DON'T REMIND ME, I KNOW I'M AT MY YEAR MARK

From Alyssa's email sent August 4, 2014

Did I tell you about Virginia, the Chinese lady we tracted into? She moved here from China about 3 weeks ago with her 13 year old daughter named Knowledge-Youth. But in Chinese. That's the English translation, and I just couldn't pronounce it no matter how hard I tried. Haha. But we went by on Sunday, then went back Monday night, and we were able to pray with them, and I played the harp for them, and her daughter picked it up and played it like a pro. It was incredible - I put the hymn "Sweet Hour of Prayer" in front of her, and she started by plucking the strings all the way up a couple times to figure out the Tonic, and then she sang through the solfeg of the first line a couple times, and then she just played it! She plays something that they don't know the English word for, but it's a long board with 21 strings, and it's Pentatonic, so they only use do, re, mi, so, la. SORRY IF THIS IS ALL NONSENSE, I WAS JUST REALLY EXCITED OKAY. We gave them a Chinese Book of Mormon and a video to watch. ALSO Virginia made us homemade noodles that she stretched out and were really really long, and they were yummy. Salt, flour, water. I hope I can learn how to make that one day. :) 

"Knowledge-Youth" Playing the Harp

Also on Monday, we had an awesome Doctrine of Christ lesson with Veronica. Sister Waters brought in a bunch of kinesthetic ideas to teach it, like dropping backwards into a blanket for faith, and trying to rinse off butter, or sin, in plain water (the soap came in later as the priesthood power) for baptism. She did pray on her own, but didn't feel super comfortable with it so we just urged her to keep trying. The Spirit was strong. It was good.

In other news, there's not other news. Because NO ONE WAS IN STILLWATER THIS WEEK! We're in this super weird transitional period where people have all moved out so that apartment owners can clean apartments before the new tenants come in, so really. Nobody lives here this week. There were definitely some days it was hhard to drag our feet out the door, but we made it through, and it's only one more week before people actually start moving in. 

We were able to do some Campus Booth preparations, though. The board the previous sisters had used for the booth was cute, but it was more like a high school project trifold than something that could catch the attention of busy college students. So we started brainstorming, and we're excited to hopefully begin executing those ideas, with the combined effort of the ward council. 

Our Campus Booth Brainstorming

The miracle of this week is Heidi. Oh Heidi. She's been less active for quite a long time, but she surprised us by starting to be active in making changes in her life for the better. She's an avid book reader, more than me, haha, and when she comes, she usually brings one of the books she's reading to church because it "keeps her attention." But when we walked into church yesterday and saw her with scriptures in her lap, marking them and totally into them, I just wanted to cry. I did a little. Haha. But really, I don't know if you'll understand what this means, the weight of it, but it was beautiful. I love her, and I love seeing her make changes. There's nothing, nothing better than it. Really. The gospel changes people. Miracles happen.

Sorry if this update is lame or boring or whatever, but the work is going, even if it's slow. Heavenly Father is teaching me patience again, and again, and again, and again. And then I'll get married and have kids and He'll teach it to me again, and again, and again. Patience must be really important, and God must have a whoooooollllleeee lot of it. 

The Church is true. I love yer all's guts. 

Love, Sister Clark

PS did I mention Sis Waters is amazing? She's so Christlike and I hope I'll be like her one day. But really. She's teaching me so much, just by her example. 

PPS Ever heard of city-owned goats? "The Goats of Stillwater" are placed in different parts of Stilly and fenced in and they let them "mow" the grass. Hahaha. We spotted them the other day. And then Sis Waters caught a firefly, her first one, and took him home and bottled him and named him Greg. But then he died. Dangit.