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