grateful

hi family
so this week has been a trip let me tell ya.
i got your package. by the way, and thank you so much for that it did help my week go alot smother. i have showed that video to alot of people. and challenged them to invite there friends to the Gospel. so far a couple of people are on the ball. but most are still working on it.
so here are a couple of things that happened this week. Monday was pday. we helped this lady move all of her crap form one room to another. it is good doing service but we can do it any day. but we had to do it on a pday. i shouldn't complain. its what the lord would want.
Tuesday was fun. we were tracking down less active people. and there was a old lady on the side of the road that looked like she needed help. so i stoped and asked her if there is anything she needed. she said like what could you do? and i have this joke that i say to everyone to ask if they need help. i say do you need your dog walked, your dishes done, your lawn mowed? but nobody usually takes me up on it. but she was like as a matter of fact i have some dishes that you can do. so were like ok..... so she sh owes us in here house and there is like a pile of dishes about 3 feet high in both sides of the sink and there is also a 30 gallon bucket of dishes on the ground. ahhhhhhh. holy flying squirrels nuts. that's a lot of dishes. she said that she cant stay on her feet to long so she has neglected doing them for the past couple of weeks, so good luck hope your hard workers. and we wernt allowed to be in her house when she was in there. so she went out in the yard to do something and we stayed in her house for about three hours. i felt like i was back in pizza factory again. she didnt have a dish washer. so we had to do them all by hand. then after we were done we went outside and she was gone. so she just left us by ourselves in her house. very trusting. so i left a note on her door and said we would stop by Thursday. then ten minutes after we left we got a phone call form her and she was like can you come back and help me with my food storage. uggggh ok we can help for one more hour. but that's it then we have to go.   so we helped her and she was very thank full.
Wednesday we went up to a small town called Magnum with one of the members. because he had to look at some houses up there. we taught this family up there. that have been less active for about ten years. and they only went to church 3 times in there whole life. and that was the three times needed to get baptized. so needless to say they dont remember a whole lot. but they enjoyed the visit and said they wanted us to come back. than that night we ate with this restaurant called the friendship in. its a motel/restaurant/ apartment complex. they usually have good food there. but that night i got the chicken fired steak (of death) i didn't feel to good after but i just kind of shrugged it off. then i woke up that night and puked my guts out for about three hours. fun fun fun.
so Thursday was spent in the bathroom or next to the bathroom.
Friday was district meeting and me and elder Burnett were in charge of the food. so we had everybody bring waffle stuff. toppings and the whole nine yards. me and elder burnett brought the waffle mix and everybody else brought topping . so we had penuttbutter, chocolate, syrup, bananas, strawberry's, blueberry's, wipcream and nutella. it was super good and super fun making them. we usually eat out but this transfer we have only made homemade stuff. and it is so much better. because we grow together as a district. plus we save money.  but needless to say i didn't eat all of Thursday so Friday i was starving and ate alot. then felt really sick after. i cant have nothin nice.
Saturday we were in and out in and out. try ed to go out and work. then potty break, than try again and round two. we ended up teaching this family and inviting the kids to young men's young women's. it was great because we had the young mens pres there as well. so he helped out alot.
Sunday we helped teach a lesson in church on missionary work and how every member is a missionary. it was great. i hope this ward steps it up a little. and they told this story about president eyering. and how he was going to share the Gospel with one of his friends but didn't, then his friend died. then he had a dream were he was a the judgment and his friend was there and asked him why didn't you tell me about this? you knew and you could have warned me and you didn't. ahhh scary. so the moral of the story is share the Gospel. with everyone!
but that's if for this week. i love you all so much! you are the best! thanks for what you do for me.
love Elder Payton Clements 

better than I deserve

hello family
well this week was so much better than last week. the first day of the week was better than all of last week put together. because we didn't have any body to see. and Monday we had three appointments. plus people fed us this week.
Monday we cleaned the apartment. yea cleaning! and then we went out with a guy in our ward. we had an appointment with this lady that i haven't seen in six weeks. and we used to visit her about twice a week. she is doing good and she came to church Sunday which hasn't happened since i have been here. then we had a appointment with this lady that only speaks Spanish. so our member just spoke to her and i just listened. i felt like i was back in Texas again. just sitting there until i was asked to bear my testimony.
than on tuesday. we did service for this old lady in the ward. she needed some paining done in her house. so we helped her out with that. she painted all the way around the house but only as high as she could reach. so we mostly painted the walls about four feet and above.
on Wednesday we got a call from the ap's (assistances to the President) and they wanted to talk to me. they said that one of my converts in Moore want me to be at her sealing in the temple. im super pumped! that was my 3rd baptism and one of my favorites to teach. its been a year now and so now she has decided that she wants to get sealed with her husband for time and all eternity. FIST PUMP!  and they also said that the son that was not baptized when i was there because he moved, and now wants to get baptized. and guess were he moved to? ALTUS! its like fate or destiny or the Lord. so now i will have a second opportunity to teach the son and see his progress all the way through. plus his grandma who he lives with want to join the church as well. she has all ready read 50 pages of the book of Mormon. and its only been a week.  then that night we had dinner with the Jones family. there really cool and they made this dinner called corn meal pancakes. it is my new favorite food. they also invited one of our investigates to dinner so we just taught a lesson there at there house. it was great.
Friday we went on exchanges and i went up to Lawton. Lawton is a crazy place a whole lot bigger than altus. and tons of homeless people. i swear there is more people that are homeless than have home in lawton. but what ever not my place to judge. and i saw brother olinger (elder olinger) he was one of my comps. but hes now finished and now he lives in lawton with his brother. so it was good to see him. i spent most of my time with elder Anderson because he got a flat tire and so we went on splits. were two went one way and two went another. he is a really cool guy and me and him are really similar.
on Saturday the wind was blowing super hard so it made it hard to bike around. unless you were going east. but its ok. i made two pairs of shoes this week one for elder Burnett and one for sister mcclain in the ward. elder burnett i did zelda shoes. there cool and sister mcclain i did pooh bear shoes. there cool. and they both loved them! 
on Sunday we had three people show up to church so that was awesome! the ward really starts to trust you when you investigators show up to church. because that really all they can see of your progress.
than that night we went up to Hobart to do a sacrament meeting there. it was fun but i had to speak again. i have been up there three times and i have spoken twice. but that's ok
all right well that going to have to be it for this week. but i love you all so much and i will talk to you latter.
Lauren thanks for the long letter i love you so much. mom and dad i love you to. Courtney and Zack and blakely i love you as well.
keep up the faith
LOve ElDEr ClEmeNts 

Subject: if i traded it all, if i gave it all a way for one thing 57

Hi
so. yep life its a pain in the butt. there are alot of ups and downs in this world. sounds like your in an up. or at least you only tell me the ups. so Lauren your running for officer huh? that's exciting! i hope you win. id vote for you. did you tell them "if you vote for me all your wildest dreams will come true"? what did your poster look like? and who is your favorite teacher at the school?
So did you end up buying a house? how big of house are you looking for? and are you buying an old house or a new one? are you going to have to remodel it and buy the furniture and stuff? do you remember when we helped with Todd and Kim's house? that was fun.
well this week has been crazy!
Monday was zone pday. were the whole zone gets together and does something. so we went up to Lawton which is about an hour away. and half the people didn't even show up. i was kind of mad. because we drove all that way and used all those miles and nobody showed up. but it was fun at the end we ended up playing kick ball with the sisters and zone leaders.
the rest of the week has been a trip. holy cow i have never had a less successful week in my entire mission. in theory it was supposed to be one of the best. we had 13 member presents lined up for the week. we had dinners, people coming out with us. all kind of appointments. and they all fell through. i cant believe it. i guess its just one of those weeks. if there is opposition in all things this week is going to rock! but i have never tryed so many people and had so many people not be home, not want to meet that day, not interested anymore. or not willing to commit.
we had a member come with us every day this week. but we only ended up teaching three lessons. but whatever the word is true the book is blue. everybody has there off days.
we have a new district leader. his name is elder nelson. it funny because i worked with him at dicks market. he was a cashier. and i saw him at least twice a week. we have four people from Davis county in our district. so like there friends know my friends. were kind of like friend in law's. but we all went to different high schools. but so far he seems like a really good leader. cares about his district and what they think and what they want. he called us up four times this week. which is more calls than i got form my last district leader the whole transfer.
lets see what else happened this week. o elder Burnett has lost about 15 pounds since he has been with me. we work out every day and bike all over the place. he is really excited, at the very first he couldn't do three push ups. now he is on sets of 30. and can bench 180 pounds. me i gained 5 pounds i can now bench 235. and my arms went from 13.5 inches around to 15 inches. (not that i measure)
on Saturday we had an appointment with a family. they forgot that we were coming over. so when we showed up they were having a birthday party. for there five year old. they told us to sit down and eat. it was so crazy. were just teaching them and they treated us like family. gave us cake and ice cream. made us food. talked with us as if they knew us all of there lives. and told us that they would come to church. i think it was just one of the tender mercys of the lord. because we biked 28 miles that day. didn't have a dinner appointment. and nothing was working. but then they let us in and fed us. it was awesome!
o and on Saturday morning we had an appointment with this guy. he told us to come in the morning. so as we were going out. it started to sprinkle. so we got our rain coats, but as we got away form the apartment it just started to pour. like flash flood kind of rain. just super hard for like 30 min. we were all ready to far to turn around so we just biked there. by the time we got there i was so wet it felt like i went swimming. my scriptures were the only thing that didn't get drenched. everything else was super soaking. and then guess who forgot about the appointment. (some times i hate agency jk)
but that's pretty much it for this week. sorry this is a short email.
i didn't get the DVD yet but maybe it will come today.
i love you all so much thank you for your love and your support. YOUR THE BEST.
love your favorite missionary
Elder Clements  

Subject: hold it, hold it, NOW go get that 57!

Hello family
Sounds like everything is going well for you mashers. so much craziness is going down there. you know im excited to go home. but at the same time I'm scared to death. Ive been institutionalized here and the real world is such a scary place. the mission is sort of like a vacation from the world and all the drama that's in it. its a good time to focus on whats really important in life. its a time to be selfless and not selfish. to give your all to the Lord and his work. i believe that what I'm doing right now is the greatest thing in the world. helping others come unto Christ. family, home, Utah, mountains, school, job, music, etc is great and all but I'm going to miss doing this. i love it i love it i love it! 
But here is what is happening here in my neck of the woods. I'm staying in altus for one more transfer with elder Burnett. i knew i would. so it wasn't a big surprise. i guess i kind of know what my calling is in this mission. its to help those missionaries that are struggling with the work and with themselves. and to help them build them up and boost there self confidence. because my last five companions have kind of been like this. 
but any ways. here are some things that are going down. do you remember that family that i told you about last week or the week before? the ones that let us in and weren't members but i thought they were. well they invited us to dinner this week. it was good, we had this German dish. it was crazy but good. some kind of noodles and sausage. the noodles were like powdery. it was crazy but i liked it. but then we wanted to share a message after, we talked about the restoration and Joseph smith and prophets. it was going great until we got to Joseph smith. than it started to get ugly. they were like i dont believe that john smith was a prophet. (where do people get that john from anyways?) we tried to explain as best we could but they kind of had a hard heart. when it came to that. so we just told them to pray about it. dont take our word for it ask God. we left on good terms so that's OK. it could have gone so much worse. 
we went to a small town this week called magum. a member in our ward wanted us to go with him. because he has a couple of home teaching family's up there. so he took us out to all you can eat ribs first and then we headed off. he is a very cool guy very intelligent. but we saw this family that is a part member. the family was only baptized because the missionaries pushed them. so they got dunked and never came to church again. so we taught them and they loved it. and they want us to come back and teach the whole family. so that's exciting. then we saw this family they have a bunch a kids. that are about 10-15years old. so there all running around and not paying attention. and the 15 year old girl is like doing a poor attempt to flirt with me. she must have read that 100 ways to flirt and thought it was real. and im like get a way from me you freak! than we shared an object lesson. and told them to come to church. well it turns out that one of the girls there is just a friend and wants to learn more about the church. so now were teaching her as well. 
on Friday i went on exchanges with elder Christensen. i came out with him but i never had a chance to serve around him until this transfer. he is a cool guy. but his is so much more trunky than i am. (trunky= wanting to go home) but we went and try ed people that night and every single one of our appointments fell through. it was crazy. i tried every body i know in altus and nobody could meet with us that night. it was crazy. i swear we try ed 17 people. finally it was 8:30 and about time to come home, but i said lets try one more person before we head in. so we stop by this guys house that we met in the past but he said he wasn't ready yet. well we talked on his front porch and he said that he  has been thinking about what we taught him and he is ready to be baptized. Im like wait... what? it was a really cool experience. he wants his whole family to join as well. its great. 
we also taught that one guy that showed up to church randomly. the lesson went great, he is so knowledgeable of the Gospel all ready so its really great to teach him. i think we can baptize him this transfer. we were talking about it and he must know that this is true or good. otherwise he wouldn't have just showed up at the church. know one knew he was here and that his family was members. so why did he show up? because he likes it. so im excited about that. 
well i know this is kind of short but that's about it for this week i love you all so much. and i cant wait to talk to you on mothers day. 
have a great week and keep choosing the right. 
Love Elder Clements