I'm my cousin's dad. Its like being a monkey's uncle.

For those of you who have not yet heard the wonderful exciting news, me and my cousin Elder Vance are companions. (comprimos if you want to call us that.) Thats right, we have Vance/Clark family taking over the Cherokee branch! I was excited when I found out for sure Wednesday just a few minutes before we all met our new trainees. President Wolfert told me, "Elder Clark, you new companion will be some guy called Brandon Vance." Elder Vance came to the mission with his hair parted and everything. :) We're are going have a blast together. He also speaks really good Spanish for only 6 weeks, even if he says other wise.

 

In the trainer, trainee, President Wolfert kept making jokes about how I was the oldest missionary in the room. Its weird to be considered old now. We get a pretty good reaction from people when we tell them that I've been out for 21 months, that Elder Vance has been in Georgia for 6 days, and then throw in that we're cousins. Everybody's like "no way!" and we're like "si." Elder Vance got to bear his testimony in Sacrament meeting when the second counselor conducting found out it was his first Sunday in Georgia.

 

So, about area. As I mentioned above, its the Cherokee Spanish branch, in the Marrietta stake. Its basically north east of Atlanta. Our branch covers the entire stake, which actually stretches all the way to the North border of the state. There is a Spanish member that lives way up there that goes to the English ward up there, but we're going to do the hour and a half drive to visit him this Wednesday. Talk about a miles killer. From the few days I've been in the branch, I love it. Its definitely the biggest, or maybe second biggest. I've been in, with about 100-110 active members. Keep in mind that my last branch had about 40. Our first night here Wednesday, we met with the branch President and ward mission leader since we didn't know anything about the area or the branch. We learned that this branch has a big focus on missionary work, and that they're expecting a lot from us, which is amazing. I'm excited to be here for my last few months. We spent most of last week figuring out what was going on and who was who and where to go, but this coming weeks are going to be filled with good stuff.

 

Thanks everybody!

 

Elder Clark