21st Week!

hi family

its been about 2 days since Ive talked to you last. (just in case you forgot) things are going well as all ways.nothing super new to talk to you about since Sunday but yea.

so here are a couple of things we did last week. on pday we played basket ball again. (shocking!) but we were going to go to an ostyology museum. (bone museum) but because were running out of miles we didn't end up going. i brought my uke to pday and just ended up practicing for about 3 hours. it was fun but boring at the same time. this week was really just a vacation. because we were not aloud to work for Saturday Sunday and Monday. and on Friday we had district meeting and a party. and on Thursday we ended up moving a family out of the ward all day. so not a whole lot of work going down. but this week its go time! were making our days super busy and trying to find as many people to teach as possible.

on Saturday we couldn't leave our apartment unless we had a set appointment. so because no one invited us over we had the Spanish elders and out district leader come over and we ended up playing cards for like 4 hours. it was really fun. Ive never played poker before so they taught me the "rules of engagement" beginners luck was with me and i ended up winning for 3/4's of the game. we played with change. (which all happened to be mine because you seem to find change everywhere on your mission) so we divided it equally between the 10 of us. it was crazy and fun. but if it had been real and we were playing for keeps. i would have lost all my money. so that's why you don't gamble! way to go Gordon!

So that night we ended up sleeping under the Christmas tree. and played freeze out! we oped up all the windows and turned the fans on and slept on the floor. it was elder Carl's idea. (it should be mentioned here he is from Canada) and it was one of the coldest nights of my life. it was about 15 degrees out side. and when we woke up in the morning we had frost on the couch and the carpet and the Christmas tree. we woke up and opened the things we got. it was kind of like being a little kid again. but we slept most of the night. unlike back home. we made hot chocolate and a mountain man breakfast. with the hash browns and the eggs and the sausage. it was the best breakfast on my mission. we also ate Tim tam slams. witch is were you take hot chocolate and suck it through a cookie. the cookie is like a sponge and it just absorbs the hot chocolate. and then you shove it in your mouth before it falls apart on you. their supper good. and about 300 calories a piece.

after that we went to church. and watched the Christmas program. they had a stake quire. and it is the first church quire that actually sounded great (besides mo tab) i was really impressed. on how the program turned out. the bishop invited us to lunch. because he bought his kids uke's and wanted me to help them out. in learning and tuning. o and this was crazy they asked me to do a lesson on modesty for there girls. and the girls are like less than 10 years old. it was just a awkward lesson. because they didnt really know what I'm talking about. i couldn't use alot of references and i had to explain everything in very simple terms. so because im rather smart and funny (and humble, wink) i made a song to go with it at the end. it was along the lines of modesty... is hottesty... dont show of your bodesty... that what i call modesty.  keep your skin nice and covered. so people don't say O brother.. and so.

they all thought it was funny. and the bishop got a real kick out of it. then bishop decide to bust out the remote control cars. and there super fast and basicly indestructible. they can flip over and still keep going. and they can go up to 35 MPH. we played with those for about an hour. and that really why i was late to call you on Sunday.

then after that we went to dinner with a less active family. witch scared me. because they signed up when they were active and then shortly after they stop ed coming to church. so i basically though we wernt going to get fed on Christmas. but they ended up pulling through. and they fed us Hawaiian. it was good. but not the traditional Christmas dinner.

so hows the Ipad 2? is it everything you ever wanted and more? but really im super jealos. that so cool. they use ipad's in some parts of the country for missionarys. they all get one and they  teach the plan of salvation and restoration on them. its pretty sweet. i hope they get thoughs for our mission soon. wink.

what else did you do on christmas? how was chrismas eve? what was one of the funnest things about st. george? did any funny things happen? (fell on the ice, crazy gifts, etc) i mean i told you alot about my life on the phone but i want to here about your life. how's school lauren? what dose this guy look like that wants to ask you out for your birthday? does he know that i could take him out from here? if not tell him! (how you ask O i have my ways, i got people) jk that really great that you got a 4.0 im so proud of you. somthing i havet goten, yet. it sounds like you guys are having alot of fun.

Dad< so on the video did you really kill a goose right there? i dont think so. but did you have to do a couple of takes on that. and were the shells expencive? plus who was filming? idk let me know.

mom that movie was so funny. i loved it. everybody was like saying that you should make them movies and stuff. but i dont know if you would like that? so i just said mabey. you filming the cat was so funny. i got alot of crap for that. and some of our extended family is crazy! but i love them. it makes me glad to see them. that like one of my most favorite christmas gifts.

well any way i hope this letter is long enough for you.

LOve your favorite missionary

Elder clements.

P.S. 57

we just got a package :0

 Elder Clements Loves Oreo's just saying

 Elder Curtis and Elder Clements Put up all these chairs for Elder Perry

 Elder Soto and all his wonderful Flair

 The Sorrel family

 I guess Elder Soto is a hit-er sooo……..

 Elder Curtis going home

 Elder Curtis

 Oklahoma Temple

 Elder Clements, Elder McMurry and Elder Soto

 Carmel apple

 Elder Soto glued Paytons hands together

 Dakota STREET YEA!

 Elder Soto's hat

 District Picture

 Had to have the glue removed surgically

Elder Clements drew this after he went to the temple
Knights he got your letter and he says thanks so much…..and the Young women he got your letter as well….he says  he's got ADD haha so he'll try and write more.  And thanks grandma for the Package he's had fun opening all the gifts for the 12 days of Christmas :)

almost 6 months

hey family

first off i want to thank all of you. i have gotten 3 packages so i hope thats it. 2 from the clements family and one from a store. i sent you guys a package and the projected date said it will arrive today. so hopefully you get it. its just got a letter and the tape i recorded like 3 weeks ago. and some other cool stuff that you seem to collect on the miss.

so the weather here is good and bad. so we haven't gotten but 1 inch of snow this winter. its basicly like september in utah. just some rain and some cold. some mornings its fricken freezing! but it seems to warm up a little. i check the weather in utah on a phone service called tell me. you guys seem to have it alot tougher than i do. its cold when we track. but other than that its pretty fine. one night we were just walking down the street to some ladys house. it was so cold! i swear its the coldest i have ever been. like when we go duck hunting and my boots get water in them. it was kind of like that. because it was misting. like i only have seen it in oklahoma. but it doesnt really seem like its raining but when you touch your clothes there soak-en. its crazy beans. it's the worst weather. because your not even expecting it.

well heres a little about my companion elder young. hes from lapoint Ut? yea i have never heard of it either.  he's a down home country boy through and through. he lived on a ranch. his favorite thing to do is hunt. he has camo PJ's and Elk print sheets. he said y'all before he came to oklahoma. and he has a thick Utah accent. weird to think about but its true. elder soto has a hard time under standing him. he is very obedient. like down to the T on everything. witch is good. but bad at the same time. because he is constantly looking at the white hand book (the rule book) to make sure what were doing is ok. like he thinks some of the ties i have are unapproved. its kind of hard. because you know i dontlike people telling me what to do, especially if i know im suppose to do them.  Idk "we can work it out", just like the beatles song say's. im so used to listening to music in the car and around the house. but elder young doesnt like music. he cant think when he's listen to a song. so like even at like dinner he doesnt want music because he cant think and chew at the same time? i dont know. what can you do? nothing!  just learn to love him the way he is!

but he's a really good missionary. i teach alot more with him, than with elder curtis. because were on the same level and elder curtis was way above me you know. we had a super sick spiritual lesson on friday. we had dinner with thegodfree family. they just moved in so i didnt know them until that night. they fed us Cafe RIo. it was the best Cafe rio i have had in 5 months. they also fed us MAGARIDAS! (dont worry they were virgin) but they invited their non member friends over. and we taught them about when jesus when he came to the america's in 3 nephi chapter 11. everyone was crying their eyes out. The spirit was so stong you could almost see it.

you know when you have the spirit with you and you get that spiritual high. man ive never gotten so high in my life! its like one of those spiritually/ physically draining lessons. like you litteraly go out of ther feeling like you ran a mile. but so good. they will probably get baptized in 6 months.

o speaking of margaritas. did you know i have broken the word of wisdom 3 times on my mission? not on purpose of course. but the first time it was in mustang and some guy gave us wine. but didnt tell us untill after ward. and the second time a member fed  us sweet tea during dinner. and when they asked us for more we said yes. and then they bought out the container and it was like strawberry sweet tea on the side. the third time was this week. so we had lunch with a member. and he took us to this new authentic Italian restaurant. it was so good. and the member knew the owner. he said we could get what ever we wanted. and then after that he bought us dessert. so the waiter told us what the dessert's were. and i just picked one that sounded good. they brought this cake thing out and it had chocolate and caramel. and some cool cake on the bottom. so i started eating it and i thought it smelled familar. so i kept eating because it was really good. after lunch we had a prayer with the member and during the prayer i remembered what was so familiar about that cake. it was soaked in coffee! because it was bitter and sweet. but man o man this whole word of wisdomis killing me, satan likes to trick the missionaries.

we are continuing to do alot of missionary work just tracking and visiting less actives. the Christmas season is hard. because alot of people think we dont believe in Christmas. (thats  Jehovah witnesses) and they dont want to talk to us because familys over and stuff like that. some guy yelled at us and asked us if Jesus would knock on his door and bother him. i said "probably". it was funny. he just slammed the door.

so Christmas is coming up and we are just looking for people to have us over. because were not allowed to do work on Christmas the day before or the day after. so were just thinking of things to do. the mcbrides have us for dinner. but they decided to go less active so hopfully they will still feed us even though they dont come to church.

o so yesterday we went to a less actives house to bring them some cookies. and the wife is outside and she's just hacking away at a tree in her front yard. with a electric chain saw. so because elder young knows how to do tree work. he helped her cut it down. man that guys a monkey. he just scaled up the tree with a chain saw in his hands. and just started cutting lims off. the wife was like yelling at him and telling him to be carefull. you know just like any mother would. but it was a good thing we came over because the tree was  going to fall on her house if she would have continued to cut it like whe was.

well that basicly it for my week. i loved your guys letters. those hooligans in your class better behave or there going to have a very strongly worded letter on there door step in three days. lauren your letter made people think im crazy. because i just burst out laughing on three different parts. idk. this is your best letter yet lauren. courtney. your the bomb i was just kidding. i know your busy. but thanks for writing me.

love you guys so much and i will talk to you on christmas.

i wont be able to skype. unless some pretends to be deaf. that way i have to "sign to you"

but that wont be an option. i will call your cell and you can call me back or somthing. idk how it really works out. i think it will be after church but IDK.

love you so much

ELder Clements.

5 1/2 months out :) YEA ME!

Lauren and Payton got a Cd set at the Library and they started learning Swahili just for fun just in case Payton got called to South Africa on his mission so it's pretty crazy cool that it helps get him in the door this week!!! The church is true :)

hi family

so sorry i couldnt email that long last week. it was just crazy and stupid . some guy invited us to lunch and then he didnt even end up feeding us. we just watched him shop for about 4 hours. it was dumb because we weren't even suppostto go with him becuase he wasnt in our ward. so yea any way the weather last week sounds crazy. everything is still ok? right. that cool about finding that little boy. i have know dought in my mind that prayer works. we use it all the time as missionarys. and it always seems like the Lord is watching over us.

so yea i got my new comp. his name is elder young (idk if he is related to Brigham) he's a real country boy. he grew up in Lapoint UT. population less than 300. hes really into hunting and fishing (go figure) and his dad is a elk hunting guild for the book cliffs. he's got camo PJ's camo hats a elk horn belt buckel. a ctr ring that has elk ivory in it. man this guy is the typical guy you see shoping at cabelas. he's a good guy though. he's 21 allready so hes alot older than most. he's 6'4 so i feal short buy him. his parents are divorced so he has 19 brothers and sisters (including step) so a big family. its kind of funny all of my comps so far have had there parents divorced. i wonder if thats suppost to meansomething? idk.

so any way we work really hard. elder curtis was a good guy and all but he was just trunky a little and ready to go home. so this transfer is kind of a good punch in the mouth. this guy is by the book on everything. he will probably be district leader next transfer. hes a little shy around people. so kind of like me but im getting better.

so on wednesday we had the ward party. it was good. not as good as the partys back home. but you know what can you do. we had about 200 people show up. so that was good. all the food was gone by the end. so that was a bigsupprise to everyone. this ward is legit though. we had about 15 investigators there,  that members had brought. so thats really good. were checking up on them and teaching a couple. member refferals are a missionarys dream. because there usually the members friends that allready know a little about the church. and they already realize that mormons are normal people. so if you could think of somebody that need the gospel in there lives. give the missionarys a haller.

we met with the bishop on sunday morning and talked about what we could do as missionarys to help him out. he gave us a list of people that we need to visit. and he gave us a refferal from his neighbor.(sorry cant spell) and then he asked us if we would like to talk in sacrament meeting. so were like sure well talk next sunday. and he said o no i  mean today. so he gave us a 10 min notice on what we need to talk about. we only had to speak for about 7 min a piece. but still you know how i get in public speaking. i need time to prepare .i didnt even tell a joke at the first.i talked about Christ and the Christmas season. and why we all need to share the gospel with others. elder young talked about coming unto Christ and charity.  they were super good talks. if i do say so myself. everybody came up and told us that they were fantastic. and they felt the spirit very strongly when we spoke.

the bishop came up to  us after and said. it was fate that the high priests had to cancel that day. and that our talks were what people really need to here at that time. so overall a good day at church.

after church we got a call from a member and said she gave a lady a ride. and the lady was interested in learning more about the church. so we go and talk to this lady. she starts to tell us she's from SOUTH AFRICA! and she speaksswahili!!!!!!! so being the prepared boy scout that i was. i asked her habarigandi? she was so impressed she let us in the door. and we taught her the first lesson. she want's her kids to have religion in there lives right now. and so we are now teaching the whole family! O this is so amazing. this gospel is the best! we talked about how we go on missions. and what we do for two years.  she told us she had great respect for us and said she would like her son to go on a mission! first we need to baptize him but that will be the easy part. (wink) we gave them three copies of the book of mormon. because they they all want to read it as a family. and they dont want it for there personal study. its kind of like when we had two harry potter books so that two of us could read it at  the same time.

idk just a spiritual high all this week.

lauren mario says WHA YA WHAHOOOO! and speaking of mario we have an elder thats from Guatemala. and when he speaks he sound just like a mario. hello yesa ist me elder mathine. its funny. hes still learning english so its hard to under stand him some times but yea. just remember lauren who you are and what you stand for. your the most consitant writer of my siblings. wink sorry court its true :) just remember lifes a dance you learn as you go. some times you lead sometimes you follow. dont trip on the little stuff and i will talk to you on christmas.

wow mom your the best. your always caring about others. four time's to st george in two months. thats some crazy shiz. i bet you know all the best stops buy now. your probably sick of wendys. and your plain hamburger with ketchuponly, and a bake potato. wink. just remember to not get to stressed out. there your family they will under stand if it take longer than usual. dont stress on the christmas either. its only the most wonderfull time of ther year. so dont blow it.jk jk jk really dont worry.

 

dad the duck hunting sounds great. how many times have you gone this year? have you killed any geese yet? we have and elder  from canada that lives with us. his name is elder carl. and he so sick of killing geese its not even funny. he says you can like limit out every day were hes from. and he said that you can hunt moose and just buy the tag over the counter. thats crazy because its once in a life time in utah. you just keep doing what your doing. keep being the best father i ever had. (because really i have 2 dads. elder damon is technically my mission father) any way just keep though's elder's in line. make sure that you do your home teaching. and encourage every body to do theres as well. thatswhat keeps people on the strait and narrow. you would be surprised how many less actives there are out there. dont make another because you or some one in the quorum forget to do there home teaching. i know that your  doing whatsright. i love you so much

i love all of you and just keep up the good work. i dont think i need any thing right now but thanks for the offer. o and i got grandmas packege. i all ready opend the first one. and im excited to drink some hot coco tonight.

lov eyou  all so very much you guys rock my socks.

LOVE your favorite missionary ELdeR PaytON cLemENts.

146 days out :)

what up family

your week sounds a lot crazier than ours. but still it has been a crazy week. so first off i havent gotten my new comp yet because elder curtis left a week early. im with the zone leaders untill wed. there good guys, a little crazy but good missionarys. we have mostly gone and served in there ward so  really the work in the area i serve in is about dead right now. we dont have any investigators and really only about 5 potential investigators. so as soon as my new comp gets here thats when the rubber is going to hit the road. we got trancfer calls last night. but i allready new who my new comp is. his name is elder young. he has been out for about 6 months.(so not much longer than me) thats all i know about him. but i will totally tell you about him next monday.

so the mission is just one crazy experience after another.so on monday we went shoping and we got stuck in traffic for about 3 hours. we were trying to go to this mall in mustang and the roads were under construction. so it was basicly a parking lot. we decided that we should get off as soon as we could. but it took us a long time to get home as well. me and elder soto went in his truck. elder soto is a shopaholic. he buys about 200 dollers worth of stuff every week. he has got so much crap. he has about 300 ties, about 30 white shirts. 5 suits, 10 sweaters. and a bunch of camara equipment. he is going home in about 10 days so i dont know how is going to bring all his stuff home. he sent a packege of books home (home for him is in mexico)  and it cost him about 300 bucks. so he is going to half to leave alot of stuff here. so any way we were stuck and we basically wasted our entire p day stuck in traffic. it was lame.

on wednsday we went to the temple it was so great! i love the temple so much. every time i go i learn something new. just all the symbolism in there is extraordinary! we went because it was elder cutits last time. then on thursday we had temple confrence. so i whent to the temple twice in one week. it was just the most spiritually uplifting experience. remember when we went to the temple like 3 times a week. this was basicly the same experience. just so uplifting and awsome.

at temple confrence we watched 17 miracles. it was so great it makes me cry. we tryed counting out the 17  but its so good its hard to focus. we also watched a movie that some guy mad with all the pictures through the year on it. (kind of like what you do mom) maybe im just spoiled when it comes to movie making . but that movie that he made sucked he had some crazy tecno christmas songs in it. and it was 20 min long and half of it was pictures of a nut cracker. it was just weird. we had a talent show after words. but the AP's forgot to tell every bodys. so no one prepared a talent. so everybody just scrambeld together to find something to do. it was mostly singing. because no one brought any thing. it was just funny when people got up there and didnt know what to do.

 i will email you in one second this isnt it

love you Elder Clements

so sorry about that some crazy guy just came up and started to talk to us and told us we were being deceived by the devil.

wow i have to go this day is crazy. i will probably email you some time latter this week.sorry about that i love you  the church is true the book is blue.

elder payton clements.