April 8th- Total Eclipse Day In Arkansas

It is fun to be serving a mission during the time that a total eclipse is going to happen in your area.  Our zone meeting last week was focused on Spiritual Eclipses and what keeps us from doing our best to follow the Savior.  The Collins designed these fun pass along cards and the missionaries used them in the week before the eclipse to invite people to watch General Conference, come to Church, or to learn more about the Savior.

Arkansas Bentonville Pass Along Card

We had first thought we would go to Mena for the eclipse.  We enjoy that area down there.  However as we considered possible traffic issues, we decided that Clarksville was a better option.  In addition to I-40, there are several county roads to go from Ft. Smith to Clarksville while Mena has only a very few options.  We reached out to the Clarksville Bishop and asked if it was okay for us to be there and he said yes and mentioned that they were not planning any ward events (because everyone could watch from their homes and workplaces.) Ft. Smith was outside the zone of totality--like a 98% which was similar to Syracuse in 2017.  Jessica and others had convinced us that a total solar eclipse was something different and worth traveling for so that is why at 8:30 am we were headed to Clarksville.

We choose to take State Road 22 most of the way before turning north on 109 and on into Clarksville.  Wise choice as there was no traffic on our way to Clarksville--

We were surprised when we arrived at the Church to find three or four cars already there and the door unlocked.  We had friends coming from Fayetteville and we had told them to park in the back to not draw attention to the fact that people were at the Church...and that we had access to the building and to the bathrooms.

We got there in just over an hour or so and in plenty of time to set up for our on-line district meeting. To avoid traveling on this high traffic day, our area chose to do on line meetings on Monday morning.

When we headed outside again, we were amazed to see that the parking lot and the grass areas were filling up.  Going from expecting to be the only ones, we ended up having over 150 people at the Church.  It was a PARTY!  There were families playing ball, kids running around, and people chatting and sharing information about eclipse and everything else.  We loved talking to everyone.  We shared pictures with the Bishop who was thrilled that people were there (but asked us to lock up after everyone left which we were happy to do.)  We talked to people from several places in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Utah, Idaho, and California.  I didn't know that a Church was a good place to watch the eclipse.  I thought I was pretty clever thinking of it myself, but apparently it is a THING!  Most were members of the Church although a few were not.

It was fun because there were a few older couples who had served or were thinking about serving senior missions so we talked about that.  There was another family there with a son with Down syndrome who was 8 so we had to introduce him to Jena and talked about service missions in the future.  Families brought some things to share some odd effects of the eclipse which was also fun.

Gary and Jena claiming our spot in the middle

Our friends, the Ellises, came down from Fayetteville with some of their friends.  They couldn't sit with us as their friends wanted a more shaded spot, but we got these pictures with them.

Our Eclipse shirts which I got
everyone for our Anniversary. 
I could have sold them on the day of the eclipse.

We had brought the extra eclipse glasses and they came in handy as a few people didn't have enough or wanted one for their camera.  We were happy to share and loved the fun things others shared with us.

The moon shaped shadows of the circles

The changing of the shadows of the leaves

A moment where there was no shadow cast by my feet and legs...

There had been some concern about cloud cover and clouds started coming in around noon but not enough to ruin our views....

The crowd continued to grow....

The golf course also did brisk business as I guess people wanted to share the eclipse moment on the golf course.

A "lawn" neighbor took these photos of us as the eclipse was progressing.

She gave us posing instructions as well.... Look at the eclipse....

"Point"    Gary apparently needs more specific directions. LOL

We enjoyed about 3 1/2 minutes of totality in Clarksville, but my camera wasn't really good for catching the eclipse.  We saw the sunsets in both the east and the west, we enjoyed the dark and the coldness that same with it--but the best moment was when the moon first completely covered the sun, the whole crowd cheered!!  It was so unexpected but so perfect.  I was glad that I was in a place with 150 strangers enjoying these amazing event.

To the west, an 18 wheeler had pulled to side of the
street right before totality.  Afterwards, he drove past
and honked to everyone. Humans enjoying nature together.

Elder Moon in Greenwood posted this photo from his camera of the totality. It was all so amazing.

A moment and a day to not be forgotten! How perfect is our earth and Our Creator for this amazing display!

As people were leaving, someone approached us and asked if they could make a donation to the Church for their "hospitality and bathroom."  They said it had been a great experience being with this group. I guess we looked official with our nametags.  We declined their money but then shared a pass along card with the Church's website and suggested that they make a donation to the humanitarian fund.

Traveling home was a bit more challenging...

At first traffic was clear especially on these county back roads

and we even got to go across a new bridge....I sent a text to our family that the roads were clear for us....

but about 10 miles from Ft. Smith as we joined Hwy. 22, we hit the traffic.  So it took us about 2 hours in total to make the return trip home/

You never know what blessings will come your way when you serve a senior mission!