One of their sons was the Zone Leader in Barranquilla, Colombia for our son early in his mission. My son's first companion was a real doozy, and Elder Clinger was a much needed life line for my son to help him keep his sanity.

My son had to come home for surgery on a broken ankle 6 months into his mission. He was really bummed and struggling to stay positive. We went on a family trip through Utah, and my son really wanted to touch base with Elder Clinger, who had just barely returned home himself. As we were in the area, my son called Elder Clinger to see if he was around. The Clinger family was really gracious and let our family come by at the spur of the moment on a Sunday afternoon. We took up about 2 hours of their day.

They had a rock band set up in their basement (electric guitars, bases, drums, microphones) which was a common interest for my sons. We didn't know that Casey was a superstar runner at the time-- but we met him and he even played and sang for us- he's pretty darn good.

My son with the broken ankle had his spirits lifted immensely in the process. Anyway, I could tell they had other places to be and things they wanted to be doing, but they dropped everything for us for a couple of hours and it really helped. I just thought I'd add my kudos to Casey and the entire Clinger clan.