23rd week

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

HI family

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

your favorite missionary (as always)

Elder Clements

Happy New Years

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

any way so that my week.

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

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

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

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

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

keep up the good work family

Love you favorite missionary Elder payton Clements

P.S. 57

21st Week!

hi family

its been about 2 days since Ive talked to you last. (just in case you forgot) things are going well as all ways.nothing super new to talk to you about since Sunday but yea.

so here are a couple of things we did last week. on pday we played basket ball again. (shocking!) but we were going to go to an ostyology museum. (bone museum) but because were running out of miles we didn't end up going. i brought my uke to pday and just ended up practicing for about 3 hours. it was fun but boring at the same time. this week was really just a vacation. because we were not aloud to work for Saturday Sunday and Monday. and on Friday we had district meeting and a party. and on Thursday we ended up moving a family out of the ward all day. so not a whole lot of work going down. but this week its go time! were making our days super busy and trying to find as many people to teach as possible.

on Saturday we couldn't leave our apartment unless we had a set appointment. so because no one invited us over we had the Spanish elders and out district leader come over and we ended up playing cards for like 4 hours. it was really fun. Ive never played poker before so they taught me the "rules of engagement" beginners luck was with me and i ended up winning for 3/4's of the game. we played with change. (which all happened to be mine because you seem to find change everywhere on your mission) so we divided it equally between the 10 of us. it was crazy and fun. but if it had been real and we were playing for keeps. i would have lost all my money. so that's why you don't gamble! way to go Gordon!

So that night we ended up sleeping under the Christmas tree. and played freeze out! we oped up all the windows and turned the fans on and slept on the floor. it was elder Carl's idea. (it should be mentioned here he is from Canada) and it was one of the coldest nights of my life. it was about 15 degrees out side. and when we woke up in the morning we had frost on the couch and the carpet and the Christmas tree. we woke up and opened the things we got. it was kind of like being a little kid again. but we slept most of the night. unlike back home. we made hot chocolate and a mountain man breakfast. with the hash browns and the eggs and the sausage. it was the best breakfast on my mission. we also ate Tim tam slams. witch is were you take hot chocolate and suck it through a cookie. the cookie is like a sponge and it just absorbs the hot chocolate. and then you shove it in your mouth before it falls apart on you. their supper good. and about 300 calories a piece.

after that we went to church. and watched the Christmas program. they had a stake quire. and it is the first church quire that actually sounded great (besides mo tab) i was really impressed. on how the program turned out. the bishop invited us to lunch. because he bought his kids uke's and wanted me to help them out. in learning and tuning. o and this was crazy they asked me to do a lesson on modesty for there girls. and the girls are like less than 10 years old. it was just a awkward lesson. because they didnt really know what I'm talking about. i couldn't use alot of references and i had to explain everything in very simple terms. so because im rather smart and funny (and humble, wink) i made a song to go with it at the end. it was along the lines of modesty... is hottesty... dont show of your bodesty... that what i call modesty.  keep your skin nice and covered. so people don't say O brother.. and so.

they all thought it was funny. and the bishop got a real kick out of it. then bishop decide to bust out the remote control cars. and there super fast and basicly indestructible. they can flip over and still keep going. and they can go up to 35 MPH. we played with those for about an hour. and that really why i was late to call you on Sunday.

then after that we went to dinner with a less active family. witch scared me. because they signed up when they were active and then shortly after they stop ed coming to church. so i basically though we wernt going to get fed on Christmas. but they ended up pulling through. and they fed us Hawaiian. it was good. but not the traditional Christmas dinner.

so hows the Ipad 2? is it everything you ever wanted and more? but really im super jealos. that so cool. they use ipad's in some parts of the country for missionarys. they all get one and they  teach the plan of salvation and restoration on them. its pretty sweet. i hope they get thoughs for our mission soon. wink.

what else did you do on christmas? how was chrismas eve? what was one of the funnest things about st. george? did any funny things happen? (fell on the ice, crazy gifts, etc) i mean i told you alot about my life on the phone but i want to here about your life. how's school lauren? what dose this guy look like that wants to ask you out for your birthday? does he know that i could take him out from here? if not tell him! (how you ask O i have my ways, i got people) jk that really great that you got a 4.0 im so proud of you. somthing i havet goten, yet. it sounds like you guys are having alot of fun.

Dad< so on the video did you really kill a goose right there? i dont think so. but did you have to do a couple of takes on that. and were the shells expencive? plus who was filming? idk let me know.

mom that movie was so funny. i loved it. everybody was like saying that you should make them movies and stuff. but i dont know if you would like that? so i just said mabey. you filming the cat was so funny. i got alot of crap for that. and some of our extended family is crazy! but i love them. it makes me glad to see them. that like one of my most favorite christmas gifts.

well any way i hope this letter is long enough for you.

LOve your favorite missionary

Elder clements.

P.S. 57

we just got a package :0

 Elder Clements Loves Oreo's just saying

 Elder Curtis and Elder Clements Put up all these chairs for Elder Perry

 Elder Soto and all his wonderful Flair

 The Sorrel family

 I guess Elder Soto is a hit-er sooo……..

 Elder Curtis going home

 Elder Curtis

 Oklahoma Temple

 Elder Clements, Elder McMurry and Elder Soto

 Carmel apple

 Elder Soto glued Paytons hands together

 Dakota STREET YEA!

 Elder Soto's hat

 District Picture

 Had to have the glue removed surgically

Elder Clements drew this after he went to the temple
Knights he got your letter and he says thanks so much…..and the Young women he got your letter as well….he says  he's got ADD haha so he'll try and write more.  And thanks grandma for the Package he's had fun opening all the gifts for the 12 days of Christmas :)

almost 6 months

hey family

first off i want to thank all of you. i have gotten 3 packages so i hope thats it. 2 from the clements family and one from a store. i sent you guys a package and the projected date said it will arrive today. so hopefully you get it. its just got a letter and the tape i recorded like 3 weeks ago. and some other cool stuff that you seem to collect on the miss.

so the weather here is good and bad. so we haven't gotten but 1 inch of snow this winter. its basicly like september in utah. just some rain and some cold. some mornings its fricken freezing! but it seems to warm up a little. i check the weather in utah on a phone service called tell me. you guys seem to have it alot tougher than i do. its cold when we track. but other than that its pretty fine. one night we were just walking down the street to some ladys house. it was so cold! i swear its the coldest i have ever been. like when we go duck hunting and my boots get water in them. it was kind of like that. because it was misting. like i only have seen it in oklahoma. but it doesnt really seem like its raining but when you touch your clothes there soak-en. its crazy beans. it's the worst weather. because your not even expecting it.

well heres a little about my companion elder young. hes from lapoint Ut? yea i have never heard of it either.  he's a down home country boy through and through. he lived on a ranch. his favorite thing to do is hunt. he has camo PJ's and Elk print sheets. he said y'all before he came to oklahoma. and he has a thick Utah accent. weird to think about but its true. elder soto has a hard time under standing him. he is very obedient. like down to the T on everything. witch is good. but bad at the same time. because he is constantly looking at the white hand book (the rule book) to make sure what were doing is ok. like he thinks some of the ties i have are unapproved. its kind of hard. because you know i dontlike people telling me what to do, especially if i know im suppose to do them.  Idk "we can work it out", just like the beatles song say's. im so used to listening to music in the car and around the house. but elder young doesnt like music. he cant think when he's listen to a song. so like even at like dinner he doesnt want music because he cant think and chew at the same time? i dont know. what can you do? nothing!  just learn to love him the way he is!

but he's a really good missionary. i teach alot more with him, than with elder curtis. because were on the same level and elder curtis was way above me you know. we had a super sick spiritual lesson on friday. we had dinner with thegodfree family. they just moved in so i didnt know them until that night. they fed us Cafe RIo. it was the best Cafe rio i have had in 5 months. they also fed us MAGARIDAS! (dont worry they were virgin) but they invited their non member friends over. and we taught them about when jesus when he came to the america's in 3 nephi chapter 11. everyone was crying their eyes out. The spirit was so stong you could almost see it.

you know when you have the spirit with you and you get that spiritual high. man ive never gotten so high in my life! its like one of those spiritually/ physically draining lessons. like you litteraly go out of ther feeling like you ran a mile. but so good. they will probably get baptized in 6 months.

o speaking of margaritas. did you know i have broken the word of wisdom 3 times on my mission? not on purpose of course. but the first time it was in mustang and some guy gave us wine. but didnt tell us untill after ward. and the second time a member fed  us sweet tea during dinner. and when they asked us for more we said yes. and then they bought out the container and it was like strawberry sweet tea on the side. the third time was this week. so we had lunch with a member. and he took us to this new authentic Italian restaurant. it was so good. and the member knew the owner. he said we could get what ever we wanted. and then after that he bought us dessert. so the waiter told us what the dessert's were. and i just picked one that sounded good. they brought this cake thing out and it had chocolate and caramel. and some cool cake on the bottom. so i started eating it and i thought it smelled familar. so i kept eating because it was really good. after lunch we had a prayer with the member and during the prayer i remembered what was so familiar about that cake. it was soaked in coffee! because it was bitter and sweet. but man o man this whole word of wisdomis killing me, satan likes to trick the missionaries.

we are continuing to do alot of missionary work just tracking and visiting less actives. the Christmas season is hard. because alot of people think we dont believe in Christmas. (thats  Jehovah witnesses) and they dont want to talk to us because familys over and stuff like that. some guy yelled at us and asked us if Jesus would knock on his door and bother him. i said "probably". it was funny. he just slammed the door.

so Christmas is coming up and we are just looking for people to have us over. because were not allowed to do work on Christmas the day before or the day after. so were just thinking of things to do. the mcbrides have us for dinner. but they decided to go less active so hopfully they will still feed us even though they dont come to church.

o so yesterday we went to a less actives house to bring them some cookies. and the wife is outside and she's just hacking away at a tree in her front yard. with a electric chain saw. so because elder young knows how to do tree work. he helped her cut it down. man that guys a monkey. he just scaled up the tree with a chain saw in his hands. and just started cutting lims off. the wife was like yelling at him and telling him to be carefull. you know just like any mother would. but it was a good thing we came over because the tree was  going to fall on her house if she would have continued to cut it like whe was.

well that basicly it for my week. i loved your guys letters. those hooligans in your class better behave or there going to have a very strongly worded letter on there door step in three days. lauren your letter made people think im crazy. because i just burst out laughing on three different parts. idk. this is your best letter yet lauren. courtney. your the bomb i was just kidding. i know your busy. but thanks for writing me.

love you guys so much and i will talk to you on christmas.

i wont be able to skype. unless some pretends to be deaf. that way i have to "sign to you"

but that wont be an option. i will call your cell and you can call me back or somthing. idk how it really works out. i think it will be after church but IDK.

love you so much

ELder Clements.

5 1/2 months out :) YEA ME!

Lauren and Payton got a Cd set at the Library and they started learning Swahili just for fun just in case Payton got called to South Africa on his mission so it's pretty crazy cool that it helps get him in the door this week!!! The church is true :)

hi family

so sorry i couldnt email that long last week. it was just crazy and stupid . some guy invited us to lunch and then he didnt even end up feeding us. we just watched him shop for about 4 hours. it was dumb because we weren't even suppostto go with him becuase he wasnt in our ward. so yea any way the weather last week sounds crazy. everything is still ok? right. that cool about finding that little boy. i have know dought in my mind that prayer works. we use it all the time as missionarys. and it always seems like the Lord is watching over us.

so yea i got my new comp. his name is elder young (idk if he is related to Brigham) he's a real country boy. he grew up in Lapoint UT. population less than 300. hes really into hunting and fishing (go figure) and his dad is a elk hunting guild for the book cliffs. he's got camo PJ's camo hats a elk horn belt buckel. a ctr ring that has elk ivory in it. man this guy is the typical guy you see shoping at cabelas. he's a good guy though. he's 21 allready so hes alot older than most. he's 6'4 so i feal short buy him. his parents are divorced so he has 19 brothers and sisters (including step) so a big family. its kind of funny all of my comps so far have had there parents divorced. i wonder if thats suppost to meansomething? idk.

so any way we work really hard. elder curtis was a good guy and all but he was just trunky a little and ready to go home. so this transfer is kind of a good punch in the mouth. this guy is by the book on everything. he will probably be district leader next transfer. hes a little shy around people. so kind of like me but im getting better.

so on wednesday we had the ward party. it was good. not as good as the partys back home. but you know what can you do. we had about 200 people show up. so that was good. all the food was gone by the end. so that was a bigsupprise to everyone. this ward is legit though. we had about 15 investigators there,  that members had brought. so thats really good. were checking up on them and teaching a couple. member refferals are a missionarys dream. because there usually the members friends that allready know a little about the church. and they already realize that mormons are normal people. so if you could think of somebody that need the gospel in there lives. give the missionarys a haller.

we met with the bishop on sunday morning and talked about what we could do as missionarys to help him out. he gave us a list of people that we need to visit. and he gave us a refferal from his neighbor.(sorry cant spell) and then he asked us if we would like to talk in sacrament meeting. so were like sure well talk next sunday. and he said o no i  mean today. so he gave us a 10 min notice on what we need to talk about. we only had to speak for about 7 min a piece. but still you know how i get in public speaking. i need time to prepare .i didnt even tell a joke at the first.i talked about Christ and the Christmas season. and why we all need to share the gospel with others. elder young talked about coming unto Christ and charity.  they were super good talks. if i do say so myself. everybody came up and told us that they were fantastic. and they felt the spirit very strongly when we spoke.

the bishop came up to  us after and said. it was fate that the high priests had to cancel that day. and that our talks were what people really need to here at that time. so overall a good day at church.

after church we got a call from a member and said she gave a lady a ride. and the lady was interested in learning more about the church. so we go and talk to this lady. she starts to tell us she's from SOUTH AFRICA! and she speaksswahili!!!!!!! so being the prepared boy scout that i was. i asked her habarigandi? she was so impressed she let us in the door. and we taught her the first lesson. she want's her kids to have religion in there lives right now. and so we are now teaching the whole family! O this is so amazing. this gospel is the best! we talked about how we go on missions. and what we do for two years.  she told us she had great respect for us and said she would like her son to go on a mission! first we need to baptize him but that will be the easy part. (wink) we gave them three copies of the book of mormon. because they they all want to read it as a family. and they dont want it for there personal study. its kind of like when we had two harry potter books so that two of us could read it at  the same time.

idk just a spiritual high all this week.

lauren mario says WHA YA WHAHOOOO! and speaking of mario we have an elder thats from Guatemala. and when he speaks he sound just like a mario. hello yesa ist me elder mathine. its funny. hes still learning english so its hard to under stand him some times but yea. just remember lauren who you are and what you stand for. your the most consitant writer of my siblings. wink sorry court its true :) just remember lifes a dance you learn as you go. some times you lead sometimes you follow. dont trip on the little stuff and i will talk to you on christmas.

wow mom your the best. your always caring about others. four time's to st george in two months. thats some crazy shiz. i bet you know all the best stops buy now. your probably sick of wendys. and your plain hamburger with ketchuponly, and a bake potato. wink. just remember to not get to stressed out. there your family they will under stand if it take longer than usual. dont stress on the christmas either. its only the most wonderfull time of ther year. so dont blow it.jk jk jk really dont worry.

 

dad the duck hunting sounds great. how many times have you gone this year? have you killed any geese yet? we have and elder  from canada that lives with us. his name is elder carl. and he so sick of killing geese its not even funny. he says you can like limit out every day were hes from. and he said that you can hunt moose and just buy the tag over the counter. thats crazy because its once in a life time in utah. you just keep doing what your doing. keep being the best father i ever had. (because really i have 2 dads. elder damon is technically my mission father) any way just keep though's elder's in line. make sure that you do your home teaching. and encourage every body to do theres as well. thatswhat keeps people on the strait and narrow. you would be surprised how many less actives there are out there. dont make another because you or some one in the quorum forget to do there home teaching. i know that your  doing whatsright. i love you so much

i love all of you and just keep up the good work. i dont think i need any thing right now but thanks for the offer. o and i got grandmas packege. i all ready opend the first one. and im excited to drink some hot coco tonight.

lov eyou  all so very much you guys rock my socks.

LOVE your favorite missionary ELdeR PaytON cLemENts.

146 days out :)

what up family

your week sounds a lot crazier than ours. but still it has been a crazy week. so first off i havent gotten my new comp yet because elder curtis left a week early. im with the zone leaders untill wed. there good guys, a little crazy but good missionarys. we have mostly gone and served in there ward so  really the work in the area i serve in is about dead right now. we dont have any investigators and really only about 5 potential investigators. so as soon as my new comp gets here thats when the rubber is going to hit the road. we got trancfer calls last night. but i allready new who my new comp is. his name is elder young. he has been out for about 6 months.(so not much longer than me) thats all i know about him. but i will totally tell you about him next monday.

so the mission is just one crazy experience after another.so on monday we went shoping and we got stuck in traffic for about 3 hours. we were trying to go to this mall in mustang and the roads were under construction. so it was basicly a parking lot. we decided that we should get off as soon as we could. but it took us a long time to get home as well. me and elder soto went in his truck. elder soto is a shopaholic. he buys about 200 dollers worth of stuff every week. he has got so much crap. he has about 300 ties, about 30 white shirts. 5 suits, 10 sweaters. and a bunch of camara equipment. he is going home in about 10 days so i dont know how is going to bring all his stuff home. he sent a packege of books home (home for him is in mexico)  and it cost him about 300 bucks. so he is going to half to leave alot of stuff here. so any way we were stuck and we basically wasted our entire p day stuck in traffic. it was lame.

on wednsday we went to the temple it was so great! i love the temple so much. every time i go i learn something new. just all the symbolism in there is extraordinary! we went because it was elder cutits last time. then on thursday we had temple confrence. so i whent to the temple twice in one week. it was just the most spiritually uplifting experience. remember when we went to the temple like 3 times a week. this was basicly the same experience. just so uplifting and awsome.

at temple confrence we watched 17 miracles. it was so great it makes me cry. we tryed counting out the 17  but its so good its hard to focus. we also watched a movie that some guy mad with all the pictures through the year on it. (kind of like what you do mom) maybe im just spoiled when it comes to movie making . but that movie that he made sucked he had some crazy tecno christmas songs in it. and it was 20 min long and half of it was pictures of a nut cracker. it was just weird. we had a talent show after words. but the AP's forgot to tell every bodys. so no one prepared a talent. so everybody just scrambeld together to find something to do. it was mostly singing. because no one brought any thing. it was just funny when people got up there and didnt know what to do.

 i will email you in one second this isnt it

love you Elder Clements

so sorry about that some crazy guy just came up and started to talk to us and told us we were being deceived by the devil.

wow i have to go this day is crazy. i will probably email you some time latter this week.sorry about that i love you  the church is true the book is blue.

elder payton clements.