LAST LETTER

so this is the last email of the mission. i hope your excited because i am. well here are some stuff that im going to cover. 

so the forth of July we went over to a lady's house for lunch we had shrimp and potato. it was pretty good but the lunch was kind of awkward all of the people there were old.  then for dinner we went to this family's house for watching the fire works and stuff. they are the tallest place in Cushing so the fire works were about eye level from  there. but it is still just a small hill. so were were over there watching the works. and they asked us if we wanted to launch off a couple. we told them we cant. and its against our rules. they said what ever and started lighting some off themselves. so about two in, one rocket flew sideways right into the neighbors field. it was funny at first and we were like good thing it didn't catch anything on fire. then one second latter there was smoke rising up from were it looked like it landed. the rocket landed in a grass field and caught fire.  the fire was only about two feet high but it burned about 500 feet around. the fire department came and put it out. which cost the family around 500 bucks. so if were went obedient and we would have lit that one off. we could have burned down the neighbors field and had to pay 500 bucks. o the blessings of obedience. 

some other things that happened this week. was we taught this lady, she is old,  she is jumping around from church to church looking for a good church. so we taught her the plan of salvation she was just floored at what we taught. she loooved the spirit world and the three kingdoms. she was like this is what i have been looking for my whole life. it was great. so were like will you be baptized and she said yea i would love to be. so she will be baptized in august. 

you know im glad i got to serve in this area my last transfer. it has been one of the best transfers of my mission. i thought it was going to suck opening up an area not knowing anything but it turned out to be super awesome. i love it. 

so im coming home on Thursday you know that. its kind of scary. you know i have been here for so long that home is going to be new for me. 

i guess that's it for this week i love you all so much. i will end with my testimony

that i know the savior lives i know he loves me and he loves each and every one of us. he is our lord and our redeemer. i know that the book of Mormon is the word of God it blesses me each and everyday and that i have come closer to God by reading its pages than any other book. i love it. i love the gospel i love to share it. i know that we have a prophet on the earth today. he is there as our guild. im so great full for the blessings in my life for all the blessing this mission has done for me. and all the things it will continue to do. 

I love you all so much thanks for the support. 

LOve ELdeR ClemenTs 

the cats meow

hello. hi. whats up. how are you doing. hola.

so sorry about last week. i guess the email didn't go through. but what ever. i sent it to you today so hopefully it goes thought this time.

and im glad you got the bike. yes the pieces are supposed to be missing. i took them off to save weight. and make it easy to ship. so they are in my suit case and will come home when i do. so dont worry.

yep so i guess i will give a recap on this week.

Monday we went up to the city to ship my bike home. the city is big lots of construction going on. and no place to park. we saw the bombing memorial. that was good. and plus were no longer in a drought so all the grass is green and the flower/ fountains are working. so it was better to see it this time. then we went to bass pro shop. that was fun but its not as good as cabelas. just saying. then we stop ed by a jewelry store because elder hort wanted to buy a new watch. but the one we went in was like the super high class watches and stuff. Rolex and Berlin. all of the watches there were like $10,000+  there was this one watch that was made by this super exclusive company. and the watch only cost about $51,000. that's it, pocket change. they said that the thunder come in the store all of the time to buy watches. and just the other day they had camron diaz come buy a watch. needless to say we didn't buy anything.

so the rest of the week has been looking better. we have had lots of work to do besides tracking. we did knock some doors but most of the week was trying diff rent people.

on Tuesday we taught this part member family the mom is a member but the rest of the family is not. she hasn't been to church in years so now the kids are like 20 and they haven't been able to here the Gospel yet. so we taught the son and he committed to baptism on the 27th  of july. so that will be great! then on Wednesday we tracked into this lady she had this huge tarantula on her door and she told us we could come back. so on friday we came back to teach her. and she was super solid like one of the best first lessons i have ever had. she was open. she said that if you close your mind of to any religion god cant tell you the truth. it was super awesome. we also committed her to baptism and she said yes but when we tryed to set a date. she said no because she will be out of town for like a month. dang maybe ladder gadder.

i taught on Friday for district meeting again. but this time i switched it up and we played a game on how to begin teaching. where if you have one of the bullet points memorized you got a point and then if you got it right then you got to soot a basket and if you got that you got a point. and who ever had the most points wins. i thought it could help them learn more. make it more interesting and keep them form not falling asleep.

after that we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. we had elder gleeve with us. he is super funny and cool. but because he is a zone leader he gets to drive around in a car all of the time so when we started biking he was super slow.

on Saturday we got this referral form one of our investigators. so we went over there and said a prayer with her. she is super ready to here the Gospel holy cow. she said she is looking to join another church. she had family die recently.  she needs service family is really important to her. just cool. so she needed some one to mow her lawn so we did it for her. it was super tall we had to chase off the tiger before we could get started. the mower kept dieing because the grass was like a foot and a half tall. but she was so great full. she was like no one has done something this nice for me in my whole life. (she must of had a crappy life) jk it was good.

 Sunday was great. we had to teach. blah blah blah. you know im kind of sick of writing emails im not going to lie. i just want to speak to you all ready.

speak, speak to me our messages are instantly more than a hundred and sixty letter can say. (song by David Osmond)

its kind of the same thing with writing in my journal. the same kind of thing happens every day. just with different people. so it kind of get boring you know what im saying. but i guess that means nothing bad is happening. so i should be great full that im not wring to you about some one dieing or something.

well i guess thats it for this week. i love you with all my heart. you are the best family ever!

I know this Gospel is true. it is super awesome i love to share it.

i know it

i live it

i love it.

LoVE eLdeR ClemENts

last weeks letter

so this week has been super crazy super insightful and super fun. I cant believe how awesome this week is.
so first off. if got permission to go down to the city and ship my bike home. so be looking for my bike sometime this week. or early next week.
yes I did see the missionary conference. it was super awesome. the whole ward council was there and they had the look of guilt on there face. it was funny. but it was such a cool conference what an experience. our mission was in there like three times. and a lot of the things that they were implementing was from our mission. so way to lead the way OKC! I just found out that our mission is doing the best in the region. highest baptism rate and everything. were like second in the nation right now. (not to be pride full)
this week I went to the temple for my final time of the mission. every departing mission gets to go before they leave. but its usually on there final day. but since the temple is closed for the next couple of weeks I got to go early. it was super great we got to do a session and then afterward we all got to ask the temple president questions about the church and temple and anything we wanted. about five minutes into the conversation my mind was blown. was what a great day. I love love love the temple. than after that I got an interview with president taylor and also sister Taylor. they just asked me what I was going to do when I get home and stuff. it kind of made me trunky because usually you don't get that until your final day. but because there leaving early they wanted to interview us before they leave.
sorry this email has to be short because there is only three computers and I need to share with my comp. so he can email to. plus he is not going home in like three weeks either. so I thought I would give him a chance. keep up the good work be good missionaries. and I will talk at you latter.
I haven't gotten any letters yet. so idk maybe they will come today.
Love you so very much
Elder Clements

crazy crazy 57

Hello family

well i guess to start off. i love you and you are the best family ever! dad happy fathers day! if you were here i would hug you guess you will have to wait a month. did you do anything fun? did you get a cheese cake? (i know thats your favorite) it would be cool to call home on fathers day as well. but what ever. in elder kittermans brothers mission. if they only talked for a half an hour on mothers day then they could call for a half an hour on fathers day. me i like the phone calls and everything but its time to focus on the work. ynomsayen? (its, "you know what im saying" in one word. its an Oklahoma thing) 

Sunday was the first time i have been to church in this area. its super crazy. and small. most of the people in the ward are old and older. the primary only has like 8 kids in it. and they are all like 10. the young men and the high priest quorum are the biggest in the ward. but its still good. and it was funny because even though there is only like 75 people there they still had 6 people pass the sacrament. 

then in Gospel principles a old guy told me i need to be a better missionary and if i wanted to have any kind of successes in life i would be a bolder missionary. but the only reason he said that was because he thought i was only 18 and had just barely came out. so he was trying to scare me/fire me up for the rest of my mission. then he asked how long ive been out and i said 23 months and his face was like SHOCKING! it was funny. then he apologized after. 

then that night we went to see this part member family and we weren't going to stop by because by the time we got around to seeing them it was like 8:45 so almost time to go in for the night. but we stop ed by anyways and they were like we were just about to call you and ask you to come over but we thought it was two late so we weren't going to do it. so prompted by the spirit. it was great. 

Saturday we spent all day in the rain. my pants got super muddy. allong with the rest of my clothes. but thats ok it was worth it. 

Friday was district meeting i gave a training on revelation through church attendance. elder kitterman said they just keep getting better and better. so i guess that's good. but who ever is striving for leadership as a missionary is dumb because its just more work to handle. less time to focus on investigators and more on your district. 

so we went on exchanges. my first as a district leader. i went with elder stephen because i feel like he needs to have some time learning his area on his own. it was super hot that day and all of our appointments fell through. so we spent a total of 6 hours knocking on doors. and i probably lost a gallon of sweat. but people were nice that day so i got about ten water bottles form people. 

Thursday normal missionary day. but we saw the other elder's car parked on the side of the road. in our area so we decided that since they were going to poach on our property we were going to get them back. so we stole there cds and camera and sunglasses out of there car. it was funny because they were like guess what we forgot to lock the car and someone stole all of our stuff. so we gave it back so its ok. (borrowed without permission)

Wednesday was the greeny meeting. it was super long. but really good. it was mostly about dont be an idiot. and dont flirt with the sisters. and they were telling stories about how missionaries were doing stupid stuff and how alot of them went home. they didnt mention anyone by name but i knew who most of the stories were about. they they told the story about five missionaries that wanted to do stupid stuff and one of them stood up to the rest of them and saved them all form going home. and im like hey thats me! it was cool because they were like we are so proud of that missionary and we want you all to be like him. (makes me all warm inside)

but on the way there we got lost. on the way back we got lost twice. so most of that day was spent getting lost. so moral of the story. get a map.

pday. we played Frisbee golf it was fun.

but thats about it for this week. is court in the house yet? how is the cat?

well i love you all so very much and i will talk at you latter.

Love Elder Clements

New Area

hi family

so this week has been great. crazy but good. opening up a new area is hard, but fun. its like starting from scratch. we have been trying to introduce ourselves to every one in the ward. but its kind of hard. alot of people we cant get a hold of. and there is a ton of less active people in this ward.

so i guess i will start off with Monday. we had pday and pday here is like ten times better than altus. there is actually things to do and people to do it with. they have a community center here were the missionaries get in for free. so they have pool, a gym, basketball, racket ball, volleyball, and bowling. and there is also a Frisbee golf coarse. so plenty of things to do on preparation day. so on Monday we went bowling. it was fun i got second every time. so at least im consistent. then during bowling my back had a big pinch in it so i didn't think anything of it. until i got home and there was a tick on my back that had its head stuck into me. and all of that stupid stuff about put lotion on him and burn it that's a lie. we just ended up killing the tick so we just pulled it out. dang ticks.

Tuesday we just did alot of finding. because we have no one to teach. (ish) a brother in the Church came out with us and all of our appointment fell through so he wanted to see someone. and we ended up seeing this guy that had probably the third grossest house i have ever seen. and i didnt even go inside of it. you could just see the ticks and flea's crawling on the guys cats that he had on his front porch. but the guy was super nice and funny. he is just old and can't really take care of himself anymore. plus he is willing to give you anything and everything he's got. (which isnt alot)

Wednesday we helped with a service project we helped a member of the ward move about 500 pounds of lava rock out of his yard and into the trash can. so we just shoveled alot and as we were removing the rock is just got muddier and muddier. and we didn't have time to change out of our church clothes so we got those all muddy. good thing i got extras.

and most of the rest of the week we have just spent knocking doors. elder kitterman is pretty sick of it. but there is not really alot else to do. this is the way missionary work is so he better learn to like it.

Friday i had to give another training in district meeting. (uggh) i did it on the book of Mormon and how it is important for our investigators to learn from it and gain a testimony of it. im glad two out of the three people im teaching are new otherwise they would be super board out of there minds. but since this is there first transfer they don't know what a interesting district meeting is like yet.

we had the opportunity to teach a couple of fist lessons though to some of our investigators so Elder kitterman got that opportunity. he is a great teacher all ready he knows his stuff so that's good.

Sunday was this first time i have missed church in two years. the reason is someone needed help with the tornado clean up. so how the tornado clean up is working now is people put in work order of what they need help with and then we will go and help them out. and it turns out that the only day he was available was Sunday morning at around 8. so the whole zone went up to help along with about 100 ward members. it was crazy i feel like a less active missionary.

but that's about it for this week i love you all so very much and i will talk at you latter.

Love elder Clements

helping hands shirts to shirts

hello family

so this week has been super crazy.

well start off the week on Monday i just tried to get everything ready to go. packing and saying goodbye to people. this is my second to last time packing up and moving out. it was sad to leave altus but you know it needed to happen some time. and i guess its good it happened because 8 months in one area would have been crazy. i would have been super sad to leave it then.

on Tuesday it was transfer day. before we left i when to say good bye to one of our investigators but the grandpa came out on the porch and yelled at us and told us to get off the property. it was super crazy i don't know why he did that. but what ever. then we made the long drive up to Moore. its a mad house up there, power is out in half the city. lights aren't working at all. and most of the restaurants are out of power as well. so yea. so a little bit of back ground story, you usually go to a trainers meeting about a week before transfers to help you become a better trainer. but because of all the mess i did not. and then you usually go to transfers early to meet your new greeny. but that didn't happen as well. the new missionaries got right off the plane and came straight  to transfers and to there area. they were interviewed by president and then he sent them on there way. so my new comps name is elder kitterman. he is from Arizona (thats two in a row) and he seems like a nice guy. kind of a dry sense of humor, you know now that i think about it he kind of reminds me of tyler.. anyways he is not one of the 18 year old missionaries but he turned in his papers early so he turned 19 in the mtc. but if you look at him he looks 24. in fact the other missionaries in cushing told the ward that they were getting a new guy and another missionary and one member looked at me and said you must be the new one, fresh off the plane. ugg anyways.

so that night we just spent visiting the members and less actives in our area. the place im at is even smaller than altus. the ward is small. but at least its a ward. but it gets alot of rain up there so its suuuuper green. like definitely ten times prettier than altus and down south. the tree's are green there is water every were. and the wild life if all over. (dad this is for you, i have seen about 50 turkeys in about 3 days and not in the same group or place)

we share a ward with another set of missionaries. so they split the area. and now we get half of cushing and they get half. but half is like two blocks by three blocks. the other elders in the ward is named elder hort and elder Stephen. elder hort i have served around before he has been out almost as long as i have. and elder Stephen is been out only one transfer. he is from the Marshal islands. (just like elder damon my trainer)

so the other elders have been showing us around the area. showing us who our investigators are and who the members are as well. there is only about three investigators that we have so it will be a crazy time until we can find some new ones.

Thursday there was a tornado that hit cushing. so we had to go down and get into a storm shelter for about three hours. it was super crammed with 6 people in a space about five square feet. the storm was very violent but thankfully it didnt do almost any damage to the town. it mostly hit on the outskirts. so after the tornado we went out tracking. i think it humbled alot of people because we got like 6 new people to teach in the space of about an hour.

then on friday was district meeting. my first one as a district leader. so what a district leader does is he basically oversees a group of missionaries. so im like the manager of two sets of missionaries. i just have to make sure there doing ok. but the biggest responsibility is i have to conduct district meeting and do training every week. the training is kind of like giving a talk in sacrament meeting. but you only have 8 subjects go to off of. and also these subjects they have heard every week for their whole mission. so you kind of have to switch it up other wise your going to get people falling asleep on you.

so this week i did a training on giving commitments to our investigators. plus the zone leaders are there (there like a step over me) so its kind of intimidating. but what ever i'll live. then right after district meeting there was another tornados that hit oklahoma. so we spent another three hours at a member house. making sure we weren't going to die.

Saturday we had a special meeting in moore with elder rasband of the seventy. and then after we did service. the crazy part is we did not wear a suit and tie to the meeting we wore our helping hands shirt. we had too and that was the uniform of the day. so super crazy. then right after the meeting we went out and cleaned up this huge park. we did that for about five hours than we went home.

then Sunday was the craziest sunday of my mission. we had an hour church in Norman with a combined three stakes. but it was the same thing as the meeting with the seventy. you didnt wear dress clothes you wore jeans and a t shirt. to church. the deacons passed the sacrament in there yellow shirts. it was super crazy. everything had to be by special permission, President Monson had to approve the whole thing. then after church we went and served for another ten hours in a place called little ax. cleaning up and taking down tree's.

but that is about it for this week, crazy crazy beans. i cant believe all that has happened this week. i wish i could talk to you on the phone and tell you every thing because i cant adequately describe all that has taken place. i will send some pic's or something. because there worth a 1000 words.

well i love you all so very much and i pray for you.

love ELDER CLEMENTS

Clean up…District Leader….Moving to Cushing….and training a New Elder

Hello family

so dad you shouldn't feel that bad. because like one second after you text-ed president Taylor called and said every one text your family and let them know that your alright. so you just beat me to the punch. im glad you love me. enough to break the rules. 

but this week has been crazy! lots of tornado clean up. between me and elder rumsey we did 48 hours of tornado clean up, and were going back at least twice a week for the next couple of months. the devastation there is super crazy. like the news doesn't show the half of it. just one big mess. most of the time we spent just sorting through stuff. like one pile of stuff to burn, stuff to keep, junk, and metal. there was this big group of tree's and like half of the house was entangled in the tree's and most of another house was sunk into the tree's. so we just sawed down fifteen tree's and got the house out of there. i don't know words cant describe how terrible it looked. there was about 1000 volunteers that we worked with. and if we didnt have that many the stuff we got done would have taken a whole week. it just looked like an impossible task but when we worked together we got alot done. and people came in form all over the country there were people there form new york and from California. we had the Mormon helping hands shirts on. and alot of people were asking what group we were from. so many people were so thankful for our help. we were not suppose to be missionary's there. like we could talk to people about the church but we weren't suppose to give away book of Mormons or anything.  

we helped this family take down part of there house and put it in a big trash pile. it was super sad because they had just got through building this house and it was just destroyed. there were still tv's in packages that were busted and couches that had wraping paper on it that were tour apart. and because they hadn't finished the house the insurance wont cover anything. so it's a total loss. but those people weren't sad. in all reality they looked happy. the material positions didn't matter to them it was there family. there were so great full that none of them got hurt. they said money, and houses can be replaced family can not. it was so inspiring. 

but any ways. im glad that i could help. and im so grateful that you guys are safe back home. and that this didn't happen to us. 

so yes im still getting transferred to cushing. yes were going to be cleaning up for the rest of the mission but im still going to the new area with the new missionary. i also found out that im going to be district leader. that is super crazy and alot of responsibility for the next month and a half. i guess i need it or something. this will definitely keep me in line for the last little bit. there will be no room to slip up at all. (not that i slip up before or anything) so i will let you know how it goes this first week. 

transfers are today in about five hours so i don't have alot of time. if i have the opportunity i will write you a big letter. ok. and let you know how every thing is. 

but on the missionary side of things. we had a great week. we are teaching this lady, and she came to church this week. and loved it. she got alot of fellowship from the sisters in the ward. so hopefully elder rumsy will be able to baptize her in the next transfer. along with  all our other investigators that we have. man im going to miss this place. yea it is small and not alot of missionary work here. but it was still a good area. and definitely the longest ive spent in one area. saying goodbye to people as a missionary is really awkward as well. because you cant hug them you cant say i love you. or anything. so its just a hand shake and a wave good bye. but i wish i could hug some of these people. there so nice to me and the missionary's. as a going away present the vermillian family bought me a lasso. (there like $50) that's just too nice. i feel so blessed to be serving in this area. and be serving in this mission.  and for helping all of the people in Moore. 

well i guess that is it for this week i love you all so much and i care about you form the bottom of my heart (and also the top) you are the greatest family ever. and i miss you like crazy but not enough to get trunky. 

LOVE ELDER PAYTON CLEMENTS 

thanks for writing me the letters.