Another busy week but this week is going to be even busier.  Last week on Tuesday we had new missionaries come from the MTC, Wednesday we were in the office for a while Thursday was my last mission leaders council, Friday we had lunch and a testimony meeting with a couple that finished their mission, Saturday we had office council because we didn't have it on Friday, then Sunday was the first Sunday of our new branch.  It seemed like we only had 20 members there on Sunday.  I was called last minute to give a talk on the Atonement and to teach 2 hours of primary which is always a blast.  This week is going to be super busy with mission tour with Elder Curtis for half of the week.

So, MLC.  I got my skirts finally so I was sporting my skirt.  It’s a sweet skirt.  I do look good in a skirt and they are so comfortable.  Too bad they aren't acceptable for guys to wear otherwise I would be all over that. (I asked for a picture of that but he does not have one yet) It was my last MLC so that was a real slap in the face that it’s really coming.  These 3 weeks are going to go by so fast.  We had a lot of really good Zone Leaders and I have some really, really good friends. Most of them live in Utah or Idaho though so it won't be as hard to keep in touch as it will be with my companion.

Sunday was great.  We didn't get much time to proselyte his week but we still managed to have 7 investigators at church.  They are doing really well and hopefully we'll get them all soaked on the 29 of this month, right before D-day.  Primary was awesome.  The lesson was on Christ’s calling his Apostles which was great because we teach that every day.  I actually felt really good about it because in Preach My Gospel it says something like the best teachers can teach something so well that even a child can understand it.  I taught those kids exactly the same way as I teach the majority of my investigators; it was really cool to me.

That’s about all for this week.

Love you all,

Elder Clark

March 2, 2015

Last week we killed it.  I have a real testimony of the Lord's way of "one-by-one."  I have noticed that I have been transferred a lot and fairly frequently throughout my mission and was thinking about it because, here  there is a less active lady I talked about before.  She is amazing.  Missionaries have been visiting her forever but she never came to church but I was able to hook her up with another less active with a car to pick her on account of her terrible arthritis.  Last Saturday she was able to go to the temple for the first time and was able to do baptisms for her family members and had such an incredible experience.  She can't walk and was scared of the water being cold on her joints but I told her how it was warm and she really enjoyed it.  It made me realize how every single one of my areas I have met a single person that I have specifically been prepared to meet that person at that time.  And shortly after I meet hat one person I have been transferred.  

Other than that pinnacle of the week it was pretty good.  Our less active recent convert that we reactivated was called as the 2nd counselor to our new branch president.  That was cool.  We got our family to come to church.  That was great.  And last Sunday we felt like we needed to visit a family in the Ward and they had a few referrals for us.  One girl is so smart.  She read the whole restoration pamphlet by Wednesday and explained it all to us, read the whole introduction to the Book of Mormon by Saturday and explained that to us in detail too.  That is amazing.

Nothing really unusual happened this week.  Just the usual.  Oh, I cleaned out our poly tanks today.  We took them down to build a cement platform so we decided to clean them and it was terrible.  It was so hot inside.  It was good though.  Probably sweat all he water out of my body.

Love you all!

Elder Clark

Guess February is almost over now.  Next week is March.  Glad everyone had a great week.  This week was super busy.  We had some going home missionaries staying with us and it was transfers and busy stuff.  This week should be a little calmer but probably I’m not counting on it.  March is going to be pretty busy too.  I'm exhausted.  All day Saturday and Sunday I was dropping off during our lessons.  It was pretty bad.  They were some pretty hard nodding off and blacking out for about 2 seconds.  Pushing on though.  

Transfers were great.  It's weird that that was my last transfer I will be able to attend.  It would have been the last time I see almost everyone in the mission except we are having a mission tour with Elder Curtis in 2 weeks so I'll see everyone again then.  Then it will be the last time.  I had a really nice experience at the Temple this week when we took the going home missionaries.  I loved it.  

We did some of our own pruning today too Dad!  We have a big mango tree in the compound and the goats need some food so our landlady asked us to cut down some branches for it.  This goat is evil.  It charges me almost every day.  I have to grab it by the horns and fight it around a little bit but I always win, well almost.  He did get me once from behind in the leg.  That sucked.

This week we Skype taught a woman in Germany!   The woman said she didn't understand English so randomly we got an email and set up a Skype lesson.  I'm glad I'm not in one of those advanced missions and ours is just simple.  Makes life easier.  

We had a great service project with a member in our area.  It was for a less active because she is unable to come to Church so we arranged to have another less active with a car come and start picking her for Church and now they both come and are great friends.  I love it!  She is a great woman.  We went and weeded at her house for about 3 hours on Friday morning.  Lots of people actually came and looked at all the white people weeding.   They loved it.  We are trying to get her to the Temple this week.  She has been working on her family history and just found a paper that her father wrote about her grandfather and great grandfather with cousins and everything with year and everything you need to do Temple work!!  That was so cool!!!  I live for little moments like that!

Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Clark

                            With Sister Hill, a wonderful lady

                             Pruning a mango tree with a machete,
                             he promised he was careful

This goat does not look threatening

                                                 
                                                                 Hard at work

Feb. 9, 2015

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes.  It was a pretty great day.  We were invited to attend a zone activity in Odorkor.  We went to the beach and roasted a couple of pigs and had fun  playing beach soccer.  Doesn't get much better than that.  Last week was pretty crazy.  MLC was a huge success.  Most of the Zone Leaders said it was the best one they have had yet.  I led a discussion on using Preach my Gospel more in the mission.  Hopefully we teach the lessons better and have a better retention rate.  

Sunday was probably the best Sunday of my life.  E. did get baptized.  He asked me to baptize him which was nice.  It was after church that we did it and I was handed a towel and my clothes and went to the wash room only to find I was going to baptize him in a white  robe.  Feeling a little awkward but like a stud we did the baptism.  His daughter was baptized with him too.  We have been teaching him with the family all along and it was sweet because she just turned 8 on the 31st and was able to get baptized with her dad.  It was a special day for them.  We are hoping that they are going to make it to the Ward Temple trip at the end of the month.  We talked a lot about being sealed as a family next year when we took them to the Temple this week and they invited me to come back next year to be a part of it.  That would be really sweet if there is some way I could.

The other great part was we had 9 investigators come to church!  I was SO STOAKED!  We had this family that we have been working with for a long time finally come and a Rasta man come with a girl he introduced us to on Saturday.  I was so, so happy when I saw them walking up.  I was really good, we had a good heart to heart lesson on Saturday that I think really made a difference.  And I got to teach all 2 hours of junior and senior primary with Elder Legg about the Atonement.  That was sweet.  They have this one song I have to record it so you can see but its called Father Abraham and it’s just a bunch of dancing and jumping, man it was so fun!  I spent some time sitting on the floor showing the atonement and stuff, it was great.  I love primary.  The teachers loved it too.  

So that was basically the week.  Love you all.  Mom thanks for the cookies.  You still make the best cookies in the world!  (A sweet friend hand carried chocolate chips cookies to Ghana for me)                   

Love,

 Elder Clark

Well, its 9 o clock and we just finished our testimony meeting with the departing missionaries.  We're going to the temple with them tomorrow which is sick. (aka-very good) Don't have much time but wanted to drop a quick email to you guys tonight before we go home.  

Love,

Elder Clark

Well, President made his first joke today about me going home soon.  Still terrifies me.  Thanks Mom for applying for the scholarship.  Hopefully that works out.  If not, oh well.  Also got the Valentines package.  Thanks for the goodies.  Reese’s have never been so sweet.  

Highlights of this week?  Found out a woman I was teaching in Lateriokorshie got baptized.  Yay!  Had some great lessons with our investigators, E. is all set to get soaked next week.  We're taking the family to the temple this week for an interview and to have a great lesson about eternal families.    I had a great idea on Friday to make some commitment cards and stuff for investigators to help them keep their commitments and they worked great.  We had one guy read from the B of M every day since then!  I was so stoked, one of my crazy ideas actually worked out.  

Well, I'm exhausted and have to go.  See yeah all next week.

Love, 

Elder Clark

January has come and gone.  Can't believe that this month is over and now it's February.  This week was pretty good.  This is a strange area where we get out and work and it seems like nothing is really working and then Sunday came and we had 3 people come to church.  I was so excited.  One is E. that is from a part member family.  He's doing great and is really excited to get baptized next week except they are getting kicked out of their house this week.  So we are trying to help them find a place to stay.  The other is a womanthat works for the UN.  Turns out her fiancé is a member and took her to church once before.  She's cool.  And the other guy is a friend to a less active we reactivated.  As a mission we have been really focusing on less active and recent converts.  We are doing something we call "2 fers" Where each companionship tries to baptize 2, get 2 recent converts to the temple, and get 2 less active to church twice all in a month.  It's great.  It's another one of those ideas President just wakes up with.  He is a great idea man.  It’s pretty cool.

Today we went mini golfing and spent a lot of time tumbling in the grass.  I've got another type of back flip I can do now.  It was really fun.  We've been doing a bunch of flips and cool stuff.  The guy I am will is my friend from Middleton.  

Saturday was President and Sister Hill's anniversary.  So we made them a cake and doorbell ditched it on their door step.  That was really fun.  President totally knew it was us I think.  

Sunday we had a baptism in the ward for some other elders but because of lights off we had to fill the font with buckets.  I was out at the poly water tank with a small bucket fetching water and pouring it out into bigger buckets that others would carry to the font.  We got it full enough that she was able to lie down on the bottom of the font and the water covered her.  She really wanted to be baptized and was traveling to school and didn’t want to wait.  It was good.   To celebrate after I made that lemon pie Mom sent me.  That was really good!  

 Gotta go.  Love you all!

Love,

Elder Clark     

                                  I would know that orange shirt anywhere

Hey everyone,                                                                     Jan. 19, 2015

Well tonight is going to have to be pretty short it's already 6 pm!  It’s crazy how fast the day can go by.  We just decided today that we're having a transfer on Wednesday and we're getting 2 new missionaries tomorrow so this week is shaping up to be pretty busy already.  And we are having a transfer next week too and then in 3 weeks.  Transfers, transfers, transfers.  Seems like that's all we do these days.  I wish all missionaries would be like Alma and Amulek.  

We were able to get some good people to church on Sunday.  We have been working with the husband of a recent convert and he finally was able to get to church on Sunday and is so excited to be baptized.  We've got another man we have been working with too that was able to come.  He was born a Christian and is trying to figure out what is right in this life.  We had a great lesson with him after church.  His Uncle decided to join the lesson too.  Turns out that man is a pastor in an other church who objected mightily to anything else other than the Bible.  The lesson was on the Book of Mormon.  He just couldn't fathom that there is more than the Bible.   It was literally like an angel and a devil fighting over him.  After the lesson he walked us out and asked some more questions and was pretty excited for us to give him a Book of Mormon.  

We had a crazy call on Tuesday.  We were getting ready to take some missionaries to the airport, and a missionary that is in my ward, Elder L., called me.  Sidenote, Elder L. is from Middleton and went to Middleton high school.  We know a couple of the same people.  If you remember that blind date I went on with Jared Luke's niece, he knows her. Small world.  Anyway, he called and said that he has 3 people who just showed up at the chapel asking to be baptized.  What?  After the airport we ran out to meet the people, it’s a mother and her 2 sons.  We had a member take us to their house  and met the husband and taught him too.  Great lesson.  Really really good.  We went back the next day and the kids recognized the picture of Joseph Smith and everything.  Good people.

That's all the time I have now.  Love you all!!!

Love,

Elder Clark

Hey everyone,

This week was a real wringer.  I'm exhausted haha.  We had transfers on Wednesday and MLC with all the district leaders on Thursday.  My companion and I gave about half of the instruction and President Hill was really picky on our preparation.  I was pretty stressed.  I was so glad after MLC was over, slept a little bit better after that.  

The Hamattan is going great this year.  Every year around this time we get the Hamattan which is the sands blowing down from the Sahara desert I think.  Anyway, it’s really cool (relatively) and very, very, very, very dusty.  I have never been in dust like this.  It’s crazy.  It’s like its really foggy, and you can't see very far, very far being anywhere from 100 yards to half a mile.  It’s just like a cloud is always there.  It makes it a lot cooler and the humidity is way down.  My lips have been cracking and bleeding and I've been using chapstick like crazy.  Just checked though, we're still having 40% humidity. I don't know how that relates to back home but out at the Farm today it was feeling a lot of just dry heat and it felt great.  I wasn't sweating from every pore and it was just dry.  Very nice.

Which brings us to the farm.  Today we got to go with President to be with his chickens.  If any of you remember back when I was an office elder President had this big thing he was starting to get 50 chickens for 10 families sponsored by the University of Ghana.  That finally happening.  We took the families to the University for a Week Long Training Seminar and got to go around for a while.  We just got back.  I saw a LOT of unexpected faces today.  One of them was my old Branch President from Oda, President Mensah.  He's the one who took such good care of me back when I got malaria.  He's a great guy.  I was so happy to see him.  Another unexpected face came walking around a tro tro calling me Tim Clark.  Who knew Cory Hofman was here????   So that was a shocker.  I think he may have been just as shocked if not more shocked to see me as I was to see him.  It was really funny.  I guess he came on a last minute thing on Saturday and the rest of the crew are coming in 2 weeks or so.  Crazy stuff.  Small world.  

That's about it for this week!  Love you all!             Elder Clark

Hey everyone,                                                                               Jan. 4, 2015

This week was pretty exciting.  We had a New Years stake party.  We had to go.  I wasn't really interested but we had to go and keep an eye on missionaries, we did get free food though.  Always a plus.  It was an interesting party, they had a police band and a police man came and wanted to take a picture with a bunch of us Americans which was cool.  I'm making friends with a lot of police men lately.  They always have checkpoints in my proselyting area at night and we get stopped once or twice a night.  I just roll down the window and talk some Twi to them and they laugh and let us go. 

 We do have some guy who works for the Air Force here and works with the president of Ghana.  We invited the President to Church with him.  That'd be pretty sweet if we could teach the president of Ghana.  

After the party we went to bed.  It was a little hard to sleep.  Ghanaians LOVE fireworks more than me.  It was crazy.  It sounded like an artillery barrage.  We went outside at midnight to look at the fireworks.  We couldn't really see the colored explosions like firework shows but everywhere you looked was white flashes in every direction.  It was really cool. 

We did meet a really cool guy this week.  His mom owns a store in a brand new mall that they just opened.  It’s the biggest mall in Ghana.  He was really excited about the gospel.     

That's about all for day.  Love you all!

Elder Clark