Chapter 81 - 1 Companion, 2 Transfers, 3 Apartments/Crokinole

Hey!

This week was good. It felt kinda long, probably because our P-Day last week was a bit lazy. But things have been good. The biggest thing I have to start worrying about is how to not be trunky these last few months. I think I will set apart specific times each week for thinking about the things I need to do to prepare for home. That way, I can spend the rest of my time focused on missionary work and not have to worry about getting everything done. It is getting really scary though and I'm still not sure if I'm ready to be done.

Okay now that my moment of panic is over, the title (I thought it was pretty clever) is about how our landlord offered us to move into the basement suite of the OTHER house they own in Merritt. The reason being, the stake missionary couple assigned to Merritt had to cut their mission short and we helped them move out on Monday night. They were living in a basement suite a couple blocks away that is huge! And now that nobody is living there, the landlord asked us if we wanted to move over there! They will have family coming to stay with them and they didn't want to kick us out when they do, just in case they find a renter for the other place. So we might get a 3 bedroom apartment soon!

Also this week, was a member's 82nd birthday! And his birthday tradition is Cream Puffs and Crokinole (I don't know how to spell it. Steve would know). It's a really fun game! It's like curling meets pool but it is played on your table. I challenge you guys to find a board and buy it so we can play! If not, you can get one here when we come up to visit someday.

We haven't gone by to see her. I looked for her address when I was in Kamloops but we couldn't decipher her handwriting unfortunately! Are her daughters members? One of them lives in Chase which is covered by Kamloops but pretty far away.

Crazy that Jacksonian Thunder is leaving! And 2 weeks before I get home? Lame! Cambodia will be awesome. There's a member in Mission who served there and he was one of the first to bring the Gospel to some of the villages there. 

The Book of Mormon is awesome! Keep reading!

That picture is also really cool. I thought it looked like angels as well, but this other Elder said it was dead bodies they are taking to the temple for baptisms for the dead(; hahaha totally joking but pretty funny. The odd thing is that I've never touched a bike on my mission.

Well have a good one! I only have 2 pictures for you guys this week!

Chapter 80 - Snow Shovels/So Much Walking

Hey!

This week was awesome! We have been working hard and figuring out exactly how to work with this area the best way. It has been a work in progress, but not too bad and this coming week should be really good. We have some good ideas that are in the works. 

Last week we had Family Day. No idea what that's all about, probably a reason to get families together on a day off in the time of year when there are like no holidays. So what's the point of those wedding rings? I know people usually get them if they are mechanics or do a ton of outdoor stuff, but why did you guys get them exactly?

I heard that Canada is in 2nd place in the Olympics! They must usually do well in the winter. 

So on Saturday we got dumped on like crazy. It started sometime in the night and didn't stop until like 4:30 in the afternoon! I was on exchange with the Kamloops Elders and Elder Campbell is from Birmingham, Alabama. He's never seen this much snow in his life! So we borrowed the church's shovels and went around asking if we could shovel their driveways. We got a really positive response and a couple people said we could come back. We gave this old lady a pamphlet so we will have to go back to follow up with it. We wanted to teach this one guy about family history but his phone rang with before we started teaching. Bummer.

Here in Merritt we walk a lot. The town is too small to justify driving so we park it most of the day. We sometimes have people planned in all the way on the other side of town and we can walk there in like 20 minutes. We usually do like 9 kilometers each day.

Have a great week! Try going to Elder Morrison's homecoming next week if you can! (I don't know if it will be next week but it probably will be)

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 79 - Hong Kong Fireworks/Family Day pt. 2

Hey!

This week was really good. Some good stuff is happening here, and we have gotten so close to finding a bunch of people but they just are never home when we go by. I think I was because we had a long weekend so people went out of town. Merritt is pretty central to everything, an hour from Kamloops, an hour and a half from Kelowna, and almost 2 hours from Abbotsford (which makes about 3 hours to Vancouver). But it was a pretty good Family Day. BC has theirs a week before the rest of Canada, so it's a bit odd.

This week we also had Zone Conference! It was another really good meeting. We did a musical number for it, and afterwards a member made Butter Chicken for everyone! So good. If you guys get a chance for Indian food, take it. But I thought it was interesting how President Wong almost always talks about the same things every time, which are 1) Faith 2)Member work 3)Finding 4)Having fun 5)The Book of Mormon. It was really good and I learned a lot. I felt like our zone was really prepared and we got a lot out of it! It felt like he was able to teach us more this time because we were actually ready. He showed us a video of the New Years Eve firework show in Hong Kong. During the dinner, I told him about Idaho Falls' firework show and he was pretty impressed(;

Pretty awesome about the Olympics! Go USA! Go Canada! Zoey looks awesome. You should have gotten her a Pink Ladies jacket or something(; Also, Baron's project is super cool! Better to almost burn the house down than to sit in his room all day playing video games and not accomplish anything (which is what I did at that age). 

Nice experience! I'm just proud that you are listening to your scriptures! But so awesome how you were able to help her out. I had a similar experience with an investigator who was super prepared, but her common-law husband didn't really want to get married, so she couldn't get baptized as a result. But she was grieving the loss of her uncle or dad or something and the preacher was talking about how if he wasn't baptized he couldn't return to God. She was really upset because her relative always had great faith and was a really good guy, just never too religious. We shared with her Alma 40 and she was really comforted. The Book of Mormon answers the questions of our soul!

Well have a good week!

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 78 - The Character of Christ/Kelowna!

Hey!

Sounds like you guys had a good week! Our weather has been crazy too. One day it is super warm and all the snow melts, the next it snows again, and repeat. Soon enough the winter will be over and I'll be done with doing missionary work in the snow! Sad but honestly so nice.

This week we had a couple cool experiences. On Saturday we were feeling a bit negative because nobody was out. We had a bit of an argument because I felt it would be more effective to knock on some doors rather than walk around and talk to nobody but Elder Harrison didn't like that idea. So we kinda walked around and talked through it. I remembered a talk from Elder Bednar in the MTC called "The Character of Christ" which talks about how Christ turned outward rather than inward when faced with a tough trial. He actually ministered help with the SAME thing he needed in that moment. So I asked Elder Harrison what WE needed in that moment. He said we needed more faith. So we turned around and looked for someone who we could teach about faith. The FIRST lady we saw, we were able to teach about faith. And she was the daughter of a potential investigator too! Super cool.

Have a good week!

Love, Elder Clark

PS - I'm back in Kelowna because we have interviews tonight and Zone Conference tomorrow. Super fun.

Chapter 77 - Moving In/Area Conference

Hey!

This week was good! I don't have much to say, and not much time either so it will be brief.

We moved into our apartment this week! So we are official residents of Merritt! It was stressful, but pretty smooth. We are now finally all settled in. The place is a bit smaller, but it is pretty nice. There are fake hardwood laminate floors everywhere, which are nice. The only sad thing is we don't live nearby Elders anymore. We are all alone.

But everything has been going well.  Elder Harrison and I are getting along pretty well, and I've been helping him through a lot of challenges that he faces. But he's awesome. He has been out a little longer than me, he's from Vernal Utah and loves reading! So we talk books a lot, as well as country music. He loves Marvel and DC stuff so he has been teaching me about the Avengers and stuff. It's pretty interesting, actually. I'm looking forward to seeing Guardians of the Galaxy and Wonder Woman and stuff.

We have been working hard teaching, but the work can be a bit slow here. We drop by a lot of Former Investigators and have had some success with them. We actually taught Samantha this week, who is the older sister of a couple recent converts here. So the member work is not too bad actually! There are some members who are really happy to have missionaries back and who are really excited about missionary work themselves.

This Sunday we had the Area broadcast (as you guys probably saw) and it was awesome! I have always loved Elder Christofferson, and Elder Nattress is awesome too (he's from Pocatello and came to our mission where I had a personal interview with him). But I loved President Kearon's talk was awesome. What did you guys like from the Conference?

Well have a good week! Sorry I emailed so early!

Love, Elder Clark