauce and ranch. on the same dog. what is that? southern if you ask me. also, I am so sorry, but I forgot to bring the camera this week. I even have time to upload pictures too cuz its pouring outside so nobodys at the library. ugh next time...

there was a convert baptism in our ward this weekend! it was really neat. it was for the other elders though, elder H (who knows keegan darby!!!) and elder A (who has red hair). that was an amazing experience, because he was the very first investigator I taught on my mission! he asked us to be witnesses and stand in the circle for his confirmation, so elder B and I were a part of that. and then for this week, we have our first investigator baptism for spring lake since I have been out! it is a loving woman named sister g, who has been taking the lessons for months and months and months. she recently had her leg amputated because of a blood clot from diabetes. she has such an amazing perspective on life. but it might be tough to baptize her. it may take an extra helping hand. but that's okay we will figure it all out well enough! I am very excited for her, because she has had to quit smoking to get this far and is on her 10th day without it. it is so rough since she doesn't have a chance to do much, just sit around the house in her wheelchair, but she is doing it. I will let yall know how everything goes!

I love you so much and keep on sending me things about your lives!

love,
elder clark