Life is a gift. Be grateful for each day. Don’t think the future will be better.
– Lois C. Clark
I was born in Salt Lake City, UT to Norman W. Clark and Lois Amanda Colt Clark. Family of five children. I am the middle child and the oldest son. That explains a few things about me. 😇
I learned to love basketball at an early age and lived for basketball for many years. I remember when I was 10 years old thinking about whether or not there was basketball in heaven. I decided if there wasn’t, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to heaven.
Although I have long given up basketball, I have learned to love being active and being out of doors. If I could go on a 10-mile hike in the mountains every day, I would gladly do it. Any time I can get outside to hike, I do it. For many years I was a runner and have run a marathon and many half marathons. I also love to ride my road bike.
When I was 19 years old, I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Munich, Germany. I had wanted to serve a mission in Germany from the time I was 13 years old and took German classes from 7th through the 12th grades.
My mission was a dream come true for me.
When I was 21 years old, I met a girl named Marilyn Parker. She was incredibly talented and bright. It didn’t hurt that she was also very attractive. At first, we thought that each other was really nice, but it was not love at first site. But we kept going out weekly and became great friends.
I remember once almost hearing a voice in my head that said,
You could look for a million years and you won’t find a girl better than Marilyn.
It was then that I realized that I had found my future wife. It took me a while to sell her on that concept, but I made the best sale of my life and soon enough we were engaged. We will have been married for 40 happy and glorious years later this year. We have six amazing children, 3 boys and 3 girls. Five of the six are married to remarkable spouses. We’re waiting for the sixth to have the same good fortune. We are the proud grandparents of 9 grandchildren.
I believe that everyone has experiences that if we only knew how to tell our story, they would impact many others for good. The world seems preoccupied with things that are sensational, negative, disgusting, degrading, and mind numbing. I would like to stand as a voice for things that are uplifting, faith promoting, positive and encouraging. Nearly everyone wants to feel hope, that their life can be happy, and that they can make a difference that others will appreciate.
It does matter what we do in this life. Our true characters are forged in the furnace of trials, how we treat others, and by what we do when no one is watching us.