81 and Still Going

Well another week has come and gone!! This week went by super fast but it was really busy as well! I have my new comp and things are going well. I hope I am helping get used to being a missionary and that I’m not the worst trainer, but we are working hard! There has been lots of growth in this area and I just hope it keeps up long enough for us to get some real work done. All of our investigators may leave in the next few months. We also don’t know when our president will take us out of the area, so we will see.

We had a temple trip for new missionaries on Friday and we were lucky enough to get to leave at 3 in the morning to begin the four hour drive to Vegas. We arrived there a little early and we waited until we thought we were supposed to meet the other missionaries. No one ever showed up so we just went into a session. We started second guessing ourselves that maybe it wasn’t even the right day to be there. That was a scary moment, but then we found out that they were in the session right after us and it was all good. We had a great experience there and then a lovely four hour drive back but don’t worry, we had the yummy temple cinnamon rolls first!

And the biggest news of the week was our baptism! He has been investigating the church for years now and he finally decided to just do it. We were so happy for him. He is a great guy and a super funny old man! He is 81 years old - Just a youngin' by Quartzsite standards! I was actually so nervous for his interview because he forgets everything. And so the night before the interview, I just reminded him what the word of wisdom was a thousand times and it was funny when I would ask him what it was he would say, "not running off with other women, now that’s wisdom!" We were able to sort it all out and he did a great job and made it through. We had a great service on Saturday for him and a good crowd showed up to support him. Then we had the baptism and his brother in law was able to perform the ordinance. So his first go around he was scared to death-I am sure! As he went down, he screamed and hollered! And his head didn’t go underwater and his toes came up. After that, he was not able to stand up for a little while, but luckily the second time all was well! Truly, what helped him get baptized was one of our members. He was his constant fellow-shipper and always looked out for him even without us knowing. It is just a blessing to have members so involved in missionary work here!

It’s exciting because the church is changing. It is realizing that missionary work is not just the work of full time missionaries, but that it is the full time missionaries assisting the members in the Lord’s work and not the other way around. This area has been amazing at that. They have asked us to teach Family Home Evenings on Preach My Gospel and many other things, so it is going really well!

This week we were able to find a lot of new Spanish investigators which makes me super happy! Just the other day we went to a referral we received and she was just the nicest lady I have ever talked to. She had a cute little family and it was in the middle of Quartzsite! It was crazy. I really hope and pray we can teach them more! It would be the coolest thing to baptize a Spanish family in Quartzsite!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Clark