VISA!

On Wednesday, March 26, 2014 Elder Samuel Clark received notice that his Visa for Brazil finally came through!

He has been transferred from his beloved Ft. Apache to the valley.  He will train and work as a Zone Leader for about a week. Then, he will leave Arizona on April 1, 2014.  He will spend 2 weeks in the Brazil Missionary Training Center for a brush up on his language skills.  Then about mid- April he will go to the Brasilia Mission. Hurrah!

Unexpected Changes

March 24, 2014

The biggest news of this week is that I am leaving my beautiful home of Ft. Apache. I will be a zone leader in the valley next week. I am heartbroken that I have to leave the people of Whiteriver, but I know the Lord has a plan. I have really grown to love and adore the people here. So many of them make so much with what little they have. I have learned so much from everyone that I have worked with and I am SO incredibly thankful for the opportunity to work here. If it was my choice, I would stay here, and stay, and stay. I love this work though, and it will be the same business in the valley as here.

Elder Clark holding a Glovers Silk Moth

 We had a lot of success this week and so great things are going to happen here. I know it. More and more missionaries are being prepared to come here and the work will continue. A highlight of the week was definitely Sunday. President and Sister Sweeney visited so that made it great, but also an investigator of ours, who is a great man, finally made it to church after months of working! He has finally cut back his schedule and is able to attend on Sundays! He will be baptized in April. I was pretty discouraged because most of the people we had planned for the Sunday, texted or called us with one kind of excuse or another. But then, about 10 minutes late, Andrew, our main man Andrew comes in! It was great to have him! He already has sights on the temple and will be a fantastic Priesthood holder because he just gets it, he really does.

This week was just full of work and visits with people. I am so happy to be on a mission for my Savior and grateful for the time I had to be here. Next time you hear from me, I will be in the HOT valley.

Love you all,

Until next week!

Elder Clark

Just Keep Working!

March 17, 2014

New Crew
Ft. Apache Missionaries

Man, this week was a lot of work but SO much fun!! Many wonderful things happened! We had a priesthood campout, a member get her endowments and branch conference!

Priesthood Campout

The campout was so much fun; we camped with the boys and men of the branch from Friday to Saturday on some beautiful property that Brother Cheney owns just out of town. I was able to plan it and get everything going for it which was stressful but well worth it. We all arrived there, set up camp and ate a wonderful dutch oven dinner a high councilman and his brother made for all of us. After that we had a short fireside devotional about the priesthood. Then just partied! ahah well until 1030... Missionaries still have their curfew, even camping! The next morning we cooked breakfast, lots of people went fishing and one boy caught a pretty decent size fish! When breakfast was over we had a survivalist and a reservation ranger come and teach us some wildlife survival things. It was kinda wet, sorta cold, but VERY fun. I feel like it was a success because this Sunday we saw that that the men became closer and some of them became a lot more excited about the Priesthood!

Elder Clark at the Snowflake Arizona Temple

That Saturday afternoon, a couple of the other missionaries and I had the privilege to accompany one of the members of our branch to go through the temple for the first time! She is the first one to do so since we have been here. It was so exciting! She is the first of many! One soul at a time.

Branch conference was great too, every leader came down to our building and they are working very well with us to integrate the branch into really what an LDS Church should be like. A leader of each auxiliary will be here at least twice a month for the next year to help this branch! They will help with temple trips, youth activities and anything else! That makes us missionaries very excited! That even if we all left, the branch will still be taken care of!

We are working with a very sweet woman right now, she has been less active for a while and just wants to change her life around and get right with God again. She is doing very well. I love helping lost souls!

God is great!

Elder Clark

Hiking with the Zone
(A Zone is a group of Missionaries)

Whatta Week!

March 10, 2014

Basketball!

 Wow! Lots has happened this week! And there is still so much more to come!! This week started with a basketball game. A less active member challenged us missionaries to a basketball game vs his rec team. We of course accepted on the condition that he will attend church with his family (His family has just been recently reactivated and his wife was just called as the new young women's president!) so Tuesday night we met him and his team at the boarding schools gym... man... his team was good! We had four high school basketball players on our team and they beat us 102 to 96... with 2 20 minute quarters. It was such a fun game even though we lost! We set up another challenge for next Tuesday with the same condition! We just need to play better defense. We are all so lazy and outta shape though. They ran the floor on us cause we are all just fat missionaries!

Ft Apache Elders at the Snowflake Arizona Temple

Thursday we had the always awesome opportunity to go to the temple as a zone. It was a beautiful day and as always a wonderful experience!

Elder B and Elder Clark at the Snowflake Arizona Temple

The work is really doing well here. Elder Blankenship and I get along really well and are able to just work. We found a lot of people this week and have a huge teaching pool now! With ten missionaries we can get A LOT done! We all are starting to get specific assignments of what to help with the branch and mine is the young men. I love being able to work with them! We consistently have almost all young men pass the Sacrament each Sunday which is a miracle! They are great!

Saturday we had a wonderful baptism for 3 little sisters. They are 12, 10 and 8, and all so bright and just so much fun. We started teaching them when I was with Elder Vete but strange things happened and they left for a little bit but we finally were able to get them in the water. I had the opportunity to baptize the 12 year old, Tiana. I am so grateful to have been able to do so. I think my favorite part of teaching those girls was seeing their mom become happier and happier as she embraced the gospel! They have VERY little, but those three girls and their mom are such happy, shining people now.

Sunday was really good, we were missing some of our regulars and others due to a professional bull riding event, but we still had 212 people. It was fast and testimony meeting and although the kids got antsy because it was about an hour and a half long. It was great because there was a constant stream of people bearing there testimonies.

Beautiful Ft. Apache

We were also able to go off-roading with some member yesterday in search for a trail that we could hike because the zone is coming down today to hike.. haha that was a lot of fun, and muddy!

I love seeing the gospel work in people’s lives. I love my Savior and I love my mission!

Elder Clark

Life is Good!

March 3, 2013

Howdy
(Elder Clark is in the back on the right)

Life is good here among The White Mountain Apache Tribe. The work is moving and the people are amazing! The attitude is changing dramatically here. The members are realizing that it can’t continue to be just the missionaries bringing people back but they have to do it too! We have had members take the initiative and just go visit people and bring them to church as well! It is amazing to see the change right before our eyes!

We had the great opportunity yesterday to watch the Gilbert Temple Dedication. It was great, and a really good experience. I am so grateful for temples!

(For more information on the Gilbert Arizona Temple click on the following link) http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-dedicates-142nd-temple?cid=HPTU030414536&im=true

This branch is growing so fast. Members are just starting to get it and the Stake has realized what a gem this place is and is helping out in every way possible. I love this gospel and all that it can do!

Dust Storm

Love you all so much!

Elder Clark

Changes

February 24, 2014

Elder Russell and Elder Clark on the last day together

A lot has changed here in Ft. Apache this week, but all good changes! Since we now have 10 missionaries here, we had to get more organized. We have now split up the reservation into areas. So, that each companionship will have the ability to visit more often and not have to drive from one end of the town to the other for visits. We also have one set of Elders who focus almost completely on finding, activating and helping the priesthood holders. We are so excited to see how this will all work out, it was sad to hand off some of the people I had been working with that are now out of "my" area, but new organization will really help! I know it! 

Elder Blankenship and I have had a lot of success already! Our first week together and we taught 34 Less Active lessons alone! We had a lot of our people come to church too which was great! I really enjoy working with him! 

Exciting things are stirring here and I am pumped for many things that are soon to come! One of which is the young men, they just got a new young men president and the few boys that show up are so excited to help make the branch bigger as well! This Sunday they came up with over 10 names of boys they want to go visit and get them to come back to church... all on their own! They are complete studs. 

What a blessing it is to work here and watch the Lord work in all these peoples lives!

God Bless you all and I love ya!

Elder Clark