Almost September, Crazy!

Happy Monday...can you believe it is almost September. Crazy! We had another good week this week!

 

Monday...after pday we found an apartment building that we decided to tract. It was so bad that it was funny. No one would talk to us. They wouldnt even let us say hi before they closed the door. Thats how bad it was. Every door. But luckily we were in a really good mood that we just laughed about it. but...the very last door of the building a girl answered the door. She was 19. She was so nice! She invited us in and we talked to her. She didnt seem very interested in hearing about the church but I think if we continue working with her we can get there...we will get there!

 

Tuesday...We met with B in the morning which was the same as every week. We had district meeting and then we had an appt with some members. We decided we were going to teach them about the Restoration even though they have probably heard it a million times and it went really well. We were in their home that is not very well kept, they are members that we know have areas where they can improve but as we talked about the Restoration of the Gospel and asked them questions and had them tell us about it we could feel the Spirit. A few weeks ago when President Rowe was visiting he told us that we should be teaching members exactly as if they were investigators. We teach them the lessons that we teach to investigators. As we have done this the past few weeks we have seen great things happen and have had great lessons with the members.

 

Tuesday night was English. I love teaching English. We are using the program that we have been given to use but I adapt it a bit to adjust to the students. The lesson this week was learning numbers and colors which the students all know. So I decided we were going to do math with the numbers...like times tables, with the colors I taught colors rather than just the rainbow colors such as magenta lavendar, etc. and then we were going to work on pronunciations. Croatians have a hard time saying the th sound. They say it as a t. So instead of saying three they say tree. So I taught them how to make the th sound and made them say it over and over again. I also showed them how I cant roll an r so they wouldnt feel bad and it was great. By the end of the class we were all laughing at each other because we cant pronounce them. So I told them to go home and practice and I would test them on it next time. I also told them that I would practice rolling my rs. And apparently they are better practicers than me because I still cant roll my rs and everyone of them can say th now.  I have been practicing rolling my rs for 5 months now...I will get there. We have one English student who is an older woman who has been coming to English for awhile now. She walked in the door on Thursday and had a big grin on her face and walked up to me and said three thousand three hundred thirty three...and got all of the ths. She was so proud of herself! Not only am I loving English class the students are too. Every class they all come up and tell me thank you and that they are learning a ton. It really is great!  We are getting more and more students. Our students have almost doubled what we had last transfer between the two classs.

 

Wednesday...on Sunday we went to see a former investigator and she had guests over on Sunday and so we set up a time to meet with her on Wednesday. We went to her house and she had forgot about it and was heading out the door so we set up a time to come back later in the day.  We went back and she wasnt home.

 

Wednesday we also did Personal Progress. I love doing it! This week we read some conference talks on Faith. Friday for Aktivnost we were having a music night and wanted the members to be involved in it too so I taught Anna (the Young Woman) that duet on the piano that everyone knows and we played it together. She loved it! I have loved seeing the change in her these past few weeks. She comes to church every Sunday, she reads the Book of Mormon, she comes each week for Personal Progress and she is so excited to learn and is taking it all in. It really is great!

 

After meeting with her we had a meeting with the Prestons. We are starting a Family History class and so they had to give us training on how to do it...it was pretty pointless because I have taken Family History classes and know how to do it but whatever.

 

While tracting on Monday we knocked on a door and a nun answered. We were really caught off guard by it and my companion said to her Im sorry we didnt realize this was a church. She said no this is my apartment. We were super nice to her and she was nice too but after a few minutes she looked at us, pointed at her outfit and said obviously we dont really have anything more to discuss and shut the door. Last transfer Sister Mortensen always wanted to talk to a nun. Now I can say I have. She obviously wasnt interested in talking to us at all but she was super nice about it.

 

Here is our super funny story of the week. I hope that it is as funny for you as it was for us because we seriously laughed about it for days. Sometimes we still laugh about it. There were a few nights that I would think about it while falling asleep and start laughing. And Im not just talking about laughing a little...it was the serious Suzy laugh with tears and all. Anyway...we were sitting on the tram and an older woman got on so we said hi to her. She then came and stood right by us and said "tourists". We responded in Croatian that we were missionaries and what we were here doing. She did not speak English very well but she was determined that she was going to speak in English...so we were very patient with her and let her do it but we spoke in Croatian.  She was very hard to understand. We talked to her for a little bit and asked her about herself. We asked her if she had any kids and she paused for a minute and then said "Son and Doctor, and little boy from doctor". We then asked her where she was headed to and what she was doing. She paused for a few minutes and thought really hard about it and then responded "house". We talked for a little longer but I dont remember what else she said and then we got to her stop.  Here is the best part. She started walking down the stairs, stopped, turned around, and looked at us with a super confident face and said "cheese" and then turned and walked off the bus. Yes, she said cheese. I have no idea what she was trying to say...mabe bye or peace or I dont know. My companion said my look I gave her was a complete blank stare of what did I just hear. And that is exactly how I was feeling. It probably doesnt sound that funny but trust me...it was. In fact I am laughing as I am typing it right now. Good times.

 

Thursday we went to visit a member who lives about an hour away from Osijek in Vukovar. We have been trying to set up an appointment with her for awhile but she would never commit so we decided to just go. We got there and she was so happy to see us. She invited us in and we talked to her for a little bit. She has cancer and had just got out of the hospital for treatment. Her husband was home as well. He went in the kitchen and got a plate and put "candy" on it for us. They were really cough drops. But they were so nice and so happy to see us and told us to come back and visit!

 

We also had a lesson with S on Thursday. He had a lot of questions for us so we ended up just talking about those and helping him learn the answers. He told us that he knows for sure this is it and that he wants to be baptized but he needs to learn more first and we learned of a few concerns that we need to help him with first. But Im ok with taking things slow if it means it will help him Endure to the End after baptism. But he still comes to church every Sunday and he loves it and he loves learning about the Gospel. He always listens to what we say and then comes back with questions. We have a few concerns with him as well so we are trying to get those taken care of before pushing forward too far. But I know that it will all work out when it is supposed to.

 

Friday...ok here is our biggest miracle story of the week. So a week ago Friday we were tracting in a building and a guy answered the door and told us he didnt have a Book of Mormon and he needed one...Im pretty sure I told you about this last week. Anyway...I woke up Friday morning and felt like we needed to go back there. So I told Sister Frampton and she was a little hesitant and thought we should wait a little longer but we went anyway. We got to his door and his wife answered. We asked for him and she went and got him and he invited us inside. He had us sit down and then grabbed his Book of Mormon and told us sorry Im a little bit of a slow reader so I have only read half of the book. Half. Half of the Book of Mormon in one week.  He had been reading it to his wife too. So we decided to give them the first lesson. We started and got a few minutes in and he stopped us and proceeded to tell us the entire Joseph Smith Story. He then proceeded to tell us about the first half of the Book of Mormon. Not only had he read it but he had understood what he read. His wife had been in the hospital and just got out the day before and they were leaving the next morning to go out of town so if we had waited any longer they wouldnt have been home when we went. He told us that he would finish the Book and we could come back at the end of next week and talk more about it. My companion and I were both in shock. We could not belive what was happening. A lot of the members here probably havent even read the entire Book of Mormon. And here this man has read half of it in one week...and understands it. I havent even read the Book of Mormon that fast. Im not 100% sure what their names are...we asked them twice but we were so in shock that neither of us could remember. We will be going back this week to see if he finished it.

 

After visiting them we did some tracting and found a lady that let us in. She said she had talked to the missionaries a few years ago. We were only able to talk to her for a few minutes but we are going to go back this week again. After we went to visit one of our members who is in a Home. We took hymn books and sang with her and some of the other people there with her.

 

Friday night Aktivnost was great! We did a music night. We sang primary songs together and then Sister Frampton played the guitar and I played the piano.  They loved it! After we had ice cream sundaes...I made hot fudge and the members LOVED it. I am getting pretty creative with my cooking. The recipe I brought for hot fudge calls for sweet and condensed milk which they dont have here. I found a recipe in one of the cook books in our aparment to make sweet and condensed milk but I couldnt find everything it needed. So I just made up the recipe as I went along and it turned out great. We also made Hawaiian haystacks this week without cream of chicken soup. I just made up the recipe as I went along. I couldnt duplicate it again but it turned out good.

 

Saturday...we cleaned the church and then I had to do a zone conference call with the other district leaders and zone leaders. The Prestons were then going over to the Elders apartment to clean. The Elders supposedly cleaned it before they left but I dont think they really did. We asked the Prestons if they wanted help and they said it would be great. So we went.  Im glad we did because we were there for 3 hours and it could still be cleaner. It was disgusting. I cleaned the bathroom...thats all I did. The toilet was disgusting. It was worse than cleaning a toilet after Justin and his friends use it. There was seriously caked on urine. Im pretty sure it hasnt been cleaned for a long time if ever. It was disgusting. Sister Preston and I have decided we have done our share of cleaning apartments after missionaries.

 

Saturday night we had a lesson with V and S...they are a couple that I met with once last transfer but are really hard to set up appointments with. They are very nice but I dont think they are interested in learning about the church. We asked them what they expected to learn from us and they wouldnt give us an answer. They arent keeping commitments, half the time we cant even set up appointments with them, they have never come to church, and they dont read the Book of Mormon between visits. They are very nice and listen to what we have to say I just dont think they are interested. So we are going to give them a break for now. They speak and understand English but we still speak Croatian to them. When Sister Frampton finds out that someone speaks English she automatically stops trying to speak Croatian and switches to English...which isnt good. So I have started correcting her. Every time she starts speaking English I turn to her and say Croatian and make her start over. I think I said it about twenty times in the lesson with them. I think it started to get really annoying but the only way she is going to improve is if she tries. So even on the streets when someone says they speak English I turn to her and say Croatian and make her try in Croatian even if it doesnt make sense or takes longer and it is helping.

 

Saturday night we had an appointment set up with N and V but when we got there N was asleep. Our lesson was aimed more towards him so we werent sure exactly what to teach. Sister Frampton opened up her Book of Mormon and she had the Living Christ in it so I said lets read and discuss that. So we did. We read it and talked about Christ and the Atonement. V had never even heard of it before and was really excited about it. Afterwards she asked us "So Christ is going to come again?" We responded yes. and she asked when. So we explained to her that we dont know when we just know that He will and that we need to be prepared for when he does come. She has been a member for almost 6 months now and didnt even know that Christ will come again. Thats why it is so important to teach our investigators and even our members the Doctrine so that they have that foundation and know these things.

 

Last week when we met with V she had just cleaned out her closet and had a pair of shoes that she wanted me to have. They were a little small but I didnt want to offend her so I took them. So I decided since we were going to visit her I would wear them. So right before we got to her apartment I changed shoes and I changed them the second we got out.  I didnt even have them on for an hour and most of that time we were sitting and I got a blister from them. They made me really grateful for my shoes...even though they arent super attractive they dont give me blisters. And V didnt even realize that I was wearing them.

 

Sunday...church went well. I got to talk and I did it all in Croatian and didnt even have to write everything down that I said. I also played the piano so I went from Piano to talking and back to piano. One of the members told me after that my talk was really good and he understood everything and it was grammatically correct which made me really excited!

 

We had kids at church on Sunday so we taught Primary. We taught about Prophets and taught them the Latter Day Prophets song to learn all of the Prophets.

 

Sunday it was pouring rain. It actually is pouring rain today too. It makes tracting a little interesting. Especially since last night Sister Frampton forgot her umbrella so we had to share one. Im not sure if I like the extreme heat or the pouring rain better.

 

Last week D had told me it was her Birthday on Sunday. But apparently I misheard her and it was her Grandsons birthday...not hers. But we went over and took her a Birthday card. Luckily she just laughed about it. We decided since we were there we would teach her a lesson. We asked her if she had prayed about the Book of Mormon and she told us that she hadnt and she doesnt believe in it. I asked her why and she said because the people in it are different than the Bible. I asked her what she needed to do to believe in the Book of Mormon and know that it was true.  She said read it and pray about it. She said she would do it but she has said that the past 3 weeks and hasnt yet.

 

We are still surviving here...we are trying to stay dry while we are out and about all day. We are super busy and are always on the go but I love it! I am learning so much and as we focus on the positive and stay happy good things are happening and we are seeing results from our efforts and people are making progress. And when things arent going exactly how we want them to we just laugh and press forward until something good happens!

 

I hope that you all have a great week!

Sestra Clark

 

 

Shoutouts

 

Emails from Mom Dad Grandpa and Lex

 

Sretan Rođendan Chris

 

Good luck to all of you starting school this week!

 

Tyson...I am expecting an email from you next week to hear where you get your call to. Even if that is all you say in it because I know how much you love to write emails.