Chicken Feet for Dinner yummmm......Getting Transferred to Spanish Town!!

Hi,

Brother May (Gilford May) got baptized Yesterday! yay! The teenager we are teaching got a no from his dad so he has to wait a while. Zone conference was awesome and very uplifting. We had the area Mental Health Specialists and Doctors come and speak to us which was pretty cool. The work is  going really well, I'm not sure about how many of our investigators will be golden it usually takes a couple of lessons for me to figure that out. We are actually going to go play soccer right after I finish email so that'll be cool. We are playing Kingston Zone vs Spanish Town Zone :)

Yes I did get the Easter package actually. I got it like two weeks ago I forgot to tell you, thanks. I got the candy, gels, and cable and money :) A lot of packages get here faster but for some reason whenever its a Christmas or Easter package it takes longer for them to arrive I don't know why but thats how it is.

Well are you ready for the big news...........................? I'm getting transferred again! Im moving to Spanish Town. Which is probably the most dangerous spot on the Island. I have driven thru there a couple of times and trust me there are some very dangerous areas in Kingston but I do not even want to get out of the car when passing through Spanish Town creeps me out. There are tons of gangs everywhere and its just kind of freaky not a safe place. Theres been a lot of killings there and last week three people got thier head chopped off over there :(

Elder Snelson is training here in Boulevard but we don't know who yet. There are seven new Elders coming in this transfer and six leaving so a lot of trainers this transfer. Elder Ferrin is getting transferred to Mandeville not the branch I was in but the other one. I am going to be companions with a guy named Elder Pakxman. He and Elder Ferrin were MTC companions they are only one transfer above me.  So ya I'll have to tell you how Spanish Town is next week. Transfer day is always on Wednesday. 

So I had chicken feet for the first time on Friday night for dinner at a members house! It was definitely an experience. I think I can go without ever having that again :). I said bye to everyone on Sunday and got some people to sign my journal and I took some pictures. We did some service on Saturday morning at one of our investigators houses Maudeme. We made a big sand pile for the kids to play in and then a guy climbed to the top of a coconut tree in the middle of it to get coconuts and we drank from them.  Answering dad's question: Ya I have seen my Mission President several times since Ive been here and my companionship all got interviewed this Saturday. Theres only 55 missionaries in the mission so he gets to know everyone really well. Say Hi to Colin BTW.

Love Jake

Elder Ferrin, Bro May, Elder Clark, Elder Snelson

The Companions - Elders Snelson, Ferrin & Clark

Elder Clark and Elder Snelson - Kingston

Cut Down Coconuts.....

Hold Coconuts.....

Drink Coconut Milk...yummmm!

Best week of my mission so far!

Hey mom and dad!

I got all the emails from all the kids that were at Dana's house they made me smile tell them all I said hi. I got Alyssa's grad announcement two weeks ago as well as a letter from the young women, I got grandma and grandpa's email last week. People from singles ward and brother Banagas wrote to me so tell them I get their emails and read them and appreciate them. Tell Ben and Linda I said hi when they come over I cant believe its been almost 5 months since we were in Utah with them.

 

As for the work this week has been one of the highlights and best weeks of my mission so far. The past 3 weeks we have worked hard to find new investigators and organize our former's binders and so far have found 34 new investigators 16 of which we found this week. This week has been insanely busy. We have been booked on average three days in advance and have this week booked through all of Thursday already. We are going to try to go on splits with a member this week because right now we have more people to teach than we have time for. Brother May is being interviewed for baptism this Wednesday after Zone Conference and his baptism is scheduled for this Sunday and was announced in church. We might possibly have another baptism this Saturday as well if one of our teenage investigator's dad gives us the ok.

 

One of our investigators got mugged and was shot on Saturday night and is in the hospital now, crazy right? So we'll keep him in our prayers and check up on how he's doing in a couple days when we go to teach and meet with his best friend for the second time. It was crazy cuz we saw him Saturday morning and he seemed pretty stressed with life and said he was having a rough time and I talked to him for about 15 minutes on how we have to endure trials and why we are given them and gave him some words of encouragement, and then after the lesson I shook his hand and looked him in the eyes and told him to keep fighting. Little did I know what would happen to him that night. 

 

Tell  Deanne and John thank you so much I really appreciate it, and tell Collin I said hi when he gets home I didn't realize that he was pretty close to me. I guess El Salvador is kind of near Jamaica. Hope Matthew has a good time at Circle X I keep him and everyone in my prayers. I have set a goal that everyday I'll pray for 2 people that I am thankful for back home and why I am thankful for them and the things that they have done for me.

I am in Alma right now in the Book of Mormon and am on Deuteronomy Chapter 7 in the Old testament. I really want to have the whole bible read and that is my goal. It helps out a lot to know the bible here cuz a lot of people are pretty educated on it. The main religions besides ours in Jamaica are Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah's Witness, Pentecostal, and Catholic. So we get a lot of questions about what is the right day to worship on, the gift of tongues and what god's name is :)

Hope all is well.

 

Love Jake

1st Transfer to Patrick City, Kingston with 2 New Companions!

 Hey mom and dad,

Well my new area is very hot and humid and its back to the City but we are in a very residential part of Kingston. We do have addresses here in Kingston we live in Patrick City. We live on Patrick Dr. lot # 21. We go to areas like Waterhouse, Seaview Gardens, Duhaney Park, Drews Land and our boundary ends where the church is located which is where Dunrobin meets Constant Spring so you could google map those areas if you want to see what our area looks like.


There are no wards in Jamaica only branches, we don't have a Stake in Jamaica yet but are working hard to get one. President Hendricks doesn't have a branch he attends each week,  he just goes all over the island. We are the only ones in our branch but the Zone Leaders and the Assistants are in the Constant Spring Branch in the same building as us but they meet after we do so we see them when church is done. We go from 9am to 12pm.

It is a lot different being with 3 missionaries instead of 2.  Elder Snelson is awesome and a great missionary we're good friends and have a lot of fun and work hard. He is from Sacramento, from a city called Antelope so I'm not sure if thats near Aunt Kathy or Carolyn. Elder Ferrin is from a small town near Tucson Arizona, he is pretty quiet but a great missionary and together we have been working hard and the work is going really well over here. We had two investigators at church on Sunday and we all three spoke in Sacrament meeting. This is actually one of the stronger branches on the Island so we don't have to take charge that much.

Andre is an investigator we have who is in his late 20's and we've been helping him overcome his ganja and drinking addictions and he's been doing awesome and he has changed so much over the past week and a half since we started teaching him, he is a lot happier and a lot more driven to make the right choices in his life. We have two more investigators Sister Tingling and her 11 year old son Richard and they have been taught for a while and know a lot about the gospel so when we go to teach them we read whatever chapter Sister Tingling is on in Gospel Principles. She is looking for a house to move into so she can move out from Richard's dad who is against the church. So she cant get baptized until she moves out because they aren't married. Richard could get baptized but he doesnt want to until his mom can get baptized. 

We've talked to a few crazy people on the street. There is Digicel Rising Star who is always high and sings songs for us and he wants to be a big star and receive money from an unknown source :). Rasta Smiley who is a rasta man who took us back to his little garden backyard with trees, turtles, and fish it was actually pretty cool he was rambling on forever about crazy stuff we just sat there entertained. Oh and there was a man walking a cart trying to sell sticks so ya only in Jamaica. Its pretty urban in the area we are at and we have to walk by and cross over the gullies a lot to get from place to place. Its really hot here but it feels a lot like summers back in CA so I'm pretty used to it. 

Oh and I read a talk by president Monson this morning for personal study called Finding Joy in the Journey and Id like you to try and find it and read it if you could it was really good. It was in the talks that Kyle gave to me on my birthday.

Love,  Jake

Elder Clark's New Investigator "Peter"

Last Week and This Week!

Hey mom,

Ya Arlene was baptized in our building we have a font. most buildings in Jamaica do if they aren't renting like old doctor's offices etc. Tavia, Arlene's daughter, and a teenage girl named Tatiana both have baptismal dates for June 18th so that's exciting and we were blessed with a lot of referrals last week so we are going to be very busy this week contacting and teaching. It always feels good when the work picks up. It's really hard when you feel like you have no investigators and you have to spend most of your time finding.

Lets see a story... well last week we watched President Richardson get his bee suit on and go to a tree and gas out a ton of bees and then put them in the bee box we carried down. He might take us one time to go do some "bee work" whatever bee keepers do. They have a lot of bee boxes and they get the honey from them. It was a really cool experience to watch actually how you get all the bees. You mainly are looking for the queen bee it doesn't matter how much males you get. Some people clip the queen's wings so she cant get away. Because once you have a queen in your box the rest will come. Its so amazing actually how they have hundreds of bees to a box and like 12 boxes right next to each other and they just know which one is their home and they travel up to 2 and a half miles away to go get nectar and they know how to get back its pretty cool. We've had some fresh honey here with no sugar added straight from the bees and it tastes so good.

Wow I cant believe Dan had his baby already it seemed like just yesterday we were at their wedding crazy right. And gees Sam too thats crazy. I actually kind of figured she was gonna get married to that guy pretty soon after I left so its shocking yet not shocking at the same time. But good for her. Ya I heard about Rene getting baptized thats awesome. Well I sent off my letters with the British lady to Shawn and Dennis so I hope they get them sometime.

Hey Family,

Things in Hopeton are going well. Another lady named Andrea who lives in the same yard with Tatiana was jealous that she was getting baptized and she called us and was upset that we werent continuing to visit with her and that she wanted to get baptized too. We used to teach Andrea but we had a drop lesson with her because she wasn't keeping her commitments and wasn't progressing so now we are going to continue to visit with her and hopefully she'll get baptized soon as well. Whats a bummer is that we don't know where I'm going but we do know that I am leaving next week so I wont get to be there for the baptisms. We get transfer calls on Saturday.  And we know that Elder Larsen is going to be training in Hopeton. Our best guess based on everything else that is happening though is that I will be moved to Old Harbour with Elder Toutai (a Tongan) so we will see if we were right this weekend. Elder Larsen has one more transfer left he will arrive home on July 28th. It's been great serving with him and he has been an awesome trainer for me. We are good friends and I'm sure we'll keep in contact after the mission. Besides he has family in southern California so I'm sure I'll probably see him sometime cuz they come down a lot. He'll actually be in CA a week after he gets back for two weeks. My trade off with Elder Kraus went really well. He's an awesome missionary and I learned a lot from him we teach really well together and he's a good friend of mine out here as well. 

Today we went to Treasure Beach for a Half Zone Pday. So it was me, Elder Larsen, the ZL's (Elder Kraus and Dale), and all 5 sisters (Payne, Speakman, Wilkinson, Smith, and Everette). Treasure Beach was awesome and very beautiful. We played a game of soccer in the mud and had a bit of a mud fight as well. Elder Dale and Kraus picked me up and threw me in a huge pond for initiation it was pretty funny. We had a blast. We also went to a really nice pizza restaurant that a lot of tourist there go to and had pizza and ice cream. The water was beautiful its a bummer for all of us to look at it and know we cant go in. Ill send pics next week we just got back to Mandeville and are still wet and muddy as we speak on the computers. I left the cable at the house. I got my first email from Seth so I am going  to write him after you I haven't read it yet. 

Love Jake,

Elders Clark & Larsen

Hopeton Branch President Richardson and his family

 

1st Baptism - Hopeton, Jamaica :)

Hey mom,

I had my first baptism this Saturday. we baptized a lady named Arlene Lawrence. Her story is pretty interesting. A piece of paper was by her gate one morning and she passed it by and then it was actually in her gate two mornings later and it was a page torn from 3rd Nephi. She read it, kept it and hung it up on the wall. She was later introduced to the missionaries right before us, near the end of the transfer before I arrived in Jamaica. But I have been teaching her the whole time since I arrived. She has had a rough past and she overcame drug addiction and moved out with the man she was living with in order to become a member of the church. She has changed so much and is truly converted to the gospel, she really is awesome and kind. I'll send pics if it'll let me.

Hopeton is a pretty tough area though. Elder Larsen says its the toughest area he's served in.  We spent 3 hours finding one day and had 3 lessons and only one new investigator and then another day last week we did finding for another 3 hours and taught zero lessons and got zero new investigators its pretty depressing. We are working so hard but there is barely anyone around and according to Elder Larsen this area is a bad first taste of Jamaica because the people can be mean. All we have here is rich people on one end that don't want to listen to us and potheads on the other so we have the two extremes and no one in the middle but we are continuing to work hard.

I have a trade off on Thursday and I am going to Santa Cruz for a day with Elder Kraus so that should be fun and Im looking forward to that.

Hope all is well and your all in my prayers.

love, Elder Jake Clark



Elder Clark, Tavia (Arlene's Daughter), Arlene, President Richardson (Branch Pres), Elder Larsen

The Book of Mormon the most powerful source in conversion



Bethal Street - a Street we Proselyte on

Rasta Mon!

Hey Family,

Things are going well. Ya they celebrate Easter Monday. Everyone eats Easter bun and cheese over Easter weekend and everyone either buys or makes kites and flies them on the weekend. So we saw a lot of kites in the sky this weekend.


It was a bit slow because everyone is on holiday so a lot of our investigators were out of town. One of our investigators Andrea is close to getting baptized I think. we're gonna extend a date to her our next visit.


We are teaching a Rasta man right now who believes in Jesus. Last time we saw him his friend handed him some ganja (weed) and he rolled it up right in front of us while we were teaching him. He asked what we thought about ganja and we said its not good for you but if you pray to know if what we taught you is true then you'll know if what we believe about ganja is also true.


Someone wiped dog poop all over the walls and locks to the gates of the church on Sunday so Elder Larsen and I cleaned it up cuz we're the first people to get to the church in the morning. We have a building in Hatfield that we go to and there is another one in Mandeville that the sisters go to.

Ya I heard about Prince Williams wedding here they talked about it on the radio in the taxis we take to town as well.

 

That is so awesome about Astrid as well I'm proud of her. Tell her I said hi from Jamaica as well as Tom and Roxana and Tommy. I wonder if Andy's grandma would accept the gospel or not.

 

Love Elder Clark 

PS: Jake also shared with us about an investigator but it has to wait until after mothers day to be posted :)

MTC - Provo Temple - MTC Comps Elder Butler & Elder Clark - Jamaica - Birthday Flouring - Sister Everette & Elder Clark - Companions Elder Larsen & Elder Clark