Converting Vegas One Casino at a Time: Was that the Grand Canyon?

8/24/15

Hello everyone!!

This has been a really awesome week! So much always happens in the week of a missionary; we couldn't be busier. I love it, and the time just flies by so fast when you work hard and have so much going on. It feels great having such a purpose everyday as we head out to serve the Lord.

This week I was really lucky to get my new comp, Elder Anderson! He is an awesome guy and is from Sacramento! So that is pretty crazy! I guess we are from the same place now. He was my second district leader on my mission and is a really awesome missionary. He was excited to be out of the Las Vegas valley!

The first day we took a back route to Kingman from where we picked up the missionaries being transferred out of valley. The sister training leaders were following us so that we could have a meeting before they headed to Lake Havasu (their assigned area). And, well, I completely missed the turn. I had never taken this route before but have only heard of how to take it and I was so engrossed in talking to my new comp that we just kept driving, and driving. I was waiting for this "T" intersection that never came, and then we hit a dirt road and that's when I started getting worried. So, we followed it for a bit and ended up being at the Grand Canyon, the back side, I think! We were sort of close to the sky walk, probably 30-60 minutes away. And all I could think was, well we missed the turn! Haha That added about an extra hour to our travels but we were able to make it home safely! So now that's the joke of the transfer!

We have had some pretty awesome miracles this week; the work continues to go forward. It can be frustrating at times and the Lord really tests my faith, but I really pray all these investigators that we are teaching can get baptized. I know they will. They need the gospel. One cool experience we had was contacting a referral, and we starting teach these two teenagers. The older one is 21 and he is a very spiritual guy. He loved church, but as we taught him about the Book of Mormon and read Moroni 10:4-5 with him, he was overwhelmed by the spirit and said he was so excited to read it. The next time we stopped by, he said that he had prayed and opened the Book of Mormon and it was to a chapter that he felt he really needed to read. And then he came to church on Sunday. I was praying the whole time that he and his sister would enjoy church, and as I was praying he leaned over to me and said, “I really enjoy this church”. It is so amazing to see how the Lord blesses us, and at times, answers our prayers immediately. He also used to play basketball with an RM who lives in Kingman.

This week we also had a chance to meet with the stake president and the bishops and have a good talk about missionary work in this stake. Later, we met with the high councilman over missionary work and it was awesome. He is a convert of only two and a half years and the testimony he shared with us was so powerful; it really impacted me!

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Clark