Note from Sister H

We received a nice note and a few pictures from a family Sister Cluff and Sister R were visiting.  Here's the note:

“Your sweet daughters just left and we had the best time with them!!!  We've lived here for 14 yrs and I do not remember ever having sister missionaries before - so we are feeling very privileged to have them.

                We have made plans to have the sisters join us on Christmas Eve - they don't know the plan yet (any zone stuff or curfews or such) but are going to discuss with the mission president and get back to us.  I encouraged them not to plan anything too firm on Christmas Day as they will be able to call home and that will take top billing over anything else.  If there's anything I can do to help with Christmas surprises let me know…. We’ve got a son going to the MTC on Jan 11th, so we're happy to assist other missionary families as much as possible.

                Anyways, just wanted to let you know that your children are doing great and making a difference... with their cheerful countenances and joy for the gospel.”

So fun to see and hear about our missionary!  Thanks to Sister H.

Answering More Questions

Note from Sister Cluff's Mom:  Sister Cluff has been faithfully sending emails on her prep days, but I have been negligent in my posting.  Our family has been a little distracted with a wedding and travel during the past few weeks.  I hope to catch up soon. 

Sister Cluff says:

Thanks for all of your awesome letters!  I am so thankful for my great family!  I don't have much time, so I guess I will just answer your questions. I love you all!

Tell about your apartment.  My apartment has 2 bedrooms (one for sleeping and the other for exercise) and one bathroom (it had a black shower when we got there that was supposed to be white).  There is a kitchen with a dishwasher and disposal. (YES!!)  We don't have a TV.  We have about 4 desks in our front room/kitchen to do all of our studying and we have a couple of old couches.  Our beds are a little creaky, especially when you get up in the night to use the commode.  So I try to jump out instead of getting on the creaky side (I feel like the middle is not quite so creaky).  6:29AM comes way too fast.  Happy day-light savings time!

What kind of food do you eat?  I have had imitation crab in Alfredo sauce.  It was interesting and I tried not to make a big deal out of it.  (I didn't mention that it was my first almost crab until I got out to the car with my companion).  It was actually not bad.  I have had elk sausage, turkey spaghetti, lots of lasagna, spaghetti, Chinese food, etc.  For lunch, we have leftovers, frozen dinners, quesadillas, etc. - stuff that is super easy and quick so we can get a nap in.

What do you do for your service hours?  We have hair shampooing and setting for our service this week.  There is someone in our ward who knows someone in cosmetology school.  It should be interesting.  At the MTC mostly we mopped stairs.  They had all the missionaries cleaning up after themselves (which cuts down a lot on custodial bills).  We need to do more service in the upcoming weeks.  We have just been super busy and we are trying to work it in.

What's the ward (congregation) like?  The wards we work in are super nice.  There are a lot of older people and there are quite a few young families.  There are also no singles branches in our area so there are a few young single adults.  It is interesting the people you meet here.  I have met more people on their second or third marriage, or divorced than I thought was possible.  It makes learning the families more complicated.

What gospel topics are you studying?  I have been reading the Book of Mormon a lot.  I have been skipping around on various topics. 

What have you learned about yourself so far?  I am pretty quiet.  I like a clean environment.  I have been trying to be cleaner since I started on my mission and my companion thinks I am a “neat phreak.”  I have learned that I love to laugh. (Okay, I already knew that!)  I have learned that I take a while doing things (like writing letters and getting ready in the mornings) sometimes.  I am trying to be quicker.  It is hard to follow so many rules, but it is totally worth it to do so.  As missionaries, you meet the humblest and most interesting people, who are often having super hard trials in their lives.  I just want to shake people and say, "Don't you understand how much the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can bless your life?"  People all have their own agency.  They are going to be kicking themselves when they learn about it in the spirit world, I think.  I have learned how blessed I am to have the gospel in my life. 

Learning to Love Schedules

As you can imagine, I am not a schedule kind of a person.  So, it is kind of tough for me now but it is and will continue to get better.  I am probably going to be lost without a planner when I get back.

Here’s my daily schedule:

  6:29am - Wake-up.  Roll out of bed onto my knees in prayer position. 

                        Then I exercise for 1/2 an hour and get ready for the day. 

  8:00am - Personal study time.

  9:00am - Companion study.

10:00am - My training (which will happen for 12 weeks).

11:00am - We begin teaching others or looking for people who are interested

                         in learning more about The Church. 

12:00pm - We have an hour break for lunch. 

  5:00pm - We eat dinner with a member family from church.

  9:00pm - We have 30 minutes of daily planning for the next day.

10:30pm - In bed, with the lights out. 

Once a week, I have P-day (short for preparation day).  This is the day missionaries take care of all their personal needs like shopping, laundry, letter writing, and so on.  Most P-days I have from 10am-5pm as P-day.  On Halloween we had to be in by 7pm (no dressing up or holiday parties!) so our P-day was mixed around and it was from 1pm to 7pm.

The church members are taking care of us well here.  They are so excited to have sister missionaries.  We have had reports that they haven't had sister missionaries in this area for the last 41 years, but then we had reports of some sister missionaries…but not for a long time.

One of the hardest parts of the mission right now is knocking on doors.  Sister R says that that is her favorite part.  After knowing that, I have an even harder time doing it.  We made a goal that I would do it every other time.  (I came up with that goal.) 

The rainy season is kind of starting.  It is often foggy in the morning and the rain is really light.  It is like when you sit at Grandma Layton's house and the swamp cooler is spitting on you a little bit.  That is how the rain is.  Or at least the rain I have been in.  The misters at Six Flags have more water coming out of them than the rain I’ve been experiencing so far.

Here are some random facts (based on my limited experience) about Oregon:

There are hardly any sidewalks in neighborhoods. 

Lots of houses just have car-ports. 

There are tons of cats and almost every house we knock at has 1+ dogs. 

I want to finish by sharing my testimony.  I know this church is true.  I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and that through him we can return and live in the best way possible with our Heavenly Father.  I love the Atonement; it is the best thing ever.  I know and can recognize how the gospel can help everyone I talk to.  As a missionary, I meet many people who have been humbled or have had hard lives.  While people have their own agency to decide what they believe, I want to share my testimony that Jesus Christ can help them.  I am grateful I get the chance to do this.  <3 Sister Cluff

Pink Washing

Here I am in the Oregon Eugene Mission!  President Y and Sister Y are the missionaries who are in charge of the missionary work in this area.

I am so happy that I finally get the chance to write you again.  It has been awesome here.  I see sooo many miracles and most of them I don't even realize as miracles at the time.  We had 26 referrals given to us in the last week!  Sister R (my companion) says it is a good week if you get like 5.  I have not been too phreaked out and haven’t acted like a newbie too badly.  It is kind of funny to see people's responses when I tell them that I have only been on my mission for like 6 days.  I should probably stop telling people even though I think it is fun.  People just want to tell me all of the pranks that they have played on greenies (brand new missionaries).  Sister W told me that President Y said he would send any one home that played a trick on a greenie so, I am safe. 

So, Sister R is amazing!  She is stellar, she has only been out about 4 months and we are white-washing, I guess it is technically pink-washing because we are sister missionaries.  White-washing is when the missionaries who have been in the area are both replaced.  So, there is a lot of work to be done.  I think that we are showing the people here we are really going to work hard.  The area is so grateful to have sister missionaries.  We are fed every night.

Back to Sister R, my missionary companion.  Sister R is from Utah.  She is a niece of one of our Texas friends.  She says to tell you that she is BOMB.  (Bomb means super awesome here.)  I have never really heard this term until I got here.  She has 6 siblings; 5 sisters and 1 brother.  She worked in a hospital as a CNA (Certified Nurse's Assistant) in the NICU (Newborn intensive care unit) at a huge hospital.  She is going to be going back to school to get a nursing degree.  We love laughing together.  I sometimes think that we are having too much fun while we are on our missions, but we are working really hard.  She keeps saying that I don't need any training.  Usually for the first 12 weeks a new missionary sticks with the same companion (aka "trainer") in the same area.  I get an hour of training time each day.  I guess I am keeping afloat pretty well.    So, don't worry about me.  We joke that pretty soon we won't know who the senior companion is, but I still get to back out the car.  I am not that good yet, but just give me four months.

The weather has been super sunny here.  I keep thinking this isn't Oregon, because it is so sunny.  I guess in the "winter" (or the rainy season, November to March) it is either raining or foggy because of all of the hills.  I hear it is drizzle rain, so I am thinking it must be kind of like Germany.  I thought it would be like a rain forest here but maybe that happens in the rain.  There are lots of spiders here.  Eww.  Luckily it is mostly spider webs, instead of spiders.

I just wanted to let you know that I know this church is true and that it can benefit everyone.  I wish more people would be willing to listen, but I am grateful for the chance to state my testimony with boldness.  I love wearing my black name tag.  It reminds me of who I am and why I am here.  <3 Sister Cluff

Oregon, USA

Questions & Answers

What is your favorite part of the day? 

That is an awesome question.  I am not sure.  Some days I love teaching my investigators and some days that it is not my favorite part.  Gym is usually pretty fun.  I have been playing volleyball recently.  I actually got hit in the head , but I was fine and kept playing.  I have had Gym anywhere from 8am-9pm, and it is really hard to go and "exercise" when I am feeling exhausted by the end of the day.  I have felt myself grow more and more.  It is hard work, exhausting, and stressful but it is so worth it!  My mission is forcing me to be the kind of person I want to be.  I am not perfect, but I have progressed soooo much in the last 2 weeks I have been here.  And I can see all of my district progressing too.  (A district is my class that I do everything with.)  Our district has 3 companionships of elders and 1 companionship of sisters.  There are about 2000 elders and about 400 sisters here at the MTC now. 

 How are you getting along with your companion? 

Awesomely.  We are two different people and have lived very different lives.  She is a rough, tough, and loveable country girl with a country accent and I am a sweet, stubborn, sometimes klutzy city-girl.  I have been a lot more klutzy lately and she laughs with me about it.  I pretend to be offended or embarrassed.  Almost all of our interests are different.  She likes football, hunting, fishing, westerns, etc. 

We both have fun senses of humor.  We love laughing together and being together.  We are both kind of quiet; I am probably more vocal when teaching.  I am trying to learn how to share the talking time and not interrupt her.  When that happens, we work together to try to fix those problems.  We are both putting our all into this companionship.  We have learned that we need to be open, loving, and on the same page to teach most effectively. We also have both felt under the weather (only slightly-don't worry mom).

 Have you had any spiritual experiences?  Haha, funny question.  I feel like I have one every hour.  Yesterday Sister W and I taught the plan of salvation to a less active brother named Melvin.  He hadn't been to church since he was little (he is probably in his 80s) and it really brought peace to him.  His wife had been dead for 1.5 years and he hadn't prayed since then.  We were able to share the joy of the gospel with him.  Let him know that God gives us second chances.  We were able to teach these concepts with clarity and the spirit.  It was awesome!  And that is just 1 hour’s experience!

 I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior.  He loves me and has suffered my pain so that I don't have to.  Heavenly Father wants us back with him and he gives us second chances.  It is never too late, but that doesn't mean a person should procrastinate.  It is all about love and Christ.  Try to be like him. 

Awesomely Challenging

Awesome is the word of the week!  They keep us all really busy here [at the MTC – Missionary Training Center].  This is an awesome place where you can feel the spirit so much.  Every activity is inspired and all of the materials we are given to learn are awesome.   I have been having 6 hours of classroom time a day. I am teaching 4 investigators [people who are seeking more information about The Church] and we have a lot of time to read scriptures and Preach my Gospel [a study guide for sharing the gospel].  It has been awesome to be surrounded by people with a common purpose, especially when we are all singing together.  I am in the MTC choir.  I can´t remember the words right now but we sang the song “I´m Trying to Be like Jesus.”  Every word rang true and applied to me right now.   We are a mighty army.

I enjoyed conference.  [Referring to the world-wide, semi-annual conference broadcast from Salt Lake City.  Kevin, Kendra, David, and Adam attended various sessions.  Andrew and Laurie watched from home.]  I heard the tentative plan for who was going to each session of conference.  I watched the broadcast from the MTC.  I picked out a couple of talks that I thought were good info for my family attending those sessions.  I then had to remind myself to look for things for me.  It wasn't very hard to do. (smiley face)

            I am doing good.  There are times when I am feeling discouraged and times when I totally feel like I got this missionary thing.  I am fitting in pretty well with my clothing, personality, and testimony.  And yet I am uniquely me.  It is great!

A funny thing happened this week.   The power went off.  I was taking a turn in the shower at this time.  Luckily, a lady came in and said those of us in the showers didn’t have to go outside for the fire drill.   I was really glad I didn´t have to evacuate in a towel!

            I have a great companion, Sister W. from Arizona.  She has 6 brothers, loves horses, hunting, and fishing.  We love to laugh and nicely tease each other.  We are pushing each other to be better.

            The most fun things I did this week were:

1.  Singing in the missionary choir.

2.  Going to the temple. (really nice)

3.  Taking a kickboxing class for the sister missionaries. (hard but cool)

            There are hard times too.  One night I was feeling super depressed and I was able to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help me use the Atonement to feel happier.  It worked!  I testify that the Atonement can heal hurt, loneliness, and disappointments.

            My next week schedule includes a lot of classes, teaching, and personal study time.  I only get part of a day to do laundry, write letters, have a little free time, and go to the temple.  I plan to leave for Oregon on Oct. 18.