Mission Moments: 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