August 18

Geeesh a lot of new news talaga! wow excited ako na magsalita sa inyo! where do i start? haha well mama i am glad you have a little missionary mom fan club haha that is pretty awesome, and yeah i am pretty sure everybody loves the Phillippines! it truly is just amazing here and i love it so much, the life here in the Philippines is so sick and I aabsoulutley love being a missionary and working everyday and meeting new people everyday. It has rained like crazy this last week and I am suprised i have enough connection to email right now. The rain here is so strong and it POURS! i love it but Elder M doesnt really haha but hey Elder M and I are getting along so well and our companionship is super strong and we have so much fun. Our work is progressing so much and we are working hard and we seriously have to the funnest time throughout our day. The mission is hard as hard can get and there are marrami mga pagsubok(many trials) but Heavenly Father just carries us and keeps our attitudes bright and we just work and we are happy for sure. We have 4 baptisms saturday!!! we cant wait because we have been teaching these investigators for awhile and we love em so much, A and M are sisters and they are getting baptised this saturday and they have 5 kids if you add them together and it is such a blast to go and teach them. Amy has 4 kids and her husband is in Mnailla with another woman and she is only 29 so she is really young to have 4 kids. But let me tell you, this Gospel has givin her so much strength and she has such a strong testimony and one of her sons is getting baptised on the 31 of august and the other kids are to young but one of the best parts of being a missionary is meeting somebody for the first time and then teaching them the Gospel and then you keep teaching and keep teaching and you get to know them better and better and then they decide to get baptised and then you just look back and think about how far that one person has come and you can just feel the spirit so strongly as you teach them and you just know that heavenly father is so happy with them and they are just brighter and happier now that they have heard the Gospel and living the principles of it. This Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint is the true church and only true church of God and the spirit you feel from just reading this email is a witness that this Church is the true church of God. I have already seen so many differneces in people lives because of this Gospel and I absolutley love being a mouthpiece for my heavenly father and sharing is message with everybody i get the chance to share it with.

So my week has been great I ate the famous blood dish here, the just cook the pork in blood only and it actually is super good, everybody in the branch and just people are saying i am starting to turn into a true filipeno so thats good news haha. Oh yeah speaking of being a true pinoy, I dont use toilet paper and i am being completley honest when i say this that it is a cleaner way to do it and it is a lot better then toilet paper for sure. WE expieriance an earthquake lastnight haha but it didnt last to long but it was really cool the whole house shook a lil bit. Mama, I am learning how to cook filipeno food so dont worry i will teach you when i get home. we have a new elder and he is a white boy straight from the MTC like me before haha so it is really fun to have him.

My language........ Thanks to heavenly father, he has truly blessed me with the gift of tounges and i am speaking tagalog. I am far from fluint but I understand what people are saying pretty much the whole time and I can have a conversation and teach all the lessons and for some reason this last week, Tagalog has just clicked like never before and the language is coming big time and I absoulutley love speaking Tagalog it is the coolest language in the world haha.

There are times where the mission is just very difficult and everyday i have struggles and why i tell you that the mission is amazing is because through Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice for me, life is good and life no matter where you are can be good and happy. The mission is so fun and i love the work and i love planning for our investigators and i love seeing the growth in them but it truly is hard and i am always tired and if i wasnt a missionary of God i could not do this haha but i am a missionary of God and I somehow do it and I do it with a smile on my face.

I love you all and thank you all for the news!!!

ps: DAD, you are the man and I am proud you are my pops:)

Love yall

INGAT PO!

Elder Clark!