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!