Miracle

Hey! Hope everyone had a great week!

Ours was interesting!

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

 

 

​Permetrina- premetherine. As in, "Premetherine is an insecticide that you can apply in your house to prevent mosquitos and some other bugs. The mission gave us two big bottles of premetherine to fumigate our house. After spraying it on the walls of our whole two/story house (we live in the biggest house of the mission), we felt like we had done about 200 squats and lifted weights for 5 hours."

 

 

​Diluvio- flood. As in, "It doesn't rain much in Juarez, but when it rains a little, it loooks like there was a Noah's-Ark-sized flood."

Milagros- miracles. As in, "If we act with faith, we can see miracles."

So in the 4 weeks that I've been in the area, we've had a hard time finding people to teach. Because of the nature of the area, we can find people like we normally do, so it's been tough. We've fasted twice to find people, and this week we saw a great miracle!

A family of members had given us a referral a couple weeks ago, but we were able to meet him this week.

We did a family home evening with the family who gave us the referral and the investigator. He's living in their house while he looks for a house to rent in this area. We got to know him a bit and taught about the plan of salvation. He was super interested, and when we finished explaining the plan of salvation, we invited him to be baptized. Hermana Ramirez hadn't even finished the question when he said "yes! Thank you! I really want to make a change in my life and get baptized!" It was fantastic! 

We went back two days later and taught him about the Restoration. He thought it was amazing that we have a prophet in our days who leads the church under the direction and authority of Jesus Christ. We invited him to set a baptismal date next month, and he accepted!

He came to church yesterday and loved it. In our Gospel Principles class he participated as if he'd been there before and he learned fast. He was telling everyone about his baptismal date and the whole ward was excited to meet him and they're excited for him.

"Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Amen."

Doctrine and Covenantes 4:7

We're excited to keep working this week. We've been diligently praying and studying to know how to find the people who the Lord has prepared, and we've felt inspired to try some new things. So we're going to act with faith this week and keep praying for miracles!

Have a great week everyone!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

 

 

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​I also introduced my companion the frosty last week. :)​

Fishers of Men

Hey!!

Hope everyone's week was great.

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

estuche- case. As in, "Ok, Elder, what color of case do you want me to send you home in?" Every time the elders jokingly complain about having a grave illness the mission nurse asks them this. One of them wants an orange case, so she said she'll have to buy one and paint it orange.

Pescador- fisher. As in, "some of Christ's apostles were fishers. They were fishing one day when Christ invited them to follow Him."

Pescador de hombres- fisher of men. As in, "And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." Matthew 4:19

Check out these videos that we saw in Leadership Council this week. They're fabulous.

https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/follow-me-and-i-will-make-you-fishers-of-men?lang=eng

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/collection/childrens-bible-videos/fishers-of-men

Also, of all the blurry pictures we took after Leadership Council, these are the best.

 

​Not everybody is in the pictures, but it was fun.

A couple stories for you.

One day last week all of our appointments cancelled on us. When we started thinking about where to go, I thought clearly of a certain less-active member who we had tried to visit but still hadn't found at home. So we went to see her. We taught her a short message about prayer and got to know her a little bit, then she tolds us that she wants our help. Her daughter is about to turn 8 and she wants us to help her get ready for baptism. She also told her that her husband isn't a member and that they struggle a lot. We asked if she thinks the Gospel would help them to have a happier family, and she said that it was exactly what she was thinking. So we set an appointment to start visiting her husband and daughter to teach them together this week. They also came to church on Sunday, which was great!

Yesterday we went to see a part-member family who we met a few weeks ago. When we went before we only met the mom, but yesterday we got to meet her kids. They're 9 and 10 years old and they are great. We taught them about prayer and they understood it better than a lot of adults. When we asked the son what prayer is, he said "a talk with God so that He will be with me when I feel alone." They're awesome and we're looking forward to helping them and their mom prepare for baptism.

Sorry that wasn't much, but I don't have a lot of time and I have to go to a zone meeting on the other side of the city, so that's all for this week.

Thank you again for all your support. I love you all!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

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​Ready to cross the city for the zone meeting.​

Exercise Faith

¡Hola, hola!

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Loca- crazy. As in, "This week was one of the craziest of my mission. But we enjoyed it."

 

 

 

 

Despedida- farewell. As in, "One of my great companions, Hermana Hernandez, finished her mission this week. For health reasons she was given and honorable release and she's headed back to Honduras today. We had a farewell with President and Sister Owen yesterday for her and another great Sister who went home for health reasons too. They're both exemplary missionaries, and we miss them a lot."

Fe- faith. As in, "I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." Ether 12:6.

Even though we were running all over the place with decisions and preparations all week, we still had a couple cool experiences in the proselyting time we had.

Monday after our district meeting we went to see a part-member family. The mom isn't a member, but she's always gone to church with her family and she's listened to a lot of missionaries. We went to meet them, and it was super interesting because she speaks more English than Spanish. So I taught the lesson in English. (Let me just tell you that it's bizarre for me to teach in English. Everything comes to my brain in Spanish and I have to translate it to English.) She's super cool though, and she said that she wants to get ready to get baptized soon. She has a testimony of the truthfulness of the church and she wants to prepare herself to make a covenant with God so that her family can be eternal.

We went to visit the lady who I contacted in English last week. She's great! She's super sassy and I love it. We teach her in Spanglish...she speaks Spanish super well, but she prefers English and doesn't know how to read or write Spanish. So we taught mostly in Spanish so that my companion and I could both be teaching. But she would ask questions in English if she didn't find the words in Spanish. (I feel like she speaks my true language.) Her eyes lit up when we gave her a pamphlet about the Restoration and a Book of Mormon in English. She's super excited to learn more. We taught her to pray in English and it was great.

We also visited another part-member family where the husband isn't a member. From what we had seen of him and heard from other missionaries, he wasn't all that insterested and didn't participate in lessons, he just went to church with his wife sometimes. But we taught about the Restoration and asked them how they felt about the Restoration. We were super surprised to hear him bear a powerful testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith. He said he's researched and prayed a lot about it and that he feels like he really was a prophet. He's also hoping to be ready to get baptized soon.

"Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him." 1 Nephi 7:12

These two weeks have been a bit stressful, but we all grew a lot through the experience. We've learned to have faith and act upon the faith we have. Aside from the personal challenges that our companion had, Hermana Ramirez and I were getting a bit discouraged about our proselyting situation in this ward. But we fasted together to work well with the members to find people who are prepared to receive the Gospel, and yesterday we began to see results. We're hoping to have a great week and find a lot of people. We know that if we move forward with faith and work hard, we'll find them.

Have a great week!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

It's All Interesting!

Did I leave you hanging waiting to hear about transfers?

 

 

​I'm in the coolest trio ever with Hermana Hernandez and Hermana Ramírez! Yay! We're in Del Sol, the new ward that was formed when Del Valle split back in October while I was there. It's the Mission President's ward. There are a lot of mansions.

Hermana Hernandez has actually been sick this week and couldn't go out to work, so President authorized her to stay in a member's house with her during the day while Hermana Ramírez and I worked. It was interesting!

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

 

 

Arcoiris- rainbow. As in, "sometimes I draw rainbows in the sky in the middle of an empty lot...good thing my companion had her camera."

​Pintar- paint. As in, "We painted a room this week. It was pretty cool!"

Bienaventuranzas- beatitudes. As in, "The beatitudes can be found in Matthew 5 and 3 Nephi 12. They teach us that as we are humble, forgiving, and bear our burdens with patience, we are promised great rewards in Heaven. The peace we can feel from living a Christlike life is also a great reward."

Two stories.

One day we were looking for some former investigators and stopped in a park to ask a lady where a certain street was. She said (in English), "you HAVE to speak English!" I told her that I did and she said "what are you doing HERE?" I explained to her a bit about what we do as missionaries. She thought it was pretty cool. She told us that she'd grown up in the states and 4 years ago she got deported so she's waiting for permission to go back. She invited us to come by another day. When we went she was painting her bedroom, so we helped her and set an appointment to teach her something this week.

Another day we went to look for a part-member family and found the husband who is less-active. His non-member wife practically went running from the room. He explained to us that she really isn't interested right now, but that he felt like our visit was a sign that he needed to start going to church, reading the scriptures, and praying. He bore his testimony to us and committed to come back to church and set a good example for his family. It was a beautiful experience.

We're working hard to find people to teach because we don't have many investigators. But we're praying so that we and the members can work together to find the people who the Lord has prepared to hear the gospel now.

Have a great week, everyone! :)

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

Overcome Temptation

Hey!

This week was kind of crazy, but it was a good one.

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:
Migración- immigration. As in, "Since I hit my year mark here in Mexico, I went to the border this week to get fingerprinted and renew my temporary residence. Yay!"

Pantalones- pants. As in, "Due to the mosquitos that come during summertime, we Sisters are going to be using pants for a couple months on days that seem very full of mosquitos. We went to buy them this week and it was very odd."

Vencer tentación- overcome temptation. As in, "In this life we all experience temptations, but if we overcome them, we will receive eternal life."

The Elders here in the ward had a baptism on Saturday, but it almost didn't happen. There were a lot of obstacles (broken plumbing in the baptismal font, members who didn't show up for their assignments, relocation to another church building), and the investigator almost decided that it wasn't the right day. But in the end, a great convert here in the ward told him about all the things that happened to her the day that she got baptized and how she overcame them, and he decided to take the plunge. It was a beautiful experience.

I'll tell you a couple stories about cool lessons we had.

We went to look for a former investigator to see if she was interested in listening to us again.

She told us that she liked listening to the Sisters before and she liked what they taught, but she hadn't gone to church and she thought that was why they stopped visiting her. We explained to her how following through with the invitations we give her will help her come to know that our message is true and find greater peace and happiness in her life. We explained that we'd love to start visiting her again, but the only way she'd be able to learn the message well is if she reads the scriptures, prays to know if what we teach is true and goes to church. She committed to really investigate again.

We're teaching a part-member family that I met back in October when I was in Del Valle. The member is a convert who my old companion, Hermana Ferrell taught. His girlfriend and her sons are investigating. It's been tought because they live together and they aren't married, so she can't get baptized unless they get married or separated, and she's waiting for a divorce to final (this happens quite a bit here). We've been teaching them for a while and we thought that they weren't going to be able to get married until next year.

Yesterday we were talking about Christ's earthly ministry and we explained how He gave us the perfect example by being baptized. That's when they told us that they talked with their lawyer this week and the divorce will be official in August or September. So she and her sons will be able to get baptized much sooner than we thought! They're excited to get ready and get baptized!

Transfer calls were last night, and it was all kind of confusing...so I'll let you know next week what happened...I'm pretty sure the area we're in is getting closed though, so the other sisters in the ward will be taking over the people we were teaching and we're going to another ward.

I'm not sure why I got sent here to Frontera for a month (just like I'm still not sure why I was in Del Valle for a month last year), but I know that this is the Lord's work and he sends us where He needs us. If we follow His guidance, we can do His work in the perfect way.

I found out today that 3 of my great investigators in Casas Grandes set a baptismal date for August, and I have a promise from the Sisters there that they'll send me a photo. It made me so happy to hear that they made the desicion to be baptized, even though I won't be there to see it.

Here's a selfie because I know I don't send enough photos.

 

 

"He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 10:39

Keep on keeping on, and have a great week, everyone!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

My Eyes are Blue

Hello, there!

This week was a bit crazy, but it was good.

Monday after writing we ate at Wendy's to celebrate the 4th of July.

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Cuetes- fireworks. As in, "the good thing about living in a second-story apartment near the border is that we got to see fireworks on the fourth of july!"

Ojos de color- colored eyes (eyes that aren't brown). As in, "After our district meeting, we determined that people with colored eyes see colors different than people with brown eyes, because all of the brown-eyed people thought that my eyes were gray and that another colored-eyed sister's red skirt was orange. It was a pretty heated debate."

Obra- work. As in, "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Moses 1:39. Our work is the work of salvation!

Two stories.

Monday after our meeting we went to the appointment that we had, and the person we were looking for wasn't home. Her daughter came outside to tell us and we ended up talking with her for a while. We taught her a bit about the restoration of the gospel and how it blesses families, and she invited us to come back later in the week.

When we went back, a member went with us. She testified about how the gospel has blessed her family and how it helped her raise 5 kids as a single mom. This investigator happens to be a single mom of 4 young children, so it really meant something to her. She loved what we taught and said that she wants those blessings in her family. We're going to see her again this week.

Tuesday I did a companion exchange with my old companion, Hermana Nakandakare here in my area. Around 7:30 our last appointment cancelled on us, so we went looking for somebody else to teach before the day ended. We saw a lady pulling weeds on her sidewalk and offered her our help. People almost never let us help them, but she did! We helped her for a while and told her a bit about what we do as representatives of Jesus Christ, serving people and teaching His message. We set another appointment to come back and help her more and teach her a bit about our message.

I went to my first mission leadership council this week and I'm going to be helping the zone leaders in another zone present their zone meeting today, so it will be interesting.

I hope everyone has a lovely week!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

A Marvelous Work

What a week.

First,

 

 

​Happy Birthday to my awesome nephew, Liam! Love you, buddy!

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Aventuras- adventures. As in, "This week was full of adventures. I'll teach you what a few of them are called in Spanish."

Reunión de Liderazgo- Leadership meeting. As in, "I had my first leadership meeting as a Sister Training Leader on Tuesday. It was weird but it was ok. We're working hard to improve our work here in the mission."

Intercambios de compañeras- companion exchanges. As in, "I got right into the swing of my new assignment this week doing 2 companion exchanges with the Sisters in Pradera, the area where I started the mission about a year ago. I went there with one of them on Friday, and the members we saw remembered me because I sang. I'm glad I had some sort of impact on them even though I wasn't there very long."

Bienvenida al nuevo Presidente- Welcome to the new President. As in, "Friday morning bright and early we had a meeting to welcome our new mission president, President Owen. He and his wife are great people, and we're excited to work with them."

Funny story. 

Remember how when I got to the mission from the MTC, my flights were delayed and I got here pretty late? That day we didn't have a chance to go to the mission home and take pictures with President and Sister Derbez. So President Derbez called me on Wednesday with some assignments and I mentioned to him that we'd never taken a picture together this whole year. He said, "Oh, that's true!" He said we'd had to take one and photoshop a year off of me. So Thursday morning, his last day here, he picked up my companion and I at 8 am and we went with him to wash the car then went to his house. I got a picture with him and Sister Derbez, then he said, "Now you have to walk home because we have to go pick up the new president in El Paso." So we said goodbye and walked home.

We took the picture on his phone, so I don't have it, he does. The good thing is that we eventually took a picture together.

A story about proselyting.

Monday night we had a family home evening in a member's house with some investigators we're teaching. One of the members shared an awesome message about the importance of having Family Home Evening every week, and it was great. The members and the investigators have become great friends, and they enjoyed it a lot. We had to bow out early to get home on time, but it was a great experience for everyone.

I don't have time to tell more stories, but I want to share a scripture.

"Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.

Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day."

Doctrine and Covenants 4:1-2

We're working hard here in the area and we're working hard to help the sisters who I'm working with in their areas. Hard work is what it's all about, and we keep going.

Have a great week everyone!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark