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