Monday...Monday night we went over and saw Doris and Debora. We had a good lesson with them...cats and all. We decided to in a way reteach all of the missionary lessons with them so we started from the beginning and taught the Restoration. After we went to Viktorijas and did Personal Progress with her. We worked on one from Virtue that had us read Alma 5 and talked about preparing for the temple.
Tuesday...we spent the morning out trying to contact former investigators. One of them, Ana, was home and let us in. She is an older woman that it looks like was taught about 3 years ago. She was very excited to see us. We kind of got a feel for what she knew about the church and what she remembered from past missionaries. She told us that we could come back...we are still unsure if it is because she really wants to learn about the church or because she is old and lonely. So we will see how that goes. We had district meeting after and then went and found more formers.
Tuesday night we had a lesson with Eva. She is the referral from one of my investigators in Osijek. We had a really good lesson with her! She let us pray but wouldnt participate in it. We taught her the first lesson and focused on how God is our Loving Heavenly Father. We asked her what she thought about it and she told us I still dont belive in God but if He really is how you described Him it would be nice. We talked to her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and committed her to read it!
Wednesday...we started off the day with a lesson with Antonijo. We had Sister Matosich on the lesson with us which turned out to be great. We talked to Antonijo more about what it means to have a testimony and how we can gain a testimony. Sister Matosich shared her experience with gaining a testimony for herself for the first time. We talked to Antonijo about how he can gain a spiritual witness and that he knows how to do it...through prayer. We challenged him to pray about a date for baptism and then for this week when we start meeting with him to have that date to start working for it.
We then went to Ankas. Our intention was to go and teach her a lesson but we got there and she had made us lunch. So we ate lunch (apparently she does this every time we had just never had it happened before because every time we have eaten there before she invited us over for lunch) and then we taught her a lesson. We found a talk in the Liahona that is called Enduring Well. Sister Maxwell and I both read it and loved it and decided it was what Anka needed. It talks about how we get all sorts of "bad bounces" in life and that we cant choose them but we need to keep swimming through them. It doesnt matter what we have to deal with in life it is how we deal with it and what we become of it that matters.
We had branch council which was good and then we had English. We had a good English class and for our spiritual thought we decided to have a discussion about our role models. So we asked everyone who their role model was and then we ended with talking about how Christ should be the role model for all of us. We talked about the atonement and all that he has done and suffered for us. The spirit that was in the room was undeniable. We had one English student that was crying...it was pretty amazing!
Thursday morning we had to do a super good clean of our apartment because we had cleaning checks the next day. We then did weekly planning which was good...sometimes I have a hard time staying focused during weekly planning...3 hours is a long time sitting in the same spot...but Im getting better! We went out tracting after and then we had a lesson with Branka. We actually shared the same lesson that we had with Anka. Branka is a rock. She has been through so much in her life especially recently and has stayed strong and faithful through it all!
Friday morning the Matosiches came over for our cleaning check. Elder Matosiches comment was "Your apartment is the cleanest I have ever seen it but I would never live here". Thanks. I didnt think it was that bad. We then met with Liz. We talked to her about the Apostasy and why there was a need for the Restoration and we went into greater detail on the Plan of Salvation. She notices a difference when she is around us and has told us that she has been noticing feeling the Spirit more recently. At the end she prayed and it was the first time that she would pray in front of us. It was amazing! It was straight from her heart. We are seeing changes in her everytime we meet with her!
Friday we also got transfer calls...usually we get them Friday morning but we didnt get them until after 5...so it was kind of a stressful day. But...I will be staying here in Zadar another transfer. My companion is heading off to Tuzla for her last transfer and Sister Burton will be coming here to be with me which I am so excited about. This will be her last transfer and she has been in the office for the past 6 months so she is ready to work! I dont know her super well but I have heard she is a powerful missionary! Elder Uhlig will be staying here and training and Elder Proud is actually heading to Osijek. I am really excited for this next transfer!
Friday night we had Aktivnost which was a hit. We had a huge turnout and everyone had a blast. We played minute to win it games and other random games and then had banana splits. Anyway...it was great!
Saturday...we started off with a lesson with Liz...but she brought her daughter Zoe...which we decided we need to make sure doesnt happen again. Zoe is 11 and doesnt want to sit and talk about the Gospel. She wants to play games and color pictures and interrupts us every 2 minutes. But we still had a fairly good discussion with Liz.
Saturday night we had English and it was another good English class and then we cleaned the church. All the missionaries and members are supposed to come help but for the past 3 weeks it has just been the 2 of us.
Sunday...was church which was good. We were a little worried about testimony meeting because when we started church we had 2 members and 3 investigators there. But they gradually filled in and we managed to make it last the entire time. We had a good testimony meeting and sunday school was good. Liz and Zoe showed up for the last hour for primary...they always seem to come for Primary and wont come for Sacrament Meeting...but we had a good primary lesson with them and will work on getting them to come to the rest.
We went home so that Sister Maxwell could get started on packing and then we went to have a lesson with Viktorija...but she wasnt home. But her Dad Ladislav was. He tried to get us to stay but because we cant be alone with men Sister Maxwell just said goodbye and read her favorite scripture to him. Sister Maxwell had some more people that she wanted to say bye to but we didnt have time to go visit all of them so she decided to just call them...problem...she cant speak Croatian. So...I called them all and pretended to be her and said goodbye to all of them for her. None of them noticed...at least they didnt say anything...they probably knew. We finished off the night with Desa and Lidija which was a bit disappointing...each week we have seen them deteriorate and lose more and more hope. They have a lot of hard things going on right now that all seem to be hitting them at the same time. We had a really good lesson with them but at the end they asked us not to come back. They said that now is not a good time and it is too hard for them with so many of us coming and going. They said they have the Book of Mormon and will continue to read it and when life gets a little less crazy they will let us come again. It just breaks my heart because right now is when they need the Gospel in their life more than ever but they dont realize it.
This week was a good week...we had a few disappointments but we also had some good things happen. The weather here has been super rainy but also super windy. Umbrellas seem to hate me...I have seriously broken 3 this week...Im not joking. They were just cheap o ones because it always starting raining throughout the day and I didnt have my umbrella I brought so I would just grab one from the church.
Life is great here in Zadar! I love being a missionary and I love teaching and helping people. It is so rewarding when you see people start to get it and start to make changes in their life. I love this Gospel and I love you all. I hope that you have a great week!
Volim vas!
Sestra Clark
Shoutouts!
Emails form Mom, Dad, Carrie, Grandpa, Lex, Tys
Sretan Rođendan Justin!
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