In the Fabulous 46th Ward, our bishop was Jack
Clarke. (He was also the head of student employment at Ricks). He was one of
the best bishops I ever had. I heard plenty of stories from before I moved over
to College Ave, about monumental acts of service that he inspired in that ward.
One that I remember was that there had been a girl in the ward who struggled
immensely with her self-esteem, largely because her eyesight was so bad that
she had to wear coke bottle glasses. They were so thick, and they just took
over her whole face. The ward decided to raise money by taking donations from
ward members, and pay for her to get contacts. Bishop Clarke had tears in his
eyes every time he told about the difference those contacts made in her life.
He told that story at the beginning of every new year, because it illustrated
the kind of ward the 46th ward was—a ward of service, and love one
to another. A family. I personally know, from stories of some of my roommates,
that Bishop Clarke helped people financially with emergencies or other things
that came up, without recognition, due to a request that it not be advertised
about. (and yet somehow I knew. Hmmm).
At one point, I shared with him my poetry. He asked my
permission to borrow the book for a while, because he wanted his secretary to
type up all my poems for me. She typed them all up, and he presented me with
several copies of a spiral bound book full of my poems—on the condition that he
got to keep one of them.
I remember when Bishop Clarke was released. It was so hard
for the entire ward. We always had prayer meeting every Sunday evening, where
someone gave a devotional type thought, and we had a prayer, and we usually
stayed around and socialized for a while. The night Bishop Clarke was released, our prayer meeting was
kind of a farewell for him, and a chance for us to all say goodbye.
Here is a picture of me and Bishop Clarke at a ward party shortly before he was released.
On a positive note, Bishop Palmer was called as the new
bishop, and we all ended up loving him so much as well. He was still the bishop
of the Fabulous 46th ward when Celeste moved to College Ave a few
years later, and she has fantastic memories from having him as bishop.
