He Answers Our Prayers

¡Hola, hola!

I hope everyone's week was lovely.

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Bloqueador- sunscreen. As in, "Elder, go buy some sunscreen or you're going to die." Maybe my zone leader is a bit dramatic, but it was funny.

Paraguas- umbrella. As in, "If I bring my umbrella, it won't rain. If I leave my umbrella it will rain." I think that's called Murphy's Law.

Sabiduría- wisdom. As in, "And now, my son, I have told you this that ye may learn wisdom, that ye may learn of me that there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness."

So two weeks ago, a few members from Colonia Juarez came with us to a few lessons, then one of them wanted ice cream so she took us to the ice cream shop to buy us water. While we were there she started telling the owner all about what missionaries do, and she set an appointment for us to visit him. So she came with us this past week to teach him a bit about the Book of Mormon. At first he wasn't super interested, but when we explained that the Book of Mormon helps us know why we're here on Earth and what we need to do here, he got a little more interested. We're going to go back to see him this week.

We also had a cool lesson with an investigator who we've been teaching for a while and she's never gone to church. We taught her about baptism and she understood that it is esencial. So my companion invited her to be baptized (first baptismal invitation. Woohoo!). She said that not right now, but someday. When we asked what keeps her from getting baptized if she knows that it's important, she told us that her family wouldn't support her in the decision, which is why she hasn't told them that she's listening to us. We invited her to pray about her decision to be baptized and ask her Heavenly Father for help to explain to her family and ask for their support. She was quiet for a minute (she's never quiet), then she started crying and told us a lot more about her struggles. It was so cool to see my companion listen then testify of the power of the atonement and eternal families. 

The best thing was that she finally came to church yesterday!

One last story.

We went to look for an investigator one day and found her daughter there house-sitting because her mom was out of town. She told us that her mom went to visit her grandpa because he had a problem in a surgery. She was busy with visitors, but asked us to come back later to say a prayer with her.

When we went back, we told her that instead of just saying a prayer, we wanted to teach her how. So we explained that prayer is a direct communication between us and our Heavenly Father. We taught her how and invited her to say the closing prayer. She said a sweet and sincere prayer and said, "So are you going to come again tomorrow?" Then she realized that she might be going out of town too, so we put an appointment to see her and her mom this week.

Our Heavenly Father loves us and hears our prayers.

Have faith and stay strong.

Have an awesome week!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

The Gospel Blesses Families

Hey there! :)

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Día de la madre- Mother's Day. As in, "Happy Mother's Day to my fabulous Mom and all the other awesome Moms I know! I had a great time talking to my Mom (and the rest of my family) yesterday. I hope the other missionary moms enjoyed it too :)"

Colonia- colony. As in, "Here in Chihuahua, there a several Mormon Colonies. Many years ago, the Prophet sent members from Utah to colonize certain sites here in Chihuahua, but since then most of them are pretty empty. The two Mormon colonies that are still thriving are Colonia Juarez and Colonia Dublan. On Saturday, we went to Colonia Juarez to help the ward update their membership records. It's a cool place!"

Templo- Temple. As in, "The temple is the House of the Lord. In the temple, we learn about God's Plan of Happiness and we make covenants with God to keep His commandments. He promises us eternal life if we follow through. We didn't get to go inside on Saturday, but we did get some pictures in front of the smallest temple in the world."

 

 

​The Sisters of the Colonia Juarez Zone

​Hermana Ramirez and Me.

​

Aside from that super cool Saturday in Colonia Juarez, we had some good lessons. I'll tell you about one.

A missionary from the ward came home a couple weeks ago and had a big homecoming party. A few members called us afterward to tell us about a woman they had met there who had a lot of questions about the Gospel. So we went to meet her with the returned missionary, and she's super cool. She told us that she wants to improve her relationship with her daughters, and she wants to know what is the right way to get baptized. So we told that our message will help her improve her family relationships and come to know for herself what is the right way to be baptized.

Have a great week everyone!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

Bienveindias!

Hola, hola!

I hope everyone's week was awesome.

First,

 

 

Happy Birthday to my sweet neice Ruby! :)

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Felicidades- Congrats! As in, "Congrats to my sister, Michelle, and my Brother-in-law, Logan, who had their first baby this week!

Bienvenido/bienvenida- Welcome! As in, 

 

​A warm welcome to the world to my new niece, Audrey Jo! I'm excited to meet you in a little while! :) 

(You may have noticed that she has the best middle name ever.)

Also, welcome to my new companion, Hermana Ramirez!

 

 

​She's from Mexico (the state) and she got to the mission on Tuesday. We've had a good time this week getting to know each other as she gets to know the area.

Pueblo- small town or "people." As in, "Wherefore, I give unto you a commandment that ye go among this people, and say unto them, like unto mine apostle of old, whose name was Peter:

Believe on the name of the Lord Jesus, who was on the earth, and is to come, the beginning and the end;

Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, according to the holy commandment, for the remission of sins;

And whoso doeth this shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of the hands of the elders of the church." Doctrine and Covenants 49:11-14

We love this scripture because it's about our area. In Spanish, where it says "people," it says "Pueblo." Since our area is the Pueblo, it works really well for us. :)

Just one story today.

One day an appointment cancelled on us, so we started looking for someone else to visit. We passed by a lady who was in her yard painting a ginormous tire. So we asked what she was doing and she invited us to come see. She was painting a tractor tire to use as a flower bed. It looked pretty sweet. We ended up talking to her for a while and got to know each other. She invited us to come by another day and share our message with her.

It all started with a tractor tire.

Gotta go...It was a fast email this week.

Have a great week, everyone!!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

All of the Peters...

Hey there!

Hope you all had a lovely week!

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Perro- dog. As in, "I'm used to all of the dogs barking at us."

Pedro- Peter. As in, "I'm used to all of the Peters barking at us." I did not make this fundamental pronounciation mistaks. It was my Mexican companion.

Caballo- horse. As in, "We're used to dogs following us in the streets, but this week a horse followed us for 2 blocks. We were scared."

Diligente- diligent. As in, "And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive." Alma 7:23

So last Monday we went to a lesson with an investigator and taught her about the 10 Commandments. When we got to the Sabbath Day, we read Mosiah 13:16-19

"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work;

But the seventh day, the sabbath of the Lord thy God, thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates;

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it."

She has a shop that's connected to her house. She said, "So I should open the shop on Sundays?" We started to talk about it, and she decided to start closing it on Sundays. Her cousin was there and she really liked the lesson. She told us that the Elders used to visit her but she worked on Sundays and couldn't go to church. She doesn't work Sundays anymore, and she said that she'd like us to come visit her in her house! :)

Then monday night after planning I got a call from the Executive Secretary to the mission president. we kind of freaked out wondering why he was calling...but it was a mistake.

Then on Tuesday he called again. We knew it couldn't be another mistake.

He told me that I'll be training again this transfer!

So yes, we have transfers tomorrow. Hermana Juarez is heading out to Juarez (hah) and I'm staying here in the Pueblo to train my new companion who I'll meet tomorrow!

 

​I'll miss Hermana Juarez. We had a great transfer together. But we enjoyed our last week together!

Since this week I'll be training and we won't be able to do splits...we did splits 3 days last week! Splits are when I go with one member of the church who is female and at least 18 years old, and my companion goes with another so that we can go to 2 lessons at the same time. We reached Thursday and hadn't had nearly enough lessons. We knew it would be impossible to meet our goals if we tried to do it alone, so we enlisted the help of a few awesome members. They're great, and we met most of our goals! :)

If we work diligently to meet our goals and put forth our full effort, we can do it!

​

Have a great week, everyone! :)

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

I Love Your Roses!

Ready for a super quick email?

 

 

​Happy Birthday to my sweet nephew, Jackson!! :) A big wookie-hug to you from your favorite aunt :)

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

rosas- roses. As in, "Your roses are beautiful! How long have you had them?"

Paquete- package. As in, "My awesome brother and sister-in-law sent me a great package and I got it this week!

 

 

​I was so excited about it, that I forgot to take a picture with it before tearing it open. But I definitely enjoyed these jelly-beans (and other yummy stuff) and I am ever so grateful for these pens. Zebra F-301 are the best. Thanks, you two! :)

Salvar- to save. As in, "Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness." Alma 7:14

This week we were walking to an appointment when we saw a woman outside her house working on pruning a rose bush. She seriously has beautiful roses. My companion walked up to her and said, "I love your roses! Every time I see them I just want to knock on your door and tell you." (true story, she tells me when we walk by.) We talked with her for a while and found out that she is a hard working mother of 3. She ended up giving us each a rose and we set an appointment to go visit her later.

We had a good lesson with an investigator we've been visiting for a while. She had some questions about the restoration, so we reviewed it with her. We shared the experience of the first vision found in Joseph Smith-History 1:10-17 (https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1?lang=eng)

The Spirit was so strong as we testified of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We testified that she could know that this experience really happened and that God still calls prophets if she prays and asks Him. She said she will.

Sorry, I'm super short on time.

Have a great week, everyone!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

Works of Righteousness

Hello! Happy April!

 

 

And Happy Birthday to my awesome oldest sister, Melissa! :)

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Tener sentido- to make sense. As in, "I'd never heard the fall of Adam and Eve explained that way, but it makes a lot more sense than how I had understood it before. (see 2 Nephi 2, Book of Mormon)."

Servicio- service. As in, "missionaries are here to give service. We want to give service. It makes us happy!"

Obras- works. As in, "I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?" Alma 5:16

In my whole mission, it's been difficult to find anyone who lets us give service. Whenever we try to help they say, "no, no, it's fine, leave it," and don't let us help. But this week, we went to a lesson with one of our investigators and her niece, who is a member, came with us. We got to her house and she had to take a call from the United States. After about 2 minutes, we realized it would be a long call. So we started washing her dishes and cleaning her kitchen. It was great! She was on the phone for 30 minutes and we got to clean her whole kitchen! By the time she was done, we had an awesome lesson.

We have his cool investigator who we found a while ago but couldn't visit for a while. A few visits ago we could finally give her a Book of Mormon to start reading. I went back to visit her on exchanges with a new sister, and we asked if she had read and if she had questions. She said, "just a bit." She had read the introduction and all of the testimonies in the beginning of the Book of Mormon! She had great questions and we had an awesome lesson with her. We saw her again a few days later and she had read through 1 Nephi 4. Again, she had great questions and we had a great lesson.

When people do their part, they can learn so much better. When they read the Book of Mormon on their own and pray to ask if it is true, they can find answers.

We also visited an investigator who we've been teaching for a long time. We've taught her everything that is on our teaching record, so now we're reviewing things that she says she didn't understand. In one of our lessons this week, we explained a bit about the resurrection and final judgment, and assigned her to read Mosiah 16. When we returned, she had read it and prayed about it. We read verses 8, 10-11.

"But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

Even this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruption shall put on incorruption, and shall be brought to stand before the bar of God, to be judged of him according to their works whether they be good or whether they be evil—

If they be good, to the resurrection of endless life and happiness; and if they be evil, to the resurrection of endless damnation, being delivered up to the devil, who hath subjected them, which is damnation—"

We discussed it a bit, and asked if she believed it was true. She said that she did. We asked what she was willing to do to prepare herself for that day. She said that she needs to keep the commandments and get baptized.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored by a prophet in our days. God loves us and He guides us through His servants. The Bible and the Book of Mormon are the word of God, and the Book of Mormon contains the fullness of the Gospel.

Have a great week! Watch some talks from General Conference!

​

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

Watch General Conference!

Hey there! I hope you all enjoyed General Conference! It was fantastic!

More about that momentarily.

For now, here are a couple stories.

We met this lady last week and went back to visit her. She began to tell us about all the difficult things she´s gone through in her life. She´s been through quite a bit. We just listened to her and weren´t sure how we could help her because she´s really angry. She´s angry at a lot of people and feels like she can never forgive them. After listening for about twenty minutes, I thought about one of my favorite scriptures that I shared a couple weeks ago in my email. Mosiah 14:3-5.

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

We were able to testify to her that although we cannot do anything to help her with what she´s gone through, and although nobody here understands exactly what she´s gone through, Christ understands. He felt her pain. He was rejected. He understands, and He can help her overcome the pain she carries both from her experiences and the burden of anger she is carrying.

It was sad to see how she rejected the opportunity to forgive and have her burden made lighter, but we´re hoping she can do it one day.

Elder Duncan who spoke in General Conference on Saturday morning gave a great talk about this. Check it out. 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/media/session_1_talk_9/4828303788001?lang=eng

"I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." Doctrine and Covenants 64:10

We also had a lesson this week with a family who we've been teaching for a long time and haven´t gone to church in a while. We showed them the teaching record that we use as missionaries to track their progress as they prepare to be baptized. We explained to them that the part with all the doctrines that we teach represents our part in helping them learn what they need to know. The part of the record with the commitments that they should make and follow through with represents their part in acting on what they learn so that they may "truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins" (Doctrine and Covenants 20:37). The dad started reading all the commitments and seeing which ones they needed to get better at. The mom told us exactly which doctrines she didn't understand and wanted us to explain better.

We´re going to see them today, and we´re hoping to help them be ready for baptism soon.

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Perdón- sorry. As in, "sorry I didn´t plan my Spanish Lessons very well again."

Perdón- forgiveness. As in, "we can all have forgiveness of our sins through Jesus Christ´s atonement. He asks us that we forgive all men as He forgives us."

Aprovechar- to take advantage of. As in, "Take advantage of the technology we have and watch General Conference- for the first time if you didn´t watch this weekend, and again if you did watch it.God´s servants instructed us on what to do to find everlasting happiness. Watch it! Live it! Take advantage of this great opportunity!"

I would suggest all of my favorite talks to you, but there were a lot...

Here are 3:

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/media/session_5_talk_11/4829903593001?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/media/session_5_talk_5/4829541492001?lang=eng

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/media/session_2_talk_11/4828695901001?lang=eng

Watch General Conference, and watch it again!

God loves us. He has always loved us. He guides us through the words of His ancient prophets in the scriptures and His modern-day prophets in General Conference. Follow His guidance.

Be happy!

Have a great week!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark