doing good

hi family

so this week has been good. we have done alot of area exploring. like going to places were we normally wouldn't go. and there is so many old building and houses here its crazy. this town has been around for about 150 years. and it has barley changed. all of down town looks like its from the 1900's but there are some great ally ways, i want to take some pictures but you would love taking photos here mom. like all the old brick and the fire escapes and stuff. and the old train stations, and factory's.

so i haven't been to the doctors yet (at lest not for me) the mission is kind of slow about that. because you have to get permission to go out of your zone and your area. plus they want to save on as much cost as possible, so most of the doctors we go to are members. and they give us a discounted price or for free. so there is going to have to be alot of scheduling and rescheduling. plus it will have to be at the beginning of next month because of the whole miles thing. but it will get done, and the lord is watching over me. i havent passed out since last weekend so i think i will be allright.

so remember that lady that i told you about last week? well so she invited us over for dinner this week and she also invited the anadarko elders, so we had four missionary's over and they were at a leadership training meeting this whole week, so they were all pumped up to get people baptized. so dinner was great it was like pizza in a pasta. really good, but then when we started to share the lesson everything went down hill. the other elders were being force full about teaching her. and trying to demand that she should read the book of Mormon. so need less to say her guard was up because it was four against one in teaching and with everybody trying to talk over each other it was just a big mess. it left off on a good note, but the spirt left after about five minutes of teaching. we text her after and apologized for the way things turned out. she said it was fine and that we could still come over. but now we will have to be just super care full about the way we go about things.

but any ways. elder platt got a sinus infection. well  he had it for about three weeks but he was just trying to deal with it. so we went to the doctors and tired to get it checked out. but we didn't know where any clinics were in town. so we went over to this members house to ask. and this lady is like super sick, and old. she has something wrong with her spine so she isn't able to function all the way. but when we asked them about a doctor she piped up and said hey im a retired RN (registered nurse) i could take a look if you want. so she goes in the back of her house to get her "kit" and thats when it got funny. elder platt is kind of reserved guy anyways and he has this phobia of people touching him. (and i think he is scared of old people as well) so this lady is like shoving this dirty thermometer down his throat, and coiffing in his face, and trying to give him old pills that she found in her bathroom. elder platt is freaking out and im just busting up laughing. then she drops this pill down her shirt and she is like let me get that. she reaches down there and pulls out this pill that fell in her bra. and then puts it back in the jar and says here take one of these once a day. elder platt is ready to run for the door, i could tell. and im taking pictures and video. one of the funniest thing i have ever seen. needless to say we went to a real doctor and they fixed him right up.

so the next transfers isn't until three weeks. and i don't think i will move any where, i think it is more likely that elder platt will leave and i will get a new comp. thats mostly the way it works but you never know the lord will put you were your suppost to be. i haven't seen any of the new elders yet but im sure i will run across him eventually.

so sounds like you guys are having fun im excited to get your letters, and wow only five weeks left for Dakota. that's crazy. i wonder if he is trunky or not? (trunky is when you think about home and what your going to do when you get there) im shure he is a little bit its only natural.

our district leader elder robison he want to serve another mission after this one. ( i think he is kind of mad that he got sent to Oklahoma) he is about 16 months in. and all he talks about is that he wants to just keep serving and serving, he even wrote the first presidency and asked if he could.

i think the mission is great but, the Lord wants you to accomplish more than just a mission. like start a family and get an education. but if he wants to serve the lord good on him.

well thanks for all you do for me i love you guys so much i hope you have the best week ever!!!

love your favorite missionary elder Payton Clements

on to the next year out :)

hi family

so this week was good.

a couple of crazy things happened this week. so you remember when i passed out like six months ago and i hit my face. well i started passing out again. i dont really know whats wrong but i called Sister Taylor and she just told me to drink lots of water and stay out of the sun as much as i can. i passed out like ten times in like three days. i think im going in for a doctors appointment in like a week but its still kind of up in the air. that happened on Wednesday. so ihad to stay in for that day and not bike or drive for the rest of the week. so elder platt is driving now. and he is a scary driver. like he can't stay on the road to save his life. and he backs out at like 30mph.  i pray hard for that kid, good thing its only for this week.

so you know how you were tiling. we are tiling to. still with the same lady. she is so greatfull to have us help out, and she feeds us pizza. her husband is a little crazy, but what ever. its kind of scary working at her house because she said that she sent three different missionary's home when she was 16.  she is older now so i dont think there is much to worry about but i will still keep my eyes open and run like joseph if anything goes wrong. (you know formpotophers wife)

our next door neighbor threw me a birthday bbq. it was kind of fun but a little bit awkward. there family is crazy and super.... what the word "forward." like even the mom that's like 50 she is still flirting it up with everybody at the party. but they mostly make fun of elder platt because he is super awkward and doesn't know what to do.  the food was good though, steak and hamburgers. and they brought a pinyata and stuff. and they gave me a tie rack that spins. its cool, i have been kind of collecting ties since the beginning of my mission, and now i have about 100. i know i have enough to wear a different one every single day of the transfer and not wear the same one twice.

and the mosquitoes are crazy here. they bite you twice in the same place. they stick there nose in you once and they take some blood and then they get you again about an inch away. so if your not paying attention you could get bit like ten time in a row. we have some bug spray and it works if we remember to put it on. at night when your sleeping is when they get you.

so we went on exchanges with elder robb and robison. i was with robb this time, and he is really cool i like him alot. he is funny and really open to talk to you and everybody he comes in contact with. like you mom at the store. like we will be eating in a restaurant and he will talk to the guy that siting across the bar from us or just like people in walmart that are buying the same thing as him. but we went to go see this lady named vicky and she loves the missionary'sbecause her grandson is on a mission in south africa (that fetch) but she is a Baptist, so she flagged us down on the street and was like hey come over to my house. so we went over and she told us her whole life story and about her grandson. it was cool, and i guess he is being followed around by cameras and it will appear in the Joseph smith memorial building.  but the first thing she said to us was i got my religion and you have yours so dont try to convert me. se were just going along and talking to her, and then something about the shooting in Colorado comes up  and we started talking, and she was like why does God let thouse things happen, so we went over agency with her and like the plan of salvation, but it was sneaky. she didnt even know we were teaching a lesson. giggle giggle. and she was like that make perfect sense. and the spirit was there. and then she started asking other question about Mormons. and what we do and why we have the book of mormon. it was so great!! the spirit was there like crazy. then we had her read moroni's promise and she was crying and we bore our testimonies. so great she did like a 180 from dont try, to come back and teach me more. so we gave her a book of mormon. prayed with her and she was crying again. sweet thats the best, how could someone deny that kind of spiritual witness. so  if all goes well she will get baptized.

this area is picking up and its good to serve here. the family with all the little girls came to church again. and they are loving it. they haven't been to church in like years so the whole ward is excited to see them coming. the daughterswill get baptized next month. and they fed us like the best cordon blues i have ever had. it was amazing they were baked into these rolls. and just melt in your mouth!

but yea that is pretty much it for this week. i will try to write you another letter. but no promises. i love you so much and i hope your having the best day!!  i love you all so much

Lauren bring a journal to efy and write everything down, talkes, peoples names, what the spirit tells you, everything! and just remember to be your self and talk to everyone. is some one is lookin like they need a pick me up go and talk to them. dont say no to guys that ask you to dance because it took alot of guts for them to ask you out. so just be nice. you know obviously if their like big creepers and they ask you to dance like five hundred times you can say no then. and dont fall in love with they guy that play es the guitar.

well i love you all so much

Love Elder Clements

                                                          crazy's

                                                            ninja missionary

                                                               gross

                                                       double gross

                                                             shoes he made for him and Elder Platt

                                   

             

                                                    not sure but could be Elder Platt :)

Elder Clements Has been out a YEAR!!!!

hi family
do first off i got your package. it came on Friday so i dont know what took it so  long. these dang mail men holding back our letters. but it was so great, i loved everything i got in it. the avengers picture is so cool. i want a really big one to put up on the wall. were thinking about buying a real avengers poster and then pasting the book of Mormon hero's on there. the movie you made was so great i loved it. those movies are the best. we watched it after district meeting and all of the missionary's said that that was the coolest birthday present they have ever seen. it was great, i want to watch it all the time. but that would make me trunky. 
so this week has been good. its been raining like all week. just on and off. its good because we need the rain. this summer was nothing compaired to last summer. its been over 100 like three times but other than that it hasn't been to bad. 
on pday we played risk for like three hours. and i totally won but elder platt was super pissed after, he doesn't really liker loosing to much. so after that we played monopoly and then i won again and he got even more pissed. but he shouldn't complain he landed on free parking like ten times. i just got him with the greens. but i don't think he will ever play a board game with me again. after that we went over to this family house for dinner. there really cool. they make all there own furniture out of old suitcases and books and doors and stuff, plus they sell there stuff. you would love there house mom. but they fed us these bomb potatoes. and okra (its like this weird salty vegetable) they used to be less active but then he was called into the branch presidency. it was cool. i like when they do that because he wouldn't have come back to church any other way. 
Thursday not really alot happened that day, we taught this lesson  to this old couple, we taught about prophets and the restoration, and about Jesus Christ. it was really good the spirit was just flowing, and then all of a sudden we asked them if they would like to be baptized and they said i have all ready been baptized. (that's like a missionary's worst nightmare) so we had to explain authority and that there preacher didn't have it and basically that they had been taught wrong all of there life. its all ways a hard thing to do because it call either go really good or really bad. this time it went bad. we told them to pray about it and to ask God if what we were teaching was true. and they said that we wouldn't come there and tell them a lie so hopefully it all goes well. 
on Friday we went on exchanges with the district leader. and he helped us double up or area. so we had four missionary's in one area. it was good because we could get twice as much work done. there names is elder Robb and elder Robison. its kind of funny they call themselves Robb squared. but me and elder Robison helped this family tile there house. it was super crazy. i remember how hard it was to tile our house. but this was even harder because we did the walls and shower. i still don't have all of the mud off me. elder Robson is kind of a city boy. so he hasn't done any manual labor in his life. so he was struggling with helping but it was good. they got the work done like twice as fast with us there. and they were so great full. the lady has back problems so she couldn't help, so they would have had to do like three tiles at a time. but with out help we managed to do five boxes worth of tiles. the husband isn't a member and he was really impressed with the way we were so willing to help out.  so hope fully we can teach him and share the Gospel. 
on Sunday we went to church, shocking. but they had pioneer talks and this one guy got up there and started giving a history lesson. he teaches at the collage here. and he is a history teacher. so he went on and on and on about the pioneers and not really about the spiritual side of it. it was crazy all kind of statistics and facts. it was interesting but not really uplifting. 
i finished the book of Mormon for like the eighth time on the mission so how did you guys do? did you finish? 
well that's about it for this week i love you all so much. thanks for the package and the candy and the movie. 
love you all so much 
Elder Clements 
We also got a letter from Payton:
Hey guys,
So life is good.  You know how it is, the area is good, the apartment is good.  The members feed us alot and so it's hard to stay skinny.  I have definitely have grown up physically, spiritually, and mentally.  So yea the branch is small but good, we have alot of people were teaching, my favorite is the King family.  They have 4 little girls and were teaching the oldest two girls.  There so excited to have the missionaries over.  they use us as a Jungle gym.  But the little 5 year old was sitting by me and she all of the sudden she leans over and sniffs my neck and she says you smell good.   They're crazy, and full of piss and vinegar.  Plus they have 6 puppies and a baby and there all in gymnastics so they want to show us all of there tricks and flips.  But yea Lauren are you excited for Trek?  Its going to be great and drink tons of water.  Take lots of potty breaks and don't use the urinal cake for soap haha. Thanks for everything you do for me.  Love your favorite missionary!
P.s. Happy Birthday sis

Payton's Birthday

hi family how is it going
this week was good. i didnt get your packege yet but hopefully it will be there latter today or tommorrow. it takes longer for mail to arrive when im farther from the mission office. but i got nanas packege. the tie was awsome i got about ten people comenting in it. its yellow, hello yellow. but yea so i was talking to this guy and he said there is wipers all over oklahoma. its like the fish of the day. he was talking about fishing, and said there is this awsome fish that fights super hard and they travel around and pop up on the surface. and im like is that a whiper? and he was like you know about them. and i told him that its dad's favorite fish to catch. he said he could take me one time, but the only problem is that we cant go out in a boat. we can fish from the shore but not in the boat. 
on monday we went to like every store in the whole town. we were looking for those white canvas shoes to draw on for our next store neighbors daughter thats 10. i drew some for elder platt and for me. and now everybody wants a pair. i thought about charging for it but that would almost be preist craft. jk i dont know. but i dont think i will do it i dont have time any ways. we cleaned the house and said good buy to the other members in blanchard on tuesday. because our area is getting split in half, we coverd two branches and our area was about 100 miles long. so its good that it did that. because we were running out of miles any ways, plus its so much driving to get from place to place. but we said good bye to this family that has been less active for about ten years. and she was like you guys have changed my life and i wish my son was more like you. and then she tackaled me. she ran up and gave me a big bear hug, i was so shocked i fell over, not with her but after she let me go. it was crazy i didnt know what to do. but its good to feel loved. then we saw this family that has been struggling to pay the bills and to keep there testimony strong. we shared a message with them and gave the heavenly gift. the spirit was so strong there it was crazy good. they fed us dinner after and it was spagetti, really good but not as good as home. ok that remindes me of a story that i forgot to tell you last week. so me and elder platt were talking and i  asked him "is there any dish that you hate when your mom makes for dinner". and he was like i dont like her meat loaf, and then he asked me the same question, and i was like i hate when my mom make tatter tot carsaroll. then that night we went over to an investigators house. and taught them a lessson and then there like do you have dinner tonight? and we said no. and then there like we have extra food cooking in the oven. so were like sweet. and when they pulled it out it was tatter tot carasroll. just goes to show you to be great full and that god does have a sence of humor. 
but yea we said goodbye to this family and i asked them about there guitar on the wall. and there like one of the strings are broken can you fix it. so i said yes. i re stringed there guitar and tunned all the rest of the strings. they were so great full. and they let me play it for a second. i picked it up and relized that i didnt know how to play guitar any more. i wanted to play it like a uke. 
so wednesday was the 4th and trancfers. we didnt get to go because we had to baby sit a couple of other elders that couldnt go to tracfers ether. and since nether one of us was leaving we didnt have a need to go anyways. so we stayed home with the other three elders and played munchkins. it was fun. i was about to win and then i was fighting this level 17 monster. and then everybody decided to mess me up. by the end of all the monsters placed and the enhacer played it was a level 138. pretty crazy. elder wells came and he is super quiet. and shy. like he must have said three words the whole day. but he is an ok guy. he is from colorado. and his family is by the fires. there not super close but close enough to be worried. anyways we asked him all the  questions you would normally ask, but he played the pass card. like can i not awnser that question. i guess he doesnt want any one to know about him. kind of weird. 
so that night was the branch party, they had blow up houses and cotten candy and snow cones. it was awsome. i guess the branch pres does this for a living so he allready had the stuff to throw a party. it was fun we set up a booth and put books of mormon out and pamplets, not one took any but i guess thats ok. i brought my uke and i just walked around and people would ask me to sing for them. at one point i had a group of about 200 people watching me. i played some were over the rainbow, how can i be, armies of heleman, i like to look for rainbows, samule the lamanite, why cant you just write me a letter, and i'll follow you into the dark. it was awsome. ill admit it i like the attention. people were trying to give me money and stuff but i told them that i didnt want it. and instead they could listen to the missionary discutioins instead or invite a friend to be. it was awsome. the fire works were great. and i got alot of pics of them. 
the rest of the week was good. lots of work going on. elder wells left for blanchard so im not comps with him any more. 
my birthday was good, best birthday of the mission. elder platt woke me up at 12:01 and sang me a song. i was pissed but i didnt let him know that. he filmed it on my camara so i got the video of it. but the rest of the day was kind of normal. church and stuff. this guys talked in church and his talk was good but then he started talking about aliens, and UFO's and how there is life on other planets and that he has seen them before. im really glad the no investigators showed up that day. or we would have alot of explaining to do. 
well thats it for this week. i love you guys so much and i miss you and i will talk to you next week.
yea your write i didnt send that letter yet. i didnt have time to go to the post office.
love you so much 
Elder Clemetns

50 weeks

Subject: i love the mountians i love the clear blue skys i love 57

whats up, whats up, whats up!

hi family hows it going. this week has been good. and crazy but good.

so on monday it was pday. some missionary's call it better than Christmas because it only six days away. but we went over too this members house, and played a game called snooker. its kind of like pool but way harder. the table is bigger and the balls are smaller and the sticks are longer and the holes are little. plus you have to call your shots or its considered a scratch. this guy used to be the branch pres. but then his wife got really sick. so now he cant even make it to all of church because she is so dependent on him.  but basically he is just a lonely old man that has nothing to do but spend money and work on his talents. he wants so learn how to play the guitar. so i taught him a couple of songs. he also has this metal detector that he playes with. and he lookes for old coins and stuff. we told him he could look in our yard, and he found a 1896 nickel. its worth about 600 bucks! witch is crazy we should have told him that what ever he finds we get 10%. wink jk. but yea so he wants us to come over alot and basically hang out. but we told him we got work to do. remind me not to get old, it sounds lonely.

so yea i bought a camera this week. im sorry i just couldnt wait. my old camara was pissing me off. every time you took a picture it would turn off. and sometimes the lens would not go all the way in or come all the way out. and when you put it on the timer it would would ask you if you were joking. any ways so the camera i got was a cannon power shot A4000. it is sick! the pictures that it takes are amazing! i didn't realize how bad my camera was until i got this one. its almost like the Gospel. people don't realize how off they are without the restored Gospel until they try it out. (i just make that up on the spot) it has 16 mega pixes compared to 12 it has 1080p video 8x zoom and its RED. witch obviously makes it the best. it was about 199.99 but i bout a one year warranty on it for $25. and i love it so much. thanks so much for the camera. (now elder platt wants one)

 wednesday we taught this family with four little girls. the oldest is 10 and the youngest is 2. and they are so hyper and touchy feely. its so hard to teach them. so we brought a white board, markers, and a picture book. to help teach them. i drew out the restoration. and how prophets talk to god through telephone. (it was the only way i could explain it) then i drew Jesus and there like why does the girl have a beard? they were some of my toughest critics i have ever come across. if i wasn't exactly on they would call me out. but we finally got through the lesson. and they said that they would get baptized on july 28! im excited and the ward is super pumped. because there hasnt been a baptism here in like five years or so.

we did alot of driving on Thursday. and we are listening to talkes on all the prophets. for Joseph smith to Gorden b hinckly. there given by a guy named Trumen G Madson. and there so good. im learning alot of detail about the prophets lives. did you know that Joseph smith would test all the apostles. like god test abraham. it was crazy. the church was so awesome back then only the very best for the lord. now the church has gone soft. and the members get offended left and right.

friday was district meeting. and when we got there the whole room was just so stiff. it just felt awkward. like everybody hated one another. i dont know exactly what was going on. but the spirit was definitely not there. then that night we had a lesson with this lady named dian. she is super crazy but super solid. like she has been bouncing around form church to church her whole life. trying to find the truth. and she has taken all of the bad form every body's church and applied them in her life. like she believes in reincarnation. and that she doesn't need to go through Jesus to get to heaven. but we straitend her out. she was super pumped through the whole lesson. and she really wants to know more. she says that she believes in prophets on the earth, and then asked us if she thought that was crazy. and were like that is the right idea.

sunday we invited like 30 people to come to church and like 15 of them showed up. that sounds bad like only 50% but that is great. because only like 20 people show up normally so we almost doubled the people there. i have never seen church so full. it was great. fast and testimony meeting was a little crazy. you know there really good, but there is alot of crazy stories. and that is what this sunday was like. really crazy. but me and elder platt planned on it. so we both shared our testimony's. one at the first and one in the middle. so that the spirit would be there at the first and then people would feed off me in the middle. it wasnt as bad as it could have been.

we got transfer calls last night. and we found out that me and elder platt are staying together for one more. and were getting a new comp named elder wells. until blanchard opens up. its crazy being in a three some. but i think the new branch will open up soon.

so yea the forth of July is coming up and we are doing a branch social. fire works and the whole shibang. but the only problem is we have to leave before any of the fire works go off. (you know bed time at 9) but there will still be hot dogs and BBQ and like a bouncy slide or something.  so that's what were doing on the fourth.

so we have the picture in our appt of nephi shocking his brothers. and i put a sticky note on it. that has nephi saying Expelliomas! (like harry potter) its really fun. you know we have alot of fun as missionaries its just not the fun normal people have. its a whole different relm.

well thanks for your emails. i love you all so much and i will send you a letter and some pictures today.

LOVE Elder Clements