Edinburg, 7/6/19 (Last Update from the Field!)

Here's Rachelle's last update from the field. We will see her in person on Wednesday, July 10th at 4:43 PM!!!

Rachelle had a wonderful birthday and ate enough cake to last her the next year. President and Sister OCampo made her a birthday cake, the Edinburg ward made her a birthday cake and gave it to her after church -- along with her favorite Mexican dish: Mole! Her beloved Jessica threw her a surprise birthday with cake and balloons and a card signed by the entire family--even Jose. (As a birthday present, Jose came to church with Jessica!) The RS President and her good friend who always does splits with her made her a cake and took her to dinner. I think there were a few other cakes thrown in there, but she felt a LOT of love from everyone.

She spent the last week touring the mission with President and Sister OCampo in the transfer van. She said it felt like having a family vacation with the OCampos. She loved listening to and learning from them. She already loves the OCampos so much. She also loved getting to see all the missionaries in the mission one last time. She says that she knows pretty much everybody in the mission pretty well from either serving with them, serving as their STL or just doing exchanges as an STLT.

As part of the mission trip, the OCampos wanted to visit the outlets with their teenage kids, so Rachelle and the other missionaries got to go shopping with them. She bought a new pair of Nikes that she calls her Lebron James shoes. She is very excited about them. One of the Ocampo twin girls decided she wanted shoes just like Rachelle's and her mom caved and bought them for her. Now she and Rachelle have matching shoes.

She was able to work in her area every night during the week after the mission tour. She took a lot of pictures of her ward family, her converts, and her current investigators. This deluge of photos is included below.

She was able to give her final testimony to her zone via Skype--since she was touring the mission during the meeting.

On Sunday, the ward gave her a sweet farewell. As part of the ward business, they stopped to recognize Sister Clarke for her service in the ward and they all showed their appreciation by "uplifted hand." This is something that hasn't been done before, but since she has been in that area for 9 months, she has grown so close to all the members. After sacrament, all the members were coming up asking for photos with Rachelle. Many were crying. She realized that at that moment that each person who came for a photo she had developed a personal relationship with. Either she did exchanges with them, baptized them or a family member, baptized a friend or\f theirs, reactivated them, worked with them in ward council, etc. She said that it was the sweetest feeling in world to look around and see that she knew all the people--not just knew them but knew about them and their families and their stories and backgrounds. The Bishop came over personally afterward and said that the entire ward was going to remember Sister Clarke for their whole lives because she has been a part of so many people's stories. She said that this day was a sweet gift from God at the end of her mission, but that Sister Drury and Sister Anderson will be able to continue with the miraculous work in Edinburg. There are many preparing right now to be baptized in the coming weeks and months.

She says that last night (Sunday night) was the last night for her to work. She said it was a very busy night. At the end of the night, she said that she looked back with satisfaction because she worked just as hard on her last night of missionary work as she had during her entire mission. That was something she really wanted to have happen.

She says that she exhausted. It's a good kind of tired from having worked hard every day--the kind she wanted to feel at the end of her mission, but she is really looking forward to having a little time to rest and recover. When we asked her how she is feeling about coming home, she said that she is 100% confident that she worked as hard as she could and did all she knew how to do as a missionary. She will be leaving a huge part of her heart in south Texas, but she feels like it is time now to come home.

Rachelle will be speaking in Sacrament Meeting on July 14th at 10:30. The church is located at 900 Eaglepointe Drive in North Salt Lake. All are invited.