What a ride...

Well hidya do?

Whats happened to me this week? I became the new District Leader. This week has also been very eventful for me. There was a fight between two awesome missionaries who just lost their tempers and one was sent home, also that same day one of our sister missionaries was having some personal problems and had to meet with President. So all the missionaries in my city left. Anyways long story short only the sisters came back. And the District Leader was one of the elders that made a mistake and got in a fight so President called me as the new DL. My first day what happened? One of the missionaries in my District (not in my city, hes in a different city), got hit by a car so I had to rush to the hospital to see if he was ok (he is). Then ive just been taking care of him, so far. haha, fun week for both of us!

Quote from my companion, said in all seriousness:

"I like to poop outside, the air is nice".

(NOTE FROM MOM- SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE) :)

Well I presided in my first church meeting this Sunday. The missionary that got hit by a car is ok, but on home-stay. He is whats called a Group Leader. Its when a group of members live close to one another but there aren't enough people for a branch or ward. He is basically a Bishop. Well he was home-bound so I as his District Leader conducted and presided during church.

Another funny thing that happened, mom you'll like this im sure. I met with an investigator a couple of days ago who was a little drunk (not at all uncommon). He told me that while he was studying in Russia he did some inappropriate things with an American woman. He said maybe I was her son, his long lost son which fate has brought back to him.

Elder Clement the Poet - BE SURE AND READ THIS

This was personal revelation to me in answer to my prayers. I truly believe the Holy Ghost guided my hands and through this poem gave me the answers I needed.

My tongue is tied, I cannot speak.

I'm not perfect, I know i'm weak.

I want to help, I want to teach

a goal it seems, I cannot reach.

I pray and read, study and try

I cannot teach, I wonder 'why?'.

The Spirit burns, a fire bright.

it gives me hope, a guiding light.

The Holy Ghost, my soul  does feed

Earthly words, it does not need

It speaks to us, a message true.

To us it tells, what we should do.

It can be hard, when doubts appear

but trust the Lord, and do not fear.

Now I know, that there's a way,

I think of this, both night and day.

For now i'm weak, but will be strong.

With faith in Him, I wont wait long.

When troubles come, when faith is tried

keep in mind, for us Christ died. 

-Elder Clement

Ulanbaatar, Mongolia Mission

New Years

About New Years

I'm good, my new years was good. I ate 19 buuz (like dumplings). In Mongolia eating a lot is a good thing, I dont know how to explain it but if an American eats a lot it means they are becoming Mongolian and Mongolians love it and new years is really big here so they make TONS of these buuz. I wanted to show everyone how Mongolian I was so I ate more than anyone at the house! I ate 18, but then everyone went crazy, and started chanting "Eat your age, eat your age" so I ate one more. It was great, I got a lot of respect out of that.  

Ok a little about the work here. The work is going great here. One of our investigators had a vision this week. He has been really difficult, not praying or reading the Book of Mormon, or following up on any of our commitments so we stopped visiting him and focused on other people. About two weeks later one of our lessons got cancelled so we had some extra time. We decided to visit him. We go in and sit down and the first thing he says is "I have something to tell you". He then proceeds with this dream he had: "He was in a taxi coming back from the outskirts of the city. When his taxi gets to the church it stops, and he gets out. When he steps out of the taxi everything else disappears and the only thing he can see is the church" then the dream ends. We talked about what this meant and that this is his answer. He hasnt prayed though so he asked how he could receive and answer without praying, and we told him that we pray for him everyday, and that maybe this was Gods way to answer our prayer and give him and answer to the question he wouldnt ask.

Another thing. Another investigator was what labeled Eternal Investigator. I thought that was a stupid label so we began to meet with him often once I got here, often learned and just getting to know him. We retaught many of the lessons and my companion and I really prayed hard for him. This last week he quit smoking. He has been smoking for many many many years but he finally decided to quit.

Also Ive decided my favorite song in the church is Easter Hosanna, its incredible.

Love you all

Christmas in Mongolia

We didn't really get a blog email for Christmas with Elder Clement but we were able to speak with him on Skpe. He was very sick Christmas Eve but still had a wonderful Christmas. We were able to speak with companion on Christmas day as well. We are so very eternally grateful to the Senior couple Bro and Sis Groesbeck who have taken our sweet boy under their arms.

Just a country boy

Its kinda funny. I am seriously a novelty here. Being a white American is like wearing a clown suit and walking around speaking to clickity language. I'm out in the countryside where there are really no Americans and everyone things its the weirdest thing to see me here. The strangest thing about getting home will be not having everyone stare at me!

My missions going good though. I have a great companion, I feel like im learning a lot about the language, people, and the gospel. I love my new area (way out in the countryside, im in the boonies guys), and everything is going right. This week hasn't been too cold, about the same as utah probably, but the smoke was really bad. The people here burn coal and so at night or on cold days there is just a thick layer or black smoke. We have been given masks so its ok, but its really ugly and dirty.

Alright not much happened this week but I want to share an experience that happened. First of all Mongolians are great, caring, and loving people who will give you everything they have and more, but many also have big tempers. We had a Zone Conference where our two Zone Leaders were  teaching us how to be better missionaries. One of our Zone Leaders is American, and he was clarifying something some missionaries were confused about. Completely out of the blue a missionary started yelling and and angrily asking a bunch of questions. Then his companion piped up too, everyone is completely shocked and frozen because of how unexpected this is. They get to the point that the American Zone Leader asks them both to leave. Everyone I've talked to believes that this was the correct move on the zone leaders part, but it made the two angry missionaries even more mad. Long story short, it got very heated very fast.

What I learned most from that day was not that message that these two Zone Leaders shared, its how the Zone Leader acted that taught me the most. While he was being yelled at, criticized, ridiculed, and told by other missionaries that he needs to repent (all in front of 30+ missionaries), he remained totally calm and collected. His voice was not raised, he didn't call anyone names, or say anything mean at all. He was the perfect example of Christ-Like love, and charity. After the conference I saw him meet with each person, and I watched his face while he did that. A calm, peaceful look never left his face. This is how we should, and Christ would, face difficulties.

Alrighty, I read this scripture this week and I wanted to share it. Its Helman 10:5

"And now, because thou hast done this with such unwearyingness, behold, I will bless thee forever; and I will make thee mighty in word and in deed, in faith and in works; yea, even that all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will".

God gave this manpower to do anything, and then He said this man wouldn't do anything that is contrary to the commandments of God. We should live our lives so that God doens't need to give us a commandment about every little thing, "it is not meet that I should command in all things", but instead we should try and make our lives something that God knows will be righteous.

-Elder Clement

Short and Sweet

Family and Friends,

Foremost I want to share a quote I found in a Liahona. I lost it later though and dont remember which one its in. Heres the quote though: "There are times when human words fail in the presence of spiritual clarity".

Ok cool experience. This month I fasted, but I really fasted for something that I thought was important and would really help the work progress here. I fasted that the less active members would feel a desire to come to church, we would find more investigators, and our work would be blessed. That was last Sunday, and this Sunday we had a ton of less actives show up, many who hadn't attended in so long that the members (and us) thought they were investigators. Then yesterday after church, we were teaching a lesson to a little boy, and found out his relative who just happened to be babysitting was a less active and we were able to get her number and invited her to church with a good response. And on our way to that lesson we knocked on the wrong door, and the neighbor of that wrong person heard us knock and thought we were knocking on his door, and he came out and talked to us and was very interested in meeting with us later. And our work since that fast has just been good lesson after good lesson after good experience after good experience. It shows the power of blessings, and shows how obvious blessings are sometimes. Faith is easy if you are willing to look.

Sorry nothing else this week.

Love you all,

-Elder Clement

A little extra Q&A

Momma,

(IN REGARDS TO MY CONCERN AT HIS WEIGHT LOSS)
Yeah Ive lost a lot of weight... some because I was sick, but I have also been working out so that's part of it. I feel healthy so I don't think its a bad weight lost or anything. When I checked in the city I dropped about 35 lbs. A typical meal for us is meat (chicken, or sheep), potatoes, carrot, onion, cabbage, rice, and bread. I think its pretty balanced, I dunno we usually just make soup with rice.

(IN REGARDS TO SOME STRESS I HAVE BEEN DEALING WITH)
You need to remember too, that the best way to relieve stress and anxiousness is to go to the temple. You may find more stress in finding room for it, but going consistently will make EVERYTHING better. You can also make it personal, one-on-one time, with Trent and Jennie and go do baptisms. 

The language is coming a lot better, I was really praying hard as to why I felt like I was in a slump (I wasn't really learning anything new for a while and it was really frustrating), I prayed and received a clear revelation. There are TONS of Liahonas and Ensigns here and I love reading them so in my free time before bed or in the morning I read them. While I was reading one I herd in my head, 'You want to learn the language but you dont spend your time studying it, so how do you expect me to help you?'. While what I was doing was good, there was a better way to spend my time, and that's doing what I was praying for, studying the language. Since then my language has gotten better everyday. I'm learning a lot more words everyday than I was before.

(IN REGARDS TO THE FACT THAT HE IS IN THE COUNTRY AND ASSUMED HE MIGHT NOT GET HIS PACKAGE)
I don't know but I will find a way to get the package, don't worry.

-Elder Clement

Letter from the Groesbecks

The Groesbecks are from our hometown here in Mapleton. And now they are serving with Tyler. How cool is it to have Tyler's old mission president live just a few miles from us and his new mission president, Elder Benson, married to someone who was in my ward 25 years ago. Now, to have someone else from our neck of the woods in his ward. I know my boy is being watched over.

Hi Sister Clement,

I hope this is the correct address to email you.  Just wanted you to know that we are now serving in Erdenet with none other than the famous Elder Clement.  We were so excited when we heard he would be transferred here.  We wanted the opportunity to get to know him better and now we have it!  And, just so you know (you already do I know) he is an amazing young man.  He is always so upbeat and positive and so happy!  He's so fun to be around.  And he is so very helpful.  He translates for us and is helping with our Mongolian learning.  We have really enjoyed the week we have had together and are looking forward to many more!  His language is so good.  I wish they would teach us old folks the way they do the younguns so we could speak like they do!  But our responsibility is different than theirs and we get the chance to know and work with wonderful Mongolian translators, who we so appreciate!  Anyway, he seems to be doing very well, has a great companion and is anxious to find more people to teach.  As you probably already know, he is teaching an American and is pretty excited about that!  There is lots of work to do here and we are grateful for this opportunity to be a  part of it and have Elder Clement here too!  We'll try to take good care of him for you!

Sister Groesbeck