Last Monday we had Pday and finished off our Pday by going to dinner for Sister Prestons birthday. We then had planned to go out to one of the villages to visit some members. Short back story...we have 2 members who are sisters that we have no information on and havent for several years. We dont have their address, phone numbers, nothing. Well a little while ago I was walking down the street and their names kept coming into my head and I had a strong feeling that we needed to try to find them. So after we were done working at night I would use some of my time at night reading through our information trying to find anything that I could on them. Well...I found one paper that was dated 2007 and had an address for their Dad. It just happened to be that their Dad lived in the same village as these members that we were going to visit. So I talked to the Prestons and got them to stop at this place too. It turned out that it was an apartment building and we had no clue which door was his or if he even still lived in this building. So the Prestons dropped us off at the building, we got in and then looked at the mailboxes and his last name was on one and we were able to figure out which door was his. We got to his door, knocked, he answered and I asked if he was the man we were looking for and he said yes. I could tell he knew who we were and he was very nice. I didnt really know what to say to him so I just said we are looking for your daughters. Do you by chance have any information on them. He then gave us both of their addresses! We havent had a chance to go see them yet though...but we have them! We then went to visit the members that we had gone out there to see in the first place. Only one of them was home but she let us in and we talked to her for a few minutes and then we headed back to Osijek. We got back to Osijek at 8 which is the dreaded hour of the night...we cant knock on doors past 8 but it is freezing outside. But we decided to brave the cold and just contact anyway. Well...we had a few good conversations with people and then Sister Frampton stopped a boy that looked to be about 20ish. We stopped him and talked to him for a few minutes. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and testified to him and then had him read the introduction to the Book of Mormon. As he was reading we could tell that he was feeling it. He finished and looked at us and said is this really true. We responded with absolutely. He asked us if he could take a picture of it to keep. We told him even better we would give him a book. He was SO excited. He gave us his number so that we can meet with him to talk more about it!
Tuesday...we read with B and had District Meeting. We then went to visit a member who was in the hospital. She had gotten her wisdom teeth out. Every time I go to the hospital here it makes me so grateful for what we have (hopefully Obama doesnt ruin that) back home. The hospital is so sad here. We walked into her room and she was sharing a room with 3 other girls. None of them were dressed...they only had blankets on. Her mouth was covered in blood. Sister Frampton was very uncomfortable and you could tell that she was a little bit frightened from it. I luckily have worked in environments where I could handle it better but it was still such a sad situation. I would hate to have to be in that hospital. After visiting her we had English which went good. Our number of students grows every time! It is amazing!
Wednesday...was a crazy day but a good day! Our first appointment was with a less active member named R. Hes the one that Sister Frampton and Sister Menjivar accidentally tracted into last week. We had a really good meeting with him. Because it was my first time meeting him I talked to him a lot about his experiences with the church and his feelings towards the church. Its so sad to see how strong members can fall away. He served a mission, he used to be in the Branch Presidency and he helped the missionaries find people to teach. But now because of some things that have happened he has harsh feelings towards the church. You can tell that he still believes the teaching and is living the commandments he just wont come to church. But he told us that we are welcome any time so we are going to keep going back to keep working with him.
After we went to V's house. She is an English student...her Grandma is M. She had invited us over to her house because she wanted us to meet her family so they invited us over for dinner. They made Croatian foods and it was really good! We talked to them a lot about what we do as missionaries and talked with them about the restoration. They have a piano so they wanted us to play it. We happened to have a hymnbook in our backpack so I played hymns while Sister Frampton sang. It ended up being a really good thing! Her parents were so nice, and so welcoming. Her Dad had actually come to English the night before for the first time and was practicing his English with us. He kept trying to say hi but would say he instead. It was pretty funny.
We then had a lesson with another less active member named V. She was on the do not contact list but we were able to talk to her and she decided to let us come visit to teach her English. It ended up going so well. We were worried going in but she was so nice and talked to us as if we were old friends. We had taken our stuff with her to teach her English but she said she knew the grammar she just needed practice speaking so she wanted to talk about Gospel topics in English...perfect. It ended up being half English half Croatian but it was still good. We talked to her about her baptism and what first got her interested in the church. We also talked about the Book of Mormon. She told us that she finds the Book of Mormon boring and doesnt like to read it and has another "spiritual book" that she likes better. So we talked to her about the importance of the Book of Mormon and that we have to read it with the attitude that we can learn from it. We set up a time that we can go over every week and meet with her and are hoping that with consistency we can get her reading the Book of Mormon and help her to have the desire to come back to church.
Thursday...what a day! We had a crazy morning...we had planned on doing weekly planning but had other things come up so that didnt happen. We ended up having to do weekly planning in the car. Anyway...the Prestons told us that we could have the car so that we could go out and visit A (she is a referral from a member that lives in a village in the middle of nowhere). The Prestons usually go with us but this time told us to just take the car and go. I had no idea of where she actually lived but they told us it was in the GPS so just to follow the GPS and we would be fine. Bad mistake. Anyway...we followed the GPS and it started taking us down a road. We knew she lived in the middle of nowhere so didnt think much of it. Well...then the road ended and turned into a dirt road but the GPS told us to kept going. So we did. And then the road turned into a mud road that seemed like it was going to go on FOREVER. We decided that this couldnt be right so we went to turn around and got stuck in the mud. For reals. So here we were in the middle of nowhere stuck in the mud. We were seriously at the point of what on earth do we do. A cute little old man came riding by with a horse pulling a trailer. We didnt even have to say anything to him, he stopped, grabbed his ax and pitchfork and helped us get out of the mud. I had visions of him popping the tire...but we made it out safely. I dont know where this man came from but it helped us to see that Heavenly Father is aware of us wherever we are. Even in the middle of nowhere Croatia stuck in the mud and he sends "angels" to help us along the way. (We didnt actually tell the Prestons that we got stuck in the mud because they were kind of in a bad mood this day already...:)) But...we were able to find our way to A's finally. We had a good lesson with her and her family. Its hard because I know that she feels it and I know that she loves learning about the church but we are trying to decide if we keep going out to teach her because it is so far away and she has no way to come to church.
After A we went and visited V. She is an inactive member. She used to come every week and then she moved out to the village and doesnt come anymore...that and she loves Hare Krišna. She is kind of crazy but is really funny. We had a good visit with her and some good laughs. She told us that she is vegetarian and has been for 6 years and is so happy about it. She said I can understand people killing a chicken, or a pig but not a lamb because that is a baby from a cow. Im serious...that is what she said. She had a friend there too and told us that she loves him but he doesnt love her because she doesnt have any hair (she shaves her head) but that she loves her head shaved and it has to be because she wants to be a monk, she wants to be the dolly llama and be a spiritual master...Im dead serious. Anyway...we love V. We barely made it back to the church in time for English but we had a good English class!
Friday...was zone conference. So, we had to wake up at 5:30 to drive out to zone conference. We had a good drive and zone conference was really good. They have started (this time was the first time) doing zone conference in the language...so Croatian. Im glad that they didnt do it my first few times and waited until I could actually understand the language for that. I actually really liked it a lot and I liked being able to hear and talk to other missionaries in the language. I just feel bad for the senior couples who dont understand anything. We had a really good zone conference. We talked about the Book of Mormon and how we can better use it in our teaching and better help our investigators and members to understand what the Book of Mormon is and how they can know that it is true. President Rowe is amazing and Sister Rowe was able to come this time too...I havent seen her in probably 4 months. They are so full of the Spirit. And even their kids, their 2 8 year old girls, know so much about the Gospel and the Book of Mormon. It really is amazing. I learn so much from them every time we are around them. Our drive home from zone conference was good. We tried to visit some members along the way but they werent home so that didnt happen.
Saturday...we went and cleaned the church and then we did YW with A. Love her! We let her choose which value experience she wants to work on and then we read the scriptures, etc. that go along with it. We had a lesson with N and V on Saturday too. We talked to them about feeling the Spirit and used what we learned in Zone Conference and read scriptures about different ways that we can feel the Spirit and encouraged them to look for how the Spirit speaks to them individually because it will be different for everyone. N says he wants to be baptized but we are trying to help him to understand what baptism actually means and help him to understand the importance of it.
After N and V we had a lesson with a man named D. He had actually stopped us on the street and wanted to meet with us. Apparently he had met with missionaries before so we were really excited about it. It turns out that he had researched some of the things that missionaries in the past had told him and proven that they were wrong. He kind of wanted to Bible bash with us which we werent going to do. He didnt really like the answers that we were giving him...we think that he might be Jehovahs Witness.
We recently found a smoothie place here in Osijek...unfortunately we didnt know about it during the summer but they actually use fresh fruit and yogurt and it is good for when we dont have time to eat we can grab it and eat on the run. So we went and got that and then we headed back to the church. We had District Conference this week which is like Stake Conference. Saturday night they had an adult session that was broadcast to the different branches. It was a really good meeting! It was kind of an interactive meeting...so they had people give talks and then they let people make comments or share their testimonies on what people had talked about. It was kind of interesting but was good. They focused a lot on member missionary work and how this is a task that cant be done by the members alone or the missionaries alone...we need each other. They put an emphasis on going out and finding the lost sheep as well as finding new sheep and to work together to bring them back.
Sunday...we were up at 4:30 to head to Zagreb for District Conference. We went and picked up K and the kids and headed to the church to go. The Prestons had rented 2 vans to drive people to Zagreb. We were kind of thinking that everyone would sleep on the way and were kind of excited to sleep...but Sister Preston decided she needed me sitting up front by her to navigate. Not really sure why but it meant I didnt get to sleep. But it was ok and it was a good ride. We made it to Zagreb and District Conference was really good...it was kind of a long drive and a long day for a 2 hour meeting but I liked being able to see all of the members in Croatia and see that there are more than just the members that we have in Osijek...and I think it was good for them to see. We also got to see the other missionaries in Croatia which was fun. We had the meeting and then they had lunch and then they had a leadership meeting. While they had that we just hung out and talked to the members which ended up being fun. Then we drove back to Osijek. We had a lot of fun on the drive back. Our car was us 2, Sister Preston, K and her 2 kids...A and L, N, and H. So we played games and sang songs and just had fun! They taught me if youre happy and you know it in Croatian and we sang Christmas songs. It was fun to just be able to relax and have fun with the members.
This week we had a lot going on, several early mornings, and a lot of craziness. But I wouldnt change any of it because it was all so great! I love being a missionary here in Croatia. And I am so grateful for all of the experiences that I am having and for the changes that are being made here. In his talk on Sunday President Rowe talked about how Croatia is a land of Promise but it isnt going to happen if we just sit around waiting for it to happen. We constantly need to be going, working, and building and trying to make it better. We cant become comfortable with how things are...we always need to be trying to be better and working to make things happen. Because they can and will.
Thanks for everything you do! Love you lots and lots and lots!
Sestra Clark
Shoutouts!
Thanks for the emails from Mom, Dad, Lex, Grandpa, Carrie and Allie
I got the Christmas package this week...no I didnt open any presents yet. I will wait until Christmas. We have a corner in our apartment dedicated as our Christmas corner. But thanks for the package...thanks for the treats and thanks Lex for your letter!
Good luck to Jordan, Amanda, and Tyson and anyone else with finals this week!
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