bret and debbie clark and family: May 2009

I've been transferred....

The assistants to the president told me a couple of things that I thought about for the whole flight. As I thought about those things it felt as though heaps of responsibility was coming upon my shoulders. When the plane landed and I walked off, I took a deep breath of the Alice Springs air. And right when I did that a wonderful spirit came over me comforting me and giving me confirmation that I am supposed to be here.

Hello my family!!!
When I landed in Alice Springs I was picked up by the Zone Leaders and they took me to the senior couple's for lunch. Then after that they put me in the car and sent me out bush. We drove many hours on un paved roads out to aboriginal communities. Then we sleep out there. These people are very peaceful and very shy. They have a very different culture then normal. There forms of communication are different as well. They use lots of hand signals. A whole fourth of my mission I was trained to look at people in the eye when I taught and also when I listened. But Its a sign of aggression in there culture so now I am being trained to not look into their eyes. The Aboriginals hunt animals mainly Kangaroos. Throw them on the fire for a little while then eat them. The Kangaroo Tail is the best part. There is a lot of meat on that part. The work is very very succesful up here with baptisms happening everywhere. We drove into a community and two people that I have never met came and asked us if they could be baptized!!! There are only six missionaries (not including the senior
couple); me; Elder Gould, who is from bountiful, Utah; Elder Talaki, who is from tonga; Elder King, who is from Samoa; Elder Saddler and Reiri, who are from New Zealand and are Maori!!! Since there are so few of us in this area we do trade
offs all the time and all of us need to be unified. The area looks like a desert with some trees. The sand is red. And I love it. The little Camry's wouldn't be able to handle it up here so we have trucks. I love it up here all is well... except that I got a little sick. But all is well. I love you's!!! Keep going strong!!!
-Elder Kyle Clark

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

They are moving to Vermont....

Bryan has been accepted into medical school at the University of Vermont! He's excited about the school, not so excited about the weather. But it is a great family oriented school and a family community, so Christy and Ethan will have lots of friends and support. We are both excited and sad. Excited because they can move on and start the next phase of their lives, sad because because they will be sooo far away. One good thing is that Jetblue flies there, so we can visit from time to time.