Well...I have officially survived a full week in Croatia. I think I am finally over the jetlag and starting to figure out how things work around here. Its been a bit of a crazy week but it has been good. I am learning more and more every day. I am doing things every day that I never would have even thought of doing before. I still dont understand most of what people say to me but for the most part I can figure out the basics of what they are saying so I know how to respond. Or maybe I completely dont understand what they are saying and my answers make absolutely no sense to them. Either way I am trying.
This week has been good. Last week for pday we went to the zoo. The Elders came with us as well as a few of the members. It was fun. We walked to the zoo and Im pretty sure it took us longer to walk there than we were actually there. Monday night when pday ended we went to one of our recent converts house for FHE. We took the branch President with us. He is awesome. Unfortunately, he has left Osijek for the Summer to go work. But he will be back. He just left a few days ago so we are trying to figure out how to run things without him while he is gone. Elder P who is the senior missionary is filling in for him while he is gone. The only problem is he doesnt speak any Croatian so we have to have a translator which is difficult. But we are making things work. Anyways back to the recent convert. She was baptized last transfer. She is great. She loves when we come visit her. She always waits outside for us and then gives us juice and cookies. Yes I havent had anything to drink besides water for a good couple of years but they drink a lot of juice here and when we go to lessons they always offer it so I have started drinking it. Still no carbonation though. We meet with her about once a week and either read a chapter in the Book of Mormon or talk about one of the new member lessons with her.
Tuesday was a crazy day. We had a full day planned. Everything fell through but we still managed to stay busy all day and we were running around all day. We taught our first English class (well my first English class) on Tuesday. We teach the advanced class so most of the students know English well and can hold conversations so it is hard to figure out what to teach. We only have a handful of students who come to English so we are trying to spread the word more and get more people to come.
On Wednesday we made palačinke with some of the members and less actives at the church. Palačinke means pancakes but it is pretty much a crepe. It was good because we had some of the less actives come and we met with them in a not so serious situation and just talked to them. And one of them actually came to church on Sunday after it so it was good! Wednesday night we had a lesson with an investigator but she called and cancelled at the last minute. So we decided to go check on some former investigators. Our branch really needs a family. We dont have any one that is a full family mom, dad and kids so we decided we were going to go find one. We knocked on one door and no one answered. We decided to stay in that area and go tracting. It was my first time tracting because we had only done contacting up to that point. We knocked on several doors and people either didnt answer or shut the doors. We looked at our list of former investigators and saw a name that we felt like we should go to. It was pretty far from where we were but decided to go anyway. Due to our lack of knowing the area well we missed the tram stop that we were supposed to get off at. We got off at the next one and decided rather than walking back to the other one that we would just stay there and tract. We knocked on a few doors with no luck. We walked a little bit farther and saw a house with a stroller in front. We looked at eachother said family and walked up to the door. We knocked on the door and a man answered holding a baby. We gave a power statement and talked for a minute and he said a few things that I didnt understand and next thing I know he was telling us to come in. We were both super shocked and didnt know what to do from there. My companion said all of last transfer she only got let into a house while tracting once. We went in and his wife was there and they have 3 kids. It was about 830 and they were getting their kids ready for bed so we only talked to them for a few minutes but we made a return appointment to go back. We went back Saturday night and taught them the first lesson. It went well and they seemed to accept it. He said that he used to be Catholic and that he actually wanted to be a Priest but he had lost Faith. He said that he was willing to try out religion again though. This was a really cool experience. We were led to this house for a reason. We got off on the wrong bus stop for a reason. The Lord works in mysterious ways and when we follow the promptings of the Spirit we will be led where we need to go when we need to go even though we may not understand why.
Thursday was a good day. We had a day full of lessons. We went from one lesson to the next all day and it went really well. One of our lessons was with an investigator named M. He is so close to baptism. We think that he knows that he needs to be baptized but he has been Catholic his entire life and is having a hard time giving up some of his former traditions and how other people are taking it. He takes in what we say and asks really good questions that show us that he is listening and thinking about what we are telling him. He has a really good head on his shoulders and is exactly what our branch needs.
Friday for service we went to a dog shelter. You all know how much I love dogs so Im sure you can guess how excited I was for this. It was miserable. It was loud, and it smelled bad, and there were mosquitos and bugs everywhere, and I dont like dogs. Im hoping this week we can find another way to do service because I dont like animals. But I did do it with a good attitude and didnt complain.
Friday for aktivnost we were in charge. We played minute to win it. It was actually my companions idea. She brought it up and said it would be fun to do something like that but since we dont have access to internet and cant look up the games they play we couldnt do it. I however, know a lot of the games from memory due to how many times we have played it so we grabbed various items from around the house and the church and made it work. They all seemed to enjoy it a lot. It was a little interesting trying to explain each game in Croatian because I didnt know most of the words but it worked and it turned out good.
Saturday we played Soccer. Its a good way to get people to come and get to know them and gradually work into talking about the church because then they are more accepting of it. Even though I am a horrible soccer player it actually ended up being a lot of fun.
Sunday I got to talk in church. They had told me about it before hand so I had time to prepare which was good. I was going to have one of the members read over it before hand to make sure it made sense but I didnt have time. So I just went with it. They were surprised that I had done it all on my own. They told me the grammar was good and that they understood it. The pronunciation on the other hand needs some work. Which I already knew so I am working on that. I still cant roll my rs so if anyone has some tips on how to do that I would appreciate it. I have told the members and the other missionaries that when I say something wrong to correct me. They have been good at doing that which has helped. I still feel like I dont know the language at all but it is getting better every day. My companion and I are going to start SYLing 24/7 starting tomorrow. We are going to take it one day at a time and see how it goes. We think it will help us a lot with pronunciation, grammar, words, understanding, etc. So hopefully it does. Because most of the time I feel pretty lost as to what is being said around me. I have to really focus in on what people are saying and if they talk to fast I am completely lost.
The Senior couple that we have here are amazing. They got here about a month before I got here. They dont speak any Croatian but they are trying. Now that they have been here for a little bit they have some good ideas to help make the branch here stronger and how to improve things. They had us and the Elders over for dinner yesterday. It was nice to have a home cooked meal. We actually do pretty good at cooking meals. We try to cook one meal a day. We usually do it around 3 and just do a late lunch/early dinner and then just take snacks with us for the rest of the day. We have made some good things using the recipe book I brought. Sometimes it is interesting because we have to make substitutions but so far everything has turned out pretty good.
There are mosquitos here really bad and I have bites everywhere. But its great. Jordan was placing bets on how long I would keep doing my hair. Whoever guessed less than a week wins. I have officially given up on it. I do it and within five minutes of walking out the door it is crazy from the humidity and it ends up in a ponytail. But its great.
The money here is Kuna. However it is switching to the Euro in July sometime. I think that 5 dollars is about 1 Kuna although I could be wrong on that.
I sent my address to mom in another email so look at that so I dont have to type it again. You can send mail here its just better to send it to the mission office. I explained that to mom as well.
The weather hasnt been too bad until lately. It was a pretty good temperature. But it is starting to get really hot and really humid. Last night there was actually a really bad thunder storm. We had the blinds closed and curtains and every time there was lightening our entire room looked like we had turned the light on. And it did it about every 30 seconds for a good 45 minutes. It was actually kind of cool but a bit frightening.
Funny language story for the week. I sat next to a lady in church. And I didnt understand a word she was saying. So I just did my smile and nod and say da (yes). Apparently what she told me on Sunday was that I needed to wear tights (they dont like that we wear skirts and no tights and that our legs are bare, but wearing tights would be miserable with this humidity) and she also told me that she wanted to set me up with her son. And apparently I agreed with everything she said even though I didnt understand it. So apparently I cant just nod and say yes to everthing.
Well...I think thats all for today and I think Ive answered all of your questions! I hope you all have a fabulous week! I am really glad to be here. And even though I dont understand everything and I cant speak much I am trying my hardest and improving every day. My companion is great and she helps me learn so much! I hope you all have a great week!
Love you lots!
Sestra Clark
Shoutouts!
Thanks for the emails from Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Lex, and Kylie (as a side note I havent heard from any of my brothers for probably a good month ...hint hint)
Congratulations to Tyson on graduating both high school and seminary. For awhile there I wasnt sure if you would make it. Also good luck with your new roommate. Dad sent me the picture and it looks a bit creepy.
Good job to Lex on getting rid of Bustin Jieber. It must have been hard for you but Im glad you did it.
I hope life is going great for everyone else. Love you all lots!
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