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!

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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!

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~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

We Have to Find Someone

Hello!

Hope everyone had a beautiful Easter!

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Viento/aire- wind. As in, "It has been SUPER windy this week. For months everyone has been telling me that Holy Week is always windy. Now I understand.

Polvadera- sandstorm. As in, "Sometime the crazy wind causes sandstorms. They look like little tornados that suddenly erupt from the ground and make their way down the street. Sometimes the sand hits your legs and hurts."

Ninja- ninja. As in, "We´ve become ninjas, quickly making a 180 has soon as we see a sandstorm coming toward us so that the sand doesn´t get in our eyes."

Revelación- revelation. As in, "we can all receive personal revelation from God by praying and listening to the Holy Ghost. We can´t receive revelation for other people. Prophets, however, receive revelation from God for the whole world. A prophet of God is going to speak to us this weekend, and you can see it!"

 

 

​Check out General Conference at LDS.org in the following schedule (Mountain Time)

Saturday Morning Session: 10am-12pm

Saturday Afternoon Session: 2pm-4pm

Priesthood Session (for men): 6pm-8pm

Sunday Morning Session: 10am-12pm

Sunday Afternoon Session: 2pm-4pm

God´s servants are going to tell us what He wants of us and how we can more fully receive the blessings He wants to give us. Watch it!!

This Tuesday we had a cool experience.

We actually had a hard day. We had a lot of appointments, and nobody was home most of the day. We walked around in sandstorms with a great member who accompanied us all day. around 6 we finally found someone to visit and had a short lesson. We dropped the member off in her house and started walking in the direction of our house. It was 7:30and we had no idea what to do. We hadn´t had much success and we were a bit discouraged. But we said, "It´s 7:30and we haven´t found anyone. We have to find someone."

I randomly thought of someone who I street contacted about 6 months ago and we started walking toward his house. We never got to his house because after walking about a block we ran into someone who we had met several weeks ago but couldn´t find because she didn´t have a phone and she was never home. We set an appointment with her and she gave us her new phone number!

Then we kept walking toward the house we were going to, but we passed a house where we´d been knocking looking for a referral and they hadn´t ever been home. The lights were on. So we knocked on their door and they let us in happily. We found out that the Sisters were visiting them last year, but when they got transferred the new Sisters had never found them (that would be Hermana Hernandez and I when we showed up to find an area book without addresses). She told us that she had been hopinmg we´d find her and start visiting her again. She went out of town after that, but we´ll visit her again in this week!

Guess what else, she make cheese. It´s even better than the other cheese we found. She gave us half of the brick of cheese from her fridge. I love her.

This week was a bit tough because pretty much everyone went out of town for the Holy Week break that thay had from school and work. We walked a lot. It was alright though, we just smiled and kept walking. We´re looking forward to this week to keep walking and keep working.

I want to finish with onelast Easter thought before moving on with the rest of Spring.

"And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

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

He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death." Mosiah 16:7-9

There is a resurrection. We have light in this dark world. We have direction in our lives. Christ lived, died, and lived again for each of us.

Follow Him!

Have a great week :)

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

#Hallelujah

Hello!

First off, 

 

 

 

 

​Happy Birthday to two of my fabulous sisters, Amelia and Lizzie! Love you two :)

Were you all waiting on the edge of your seat waiting to hear what happened with transfers?

 

I'm still in the Pueblo! Yay! I just got a super cool new companion! Her name is Hermana Juarez, she's from Guadalajara, and we laugh a lot. We've been having a great time looking for more people who want to hear our message and change their lives. We got creative this week too.

One day when we finished a lesson, the woman we were teaching offered us some requesón (I don't know what it's called in English. It's a dairy product.) and we asked her where she'd bought it. She told us that she buys it from a lady who lives down the street and that she also makes good cheese.

We've been looking for where we can find good cheese.

So we decided to go meet her to see if she wanted to hear our message and sell us cheese. We found her and her sister, who also makes cheese, and they want us to visit them! They also sold us really good cheese!

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Gallinas- hens. As in, "One of our investigators has hens in her backyard. My companion helped her to collect the eggs from the chicken coop."

Alabar- to praise. As in, "Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name of the Lord; praise him, O ye servants of the Lord." Psalm 135:1

Aleluya- Hallelujah. As in, "Hallelujah means 'Praise ye the Lord.' The church released a new video las week called Hallelujah that talks about what the Resurrection, which we celebrate this Easter season, means for us. Watch it!! FollowHim.mormon.org"

This week something cool happened! There's this couple that has gone to church a lot but they haven't been able to get baptized because they live together and aren't married. She's been waiting for her divorce sentence to arrive for two years. Last week they showed up in church and told us it would be getting here this week. And it did! So we've started teaching them again and we're hoping for them to get baptized in April! They were so excited. They said it was an answer to their prayers.

We also visited the cool family that loves the Bible a couple times this week (they're also the family with the chickens). We told them about General Conference that's coming up, and they're way excited to hear from the prophets of God. We also taught them about tithing, and they said, "We know that tithing is a commandment that brings blessings. We've been paying tithing in another church, but when we're baptized we'll start paying it here."

Wow. We should all have faith to keep the commandments.

This week we've been talking a lot about Easter and Holy Week. We've been studying and teaching a lot about the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

"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." Mosiah 14:3-5/Isaiah 53:3-5

I am so grateful that My Savior suffered and paid for my sins and pains. I know that He knows me. I know that He knows each one of us personally. He paid the price for our sins so that we could become better people and prepare ourselves to live with Him one day. He paid the price to conquer death so that we could all one day conquer death and see our loved ones again.

Watch the video and think about what the Savior's sacrifice means for you. If you don't know much about it and want to learn more, ask the missionaries. It's the greatest message you'll ever hear! And if you've heard it, share it!

In Jesus Christ I have found a new life. And I am so blessed to be here seeing others find a new life in Him as well.

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Corinthians 15:22

Hallelujah!

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark

When Will There Be Another Baptismal Service?

Hola hola!

This week the weather went kind of crazy for a few days, but then it got warm again. So we're feeling good here. :)

Spanish Lessons with Hermana Clark:

Mayonesa- Mayonnaise. As in, "Last Monday we were going to buy many very healthy foods to make lots of salads. As we were looking for mayonnaise to mix with our tuna, we spotted Chipotle mayonnaise. It's our new favorite creation and we ate half of the jar this week."

 

 

​Paleta- lolipop/ sucker. As in, "I ate a sucker before taking this picture, which is why my tongue is so red."

Reírse- To laugh. As in, "This week when we were on exchanges, Hermana Hale and I started walking to a house far away. It started to hail. Luckily we had umbrellas and the hail was small. Hermana Hale said, 'It's times like these when all you can do is laugh.' It's very true."

Hijo de Dios- Child of God. As in, "We are all children of God. He is our Father and He loves us! He wants to guide us. We just need to seek Him out through prayer, church attendance, and scripture study in order to understand what we should do in this life."

So this week we've been working a lot on how we street contact people. We realized that we're super awkward about it sometimes, so we deccided to fox that. One day we saw a lady walking down the street in the same direction as us so we started talking to her. We chatted with her for several minutes just getting to know her then I showed her a card I have that has some questions on it. They're called the questions of the soul. I asked if she'd ever asked herself one of them and she pointed to one that says, "How can I find peace and happiness?" I explained to her that we have a book called the Book of Mormon that has the answer. I started to say that we'd like to come to her house to answer her question and she cut me off saying, "you can come to my house Wednesday at 6. I'll be there." She was super excited to find an answer, and we're excited to help her find it!

We also had another cool experience with the Book of Mormon. The cool family who loves the Bible has been trying to decide if they should get baptize. On Tuesday Hermana Hale came with me on exchanges to teach them. She asked the mom how she feels about all of what we're teaching her and she expressed a few doubts then said, "but I love reading the Book of Mormon. I always feel really happy when I read it."

If we remember Galatians 5:22-23 which was in my email last week, one of the fruits of the Spirit is joy.

Hermana Hale explained to her that the happiness she feels when she reads is one way that the Spirit speaks to us. We invited her to keep reading and praying.

We saw them again later in the week and taught them about the Word of Wisdom. After teaching that principle they asked a few questions they still had about baptism, then they asked when there was going to be a baptismal service! We invited them to set a date in a few weeks and they accepted! It was the best!

I'll finish with a scripture.

"For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have." 2 Nephi 28:30

If we put forth the effort to learn about the Gospel and live it, The Lord will give us knowledge little by little. As we are constant and faithful, before we know it we'll have a strong testimony and appreciation of the Gospel. We just need to be careful not to slack off saying that we understand enough. There's always more to learn, and the Lord will help us learn it.

Transfers are tomorrow, and my companion and I won't be together anymore, so....you'll have to wait until next week to see what happens! But It was a great week with Hermana Blackham.

 

​Have a great week! :)
​

~Hermana Hannah Jo Clark