"....and just trying to do my best."

Hey Family!

Well yet another week on the mish! This week was kind of slow all and all. there were some pretty good experiences this week, but in a way it was kind of frustrating. I know every week can't be super exciting and full of success, so I'm just gonna be patient and take one week at a time, and just trying to do my best.

Me and Elder Pastor are working very well together. I don't think I've mentioned this, but I've heard that it's pretty hard to go from your first companion to your 2nd because your trainer has taught you to teach a certain way, and then when you get to your second companion he teaches you to teach in a whole different way. That's kind of what happened, but I have not been fighting against it at all. I'm taking what I can learn from him and using that with what I have learned from my trainer, Elder Alldredge. It's pretty cool to see how embracing two styles can really increase teaching effectiveness. It really is something

To answer a couple questions that Dad asked about Elder Pastor. He is actually from Madrid Spain. He does have a "Theta" (I think that is what it's called) when he speaks spanish. It's pretty funny to hear him speak that way. He says that Mexican spanish is way different, and that he has to speak slowly to them because it's that different. Plus he says lots of English words have worked into Mexican spanish like "Movar" to say "To move". It's pretty funny. He told me a lot of stories of his past and what he used to do in spain. He said he went to a lot of dances that were in the local clubs in Spain. He also says that he watched a lot of Simpsons. It's really funny to rattle off some Simpsons quotes because he gets to hear what the Simpsons sound like in English. He then tells me what the translaters say in Spanish. For example: On the episode where N'Sync made a guest appearance there is this part where Milhouse says "It's N'Sync!", N'Sync comes in and one of them says "Word!" Elder Pastor didn't understand why he said "Word." "What does that mean?" he asked. I told him it's the same as saying "Dude" or "Yeah!" He understood and I asked him what they said in spanish. He said they said something like "Que hay!" I thought that was halerious, so anytime I walk into a room or something I look at Pastor and say "Que Hay!"

So in Work news we did a lot of tracting this week. Like I said it was kind of frustrating because we got a lot of people getting mad at us. This one lady pulled in as we were knocking on her door. She had a dog inside that was barking at the time and she said "What are you doing? You guys messing with my dog or something?" I explained what we were doing and she got short with me and said "No, get out of here, don't you ever mess with my dog again!" Yeah lady, you caught us. We were taunting your dog by knocking on the door. :P Pff. Me and Elder Pastor made jokes about that the whole day that day. Elder Pastor would knock on a door and if a dog started barking I would yell "Elder Pastor! Stop messing with the dog!" Heh Ohhh the halerity ^_^. We had maybe 1 or 2 people be nice to us, and one of them we had a good chat with. I have a good feeling that she may invistigate the church sometime. I don't know, maybe we planted a couple of seeds this week, who knows. I'm just going to put my faith in the Lord and continue forward.

This week actually we got in with 1 less active family and a Part member family that we normally don't get in with. One part member family, The Hansens, are really nice people. The Father,who is not a member, works for Disney Land and also volunteers for the fire department that they have in Disney Land as well. He showed us videos that he took with his sweet High definition video camara made by V-Hold (Dad you should check them out). It was a camara that he was able to attatch to his helmet and take video of him doing training against kitchen fires and such. It was really cool to watch. I especially like how all the firefighters had the word "Disney" written on their uniforms. It was funny ^_^. We got them to let us come a couple more times to start giving the discussions. The Father is a Catholic, but only because he was born that way. He says he doesn't like some of the hypocrasy and such, so it seems like he's really interested in hearing what we believe. The wife is very strong in the church, so I think that she will be a great aid for us because she can bare testimony and be a good example for him.

We also got in with the Mersola Family. This is a very interesting case. The Father is borderline Athiest and the Mother discribed herself as a "Jack Mormon". She said this when she was telling us how good she was at Black Jack and how she was able to either brake even or gain lots of money. Apparantly when she was around 14 years old she was beginning to be a bit rebilious. She was skipping school and other little rebellious things like that. The bishop told her that she was kind of straying on to the wrong path and this offended her, and so she had never been to church since. She also had a big problem with the church telling her to vote for Prop 8. She is quite the open minded individual and she believes that Gay people have just as much right to marry as straight people do. I really admire that, but sometimes that kind of attitude can really cause corruption and lead to other things that may be straying from the path. She also told us that her son was on the baseball team and that he was good at every position. She said that she trained him how to not be afraid of the ball by chucking balls at him. She said that it may sound abbusive, but that it did cure him of his fear and now he is a very great baseball player. Already with this lady I am sensing a great bit of pride. I hope that we can help her out. She has a strong testimony of Jesus Christ and she really enjoys our visits. We'll see what will happen with them.

I'm really supprised to see the ammount of less active people that I have come in contact with leave the church because of being offended. In fact, EVERY less active family I have met with left because of being offended. It's usually a combined case of members persicuting those who are different, and the less active person being easily offended. I really wish that members would realize that we should love all of our brothers and sisters, and not judge them for their weaknesses or follies, but rather love and support them, and I really wish that those who fall away could realize that it's not the members that make the church. It's Jesus Christ, who is the chief cornerstone of our church that reigns at the head. Oh what a different world we would live in if that were the case, however we are all not perfect, and I forgive them, and I will do my best to love and support all of them the best that I can.

Well that's enough of me rambling. I gonna talk to you guys seperately. "You gotta keep em seperated" (Offspring quote) XD

Mom: Thank you so much for keeping me updated with how everyone at DFS is doing. It really warms my heart to know how much of an impact I've made with these people. I think I will try to write them a letter, just to let them know that I am thinking about them. Let them know that I am still thinking about them. I admit I haven't really had that much time to practice my forms, but I will try to practice them just to keep the moves fresh in my mind ^_^;. I'm glad that Chris is really learning, and I hope that he does well in the Marines. He is a strong willed man and I know he will do great in whatever he puts his mind to. I hope you have an awesome time at that conference. I'm glad you get the oppurtunity to sing in the choir. I actually get to sing in the ward choir during a special stake conference where one of the 70 is coming into town to speak to all of us on May 3rd. It's going to be an awesome experience. Elder Pastor may actually sing with me too, since he has a good voice as well. Well glad that everything is going well and you are enjoying spring. I hear that Summer is really hot here in southern California, but not nearly as humid as Georgia. Guess I'll find out soon enough eh ^_^;;. I Love you mom and I can't wait until Mother's day as well ^_^.

Dad: Glad to hear everything was going well with you. Thanks for sharing another one of your mission stories with me. I hope that if that happens to me, that I will be a fit enough "referee" to help the couple out ^_^;. I also really enjoyed reading about your open mic night with Al. I so wish I could've been there when you layed down some Phat slab bass beats man! Ahh, I bet you felt like the coolest guy in the club, the cats pajamas, the bees knees 8). (that's a smiley with sunglasses by the way XD). Anyway glad to hear everything is going good. Hope you have an EXCELLENT week *guitar solo*. I love you dad

Rachel: Hope all is going well with you and Brady. I printed out the picture of you on horse back. I'm so glad you go that oppurtunity to bring back memories of you when you were 5 ^_^. Hope you do well in school. I know you can do it sis. DO IT FOR STAKE! heheh ^_^ I love you sister more then wards can say.

I love you all. Take care!

-Elder Clark