Hey Everyone,                                                                                                                      

What a crazy week! So I'm training now and I have my new companion. He is from good ol' Twin Falls, Idaho.  He is 19 not 18, thank goodness. He went to a year of college at CSI so he knows a little bit about life. He's a really cool guy. He's quiet but willing to work and try new things so we get along really well.

As for our companionship I have been transferred to another area, still in Oda. I am opening a new area again. This time we have even less to work with than the last area I opened. We had nobody to teach going in on Friday and we have been doing a TON of finding/contacting.  I think it’s really good because my companion gets to start his mission by doing that and not just be dropped in on a bunch of old investigators that I already had. The branch president said he's really amazed because everywhere he goes he sees people with pamphlets or he sees us teaching people which is pretty cool. We're working hard to really build this area. There's a far away town in our area that has a bunch of members and investigators, I'm hoping that we can start a unit there so they don't have to travel so much.

That's pretty much it for our area, we are just doing tons of finding. It's pretty fun because we are meeting lots of people. We had one really sweet lesson the other day. We contacted this woman and her brother then her father came out. We prayed like always then introduced ourselves then the father told us he was a pastor and I got really worried because I don't know lots of scriptures like they do. So I started looking for a way out but I was prompted to keep teaching and then I started acting like I was learning from him.  I started asking him questions and then I asked him why there are so many churches that use the bible, why there isn't just one church. Then I asked him about the different baptisms when the bible says only one. Then I asked him if we should do an eye for an eye or forgive like Jesus taught. Long story short I got him to tell me that I can follow the bible and not Jesus Christ. He was pretty much all confused so we introduced him to the Book of Mormon.  It was sweet. It really built my testimony that when we teach with faith we shall not be confounded before men.  I kind of felt like Alma and Amulek.

Other excitement for the week, we moved into a new apartment, 8 was too many for the old one so now we have 2 apartments each with 4 missionaries. Our is literally brand new. It's so new in fact that they haven't hooked up the water yet. So yet again I'm living without running water and have to go to the well every time I want to shower, use the toilet, cook, or wash anything. It's really amazing how weak I am now compared to last time I had to do this. Kind of a bummer. Hopefully they will bring the water this week for us.
That's pretty much my week. Just finding, finding, finding. Loving life!
Love,
Elder Clark

                                          
                                         Elder Clark's love of 4 wheels continues in Ghana!

What a week!

 
Man this last week has been crazy but I have to start out with a story from last week that I forgot to write last week. So my companion and I were standing out and the entrance to the chapel waiting to catch a tro tro to a town called Achaise to go there for the day. It’s about a 30 minute drive or so. We were standing there for about an hour and tro tro after tro tro were all full. I was standing there and I was waving at them and every other car, except taxis. Finally I kept waving at all the personal car and my companion decided he was going to go and sit down and wait. I kept at it and started waving at these big dump trucks too. I saw one and waved at the guy, he started laughing and then he actually stopped! I walked over and he asked me where we were going. He was going to the same place so he told us to get in. Man it was so cool! It's the biggest truck I've ever been it.  I contacted him and we've actually been teaching him too. It was pretty crazy that he actually stopped though.  It was awesome.  I don't know how I forgot to add that to the letter last week.
 
This week was nuts though. I go some big news of Monday night. We were all at a member’s home for FHE and my companion got a call. He sees it’s President Hill. Transfers are this week and we know trainers are being called. I knew he would train so I wasn't surprised. He walked outside for a minute then walked back in and told me that president wanted to talk to me. Well long story short, President assigned me to be a trainer this next transfer. Wednesday I get to go my "boy." Elder A. is training too so one of us will be opening a new area again this next transfer here in Oda. We went to trainer’s council in Accra last Thursday. We got up at 2:30 AM and left at 4 AM to get to the meeting at 9 AM. I thought it would be 2 hours, it was 4. It was really good. I really love President Hill. There are 17 missionaries training this transfer, 1 is a sister so 16 guys. Of all the trainers I'm the youngest by 2 transfers, 3 months haha. They had us all stand up and introduce ourselves and everyone looked at me like I was really young. Of the 16 new missionaries coming in 15 are from America so it’s pretty likely I'll be training an American too but we'll find out on Wednesday. This means that I will be in Oda for 3 more months totaling 8 months of my mission.  That is a long time in one place.
 
So that was the big news for the week. Hannah, Matthew and Dad, if you guys have any advice on training, my eyes are wide open.
 
Sunday was our branch conference. It was a fantastic Sunday! The 2 branches combined for the meeting. We had 197 people come, that was the most we've had yet. Each branch has been getting 80 or so, combined we had 20 new people. We had 2 less actives we've been focusing on to come church and we had 8 investigators come to church. I was so excited! It's the most I've had on my mission so far. Most of them it was their first time coming to church. A bunch of them were people we contacted this week. This week I really had us focus of finding and contacting and it really paid off. One guy I contacted while we were riding our bikes and he was carrying a gas tank so I stopped and helped him carry it to the gas station. He then gave me his number and house number and asked me to come that afternoon. We stopped by and did and introduction lesson and invited him to the conference. He came and he actually knows the branch president really well. Another boy I was sitting by one day and started talking to him. I gave him and invitation that we printed for the conference and he came.  At the conference he kept asking me to come and meet his family. After church we went and met his family and taught them and we'll be going back there. It was just a fantastic day. There was another man, and his friend, which we have been teaching for a while that came too.  It was such a good day. The chapel was full. It’s crazy how happy that can make a missionary when you see the church full of people and investigators smiling and having a good time. Makes the work so rewarding.
 
Saturday was the All Africa Service Project by the Mormon Helping Hands. You see those yellow vests at disasters and stuff. I finally got to wear one! We cleaned a lot of the road sides. I weeded for the first time in Africa. What we would use a weed eater for in the US they use machetes. You just lean over and swing it close to the ground to cut the weeds.  It’s like mowing the lawn with scissors. It was a good time though. After we cleaned the Chapel and then we had a soccer game between the 2 branches. My branch won!
 
That’s pretty much the excitement for this week. Exciting things are happening!
 
Love,
 
Elder Clark

Hey Everyone                                                                                Aug. 12, 2013

Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you are having a wonderful day and that everyone is doing their best to make it a special day for you.  23, right?

 

Well this week was great. I did a lot of traveling on Monday and Tuesday. I went to Asamankese while my companion went to Accra. Then on Tuesday we had to go to Kade for Zone Training. That's an hour away from Asamankese. Then we went back to Asaman and by the time we got back my companion returned so we got on a tro tro and went back to Oda.  It was a good time though.

So that was Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week was the same as usual, just finding and teaching.  We meet a man that had a ton of questions like, who created sin, is Jesus Michael the archangel, questions about speaking in tongues, and other questions.  Speaking in tongues is big here so we get that question most often.

Another man I contacted asked us about the Pearl of Great Price. That was a first too. Nobody has ever heard of those. I don't even know much about the Pearl. I had to study to learn more about it.

I got a letter from Tyler C this week, sounds like he's going to the Tampa Florida mission. That's sweet that Jared finally got his call. I know he was very anxious to get his call the last time I talked to him. November does seem like a really long time to wait for a stateside mission.

We had a sweet lesson this week.  It was a first lesson for a new man.  We contacted him with the restoration pamphlet; did you know they make different versions of it?  I found out because they accidentally gave us one of the boxes for Asia so now all of our Plan of Salvations are full of Asians. Back to the point, we gave him the pamphlet and he actually read the whole thing before we came.  I was super excited.   He didn't make it to church but we're going to see him this week.

We also had a woman ask us if she could wash our clothes for us.   She didn't want us to pay her but we insisted.  It saved us a lot of time.

That's about it from this side of the world. What are they doing to Hillsdale??? Are they really going to build that many houses? That's nuts.  It will be very different when I come home.  If you guys move just be sure to stay in Idaho, not in eastern Idaho and we're good.  I am happy to hear that the temple is going forward. It's going to be 4 stories? That’s how tall the Logan Temple is. The pictures of it look pretty cool. The church is growing!
 
Well, I hope Mom has a great birthday.  I hope you enjoy your German Chocolate cake!

Have a great day.

Love,
Elder Clark

Bragging Rights

Well, Hello from Ghana again. I hope that the last week went well.  I guess the summer is wrapping up and everyone is getting ready to go back to school now. I am on splits with the Zone Leader right now in Asamankese because my companion has gone to the Doctor in Accra with the other ZL.  So I will be spending the night here.

This last week was good I guess. I finally got my bragging rights, I got Malaria. It was just a terrible as I thought it would be.  It was only for 2 days; I went to the hospital here to see a doctor and got some medicine that works really fast.  I'm up and running now though.  Just to give some detail on Malaria without too much detail, the night that I had it, between 8pm and 3 am I used a whole roll of toilet paper and had to make the run to the bathroom over 20 times. Yep, that was terrible.  But now I can say I've had malaria, who can say that?

Don't worry Mom, I'm all healthy now and have no other sicknesses.  Do to the fact that and my companion has an infection in his eyes (that's why he's in Accra) we weren't able to go out much last week. Wednesday we stayed in for him and Thursday afternoon I got my malaria. We were out and about then I had to "go" so we ran to the branch president’s house and I ended up laying down to sleep there for an hour and a half and he called one of his friends to drive us home.  I stayed in Friday as well by Saturday but we didn't push ourselves at all because both of us were still a little sick. So last week was pretty rough but it was still good. I caught up on some sleep and got some good studying in. This week I'll be pushing us if my companion is feeling better.

So I got a request to describe a typical day for me so here it does. We wake up at 6:30. I Try to iron all my shirts on Monday or the night before so I don't have to but if I do then I do my ironing. Then I'll make my bed do some exercises and stretching.  Then I will make my breakfast which is usually Oatmeal, but I want to start to try and change that up. I shower and get dressed while the oats cool then I eat and get to my personal studies around 8:00. We finish companionship studies at 10 and usually leave the apartment around 10:30. For me and my companion we always travel to the towns around Oda in our area so we don't come back for lunch and dinner because we can't afford the transportation.  We'll usually buy some crackers or something from a shop while we are out. So we go out at 10:30 and do our proselyting until the end of the day, usually we get back to the apartment between 9 and 9:30 at which time we plan and then make our dinner and then sleep. Sometimes we come back earlier than that but usually that's how a day in the life of Elder Clark goes haha. Yep, pretty exciting.

As far as food goes we have a lot of options. There is rice or noodles. They have Endo mi, we call it top ramen back home. I don't eat that very often. On Mondays I'll make a tomato stew out of tomato paste, onions, tomatoes, green peppers, some seasoning and then I will add either chicken or hot dogs to it. Then I add my stew to spaghetti or rice. And that's what we eat, everyday. I'm really trying to brainstorm some new things to eat and stay within the mission sub. Today I was spoiled though; the couples in Asamankese had my companion and me over while we are here and fed us some nice chicken and salad with CHEESE and chocolate cake. It was really good but really not as amazing as i was expecting. I guess my taste buds are changing. So that’s a typical day for me. Some of the foods we get fed here is Fufu, Banku, Kenkay, and some other things.

Well, I hope you all have a great week. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Clark