Email received Jun 28, 2010

Couple of cool connections this week: The building our wards meet in is the Stake Center for another stake who was having it's Stake Conference on Sunday, so our wards were all switched around. Our first ward met in one of the buildings that was temporarily deserted for the conference, and as usual Sis Knuteson and I stood at the doors to the chapel passing out programs and greeting people. When I saw people I didn't recognize I naturally chalked it up to summer visitors or confused members, but there was one family that was different. As they walked in the father said "Sis. Cloward, where are you from?" Now this is not an unfrequent question for a missionary, but the quick succession perked my attention. I noticed the man had a polynesian look about him and guessed where it was going. Sure enough, his name is Darryn Wong and he knows the Clowards in Hawaii; Cary Cloward was his sunday school teacher when he was a boy and currently lives in their stake. (Editor's note: Dad's uncle raised his family in Hawaii.) It's so cool to meet people who actually know people I know rather than "the Clowards in Nebraska?" "Nope, but we're related!" or "so-and-so Cloward was my great-great-grandmother." That's great, I only know a few names from that far back...but we're related.

I've also had a vain hope of seeing a teaching record with the name Conrad or Knieser (Editor's note: Boys in our ward in Connecticut who served in Nevada.) or possibly even Cloward on it (Editor's note: David served in Nevada while waiting for his visa to come through for Hungary.), but since the whole program has changed since then, our records don't go back that far. Plus, only Mark (Knieser) was in this mission, and it's a big mission, so he could have been anywhere. But on Sat we had a lesson with a recent convert in the single's ward. He lives with his grandmother who joined the church several years ago, but it took him until just this January to come around for himself. I asked him how they first got introduced to the church and he said: "Oh, way back when I was about 14 or 15 we were just doing whatever when the missionaries came to our neighborhood and Elder Knieser knocked on our door - " at which point I said "Elder Knieser?!?!?! Was he from CT? Was this about 2002-2003??" They replied in the affirmative and I continued to gush that "I know him!!!" We chatted about him for a few minutes and I told them what I knew post-mission (which isn't much, I don't know how may kids they have now); apparently the grandmother didn't get baptized until 2004 or 2005 so I don't know if Mark even knows about that, let alone the grandson. I just think it's so awesome that not only do I get to see a bit of what he did a-way back when, I also get to help teach one of the same families. You have to admit that's pretty cool.

I don't think I mentioned last week, but Sis Knuteson and I got to go to Girls Camp for an afternoon. We counted it as service because the craft lady is in our ward and said she needed our help, how could we refuse? We helped the girls make bead rings for an hour or so (they're very pretty) and then had some free time to go exploring. Now I have more photo evidence of just what sister missionaries can do in skirts and illustrations for Jeremiah 16:16.

 

It was funny to see the girls (and leaders) all bundled up because "it's so cold on Mt. Charleston!" I will admit, if you sit still in the shade it's rather cool and after the sun goes down it started getting quite chilly (maybe even in the 50s) I would definitley want an extra blanket at night, but if you're sitting in the sun or running through the hills, it's actually quite pleasant to a little warm. People were so concerned that our legs were going to freeze because we had come up in skirts, but we were happy as clams. Much nicer than the 100+ in Vegas!

I believe I've mentioned the Lords family before, we were having lessons at their home every Mon night; they are awesome and we love them so much!!! Well, their oldest son just came home from his mission on the 18th and Sis Lords asked if I would sing this song (Homeward Bound, Track #3) the next Sunday as it had become one of his favorites on his mission. Somehow I got roped into singing it in the Singles Ward this past Sunday as well, I don't know if I did as well, but it's all in the Lord's hands anyhow. Enjoy, but don't get any ideas, I've still got another 7 months before I'm on my way.

-Sis Cloward

P.S. We finally put our spider in the freezer and he died. Now we have two dead spiders sitting in a tupperware container on our counter, I'm not really sure why.


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Jeremiah 16:16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

Email received Jun 21, 2010

To start with, imagine a father's day card. There were lots of Charlie Brown/Snoopy themed ones this year that made me think of you, Dad, but as I told my companion: Not spending $5 on a greeting card shows my love for my father. And for David, the father's day card of all father's day cards: you're walking through the store, you walk past the card aisle, all the father's day cards are displayed in front, your eye is drawn to one near the top, there on the cover is...Darth Vader. It doesn't even matter what the card says, that's just awesome. Some more thoughts for father's day, Sis Knuteson and I went to visit a referral a couple weeks ago who wasn't so much interested in learning about the church as he was in telling us we were wrong, but in a very pleasant and friendly manner. His son, who is a preacher, gave him a dog named Moses who says his prayers: he puts his front paws up on a chair and lays his head down on top of them; but the best story was when they showed this off to a random black lady they met on the street one day, "Praise JE-sus!! I've just seen a Dog that says his Prayers!" We chatted for a while and most of what he said was just his interpretation of all the religious studies he's done (he's chosen a mainstream Christian religion) but the phrase that pierced our hearts and won't leave our minds was "I am not a son of God, nor will I ever be a son of God." This has literally come up in conversation at least once a day since, with many references to scriptures and hymns and "See, right there, Child of God!" The thought hit me the other day that while chatting to him about other topics was very enjoyable, that was a fleeting sort of happiness, but knowing who I am, what I really mean to my Father in Heaven, and my true potential brings a lasting joy that nothing can take away. Nothing. I was grateful yesterday when many of the talks (we do go to three Sacrament Mtgs now, don't know if I mentioned that) focused on our Father in Heaven, and one even quoted from a story by Pres. Monson, "the worth of a human soul is its capacity to become like God." If anything, run-ins with people like this only cement our testimonies and drive them deeper into our minds and hearts.

Last night at dinner our host was telling us a story about a nephew, I believe; he was sitting by her and said "I can speak Spanish!" "Really?" "Yeah," as he picked up a fork, "Fark!" He's from Utah. We all laughed ourselves silly. Another home we were in recently has a full band player piano. She turned it on and I just sat in fascination while scents of specialty candies and fancy coffees danced through my head. Only this one didn't require a quarter and there was no plexiglass barrier, I actually sat down and played a little on it, it was awesome. (Editor's note: She's referencing an old-fashioned candy store we used to go to as kids which had a plexiglass encased player piano in the back.)

I don't mean to alarm you, but there's a black widow in our fridge, it's the one we caught last week. We actually caught it outside in the driveway, but we figured it was best to catch it outside before it had a chance to find it's way inside. The only problem is now we don't know what to do with it. It sat on our table for a while in one of those small Glad containers (perfect for spider catching) but we've since built a larger spider home...no, it's not a pet, it doesn't have a name...okay, it's Thad, and we may have put one of the other dead spiders in there to see what would happen. It was like watching the Discovery channel right there on our kitchen table, the horror on our faces obviously overcome by the fascination of watching it live. Now we've put the whole thing in the fridge because that apparently slows them down so they aren't quite as lively and eventually we need to put the real lid on so we can have our object lesson baptismal font back. The exciting life of a missionary in America, oh the drama. Really though, cockroaches are the drama bug; someone from our ward came and sprayed all around our apartment and the next morning we counted 15 ginormous, ucky bugs dead or dying on the sidewalk. Everything else is content to die in their little flowerbed homes, but the cockroaches have to come out so everyone can see. Get over yourselves.

Oh, I plum (plumb?) forgot, we're without a car until Wed. Someone had to borrow it to drive north to train a new car person up there, so we walked a lot on Sat, our feet hurt and we were very tired, but we really feel like missionaries. And today we had an excuse to hang out with Sis Johnson and Sis Mack so they could give us rides to the library and shopping and stuff. Okay, my comp is done so we should head out, now we have to find a ride home and figure out what to do with the rest of our day. Fun!!

-Sis. Cloward

Email received Jun 14, 2010 (a big one!)

Pics from Red Rock 5-24-10

Welcome to Red Rock

All the Southern Sisters

My Comps, Sis. McCracken and
Sis. Forred (medical missionary)

The View

All of us

Eating lunch (finally)

Terrific trio

What?! Sis. Johnson's getting transferred?!

Giant tortoise - note the sign, I was
glad to be wearing pants

The district I love

Elder Powell

Elders Petersen and Williams

Lovely sisters

Fun in the car

I swear we were parked

I don't even know what those are

Elder Powell

Elders Robison, Mabeza, and Powell

Our Zone

Elders Smith, Powell, Mabeza, Petersen, Sis Knuteson

Zone Conference training on unity (post Elders Petersen and Mabeza and Sister Johnson) - the Zone Leaders joined our district because it was too close for sisters to participate, Sis. Knuteson was bummed about that

Elder Powell

Mission Life
(Sorry, the first two got numbered wrong.)


Elders...what else can I say?



Sisters on bikes. As for the last few seconds...see comment above.



Again, no comment needed.



The other district - they had some difficulties.



Our district - we've already been together one transfer plus we had a few minutes to practice (roughly 2 min 5? sec, if I remember correctly) - my camera chip finally filled up right before the finish line - sad day!! But I believe it was approximately 58 sec. Booyah.

Final addition to the armor of God

I was gonna send a sweet video of the new spider we caught last night, but it's too big. Shapoopie. Life's going well, hope you enjoy all the evidence, there's always more, but some will be better shared in person. Thank you for all the updates and pictures. I love you bunches.

-Spider Catching Master Sis Cloward

Email received Jun 7, 2010

Another one of those crazy busy weeks where so much has happened I don't know how to write about it all. I'm working on some good illustrated stories for y'all, so if you're patient you'll get lots of pics and vids hopefully next week.

Some highlights: Churro's baptism (his real name is Diego, but no one calls him that) was AMAZING!!! He literally filled the chapel with all the friends he invited. It was really so amazing, that's about all I can say. We taught a lesson to a foreign exchange student from Thailand, she goes home in a couple weeks but we had fun watching the Restoration in Thai. Since transfers Sis Knuteson and I are covering the Singles Ward with the elders; yesterday was our first day - 8 hours of church! And on a fast Sunday! I love my life!! It's weird enough being in a single's ward again, but try doing it as a missionary - double weird. But there's a lot of return sister missionaries, so we hope to have plenty to keep us busy. Can't think of much else that won't be better with pictures, so hopefully next week there'll be lots of fun headed your way!

-Sis Cloward

P.S. I sang Mercy's Arms (Track #1) in one ward on the 16th & in the other ward on the 30th; I sang Baptism (Track #2) at Churro's baptism.


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Just some evidence of possibly the world's greatest district:
Sisters show their love
Elders show their love

 

Email received Jun 1, 2010

I hope I'll have time next week to send updated pics and songs, it's been a crazy few weeks. Transfers were this morning, three people left from our district including Sis Johnson, but she only just went to South Zone so she's not too far away; in fact, she's sitting only a few feet away from me (we both come out of zone to use this library). Even though it's only been three hours since we saw her, it feels like she's been gone for a week; we already started cleaning and rearranging the apartment. We're all pretty excited because our district this past transfer has been The Bomb!!! so we're sad to lose such awesomness, but nobody new came in (they combined two areas) so we're all going to be pretty tight still, yay!!! (D'ya like my lingo - I've been spending too much time with 19 year-old boys).

In other news, we have a baptism on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will be my first since Dec as I missed the one in March, plus this is a young boy who has been wanting to get baptized for a few years and his parents finally gave him permission. I'm so grateful I got to meet him and be a part of his journey; I'm glad it's finally working out for him, but I can definitely see the Lord's hand in the timing of everything. We've been having the lessons every Mon night at the home of the Lords family and that has been a blessing to every person involved in some form or another. I can't wait for y'all to meet them when we come visit my mission next year! That is already on the calendar, right?

-Sis. Cloward

P.S. We were talking to someone the other day about a charity they support which focuses on helping people regain well-being (something like Pransky maybe? I think the website was joyfulhope.org); they also mentioned a book by a guy whose research shows 7(?) different forms/causes of depression and how different treatments styles are required for each one (I think the book was Making a Good Brain Better). It all sounded very interesting, didn't know if you'd had heard of any of it.

Email received May 24, 2010

ohmyflipalipjuicymoma! That is only an approximation of what went through my head as I looked at the pictures you sent, Mother. Sikhs wearing tartans and playing bagpipes - Hallelujah! There's hope for my wedding yet! (Have fun explaining that Mr. Editor's Notes) (Editor's note: That's Miss Editor's Note to you, and, oy vey. The pictures sent were pictures from the Jakarta Highland Gathering that Mom, Amy, and Dad attended in Indonesia. I've inlcuded a picture just for ya'll. As far as Katie's dream wedding, the basic jist of it is that all the women will be wearing sari's and all the men will be wearing kilts. HA! That wasn't so hard.)

Well, we sisters all went to Red Rock this morning (a lovely desert area with colorful rocks.) We didn't go on all the hikes we had intended because we got lost on a one-way road, well the problem really came when the one-way road turned into a two-way road. And due to these circumstance there's not much time left in our p-day and we still haven't gone shopping, so I don't know how long or detailed I'll have time to get. We're also going to see if we can arrange to go back with our district of elders next Mon, so I don't know when I'll have time to write you all the fun details! Maybe if I quit wasting time just blabbing (and drooling over pics.) Okay, I'm running out of time, but truly, thank you for the pictures and updates with all you're doing. I love you!!!!!!!!!

-Sis Cloward

P.S. May I make a couple requests for that box if it hasn't been sent yet? Can you look in my closet for a black skirt (I don't remember how many I have) I believe the brand is Studio 41? I'm wanting some shorter skirts for summer and there's no reason to buy new ones if it's long enough (did you understand that oxymoron?) And maybe my capris, should be in one of the drawers on the left, I believe, unless of course Amy already stole all these clothes, then I'll survive.

Email received May 17, 2010

Not much of note this week, except it felt like an eternity from one Sunday to the next; Wed felt like it should be Fri and by the time Fri came it seemed like a whole new week, Sat alone was at least three separate days. On the mission front the elders invited us to help them with a family of nine that want to be baptized this Fri (Dad, Mom, girl 11, boy 10, girl 9, girl 8, girl 7, girl 6, boy 2) only problem is Mom and Dad aren't married and even bigger issue is after living so long without the gospel there are consequences and issues that would probably take several years of intensive counseling & gospel study or a couple mighty changes of heart to overcome. But what can you do in just a short few weeks time? Pray awfully hard and be glad it's up to the Lord, the bishop, and the elders. That's another annoying thing about sin, the only options it leaves you with are hard and just-as-hard, how do you choose?

On the more lighthearted side: On Fri someone told us they were taking their kids to Robin Hood; Sis J: "You mean Red Robins?" In my head: "Maybe it's some local activity place?" Bro Moffat: "No, Robin Hood, the new movie with Russell Crowe!" Oh, yeah, that one that none of us have ever heard of because it wasn't even a twinkle in the writer's eye when we came out on our missions, gotcha, thanks. So we went inside and got keifer buds from Sis Moffat, yes keifer buds. Now we can make our own yogurt, exciting, huh? I think so. Apparently there are multiple ways to make yogurt, but I'm wondering if these are any relation to delicious Kefir yogurt drinks. I'll let you know if I figure out the recipe. Seeing as how they're live cultures, we weren't sure if they should count as illegal pets and if we should name them (Sis K. used to have a crush on a boy named Keifer, and the name Keefe came to my mind), but since they seem to grow pretty fast it would be hard to keep track of them so we decided to just consider them interesting. We're still experimenting with how they work and how much yogurt we will actually use any given day, but it's pretty cool.

I sang in one ward yesterday, but my camera wouldn't record for some reason, good thing I'm singing the same song in the other ward on the 30th, hopefully I'll get you a good copy then. I guess there were some other great lessons and visits this week, but I haven't even recorded them in my journal, I can't seem to be able to think of too many topics per email for fear of my brain exploding. Oh well, hopefully my brain lasts long enough to be able to share everything when I get home and show my slides all night like missionaries do.

Thanks for the emails and updates, keep staying out of trouble and try to stay healthy! Love you for eternity!

-Sis Cloward

P.S. The sister hike has been rescheduled to next week, so it may be a short email. Sending plenty of love this week.

Elder Powell tries on the armor in it's preliminary stages

While my companions were talking to their families Sunday night, Andrew Moffat roped me into playing Pirates of the Caribbean Stratego (wasn't to hard to do.) He was pounding me the whole game until the end when I just barely managed to pull ahead and give him what-for

Abby Lords models the finished armor

during the lesson

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Elder Jones and I sing Because He Lives at Zone Conference

Email received May 10, 2010

So we didn't end up going on the outing with the other sisters today, but I forgot my magical bag of electronics so I can't even play with pictures or anything and now I have all this time to waste and nothing to do! Well, I guess I'll just write home.

Hmmm, what should I write about now? How about the fact that we're doing a lesson about the Armor of God tonight and we spent the last week making some pretty sweet armor, and ever since Sis Johnson tried it on this morning she's been acting a little crazy...or maybe that's normal.

Or...how about t-shirts? I want a new t-shirt, but I can't remember what I have at home so I guess I'll just buy a new one, maybe a Las Vegas one. What size t-shirt does dad wear? Just for future reference.

This one's for Tasha: I'm assuming her pillowcase got dirty, but last night I noticed my companion is using a t-shirt as a pillowcase and it made me think of you. (Editor's note: Tasha has made t-shirt pillows.)

What else to say...I'm singing a duet in Zone Conference tomorrow; it was a little touch and go for a bit as we only had two weeks to get the music, learn the song (he's sung it before, I'd never heard of it), find someone who could accompany in the ever shortening time frame and get together to practice. But miracles happen and that's why God allows some people to develop their talents so very well; we ended up with a sister from one of our wards who could play the song perfectly the second time through - well, she's says there are still mistakes, but I can't hear where - she also played the piano for the entire stake play I told you about, she's awesome. (I'm trying to set up David with her son who is leaving for a mission to Hungary in a month.) We got together to practice singing with each other and with the accompaniment for the first time this morning and everyone says it sounds pretty amazing; the song is beautiful, I hope I get a good recording for you tomorrow. Since you know everything that happened prior to Saturday evening most of this email is pretty up to the minute - this just in: Sis Johnson got hit on at the library for the third time in 2 months. It's kinda funny...poor girl.

Did you ever get emails with pictures from our last Zone Conference? I'm never sure if I write down the correct email addresses when I'm away from the computer. Can't think of much else to say. Any burning questions since Saturday night? Comments, questions, concerns...anything? I guess I'll go tinker around on lds.org for a while; I'd watch the videos there, but I don't have any headphones with me. Oh, well.

-Sis Cloward

Email received May 3, 2010

Okay, my brain's still a little fuzzy, I don't really know what I did last week, besides walk enough to still be sore - being a missionary's great!! Last night was a bit of an adventure: we practiced teaching a lesson to a member family and when they dropped us off Sis Johnson realized she had forgotten the key again (she tries to say this has never happened before, but it has). We usually just knock on the Andrews' door and ask them if we can go through their house (it connects through the laundry room) but last night they weren't home. We tried calling but Bro Andrews was out of town and the oldest daughter was at a fireside so we had to go around the back and get the secret key. Luckily the people who dropped us off hadn't left yet and had a big flashlight we could use. Sis Johnson sent Sis Knuteson and I because she doesn't do dogs, so we had to climb fences and dig tunnels...just kidding, we just had to get through two fences and quiet two little dogs who could bark the head off a dead man while we found the key.

After much door jiggling and the retrieval of a second key, we finally got inside where the adventure continues. During this process the wife of one of our ward mission leaders came to bring bed #3 for Sis. Knuteson to try which involved rearranging half of the apartment and disturbing a rather large spider (did I tell you about the last one we found during our first week? Rather large, possibly a wolf spider) I fully intended to quietly carry it outside, but when one asks for a cup in a room full of 4 women at least one of them will start screaming and throwing shoes. Hail the conquering hero, we ended up with a rather large squished spider on the rug by my bed (to which I responded "I'm not cleaning that up!") Well, all said and done, Sis Knuteson now carries a door key, the bed is a hit, and our lovely WML's wife came and bug sprayed our apartment this morning.

In other news we are well on our way to becoming smoothie queens; we went to lunch with one of our members because her family is considering a move to Houston and she wanted to pick my brain (not much was found, but I told her I would ask if Mom and Dad still had any of their research, she does have one son left in high school, but is probably looking for a private school for him). We spent longer picking her brain about healthy eating (stevia vs. sucanut - have you ever heard of it Mom? It's pretty good) and the miracle of the magic bullet - it doesn't get much easier than that! She also treated us to grocery shopping this morning and bought us enough frozen fruit to last a while (have I mentioned how much I love our members?) So you don't need to worry about us eating healthy or dying of giant spider bites, the only question left is who should I call on Sunday? I didn't get Dad's cell # so I guess I'll call the house and leave the rest up to you. (Editor's note: This is in regards to the Mother's Day phone call.) Hope all is going at least okay, remember to suffer all afflictions cheerfully and with patience, if we endure it well, we shall be crowned with sheaves on our backs!!!

Poodles and poodles of love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Sis Cloward

Yet another email received Apr 28, 2010

(written 4/19/10)(Yeah I know, confusing.)

We got to go to part of Youth Conference last last week, it took place over several days. On Fri (the 9th?) they had a musical/spiritual speaker thing (a capella group - check out the final song AWESOME!!!!!) (Editor's note: It's at the bottom of this post.) then a carnival in the church parking lot; Sat morning was the service project; Sat night was an awesome multi-stake formal for Priests and Laurels; Sun morning was a sepcial testimony meeting.

Carnival pics

This last Fri/Sat (16/17) was the stake play; in previous years they've done Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and The Ark, this year they did kind of a Broadway review loosely tied together with a spiritual message...loosely. But it was Amazing!!! We were so glad we had several people to invite so we just had to go both nights, oh the sacrifice - really it was, I've been humming the tunes all weekend...some of them have spiritual messages.

1. Hairspray

2. Annie

3. Just one song from Footloose, but it was so high energy and fun, it just stole the show the first night (the main singer is in one of our wards)

4. Wicked (the two girls are sisters, how cool would that be!)

5. Les Miserables (                 no words, absolutely no words)

6. Mary Poppins (they had so much fun with the last song I just had to capture a little bit of the coreography) (Editor's note: The embedded video has the sides cut off, to see the whole image, including what the guy on the right is doing, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg_1D9GFooc. Also, they're spelling supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. It took me a while to figure that out.)

7. Almost Dr. Dexter - the vehicle (or excuse) for presenting such a variety of musicals.

This has been such a weird two weeks with transfers and the temple so I've been bad at writing everything down that I want to remember to tell you, I can either go in depth on a few things or just briefy mention a dozen. And now I'm running out of time. To continue our Broadway theme a young girl we're teaching in one ward was in Guys and Dolls at her Catholic Junior High and we got to go to support her (we stood in line behind probably the only other LDS people here, it was great). It was very well done, and again we still find ourselves humming the tunes (she's the one in the blue dress on the right end of the middle row.)

We are without a car for an unknown amount of time due to very good reasons on our part - one of the new elders in our district had his appendix out his first day in the MTC and his second day in the mission field he passed out, fell off his bike, and landed in the hospital for two days; needless to say, his mother wasn't very happy so we gave up our car to him and his companion until further notice; better to do it now when we can still walk around outside than in July when we're all puddles. Did a Sis Powell ever call to get Aunt Kathy's info? I just happened to sit next to her the first night of the stake play and she recognized my name - only the second person I've met who actually knows someone I know (and it's always Uncle Bob's family.)

Hmmm, what else, oh at Zone Meeting yesterday Sis Johnson and I got asked to volunteer for an object lesson: she was the missionary who had to teach and guide me (the investigator) to make a pancake that looked like the example pancake. I was blindfolded the entire time (mixing, baking, and decorating). The topic was that our investigators can't see the end result and we have to be able to guide them through the whole process. I think our pancake looked pretty good, and I didn't even get my jacket dirty (mine's on the left, the original is on the right).

I'm enjoying being in a trio again, though it's a bit of a squish in the apartment - it was just perfect for two, now Sis Knuteson has a fold-out bed that only fits in front of the door. But it'll be great for stories when we get home!! Gotta go - Don't forget to read your scriptures every day and try to spend at least 15 minutes outside, it really will make a difference!!

-Sis Cloward


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"A cappella song"