Do You Want to See It?

Photos first!

 

​This is the less-than-a-centimeter of snow that kept us inside for a whole day...

They tell us that it actually snowed a lot in Juarez, and that's why we had to stay home.

​Happy Birthday to my super cool sister, Holly! :)

(Yes, my name is on the wall in the internet place where we email on Monday's. Am I official yet?)

I hope everyone had a great New Year's!

So last Tuesday we had special transfers! Hermana Acosta went to Juarez and I recieved a new companion, Hermana Nakandakare! I'm finishing her training.

She's from Peru, she's 10 years older than me, and she was teaching in a University before she came on the mission. 

Honestly, I didn't know how to feel about being her trainer at first, because I felt like she should train me. But this week has been great! We get along really well and we teach each other a lot!

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Dormir- to sleep. As in, "We celebrated the beginning of a new year at midnight by sleeping. It was fantastic."

Suerte- luck. As in, "We did companion exchanges with our Sister Training Leader this week, and it was just our luck that the buses weren't running that day....but we actually did have good luck because as we went walking trying to figure out how to get from Nuevo Casas Grandes to the Pueblo, a member pulled over and offered us a ride!"

Compromisos- Commitments. As in, "When we teach people, we invite them to make and keep such commitments as praying, reading the scriptures, and going to church. Following through with these commitments helps them to learn and prepare to make and keep covenants with God."

So we did exchanges this week. Our Sister Training Leader is Hermana Mercado, and she's fantastic. She's super animated and happy. I learned a lot working with her! 

While she was here, we visited a family who we teach who are planning to get baptized very soon. We taught them about how we can have eternal families. We explained to them that baptism is the first covenant we make with our Heavenly Father, but it is only the first step toward more covenants, such as being sealed together as families for time and all eternity. We asked them what kind of things they think we need to do as families to prepare to live together for eternity, and it was so sweet to hear them give all the right answers. They really understand how the gospel enhances the family, and they are preparing really well to be sealed one day.

One more story. We were visiting an investigator and her Sister-in-law was there. We asked her if the missionaries have visited her before, and she said that the Elders taught her everything, and she just could never accept that the Book of Mormon is true. She started to make a lot of the typical arguments that we hear. Honestly, I was getting a bit irritated because we had already heard all the same arguments about 2 hours earlier, but then she made a certain argument. "If God was going to send more scriptures after the Bible, wouldn't He have told us in the Bible that he was going to do it?"

In that moment, I felt so grateful that I had gone to seminary and learned the Scripture Mastery scriptures.

I said, "He did. Do you want to see it?"

She looked super surprised and said, "sure, let's see it."

So we read Ezekiel 37:15-20. 

Look it up. It's a good one. When I learned it as a sophomore in high school, I didn't understand it really well. I thought it was really long and it talked about sticks, so it made me laugh. But now I am so grateful to understand it.

We explained the meaning of the Stick of Judah (the Bible) and the Stick of Joseph (the Book of Mormon). The scripture says that stick of Joseph would be added to the stick of Judah and they would become one in our hands. It explains that the Book of Mormon and the Bible complement each other to testify of Christ. She thought for a minute, and you could see the battle in her eyes. We asked her if she'd read it before, and she said she'd never understood it that way. She said "I guess only God knows the truth." So I said,

"God knows all truth. We can also know the truth if we ask Him. But only if we ask Him. He wants to let us know the truth, and He will answer us, if we are willing to hear Him."

She looked at us for a minute and said, "Well, come by next week."

We're looking forward to it. :)

I hope everyone has a great week and stays strong with their New Year's resolutions! Love you all!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark