Feeding the 725!!!!!

Hey Everyone!

I hope this email catches you in the weather I am having -- 60-70s is not a bad winter for me. I am complaining at times though how it is just too hot. The summer is probably going to kill me.

Well I better explain the title before everyone thinks the missionaries are starting to feed people. That would be bad-especially with my budget and skills...I can cook a mean bowl of cereal though!

So the story goes…at 8 o’clock on Sunday morning the chapel was already filling up and by 9:05 a.m. when the meeting started we had the chapel, overflow, cultural hall, relief society room, the foyers, and part of the halls all filled with people for Sacrament Meeting!! The final count was...725!! That is the most I have ever had in my life and they were mostly all old people! But there was actually a few young people. We had 16 older men pass the sacrament, but the worst part was we only had one loaf of bread and so it was stretched pretty thin but it worked out just fine. The thought did cross my mind though of Christ feeding the five thousand and it is truly amazing that when we think about it, that through Christ we never have to hunger or thirst again. There will always been enough bread and water for our spirits. He will give us rest if we just follow Him and do what He asks. He doesn’t say it will be easy but that we will have rest. I like to think of it in a way of running sprints at football practice. We still have to run the sprints and if we run our hardest and give it all we got, we get a rest, but not just any rest, a rest that will completely and utterly fill us with strength enough to do it again and give it our best shot again and that’s how it goes. And even more amazing is that while we are "sprinting", Christ is giving us even more strength and one day when the "football practice" is all over we really truly will have eternal rest and progression.

This week, other than that, has been pretty dull. The big shows have come into town and that is why there are so many people here. But that only will last for a week or so more, I think. There is a huge tent with tons of vendors and vendors all over the place. It’s just a hectic mess over on that part of town. But it has been an adventure over here. There is work to be done and things are picking up. Slowly but surely we are making a small difference. The biggest news of the week is that this is the end of transfers and my companion is going back up to Las Vegas and I am training a new missionary. The poor guy has no idea what’s in store for him down here! He is in for a treat, that’s for sure.

On Monday we went out prospecting for gold and well, we found nothing. There were some guys from our RV Park that wanted to take us out. We may go out again sometime and maybe find some gold; that would be cool. It reminded me of the Mormon Battalion and those that left California during the gold rush to see their families on the plains and join back into the church they loved. They said they could have made a fortune out there, but they had a duty to do and that was more important. It reminds me of when Christ said where our treasure is, there will our hearts be also. And it just shows that gold and money and material things are nice, but they are not eternal and they don’t bring true happiness, but our families and our gospel do and that is what is most important. So I have definitely learned that as I have found looking for gold is a waste of time, although still fun!

I hope you all have a good week. I will be back up in Vegas for the next few days and that will be fun! It will be good to be in my old area for a little bit, but I am sure I will have lots to talk about with my new companion!

Elder Clark