Pictures

Bro. R's (teacher) last day

 

 MTC class with flags from their countries

 

 MTC Zone with countries' flags

 

 All the sisters in her zone

Happy to be back in her classroom!

 

 



 

After I sent that email to you on Thursday we found out that we would get a half Pday today to do laundry and write home. So instead of having to wait until Friday you get two letters this week. We will still have Pday on Friday so I will still be emailing on Friday. I am honestly not sure why they changed schedules. I am assuming it is to accomodate all of the new missionaries and campuses that will not actually be on the MTC campus. The schedule changes affected the entire MTC not just us. It kind of sucks but Friday may actually be kind of nice. And it will only be for a few more weeks because I'm pretty sure once we get out in the field our Pday will be back to Monday.

 

I am feeling much better. After sleeping all day Tuesday and taking it easy Wednesday I gradually got back into things and by the weekend I was feeling better. Although the circumstances kind of sucked it was kind of nice to have a few days to rest. And I am feeling back to myself 100%. I haven't had a headache since Thursday so that is a good sign!

 

So...here is my week. Monday was Pday and it was a good day. Except for the hitting my head part. Monday we had a lesson with our investigator David. As we were walking to the lesson we decided to change our lesson plan. So we had no time to prepare which meant we had no notes to go off of. And it was our best lesson we gave. We were really able to talk with him and ask him questions and answer his questions. Sister Rankin and I were able to go back and forth and actually understand what each other were saying so that we could back up each others points. Sister Palmer was pretty much quiet throughout the lesson. She is having a hard time picking up the language and being able to talk without notes. And I don't know what to do to help her. During our study time I try to review things with her and she seems to understand it but when we go into lessons she is silent. And afterwards she asks us what we said to him because she didn't understand what we were talking about. It's hard because we have 3 different people and we are all learning at 3 different rates which can make things difficult when we are trying to teach. But we are all working hard to help each other and we are doing our best which is all we can do. Monday was also our teacher Brother Rubisch's last day. He graduated from BYU and is moving to Florida to go to Dental School. It was kind of sad to say goodbye. He always brings skittles to class and eats them during the lessons so we all bought him a pack of skittles as a good bye present. I don't think I've ever seen him smile as big as when we gave it to him. We are getting another teacher to replace him. We haven't met him yet but should sometime this week so we will still have 4 teachers.

 

Tuesday was the day I spent in the clinic so you already know about that. Tuesday night I was able to go to the devotional though. It was good but it was super loud waiting in line which hurt my head a bit. PS my line skills have paid off well when there is a huge crowd of people waiting to get into devotionals. Me and Sister Peel are really good at maneuvering our way up so we make it in to the devotional room every time. It is a little bit more difficult because we have to make sure that we sneak past the Elders without touching them. However we are good at it! Anyways...the devotional was someone from the Missionary Department named Elder Evans. He talked about repentance. It was a good talk but he went over by half an hour and by that point my head was pounding and I was done and ready to go to bed. He had a good message it could have been just a touch shorter.

 

Wednesday was also a relaxing day. We skipped service so that I didn't have to wake up earlier than I needed to with my head. (The one bonus to our new schedule is we have no more early mornings!) We didn't teach any lessons and just took it easy. We did our studying outside and during study times I took naps to help me feel better. Wednesday Elder Kodra who was the Slovene Elder went home. He has high stress that makes him sick so he has been sick most of the time he was here. It was sad to see him go. But the hopes are that he can get things taken care of in the next month and then be able to come back and go out to the field with us.

 

Thursday was a good day. I was feeling most of the way better by Thursday so we decided we would be ok giving a lesson. Our teacher was hesitant about it but he decided if I felt like I could do it he would let us. And the lesson went good. We went into the lesson with a plan. And right when we got in there we asked a question and the answer of the investigator, Ivica changed our plan. I was able to understand what he said to us and was able to talk to him about it. My companions didn't understand what was going on so after a few minutes I was able to tie what we were talking about into our lesson plan so my companions could jump in with what they had prepared so that I wasn't the only one talking. I can guarantee that in lessons my grammar was horrible but I am able to talk with the investigators and for the most part I understand what they are saying and they can figure out what I am saying. We also had TRC on Thursday. We didn't have enough volunteers come so we had to combine with another companionship which ended up being a good thing. So we were with Sister Erbe and Sister Peel. It was good because usually I have to take the lead with my companionship but I was able to sit back and let them take the lead so that I didn't have to do as much thinking with me head. It ended up going really well.

 

Friday was a pretty relaxed day during the day. We had a lesson with Ivica Friday night. We ended up teaching him outside because there weren't any available rooms. It made it difficult because it was loud and distracting outside but we did the best with what we were given. I like our lessons because with each lesson I can see us improving. Our teachers even comment on it after each lesson what we did better that time than last time and what we can do better on. The one thing we need to improve the most on is sharing the talking between all three of us which is hard but we are getting better and better every lesson.

 

Saturday we moved back to our classroom! Happy day! Sister Rankin also developed a rash and because the health clinic was closed we got to leave the MTC to go to the doctor. It was super weird to ride in a car and be out in the real world. She ended up having an allergic reaction to something so they put her on some medicine and she seems to be improving.

 

Sunday for Relief Society the new General YW President came and spoke to us. She talked about how we won't be laboring alone and that through the Lord we have all the help we need. Sunday night devotional was Elder Allen who is the managing director of the Missionary Department. He talked about how most of us probably gave up a lot to be here but what we get out of it will be much greater. There will be suffering, there will be hard days, and it will take some getting used to but if we can accept it and give everything we have to the Lord we will ok. This was a great talk for me after the week I have had. I have been through suffering and I have been through hard days this week but the whole time I knew that the Lord was with me and that he would help me get through the hard days. And he did. And I am still here and I am surviving and I will continue to press on.

 

The Sunday night film was a recorded talk given by Sheri Dew. Part of our zone, the Bulgarians and Polish are leaving this week. It was sad to say bye to them last night. In sacrament meeting they sang in their languages which was really cool. It's crazy to think that in less than a month it will be us leaving! Sunday we also decided to try choir. Well...a few sisters were going and Sister Erbe talked me into going with. Choir was fine even though I don't really sing well. The problem was after. We had less than half an hour to eat dinner and get back to the devotional. And the lines in the cafeteria last night were really long. So dinner consisted of chips, cereal, and cookies because we didn't have to wait in line for those. We will do choir on Tuesday because we sing the song we practiced yesterday on Tuesday but after that we probably won't do it again. At least we can say we tried it! Our temple walk is kind of whenever we feel like going so we don't really have an assigned time as long as we don't have anything else scheduled.

 

We have done personal study outside a lot this week which has been nice but I am starting to look like a tomato. I have dug out my sunscreen for next time so I don't get fried.

 

When I told my companions and some of the other sisters that I wanted to buy a sippy cup they looked at me like I was crazy. I explained what it meant and now everytime I say sippy cup they correct me and say waterbottle. Don't worry...It will always be a sippy cup. They won't convince me otherwise.

 

There is a sister in our zone named Sister Rosenval going to Czech Republic. And we just realized a few days ago that she lives in David and Trisha's ward. Kinda crazy!

 

Our district has decided we can't do SYL days anymore. Everytime we try to do it someone gets injured. Tuesday was me, Thursday one of the elders sprained his ankle and was on crutches, Saturday Sister Rankin got her rash, and every other SYL day we have had something has happened to someone. It's a bit ridiculous.

 

I lost my black rue 21 shirt. I can't find it and think it might have got left in the laundry room or something because the laundry room is crazy. Anyways I'm kinda disappointed about it but oh well. Other than that my clothes are still doing great!

 

I'm not sure if I will be able to get a hand written letter done but I will try! We don't have much time left! Hopefully I answered all of your questions from your emails! And I will have to answer the ones from hand written letters in a hand written letter because I don't have them with me. I'm trying to think if there is anything else to tell you because I have more time. I love you all! Thanks for all of the love, support, and letters especially this past week. The MTC really is amazing! I love it here! I love the spirit that is here! I love the people that are here! I am learning and growing every day. There really is no place I would rather be. I hope you all have a great week!

 

 

Shoutouts!

 

Letters this week from Dad, Justin, Heidi, Tyler, Mom, Ryan, Allie, Carrie, Jordan, Nicole Banks, Grandpa

 

And thanks for the package! It was perfect! The homemade treats were a huge hit! I took them to class and my teacher loved them!

 

Also thanks for the pictures! I love pictures! Tell Justin to tell me about his program! His float looked good and his costume picture was cute. Especially since he was holding a basketball in it!

 

Here's a Croatian phrase for you: neču moči doči jaču iči kuči. That's our favorite phrase of the week. It means I won't be able to go I'm going home. It's basically a pointless phrase but it is really fun to say and sounds really cool.

 

Anyways! I love you all and hope you all have a great week! You only have to wait until Friday for a letter this week! Volim te! волим те! I love you!

 

Love, Sestra Clark

P-Day Change

I am sending a quick note to let you know that our pday has for sure been moved to Friday. I believe it starts next week so as far as I know you won't be getting an email from me on Monday but you will be getting one next Friday. Our branch president gave us permission to do laundry before next Friday so we don't have to worry about running out of clothes. He also gave us permission to send a quick email home to our families to let them know.

Another thing, I am hesitant to say this because I don't want you to freak out but decided it would be better to tell you now rather than waiting until next Friday. It may not be the best idea because you won't hear from me again until next Friday but just know that I am fine.

Monday I don't remember exactly what I was doing but I was on my bed and stood up quickly and hit the back of my head on the bar. Later Monday night I got a really bad headache and my eyesight was a bit fuzzy. I didn't think much of it, took some ibuprofen, and went to bed. Tuesday I woke up and whenever I stood up I got dizzy and lightheaded. I got ready slowly and took breaks in between and then decided I was fine to go to class. We got in class and started our daily planning session and I wrote everything in the wrong column. I then started bawling and continued crying for a good fifteen minutes for absolutely no reason, luckily only my companions saw this. My companions then decided we needed to go to the health clinic. It was great fun walking to the health clinic crying my eyes out.
Anyway...I saw a doctor and he determined that I had a minor concussion. So they kept me in the health clinic all day Tuesday. My companions came and checked on me several times and brought me meals and the Elders in our district were able to come give me a blessing. I spent all day Tuesday up until dinner in the health clinic sleeping. The medical staff took great care of me and made sure I was comfortable and doing ok.

Since Tuesday I have been improving more each day. I have been taking it easy. During gym time I just use a yoga mat and stretch/sleep and I have been trying not to think too much because that's what the doctor told me to do. Yesterday I took multiple study breaks/naps during study time. My companions and district have been really good about making sure I don't push myself too hard and I am doing ok. My teachers have been great as well at making sure if my head starts hurting that I just put my head down and not pay attention to what they are saying. They have let us take a break from teaching lessons the past two days so as not to stress me out and cause me to push myself to think of what to say during lessons.

It has been hard the past couple days to focus on myself getting better and not focus on the language or anything else. But because I have taken the time to rest I am feeling much better. Today I feel completely fine and my headache is very minimal. I have even done some language study this morning and we have been doing SYL today and I have had no problems thinking of what to say. I know that I am being watched over and protected and that I will be completely back to normal within the next day or two if not later today. Don't worry about me, I really am ok.

I love you all! Thanks for everything and I will write you again next Friday!

Sister Clark

 

Pictures - April 22, 2013

 Learning articles of clothing & being an artist at the same time!

 

 Working hard during computer time

 

I found Elder Giacalone on the Sunday temple walk!

 

 All the sisters in her district, going to Adriatic North

 

 This tree smells like cream soda! (ya, she's weird!)

 

 They bought matching T-shirts!

 

Matching at PE!



бок обителф‏

Well...It's kinda crazy to think that I am already writing home again. This place really is a time warp. The days all blend together and time goes by super fast. It's crazy but good. I figured out how to type Cyrillic so I tried it on the subject. Hopefully it worked.

 

Monday was P-day which was good. We went to the temple in the morning and then did our laundry and letter writing, etc. There has been a sickness going around our district. It's just a cold but those that have had it have felt miserable. Luckily, I have not gotten it. Anyways...Monday afternoon we got to leave the MTC for a few minutes to go to the pharmacy because Sister Rankin needed medicine. It's just down the street so we walked but we kind of felt like we were escaping. Monday night we had class but nothing super exciting happened.

 

Our Tuesday morning exercise consisted of doing situps and yoga in bed. Haha! Tuesday we decided to do another SYL day. This one went a lot better than our last one. We managed to make it through most of the day and even though we still feel like we don't know anything we were able to communicate with each other fairly well. Tuesday is our favorite day at the cafeteria because all the missionaries leaving that week are gone and the new missionaries haven't come yet so there are no lines in the cafeteria. Tuesday night we also had a devotional. When we went to it we were kind of expecting something because they were reminding us of all the rules multiple times and they had extra high security. It ended up being Elder Scott. It was amazing when he walked into the room the Spirit immediately came with him. He talked about prayer and how it is a privilege for us to be able to communicate with God and we should use it as that. He talked about how prayers are answered in different ways and when we are answered we need to act on it. He also said that sometimes we may not get an answer and that's because the Lord trusts us enough to let us make the decision. I could talk about his talk my whole email because it was so good. He ended by giving us an apostolic blessing which was pretty cool. After he sat down we sang the closing song and then the sister got up to give the closing prayer and he went running up to stop her because he needed to say one more thing. He basically just re emphasized some of the points he had already made but we figured it was probably pretty important for him to get back up. One thing he said was to remember the Lord has called you to succeed not fail. As challenging as it may be, with the Lord's help we will be ok.

 

Wednesday nothing super exciting happened. We started our morning with service. We've decided the reason they make us get up at 6 two mornings in a row is so that we are grateful when we get to sleep until 6:30. Other than service Wednesday was a regular day. Except for during our computer time on Wednesday a bird flew into the window and gave us all a panic attack. The bird survived and flew away just fine.

 

Thursday was a good day. We had a lesson with our investigator David. We decided to go into the lesson with no notes and just ask him questions and talk to him. I was impressed with how well I did but I felt like I was talking the whole time. My companions said a few sentences each and I did the rest of the talking. He would say something and I would stay quiet and wait for them to respond and when they didn't I would start talking. I paused multiple times to let them say something and they just sat there so I kept going. I honestly don't remember what I said but I know it definitely didn't come from me. I came out of the lesson with mixed feelings. I felt good about what I had said and I knew that the Spirit was helping me but at the same time I can't do it alone and I need my companions help. Thursday we also had one on one interviews with Sister Black so I kind of talked to her about it a little bit and she gave me some advice to help my companions be more confident in their speaking. Another thing she told me is that even though our investigators are our teachers and they have been missionaries, by teaching them it helps them to feel the Spirit and want to feel the Spirit more in their lives so it should give us some extra encouragement to want to teach by the Spirit. Thursday we also had TRC which I love. One of the people that was there was McKenzie which is the girl that had the blog that came home sick. She gave me hope because of how well she could speak when she was only out for a few months. I love the TRC because we get to have a conversation with the people we are teaching and if we don't know a word we can ask them and they will help us. It's basically just to help us get better at speaking to people. Our lesson this week was on enduring to the end. I took notes in with me but I tried not to look at them as much as possible. And I did pretty well. I only had to look down at them a few times.

 

Thursday we had our first experience with not so great food. The food here isn't bad. I'm never hungry though and I am starting to get sick of the food. Thursday lunch they had beef enchiladas and afterwards we all felt horrible. Not like sick, they just didn't settle well and we were all constantly going to the bathroom. Sorry if thats TMI. But it was everyone, at least my whole district. So note to future missionaries don't eat the beef enchiladas they don't do good things to your system. The worst part was a few days later they had them at the leftover bar and people were loading their plates with them. yes, there is a leftover bar. It is interesting the combinations (mostly elders) that come away from there.

 

Friday we had a lesson with our investigator Ivitca. We all went into the lesson with notes. My companions read thier notes word for word like a script. I didn't use my notes. I completely changed the order of what I was saying and said some things differently. And I left the lesson feeling so good because I know that the Spirit directed me as to what to say. My companions on the other hand didn't feel like the lesson went well. I don't know how to get them to understand that when they don't use notes, as terrifying as it is they will feel the Spirit more and will leave the lessons feeling good. I have tried multiple times to tell them this but they don't get it yet. It's hard for me too because there are times in the middle of what they are saying that I want to say something but I don't dare because I know it will throw them off and they won't know what to do next. I know I'm not perfect at the language but they only way to get better is to take the leap of faith and try. I've still got a long ways to go and a lot to learn but by learning to rely more on the spirit it is helping me to become better everyday.

 

Saturday was another fairly boring day. We just had our study time and class. One of our teachers did tell us a little bit about the mission and showed us pictures which was kind of cool. He only served in Serbia. He did say that letters and packages will usually get there but it can take a long time. That's Serbia. I don't know about Croatia. We also found out that starting this week we are going to be investigators and teach each other so it will be interesting to see how that goes.

 

Sunday's relief society speaker was Sister Esplin from the Primary General Presidency. She talked a lot about D&C 4 and specifically verses 5 and 6 where it talks about the things we should be filling our lives with in order to have the light of Christ and be able to withstand Satan. Sunday since it was so nice outside we decided to study outside. It was so nice! I tried really hard not to but I may have fallen asleep for a little bit. And my consequence for that was getting sunburned. My face is burnt and I have one random patch on my leg. It's great! I'm not the only one who is burnt though. We also had our temple walk on Sunday and we just sat at the Temple for over an hour which was nice. I'm hoping this weather is here to stay. Sunday night devotional was the BYU Men's choir and then the movie was The Testaments. Also to answer a question our Sacrament is in English. I know there are some branches that do them in their mission language but because our branch has 6 different languages (Croatian, Slovenian, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Polish) and none of the Branch Presidency speak any of them we do it in English.

 

Now just a few stories. First off the other day sister Erbe said Buffet but she said it the Jimmy way. She said that's how she says it. I thought it was pretty sweet.

 

Tuesday was Sister Peltons birthday. We haven't learned how to sing Happy Birthday so one of the elders started singing it to the tune of This is Halloween on nightmare before Christmas. One of our teachers heard and apparently didn't like it so he taught us how to sing it in Croatian.

 

We were talking about popping Boba somehow and one of our teachers heard and said there is a place in Croatia called Happy Bubbles that all they serve is Boba. I was pretty excited about that!

During meals the Elders have found a new game to play called hide the saltine. They hide a saltine somewhere on their body and then the other elder has to find it and eat it. It's a really dumb game but it's really funny to watch.

 

We have been trying to get our teachers to tell us their first names and they won't. We found out what they were though and so now we are trying to sneak them into conversations to see their reactions. And there is one teacher that we know it is one of two names so we are using both to try to figure out which one it is. It has been pretty funny. They haven't figured out what we are doing yet at least that we have noticed. Also our teachers have certain things that they each do that we know how to get them how to do it. So before each class we plan out who is going to say or do what in order to get those specific reactions from our teachers and it works everytime. That might not make any sense but it keeps us from going crazy in class.

 

My district is requesting that everyone have their parents send a baby picture so that we can see them. So if you get around to that see what you can do. It doesn't have to be an actual picture like you can just copy it on paper. Also if you get around to it I didn't bring any face lotion and could use some of that. If it's easier I could just buy it at the bookstore though.

 

I'm trying to think if there is anything else I need to tell you. I can't think of anything. I will send pictures later today. I am also going to try to write a quick letter home later. I figure while I am in the MTC I can do at least something short each week. I am doing great. Even though I have a long ways to go I am learning everyday and can actually see the progress I am making. Although I do get frustrated with my companions during lessons sometimes,  I really do like them and we get along well. I am learning to rely on the Spirit more than I ever have in my life. The MTC really is an amazing place. I love you all! Thanks for everything!

 

Volim te!

Sestra Clark

 

Shoutouts!

 

Thanks for the pictures!

 

Letters this week from Dad, Jordan, Nicole Banks, Grandpa, Ryan, Allie, Mom, Carrie (I got the same letter from you twice again :)), and an email from Lex!

Sretan Pripremni dan! Happy Preparation day! I wish that I could copy and paste this past week into my next 7 weeks at the MTC. If I could do that the next 7 weeks will be a piece of cake!

 

We started Monday with P-day! We did initiatories at the temple, I got caught up on all of my letters, and was even able to have some fun too! It was a good day. Monday night we went back to class and when we got there found out we had to teach a lesson to a new investigator. So we had about an hour of preparation time. And it actually went pretty well. We just did a short basic overview of the words we knew and we could feel the Spirit in the lesson so that's all that matters. Another funny story, he was having us use the phrase ako sam bila u hrvatskoj (If I were in Croatia...) and then we filled it in with what we would be doing such as teaching the Gospel, meeting people, etc. We were going around the room talking to everyone and me and Sister Peel got to each other and at the exact same time said "If I were in Croatia I would know Croatian." We both started laughing really hard. It probably isn't that funny but at the end of a 3 hour class it was.

 

Tuesday morning they think it is a good idea to have us wake up at 6 and exercise. But we can't use the gym we just have to do stuff in our room. It really is the dumbest thing. This week our exercise consisted of walking up to the fourth floor and back down and then stretching. Haha! We do wake up at 6 we just aren't so good at the exercise part. We exercise every other day though. Sister Palmer really wanted to go running but I was adament that that was not going to happen. I hate running. It ended up being a good thing because it actually snowed on Tuesday morning. I don't know if it snowed there or not. It actually snowed here today too. I'm ready for it to be warm. Walking to and from buildings is kind of miserable. Tuesday during class we officially started learning Serbian which means we started the Cyrillic alphabet. It actually isn't that bad because except for a few exceptions most of the words are the same in Croatian you just have to translate it into Cyrillic. I will have to send a hand written letter with some Serbian because I don't know how to type it. Also during class We decided to sing More Holiness give Me as the opening song. And at the end where it goes super high one of the elders decided to try and sing it. Needless to say he couldn't sing it and all of us including the teacher started busting up and we weren't able to finish the song. Tuesday night we also had a devotional. I have decided that there is nothing more powerful than being in a room with over 3000 missionaries when we sing. It brings the Spirit into the room immediately. Especially Called to Serve even though we sing that song at least 3 times a week I will never get sick of it. The Devotional this week was Gerald N. Lund. He talked about recognizing the promptings of the Spirit. My favorite thing he said was not only do we have to say they will be done but also thy timing be done. I can promise you we will always recieve answers to prayers but it will take time. I felt like this is something we can all learn from because I know even when I want something I want the answer now but it's not my timing that matters. He also talked about how once we get the revelation we have to be willing and act on it otherwise it does us no good.

 

Wednesday we had to be up early again for service. We got to clean the bathrooms today. Luckily the bathrooms we have to clean don't have showers so they really aren't that bad. And it's actually fairly fun. Wednesday they had French toast stix for breakfast and I remember Jordan saying he loved them so I decided to try them. I didn't realize until after I got them that they were deep fried. Needless to say I won't be getting those again. They were good but they are definitely not what I want to start my day off with. I had to force myself to eat the rest of the day. Wednesday we also started learning cases. We don't have them in English so it's kind of hard to explain what they are. Basically there are 5 different cases and how a word is used in the sentence such as the Subject, the direct object, the indirect object, etc. determines the ending of the word. For example Book of Mormon in one case is Mormonova Kniga and in another case it is Mormonovu Knigu. And the only way to learn them is to memorize the cases. You also have to memorize whether a word is masculine or feminine because those are different in each case too. We have learned 3 of the cases so far and I feel like for the most part I understand them but it takes me a few minutes to say what I am trying to say to make sure that I say everything right. Wednesday we had our first lesson with another new investigator. It was by far the best lesson we have taught so far! We really focused on the needs of the investigator and talked about what he needed to hear. We also made sure to talk to the investigator throughout and ask him questions and made sure he understood what we were talking about. And it was pretty amazing that we were able to for the most part answer his questions when we didn't have everything written down because we didn't know what he was going to ask. We actually committed him to baptism! And it was the first lesson! The Spirit was amazing in that lesson. When we left the room we were seriously giddy and had the biggest grins on our faces. It was amazing! Our word of the day for the new missionaries was bježite which translates to get out! But none of them know that! Haha! We have to find some ways to have fun!

 

Thursday we decided to try our first Speak Your Language (SYL) day. It went great up until about lunch and then we kind of stopped. But I was actually suprised at how well we could carry a conversation. Sister Pelton and I were actually carrying on a fairly good conversation about normal non church related stuff. We did have to use the dictionary a few times. And we are all really good at saying the Baptismal Commitment so whenever there was a dull moment we would just ask eachother to be baptized. Thursday Sister Madsen who is the Widow of Truman Madsen came and talked to us. She new Kresimir Cosic when he first became a member. She talked a little bit about him and about Croatia. She went for the 40th anniversary thing last year and showed us pictures. It was really cool. I forgot my notes or else I would tell you more about what she said. She didn't talk much about Kresimir she just mostly told us her experiences in Croatia. It was still really cool to talk to her though. Thursday we also did the TRC which is where they have returned missionaries come in and you basically just give them an uplifting message in Croatian. It was really cool because it was like a conversation and we got to ask them to share missionary experiences and I was actually suprised about how much of what they were saying I understood. I could pick out enough words to get the gist of what they were saying. After TRC we went back to class and did role play teaching where we got to be the investigators. It was really cool. It was in English. My companions taught me about prayer. And I can honestly say that even though prayer is a principle I have known my whole life but when I put myself in the shoes of an investigator it was amazing how much I felt the Spirit. Our teacher left the room for a minute and when he came back he said the second he opened the door the Spirit immediately hit him. It was a neat, eyeopening experience to see a bit of what investigators feel when we teach them.

 

Friday was a pretty relazed day. Friday was pizza night so they brought in Papa Johns which was delicious! We also used the Jelly Beans you sent and were throwing them into eachothers mouth during class! During one of our breaks on Friday we decided to play heads up 7 up except for it was heads up 2 up. It was really funny! And whenever Elder Stuart would put his head down he would describe the galaxies he was seeing when he shut his eyes really tight. It was pretty funny! Friday I also bought a Croatian hymnbook. I think it's weird that they don't give them to us but I decided I wanted one so I got it. The church doesn't make official hymnbooks so they are basically just on computer paper binded together and they aren't real great quality but they work. It's also kind of interesting that the Croatian Book of Mormon isn't officially printed by the church. I don't really know why. We tried to get a Serbian book of Mormon and Hymnbook but the bookstore said they can't order them.

 

Saturday we had to move classrooms. They are redoing something in our normal building so they moved everyone in our building. It is only temporary but it was kind of depressing. We moved from a decorated classroom with big desks and comfy chairs to a classroom with white walls, hard chairs, and the desks are the ones that are connected to the chairs and are super small. And it is in a building with all of the Spanish people. It is only for a week or so though and then we get to go back.

Sunday. It was our first normal Sunday! We started off with Sacrament meeting which is just with our branch. It was just in a room in a building. They have a bunch of assigned Sacrament Meeting rooms so it is different than our classroom but isn't an actual chapel if that makes sense. They assign everyone a topic for a talk and then they announce 2 people to speak but you don't know who is speaking until they announce it. So everyone prepares a talk every week. Then they have a member of the Branch Presidency and their wife speak. And then we go to breakfast. After breakfast all of the Sister Missionaries go to Music and the Spoken Word and then Relief Society. For Relief Society they have a guest speaker. This week wasn't anyone I've heard of before and I can't remember her name but she did a really good job! And she was really funny! We then have study time in our classroom and interviews with the Branch Presidency until lunch. After lunch is district meeting which is basically like Sunday School. Each companionship prepares about a 5 minute lesson on an assigned topic and then we discuss it. We then had our Sunday walk where we go to the temple and can just visit and take pictures. After that we had more study time and then we go to dinner. And then there is an MTC Fireside. This week was the Media Director from the Missionary Department who talked about what the Church is doing in different places around the world to encourage people to be interested in the church. It is actually kind of amazing how much they do and it is actually pretty effective. After the devotional they have different movies and talks playing in different rooms and you can choose where you want to go. We watched the Joseph Smith Movie this week which was good.

 

That was my week now just a few random things. For the Men that went to Priesthood session if any of you paid attention to President Eyring's talk he talked about an orphan Priest who joined the Church. That was in Bosnia. Anyone interested should go watch it. It's pretty cool.

 

We have another teacher named Brother Hansen. He is a new RM so he is still a little awkward but he is an awesome teacher and you can tell he loves teaching by how excited he gets about each subject. He was telling us the other day that there is a correct way to eat chocolate but he won't show us because you can only do it with real chocolate. Apparently the first ingredient has to be cocoa and it has to be at least 60% cocoa. So if anyone knows what that means and wants to send some I can teach you the correct way to eat chocolate once he shows us. I don't know if it even exists.

 

We have a teacher that constantly has a red face but when something embarassing happens or he laughs it goes even redder. So we learned how to say you are turning red in Croatian. So one night when he started laughing we all said it to him. It made him turn even redder!

 

Also because I am OCD I am having a hard time getting myself to mark my scriptures because I don't have a system yet. I tried to ask my teachers good ways to mark scriptures but they don't understand my OCD and just said to start marking. So if anyone has any good suggestions on how to mark your scriptures I would appreciate it!

 

I brought my wolf shirt because it is awesome and comfy! And I have gotten a ton of comments on it! Carrie asked about that!

 

I hope I have answered all of your questions. I am going to write a quick letter to send in the mail in a bit so if I missed anything I will tell you it then. But I think I've gotten everything! Thanks for everything! I love you all lots, and lots, and lots!

 

Shoutouts!

 

Letters this week from Mom, dad, Jordan, Tyson, Justin, Kaitlin, Brianne, B, Carrie, Zach, Nicole Banks, and some YW. To answer Carrie's question the past two weeks I have gotten the same letter from her twice. Which is fine because then it looks like I am getting more letters than it really is. They have also started putting multiple letters on the same paper sometimes when I have too many.

 

Sretan Rodjenum! Happy Birthday to Tyler Griffiths this week!

 

Congratulations to Kendal on his mission call! That will be awesome!

 

Also, I'm hoping that Grandpa is still alive tonight and made it through tax season!

Volim te!

Sestra Clark

 

 

  Nametag with languages for Speak Your Language Day

 

 They had to switch classrooms and were sad!

 

Croatian flag on classroom door

 

All the sisters in the district at the temple

 

Pictures!

 Sister Clark with her two companions

 

 Wildlife Wednesday!

 

 We are going there!

 

 Croatian Sisters

 

 Playing learning games in class

 

 How I get through language study

 

 I taught them the crazy face pictures!

 

 Another crazy face at the temple

 

 MTC room

 

 Sister Clark's bed with the creepy bunny from Justin!

(Justin snuck it into her suitcase)

 

Late night vending machine run!

(10:00 is late night)

 



Sister Clark's conference attire

"You guys got to sit on the couch in your PJ's,

I had to wear this becaue it was freezing!"

 

Holy Cow! I can't believe it's p-day again. I can't decide if time is going by fast or slow. I think both. It is really difficult to only be able to write on Mondays. Monday night is when I got the first package and a million letters and it has been super difficult to wait a whole week to respond. But obedience brings blessings. So it will be ok.

 

Monday p-day ended at 5:30. We went to dinner and then we went to class. Brother R was our teacher. He was being really hard on us and we were all struggling so he pulled out his scriptures and showed us Malachi 3:2-3. It talks about refining silver and gold. It's a long, difficult process but in the end the results are worth it. He told us that is why he is being so hard on us. The harder we work now, the better the results will be later. Funny lanuguage moment of the week. In order to get us to learn things we like to play games. So we were having competitions on the board. The phrase was something about I write on Mondays. The verb for to write is Pisati but when you conjugate it you change the a to an e. So Elder S was up at the board and when he conjugated it he didn't change the a to an e. Brother R started cracking up and we couldn't figure out what was going on. Apparently when you don't change the letter instead of writing to write you say to piss (pardon my language). So Brother S wrote I piss on Mondays. Needless to say we all double check our spelling everytime we write that word now.

 

Tuesday was the best food day at the MTC so far. For lunch they had Macaroni and cheese and for dinner they had hot dogs. And to top it off they had chicken strips on Saturday! Awesome! This week I have definitely experienced the rollercoaster of emotions that happens here. Tuesday day was awful. We taught our investigator and it was miserable. We had basically written on our paper exactly what we were going to say to him like a script. We didn't go by the spirit and we were more concerned with saying everything we had written down than saying what he really needed to hear. Needless to say we left the appointment feeling really down on ourselves and feeling like we had completely failed. Tuesday night we had a devotional with Elder Ringwood from the seventy and he lifted our spirits right back up. His talk was on Enduring to the End. He talked about the most important thing is that our investigators can endure to the end. He also talked about how our missions will prepare us to endure to the end. My favorite thing he said was that when we are having a hard day and feel like giving up to picture our family back home kneeling by their beds praying for us. And so that is what I have done the rest of the week when I have a down moment. I know that I have a big support system at home of people praying for me. And as Dad mentioned in one of his letters this week I have a big support system in Heaven of people praying for me and watching over me. As hard as it is to have all of them gone I know it will be a bigger blessing to me know when I need all the help I can get. Most of all though I know I have a loving Heavenly Father who is praying for me and watching over me and with his help I can make it through hard times. And when we have difficult days with our investigators we can use it as a learning experience to make the next appointment better.

 

Wednesday was a much better day. We started out the day with a service activity. We got to clean the bathrooms in the gym. They actually weren't that bad and we actually had fun doing it. Wednesday was a much better day with our investigator too. I guess I should explain the investigator situation. Our teachers play the role of our investigators. They choose people that they taught on their mission and act as if they are them. So they are progressing investigators. Wednesday I decided that all I was going to take in to our appointment with him was a small sheet of paper with a list of words. And as we were in there I went by the Spirit with what I felt he needed to hear and I made up sentences as I went along with the words I had. I can guarantee I had horrible grammar, I can guarantee I pronounced words wrong, and I may have even made up a few words but it went to much better than when I had a prepared script. I was telling the investigator exactly what he needed to hear. I was communicating with him and even though I could only pick out a few words of what he said I could tell he was listening closely to what I was saying. He could feel the spirit, and I could feel the Spirit. I left the room feeling like I really can do this and it will be ok. I am still trying to convince my companions that this is the best way to teach it but they are struggling to have the confidence that they will be able to figure out what to say. I know through the Spirit that we can do it though. So that's our goal for this week. We are all going to take only a few notes in and just go with the Spirit. One thing my Branch President told me this week was Pray like it depends on God, work like it depends on you.

 

Thursday was a good day and not much happened so I am going to skip to Friday. Friday was a super relaxed day. We had a lot of down time just in our classroom studying whatever we wanted to. I was able to use it to study the language which helped a lot and I am learning a ton. I feel like I know a lot for how long I have been here but I still feel like I have a long ways to go. I am picking up on the language fairly quickly. I know I'm not supposed to compare myself to others but it makes me feel really good when I can do better without looking at my notes than some people can while looking at their notes. The language is a difficult one. The nice thing is every letter of the alphabed makes only one sound so when you see it in a word you know exactly how to pronounce it. The hard part is some of the letters make different sounds than they do in English. For example c makes a ts sound and h makes the sound of ch as in Bach the composer. Those are the two hardest letters for me because I always want to say them how they sound in English. But each day I get a little bit better. I know how to sing head shoulders knees and toes in Croatian. We have also started reading the Croatian Book of Mormon in class. I don't really understand it but it is good to help with pronunciation.

 

Saturday and Sunday consisted of Conference and eating. We seriously had breakfast, conference, lunch, conference, dinner, and then Saturday we got to watch the YW broadcast from last week while the Elders watched the Priesthood Session. And Sunday was the same schedule. We got to watch Music and the Spoken Word. And instead of the YW Broadcast an accapella group from BYU came to sing, Vocal Point. They were pretty good and it was fun to just sit and listen. After they had Sunday night movie which was Legacy. it was really funny to listen to the reactions of the missionaries during the movie. You could tell none of us have seen a movie for a long time. Mom asked about what we do on Sundays. I am going to wait and tell you that next week because from last week being Easter and Fast Sunday and this week being conference we haven't had a "normal" Sunday yet. Conference was good. It kinda sucked to have to sit on hard chairs and by the end of last night my rear end was super sore but I definitely paid better attention to conference than I ever have before and I definitely got more out of it. It's hard to say which talk I liked the most because I loved them all! And like I've been told I felt like every talk applied to Missionary Work and directly to me. It was awesome! We did get to watch the inbetween session thing on Sunday because some of the missionaries in the MTC now were in it. It was a little bit hard to watch and made me tear up a bit. The commercials were great though. It's the closest to real TV we have gotten wo we all though it was great! haha! I thought it was super funny that when they would go to break they had in the corner #LDSCONF. I also laughed really hard when Uchtdorf got up to talk and said I am going to tell a story. Let's call the girl Jane. It reminded me of Jordan's story. I don't know if Mom and Lex went to the YW broadcast but the chorister was the crazy lady that gets super into it which made me laugh pretty hard. I noticed that Jordan's mission President got called as an area seventy. I was also not surprised that they changed the YW general Presidency. I also found it interesting that they released the second counselor in the YM but didn't call a new one. I also hope Alexa paid attention to Elder Scott's talk. If she would take his advice and read a verse of scripture everytime she sends a text she would have the whole thing memorized in no time! Haha!

 

Now I will just tell some stories. My first pen ran out of ink last night. It was my journal pen that I had used for awhile before my mission so it wasn't all completely used here. I am actually really good at writing in my Journal. I write multiple pages a night! I am going to try to send my MTC Journal pages home before I leave the MTC.

 

I love my district! Our Elders are awesome! One of them turned 19 this week and the other 2 are 18. It seems so weird that they are younger than me because they don't act like it. Sister M is 21 and Sister P turns 21 this month. Sister R is 19. The rest of them are 20 but they all graduated the year after me. Sister  is probably my favorite. She is crazy but she is funny. Wednesday when the new missionaries come and wear a dork dot and so everyone is constantly saying hi and welcome to the MTC. However, she was saying Zabavno smrt which translates Happy death! And she was saying it as cheerful as can be. And none of the new missionaries or actually no one in the MTC had any idea what she was saying except for us. We thought it was pretty funny. I really just don't know how to explain her. I sit next to her in class and just crack up the entire time. She actually lived in Old Farm last year. I asked her if she knew Jordan and she said she didn't. I told him he lived in building E and her response was oh, that was the hott guy apartment.

 

I have seen sister Barker a few times. It is hard to see her because our meal times don't overlap at all and my classroom is in the building with all the weird languages that only have a handful of missionaries learning the language whereas Portugese is a fairly popular one so it is in a different building. I will probably see Joe Giacalone quite a bit because the Hungarian classroom is right around the corner from mine. I still see Elder Worthen fairly often and I have actually ran into Ryan Tucker a few times. I haven't seen anyone else that I know.  Sister B has started teaching us now and I absolutely love her! She gives us great advice and is super helpful!

 

A few answers to questions. If we are on our floor in the dorm we don't have to be with our companions. So like for bathroom and shower we can go alone. But the second we leave our floor we have to go everywhere with them. They don't have kiwi for breakfast so I have had to go with pineapple. The bagels here are actually super good too so sometimes I have those. As far as shoes though they are good. I rotate between both pairs as well as my boots. As far as Sandals don't worry about them. We can't wear them in the MTC anyway so if I decide I want some I can just get some there. For devotionals and stuff they have us in multiple rooms. There are too many of us to all fit in one room. The only time we get to leave the MTC is when we go to the temple which happens twice a week. Once on P-day and then on Sunday they have temple walks.

 

Well, I'm about out of time! It sounds like things are pretty normal there. Jordan is still lame and doesn't respond to texts. Tyson still doesn't go to school and is still annoying but funny at the same time. Alexa hangs out with her friends a lot- how did you spend hours at the Aquatic Center? Justin is still kinda annoying from what I have heard but I'm not going to lie his letters are my favorite ones to get! I hope you all have a great week! I don't have much more to say so there may not be a hand written letter this week! I love you all and I am praying for all of you!

 

Volim te puno! I love you a lot!

Sestra Clark

 

Shoutouts!

 

Thanks to everyone who sent letters this week! I got them from Justin, Mom, Dad, Tyson, Alexa, Grandpa, Carrie and notes from Brianne and Kaitlin on Carries! I love you all and I love your letters! I am trying my best to respond to them all but just know it may take a few weeks! And yes I got the dear elders you sent on Friday.

 

The easter package was awesome and the treats were awesome! I still have plenty! And thanks Justin for the Lotion and Handsanitizer! The handsanitizer is actually a lifesaver because they have them all over the place here but they are always empty. And they smell delicious!

 

And I did get the package with the doughnuts and had them Friday night. I shared them with my class cause there was no way I could eat a dozen by myself. I thought about saving them until Sunday morning but then decided they probably wouldn't be good by then. This was the first conference in a long time that I didn't have to worry about smelling like grease!

April 1, 2013

Parents & Family:

Sorry I didn’t write you a personal letter but I figured I would write you pretty much the same thing anyway. You can post this on the blog if you want to but you don’t have to. Whatever works!

I am impressed that you posted things from the farewell and hopefully you got the pictures I sent this morning. Dad, thanks for your daily letters! I already look forward to them each day! And Mom thanks for the letters you have sent! I know I have said this already but letters really are the greatest! Even Justin’s two sentence letters make my day! And Tyson’s too for that matter. I think Justin’s are better than Tyson’s so far!

I am just going to write about things I forgot to tell you in my email. Sorry if I repeat stuff.

Language: I have invented a new one. It’s called Spanglation. Whenever I don’t know a word in Croatian I say it in Spanish. For some reason I have foreign language on the brain so instead of English I go to Spanish, it’s great! Our teachers teach us gospel words and how to form words but to learn basic words like colors & numbers and such we do on our own on the computer.

5 in a room isn’t awful but isn’t the greatest because besides beds there are only 4 of everything so we have to share. Our room is me & my companions and then Sister Menjivar from Canada & Sister Pelton from Texas. They are both super nice & easy to get along with. The other Croatian sisters are Sister Erbe from Oregon & Sister Peel from Logan. They are in the room next to us with the Slovenian Sisters Porter, Kovach & Fugal. The Elders speaking Croatian are Fausnaught from Alabama & Stewart from Logan and then Elder Kudro is speaking Slovenian. I’m not sure where he’s from. We all get along great & have a lot of fun together.

 They need more bathrooms here. They have 12 showers on each floor and there are probably around 15 rooms on each floor with 4-6 girls in each. I have started showering at night because the lines are shorter. Plus it makes things easier in the morning since we only have ½ hr. to get ready. I have managed to be ready on time each day though & choose my outfits with no problem! The worst is after gym though because sometimes gym is in the middle of the day & then we only have half an hour after to get ready again. The showers are kind of gross. I always wear shower shoes and have had to get flexible when shaving my legs because I am used to sitting down to do that! Also the shower curtains are an inch too short on each side so people can look through if they really want to.

Letters:  I can only write letters on Mondays until 6. I get an hour to email – it just changed from ½ hr. this week so we got lucky! We get mail twice a day Mon-Fri, once after lunch, where we get real letters that come in the mail & once after dinner, where we get DearElders and package slips. We have to take the slip and go get our own package. We usually don’t get it until the next morning because the post office is closed by the time we get out of class. Saturdays we only get mail once after lunch & its real letters only. Sunday, no letters.

 Lunch is at 12:30 and dinner at 5:30. The food is so-so. I don’t love it but I don’t hate it. I feel like all we do is sit in class & eat. I am never hungry at meal times. Luckily we go to the gym every day so I don’t feel like I have gained any weight. I think I already told you about the gym in my email.

As far as emails, the more I have to read the less time I have to write so the best thing would probably be to write Thursday night with any questions on DearElder. That way I get it Friday and can read it, and then you can write just a quick, short email for me to read on Mondays. But if it’s easier for you to just write Sunday nights that’s fine too. As far as pictures, I ended up having to buy a card reader at the bookstore. It’s one of those things you have where you stick the memory card in one side and it is a USB on the other side. It was only $5 so I figured it was worth it.

 My companions are great; it just gets a little frustrating sometimes because whenever one person has to go to the bathroom we all have to go.  It gets frustrating at times and I am definitely learning patience. They are both really nice though. I think part of it is I am just getting used to not having alone time. I am probably the most outgoing of my companions if that says anything!

I see Elder Worthen quite often. Our meal times overlap. I don’t talk to him for very long, it’s usually just a quick hi. But he seems to be doing great and he always has a big smile on his face!

 Our zone is great! They all have positive attitudes and are full of energy! We have 2 Zone leaders & 2 coordination sisters. Our branch presidency is also super nice! Tell Jordan that they made the no hands in pockets for the Elders too!

P-days are nice. We wake up & go to the temple we have to be there at 7:30. Today was the first time in the temple I think I may have fallen asleep. Oops!  It was just so early and the lights were off. After the temple we do laundry, email, write letters, gym, meals, personal study, etc. whenever we want to. At 5:30 we have dinner and then we are back to class. Laundry isn’t too bad. My companions and I actually combined our laundry today because none of us had enough for our own load.

The most we have class is 2 times a day. They are 3 hour long classes though so they can get kind of boring but we get breaks & do different things and play activities so it isn’t awful. We are starting out learning Croatian but will most likely learn Serbian too. If we know both of those we will be able to figure out Bosnian too. Our teacher, Brother R served in Serbia & has been home for 5 years. He’s a good teacher and knows what he is talking about. Brother F served in the Adriatic North and got home 6 months ago. He’s the one that is super helpful and makes sure we know it before moving on. Our other teacher is Sister B.

OK, I think I have talked about everything I wanted to & hopefully I have answered your questions. If not there’s always next week! I am going to try to send a hand-written letter along with an email each week. That way you will get 2 letters a week & I can tell you more info without worrying about time. We’ll see how it goes though. Also I may have to alternate the email chatting because this week I had you two, Jordan & Tyson and it got a bit confusing.

 I love you lots! Thanks for all the love & support! Volim te! Ask Justin what that means, I told him in his letter. (I LOVE YOU)

Love,
Sestra Clark

Dobra Dan Obitelj! (Good day, family)

 

I can't believe it's finally p-day! This week has been crazy and just like I have heard it is full of ups and downs! I already wrote you all about the first day so in order to save time I will skip right to Thursday. We do get an hour on email now instead of half an hour. They just changed that this week.
 

I just want to start off by saying you guys are the greatest! We didn't get any letters until Friday so when I got themI had 11! My companions have yet to get a letter yet. I feel a little bit bad but not really! I got letters from Carrie, Alex and Nicole, Kylie, Jordan, Tyson, Lexi, Justin, Mom, and a few from Dad. It was great! We get letters twice a day. Once after lunch and once after dinner, so like 1230 and 530.

 

I'm not going to lie, Thursday sucked. It was overwhelming and stressful. We started out by missing gym to go to an immunization thing that ended up being completely pointless. Afterwards we had a workshop called People and Your Purpose. It was actually really good. I don't remember who it was that taught it but he basically just talked about how we can be better missionaries and help the people that we are teaching. He talked a lot about our purpose at missionaries which you can find on Page 1 of Preach My Gospel if any of you are interested in reading it. After the workshop we had personal study time which we did outside which was nice. We also had language study which was kind of pointless because we hadn't even learned anything to study. So we just went over the alphabet. The language is hard. For example there are two c's and they each have a different accent over them. They both sound like ch the only difference is the position of your tongue when you pronounce the word. For example try saying choice and cheap and notice what your tongue does. Ya, it's confusing. At one point we were learning verb endings and we were all confused and frustrated and going stir crazy so we went outside and were walking up and down the sidewalks chanting verb endings. We got a lot of weird looks but we got the verb endings down. Well most of us did at least!

 

I have two teachers right now and we are supposedly going to be getting another one but haven't met her yet. One teacher is Brother R. He knows the language but he isn't very personable and he seems very strict. He isn't very helpful either and can get a little annoyed when you ask questions. Our other teacher, Brother F is awesome! He loves questions and you can honestly tell that he cares about us and how we are doing. Lucky for us he teaches us more than the other teacher. He takes about 5 minutes each class to talk to each of us individually just to make sure we are understanding things correctly and doing ok with our studying.

 

We already have an "investigator" named Marko. Thursday night they told us that we would be teaching him on Friday, in Croatian. That's what made Thursday so stressful. We were super concerned with figuring out what we were going to say and writing it out and practicing it to make sure that we said everything we wanted to. And when we met with him on Friday it didn't go so well. We barely knew what we were saying to him let alone what he was saying back to us. He would ask us a question and we all justed stared at eachother with dumb looks on our face because he talked so fast and they were words we didn't understand. We were so concerned about getting through our script that we had written and it was stressful. When we talked to Brother Freeman about it after he said to remember it's not what you say but how you say it. We taught him again on Saturday and remembered this and things went a lot better. Even though we barely knew anything in Croatian and could only pick out a few things with what he was saying we tried our best to understand and you could feel the Spirit.

 

Easter Sunday was good! They made a big deal about the fact that a General Authority was coming to speak to us! So we lined up an hour and a half early to get into the main room where he was and still ended up being in the overflow room. It ended up being Bishop Causse of the presiding bishopric. It was a bit dissappointing because we were expecting one of the twelve but it ended up being a really good meeting. Although he is foreign so it was a bit difficult to understand. He talked about Missionary work and the Atonement and how they apply. He also talked a lot about Love and how we will instantly feel a love for the people we teach. My favorite line he said is when we meet the Savior we want to be able to say Thanks for all of the blessing you gave me and I tried my best at everything that was given me. We don't want to say Sorry, but I couldn't do it all. Sheri Dew also came to speak to us Sunday night and she talked about the Atonement as well.

 

The thing that is different about Sundays is there is no class. We have devotionals and meetings and then just personal study time. We spent about an hour and a half in our classroom watching mormon messages which was fun! There are 3 elders going to my mission, 2 croatian and 1 slovene and then 10 sisters, 7 croatian and 3 slovene. That is my district. My branch has about 50 missionaries going to my mission, czech, poland, and bulgaria. I think that's all. And there are an even number of elders and sisters in my zone which is the same as my branch.

 

I have learned how to count to 20 in Croatian and I know the days of the week. I can also say a simple prayer and bear a simple testimony. It was amazing on the day that we learned about testimonies. We all went around and bore our testimony and you could feel the Spirit so strongly in the room even though they were all super short and we said pretty much the same thing because that's all we knew you to say. But it was awesome!

 

I am sick of the food already. Yesterday was the first day I was actually hungry when meal time came because it was fast Sunday. They had steak and shrimp for dinner last night. I ate the steak even though I don't like it because I was so hungry. The food is decent but it's not the greatest. Luckily they do have options that you can choose from so that's good. I haven't had chocolate milk at every meal. I mostly just stick to water.

 

It's nice to get a real quick email on p-days but it may be better if you try to send a dear elder that gets to me on Friday and that way I can have time to figure out what I am going to write you and what questions you want answered so that my letter isn't so all over the place like this one is. Sorry this is so jumbled and everywhere. Next week I am going to keep a notebook so I can write down what I want to tell you in my letter so it goes smoother and I don't feel so rushed with the ticking timebomb clock in the corner.

 

Yesterday we got to go on a temple walk which was nice. We walked over there as a zone and took pictures and just hung out there for awhile.

 

About my companions. Sister Rankin is 19 and is from Madison, Wisconsin. Sister Palmer is 20 and from Alpine, Utah.  They are great and super nice! Sometimes it is a bit difficult to have 2 companions and have to keep track of eachother and go everywhere with each other. I'm not going to lie my favorite time of the day is gym time because you don't have to be with your companions. I find a bike or eliptical and do them by myself. And they have tvs playing in the gym. They are church movies but it's still tv so it's great! They have 2 gyms. one has a big floor where you play basketball and stuff and it has a track. The other one has gym equipment. That's the one we usually go to and it is a lot better.
 

Dad mentioned Hannah Russell works here. I haven't seen her yet. If you know where she works let me know and I will try to find her to get messages to you quicker!
 

Sorry this letter is so all over the place and kind of short. I am going to try to write a hand written letter later so if you have any questions that I didn't answer send me a quick dear elder because then I should be able to read that before sending a letter. Hopefully! I am also going to try to send some pictures but if I can't figure it out then I will ask someone how they do it and send those next week.
 

I am learning a lot! And I am loving it! There were a few days where I felt like I was on a sinking ship but I think I'm back a float now. I know that this is going to be hard and it is going to suck sometimes but there is no place I would rather be right now. Right now 18 months seems like a long time but I know it is going to go by fast! Hopefully by then I will actually know how to speak Croatian because right now I feel like it will never come. But I know that through the spirit and relying on the Lord I can do anything! Thanks for all your love and support! I love you all!
 

Love, Sestra Clark
 

Shoutouts!
 

Thanks to everyone who sent a letter this week! Keep them coming. When I was reading my letter my companion told me she had never seen me smile so big. And it's true! They made me so happy!

 

 

Happy Birthday to Heidi this week! I was going to say it in Croatian but forgot to write it down and bring it so you can look forward to that next time!

 Croatian speaking sisters

 

 MTC District-all going to Adriatic North

 

 Missionary nametag!

 

 Sister Rankin & Sister Clark

 

Sister Clark & Sister Palmer

 MTC weekly schedule

 

Croatian class