Pictures

 

Pday at the church

 

Beginning the long day of tracting all day

Random hourly photo

Another one

End of the day, still smiling!

Whiteboard finding - the elders trying to move it

A week

This week was a week. It wasnt a bad week, but I wouldnt call it a great week. It is one of those weeks where it was a long week but I survived it. It was also one of those weeks that I feel like I have learned and grown a lot while being out here.

 

Monday...Monday was actually probably one of my favorite Pdays on my mission. Due to Easter we knew that most places were going to be closed so we had talked to the Elders and some of the members and decided to have a Pday at the church. We pretty much just hung out at the church all day. We made lunch for everyone and the Elders made dinner and then in between we emailed and just hung out. We did have to go grocery shopping and V came with us...it was the greatest thing ever...you never know what to expect from her and sometimes it is hard to know if she is being serious or funny but she tells things like they are and she is hilarious.

 

Monday night we went and stopped by J's...a less active member. She has been ignoring our phone calls and texts so we decided to just go show up. She was home and let us in. We had a really good lesson with her and talked to her about the importance of church. We were really hoping that she would come to church this week. We even told her that we would come and walk with her but unfortunately she didnt come.

We then spent the rest of the night taking our Easter treats around to the members and investigators that we were unable to make it to on Sunday. We learned that Croatians arent fans of you just showing up giving them something and leaving. They want to invite you in and think they have to give you something in return.

 

Tuesday morning we went and helped D. She needed help moving things again. She also wanted us to put together a dresser...without instructions and with some of the pieces missing...we told her that was impossible. We then had District Meeting which was a good meeting...but by the time we left District Meeting we had no investigators. We had recieved some texts and we will just say we were down to no investigators. It was a little rough...but we prepared ourselves for a long night of contacting and tracting and finding. We were able to get ahold of M and were able to meet with him. We taught him about Joseph Smith and he was really able to relate to him because he feels lost as to what is truth and really wants to know. He liked that we were able to help him realize how he can find out truth for himself. He is reading the Book of Mormon and said that he will pray and really wants to learn of the truth.

 

We then went out for contacting...we had a list of potentials so we decided to go check on them. The first door we knocked on was a woman named F. She immediately recognized who we were and invited us in. She actually turned out to be a former investigator so she had had most of the lessons before. We talked to her about the Plan of Salvation and what our purpose is in life. At the end of the lesson her husband R came in. They were both so nice and told us that they would love us to come back and teach them more. So we left District Meeting with no investigators and by the end of the night we had 2! We also found a potential investigator named Ž who we contacted on the street...she seemed really interested. We havent been able to meet with her and are still trying to decide if she is really interested in the Gospel or more of wants to be friends...so we will see how that goes.

 

Wednesday...apparently the Elders were having the same problem as us and Elder Uhlig who is the district leader said that he felt that as a district we should set the goal of finding 7 new investigators this week and that that could include the 2 we found the night before. At first we thought he was crazy and thought there is no way that is going to happen because lets be honest we are usually lucky to find one investigator a week. But he told us that he felt like we could do it so we increased our faith and said ok, we can do it. So our efforts for the rest of the week were put in to finding new investigators. Wednesday morning we went out contacting and talking to people. We had some really good conversations but unfortunately no one that was interested. We then had a lesson with H.  It was a good lesson and we were able to talk to her about how she is feeling after baptism and recieving the Holy Ghost. She is still so happy and is doing great. We had English class and then a lesson with A. A is still great and is still learning so much on his own and comes to lessons so excited to share with us what he has learned.

 

Thursday...was a day where nobody would meet with us. I cant tell you how many appointments we tried to set up, nobody would let us come. However, I cant complain too much because the poor Elders had that happen to them Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We blamed it on Elder Uhlig because he gave us the goal of finding investigators so we were just being given a lot of time to be able to do that. Anyway...we first went and contacted a woman named S who Sister Bunker and I had met a few weeks back. She was very nice and let us in but from the moment she let us in she had made up her mind that she wasnt going to listen to us and that she didnt want us to come back. We tried really hard to have the Spirit testify to her but she wouldnt let it. We then went back to our apartment and did weekly planning and then we spent the rest of the day contacting and no one wanting to listen to us.

 

Friday morning we had piano with B...and then the rest of the day was spent contacting or tracting. Because again, no one would answer the phone. We called it tracting for our lives...and in order to break it up and make it not so long we stopped every hour and took a picture by the nearest object that we could find. We had a nice old lady invite us in and were able to teach her the Restoration but she was more interested in us and America than anything else. We were also let into a house where a family lived. They were so nice and had met missionaries before but again, told us not to come back.

 

We did end Friday with a great night though. We had planned a YSA activity and had encouraged the members to bring friends and we had invited a lot of young people. Well, when we started the activity it was the missionaries and V. But, gradually more people came. D came and then one of the Elders investigators named V came and brought a friend with her. It ended up being a really great night and we had a lot of fun! I think part of that was because we were all so exhausted that everything was funny but it was still great. We played around the world ping pong and I would just like it to be known that I won. Anyway, it ended up being a great night!

 

Saturday morning wasnt quite as bad as the past 2 days but we spent the first few hours tracting. We then went and visited J. She has been wanting to watch conference but doesnt have the internet so we were able to download it and take it to her and she was so grateful for it. We went to H and we talked to her about temples. The Spirit was so strong as we were talking to her about them and telling her even though she has to wait to go that she can start preparing now. When we get H to stay on topic we have really powerful lessons with her, the problem is that she goes off on tangents a lot. After H we had English and then we had piano with L.

 

Sunday was a great day at church. Nothing spectacular it was just a good day of church. We did a finding activity with the whiteboard. Our question of the week was What are you grateful for? We had some really good conversations with people.  Then we ended the night at V's. We taught her how to make cinnamon rolls...actually we taught ourselves how to make cinnamon rolls while at the same time teaching her because neither of us had made them before. But they turned out great.  We were able to set up a plan with her of when she wants to have her personal progress finished and what she needs to do between now and then in order to have that accomplished.

So this week we went through the Area Book, contacted every potential we could think of, we tracted, we contacted, we talked to everyone...but at the end of the week we didnt meet our goal, between the two companionships we only found 2 investigators which were the 2 we found Tuesday night. But I dont think that Heavenly Father wanted us to find 7, I dont think that was the purpose of setting the goal. I think the goal was to push us to work harder than we ever have and to keep going and pushing and trying to find people throughout the week even though we were exhausted. I know that my faith definitely increased this week and I think that all of our faith increased because we knew that all we could do was work and the rest was up to him. Although it was a hard week, it was a good week. I think the hardest weeks on my mission have been the weeks that I have learned and grown the most.  They are the weeks that I have turned to Heavenly Father the most and relied on him to make it through each day because sometimes I honestly didnt feel like I could make it. But as we know, through him everything is possible, and once we do everything we can His grace will make up for the rest.

 

I hope that you all have a great week! Love you lots and lots and lots! Thanks for everything you do!

 

Volim vas!

Sestra Mac

 

Shoutouts...

 

Emails...Mom, Dad, Lex, Carrie, Grandpa, Tys

Sretan Rođendan...David

Pictures

 

More from the island on P day last week



Easter - coloring and hunting for eggs

Baptism

Sretan Uskrs

Another great but crazy week! This week was especially crazy with a baptism and Easter. But it was a great week!

Monday for Pday I was brave and went and got a haircut...yep its the first time I have gotten a haircut since being in Croatia...needless to say it was much needed. It went better than I thought. I just did a trim but because it had been so long it was a little more than I would have liked. But that was my one and only haircut in Croatia!

 

Monday night we had an appointment scheduled that fell through so we then went to try to visit a less active member. But she wasnt home either...so we spent Monday night out contacting!

 

Tuesday we had a good District Meeting and then we met with B...wow. We brought a member on the lesson and it ended up not being a good idea. They are both super chatty and kept cutting each other off and neither of them were listening to anything we said. We finally got them to listen at the end and I dont think we will be teaching B anymore. Everything we tell her seems to go in one ear and out the other. I feel like we teach her the same thing every lesson and by the next lesson she doesnt remember a thing we told her. And she isnt keeping committments or putting forth any effort to show that she has desire to change. So unfortunately, we both feel that right now isnt the time for her and that she needs a break right now. After B we contacted out to H's to have a lesson with her. We talked to her about her baptism and got that planned.

 

Wednesday morning we had piano with B which was another good lesson. I cant believe how fast she is picking it up. And she is great! We then spent a good part of the day out and about contacting and then we had English class. We are starting a new English program because all of our English students have had the current English program over and over again. Im not completely sure how I feel about the new program yet but Im hoping as we do it a bit more and I get used to it that it will be good.
 

After English we met with A. We are at a loss for what to teach A. We go into the lesson with a plan of what to teach him and a committment to give him and he comes in and tells us what he has read in his personal studies that week and it always ends up being exactly what we had planned to teach him. So he is basically teaching himself. But we are able to add insight and expound his studies which are great. Right now we are really working on trying to get him to share the Gospel with those around him and to be a missionary because he has that fire and he has the knowledge and the desire to keep learning.

 

We then went to the P's to do family home evening with them. We had talked to L beforehand and he told us that he would teach the lesson and that we could just come to be there...we are really trying to get them to start doing family home evening on their own...that is the goal of us going over there. Anyway...he forgot he was supposed to do the lesson. So we ended up teaching the lesson and we talked about Easter and what it means.

 

Thursday we started off the day with weekly planning and then went to the church for Branch Council. We had a good meeting and got a lot of input and advice from members.  Then we ended the night with Aktivnost. We colored eggs which was fun. Fun fact...there arent any eggs here that are white shelled...they are all brown...which makes it a bit interesting to color eggs but it worked out.
 

Friday morning we had an Easter egg hunt for the kids in the branch and they found the eggs that we colored the night before as well as some chocolate and other things. It turned out great and we had some kids that werent members that came as well.

 

We did some contacting on Friday and then we went to H's. We read from the Book of Mormon with her and really focused on enduring to the end and made sure she knows what it means to endure to the end. We then came back to the church and had to help with filling up the font and getting everything ready for the baptism.

 

Saturday was a great day. We started off the morning with H's baptism. The Spirit that is at baptisms is incredible. The baptism was great. You could tell that she was super nervous before but after she was so happy. She bore her testimony after being baptized...I wont lie I was a bit nervous because sometimes she likes to go off on tangents but she did great and just talked about how happy she was for the decision she made to be baptized. While she was changing Sister Bunker and I taught about the Restoration and then played hymns on the piano. That helped to bring the Spirit in so much as we heard about how the church was restored and then just sat and listened to the music and thought about Joseph Smith and what he did for us.

 

After the baptism we had a small thing with desserts and then we had to clean up the church and then spent some time out contacting and ended the night with a lesson with A. She is a member but hasnt been to church in a long time. We started talking to her about Easter but after awhile I realized that there was something else that she needed to hear. So we talked about church. I was very firm with her and talked to her about why she needs church and that it cant just be something that she does every once in awhile. The point was very clear so we are praying that we will start seeing some changes in her.

 

Sunday...what a great Easter! Our plan for Easter was to visit members and investigators and take them cookies because we couldnt get anyone that wanted to set up appointments with us because it was Easter. Well...Saturday ended up being crazy so we decided we could bake the cookies while we were getting ready Sunday morning. Well...we woke up Sunday morning to the power being out. Im not kidding. So it kind of put us behind schedule. Around 7 it finally came back on so we had to rush to get all the cookies baked in time for studies...which we managed to do.

 

Church went great. Sacrament meeting was great. Z had a song that she wanted to sing in church but she didnt want to sing a solo...so she roped me into singing with her. Heres the deal, neither of us sing. Anyway...we started practicing and realized that the song had male parts. So Z was able to talk the Elders into singing with us...neither of them sing either. :) But, we did it a it turned out better than we thought it would. Of course we talked about Easter in Church. V bore her testimony about Christ and then Sister Bunker and Sister Matosich spoke. We taught Sunday School for the youth and it ended up going better than it has the past couple of weeks. The youth were actually involved in the discussion and it went really well. We focused it on the video the church put out that you all talked about Because of Him. We talked about Christ and what we have and what we are able to do because of Hm.  W focused on the Resurrection and what that means for us and then we also got to teach primary. K and K are still the cutest. We sang songs and talked about Easter. I really wish that I could send you videos because I recorded K singing I am a Child of God and it is probably the cutest thing I have ever seen.

 

After church we went with the Elders and the Matosiches to deliver cookies to members. Our plan was to do that most of the day...but our plans got changed. Sister Matosich had invited us over for dinner so we went there for dinner. And then Z called and invited us over for a second dinner. So then we went there. We ate with her and did a family home evening with her and her kids.  Then the P's called and said they were making Palačinke and invited us over...actually it was more of they wanted to make palačinke and didnt have the ingredients so they wanted us to come and bring those and eat with them. But, we figured if people were going to let us come over on Easter we would take it. So we went over to the P's and made palačinke and had a lesson with them.  It actually ended being really great because one of their Dads friends who is a non member was there and stayed for the lesson. So our Easter ended up being great. What we thought was going to be a long day of contacting ended up being a great day of people having us come over!
 

I am so grateful for my Savior and for all that he has done for me. He suffered for me, He died for me, and greater than all, He lives. I am so grateful for Easter and that we are able to focus on the fact that He lives, He was resurrected and because of that we one day will be resurrected too!
 

I love you all and hope that you have a great week!
 

Volim vas!

Sestra Clark

 

Shoutouts!
 

Emails from Mom, Dad, Tyson, Carrie, Grandpa

Congratulations to both Jordan and Amanda on getting jobs!

Monday again

This week has been another great week! We started out last week with a great Pday. We were able to go over to one of the islands, Ugljan. We got permission to take the ferry over there and see the island. President O came with us so we got a real tour of the island because his family is from there so he spent a lot of time over there growing up. It was really cool and it was beautiful! I will send pictures.

 

(Only a few pictures, she will send more next week)

 

When Pday ended we went over to the O's because she invited us over for dinner and family night. For family home evening we talked about Christlike attributes and discussed scripture stories where the people displayed Christlike attributes. After we had a short impromptu meeting with A which was great as usual.

 

Tuesday we wanted to meet with H and so we called her and she told us her daughter who lives in Dubrovnik was coming to visit her so she told us to come over to meet her daughter. Her daughter was late so she didnt end up getting there until after our lesson but it was still good to be able to meet her. We had a good lesson with H talking about baptism and the importance of it and what it really means. We talked to her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ making sure that she knows that baptism is not the only step that we need to take. Her daughter got there and wasnt too happy that we were there and wasnt very nice to us. But thats ok. Before we left H wanted us to pray with her daughter so that her daughter could feel what it feels like to feel the Spirit when we pray.

 

After H we had district meeting. It was a little interesting because the Matosiches were out of Zadar for the week so they couldnt come and we cant be at the church with just the Elders so we had a member come. It was a little difficult because my companion doesnt know Croatian and the member doesnt know English so I spent the entire district meeting translating. It was a good meeting though and good to get some input and advice from the member.

 

We then had a meeting with a man that we had met while doing our finding activity on Sunday. Well, when we went to where we were supposed to meet him he wasnt there. So we just decided to contact. We contacted a man named M...actually he came up to us and asked us what we were doing. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon and we were right by the church so we asked him if he would like to come to the church for a tour. So he did. We gave him a tour of the church which was really good and he felt the Spirit really strong. He took a copy of the Book of Mormon which he was really excited to read and he even came back that night when we watched the last session of General Conference.

 

Ya...thats what we did Tuesday night is watched the Sunday afternoon session of conference. So I was able to see all of conference. It was great!

 

Wednesday morning we started off with piano with B. It was a good piano lesson then we went out contacting. The Sister trainer leaders in Croatia have asked us to do 2 weeks of invitations where each companionship of Sisters invites 50 people a day to learn more about the church. Which basically means that we contact or tract into at least 50 people a day. We always contact everywhere we go anyway so we have made sure we are doing that. But, I think the fact that we have been praying every day to meet this goal we have been provided with so much extra time to contact or tract. This week it seemed that we had so much more time for it and we had more lessons than we usually have too. Anyway...we were out contacting and had had several people tell us that we should contact around the university. So we started walking there. On the way there we stopped 2 different sets of 2 girls, so 4 girls total. They were all probably 18 or 19 and they were all very interested. Anyway...we ended up setting up appointments to meet with all of them this week...and they are all the perfect age...potential missionaries! When we got to the college we didnt have much success but on the way it was great!

 

Wednesday night we had English and then we went and met with B. I honestly cant remember right now what we exactly talked to her about but it was a good lesson. She is progressing slowly but surely and is still trying to find out the truth and really get a confirmation of it to be ready for baptism.

 

Thursday we got a text from L asking if we could meet. She is one that when she wants to meet you make it work because it is hard to work with her schedule and get her to meet. So we quickly rearranged our schedule and had a lesson with her which was really good. We talked to her about our purpose in life and the plan that Heavenly Father has for us. She has a hard time realizing why there has to be opposition in the world. We talked to her about the Plan of Salvation and how we all have the potential to live with Heavenly Father again in never ending happiness. But Heavenly Fathers plan also means that we have agency to choose if we are going to reach that potential or not and there has to be a negative influence otherwise we wouldnt be able to know good, we wouldnt be able to know happiness because it would all be the same.

 

We then went to Z's. We talked with Z and K. We talked to K and talked about how Easter is more than Easter Bunnies and Eggs and that the most important reason for Easter is Christ, that He was resurrected and that He lives again. K turns 8 in a few months so when we go to Z's she has us cater the lessons towards K just to give her a refresher and help her to be ready for baptism.  We love it!

 

We then went home and did weekly planning and then we went to D. Sorry, my brain isnt working and I dont remember what we taught her either. After D we went to H's. It was another good lesson with her. We went over the remaining commandments that we werent able to tie in with the other lessons we had previously taught. We focused on the Sabbath Day and what it means to keep the Sabbath Day Holy. H has been very accepting of all of the principles that we teach her and it is a sincere acceptance of them. We decided to walk home from H's so that we could get the rest of our contacts for the day...problem was that there was no one out. We had an hour walk home and maybe past 10 people. But we were trying and thats what matters!

 

Friday...D is redoing her floors so we went over there to help her move furniture for that. Im not really sure exactly what help we did because she basically just had us stand and watch her as she moved everything off of a table and onto a bed and then we moved that table out into the hallway in the most complicated way possible. But it was service!  Then we went to the church for piano with B. It was great! We finished piano and then we had a really good discussion with her. We asked her about her beliefs and she was asking us questions about our beliefs and how it differs from the Catholic church. These lessons with her are going really well. We dont consider her an investigator yet because I dont think she would actually meet with us if it werent for the piano lessons but she is really opening up and is comfortable with us enough to ask us questions. She even prayed at the end of the lesson!

 

We then went to A's because she invited us for lunch so we ate there and shared the visiting teaching message with her. We then went back to the church and had a lesson with A and had V come. We discovered on Monday when we met with A that he hadnt heard about patriarchial blessings. V just got hers so we thought it would be a good idea for her to come and help us teach him about them and it was great. We had a great lesson with them.

 

We then had time to go out tracting and contacting...we got a few come back another times.  Then we went to B's. We read with her in Luke the story of the woman who washed Christs feet with her hair and her tears. This was before He performed the Atonement but she recognized who He was and what He would do for her and completely humbled herself before Him and expressed her gratitude for Him. I love this Bible story and after reading it it really hit me. I started studying the Christlike attribute of Humility and what it means to truly be humble. I think one of my favorite things I read was in True to the Faith which says something along the lines of being humble means that we gratefully recognize the Lords hand in our lives. I really liked the word gratefully...not that we just recognize that His hand is in our lives but that we do it with gratitude.

 

Saturday morning we had a lesson with H and we brought L with us which ended up being great. We reviewed the baptismal interview questions with her to help her be ready for that and had L share his testimony since he was recently baptized. It ended up being a really powerful lesson. H hasnt had her interview yet but things should be good for that to go through this Saturday. We really feel like she is ready. She has accepted it and recognizes what the Gospel is and when we talk to her about the church the Spirit is so strong. She really is trying to live it and she thinks about it and prays about it and tries to learn more even when we arent there teaching her.

 

Saturday afternoon we had piano with L and then we had English. We went out contacting for awhile and then we went and cleaned the church.

 

Sunday was a great day of church, as usual. President Rowe has asked that the topic of Sacrament meeting for this month be temples throughout the mission so that members will realize the importance of the temple and start preparing themselves to go to the temple hopefully at the next temple trip in August. Sunday School was great. We did the youth Sunday School class again and it still wasnt perfect but it was better than last time and then we got to teach primary to K and K. We talked to them about prophets and then we sang primary songs.

 

We did our finding activity again and the question of the week was What does Easter mean to you? It wasnt as great as it usually goes due to the fact that the weather wasnt too great but we got a couple phone numbers and potential investigators.

 

We then met with a lady who had been taught be missionaries in Banja Luka and then moved to Zadar. She was the sweetest lady ever. She apparently came over on her break from work so she only had a few minutes but told us that she really wants to learn about the church and wants us to come to where she is staying to teach her. She lives 30 km away from Zadar and even told us that she would come pick us up and take us there to teach her if we dont have a car.

 

We ended the night with V. We did personal progress with her and she taught us how to make Palačinke (Croatian pancakes which are more like crepes than pancakes). V is the greatest and we had a really good discussion with her while we were making them. She graudates high school next month and is trying to figure out her plans and such. I am amazed at how strong a member she is due to the fact that up until a few weeks ago she was the only member in Zadar that is her age and now she is the only girl that is her age. But her testimony is so strong and she knows it is true. She is such a great example!

 

It has been another great week in Zadar! For my personal study I have been studying the Old Testament and I recently finished Jeremiah. As I was reading it I was thinking about how this is at the same time that Lehi and his family left Jerusalem. Jeremiah talks about the destruction of Jerusalem. I was thinking about Laman and Lemuel and how so many times they murmured and wanted to go back to Jerusalem. Granted their travels through the wilderness werent easy but they were saved from destruction. I think that many times throughout our lives we find ourselves in the same situation as them. We think there is an easy way or that it would have been better if we had "stayed in Jerusalem". But the easiest way is following the way of the Lord. He is the only one that knows the full picture and what will save us from destruction. This is His work and I know that it is only through him that I, and we can do this.

 

I love you all and hope that you have a great week and a happy Easter!

 

Volim vas!

Sestra Clark

 

 

Shoutouts!

 

Emails...Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Lex, Tyson

Sretan Rođendan Tyler!

Happy Monday‏

Well...It has been another great, busy week. But we like them busy!

 Beautiful view

Monday...we spent the first part of the night out tracting.  Then we went to the P's to have family home evening. It was great. We talked about conference and about prophets then we played prophet Jenga. We built the structure talking about how Christ is the foundation and then there are other leaders that make it a full structure.  Then each time someone took out a block they had to name one of the twelve apostles or first presidency. It worked great until they started getting off track of that and naming older prophets such as Moses...and then they started listing missionaries...not really sure where those came from. But it was great and we had a good, fun night together.

 

FHE activity

 

Tuesday morning we met with S. We read 3 Nephi 17 with her which is where Christ comes and calls the children to come to him. We talked about how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us and that one day each of us will be called unto them. We talked about how we can show our love for them and show them that we are grateful for them. We also met with H on Tuesday night. It was a good lesson with her. We talked about prophets and following the prophet because conference was coming up.

 

Then we watched the General Womens Meeting with all of the women members. We watched it in Croatian...well I did. My companion watched it in English with Sister Matosich in the other room...so I was on splits with one of the members. When I told her thats what I was doing she told me to go watch it in English...apparently she didnt want to be my companion for a few hours. Anyway...the meeting was great and I loved seeing the young primary girls there and seeing how the speakers made it applicable to them as well as the Relief Society sisters.

 

Wednesday morning we started out with piano with B. That is still going well and we are still slowly trying to get her interested in the church as well. I really feel that it will click with her sometime. We then called H to set up an appointment and she asked if we could meet right then. We had some time so we did. She has a lot going on right now and is having a really hard time dealing with it. She is also having a hard time letting go of some things from the past. We are trying to help her see that the Gospel brings peace and happiness and that if she accepts it and accepts Christ and his Atonement that she can recieve strength through her hard times. The problem is she accepts everything we teach but she is having a hard time actually applying it to herself and to her life.

 

After H we went and met with V. I feel like she has more faith than the first time that we met with her but I still feel like every time we meet with her it is as if we are starting over. She knows what she needs to do in her life to help build faith and to get her back on the right path, she is just stubborn and wont do it. She headed back to Varaždin yesterday so we wont be meeting with her anymore and I hope that we made a difference that will help her to start making the changes that she needs to.

 

We had English Wednesday night and then we went and met with B. We actually had a really good lesson with her. We went in and let her talk for a few minutes at the first and then set expectations for the rest of the lesson. We told her that we had some important things that we were going to talk to her about and that we wanted her to listen and to pay attention to her feelings and when we asked questions to really think about it and answer them. We did a repeat of the first lesson because she was confused on a few things.  She stayed on topic throughout the entire lesson. It was really powerful and she is really searching for an answer to see if it is true.

 

Thursday we had a lesson with H and we took S with us which ended up being great. S told her exactly what she needs to do to be ready for baptism and to move on from her past. We have told her multiple times but I think it was really good coming from someone other than the missionaries. We talked about faith with her and told her what she needs to do in order to get a witness that the things we are teaching her are true. She said she believes it but she hasnt actually prayed about it. So we helped her to see what she needs to do and now we just hope that she will have the faith and the desire to actually do it.

 

We had weekly planning on Thursday and then we had a lesson with A which was great as usual. We talked to him about how happy he was at baptism and how happy he was when he recieved the Priesthood and that how each step he takes forward in the Gospel will add to that happiness. We talked about temples and family history work as well as missionary work. It was a great lesson and he said he is still trying to find ways to teach his friends and family about the church...one day he is going to start bringing people in just by the example and the light that shines from him.

 

We then went to S and M's. We havent met with them in a long time and they wouldnt set up appointments with us so we took Sister Matosich and just showed up at their house.  They let us in and we were able to have a really good lesson with them. We talked about grace and how The Saviors Grace is waiting to help us but it will only come after we have done everything we can. They are really struggling right now and instead of turning to the Gospel and trying to strengthen their faith they are letting it weaken. We also had a lesson with A. We talked to her about conference and not only watching and listening to conference but then taking what we learn and continuing to study it and apply it.

 

Some of her MTC group at Zone Conference

 

Friday we had zone conference which was great as usual. The focus of zone conference this time was personal conversion and finding. We talked about how the first person that we need to convert is ourself. We have to know, we have to feel and we have to be able to express that to our investigators and the people we come in contact with.  We talked about finding...how we can find people who are ready to learn about the Gospel. We got to take the bus home from zone conference so we had a nice 3 1/2 hour ride home. But the time passed quicker than it usually does so that was good...I love Sister Bunker. We have a lot of fun together but we also work really hard and are seeing results from our efforts. Even though she struggles with the language and I carry a lot of the weight that way this transfer has been one of my favorite transfers so far...and we are only 3 weeks into it.

 

Saturday morning we went out tracting/contacting. We were on our way home from the area we were in and a potential investigator came to my mind and I realized we were close to them and we decided to go try and see if they were interested. We went and knocked on their door...they werent interested. But we decided that since we were there we would tract the building.  We found 5 sincerely interested potential investigators. 5 in less than an hour...that is amazing. We got addresses and phone numbers and they all were really excited for us to come back!

 

We did piano with B again on Saturday and after we did piano with L...she was a little stink and obviously didnt really want to be there...but by the end she was ok with it. We had English and we only had one student so we decided to ask him what he had questions about. We were expecting him to ask us questions about grammar or things that we had priviously taught but no...he wanted to learn some good phrases. So we were like ok...we can do that. So he gave us a phrase in Croatian and then we would translate it. By the end of the lesson we came to the conclusion that he wants to go to America and be a taxi driver because the questions he was asking were super bizarre and the only way you need to know it is if you are going to drive a taxi...we found it quite humorous but he was dead serious about it.

 

Saturday night we watched the first session of conference. Well...when we got it started we realized we had a problem. The session wasnt being live translated to Croatian and none of the members that speak English were there. So they turned to me and said Sister Clark you get to translate. I about had a hard attack. Anyway...I got started and got about half way through the first talk which was Elder Holland.  Translating was really difficult because he was speaking so fast that I could only catch part of what was being said to translate it. After about half way through Z got there so she came to switch me out. She started for about 5 minutes and then turned to me and said this is impossible and stopped. We even had the O's come and she used to be a translator for the church and she said there is no way I can translate it without a script. So we arent really sure what the problem was but we ended up watching the first session in English because it wasnt in Croatian.

 

Sunday morning we went to the church and luckily they had the Saturday afternoon session in Croatian so we were able to watch that in Croatian. I was on splits with one of the members again so that my companion could watch it in English. After conference we went to the P's and we did Personal Progress with V which ended up turning into a P family lesson but it was great.  Then we did another whiteboard finding activity. Our question of the week was What do you like to do on Sundays?  It was perfect because people would say what they do and then we could lead into we go to church on Sundays...and bring up the Gospel. We had a lot of fun and we got some potentials and one appointment for the week. It is proving to be an effective finding tool and I think we are going to start doing it every week on Sundays. After our finding activity we walked back to the church and watched the Sunday morning session of conference. We havent watched the Sunday afternoon session yet but will be watching it tomorrow night.

 

Conference was great. It is hard for me to pick one talk that I like the most because they were all so great. Because of our Sunday school class that we taught last Sunday about how the living prophets and apostles teach of the Atonement I went in with the intention to apply every talk to the Atonement.  In some way, every talk did. I also paid close attention to the end of each talk when they testified...and they all testified of Christ and His Atonement. It wasnt surprising because Christ is the center of our church.  It is through His Atonement that we find strength. I know that the Atonement is real and that it can apply to every aspect of our lives. I see evidence of the Atonement every day in my work and as I learn more about it, the more I find strength through it. The Gospel is true. Thomas S. Monson is called of God to lead our church. This is Christs church that has been restored to the earth.

 

I love you all and hope that you have a great week!

 

Volim vas!

Sestra Clark

 

Shoutouts!

 

Emails...Dad, Mom, Carrie, Grandpa, Lex, Tys

And I got the package this week so thank you for that!

Happy April.....Almost!

It has been another great week here in sunny, Zadar. It sounds like you guys got snow there the past couple of days. I am definitely not jealous of that one bit. But this week was another great week. Great things are continuing to happen every day! This week was full of really powerful lessons and people are realizing the need to make changes in their lives and making the changes!

Monday...we spent the night out tracting. We had an appointment with one of the members but when we went she wasnt home...so we did more tracting!

 

Tuesday morning we started out with District Meeting. President and Sister Rowe skyped in for it and we talked about recognizing the Spirit and inviting and helping our investigators to feel and recognize it as well.

 

After District Meeting we had a lesson with H. Things are still looking good for her with her baptism in a few weeks. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and talked about our purpose in life. We had actually planned on teaching something different but when she got there she started talking about a few things that led right into the Plan of Salvation. So we went with that and it turned out great. She is still recognizing and feeling the Spirit and she is very accepting of everything that we teach.

We then had a lesson with V who is the member from Varaždin who is here in Zadar for awhile. I honestly right now dont remember what we talked about with her but I know it was a really good lesson.

 

We ended the night with a lesson with D. We talked to her about prayer...what prayer is and why it is so important. And then she tried to get us to go to a concert with her...we have a hard time with the members not realizing that we as missionaries have rules and cant do certain things. But we didnt go to the concert.

 

Wednesday morning we taught piano to B. At the end we were able to share a spiritual thought and read with her from the Book of Mormon and pray with her. At first we were nervous about doing it because D told us she wasnt interested but we figured might as well try...the worst that will happen is she will say no. But it went really well.

 

Wednesday night we had Branch Council and English. We were supposed to have a lesson with one of our English students after English but she didnt come to English...so we moved it to Saturday. Anyway...we then had a lesson with A. Holy cow! I dont even know how to begin to describe the change that has occured in him. He was ready for baptism and before baptism he was great but he is a completely changed version of himself it is amazing. He walked in and we asked him how he was and he said I am so happy. He said the past couple of days since his baptism have been the happiest days of his life. There is so much more confidence in him. Our lesson with him was one of the most powerful lessons I have had. He was teaching and testifying right along side us. We started reteaching the lessons and doing the after baptism lessons with him but it was more of a Gospel discussion than a lesson because of how much he knows and how strong his testimony is. We talked to him about doing missionary work and sharing the Gospel and he told us that his friends arent the type that he can just sit down and talk to them about it so he tries to fit it into their conversations every day so that one day they will realize it. As he walked out the door he pretty much threatened us and the Elders and told us that if we dont call him on lessons with us he will be really mad because he wants to help people the way that the members helped him. He is on fire right now. It is amazing!

 

Thursday morning we did weekly planning and then we went and had a lesson with M. She is the one that wants to unite all churches together. She is so oblivious. She came to A's baptism and was telling us that she is so happy that he found the truth and accepted it and was baptized like Christ was baptized. So she understands it...but she doesnt think she needs to change. We are so straightforward with her and tell her she is completely wrong and it completely goes over her head. We talked to her about how our church is the only church with Priesthood Authority from God and the only church where we can recieve the Gift of the Holy Ghost...but she didnt get it. But, her son was there and sat in on the lesson and we see potential in him so we think it is worth going back to meet with her to try and get to her son...so we will see how that goes.

 

And then we went to B's. Bless her heart. We went in and sat down with her and told her our purpose and she expressed her desire to learn and try to find truth. The biggest thing with her is she goes off topic a lot...and it gets really tiring and hurts my brain because I have to translate the entire lesson so that my companion knows what is going on. So its hard to keep the Spirit there and no what to say when she goes off and I have to translate while at the same time try to bring the Spirit back and get her back on subject. But she did say that if she realized what we were teaching was true she would be baptized.

 

On the way home from B's we got ice cream even though it was pouring rain because it was March 27 so we had to do something and then we spent the rest of the night out contacting. We made some flyers for General Conference...they are sweet flyers...anyways so we contacted people about General Conference and it turned out really good. We had more people actually stop and have conversations with us and express interest than we have using any other contacting technique.

 

Friday morning we had piano with B again and at the end we were able to discuss the Gospel again. She is getting more comfortable with us and opening up to us which is good. We met with A after and had a good lesson with her and then we actually went out to see H. She invited us to come to her house. We had another good lesson with her. We talked to her about fasting since this Sunday was Fast Sunday and explained to her what fasting is and why we fast and how if we fast with a purpose it can be a spiritual expierence rather than just going without food. That went well and then we also talked about the Word of Wisdom...it went a lot better than we thought it would and she was accepting of it.

 

We then had a lesson with V and V. We actually met them at the church and we made dinner with them and then we read Alma 7 and talked to them about the Atonement. Wow...it was a great lesson. The Spirit was there so strong and there was a lot of silence and a lot of thinking. After the lesson we were able to commit V to coming to church...and she was so excited about it. She hasnt come to church since she has been in Zadar but this week she was up on her own and ready to go to church. After we went to B's and had a lesson with her and her family. We talked about family prayer and the strength that comes when we pray together as a family.

 

Saturday morning we started out with a lesson with L. The first part of the lesson was a little bit shaky because her Mom was there and made it very obvious that she was not happy that we were there. And her daughter was being very loud and distracting and wouldnt sit and listen as much as we tried. But we finally moved to another room where it was quiet and where the Spirit could be.  It was another really powerful lesson. We read Alma 7: 11-13 and talked to L about the Atonement and it was the first time that it really clicked for her what it means for her. That Christ knows exactly what she is going through because he literally did go through it. Seeing the light and the change that went in her when she realized that was amazing. It also gave her a greater desire to study the Book of Mormon because we told her that every verse can be just as powerful if she applies it to herself and allows it to mean something for her.

 

We had a lesson after with J. Surprisingly, N was super mellow and actually let us talk without too much disruption. He did break dance for us at the end which was great. We read Mosiah 2 with J and talked to her about General Conference and the strength and power that comes from listening to living prophets and then following what they teach us.

 

We had piano with L and then we had English class. After English class we met with one of our students, L, who had come to the baptism last week. We talked to her about her feelings at the Baptism and then we talked to her about the Book of Mormon. She is "Catholic". I put that in quotes because she never goes to church and never reads the Bible but claims to be Catholic. So instead of talking to her about how the Book of Mormon and how our church are different we talked to her about the similarities and how the Gospel is centered on Christ and that the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ. We had her read from the Book of Mormon and she said that she would continue to read from it at home and that we could meet with her again after English next week.

 

Sunday was a good day at church. It was fast and testimony meeting which was good. For Sunday School we have started a youth/young single adult class for the younger members. Today was the first day doing it. We are using the Come Follow Me Program that the church has created. The lesson was a little shaky today because they werent really used to it and didnt really want to say anything because they arent comfortable with it yet but we are going to keep it going and I think that it will be a really good thing and will really help the younger members. We talked about the Atonement and how the living Apostles and Prophets testify of Christ. The Atonement kind of seemed to be the theme of a lot of our lessons this week...a lot of those werent on purpose. But it has really helped to strenghten my testimony of the Atonement to focus so much on it this week and to think about what it really means for each and every one of us. He thought of each of us and suffered for each of us individually. During Sunday School we read the Living Christ and had everyone talk about what stuck out to them the most. For me it was "Da on živi!" "That he lives!". How powerful of a statement is that. Not only did He die for us but He was resurrected and He lives for us. Its a great reminder with Easter coming up of what Easter means. Christ was resurrected and he still lives today.

 

Z is finally back from India so her kids were here so we got to teach them primary. They are seriously the cutest kids ever. We talked to them about how we know that Heavenly Father loves us. It was so cute to hear their answers and I think my favorite part was in the middle of the lesson when K asked if we could sing I am a Child of God. So we did...in English and Croatian because thats what she wanted.

 

A and L both recieved the Aaronic Priesthood this week at church. They did it during the third hour and we obviously werent in Priesthood so we werent there for it. When church ended A came walking into the primary room with the biggest grin on his face and looked at us and said I was just ordained to the Priesthood! He was so happy and made us so happy to see him so happy! After church we talked to L for a little bit and he is just as happy and excited about the decisions he has made as A. He is so excited and is already talking about going on a mission...even though he has to wait a year. He said as soon as he can he will be going. These 2 have the Spirit with them so strongly and are such a great strength to the Branch here.

 

Sunday afternoon we did a finding activity with the Elders. We had a whiteboard that we wheeled down to a place where people walk a lot and wrote the question "What is your recipe for happiness?" We wrote a few answers and then we stopped people and asked them and had them write their answers and we talked to them about it. It ended up being a lot of fun and was a really good finding activity.

 

 

We went to V's and did personal progress with her and then we went to E's. Unfortunately, I dont think we will be meeting with her. She expressed interest in doing family histroy so we will probably get her in contact with Sister Matosich to do that but she isnt interested in learing about the Gospel right now...she isnt open to change.

 

Anyway...it was another full, crazy week but it was another great week! I am so glad that I am still in Zadar. I know that this is where I am needed and I am so lucky that I get to be here when there are so many miracles happening. The church is growing here...slowly but surely. I love seeing so many missionary aged people accepting the Gospel and preparing to serve missions. That is what is going to bring the most growth here. Missionary work is amazing!

 

I hope that you all have a great week!

Volim vas!

Sestra Clark

Shoutouts!

 

Emails...Mom, Dad, Carrie, Grandpa, Lex, Tyson

 

Sretan Rođendan Heidi!