Mission Moments

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!