Peanut Butter Birthday Crab

Well well well. Here I am again! I am convinced that on Saturday I had the BEST meal that I have ever had on my mission! I can't remember what it is called, but it is an African dish. We had crab and shrimp cooked in a peanutbutter sauce. I know that it sounds weird, but it was sooooo good!!! We have been teaching a woman from Africa since January, and she is just waiting to get married so that she can be baptized. But since it was my birthday on Saturday, they wanted to make us something special. A traditional dish from their country, Equatorial Guinea. It took a couple hours to make, but my goodness gracious it was so flippin good!! Also, it was my first time eating crab, so that was fun! They taught us how to bite the legs and suck out the meat hehehehe. I discovered that I really like crab! Who knew?

So we are teaching a 23 year-old kid from Mexico! His girlfriend is actually a missionary in Brazil! She was the one who gave us his information :) He really wants to be baptized and be a member, but he really wants to make sure that he is doing it for himself, and not for anyone else. By the time we got to meet with him for the first time, he had been coming to church at a different time all by himself since November! And he has read about half of the Book of Mormon already. He is doing so well! I love the lessons that we have with him. His questions are so good!

I was thinking the other day, and in these past 3 months or so, I don't think I have ever learned so much in my entire life. I have been learning so much about the Gospel and about life in general. I literally can do anything that I want to in this life because I am a divine daughter of God and I have the help of Christ. I can do hard things and achieve! We all can! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of progression! It is not an idle gospel. It is meant to push us and help us become better people. The end goal is to have everything that God has, which includes being like Him! Which is perfection!

Anyways, I hope you all have the most wonderful week! Thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes! I love you all so much! Remember that God loves you!

-Hermana Clark :)

Ps- The bishop's wife made me some arroz chaufa for my birthday. I was quite the happy camper :) hehehe

Sant Jordi-Round 2

I know that last year I talked about a holiday in Catalunya called Sant Jordi. I didn't really think much about the fact that I would be in Catalunya a year later to celebrate it again! So basically the story is about how a prince named Jordi killed a dragon to save a princess, and the dragon's blood turned into roses. So he gave the princess the roses. This is basically the Catalunya version of Valentine's Day. Everyone is selling roses everywhere, cause the men give the women roses. But also, in return, the women give men books. Not sure where the book thing came in. But whatever. So we set up a booth and gave out Books of Mormon! We also did that last year, but this year we were only able to be there for about an hour or so. We had a lot of teaching visits that day. I enjoyed Sant Jordi a lot more this year cause I can actually speak Spanish now, and it is so fun to be in Barcelona!!! Over the weekend, the street in front of our apartment was closed off. There were parades and carnival booths complete with a trampoline thing! In the parade, they had these huge giants depicting different characters in the Sant Jordi legend with a bunch of Catalan music.

Later that day, we had an appointment to meet with a Spaniard. We had never met him before, but some other missionaries sent us his info. The teaching appointment was amazing!!! He really wants to learn and is looking for the Church of Jesus Christ. But a few hours later he messaged us saying that he thinks it would be better if the Elders taught him because he was pretty sure that our parents wouldn't be happy if they knew we were meeting with a middle-aged man hahahahaha. He has no idea that we meet and talk with strangers literally all day everyday hahahaha. We just thought that it was funny. But he wants to be taught by the Elders, so we passed him over to them :)

I think this week I learned the importance of time management. Literally every minute can be used wisely. I'm not sure where all this extra energy I have lately is coming from, but I love it! We are getting so much done here and we are loving it!! But, I am definitely not forgetting to enjoy myself here either. I just realized... I said last week that I would talk about a Spanish woman we were going to help take to the hospital. I guess that will have to wait for next week. I don't want this to get too long. I love you all so much! You can succeed in anything if you really put your mind to it! This week we have been asking ourselves, "What would you do if you knew that you could not fail?" Then we have been working on doing it! Again, I love you all so much! Be good!

-Hermana Clark :)

ps- My companion and I planned a giant scavenger hunt for about 28 missionaries in the Barcelona zone today in Las Ramblas. It was sooooo fun!!!

Finally some Spaniards!

This week was incredible!!!!! To start off, yesterday we met with a man and his family. He is from Ecuador and his wife is a Spaniard here from Catalunya! And she believes in God!!!!! It's incredible!!! I haven't been able to teach many Spaniards on my mission, so I am so excited!!!! Actually, we have started teaching two Spaniards!!! The other one is the boyfriend of a member here. Spaniards for the WIN!!! Anyways, they are both adorable families and the gospel of Jesus Christ is going to bless them so much! I can't wait!

It has been raining a lot here. Like seriously. A whole flipping lot haha. It is either kinda hot, or rainy these days. But anyways, yesterday night the husband of one of the women that we are teaching made us the BEST fish I have ever had in my whole life. I didn't even know that it was fish! hahaha This family is from Africa and they are going to make us some type of food with a peanut sauce next week, we can't wait!! I seriously love trying all of the foods! hahaha

Tourist season is picking up here. It puts such a fun energy in the air! I am loving it! But sometimes I feel like I am on vacation instead of a missionary haha. I really am so blessed though to be living in such a beautiful city. If I could pick a big city to live in, Barcelona would probably be it! I especially do love the older sections. Because there are so many tourists out, a lot of people play the Spanish guitar in the metro and outside for money. I love it!!! It makes everything feel so dreamy! I really do love Spain so much!!

I hope everyone is doing well back home! I miss ya! And I love ya! Be good!

-Hermana Clark :)

Ps- We are taking a member to the hospital next week to help her out. She is the most sarcastic, old Spanish woman that I have ever met! I love her so much!

Well, yup.

I am constantly thinking throughout the week, "I need to remember this to write about later!" But I can never remember what it is when I get around to writing haha. I do remember though that we were running around a lot. Literally running. We do that a lot, actually. I am already aware that we look so ridiculous jogging around in skirts and dresses haha. We get so many weird looks and rude comments. But I honestly do not even care. I will NEVER get the chance to run around as a missionary of Jesus Christ ever again. I will be able to serve in different capacities, but I will never be able to do exactly this ever again. And I will miss it. Because I love it. So much. I love being able to testify that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world, and that through repentance, people really can change and be better. That's all repentance is really about. It's changing.

I decided the other day that I am tired and exhausted of getting in my own way. I need to get out of my own way and just go! I need to overcome my fears! I still have soooo many haha. I don't ever want to stop progressing and becoming a better person. It makes me so happy!

We are teaching a boy whose father passed away when he was younger. He became very angry and short-tempered. I love the opportunity that I have to help him rely on Jesus Christ to change his life. It works. It really does work. I promise! Cause I've tried.

In other news, I ran into the cupboard a couple of more times this week haha. There are already so many tourists here in Barcelona. I got my official release date from the misison office today. August 7th. My plane tickets will be bought in the next couple of weeks. And I just don't want to go home, yet. Lucky for me I still have lots of time! :) I love you all so much! Keep pushing forward! Don't give up! Have courage and be kind!

-Hermana Clark :)

Ps- My companion is obsessed with icecream, and in the last week we have probably eaten icecream 7 or 8 times... It's bad hahaha

Sneaky cupboard

I was in the kitchen talking to my companion, and I was particularly paying attention where I was going, and I ran right smack into the kitchen cupboard with my head hahaha. It was so sneaky! I mean, it just jumped right out at me! Haha It left a good red mark for a bit haha.

This weekend was Easter in which we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. There is a very famous cathedral in my area called The Sagrada Familia. Every night for about a week they were doing these light shows on one end of the cathedral. It basically with through Jesus's adult life, crucifiction, death, and resurrection. It was definitely an experience that I doubt I will ever have again! It was very pretty, but also very dramatic.

This week we have been able to teach many lessons to a few of our friends who are preparing to be baptized this month! I love helping and watching their progression. They are preparing to make the most important first covenant/promise with God. They are going to be eternally blessed. But that doesn't mean that the road after baptism is easy, it's still hard. But they are promised to have even more help with them :)

Sorry that this is a shorter email. I don't have much time. We are taking out some brand new missionaries again! :) Oh, I should mention, transfers happened, but my companion and I are staying together in Barcelona for another 6 weeks! It is likely that I will be leaving Barcelona when these weeks are up. But we'll see :)

I love you all so much! I promise that you can do hard things! I believe in you! And I am praying for you, too :)

-Hermana Clark

Ps- I am loving being back to wearing sandals every day again!! Spring is here!!!