DON'T STOP THOSE PIANO LESSONS....

Okay so...onto the weeks activities!!!!! First off...a mission is not easy! We often think of missions as walking around, happy-smiley moments all the time, and people just fawning at your feet with the perfect stories. Here in Ukraine, our nicest contacts are often intoxicated and we get a lot of "no's" but I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!! Almost every lesson with investigators we have either been stood up or canceled, and it requires a lot of patience and faith here in the Lords vineyard. I wouldn't trade it for the world though.


The country is beautiful here now that it has cooled down after some massive rain storms that lasted nearly two days (those were fun days for my poor clothes ;) and the leaves are starting to change too. Yesterday when I was on a mini-split with Elder Samuelson and it was just gorgeous even with the super rundown apartment complexes, garbage all across the streets, but the sun was shining, the people in their own quirky way are beautiful, and you can just feel Heavenly Father's hand resting down on our mission. The time is soon coming to see this area of the world become what its has been prophesied to become. I am so grateful for this opportunity and I guess here are some experiences to show it.


Last Wednesday was the torrential down pour in which we were outside most of the day being soaked until I was able to purchase an umbrella. We hopped on a tram and headed to a Sister in the ward who works at the office and always feeds us pizza every week. We took the wrong tram and found out about20 min too late,had to change trams, jumped on to an auto bus, with literally 150 people on it and no room to even think about breathing, and then had to run through puddles and such till we reached her house. The borscht was wonderful,the pizza good too, but my favorite part was indeed when Elder Harvey was eating a grape and found a huge spider that crawled out of his bunch of grapes...he reacted quited enjoyably to me ;) We thanked her, and ran to catch the right tram back home, and to another members apartment. We were drenched and the Sister, nicknamed Mama Bogmedt, pretty much chewed us out for not wearing jackets. I was embarrased for being late, I was soaking wet, didn't know what she was saying, and just as I sat down, about half of my tie was submerged in what we later learned was an incredible borscht soup. Needless to say, I was pretty humbled :) As they fed us, talked with us,and genuinely cared about us, I just felt this wonderful love for them and their love for me. In broken Russian, I was able to simply say that I didn't know how to put it to words, but that I was so grateful for them. The members here are serious gems.


Secondly was actually being able to teach some pretty amazing lessons. We didn't get to teach Galina due to here not being home, but did get to teach a wonderful sister and her son about sacrifice and were all able to partake of a really sweet spirit. We were able to walk through the baptismal questions with an investigator Roman and found that except for a few things, he really had a testimony and was truly ready after we finished teaching him (We'll see!).We were able to teach a young man named Zenia who was ready to be baptized and accepted everything we taught him, but was leaving for another city the next day, not to be back till December. In all these experiences, it gave me hope, a sense of the love the Lord has for these people,and the power of the Spirit. This work is so true!


We also were able to witness a lot of priesthood blessings this last few days. Two baptisms of Elders Samuelson and Russo,a baby blessing of a wonderful missionary-member in our branch, and of course the confirmations of those that were baptized. The Priesthood does and is currently in full operation here in Ukraine. It is truly the power of God and in the ordinances is the power of God manifest!


Finally, our branch...remember how I was telling you not to have the twins quit piano, well I was greeting people Sunday when Brot Victor grabbed me, mumbled something in Russian and led me to the organ right before sacrament meeting started. I sat down, tried to get the thing open, found out all of it was in German on the stops and such, and then said a quick prayer and started playing. It was for sure a miracle. Fast and testimony meeting was wonderful and I got a sense of just how incredibly amazing the saints are here who have been members on average for less time than me. They are truly and elect group of God. After sacrament, (to keep with this new tradition apparently) Sister Dasha grabbed my arm and pulled be to my next assignment: Ukrainian Primary(class for the children under 12). Luckily, I was finally in a class that was at my language level, (even though I still did not understand a ton...) and it was amazing to see these new--and quite rambunctious-kids who will be the future leaders in a land that needs this message so much. It was absolutely incredible! The Gospel is absolutely from God and contained in His Church on the Earth today!


My Companion and I are getting along much more unified, and are really enjoying one another now. We are different and cant expect to be the same, but we have the same purpose here in Ukraine:Bring all to Christ and each other too. We've spent a lot of time eating what is equivalent to Ukrainian rice, (called gretchka) and actually we have eaten it every night, breakfast, and dinner for about three days since we didn't budget our money very well (goal for next month!). For breakfast, gretchka, milk and a bit of sugar. For lunch, gretchka with some ketchup or other sauce (they have a ton of different sauces here and not much else ;) and for dinner, just the same as lunch maybe with some chicken. So much fun.


I love you all so much and cant wait to share more experiences with you as they come. I love you all!

Elder Claypool

FINALLY IN UKRAINE!!!!!

Aug 27, 2012

Hello Family!!! I’m writing to you on a key board that has both Russian lettering and English, so it’s pretty difficult for the eyes  J.   Oh, and not to mention that there are kids all around me on computers playing video games and of course speaking better Russian than me  J  

So, I'm here in Ukraine! And how fantastic that is! The people are amazing...amazingly crazy….. but I love them!  It’s not too hot here and not too cold, but it is pretty humid.

I really don’t know any other way to describe to you my days other than to just tell you them in order.  I better start with the blessing-filled airplane ride over here J

{Elder Claypool and the other six missionaries traveling with him on 8/21 to Ukraine were given phone cards to call their families while in transit from Denver…a last “good-bye” the church allows missionaries to do that serve outside the USA, which we were blessed to hear his voice, a few experiences, had family prayer on the phone together, and we listened to him speak  for 5 minutes non-stop “all in Russian” sharing his testimony and the story of the young 14 yr-old boy, Joseph Smith, commonly referred to by church members as “The First Vision” which started the process of the restored church.  Of course we couldn’t judge his Russian but we were amazed how it sounded}

 I got off the phone with you all, which I was very grateful for, and was then immediately approached by a man named Kyle in the airport. He started asking me questions about what I was doing, what I believed in etc., and we ended up sitting there and sharing a short message with him. He was a Bible scholar training to become a pastor and was headed to Israel for an internship, so we shared a ton of scriptures with him and vise versa.  Although he was more so trying to tell us very politely that "teaching false truths has eternal consequences and [he] just didn’t want [us] to waste away 2 years that could affect [our] eternity."  But, it was still wonderful to bear my testimony and give out my first preglashenyea (that is my best russian-english I can use for "invitation" to learn more about the church). Then we hopped on our flight to DC, talked to the lady next to us and actually found out that a group of missionaries in our travel party were sitting directly behind two Ukrainians from Kiev who spoke little to no English. With a 7 hour flight to Munich and plenty of missionaries with plenty of mixed new vocabulary, we were able to teach them and even place a Book of Mormon! We helped them in many aspects with translation and such, but it was such a blessing from Heavenly Father to experience a real Ukrainian in a friendly atmosphere before being submersed in it completely J  And before all that, we even were able to talk to a member of the US's Department of Defense in DC and give him a Book of Mormon. Between all of us 12 missionaries on that flight to Ukraine, we were able to talk to over 10 people, placed 4 copies of the Book of Mormon, and many pass-along cards too. What a blessing!  {pass-along cards have brief information about the church and a contact for people to call to get missionaries to come by their home.  More can be learned as www.mormon.org }

We finally arrived in beautiful Ukraine. It was kind of funny actually because when we got off the plane, looked around to see the beautiful country, and we see pretty much nothing as it is a very flat country on the eastern side.  President and Sister Campero {there are approximately 340 missions around the world and each mission has a mission president and wife that manage the territory and the approx 140-200 missionaries coming and going in their mission.  MaKade’s mission president couple is from Bolivia} were there to greet us at the airport with a big hug saying "Welcome to the best mission in the world!" as well as the Assistants, Elders Smith and Maronchenko, a native from Russia. We arrived at the mission home, emailed you, then headed to President's Kfarteera (in Russian that means apartment) to eat a wonderful first meal in Ukraine (Bolivian, ha ha).  We then had a meeting where we talked about the mission standards, rules, etc and received all the paperwork, etc, finishing it all up with a very tiring testimony meeting since we were all about to pass out (smile).  Elders Newey, Major, and I headed to the office Elder's apartment for the night to catch up on some much needed sleep. I couldn’t believe I was actually here!

The next day we were able to have our interviews with the President then go contacting! President Campero is an absolutely incredible man who loves us very dearly and we were able to have a wonderful interview. I then left the apartment with the Zone Leaders {some missionaries are assigned duties such as District or Zone leaders} from the area with Sister Helsten and Elder Berger to go contacting for the first time! A lot of people simply said no, but there was one babooshka who was yelling and yelling and yelling at us while the Zone leader spoke, and was pretty angry...or so I thought she was. I asked my most common phrase in English I use these days, "Okay, so what did she say?" and I found out that she was actually giving us a very kind blessing in Russian!  You have to love the culture here! We also got to talk with a wonderful man named Vladimir who was sitting in his car when we went on splits with Brother Yuri  {members of the church are called “brother” or “sister”, followed  by their last name.   “Split” is a word used when one missionary goes with another member and the other missionary goes with another member.  Missionaries are required to be with their companion unless they divide up on ‘splits’}.

Later that day was the moment of truth: Transfer Meeting! {“transfers” are when missionaries get a new companion and might move to a different area within the mission.  Normally a companionship changes every three months, and a missionary will get transferred to a different area/city every 4-6 months}.  We had a wonderful meeting with about 50% of the missionaries in the mission in attendance {because most missions cover large geographic areas you cannot always get them all together for a meeting}.   I was able to bear my testimony to which the President said I was apparently like some other missionary who had just left (smile).  I appreciated the compliment.  I was then paired up with my new companion, after we all stood in a big circle around the room, Elder Harvey. He is a very fun, funny, and light-hearted Elder who has 3 months left on his mission.  We were called to serve together in the Petrovsky area of Donetsk itself!  We packed up our bags, got in a taxi and headed to the kfarteera with Elders Harvey, Russo (our district leader and close friend of Elder Harvey) and Elder Samuelson. Who'd a thought we'd be in a taxi together in the same district, in the same area, in a country half way around the world, swerving in and out of near death experiences synonymous with Ukrainian traffic?! Amazing right!!   {Elder Samuelson is another young man from Spokane that graduated high school with MaKade from Central Valley High}

So after being settled in…the work began...

We wake up at 6:30 in the morning, get dressed and go contacting from 7am-8:30am, come back to have personal study, and companionship study, take an extra hour of study for training, and then personal language study. Then, the rest of the day is sacred proselyting time {proselyting is when missionaries walk around or knock on a door asking if they can share a message}. We have been able to talk to a lot of wonderful people here in Ukraine the last few days --- mostly rejection, or they are too busy, or simply say no thanks, and many have had too much to drink the night before (very common since we've already celebrated two holidays this week) and some are interested in what we have to share --- This area has not traditionally been very successful when it comes to finding people, which is the very first step of being able to fulfill our purpose. So, naturally, my thoughts have been focused on finding. We try to talk to every person we can on the streets and at least say hi to all we pass. They speak really fast and I pretty much stop them and say a few things and then hand it over to my companion, but it is wonderful. It’s quite funny though because so far the nicest people to us are either older women, older intoxicated individuals, or (my personal favorite) the members of the church that I have no clue they are members until we go and talk to them or make a comment like "wow look at that family, they definitely would listen to our message!"  (smile)  The People are wonderful here!

There are unfortunately a lot of restrictions that have been placed on the work due to previous missionaries and what they felt was best, or didn’t work, and so sometimes I feel like I’m rocking the boat...but I just want to do all that I can for these people regardless of what they look like, what they do, how they seem, or what we feel like doing. I love the story of Ether.  I was able to read it again the other day and to see how focused it is on missionary work. I'd never recognized it before. He speaks of how with his faith and diligence, the Lord would bless him. I know that if we give it literally our all, break pseudo restrictions, and have complete faith in God that He IS preparing people in this area and that we WILL find, teach and baptize, bringing others to their Savior, then we cannot hope for anything but the blessings of the Lord. We have some things that are kosher here in the field that have become a part of the culture that is not in accordance with the exact rules of the mission, but we will fix that. I don’t want to feel like I am being a huge boat rocker to the point where we lose unity in our companionship, but I really feel like little by little we can do this.  Obedience to all rules.

Sunday I was able to attend our wonderful branch in Petrovsky and see how wonderful, loving, and young the members are. I couldn’t understand anything but did get to bear my testimony to them and share Alma 31:34-35 with the message that together we could seriously help others come unto Christ. I just need to have patience and be more in-tune to the Spirit in my teaching.

We also have and are going through the area book to find less actives and former investigators. Most of them do not really want to be talked to again, but one former investigator had a really cool story in finding her.  We had knocked on doors trying to find investigators (which again was unheard of in the area) and we were not having much success.  We tried to find this one lady named Galleena. In Ukraine everyone lives in kfarteeras with a main door to get to the stair case and then individual kfarteera doors inside.  Well, you have to have a key or call to get in which can be difficult at times, but we were able to miraculously get in. We let these two little girls into the elevator first since it was so small and then took it later (elevators are pretty spooky here). We got to the floor to see an open door and said jokingly, "hope that’s not ours"...but, it was (smile) and what made it even better was that the two girls were the girls that this lady nannies...service scores bonus points.  She immediately invited us in, closed all the doors and windows, turned on the air conditioning, grabbed her Bible and Book of Mormon and sat down ready to be taught. I was a little in shock, and wasn’t really sure what to say because I had never gotten past the typical "would you like to hear more about our message" part...(smile).  She was super kind and we set up a return appointment with even more potential.

Heavenly Father has blessed us so much and can only make me want to serve more. This is hard work, but it is all worth.  Even the turn downs, the rude people who yell at us ( which I cannot understand yet so it’s not that bad), or even the investigators that don’t show up for the 5th time an appointment was made, I know that this is His work. I have a lot to work on, a lot of fear to replace with faith (especially in the language), and a lot of things to improve on.  As long as I am working and improving each day, I know I cannot go wrong.

I love you all so much and am so glad to hear from you. I'll keep praying for all of you and do my best for my Father in Heaven, Savior, and you all!

с любовью

Старейшина Макэйдъ Клейпул

Final Days in the MTC

FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the last week that I will be emailing you from the States before I finally get to go serve my people! Thank you for the package and all you have been able to do for me and for Elder Riddle. Yep, I leave in less than a week and have all my travel plans and everything (What an exciting and nerve racking day that was, to know that I was actually going!) I'll be flying from Salt Lake to Denver, then Denver to Munich, and Munich to Donetsk to continue the next chapter of my mission. The MTC has been such an incredible experience for me and I know that the real reason I was called Russian speaking is because I needed to be here for 12 weeks to get my head screwed on straight ;) There have been so many lessons that I have been able to learn this past week and the entire twelve weeks, but I want to speak on only a few things since I don't have a ton of time and still have to pack today, (YIKES!!!). I think in totality though, all the lessons that I've learned have been focused on actually understanding the Gospel and my relationships with each member of the Godhead.

I never was really into missionary work at home and didn't really understand it completely, nor do I now, but what I can say is that this is the Lord's work. The Lord's work is a work of Rescuing all his children, active, inactive, and nonmember alike. But it is not just missionary work that I'm talking about. One of the biggest eye opening experiences for me is realizing that Heavenly Father's "Work and Glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man," is missionary work that we all were foreordained and sent here to do. We are all to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him (Moroni 10:32-33), we are all to seek to build Zion (1 Ne 13:37), but we all, and I mean all, are here to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and in His Atonement, repentance, baptism, and receiving the Holy Ghost, so that they can endure to the end." (PMG p1). This is the work we are all called to as members of the Church: to aid all, including ourselves, in coming to Christ to partake of His Atonement so that we can all together return to our Holy Heavenly Fathers presence who loves us more than we can even imagine.

Are we using the Atonement in our daily lives? I think one of the easiest phrases I use on a lesson is "because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can all receive forgiveness of sins and be able to return to Heavenly Father"....is that a very personal statement for a person (who can barely understand me in the first place ;) who has never even heard of Christ or of the Atonement? No. Is the Atonement a personal topic that we each can define in our heart of hearts that isn't merely an end of the Road pick-me-up when I cant go any farther, or is it the literal blood of our daily salvation bringing us closer and closer to Him who beckons all to come unto Him? (Mat 11:27-8) I know that the Atonement can be used in so many ways as it literally our only hope is this life. Take time to ponder the Atonement this week and just what it means to you. Some questions that might help thinking might be: "How does the Atonement blessing my life every day?" "How is the Atonement of Jesus Christ helping to become better?" "What do I feel and do on a daily basis because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ?" "Am I continually repenting and using the Atonement?"

As a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I can promise that if we merely learn more and apply daily the redeeming balm of the Atonement, we can and will become more than we could ever hope for, and become all the Father wants and knows we can be. Please use the Atonement!

So, stepping off the soap box for a second, I want to talk about an amazing experience that I was able to have this last Sunday. We had auditioned to sing in the Sunday MTC Fireside this last week and hadn't heard anything from the music people since...so we got discouraged and stopped practicing after a few weeks of nothing. However our lack of faith, we were able to receive the invitation to sing this last Sunday at the Fireside. We were elated and began to practice again with the 3 days we had left till we performed. We were nervous and excited when Sunday rolled around, but tried to keep in mind the advice Sister Nally, wife of President Nally of the MTC Presidency, said to us: "Musical numbers are not about you! (I seem to be getting this message a lot lately ;) It should invite the spirit and be totally for them." So that's how we performed it. It went absolutely incredibly and with thanks to God in our hearts, we were able to get the best compliment anyone could ever give: "Thank you for that musical number. I felt the Spirit so strongly." When that Hymn that is so sacred to me speaks of dying for others, serving others, and sacrificing completely of ourselves, I think of Him that had no friends in the lonely Garden, and hung by himself on the cross. I think of Him who did no wrong and sacrificed everything for me...for us. I think of Him dressed in white sitting on the right hand of the Father, on his knees with us as we plead for forgiveness and He in return says to the Father "Behold thy son who did no sin and paid this price, forgive them Father." And in those last lines of that hymn, as we come to do as the Savior did, and strive to learn of Him, and become like him, we too will have the opportunity to kneel down at the Master's feet with tears in both of our eyes and as we look at the Tokens in His hands as see that we know them...for they are our hands too. His face and love...we felt as we daily partake of the Atonement. And His eyes - the eyes we have been striving to see through these many long years. And then will come the words: "My friend, well done. well done."

May all with in the sight of this email know of my deepening testimony of my Savior, even Jesus the Christ. Every day I have the opportunity just like you to become like and do as He would do and does. I still make mistakes and need to repent almost hourly it seems...but that's okay. He suffered for us so that we would not have to suffer. I know the Atonement is real and works in our lives in so many more ways than we even realize it if we will let it. Thank you for all your incredible examples to me and how much you make me strive to become more like my Savior. With Moroni, I commend and exhort all of you to "seek this Jesus of whom the prophets have written." (Ether 12:40). May God make me an instrument! and you as well as we bring to pass this great work!

Love,

Elder Claypool

2 weeks left in the USA

August 9, 2012
Oh my family!!! It’s so good towrite you and to hear from you! I'm so proud of the missionary work that youare doing and the support that brings me. Even though we call it missionarywork, the real honesty of it all is that we are all missionaries on this earthsent from the realms of Heavenly Father in the life before this to come andbring others to Christ as we too come unto Christ. This is “life's work”, notjust missionary work!
This week has been super amazingand continues to get better. I will admit that the last few days I have beengetting especially impatient, unloving, and unfocused. I don’t know if it’sbecause of the fact that in less than two weeks I'll be on a plane to Ukraine,or if it’s the Adversary working extra hard. Either way, it’s gotta change ;)
A few things I have beenextremely grateful for this week include: prayer, the Spirit, and just how mindful our Father in Heaven is mindfulof all of us. After lunch almost every day, Elder Riddle and I try to get a fewcontacts in on MTC campus to work on Russian, build unity, and invite theSpirit. It may seem kind of weird to do this on campus, but it is so worth it!All need to be invited everyday to come unto to Christ, even us missionaries ;)So, we were contacting some workers in the MTC talking about the restoration ofthe Gospel of Jesus Christ and I had the opportunity to recite the First Visionin Russian.  As I recited those holywords written by the Prophet Joseph himself, I was flooded with this peaceful,yet powerful confirmation that this message --that God loves us and does speakto His prophets today and that all can come back into His presence because ofthe Gospel of His Son Jesus Christ -- is absolutely true.
In watching the Restoration videoin Russian a day later, I was able to receive yet another converting witnessthat this message is true. I know with all my soul and all my heart that Josephreally did see God the Father, our Loving Heavenly Father,  and Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. Iknow that what happened in that Sacred Grove of trees is everything to me andmy life. There is not a single thing in this world worth living for or dyingfor than the truths and testimonies that come from when a 14 year old boydecided to ask God a sincere question. I know this is true, and so can you!That's the most beautiful part about this Gospel and our message.  All can come to know of the truthfulness ofour message if they just ask God. We don’t have any tricks or mind games up oursleeves.  For any who wonder, we don’tlearn how to be cunning convincers of some proclaimed truth (after all we'reall pretty much just 19 year old boys who barely have their heads on straight;), but rather we learn to invite, to bear testimony, to share the word of God,and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. Truly all we have is our testimonies,God's own word that can change your very heart and existence, and an offer forsalvation and eternal happiness to individuals and families to all who arewilling to follow the Savior into the waters of baptism and continue on thepath. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t know this was true and that everyoneneeded this message because it is the only message that truly matters.
Thankfully, because God loves us,another thing I know in my heart is He has given us ways to come to know of thetruthfulness of this message. The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of JesusChrist is there for all as an unshakeable and untouchable witness that theRestoration really did occur and that Joseph, the translator by the power ofGod, did what he did. Recently here in the MTC, I have been praying for mytestimony to increase and to know in my heart that these things of what I amdedicating my life to are true. God blessed me with those answers. In the closingverses of the Book of Mormon, Moroni, an ancient prophet and last prophet towrite in the record that is now the Book of Mormon, exhorted all men to ponderthe things the God had done for the children of men from the time of Adam tillnow, to read the words of the Book of Mormon, ponder them in your heart, andthen ask God the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the Book is true. Andsimply as that, if the asker has a sincere desire to know the truthfulness,have faith in Jesus Christ, or trusting in Him to give an answer, and beingwilling to act on the prompting given, then by the Power of the Spirit of God,or Holy Ghost, you will have the truth of it manifested unto you. I have readevery page in the Book of Mormon and I have come to know of its truthfulnessthrough doing as Moroni promises. As a representative of Jesus Christ, I toocan promise that if you do this, even if you already have a testimony of theBook of Mormon, you may receive an additional witness or simply a witness thatthe Book of Mormon is true. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God andthat if we live by the precepts taught in that book, we can draw closer to God,our families, and never-ending happiness than by anything else.
p.s.  I hope you enjoyed the video of us singing asit was a total surprise to me that Brother Lamarouex was going to send it tillafter he recorded it. Give him this address for me so that he can keep intouch. Tell him thank you for me (he was just released this last week). Sorryif I was not as detailed in the activities of the week, as I promise to be moreso when I'm in the field, but I just want all to know and would hope thatsomehow my testimony can touch anyone who is willing to receive these things.Thank you so much for being the best family and such a blessing from God. I canhardly put to words how I feel about this Gospel and this message and theimmense blessings I have been able to receive, but in the words of ourinvestigator who just lost his job (he was a Russian priest) because he isbeing baptized this Saturday and has little to no school or money: "If Godknow me, and I know he does, what else really matters?"
Let us be faithful and trust inHim who has always been faithful to us. I love you all so much and am doing mybest to become like my Savior for all of you. I still have my struggles...dailyin fact...but I know that His hand is constantly in my life. This is life! Getinvolved in the greatest and most important work in our existence!
Elder MaKade Claypool (soon to bein the Ukraine)

Aug 1, 2012 Post

August 1, 2012
Good morning!  Well, well, well...can you believe that the MTC train isalmost at its end?  I have only 20 daysuntil I head out to Ukraine and begin to serve my people. With this thought inmind, it has led to quite a bit of anxiety, but so much excitement!
A little on how the MTC (Missionary Training Center inProvo, Utah that trains missionaries before they go out to serve) is going:   First, Russianis the most incredible language in the world and we’re up to 4Speak-Your-Language days a week now! (Well, I guess this week will be fivedays). Essentially what that entails is just nothing but Russian all day long.Our teachers are teaching us almost in complete Russian and it is absolutely incrediblehow the gift of tongues actually is. I have a strong testimony of this gift,but, more importantly, and at the foundation of it all, I am beginning to havewithin me a burning conversion to the grace of Jesus Christ. This was evidentlymanifested while we taught two of our lessons to our two investigators on thesame day:
1. Ivan (EE-vahn) was first to be taught on Monday and...wedidn’t really have a lesson plan (oops! Be prepared). We were practicingteaching the word of wisdom in English (rare) to Brother Adams who was pretendingto be an investigator named Vechaslav (literally means "eternalglory" in Russian ;) ) and then all of the sudden our teacher, BrotherWilson asked if we were ready to teach Ivan...so we excepted, and pleased toget 5 minutes to 'gather our thoughts'...aka, prepare a lesson. We had decidedpreviously to teach him about the Savior and who He was, what He did, and how Hisexample applies to us.  We found somescriptures and went in to the lesson praying for the Spirit.  Ivan didn’t know at all who Christ was, butthe lesson went wonderfully! As we testified of Him, the Spirit entered intothe room and testified to all of us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,and the Savior of the World. In fact, Elder Riddle, in the middle of the lesson,asked Ivan to pray to find out if the words we were saying were true. He did,and this incredible peace filled the room. I have such a deep love andreverence for the One who is becoming my only Hope, my Dearest Friend. We thenspoke on the example of the Savior in 2 Nephi chapter 31 (scripture found inthe Book of Mormon) and committed him to baptism right there. He was hesitant,but he knew we would help him and that his Heavenly Father would help him too.
2. Vladimer (Vlad-EE-mer), our other investigator was alsoscheduled to be taught by us that day. Rather than following the usualPlan-Study-Teach-Cycle on our own as a companionship, we were able to do thiswith Brother Adams.  It was wonderfulbeing able to prepare a lesson with him and my companion and see the results.We planned and taught on the principle of faith and wanted to help Valdimerrecognize that he did have the faith to be baptized. In previous lessons withhim, his issue was that he wasn’t sure and wanted to be 100% on his decision.With this goal in mind to aid his faith, we made a lesson that wasstraightforward, effective, and fun. This is something that I have never donebefore because of how much we focus on the spiritual side of conversations, butI learned an important lesson on this: theGospel is nothing but a pathway to a fullness of joy (maybe the first ofmany MaKade quotes). If at all we feel burdened trying to live the Gospel,unhappy with our life, not understanding how this is the 'great plan ofhappiness,' and we are doing everything we can to keep the commandments and covenants,then ask yourself this question: "Am I using both the redeeming power andthe enabling power of the Atonement in my life at every opportunity?"Remember where true joy comes from.   Nowgo smile.
So, back to Valdimer. We are teaching him; had him do an object lesson that involved himtrusting that we had candy to give him;  and that he could get it, even though he didn’tsee it;  and that if he did 15 jumpingjacks in the middle of this busy walkway (...he of course rejected, laughed,tried to barter the number he had to do);  but he did it and received the candy.   All of that was not the real teaching momentof the lesson.  The important teachingmoment of the lesson was when he read Ether 12:6 and then taught himself bysimply saying "Guess I can’t get the candy until after I have faith and ambaptized?"    He understood the Spiritfrom reading the scriptures.  The Spiritis the only one who gets credit to do any teaching on these lessons, and thebest part is that though we can present the message to the investigator, the HolyGhost presents it to their heart in their way.   My family and friends- Seek the Spirit givento us that is the conduit through which we partake of the grace of theAtonement. Please, partake of the Atonement and come to know this Jesus of whomthe prophets have testified (Ether 12:40)
To say the least, I am so grateful. For all the notes,blessings, treats (thanks everybody), prayers and life lessons that I receiveevery day because of you all and because of our Father in Heaven's love for us.He knows us so personally and wants us to be everything He is and more. He asksthat we pray to Him, so He can bless us. Heasks us to believe in His Son, because it is through His Son that we canreceive joy, even a fullness of joy. Don’t seek to merely gain a testimony ofthis work, but let your works be a testimony of Him who we all were sent torepresent and come unto. In a devotional this last Tuesday that influencedmy heart so much, the speaker spoke of "why we are here," and who itwas that sent us? As a representative of Jesus Christ and an authorizedMissionary for Him, the talk seemed to apply wonderfully to us all.  But, never forget this lesson the Spiritwhispered to my heart: In the premortal-life we all chose. We all chose to comehere and to follow the Savior. Because we have been born in this day and age,we were sent here by our Loving Heavenly Father to bring all souls to Him.There is no greater purpose of life than the purpose we were sent here to do:fulfill His Will, as our Savior set the example for us to do. You are herebecause Heavenly Father trusts you enough with the Salvation of the souls ofAll His Children.  Let us be faithful tothat calling. And if you feel as though you cannot go on or cannot become thatwhich is asked of you to be, take this lesson I learned from this experience asa missionary: Remember who called you. Remember that you chose once before andproved yourself in the life before coming to this earth:  you can do it again! You cannot do it on yourown.  His Grace is sufficient for you tobecome who you are called to be. Whom the Lord calls, He qualifies. Rememberthat you are called and who it is that extends that call.
Love you all!
Elder Claypool

Be A Missionary Family

Dear Family,
It's so good to hear from you! This has been a wonderful week and I really took the things that you had told me in the letter in stride. Sorry for the email not getting to you on time, but there was a lot of good that came of it. Thanks for being so loving and caring!

That is absolutely wonderful to hear about you stopping and talking with the Hammons. They are absolutely amazing individuals and I love them dearly. When it comes to promptings and revelations from the Spirit, I really love what I learned about this from a video by Elder Bednar: just be a good boy and good girl, keeping your covenants and commandments, and you can ensure that the Lord will be leading you. Too often in the Church we have this unwritten rule that we have to know if its the Holy Ghost before we can act on it. President Packer has said "revelation often comes as a conclusion." Not to mention that if you have thoughts to do good you can know its from the Spirit. If it meets the test of inspiring you to become more like the Savior then you can know that it is by the power of God. Don't forget too that the more you become like the Savior, so will your thoughts; thus you cannot expect the Holy Ghost to prompt you to do something if you already know you need to. Just some food for thought that I learned.

For the MTC, its been absolutely wonderful and I cant believe I have less than a month left here in the MTC! Currently we are teaching a Russian Priest and a man from Nova-Sabirsk. Of course they are just our teachers but its all coming along. We're learning how to teach people and not lessons...which by the way is incredibly difficult!!! But so worth it. The Spirit continues to help us and grace us in every lesson. We were also able to get a new teacher this week because Brother Adams got moved to a new Russian district (because we got a batch of new Russian missionaries to help and mentor, wahoo!). Our new teacher's name is Brother Wilson and is potentially one of the most incredible men I have ever met. He carries this reverent dignity with him wherever he goes and is such a powerful, spiritual giant! In my interview with him I was able to learn to love and respect him even more, but also received this advice from him: look for reasons to love people. If you can transcend faults by finding what to love, it will make life so much more successful. Oh and I also was privileged to bless the sacrament in Russian this week...really crazy difficult, but so worth it! Oh and (sorry for the horrible flow in this letter ;) ) I am singing in our sacrament meeting this week with 7 other Elders singing an expanded arrangement of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" that I had sang. Now its in 4-6 part harmonies and all a Capella. Hopefully our audition will go well and we will also get to sing in a devotional!

Another really amazing experience that occurred last night was Elder Gary J Coleman came and spoke for the Devotional. He spoke on missionary work and the opportunities that it could bring...I guess its just never really hit home - the power of missionary work that is - until I heard the moving discourse from the man that if not for him, I likely wouldn't be listening to him speak or on a mission...I don't even know where I would be.

It's quite difficult to put yourself in the shoes of someone where the terms "plan of salvation," "Atonement," "Holy Ghost," "Modern Prophet," and even "Jesus Christ" are not even understood by them. How ungrateful I have been for what I have. We have the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today! His plan and prophets are fully revealed and our salvation is in sight! We have a Savior, and a correct idea of His perfections and character, and through His Atonement, which we know and can access through priesthood ordinances and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is available to all! We have the light when all others have darkness. Doesn't that make you want to share it? Sure we're imperfect and have fears, but that doesn't matter! No one ever said this life was anything about us,- like the Savior we are to hold our light up to the world to glorify our Father which is in Heaven. We need our family in on this, we need to inspire the members and all without the truth.

Sister Coleman talked about families and the Gospel, and how her family was a missionary family. I'm so grateful for the examples set by all in our family and how we too are like that, but remember that the Gospel blesses families in all circumstances. We want no empty chairs in the Celestial kingdom. I want ever member of our family including our cousins and such to partake of what I get to teach and represent every single day. I love you Kyleigh and family! Please know that this Gospel is the best way we can live our lives.

Its been another rough week in a sense, but only because of my own pride. The Lord's work moves onward and He invites all to come unto him. I echo the words of Moroni in Ether 12:40- "and now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost...may be and abide in you forever. Amen."

I love you all!!!!!!!!! Come unto Him every day step by step!!!

Love

Elder Claypool

The Elder Claypool Pride Cycle (July 18)

Well my family,

Here I am again on another P-day doing the most incredible work, and really only important work here in our portion of eternity. Can you believe I only have about a month left here in the MTC?That thought alone has left me to do some serious thinking about what I really am doing and if I am really prepared to do it.

Naturally this thought has made me reflect on my language abilities. For those of you who don't know, Russian isn't the easiest, but can be rather difficult.The progress we are all making every day is ginormous, but still when you look at the abilities in comparison to the end result, it can seem very overwhelming and daunting. During the week, there were many times when this overwhelming-ness hit me like a wall...every day multiple times too! One came as we were teaching the entire first lesson to another companionship...we had never taught the first lesson before and naturally, were a little rusty...but what made it harder was that our companionship that we were teaching were fantastic at not only teaching in the language but teaching in the doctrine. Now, I know it is not good to compare, but I still did in my selfish little natural-man ways. This caused me to get rather frustrated and not so happy about where I was at. I was greedy rather than grateful.

We ended up teaching another lesson to our investigator Vladimr (pronounced Vlad-ee-mer, like redeemer), and got him one step closer to baptism and taught a great lesson but still I had that dark corner of greed lurking in my mind. After the lesson I was still frustrated and so I started to point a finger in my head, not verbally thankfully, but in my head. I decided from an early stage in the MTC I was going to make sure that my companion and I were progressing together to ensure we were unified. So naturally I was seek to blame him in part because of my language abilities. See how all of this is so focused inward? Pretty nasty stuff isn't it? I was able to get a little of a hold of myself and bring things back into focus; not focus on my worries, but focus on my blessings, my investigator, and my companion. The Lord was helping to see things in a new light I guess.

However, the next day came and it was time to teach Vova. Now, Vova was a bit of a tough investigator at first seeing as he would read the Book of Mormon, pray, and all, but he just wouldn't go to church. Finally one day he was on a business trip in southern Ukraine and just decided to go to church. From there we were able to progress with Him a lot faster, teaching him lesson three, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and then actually committing him to baptism. This was our last meeting with him and I was focused on myself. I knew I could not focus on my lack of language, on my lack of ability, on me...so I said a quick prayer asking for forgiveness, tried to focus on the investigator, his needs ,and his faith, and then we went into the lesson.

Now, to take a step back , I feel its pretty appropriate to label this account and an Elder Claypool pride cycle that occurs at least once every day if not more, but I want you all to see the blessings that came from it. Recently, even though at the time I didn't feel like I really needed it, I wasn't praying for the gift of tongues. I had a strong testimony of the things the spirit had helped me with and that the spirit definitely spoke through the barrier of my poor Russian, but I didn't really feel the need to pray for the gift of tongues...I'm sure you can guess how intelligent that was ;) so, I decided to start praying for it because I was supposed to, not only because I needed it. During this lesson as I was able to focus on Vova, to teach him of his covenants and bear testimony, I felt the spirit so strongly and couldn't deny its power working through me. I spoke and word came out of my mouth that I knew, but wasn't consciously recalling them...I couldn't even remember half of the things that I said previously. We read with him Mosiah 18:30 and there was a very tender moment as we talk of the importance of this day to him, and then closed in the name of Him we represent. I have every confidence that our lesson was taught through the Spirit to Vova that day and that the gift of tongues is a literal gift that blesses me daily. But in order to receive it and in order to receive and spiritual gifts we are to ensure that we are worthy of such, we ask for such, and we seek to do everything we can to be as such. In a fireside given by Elder Featherstone (which is a whole other 30 minutes of typing a letter's worth), he quoted Elder Bruce R McConkie who said: "No other talent exceeds spirituality." I believe that to be firmly true.

Love you

Elder Claypool