I am heading, back to the office.  President called me on Saturday and shattered my plans for a nice long stay in Laterbiokorshie.  President asked me to be the new assistant in the mission.  I have really mixed feelings.  I'm pretty excited to go back to the office but I am nervous as ever.  I was shocked when he called me.  I never expected it.   I haven't slept much the last 2 nights.  I'm pretty excited though.  I'll be companions with my former companion Elder K. guess President split us up after 4 weeks for this reason.   We are both new but will be with the former AP for 3 weeks before he goes home and the other one goes tomorrow.  Good thing I got that international drivers license!  So I'll probably die  (aka Finish his mission) here.  That will actually be pretty convenient.  So I'll be driving again and have the AC too.  We're gonna have fun.  Especially because we have Christmas Conference in 3 weeks.  Awesome.  

Highlight of the week was the baptism yesterday.  It when really, really well.  We had a stake baptism that I organized.  The room was overflowing with people, we had special musical numbers and everything.  Very spiritual, very beautiful.  R. was baptized.  We saw him on Saturday and I was telling him that we were thinking that his neighbor, the guy that referred him to us, should baptize him but that he had the choice and he wanted to think about it.  Later he called be back and insisted that I baptize him.  So that was awesome although I left my clothes in the bathroom while I baptized him and somebody decided they needed the 25 cedis in my wallet more than me.   Not a big deal for me, I just feel bad for whoever it was.  I hope it was worth it.  It was a great baptism.  

The talk went really well on Saturday.  I spoke about a program we are trying to do in the mission of Christmas caroling.  I had 10 other missionaries come and we learned a simple Christmas song in Twi and sang that.  It was really, really cool.  They loved it.  Hopefully we can effectively use it in our proselyting.  Should be good.  

Stake conference was on Sunday.  It was an Africa wide broadcast that was recorded in SLC.  President Uchtdorf and Elder Bednar and Elder Gay (former Ghana Accra Mission President) spoke.  Each one had a slightly different topic but all of them very good.  I saw a bunch of my recent converts there too so that was awesome!  

Love you all!

Elder Clark

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sadly we did not get much of a letter from Elder Clark this week.  I guess they needed to deep clean their apartment and shop for their Thanksgiving which they will have on Sunday.

Funny I waited all day only to get a quick note.

Thanks for your support for Tim.

Hopefully I'll send some pictures home this week.  I haven't sent any for a while so I really need to.  Hopefully it works out, computers always have troubles here.  

This week was, well... not very eventful.  My companion was pretty sick all day on Wednesday so we didn't go out at all except for an hour when he forced himself even though I tried to stop him but after 30 minutes he looked like he was going to fall over so I forced him to go home.  He accepted pretty easily.  I love my companion so much.  So I spent the evening going through the 16 pages of our ward directory calling every number that was there.  I thought that it was useless but it was better than just sitting around.  It turned out being really, really good.  Through it we met one less active that referred us to his family and 2 friends that we are now teaching, he came to church on Sunday too and then another less active that hadn't been to the church and they came to church this week too.  He was really cool because on Sunday when I met him he we telling me that literally about an hour before I called he was just wondering why nobody from the church had called him or if anybody had noticed that he was gone.  What a literal answer to prayers!  There is almost no better feeling in the world than knowing that you were the answer to somebody's prayer!  He was like I had to force and push everything else aside so I could be at church!

R. wasn't able to make it to church so we went to visit him after church on Sunday.  We were just talking and just kind of playing it cool and being friends talking about other things then out of the blue he asked us if he was still going to be able to be baptized on the 23rd and what he needed to do to make sure that happened.  That was really good because it was showing his commitment as he brought it us and everything.  I pray so hard for that guy.  

Thursday was MLC.  I love MLC with all my heart.  I wish that you could all be a part of MLC sometimes because it is so fun.  Our mission is just so chill and MLC is so fun.  It is my favorite part of being a zone leader.  At MLC we mostly talked about the Book of Mormon and how we can use it more effectively in our mission.  

This morning we were at this shop that we are using to make zone shirts, which are looking sick!  Anyway, I got a call from President Hill.  Looks like I am speaking at Stake Conference next week.  Awesome.  I love getting up in crowds like that.  I'm pretty excited about it though.  Hopefully I can say something that will affect somebody.  

Love you all!

Elder Clark 

Too bad he split his pants having fun

Happy Halloween!                                                                                                                                                                         

This week was a great week actually.  A lot of things just seemed to go well.  Halloween was pretty awesome.  We carved some watermelons for our jack-o-lanterns.  Pretty creative and worked pretty well.  Really small though.  Then in the evening most of us dressed up and trick or treated in the apartment.  We are 8 in this apartment so we have enough.  There are 4 bedrooms so we each bought some candies and then went around to each room.  I was Darth Vader because we recently have been having a Star Wars phase.  Another guy was Obi Wan Kenobi, we had a wizard or 2 and a Ghanaian Mommy with her baby (the companion) tied to her back.   It was really fun.  When they came to my room I had a treat and a trick.  I sat in front of the door and had one of those elastic bands between my feet forming a sling shot and started shooting them with my candies.  What great fun.   We've got too many Americans together.

I thought that was the highlight to the week until Sunday came around and we finally had the rebroadcast of Conference.  This was the first time I really got to watch Conference on my mission, it was GREAT.  Plus we had R. came to Church and he ate it up!  We watched the Sunday morning then the Sat afternoon.  He loved the talks in the morning about the prophet.  We had a 10 minute break in between the 2 and I asked him how it was and he was super excited.  He said "Today I got to listen to the prophet speak."  Great guy.  Plus Conference was just awesome.  I loved it and learned so much.  Elder Holland's talk really really hit me hard.  There is so much more good I can do in the world.  I'm trying to give in all the ways I can now.  Missionaries are somewhat limited but I want to do more. 

The work is moving along pretty well all things considered.  A lot of the same old things so we are trying different approaches to be more effective.   MLC is this week so I am pretty excited for that.  We met the stake presidency last Tuesday.  That was really good.  We got some good advice from them.  They are returned missionaries so they know how it goes too.  

Love you all!

Elder Clark

Oct 27, 2014

Welp, I'm really ready for November.  October was great but November is going to be better.  It was a pretty awesome and stressful week.

So this week was a really spiritual week for me.    We had a great week and met a lot of new people and extended some sweet baptismal dates and taught some powerful lessons and still, nobody came to Church.  I have a love/hate relationship with Sundays.  They either rock or they stink.  Mostly they are good but every now and then you get a few bummers.  I'm pretty excited for next week though.  We have some great investigators lined up.  We have this one guy named R.  I think I talked about him last week.  We taught him with a member on Saturday and had such a powerful lesson.  Very spiritual other than T. Swift playing in the background.  Seriously it was a fantastic lesson.  He is super smart and has been literally searching for the truth and studying and visiting churches and he just can't find it.  Basically a modern day Joseph Smith.  He accepted to be baptized by saying he knows it time for him to make a decision and stay with it because he isn't going to live forever.  I'm so excited for him.  

We went on exchanges on Thursday.  I stayed in the area with an Elder from Nigeria.   We had a normal day full of failed appointments but had a sweet lesson with a recent convert.  She’s 18 and has some troubles because her mom doesn't like the Church and doesn't want her to go anymore.  I felt prompted to call her and see her because normally we wait for her to call us every Thursday when she is free in the evening.  So I called and  we went over, she just opened up.  So we talked and she said she doesn't know if the Church is true so we basically told her how to know and everything, resolving the concerns, it was pretty spiritual.  Sunday we went back because she didn't come to Church and we sat down and she was quiet and stuff and then told us after Thursday night she sat and seriously thought and prayed about the Church and knows it is completely and 100% true.  Very cool.  Nice work Moroni, gets them every time!

We had a pretty awesome Primary Program on Sunday.  I LOVE primary programs.  Definitely different than back home but just as cool and just as spiritual.  Great hymns, a few that I hadn't heard before that I liked.  I realized just how important Primary is.  How from childhood it is teaching us basic doctrines that are so so critical.  Things like baptism, the Godhead, having modern prophets and so many other things.  Primary is so important.  

Love you all!

Elder Clark  

And October is basically over too.  Everyone goes by faster.                               Oct 20, 2014

Hope everyone is doing well this week!  This week was full of surprises for us.  We have a great Mom and son we are teaching.  They are pretty sweet.  The mom came to Church on her own the other day and then her son came last week.  He is really enthusiastic about the Gospel.  He wants to learn all this stuff about Christ and his life and everything.  He hasn't been baptized before and at first when we invited them he wasn't super excited but now he loves the idea. 

 On Sunday we got a sweet referral from a member, our assistant ward mission leader, Bro A.  The guy is cool.  He met the missionaries 7 years ago and lost contact with them but has been reading from our Old Testament study manual and had a bunch of questions for us.  Not the best place to start for a beginner but we had a nice conversation about Jesus Christ being Jehovah.  That is actually a big concern people have in Ghana.    He's a cool guy.  He actually doesn't go to church anymore because he doesn't believe in any of them but when we met him he basically said "You are the only one that I have met twice so that has to be something different about you guys."  Yep, How about the restored gospel.  I love the gospel.  It's life changing.

That brings me to this sweet guy I met in another area on an exchange this week.  He is 14 years old and is a recent convert.  I have no idea how he joined the Church because his parents hate the Church.  The kid is a stud though and comes to Church every week and passes the sacrament and reads from the Book of Mormon and is awesome.  The faith of some of the Saints here is so touching.  

Sunday I got a visit from some of my friends in the Kaneshie Ward! There is one old couple I was great friends with.  Right when I left they got called to be PEF missionaries.  So I was sitting in sacrament with some members and the meeting ended and I stand up and hear an Unforgettable "Elder Clark."  I turned around and was so surprised to see them sitting there with tags and all.  I tried to get a picture but it didn't work out but they are coming back in a few weeks so we will get one then.  It was super cool to see them again.  I still love Kaneshie with all my heart.

Anyway, love you all!

Elder Clark

Oct 13, 2014

This week was awesome!  I've got another novel coming so get some popcorn.

It all started with our Zone Training Meeting on Tuesday which was awesome.  The whole tine we were broken into groups until the very end and we discussed different topics like what to do when it rains, weekly planning, and singing to investigators and getting investigators to bare their testimony.  Went super well.  Then I talked for a few minutes about using the Book of Mormon in proselyting.  Awesome stuff.  Really hope it worked for them because it did for me. 

We have this one woman we contacted my first day in the area.  She owns a shop across from the house and is super nice and loves the missionaries.  We contacted her because nobody else had for some reason.  This week we taught her the Restoration and invited her to be baptized which she accepted then I felt the distinct prompting to sing to her Come Follow Me.  After to trying to avoid that one I succumbed to the spirit and we sang the hymn for her.  Right there in her shop on the roadside.  Guess what?  We sounded terrible hahaha.  It was still very spiritual and she came to Church yesterday which was also a miracle because anybody else who heard me sing probably will never come.  We had several promising people promise to come to Church and nobody came and after the sacrament I bowed my head and just started praying for somebody to come to Church and be serious.  I said amen and when I lifted but my head I saw her, her name is M, she’s in her 40's, walking up.  Heavenly Father has THE best timing.  Sometimes I feel like life is a movie where you see the hero in the mist of overwhelming odds and then the Riders of Rohan appear on the crest of the hill.  How can they not believe?

We had another answer to our prayers this week too.  We have really been praying for one person that will progress and we can begin teaching and she came to us this week.  Actually she went to Church last week and was referred to us.  Man, she is cool.  We taught her on Wednesday for the first time then on Thursday when we invited her to be baptized and she resolutely said "yes I will."  She said that more seriously than most other people I know that have been baptized.  

Met one member who came to visit.  He is from Ghana was baptized in Germany, was bishop in Ghana and now lives in Texas for the last 11 years.  I asked him how he saw Texas and he said "Texas is big.  Everything there is big.  Big cars, Big food, Big people."  Funny guy.  

Saturday night I found a great use for my laser pointer.  We had some great fun playing the limbo with it.  It was light off so it was pretty dark and you can already see the line from that laser and its super dusty which just made it better.  Had some fun with the apartment doing that.  I cut up my toe pretty good but I still won :D  

I also had an awesome experience seeing a bunch of my old friends from Kaneshie ward.  Since they worship at the stake center I got to go there to meet the stake president on Tuesday and saw a bunch of them at institute and they were like "Elder Clark!  We heard you were back, is it really true?"  I love Kaneshie ward with all my heart.  It's nice to be loved sometimes too.    

That's all for this week.  Love you all!

Love,

Elder Clark