May 28, 2013

 Being on my mission has helped me to grow and to love the scriptures. I absolutely love them. I get so happy when I read them, and I can feel so much peace. All of the crazy things don't seem so crazy anymore, and I can better focus on my day. It is amazing. Also, many times out here, I have found answers in my scriptures! Like straight up the EXACT thing I was wondering or needed to hear. Also, Preach My Gospel may seem kinda lame but it's SO AWESOME I learn so much from it! I wish I had read it more before my mission, but I don't think I would have understood it as well as I do now. Because I am looking at it from a missionary perspective. 

May 20, 2013

My new companion is awesome she loves Zombies and we are so much alike it's crazy. I was like,"Uh yeah we'll be BFFS forevaaa." That's how I felt with Hermana Savage, too. 

Yay I love P-Day because I can hear from you all! And tell you about SUPER AWESOME things that happen during my week! (but I love the others days too, don't get me wrong! I just love er'thang)

So, I have been drinking Coke Zero like it's air. Actually not really, I drink more water now a days but I think it tastes so good for some reason. Also, I LOVE crunchy peanut butter like what I hated that stuff when I was back home. Missions do crazy things to you!

But, I do thank you Dad for teaching me how to cook. I see some of the things my companions eat and..I am just so thankful I was taught to cook.

We got a new companion on Tuesday named Sister Kershaw and she is just great! We get along very well and she is very outgoing. It is good.

Anywho, to the important stuff. SAMBALA GETS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! I am so excited! It is my first baptism and I actually was a help in her conversion! :D :D You can see the change in her and I love it! At church she is so happy and she is sad that I am leaving but I told her I'd write her letters and she could keep in touch with me on FB. The cool thing about the LDS religion is we aren't trying to force anything on anybody. We invite everyone to come to know for themselves if the Book of Mormon is the word of god, and then to act on what they learn and come to know. If you don't want to, that is perfectly okay! We just want everyone to have the opportunity to do so. Just to give everyone a chance to read, ponder, and pray about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. And I can say that I know his book to be true! I have put God to the test and He has answered my prayers to know if this is true. And I invite you all to do the same.

BUT something else AWESOME happened this week. We went to the Valle's house (a really big family I have told you about previously) and our last lesson before this was very discouraging. They were trying to mesh our beliefs with their catholic ones. And I was scared because that emans we had to go back and explain that we are not Catholic, and we are here with a purpose. So...with knots in our tummies, the three of us go to our appointment ready to pretty much tear their worlds apart. We were scared. We knew that this lesson would make it or break it with the family. And we love them all so much! So we are sitting in there and Lisa (the mom) asks us what we are learning today. And I had the feeling to open my mouth and start speaking. I had no idea what I was going to say, I just know I needed to open my mouth. So, I did. And words just flowed so smoothly to this family's hearts. Their hearts were definitely softened and they  listened to me. I felt the Spirit so strong and I was just talking. I don't even know what I said! I said a few things, and Lisa said that she knew that she had to choose, and she wants to read the Book of Mormon because she wants what we have; the warmth and happiness we bring to her home. She wants that. And if she can get it from that book, she would take that opportunity and act on it. She said she is having a hard time, there are a million things going on in her life right now, and I took that opportunity to bear my testimony to her. I felt the Spirit like a fire in my heart and I just sobbed to them, telling them I have also had a hard time, and I explained to them a little about my hard time, and said the only way I could have ever made it through that time in my life was by reading that book. It is because of that book that I am here. It is because of that book that I am happy, and that I can bear my afflictions with joy and happiness. Even though really crappy things happen to us all, we can be happy with the help of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon! And while I was telling her those things, the words "This is why you're here" kind of flowed into my head. I don't think that's the only reason I'm here in Chicago, but I know it is definitely one of the reasons. And I am so happy that I was able to share that with this family. It was great. I will never forget that experience.

The ward here is great. Well, I think so. (I will always love Copperwood the best.)

PLEASE REMEMBER during your hard times that you are a child of God, who loves you SO MUCH! And He is aware of you and your trials. You are not and will never be alone.

I love you all so much, and I know our reunion will be a sweet one. 

But right now I am doing the Lord's work, and in due time that time will be up, and soon I will go back to my normal life, hopefully changed, having seen and felt the love of Christ for me and others around me; for all of you.

The church is true.

Love,

Sister Indago Clarke

May 14, 2013

So I am still in Chicago. And I will be. I don't know how long it will take for my visa to come in, but I suppose my work here is not done. So that is okay. Anyway, I love it here. So I'm not complaining. Two Elders that are also going to Recife haven't gotten their visas either, but the two who are going to Menaus got theirs. I guess it depends on where you are going. BUT I am pretty sure we are getting our visas sometime VERY soon, our thing on our missionary websites changed from "Illinois Chicago Mission" to "Brazil Recife Mission" and all of us were put into trios because we could literally leave at any moment...so now I am anxious to know when I will take off and finally head down to Brasil! (The Recife transfers take place at a different time than ours do here in Chicago.)

And Mother's Day when I Skyped and said I was going to a Sox game in June...it's actually a CUBS game bahaha aren't you proud of my sportical knowledge? Yes, so am I. I really am a huge smartie XD

IT's pretty great out here. I just love being a missionary. I think it really hit me the other day. I finally felt like,"this is your life now." and it was easier for me to focus and think about the work. I see why we can't talk to our family and friends every day. We would never get any work done. But I am so thankful for all of you and the love and support you show me. I really believe I can be a great missionary! You guys are all awesome and don't forget it!

We are still teaching Sambala and holy cow do I love her and her family! Her daughter came to church with her and we planned on teaching Sambala about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, and her daughter stayed with us for the lesson as well. It was awesome because at first she seemed not too interested, but after we started teaching, you could see that she felt the Spirit and she wanted to learn more. It was an awesome experience, for all of us!

The Hermana's moved out :( They are sorely missed! Also, transfers happened, so we have some new people in our district. they are awesome, though and we get to meet them tomorrow in our District Meeting yay! Our new companion is named Sister Kershaw and she is cool. She is very nice so I am glad. We haven't gotten her bed yet, so I am giving her my bed to sleep on until it comes, I will sleep on the couch. I might set it on fire, though, because my body heats up to about 400 degrees when I sleep, I always need the window open so I don't die of heat stroke in my sleep!

We actually got a referral last week, her name is Mariah and she is ready to meet and ready to learn! It is kinda poopy because usually our referrals are jokes played on people or they don't really want to learn..but, all is well! We are still planting seeds and their hearts are being prepared. We just need to have faith that we will find those who are ready to learn and ready to be taught.

I am happy here and I am so glad I chose to serve a mission. I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my entire life!

You guys are all great and I miss you. Please remember everyone is a child of God and He loves them all! Even those meanies. Remember to have love for everyone, even though it is hard. I know it will bless you in your life! Thank you so much for all the emails and letters I am sent. I am so blessed to have all of you in my life. THE CHURCH IS TRUE! Which means the Book of Mormon is, also.

Love,

Sister Clarke

more from May 6, 2013

I want to play the ukelele when I get back how baller would that be? Speaking of ballers, Nephi is such a G! I was reading in the Book of Mormon and he was tied up for 4 days on a ship, and the ship was going crazy because of the storms on the ocean, AND his wrists and ankles were "swollen exceedingly" from being tied up. And you know what he did? He praised Heavenly Father the whole time, and was thankful for things and did not murmur! That made me want to be a better person, and I have been working on not murmuring. It has been going good, and actually makes everything better.

https://www.lds.org/youth/article/what-a-patriarchal-blessing-can-do-for-you?lang=eng

she bought this to dry her hair and really likes it i guess. xD

May 6, 2013

Aah this week has been great. My companion goes home in a couple weeks, so she is freaking out. We are complete opposites on our time out on our missions, she has 2 months left, and I have 16 haha!

But she is great. I try to help her as much as possible. She has helped me a lot out here, I can only hope that I have done the same for her.

So we actually had a member of the Quorum of the Twelve come to our mission and speak with us! It was AWESOME. Russell M. Nelson was there. I got to shake his hand. You could just feel the love he has for us the minute he walked into the room. His talk was AMAZING and I learned so much from it. I left that room wanting to be such a better person, a better missionary. We learned to "do the hard thing, even when you don't know how."

My companion and I have been teaching a lady by the name of Sambala. She is coming along so great! When we bear our testimonies, you can just see the light in her eyes that she knows what we are saying is true. After one of our lessons, she even said,"I can feel a warmness come into the room." THE HOLY GHOST! We taught her and her daughter about the Restoration yesterday and her daughter really wanted to learn more. When we left the church building, I shouted with joy! I was so excited! I even used my Tangled analogy. :D Sister Najarro and I even said to each other,"I have no idea what I was doing, I don't even know what I said." but it must have been from the Lord, because they understood and want to know more.

We also got in contact with that family I told you guys about before. We taught them the Restoration as well. They were so excited when we came over, they were all saying,"Yaayy! You guys are here!" And I felt so much love from them! They have a 5 year old named Matthew, 7 year old named Sophia, 15 year old named Meghan, 17 year old named Daphne, and a 22ish year old named Steven. Sophia was so excited that she was able to see us again, she gave us big hugs and she loves opening the Book of Mormon, even though she cannot read very well. But, she is such a great little girl. We watched the Restoration DVD and she asked her mom,"Mom! Mom! Can we read the book?!" What a sweet spirit! We invited her older sisters to mutual and they were very excited about going this week.

Speaking of mutual, the hermana's in our apartment were invited to participate in mutual and invited us to come too. What we did was talk about our missions and explain what we do as missionaries. It was great. I hope some of the kids there listened and were inspired to go and serve missions.

I love it out here. I will be torn in half once my visa comes! I don't know anything about it, but I should find out this week. I will know what is happening by Sunday.

Jade, one of the hermana's that is rooming with us has a brother that is your age ;) we said that the reason I came to Chicago was so you guys could find each other bahahaha (I thought it would be funny for everyone to read.) I can tell I will be friends with her for a long time. Her name is Hermana Savage, and she loves glitter, like I do. We go running every morning and we all get along so well. It is great! The other hermana is Hermana Jones. I love them so much! When they find an apartment, I will be sad. But we all 4 help each other out a lot.

My Portuguese is worse than it was when I left the MTC, but it is still pretty good. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for it.

I love you all and miss all of you. Your emails brighten my day! Till we meet again (:

Love,

Sister Indago Clarke