17th week

whats up family? hows the life in the good o' utah? so this week has just been just a crazy week. its been super fast. this whole transfer has been super fast it just seemed like it started and its already over. so elder curtis is going home in 2 days so i will be with the zone leaders for a week. it will be good and bad at the same time. good because we will be able to see single sisters. (your not aloud to see single sisters unless you have 3 people with you) and bad because the zone leaders are crazy! to get into leadership on this mission you have to brown nose. so the zone leaders and the ap's are always bragging about how many lessons they teach a week. and how many baptisms they have a month. its really geting on my nerves because we arent really teaching any investigators. we have alot of potentials.(people that we taught once but we cant seem to get a second appointment) so thats good and bad. because we see alot of less actives. but we wont get any baptisms off of that.

So elder curtis is super trunky. he is what we called checked out. so he is basically done. we are just seeing alot of people that are cool in the ward and taking pictures with them. this week we have been just doing alot of running around and kind of missionary work but kind of not.

so on wednesday we helped this lady move for like 6 hours. it was crazy how much stuff this lady had collected over the years. this lady lives in Mustang (my old area) so i kind of new here but kind of not. but elder curtis served in mustang about a year ago. so he knows all kinds of people in mustang. so this lady we got there about 10 and we just helped her put some stuff in boxes. and she had 2 bearded dragons! there about 2 feet long and there coverd in spikes. there skin feels like sand paper and they have spikes on there tail and beard. (hence the name) she got them out and put one on my shoulder. it immediately crawled up my arm and down my shirt! now these things have claws to climb with. and there sharp. so any way they said not to move because it could get angry. so im kind of freaking out. and everybody is laughing at me. those fetchers! they didnt even help me. it turned out cool. but still i was kind of scared for about 5 min. she bought us pizza for helping her and we totally earned that pizza it would have cost her so much money for a moving crew to come and help her. its fun to go out and serve somtimes. to just get in your service clothes and get out and work.

so on thursday we woke up and went and did a turkey bowl with the ward. it was fun we ran so hard and burned so many calories (wink) those oklahomas get really serious about there football. so they all had all this football gear like sticky gloves and cleats(shoes with the spikes) it was funny to see some of these people run. when there usually teaching sunday school. the elders Q president got really serious and he was so agressive. good thing he was on my team. one guy sprained his ankle but he can get over it.

after that about 11 we played a trukey bowl with the Taylor family. (mission presidents family) and the AP's and the sister missionarys. it was fun. not quite as agressive. but still fun. because we all aren't professional you can play any position you want. so i was safty part of the time and wide recever some of the time. i got two touch downs and pulled the flag off basicly everybody. i dont like to brag but i was basicly MVP. (wink) it was really fun to play with the president and his family.  o and so we played flag football right and the objective is to rip off the person with the ball flags off. so i was guarding one of the sisters. sister brown.( and just a fyi she is probably the best looking sister missionary i have ever seen.) so they passed her the ball and she had allready made like 5 touchdowns. because nobody wanted to touch her. so because im competitive i wasnt going to let here score again. so as soon as she got the ball i grabed her flags and pulled them down. along with her pants!  :o they didnt come off or any thing but it was still kind of awkward. just going to throw that out.

after the big turkey bowl. we went to the Goyas there an older couple in the ward. it wasnt my first choice for thanks giving. they had all kind of friends over. and they basicly didnt talk to us the whole time. me and elder curtis combined probably said 15 words. so it was just a dinner full of talking but they would even talk to us. it was probably the worst thanks giving i have ever had. and because there old they couldnt taste any thing so the food was just kind of bland.

but the next day we had a second thanks giving with the sorrels. there such a cool family. and they didnt have thanks giving on thanksgiving. because they wanted to have it with us. so that was really special. there one of my favorite familys in the ward. and there really good cooks. it kind of made up for the fist thanks giving. not that im ungratefull for the first one. but they could have just made an effort to talk to us. and we brought the uke to sing to them. and they didnt even pay attention to us singing. they mutted the tv but they still watched it. it was very lame. like we finnished singing and they didnt even notice for like 10 seconds. and there like thanks elders. that was good. but really they didnt even care.

So thats about it for this week im going to send you a letter tommorrow with some picturs in it. so be expecting somthing in the mail.

i love you guys so much you guys have the best week you can have. today is a gift thats why its called the present. so make the most of that gift. dont look back just keep moving forward. i will try to do the same. i know this gosple is true and i love the way we teach it. this mission is the bomb diggity. i love the way this church is set up. i couldnt see me doing any thing else at the time. being a missionary is the way to go. fo sho.

LOve you tons ELder payton clements.

 

16th week

so family hows it coming along. the whole life thing? this set of letters that you guys send me is super fantastic. just keep up the good work on those writing skills. i forgot to tell you how grateful i am that you all write me every week. because most elders only get one letter a week form there mom or dad. and then there siblings never write  them. so thank you all so much your the bomb diggity.

o and courtney before i forget its off of harry potter 5.

so im in the processes of writing you all letters. everyone that i can think of. the young men, young women, nana and papa, grandma and grandpa, the pizza factory, just any one that i think would miss me. (wink) so be expecting a letter soon. and just so you know soon in missionary terms will be like 3 weeks. wink, so because of this darn daylight savings time we cant track after dark and it gets dark around like 6 so we have to do lots of visiting people in the ward. and less/in actives. we visit about 12-15 a week and we just invite them to church and teach them a lesson. its fun getting to know people in the ward but its still frustrating because most people are set in there ways already. so because of our extra ordinary efforts. we had 9 less active familys at church on sunday(thats fricken sick) because we have a ward roster of about 600 people and only about 200 come to church. so if we got about 30 people come to church on sunday. thats like 20% increase. if we can just keep them coming and get even more to come. we could get this work going so hard. plus half the less actives are part member and if we can start teaching/ baptizing thouse partmember familys we could get baptisms like every week. elder Perry told us that we could be as successfull as south america if we work with the members and less actives.

and if that happens we could get the OKC mission split in half and it would become two missions. then we could get even more missionarys out here and our example would make other missions change and we could get the church membership up 57%!

but this is just wish full thinking. its kind of like the butter fly effect almost. So that wont happen for a while. but until then we will work our hardest to make that happen. there is a lot of cool people in oklahoma. but they call us (me and elder curtis) Utah mormons. so i dont really understand what that means yet but really there just jealous because they dont live in the mountain of the lord. wink. look up 2 nephi chapter 12 verse 2 and if you read down the page is spells out UTAH. its pretty cool.

so we went to a flea market and set up a both that gave away book of mormons. and pamplets we got alot of referrals from that but none in our area so that sucks. so lots of people want to here the Gospel but just not here in moore.

so on monday we played football. just two hand touch. it was so much fun it started to rain and it turned into a mud football match. we all got dirty but like best pday ever. we just whent home and got all showed up then had dinner with the sorrel family. its this single lady with like 12 kids. but all the kids are so sweet. there so funny and all under the age of 15. i dont know how she does it. but she manages to fed her kids and us. i took over the uke and played for the family. it went so good that we bring it to all of our appointments. and sing for everybody. people laugh and say thats the best missionary message we have ever got. so a bunch of the missionary's are going to get to gether and play for a talent show in December. it will be fun.

this mission is what i am supposed to do i really cant see myself doing any thing else right now. so elder forsyth went home about 3 weeks ago and he called on Thursday. and basically said that life sucks off the mission. he was so excited to go home but now he wishes he was back in the mission. he said its kind of like the RM he cant find a job, his girl that was writing him his hole mission has a boy friend. his parents are deaf so they only use sign language. and because he didnt use it all his mission. he cant even talk to his parents. and his singles ward has like 5 singles in it. so he just called up and just said that his life was better on his mission. and now he is lonley. we told him to just keep up the good work and just remember if you hit rock bottom all you can go is up.

so hows the rest of the family doing? how is Nana and papa did papa get his "demon cranes" done i would really like to see the picture of them. they sound really cool. but everything that papa make is very creative and cool. how is Nana's car? i was just asking because thats what most of our mission drives. that little chevy. its funny i like to drive them but i don't know if i would ever buy one. how is the whole family in st George? is dana still moved out and is the rest of the family doing well? i had a dream about the family down there and i woke up crying. that's the worst part about the mission is all the stupid dreams that you have. like i always dream that i  see you guys but then i wake up and your freaking 1200 miles away. just realize that i love you guys so much and care about you deeply. but this is only 2 years of my life so i can hadel it.

i love Jesus Christ and his infant atonement for all of us on this earth. i know that god knows each of us and cares so much for us. i know that the book of mormon is additional scripture that god has given us to teach us. and to be able to expand on his Gospel. i know that Joseph smith was a prophet of the lord and translated the book of mormon. and help restore the church that Christ set up on the earth. and this is the only true church on this earth. and i am part of this great work of spreading the gospel to people that need it in there life. every time i feel the spirit of the Holy Ghost i want to share the Gospel so much more.

i love you guys i will write you soon and i will send the tape to you. i recorded a couple of songs and how my weeks going. so hope you guys have a great week.

love you with all my heart

Elder Clements

15th week in Oklahoma

hola family

you know what song just popped in my head, when i think about rain i think about singing. when i think about singing ist a heavenly tune. when i think about heaven i think about angels. when i think about angels i think about you!

so you guys all wrote small letters. it depressing :( next week wright BIG letters! especially because i wrote this huge letter last week. elder curtis said it was D&C 139. so this week is good. nothing really going down.onmonday we played two hand touch football. it was so much fun, because we usually play basket ball and that get so boring! so it was good we got to switch it up.

so i got your package and the tape. it was fun to here your voices. i like you all (just so you know) mom your funny about your whole mad at the people pretending to be Mormons. its funny. i listened to it with elder curtis. and he thinks you guys are nuts.dad your funny about telling me about the A pond and the 47 lake what ever it is. but thats ok that what make you you. courtney you only talked for like five seconds. that made me sad. ithought you cared about me more than that. you  jk i love you. o laren you such a teenager. what more can i say. and i LOVE the hoodie its so soft and warm. its like my new best friend. but how come you bought a new one? why didnt you send one of my others out? just wondering.

 were still exercising during the morning. so im getting better in shape. so i came out on the mission field at about 160 and now im up to 180! i have gained 20lbs! because every one feeds us so good.i hate it and love it at the same time.

so im reading though the old Testament. because i was on excanges with elder adair. and he got sick so we basiclly stayed inside for like 6 hours. i read the whole book of Genesis and part of exodus. the old Testament is one of the crazyest books i have ever read. like first off the citys of sotom and gamora are destroyed by comets. and angels come to lot and tell him to get out of there. then some guys show up and want to beat up the angels. they run away and lots wife looks back and gets turned into salt. then lots daughters think that there the last people on the earth so they think they have to repopulate the planet. so they get there dad drunk and sleep with him. theres just some crazyness in it. i dont know if i will continue. maybe later when i have more time. like off my mission.

so just lots of tracking this week. its really starting to bum me out. just knocking on door after door and getting no after no. so were going to think of some creative ways to find people. i told you about how were going to start a stop smoking work shop right? well any way if i havent. this is the gist of it. there is a program that the church put out about how to stop smoking in 7 days. its 100% effective if you follow all the steps you get smoke free in a week. so were going to start teaching that about twice a week. and invite every body to join. and maybe they will just stop smoking and maybe they will hear some gospel and be interested in what we teach.

so to dinner appointments i bring the uke to play some songs. just as a thank you. we play armys of helaman. that has an extra thank you verse. its funny. everybody laughs at it. so im contuning to increase my talents on that. one of the other missionarys has a uke book that he is going to let me borrow. so hopefully i will learn some technique.

we helped this guy move on wed. it was crazy he is an investigator. with his wife. they lived in this huge house. and they had so much crap in that house you wouldnt even believe it. like 1000 pairs of shoes! and dresses out the wazoo. most clothes thay had were brand new. it was crazy. they had this garage just full of everything you could think of. sports equipment, furniture, computers, tvs, car parts, artwork (sculptures,paintings,pottory) it looked like the DI. mixed with NPS. there trying to sell the house for $600,000 and thats a ton for here in oklahoma. the houses here are so inexpensive. like a $50,000 house here in OK is like a $150,000 house in UT. so that house is like a two milliion dollar home! so every body here drives nice cars. because the houses are so cheap. i swear there is not a 10 year old car in oklahoma. every bodys has eather a camaro or a mustang. or a big truck. you can have tinted windows here in OK. so like every window has like black windows. its crazy. and it seams like everybody here is part of some indian tribe. every body has one indian tripe licence plate or the other. but theres not like any reservations here. they just live in normal towns. you can gamble here in oklahoma. so theres like 10 casinos that people go to. one of our recent converts works there. she works till like 3 in the morning. so its hard to get her and her family to church. there a cool family though. we go to see them like every week.

another family that we see is the pools family. there less active and were trying to get them to come back to church. he (the dad) just got out of the habit of coming to church so were trying to get him back in the habbit. they invite us over to teach and read scriptures with them like twice a week. they fed us dinner on friday. it was spagetti. (again) we get that about three time a week. any way they came to church yesterday so thats cool beans. hope fully they will continue to progress in the gospel.

so that about it for this week. i love you all so very much. you guys are the bomb

im just going to end with my testimony. i love this church so much, i know that my Savior and Redeemer lives. i know that this church is true and that Joseph smith was a prophet of god. i know that the book of Mormon is true and its scripture same as the bible. it has blessed me so much in this life. and i know it can bless others. i want to share what i have with other. and i want this whole world to know what i know.

love yall so very much.

Elder Clements.

ps thanks for every thing you do

love you.

14 weeks in Oklahoma

hi family and friends

so this week has been super sick awesome tight high flying terifficness! thats just to put it in one sentence. so the rest of pday was ok basket ball again so no big deal. on tuesday we were tracking and it was like 70. but then all of the sudden this big wind picked up and the temp droped to 46 in five min! it was the crazyest thing i have ever experienced. i was sweating and stuff and then all of the sudden i was freezing to death in a short sleeveshirt. just weird. any way the next day we were out knocking on doors (shocking!) and this little tiny baby kitty was meowing and coming up to us to get attention. it was so cute i almost threw up. jk lol. so we were going door to door and elder curtis started meowing and then i started to get really into it. and then just for fun started making angry cat noises. and this lady was like hello who is it. (behind the door) it was just an acward moment.

so because we do so much tracking we make up games wile were doing so. one of my favorites is were your comp picks a word that you wouldnt normally use in a sentence. like grass or bricks or fingers. and then in your conversation with the people at the door you try to use that word. and tye it into the gospel. like just look at the grass, just looking at the grass makes me think theres a god. its fun to play. and make the day go a hole lot smoother. so we are still geting fed every day. its fun to get to meet people and talk about stuff. you get to try a whole lot of interesting cooking. like there was this chicken stuffed inside a croissant and baked.  and every body serves GREEN BEANS. with every meal. o man im sick of those long skinny discusting vegatable.

so about the winter shoes i dont realy think i need any. it snows like once a year here. and when it snows were not suppost to go out side. so it would be a waist of money. but thanks for the offer.

so on saturday it was the most interesting day of my mission. so at first we had some great experences teaching some less actives. they wanted to come to church and stuff. and they said they miss the feeling of church. (sweet!) so elder L. Tom Perry. came and spoke to us at 6. to the whole steak not just the missionarys. and so we had to be there early. so we didnt have time to cook dinner. any way so i went to carls jr. and they gave me my food first, then they came out with the drink. they were two different people that gave me my stuff. so we drove away and just got out on the street. when i guy starts running and waving to us. we stop and he wasnt paying attention. and closelined himself on this pole. it was sad he got up and ran to the car and said you forgot your food. but then i kindly showed him the bag. it was really sad. because the guy just injured himself trying to serve me. so there you have it fokes. carls jr has the best customer service out there.

so after  CJ's we went to the curch and ate in the kitchen. and guess was eating at the same time? Elder perry! he came over and shaked our hands. asked us were we were from and how long we had been out. we talked for like five min. and then he put his arm around me and asked how many lessons we had this week. (O NO!) we had only had about 3 the whole week.  so i was stuttering and shaking. and he looked me in the eye and said you should be getting about 20. he asked if i thought i could do that? i said yes sir. and almost passed out again. i just go told whats what by an apostle of the lord! scary berry! that was crazy. i wouldnt recomend it.

so we went and herd him speak in the chapel. there was about 500 people there. and it was only for adults. he spoke about temple work and about covenants. he also talked about missionary work. he is a great speaker. it was a once in a life time experence. so after that we were all hungry so about 10 missionarys went to chillies. just to have a quick snack. it turned out to take like an hour and a half. and we got home latter than expected. zone leader came and told us to be more obedient. it made me feel terrible. because it wasnt planned at all. we couldnt controll how fast the food came out. so just bad news bears.

ok so dont panic or anything but we have had 4 earthquakes in the past 3 days. once on friday. twice on Saturday and another on sunday. on saturday it was a 5.6 and shook the whole house. things were falling off the wall. and elder soto ran away. he was scard to death. that was the first earth quake he has been through. so he ran to the volly ball court. it was funny. but the ground shook for like 30 seconds and was really crazy cool. i have never been in an earthquake that size befor. the others were really small like 4's and 3's. but still i thought oklahoma had tornados not earthquakes. nobody was injured i dont think so thats good.

any way. so hows life back home? how are the dogs? is it snowing allot out there? its like st george wether here(fall wether). how is the driving coming along lauren? im sorry that you threw up. thats bad. hope your feelingbetter. o those silly cats they need to learn to get along. o how was the garden in the end. did you get any crops?

any way i better get off there are alot of people waiting for the computer.

LOve you Elder clements

P.s i didnt get any letter form nana yet so hopfully its not lost or  i will get it soon.

a picture Payton drew

pictures from Payton's mission

                                                                          Elder Curtis from Logan

                                                 Baby Garbage can

                                                                       hat Nana sent him

                                                                   Jacob a little boy they baptized

                                                                  Jacob's baptism day

                                          Elder Forsyth (just went home) and Elder Soto

                                                   A girl coat Elder Soto bought hehe

                                                       Payton's face after he fainted

                                Elder Jacobs, Elder McMurry, Elder Curtis, And Elder Payton Clements