A Special Witness

September 29, 2014

P-day in Brasilia

 This week was the best week I have had in a long time. Lots of things happened, I learned and grew a whole lot, and I had a whole lot of fun doing it all! We are finding a lot of people to teach and have a great group of people we are working with. Although this area was made for a car and we walk miles every day, I love it here. My companion is great and I believe we are going to see a whole lot of miracles in the next few weeks!

Speaking of miracles, one thing I absolutely love about being a missionary is that we see and receive a crazy amount of miracles. For example, one night we had to get to the church because we had to share the message for an activity there but the problem was that we were about an hour and a half walking distance and the activity was going to start in 30 minutes. As we were walking my companion said, it would be real cool if a member passed by and gave us a ride... no more than 5 minutes later, a member passed by and gave us a ride to the activity! Since then, we have received a lot of rides, and food and blessings. I didn’t quite realize how blessed we are as missionaries until my companion and I were talking about all the blessing we get as missionaries, service, random rides, free food, free shoe shines from stranger (happened to my companion) the love of people because of the black tag we have, all these blessings are going to be a whole lot more rare when we get home. The scripture in the Bible, in Matthew 19:29 is so true. As missionaries we are truly blessed.

McDonalds!

We are teaching a whole lot of people, but I just want to talk about a few experiences we have had this week. One man we are teaching is VERY smart, especially about religion. He studied religion in college, but now owns a sandwich business. I don’t know how that happened.... after talking with him for a while; we found out that all his personal beliefs are on the same lines as the doctrines of the church! He then said ``Wow, I am Mormon and I didn’t even know it!” haha Not quite Alberto;) but we have had real good lessons with him, and he even gave us a ride to the church and we gave him a tour, he loved it!

Another cool experience was with a family we are teaching, they brought a friend who also knows a lot about religion but is very different then Alberto, she just spent the whole time asking questions to test our knowledge and she didn’t want to accept any of our answers, especially about the Book of Mormon. Finally I just testified about the Book of Mormon, and its truthfulness, and how it is a special witness of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and how we don’t worship the book, but we USE it to worship our Savior and become closer to Him. After I finished talking, she was silent and barely talked for the rest of the lesson. I don’t know if I will ever see her again, but I hope she was touched and we helped her in some way. ``You can’t argue with a ´´Special Witness`` -Brad Wilcox. I am so excited for general conference, where we get to hear from special witnesses of God!

I love this gospel, I love being a missionary. I have so much more to write about this week but I just don’t have time. We went on a mini trip to Brasilia today to see the sights so my time is very short on the computer. I love you all and thank you for EVERYTHING!

Elder Clark!

Hot Days, Cold Nights, and Tender Mercies of the Lord

June 2, 2014

Some Comforts of Home - A Walmart!

The Lord is mindful of every one of his children. He never ceases to amaze me. This week was really difficult for me because I felt like we found NO success. Nada. Zip. Zero. It was really hard to find people home this week and our lessons with people were not very good, and I found the more I became frustrated, the more I stumbled over my words. I found myself on my knees a whole bunch this week, humbled and begging for help from my Savior.

The beginning of the week I went to Santo Atonio again for trades. I was there with Elder Furphy who has only been there for 3 weeks, and the area is HUGE... so we got lost and walked around a lot looking for the people they are working with. Santo Atonio is an interesting city.  They have a GIANT catholic church that pretty much runs things there and is always blasting music or bells. It is pretty crazy. The missionaries live right across the street.. haha

Shadow Elders

I returned to my home in Recanto das Emas and me and Elder Queiroz went to the zone leaders area to help them out for the day. It was actually probably the best day of the week. We returned to Recanto the next morning and starting our work there. Like I said I felt like we had no success, and on Saturday night I was so bummed out. I was frustrated and so tired. That night, I prayed so hard for strength, and for the Lord to help us. I felt like I did all I could but I just couldn’t see anyone we worked with coming to church the next day, not because I lacked faith but because no one was receptive. I asked for a miracle, I asked for SOMEONE, ANYONE to come to church that we could work with. And the Lord truly answered my prayer. Sunday came around and as we greeted people before the meetings started, we found that the Lord didn’t bring just one person to church, He brought many!

Claudio, his family was baptized about 2 years ago but he just never has been interested. His family wants him to join so much. He has just wanted to do his own thing. We have been trying to work with him but weren’t able to find him home once this week. But, he came to church!!! He even brought his own Book of Mormon. During Priesthood meeting he made a comment that he started with ´´I am not baptized yet but...´´. We told him that his own 17 year old son could do it and he became very excited! We will have family night with his family tomorrow night and I am praying he will continue to walk towards baptism! Miracle - 1 person at church.

Random Family: This beautiful family came to church that we had never seen before, a dad, wife, and two young children. They came to church because a cousin of the wife is a member somewhere else in Brazil and told them a little about the church. They stayed all three hours and really enjoyed it. I am excited for them. They are in the Sisters area, but hopefully we will see more of them! Miracle - 5 people at church.

Some members brought their friend who has really been struggling with things, quit drugs and drinking months ago and really wants to change. We taught her yesterday and she seems pretty solid. Miracle - 6 people at church.

Another family came with some different members. They loved church and are very interested; they are in the Sisters area too. Yet another miracle - 10 people at church.

Manuel came to church! We had to drop his Baptism date because of drinking, but he was at church too! Miracle - 11 people at church

God truly does answer our prayers and lifts us when we are at our lowest. I love this gospel, I love my Savior, and I love being a missionary.

-Elder Samuel Clark

Rescuers

November 4, 2013

All of these Elders live in a one bedroom trailer.
The one in the tan coat is Elder Clark's companion

Fort Apache is wonderful, and the work is thriving. It is not traditional missionary work though. It’s mainly focused on bringing people back to the church. About a fourth of the people here have been baptized and about 95% of those people don’t come to church. The 6 of us missionaries here really focus on rescuing those members. It’s amazing what a simple visit can do. Missionaries have been absent from this area for 5 years and you can really see the effect it had. All most of these people need is to remember why they joined in the first place. Many people remember missionaries here before and they absolutely love us. We eat an average of 2 or 3 dinners a day because the people always prepare dinner for us when we come over for our appointments. We actually go tracting a lot because it is a really effective way here. We knock on the doors and there is a good chance of them being members. That’s how we get most of our appointments. It is amazing to see the change in people after just 1 or 2 visits! There was one lady, no joke, probably about 100 years old, who opened a door we knocked on and she just started crying, and just kept telling us thank you, thank you for coming back. What a sweet moment that was. People really do need the gospel in their lives, and there are SO many today that had it and have lost it. But, that’s why we are here! To find all of his lost sheep! When missionaries first came here, there were only 30ish people attending Sacrament Meeting. Our goal for next week, only 2 months later, is 150 people!

Halloween was a lot of fun! The Natives go ALL out for it! Young and old, it’s an all-day thing. They start trick or treating in the morning! It was really fun to see all the costumes and people talk to us because they thought we were wearing missionary costumes! Another fun thing is the "first of the month" is the Natives favorite day, because that’s when they all get money from the government, so outside in "downtown" (which consists of a grocery store, the post office and the bank) all these vendors set up shop, most exciting day on the res! 

I love this work and I love this area. Everyday something new happens, whether that’s a drunk man sleeping on the side of the road (Happens pretty often) or wild horses running across the street or running out of gas in our trailer so there is no more hot water. Cold showers are wonderful in our 30 degree mornings.... The life of a missionary is great! Whether it is bringing people to Christ or bringing them back!

Elder Clark on the Reservation

Miracles happen every day. Make sure you look for them and notice them. Life becomes so much sweeter when you realize what a blessing every single day is. The living conditions of most of these people have really made me appreciate the things I have. What a wonderful life I have! I am so grateful for the opportunity to share my source of happiness with everyone I meet!

Much love to all of you!

    - Elder Clark!

Watch for Miracles

October 21, 2013

So this weekend was really great!  There are 4 of us now in our area and 6 in our apartment which makes for a lot of fun but also we are able to get so much work done. We have the Spanish speaking elders, Elder Andersen and Elder Carraway (He is BRAND NEW and from Mclean VA!) and Me and Elder Hawes. Me and Elder Hawes are on bikes and had an amazing weekend!

We decided we wanted to focus on recognizing all the miracles the Lord gives us each day, and boy does He give them. Just to name a few, we will start with Jesse. Jesse and his nephew (I think) were on the side of the trail trying to fix one of their bikes, so we stopped to see what we could do to help. They were so friendly and actually pretty excited because it turns out that they are both members, who moved here a month ago and just didn't know where or when church was. Of course, we gave them all the info and let’s hope they come Sunday!

Another great one is that we had the impression to go visit one of our investigators that's really struggling right now because she is facing possible jail time for something she did before we met her. We thought her hearing was on Saturday but turns out it is actually today! She opened the door crying because she was just so scared of what’s going to happen today. We had the sweetest talk about why God gives good people such trials and how Jesus Christ can lift you up from even the lowest of places. We then gave her a blessing, which after words she was just a completely different woman. She wasn't crying her eyes out and she was just feeling more prepared for today. She then gave the most sincere, sweetest prayer I have ever heard. Thanking and pleading with the Lord. The Spirit was SO strong.  I love being a missionary! Everyone pray that it all turns out ok for her!

Miracles happen every day, most are small and we don't even notice, but I promise as we really reflect and try to notice them, we will realize how wonderful the Lord is! We make a list every night, such small things really can make the biggest difference in your day!

I LOVE THE LORD AND THIS GOSPEL!

Elder Clark