I Love You!

Dear Family,

It was great to talk to you yesterday. I sure love you and miss you! I was really surprised by how hard it was to hang up. But, hey, we´ll see each other soon.

Here is the story of Aylen, told with more details than I explained yesterday:
Yesterday we brought a new investigator to church. We found her last Thursday. A very important lesson with member had fallen through and we had no appointments to teach. But I decided to have faith that Heavenly Father could guide us to someone prepared. So I tried to have a good attitude and we went to visit an investigator who has been difficult to find lately. When we knocked, her niece, who we hadn´t met before, answered the door and let us in. Her name is Aylen and she used to take the lessons from Elder Moore in Palomar. We started teaching and set a baptismal date with her for the 14 of January! Yesterday she came to church and really loved sacrament meeting. She says she wants to bring her cousin and her boyfriend with her next week! Aylen is a miracle. This experience reminded me of the importance of having faith and a positive attitude. Heavenly Father isn´t going to bless me with a miracle investigator every time I choose to have faith despite challenges, but I know he will help me to achieve better results in all my efforts if I exercise my faith and think positively.

One of the things I want to do this week is to use the mission goal of 15 lessons with a member present per week to help our investigators. Last week we only taught 7 lessons with a member. We had more lessons planned, but lately all the members have been standing us up. But I think maybe if we talk to them more about the individual investigators and explain to them what each investigator needs from them personally, they will follow through on their commitment to come teach with us. If they can love the investigators like we do, they will ask us to let them come teach! So this week I will plan better so both the members and investigators can have spiritual experiences in the lessons.

I was thinking today about how important it is that everyone knows that God loves them and that other people love them. Love is the most effective motivator. Love for us motivated Christ to endure inexpressable suffering to save us, love for Christ motivated the original apostles to keep preaching at risk of martyrdom, that same love motivated the pioneers to cross the plains through rain and snow. People who feel loved by others and by God despite their errors are willing to keep trying to change in the face of debilitating addictions. And if these people feel enough love, they achieve those changes and come unto Christ. Love always wins. Despite challenges and suffering and temptations and great wickedness, in the end Heavenly Father and Christ´s love will save everyone who learns to truly love Them back. Love covers our imperfections. If we strive to love God and others, we will naturally be motivated to perfect our imperfections and Heavenly Father and Christ´s love will forgive and heal our imperfections, even the ones we don´t have time to overcome in this life. That is why love is the first and great commandment. True love will motivate you to keep all the commandments, and love is the motor of the grace that will save you after all that you can do.

I want each of you to know how much God loves you. Every day he watches you and is thrilled to have children as fantastic as you are. He loves you for your faithfulness in the preexistence, for your honest efforts in this life, and for your divine, eternal potential in the next life. He is proud of every advance you make, however small. He is patient with your imperfections. His love for you is constant, regardless of your success or your mistakes. He thinks the world of you. He could spend more time telling good things about you than any one else you know.
And I want you to know how much I love each of you. My love can´t possibly compare to Heavenly Father´s, but it has grown a lot during my mission. I think I have the best family ever! I tell other people stories about you. I tell other missionaries and investigators how wonderful I think you are. I have special memories of each one of you, and I am excited to make more memories with you when I come home! I am thrilled every time I get an email or a letter from one of you, even when I don´t have time to respond. My family wouldn´t be complete or as cool if any one of you was missing. I think you are fantastic! Mom, Dad, Eliza, Ben, Emma, and Dan, I love you!

Love,
Hermana Clark