13th week in Oklahoma

so whats up.

things are going swell here. just lots and lots of missionary work. we are not teaching "the girls" any more, because there going to the singles ward because there technical "single". so thats kind of dumb. we are teaching this lady named sis steffens. she is a non member and she married a member. he is really cool and nice, and he just wants his wife to join the church. she is really not that interested. but she is doing this for marriage counseling or something. witch sucks on ice. because she isn't really committed. so we just gave an analogy about if your going on a diet your not going to have all kinds of junk food in your cupboard. your going to go at it hole heartedly. so we just encouraged her to just pretend that this is what she really wanted in her life. and go into all the way. because right now she isnt reading and doesn't really participate. so she isnt getting an answer to her prayer because she isnt doing the work.

really thats all our investigators, our area is slow. the members dont really give us referrals so we have to find people our selfs. which isnt a bad thing but true conversion needs to come with a friend. and the spirit. (we got the spirit part) so what we do is allot of tracking and seeing less actives. we have 400 people in the ward and only like 157 are active. so we just see them and how there doing and invite them to come to church and stuff. most of them we visit are like we just got out of the habit. and they really want to come back but its been so long that there feel uncomfortable.

so we ran into this guy yesterday and we started teaching him the first lesson. and he just comes out with all this anti Mormon stuff. and all this deep doctrine. so we anwserd his questions as best as we could but still hewasnt convinced. he said he would take a book of mormon and read form it but it just sounds like he wants to bash. there are anti mormon classes here. so it makes it really hard to teach people when they have all ready heard all these bad things about our church. like one class is called What to do if Mormons are on your door step? its really dumb. because people ask the same exact questions over and over again.

so on Friday we went to the temple. because one of Elder curtis' old investigator is going through. so curtis baptised him about a year ago so now he has been a member long enough that he could go through. the Oklahoma temple is beautiful. its really small though. its like a little mini temple. its about as big as like a church or even smaller. just one floor. its small but nice. it was build in like 2006 or something so its still pretty new. i havent been to the temple since the mtc. so i forgot allot of stuff. but still i learn every time i go there. the temple is so sweet! im glad we have the opportunity to go through the temple.

so i sent the letter on Saturday so hopefully it will come soon. it has a tape, a letter, a picture that i drew, a belt buckel, a bunch of pictures, and a Buffalo headed nickel. so hopefully you will enjoy all that.

so me and elder cutis is getting along good but. me and elder soto are not so good. he just keeps bugging me and hurting me. like he slaps me on the butt and pinches me and crap. its really starting to get on my nerves. i dont know what to do about it. because i tell him to stop nicely. but he thinks im joking with him. so i dont know wether i should just like yell at him or write him a note or something. because i sat him down and every thing and he just continues to ignore me.  his new comp is elder adair, he is really cool. he has been out for about 1 year. he has all kinds of just crazy stuff. that he caries with him. he belives in chee and stuff. and has all kind of meditating crap. but he isn't Asian at all. o well  life goes on. i havent really got to know him too well. becuse im trying to be 100% obedient and they get home late every night. so i dont have a chance to talk with him.

im continuing to go to the gym every morning. because elder curtis is going home in December. and going on a cruse so he wants to look his best so he can "slay some girls". its good that im staying active because im not in a bike area any more. so most missionary's get lazy in a car area. hopefully that wont happen to me. its so easy to gain weight here because every one here feeds you dessert. and its like a 3 course dessert to. like brownies and ice cream and then some cup cakes to take home. its really good and really bad.

so i dont thing im going to need a blanket. but maybe a sweater or a hoodie or something just for comp and personal study. it gets really cold when you get out of the shower. and if we run to the gym its cold at 6 in the morning as well. so like maybe the yellow fox one that i have or the red aropostal one. or something. just a happy one :)

the uke is going swell. i love playing it! its like the guitar but a hole lot sweeter and easier. this elder named elder Hanson is teaching me to play some really cools songs. he has been on his mission for like 18 months. and he has had the uke for 17 of those months. so he pretty good. i just learned i like to look for rainbows, and in the jungle(lion king).

that dang kc killing a deer. i hunted for like 3 years and didn't even get to shoot at one. but what ever im not mad.  >: (  jkjk so i went to a town called Chakta. and it is just full of turkeys! if your going to go hunting in Oklahoma  that's were you should go. its got lots of hills and lots of trees. its kind of a hick town but who cares right? that's were elder Curtis investigator lived so we went there after the temple for like some cake and stuff. but i saw like 10 turkeys in like a 15 min drive. so if i serve there i will be sure and make some friends that have big Fields. wink

Courtney and Zak i love yo so much you guys are my inspiration. when ever marriage comes up in a conversation i think of you two. and how i want to be allot like that. just keep up the good work. you crazy love birds. you should keep track of all the good movies that come out in the next two years and we will have a crazy cool movie party when i get home.

lauren you are one silly goose. i love you to. don't stress about the driving just relax have dad keep taking you out to practice. because practice makes perfect. i know the driving teacher can be intimidating but just act like you know what your doing. and listen to what he says. what other classes are you taking? how is the rest of your school going. are you getting it down pretty good? do you have all the teachers names memorized? just remember you only go through high school once so make the most of it! dont be a jerk to any one say hi to every one you know in the hall. don't exclude any one. look for people that need a friend and just talk to them ask them about there day. and you will be set. remember is better to be respected then popular. (just like john bytheway says) you are an extraordinary person Lauren don't forget that! i love you dont trip on the little stuff.

i love you all so much i will write you again soon. hopefully you will get my letter asap. its a good one.

When i see you smile, baby i can face the world, you know i can do any thing. when i see you smile i see a ray of light. i see it shining right though the rain.

your favorite missionary

Elder Payton Clements (cat fish)

 

12th week

hey famdamily

so life sounds fun back home. dont worry not as fun as the mission. but still i miss you guys. thats crazy you have been in primary for that long. it seems like you have only done it for like a year or two. so sunday school. thats going to be fun and a challenge. make the lessons fun. so people will pay attention. dad im glad you didnt get shot. those dang kids. any way. so mexico thats fun that your going but it still sucks that your going without me you crazy heads. you dont have to pick me up from the mission. we can just go to mexico instead. wink. so i am staying in moore for at least 6 more weeks. but it will more likely be 12 or 18. but who knows i know im in the lords hands and this is were he wants me. so elder packer came and spoke to us this week. it was on Thursday, it was good and long. lots of inspiration and spiritually high. but we stayed up talking tell like 1 o'clock. (it wont happen again) so we were all super sleepy. he talked about retaining your converts. and making a lasting conversion. it was really deep and awesome.

so im sending you a letter today. it has like 7 pics in it and a tape so it will be allot of awesomeness. sorry it took so long. im just so busy. and lazy when i comes to writing letters. i haven't gotten nanas package yet but hopefully it will be today or tomorrow. the mission office is really backed up right now because of all thats going on. so the mission office could have it, and they just haven't sent it out yet. so yea end of transfers have come. its crazy how fast time flys by here. back home a month takes for ever it just keeps going on and on. but here in the mission field time goes buy faster than race horse with rocket busters. (just throwing in some southern language) it seems like i just got here in moore. elder forsyth is going home on Wednesday. so he is basicly "checked out". that trunky monkey. so the last area i was in (mustang) is getting shut down! so the missionary work is stoped completely for at least 12 weeks. maybe even longer. elder Damon is getting sent to a different zone and he became a jr comp. so something must have happened. like really something bad. areas that big dont just get shut down like that. unless the members hate the missionary's there.

ive said this before and i will say it again. the members here are so sweet! they just love the missionarys. we are continuing to get fed every night and we have gotten 3 invites to thanks giving. we will have to go over for a sample dinner and see who is the best cook. (wink) but yea the members are all ways giving us stuff. like i got a Buffalo headed nickel form some members and they bought elder curtis a shirt, we get free 5 guys burgers and fries. and papa Murphy's when ever we want. because the members just hook us up.

no i haven't fainted again. so hopefully all is well with that. i will try and send you a video some how. but you will have to be patiant with me. thanks for the cds again. i listen to them allot. Cd's are a big thing here. so i bought some blanks to burn some of the cds that other elders have. its crazy when you cant listen to regular music. how much church music there is out there. like artist that i never herd of befor. and they sing so beautiful. i might haft to send some music home. just so you can feel the spirit im feeling.

i just finished the book of mormon. again but this is my  first time on a mission. its so great. i love the book of mormon! i just want to spend so much more time reading it. it has become my new bathroom reader.

so im still playing the uke. its such a sweet instrument. all the songs that you can play on it. and they are just so simple and soft sounding. we make up songs all the time. we made up one about elder forsyth going home, and one about how Soto uses Nair for men. lol. there is this tongan family in our ward. we went over for dinner with them and they taught me some sweet songs. they own like 10 ukes. one has mother of pearl in it. and it cost like $600. but it was so awesome sounding. some times i wish i was rich. jkjk i would rather be a missionary.

on Saturday we did help with the steak service project. it was form 8-12 and we just cleaned up this park. people in Oklahoma are disgusting! we cleaned up trash for 4 hour es. we had like 200 people there. and the park still looks like crap. better than it did before but still not like parks in UT. and some of the stuff you would pick up like seriously! i picked up 3 condoms a couple of tampons. some underwear. a couple of shoes. beer cans, a ugly sweater, a dog or fox skull, hundreds and hundreds of cigarette butts and some old hot dogs. wow it was crazy. this park probably hasn't been this clean since the day they opened it. its a huge park though. like 10 Base ball diamonds, a foot Ball Field, 2 soccer Fields, 3 playgrounds, a sledding hill, 20 picnics areas, and a skate park. i was surprised at all the people to show up. it was just as much as our steak projects if not More.

well so thats my life so far, i hope you all have a happy week. what are you going to do for Halloween? what are you guys going to dress up as? and are you going to carve a pumpkin? were going to next p-day.

love you guys so much! stay missionary spirited. all ways look for those opportunity in you life. help some one out. give away a Bof M. do some service for somebody. give the missionary's a referral. what ever you do. keep up the faith!

LOVE YOUR FAVORITE MISSIONARY

Elder Payton Clements

ps my new nick name is clameto.

11th week

whats up crazy cats

so life is good. just one big Gospel principles class on the move. hows the dogs and chuck? is snuggles dead yet jkjk.so things are ok here. not much is going on. just lots and lots of trackting. and people down here hate the missionarys. we get more door slams than anything. and the people that dont door slam want to bash. im geting pretty good at the whole my religion is better than yours game. just kidding. but seriously people take classes on how to yell at Mormons i swear. because you should here some of these folks. they know there bible inside and out. and you better know yours or you get screwed. elder cutis is very good at bashing. its like his favorite activity. and i know you should never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever bible bash! and if you do win. so yea thats really it.

ok so i went to the doctor. and he said no big deal. dont worry about it. unless it happens again then i should get like a brain scan and all kind of crap. i could have goten a slight concussions but again nothing to fret about. he said i just probably got light headed. and just fell. but if it happens again than i could have like a brain tumor and all kinds of just no good stuff so lets just pray it doesn't happen again.

so yea i bought a uke. its so sweet! i love the tune of it. and you cant play hard core music because its just so soft and island sounding. the actual uke was $110 so not to bad but the case and the book and was $60. i know i shouldn't spend money but i figured this will bring the spirit into lessons and just around the house. we cant have guitars on the mission so everybody that played guitar back home gets a uke so they have something to play. so like half the mission knows how to play a little. i learning pretty fast i can play most primary songs. my favorite is army's of helaman. and then come thou fount. i also learned how to play hotel California, my love is like a mango, happy (never shout never), banana pancakes, better together, and im yours. we take it to dinner appointments and play army's of helaman and an extra verses that like thank you for the food, its funny and people laugh and clap.

so yea the lesbians. every thing is going well (so far) with them. we havent taught them the law of chastity yet. and im scared spitless. we have this special book that teaches it and stuff. its called god loves everyone. so im going to study that up. we taught them the restoration and some more about the book of mormon. they came to church and stuff. and there bolth reading like crazy. there so excited about the gospel they visit Mormon. org and stuff and they watch all the videos on there. so thats good. but it sucks at the same time because they love each other and have been "married" for like 2 years. they want to get baptized but we haven set a date with them yet. hope fully they love the Gospel more than each other. dang that is hard to say.

well yea so elder forsythe is going home in like a week and a half.(my roommate) he is so trunky he is packing  all this crap up. you really get a lot of useless junk on your mission. and you cant take it all home so you just give it away. so i got some cool stuff from him. like this world war 2 poster, a hat, some speakers for my ipod, a electric shaver and some other usless crap that i will propably end up giving away.

so zack is going on his mission that so sick! i love you zak your the man. if your reading this remember that the mtc is what ever you make it. i could be the worst 3-6 weeks of your mission or the best. the first day your going to be scared and like this is so overwhelming. and that night you going to be like this is a mistake what did i get myself into. but just keep it on keep it on. dont drink the Orange Juice. (i will clean you out so fast) and play four square at least once or twice. look for hidden stuff (narnia holes) and save your money on your card and buy something good at the book store. zak if your reading this wright me a letter and tell me all that you got and stuff and i will tell you what your really need and things that would make your mission and mtc a whole lot better.

so dad your letters are so funny i can totally tell its you. your just funny about your fishing stories. dont get me wrong i love them! but its just funny. hows the duck hunt. surprisingly i miss hunting. i always liked it but i never thought i would miss it like this. o it was funny so the washer was going like at 5 in the morning. (elder soto that early bird) any way so i thought i herd shots going off. and im like o its just the duck hunt. and then i sat up and forgot were i was and forgot i was on a mission. and it was just a bad situation all around. it made me really home sick for like an hour. but its ok im over it.

lauren your funny to. you boy crazy pumped full of hormones teenager. its ok i was the same way. No not like that you sick o! i like girls! freak i thought i knew you better than that. jk any way. i know he could be dreamy and all that and a bag of chips. if he likes alyson let him go for it. because he might say other wise but right now you and other girls are just a number to them. they might really care about you at the time but after your just a number. im saying this from elder curtis. he agrees. he says yea i like girls that are open and free and  what not. but you should not be like that. dont worry about guys yet. if they don't wave at you dont worry about it. you will have plenty of time to get your heart riped out. just ask courney about jared.

courtney and zack thanks for writing me. your letters don't have to be long. i like them when they are. but its the thought that counts. i hope you feel better courtney. you guys should send me some pictures of your house and stuff. i love you guys. o yes we have member with us at like every appointment we have. so dont worry about that. the people hear are so willing to help out. so we have like 10 member presents a week. how was it like in Madagascar? what were the wards like or were they branches? were ther lots of inactives? and were they willing to let you guys in the house. how many B of Ms did you give away a week? and did you do alot of tracking. did you work with the bishop alot? any way love you guys with all my heart good luck with school and married life. and do you have any tips on living with some one? and how to get along with some one your with 24/7.

mom your the best mom a guy can ask for. just keep up the good work. dont worry about babys.(the kittens) im sure they got it. it will be a good experience for them to have pets and stuff. o and Oklahoma would make you so sad in some areas. there are just baby kittens everywere. just crying and skinny and dirty. im breaks my heart. i want to save them all. but i cant even save one.(we cant have pets) so yea thanks mom for writing me and for rasing such a great young man. i think i turned out awsome. im like the coolest person i know. this girl called me a hippster. (some one that's cool but doesn't try to be cool) like naturally cool person. any way i miss going to costa with you. yea the food was good but the time spent with you was even better.(aww)

LOve you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder payton Clements.

o here is a new acronym for you

milk

M. member

I. I'd

L. like to

K. kiss

10th week

waz up!

so yea your letters are great. i got the package. i loved the cds and the cd player . and that mac and cheese. o i forgot how good it was. on the cds you put the same song on there 3 times on each CD. kind of silly. o do you have the musical group eclips on the computer? if so you should send me some of that. and like the voice mail cd. but not right now latter. i printed off a couple of pictures to send to you guys so hopefully i remember to send them soon. i will buy a padded envelop so don't worry. any way this week has been good. lots of just idk different stuff. like we had exchanges twice this week. once with elder philips and another with elder soto. they are both Spanish speaking elders. it makes me jealous. but what ever. there teaching me a little just simple phrases and words. so after email on Monday we played basket ball. and i drew a picture of captin moroni. its sick! i will haft to send it home. i like the ward here its so great. they feed us every night and are always willing to help us out with the work. like this lady asked us what kind of food we needed. and we just said milk and some cereal. and she went out and bought us $200 worth of food! wow that was nice of her. we made a thank you card and but a bunch of missionary coupons in it. (like 1 free lawn mow) it was fun to make and i think she will really enjoy it. and this other lady hooked us up so hard, she gave us gym passes for anytime fitness! so we can go in what ever time we want. aww that's awesome.any way so we got this referral from church headquarters. and this lady wanted a book of mormon. so we look up her address and she is our next door neighbor. so we went over with a bom . and we started teaching her. and she accepted everything we said. and she was like this feels so right. and she said its like remembering. like she has herd it before. witch is fricken sick!!!!! so we were baring our testimonies and we were all just over come by the spirit. it was crazy good. so we set up a return appointment for Saturday. then we went and visited her again.(this is were it gets crazy) so she invited us in and we were just asking her about her day and stuff. and this other girl walks in the room. and was like hi Honey. and they start KISSING! I'm like what the fetch face is going on! there lesbians :( . so we teach them a lesson they still like our church and so now i dont know what to do. its going to be crazy teaching them the law of Chasity. I'm so scared. because there solid investigators. they want to be baptized and they came to church. so idk this is just to nuts for me. were going to have to do allot of praying and stuff.

so this is nuts. i was doing some personal study. and i was reading the ensign. and its about the book of mormon. it was so great. any way so i was studding my guts out. and then when i was finished i went to get a drink of water. i stood up and stretched then the next thing i remember i was on the ground. my face and neck hurt. and there was blood on my hands. im like what the heck just happened. and elder curtis was just standing over me asking me is i was ok. he said i just looked at him and my eyes rolled in the back of my head and i just passed out. then i hit my head on the ground and rolled over and started shaking and twitching. this went on for about 10 seconds then i sat up and asked what the heck is going on? it was the dumbest thing thats ever happend. so now i got a couple of bruises and scape's on my face. I'm so pissed off. I'm mean who does that? really? hopefully that doesnt happen again. i feel like king lamoni and just was over come with the spirit. people say i begin to stinkith but i say i doth not stink. jk any way im going to see a doc today and see if anything is wrong.

well life sounds great back home. Lauren just remember who you are and what you stand for. dont change for your friends. change because you want to. and if you do change, change for the better. i love you so much your the greatest little sister a missionary could ask for. courtney i love you too. keep up the good work. i could see you being general relief society president in the near future. you inpire me to always be a good obedient missionary. i love you so much. your the greatest older sister i could ask for. i hate to admit it but your better than me. (oww o wow stab in the heart JK)

mom and dad i love you guys so much your the best parents i know! just like listing to the other missionary's talk about there home life im like wow i got the best parents ever! what ever your secret is you need to share it with more people. like wright a book or something. because your kids are the bomb! i love you guys with all my heart hope to die stick a pin in my eye. kind of love keep on with that duck hunt dad. dont get to stressed out. there just ducks. just remember what bobby micfaren said. cus when you worry your face will frown, and that will bring every body down so don't worry, be happy.

love you all

Elder Payton Clements.

9th week in Oklahoma

so hows the fam? this is payton just so you know. o wait no this is elder clements. i think i have a split personality. when im doing the work I'm elder clements and im all spiritual and everything i do is guided by the holy ghost. i love every one i come in contact with, and the Gospel is number one. then theres Payton he is the guy you used to know he is crazy and funny a little awkward, but sweet. so i keep switching between the two. i dont know which one i like more. we ate at this family's house and they have like 6 R.M.s in the family. so they are like just telling us about life after the mission. so there is this thing called mission humor. where the things we laugh about are just really from the Scriptures or from what some on from the church says. its not dirty at all and just plain humor. we all laugh at the house about it. and we think were so funny. but then we went to this one house and no one was laughing. but us as as district.(all four of us that live together) were laughing our heads off. so when i get home nothing will make sense any more.

so this week has gone by so slow. everything is just not going so well. first off on Monday the basket ball court was closed so everybody was pissed off. i liked it because i dont like B-Ball. so we played beach volleyball. i thought it was a blast but all the other elders went to happy the rest of the day. then we had this awesome (GOLDEN) investigator that we have been teaching for like 2 weeks. just up and left the face of the earth. we don't know were she went. whats her phone number. her address anything. so hopefully she will just show up one day. like we went to her house and sone guy awnsered the door and sayed o she moved out yesterday. and he wasn't very willing to give us any information that he had. we had LTM (leadership training meeting) but i wasn't invited so i had to go on exchanges with a guy named elder Jacobs. for two days. he is a little crazy. the way i would describe him is as a Hummer (car) big, loud, annoying, hard to get going, and a complainer when you push to hard. we didn't have a car so we had to bike. his area that he works in is huge! so we ended up biking 46 miles in 2 days. my legs are killing me peete.(name that movie) we had dinner with this guy and he was trained by chuck noris. in the art of being awesome! he has a wolf as a pet, a corvette as a car, swords hanging on the wall, 3rd rank black belt (ninja status) and he has a gun case with all kinds of the deadliest guns i have ever seen. he had a picture and signature of chuck noris on the wall and i got a paper cut just looking at it.

well me and elder curtis get along pretty good. its had to be with some one 24/7 so even if we were like a perfect match for each other (not like that) we would still fight. but this is cake and ice cream compared with last transfer. speaking of cake and ice cream. we eat so much dessert here its not even funny. like we Had brownies ice cream and cake and donuts yesterday. i feal so fat and unhealthy. we are still exercising and doing lots of work but still.

IM in love with conference now! it was the best conference i have ever seen. i paid attention the who time and took notes. and i got so much revelation. im on this crazy cool awsome fantastic spiritual high. i cant even hold it in. it was like a spiritual punch to the face. i loved all the talks, the one about the book of mormon and how he did the dot thing. O BABY i loved it. its like what we talk about everyday as missionarys. i was like fist pump. this guy is legit. o and lauren that one talk about geniology and how its for the younger generation i was thinking about you the whole time. and how your Patriarchal blessing says that kind of stuff. and courtney and zack that talk about having kids and the one about rasing your daughter. im like wow this is for our family! i cant wait for it to come out in the ensign.

i didn't get a package yet. or grandmas letter so hopefully it will come today. i will be sure to write you guys and send you some pics. o nana thanks for that hat i was doing some lawn mowing for an investigator and that hat helped so much i love it! the calender is cool to were did you find that at? any way thanks for writing me the work goes a whole lot smoother when you get letters. and packages.

that's cool that tabie and malorie got engaged I'm so excited for them. are you doing there pictures mom? if so you should send me some. the time here is just flying by i have to write in my journal just so i can remeber it all. it just seems like last week i was leaving for the mtc.

I'm learning to play the Uke (ukulele) i cant spell. elder forsyth and elder soto are teaching me. you cant have a guitar here so i have to do something. its so easy to write songs with that thing. here one that we made up.

Lara-a-a-a why cant you just write me a letter because life would be so easy stop your joking and your teasing come on girl you can write me a letter. i didnt get a letter today, i feel like my life is slipping away but from the lord above i though this was true love but i guess not because you aint writing me a letter.

how mad would you be if i bought one for myself?

well any way i love you all so very much

choose the sprite when a coke is placed before you.

love your favorite missionary and you loving son, brother, grandson, friend.

ELDER PAYTON CLEMENTS