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