Pictures and a letter from Caleb 4-1-13

The following are pictures of my son who is serving a mission in Anaheim, CA and a letter he wrote me me. He is serving a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and he has been out serving for about 5 months. Every Monday he has a Preparation day and writes home. I love Mondays now. Last week Caleb and his companion helped Sister Cannon who is in their Ward (congregation) plant a tree and she took pictures and sent them to me. Below are the pictures and his latest letter. Enjoy!

 Dear my lovely Mom.

 This last week was a bummer, but it only looks up from there! I am reminded constantly how thankful I am for my new companion. Elder Rast is such a blessing in my life, and I love him. He is such a hard worker, and I love his sense of humor. We have gotten a lot of work done together. I took pictures of the easter basket you sent even before you told me to.

I have learned much. I will send them home at some point. I love my camera with an obsession. It is so cool, and it takes great pictures. I am so thankful that I will have pictures to remind me of the things I did while I was here. I wish I could write about some experiences we had this week, but there seriously wasn't anything worth writing about. We had such a boring week, and I thought I was going to loose my mind near the end of it.

I picked up speakers today, and my life is already looking up. If I had had the week I had last week with Elder Healey, I would have died. I'm so glad I have Elder Rast to keep me sane. I have never had so many people be rude to me as I did last week. One cool thing, is that we got a new investigator.

Mike is the last person most people would think would be looking for a life change. He has been in prison multiple times, has tats everywhere, and basically is a loser. He had a kid last year though, and has been looking for ways to be an example. He stopped us and asked us if we would teach him about Jesus Christ. Super cool. There was at least one good thing to come out of last week I guess.

Its like the Hymn "Count Your Blessings." Count your blessings name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Thats just a short part, but its super true.

Sometimes we get so dredged down into the grit of life that we forget to be thankful for the parts of life that we overlook. We should be moving tomorrow which will be really cool. I will be happy to get out of our crappy apartment into something better. its funny because all the apartments I will live in out here are waaay nicer than what I will be able to afford back home anyway. I have come to an appreciation that life is very expensive, and families are even more expensive.

I will have money to spend on things until I have a child, and then out of love, everything will go to him. I say him because it will be a boy. I had a dream about it. Except he was like 6 in the dream. He is named James Ryan Clark. I love this area. I believe it is the best in the mission, but I also believe that it is that way because we are working hard and giving the spirit lots of opportunities to testify of truth. I love the people here, even if they don't love us. I have met some very, very kind people here.

Did you get the pictures from Sister Cannon? We planted trees for her! We have helped a lot of people in the church with things lately, and I think it is starting to make a difference. People are trusting us more, and we have gotten 3 referrals in a week! we never get referrals! I love you Mom. I am so thankful for your prayers, and for your support as I've been out here. This is undoubtedly the most difficult thing I've ever tried, but it is also very rewarding and lots of fun. Hopefully Dan's Birthday went alright. I wanted to get him some shoes to send home (We have Van's outlets all over the place and Van's are popular right now) but I didn't know what he would like :( I pray for you guys all the time. I hope you are all doing well.

 I love you! Elder Caleb Clark