I am here! Reunion is BEAUTIFUL!

MOMMA! 

I am here on Reunion and it is absolutely amazing! It is so beautiful here and I just had orientation with the zone leaders and everyone is super awesome here.. we get like 300 euros a month that is about 400 and something dollars how crazy is that?! that is how expensive things are here! It was a very hard flight and just like tanner I wanted to come home.. but when I met the mission president and stuff it was a lot better! my back killls right now but I continue to pull through. My first area is in La port which is in the top left of the island! we have a super nice apartment and each companionship has a car and a phone.. and it is like a touch screen phone so It is crazy being here cause its so high class! but the work is the same! since there is only 10 missionaries and 4 sisters on the island we only have transfers every time a new missionary leaves and comes.. and I was the first missionary in 7 months to show up here how crazy?! so me and my companion  his name is Elder C and he is awesome we will be together for about 5 months! anyways I have to go I love you very much! I think president adams is emailing you the pics of us! I love you! P-day is monday

BONJOUR TOUTE LE MANDES! j'AIME MA FAMIILE!! TU ME MANQUE MA MEAR!

well it has been a much better week.. I am still homesick, but its okay.. I received a blessing yesterday and that helped me so much.. it was perfect and I had all the guys in my district help.. it was truly awesome! well I miss and love you all so so so much! there are so many little things here that I miss about home! well my camera broke which stinks and i will send that home to you this week along with the other camera. I will just load videos of it with specific videos to you.. I will also bear my testimony on it in french and you can send the video out to everyone this week. I hope you like it! Lets just say the french own this place. we have the best schedule, the best service, and the best teachers! I'll take a  pic with them before I leave so you can see them! french is by far the most sexist language in the world. there is a reason it is called the language of love. listen to this...."Je voule framage" it sounds so awesome with a french accent and it means "I would like cheese" haha anything you say sounds so romantic and awesome all of us have a loving accent to make it sound super cool (: its so great.
Reunion Island
 One of the missionaries here, his family lives on reunion island and he told them about me and they haven't gotten a new missionary on the island for 4 months so apparently everyone in saint pierre and saint denis is super pumped to meet the new "american missionary" haha so hopefully they still like me when I get there! so there is 4 locations that missionaries serve on reunion.. thatis in saint denis ( north) saint pierre (south) then saint benoit (east) and saint paul (west) north and south have houses and the houses are really nice, then east and west are smaller cities and missionaries live in nice apartments! so that should be pretty awesome! the food here is gross.. I eat 6 bananas and 3 glasses of water for breakfast.. then sandwiches for lunch, and whatever dinner they have.. FRIDAYS ARE PIZZA FRIDAYS and they get dominos for us and it is SO awesome to have food from the outside world!
No More English
starting Monday are only aloud to speak french to each other. lessons are going so well and its awesome when heavenly father blesses me with the gift of tongues when I really need it.. we do home teaching once a week and we have to teach members a principle from the bible or book of mormon.
Missionary companions can be a lesson in patients.....
anyways so me and my companion struggle..  he has a strong testimony and he loves to teach but hes just not mature enough yet.. hes honestly pretty annoying and I know heavenly father is trying to bless me with patience. he does all these little voices all the time like super high pitched and also tries to sound like goofy, and also stitch. I have sat him down several times to try to work on it but he just blows me off and says its part of his personality and I just have to deal with it.. which is okay I have accepted it, and I am trying to treat him like christ would. I ask him every day is there anything I need to work on, and he says no.. so that is good. we are just opposites.. he also isn't the most obedient missionary. he breaks quite a few super small rules which i have talked to him about, but he just doesn't listen. There are times where I just sit there and be quiet and pray in my heart that I don't knock him out. and thankfully god blesses me with acceptance all of the time and I know that is a blessing for being obedient! I do a lot of service for him also. anything he likes to do I do it with him, but if its something I want to do we never do it, which is totally okay. heavenly father is trying to teach me an amazing lesson right now. haha its a blast..
I love emails and letters.....
well again to all my friends and family please send me emails, and if you can set up a dear elder and just send me some love if you could because it truly means the world to me. and thank you to the friends and family who sent me dear elders this week. thank you mama for sending me one daily its awesome (: and also alyssa,  thank you so so so much for your letters they keep me going and I love it very much!
My Testimony.....
I just want you all to know that the church of jesus christ is TRUE! I know that christ atoned for our sins. I know that jospeh smith had a real question in his heart to know which church is true. in james 1:5 it reads "if any of ye lack wisdom let him ask of god, given to all men liberally and abraideth not, and is shall be given him." the spirit testified to joseph smith that he needed to pray. He went to ask heavenly father to know which church was true. I KNOW that joseph smith saw god the father, and jesus christ, and I have never been so sure of something in my life. through joseph smith the gospel of jesus christ was restored on the earth. and the power of god was restored on the earth which gives us the opportunity for true baptism, true repentance, and being able to perform true ordinances that heavenly father commands. today there are 15,000,000 members of the church, and there are 90,000 missionries in the world including me, we have a prophet who leads and guides us like the bible times and the book of mormon times. god does NOT change, so it would make sense that he would have prophets on the earth today, this is the LORDS work, au nom de jésus-christ amen.


With a full heart,

Elder Clark

Our classroom where we spend about 10 hours a day studying.

My Companion

This is where I am going.

Provo Utah temple

Elders in my district

I LOVE care packages.

MTC Bookstore

He is going to Canada, I am going to Reunion.

My district here at the MTC.  They are all headed to Calgary.

I am a little homesick......

MOMMA BEAR! 

I actually have time to write today i am in no rush. I have gotten your packages and I seriously love them! and to all my friends and family out there please please please send me dear elders. If you text my momma she will tell you how to do that. I have been super homesick all week and I have really missed everyone, and those letters I receive daily give me such a push honestly they truly truly mean the world to me. I would appreciate it. and thats to all my friends especailly! just a hey and an I love you seriously does more than you guys know. and I LOVE PACKAGES! ive gotten 2 from you momma and 1 from my babygirl (: It had everything I wanted..especially the love I felt from both of you guys sending me packages. Packages are like Christmas times 10000. Everyone screams and gets so pumped up when they see that they have a package.  I love you and miss you so much momma you have no idea. I have really been homesick this week though. I pray nonstop because my heart just hurts so bad being away from so many people I love and care about, especially you /: But i pray non stop and somehow I just make it to the end of that day and on to the next. 

WHAT I DO ALL DAY......

Well today We got to go to the temple! I honestly love it so much. especially when you go with all your missionary friends and everyone has such a strong testimony its so powerful! SO I guess for this week, we basically do the same thing every day! we learn and learn and learn 10 hours a day about the language and reading the book of mormon and the bible. I am able to keep my tablet but I only use it for personal study. SO fun facts about the island of Reunion. Since we are technically part of the Madagascar Antannarivo Mission, I didnt know how the whole zone leader and a.p. thing worked . So I talked to a teacher here who got back 3 months ago and there are 2 FRENCH assistants to the president on reunion, and then there is the regular assistants in madagascar and the mission president and his wife.  They only make the 400 mile flight every 3 months, so we are basically all by ourselves. Its kinda awesome. IF any of you guys have the chance to just go on google images and type in ISLE DE REUNION youll see where I am going and how beautiful it is. I love it so much!

MY DISTRICT............

 We all have good laughs with eachother its gunna be hard to say goodbye to them when they leave to montreal and I have to go to Reunion by myself. We are all such good friends and we have so much stuff that we do...like tomorrow all the new french missionaries come in and we tell them they have to be in bed by 10..and then we sing a song in the dorms called "souviens toi" which means remember in english..and its a french lullaby that moms sing to their kids, and the french put it in their cantique (hymn) livre (book) to make them happy so we sing it as a hymn sometimes. So, basically we storm into the new missionaries rooms and we sing the lullaby to them and tuck them in and put them to sleep its SOOO FUNNY. we do it on the first night for them to relieve some scared feelings and if they misssed their mommy like I did. you all should look it up its such a soft song. 

THE LANGUAGE.....

Our teachers name is Frere Call which is brother in french. He is AWESOME! he just got back from paris and he speaks such good french he has an amazing accent and he teaches me the language so so well! its awesome! 

My french roomates are awesome. Elder R.....he cant speak any english except for a small bit and its awesome. haha starting this next sunday the other french elder who can speak english is going to stop speaking english to us,, so we have to speak only french in our room! Its crazy the amount of growth that happens here. spiritually, and with the language I give so much credit to heavenly father. 

Well I have to head back to the room! I want you ALL to know that I love you and miss you so much and you are all in my prayers.. again please send me some dear elders they really keep me going.. And pray for me because I have felt very homesick.

I love the true church of jesus christ. I have learned so much and I am in love with this gospel. heavenly father truly blesses his children. I have such a strong testimony. of this gospel and I cannot wait to share that message with the people in reunion. I love you all so much! 

With a full heart, 

Elder cooper Clark

I entered the Provo MTC on Wednesday August 6, 2014

I ABSOLOITELY LOVE IT HERE! I am doing SO good and the language is coming along so well! I seriously cannot wait to be in reunion island! my companion is awesome! 

I am the first missionary to ever go to reunion out of the provo MTC. I stay with a bunch of guys who are going to paris, and montreal canada and my floor IS AWESOME! me and elder sometion have 2 roomates who are both from france and ONE LIVED IN REUNION island for 10 years and he tells me everyday that im going there for vacation and not a mission hahaha because it is so beautiful! he said the church is amazing there. there is 20 missionaries on reunion and only 4 on mauritus because the republic of mauritus is very strict on visas so i might just be on the small but amazing 25 mile wide island for 2 years! i am going to have some amazing relationships with people! I love you guys and miss you all so much! the language is awesome and I HAVE A STRONG TESTIMONY OF THE GIFT OF TONGUES. I can already keep a coversation with someone. I am getting the language very well and thats all credit to the lord! youre gunna have hard days but you just seem to pull through and go on to the next

 I love you all so much and I am SO happy to be here. The lord has blessed me with so much strength its unreal. I miss you and writing this is making me homesick but its okay! cause I will be brought through it :) J'aime l'evangile de jesus- christ. il est ma saverur et ma redempteur. Moi et mon collegue elder somcion representent jesus christ, et notre pear celeste. I know this eamil was short and im sorry but its been a stressful p day! I got to do family sealings at the temple today and I got 3 brothers all sealed to their family and it was a really cool experience! I can pray in french very fluently and its already a habit. french pronounce jesus  christ like jesu chri. its so cool. I love you all so much and I am so blessed to be a servant of the lord! you are ll in my prayers! 

-with a full heart,

elder cooper riley clark