Monday, September 3, 2012

Homecoming

Tanner gave his homecoming talk in church the week after he returned home.  Friends and family came to support him and I'm sure it was an amazing talk!  We are so happy to have Tanner home.






Mom and Dad invited friends and families over to celebrate Tanner returning home and also his birthday!  We love you Tanner!

Welcome Home Tanner

Elder Tanner Clark returned with honor on August 2, 2012.  All family was there to greet him when he arrived into Orlando (even Dan and Tiff on skype). What an awesome missionary! We are all so proud of his 2 year service to the Church and our Savior.  Welcome home!










Wednesday, August 8, 2012

LAST MISSION LETTER!!!!! Mission Week #95


Well,
 
The time has come. Not sure what we are doing today....Tomorrow I have my final interview at 2. Wednesday morning we meet up at the transfer chapel then we are going to a session at the Oquirrh mountain temple. Then we go to dinner at Tucanos, and then we have our final testimony meeting at 7. I am muy excited!
 
See you Thursday at 4:15
 
Love, Elder Clark 

Mission Week #94


July 23, 2012
Subject: One More Week 

Well, I am glad to hear everything is well with Dad. I had been praying lately in my nightly prayers that everyone will be fine and protected until I get home. That was a good prayed to have answered.
 
Last week went well. We had a leadership meeting Tuesday and it was cool to get to hear from President McCune. He had his own investment company and told us some cool stories of occasions when he was with some of the richest people in the world but they were still unhappy because they were very poor spiritually. One of the stories was him with the 4th richest person in the world.
 
It is very surreal every time I see the date....This is my last week!                                                    
 
Am I sad to leave? Yes. Am I excited to come home? Very much so.
 
For some reason people don't understand that MTC missionaries cant leave the MTC so we get asked daily where we are going on our missions.  We went into Ross before coming to do emails today and a lady asked where we were going so I just told her Florida.
 
The picture with the clown nose is from district meeting. Sister McCune talked to us about avoiding distractions and not being distractions in the leadership meeting so I had to pass on the message. Mom sent me the clown nose so I had to use it for something. It worked to exemplify the principle of not being a distraction.
 
The other pictures are from our day of incredible winnings at nickel city.
 
Have a good week,
 
Love, Elder Clark





Mission Week #93


July 17, 29012

Hello again!
 
Last week went by fast... For PDay we went to nickel city and played laser tag and all the games that aren't video games. We spent a lot of nickels on one particular machine and got like 3000 tickets. It was fun. I interviewed a 16 year old named Tristan for baptism and it was a cool experience. He has made some big changes in his life and he got baptized Saturday.
 
We had interviews with President McCune this week. I like him a lot. He has more of a normal person vibe and President Pitts had sort of a general authority vibe. He will be great for the mission. When we started our interview he asked me to remind him how long I had been out. When I told him he basically talked about finishing strong the entire time but it was good.
 
Wednesday we went to the Timpanogas temple as a district. The Cosgraves happened to be in the same session so it was fun to see them again. He is now a Branch President in the MTC.
 
Thursday I went on exchanges with the other Elders in the district. The dinner appointment we had was pretty funny. We were in the kitchen talking to the family as they were finishing preparing dinner and I saw that they had a chore chart and piano practicing was on there. I asked their 10 year old son if he had practiced the piano that day and he got mad. Then his mom started with the very familiar "I keep telling him that he is going to be happy that I made him learn one day..." speech. The son got more angry and left the room and his dad had to go talk to him. I felt like I was re-living the experience from my childhood. I think I probably reacted the same way at that age. Poor kid, he has years of battling ahead of him.
Is the battle worth it? Who knows...
 
It was fun to see mom.  The sheer look of surprise was priceless.
 
Have a good week!
 
Love, Elder Clark
 

Monday, July 16, 2012

Mission Week #92


July 10, 2012

Hi!
It was a good week here! I had been looking foward to the parade for awhile and it was fun. I was surprised how many people I saw that I knew.... Brad Stapley's sister...Jana Tucker....Tanner Pratt....Dr. Cosgrave....The Wilkins...and I am probably forgetting a couple other people. Also, I saw tons of members from wards I have been in and also people I had taught.  That night we had a district activity. We got to meet up with another district in Provo and a really cool family hosted us. We played some games and watched the Prince of Egypt.
Saturday night I went on exchanges with my ZL from Florida and we had a good time. We taught a 14 year old kid named Nathan from Cochabama Bolivia who is here with his member grandma and we had a sweet lesson with him and he accepted baptism.
It has been super dry for like the last month and there have been fires all over. We heard that the Prophet asked that everyone pray for rain and Friday it came. It was pretty cool because after the rain it went right back to being hot and dry.
Tuesday we went and did service at this Mexican party center like a block from Julie's house. They are still kind of in construction phase so we helped them with that. As we were leaving Elder Ramires asked one of the owners who he knows pretty well about an air hockey table that they werent using. One of the legs was broken so they were going to throw it away and they said if we wanted we could take it . We took it and we some duck tape and some love we have it working. It is a good way to relax at the end of the night,.
Have a great week!
Love, Elder Clark










Mission Week #91


July 3, 2012

Hi!
Another week gone. I am now on my 24th month.
EFY's are under way all over and a bunch of companionships were contacted and asked to speak. We got a call on Thursday and Friday we went to BYU and spoke. It was with an entire session and we mostly just answered questions and shared our testimonies on missionary work. It was cool to be with all the kids and pump them up about missionary work.
When I was here in my last area we were teaching a lady named Katy....not sure if you remember or not...but as we were coming back from the EFY she called the Elders that we were driving with and asked them to help translate because she and her husband were getting their marriage licences and there wasn't anyone who spoke Spanish. So, all 4 of us went and it was fun to see her again. She has been pretty sick due to her pregnancy and has been progressing slowly but she and her husband are hopefully getting baptized soon now that they will be married.
Saturday we had a zone meeting with President McCune. He has big shoes to fill but seems really sharp. One of the things he wants to focus on is working more with the members. He talked about priesthood keys and aligning the keys he has with the keys of the stake presidents and bishops. I asked Sister Pitts awhile ago how long it took for her to comfortable in her calling and she said it took like 6 months. It was funny to see Sister McCune because she seems so nice but looks very nervous. I guess it is just part of the process.
I had forgotten how many people honk at us when we are on bikes in Orem. It is hilarious. While waiting for a stop light to change we counted 14 different cars honk at us. Elder Ramires sometimes just leaves his arm in the raised waiving position because they are so many people that honk/wave.
I bore my testimony in the branch for my last fast Sunday. We ate with the branch relief society president for dinner yesterday and she has a son that his been out for 2 weeks. I told her it would go by fast.
Wednesday we will all be in the 4th of July parade then we have a district activity that night. President approved the Prince of Egypt as the movie. Not quite Thor but I have never seen it so its ok.
One of my zone leaders who is sitting next to me is from northern Florida and his family sent him some pictures and it looks like there was some serious flooding from the tropical storm. Its the opposite of here because there have been some bad fires and Saturday one sign said the temperature was 107.
Have a great week!
Love, Elder Clark