26th week in Downtown Oklahoma

Subject: good morning 57!!!

hi family

so this week has gone by super slow. i got your package so thats good. i love the pictures of Jesus. i dont want to give them away.  and how did you know that i was craving mac and cheese? i swear you know exactly what i need. you must call my comp when im asleep and ask him what i was needing. well so. your guys week sound jammed packed and fantastic! i love your letters. they smell like teen spirit.

so this week we basically just tracked. and im so sick of getting doors slammed in my face. we are finally getting some work done. and finding new people but that first week was difficult. people answer the door in the exact same way it doesn't matter who it is. its "o i all ready belong to a church." or "not interested" im just thinking your going to have to hear it in this life or the next! and i would suggest this one because its easy er to get baptized. well any way.  we placed 57 book of Mormons so far. have 200 I.T.C's (invitation to christ) we have tracked a total of 81 hours. at least im getting good at it. but there is alot of people that want to bible bash. we beat them so its ok. elder olinger loves to bash. he has a cheat sheep in his scrips. with all kind of scriptures that prove our religion right. its not very productive though. because the spirit is driven away by contention. and they end up pissed off because we proved them wrong. just crazy.

there is a challenge set out by the mission president that you should Finish the book of Mormon in like a month in a half. so thats going good. im all ready at 4th Nephi. ive been marking my scriptures like crazy. there more yellow, pink, orange, and blue then white now. i cant decide which is my favorite because it changes with every day.  the book of Mormon is so inspirational and is truly written for our day. if more people would be willing to take a copy and read it. this world would be converted by now. theres alot of people that say. o i know that the book of Mormon is not true. and we ask if they have ever read it? and they say no. then we ask them how they know its not true? (gets them every time! wink) o missionary work is the bomb!

any way. this week was the LTM (leadership training meeting) and so we had elder Prewit with us. (his name sounds like prove it)  he has been out for about 6 weeks and already thinks he knows everything. im pretty sure he is striving for leadership. which is a waist of a mission if you ask me. its now about if you become a zone leader or an assistant to the president. its about bringing souls unto Christ. and if you happen to get the opportunity to be a leader than great. but that more work for you.

any way. he is a good kid. elder neild (his comp and my district leader) is kind of sick of him.  but we ended up tracking with him for two days strait. being with a three some of missionary's is ok but its not very fun tracking. because people are more intimidated with three people on there door step then two. but its nice some time because you only have to talk 1/3 of the time.

on sunday i Had to teach the Sunday school lesson because the teacher is lazy. so its the missionary's responsibility. and i taught on Jesus Christ so it was easy. plus there is only 10 people in the class. i taught why there needed to be a Savior and agency and the war in heaven. it was just kind of a throw to gether lesson. but that the way i like it. flying by the seat of your pants.  we had dinner with this Mexican family. and they  had legit stuff. it was so spicy and good. everything had jalapenos on them. but it was steak tacos. and they tasted so good. and as soon as i finished my plate they filled it up. so i had to remember to eat slow so that i don't offend them next time. because i couldnt finish the second plate and dessert.

well happy birthday lauren. sorry i didnt send you a present. i didnt know what to get you. those boys better treat you right or im going to muff them up. but just remember to try not to get two serious with boys right now.

dad guess what i met someone that has hunted at the new state before. they weren't a member or anything but they had visited the club and gone a couple of times. i found out because he had a ducks unlimited shirt on. and asked him about it. nice guy but didnt want the gospel.

hey do you know if courtney is all right? she hasnt written me in like 4 weeks. and i miss her letters.

well any ways love you all so much

your favorite missionary

Elder Clements

Yea some Pictures Finally

 the Bishops family

 The Stake Presidents family

 Elder Young 3rd comp

 Elder Young, Elder Karl, Elder Clements,
Elder Adair

 Christmas Sparkling Cider

 Service day at the Childrens Center

 New Comp. Elder Olinger

 District Boys

 Really Big Spider that the lady downstairs asked the boys to help he get! ( at 6 am)

 Thanks Grandma Judy for the Christmas Tree

 Christmas Eve

 Christmas Eve Dinner :(

 Christmas Gifts

 New Favorite Shirt thanks Janey and Jeff

 Snuggie haha

 Thanks Uncle Johnny for the Best Desk Toy Ever!!!  (look up Neo Cube on Youtube)

7-9 foot snake
Thanks Nana and Papa for the Uke Books they are so awesome.  Happy Birthday Beau and Lauren.  Birthdays are the Best!  Thats the funny thing about birthdays there kinda of an annual thing :)
I'm liking my new area but at the same time missing my old area.  But Change is good.  We're tracking like 6 hours a day.  Dad your the Best!  There are so many converts to the church that go inactive and your still strong in the gospel.  I want to issue a challenge to all my family and friends to read the whole Book of Mormon before my one year mark which is july 13, 2012.  If you could do that I know that your faith will increase ( I just pulled some Missionary work on you)  That goes for everyone.  Just set aside a couple of mins a day to read.  Read as a family, make a chart or something.  Well thats all from me, Love you guys, your the greatest family ever that a guy/missionary could ask for.
Love Elder Clements

25th week NOW in Downtown Oklahoma

Subject: 57+57-57=57

so whats up family

so this week has been crazy! so on Tuesday me and elder young went and saw a bunch of people in the ward to say good bye. its sad that i had to leave such a great area. Wednesday was transfers. i packed the morning of. which is kind of procrastination but i dont care. any way we went to transfers and it was soo cold. the wind is always blowing here. so that's a bummer. transfers are getting better. at the first of your mission transfers are not very fun. because you don't know any body. but the longer you have been out the more missionary's you know. so you can talk to people and stuff. but like 10 min after i got there. and met elder olinger we had to leave. because we bummed a ride off a member so we didnt have to use miles. the first thing members ask you is were are you from? and after i say Utah there like "O your one of those Utah Mormons". its really starting to piss me off. there just jealous that they don't live in the "Promise land" (wink)

so anyways the member had to go so we had to go with him. Their the Mcallchecks. (dont know if thats the right spelling) and he seems like a pretty cool fellow. he has six kids and a short temper. its all ways kind of awkward when people yell at there kids in front of you. so he drops us off at the apartment. and the first thing i think is wow this is Ghetto. the  apartment complex is like run down, busted windows, broken down cars in the parking lot. its crazy. any ways the apartment itself is not bad except is smells like weed/ smoke. because of the neighbors.  its funny because it has the uglyest couch i have ever seen. like puke orange with crazy green inlays. i will have to take a picture.

so elder olinger. he has been out for about 18 months. he is kind of tall. and a little bigger. but who isn't? hes very quiet. like awkward quiet. i dont really know what to say to him. he is very one syllable anwser kind of guy. (hi how are you, good?) he is from Illinois. and his family is converts. if i were to describe him in one word it would be Chill. just laid back and doesnt really care to much about anything.

 his last comp had really bad migraines. and so for the past 3 transfers they did nothing together. so basically this area is super dead. we have one investigator. and two less active that we see. other than that theres nothing to do but track. so that what we have been doing for the past 4 days. i have never knocked on so many doors in my life than i have in the past few days. like on thursday we tracked for at least 6 hours. i really have to push him to do things though. he doesnt really want to work. but once you get him started he is ok. i had an interview with president Taylor and thats basically what he told me that this would happen. he told me to stay strong and keep obedient because it will be easy to slack off. so ive been working super hard to be my best. because there is no one there to keep me in line but myself.

he says he want to make this a better transfer so were trying our best to make it that way. im still in a car area so thats good. and im glad to because were right in the heart of the city. like down town Oklahoma city. there is some parts of our area that we aren't allowed to go in because of gangs and stuff. but we have the Lord protecting us. so thats awesome.

when your tracking you run into alot of interesting people. like crazy mixed up people. and really short people. we ran into a drug house and a blood member. so that was kind of cool. we all ready found like 20 investigators. so thats good. we ran out of book of Mormons because we have given so many way. so thats good hope fully we can turn a couple of those into baptisms.

so life back home sounds good and crazy. i had forgot that matt got his mission call. so hopefully he does good. that's cool that his is going to canda. it will be freezing up there. (elder Carl who is Canadian. who i used to live with. lost his finger because he cut it when he was gutting an elk. and when he got his hand out his finger instantly froze off and turned black because of the blood froze.)

k would be surprised at the level of less actives that are recent converts.

well any ways i have written a letter that i will send out today. so  there will be more detail in there and stuff. and there is 42 pictures in there. so hopefully you enjoy them.

love you all so much your the best!

LOve Elder CLemEnts

Ps.i love you

24th week

hey family and friends, relatives, creepy people that i havent mentioned that are reading my letter. (jk)

so first off just an FYI im getting transferred to oklahoma city 3rd ward. and it happens tommorrow. im leaving the moore area and all the hard work i have put in the last 18 weeks. ive been told that its a good ward and that my new comp (elder Olinger) is a great guy.

sorry i didnt email yesterday but the library was closed due to marten luther king Jr day. so hopefully my letter will be just as special today. well to start off. this week has gone buy super quickly. like lightning quick! the time just flys by when your doing the Lords work. let me tell ya. i have already been out for 6 MONTHS!!! thats crazy i feel like i just got here. we have appointments like every hour. its starting to get crazy because we dont ever seem to plan on travel time. so were always like 5 min late to all our appointments. the ward is really impressed with the work the Lord has been doing through us. on sunday we had 25 less actives at church. that wouldnt have normally come if we wouldnt have invited them. we had 2 investigators, and 5 referrals. we got 5 new investigators last week. and a baptismal date with one of them! the work is really picking up here. like 6 weeks ago it was basically a dead area. nothing to do and no time to do it. but now we have so much to do its not even funny. were running around like a chicken with its legs cut off! (name that movie) if you have the confidence of the ward they start trusting you with there friends and family. to share the gospel too. so people are inviting us over and asking if they can come with us to our appointments.  the bishop even called up president Taylor and asked if me and elder young could stay for another transfer and get this work done. man it feels good to be good!

so life back home sounds just great! but im not going to lie, my life is better than yours. im totally kidding. but seriously this mission rocks my socks.

on monday we played volley ball. and for some reason im really getting to like that crazy (girl) sport. and plus its nice to get a break form basket ball. and i learned a new song on the Uke. its called samuel the lamenite. and its so cool i will have to record it for you. so now i play that at our dinner appointments. they all love it. and there sad when i tell them that im leaving.  the bishops family. offered to buy elder young a Uke so there could still be elders playing songs for them. i love that family. their so gospel oriented. and sister widison (the bishops wife) is always talking to people on the street and stores and stuff. she kind of reminds me of you mom. just a jokester and willing to stand up for what she believes in!

we had a zone bike day this week. and i was also on exchanges with the zone leaders. i was with elder adair. and he has been in a bike area all his mission. untill he came here. so he bikes like lance armstrong! we biked 35 miles in like 8 hours. i was so beat by the end of the day. but we found 4 new investigators that day. after we got home from biking i had a tellytubby. (sorry that was crazy) but i felt like I havent had a bath in like a year.

on friday we had our last district meeting as the moore district. it was kind of sad. im going to miss those times we had together. everybody is staying except for me. so thats kind of a bummer. President Taylor came to our meeting. and sat in on our training. you know its always kind of scary when a servant of the Lord showes up. but it was good. he has alot of good insight on the gospel and he knows his scriptures inside and out! we all had interviews with him. and he basically told me im doing great but my next comp is kind of going to need pushing. so hopefully i  can do my best. this will be my first time in a two man apartment. so hopefully it doesnt drive me up the wall.

so were teaching this one guy named mike. and he is a truck driver from Ohio. but he is here because of cancer treatment. so were teaching him the discussions. and he is so open to what we say. this guy has a firm testimony of Jesus Christ and the Lord. he has been through hell and back twice. hes been into drugs and drinking. he used to be in prison. stole cars. all kind of stuff. but he "found Jesus" and so now he's on the strait and narrow path.

so any ways thats kind of been what my last week has been like.

Happy BIRTHDAY dad!!!!! i hope this is the best 45 birthday you will ever have. keep up the good work! im glad that the duck hunting is going well. will that affect the share prices or anything? well that cool that you got to talk to Austin and his dad. and know i havent talked to jays comp. i looked through the ward roster and he isnt in there. maybe he is in the second ward?

Mom dont mention costa again it makes me trunky! jk. but they really need to get one here. and three callings that crazy i hope you can handel it. jk i know you can. but if you get stressed out just know that our father in heaven can help you out.

lauren. your funny. but i love you. hey just know that mom and dad have been around alot longer than you have and so they kind of know whats what.  keep listing to them and you will do fine. dont get two boy crazy! it will just get you into trouble.  and if colen is anthing like his bothers. i would just slow your roll.

well that kind of it i gess. have a wonder full week. and i will talk to you guys latter alligator!

love Payton Clements

23rd week

Subject: there is something about the spirit of Jesus that makes me feel good

HI family

so before i got here i was listening to a Baptist singing group called sweet fellowship. its funny the songs that they sing. there all about getting saved and how much they love Jesus. there good songs but they just have the wrong doctrine.

so anyway this week has been super good. we are teaching so many different people. our week fills up so quickly. like people have to fight for us to come out with them or to see them. were teaching this less active/excommunicated guy. and he is so hardhearted. he doesn't believe in God anymore. so its hard to teach him. because your like will you pray? and he's like to who? so i don't know what we will do with that crazy fellow.

on Monday we ate at 5 guys burgers and fries. it was the best! because they give us our food for free. (don't worry we wont take advantage of the situation) its good to eat out and get fat sometimes. because normally we cant afford it. but yea p-day is sometimes the best. elder hanson (an assistant to the president) says that p-day is better than Christmas because its never more than 6 days away. elder young hates P-day for some reason. he wants to get out and work. and he doesn't like to change into his "normal" clothes. he want to go to the gym with this pros's on. its just funny. because i love to dress up (you know me) but i like to be comfortable as well. and because its the only day we can do it. idon't know maybe its a good thing. but i say take advantage of your day to prepare for the rest of the week.

OK so this was on of the coolest stories of my mission (so far) so we were going to see this family. but when we knocked on the door, we could here them talking. they all got quiet and pretended like they weren't there. so we just said whatever. but we needed something to do for the rest  of that night. so because we were in the same area as another less active family. we decided to go see them. but we didn't know what to teach them.( just a note me and elder curtiswent over every week and tired to teach them and tired to get them to participate in the lessons. but there just like we like the missionary's but we dont like the lessons.) so i had a prompting to just open up my scriptures. it was a brand new Book of Mormon. so it didn't have any marking in it, and had never been opened before. so we said a prayer and asked god for inspiration on what we should teach this family. we asked what they needed most in there life at this very moment. and we open up the book and happened to turn to Alma 34:2 (look it up) and it said along the lines of you should not be ignorant to the things we have been teaching you. and you know about Christ and were taught abundantly before your dissension among us. so were like what the! this is crazy they will yell at us and tell us to get out of there house. if we shared the scripture with them. we were like just kidding heavenly father can you give us something more easy to teach? but i was like we have to share it with them because we asked and the lord provided. so who would we be if we got inspiration and didn't use it?

so we went in there and read over the whole chapter with them. and they were responding so well. it was super crazy! they read (witch they never do) and they realized that they were making a mistake of not coming to church. so they said they would be there on Sunday. it was so awesome! the spirit was so strong (you could cut it with a knife) so that was kind of cool

on Friday we had district meeting. like we do every Friday. and i had to give a lesson on how to have the companionship of the holy ghost with you at all times. it was difficult but i learned alot from my studies of the Holy Ghost. i read some interesting thing from the book Lifes Lessons Learned. about how we can receive revelation and how we should listen to it. and to always have your heart open to the prompting's it gives. and im like hey i just had an experience with that like 2 days ago! it was a good lesson if i do say so myself.

after that i went on exchanges with elder jacobs. it was good but it was bad at the same time. because elder jacobs is like 350 and 5'11" so he is going on this very strict diet. of nothing but these smoothies and this super nasty looking drink that supposed to "clean you out" so they didn't have any food in their house. so i basically starved that whole day. but its good because he lost like 20 pounds in a week. and if he keeps it up he can loose 100 pounds in 10 weeks! so i basically fasted for too days in a row. once on fast Sunday and then on Saturday.

so when i went to the gym this morning i lost 7 pounds! (ive been looking for it every were but somebody must of stole it)

OK so i don't really know what to do about this. and i was wondering if you knew anything about this. a GIRL named Ashley wrote me a letter. not a big deal right? WRONG! this letter i get it and first off the envelope is pink, with drawings on it. like a plane that says 19 months left. and a picture of this girl+a guy= Eternity!!!! and it says you and me below it. so im like what the heck this must be a joke. i open it up and its a two page letter from a girl claiming to be Ashley? and said she always thought there was something special about me and wanted to get in contact and see if i felt the same way about her?! she said she grew up in our stake. and that she moved about 2 years ago. to midway. do you guys happen to know any idea who this girl could be? im flabbergasted? i have know idea who this could be and why she would be writing me this letter. (i mean most people cant help themselves around me but really :P ) jk so ma beyyou could give me some advice. Would a women really do this? is she just trying to be mysterious? idk.

on Sunday it was so great we had 12 less active family's come to church and 2 investigators! thats like 50 people that came to church because we have been teaching them. like people that havent been to church in like 20 years came yesterday. and we had the crazy guy come and he really liked it. by the end of the program he was singing the hymns. and reading in priesthood! o it felt so good to have that many people show up. it really build confidence in the ward when people like that show up.

o i forgot on Saturday we had dinner with some less actives. that want to come back to church. and they had snakes all over there house! like big ones. he has 5 snakes just crawling around the house and around there necks and stuff. igot to hold a 8 foot long bowaconstricter. and he was wrapped so tightly around my arm that it was cutting off my blood supply. i made a joke about a snake tourniquet.

any way so life sounds good back home. ill pray for you to have a baby Courtney. and Lauren you so funny in your letters. its funny they way your growing up and saying like, like, like alot. so yea i had to buy some stuff last month because i ran out of mission funds a little early. but that ok im doing good at not buying everything i see. there have been a couple of time when i was going to buy $150 cow boy boots. but i didnt.

dad im glad the duck hunt is going so well. that cool that your going goose hunting. there are so many geese here its sick! they wake me up every morning flying over. like once there had to be 5000 geese flying over us when we were running in the morning.

mom tell those boys to shape up or ship out. give the good kids candy like Dan Davis does. idk pray about it.

LOve you all So much i will write you a letter and send some pictures.

your favorite missionary (as always)

Elder Clements

Happy New Years

hi family. that one discovery channel song just popped into my head. (the bomdiada bomdiada song)

o dad just so you know that guys name is Austin Phelps. he should be in my phone under Austin or pizza factory austin. idk.

any ways so life is spectacular. just a big game of canasta. long and fun. full of luck of the draw. and getting the big sets. things couldn't be going better. and they also couldnt be going any worse. because life is all about balance andopposition. (jk im trying to be all wise and mystical)

so this week has been fun. lots of just stuff. but mostly just a crazy week. son on Thursday elder young hurt his back and so he has been sleeping on the floor. and so everything is taking longer than normal to do. longer to get ready longer to get out the door. and longer to fall asleep.(he is one of the fellows that likes to talk before they go to bed)  so we have been having a hard time with scheduling. on Wednesday we found 2 new investigators. one of them is this cool lady named lacy and the other is a girl named sydney. both of them we tracked into.(because that how we find all of our investigators) the second lady they were having some kind of shin dig going down and had allot of nice cars in the drive way. like mustangs and Cadillac's and big giant lifted trucks. so we knock on the door. and this stunningly beautiful lady answers the door. so we give her the door speech. (elder young was stuttering and fumbling with words) so ijumped in and saved the conversation. we gave her a book of mormon and asked her to read about it. she said she has felt somthing missing in her life and she thought that this could be it. we are meeting with her today so hopefully things go according to play (our son will be married;name that movie)

on Saturday we tryed to meet with mina (the lady from Africa) but she was still at work. but we talked to her son Jr and he had alot of great questions about the book of mormon. he asked a couple of questions about nephi and about jesuschrist. so we know that the family has been reading. but we just cant find a certain time to meet with them.

Sister Swarts (our investigator with a baptismal date) is doing well  we are continuing to meet with her. she has alot of great  questions about agency and about the pre earth life. we taught the plan of salvation and it answered her questions perfectly. she didn't come to church on Sunday. but that's OK she will come next Sunday. i have faith in her.

on news years eve. we weren't aloud to do work after 4 so we had to get in all of our important stuff before then. we had dinner with the foy family. there really nice and very good cooks. he is the young men's president and we are trying to work with him to get Jr to church and involved in young men's. witch would be awesome!!!!! they had alot of party foods and appetizers. but still really good. we played the uke for them. and they thought it was so funny. now the wife wants a uke. (idk if the uke is just a new fad or if i just look so good playing it) (wink)

so this was bad news bears. the next morning (Sunday) we got up and made breakfast. it was good. sausage bacon and eggs. so we were a little late getting ready. church is at 1 for us. and were not aloud to go out until after church. so we thought we didn't have to get all the way ready for our studies. i still had a white shirt and tie on. but i just had a beanie on that Nana game me. and socks but no shoes.all of the sudden we get a text from the zone leaders that the need us to bring them the dinner calender. right then before church started for them at 9. so because we were in a hurry we didn't get our full pross on. we just ran up to the church and dropped off the dinner calender. elder Karl was supposed to just meet us out side. but when we called him he just said that he was right by the door. i just ran across the parking lot. and guess who just pulled up. President Taylor. (what the!) so i gave the dinner calender and hurried up and drove off. hoping that he didn't see me. but five seconds latter we get a phone call. its sister Taylor. and she wanted to know why we were so stupid. as to go outside with out the right shoes on and a beanie on my head. it was bad we'll just leave it at that.

what a way to start off the new year right? well i guess that why we have repentance in our lives. and we can "turnharkendo" (turn to the lord, harken to his words, do his will)

any way so that my week.

so Lauren I'm going to talk to you first. just remember that this is a boy. and like dad says boys are stupid! until they get off the mission. yes i can admit that now. any ways I'm glad that you gave him that quote. i hope he takes it to heart. just remember let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly. ask Courtney about that she'll tell you.  and just remember if your "friends" are being stupid you can always make new friends. high school is a big sand trap. the deeper you get into it. the harder it is to get out. don't fall for the drama or the lama's (those lama's will get you every time) remember what john bytheway said. it better to be respected then to be popular, popular, popular. that wicked song is lying!!! R-E-S-P-E-C-T find out what it means to me. but i know you will do good. listen to mom and dad. they know whats what. love you Lauren your the best.

Courtney thanks for write ing me it really make me feel warm inside. like a hot passionate kiss. the cookie you sickO. that's funny i think we will stick with the name we gave it. the tim tam slam! I'm so proud of you that you graduated form college and stuff. and your just keeping on keeping on. that sucks that you forgot your temple recommend. I'm sorry that you forgot it. Ive only been to a sealing once and i loved it. well keep up the good work. i love you so much tellZack he's OK to. Just kidding love you Zack!

ouch mom you need to keep better care of yourself. that doesn't sound fun at all. i hope you have a better week. and get feeling better. hows the Ipad2 is it everything that you love and more? if not feel free to just save it for me when i get home. jk love you i don't need that kind of fancy technology. but it would be nice. O don't let those kids push you around. make them do push ups or something. and remember object lessons/ candy are the best tactics. (and the spirit and truth) thanks for everything you do mom. your letters are great. the inspire me. i forget what quote was on my wall before it got painted over? any way love you so much your the best mother ever. (that almost rhymes with mother heather)

dad i love you and your letters. im sitting next to elder young and he is so jealous of you  and your shooting skills. (make sure you tell Laurens "boy that's a friend" that you never miss) just like that country song says. i probably be up all night just cleaning this gun. i hope you get a hold of austin. if theres any thing else you need to know just ask. i love you dad and all your super awesome ness. keep being the man i know you are.

well i love you all so much and i will see you in like 1 year and 6 months.

keep up the good work family

Love you favorite missionary Elder payton Clements

P.S. 57