Trying to get over a perpetual Cold

Dear mom, papa, family and friends, AND HOLLAND!!!

Holland, it's awesome to hear from you! I hope you are doing well. I hope Brian/Louise (my harp) is doing well, and I hope that everyone associated with harp is doing well! Send me the news, I feel neglected on news a bit...as my mum said. I just want to know about weddings, babies, engagements, recitals, etc! So fill me in! I love you!

OK, so on the Wales front. This has been quite an interesting week. Last Monday when I wrote, I was recovering and almost recovered from a cold. And later that day (right after emailing) the dear bishops wife, Ellen, had us come over to her home. Now, Ellen is only 27, so she is pretty "lush" or cools in our language, and she wanted to take pictures of us. It was fabulous! We had so much fun.

The week actually went downhill from that. The next day Sister Lauritzen got sick, and then later on that day, I got another cold on top of the one I had had before. So we were both way ill. And we just couldn't get better. It was rough. Actually, I am still not over it. I am using a lot of boxes of tissues, and can't smell or taste anything. And I have now been sick for more than a week and a half. They told me that once you get sick here in the damp and cold valleys, it's hard to get better. Boy were they right. But while we were quarantined at home, we got a lot of area book, and map kind of work done, and we have some great plans for this week. So please pray that we will both recover 100 percent. It’s rough because even if we feel like going out and working, then we will infect others. That’s not a very nice thing to do. So we have been trying to take it easy.

But while we have been at home for the last week, we have had some really cool experiences. We have really grown as a companionship. Probably from taking care of and serving each other. But I really feel like my testimony has really grown from this week. It’s amazing!

So first off, prayers are becoming even better! I never have taken advantage of prayer like I should, but now, I am. We have been listening to Elder Jean R Cooks lessons on prayer, and it has been amazing. I have really recognized how influential prayer can be. And so we have been really focusing on it as a companionship and personally. One thing that has made all the difference for me was praying aloud in my personal prayers. Sister Lauritzen and I go into separate rooms in our flat and pray aloud, and I have been so touched. I can really feel Father listening, and I can recognize my answers better. I also have found that praying aloud means that I get much less distracted in my prayers. I love it! And I am really excited about it!

Something else we have been focusing a lot on together is charity. We have been studying President Monson's talk from the November Ensign, "Charity never faileth" and focusing on all those things that charity really means. And it makes me really excited! We have been working a lot on that, and how to be better. We have been looking for service opportunities at every place we go, and I really have felt a difference. I feel so much more love for people when I look for ways to serve them. And I love that! When you love the people you are working with and serving, teaching the gospel to them is just so much more natural! And then they feel that you are really a representative of the Lord, because we love them too. It’s really cool to be able to do that. And I also feel when we are always looking for ways to be charitable and to serve, we are more positive. And I think that the spirit wants to be around positive people more than negative people. I want to be around positive people rather than negative, and I think that goes for all of us. So why would he be any different. And when we are positive, I think that we are grateful for the things that we have. And we have a trust in the Lord. And when we show that trust and faith in the Lord, I really believe he will bless us. He will bless us with opportunities to love, serve and grow. Opportunities to feel the promptings of the spirit. Opportunities to grow in the talents that we do have, and grow in new talents.

Talents are something else we have been thinking about a lot lately. I have been looking through my patriarchal blessing, and I recognize some things that the Lord has blessed me with as talents. But just the same as any other talent we would be blessed with, we have to practice it. For instance, would I know about my talent as a musician if I never practiced the harp or the piano? Probably not. With that talent, I have to practice every day to be able to get better, and to take full advantage of the talents I have been given. That same thing goes for the talent of faith or love. You have to practice! The same way that you would have to practice an instrument. You have to practice every day, and focus on it, and pray about it, and work on it. It’s hard to develop talents, it takes work. But without that work, the talent goes unnoticed, and it's as if we weren’t' given the talent in the first place. And I think when we aren't grateful and positive about those things that we do have, then the Lord doesn't want to bless us with other gifts that we won't use. So I think to be able to receive more talents and gifts, is to work and magnify what we already have.

Wow. That was just my train of thought. Sorry if it doesn’t make sense. But that was exciting for me. This morning during personal study I was reading 2 Nephi 28 and it says "for unto him that receiveth I will give more." and that hit me. To receive is an action. To receive we have to be grateful and to do something with what we were given. And then we will be given more. and then Sister Lauritzen shared with me what she was studying in Ether 12:35, and it was along the same lines "Wherefore, I know by this thing which thou hast said, that if the gentiles have not charity, because of our weakness, that thou wilt prove them, and take away their talent, yea, even that which they have received, and give unto them who shall have more abundantly." so we first have to have and be seeking charity to receive talents and gifts. You can't have one without the other. And when we have charity we develop new gifts and talents while also developing those we already have.

Anyway, needless to say, I feel like I have gained so much from this week.

Also, sometimes in the craziness of the mission, I have been lacking at writing in my journal, but for the past few weeks, we have made it a goal to write in our journal every night, and we have done it, and it's been amazing. I love writing in my journal, and I feel so good after I do. I am grateful for the wise counsel to write in our journals every day. It’s cleansing, and I can receive promptings while doing so. That’s exciting to me!

Anyway. The other great thing that happened this week is that the elders here in Merthyr, Elders Smith and Siegel were able to give Sister Lauritzen and me blessings on Thursday after district meeting. And then the next day we talked to them and they got the cold too. So, we had the opportunity to go to the store for them to get fruit and vegetables and medicine, and we made them a fruit smoothie. And I think that was the happiest I have been this whole week. And I realized that although women don't have the priesthood, we are able to serve in different ways, and that we really are equal. We figured, men have the priesthood because they would never even think about going to the store to get healthy food and medicine and tissues. And we don’t' have the priesthood because we are naturally born with that motherly love.

Anyway. This has been kind of a different letter. Basically, we have been poorly, but we are doing well, and life is good. The people here are taking very good care of us, and I love it here!

I love this gospel. I love learning new nuggets of goodness and truth every day, it makes me so happy! I love it! I love being prompted by the spirit, and I love having the calling to share this happiness with others! I love this gospel!

Love,
Sister Annie Clark