Well...Here goes another email. Lets see what I can come up with to email today. I accidentally forgot my book that I write things down in that I want to email about so this is all going to be coming from memory. We will see how I do.
Monday...was a good Pday in Sremska. We didnt do anything too exciting. We did however accidentally schedule an appointment in the middle of Pday so we went and met with a man named I. It was the first lesson with him and it went really well. He has a wife and a daughter. It was kind of just a set expectations lesson with him and talk to him about our purpose, etc. But it went really well and he said that missionaries could come back. Even with an appointment in the middle of the day I was still able to take a nap which was so nice. Monday night we had a lesson with an investigator named M. The first of the lesson was kind of shaky and I honestly thought he was trying to tell us that he didnt want to meet with missionaries anymore. But, we were able to answer his concerns through using the scriptures and talked to him a lot about the Spirit. We helped him recognize when he feels the Spirit and how he can feel the Spirit more in his life. We got a soft baptismal commitment from him as well. We spent the rest of the night out contacting. We talked to one lady that I dont remember her name but she was really interested. She talked to us about how she is confused because there are so many churches but they are all conflicting...that led perfectly into the Restoration and she gave us her contact information!
Tuesday was a day of traveling. We traveled from Sremska to Zagreb and I picked up my companion and we barely made the bus to get back to Zadar. We got to Zadar and had to go straight to the church so that Sister Konietz could teach German. Since she didnt have much prep time it wasnt the greatest German class but it went all right. I get to sit in on the classes so I am pretty much going to be fluent in German soon. Just kidding...I tune it out most of the time so as not to confuse my brain too much. We went back to the apartment and got settled and then we spent the night contacting.
Wednesday we started the morning by going to the MUP and getting Sister Konietz registered and such. Since she is from Germany which is part of the EU the process is a lot easier for her which is nice. We then went to the church and had a piano lesson with B. We had Branch Council which was good to be able to get caught up on what has been going on the past week and such and also look ahead the next couple weeks and see what we need to do for that.
We then went and met with V. She is the member from Varaždin who is in Zadar right now working...well trying to find a job. She has started working on Personal Progress so we did that with her. Sometimes it is hard to meet with her because I feel like everytime it is like we are starting over with the basics. She is struggling to increase her faith. She knows what she needs to do for it...she just wont do it.
We then went and met with H. It was a very interesting lesson. Im a little worried that it wasnt good that we werent able to meet with her at all last week. I dont even remember exactly what happened it was just all over the place. She knows the church is true and she is still so happy that she was baptized but she has some other things going on in life that seem to kind of be holding her back a bit.
We ended the night with A. We had a good lesson with him talking about the commandments and why we have them and how they bless us more than hold us back (not really sure how to word that). Anyway...it was a realy good lesson. A still studies so much on his own and loves to share with us from his studies. But, he hasnt been to church in over a month now which I am really worried about since he is such a new member. He tells us how much he misses church and that he knows he needs to come but there is something missing that we are trying to help him with.
Thursday...we went to visit a potential that Sister Bunker and I went to a few weeks ago and she told us we could come back. Unfortunately when we got there she wasnt very happy to see us and told us that she would come to the church when she felt a need for it. :( We then went home and did weekly planning. It was good but took a lot of extra explaining because I had to tell Sister Konietz about everyone and kind of get her updated with the area. But it was a good weekly planning. Thursday night we had a lesson with D. It was one of the better lessons we had with her and she even shared with us something she has been studying that went right along with what we were teaching her. June is the month of invitations throughout Europe and the goal this year is to get every member to invite one person to church with them throughout the month. So we talked to her about that and shared with her the letter that we recieved talking about it. We are really hoping that she will bring her daughter who is an inactive member to church. We talked to her about it and she said she would try.
Friday...was a day where no one would set up with us. Like for reals. It was actually a bit ridiculous because we were out of Zadar for a week so we werent able to meet with any of our investigators. This week I was able to get in contact with a few of them but they wouldnt let us meet and the others I couldnt even get ahold of. But it will all be ok. But anyway...we spent the day contacting. We are doing signups for new German and English classes since we have new missionaries we decided it was a good time to kind of start over and try to get some new students. So we spent the day going around to places particularly where younger people would be and passed out flyers and hung up posters for that.
We had German class Friday night which was really good. We actually had 2 new students. One of them the Elders started teaching this week as an investigator and the other one I think we can get her there.
Other exciting news...Friday right before German we had a man walk into the church. He came up to me and asked if it was the Mormon church and if he was in the right place. I told him he was. He explained to me that he had been to the church several years ago before we were in this location and that he had talked to missionaries and they gave him a Book of Mormon and he had been reading it. He literally asked me the question how do I become a member. I explained to him that he has to meet with the missionaries and that we teach lessons and if he was interested we could do that and talk more about what it entails. He asked when we could start. So we got his information...we however gave it to the Elders since he is a male we figured it was more appropriate for them to teach him. And he came to church on Sunday.
Saturday we started out the morning by going with the Matosiches to try and find some inactive members that live about half an hour outside of Zadar. We lucked out in finding them home. The husband was not so happy to see us and would barely even say hello. But the wife sat and talked with us for a little while. She was so nice. We got to know her and her story. We invited her to come to church and she said she would like to but it is hard because she cant drive and her husband isnt interested. We encouraged her to start reading from the Book of Mormon again which she said she would do and she also said that we could come back and visit again.
When we got back to Zadar we did contacting and then had piano with L. We then cleaned the church while the Elders taught English. Right now we only have one level of English students so since we teach German the Elders teach English...but we are hoping to get more students and have a couple different groups and then we will both teach. We spent the rest of the night contacting.
Sunday...was church. I got to speak in Sacrament meeting. I actually was supposed to last week but then ended up not being here. So they moved me to this week. I actually dont mind it now, at first I hated it and it stressed me out. We had Sunday School and then we taught Primary. We did our finding activity which went all right. It wasnt as great as it has been in the past. But it was still beneficial. We wanted to meet with V but she had a test she was studying for so she cancelled on us. So we went and met with V. She is hoping to go back to Varaždin on Tuesday and wanted to meet with us before she went back. They took Sister Missionaries out of Varaždin this past transfer and Im a little worried that wont be good for her. But it will be ok. We had a really good lesson with her and asked some really good questions that got her thinking. We had a really good discussion with her and I really think that she might start making changes in her life now.
Well...that was my week. I am happy to be back in Zadar and I am finally feeling adjusted again. I know a lot of you talked about the flooding that is going on...I can honestly say that you all probably know more than I do because of the fact that the things you sent me through email are more information than I knew before. I can also tell you that I am safe. There hasnt even been rain here since I have been back and I have not been affected by it in any way. I also know that all the missionaries and members in the areas with flooding are also safe and that the humanitarian couples are helping to make sure that people are taking care of. Keep the missionaries and the people in these countries in your prayers.
For my talk this week I based it off of a talk from this last General Conference by President Packer titled The Witness (I think). It talked about how he gained a witness and then he discussed the simple truths that he knows and how they are things that he wasnt taught but that he learned. I love how the main points that he focused on where that God lives, The Holy Ghost is Real and that Christ lives. That is what a testimony is...that is what a witness is. That we know they are real and we strive everyday to show that. I thought a lot about what it means to be "Valiant in the testimony of Jesus" and how that means that not only do we need to learn of him but also strive to become more like him. He is the perfect example for us and in the church we learn exactly who he is and what we need to do to become like him. We wont ever be perfect, but we can strive to be more and more like him every day.
I love you all and hope that you have a great week!
Sestra Clark
Shoutouts!
Emails...Lex, Mom, Dad, Carrie, Grandpa, Tys
Sretan Rođendan...Grandpa and Kaitlin!
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