Editor's note, we had a busy Christmas season and got behind on Elder Clark's blog.  We had a great visit with him on Christmas Day!

Well, 2013 sure went by fast! I can't believe it’s already a new year. I bet this year is going to go by even faster than the last year. This week was super good. We worked really hard and for the first time I had double digits for numbers of investigators at church! We had one woman and her son to come to church, the I have been teaching for a while. Last week we went to teach her and we asked if she had been praying about the church and the message. She said that she knows it is true because of the peace and happiness that has come into her life since we have started to teach her. She pretty much bore her testimony to us that even though things are really hard she knows the church is true because the way she feels now and the hope she has.  It was really cool.

I went on exchanges last week with Elder M. again. We were doing some contacting on an estate. We contacted a Prophet and a Pastor right after that. We taught both of them. It was pretty interesting. The Pastor teaches from the Book of Mormon. He's always says, "the Good Book says...” His wife was there and I could see in her eyes that she knew it was true. Oh man that lesson was powerful. The guy was telling us about how he was going to a church in another region but when the main pastor died the church collapsed and he had to leave. I Love those good times.

Another great experience was on Friday, when I was on exchanges. That afternoon I started getting pretty itchy and that night when I got back and I went to go and shower I found my entire body covered with hives. It was the worst Hives I have ever had. My face, arms, back, legs, chest, feet. Man it was so bad. I took one of those allergy pills that I got for Christmas though and it was gone by morning. Pretty crazy.

We also have a schizophrenic guy that comes and hangs around the apartment too. We invited him to church and he didn't come. He said the increase number of people at the church last week was because they found out he was coming and they came to come and kill him. That was rough but I hope that there is something that we can do to help him. I remember the talk from Elder Holland in conference about special needs people and our responsibility to help them. I hope there is something we can do. That’s a major challenge in Ghana. It’s hard enough for normal people so it’s pretty much impossible for disabled. We have one member who is disabled but he has the sweetest heart. Whenever I see him it doesn't matter what I am doing or who I am talking to I always go and shake his hand and try to make him feel good. That is one of my goals for 2014, to make it so that every time I talk to somebody or meet somebody I make them feel better about themselves than before.

Well, thanks about it. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Clark

 

Hey everyone,                                           Dec. 30, 2013

It was nice to be able to talk to you all on Christmas Day.

Anyway this week was pretty much the normal week. The only change is we've had a ton of people invite us over to have lunch with them. It's the same as Europe is where lunch is the big meal. People don't eat a whole lot in the evening time. So we've had quite a few lunches last week and have some more this week. New Years is a lot bigger deal than Christmas here. I haven't made the cheesecake yet. It was a good day. I LOVE the measuring cups. They are so nice! Thank you so much. The beef jerky is way good too.

Saturday we had a really cool experience. We had a lot of time to do contacting on Saturday because of some changes that we made in the mission that I will talk about later. But all our lessons failed that day and so we just spent the day contacting which is kind of rough in the camp. We were farther away from the "party areas" and we walked past 2 men who were sitting and playing draft. We nodded to them and kept walking but then I felt like we should turn around. We went back and started talking to them. They just finished the game of draft and so the winner invited me to play, it’s a way I like to contact people. So we started playing the other man not playing started talking to Elder L. about baptism then brought out a Book of Mormon and a Gospel Principles book so I assumed he was a member that I didn't know. The man I was playing draft with wasn't a member and doesn't go to any church. We played 2 games (I almost beat him on the second one!) and got up to go and made an appointment to come the next day. The man I thought was a member said he is a tro tor driver. We went back on Sunday and the draft player was gone but we met the other man. It turns out he isn't a member of the church but he has a white friend that was teaching him about the church. Then I remember that Cory Hofman was telling me about a man that is a tro tro driver that he was teaching that lives in the camp and he wants to refer to us. MAN! I asked him what his friend’s name is and then pulled out my camera to show him a picture of me and Bishop and he’s the same guy. I couldn't believe we randomly found the guy the bishop wanted to refer to us! Crazy how the spirit works in our lives.

Well, that’s about it for the week. Sounds like you guys are enjoying the cold and the Christmas! Have a great week and a happy new year!

Love,

Elder Clark

 

Merry Christmas!     Dec 23, 2013

I hope everyone is having a great Christmas Season. The bishop and another member invited us over.

But we are making it a little festive. My new companion Elder L. has a tape up Christmas tree that we put up. We have some snowflakes on the Fridge and the mirror to add a little bit, thanks Mom! But that is pretty much it. We're just going to have a nice normal day. We've got some appointments for people to teach, it's not really a big day here.

We did go to a zone Christmas activity at a member’s house. They invited the whole zone over for lunch. The lunch was really good. I just ended up spending the whole time sitting outside with one missionary. He's my zone leader, I love the guy. He goes to USU too so we get to meet up after everything. He also thinks we'll be companions next transfer but who knows. We just had a transfer. With that the other Elder L is gone. I have a new companion Elder L. He just graduated this year, fun fact about him is that they lived in Panama for 2 and a half years. Of course the first thing I said when I heard that is "I think we need to pull a Panama!" (I hope Hannah at least gets that)  He's a really cool guy. He's a good hard worker so I am going to really push us this transfer. See just how hard we can work.

I've learned a lot this week too. We were really focusing on finding through members. That is some powerful stuff! It's so much better than just regular finding, especially in the camp. We had new people come to church this week through that!  I guess my point in saying that is to bring up a point I heard about in the Christmas devotional.  I didn't see it and I guess they don't put it online but, I heard that they challenged us all to give away a Book of Mormon as a Christmas present to a friend. I challenge all of us to do that. Pray about it, figure out who you can give one to and then wrap it and give it to a friend. I know that that will be a really fun experience. We went to visit a recent convert this week. I taught him and baptized him when I first came to Buduburam. He told me had a friend he wanted us to teach. So we went there after Church and we went to teach his friend. He was calling me his companion and bearing his testimony to him the whole time. He can't read or anything but he has such a powerful testimony and he is so willing to share it. After the lesson we were walking back and I contacted a man and we started to teach him. We finished that lesson and he just started contacting people around us. Calling them over to come and meet us and just bearing his humble, simple testimony to them. It was so cool. He is truly converted. He's got it figured out. I hope all of us and take that same spirit and share our testimonies with others. That's what this gospel is all about.

We had a sweet lesson on Sunday too. We just sat down with a Nigerian guy in this nice shaded area. We were all by ourselves in a grove of palm trees in the shade. Turned out to be a super spiritual lesson. The man definitely felt it too. I hope we can see him again.

Well, I hope you have a very Merry Christmas. I only have 30 or 40 minutes to call so unfortunately it won't be as long as Mother's day but that ok. We've got eternity ;)

Merry Christmas!

Love, Elder Clark