Mission Adventures of Elder Clark Lovell

Hola todos! I have seen a lot of miracles this week. Anyone who says "Oh those poor missionaries, they aren't able to do anything" no offense at all, but that is completely not true. I have seen the Standard of truth come to life within my apartment. The Standard of truth is a prophecy that the Prophet Joseph Smith gave shortly before his martyrdom. Here it is: “The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; … the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” The work of the Lord is still progressing even within the walls of a tiny missionary apartment in Henderson, Nevada. Last night, we saw an incredible, unprecedented miracle happen when our neighbor, a young lady who we have been texting back an

Hola todos! I feel like I have to pop out the journal to write this email like I did in the MTC because I have to think really hard about what happened! I have learned a lot this past week about myself and about my mission. I am super grateful for my companion Elder Gonzalez because he really is helping me see a different perspective. Recently I have been trying to work as hard as I can, sprint to the finish line, and it has been good, we have been seeing good things happen, but it also has had some adverse effects on me, like making me a little more impatient or anxious than usual. My companion, thankfully has helped me see the big picture. He has only been out a month and a half less than me, and is a great missionary. We have seen a lot of cool things happen with the members in our area. I have seen the long term effects of simple things like not reading the scriptures or having family prayer through some of the members here, and the adverse effects that has on th

Hello everyone! We have had a pretty packed week! We have been teaching a lot of lessons to members and non members, but one of the other highlights this week was the fact that Hna Pecjak's (Alta Vista Relief Society President) grandson was born on Friday! The crazy thing about that is that I was in my first transfer here in the branch when I was at her house when her and her husband found out they would be grandparents! When I finish my mission, I will have been in this wonderful branch for 10.5 months! Some of the lesson highlights were: -we had a lesson with the Coreas family in which we talked about them going to the temple to be sealed as a family for time and eternity, and wrote down their goals on a whiteboard. We texted Alma a picture of the whiteboard, and she then posted it on her Facebook story, which simply told me how important that was for her  -we had a lesson with Cesar and Jesse and our branch president about the Priesthood, and how important it

Hello everyone! This week had its ups and downs, the biggest highlight was definitely watching General Conference, and I learned a lot. I invite all of you, if you want to hear some inspirational talks, regardless of you religious beliefs, to watch General Conference. You can find it at   https://www. churchofjesuschrist.org/ broadcasts?lang=eng It is the opportunity we get to hear from living prophets, or men chosen by God to represent Him to the world and give His word to us, just like anciently in the Bible. My favorite part was watching President Nelson get emotional when he told the world that there would be a temple of the Lord built in Shanghai, China. He did a lot of surgical and ministering work there in the past and he loves those people a lot. That was touching. I was also pumped to hear about the temple that is going to be built in Pittsburgh! PA! Boo yeah!  My other favorite part was a talk given by Elder Neil L Anderson of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles,

Hello! We have had quite the week down here in Henderson, Nevada, and it all took place inside one tiny little missionary apartment! On Wednesday, we had to say goodbye to our companion, Elder Palmer, who finished his mission that day. It was sweet to see how happy he was to be with his family again. After that, a missionary that Elder Troya and I had served around in the past became our third companion. His name is Elder Gonzalez. He is from Clarkston, Utah. Cool name for a town, right?  On Thursday we had a really cool lesson with this family we started teaching in our South Valley Ranch Ward. All of our lessons are over video chat now, and this family, of four kids and a mother, we taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was cool, Elder Troya especially had a lot of fun teaching them. The coolest part was at the end of the lesson, the oldest kid said that he thinks that this faith is the right path for him. Apparently he had not liked any religions in the past, but he

Hello everyone! Week one of working remotely is just about up! We have done our best to work with the members to help them help us, because that is the only way we will get work done in this mission. We are trying to get the members to share our Facebook posts, and have their friends see them in the community. During all of this, I was struggling a little bit with the idea of potentially working remotely for the rest of my mission, and I decided to ask my companions to give me a priesthood blessing. For those who aren't familiar with priesthood blessings, part of what we teach is that the same authority that Christ gave His followers, called Apostles has been restored to the earth, which gives men the ability to bless in the same way that they blessed people, in the way that the Savior blessed. When I received that blessing, so much peace came into my heart. It was gradual, but now, with the fluctuating circumstances surrounding the term of my service, I fee