Happy Monday everbody! I hope that you have all had a great week! Things here are going well. The best news is the weather here this week has been amazing! After the few weeks of extreme hot it was much needed. It was in the 70s all week and the humidity wasnt bad. And there was a breeze most days. There were a few days that it was even cold enough that I had to wear a sweater. But I didnt complain one bit because I know that it wont stay for long.
Monday...We had Aktivnost on Monday because we were in Bosnia on Friday. Since Sister Madsen was here we decided to do a bigger one than usual so we cooked hamburgers and had food and played games. And it was awesome! We had at least 40 people there if not more (members and investigators). And everyone was talking to everyone and everyone played games together. It was really good and really fun to be able to talk to everyone!
Tuesday...We had a lesson with M because Sister Madsen wanted to meet him and his family. We talked with him and asked him a lot of questions about what he knew and what he understood and how he feels when we are with him or when he comes to church, etc. He told us how much he enjoys reading the Book of Mormon. We werent going to bring up baptism because we feel like we bring it up so much and we dont want to seem pushy with him. We want it to be his choice on his timing. But like last time he brought up baptism again and started talking to us about it. So we had a really good discussion with him talking about the importance of baptism and through repentance he can be rid of the guilt he is feeling in his life. We had a really good discussion with him and kind of let him lead it by asking us questions of things he was concerned about and then we would answer them. It was a really good lesson and the Spirit was so strong. After the lesson Sister Preston told us that it was a really good lesson and she wasnt just saying it to make us feel good. She said it really was good. We still dont have a baptismal date but we are getting closer. And how we get to a baptismal date is more important than when we do. it is going to take some time but we really want to make sure that he feels ready and that it is his decision and he doesnt feel like we are pushing it on him.
Wednesday...was a great day! I woke up and did my normal routine (exercise, get ready, studies, etc.) Sister Mortensen made me Palačinke for breakfast which was delicious. We then had to go to the MUP (police station) as well as the health center (Croatia has universal healthcare so everyone is required to sign up for it even if you dont need it) to work on getting things set for my Visa. All of the paperwork is done and so I should have my permanent Visa within a few weeks. Right now I just have a temporary one. We got Kebab for lunch with is like a bread/roll that is filled with meat and vegetables and sauce. It is really good. After we had 3 lessons that we went to and they all went really well. We went tracting for a few hours and got let in once and got a return visit for the next day at another house. The house we got let into was a really nice lady. She is a hindu that studies religion. She didnt seem very interested in learning more though which was disappointing. After Sister Mortensen told me that she wanted to go check up on someone that she had met last transfer who worked at Hotel Osijek which is a really nice hotel with a nice restaurant in it. I didnt think much of it so we went there and instead of finding the person we found the Elders and the Senior Couple for a surprise birthday dinner! Which was fun! Dinner was delicious! The Elders gave me a Croatian Bible and some chocolate and the Senior Couple gave me a chocolate bar as well. After dinner we started heading home and got an ice cream cone on the way home. So it was a good day! It didnt really feel very different and I dont feel any older but it was a good day! Also thanks for the presents...I waited until my actual birthday to open them and they were great!
Friday we got to watch the broadcast on missionary work. Im sure most of you have either seen it or heard about it so I wont go into too much detail. It was really cool to watch. They really are hastening missionary work. It will be interesting to see how they make everything work and how soon we get it here. I would bet they will start the programs in the states and we probably wont have it here for awhile. The talks were also really good. I wish I had my notes with me to tell you the things I liked but I forgot them. They talked a lot about member missionary work and that is what we are going to try to work on a lot with our branch to help them be missionaries and to share the gospel and to help in this work. I think that if we can even get one member to bring someone else into the church it will encourage others to do it as well. We had an impromptu district meeting after the broadcast and came up with a lot of good ideas on how we can help members to do this and so hopefully they will work and we will be able to help strengthen the branch.
Friday we also went to see a less active member. She has been a member for over ten years but got offended by another member a few years ago and hasnt been to church since and wont have any contact with the missionaries. She wont answer phone calls and she has a peep through in her door and whenever she sees that it is missionaries she wont open the door. So there has been no contact with her or any of her family for years. We decided that since we were both new missionaries and she wouldnt recognize that we would go try to talk to her. When we got to the door they actually opened it! Which we werent expecting because they havent even opened the door for missionaries before. She wasnt home but her husband was so we talked to him for a few minutes and left a note for her and we are going to try to go back this week and hopefully be able to talk to her.
Friday night we had Aktivnost. We had a great idea to carve watermelon. The Croatians didnt like this idea too much. They did it but werent very excited about it.
Saturday...We went to E and J house. This is the mother and daughter. We had a lesson planned but it was geared toward the daughter and she wasnt home when we went so we decided not to give our lesson. E was home so we just went in and started talking to her. She talked about some problems she is having right now and so we opened up the Book of Mormon and read a chapter with her. We talked about that even through her struggles she is never alone and that through Christ and his Atonement she can recieve help and strenth in her life all she has to do is ask. She started crying and told us how grateful she was that we had come. She told us how much she appreciates knowing that we truly care for her and how we bring her strength and say exactly what she needs when she needs it. She is usually one of the ones that I have a really hard time understanding but sitting in this lesson I was able to understand everything that she said. We left her house and I just felt so good. It was one of those times that I just had a smile on my face and it was an ah ha moment of I can do this. We were led by the Spirit as to what to talk to her about and I know that it was only through the Spirit that I was able to understand what she was saying to us.
Saturday we also had a lesson with an investigator named D and her boyfriend N. She is an atheist and she is really hard. She asks us questions that cause us to have to think and have to search for answers which is good. Right now we are having a hard time getting her to have the desire to change and accept religion in her life but everytime we leave we feel like we need to go back because there is something there she just isnt willing to try yet.
Saturday night we played soccer. It was fun but it was really long. We played for over 2 hours. And I am not a fan of soccer. But we had some less actives come so it was good to see them and get in contact with them.
Sunday....We had a surprise visit from President Babić who is the district president of Croatia. And of course he came on a day when no one else decided to come to church. We only had 13 members at church on Sunday and then there were only around 20 total. But it was a good meeting. Sister Preston talked in sacrament meeting and talked about the importance of scripture study and how much of a difference it can make in your life. She did a really good job of speaking to the members. For Priesthood/Relief Society the District Relief Society President taught. She did a good job but she talked about visiting teaching and it was geared towards the sisters and we probably had more men there than women. But it was still really good and at the end she tried to tie in home teaching as well so I think it ended up being good.
Sunday night we had a lesson with D. She is an investigator that has been taught all of the lessons multiple times and has even had a baptismal date before I got here but backed out because she didnt feel ready. This week we were able to get down to what her real concerns were so hopefully we will be able to help her resolve them and have the desire to be baptized. The only problem is she wants someone specific to baptize her and he cant come until October and she is set on having him baptize her so right now we are focusing on helping her to resolve her concerns and staying in contact with her.
Today for pday we rented bikes and rode them out to Kopački Rit which is a swampland about 6 kilometers from Osijek. It was a lot of fun and was a really cool place to go. We were hoping to see some wildlife but other than birds and a few frogs we didnt see anything but it was still cool. I will send you some pictures of it.
The exciting news for this week. First, our mission was able to make the goal of having over 10000 invites to church in the month of June. And we even saw results from our efforts. Also we just got an email today from President Rowe saying that Montenegro is being added to our mission on July 28. So it will be interesting to see what happens with next transfers. I dont even know what language they speak there.
I cant really think of any good stories for this week. We are still keeping super busy. We have found a new apartment that we will be moving into in the next couple of weeks as soon as we get contracts and stuff worked out. We are still having a losing battle with members when it comes to opening windows and turning on the air conditioning for church (wouldnt want anyone hurting themselves from having air blow on them). I still love it here. I love the members. I love our investigators. I love the other missionaries I am working with. Things are going great and hopefully we continue to progress and to help our investigators and members progress. The language is still a work in progress but it is coming. In our lesson with M this week (he speaks really good English but we still speak to him in Croatian. We speak in Croatian and he responds in English because he wants to practice it) I said something and he looked at me and said your Croatian is really good. Which gave me a boost to keep trying to do better. I am improving and I can understand more and more everyday and I learn new words everyday. My biggest problem is still the grammar. I know a lot of words I just cant speak grammatically correct but it is getting better. Elder Mulder who goes home after this transfer tells me that I know more words than he does. Im not so sure about that but there have been a few times when he didnt know a word and I did know it. The only difference is he can speak fluently and understand people. So if I can just continue to put all the words I know to use and continue to work on my proununciation hopefully oneday in the near future I will be able to communicate with people.
I love you all! Thanks for everything! I hope that you all have a great week and that you are all doing well!
Volim vas!
Sestra Clark
Shoutouts!
Thanks for emails from Alexa, Chris, Carrie, Mom, Dad and Grandpa
Sretan rođendan to Trisha this week!
I hope you all have a great fourth of July this week!
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