Hearing the Restoration over the pulpit Inbox

 July 26, 2021

Welcome back! I can't believe it has already been a week, mission time is flying by. 

This is the run down of my week.

- A lot of street contacting

- fancy Mexican food

- more street contacting

- Hebrew Israelite trying to bash

- Lessons with friends

- huge turnout on Sunday with 20 members and 2 friends! What a blessing! 

- Went to a barbershop today and got absolutely treated! Hahaha they were talking a whole new lingo that I have never heard so I just told him to "clean me up" and he pulled through  

Our friend who showed up to church hasn't been taught the Restoration yet (we've met with him once) Sundays Sacrament meeting started 15 minutes late and the intro line to the first talk was "4 Truths that we learned from Joseph Smith's First Vision" hahaha then he learned how to bless a home in elders quorum... And he's coming back next week! This man is truly the elect

Spiritual thought

Alma 34:32

"For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors."

This is one of my all time favorite Scriptures. Need a little more purpose in life? Feeling bummed out? Have a hard day? This scripture answers so many deep soul questions, as we come to understand what preparing to meet God is and how we can prepare for it our life instantly gains more depth and we come to understand our Divine Potential. We are all spirit sons and daughters of God, he wants you to have the best life. Think about the magnitude of that for a little bit this week :) 

Have a good week!  

 

Love, Elder Clark

 

 

 

The Mexican Beverly Hills - Transfers

 August 2, 2021

As the New York Times would say, "I am in the Mexican Beverly Hills" hahaha.

This week is transfers and against all odds Elder Frasure and I became comps, such a miracle  The ultimate duo has been born. Bell is about to see the best transfer it's ever seen. Stay tuned. 

This week was pretty awesome. We found a few friends, the most memorable was Pablo. Pablo is a part-member family (only the wife is a member). We stopped by and ended up waiting at their door for wayyy too long but God definitely wanted us there, haha. A jacked dude pulls up in a Honda Civic, hops out, and walks through us and the front door without saying anything. We ended up starting a conversation about working out and how this dude is so massive, he then started giving us workout advice and we finished off by talking about how faith is like a muscle. Long story short the dude is a legend and I'm stoked to be teaching him. 

Crazy story, we were sitting at a park bench teaching some random woman about the Book of Mormon and polygamy and out of nowhere a squirrel falls out of a palm tree from 40 feet up. It took a nap and tweaked out on the ground for a sec and then ended up running off, haha pretty crazy. 

Also I tried speaking Spanish to a member of the ward on Sunday and ended up telling her "nice to meet you cake, I like cookies more" hahahaha don't even ask  

3 Nephi 18:20

"whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you."

Here's a bomb scripture for you guys! Have a good week!

love,

Elder Clark

 

P. S. my old comp is 6'6 so if I look short in that picture it's because I am. 

 

 

 

Nice Chihuahuas DO exist!

July 12, 2021

Welcome back to the Weekly

Some things that happened/some things I learned this week:

- Nice chihuahuas do indeed exist, blew my mind.

- my comp is 6'6 and a beast at basketball so we played some street games and got some numbers. 

- the hood respects the missionaries more than any rich neighborhood I've ever been in. 

- had my first meeting with my mission president, he and his wife ride pivots  

So here we are trying to contact people in a park before a lesson and we are having no luck, literally no one would give us the time of day and our goal of getting 3 phone numbers did not look good. So we made our way over to a park bench to prepare for our lesson and I realized I forgot my Bible in the car and I thought, well this is the last chance to make it happen and we only had 5 more minutes to get the Bible, contact 5 people, and get this lesson setup. By a freaking miracle we got 3 numbers and 2 of them were down for a Bible study and planned an RA for us, we had our lesson and it was just one big miracle.

 

Spiritual thought from Branch Conference: aka my notes 

1st) I invite you to see miracles, large AND small.

^ ask yourself are your eyes open wide enough?

2nd) listen and associate with those who will help build your faith. 

^ you know people are trying to destroy others faith, both inside and outside the church. 

3rd) Look outside yourself.

^ One man wrapped up inside himself makes a small package, look for those that you can include or uplift and it will become much much larger. 

4th) Create a personal goal of sharing the gospel. 

^ ex: share a gospel principle with 2 people each week. 

5th) Actively participate in the CFM Study for this year and the next and the one after. 

6th) Ask Heavenly Father to Strengthen your testimony of the ongoing restoration and of the prophet Joseph Smith. 

7th) Use your Agency and actively participate in the Doctrine of Christ. 

^ Truly shun ungodly things. 

Enjoy your week, Love Elder Clark

 

2,000$ fines don't phase California. Inbox

 July 5, 2021

I am sure you have all noticed by now, it appears that my emails are progressively getting worse and worse and this is true. Today is a new day and a new week so buckle up because you have an exciting email ahead of you. (but no promises on how next weeks will be ) 

This week the Los Angeles Mission had some pretty massive changes. First and foremost we got a new mission president! President Egbert, he is a legend. We had our first Zone conference and let's just say, he killed it with the first impressions. We got to learn about his family, his interests and hear his testimony of the Gospel. I'm stoked to see what he does with the mission and the progress it makes. 

Now that I'm serving in a YSA (young single adult) branch we do a lot of driving. Our area is pretty big and LA traffic around downtown is insane, the bad drivers, the Crackheads, the busses, the scooter riders and the traffic. Gosh dang, you wouldn't believe me if I told you how wackie this place is but people love this place, hahaha.

Where I'm at in California there was a 2000$ fine if you shot off fireworks... it was just a threat though, every block was shooting off aerials hahaha the whole city had a haze from all the fireworks going off, pretty cool. 

- friends are progressing well

- got to have a visitors center tour at the temple with our friend

- found a friend that absolutely loves the Book of Mormon

- we were blessed with some super solid street contacting

- Crackheads are still vibin

- spent wayyy too many hours driving this week in LA traffic

- knocking doors is very spooky.. Definitely been praying a lot haha

- I am definitely a minority in my area and definitely wishing I payed attention in Spanish class, hahaha.

Ether 2:12

"Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written"

Hope y'all have a good week! 

Love, Elder Clark

Beach parties

June 28, 2021

This week was a blast! We went to the beach, visited a lot of people and we even had 3 friends show up at church. Now that might not be impressive but when you only have 12 people in the congregation.. It's pretty exciting, hahaha. It's really interesting being in a branch compared to the massive wards back in Utah, super fun and friendly because everyone knows everyone, it's a blast! 

This week I was able to meet the friends that we have in the YSA branch and they are interesting but we have some that are progressing really well. We actually dropped one because he didn't want to learn more about the Book of Mormon and wanted to bash (I wrecked him in the bash) but yep he was dropped the same day I met him, haha. 

I'm starting something new in my emails it'll be called "a reminder that I'm in LA" it'll just be me flexing about cool stuff or cool people I meet haha  

A reminder that I'm in LA: When my companion and I were at Manhattan Beach we saw Pat Mcafee.. I didn't really know who he was but my comp knew him and you football fans reading this probably know him

Spiritual thought:

This week l don't have a lot of time but Go read 2 Nephi: 2 it's one of my favorites!

Have a good week y'all! 

Love, Elder Clark

 

 

 

The end of a Transfer & the start of a new adventure 6/21/2021

 June 21, 2021

his past transfer was a blast! but flew by.  Here are some highlights: 

- finding was great! 

- we found Chris! (the mountain bike legend) 

- Dorothy participated in sunday school (the first time she was at church) 

- We biked a lot on this transfer and had too much fun with it

- ran into a Crackhead who forgot his crack pipe at the bus stop... But took our Book of Mormon

- crazy road rage dude 

I learned a lot.  I learned about how to be a missionary and what it means to be a "successful" Missionary. My testimony of Christ, the Book of Mormon, and prayer has been strengthened immensely. It's really interesting, every 'basher' we meet doesn't understand the Holy Ghost and it's so sad, haha. The Holy Ghost is the most important companion we can have, he guides us and protects us. Countless times my companion and I have been on the streets biking and praying to find someone to talk to and as we followed the promptings of the spirit we were able to find successfully and that has just been a piece of the help that I've been Given I know the spirit can change your life if you let it, so let it! Haha have a good week you bums  

Scripture of the week: Galatians 5:22-23

22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

Love, Elder Clark

 

 

Weekly

 June 14, 2021

What is up everyone, I don't wanna be writing this email but I know my mom would probably beat me if I didn't so here we are :) As of right now I am sitting in a barbershop waiting to get my haircut...  sad day 

This week was a great one, we found a friend, had some lessons and we contacted some people.. Same old, same old. I got to help move and cut some 2x4's for a lady and it felt really nice to do some physical labor. 

       We had a little bit of fun re-arranging our apartment. We now have 4 beds in our living room and use our rooms as study rooms... Needless to say it's straight parties every night, hahaha.

Random updates:

- still running

- still having a good time

- still trying to find people

- still teaching people

- still teaching the Barketts (the family that I do the pie trade with) 

Hmmm

Oh yeah! Almost forgot we got a referral! She has tons of potential, we have a lesson setup with her this week so I'll keep y'all updated   

Spiritual thought:

Galatians 5:22-23

 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

 23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

The spirit is one of the most important things ever. Everyone I've talked to that is struggling or having a rough day has felt hope and peace as they focus on inviting the spirit into their lives they find hope and peace despite the struggles they are going through. I know that as I've finished off the roughest days with a prayer and a Book of Mormon study I've been able to feel joy despite the hard day. 

Hope y'all enjoyed  

love,

Elder Clark

 

 

Pictures

- service

- dinner with the Bartletts (the Star Wars actor dude) 

Weekly

 June 7, 2021

This one is a quick one :)

What happened this week?

- Made a New friend named Raj

- met with a lot of Members

- ate with some members

- met some pretty wholesome people street contacting

- ate a Kiribati style meal with Emilio B. (ate rice, chicken and spam on the floor) 

- ate Cheesecake factory

- worked out, worked out some more.

- studied a lot

- pretty sure I met Machine gun kelley

- I think that's it? 

This week was very busy but it wasn't the best busy.. We were contacting a lot of people and such but we didn't see a lot of reward for it, but hey! That's missionary work I guess. 

Spiritual Thought: 

This Spiritual Thought is on D&C 122. yes, the whole chapter hahaha. This Chapter is when Joseph Smith is in Liberty Jail and life sucks for him at this point. My favorite line is in Verse 7 it says "all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good" what this means to me is that even when everything sucks it can be consecrated for our good

Love, Elder Clark

Birthday week and moving day

 May 31, 2021

First off, I just wanted to thank you for the birthday wishes! Y'all are the best. 19 is looking nice on me sheeesh

Today I am moving apartments and have no time so no fun stories, just a quick run down. 

Elder Clark's week:

- Contacted a guy named Tim who is really solid

- It's getting really hot and I'm not for it.. 

- Played some basketball with some kids while Park contacting 

- Met a Baptist family that bought us some icees, they were wholesome. 

- Got in contact with a lot of people, etc, etc

- Still need a haircut :) 

- Popped by Logan Paul's house with  pass-along cards  

- I'm 19!! 

- Ate guava nectar cake, 10/10 

- Met Karel Kramer the dirt bike dude

Spiritual thought: 

Helaman 5:12

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

This is advice given from Helaman to his sons right before they start their missions, right before they go into the world and preach to the wicked. He gave them the advice to build their spiritual foundation on Christ and as they did nothing could cause them to fall. This advice applies to us, I know that as we build and strengthen our foundations in Christ we will be able to overcome the world, we will be influences of good and can help change the world for better. Good influences are needed in the world, with foundations built upon gospel principles we can be those good and much needed influences in the world. 

Have a good week y'all! 

Love Elder Clark

A week full of Miracles

 May 24, 2021

Woah what a week!! This one was full of miracles! We popped off and we are starting to figure out this street contacting thing.

First off we hosted a pretty fun car wash. It was the least organized thing I've ever been a part of... who let a bunch of 18yr old kids plan anything? Hahaha those poor cars had so many swirls in their paint after we washed them, but hey! They loved it

Had my first in person Zone Conference Maskless!! Pretty stoked to get some normalcy going on. 

We have spent a lot of time contacting and trying to find friends and this week it paid off. We got tons of numbers and made a few friends. We were really bad at contacting when we started, hahaha but we are starting to get the hang of it! The highlight of the week was when a lesson canceled.. Weird right!? Hear me out, we prayed and decided to go park contacting at a park we hadn't contacted at yet, we ended up talking to a guy some would call "elect" or "very prepared" and he is!! He was out mountain biking so I started talking bikes with him and he took the conversation right where it needed to go, the gospel :) Long story short he was having a really rough day, we shared a scripture with him and talked with him for about an hour and planned another time to meet, the coolest part was watching him cheer up and find joy as we studied and answered his questions. Miracles like this are what being a missionary is all about  

Spiritual Thought: resilience

    Opposition, opposition is a blessing and can be so influential as long as we are resilient (easier said than done). Learning Christ-Like Attributes is something that is really really hard but that's what makes it rewarding, we learn from hard things. 

Isaiah 48:10

"Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." 

I know that when we turn to Christ while  "in the furnace" we are able to experience the power of the Atonement in our lives which allows those afflictions to be consecrated for our good and will change our lives. 

Anyway that's a long enough email for this week, have a good week and remember Jesus Loves u

 

Love, Elder Clark