A Letter from President & Sister Clark

Dear Robert and Lori,

President Clark and I want to take this time to send a special message out to the families of all of our missionaries.  We want to let you know of our deepest love and appreciation to your son for his willingness and preparation to come and serve the Lord.  We express our most sincere gratitude to you for entrusting Elder Petersen into our care and also to the Lord’s service.  Heavenly Father is mindful of all those who answer the call to serve. 

It can be hard to be away from family and loved ones during special holidays and family events.  We left our children and grandchildren and loved ones all behind when we came to Singapore 2 ½ years ago.  But almost instantaneously upon our arrival here, our missionaries etched themselves into our hearts, as if they had been our own biological sons and daughters.  Please know that our love for Elder Petersen is an unconditional one.  We will be finishing our mission at the end of June 2012 and a wonderful, new mission president and wife will arrive.  But even after we leave to go home, we will still carry this love for our missionaries with us, for the rest of our lives. 

We were told during our training at the MTC, that we will not know whether or not we were successful as a mission president and wife until we see the lives of our missionaries many years from now.  If our missionaries have gained good educations or employment skills, married in the temple and are raising strong eternal families in the Gospel, then we know that our mission was a success.  This is what we hope and pray for Elder Petersen.

He is now in a position of “trust and confidence” within the mission, serving as a zone leader.  The church is only 15 years old in Kota Kinabalu, so he gets to experience the “pioneer era” of the church in Malaysia.  The Kota Kinabalu District, with only 4 branches scattered separated by hundreds of miles, has the most local young men and women out serving fulltime in the mission field of any one of our 8 districts in the entire mission.  That shows a dedication on the part of the local leaders.  He gets to work with these wonderful 1^st generation Latter day Saints to help the area to keep growing. 

There is no greater gift that can be given to the Savior, than to be a dedicated full time servant of the Lord in proclaiming the Gospel.  We hope that this New Year 2012 brings happiness for your family. 

Please feel free to email us if you ever have any questions or concerns. 

President Terrence A Clark         Sister Laraine M Clark        

clarkdmd@msn.com                    clarkRNC@gmail.com