39th week

hi all you people.

so i got your package. and i didn't get your package. the office people for the apartment complex are going on strike or something. so they wont allow me to get the package out of the office. it pisses me off. but im trying to be like Jesus.

so this week has been great. lots of happiness and stuff. we did lots of service this week. so im a little sun burnt. but that's ok i kind of got rid of my missionary tan line. first i helped some family's in the ward mow there lawn. it was fun to get out the old service clothes. then this less active guy (he reminds me of sparky Taylor) needed help roofing his shed out back. i guess it was framing but whatever. thanks dad for teaching me how to do a little bit of construction. because i would have been helpless without those basic skills. you know i never did like helping you out in the marsh until now. it was cool the way it turned out. and his son was like hey i want to be baptized. so were like heck yes! we can help you with that. so now were teaching his son.

we also teaching this guy named Freddy. he is catholic. he got in a fight with a saw and lost a couple of fingers. but now he want to learn about the church. so we went over and taught him on Thursday. we took a member with us. and it was so help full because he just bore his testimony of the truthfulness of this church all the lesson. we taught him about Joseph smith and about the restoration. and i invited him to be baptized and he said yes! so this work is just chugging along. i love this Gospel and they way it works with people. i love inviting people to change there lives. its the best! (say it like nacho)

on Friday we went to visit some less active guy. and he awserd the door and let us in. but from the moment i walked into the door i could tell something was off. he kept saying weird things. and he kept telling us that he loved us. then he said something about drugs. and then it hit me. he was high as a kite. he was sitting on the ground rocking back and forth. telling us that he need to change his life and he kept praying and asking the lord to help him. but he was praying for his watch and for his fish and his carpet and that fire would spread around the world. it was so funny. but then he said he wanted to get us some food. he was like you know what sounds good right now is some chicken, green beans, french fries, apple pie, and some orange cruch. it was all fun and games until he started to get in the car. were like hey no you have to stay here. i told him that he couldn't go any were.  and tried to sit him down but he kept trying to get up. i told him he was chained to the floor and couldn't get up. and he was like o i hate it when this happens. i was trying not to bust up laughing. so we had to get some food for him. and this was like 9 o'clock at night.  just a fun night.

we have a baptism on cinco de mio so I'm exited! its going to be good.

but other than that nothing much is going down.

well i love you all so much and i will talk to you on mothers day.

Love you favorite missionary

Elder Clements

ps i don't know whats the deal with mothers day yet.

38th week

Subject: gobble gobble said the turky 57

Hi family!

things back home sound fun. thanks for writing me this week. i don't tell you that allot. but I'm truly grate full that you take time to write me a little something.

hey sorry about last week. i didnt have alot of time to email because by the time we were ready to start emailing it was dinner time. and so we had to eat and run. so some really cool things have been going on this week. first were teaching this lady that's less active. she is a hoarder and a smoker and she has cats. (just picture the house its not really pleasant) but she wanted help to quit smoking and so we gave her a blessing of comfort and so she could overcome her addiction. its been about 10 days since she has lit up! so hopefully she keeps it on keeps it on. we stole about 60 buck worth of cigs from her and told her that they would just be a distraction and a temptation. but she said she didnt want to waist money. but we convinced her that it would be a bigger waist of time, money, and life. so she Finally quit after 59 years of smoking!!!

then were teaching this family in the ward. the daughter need help getting back on track. (she is a beautiful daughter of god!) so we have been helping her understand the book of Mormon. its her first time reading it.  and she has alot of deep questions. so ive been really studying to keep up with her questions. the whole family is helping out though. so that's good. there like one of my favorite family's of the mission so far. there always wanting to feed us. and we helped them move some stuff around. were teaching them again tonight.

that guy from iran is dropped for right now. he is all about the good things. so the book of Mormon is good, the coran is good, the bible is good. but he doesn't understand that if the book of Mormon is true than everything else is true. its sad to let him go. but we have lots of people to focus on.

we are teaching this lady and she is like on the waters edge. may 5th is her date. i have been teaching her for about 15 weeks. and she finally wants to do something about it. it was frustrating at first, but now i know that its a big deal to change your life and convert to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  because she is Baptist right now. and all they have to do is say there saved and they don't worry about life or Gospel ever again. and going form that to being in one of the hardest working churches in the world (if not the hardest) its a scary thing. and a big commitment.

on Thursday i had a interview with the president. its scary talking to the big man. at first.  but when i got to actually see him it was great. i love president Taylor so much. he knows exactly whats going down in your life. and how to help you out. like we had trouble focusing on our companionship study. and he was like if you want to be a better missionary you will be better with your comp study. i was like wow how did he know that! but then i realized that he had the spirit of discernment. Duh.

our new district leader is cool. but not as cool as elder neild. just going to throw that out there.  i know this is wrong but i dont like him because he playes the uke better than i do. and he knows it.  our goals this week include being nice to everybody.  so every time we have a negative thought about someone we sing I'm trying to be like Jesus. (we sing it alot)

but other than that everything is going swimmingly.  me and elder shupe are getting along great. i dont mention him alot because i don't have any complaints to say. wink. you know we have our little arguments but who doesn't. this mission thing is really going to help me out with marriage. because you just learn to let the little things that bug you to just roll off.

o i had to teach Sunday school. and i taught about priesthood authority. and what that entails. and we had like 5 investigators there. so i was basically teaching as best i could. and people in the ward were like im so glad our church is the best and we are the only one on the earth with gods authority. (dough!) i think it was good and bad at the same time. hopefully they come back.

one last thing. were teaching this guy and he got in a fight with a power saw and lost. and he got like 4 fingers chopped off. and so he got a priesthood blessing and now all of his fingers are all right. and he know it was due to the blessing.

well i know this church is true i love this Gospel and i love teaching it. just remember to share the Gospel to everyone you meet. don't be scared. the lord will help you. like the scriptures say. take no heed of what you will say for the lord will be with.

well i love you all so much and i will see you guys latter.

love your favorite missionary!

Elder Clements

ps. do you remember this.

M R snakes

M R not

C D E D B D I

O Y L M R snakes

37th week

hey so this letter is going to be short. because im on the ward mission leaders computer. the library is closed because there getting new carpet or some crap like that. well this week has been fun with all the tornados. the mission was freaking out so we weren't aloud to work for for about two days. we went out any ways just for fun. hoping to get a pic of a tornado. we were tracking and people are like telling us we got guts to be out here during the storm. there was a little bit of hail but not golf ball size. it just rained alot.  we stayed inside and just prayed and for safety. there was of people that called us and told us if the weather gets bad that we could chill in there storm shelter.

we went to bed and we heard alot of pounding on the door at about one in the morning. so i went to answer the door. because elder shupe sleeps through everything. and there was some chick at the door in short shorts and she was like hey just so you know the apartments are flooding because of all the rain. by the morning we had a big puddle in our living room and the bathroom was all wet as well. kind of crazy. we took some pictures but you cant really tell. everything else is going just swell. i will right you a letter some time. and send you some pictures.

sorry but i got to go love you so much i will see you in about 14 months

love your favorite missionary.

elder clements

36th week Staying with Elder Shupe

hi family/ everybody else that's cool enough to read my letters.

so kind of a cool week but you know not the funnest week of the miss

on Monday we went to the cowboy museum. it was pretty cool but we were the only ones there the the security people were breathing down our necks the whole time. so it made it not really fun. lots of old stuff. but nothing super cool. i took some pictures. but you couldn't take your camera into the coolest part. it was old Indian stuff. but its considered sacred and stuff so you couldn't take pictures. i really like our zone alot. we do all kinds of cool stuff together. we all came up with trucker names. (you know like red feather, or sitting bull) mine is feathered serpent (queto coa) elder shupes is white trash.

mexico sounds so cool! i super hate you guys right now. you know not really but still. you couldn't have waited like15 more monthes? o my nine months out mark is on april 13! this mission is just screaming by! the transfer is all ready over. and president taylor has one year left on his mission. so that means i will have the opportunity to serve with two presidents. it will be weird being so used to PT. and then going to some one completely new.

Im really into the study of Jesus and his life and his teachings all of the sudden. i told you i read Jesus the Christ right? and now im on my second time reading the new testament. i just love Jesus he is such a cool guy. Probably my favorite character in the book of Mormon is Teancum. (he is the guy that is one of the generals in the Nephite army at the time of moroni. and he travels around from place to place with a grappling hook. and he climbs city walls and he killed the king of the lamanites. you know what? that is right. he is a ninja!!!) so everything i read it comes back to Jesus Christ. the book of Mormon is truly another testament of Jesus Christ. i all ways thought of it as a history of the ancient Americans and their prophets. but they are allways talking about Jesus and how he would come and what he would do. i mean its got alot of history but it all leads up to the coming of Christ.

on Friday we went on exchanges and i had the opportunity to go to El Reno. its elder neilds area. and like 79% of the people there are native American (lamanites) and i just thought of how cool it was that i was fulfilling prophecy (just for a day but what ever just let me have my moment) we gave out like 7 book of Mormons. el reno is just a small town in the middle of no were. its kind of fun just to be there. because its just like how you think a small town would be. everybody waves when you pass by (or since were missionary's they yell out Mormons/ devil worshipers) they had a guitar hall of fame museum and they let you play the guitars! so i played some sick guitars for like a half an hour during lunch. makes me miss that awesome instrument.

any way so since its Easter everybody decided that they want to come church. its like one of the two times that people come to church. the other is Christmas. so we had about 60 people there that would have normally come. the place was packed. three people invited us to Easter. so we picked the fist one that offered. and we went over there and they said that it wasn't a good time. and they would feed us another time. it kind of pissed me off because we said no to a couple of really awesome family's to go to this family that invited us first. and they didn't even invite us in. so we went to the Micalchecks. (they all ways say we can come over for dinner no matter what day it is) 

 o and we got tranfer calls last night and im staying in OKC 3rd Ward for at least 6 more weeks with Elder Shupe.

so that's basically this week. i love you guys so much your the best family ever! send me lots of pictures please. love you

love your favorite missionary elder clements.

ps yes i got your package. and i swear you pray for inspiration on what to put in the package. it all ways seems to be what i need. like this is kind of gross but the wet wipes were perfect! i ate some crazy hot sauce and it was hotter on the other end. just saying.  

 

pictures YEA!!!

                                      Oklahoma City

                      Man plant

                   D&C 18:28

                               Peter the Potted Plant

                       The sign should say don't be stupid!

                             Putting Grandma's pen's to work

                   

                           Elder Payton and Elder Shupe

                     

                               District Picture

                           Persian Book Of Mormon

                     Happiness with Elder Shupe

                           District Lunch

 

                                  Jada and Maloks Baptism

                 A couple of Dakota Too!

35th week

hi family

dang that picture is so pretty. i am die ing right now! holy smokes. man Oklahoma looks like a dump compared to that. i didn't know court and zack were with you guys. that's cool. did you guys have to get visas or anything to visit? are you taking a hundred thousand pictures? any ways. how was the plane ride? did Lauren have fun? did you almost puke? i remember when i came out to Oklahoma we ran into a lot of turbulence and the plane was shaking up and down for like five min. did you get any of that? what is the temp down there? is it sunny cloudy (with a chace of meat balls) or in between. wow im jealous right now. lets go back.  plan it now because we only got 14 months left!

well anyway this week has been fun. first off pday is the devil here. like we don't do anything. there is only 6 people in our zone right now. and so we just sit there board. we played this game were you draw pictures. it was fun but still super boring. this week is already week 5 of the transfer. its gone by super quickly. and last week was fight week. its like when you get so sick of each other that just the little things start to piss you off.  its happened with all my comps so far. its  just the week when all your angryness comes out. (kind of like a guy pms) anyways so we knew that was going to happen so we planed accordingly. every time we thought we were going to get on each other nerves we just yelled out fight week. and it just reminded us to just be cool and don't freakin freak out! it was funny because we probably yelled that like 500 times this week. but it was better than the alternative witch would be to have contention between us. which would meen we would lose the spirit.  and we cant afford that ever. because we rely on its promptings all the time.

ok so we were tracking this week. and the spirit was directing us were to go 100% we call it moroni trackting. because we only knock on the doors that you feel like there is an investigator behind . or that there someone that need to here you speak that day. so we already got like 5 book of Mormons placed. in like 10 min. then we knock on this door. and this lady comes out and was like hey i have been meaning to talk to you. so were like sick! this is going to be one of those cool conversion stories! we told her all about the book of Mormon and gave it to her. but then all of the sudden she is like i have something for you too. all the sudden i just got this sinking horrible fealing. she comes out with this book and she said because you gave me a book i will give you a book. elder shupe took the book. but i asked what was in the book. she said that once you read it you wont belevie in god any more and you will see that your religions a cult. i was stunned. i couldnt beleve that a lady this nice would say such a thing. she closed the door and just left us speachless. we when home that night and i just opend the book. an all of the sudden the house just got super dark and it felt like you were walking through mapel syrup. all kinds of weird stuff was going down. and it just feld like the devil himself was in the house. we immediately got on our knees and prayed and dedicated the apartment. the feeling sort of when away. so i decided to throw the book outside. immediately the feeling went away.  it was super crazy. and one of the worst feeling i have ever had. after that we listened to church music to try and get the spirit back. super crazy. i dont know weather to give the book back to this lady or weather to just burn the book. its still on our front porch.

well back to the good stuff. conference was this week. and i love them with all my heart. just to hear form the prophet and all the apostles. its so great. you only get four of them on your mission and the probably the best four of your life. unless you speak there yourself. just lots of insperation. and full of hope for your investigators. just cool beans.  the ward fed us in between secions so we didnt even have to leave the church.

but here was the dumb idea of the week. so some one wanted to hold out signs and dace around on street corners. to try and get people to confrence. it was super dumb. im like what are we a babtist church. lets show some dignity! but whe had to do it anyways because of these dumb missionary's. wanting to impress the sisters again. no one ended up coming anyways. if even one would have showed up. it would have been a success. but not even one soul unto christ. but now people will just remember us by. didnt i see you dancing on the street the other day?

well anyways

i love you guys so much dont have to much fun without me. i love you all

YOur FavorITE missionRY

Elder Clements.

Elder Dakota Iverson's letter

Mom that is so great that you watched conference! And did dad watch it
> too? I hope so! It was the best conference that i have every had on my
> mission, let alone on my whole life. I do not believe that was my last
> one. I literally do not believe that it was my last one! It seems like
> to me that the general conferences are of so much worth to me on my
> mission. I pray that you all watched it, and if not that you will
> watch it on the sight.
> So basically i am still here in São Luis. The cool thing is that
> two more missionaries were put into my district and are not living
> with me in my house. I love it because they help me keep the house
> nice and clean. I had to divide my area with them. So that lady that
> is going to get married and baptised this saturday will be their
> baptism and i will just go over there and support them. I would rather
> not have it any other way because one of the missionaries that moved
> in with me is an american that arrived in brasil right now. I am so
> excited that i can give him this opportunity to be excited in the
> work. What better wayt to start your mission and marry and bapise some
> body in the first week!
> I am really happyt to be here with him and help him. We did a
> divsion where i left with the new kid and my goal was to have him
> return to the house totally excited about his 2 years ahead of him. We
> did a contact with a family on the street and i invited my self in to
> their house, well i guess they invited me. I sat down and felt a
> feeling to talk abou the law of chastity. I set an invitation for them
> to get married and baptised to complete the comandments of god and to
> be able to be an eternal family. They looked at eachother and they
> were like ``yes, yes we will´´. You should have seen the face on the
> new kid light up! IT was so great. When we left that house he was
> saying how cool the mission is and how excited he is for the work! i
> am grateful to be able to be here to help him. The person who is
> training him has only 2 months on the mission, so he also looks up to
> me alot and i have to stay alert always to help them and give them
> instruction. I know that i can be a tool for bad, or for good in the
> situation that i am in right now. I must be an insturment in Gods hand
> and show to these two missionaries why we are missionaries and how to
> reprensent the Lord. I thank my Father in Heaven for this chance. New
> missionaries are my favorite, just because they are so open and ready
> to learn so much from you.
> Pedro was supposed to be baptised yesterday, but there was a
> problem. I will do all in my power to make sure it happens the week
> that comes. We should have 3 people baptised if everything goes right.
> All i can do is my part and let the lords will come to pass.
> Other then that miracle with the other family i felt really
> humbled as i talked to a lady about her husband that had passed away.
> We did a prayer and then i started into the plan of salvation. I told
> her that if she does the right things she can be her husbands wife for
> ever! She looked at me and said in a small shaken and tender voice
> ``could it be that this is really true´´? I said, yes, yes it is, then
> was able to bear my testimony about the subject.
> My other favorite example with the week was when we were teaching
> adriano and marlion who should be baptised this saturday. While we
> were in their house we were just talking with them and all of a sudden
> i had the strongest feeling that we should talk about the gift of the
> Holy ghost to him. But for some reason i put off the prompting and
> just kept on going trying to do my own will. About a minute later
> after a few questions and comments were made my companion looked at me
> and said that he felt that we should talk about the gift of the Holy
> Ghost. I looked at him and said ``wow, i had that same feeling´´. So
> that was a witness to me that the spirit truly works with us if we are
> ready to listent to it. I just put off his prompting and ignored it,
> so he went over to my companion and said the same thing to him. Then
> my companion used his agency to follow the prompting. Thus, helping me
> to use my agency for the right and not in the wrong direction. It
> truly was a miracle. I know that they spirit is real and is the
> essence of my call as a missionary.
> Mom, Dad. I know this church is true. Never can some onetell me
> that it is not. I know for my self that Thomas S Monson is the prophet
> of the Church and of God upon this Earth. I know that i must keep on
> going foward with a firm hope in christ so that i may be saved by his
> mercy.I want to apply his atonement in my life and become better every
> week. I love my family and all his godly hand has given me. My prayer
> is that i can be who he wants. Who he expects of me.
>
> I love you all.
>
> Elder Iverson