Email address (preferred):
rachael.clark@myldsmail.net
Mission address:
Sister Rachael Geniel Clark
California Long Beach Mission
6500 E Atherton St.
Long Beach, CA 90815
I moved, I was told after sports last P-Day that Sister paw and I had to move into the elders apartment since they were being pulled from the area due to new zone leaders being trained. I wasn't the most happy at first because it was last minute and just dealt with it, THEN they told us at 10 pm that we not only had to move, but to be gone the next morning (and get up at 4:30 in the morning to take Sister George to the airport and help other sisters move until Sister Paw comes) Needless to say I had to pack up everything I set up that day earlier for Sister paw and I and stayed up till 1 in the morning. It was a long day! The elders apartment was a wrek sadly and was left with things strung around everywhere, dirty dishes in the sink, who knows how old food in the fridge and cuppboards, musty bathroom, and 100 degree F apartment WITH fans running and AC on. After much help the Lakewood sisters came for an hour the next day to help clean and straighten up the apartment. I tore down the man cave they set up because it too dark and even if it did bring the temperature down 1 to 2 degree's it still was HOT AS AN OVEN! I would rather like light and fresh air in the apartment than a dark walled up man cave! We are getting by, the mornings are real nice and cool which is nice during personal study, but nights are too hot, its cooler outside than in due to poor construction. Little India is right next door which is cool if it weren't for the insane amount of construction going on all around us, it takes forever to get out and preach the gospel! Oh well, it could be worse, so that I am thankful for, that and the cheapest laundry services around downstairs! The one and only perk of the place! Other than that, half white washing into an area especially with nothing about the area is no fun!
We organized the area book for a short while to get the two on the same page, having four area books for 1 MASSIVE area is confusing! I imagine we will be getting other missionaries within the next two transfers ( I hope!) so it would be better to keep them separate, just need to make copies for people who both area's visit because of gender related issues and so we don't have the problem of last time with half our area misplaced in the others book. The elders never left their teaching scheduled or anything behind so I had to play hide and go seek around the apartment for their progress records (which some are still missing)and rely on memory from the past week's ward correlations meeting. We visited Dp (teepee we found out latter it is just spelled Dp) and Santa his wife. They are going through job troubles and trying to get social security so they can get a green card, and their kids are in Nepal still which helps. Santa has been working two weeks without pay, good grief! I hope that they get a job soon or they will be forced to move elsewhere. Dp in Nepal had a thriving business in accounting, but his building was destroyed by the earthquake which forced them to come to the US for better prospects.
We also visited the Schaffers, a partially blind couple who are principles for a school for the blind in LA, they drive and everything and even the husband mark has a guide dog who is so sweet! Sister Schaffer is the daughter of a church priest (i think that is what he was called) that latter became a mega church (stadium row seated, mega screen filled church that the speakers and musicians get payed to do things there and costs to come into). She was dissolutioned from the bigger buildings, and she refused to get paid to play at church the piano and left that church completely. Her belief is that no one should get paid to teach about Christ and his doctrine and share their musical talents for church. She even went to a high up bible school and is well educated with the scriptures. Somehow she heard about the Mormons and decided to take lessons. It took a while, but she got baptized and her husband also did! They are currently inactive. Sister Schaffer is on and off coming and looks forward to taking the temple class finally after a long while. They were offended due to someone telling Mark he couldn't bring his guide dog into church (which by the book is allowed), and by them being invited to the temple and marriage classes, but when they overlapped by 1 week were told they couldn't come to the temple class. They also were treated poorly by the members who would give them something to read, then would take it back or skip them when it came time to read and made rude comments about them not being able to see (which they can!) All they wanted was to be treated like everyone else and go to the temple. Hopefully with my efforts to the ward council they can get the temple class going on (because they NOW have enough reason to open the class with four people... In my opinion 1 person is enough to do the class, a person shouldn't have to wait till they have enough people to want to receive the blessing of the temple. This ward has lost many people to in activeness due to this reason!) Anyways, off my soap box, they are such wonderful people and I know that despite the difficulty of working the whole ward we were to meet them, hopefully many others too!
We saw Sister Boise, an elderly woman home bound due to severe arthritis. We visited with her and sang songs to uplift her. Next week we will help with deconstructing her kitchen with elders of the ward and help put in a new cabinet and sink so she can use it. Right now she has no water, way of even getting it, and if an earthquake happened, I bet the while sink and cabinets would come crashing down. It is just hanging on who knows what. Her house is also in great need of bug spraying and cleaning. Oh and tile on the floors for her too! The ward council wasn't the most willing to help her out other than food since she is almost starving, but some people paid out of their own pockets since they were so upset from the lack of care for her to have cabinets and a proper home that is clean, safe, and accessible! It is really sad, but hopefully this will help her. She has been in and out of the hospital the last 5 years and is partially blind, but EXTREMELY SPIRITUAL. Even with the passing of her husband years ago, she still greatly desires to go to church! Sadly she is "too far away to receive the sacrament from hom." Not by my book, just because she is in Hawaiian gardens doesn't men she is excluded from the rights of the sacrament, and I hope to make a stink about it next week in ward council. If us sisters can go in, so can anyone else in the ward! They just need to go in more than pairs if need be!
We also saw Amelia. She had miscommunications and thought we would never see eachother again, so she was in tear of joy to see me, and Sister Paw too. We taught the Word of Wisdom, and we found out she drinks coffee in the morning and 20% alcohol wine on the rare occasion. 20% is still alcohol so she was bummed about it, but she said she would follow The Word of Wisdom! She also went to one of Sister Paw's investigators, a little girl named Bella's baptism on Sunday. She was saying she kept seeing herself in that girl's place and was crying by the end. I hope that that was the spirit touching her and bringing her closer to baptism.
Other than that, its been a long, tiring, HOT week. So many disappointments too, and blessings to see those we did see without appointments, but we are managing. Next week should be much better, we just need to find where to park on Thursdays to avoid getting ticketed again for street sweeping (we found out that unlike everywhere else, ALL the streets in this block are no parking Thursday, including Little India. I for one will not walk for a mile to park before and after personal studies, too much of a waste of our day). Hopefully we got a spot at the complex in back. The elders never told us, so I have to track elder T. down and ask somehow.
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