November 8

Lunes Lunes! This week was awesome and crazy and I loved it and .... wow I don't even know where to begin. Hopefully I'll make some sense!

First, on Tuesday we had a devotional (like always).  Elder Rasband came from the Presidency of the 70.  He is really good at speaking by the spirit. I have seen him at the MTC before and he was a direct answer to prayers then as well as this week.  I greatly enjoyed his talk as well as his wife's.  One story his wife told was when they were serving as mission presidents a number of years ago.  One of their Elders had ALWAYS wanted his shoes to be shined on the streets of New York. During his last week in the mission ... he finally heard a man yelling out ... "Shoe shine ... who wants a shoe shine."  So the Elder jumped at the opportunity. He asked "how much does it cost?" The man responded "as much as you're willing to pay."  Then the Elder saw him reach down and start polishing his shoes with a tattered shirt and shoe shine in a baby bottle. When the shirt became too worn to continue polishing, the man used the very shirt he was wearing. The Elder noticed his clothes were extremely tattered.  Then this Elder saw something else in this man who was trying to make a living with his shoe polish.  The Elder saw the Savior, Jesus Christ in him.  It is the Savior who says "Soul shine .... soul shine" but we must come up to him. He eventually will clean you, if you let him, with his bare hands.  He only charges what you can afford. I hope that story makes sense because I did not do it justice ... but I thought it was very powerful. That is the role of Jesus Christ in our lives, he can make us clean!

We watched some clips of a documentary entitled "6 Billions Others."  People were filmed all around the world and asked 40 questions. Real question ... about family, happiness, living conditions and such. We watched them mostly in Spanish but all sorts of language (translation provided!) to practice our listening skills.  It was quite powerful. This is definitely something I want to look at after my mission. It was so neat to hear women and men from countries I'd never even heard of. It seemed a common theme of family being important and without one there was a sense of loneliness.  It also reminded me that the gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone. I grew to love these people in a matter of minutes because they were willing to open up to us (well .. on the computer ...). I only hope I can learn about the people of Mesa like I did from the movies.  I loved it! One woman compared life to an egg! It was entertaining and REAL.

Every Sunday Morning we have the privilege of watching Music and the Spoken Word, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Sundays message was centered on Veteran's Day and wow it was powerful. I feel so grateful to be an American! So many have gone before us to ensure that we have these freedoms! I loved the songs they sung and was humbled to recognize the freedoms we have in this country. Horray for America!

Every Sunday, we are assigned a topic to prepare a talk on.  During church, they call up two missionaries and they go up their and give their talk ... in Spanish! Yesterdays topic was "Follow the Prophet," one of my favorites.  Well, I had the great opportunity to give my talk! It was really cool to share my testimony about this.  I loved preparing for the talk and being reminded, through the feelings of the Holy Ghost, how wonderful it is to have a living prophet on the earth! And be able to testify that President Thomas S. Monson is a prophet! Needless to say ... it was in Spanish and that certainly made it hard. It was definitely a boost for me though because I did it! I gave a talk in Spanish! I was grateful it was a topic I love too .... I was able to give the talk from my heart .... not just reading words from a paper.

Last thought ... time is almost out. Faith brings miracles. Ether 12:13-19.  Spanish, knowing the needs of people. Faith is where it's at and I love learning about it in the scriptures.

This work is the greatest work on the earth. The gospel is for everyone. There is a prophet on the earth who can help us overcome trials and invites us to come unto Christ!

Thank you thank you for your support! Last week here! Our district is having a blast! Love you all,

Hermana Clark