August 19,2014

Hey mama:) I sure do love you all so much and I am very grateful for the emails that you send and the detail and time that you put into them. It really makes a difference in my day when I recieve an email from my mama and when i can just feel her love from the words that she sent. I am grateful for my family and I am proud of my siblings and of course i am so proud of my mama and pops and I am so happy that you two are in love and enjoy and want to be together. I will have a relationship like that someday with my wife too, I am going to be a good husband and a good father and I am going to be loving, humble and a worthy preisthood holder. I know that this Gospel blesses families because I have experienced it with our family and also i see the changes in the familes that i teach because of this Gospel. I love being a missionary and I know that this Church is the true Church of Jesus Christ and I know that as we follow the principles taught by Jesus Christ then we will find happiness and peace and love and forgivness in our lives. The Atonement is real, it is not a joke, it is real and it works as long as we humble ourselves and use it everyday. Sometimes I feel like we just want happinesss or peace or a happy family to come into our lives right away after we have said a prayer or something but it does not always work like that. I have really came to know that it is by small and simple things in where we will recieve those blessings. Everyday if we pray for opportunities to serve our nieghbor then the Lord will bless with opportunities to serve and through that, we will feel good that we were able to help somebody else. Everday, we need to read the scriptures because they are so powerful and true and will make a difference in our lives. We need to go to church as a family and read the scriptures as a family everyday and pray as a family everyday and have family home evening because through those things, change comes and it is always a change for better and a change in where we become more like our savior Jesus Christ. I know that in order to have a strong happy family, we need to ACT and work for it and repent. 

This week was really great and the M family came to church again this sunday so that means that they are close to baptism.:) This week Elder E and I did a lot of exchanges and we are gratefrul for the chance we had to really help the missionaries in our zone just become better effective teachers. Our misssion focus right now is teaching skills which is my favorite thing in the world because I love teaching and just trying to improve my teaching everyday. I cant really think about what happened this last week but I am doing really well and next week is transfers so we will now where Elder E is being transfered to. I think he is going to cagayan because he has not been out there yet. That is where i spent half my mission is in cagayan which is like the way poor part of our mission and there is no city out there but it is the best haha. Anyqways i am happy and I am trying to serve the Lord with all i got. I know i have a lot of weakness that i need to strengthen but I am in the best place in my life right now to help me become a better person. I am growing up and I am understanding and learning a lot of good life lesssons. I love you all and I am grateful for you all as well. 

Happy Days, All is Well

Elder Cory Clark

June 8, 2014

Hey mama:) I didnt know that coops graduation was this week. It is way weird to see my lil brother and his friends in the graduation uniform! It is weird to think about them all as graduated. Coop is about to become a man real quick in a couple months when he hits the mission. I am so excited for that kid to step in the mission field and just get to work in the Lords work. Mama, you have no more kids in highschool! how great is that? that probably is a masarap feeling for sure, but hey mama and pops i sure am proud and grateful for you both and your amazing examples to me and us kids. I cant even express how many times i realize things throughout my day and just say...... i learned that from my parents. Everyday you two especially are in my mind helping me with the Lords work as well. 

I bet it was so great to just be wit the whole family:) well not the whole family but hey there was still alot of the family and that is always way fun. I miss my cousins and i am really excited to see them all big and grown up and I hope i can still help them all laugh from time to time.:) HEY CLARK FAMILY............. I LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU ALL:) 

Hey so transfers happened and I thought i was really going to miss claveria because the people there were seriously my family and i just didnt want to leave yet....... BUT, my new companion is Elder E and he is the man. I have been blessed and blessed and blessed with the best companions. Elder A who was my last companion, i really thought that it was going to be a struggle but he became one of my best friends and we had the best time. And now, I am with such a stud missionary. he has been in the mission for about 4 months longer then me and he is just a stud missionary. Lets just say we work so good together and I have never worked so well with another missionary. Elder E tagalog is amazing and i am okay in tagalog but our teaching is bomb and the Lord has blessed us a lot this week. Elder E is from Utah and he loves to sing so hopefully we get the chance to sing together haha. Like i said in my last email.... i am really close to Laoag and the mission work is just a lil different out here... its " alot more difficult" but i dont agree haha. When i got here to Bacarra " my area" Elder E said that the area was struggling and we had to pick it up alot. we had 2 baptismal dates in the beginning of this week and no investigators had been coming to church and being zone leaders our area really has to be the example area. Anyways, this week before we started working Elder E looked at the area and talked about what he had to do and get done so ya that is what we did through the help of the Lord completely, and because my companion is way talented. Well we found 7 new baptismal dates this week and 5 of those is this family who literally was so prepared for us missionaries they were just sitting in their house like they were just waiting for us. We walked in and we taught them the restoration and the excepted baptismal dates and it was one of the coolest experiences in my mission because our area was struggling a lot and then in one week the Lord just flipped around our area and we are just was excited to work.

I really love my new area and my new companion and I feel great. I am gaining my weight back and I am super super excited to just work hard and get done what needs to get done. I seriously love being a missionary, it is the greatest privledge that i have ever been given in my life. I wish the mission was 3 years cause there just is not a greater work then this in this day of time. People are crying for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it is the best feeling when you find them and help them and teach them and just see their progression  and see the big change in their life. 

I do have a funny story for you though. the first night in baccara we got fed by the bishop and the next day our stomachs were way jacked up..... anyways we worked in the morning and it hit elder E before it hit me haha and again this is really the first day we were companions...... so we went and worked and at the end of the work in the morning elder e just looks at me and says....... " hey, i gotta poo dude we gotta go" and we walked like a mile as fast as we could to our apartment and right before we reached the apartment he just pooed in the pants haha and then that night at work is when it hit me.......... we were in our last lesson of the night and it hit me so bad. my stomach was upside down and just screaming the bathroom and i just whispered to elder erickson in like slang english so they would not understand haha i said " i gotta take a duece." and we tried to end the lesson but it just kept going and in the middle of our investigator talking and explaining something i just kinda yelled and said.... brother do you have a bathroom I need to use and i ran to his bathroom and yep thats the end of the story for now hahaha......... but it is all okay and our stomachs feel good now we are happy haha:) 

I love you all and i miss you all like crazy. I think about my family and close ones all the time and I appreciate your love and examples to me in my life. Life is way good and happy days, all is well.

HEY !!! I just saw ELDER T:) i have not seen him since we were last companions. he was the companion that was with me in the first skype session haha the big samoan. gosh is was so good to see him!:)

I Love you all

Elder Clark:)

March 9, 2014

 My life is so good and I cant explain how and why it is so good. I love being a missionary and I love talking with people in Tagalog and Hilikano and I love sharing this message that we hold as members of this Church. The happiness i feel as a missionary of God is real and true. To be able to wake up and feel happiness and also go to sleep and feel happinesss is such a big blessing. Of course there are times where i struggle and I am firusturated or sad but the best part about it is that I can pray and literally everytime I am sad and then I pray, i feel happiness right away and I know that is because Jesus Christ died for me and not just for my sins but for everysingle expieriance and feelings that i have felt and will every feel. This Gospel is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and every ear will hear this message and I hope that when people get the chance to listen to the Missionaries that their heart is open because I know that if the have an open heart and an open mind to this message then they will come to know for themselves of the truthfulness of this Church and then their life will change for the better and they will feel true happiness everyday and they will feel closer to their heavenly father and they will no of a surety that they are a child of God and he has a plan for them. This Gospel is a amazing and I love being a missionary for the Lord. This is the biggest and best responsibility that I will ever have in my life i think:)

So we got transfer calls this week and I was really hoping that I wouldnt recieve a call but I am and I did! I am transfering out of Santa Teressita and I will be going to CLaveria and I will be opening a new area! President called me on friday and told me that i was transfered and then he asked me of I am ready to open up a brand new area and of course i said i was ready haha. I am really excfited and I will be the District Leader down there and my new companion is Elder A:) he is an american and he is still super new. I think this is his second area and he just got finished being trained so he is only 12 weeks in the Philippines. I am really excited because I know i have a bunch of work ahead of me and I know that the Lord wants me here in Claveria. I actually have a chapel again though which is cool but the only thing is that my area is pretty far away from the chapel but its all good because faith brings miralces:) 

I sent a lot of pictures to you so you can see what has happened over the last week! TY got baptized on saturday and he is the man who has been taught for many years by a bunch of missionaries and we were just the ones to finally see him be baptised. It was pretty difficult to teach him at first but then with a couple good lessons with the Spirit, he desired to be baptised and come to church. I paid for his fix in his motor because he had no other way to go to church but the thing is that not that is motor is fixed , he is taking other people to church now too so thats super sick. Also i just paid for a wedding for out coule ivestigaotrs here and I have a picture with them so you will see them but they will be getting baptised in a couple weeks so we are super excited. 

Elder V will be trainging and so he is way pumped and i am too because Elder V is such a G and is a great missionary for sure and he will train great. HIs companion is super lucky though because he is about to have like 10 baptisms here in the next month so he will really enjoy that, i am really excited for Elder V he is a great companion. 

LIfe is great and I get to go work with Elder T tonight for just tonight because i will be sleeping at his apartment, so i am excitecd for that for sure haha. 

I dont really know what to say except i got a good haircut today by a bunch of gays that dress literally like woman and they try to have women body parts and they called me handsome and perfect like 100 times haha but for real even though they are cross dressers and it freaks me out, bottom line is that they give good haircuts and thats why i was there haha.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and I love you all so very much and I am grateful for the Family that I have. I will proabably have a bunch of news next week, sorry for the pangit email!

Mahal na mahal kita at ingat kayo lagi at excited ako para sa yung susunod emailing session natin! Dad, magaling talaga kayo at maraming salamat para sa inyong halimbawa ng kasipagan. Alam ko na yunf dahilan ne bakit talaga masipag ako ay dahil ang mga magulang ko:) Mahal Kita:)

Happy Days, All is Well

Elder Clark

Pictures

Happy 20th Birthday Elder Clark!

Hello Family:)! Gosh I love you all so much and miss you all so much too. Reading emails from my mama about how my family is doing just makes me happy. Thank you all for your happy birthday wishes i appreciate it so much! I had a lot of emails today so that makes me feel pretty loved:) THis is probably the first birthday that i have ever had that i just dont want anything for myself. to be honest, the mission is the best decesion i have ever made because through the mission you learn so much and you truly change. I have never prayed so hard in my life day in and day out and I love everyday in the mission because i always learn something new and even though its my birthday it just doesnt matter because i am a missionary of God and its not about me at all and I just am super excited for later tongight at 6 pm when our pday is over and I can just go teach people. I love teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I love figuring out new skills to teach and I love feeling the spirit and I love being in a lesson and my investigator has this big concern and you dont know what it is but then it just hits you and find out their concern and the spirit is so strong and things just work well. This week was probably one of the best weeks i have had in the mission and I will explain why:)

So first we have been preparing all week for our 3 baptisms on saturday and it just couldnt have all gone better and more smoothly. Brother C is a man i found with elder T and we found him on the street and he was just so prepared and he was a hardcore iglesia ni cristo but he let us teach him and he just fell in love with the Gospel! WE have been teaching his whole family and him and his daughter got baptised on saturday and his wife will be baptised this coming saturday. Anyways, I seriosly love this family with all my heart and i cant explain it. I loved my investigators in bangui but gosh it is just different here in Santa Ter. I seriously just want to help these people so badly and I would do anything to help them understand this gospel. When we first met this family they were not that exceptive and they had a lot of problems in their family but now we see them and they are just happy happy happy and they have such strong testimonies of this gospel. We are going to have a FHE over there mamaya:)  I had the oppurtunity to baptize brother C and Nanay A and really can't explain what happened but it just was perfect. When Brother C got baptized he came out of the water with just the biggest smile on his face and he just said like 5 times " i am happy" with a huge smile on his face. Then with Nanay i cant explain either haha she is probably my favorite person in the whole world haha i love her so flippen much. First of all she is an old nanay who just lives by herself and just is so so so funny but she was so excited for baptism and she loved it so much and she cried when she came out of the water and she was just smiling so big and gosh i just cant explain how happy i was and am!!!!! haha

Also the testimonies of our baptims had alot of the congregation in tears so i was overly happy and yeah anyways i am just happy. haha i will send you some pics

I am super happy that my family is being blessed and I just want to let you all know that I am okay here in the Philippines and all my investigators and companion is saying that i am becoming a filipeno and it trips me out sometimes because it is true ahaha i eat every meal with my hands, i crave rice and i could just eat a plate of white rice and enjoy it and i am being blessed with the gift o f tounges and I can understand all my investgators all the time and just be able to talk with them and say whatever i want to say to them in tagalog, The mission life is so sick and I am going to miss the phillippines so much when the time comes when i have to leave but i just am trying to enjoy it everyday.

Hopefully Elder V and i will stay companions because i love this guy so much and we work so great together. Also i just dont want to leave Santa Terresita because we have about 10 baptisms in the next month so we are really hoping that the Lord just wants us to stay together.

This Gospel is true and Jesus Christ is the reason for my happiness. When people say... he is my strength, he is my light, he is my joy, he is my love, he is everything.... its true and i believe in this. If you dont have a testimony in this then work for it because it is true and life is way better when we feel this and inderstand the truth of this.

I love you all and thank you all for eeverything, i have a bunch of emails to write so i gotta go but hey i love you all so much and i am proud of my family!

mama just a note for my next package: childrens hymn book ( maybe a small one)

floss picks for my teeth and ones that are strong and will last. i think the oral B ones are really good.

I LOVE YOU ALL!:)

happy days all is well

Elder Clark