Chapter 74 - "Grand Opening, Grand Closing!" - Chris Rock/Footnotes

Hey!

So BIG surprise! This week was transfers! (That wasn't much of a surprise for us, but the specifics totally were. There are some big changes.) So Elder Layer is leaving Kelowna after 7.5 months, going to Sidney to whitewash/follow-up train/DL, which is understandable. However, I'm not staying! I am going an hour and a half west to a small town called Merritt! They closed Merritt down last transfer, and now I'm getting sent in to open it back up! It will be fun. I think we will have a lot of success there, even though it is a small branch. Then it gets crazier: NOBODY is coming in to replace Elder Layer and I in Kelowna 2nd. They will be combining the areas so 1 set of Elders will cover both wards. It's weird. 

So the next topic of my email is centred on my recent Book of Mormon study. I have been doing President Nelson's suggestion of the 6 lists: What the Book of Mormon is, what it reveals, what it affirms, what it clarifies, what it refutes, and what it fulfills. It has been an inspiring exercise! I recommend it to each of you. As part of it, I am reading every footnote and marking them. It helps me to make connections, and the biggest thing I've noticed is how well the Book of Mormon stands up against the Bible. There are parallels everywhere! I have been reading for 30 minutes a day for 2 weeks and have just finished 1 Nephi chapter 1 today. I spent all of my study this morning on Verse 20. I highly encourage all of you to study that verse and the Topical Guide heading 'Deliver'. Super cool! Try to connect it to 2 Nephi 2:11 and tell me what you think!

Well I'm glad you guys had a good week! Good job Barno on skiing! That resort looks fun, I'll have to try it next winter.

Have a good one y'all!

PS- if you want to send me those questions you can! It seems pretty cool.

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 73 - Deep Clean/Snow Banks

Hey y'all!

This week was fun. We have gotten a bunch more snow! 

Because of all the snow, everyone is getting stuck! We have bailed out like 6 people from the snow banks as we are out and about. Then WE even got stuck and some people came to OUR rescue! Oh well, it was good because it gave some people an opportunity to give service and experience the joy!

This week we dropped by some kindof investigators, who are former Jehovah's Witnesses. They are really nice to us and we had a conversation about differences in Church policy and doctrine. IT is interesting to learn about their church, but we try to spend most of the time teaching them. This time we showed them 3 Nephi 18, which is when Jesus organized the church among the Nephites. So it was good for them to see our point of view on Church Discipline, which is the conversation it got to. Anyway, after all was said and done I felt like it wasn't the most productive use of our time. However, at the end we offered to help them shovel their drive and they accepted and told us we can have dinner with them afterwards! So we came by the next day and their family was over for dinner as well! So we got to teach all of them a little bit about the Book of Mormon (which was good, because most churches teach from a very young age to stay away from is as it is "of the devil and will bring you down the path to destruction", which is obviously not true, but a lot of other Christians live their whole lives under the assumption that it's evil! So I take every opportunity I can to correct that belief). Needless to say, it turned out to be a very productive visit!

So on New Year's, we had to be in a 6 to deep clean our apartments. We aren't allowed outside on New Year's Eve for obvious reasons, so they made it more productive for us by making us deep clean the apartment. It was really good and a lot of fun! We got some Filipino food from a member and watched a bunch of church movies! I took the kitchen and Elder Layer took the washroom and we went Ham Sandwich for 3 hours! Most people have sparkling cider on New Year's, but the only thing that sparkles for us missionaries is the floor(;

One more thing, this new family moved into the ward from Alberta, and we finally got to meet them yesterday! We went over to help them unpack and move some stuff around, and then they fed us some dinner! They have 9 kids! It was a hoot, they are such a fun family. 

Well have a good week!

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 72 - More Junk Food?/Ghost Town

Hey again!

This week was pretty good (as you may have heard). But there were a couple things I don't remember telling you about. 

So it is Christmas time and everybody is making junk food and giving it to us. Elders are blessed because we get all the food and stuff that people have extra, and they always think of us during Christmas and give us stuff. In total we have received a box of candy canes, a ton of those Lindt truffles, hot chocolate, Peanut Butter balls, candy bars, candy canes, cookies, fudge, McDonald's gift cards, and probably more that I can't remember. What makes it worse is sugar is bad for a sore throat, so I just have to stare at it all day until I'm well enough to eat any of it.

Also, trying to find people on the 23rd through the 25th is nearly impossible, since there are no people out on the streets! Not to mention it's -10 outside so it makes it worse. Last night we took Brian to visit an old lady in the ward and we walked down the street with him and didn't see a soul. Driving around Kelowna on the 24th I counted 6 total. But it's not too bad because now the holidays are pretty much over and people have no reason to lock themselves inside!

Well I actually think I told you guys about that stuff, but there you go. Have fun in Boise! Play lots of guitar hero and games for me! 

Have a good week y'all!

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 71 - "You can't handle the truth!"/H2O Miracles

Hey hey!

This week was good! Although I'm bummed you didn't really write anything! Haha just kidding.

So I'll just jump right in with the title! This week we had Zone Conference! It was so good. I prepared so hard for it. It was really good! He taught us all about giving correction, teaching about baptism, and just being diligent. It was really similar to his last zone conference, but I felt like it really solidified what I need to do. President Wong always uses really cool analogies and object lessons to teach us, and this time we watched a video of Kevin Durant being trained by Steve Nash! It was really insightful training about being humble and taking correction, but also the importance of the fundamentals! He also used the talk "As many as I love, I also rebuke and chasten" by Elder Christofferson. (If you haven't heard it, look it up. Do it now, don't wait). And he talked about "sugarcoating" and "beating around the bush" He asked us "can you handle the truth?" and immediately I thought of Jack Nicholson yelling at Tom Cruise. The name of the movie escaped me. But it was an inspiring zone conference, and definitely what I needed to hear. This week I will start applying it by focusing more on baptism. 

In my interview yesterday he committed me to make a plan to baptize 10 people before I go home! As I was thinking about it last night, I remembered that President Wong adds a 30% buffer to every goal he sets. So my goal from now to August 7th is 13 baptisms! 

Starting to work towards that lofty goal, we went working last night. We went to the Rec centre called H20 and talked to a lady at the bus stop. She actually grew up Mormon and has very find memories of Elders! They would do cool things like magic tricks and she remembers being so excited for them to come by. So we got her number and she said she would be open to a visit! So we are planning on seeing her tonight. It should be good! She has kids too so that would be some baptisms if we planned well!

So yeah this week was good. The AP's came up for zone conference and they stayed downstairs with the zone leaders. They are so chill now! So different from the Assistants when I came to the mission. But they still know how to find and teach. Their area is doing so good now! President kicked them out of the office so they can have a model area for the rest of the mission. 

Well I will see you next Monday! I will be facetiming most likely. And I will call anywhere from 1-4. Probably around 1:30 or 2:00 Pacific time.

Have a good week!

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 70 - Gingerbread House/D's back

Hey!

This week was fun! We went super hard and set a goal as a zone to find 40 new investigators this week. Guess how many we found? 52!! We crushed the goal. Our district had like 17 or 18 of those. It was fun to ask the sisters every day how many they found and it just kept getting higher! Now we just have to bring those people to church and set baptismal dates with them.

So we got a member family to Skype home from, but we don't know exactly the time. I'll let you guys know for sure next P-Day. Also, we aren't sure but P-day might be on Tuesday the 26th so keep that in mind.

So this week's title comes from OUR ward Christmas activity, where we made gingerbread houses! They actually made the houses before we got there, but everyone brought their own candy and decorated it ourselves. Elder Layer and I spent $2 on candy and mooched off the members(; Ours turned out pretty good! We also were able to talk to some friends that the members brought and some less actives who came out. It was a slam dunk activity. It just reminded me of Grandpa's super precisely cut graham cracker houses and ours that always fell apart!

We also happened to bump into a less active member at the mall on Monday who was going through a really tough time. Our bishop told us not to contact him, but somehow we just happened to run into him. He told us he wanted to make a change in his life and get back to church and stuff. He wanted to get things resolved with the bishop (they had an argument because he needed help and bishop canceled the appointment right before). So we were a bit worried about how bishop would react, but he showed up at church yesterday and everything was fine. It was all just a big misunderstanding. D's not the most solid guy ever though. I would honestly prefer to stay out of his business, but Elder Layer has a bit of a soft spot for the underdog sometimes so he is good friends with D. Either way, God has obviously seen a desire in him to make a change, because everything in his life is turning around! 

So this week was good. It looks like you guys had a good week also! It's doubtful that we will have much snow, if any, by Christmas. So sad. You might think that since I'm in Canada, everyone lives in igloos and rides polar bears through the 10 feet of snow year-round, but it's unfortunately not the case! Canada is pretty temperate, especially BC (one of the biggest temperate rainforests in the world apparently). So I don't think I'll have a white Christmas this year...

I have seen the vending machine, but I thought it was in NYC? The first day of light the world had it set up on the street next to a normal vending machine. It was a pretty touching video! Light the World is legit. We are telling all our members to share it with their friends, but so many of them have already committed to do it!

Have a good week! I love you!

Elder Clark

Chapter 69 - Brother S/Sugar Free

Hey!

This week was so good. It flew by so fast!

I will start with the titles of my email. About a month ago, I told you guys about some self-mastery goals I set for myself. I told you there was one I would tell you about later. Well.... (drumroll) It's later! So for the whole month of November, I went without sugar! This includes all added sugars, simple and refined sugars. It was fun. I learned many things, for one was that there is sugar added in just about everything. I could only eat fruits, vegetables, meat and very select grains and breads. I also had to go without almost all condiments and sauces. The only things I could have were mustard, pure tomato sauce, and hot sauce. It was actually pretty hard, but I proved to myself I could do it! And guess what I did on December 1st? I got a Mtn Dew, a Wunderbar, Egg Nog, and a large Blizzard! So worth it.

Also, we had a baptism! B was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. It was great. The baptismal service was well organized and we hardly had to do anything! B said he was really happy and grateful to have that opportunity finally given to him. He quit smoking too so it was truly a miracle! Thanks for the prayers and faith.

Yesterday, I bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting for the first time ever! I said "somebody better tell my mom, she would be so proud."

We still don't have snow, but it is getting colder. We didn't get to watch the Devotional last night, but we did get to help someone move! It was funny. Afterwards, he gave us a bunch of puzzles and I did one last night. Good stuff. Also, Home Alone is a great one. One of the sisters in our district loves it so I will probably use it to teach about planning(; 

I would send pictures but the computer isn't reading my card today. Maybe next week. 

Have a good one!

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 68 - "The Board"/Perfect Week

Hey! 

This week was really good! We had some cool experiences. B had his second interview on Saturday and he passed! So he will get baptized this Saturday at 6pm. It will be awesome. We also had transfers this week, but most of the Zone is staying, as well as us so we will both be here for his baptism!

As for the title of my email, this Friday we went to UBCO and did some contacting. I was on Splits with a YSA Elder and they go to UBCO all the time. We brought this White Board up there with the title of "Your Final Day In Life" with 3 questions on it such as, "What do you want to say you have done?" "What do you want to say you have become?" and "What difference do you want others to notice in you from now to then?" and we talked to all the students we could and had them write on it what they thought! We even used it on the bus! We found a ton of people using it as well. Some would answer with "Doctor, nurse, mother, etc." But others would say super profound things like "Immortalized in literature, changed someone's life, or made someone smile" We got like 30-40 people to write on it, mostly girls, but it was really successful. YSA work is challenging but also super easy with the right idea.

And for the other half of my title, no I'm not talking about the same Perfect Week Barney Stinson achieved. We passed around our dinner calendar in Sunday School AND Primary this week and we got tons of people to sign up! Next week we almost got a perfect week. We just need one on Friday and it will be complete. That will be the first time I've had a perfect week on my mission haha!

Anyway have a good day! Be thinking of questions you have for me on Christmas, because that is coming up sooner than we think.

Bye!

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 67 - YSA Devotional/"I Felt the Rains Down in Africa"

Hey family!

This week was pretty good!

Do you guys have snow still? All our snow melted and it's raining now. I thought Canada was supposed to be super cold? Hmmm.

So as you already know I have been participating in the ward Christmas Choir! It is honestly so much fun and we practice every Sunday night. We are singing this one song that's pretty hard, but the other 2 are SOOO pretty. I'm a big fan of good harmonies and these songs have that down pat. Plus I'm singing Tenor so it's pretty exciting.

The quote in my title is from Toto of course, but it is in reference to my recent study! In my spare time (the time from 9-10:30pm) I have been memorizing the countries in the world! I started with Africa and I have all of those down, then I moved onto South America and the Caribbean. Next will probably be Europe, and so on. It has been pretty fun.

In Missionary work this week, we almost found an Iranian guy but his beliefs were "good enough" for him. We also have been working with B a lot. He is so solid! He has not smoked for a whole week now, and his baptism is on the 2nd of December. So please keep him in your prayers! He sends us funny texts every once in a while. One of them was "Yes it's Christmas time merry ho ho ho" I guess you have to know him to know how funny that is. He's a bit strange haha.

Also we had to attend the YSA devotional Face to Face with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard last night. It was super good! They answered a lot of good questions about the gospel, balancing life, marriage, dealing with Anti-Mormon questions, and so on. Those guys are so wise and spiritually mature. It was cool to see.

Well have a good week! Don't have too much fun!

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 66 - President Soares/Ode to [Gerry] Joy

Ni Howdy!

This week has been pretty good! We had some cool things happen.

So we had a Zone Conference on Thursday, and President Soares came! He is one of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy. Along with President Wong, it was quite an amazing experience. Not too often do you hear from 2 Seventies, not to mention how one of them is the other one's Quorum President! So you could say it was pretty special.

President + Sister Soares are from Brazil, and they were really good! They taught us mostly the basics like repentance, becoming Christlike, effective teaching, finding, etc. It was different from what we are used to and different than we were expecting. But apparent'y we really needed that reminder, so we are all trying to be humble and find ways to get back to basics and build the fundamentals. So it has been fun to apply afterwards. 

The other part of my title is because we have a member in our ward who is a semi-recent convert. He is awesome, but we haven't been able to get in contact with him! It was weird because he pretty much just dropped off the face of the earth. We dropped by like 3 times a week and called almost every day. Finally, we decided to withhold our number and call again. This time he answered! It was amazing, and he told us to call him on Monday so we could come by and see him. The only disappointing thing about this story is we haven't been able to get in contact with him since that first time. Hopefully we can see him again soon.

Well other than that this week was a lot of dropping by members and walking. It was pretty warm this week, but it is supposed to get colder.

That's awesome about Zoey's back handspring! And Baron's video sounds really funny. The Meridian temple looks like the Cardston one a little bit, super pretty. They took a picture of the temple with the eclipse in the background too.

Have a good week everyone! I love you all!

Elder Clark

Chapter 65 - Stretch the Skin/Latin Fiesta

Hey!

This week was good. Yes it has been quite cold and snowy the last few days! Luckily I still have all my good winter gear from last winter. I should be fine, even if I get sent up north again. 

Baron is such a goon haha! They look pretty spooky though. The Ring is a good quality horror film! Halloween was pretty good this week. We had a good district meeting that was combined with the other district. There was a YSA there who bought everyone hot chocolate! And then he offered to take Elder Layer and I out for dinner. So we picked this really good Hispanic restaurant called Latin Fiesta. It is easily the best Mexican food this side of the border. And they have this awesome hot sauce called Valentina! So good. 

But things have been going well. We are working really hard to find ways to find people in this winter season! It will be hard, but it's better than suffering through the winter thinking 'woe is us' because nobody is on the streets and it gets dark at 4. So it will be pretty good. Of course we are still working through the members really hard, trying to make things happen here. It will be a long haul though.

We had stake conference this week, and it was broadcast from Vernon. The adult session didn't work so we just listened to it from someone's phone into the microphone in the chapel. But President and Sister Wong spoke on Sunday. President Wong was hilarious as always. But he had a super bold line near the end, "You are all really strong in the church! But you are not strong enough in the gospel yet. You are not strong enough in the gospel yet." It is so true! We come to church and do what we are supposed to, but are we becoming who we are supposed to become? Is our nature truly Christlike, or just our behavior?

So for the last bit of my email, I have to tell you that we started making drums today! You heard right, DRUMS. This guy in our ward (a former member) is huge in the First Nations community and culture. He had some friends who hunted a moose last month and he offered to let us help him make drums out of the hide! So chances are, Elder Layer and I will each go home with a handmade moose drum--straight from the mountains of BC. What better souvenir could I get from here? So today we started skinning the hide. That consists of pulling all the hair off of it. I came off really easily though because it was soaked in Borax all week. Then we built a frame and stretched it out. There it will stay while it dries until next week when we cut it out and make the drums! It will be awesome. So I don't need any money for stuff this winter, but it would be nice to be able to send another package home in a couple weeks. It shouldn't cost more than like $30 or so. (Canadian Dollars)

Alright have a good week!

Love, Elder Clark

---

Chapter 64 - Mem-Bar/Trunk'r'Treat

Hey fam!

This week was awesome!

I'm cracking up at your quotes. Those are pretty good ones! I'm trying to think of good one-liners that are somehow both funny and inspiring. I might have to resort to using rap quotes, like I have been doing in the beginning of each of my planners for most of my mission. This transfer is "I'm just so ahead of my time like dog years"-Lil Wayne. It's pretty good. Last transfer was "I wish a brotha would like a kitchen cabinet"-2 Chainz.

Anyway, Zoey looks taller once again. Greyden and Hannah are slaying. Did Baron dress up? What movies did he watch for Halloween? I saw an ad for a brand new Saw movie! It looks creepy. 

Those are some good insights about the temple and fast Sunday. Preparation and planning changes everything eh! That would be cool about the Spanish Branch! 

This week was so good. We had a district meeting about chapter 1 of PMG: My Purpose! It was good because we have a greenie sister in our district and a bunch of old sisters too, so it was nice to revise our purpose and how to make it a focus these days. We have to plan a 3 hour district meeting on Tuesday because we aren't allowed to be out on Halloween. It will be fun but a lot of work.

We have also been doing lots of finding and walking! My hip is kinda destroyed. Hopefully that doesn't cause problems for me later. But it's all good. We were able to visit a few members who we rarely see and some who we've never met! We had a Trunk'r'Treat on Saturday which was good for that too. We set up some dinners and did some activities. It was fun. 

So we have a plan called the W-MAP (Ward Mission Action Plan). It's basically where we take the ward mission plan undercover and hijack the ward to do missionary work! It was inspired by a study of Alma 47 where Amalickiah takes over the Lamanite armies. It has come down to us through President Wong, and we have to come up with individual W-MAP's for our unit. So our idea is called the "Mem-Bar" which is basically a bar graph that tells us where each member is in their conversion to the gospel and missionary work! It has 10 steps, 1 being active at church and 10 being teaching and baptizing their friends! So we use this bar to plan what to teach each member and what commitments to leave that will help them progress. It is also a long term plan so missionaries coming into the area can see where the members are and they can continue the process! It takes more than 6-12 weeks to change the culture of a ward, so we start small and work with the Core of Strength in the ward (ie, the Ward Council and other solid members). We use them to inspire everyone else and soon the missionary work is taking off!

That's my cool experience for the week! I'll let you know next week how our double-double district meeting goes! (It is 2 districts combined for double the time)

Have a great week everyone!

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 63 - Levels of Atheism/Brussels Sprouts

Hey everyone! 

This week was pretty awesome. We have been up to some good recently. Our finding has gotten better, and it helps when we are walking from place to place to look for a specific house or car to go talk to. We try not to knock doors, but we have been doing it more recently due to the weather. Tracting just isn't an effective way to find at all. Tell any and all missionaries going into the field that they need to build relationships with the members!

I will definitely look out for some stuff, but no promises that I'll get anything very quickly. That TV show sounds funny. Yes absolutely get to the temple as often as you can. (President Burt said there's no reason we can't get there every week) Just pick a time and guard it! He suggested 6am.

So this week, as I said, we have been doing more finding. We have been a bit lazy about that lately, and we need new investigators! "Nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach" So we have been randomly selecting houses to knock on and it was interesting to see the varying degrees of Atheism. It ranged from semi-agnostic all the way to completely against everything religion and everything in between. I really think meeting people and getting to know their point of view is really interesting. Some people just try to make us mad or discourage us, others don't really care, and many people here just think we are doing an awesome job and to keep up the good work! It is pretty nice.

Our investigator R gives us tons of vegetables. This week he gave us a bunch of Brussels sprouts! Then, as if that wasn't enough, he gave us 2 huge stalks of them! Have you ever seen what they look like before they are picked? We didn't either until this week. They are kinda creepy looking. So we hung one of them from the ceiling in our apartment and put the other one in the Zone Leader's tub! Hahaha they got so freaked out it was hilarious. Then I took the stalk and made a club out of it! It was pretty fun.

Yeah this week was good. It looks like you guys are doing well! Have a good one!

Love, Elder Clark

Brussels sprouts

Eating sushi with the boyz!

---

Chapter 62 - 4 Hour Hike/Rap

Hey howdy hey!

This week was good, it was transfers! Elder Layer and I are here in Kelowna still. The only difference is I have to train him to be a District Leader! It won't be that different because he thinks he's got it all down already haha. But it will be fun. So we are Co-District Leaders here, even though we are only over 4 other missionaries!

As far as missionary work goes, not a whole lot happened. It seems like everyone is staying inside their homes more and more as fall hits hard and it's getting colder. But one long-time investigator R will be taught more and more because he is a farmer! So he came out to church yesterday, and we have a lesson with him tonight. We will probably set a date with him because he's pretty solid. He was just super busy all summer so we were never able to see him. B is also doing really well. He missed his baptism interview, but he is still going strong. We set a plan for him to stop smoking by the 19th of November. 

So the title of the email is, today we went to the trestles again, with the Zone Leaders because they really wanted to come. It ended up being like a 4 hour walk. It was really pretty, it just took forever. We went to Wendy's right afterwards because we were so hungry. Elder Weli (a Nigerian-born Canadian who lived in Norway for 10 years) and I just talked about rap music the whole time. It was great, I haven't had any companions who like the same music as me. Elder Weli is black too so he loves all that stuff. It was pretty funny.

For District meeting we had a big discussion about all the things President Wong has been teaching us. It is pretty cool to look at because he has been here for such a short time but has taught us so much! Most of it has to do with object lessons, which just proves how inspired he is. He totally teaches in the Savior's way "and without a parable spake he not unto them". He teaches us about things we know, and relates it to missionary work. Like the Master's parables, his object lessons take time and spiritual climbing to fully understand and grasp. That way, we are better able to ponder and apply it personally to what we need. It is really amazing how smart President Wong is. He told us a story once: "there were 10 ladies. 5 had iPhones and 5 had Samsungs. The ones with the Samsungs didn't have enough battery to provide the light needed for their journey home, but the ones with the iPhones did. The ones with the Samsungs asked the ones with the iPhones to give them some of their battery life, but they couldn't. They told the 5 with Samsungs to charge their own phones. Unfortunately, the Samsung ladies missed their flight because they were busy charging their phones." Sound familiar?

So we discussed that for 90 minutes, and it was really cool. We learned a lot.

Looks like you guys have to bust out the shovels! Good luck! I happened to see the Star Wars trailer from a YSA member, and it looks awesome! 

Have a good week!

Love, Elder Clark

---

Chapter 61 - YSA Day/3 Turkeys

Happy Thanksgiving y'all! (Yeah, it comes early here)

So your question was pretty tough, I'll do my best! I'd say first things first, I'm way more converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that everything is so true and I have felt it to the point where I can't deny it. I also have learned what the Spirit feels like and that it is so so important to do the things we have to do to qualify for Him in our lives! There is such a noticeable difference and I never recognized it before. I've grown a lot socially as well; I can do eye contact, speak up, and do small talk a lot more. Haha I never wanted to admit it before but I was pretty awkward and shy. I have also learned how to set goals and make plans to achieve them. I've learned how to study, the joy of pondering and taking it slow to feel out the vibes. Especially what it feels like to receive a prompting and act on it immediately. I realized there's truly nothing more important than keeping ourselves clean and worthy for God to put us on his errand.

Some of the most memorable people whom I have grown to love so much are the Marks, an old couple in PG who tirelessly work hard on their HT/VT, church callings, helping the missionaries, and various other things despite super bad health challenges (like 5 stints in his heart). They are so Christlike and they really affected my testimony of members. Also, the Goerke's in Mission (pronounced Ger-key). They taught me a lot of how to have fun! How to be myself and joke around with the members. Everyone likes someone who can make them laugh and isn't uncomfortable to relax and be themselves. In Surrey, pretty much the whole ward is my home. Haha I was only there for 3 months but I really love everyone in that ward. The recent converts, long time members, and everyone in between. I'd say above all, the ones who taught me the most were other missionaries. Leaders who helped me grow "from a sheep to a shepherd" and gave me responsibilities when they knew it would help me grow to get pushed out of my comfort zone. I am eternally grateful for all they taught me. 

Also, Canada is legit. I love it so much here. The people either complain about Trump or Trudeau, and they either love or hate united healthcare. But nobody can disagree that the scenery is so beautiful here. I don't even know how to fully describe how awesome it feels to grow so attached to a place so far from home, as cliche as it sounds. But needless to say, BC is the best part of Canada. Alberta is probably 2nd best, but BC is on top! 

I hope that's what you wanted!

It's also so funny that you spent most of your email talking about paint! Hahaha classic.

So this week the Zone leaders went to Richmond for a meeting, and they didn't reschedule their appointments, so we went to go teach a bunch of YSA people and do some errands for them. We hardly got any weekly planning done we were so busy.

We also have had turkey dinner 3 nights in a row, which I won't complain about. You know what's actually really good that I never thought I would like? Cranberry sauce! It just ties the whole meal together. Also yams, Brussels sprouts, and the occasional pickled beets. So strange that I actually like these foods.

This week wasn't super memorable, but it is getting colder. I have mixed feelings about it but I'm excited for snow. It's lower elevation than Idaho, so it's not quite as cold or windy, but we get some wind here, it's just pretty mild. 

Well have a good one!

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 60 - 3rd Conference/Farm Life

Hey everyone! this email might be kinda short, but just know we had a really good week! 

I'll get started by talking about the big elephant in the Conference Centre: General Conference! It was amazing as always, how could the words of living prophets not be super inspiring and awesome? I loved the messages of Elder Andersen, Christofferson, and Ballard. But the highlights were Elder Renlund's talk from priesthood session, Elder Ellis' talk, and Sister Bingham's talk! They were all really really good but those were some standout ones for sure. We noticed the theme of the entire conference was focused on President Monson's 2 talks from last Conference: The Book of Mormon and how Charity allows us to draw the powers of heaven into our lives. Some other minor themes were: supporting our leaders, moving towards the light, and how we really are just doing so good and we can't give up! What were some themes you guys found? What are some goals you will make because of what you learned? 

Another interesting insight about Elder Andersen's talk was that I felt like he was showing us that if President Nelson becomes the next prophet we are in good hands. He trusts in the counsel of his leaders, and strives to follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost no matter what. President Monson doesn't have much time left, so we need to start trusting in our other leaders too.

Also, Kelowna is a lot like Idaho, and a lot like Prince George as well. There is a decent sized city with enough people, but not too far away is tons and tons of farmland. Orchards as far as the eye can see in some areas. Everytime I go out there to the farmland, I just want to live there even more. And I devised a half-baked plan to make it happen. 1. I will finish my mission 2. I will go to college and finish a degree in accounting and probably take some mechanical engineering and construction courses 3. I will go to dental school and become an Endodontist 4. I will work really hard for 10 years or so, saving up enough money to buy a 30 or so acre farm somewhere in Idaho and build my dream house on it and live there peacefully in retirement for the rest of my life! President Wong retired at age 42 so it's totally possible! Haha let me know what you think. I don't even have to be a serious farmer, I just have to sell enough each year to get the big government tax return! So I'll just have some chickens and apples and corn and stuff. I think it would be really cool.

Anyway, my mission is going great. B dropped his date temporarily but he's back on for the 14th! The District is also doing well. I'm finding it a little easier to talk to the sisters and sound excited and motivate them. I'm hoping to learn from Conference how I can better serve my District so I'll let you guys know how that goes.

Have a good week! Those tweets were hilarious!

Love, Elder Clark

Chapter 59 - Juicer/Coffee Maker

Hello! This week is the week of appliances. Stay tuned to find out more.

This week was also Zone Conference! President Wong is as funny as ever, and in a nutshell he taught us how to help investigators progress toward baptism. He also taught us about more finding tactics, called "Intense Finding" which was really fun to put into practice this week. Basically you go out with a specific group of people to find and come up with specific object lessons or things we can use to engage people when we are finding! It is way better than the standard "Hey how are you? We are the missionaries... blah blah blah". So far it has been working pretty well!

But we have been working with a guy named B. He is progressing really well. Remember when I told you about Sister K giving up coffee before we even got there to teach the Word of Wisdom? Yeah I pretty much expect Word of Wisdom miracles with investigators now. This week we went in to teach that to B, and he was willing to live it. Then Elder Layer asked him to give us anything that might tempt him. So he goes into his kitchen, pours all his tea bags into a Walmart sack and grabs his huge coffee can and just gives them to us! Even better, he walks into his kitchen and says "I might as well give you guys this too" and he pours out his coffee pot and unplugs the whole thing and gives it to us! It was awesome. I've always heard stories of missionaries doing that and now it happened!

In other news, another investigator owns an orchard way outside of town. We went to his house on Saturday so we could figure out how long it takes to walk to the bus stop so we could get him to church (it's a long story). And he gave us a huge box of apples and his juicer! So we took our lunch time and made like 2 gallons of fresh apple juice. It's pretty sour and tastes like the green Jolly Ranchers. Super good.

This week was awesome. We have been preparing for conference and studying President Monson's talks from past conferences. It's pretty good, we are excited. 

Sounds like your week was pretty good! We have never been able to do anything at all with sisters. The most is calling them for missionary stuff and seeing them at meetings and what not. Most of that is the same, except now we can have an activity on P day once a month with them.

Take care! I love you all!

Elder Clark

Chapter 58 - Games Night/Zone Activity

Hello!

I just thought for like 5 minutes on what to name this email. It was a good week, just not much super unique stuff.

On the bright side, this week is Vernon Zone Conference! And my trainer Elder Leber will be coming to Kelowna to stay the night tomorrow and it will be awesome to see him again after almost a year. We had a district leader meeting over Skype last week and he was on it and we were pumped. It was a lot of fun.

So President Wong recently put out an announcement that Elder/Sister Zone P-Day activities can now be held. So the Zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders put on an activity that we will be doing this afternoon. No clue how I feel about this, but it should be pretty fun. President Burt created the "Sisters are the devil" culture here, and now things are changing but it will be quite the transition for us missionaries who grew up with that mindset! Oh well, my district is all sisters so it will help build unity in the district and the zone. Good stuff.

Also, the games night we put on kinda failed. It was mostly missionaries there. We played volleyball, which was good but some members wanted to play a game and not enough people joined them so they left and sent us a really negative text about the whole thing. It was tough, but we are advertising it better, and we will be approaching it a different way. Instead of pushing it as a missionary event, we are having the Ward council announce it and talk it up. That way, more members will be inspired to go and show support. We already have 3 families coming who have committed to invite their friends! It will be awesome next week. Pray that it works and we can find people through it!

Not too much other stuff happened this week. There was a sale at Domino's, so we all pitched in and bought pizzas today! It was pretty good. I forget to take pictures of the apartment, but I will soon! It sounds like you all had a good week though. It hasn't gotten too cold here. It was overcast and breezy yesterday but it is warm most days. Winter will hit in another month or so, but I have good winter stuff. Luckily it doesn't rain that much here!

Have a good one!

Love Elder Clark

Chapter 57 - Rats/Land of the Fruit

Hey mom!

This week was crazy! Everything got so busy so fast and I don't know the area or anything so it has been crazy for sure. But it has been so good! I love Kelowna. I just caught the tail end of the summer so it's nice here. It was way smoky the first week but it rained and now it's clear! Kelowna is right on the coast of a big lake too.. Sooo many beautiful people here.

Anyway don't worry I'm not distracted because I have too much on my plate haha! I am constantly thinking of all the things I have to do now, and also learning the area and trying to have a model area for the rest of the zone! But it is a lot of fun. Elder Layer is really good so he helps me out a lot. The only thing we have to do better on is our finding! He doesn't like to knock on doors because he thinks it's really ineffective. So I have been trying to push us harder and work smarter so we can find more people to teach.

So a couple memorable things happened this week. One was the rats. This old lady in our ward had a rat infestation in her crawlspace, and so we had to go down there in hazmat suits and pull all her storage out and then sweep all the droppings up! It was exciting, and really tough because the crawlspace was only like 2 feet high. Plus we were all dressed up in jumpsuits, masks, gloves, and booties (suit up, Ted!). But we got it done and they fed us afterwards. Then we had to rush on a blitz with the ZLs becuase we both had lessons to go to right after that! It was a good time.

Also, Kelowna is not only the land of the honeys but also the land of the fruit! Every day I've been here, people have given us the most random things. It ranges from the typical corn and apples, to peaches, grapes (multiple varieties), and eggplant, to the really exotic stuff like mini kiwis and giant Italian tomatoes! So it is more than fruit, but so good. Our fridge is full!

Yeah it was a good week. Some information on our apartment: it is quite the upgrade from our last place. We live on the 4th floor of an apartment complex. It is really nice and spacious. Plus it's on the top floor so we have big vaulted ceilings and skylights! Quite the contrast from a dingy basement suite below angry Punjabis. But I miss the big city a little bit.

We also had a 5 hour bus ride to get here in Kelowna. That was a crazy story in itself, so I'll save that for another day. Let's just say I was up for 18 hours straight last Tuesday...

Have a good week everyone!

Love, Elder Clark