Sister Sarah Clark

Hola Mi Familia! 

From the looks of the pictures you sent, It looks like you all had a wonderful week! It was fun to see the cute Wright Family, Rachel's cute Room-mates, and nice apartment- Looks like you're going to have such a fun year at Snow College! I'm so excited for you! Rachel, Thank you so much for the Package! You are so sweet! I got it this morning- I love the eye shadow and Mascara, I haven't bought nice make up like that for awhile, so that's sure a treat. :) I loved the cute pictures too! That was so thoughtful of you. :) I can't believe Brandon Winkelman is home! I remember going to his call opening like it was yesterday! You'll have to tell him hello for me. :) I can't believe Michael is off to Junior High, and Joshua is now a guitarist! I can't wait to hear him when I get back home. :) Josh, you'll have to teach me how to play. ;) I'm so glad you guys were able to see the pictures from the media blitz. It was such a fun day! Since the Book of Mormon Musical is going on in Spokane, it gives a really bad reputation for missionaries, and really mis-represents the church. So we did a Media Blitz Mission wide to show what missionaries really do. It was a lot of fun, we had members shadowing us throughout the day, taking pictures. There were two other photographers, so when they post the pictures I'll have them add you on face book too! 

I laughed as I read that you looked up Plummer, Idaho on Google maps. Yes, It's definitely in the Boons. That little cute place you saw is our apartment. :) Don't worry it's actually really nice inside. It's so fun, we get to serve with this darling senior couple, Elder and Sister Rockwood. Elder Rockwood is our Branch Mission leader. We love working with them! :) It's a dream come true! They have helped us so much this week. They are from Sacramento, California. I'll tell you more about them as the transfer rolls on. I love my companion Sister Katie Ridge. She is from Yucaipa, California. She was studying at BYU Provo before her mission, and wants to end up working in the medical field, or with Health Sciences. She is such a fun person, she was a class officer in high school. We've had a lot of fun together this week! :) Our area includes 3 different cities, Tekoa (Tea-Co) DeSmet, (Dee-Smet- as the natives say) and Plummer. We have a full time car, which is such an incredible blessing. Fun trivia about Plummer- the movie "Smoke Signals" was actually filmed here. I never thought I'd get such a foreign experience here in the states. I'm actually serving on a reservation, about 70 percent of the people here are native Americans. Our branch is pretty small, there are just a little over 65 people. Everyone has farms here, and there's lots of open land. I love it here, it's definitely going to be an adventure. 

This week we got to go to the temple to do baptisms with a recent convert named Joe who was just baptized 3 weeks ago. He's the man in the picture at the trailer park. He's one of the kindest people I've ever met. The Sister's taught him for about 7 months. He has made so much progress! He was able to take his Father's name to the temple on Thursday, and was able to be baptized and confirmed in his behalf. The spirit was there so strong- I really feel his Dad accepted the ordinances. You can tell Joe is truly converted, he wants to share the gospel with everyone- he brought his friend Mike to church this Sunday. We've been meeting with Mike and he really has desire to change. Joe has lived here for years and knows almost everyone in the town, He's like Amulek! I really think he's going to help so many people come to the gospel. :) 

This week I've started studying the lessons in Preach my Gospel from the beginning, and I really have been touched by Heavenly Father's love for his children. The fruit of the spirit comes as we access the atonement daily by living the gospel. As we live the commandments we are able to access the atonement. Every time we are obedient we access the atonement. As we have resistance, and overcome the natural man- we access the atonement. That is God's loving plan for us. Resistance equals growth. Just as we exercise and exert resistance- we gain muscle. As we exercise our faith- we are made spiritually strong. A story that particularly has touched me this week is the story of Abish in the Book of Mormon. Sister Ridge gave a talk about Abish at our Relief Society Activity this week and her story particularly touched my heart. 

Her story is found in Alma 19. 

(v19)  16 And it came to pass that they did call on the name of the Lord,in their might, even until they had all fallen to the earth, save it were one of the Lamanitish women, whose name was Abish, she having been converted unto the Lord for many years, on account of a remarkable vision of her father—

She was touched by her father's testimony, and knew the gospel was true- Abish was a servant of King Lamoni, if she spoke and shared her testimony with others she could be killed it was against the Lamanite tradition. 

After Ammon had taught the King, and was fallen to the Earth, she felt the spirit and knew that what was happening was inspired of God, and that it could be an incredible spiritual experience for those around her. In (v.20) we learn what she did next. 

(v 17) Thus, having been converted to the Lord, and never having made it known, therefore, when she saw that all the servants of Lamoni had fallen to the earth, and also her mistress, the queen,and the king, and Ammon lay prostrate upon the earth, she knew that it was the power of God; and supposing that this opportunity, by making known unto the people what had happened among them, that by beholding this scene it would cause them to believe in the power of God, therefore she ran forth from house to house, making it known unto the people.

She gathered everyone she could so that she could share this great spiritual experience with them. Abish is now one of my Hero's. Would we have this kind of courage? I know as we follow Abish's great example of gathering people and following promptings, even when they may be out of our comfort zone, will help us bring so many people to Christ. <3 

I hope you all have a wonderful week, I'm so grateful to have a family that's strong in the gospel, I couldn't ask for any greater blessing. I know this is God's church on the Earth. I know that he loves each one of you so much, and I love you too! 

Much Love, Sister Sarah Clark. :)