Hashbrowns and Valentina - November 24, 2014

Hi Family!

I don't have a ton of time today, so it will be a quick one.

We had an amazing lesson with a man named Richie. His neighbors are members and invited him and us over to their home for dinner and a lesson. During companionship study that morning, we were stuck on what we needed to do. We knelt down and prayed and Heavenly Father let us know that we needed to invite him to be baptized on December 19th. It was a neat experience. Anyway, Richie is a super nice guy. We did a lot of how to begin teaching and then taught the Restoration. It was so powerful! As I testified of these truths, my testimony was again strengthened. I know that Christ's church is restored. It was so great to teach in a members home, as well. The Spirit was already there. These members were "Amuleks" and they added so much with their testimonies. A few days later, we had a church tour with Richie. It went well. He doesn't believe in God, so there is a lot of work to do. But, I know that Heavenly Father has prepared him, like Alma 16:16-17 talks about and I know that he can be ready by December 19th.

Sister Shauster had shoulder surgery. That was really sad to see her in so much pain. But she's keeps the best attitude. She is always happy. I just love her and her family.

We also had a great lesson with Hermana Zamora. She is absolutely amazing and basically Mormon. She knows pretty much everything. She really wants to be baptized, but her husband is not supportive. I know that one day she will be. I have been so blessed to know her. Hermana Carolina, her fellowshipper, came with us as well. We taught about gratitude and shared Mosiah 2:20-21. I shared the story about "Snowflake" and what amazing examples my parents have been to me. I am so grateful for them! They have taught me the importance of charity and selfless service. I have the best parents in the world.

This week we find out if we're getting transferred or not! Hopefully Sister Willes and I stay together one more!

I better get going, but thank you so much for everything! Thank you for the love, support, and prayers. You all are the greatest! Love you lots and have a wonderful Thanksgiving! And happy birthday to Jeremiah this week!

Hermana Clay


Picture: My favorite Boo.

Care Package From Mom

"She is not afraid of the snow." - Proverbs 31:21 - November 17, 2014

Hey family!

Wowzers, what a week. First off, it has been NEGATIVE TWENTY here. It hardly ever gets above zero. We had a big snow storm and now everything is white. Basically, I am forever going to be cold. We helped push out a car and shoveled snow for hours. I got to wear a super hot overall snow suit. It was great.

Other than freezing, this week was awesome. We had a mission tour and Elder Martino from the 70 came to speak to us. He was amazing! I learned a ton about how I can be a better missionary and what I need to do in my area to help it progress. One thing that he focused on a lot was members and how important they are in this work. He used the story of Alma and Amulek. Amulek was a less active member. Alma spent many days with Amulek and his family and strengthened them. Then, Amulek went out and taught with Alma. Amulek was a pretty well-known guy in the city. As he preached, "the people began to be astonished." It wasn't Alma, the missionary, that astonished them. It was Amulek, the member. Elder Martino emphasized that we need to have Amuleks with us so the people can be astonished. So here's my invitation...go be an Amulek! You will make a bigger impact on the people than the missionaries will.

On Wednesday, we had an Amulek experience. Our stake mission leader invited us and some nonmembers to his home for dinner. They were from Florida, so listening to their southern accents was awesome. During the lesson, we focused a lot on families. It was Brother Nelson's comment that made them really think and ponder. Hopefully we will have another appointment with them soon.

On Thursday, we picked up some food for a less active at the Bishops Storehouse. Wow. It was such a cool experience to see how giving the church is. The church is true.

We had the opportunity to eat with the Ortiz family on Saturday and Sunday. They are amazing! Their son was the first one to be baptized and is currently serving a mission. His parents were baptized while he was out this past February. Their testimonies are SO strong! I could sit there for hours listening to them. This Wednesday, they are going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. Super excited for them.

I was able to play in the Victor 3rd ward yesterday. I am so grateful that I have my violin here! Most of the time, music touches people's hearts more than words. In a few weeks, I will play in our Spanish branch. Hooray!

Everyone pray that we don't freeze out here! Love you all tons! Happy birthday to Hayley and Morgan!

Hermana Clay


Minus 14 Degrees

Halfway! - November 10, 2014

Hola familia!

This week has been great. Nothing too exciting happened, but here's a few things:

- We had dinner and FHE with a family from the ward and the Shausters. I choked, but didn't die. Hooray!
- We helped organize a kitchen and I put the purging skills I learned from Julianne to good use.
- I hit my halfway mark! I seriously cannot believe that I've been out 9 months. Time is flying! We had interviews that day with President and Sister Brinkerhoff, which was great. I also tried to make a cookie in the shape of a camel for my "hump day", but it was an absolute failure. I'll attach a picture of it.
- We helped translate at parent/teacher conferences for the middle school. We were sitting there for almost an hour and no one showed up that wanted help. We were thinking that it was a big waste of time, but then finally a woman showed up that wanted us to help her! We got talking and she said she had talked with the missionaries before. That was about it for religion conversation. She then asked us what we ate/cooked. Uhh...chicken and salad. Really impressive. I told her that I really wanted to learn how to make Tinga. She brightened up and told us it's really easy to make and invited us to come to her house to learn. Boom! Potential investigator and delicious food. It was definitely tender mercy.
- We had exchanges with Hermana Beteta. She is awesome. We went to a less active's home and visited with her. She has a GINORMOUS dog. I'll attach a picture of that too. You can't really tell in the picture, but he's at least 6 feet tall when he's on his hind legs. And he's only 8 months old!
- We found a new investigator who is super sweet. We talked about families and it was just great. That's one thing that I love about the Hispanic culture. Family is SO important.

That's about it. Here's my favorite scripture that I read this week: "...arise from the dust, my sons, and be men, and be determined in one mind and in one heart, united in all things, that ye may not come down into captivity...Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust." 2 Nephi 1:21,23

Love you all! Have a super great week!

Hermana Clay


Picture 1: Failure.

Picture 2: Tidus. The biggest dog in the world.

Picture 3.  Square ice cream from Swan Valley. Superrr delicious.

This week was great! - November 3, 2014

Hi Family!

This week was great. We had a lot of little miracles happen and had some great lessons. It was also Halloween and that was fun.

We had a lesson with Mari. She is awesome and so prepared! We talked about baptism again and she said she totally would, but she has to ask her mom and grandma. Oh boy. Praying that their hearts and minds are opened!

Tuesday was crazy. The Kearsley's put on a scare trail every year for all the youth in the stake. We helped out setting it all up. It was scary! I wouldn't have wanted to go through. They also asked us to help out later that night. We were "mourners", but weren't all that scary. It was still a lot of fun though.

We taught Michael and his dad, Blaine, again. Michael is a cute kid and excited to learn. I love teaching a kid because they have the most pure answers!

We were on lock down for Halloween from 6-9. Before that, we went to the Parks for dinner and had to dress up. Sister Willes and I were BYU fans. In other words, missionaries in service clothes. Later, our whole zone got together and watched the Lego movie. I thought it was cute and it was nice to watch a normal movie.

We had such a great lesson with the Markegard family yesterday! I LOVE that family! It has been a huge blessing to be able to get to know them. We taught about how to recognize the Spirit. We read Moroni 7:1-34 with them. It helped tie everything together that we have been talking about the past few weeks. That chapter is one of my absolute favorites. Go read it!

I can't really remember what else happened this week. Just that it was great. Hope that all of y'alls was too! Love you all tons!

Hermana Clay

Picture 1: Super scary mourners

Picture 2: BYU fans (Hayley, check out my socks)

Back to my favorite place! - October 27, 2014

Hi Family!

This week was full of ups and downs, so here's the ups:

-We had FHE with the Shausters again and it was a blast.
-We worked a little bit in our other English wards and found a new investigator!
-We walked a less active's dog, but in reality, the dog walked us. The good news was that we didn't lose him.
-We went out with Hermana Ortiz to visit some less actives. Miracles happened and Hermana Ortiz has the strongest testimony in the world.
-We saw the Burt family again and Jalin is still doing awesome.
-We got to do a church tour.
-We carved pumpkins with the Shausters and nobody cut themselves.
-We had Stake Conference and it was absolutely wonderful. It was mostly on missionary work, which is always good. President Kunz also asked a member from the Spanish branch speak. It was so awesome to hear Spanish! I loved that President Kunz included everyone from the stake.
-We went to the Visitors Center with the Shausters! It was so good being back there. We were able to show them around and I got to play a few songs with Sister Gee for them. The best part about it was that Nana came! She really enjoyed it. She wants to come back in December when the nativity is up. Hopefully this helped her open her heart a little more to the gospel!
-We taught the Markegard family. I LOVE that family! It was such a great lesson and the Spirit was definitely present.

There were a lot of little miracles that happened this week. I love it here! Minus the fact that we woke up to snow this morning. Pretty sure I might die this week.

I have been going through the New Testament and this week I finished the book of John. The very last verse was super powerful to me. It's (of course) talking about Jesus and says, "And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." I have loved going through the New Testament and learning more about the Savior's life. It's crazy to think that what is written is not even half of what He has done!

Thanks for all the prayers and support! Love you all tons! Happy birthday to Ray this week!

Hermana Clay


My pumpkin. Can you tell what it is?

Picture 2: My favorite family!

Little piece of home - October 20, 2014

Hola familia,

Not a whole lot happened this week. I got sick again. That was a bummer. I'm pretty much better now though. Hopefully this coming week will be more exciting.

Once again, I love the Shauster family. We went over the 10 commandments with them and, according to Boo, the 10th commandment is don't rape. She is my favorite kid. She also put on a singing and dancing show for us. I'll attach a picture of one of her model shots.

We found a new investigator that is awesome. Her name is Mari. She told us at the end of our first lesson that she was going to read and that when we came back she would have questions ready for us. And she did! Love when that actually happens.

Travis is doing well. He has been reading on his own and asked us for suggestions on where to read to have a better understanding of things. His wife had no clue that he was reading. Love that family. The little girls put stickers on the back of our name tags and every time we come over, they have to check and see if they're still there.

We did a few service projects. Cleaning up a yard and painting/cleaning. It was fun and super nice to wear sweats.

We were at church for 7 hours yesterday. Hooray for covering 3 wards and a branch! I really like the Tetonia wards and the ward mission leaders are awesome. Hopefully we'll get to work out in that area more this week.

Bonuses for the week:
1. The Kearsley's got 2 new puppies and I'm in love.
2. We went to dinner at a member's home and the husband served in North Carolina. I asked him what his favorite area was and he said Salisbury. I asked him if he had ever tried Cheerwine since that's where it started. He then went out to the garage and came back with 2 cans of it. I love Cheerwine. Best thing ever.

This week, I studied Elder Holland's talk and Mosiah 4. We really are all beggars and we need to freely give to others. You should all go study it because it's awesome.

Have an great week! Love you all lots!

Hermana Clay

CHEERWINE!

One of the puppies. So cute!

Boo's model shot. Is she not the greatest?

What's a Brad Pitt? - 10/13/14

Hello family!

What an awesome week. It's been crazy, but full of little miracles.

We visited the Shauster's a lot this week. Lollie couldn't leave the hospital until Friday. She is doing a lot better now. On Monday, we had FHE at the hospital and played Apples to Apples again. I was helping Boo with her cards and told her to put down Brad Pitt. She laughs and then looks at me with a serious face and says, "What's a Brad Pitt?" We all pretty much died laughing. I absolutely LOVE that family! On Saturday, we taught the Word of Wisdom and played "Don't eat Pete", but replaced Pete for things like drugs, alcohol, etc. We asked Boo for one and she goes, "Don't sniff coke." Well done, Boo.

We visited the Markegard family again. They're one of my favorite families too. Travis is SO close to accepting a baptismal date! We have a lesson tonight with them. He went to a baptism on Saturday, so we're excited to hear about what he thought.

Burt's are doing well too. We were super late to that lesson because the Markegard's ran over. Jalin opened the door and yelled, "Yay! My favorite missionaries finally came!" He is excited about everything. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and loves to show us his progress. He's an awesome kid and the family it too.

We saw Val and she is still awesome. We taught the Plan of Salvation and she loved it. We're just struggling to get her to church. Her family does a lot of things on Sundays, but hopefully she will be able to come this week!

I had to give a talk in the Spanish Branch on Sunday. That was interesting. I spoke on family history work. I had read a little bit of our family history this week, so it was great to do a little more studying on it.

Here's a little miracle: Every Sunday night we teach an English class and at the end share a short scripture from the Book of Mormon. There are two people that come regularly. Last night, they asked us if we could teach them more about the Book of Mormon and the LDS religion. Um, of course we can! We have an appointment with them on Wednesday.

We got transfer information this week. Sister Willes and I will stay together, but we will now cover the entire valley in Spanish and will have two more English wards. Goodness it's a lot. But it will be a lot of fun. Lots of driving ahead for us! I'm just really grateful that I'm staying here. I'm loving it!

I've been thinking a lot about the Plan of Salvation this week, especially after teaching Val about it. Seeing her reaction was amazing. A lot of the times, I forget that we know about a plan that most people don't. I take it for granted. This plan is beautiful and beyond perfect!

Have an awesome week! Love you all lots! Happy birthday to Karleigh!

Hermana Clay


Sister Willes wet her pants.

Over 100 flies - 10/6/14

Hi family!

What a great week! Here's what happened:

We taught Val the Restoration. She loved it. She kept saying, "That makes so much sense!" and things like that. She was really excited to keep reading the Book of Mormon and find out for herself. We haven't been able to see her multiple times in the week, which sucks, but hopefully this week we can.

All the missionaries were able to watch "Meet the Mormons". I thought it was really good! I kind of felt like a normal person watching a movie. Haha everyone needs to go see it if they can! And invite all their friends to see it! Before it started, Elder Holland shared some interesting facts about it. He said that 74% of nonmembers (or close to that, I can't remember) would recommend this to their friends. Many people said that they understood more about the LDS faith and would be more willing to listen to the missionaries. Super cool. Share it with everyone!

We also taught the Burt family. We are teaching the little boy, Jalin, but also trying to reactivate everyone else. Jalin was hilarious. He asked his mom, "Mom, why don't you go to church if you are baptized?" He also asked, "Do you even have a Book of Mormon? Why don't you read it?" I love how direct kids are.

We taught the Markegard's. Travis is not a member but Megan is. It went really well and we were able to form a better relationship with them. We are praying that Travis got an answer about the church when he listened to conference.

Lollie is in the hospital :( She has been struggling with her asthma and an infection. We went to visit them in the hospital a couple of times. I sure do love that family. Mac and his grandparents (who aren't members) were able to go to General Conference!! They went to Saturday morning and loved it! What an awesome opportunity for them. Hopefully this gets the grandparents more interested in the gospel. Can't wait to see!

Speaking of General Conference, wasn't it amazing?! I am so glad that I had the opportunity to watch it! There were so many great things said. I loved Uchtdorf's talk. I really liked how he added a fourth step on discovering and knowing truth. We must LIVE the truths that we want to know. We must not delay the moment to strengthen our testimonies. We should always be striving to do that! Elder Scott's talk was awesome too. The little things are so important and we need to do them everyday (or every week like FHE)! There are so many things that I learned and I wish I could share them all! You all should just go listen to it again.

That's it for this week. It was a good week, full of inspiring messages. There is no doubt in my mind that we are lead by a prophet of God and that all the men and women that spoke to us are called of Him. We are so blessed to have the priesthood on the earth. I know this church is true and I love being able to share it with others.

Love you all and miss you lots. Thanks for everything! Have a lovely week!

Hermana Clay

PS I forgot to explain the subject of this email. Sister Willes and I killed over 100 flies in our room this week. The joys of living on a farm.


Outside our window. I love mornings (minus waking up)! The sun rises are gorgeous!

The following are photos sent to Mom.  We pranked the elders car this week and a member helped us out. those are llama pictures on the car.  Hahaha!  I thought you might think it's funny, but don't show dad :)  It has instant potatoes and mayonnaise on it

9/29/14 - Hamilton the Kangaroo

Hi Family!

It's been another great week. I can't believe it's almost October though. So crazy. Happy birthday to Lexi this week!

This week was full of a lot of new experiences. Here goes the list again:

Monday: Nothing too exciting except teaching a lesson in a house that was full of guys and kind of scary. Just a bad feeling in there. Pretty sure they were all doing drugs in the back. Luckily we had 2 members with us so it wasn't quite as scary. We won't be going back to that house.

Tuesday: Taught the Shauster family. I love them!! When we started to teach the Plan of Salvation Joie's mom and dad came in. They are non members, but the dad has started reading the Book of Mormon. Hooray!

Wednesday: We saw Tina the llama and then started quoting Napoleon Dynamite. We also had exchanges. I was with Sister Rodriguez. We taught Janet's little boy the Plan of Salvation. That was fun. I love teaching kids. We also had a miracle. Sister Willes and Beteta were able to set another baptismal date. Yay!

Thursday: We had an awesome lesson with Paulino about the Holy Ghost and how we can understand the promptings we receive. He understands so much more and I think it really helped him.

Friday: This day was really interesting. We raked a whole bunch of leaves. Then, we were supposed to have another lesson with the Shauster's, but they told us to come to Broulims (the grocery store). We went and ended up holding a kangaroo. A kangaroo in Driggs, Idaho...what? We then went to help the Elders bail hay. Holy cow it was hard! Later that night, we toured the place where they clean all the sewage. I wanted to puke. Fun day.

Saturday: Had an FHE with the Shauster's. That was so much fun! We also taught Paulino again and taught the Word of Wisdom. It was rough but I am hoping he takes on our challenge to help him. It was also Womens Conference! I loved it! It was all focused on the temple and how we need to prepare for it. So many good things were shared. I really loved how President Utchdorf emphasized that we have Heavenly Parents not just a Heavenly Father.

Sunday: Taught Young Womens. We based our lesson off of Womens Conference. I thought it went well and it was fun being with the Young Women. We taught some lessons and I got dog slobber all over my skirt.

That's it for this week! I am looking forward to this week, especially General Conference! Everybody better watch it! Remember the promise that if we take a question to conference it will be answered.

Love you all lots!

Hermana Clay

9/22/14 - Holy Cows

Hi family,

This week has been an interesting one.

On Monday, we hiked the wind caves. I about died. But it was super cool and pretty. We probably won't be getting very many hikes in since it's starting to get cold. We also had a really good lesson with Paulino outside. We were able to use the Book of Mormon to answer some of his concerns. Basically, it's the best book ever. He's struggling coming to church though. Why is it always church that holds people back? Hopefully we can help resolve his concern again. 

Last week we ran out of gas and this week we got a flat tire. Goodness gracious. Luckily our WML helped us out again and we were able to fix it the next day. 

We are teaching a woman out in Tetonia because she doesn't like Elders (or because Sisters are the best). She used to be anti-Mormon. Little bit by little bit she has opened her mind and heart. We had a great lesson with her about the Restoration and how God loves each of us. We asked her if she would be baptized if she were to know that these things were true. She told us that she would live everything that "the book" taught, but she wouldn't be baptized because her family would freak (they're all anti-Mormons). Dang it. But she's a pretty cool lady and it has been neat to see her change.

We saw the Shausters a few times this week. They are my favorite! They are so excited about the gospel and are just awesome people. We helped paint their house this week and we're going to help them finish it up this week. Mac said in his prayer, "Please help us to get along even though it will be really hard because of Boo." 

Sister Willes and I live on a farm. This week, they separated the cows from the calves. Oh my word. They are SO loud!! It was pretty funny though. I wish I could send you the video I took. They would not shut up for like 3 days straight. Oh yeah, and we have 11 new baby pigs. It's fun living on a farm. I think we're going to go help milk the cows one of these days.

Hope you all are doing well! Miss and love you lots!

Hermana Clay

Picture 1: Just a horse foot that dogs had been chewing on. That's a normal thing.

Picture 2: Kind of a nasty picture, but these are some of our new pigs!

9/15/14 - All out of gas

Hi Family,

Sorry for the blank email. I accidentally hit send.

This week has been great! Lots of changes, but they've been good. I am actually serving in Victor, not Driggs. It's really close though. It is SO beautiful here. Just chilly. All you see is cows, mountains, and fields. Everything is very spread out so we drive a ton. And everyone wears cowboy boots. We cover Spanish and English work.

Monday: We had a sisters party at the Lusk's. It was a lot of fun! I love all those sisters and the Lusk's. Some of my favorite people!

Tuesday: Just lots of goodbyes. I was able to serve my last night in the VC, which I was really happy about. Sister Gee and I performed for the youth groups that came in. So much fun! I definitely miss that place!

Wednesday: Transfers! Sister Willes is my new companion. She's from California and has been out a couple months longer than me. We get a long great and have a lot of fun together. We spent all day in Rexburg. We got to do a session at the Rexburg temple and then go back and help our branch with baptisms. That temple is beautiful! I think I still might love the Idaho Falls temple more though.

Thursday through Saturday are a blur. We taught the Shausters, who just got baptized last week. They are so cool! Boo (her real name is Mary Rose) is hilarious. She's 8 and is probably going to be my favorite person ever. She is in 2nd grade so I told her that I wanted to be a 2nd grade teacher. She then quickly responded, "Why?! Then you have more problems!" She also was eating her chapstick. She's the best.

We were able to teach Paulino twice and set a baptismal date with him! We teach him English and then go into Spanish to teach the lessons. He's a really cool guy and it's fun teaching English.

Sunday: We went to our English ward for sacrament. It was the Primary Program and was the cutest thing in the world. Then we drove to our Spanish branch. Only 4 people were there. It was a lot different from Idaho Falls. I thought our branch was small there, but it turns out it's like the biggest in the mission. Those 4 people were super awesome though. Later that night, we were leaving the English class to go back to Victor and when I put the car in drive it started going backwards instead of forwards. Yeah, we ran out of gas. Embarrassing. Luckily, our ward mission leader came to help us.

That's it! It's been fun getting to know a new area and people. Love you all! Thank you for all your prayers!

Hermana Clay

Picture 2: The view from our window every morning. 

9/8/14 - A donde me mandes iré

Hi Family,

What a week. Here's a recap:

We finally set a baptismal date!! And guess who it was with? Rocio. Absolutely crazy. She texted us apologizing for the way she treated us and wanted us to come back. So we did and set a date with her. We have been working so hard these past 6 weeks to pick our area up. It definitely was a trail of our faith, but I'm glad that we didn't give up!

We taught a new investigator named Angelica. We took Hna. Sombrano with us. Holy cow. She pretty much told Angelica everything there is to know about this church. It was an interesting experience. But, she committed her to come to church (sadly, she didn't come).

We went to the temple this week and it was the greatest.

We ran into a less active who we didn't know existed, but had to leave because we were assigned to serve at the VC. Later that night, he showed up unexpectedly. That was awesome.

Yesterday, we were able to teach 3 lessons when we had hardly any time. Hooray! We saw my favorite De La Riva kids and taught the Word of Wisdom. We played "Don't Eat Pete" but replaced Pete for things like drugs, alcohol, etc. They loved it. And I love them.

We also had transfer calls this week. I knew forsure that I was going to stay and finish the training for Sister Pulido. Well, I was wrong. This Wednesday, I will leave Idaho Falls and go to Driggs. Which means I am leaving the VC and going into full proselyting. This makes me a little sad to leave the VC, but I am excited for the adventures ahead. I just hope I come back to the VC. I have heard that Driggs is an awesome area, just freezing cold. Hopefully I survive!

I didn't realize how much I had grown to love these people here until I had to say goodbye. The members in our branch are amazing. I have been so blessed to have started my mission and been here for almost 6 months.

Hope you all are doing well! I love you so much and am grateful for all that you do for me! Don't sent anything to Lomax St. anymore! Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Clay

Picture 1: My favorites.

Picture 2: Sister McLaughlin. She is amazing! She is always willing to come with us and has taken such good care of us. I'll definitely miss her! 

Zone Conference September 1, 2014

Hi Family,

I can't believe that's it's already Monday again. Time is going so fast.

This week was great, minus being sick. We were able to find some new people and finally get a few member present lessons. Hallelujah.

Monday: Nada.

Tuesday: Saw Miriam. She is experiencing many trials. She still keeps a positive attitude and knows that Heavenly Father will help her out. She received a calling on Sunday and said it was an answer to her prayers. She said, "All I want to do is serve my Heavenly Father." She is the best.

Wednesday: Exchanges with Hna. Beteta. Love her. We were able to find some new people. She had served in our area before so we went to visit a lot of her former investigators. We also met probably THE cutest/biggest black kid named Kye Kye. I made us turn around and take a picture with him. He was stubborn and wouldn't cooperate, but I'll attach the picture we did get of him.

Thursday: Zone Conference. It was really great. I love President and Sister Brinkerhoff. These next 2 transfers we will be focusing on D&C 11:20-21. Obedience and study. We also taught a woman and tried to commit her to read the Book of Mormon. No matter what we said she wouldn't do it. When we asked her if she wanted to more about Christ or about her ancestors she said no. Interesting.

Friday: Sick day.

Saturday: Another sick day. Plus, Sister Pulido got a little sick, too. We slept pretty much all day. Then, at 7, we decided we would suck it up and go out in our area. I'm glad we did because we were able to teach 2 really great lessons even though I sounded terrible.

Sunday: Church was amazing. The branch presidency spoke during the 2nd hour and then also during sacrament. Our new branch president is super awesome. He speaks with such power. He challenged the branch to reach out to the less actives (we have a lot) and to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year. I think our branch is in for some awesome changes.

I love missionary work. I love teaching people about the gospel. I love serving at the VC. I am so grateful that I am here in Idaho!

Have an awesome week and find people for the missionaries to teach! Love you all!

Hermana Clay

PS:  Happy Birthday Marci!


Kye Kye. Zoom in. Notice the similarity between the dog's face and his.

Zone Conference.

Bad luck and a bunch of LARCS - August 25, 2014

Hi family,

This week was interesting. It has been raining like crazy here which has made it pretty cold. Here's a recap on this week:

Monday: Had an FHE with the De La Riva family. I love those kids! We played "little man" again. Of course, it was a big hit. Especially with Hermano De La Riva.

Tuesday: We had an awesome experience at the VC. A man and his wife (nonmembers) came in looking for help with family history. We have a little section in the VC that lets us do familysearch. We got an account all set up for them and after a little bit of searching, we were able to find a bunch of his family members. He was blown away. This led into a great discussion about the temple. We were able to teach them about how they could be with their family forever. The man started crying. They were both touched and were eager to get a copy of the Book of Mormon. We were even able to invite them to be baptized (which they said yes!). Playing the Christus at the end was just the icing on the cake. I am so grateful to serve at the VC! This experience definitely strengthened my testimony on family history. I am excited to keep in contact with this couple over the phone and hopefully we can help them accept this gospel into their lives!

Wednesday: Taught a few lessons but nothing too exciting to report.

Thursday: Absolutely NO one opened their doors for us. Sweet.

Friday: Nothing except normal stuff.

Saturday: Went with the Huerta's to a doctors appointment to help translate. Those doctors sucked. It's a good thing we were there because another Hispanic woman came in who needed us to translate for her. We also went to the Elders baptism. It was a miracle baptism. The woman is the aunt of a lady in our branch. She wanted to get baptized before she left for Mexico. She's a really sweet and awesome. We also got to teach Graciela. She let us in and then said, "Want to go talk with my brother and sister in-law too?" Um, heck yeah. So that was good. We have a return appointment with them on Saturday. Hope it goes through!

Sunday: Normal church stuff. We taught Relief Society. I know I say this every week, but the Huerta's are amazing. Their house got flooded twice this week from all the rain. Their carpet is ruined. Then, their daughter got sick. Satan has just been attacking them. But, they have the best attitudes. Miriam told us on Sunday that she was reading from the Book of Mormon and felt so much peace and happiness. This family is so faithful and trusting in the Lord. Love them!

And that's it. We're hoping that things will start picking up in our area this week. We are trying to look for the little miracles and they are everywhere! Even though we don't have a ton of progressing investigators, Heavenly Father is still blessing us a ton!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Hermana Clay


The woman that got baptized. Also, I am a giant next to Hispanics.

Celebrating Sister Caballero's birthday with the Lusks!

Have a good day parents! Love you!

Greetings from Idaho Falls! - From Sister Pattie McLaughlin

Joy (aka Sister Clay) does not know that I am making this post, but since she won't actually see it until after her mission, I thought I would share the kind message shown below. - Val Clay (aka Dad)

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July 20, 2014


Dear Br. & Sister Clay,

I just wanted to take a minute and write you an email about your wonderful daughter-Hermana Clay!  My husband and I have had the priviledge to work with her and Hermana Caballero for the last 2 months.  We were called from our Stake to be Stake Missionaries in the Spanish Branch that your daughter serves in.   My husband speaks Spanish and I understand some and really want to be able to speak it. As the weeks have gone by, it's been so wonderful to get to know her and watch her as she faithfully and diligently is serving the Lord.  She is mature and confident, gentle and so kind.  I was surprised when she told me her age.  I thought she was older than she is.

My husband and I have had 2 missionaries out of 4 children and we always loved any news we could get about our missionary.  So, I thought I would send some first hand personal experiences to you.  Today, for example, Hermanas Caballero & Clay taught a lesson in Gospel Essentials on Eternal Marriage.  Whenever she is teaching the Gospel, whether it is with an investigator or in class like this, her face just lights up. Even though I can't understand every word that she says, I can feel how strong her testimony is and in her kind and gentle way, she is Powerful!  It's a joy to watch her bear it frequently!

Hermana Clay is doing a great job for only being out such a short time even with Spanish.  She has a great companion in Hermana Caballero.  I can tell that they are a great team.  As a matter of fact, I tell them that the Spirit is so strong, that I'm always crying around them and that is really the truth.

I have been in quite the powerful discussion with them with an investigator named Rosio, whom they dropped from teaching after this meeting. This discussion was done in English.  Rosio had been progressing, but, this time that we went to visit, Rosio said that she had changed her mind from getting direction and so much help from the Book of Mormon to that the Book of Mormon was just words on a page.  I watched as your daughter gently testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that she knew that it was more than just words on a page.  She was strong and powerful with gentleness and there was such a strong and amazing spirit there.  Hopefully at some point Rosio will recognize missing the Spirit that the missionaries brought into her home and will want to know what it is about them that she feels that way.

My husband and I have had the chance to work with this great companionship with a sweet investigator named Aide.  It has been wonderful to watch your daughter teach Aide the truths of the Gospel.  It's so interesting to watch her and watch the Holy Ghost work through her.  I can tell you she is doing much good in the Branch and with the people and families that she is teaching!  Aide has a 13 yr. old daughter and a 10 yr. old son and it's so fun to watch the sisters interact with these kids.  They do an Awesome job!

On a personal level, my daughter is getting married on Aug. 16th.  There is so much to do!  Hermanas Cabellero & Clay offered to help me.  They have come over at least 3 times and helped me put little fabric covers on the top of little jam jars that we are giving away as little favors at the end of the wedding.  They have saved me hours, days, probably even a week by doing this.  It's been wonderful to get to find out about their families and their lives and their decisions to come on a mission and what they thought when they were coming to Idaho!  They have been an amazing blessing in my life!

Hermana Clay has played her violin at a baptism.  I was her accompanist there.  She was patient and kind, even when I didn't do very well playing the piano.  She has also played in our branch and in other Wards as well.  She is amazingly talented that way!  I felt like I could just get lost in the sweetness of the music that she was playing!  Thank you for sharing her with us!  The people in the Branch love her!

I'm learning how to be a missionary from watching this great companionship! What a great example I have to learn from!   You can be very proud of her!  She's doing an AMAZING job out here in Idaho!

Most sincerely,

Pattie McLaughlin

August 18, 2014 Empapadas y rompiendo una sandía

Hi family,

It's been a super fun and busy week. Warning: there's going to be a lot of pictures. Here's what's happened:

Monday: We went to Yellowstone! It was so much fun. We went with my favorite Mohanas and the Lusk's.

Tuesday: I had a birthday. It's weird that I'm 20 now. I feel old. Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! We went out to Cafe Rio with the Lusk's and then headed to the VC. Mom and Dad sent me chocolate covered fruit for us sisters to share and it was gone in 5 minutes. The best part of the day though was personal study. I finished the Book of Mormon! I started over and marked every time it mentioned Christ. What an amazing experience that was. That book contains such power and can change our lives for the better if we allow it! I know it's true. It testifies of Jesus Christ and teaches all that we need to know. Any answer can be found in there. Everyone go read it again!

Wednesday: We taught the Restoration to a new family. That's probably my favorite lesson. I love reciting the First Vision. The Spirit just pours into the room. It's awesome. It also started pouring rain and flooded the city. I was in heaven. That was one of my birthday wishes; a thunderstorm like North Carolina's. It was only a day late. We were soaked. We knocked on a door and the woman let us in. I think she felt bad for us, but hey, we were able to teach a lesson because of that.

​Thursday: Taught Aide and Cecilio. They're both awesome.

Friday: Saw Jisleen for the first time in forever. Still working on figuring out how to get her back to church.

Saturday: Had an awkward lesson. Those are always fun. Then, we helped set up the reception for our ward mission leader's daughter. Holy cow. It looked like it came straight out of Pintrest. Not even kidding. It was amazing. We also smashed our watermelon that went all moldy. So nasty.

Sunday: Went to church. Our new branch presidency is awesome. Taught Gospel Principles. Went to the Huerta's for lunch. It was delicious, as always. They bought a little cake for me to celebrate my birthday. Mariam (the little girl) wanted to smash my face in it. Then, we went to VC. We were only there for an hour because we had to go to Pocatello. We did another musical fireside down there. I love playing violin.

That's about it for this week. Lots of fun times and lots of awesome experiences. Hope you all are doing well. Thanks for all the support and love! But forreal, go read the Book of Mormon.

Love,
Hermana Clay

Trip to Yellowstone

Thank you so much for the awesome birthday present! We loved them.

Completely soaked from the storm

My favorite family minus Eduardo

Birthday lunch

Sandía before

  

Sandía after

The cutest kitten

August 11, 2014

Hi family,

Today we're going to Yellowstone with Mohanas and the Lusk's!! So I won't be able to read or reply to any of your emails this week. Sorry.

This past week has been really great. We were able to meet a few new people. Hopefully they will become new investigators.

We saw Aide and Yvonne this week. Yvonne is Aide's ex-husband's niece that they adopted. It's complicated. Yvonne has been sitting in on the lessons ever since Sister Pulido came. She's the magic trick. We've gotten into houses that Sister Caballero and I never could.

We also taught Raquel. Goodness I just love her. And on Saturday she came to a baptism! She enjoyed it and at the end she asked what the program was talking about for the confirmation. We told her and she said she wanted to go! We have been trying so hard to figure out how to get her to church and she ended up asking us if she could go. Hallelujah. So we finally had an investigator at sacrament meeting yesterday.

Thursday was the Lusk's last day serving at the VC. I have gotten SO attached to them. I love them. They have been my adopted parents pretty much. They have taken such good care of the VC sisters. I am so glad that I have gotten to know them and that they live close enough to us that we can visit them.

Changes were made in our branch presidency yesterday. I am so happy with the change! We had dinner with the new branch president a long time ago and Sister Caballero and I both commented on how we thought he would be an awesome branch president. Hooray for changes!

Last night we had dinner with the Huerta's. She made Pozole!! My favorite. She also made this shrimp thing and it was nasty. First time I haven't liked something she's made. She's having us over on Thursday to celebrate my birthday. So excited to get even fatter.

Hope everyone has had a good week. Love you all and I'll reply to you next week!

Love,
Hermana Clay

August 4, 2014 - 6 months!

Dearest family,

Lots of things happened this week, but I don't remember a bunch.

I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Pulido and she's from Eagle Mountain, Utah but was born in Mexico. She's only 5' so I feel like a giant when I stand next to her. Her brother served in this same mission. She is the cutest and I'm excited to serve with her.

We had Tinga with the Huerta's. Holy cow. That's my new favorite meal. It was so dang good.

We finally got into Snow White's Cabbage house. The lesson was going so well and we were about to close with a prayer. Then, a man walked in and basically Bible bashed us and then they left without letting us close with a prayer. So we couldn't even count it as a lesson. Lame.

This weekend was a Hispanic conference. Saturday, we all got together for the day and played soccer, ate, and watched people dance. I got sunburned on my face so I look like a tomato right now. So hot. Sunday, we had a meeting at BYUI. It was awesome. So many good speakers there. I loved hearing their testimonies. Most of the members are the first ones to be baptized in their families. It's amazing to hear their stories and what strong faith they have. Another benefit of going to Rexburg was that I finally got to drive over 45 mph. David and Abby, I waved hi as I passed by your house.

I can't remember anything else. On Tuesday I'll be 1/3 of the way done with my mission. Crazy! It is flying. I love it here and I love the work! So much happiness comes from it.

Have a wonderful week! Happy birthday, Asher! Don't forget that I'm your favorite of all favorites!

Hermana Clay

July 28, 2014 - Transfers this week/I'm still the favorite of all favorites for the 2nd time

Hi family,

Pretty great week. This week are transfers. Sister Caballero will be going to Rigby. I will be staying in Idaho Falls and training a new missionary! What the heck?! I still feel brand new. But, I'm excited. Sister Pulido will be my companion. She looks super cute. Our area needs some serious work so we will have a lot to do.

We saw Raquel a whole bunch. She is the cutest little lady. We had a church tour with her that went well. She also came to the musical fireside that we had last night and then came over to the VC to have a lesson.

Funny (but maybe not funny) story...we were talking to a family in their backyard and the kids were kicking the soccer ball around. The soccer ball comes flying and smacks the mom right in the face. She flew back. It was like a movie in slow motion. We then awkwardly sat there and had no idea what to do.

On Wednesday, Marci and her kids came!!!! It was so much fun!! We got to go to the back and chat for a little and we also went out to lunch at Cafe Rio. It was kind of weird riding in the trailblazer. Those kids are so cute!! Ruthie was shy at first around Sister Caballero, but by the end she was talking her ear off. I was so happy to see them and be able to talk with Marci for a little. Thanks for taking the time to come and see me! Love you!

Yesterday we had two musical firesides. We had one at the VC in the afternoon. 95 people came! The VC is tiny so fitting everyone in was interesting. Then, we had one at a church building. We filled the entire sacrament room plus some. It was an amazing fireside all about Christ. I played "This is the Christ" with Sister Gee. One of my absolute favorite songs! My favorite part is when James E. Faust gives his personal testimony of the Savior. Go listen to it! I love my Savior and I know that He lives. One day we will be able to see Him again. I am beyond grateful that I have this opportunity to share my testimony about Him with others, whether it be through words or music.

Hope you had fun at the family reunion and that you all have a wonderful week! Happy birthday to the greatest mom in the entire world! Love you all lots!

Hermana Clay

With Sisters Segovia and Beteta