Zone Conference Week

Dear Mom and papa, and family,

Ok, first things first. L IS GETTING MARRIED!? What the heck? Tell her to write me immediately, if not sooner! Thanks!

The pictures of all the children with the quilts are wonderful! Completely adorable, and I love all the quilts! Way to go mom! Are you campaigning for the best (great) aunt award? I think you have got it from them now!

So yep, we do have an awesome teaching pool. We are happy about that!

B is doing great! To answer your questions mom, he is from Nigeria. He is an amazing artist, and seriously paints complete works of art. He’s fantastic! I will try to take some pictures of stuff he's done. He basically accepts everything and backs it up with scriptures mostly from the Bible. We taught him the Word of Wisdom this week, which brought some complications because we were a little worried about it not being in the Book of Mormon or the Bible, but he accepted other revealed scripture since we have prophets on the earth today. So that was good. We are going to have to work a little bit with him on the whole coffee thing.

We also taught C the Word of Wisdom. Which he had been taught previously, but he requested it, so we taught it. Apparently last time he didn't catch that coffee wasn't OK, so he had to get over that, and he just reverted to Caro, which is great! He is pretty awesome. We are just working on solidifying his testimony of the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith. He reads and prays everyday, which is awesome! And he is doing great. To answer mom's questions, he is a 40 year old helicopter engineer and he works for the England police force on their helicopters. Pretty cool. He is English, one of the few that is actually from England that we teach. And he is awesome! He is dating a girl who is a member, and that's why he originally started looking into the church. But he's making sure it's something he wants for himself, which is important. I think that's it.

Onto the A's. Oh the A,s. I love them dearly. They are an amazing family. They do struggle with things at the moment though, and we aren't really sure how to get past them. Basically, they know that the church is true. They know that we have the authority to baptize. And they know that the church teaches correct principles, and they want to live by those things. BUT they don't want to get baptized because they don't want to have to go to church every Sunday, and they just want to live life as good people . So we are at a standstill at the moment. They are still doing their challenge, and they came to sacrament meeting yesterday, which was great. But they just aren't committing. It’s pretty frustrating when you know that they know that it's true! A man in the ward on the base this week saw C walking into work with the Book of Mormon in his hand. He even reads it on his breaks! How do we get past these barriers!? That’s our problem at the moment. But hopefully we will be able to figure it out.

We started teaching this other man, N, who we have been teaching recently. He an interesting man, and loves the debate. Which I don't love. So I am having to work to keep calm and collected, and teaching him without him fighting back. It’s an interesting test of patience for me. Sister N on the other hand, loves the debate, so I let her do a lot of the teaching in those lessons.

This week has been a little tough. I got a pretty nasty cold, and as we all know, those are never fun. So I have been trying to get some rest, and it's been no fun. I am finally on the up-hill but poor sister Ncaught what I had. Caring is sharing, right? Ha-ha. So yeah, now I have to take care of her.

We had zone conference this week which was wonderful!

We are starting new training soon that will be taught also in the MTC, which we are excited about! Sister Ogden asked me to play a piano solo, which I finally scrounged one from one of the members in my ward. So I played "a poor wayfaring man of grief", which went well for the little time I had to practice it, which totaled maybe 4 or 5 times playing it through. Ha-ha, terrible preparation. But what can I do, that's not what I am here in England to do. Now if there was a harp...that would be a different story...

So things are going well! Thanks for the updates on Yosemite, and everything! I loved the pictures, and you all look like you had a fantastic time! That’s awesome that Caroline gave Lucy the bread mixer. If you see anyone getting rid of another one, grab that one for me!

I know this church is true! I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, and that this is the only true church on the earth. I know that through it, we can return to live with our heavenly father again. I am so grateful for the Priesthood, and am grateful for the men that keep themselves worthy to use that priest

I love you all!

All my love heaped up, pressed down, and running over,

Sister Clark

I LOVE YOU!!!!!

Teaching Pool is Incredible

Dear Momma and papa, and the rest of the family,

Thank you for the long detailed letter! I loved it! It made me feel like I was almost there.

Yosemite sounded perfect! It worked out so perfectly for you and the Orris-Linfords to be there at the same time! Amazing! Such a good coincidence. And I love that everyone had such a good time! Thank you for the pictures! Everyone looks great! I can't believe when I get home, I will have another nephew! I am pretty excited about that! Way to go Matthias and Rebecca! Ha-ha.

So things here are going beautifully! This last week was PACKED. This is the first week I can remember that we barely had to plan at all because every day was already packed by the beginning of the week! We only had about 4 or 5 hours of finding in total this week, and we had so many lessons! Unbelievable. It shows that obedience and hard work brings blessings!

We have the most incredible teaching pool ever. We have five incredible progressing investigators.

B: he is absolutely remarkable. I have never met anyone like him. He knows the bible like the back of his hand. He is a painter. And is completely in tune with the spirit. He completely accepts the Book of Mormon to be the word of God because he feels the spirit while reading it. We taught him three times last week, and he has a baptismal date! August 28th is the date that we are shooting for. We are thrilled! Hopefully he will continue to progress as he has done, and it will be perfect. Yesterday, we were all in gospel principles class, and we had a friend of a member come to church, so he was also in the class. And he was being very debate-like, which is not conducive to the spirit, so I was becoming a little bit frustrated. So Brother G told this man to read Moroni 10:3-5 and do as Moroni directs: ask of God if it's true. And then Boniface took it over. And told him, all he had to do was pray. He said, the Lord will tell him that this is the true church, and God never lies. It was amazing seeing our investigator bear his testimony like someone who has been a member of the church forever. I have been told about people who are prepared by angels to receive the Gospel, and I know that B is one of those exact people. I feel very privileged that God has entrusted us to teach one of his choice sons. It's such an amazing experience to teach someone so obviously prepared and ready for the truth.

C: He is also amazing! I think that lesson in Gospel Principles was really good for his testimony; because he had to make the concrete decision if this is either true or it's not. And we all know that he knows that this is true. He also now has a baptismal date of September 4th, which we are really excited for! We gave him the challenge to start now to live the Gospel. So he has started now. And I know that the way to really know the truthfulness of the gospel is to live it. Otherwise, you show that you don't really want to know. So we are really excited that he has taken upon him that challenge! So he is really doing everything. Paying his tithing, obeying the word of wisdom, fasting. The whole bit! We are so excited for his rapid growth. And we know that it's the hand of the Lord in his life, and it's so wonderful to see it.

P: wow. P. He is such an interesting character. He has completely changed from when we first met him in the park. He started out just asking us to look up answers to all of his many issues in the Book of Mormon. But he wouldn't read it himself. Now he is reading. He doesn't understand a lot of it, because it takes a while to get used to the language, but he makes the sincere effort. And he is so good at meeting with us. His prayers have become much more real and sincere than at the beginning, and he realizes that a change of lifestyle is in order to really be happy. And I think he will be ready to make that commitment soon. We did invite him to be baptized when he knows that it's the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he said he would. So we are working towards that, and he is doing brilliantly. We are so happy with his changes already that he's made. He is really great!

A's: they are awesome. Of course. In our lesson with them last week, we brought some members with us to teach. And K A was talking, and she said "I feel good about getting baptized when you guys are here teaching me, and when I read the Book of Mormon and when I go to church and everything. It’s when I am not doing those things when I am not sure." We told her that that feeling that she felt was the Spirit, and that's her answer to her prayer! We were so excited! She couldn't believe it, and now that she knows that, she has to make a decision. We left with them a "week challenge" to do everything that a member does for a whole week, and really try to notice the spirit, and then after that week decide whether or not to get baptized. They accepted the challenge, and we have been talking to them all week. They are hilarious. C would call K when he would decide to not have coffee. And K was opening some Iced tea, and C told her that was against the rules. So she called me to check. We told her to find a substitute. But they are doing it. here is what the weekly challenge consists of: Family Home Evening one night, obeying the word of wisdom, praying with your family every day, having personal prayers every day, daily scripture study, coming to church for the whole three hours, and maybe throw in a conference talk or church DVD in there somewhere, and keep the Sabbath day holy. We will see them tomorrow, and see how they did, and what they will decide to do now that they have done that. But they are so great!

Let’s see. We have a new district, and that is going really well. We have a pretty big district, and our district leader is from Germany. His name is Elder Cyren, and he is super happy and always excited to talk to us every night. At district meeting, he gave us a commitment to invite all our investigators to be baptized, and give them a date. And we really tried that this week, and it worked out really well! We just need to get over our fear of asking them to be baptized, because it really is the key to salvation. We should be thrilled to invite them to do that! So we have been doing that, and it has become so much easier, and we follow the spirit so directly to do that. It’s wonderful! This transfer has a lot of really great things that will be happening! We are thrilled!

Well, I am running out of time! I have been typing so fast and intently (ha-ha) that my wrists are killing. So here we make an end. Thank you for the letters, the postcards! your love, and prayers! I appreciate them, and feel the effects of them daily! I love this gospel, and I love being a missionary! I know that this church is true! Read the Book of Mormon! You will find that out too!!!

Love,

Sister Clark

A Bit about Music - Disney Songs?

Dear mom papa, and family,

Thank you for the letter! This week has been really good. The last week of the transfer. Wow, crazy how fast the time went by! It seems like I just became companions with sister N, and now we have been with each other for 6 weeks. So fun!

So to answer your questions first, I have no idea where the pounds went into. It was only a contest for that week, and now I have no idea. We never even gave our district leader our money because our whole zone and district were switched around this last week. Now we are in the Rugby district. And our zone leader Elder Davies is now an AP. it's crazy, he will be an AP for the rest of his mission, which is more than 7 months I think. Wow, that's going to be hard. But he will be so good for the mission! He is an amazing missionary.

We are allowed to listen to Disney songs, and sister N has a few cod’s to listen to them in the car. At home, we can listen to my iPod (thank you thank you Uncle Ray to get my iPod set up so wonderfully for me! I love it) at home, because we have speakers for it. It’s great!

We are still working our way through seeing the cool things to see in Banbury. We still need to find a time in our schedule that going to a vespers would be good. But both of us want that, so we are just trying to figure out a time. Today we are hoping to go to a beautiful catholic church just up Oxford road from the St. Mary's church with the bell tower. It's funny. I think sister N and I are the ones that know the most about catholic worship services in the whole mission. She used to be a catholic, and I have been to mass lots. So we are excited to do that!

I can't wait to see the finished product of Matthias and Rebecca's quilt! I am sure it will be absolutely lovely! And I am excited to see pictures from Yosemite. I can't believe you are all having fun without me there. Definitely not ok! Ha-ha. It will be great! Is anyone hiking half dome this year?

I loved Lucy's blog! You guys sound like you did some awesome work! I told sister McF and K A about Lucy’s blog, and they have fallen in love with it. They say that they wish they could be as creative as you are Lucy, to redo your house so beautifully! You have vision! Lucy, when I get home, I will have to come visit you in Oregon. I want to see this house for myself! (And I want to see you WAY more than I want to see the house. of course!)

Ok, so onto this week. We have had an awesome week, which was completed by an AMAZING Sunday!

So B, the man that Brother G was prompted to go talk to is absolutely amazing. We have had two lessons so far with him, and he came to church yesterday. We have three more lessons planned for this week. The first appointment we had with him, he told us that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true. He has thoroughly read the bible, and he cross referenced the bible and the Book of Mormon, and he told us that he feels the spirit when he reads it. He is completely amazing! You should see his scriptures. They are highlighted, and he practically teaches us. Wonderful. We have had such a fun time getting to know him, and I know at church yesterday he loved it. He said that he loved the feeling in our ward, and was excited to start coming! He is SO amazing! We are really excited about him.

C is also doing very well! We met with him twice last week and he is doing really well. He says things like "when I get baptized" and things like that. So I know that he will get baptized. And we asked him to pray about a date for when to be baptized, and it should be by the end of August. We are really excited about him. We are working through the things that he questions. Before he met with the missionaries, he didn't really even believe in God, so this is a huge step, and he has come a long way. It’s awesome, because we have lessons with him at Bishop A's home, and first we all have dinner there. And it's great because he has become friends with the Augers, so the Bishop can speak to him plainly about everything! He is so great. We are really excited about him. He also came to church yesterday! We get so excited when our investigators come to church. It really makes or breaks our week, depending on if our investigators are or aren't there.

So we haven't met with the A's in a couple weeks now, because they have been super sick. But they have been at church for the last two week in a row, and we are seeing them tomorrow! We are really excited. We really want to get past their concerns, so we are able to move on with them. Because they know all the doctrine, and I know that they feel the spirit. They are happy when we come and teach them, and they like coming to church. But they don't feel like they have been given an answer to their prayer on whether or not they should get baptized. So we are still happily working with them. I love them so much. They are absolutely hilarious, and they do all their homework, and they really do want to know. It’s obvious.

Basically, we have an incredible teaching pool at the minute, and we are very blessed. We have high hopes for this next transfer, and will work really hard to achieve those goals that we have!

I love it so much here in Banbury. I love England so much, and I love teaching these people the Gospel. I am grateful for the gospel in my life, and I am grateful for my chance to be able to strengthen my testimony and bring others unto Christ. I know that this church is true. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, and because of him, we are able to return to our Father in Heaven. I am grateful for that knowledge, and the happiness that it brings to me.

Thank you for all our love, letters, support, and prayers! I love them all! Keep them coming!

Love,

Sister Annie Clark

Staying in Banbury and Very Happy

Dear Mom and Papa, and the family,

Sorry about being a day late. Today was transfers, and although we are both staying here in Banbury (!!!!) we had our p-day changed to today. So that's why we are late. Sorry if I worried you!

So yeah, last week we ended up having to pay 3 £ overall, which wasn't that bad. The district and zone leaders had to pay much much more. The hardest thing is to cut lessons off if they are over the hour. So sometimes we had to do it.

There have been some awesome things that have happened this last week. On July 18th Brother G (a man in the ward who is an American doctor on base, and their family reminds me of Matthias and Rebecca) felt the impression to go up to a man riding by the church on a bicycle and tell him about the church. He ended up talking to him for a while and then giving him a Book of Mormon, and we got his number and ended up having a lesson with him yesterday for the first time. Brother G came to be there in the lesson, and it was an AMAZING lesson! Basically, the man - his name is B and he is from Nigeria, and he is amazing. He has read and studied the Bible and the Quran deeply. So when he started reading the Book of Mormon we gave him, he told us he knew it was true. We were completely shocked! First time meeting with him and he knows it's true?! Miracle. We asked him how he knew, and he referred to the Bible and said that in it it says "by its fruits we should know them" or something. And he just told us that he felt the spirit while reading it. And then he put the Book of Mormon on top of his bible, and was like, they go together, they go hand in hand. We were like YES! We are so excited about him. We are meeting again with him on Saturday, and he said he'd come to church on Sunday. He is AMAZING. Thank you Brother G for following the guidance of the spirit!!!

The McF,s are leaving this week, and we are SO sad! They are an amazing family and I am sad to see them go! I told sister McF that I am going to find them when I come home and nanny for them so I can see them, because I will miss them. They are an American family, and they have been here in England for three years, and now they are going to Texas. They will be dearly missed in this ward, and by us. I think that even with them gone, though, the A's will continue to investigate the church. They are so awesome, I just can't wait for them to finally find out that they actually know that the church is true, and so they can take that step and be baptized. They are amazing! We continue to pray for them!

So a funny story of the last week. A couple days ago, we were driving home from Bicester, and we were listening to Disney songs, and at a stop light we were kind of dancing and singing, and having a good time. And the man in front of us turned around, and apparently he had seen us for a while in his review mirror. Ha-ha, we were so embarrassed. Maybe we should tone it down?

So we are both staying in Banbury, but I thought it was possible that I was going to be transferred, so on Monday; we warned a couple close families that we were maybe going to be transferred, so we took pictures and everything.

Well, they wanted us to call them when we found out. so when we found out, we decided to play a trick on them and call them and tell them that we were going to be white-washed (which means that sisters are completely taken out and replaced by elders). And so we called the By's, the Bishop, and Sister MacK, and told them. It was pretty funny! We told them quickly we weren't going, but it was a good laugh for all of us. It’s nice to know that they appreciate us! Ha-ha.

So I am finding, now that I have been on a mission for three months so far, well, in England, that I am progressing so much! I am more able to find out people’s needs more quickly and am able to teach based on those needs so that the person feels that the gospel is related personally to them. It’s so important to be able to find out the needs of our investigators, so that we are able to teach them in a way that they will be able to understand. Also, this last week, we were talking to a guy we see a lot at the park. He actually works there, in the flowers, and his name is max, and he asks us questions every time we see him. And last time, he asked a lot of questions, and I was able to turn to the scriptures for almost all of them to answer them, and it was so cool! I am learning how to use the scriptures much more effectively, and memorizing them, so that the spirit can work more readily through me.

So I sent in my application to get a license. First I get it, then I can get classes and take the tests to be able to have the real one. So I guess this one is a provisional license? I don't know. I am really not worried about the driving test; I am just needing to figure out how to study for the written test. But I am excited to get a UK license, that's pretty cool! I had to send in my picture for it, and I wasn't allowed to smile, and the picture is AWFUL. So that won't be a fun one for the baby book, but I guess I will have to get over it. Ha-ha.

Well, I am pretty scatterbrained today. Not sure why, but all is going well. We are very hopeful for our next transfer, and we are excited. We are working better with each other every day, and trying hard to follow the spirit and be obedient, so we can be blessed with the spirit. I can't believe it's already August so soon, the time has flown by! I love this gospel, and I know that it is the only way to be truly happy! I am so grateful to have it in my life!

Love,

Sister Clark.

PS thank you mom and papa for the awesome postcards! I love the Nancy Drew one, SO cool! Way to go mom to find those online, you are so savvy. And yes, I did read almost all, if not all of those books! They are awesome!

All my love heaped up, pressed down and running over!