Well, Easter was pretty normal.  There weren’t any celebrations or anything really.  We had a really great time on Good Friday with our caroling idea.  The ward was really successful.  We ended up going with about 15 sisters from the ward and visiting some less actives, recent converts, and then random people on the road.  We contacted some cool people through that.  Yesterday we drove to the house of an investigator and he wasn't there so I saw this man and needed to contact him so we sat down with him on his bench.  We talked and I felt like we should offer to sing him a song and I was like "oh no, this is about to happen."  Then I offered and he said not now but invited us to his office on Friday to meet him.  He's some government chairmen so he must be pretty important.  Randomly on that note I did have one guy who offered to take us to the Flag Staff house which is like the white house.  Couldn't make it though.  

Didn't get to die the Easter eggs, I couldn't find any white eggs.  We'll keep looking though.  I've seen them before.  There aren't any local traditions.  Just the usual, eat drink and be merry type thing.  

We did get to the Camp on Friday again to deliver supplies.  We didn't get out of the office until about 4 so it was a late night.  Found out a lot of my investigators are doing really well and are being baptized.  That's a great feeling.  Made it up to Oda of Wednesday.   I miss the people I had an opportunity to teach, that was a good time.  Buduburam was definitely my favorite area.  This area is really sweet too.  The ward is ready to work!  I love it.

Some follow up on the baptism; our good Liberian friends are telling us that they were baptized with the wrong name which is a little bit confusing.  Turns out they lied on their passports or something like that so we have no idea what their information really is so we called President Hill about what to do and he was like “I don't know."  So that's interesting.  

We had a really sweet lesson yesterday.  It was a man I contact a week ago on Saturday night and invited him to church and he amazingly came.  I didn't think the guy was serious at all but it turns out that he is pretty cool.  We had a great lesson with him.  We were trying to see him throughout the week but things kept coming up and we couldn't meet him until Sunday but he explained to us how he wasn't baptized as a baby  and he wants to be baptized but he is only going to do it once and he has to decide and he really wants to know if this is the true Church.  I love it because when we taught him about Jesus Christ establishing a church he was actually skeptical of it.  That pretty much never happens so we actually had to teach him like missionaries probably teach in America or Italy.  I had to be on top of my game.  We hit a home run though, or I should say the Spirit did and he accepted to be baptized :D

But we finally made it to the zoo today!  We weren't planning on it and I was talking with Elder T. about what to do today so we called up President Hill to get permission, it's outside the mission.  He was like "Can I come too?"  So the four of us missionaries and President and Sister Hill went to the Accra Endangered Primate Preserve.  There were a lot of monkeys and some other animals.  There was a camel, emu, ostrich, raccoon, warthog, birds, antelope, some other 4 legged animals, a crock, and some other things.  It was cool.  We got to the little crocodile place and we couldn't see it so we thought it might be in a little pool of water. Elder T. just grabbed a big stick and said he would just check the water so our tour guide grabbed it and jumped over the wall into the enclosure and started poking around.  He found it, it started thrashing around and splashing.  It was 6 feet long or so.  Pretty cool stuff.  We also found a little monkey that liked us and liked to reach through the cage and grab our cameras so we gave it a pass along card, he was so excited about it.

Love you all!

Elder Clark

Dear Family,                                                                                                                                           April 14, 2014

 
Well last week was pretty fun and crazy. Every week is, that's how I like it. Keep me busy teaching the gospel. Tuesday we went to the Abomosu Zone Training. That was a ton of fun. We found out that they have a Twi hymn book that they are learning some of the hymns from. It's not complete but it was about 50 hymns in it. We are doing Easter caroling in the mission to help strengthen the members and less actives. I found it and was excited because we can sing to people in their language and it would be so much more effective. We sang I Know that My Redeemer lives in Twi. It sounded so good. I got the music for it so we can sing it. I was really glad I taught myself how to read Twi a while back. It was really cool. I wish that I had recorded it but the camera was in the car and I was too lazy to go and get it. Pretty much everybody speaks English here. Every once in a while you get somebody who doesn't but most people do. They all understand Twi though. Abomosu was super nice. It's cool there all day and the air is so fresh. Smelled just like Idaho. Accra is a little stinky.  Abomosu is where a ton of gold mines are so I got some cool pictures of those. A lot of dusty roads and jungle though. We did see a lot of boats on the way back. They cut down trees and turn them into dug outs boats they are about 6 or 7 feet across and 50 feet long. They are huge! Big trucks just carry them down to the ocean. Those were scary. They are just sitting on the back of this truck with a few small ties holding them down. Crazy. Tomorrow I'm going back to Oda to deliver some supplies.

 

Saturday we did have the baptism.  It was really nice. Actually it was the best baptism of my mission. A ton of members came, the bishop was there, and it was very spiritual. They are doing really well.

This month President Hill challenged us all to focus on PMG (Preach My Gospel, handbook for missionaries) chapter 6, to pick one of Christ’s attribute and focus on developing that one. It reminded me of Elder Bednar when he came in January. He told us how he doesn't try to master teaching techniques but that he tries to care and love the people he is talking to and then the spirit does the rest. So with that I decided to study about faith and how can I increase my faith. It’s pretty cool how faith works. Basically I learned that Heavenly Father is ready and just waiting for us to act on our faith first. Pretty cool stuff.

We had a really fantastic Sunday too. Saturday night my companion was doing some "3 minute phone call sermons." We were doing that with all the names in our phone sharing a small thought with them about the gospel and ask to meet them. We did that because we had no idea who any of the people are. Nobody wanted us to come. But while my companion was doing that, I hate sitting around, so I jumped out of the car and started contacting people and talking with them for the last hour of the day. I love contacting after 8pm. That's just when things get exciting. One guy I talked to didn't seem serious at all and I didn't even write down his name or anything but I invited him to church, gave him a pass along card and moved on. Sunday morning he called and was at church. Who knew? He asked some pretty good questions in investigators class. We had another man we contacted and taught him during the week come to church too. He called said he was walking to the church but couldn't find the place so we left PEC and went to find him. Got him to Church alright. Then another investigator brought her 16 year old daughter with her to church.  I love teaching people. We are really blessed in this area. I'd be interested to see what we could do full time proselyting here.
 
Probably have more to say that I forgot about but the electricity just went off and I am on battery right now and I don't know how long that will last so love you all. Nice work Dad and Matthew. I won't even recognize the houses when I get back!

 

Love,

 

Elder Clark

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHEW!!  I hope that you have an awesome day and everything goes pretty well!  

Well yesterday my watch finally decided to die.  The battery just pooped out on me so now I am just wearing a dead watch.  I'm going to try to find a new battery.  I should be able to.  I've gotta keep wearing it though, I can't risk losing my watch tan.

Other than that this week was busy as always.  We went to Kasoa twice, on Tuesday and Wednesday.  On Tuesday we saw a motorcycle accident.  The man was dead on the side of the road.  Somebody hit him or something and he went down.  There was a fair amount of blood.  That's why helmets are so important.  The way those motorcycles drive here I'm baffled at how there aren't more deaths.  

But it was a pretty good week.  Lots of meetings.  Had some really sweet lessons.  We went to an Open house in Kaneshi that went pretty well.  I love things like that were you just go out and talk with literally everyone.  Elder T.  and I are planning our soapbox contacting.  We're going to do it old fashioned were we just get up on some boxed and start preaching.  I'm pretty excited but pretty nervous.  I'm a little shy for that stuff but we're going to make it happen.  It should be pretty cool.

Yesterday was Fast and Testimony meeting at Church.  We don't get general conference here.  One of our investigators, the Liberian, just punched me and told me to go and bear my testimony.   I did and then she got up and bore her testimony. That was really cool.   P. was paying her fast offering too.  Both of them will be baptized this week :D   

This week is going to be really cool.  We are going to the Abomosu Zone training which is out in the bush.  I was in Abomosu Zone when I first came but then they split it and I was in Asamankese.  It will be cool to go there though.  We'll be driving through the gold country and see a ton of gold mines.  We'll get some really cool pictures I think.  It's going to be an adventure for sure.  

Love you all!

Elder Clark

I guess March is over?  April Fools tomorrow?  I hope everyone gets a good joke.  I saw on the schedule that the very day I am supposed to arrive in the US next year is April 1st. So that gives me some good amount of time to come up with some nice pranks to play on you guys ;)  

But this week was pretty awesome and crazy.  We went to a place called McCarthy Hills on Tuesday for District Council Meeting and went on exchanges.  I got to play with a cool monkey that somebody had for a pet.  I got some cool pictures of that.  Elder F. got to go to the beach to teach.  That's the cool part of being in the office.  We get to go all over Ghana, well, in our mission anyway.  Next P-day we are trying to get permission to go to the Zoo.  It's not in the mission but it’s right on the boundary and we leave the mission everyday anyway because the mission home isn't even in the mission haha.  So I think that will work out.  Hope for the best.  

Friday morning we had our first encounter with the police meaning that I got pulled over for the first time.  Hold on a sec before you assume anything.  It wasn't bad.  I did a U-turn in an unmarked area and I guess you aren't supposed to do that here.  Stupid round-a-bouts.  They don't make any sense.  But the office was telling us we were going to have to go to court and get a ticket but we managed to get out of the hot pot.  I just casually gave the officer 30 cedis and the problem went away.  So who would have though my first time getting pulled over and my first time bribing the police would have been in Ghana?  It actually happens a lot.  We were all surprised it didn't happen sooner.  The senior couple was getting pulled over about 3 times a week when they first came.    Just happens.  Best part was we agreed on 30 cedi but I only had 2 20 cedi bills so I pull them out and asked the officer "Do you have change,"  Man everyone involved in that conversation just busted up laughing!  It was so funny.  We found change and then we gave them some pass a long cards and invited them to church on Sunday.  They didn't come but they saw some missionaries passing by and called them over.  We got a call from my district leader saying he was with the 2 officers who pulled us over a few days back haha.  It was awesome.

Cool story number 2.  This morning it was raining really hard and so we always put buckets to catch the rain.  When they were full I jumped on top the poly tanks and my companion started handing buckets up to me so we could fill it up and then I decided to slide my way through the hole and jump in the water.  Elder T. came out too.  It was a ton of fun.  We had a blast.  

We started doing a new thing called “open venues.”  It’s a type of street contacting where we have a poster about the Book of Mormon and we just put it up in the middle of a street and start talking to as many people as possible about it.   It's fantastic.  I love it so much.  It's such a great way to meet people.  I never would have thought I would love something like that before my mission but I absolutely love it.  It is so fun.  It’s the best way to contact new people and find serious people.  We were doing one in our area and we finished at around 7 pm and I was like let’s do another right now in another spot, so we did it until 9 pm.  Just fantastic.  I get so jazzed when we do them.  Awesome. 

P. is still doing amazing.  She is ready to be baptized on the 12.  She's probably one on my favorite investigators but I've had some really good ones.  I've been really blessed on my mission as far as that go, so many wonderful people.  P. introduced us to her friend on Sunday and we had a really wonderful lesson with her.  At first she didn't seem very interested but as the lesson went on she really started feeling the spirit.  I love seeing it in their eyes as they can feel the spirit.  That is probably the single most rewarding feeling I have felt in my life thus far.  Awesome.

That's about it for me this week.  Fantastic week.  Looking forward to another great week.  I love you all.

Love,

Elder Clark

Good morning,                                                                                March 24, 2014

This was a busy week.  I hate transfers haha.  They are really kind of crazy but we got out of a lot of it.  Transfers are on Wednesday and we also had a Liberian sister missionary going home on Wednesday so we got to take her to the airport right during the middle of the transfer and we just got back for the tail end of it.  It was alright.  Monday was fun at the art market.  Tuesday we had to spend the day with all the going home missionaries.  Got to take them to the airport that evening too.  Good part of it was that we got to eat with them and the Hills for 2 days haha.  Tuesday was my day to drive so while everyone was getting checked in I just drove laps around the airport because it you stop for even just 5 minutes you'll get booted.  Literally, people just walk up and down the streets with them.  I saw 3 or 4 get booted in the 45 minutes I circle the airport.  It was pretty funny.  

Thursday we spent the day taking supplies to missionaries for their apartments, that ended up taking all day but we got to see some cool places I haven't been before.  I saw the beach, it looks pretty nice.  Took a couple of pictures of it from on top of a big hill.  Wednesday we went and took peoples luggage to their apartments.  We made a quick run out to my old area Buduburam.  I miss that place.  That was a really cool area.  I don't know if you remember but there is a small village in Buduburam called Apra.  I never proselyte there but we rode out bikes there in the mornings a few times.  We drove out there and just kept driving for a little ways.  We just wanted to see what was out there.  It was a really nice paved road and a really pretty place.  Just savannas and a big hill.  The sun was setting too so we got some sweet pictures of the place. It was beautiful.  That is by far my favorite place I've been to in Ghana.

Sounds like everyone is having a great time in Palm Springs.  Somebody give Papa Mac and Flo a hug for me.  They're great people.  I'm chilling in Cocoa Palms, that’s the name of the place where the office is.   

I heard you guys read Elder Dube's talk from FHE last week.  He's a cool guy.  When he came for the mission tour I was just wandering around the chapel looking for something and I passed by him and we just started talking for 5 or 10 minutes.  I had no idea it was him then the meeting started and I was like oh.  Haha.  He is such an energetic man.  I loved it.  He's just a fantastic man.  

Unfortunately we have some bad news about F.  He dropped us on Sunday.  Told us he knows it’s true but he won't be baptized for at least a year.  No idea why but that's what he decided.   I'm glad we have our agency but sometimes it hurts.    But on the other side we have on really, really cool investigator named P.  She is pretty much my favorite investigator in my whole mission.  Last week I took her a triple combination and a King James Bible.  Last night she called us up at about 9:30 or so asking where she could find the Articles of Faith.  She is so cool.  She read the intro and the first 3 chapters in 1 Nephi in 2 days.   I've never really had that happen before.  She reads from the Joseph Fielding Smith manual and everything and prepares questions for us every day.  Man I love it.  Teaching prepared people is the best!     

That's about all for this week.  Gonna have another great week this week.  Love you all!

Love,

Elder Clark