Week #13

Can you believe September is already almost halfway over? Where is the time going?! I want to tell you about my neighbors! I forgot to mention that we had a little, well, big leak in our apartment a few weeks ago so Sister Jensen and I ran over to our next door neighbor and asked if they had the maintenance number. Their names are Nathan and Alex. While Alex was getting the number Nathan says "nice night isn't it ladies?". He's mentally handicapped but we were cracking up! He's so awesome. Then Alex comes back and we ask him if he's religious. He says yes I'm baptist and then he says you are catholic? And we said no we're Mormons. Pause... Alex gets all fumbled and says oh well uh good night. Oh man we were cracking up. But we see Nathan everywhere! In the morning on our way back on our run we see him and he always says good morning ladies. They're great. Nathan looks like Napoleon Dynamite. Nuff said. 

 We saw Brandy Wednesday night and her sister was a mess. She has 4 kids and she is drunk all the time. Brandy basically takes care of the kids. It was a rough night and Brandy is just drowning in that situation. She's decided she needs to move out. Hopefully she does it soon and she's applying for a job! Thursday we set out to tract for my first time. We've been visiting formers and potentials and less actives for the past 6 weeks. Honestly, I don't mind tracting. It makes for some good stories and some people are really nice and you find people who are prepared! We found 3 potentials that day and we have a return appointment. 

Then we started Jackie's 10 Day Baptismal Plan which is basically like a countdown to her baptism. So we do an activity with her everyday. I love Jackie. She's so golden and she's our relaxing investigator. If we have a bad day, it's always better after we go to Jackie's. She just doesn't let anything get in the way of baptism. It's great! She knows where her priorities are. We had dinner with a less active young woman, Riley and her parents aren't members and her grandma who is active said her parents are probably ready to meet with the missionaries again. I hope so! We need to find more people to teach! 

We also finally got in contact with Trisha, a girl who's mom is less active. She's just so busy with work all the time but she really wants to come to church. We're going to see her again this week. Sunday was hectic. Well, church is always hectic. Kristin came! She came to church like 4 weeks ago and has been blowing us off and she finally came and brought her mom. Her mom LOVED IT. And she wants to get baptized. Of course we have to teach her what that really entails, but basically she's all for it. Kristin needs to just stop cancelling all of our appointments because the other day she asked us how she can get baptized. Hmm, maybe call us back, I don't know. So we have an appointment with her tomorrow. If she cancels, we might just have to put her on the back burner. 

Sunday night we saw a friend of one of the members and we're having dinner with her next week! The ward calls her family adopted Mormons. Their catholic and have met with missionaries before but I'm hoping we can get through to them. Her name is Mariola and she is the sweetest lady ever! They're from Puerto Rico.

Anyway, we had a mission wide p-day luau event today in Columbus and it was a lot of fun. It got my mind off of all the stress and I was able to interact with other people. Being with one person constantly can be pretty draining. Being a missionary is stressful, but I really do love it. I wouldn't be doing anything else right now. I know that this is a priority at this time in my life. Bringing people the message of the restored gospel is so important. These people don't even know! And I'm convinced the atonement is the only thing that can save this country. I love this work, I know Christ lives and that he loves us. I'm so grateful for the atonement and the knowledge that I have of this gospel. Everyone needs it!

Love you!

Sister Clark