picture from last week - Liza with her companion Hermana Nielsen...in the rain of course.
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Already another week. Really? The sun came out this week and I was sweating .... in short sleeves. Oh boy do I NOT look forward to summer here :)
Let's talk about members first. We ate at a couples house this week named the Chappell's. Bro. Chappell grew up in Coalville and his dad employed a man named Leonard Clark. Sound familiar? The world is getting smaller.
I cannot express how much thanks we have for members in this area (gringos and in our Liahona 4 ward)! So many examples of hard working people who fill their homes with love. One family we ate with didn't know how many children they had living at home because one of their 3 adopted sons had run away a few days ago. AY! And yet they are so happy and look forward to each day! Others we were with this week have kids that practice the piano at 530 so each child can get his fair share of practice time. It wasn't the parents saying you need to ... the kids want to! Just great families. All doing their best to be examples in school, at work. One bishop we talked to this week expressed his frustrations of his ward. Not the people in his ward, but how the ward is a static area. Mostly all homes and people tend to not see the need to change when they have a family, a job (hopefully ...), seem happy. It is painfull to see that people really do want more, but are afraid for what it will take to have that.
So .... back to our two miracles from last week. We showed for our first appointment with Dalia and she wasn't there. Lame .... but we went back a few days later and she came out and ... wasn't looking so pregnant .... because she'd had her baby and had come home right after we came for our appointment! The baby was a month early but she's healthy and happy and not crying too much! Dalia is doing well and she felt so bad she wasn't there for our appointment. We are really looking forward to talking to her more this week though!
Nahun and Heider (Heider's the younger brother) are kids and so we need to get permission to teach them. Their mom is rarely home and their uncles/step dad are weary of us coming by. As for now, we're trying to get them to simply go to church and mutual every week. Nahun loved church and mutual (they played basketball ... not cleaning the church). We wanted to take him to the Visitor's Center to see the Joseph Smith movie ... but that's when his uncles kind of said what the heck is going on here ..... so ... we'll see what happens. Nahun wants to learn/go. We're praying for a change of heart in their home.
We got dropped by a wonderful couple this week who began their 'dropping us' with "we always feel the Holy Ghost when you come by.' It wasn't completely unexpected but still pretty devastating. Honestly though, we're pretty confident they will find their way. It may not be this month, the summer, or even this year .... but they will receive the blessings of the Restored gospel. We will try to go see them in a few weeks.
Our work right now involves lots of visits to members to find out about their neighbors. We called a random phone number yesterday that was in our phone and ended up teaching a lesson to them over the phone. We'll see what happens with them. Later I remembered we'd talked to them in a truck 2 months ago and just had their number. Maybe February their month?
Food. We make breakfast (cereal or toast or yogurt/granola) and lunch in our apartment. Lunches are always interesting. Hna Nielsen and I ALWAYS play around with different foods. It's never just mac and cheese. We make our own cheese sauce. Or we mix stuff. This week we fried zucchini and squash. YUM. At the beginning of the transfer we make snickerdoodles and added orange peal. Hahah so far nothing has turned out too bad! We've been lucky! Yesterday lunch was rice, eggs, and chicken in a tortilla with bbq sauce. We enjoy our creations! Dinners by the members are incredible and so far so good. Only one meal I didn't like and that MIGHT have been because I put too much hot sauce on it. Did you hear that? Hot sauce. The first bite I took ... my lips were burning. Oh and every single person on the planet should have an orange tree. They just should :)
Que mas? Espanol. Entendi mas en la iglesia esta semana pasada. It will come.
We had exchanges this week and it was fun to be with Hna Mancilla who is originally from Mexico but lived in Utah. The only hard part is when I have no idea what they're saying ... so I can't really put in a word. Hahaha muy interesante y aprendiendo mas cada dia. This morning we were shopping and I was talking on the phone in Spanish and people were just staring at me. Not sure if it was because soy una gringa y hablando en espanol o porque la pronunciacion es muy malo. oh man I just open my mouth and say what I can. It is such a beautiful language! I just hope I will sound beautiful speaking it ....
Next week is transfers. I would say 99% sure we're staying together but you never know. One of the full-field spanish sisters was sent up to payson (where it's cold!) this week in an emergency transfer for a zebra companionship. Usually no one there really speaks spanish but she's with two english speaking companions. I guess you can never know, but President Bassett is, no doubt, always inspired as to where people are needed.
This week I really only studied one thing besides specific lessons for investigators. P93 of PMG "how investigators (or us....) should feel when we are converted?" as well as "how we should feel inorder to teach with converting power?" I love the scriptures. They answer every question. The Savior's example is most powerful. John 9:1-3. There are sooooo many!
This work is hard and yet it is so worth it. We laugh being "sister missionaries" but it is a thrill to be on the Lord's time! We do the best we can and ask that the rest is made up by grace. You know what .... it always is if we will give it all our heart, might, mind, and strength. Still trying to figure out quite how to do that, but it is coming. I love the Lord, I love this work. I love my companion and I love the people.
Thank you thank you for your updates, letters, pictures, love, and prayers! O how grateful I am to be in the service of God at this time and doing His work. What a precious time this is. I pray all is well in your homes, families, and friends. It has been hard to try and just forget about life before but I have seen how the Lord takes care of those we love when we put Him first (well ... at least try)! He really is our loving Heavenly Father and wants us to be happy!
Happy February! Love, Hermana Clark
Let's talk about members first. We ate at a couples house this week named the Chappell's. Bro. Chappell grew up in Coalville and his dad employed a man named Leonard Clark. Sound familiar? The world is getting smaller.
I cannot express how much thanks we have for members in this area (gringos and in our Liahona 4 ward)! So many examples of hard working people who fill their homes with love. One family we ate with didn't know how many children they had living at home because one of their 3 adopted sons had run away a few days ago. AY! And yet they are so happy and look forward to each day! Others we were with this week have kids that practice the piano at 530 so each child can get his fair share of practice time. It wasn't the parents saying you need to ... the kids want to! Just great families. All doing their best to be examples in school, at work. One bishop we talked to this week expressed his frustrations of his ward. Not the people in his ward, but how the ward is a static area. Mostly all homes and people tend to not see the need to change when they have a family, a job (hopefully ...), seem happy. It is painfull to see that people really do want more, but are afraid for what it will take to have that.
So .... back to our two miracles from last week. We showed for our first appointment with Dalia and she wasn't there. Lame .... but we went back a few days later and she came out and ... wasn't looking so pregnant .... because she'd had her baby and had come home right after we came for our appointment! The baby was a month early but she's healthy and happy and not crying too much! Dalia is doing well and she felt so bad she wasn't there for our appointment. We are really looking forward to talking to her more this week though!
Nahun and Heider (Heider's the younger brother) are kids and so we need to get permission to teach them. Their mom is rarely home and their uncles/step dad are weary of us coming by. As for now, we're trying to get them to simply go to church and mutual every week. Nahun loved church and mutual (they played basketball ... not cleaning the church). We wanted to take him to the Visitor's Center to see the Joseph Smith movie ... but that's when his uncles kind of said what the heck is going on here ..... so ... we'll see what happens. Nahun wants to learn/go. We're praying for a change of heart in their home.
We got dropped by a wonderful couple this week who began their 'dropping us' with "we always feel the Holy Ghost when you come by.' It wasn't completely unexpected but still pretty devastating. Honestly though, we're pretty confident they will find their way. It may not be this month, the summer, or even this year .... but they will receive the blessings of the Restored gospel. We will try to go see them in a few weeks.
Our work right now involves lots of visits to members to find out about their neighbors. We called a random phone number yesterday that was in our phone and ended up teaching a lesson to them over the phone. We'll see what happens with them. Later I remembered we'd talked to them in a truck 2 months ago and just had their number. Maybe February their month?
Food. We make breakfast (cereal or toast or yogurt/granola) and lunch in our apartment. Lunches are always interesting. Hna Nielsen and I ALWAYS play around with different foods. It's never just mac and cheese. We make our own cheese sauce. Or we mix stuff. This week we fried zucchini and squash. YUM. At the beginning of the transfer we make snickerdoodles and added orange peal. Hahah so far nothing has turned out too bad! We've been lucky! Yesterday lunch was rice, eggs, and chicken in a tortilla with bbq sauce. We enjoy our creations! Dinners by the members are incredible and so far so good. Only one meal I didn't like and that MIGHT have been because I put too much hot sauce on it. Did you hear that? Hot sauce. The first bite I took ... my lips were burning. Oh and every single person on the planet should have an orange tree. They just should :)
Que mas? Espanol. Entendi mas en la iglesia esta semana pasada. It will come.
We had exchanges this week and it was fun to be with Hna Mancilla who is originally from Mexico but lived in Utah. The only hard part is when I have no idea what they're saying ... so I can't really put in a word. Hahaha muy interesante y aprendiendo mas cada dia. This morning we were shopping and I was talking on the phone in Spanish and people were just staring at me. Not sure if it was because soy una gringa y hablando en espanol o porque la pronunciacion es muy malo. oh man I just open my mouth and say what I can. It is such a beautiful language! I just hope I will sound beautiful speaking it ....
Next week is transfers. I would say 99% sure we're staying together but you never know. One of the full-field spanish sisters was sent up to payson (where it's cold!) this week in an emergency transfer for a zebra companionship. Usually no one there really speaks spanish but she's with two english speaking companions. I guess you can never know, but President Bassett is, no doubt, always inspired as to where people are needed.
This week I really only studied one thing besides specific lessons for investigators. P93 of PMG "how investigators (or us....) should feel when we are converted?" as well as "how we should feel inorder to teach with converting power?" I love the scriptures. They answer every question. The Savior's example is most powerful. John 9:1-3. There are sooooo many!
This work is hard and yet it is so worth it. We laugh being "sister missionaries" but it is a thrill to be on the Lord's time! We do the best we can and ask that the rest is made up by grace. You know what .... it always is if we will give it all our heart, might, mind, and strength. Still trying to figure out quite how to do that, but it is coming. I love the Lord, I love this work. I love my companion and I love the people.
Thank you thank you for your updates, letters, pictures, love, and prayers! O how grateful I am to be in the service of God at this time and doing His work. What a precious time this is. I pray all is well in your homes, families, and friends. It has been hard to try and just forget about life before but I have seen how the Lord takes care of those we love when we put Him first (well ... at least try)! He really is our loving Heavenly Father and wants us to be happy!
Happy February! Love, Hermana Clark
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