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!
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