Thankful for Life

Happy Thanksgiving!

This past week was really great! My new companion and I found a lot of success. We had to kind of start over because of the companionship switch and most of the people we were working with have come back and are pretty solid, or have no interest anymore. That led us to do a lot of finding this week. We actually tracked a TON, and it actually pretty successful. We got in a couple houses and shared some messages. It is amazing how much influence this church had on the community years ago. People constantly tell us all the things they did with the church, and half of them were not even members. It’s so sad to think that this branch has been struggling but it is amazing to see how fast it is growing! Especially with the youth. They are such solid, good kids. They inspire me to be better every day. 3 sisters go to church and seminary all by themselves because they know and have a testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel, even if their parents don’t. One of my favorites is a 17 year old, who was the only active young man before the missionaries showed up. We are helping him prepare for a mission! He plans on going this time next year! The miracles we see every day just solidify my testimony that God is real and truly mindful of every single person!

So Saturday morning was a struggle. All of us (except my companion) got really sick, starting at like 2 in the morning, 5 of us guys had to fight for our one bathroom. It got to the point where another Elder and I had to run to the church to use their facilities. It was quite the night and morning. We all got over it towards the end of the day but man, you've never seen 5 grown men turn into little cry babies.  If you had been here on Saturday morning you would have witnessed just that!  I am glad that is over with.

Elder Clark at Church

 Life on the reservation is always an adventure. We were able to go to the high school basketball game for a little bit too! The natives are the biggest fans of basketball I have ever seen. It was CRAZY how many people were there. I wish I had my camera with me at the time! They have a dome across from the high school and I think everyone in Whiteriver was there. The entire place was full of people, they ran out of seats. I think there were more than 2500 people sitting watching that game and more outside and in the parking lot. It was so much fun to see and talk with so many people! 

I love this gospel and the blessing that it is in my life! For the knowledge that I know and this amazing opportunity to share it with everyone I meet! I love you all!

Elder Clark

Bribe em with food!

November 27, 2013

New Ft. Apache Crew

This past week was really great and super eventful! Mostly because it was transfer week and we got 3 new elders! After driving four hours down and four hours back we are settled and ready to work again! There are still six of us, but I am training now... yeah... I wasn’t ever really trained! I got a crash course of it.  I am super excited for the opportunity though and SO glad I am staying on the reservation!  My companion is Elder Russell, he is about 6'5”. I am pretty sure I am the shortest one in our house now. The new elders are: Elder Blankenship (who is a monster at 6'8”), Elder States (who is about 6'6”) and then Elder Russell. Elder Vete and Lakatani are just taller than me. You gotta be large in stature to work on the res!

This past Sunday was the BEST! We had 165 members in sacrament meeting! We did have a thanksgiving meal after the 3 hour block which MIGHT have influenced a couple people to come but still! 165!!!! One member told us that she has been attending this branch for 25 years and it was the most full she has EVER seen it. The work is booming here! It is so great to see all these people coming back after years of being away. I also spoke in sacrament meeting that day, taught the youth class, and then taught my young men class. It was so much fun! The more I teach, the more I love it. I especially love teaching the youth. I am so grateful to be able to be part of this amazing time in the White Mountain Apache Tribe!

165 in Church!

  LOOK HOW MANY PEOPLE! pretty much all the empty seats are the children doing the primary program! Throughout the whole meeting we had to just keep setting up chairs! When missionaries first got here, they didn't even need to open the overflow doors!

Snowflake Arizona Temple

We got to go to the Snowflake temple with the branch to do baptisms cause they don’t have enough priesthood! It was such a great experience to actually do the baptisms! I loved it! And check out the sweet rainbow on the way there!!

Rainbow on the way to Snowflake

Life on the reservation is great and it is so cool to hear that I am following the footsteps of the Great Elder William Dew here. (William Dew is Sam’s uncle who served a mission about 40 years ago.  He was in Cibecue. They would hitch hike to Whiteriver to the District meetings.) Cibecue is in our zone, but not part of our area.

God is great! He truly blesses us so much and all he asks in return is for us to follow his teachings. I love and miss you all lots!

Elder Clark

2 Months, 4 Transfers

Just a reminder: All mail goes to the Scottsdale Mission Home and the mission will forward it from there.

October 28, 2013

I am emailing from Whiteriver, AZ. It is a little reservation town about 4 hours away from Phoenix, in the mountains. Once again I have been sent up as an emergency transfer because an elder got hurt up here. I am even deeper into the reservation now, living in a one bedroom trailer, with 6 other Elders.... 3 of them are Tongan. Yes.... massive Tongans. What an adventure this will be.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=whiteriver+az&safe=active&ie=UTF-8&hl=en

I arrived yesterday and attended their Branch meeting. They opened this area 8 weeks ago, with 4 Elders. The Branch had about 25 members attending and 1200 on their role. Now, 8 weeks later, there are a little over 100 attending and it keeps growing! There is a lot of work to do up here, but once again it is totally different than in the valley. Of course I miss the valley, but I will serve wherever I am asked.

Elder Teh of the Seventy visits the mission.
Elder Clark is in the center of the back row.

Last Wednesday, we had a big meeting with Elder Teh, of the Seventy. He is from the Philippines and very excited to hear about my cousins serving their missions there! He is also going to be in the DC South mission in November, so look out for him! His meeting was so great! He is such a good teacher and really helped me know what I need to do to be a better missionary!

Here are some of the people that I have been working with.

This is one of my favorite investigators, He was watching BYU soccer on BYU TV, and then saw a Mormon movie, felt good(the spirit), wanted to know more so he showed up at church one week. He has dove into all the activities in both our ward and the singles ward! He is set for being baptized!

This is one of my favorite families! Next to me are members trying to reach the temple and the two farther away from me are their parents and they are set for being baptized in one month! They are Navajo and the kindest, most soft spoken people! Love them!

He is a less active member dating a non-member. She really wanted to go to church, so they called us up! She is the sweetest thing and we all really became close, she is set for being baptized too! She was moving though, so we had to hand them off to the sister missionaries!

He is my first investigator who we have been working with since I got here. She is a member and he is not, and they want to be married in the temple! So we have a marriage/baptism date for them so that for their year anniversary, they can be sealed!!

Love you all!

Elder Clark