As I enter into my last week as a full time
representative of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I am touched as I remember
his last week in mortality. One, he did not get trunky. The very opposite actually
occurred. It was in his final week of mortality that he finished what his
father had sent him to do. It was in that week, his final days, that he changed
the world for forever more. Where he did his most important work. In my final
week is where I will do my most important work. As I share my story of the
weekend I just had and the things that we went through, I wish to apply that to
my last week and the last week of my Savior. I have unmistakably seen his hand
in my life.
He started his week off by going to the temple,
which he cleansed and chastised those desecrating his holy house. Then the next
day on Tuesday he taught and they tried to reject him, but he was able answer and
teach in such a way to discredit them. The follow day we don't have any information
on him. But then Thursday was a big day. He has the last super and institutes
sacrament. And then he suffers in the Garden of Gethsemane for each and every one
of us. And then Friday he is crucified and Saturday he is in the tomb where he
had been placed the night before and he is teaching the spirits in prison. And
then Sunday he is resurrected.
So this last week we had some really neat
experiences and I have some goals for my last week, so starting with Friday! Our
departing missionary temple trip got moved up because it was closed our last
Tuesday. And so I went to the temple asking God if I had done his will on my
mission. Basically, if I had made him proud with my service. I was not a perfect
missionary and I am still not, and at times I was hard on myself for that but I
always tried and I always gave it my best. And so in the temple I once again was
reassured that I was doing my fathers will.
I think at times I focus too much on justice, and not enough on mercy. I made a covenant never to not have my temple
recommend and I wish to go at least twice a month, if not weekly to the temple!
And so that's how I started in the temple just like my Savior did. Then on
Sunday we were fasting as a zone to have our investigators come to church, especially those with baptismal dates. We were anticipating a lot of people at
church. Around 10 with a date. But Sunday morning came, and I kid you not, almost
every single one of them told us they couldn't come...now I know so many
missionaries, people that would have just given up and been discouraged. But we
had fasted for this and so I knew it was going to happen.
And so just like we tell our investigators, we
exercised our faith by our actions.
The first one who said no was our
really solid investigator, Irene, who I will talk a lot about. She texted us at 8
am, three hours before church, saying she wasn't going to be able to make it. Her
parents are part of another church and Irene is a youth minister
of that church as well, or more like was because of what happened Sunday. But
the reason for her not coming to church was because she told her mom that
morning she was going to a Mormon Church and her mom flipped. Even though she
has already shared a little with her mom, she still got mad.
We talked to her and uplifted her and
she made the decision to come to church against her parents’ wishes and when
she returned home that night her mom told her that she wasn't allowed to live
with them anymore if she was going to make this decision. And then later that night, Irene came with us and a bunch of people to a fireside where two of my recent
converts from the Robindale Ward were speaking. And she told us that after the
fireside she was going to talk to her pastors and this morning before our hike
she told us that she was no longer a youth minister! She is so ready to
be baptized. It's so awesome. And so that was the first answer to our prayers
and fast.
The second lady was another crazy miracle. She
has never come to our church before because she always had work on Sundays, but
we went by on Saturday and she had just got out of the hospital since she had just had emergency surgery. The doctor had given her the next few days off from work,
which meant she could come to church. But the craziest part of that was before
we had walked into her house we had prayed that she would have a way to come to
church if it was Gods will. And it was.
She
committed to come to church the next day and we had a very spiritual lesson.
And then that morning she started telling me all these excuses why she
couldn't go. Her family had just go into town and she wasn't feeling good even
though when I called the first thing she said was she was feeling better. So
I told her that yesterday she had made a promise to God to come to church and that
it was a commandment from him to come and that she could say she had faith but he
had prepared the way for her and she wouldn't have faith and unless she took
the steps necessary. She came to church.
The next one was a girl named Carmen, she is 17
and kind of a wild child, so we went back at 10 and woke her up. And she came
to church. The next one was a guy named Edgar, he is a great guy but very interesting.
He said he has done all these things to find an answer and hasn't found one
yet. And so when we went by Sunday morning to see if he was coming to church he
said he wasn't. And so we told him that God wasn't going to answer his prayers
unless he came to church and did what God required of him. And we were
extremely bold with him. He came to church.
We had a few other people there as well and it
is just so amazing to me how the Lord works!
Going into my last week of my
mission I wish to be as my Savior and make this the greatest week of my mission
yet. When he died and rose again he was perfected and resurrected. When I return
home from my mission I will be a different man that set out on his mission two
years ago and I know I will just continue to grow. I have a strong testimony of
my Savior Jesus Christ. I love the example that he gave me and I know that he
suffered and died for me and for all of us and he knows us personally.
Hope you
all have a great week.
Elder Clark
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