20 - Underneath a red supermoon

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

Things are doing alright here. The ward is a lot like my ward at home, if not identical. That is nice, although they seem more busy in their personal lives to visit with us than my last ward, and I still don't quite feel like I belong, but hopefully that will change as time goes on and I meet more people. Its so strange to not have to worry about the ward list since it's updated weekly and we get a new one weekly as well (too much wasted paper in my opinion). We also don't have to worry about the calendar, although I liked having our own and being in charge of it if anything suddenly pops up, we can see who is down for the day and make other arrangements on the spot instead of playing phone tag. They also don't feed us as much either, although they haven't had Sisters in the ward for almost a year now so its probably unusual for them to worry about another set of missionaries to feed. I thankfully have lots of food to cook now that our apartment has a WORKING stove and oven.

Our new apartment was a 3-4 month vacant ELDERS apartment outside our area (1/12 the size of my last ward, one day I imagine they will have missionaries over stakes like they do in Utah down here). We spent a couple days slowly in our free time cleaning, de-staining the carpet, de-molding the bathroom (bad humidity 90% and above this year), and deep cleaning the fridge and kitchen. They left food for the next elders around the place and it clearly didn't get word to them that they would be the last residents till we came to use it..... I hope this is my last Elders apartment, three in a row isn't fun to clean. Al least this one had a check list of cleaning that I can post in all the area books. I am at to let others know what to do in the future. We also found that there was no information about the area, no shopping locations posted, no places to avoid or anything, so we were really whitewashing this area. Last one at least I knew most things before hand. At least we have an apartment of our own now, before we were WAY out of our area with two other Sisters and things were cramped and noisy. Driving was hard too and packing twice to move was a nightmare. We also got the Elder's car so that helped too.

We met 1 less active Marie, she is real nice. She stopped us on our first day and invited us over. Our other successes were finding multiple Do Not Contacts to report back (they were nice unlike my other area where they made you want to cry they were so awfully rude and insulting or slammed the door in your face). We did meet a few good potentials. One man gave me a wooden pen, it was so neat. he was over 90 years old and loves woodworking. Even though he wasn't interested, and deaf from hearing loss, he still gave us a pen he made and said if we ever lost ours we knew where to get another.

Another one was Sophia. We felt prompted to talk to some people then on our way back from walking and talking with them we met her and talked about prayer. She liked us so much she gladly gave us her information and hopefully we can have lessons with her! If I didn't suggest seeing someone on the street, then we wouldn't have been around to meet Sophia! Its amazing how that works out if we follow the Spirit's promptings.

We also got to see the lunar eclipse, missed it turning red sadly, but we did get view of it all black. So cool and eerie, Sister Culala loved it! She had never seen that before, and in Utah it's usually to late in the morning so I miss it or wake up too late.

We walked around and MANY people were out, mostly having moon viewing parties, or busy, but we met an atheist man who kept trying to prove us wrong, but we got him to accept a Book of Mormon and gave him a Moroni's promise bookmark and asked him to not take our word for it but to try it out for himself by praying, reading, then asking in prayer if it is false. He said he would. I doubt we will hear from him again, but he was nice and let us use his binoculars to view the moon earlier. He kept going on about science and logic and stuff like that but since I love science too and know that with this example: if the Wright Brothers had it in their head that their attempts at flight would NEVER work, then of course they would fail. If you pray and read the book of Mormon that way too, you will find similar results. The Wright Brothers didn't yield to others mocking or logics of the time. They went forth with faith that their plane would work, and eventually it did! So too is like finding out the truth of scriptures and belief in God!

It may not be the first time or even the second you will know it is true, but after awhile or even the first time you will know. Its the Light of Christ in us that tells us it is good and it is from God! Nothing dark or evil comes from him, so only peace, comfort, and love can come. The enemy might try and stop you, but its your decision to keep on going and don't give up!

Sort of reminds me of this video, SO GOOD! its about a man deep in despair in his life and his true story, very good locations, imagery, and one of the best videos I have seen so far that's a documentary.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2014-07-006-the-hope-of-gods-light?category=topics/prayer&lang=eng

19 - Amelia's baptism, a marriage and area #2!

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


Got word that I will be transferred to Huntington beach north stake, Ocean View Ward. Should be interesting!

Spent the last couple days deep cleaning and prepping the area books for them to take over. Sadly, our appeal to president about how to split the ward for safety didn't work out after all. I imagine if we had more investigators we would split the ward since this ward disparately needs Sisters here, but that's how life goes. 

AMELIA WAS BAPTIZED! Such a nice evening. We had the youth sing, and Brother Matthews played the piano so beautifully that it was like being at the symphony, he was so good! Amelia felt the spirit so strongly, and so did everyone else. Half the ward came and even Sister Tew (who had to leave part way because of the departure fireside), the Wassmers, and the Elders from the zone, too! Even more impressive was that the zone leaders came. They could have gone to the farewell departure fireside, but they came to support us and Amelia instead and brought their investigators too! I did a talk on the spirit, and Sister Paw did the one on baptism, so it was amazing!

Other than that, not much to be honest, lots of cancelled appointments all week long and many MANY interviews for Amelia and a few mishaps with our scheduling with that. That's how life goes though. It all worked out in the end so its all good!

Angel Becker and Jeff Enomoto got married on Saturday, and we got summoned over for the after part to help consume some leftover sandwiches for our dinner (they found a way to get us over; I knew she would come up with some way to get us in and still be 100% within the mission rules).

Sorry for the short letter, honestly not much has happened this week. Just lots of no people home and cancelled appointments, and TONS OF TRAININGS. I have sat down enough this week, I want to get out and walk. And lots of hitting the books to clean up the area book. Our zone leaders were impressed about how well we turned around the books, maps, and apartment. The Elders after us are very particular about cleanliness so they will be so happy. I just hope my new area is the same. They did a training about it on Saturday, big time. Its been an ongoing issue, so hopefully things will get better now on. Time will tell.


Things are much better between Sister Paw and I, and we are enjoying the fruits of our hard work, apartment and book wise. 

18 - Locked doors and happy people

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


We got locked out of our apartment yet again, this time after we went shopping first thing in the morning. Sister Paw and I have been checking for keys, but this time she thought she had them with her. Next time I will have the keys and we will have to present them in order to ever go out of the apartment. Thank Goodness we had our phone and car keys this time around. We went to the mission home and did studies with Sister Tew this morning, we were going to do it at our apartment already, but this time we had no choice. It was so much fun that we will do it again with her latter this week! Hopefully at our place. We have had to go back and forth so many times it is ridiculous, but we are still good on miles considering. I just say that we are following God's plan for us which is to learn and grow, we have excelled at that part of his plan this transfer!

Looks like we will definitely have elders in the area next transfer, I just hope I will still be there. I love the ward despite its unique stubborn qualities, and at times odd love of feeding us but forgetting our appointments on occasion. The other day we went to the Carlton's for dinner and we got on the subject of dying plants, I suggested chicks and hens plants among other drought tolerant plants, and Sister Carlton loved the pictures of the more exotic vibrant green and magenta ones. She will get some and plant them right away. it is such a drought it makes it hard to grow much anymore, and they limit watering to 20 minutes a day twice a week, or you get big big fines (like $500 fines) per each offence of doing any more watering than that.

I love the ward members and have found so many ways that life and knowledge that I obtained before my mission has been helping with almost everyone. I also received a blessing that said that THIS IS MY AREA, I was purposely sent here for people in here. It will be interesting to see how things play out two Tuesdays from now on with transfers. It's so odd to think I have been out already 4 months and after this next transfer I will be out almost 6 months! That's a third of my mission gone by. I am starting to see what they mean that this mission flies by and it's so brief in your life, it is almost too short in some ways.

Not much in the way of lessons. Everyone cancelled on us other than the ever faithful Amelia and Beckers, they always love us over, which is such a relief at the end of the day and you don't know where else to turn, and you are almost to the point of discouragement from doing nothing but driving to place to place in hopes that someone is home or will be kind enough to listen, even if they disagree. It really makes a difference in our day to have someone listen and let us in. It gives us a big boost, and sometimes is an answer to our prayer or concern we have. It's amazing when that happens. The other day Amelia told us that NOTHING will stop her from being baptized! She was so proud to say that, it's so heartwarming. When I first met her she was unsure about the concept of being baptized again in another church and many other things, now she won't let anything get in her way. I really do think having her at that girl's baptism really touched and changed her heart forever. I am so grateful for people like her and her constant love of making sure we never leave without food or a smoothie.

The Beckers are doing pretty good considering on the 19th Angel gets married to Jeff, we read more scriptures to them and even if they bring up not the most positive discussions, they know not to dwell so much on those things and to even bring up something positive! I am so proud of them. I also love it when Angel folds her arms and sits there waiting till we say the prayer, she will even look right at you till you start with a prayer. That is her way of saying I want to get down to reading scriptures so why the wait.


Other than that, Sister paw and I had a rough patch the middle of this week, but after meeting with President Tew a couple times due to time, we found the root of the problem is the area and frustration with it and the ward was getting to Sister Paw and a miscommunication one day set her off. we both got things straightened out and are working more on communication and talking more with one another to help from letting things get bottled up. Its been very hard for her because this area is honest to goodness hard, but I haven't had troubles with it and have been happy with it for the most part because its all I have ever known. When those two things met, it was causing lots of turmoil between us and hard feelings. I am just happy that its all worked out. 

17 - Ever productive school days

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


This week has been interesting with how everyone is getting back into school, finishing their summer vacations, or labor day trips. That translates to NO ONE to teach other than our ever faithful Amelia who is happy to see us any day for the most part. We also helped tile Sister Bosse's floor. She sadly is in the hospital with pneumonia, so Brother Baxter and some other members of the elders quorum had to sort of break into her home to finish the tile job, then afterwards re-secure her home and feed her dogs and make sure they are OK. Thankfully the neighbors look out for her dogs for the most part when they find out she goes to the hospital. The last time she was there she was gone for over a month. She now has beautiful tile floors, and I cleaned the hallway walls and started on cleaning out her fine china in the cabinet that was being moved for the tile work. Lots of eager do it yourself dads were present, and despite experience, they helped out. Wasn't the most pretty job, but I went behind them here and there and straightened a few tiles out so it would fit better down the line while they were busy and put in spacers too so they wouldn't budge if someone accidentally moved it (which happened every now and again). In the end it looked real good. Sister Paw and I mostly took rags and cleaned off the tiles once they were placed and dried for awhile and got any grout off of it before it dried on. Hopefully today they will get the filling grout in. We would have helped if it weren't our P-Day. We were told by the stake president, bishop, and through the zone leaders about area restrictions, which we were already following as it was (to Sister Paw's annoyance) so nothing new about that. Looks like Elders may take over, or they will put them in and split the ward again. Better get finished with the book soon and make copies for some people both sets of missionaries seem to visit due to circumstances.

We finally got a lesson with Luis and his mom of all people. She is curious about what we believe but made clear that she believes what she does and won't budge, but hopefully with the next couple times it will soften her heart. Already the lessons with Luis have softened her to join us at the very least. She told us her experiences with Jehovah witnesses and how she couldn't feel the Spirit of Christ around them with their yelling at her after she disagreed with them. Thank goodness we don't do that. She said she felt the spirit so strongly when she watched us from the upper floor window while we were studying scriptures with her son and she said just that alone said to her what we teach is good. I sure hope we can get her help in getting Luis and her to church later on. Slow but steady wins the race, not fast, so be it with them. But this is far greater a cause than any race.

We talked with Amelia about the 10 commandments and her trouble with keeping the law of not saying the Lord's name in vain. She tries so hard. She goes above and beyond the call of duty. I wish all members where like her. We also calmed her worries of passing the baptismal interview. She is also getting her citizenship interview on the 16th so she is extra worried about passing that test too. I know she will make both, though!

Other than them, it has been a discouraging week of no shows, cancellations, and no one at the door, forgot our dinner plans, no answers to phone calls, texts, and to little to no lessons. Its just that kind of week. I hope next week will be better. Lately it seems like everyone keeps putting more and more restrictions to our area because we are Sisters, I am getting quite tired of things. I somehow wonder if that is the secret plot of the ward to force president to give this area Elders again. I just hope it means Sisters stay too; this area NEEDS Sisters desperately too.

Today we were doing laundry and accidentally got locked out of our apartment. Sadly, the closest "member" was our ward building, and we walked half an hour to the building (made some of it up by walking through the statue garden along the way and to get my mind off of the situation too), and we used the zone leaders' phone to call the office and waited to get a ride to get the space key. Normally this would never happen, but I suspect the lock got jiggled and when the door closed, it slipped into lock position (it happened before in the past, only that time we had the key with us). Quite the experience without a phone, neighbors having no phones either odd enough, and even if we did have one, no numbers memorized other than our own to call. So frustrating, but we did get back after spending a third of our day doing that. We live in the middle of nowhere as far as members in the ward boundaries, which makes things so hard. What a way to start our week.

Other than that, things are going well. Sister Paw and I are getting closer than before, but we still have a long way to go.

16 - One more clean apartment

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


Temple day! We were trying to go to the 7:00 Session, but missed it by a few minutes due to traffic. Good Grief it takes forever to go to the temple here, Utah its 15 minutes from my hours not just to 1 temple but 2, even longer to 3 or 4. Here its almost 2 hours to get to just 1. Sister Frosty was so kind to drive us there. Most missionaries went to the 5:30 session, so we were all alone this time as far as missionaries go. Sister Frosty doesn't go by herself so it was nice for her too, just wish it weren't so early to skip 4 hour long trip traffic. While waiting we did some initiatories. Normally we don't do that because of time, and that's not really why we go in the first place, but this time we didn't have any other option. Sister Frosty just read in the bible and got through 8 chapters. It worked out well in the end and was good! We may even look around Little India again latter today since it's Tuesday and stores are open! so exciting!

This week we FINALLY got our apartment in proper order, clean, desk set up (with exception to my papers filed away and stuff like that), and its been somewhat cooler this week end so that was a blessing. Sister Paw wasn't feeling to good so while she took a nap (she gets permission for that once a day as needed). I did some tender love and weeding of the Area Book, potential sheet mostly. Almost all the Spanish potentials are out, corrections, duplicates, and summaries done. So many duplicates that one can loose their mind. Our book is looking real good and proper, and they are done by street and area so we can find the ones we need for backups so we never have to say, "Now what do we do?" when all plans fall through. So happy! took forever though.

We finally met up with Luis and will try to continue with him and possibly his friend who is a girl. We shall see, if we can get her support, then we may even get two people, which would be amazing! He is still ever faithful about reading the Book of Mormon even when we didn't see him for a couple weeks and keeps trying to ask others to read it too! So wonderful, I just hope we don't loose him, he is so good.

Amelia is going strong, struggling with coffee every few days (she does it for energy due to 24/7 care taking). I hope we can help her quit, other than that she won't drink champagne anymore and gave away all that she did have and refuses any she has been offered. Way to go for her, we are so proud.

Met a few more potential strong investigators. School started, so we have lots more people to meet and have lessons with and service opportunities too! Who would have thought how much school impacts our lessons and service to others.

Pony petting zoo cancelled, but we did get to an hour in advance help Sister Becker organize some trunks full of things and donate some stuff she didn't need (got some free organizers to use. HURRAY, it was much needed and wanted including skirt hangers, answer to a prayer there.)  And got to set up a wall phone that was at one time a desk phone and convert it over (it was a puzzle to do that with out the instructions, but it was fun because I love puzzles) and install it on her wall in her garage. Her old one was broken, falling apart, and nonfunctional. Best yet was she was going to get rid of it because she had no space for a large desk one, so it cost her nothing. 

I am doing well. Things are coming into order and with our books in almost top shape. We now know where to focus on and how to do it so things between Sister Paw and I. We are getting along much better than before. We also talk a lot more with each other and have been enjoying our journey through this interesting transfer. I am going to make it a goal for me personally after this area book project is over, to learn one new skill or talent. Here I go!