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| Adam Clarke (left), recently returned from the Arizona Mesa Mission. Elder Steve Gwilliam enters the MTC on Wednesday, January 7, 2015. |
The 6'7" elder, whose father is a commercial airline pilot
who has seen just about every corner of the world, was not disappointed at
being called to serve a stateside mission to Kansas where there are nearly 200,000 Spanish speakers for him to find and teach!
"I took a semester or two of Spanish in high school - and learning a language was on my missionary wish list," states Elder Steve. As the official language of more than 400 million people in 21 countries, it is the third most widely-spoken language in the world, after English and Mandarin and is quickly becoming the language of business. Experts predict by the year 2050, there will be 530 million Spanish speakers in the world, of which 100 million will be living in the United States.
"I took a semester or two of Spanish in high school - and learning a language was on my missionary wish list," states Elder Steve. As the official language of more than 400 million people in 21 countries, it is the third most widely-spoken language in the world, after English and Mandarin and is quickly becoming the language of business. Experts predict by the year 2050, there will be 530 million Spanish speakers in the world, of which 100 million will be living in the United States.
Missionaries in
Kansas first taught Shawnee and Delaware Indians in 1831. In 1846, members in
the state joined the Mormon Battalion as volunteers in the United States' war
against Mexico and were trained and equipped in Fort Leavenworth. For those
Church members emigrating from Europe, the area around Atchison, Kansas became
a layover site on the journey up the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in 1855. A camp called Mormon Grove was established
where more than 100 acres were cultivated and crops planted for future
immigrants. The camp only lasted one summer, but fulfilled its purpose. In
1882, missionaries arrived in Kansas and organized a branch on the border
between Dickinson and Salina counties. Soon after, missionaries left Kansas
temporarily after mob threats but returned in 1887.
By 1930, Church
membership in Kansas had grown to 2,060 with congregations established in Blau,
Kansas City, Leavenworth, St. John, Topeka, and Wichita, but it would be more
than 30 years before the first stake was organized in June 1962. Today, there is a mission and nearly 36,000
members in 75 congregations in the Sunflower State.
Returning from 2-years of full-time service in the Arizona Mesa Mission, Adam Clarke, son of Lee and Denise Clarke, calls his mission "the best - and the hardest - two years of my life." His immediate future will involve work alongside his dad who owns and operates a local towing company. School is in this returned missionary's future, but he's "not sure which school or when I will enroll."
Some of the first members of the Church in Arizona marched with the Mormon Battalion preparing to fight in the Mexican-American War, in the winter of 1846-47. Other members, sent from Utah in 1873, came to colonize the area, build a fort, dig canals, build dams while struggling to adjust to the dry land. When members left Mexico in 1912, Arizona was a place of refuge for many Mexican Latter-day Saints.
Today, there are more than 410,000 members, 6 missions and 5 temples in Arizona.
Returning from 2-years of full-time service in the Arizona Mesa Mission, Adam Clarke, son of Lee and Denise Clarke, calls his mission "the best - and the hardest - two years of my life." His immediate future will involve work alongside his dad who owns and operates a local towing company. School is in this returned missionary's future, but he's "not sure which school or when I will enroll."
Some of the first members of the Church in Arizona marched with the Mormon Battalion preparing to fight in the Mexican-American War, in the winter of 1846-47. Other members, sent from Utah in 1873, came to colonize the area, build a fort, dig canals, build dams while struggling to adjust to the dry land. When members left Mexico in 1912, Arizona was a place of refuge for many Mexican Latter-day Saints.
Today, there are more than 410,000 members, 6 missions and 5 temples in Arizona.
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