Pictures

 Dunja fruit

 

 All the Dunja they picked

 

 Sister Clark & Nikola

 

 This man they met on the Drava wanted his picture taken with them

 

 English class

 

 Painted fingernails

 

 They ordered a very large pizza

 

The leftovers didn't fit in the fridge



Happy October...almost‏

Happy Monday...can you believe that tomorrow is October 1? I cant. Except for the fact that the weather is getting colder so I can tell winter is coming. I am seriously freezing all the time. But I am always freezing so I guess I should have expected it. But I will survive the winter...with layers and layers of clothing. This week has been a good week though.

 

Monday...we had FHE scheduled with a family in the branch but they called and cancelled on us at the last minute. So we decided to go check up on some potentials that we had found a few weeks ago just to see if they were interested. So we went to visit J and S. They let us in and were very nice. They fed us food and then we talked to them about the Book of Mormon. We shared some scriptures with them. They told us they werent interested. We asked them if they had anyone that would be interested and they told us that we should keep our books because no one they knew would want to read or learn about it. We were a little disappointed but at least we know that they arent ready now.

 

Tuesday...we read with B and then we had district meeting. During District Meeting we were talking about people that the Prestons needed us to go with to visit this week and they wanted to go out and visit N. So Sister Preston called him to ask if we could come visit him that week.  H insisted that we needed to come right now because he needed help picking fruit. So we finished district meeting and headed out to his house.  W picked fruit and talked with him. The fruit we picked is called Dunja in Croatian...it translates to Quince in English but it is nothing I have ever seen or heard of in my life.  We ound out the hard way that you cant eat them plain but you have to cook them in a compote and add lots of sugar...they dont taste very good plain. But we seriously picked probably 100 pounds of Dunja.  Ten we brought them back and gave them to the members because that is what N told us to do.

 

After we had an English lesson with a girl named P. She had called and asked us if we could do pivate lessons and since we were doing them with someone else we couldnt tell her no. So we told her the requirements and what they would entail and she agreed and we went out to her house. Her whole family was there and she has 4 siblings. We taught her English which was like banging my head on the wall. Sister Frampton had lost patience within five minutes...I was able to keep calm and finish it but it was difficult. She said that she has been taking English for 8 years but I am pretty sure I knew more Croatian when I entered the MTC than she knows English now. We told her to count for us and she couldnt make it to 20.  Thn we went over question words...who, what, where, when and why. We would practice one for 5 minutes and then move on to the other one and then I would go back to the first one and she couldnt remember it. It was serious torture. She also needed some help with her homework so we did that and even when I explained it in Croatian she didnt understand it. Frustrating. Anyway...after we told her that we had a message to share with her family. So they all sat down and listened to us. We had a really good discussion with them but they told us they had their faith and they werent interested in learning about the Gospel. So we will see if we continue to do these English lessons. At one point the Dad wanted to talk but instead of just talking to us in Croatian he was trying to get her to translate it for us. She couldnt do it. But I could understand his Croatian. After that we had English classes at the church which went well. Our English classes are doing awesome! We have so many students and they love it. We have a new student almost every class which is great!

 

Wednesday we decided to try something different and we went around to local businesses and places all around Osijek asking them to put up flyers for English classes, etc. We talked to a lot of nice people and got a lot of people to put flyers up and we are hoping that they will help. We also had the Family History class which went really well. I was on a computer helping one of the members input his family information into family tree. He is the first member in his family so none of his information was on there. It was so cool to do it. The second he would enter a name in the little temple icon would pop up. The first time it did it I made him click on it and I was like see now you can go do all of that for them...I think I was more excited about it than he was. It really was making me so excited and it made me miss the temple. He has got a lot of work to be done and I am excited for him to be able to go to the temple and do work for his family members. It was a little interesting trying to type Croatian names in using an English keyboard because we were on the Prestons laptop but we used our good friend copy and paste and made it work.

 

Thursday...we went with the Prestons to translate a meeting for them at a care center where the church is donating appliances to some apartments so that some of the people living in the care center can be in their own apartments. Afterwards we went and visited L...she is a woman that let us into her house a few weeks ago and we have kept trying to meet with her again but she says that she is busy. So we decided to just go show up. She was really nice about it. She wouldnt let us in but she came out and talked with us. She said she has been reading the Book of Mormon but hasnt been able to read it how she really wants to because she is going through some difficult times in her life right now. She said that she thinks about us all the time and that her daughter asks about us often. We read a scripture with her and encouraged her to read from the Book of Mormon and that if she does it with a sincere desire it will help her through her trials in life.

 

Friday was a bit of a stressful day. We got transfer calls Friday morning. Nothing is changing here. Sister Frampton and I are both staying in Osijek and we arent getting another set of missionaries yet.  We are happy about it. We also had to go with the Prestons to translate with them for a meeting and then Elder Preston gave me some papers that he needed translated for his lesson on Sunday. It kind of turned into a week of translating for me. I had one of our English students ask me to translate something for him and he asked really rude and said your Croatian isnt very good and you probably wont be able to translate this but will you try. So I had to do it just to prove to him that I could. And I did it. I think he was in shock.

 

Friday night we had Aktivnost. We did a bunch of brain teaser type games and it ended up being a lot of fun...I like those type of things though!

 

Saturday...we went with the Prestons to visit an inactive member who lives in Zupanija which is about an hour away from Osijek. We have tried calling her several times but she never answers so we decided to just go. We went out there and she wasnt home but we left a note so at least she knows that we tried and we are thinking about her. The mission right now is really focusing on finding and rescuing less active members so we are doing a lot of that. Sometimes we have success and sometimes we dont but we keep trying.

 

After we did Young Womens with A. We talked about Faith and the Atonement and read some scriptures. We brought nail polish so that we could paint her nails after but she didnt want us to paint her nails she just wanted to paint our nails. So we did. Saturday night we went tracting. We knocked on a door and a man answered so we talked to him for a few minutes. He told us that he wasnt interested in our religion but if we wanted to come in for a beer we could. Sister Frampton tried to tell him that we dont drink but instead she said actually we dont pee. He started laughing so hard.

 

Sunday I got to speak in church. Elder Preston had given me the topic of What the Hymns Teach Me. He gave it to me about 2 weeks ago and I was really struggling with it. It was a really hard topic and I didnt even know where to start. But I finally found a few stories and such that I could use for it and realized that it doesnt matter what I say as long as I have the spirit.  It turned out to not be so stressful and ended up being good. I had a lot of people asking me about the stories and scriptures that I shared and I could tell that they had really paid attention and liked it. So it was good. We went tracting for a little bit and found a few people that said they were busy but that we could come back. And then the Prestons invited us for dinner so we went over there. Sister Preston had made Sarma which is a Croatian meal. It is cabbage filled with meat and rice and it is in like a tomato sauce. Sister Prestons Grandmother was actually born in Croatia so thats how she got the recipe. It was really good but after eating it neither me or my companion were feeling so great. We arent sure what it was. We are doing better though. We werent like sick sick it just didnt settle well. We then went with the Prestons to visit some less active members that live just a little outside of Osijek, the Kokorović. The Mom and her son were home. We had a really good visit with them and invited them to come watch conference with us this weekend. I had never met either of them so it was good to get out there and meet them. They were very nice. We then came home and put our organizing skills to use and organized and went through our area book. We wrote down names, numbers, and addresses of people that we want to go try to visit and made a map and a gameplan of how to visit them all in the most effective way. So we are going to try that this week and hope that we have some success with it. Because tracting and contacting are proving to not be as effective as we would like. And you cant do the same things and expect different results. So we are trying to use some new finding techniques as well as the things that we normally do and hope that it will help.

 

One day this week I had my pens out and Sister Frampton asked me if she could have my green pen. She didnt know what she was getting herself into when she asked that questions. I dont give people my pens. I like my pens.

 

This week was a good week...it was a little calmer than most weeks and we did some different things than we usually do which was good to have a little change of pace. We thought that we had some members mad at us because they wouldnt answer our phone calls but they came to church and were just fine...so we dont know why they wouldnt answer our calls but atleast they werent mad at us. We have already got a full week this week and we are really excited for it! We werent able to teach M this past week because he has had some health problems but he is doing better and we are hoping these health scares will give him a reason to quit smoking. :) We got some bad news yesterday in that our branch President got a permanent job in Zagreb so he wont be coming back to Osijek. We are happy for him and know that it will be a great opportunity for him but we are sad that he is not coming back to Osijek. And we dont really have anyone else that could be the branch president which means it will fall on Elder Preston. But we will push through and survive. I am excited for this transfer and am excited to still be in Osijek. Even though sometimes I get frustrated and feel like I need a change I know that this is where I need to be and there is a reason that I am here for at least another transfer. I hope that you all have a great week!

 

Love you lots!

Sestra Clark

 

Shoutouts!

Thanks for the emails form Dad, Mom, Carrie, Grandpa, Zach, and Allie

What a week! This week was a bit of a crazy week! The Prestons were actually in Germany all week because they took the young single adults in the mission to the temple. You wouldnt think it would make that much of a difference that they were gone but we definitely missed them.

 

Tuesday...We read with B but since the Prestons were gone we had one of the members come read with us which ended up being good.  It was nice because we all understood Croatian so I didnt have to translate it. Thursday night for dinner we decided to make pigs in a blanket for dinner. It was delicious. I love hot dogs.

 

Also...it is starting to get cold here, like really cold. Ok, its just fall but its still cold. I hope I survive the winter. Tuesday night I taught English in my coat. Well not my heavy coat but like my jacket coat. They probably all thought I was crazy but I was freezing so I kept it on.

 

Wednesday was zone conference. The Prestons had to rent a car to go to Germany so luckily we got to drive their car to zone conference rather than having to take the bus.  We woke up and drove to zone conference. It was really good. Rather than what we usually do for zone conference which is having the zone leaders and APs talk about things and then we role play, President Rowe just talked to us. He had been at a mission presidents conference the previous week where Elder Ballard talked to them so he talked to us about that. He talked to us about our purpose as missionaries and that our purpose is to baptize and to rescue. He gave us a new standard of excellence that we need to be working towards. It was a little bit overwhelming because some of the things on it seem very hard to achieve. But he told us that we need to remember that nothing is to hard for the Lord and that if we put our trust and faith in him we can achieve it. Yes it will be hard and yes it is going to take a lot of work but we can do it. It might not happen overnight but as long as we are pushing ourselves a little more every day things will always be improving and we can see miracles every day. There was a time during the conference that President Rowe told us to stand up to stretch and then he told us he was going to show us some Yoga. He then did a head stand. It was pretty sweet.

 

Zone Conference

 

After Zone conference President asked us if we could drive the Sisters that live in Sremska home because it was not too far out of the way for us and they would have had to wait 2 hours for a bus. So we drove them home on our way. Both Sister Erbe and Sister Palmer are in Sremska with another Sister who is getting trained. So it was fun to be able to talk to them on the way home. We finally made it home safe. It was a good day but a bit of a long day. Driving 6 hours in one day is kind of a lot and Sister Frampton isnt allowed to drive yet so I got to drive the whole day. I dont think I have ever driven that much in one day before but we survived.

 

Thursday we went to see M. We had a really good lesson with him. We talked to him about Joseph Smith and all the hard things he went through and how nothing that we have to go through today can even compare to that. We also brought up baptism to him and I asked him if he could see himself getting baptized. He said he couldnt actually picture what it would be like but he can feel it. He just said he isnt ready yet. He asked us how many members we have that have been baptized and now dont come to church. He told us he doesnt want to be one of them and he doesnt want to be baptized until he is ready to be baptized. As we were getting ready to leave his mom came up and told him she had made lunch for us. We told her that she didnt need to do that but she insisted and told us it was just a simple lunch...it was not simple but it was delicious.  His niece was there and after he invited her to talk with us a little bit so we did and then he played his tambourine for us.

 

After we had a lesson with some members and talked about the Plan of Salvation and how if we want to return to live with Our Heavenly Father and our Families just being baptized isnt enough. We had to keep our baptismal covenants and strive to be better every day.

 

Friday we went out to a village about a half an hour outside of Osijek because we had recieved a referral from the mission office. We got there and went to the address and the lady that answered wasnt the lady we were looking for and had no idea who we were talking about. We drove around for a little bit looking for where it could be and then decided to just start asking people. We asked a few people and no one seemed to know who this lady was. We were debating whether we should just go home or not but decided we had come out there for a reason and we were going to find it. So we said a prayer and immediately after a man walked by so we told him who we were looking for and he pointed to the house that we were standing in front of and said she lived there. The only problem was that there was a gate in front of the house and there was no bell so we couldnt figure out how to get to the door. I looked at the house next to it and decided we should knock on the windows because they didnt have a bell either and ask them how we could get in to the house. But the window ended up being open and so we just started yelling. A lady came to the window and we told her who we were looking for. She said the house next to her was the ladies brother but that she lived down the street and pointed us the direction to go. We got down where we thought we needed to be and there was a gate open and a woman in the yard. We told her who we were looking for and she got her granddaughter to walk us to the ladies house. So we found her! She let us in and told us that she was really happy that we had come. She had lived in Switzerland for the past 25 years and her and her daughter had been taught by the missionaries for 2 years. She had people at her house and was in the middle of reconstruction and said that now wasnt a good time but that if we came back next month she would love to talk to us and learn more because she really has the desire. We got her phone number and asked her if it would be ok to call her every once in awhile to check on her and then in a few weeks we could come back to meet with her. She said that would be great. She also asked for the address of the church and said she will try to come. I had a good feeling in her house and I know that she really does have the desire I think she was just a bit in shock that we had come. We left her house and passed the woman who had gotten her granddaughter to walk us to their house and she invited us in to talk to them. So we went in and shared a message with them and left them with a Book of Mormon that they said they would read and we are going to go back to check on them too.

 

After we decided to clean the Prestons car for them but didnt know where we could go to do it. So we went to the church, pulled up right next to the church, and stuck the vacuum out the window and cleaned the car. Im sure we got some funny looks but we didnt care.

 

We then met A for Personal Progress. Because we cant be alone with her in the church we decided to go get ice cream and do Personal Progress outside. So we asked her where she wanted to go for ice cream and she said McDonalds. So we went to McDonalds and did Personal Progress. It ended up being really good and she was really excited about it. She told us that she was just expecting to be at the church but was really happy that she could be out and doing something with us.  She told us that she really wants to speak in church. So we passed that along to Elder Preston to have her speak.

 

We then had Aktivnost. We didnt have the greatest turnout but we just played games and it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. We were laughing really hard...Sister Frampton came really close to peeing her pants again.

 

Saturday...we had a lady that asked us if we could do Private English lessons for her. We asked President about it on Wednesday and he said if we could get into her house then he was all for it. So we did. We got in her house, met her family, and shared a message of the Gospel with her and taught her English. It ended up being really good and she invited us back on Sunday for dinner with them.

 

Saturday night we also met with N and V. We had a good lesson with them and I was really bold and persistent in commitments and talking to him. We talked about baptism and repentance. I asked him to be baptized and he just looked at me and then changed the subject...he gets distracted a lot. So I asked him again and he said he has already been baptized so he doesnt need to be baptized again. We assigned him 3 Nephi 11 to read and are going to talk about Baptism be immersion next time. I just hope I wasnt too firm and persistent with him.

 

Sunday was good. The Prestons were back so we got to talk to them! We definitely missed them. Church went good and we had primary even though we only had one primary student but it went good. After church we went to S for dinner and to work on English. The food was really good except for she had made chicken stomach. I took a bite and it was really rubbery and didnt taste good and then she told us what it was and I couldnt eat any more of it. Luckily she had made a ton of food so it didnt matter that I couldnt eat the chicken stomach.

 

We then had a member who was sick so we were going to go drop by just to say hi but it was a male so we couldnt go in. We had to run by the church real quick first and as we were going into the church the Prestons were leaving so they told us that they could come with and then we could go in and then Elder Preston could give him a blesssing. So we called the member and he said that he would really like that. So the Prestons came with and it ended up being really good.

 

After we were trying to decide what to do and Sister Frampton remembered that she had left something at the church so we started heading to the church. On the way we saw our old man friend that gave us bibles a few weeks ago. He was heading to church and asked us to come with him. We had talked to President Rowe on Wednesday about if it was ok for us to go to other churches just to see what they were like and he told us that he wanted us to every once in awhile just to see what they were like. So we told him we would go with him. The people were so nice and so welcoming but it was definitely a different experience. It was one of those churches where the people sing and they get super into it and dance and ya. We were very respectful but did not participate in it. The preacher got up and started talking and was almost yelling. It was kind of a bit scary and then when they prayed they were all praying at the same time out loud and very loudly. It was definitely an interesting experience and made me really grateful for the knowledge that I have. I like that at our church it is quiet and reverent rather than loud chaos. It also made me want to go out and talk to people more because they just dont know. These people havent known anything else there whole life and although maybe some of what they believe is good they dont know what they are missing and how much more there is and that we dont have to sing and shout to feel the Spirit but it will come to us in quiet situations and we can have the Spirit with us always.

 

This week with the Prestons being gone we decided to SYL every day but the day we had zone conference. So we only spoke in Croatian even to each other for 4 days this week. It was hard. There were a few occasions that we had to say a few things in English to save us from going crazy and getting mad at each other for misunderstanding what the other one was trying to say but it went really well.  I can tell that it helped both of our language skills and helped us to both feel more confident about the language.

 

I have learned that I am not a morning person and luckily Sister Frampton is starting to realize that. There were two mornings this week that very first thing she asked me a question and I was so mad that she would ask me a question that early that I couldnt even answer. After those two experiences she learned to save her questions until I had been awake for a little bit. I should just be more happy and have a better attitude in the morning but 6:30 comes early and it takes me a good hour after getting up to actually be awake and fully functioning. I think thats part of the reason we have exercise first thing in the morning, to wake us up.

 

I hope that you all have a great week! We get transfer calls this week so we will see how that goes. I honestly couldnt tell you what I think is going to happen. Sometimes I feel like I am staying here and sometimes I feel like I am leaving. So who knows. Our scriptures of the week that the Prestons told us to read are Mosiah 4:27 and D&C 10:4. They both talk about not running faster than you have strength. We are definitely trying to apply the principle taught and trying not to run faster than we have strength so that we dont exhaust ourselves. Sometimes it is hard though because we feel better when we are out working hard but if we are not fully functioning then nothing will get done. But I love missionary work. I love the members. I love the Prestons and am so glad to have them back. I know that President Rowe is an inspired man and that if he thinks that we can achieve higher than we can as long as we put our full effort in. Nothing is to hard for the Lord and through him nothing is too hard for us. I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

 

Volim vas!

Sestra Clark

Thanks for the emails from Jordan, Carrie, Grandpa, Justin, Dad, and Mom

And I got a letter from Nicole Banks!

Another Week

Well...another week has come and gone. This week wasnt super exciting but it was still busy. 

 

 Monday we spent the day at the MUP and then went home and had to make a dessert because we did a young single adult family home evening at the Prestons house. I made that oatmeal cake and everyone loved it...which was kind of a surprise because Croatians dont usually like sweet things. One member that doesnt eat sweets very much and is very opinionated and will tell you his opinion ate 3 pieces. So I think it was a success.  I only had to make a few slight changes to the recipe and it still turned out great. Anyway...family home evening went great. We did a short lesson and then played a game. I think the members enjoyed it and so did we. The Prestons said they want to start doing it monthly.

 

Tuesday...We had district meeting which was good, we had to go to the health center to register under the Croatian health insurance (luckily this didnt take as long as the MUP) and we also finished making flyers and posters to hang up to try to get more English students.

 

Wednesday...we had our first family history class which went good. The Prestons mostly run it, they just have us there to help translate and to help them so that when people have questions there are more of us to help them. We only had 2 people come but we are hoping that next week we will have more. After family history we went tracting. Usually when people dont want to talk to us and just start shutting the door we would just move on. But today I decided I wasnt going to take no for an answer. So as people would start shutting the door I asked them a question or would just keep talking. Some of them would shut the door anyway  but some of them would stop and talk a little bit more. We didnt find anyone that was super interested but at least we got them thinking and actually had small conversations with them and I felt a lot better about it after. We then went to N and V's for a lesson. When we got there they were sitting at the table waiting for us with their Book of Mormons and cookies (they called them cookies but they are more like graham crackers). Today we decided that we were going to kind of question N and see what his intentions for meeting with us are. So we talked to him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then I asked him if he ever saw himself getting baptized. He said yes but he just isnt ready yet. So we asked him how we could help him be ready and talked about how we are here to help him he just has to have the desire and that he can pray to find out if it is the right decision. He doesnt understand why he needs to be baptized again because he was baptized as a child. So we tried to explain why he needs to be baptized again but he didnt completely understand it. He also doesnt see why he needs repentance because he says he doesnt have any sins. So this week we are going to talk about that and get him to understand that everyone makes mistakes and that is why we have repentance and baptism.

 

Thursday we got to go to M's. It is always the highlight of my week. His parents had been at the coast for a month and had just gotten back the day before so we talked to them for a little bit. They are just as nice as he is. We had a really good lesson with him. He told us that he wanted to learn more about Joseph Smith so we showed him Joseph Smith History and read parts of it with him and discussed it. He loves learning about the Gospel and he really tries to understand it and you can tell that he wants to learn. There are just a few steps that he needs to take before baptism and he seems to be taking his own sweet time with them. As much as he loves learning about the church sometimes I thinks he needs to have more of a desire to actually act on the things that we teach him. Faith without action is nothing.

 

Thursday night for English we had a couple new students and a few students had been gone for a few classes so last minute we decided it would be beneficial to do a review. So we did and I just made things up as I went along and it turned out great. I really pushed them and made them think because it is things that we had already learned about and I wanted to make sure that they really understood what they had learned. My brain hurt by the end of it and theirs probably did too but they learned a lot and if I were to ask them to repeat it I can guarantee they could because by the end of it they all had it down.

 

Friday...we decided to go visit our 3 friends (we call them this because it is easier than naming all of them...we met them the very first day of this transfer and have gone back a few times...they are ones that we met him on his bike and then we walked past their house and he called us in.) Anyway...we have gone back a few times to see them. Last time we went we talked a little bit about our church and left them with a pamphlet and when we went back they had it displayed in their house. So we talked to them more about the church and left them with another pamphlet that they said they would read...with them I think it is going to be a slow process and a little bit at a time. Anyway...we just went by to say hi and see how they were doing but we ended up giving them a short lesson and then they gave us food.  We didnt know what to say so we ate it.  Guess what it was... Fish and tomatoes. Those might be my two least favorite foods and Sister Framptons too. But we both ate it. It was disgusting. But we couldnt tell them no. They also had figs. I had never had one of those before...they were fairly good, better than the fish and tomatoes. Anyway...what was supposed to be a quick drop by turned into a good visit and a good discussion with them.

 

After we decided that we wanted to go to the church so that we could do language study together. Usually we just do language study on our own and then Sister Frampton asks me questions when she needs help. But we went to the church and used the whiteboard and practiced saying things and writing things and it ended up being really good. It was a good review for me and good for Sister Frampton to learn. Her language skills are pretty good. The good thing about her is that she isnt afraid to say something even if it is wrong...most the time it is but you can usually understand what she is saying. I luckily have been blessed with a good memory so that when I hear a word once I can remember it. She struggles a little bit more with that. But doing language study together the past couple of days has really seemed to help and hopefully we will both improve in our language skills from it.

 

Friday night we had Aktivnost. Elder Preston designed a shuffle board so we played that. I am pretty good at it.

 

Saturday we were supposed to do Personal Progress with A but she couldnt make it. We had to move her to Saturdays since school has started and the school schedule here is weird. One week they go to school in the mornings and then the next week they go at night. Im not exactly sure the times it is just weird.

 

We went and had a lesson with D. We have been trying to decide if we wanted to keep meeting with her or not and the past few weeks she has cancelled on us anyway. But we decided to go this week just to see how things went and it actually went really well. We had a really good discussion with her and she asked a lot of questions. Each time I think she is understanding more and more I just dont think that she is quite ready to change.

 

After we went to Centar and there was some festival going on. They had music and dancing and Im still not 100% sure what it was for but there were a ton of people there so we talked to a lot of people.

 

Sunday...was a great day! We finally had kids come to church so we could have Primary! We had translated the latter day prophets song into Croatian so we taught them that and sang it and then we talked about Commandments and when Nephi was commanded to go get the plates. So then we taught them 1 Nephi 3:7 and gave them little handouts with it on it so they can memorize it...we will see if they do it.  I love teaching Primary. My favorite part of primary...So Sister Frampton has a speal that she gives to everyone she talks to. Its kind of funny because when she starts talking to someone I can tell you exactly what she is going to say next every time. Well one of her common phrases that she uses is Učim malo svaki dan...I learn a little every day. So we were sitting in Primary and I asked the kids a question. And L who is ten answered Učim malo svaki dan and then kind of turned and gave Sister Frampton a funny look. It was so funny. Even he knows her speal.

 

After church Sister Preston asked us to ride with her to take N home. He lives about 20 minutes outside of Osijek. So we rode with her and talked to him on the car ride home. He is kind of outrageous sometimes but he is very nice and fun to talk to.

 

Sunday afternoon we decided to go visit R who is the member that lives in the home. She was so excited to see us. We sang some songs with her and some of the other people that live in the home with her.

 

Sunday night we had a lesson with D who is a less active member. She used to be super active a few months ago and then got sick and has only been to church a few times since. I had met her at church but had never been to visit her at her house before.  It ended up being one of my favorite lessons I have had since I have been here. She told us about her conversion story and the different things that she has gone through in her life. She showed us her study journals from the scriptures and she has multiple of them. She knows so much about the Gospel and she really loves it. We just sat and talked to her and she shared stories from her life and she has really had some hard things happen but her testimony is amazing. She said that she really wants to come back to church it is just hard when she doesnt feel well.

 

Well...that was our week. It wasnt super eventful but we had some good lessons and we had some good things happen. We have a great week planned this week and we have zone conference this week which I am excited about. I hope that you all have a great week!

 

Love you!

Sestra Clark

 

Thanks for emails from Mom, Dad, Carrie Lex and Ryan

Happy Birthday to Tyson this week

 

 Posters they made in the church windows

 

 Dinner with their 3 friends

 

 Eating fish & tomatoes, her least favorites!

 

Dancers at a festival 

 

 Fruit party

 

 With a member

 

 At the Red Cross festival

 

 Festival - Carriage ride

 

 Festival - hand made basket swing

 

 Band at festival

 

Tractor at festival

 

Leaving the festival, kids that came to see them off



Happy P Day!

Well...here goes another email. We have had a good week this week!

 

Monday...for pday we went to Kopački Rit with the Prestons, I think I sent pictures last week. Monday night after pday we just went tracting.

 

Tuesday...We met with B. It was actually really good. Elder Preston had assigned him some chapters to read and then Elder Preston talked about them and why they are important rather than B saying the same thing to us over and over. He really is great and is very nice sometimes it just gets old. He has been coming to church for years and reads the Book of Mormon but thats about it. Sometimes we wonder how much he understands or if he understands it all and just doesnt want to admit it.  Afterwards we had District Meeting. For District Meeting we take turns giving the thought. This time it was Elder Preston and he made us all handouts. We thought it was pretty funny. Tuesday night for English we did an activity and played games in English. President Rowe asked us to do that every so often so that they are just doing fun things and interacting with the missionaries. The students got really into it and really seemed to enjoy it so I think it was good.

 

Wednesday night we were out tracting and saw some little girls outside. We stopped and talked to them for a minute and gave them all a penny. We kept tracting that street and then we crossed and started doing the other side. After awhile the girls started running after us with some of their friends. They stopped us and gave us a little hat thing that their Grandma had made and then stood there starring at us. We looked at their friends and asked them if they wanted a penny too.  They nodded so we gave them one. I wish we could get people other than little kids to chase us down because we cant really teach kids. On the way home that night we were on the tram and were talking to a girl. We didnt quite have to be home yet so we started walking with her when we got off the tram. She kept asking us where we were heading and we just said oh we are just walking. We were talking to her about the church and were having a really good discussion.  Then she stopped looked at us and said Im going this was and then pointed another way and said you guys should go that way. Apparently she didnt want to talk to us anymore. Its a good thing we have people that dont want to talk to us often because when it happens we just move on and find someone else to talk to.

 

Thursday morning I woke up and felt like we should go visit the man that read half of the Book of Mormon. We got there and they were just leaving to go to the hospital because his wife has something and is going to have to be there for 2 months. They let us in and we talked to them for a few minutes before they left. He said he finished the Book of Mormon, told us everything that happened and said he really liked it. He also said that he read all of the pamphlets that we gave him and he wants more to read. Since they were leaving we didnt have time to teach them a lesson but we are going to go back and teach them and give him The Doctrine and Covenants to read.

 

After stopping by there we went to an apartment of an older lady that we met a few weeks ago that told us to come back. We went in and she had met with missionaries awhile ago. She told us that one of them was from America and the other one was from Utah. She was very nice...we read some scriptures with her and talked to her about the church but I think she more of wanted people to visit her because she is an old lady that lives by herself. We then had an appointment with E and J which went really well. I let Sister Frampton teach the lesson and I just sat and helped her when she needed help.  She did great! It wasnt necessarily grammatically correct but I am still working on that. She was able to get across what she was trying to say for the most part and they seemed to understand. We asked them questions and they knew all the answers. Sometimes it is hard because they know everything we just still cant get J to come to church. At least this time when we asked her to come to church she straight up told us no rather than saying yes and not coming. We will get there sometime. We are still thinking that if we can get her son more excited about it maybe it will help her come back too.

 

We then met the Prestons and went to M's. We got there and he told us he had something prepared for us and asked us to sit at the table. He pulled out plates of fruit and said he had prepared a fruit party. He is really funny. When he is around the Prestons he speaks in English and even in English he is funny which takes talent since it isnt his native language. Anyway...all of the fruit was fresh from his yard and he had made juice from it too. It was delicious. We decided that we were going to teach him about temples because a few months ago when Sister Madsen was here she mentioned something to him about baptisms for the dead and he got really confused. I also feel like every time we either talk about baptism or the word of wisdom and I dont want to feel too pushy. So we started talking about temples and said something about baptisms for the dead. He looked at me and said I dont want to talk about Baptisms for the Dead I want to Talk about Baptism for the living. So we stopped talking about temples and talked about what we usually talk about. We talked about the Word of Wisdom which he still struggles with but he is doing better. We talked about Joseph Smith and we talked about Baptism.  It was a great lesson. When we left he told us next time he wants to talk about the Sacrament and Baptism for the Living. So that is what we will do. He really has a desire to learn about the Gospel and he takes in everything we say and thinks about it and he loves learning! After M's we stopped somewhere with the Prestons and as we were walking in there was a man walking in front of us pushing a stroller. He was so busy focusing on us and staring at us that he walked straight into the curb...we were laughing about that for quite awhile.

 

Thursday we got to go to the red cross because people from the church humanitarian were here to donate wheelchairs and we got to go be a part of it which was really cool. They only handed out a couple wheelchairs while we were there because we had to go for an appointment. We left with the Prestons and drove to a town about a half an hour out of Osijek to visit one of the members, V. She is very nice but is a little naive. She belives anything that people tell her. Hence the reason she was baptized and used to come to church every Sunday until she moved to this village but she is a staunch Hare Krisna and wears a cross around her neck. Shes funny and she is very blunt. We had a good visit with her and then we drove a little bit farther to visit the B's who are some members that live right by the Hungarian border. They are raising chickens so on the way we picked up some chicken feed to take out there for them. They have like 30 chickens. We had a really good visit with them. We sang hymns and talked about the Book of Mormon and the importance of studying it daily and applying what we learn.

 

After we had a lesson with N and V. I love meeting with them even though sometimes it is hard because I dont know how much N is actually progressing. He loves reading the Book of Mormon with us but I dont know how much he does it when we arent there and we cant get him to come to church. Every time he says I cant this week but I will next week. So we are trying to get to the bottom of why he really wont come.

 

Saturday...We cleaned the church and then drove to a town about an hour outside of Osijek called Našice. A lady that we met while at the Red Cross invited us out there because they had something going on that the red cross was a part of. She was so nice. Her name was V. It was some sort of a cultural fair thing. She gave us first class treatment and took us around and introduced us to people and we got a lot of people talking to us and helping us. It was a really good way to put a good name out for the church and in a week or so we are going to go back and talk to some of the people that we met again. It was a really cool experience! When we got back we had an activity at the church because the Ivins who were the senior couple here before the Prestons had come back to Osijek with some of their family. So they had brought Pizza and we just sat and talked with them and members.

 

Sunday was a great day! I went to church with a much better attitude than last week and just decided that no matter what happened I was going to have a positive attitude about it. So right as I walked in the door and someone asked me to translate for them I did it. Funny story...the Prestons had asked one of the members, N to sing in sacrament meeting. So after I translated for someone he grabbed me and told me to come to the piano. He told me to sit down, told me the hymn number and told me to start playing. So I played the song and after he said all right that will do. He is very funny...he tells outrageous stories that sometimes we dont know if they are true or not but we just go along with it. We were talking to him and told him that we love it when he comes to church. He said that is fine as long as we dont kidnap him.  Then he wouldnt sit by us because he didnt want us to kidnap him.

 

Anyway...Sacrament meeting was really good! E spoke first and she spoke about obedience. She did a great job and you could tell that she had really prepared for it. After her N sang and it was so good. I think it was good for the members to have a native doing it in their native language rather than one of the missionaries. While he was singing the room was silent. As we got to the end of the song his voice started cracking a bit and then he couldnt finish. I thought he just hadnt warmed up enough and so I just finished playing the song. As I finished I looked up at him and he had tears in his eyes and as I looked out in the audience several of the members did as well. As he finished all of the members started clapping...you dont see that in church very often. Sister Preston spoke after him. Sunday morning during Personal Study I was looking for something and saw my Patriarchial Blessing and decided to read it then that is what Sister Preston talked about. She did a great job! One of the senior missionaries is a patriarch and has gotten permission to give patriarchial blessings while he is here serving which is really a big deal for the members.

 

After church on Sunday we worked on some flyers and posters to hand out to people about the things that we have going on. Im not exactly sure what happened but we got laughing really hard and Sister F peed her pants. Like for reals. There are 2 bathrooms at the church and she couldnt get to either of them. It was really funny!

 

Sunday night we were out tracting. We have found that people arent very happy if we knock on their door after 8 pm so we try to avoid it. Anyway it was 8 o clock and we were almost done with a building so we decided to just finish it. We knocked on the door and an older lady answered. She looked at us and said you shouldnt be knocking on peoples doors this close to midnight. At 8 o clock. We didnt really know how to respond to that one. So apparently 8 o clock is really close to midnight...wont make that mistake again. On the way home we were walking through Centar and there were some little ballerinas out dancing with people playing instruments along with them which was kind of fun to see for a minute!

 

Today we spent our pday at the MUP getting my Visa stuff finalized. They called us and told us we had to come today to get it. So 3 hours and 1100 kuna later I finally have my Visa!

 

I think that is about all for the week! Things are still going well! We are staying healthy and working hard. We are trying really hard to find more people to teach because we really only have 2 investigators right now and the others are still in the phase of trying to get them to be investigators. But we will find more and we will find people who want to listen to us and want to learn about the Gospel for the right reasons. This week during my personal study for part of it I read the Book Our Heritage. Every once in awhile I need something different just to add some variety and I figure since I brought the missionary library books I should read them. Anyway...it was a really good book and I learned a lot about the History of the church that I didnt know before. The thing that stuck out to me the most was that Brigham Young was one of the last members of his family to join the church and it took him a few years before he joined because he really wanted to know first. And he later become prophet. So its ok if our investigators need to take time to get there as long as they do it for the right reasons. And we will find those people. I hope that you all have a great week! Remember that I love you lots!

 

Sestra Clark

 

Thanks for the emails from Jordan, Carrie, Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Zach, Ryan, Tyler, and Lex

Pictures

 Aktivnost

 

 Cute kids at Aktivnost

 

 Sisters with ward mission leader

 

 This man carved this statue

 

Sister Clark's new friend



 

 Kopacki Rit on Pday

 

Kopacki Rit

 

Waiting to ride the boat

 

Boat ride to see the birds at Kopacki Rit

 

In front of the castle at Kopacki Rit

 

Happy Labor Day!

Well...It has been another great week. It has been a bit of a crazy one but sometimes that is good.

Monday night we decided to go check up on L who is the woman who let us in a few weeks ago. We went to her house but she wasnt home. So we just started tracting around her apartment building. As it got late we started walking home and passed her on the street. She actually noticed us first and stopped us. So we talked to her for a little bit. She said she has been thinking a lot about us since we met last week. We tried to set up an appointment to go meet with her again but she said she didnt know her schedule (not sure if that is the real reason or not) so we are going to just try dropping by again this week.

 

Tuesday was a pretty normal day. We did reading with B, district meeting, and then English. English class is still going well and we got 3 new students this week. One of them ended up being completely crazy and super disruptive so we are hoping she doesnt come back. But the other 2 are great!

 

Wednesday...we had an exchange with the Sisters in Banja Luka. It is about 3 hours from Osijek so we had to drive an hour and a half and meet them half way and then drive back. So I drove there and dropped off Sister F and picked up Sister C to come back to Osijek with me. We ended up having a good day. We did personal progress with A which was great...she is still loving it and is still doing awesome! She is so excited about doing personal progress and gets so excited when I sign one of them off for her. It is great! We had a few other appointments scheduled but they ended up falling through. So we spent the night contacting and tracting. We found one guy that seemed interested and gave us his phone number but when we called it it was a fake number...that actually happens quite often. Our exchange went well. It was nice because Sister C knows the language so I could ask her questions and she could help me and it was good to see a different perspective on missionary work and get some new ideas of how to try things. However from being with her I learned why I am training. Because she knows the language so well I just let her talk because she could carry conversations with people and knew more than I do. With Sister F I know that I know and understand more than her so I have to try. So if I were with someone that knew the language really well I dont think I would be learning it as quickly as I am.

 

Thursday...we got up and did studies and then we drove and switched back. The exchange was great but I am glad to have Sister F back in Osijek. We just work well together and really balance each other out. When we got back we had to get the car back to the Prestons. Thursday night we had an appointment with a man named A. He is a tram driver and he always seems to be the one driving when we go home each night. So we usually talk to him on the way home. Well on Monday night I think we were talking to him and he asked us when we were going to come to his house to teach him. So we said when do you want us and he said how about Thursday. We werent really sure what to expect and since we cant teach men alone we brought the Prestons along. It ended up being a super funny situation and I dont think that he really wanted to be taught the gospel. His 3 kids were there, they are all teenagers 2 girls and one boy. And I think he just wanted us to come hang out. They know English really well and since the Prestons only know English we were talking in English. We got to know them and then gave the first lesson but our dear friend A just seemed to want to disagree with everything we said and everything turned back to him and how much he knows about history and how smart he is. But he was loving himself and loved it. His daughters had made a pastry type thing for us that was really good. I dont think his son knew that we spoke Croatian because he was talking on the phone to a friend and was totally making fun of us completely unaware that I could understand everything he was saying. Anyway...it was an interesting experience. When we see our friend A on the trams now it isnt weird and we still talk to him he just has no interest in the church so we arent really sure what he was expecting. But we did leave them a Book of Mormon. Maybe they wont read it now but maybe someday down the road him or one of his kids will find it and decide to read it.

 

When we got back from A's we were setting up for English and had a discussion with the Prestons and learned that we will no longer be teaching S. He had contacted one of the members and apparently has had different intentions for meeting with the church than we thought. We arent really sure exactly what he has told us is true and what isnt true and we arent completely sure what the circumstances are exactly we just know we will no longer be teaching him. At first we were a little upset about it because we thought when we found him that he was "golden". But we have had a few concerns about meeting with him in the past and have decided that it is for the best.

 

Friday...we got to go visit M! We took one of the members with us, I...they actually started dating a few months ago...long story. But it ended up being really good. We talked to him about how things went in Germany and how his reading is coming in the Book of Mormon, etc. and just kind of got caught up. He said that he didnt do as well as he would have liked to in Germany but now that he is back things are going better. He is still reading from the Book of Mormon and he loves coming to church and he loves the way he feels. He said that every day he is more and more for the Mormon church. I really do think that he will get baptized he is just taking his time which is ok. And thats what we told him. We told him that we are here to teach him and to help him be ready for baptism when he is ready. The only problem is he might have to go back to Germany for a few more months. So we will see how things go.

 

After M we had Aktivnost. We did a mini olympics and it was so fun! We just had a bunch of dumb little games. L, who is a ten year old boy brought 3 of his friends and they all had a blast! The other day we were walking down the street and turned around for a second to see L and one of his friends chasing us down to say hi. So we stopped and talked to them for a little bit. Not long after (or maybe it was before) we saw one of the older members who would barely even wave at us and they were chasing us down. I just love the kids here!

 

Saturday...we were on the way to the church to clean and Sister F said that we should contact along the way. As soon as she said that I pulled out my Book of Mormon and stopped the next person I saw. She was a woman named M. I dont even remember what I said to her but I asked her if she would like to learn about the Book of Mormon. And she said yes! We were both in shock! We talked to her for a few minutes and then she told us she lives in Zagreb. So we wont be able to meet with her but we are hoping the missionaries in Zagreb will be able to. After cleaning the church we were heading somewhere and were stopped at a stop light and a man stopped us and asked if we were Jehovahs Witnesses (we get that a lot). I told him we werent and explained who we were and what we were doing and asked if he would like to learn more. He said yes and asked if we had time to sit down and drink coffee with him. We told him we didnt drink coffee but juice would be great. We were right around the corner from a cafe so we sat down, drank juice, and taught him the first lesson. He seemed really interested and gave us his information so that we could meet again.

 

We went and visited a less active member, M who we werent planning on visiting but decided to anyway. And it ended up being perfect timing. She had just had something happen and was really glad that we had come and we had a really good lesson with her.

 

Saturday night we had a lesson with N and Va...he was actually awake this time. We talked to them about the Plan of Salvation and V helped us teach it. When we got to the Spirit World V turned to N and said see, youre family is there waiting for you to get baptized so that you can be baptized for them. He asked if that was true and so we explained that it was and talked a little bit about baptisms for the dead. He seemed to really like it and hopefully it will help him to be more interested in being baptized. Right now he likes meeting with us and he reads from the Book of Mormon but that is about all.

 

Sunday morning was a bit stressful. By the time we were done with church I was a bit frustrated with some of the members...which is really bad and I shouldnt feel that way but it is hard when the Prestons dont speak English so they are dragging me all over to translate. Im also the only one that plays the piano too. Anyway...church was really good I was just a little bit stressed. We had a branch council meeting after church which went really well and it is helping to get the members more involved and excited about doing things. We had forgot that Sunday was the first of the month and we hadnt renewed our tram passes and since it was Sunday we couldnt renew them. The Prestons had invited us over for dinner and they live fairly far from us so after church we just started walking to their house and contacted along the way. We saw one man and I stopped him and talked to him. It turns out he had met with the missionaries a few years ago but then had moved and lost contact. He gave us his information and said he would like to meet with us again. He even knew where the church was and said he had been a few times before. We walked a little bit farther and there was an old man that was wandering around a park. I passed him and said hello to him and he asked if we would sit on a bench with him and talk. So we did. I think he might have been a preacher from another church but he was still very nice and listened to what we had to say. He kept looking at me and would point at my face and say there is just something about you. He told us that as soon as we said hello he could feel our spirit and knew that we were good people and that he needed to talk to us. He had no interest in learning more about the church but it was exactly what I needed to hear from him after my stressful morning. We made it to the Prestons and she made a delicious dinner and then we walked back towards home and contacted along the way. So not having tram passes didnt end up being too bad of a thing.

 

This week has been a great week! We have had ups and downs but overall things are still going well. We are still seeing miracles every day and we are definitely being blessed for the things we are doing. Sister Preston had to have a sit down with us this week and tell us not to work ourselves too hard. Sometimes I think we are too hard on ourselves and are pushing ourselves too hard which isnt good because we dont want to wear ourselves out too quickly. But we are learning to find a balance of not completely exhausting ourselves but at the same time not feeling like we are wasting time. And usually I would rather be crazy busy doing things than not have nothing to do. Dont get me wrong, we still go to bed exhausted every night we are just trying to remain healthy and not have to big of a workload that we get stressed.

 

I still love missionary work. I still love Osijek. I still love Sister Frampton and the Prestons. And even though sometimes I get frustrated I still love the members.

 

I hope that you all have a great week! Love you lots!

Sestra Clark

 

Shoutouts!

 

Emails from Justin, Lex, Tyson, Mom, Dad, Grandpa

Congrats to Tyson on his mission call!