Well...its been another week here in good old Tuzla, or maybe I should say in Bosnia because I spent part of the week in Banja Luka. But nevertheless it has been a good week.
Monday...well, since we were doing the exchange we talked with the Banja Luka sisters and discovered that the city where we would be meeting in had a castle. So we decided since it was Pday we would meet there and go look at the castle. So we did. It was really cool. We spent quite a bit of time just walking around and looking at all the nooks and crannies and looking at the view from it. Right when we got to the very top, like the highest you could go it started raining. And not just raining, but pouring. It lasted for all of about 10 minutes but by the time it stopped we were all soaked from head to toe. Good times! After seeing the Castle Sister Peterson headed back to Tuzla with Sister Kawai and I headed back to Banja Luka with Sister Rankin. We got back to Banja Luka and got our stuff dropped off and the car returned and then we did some contacting for the evening.
Tuesday was a day in Banja Luka. And it was a good day. In the morning we did some contacting and then we met with a woman named S. The Sisters meet with her about once a week to help her practice her English. We just talked with her and it was actually kind of fun just to talk with her. She was very nice. We then went and had a lesson with some of the members in Banja Luka. We had a good lesson with them talking about testimonies. We discussed what a testimony is and how we gain it and also talked to them about the importance of bearing our testimonies in order to strengthen them and we encouraged them to prepare to bear their testimony next fast Sunday at church. We emphasized the fact that a testimony doesnt have to be something big, rather short statements of truth. Whenever we have testimony meetings at zone conference, etc. President Grant always reminds us that a testimony is 3 minutes or less, anything more than that is a travelogue.
After meeting with them we went to the church and had English class which went well and then we spent the rest of the night out contacting. Tuesday was a beautiful day. It was the first sunny day without rain in a long time so we actually enjoyed contacting and being able to be outside most of the day!
Wednesday we had District meeting in Banja Luka. We talked about applying family history to missionary work because that is another thing that President Grant is putting emphasis on. We were going to have a lesson and then leave to exchange back but we ended up cancelling the lesson and exchanging back earlier which ended up being a good thing because after we had switched back and Sister Kawai and I were on our way back to Tuzla it started pouring rain! Like the streets were giant puddles and people were setting up sandbags. I dont think it actually started flooding but I dont think that we would have made it back if we would have left any later. But we made it back to Tuzla safely!
Thursday morning President Grant was in Tuzla for our quarterly interviews. We actually all ended up going to the senior couples apartment and we all had our interview with him and then he talked to all of us for a few minutes. It was great. He talked to us about the importance of getting the members to read their scriptures every day because that is what is causing them to fall away. They arent being nourished by the good word of God. We have been trying to read the scriptures with the members and getting them to read them every day but we are going to work even harder at that because that is what will be the key to getting them to come back.
After interviews we went home and did weekly planning...well we started weekly planning until we got a phone call from the Elders 20 minutes before their English class telling us that they werent going to make it in time and needed us to go teach it. Well, we were a half an hour from the church so we booked it out the door and booked it to the church and barely made it in time for their English class. We taught the first half of their English class until they got there and then we went out contacting for half an hour and then came back and taught our English class.
Friday morning we started out with District Meeting. We kind of discussed what we had learned last week at zone conference and how we could apply it in our district and we also did a review of the goals we had made for the month and what we still needed to do in order to accomplish them.
Afterwards we went and met with E. We had another really good lesson with him! We were able to discuss with him how if he wants to recieve answers to his prayers he needs to be doing his part. And not only did he realize that but we were able to get him to realize it for himself rather than us telling him what he needed to do! We talked about the importance of reading the scriptures and he committed to reading the Book of Mormon every day!
After meeting with E we drove out to see M. She called us that morning and asked us to come see her and it just so happened that we were available and the Devers were free so we went out to see her. She is great. She is the member that lives in Bijeljina which is closest to Tuzla but she goes to church each week in Beograd because the bus schedule is better even though it is a little bit longer of a drive...about 2 and a half hours. We shared the visiting teaching message with her and had a good visit. She talked to us about how right after she was baptized she moved to Montenegro and at the time the nearest church to their was Beograd. So once or twice a month she would take a 9 hour one way bus ride all by herself to go to church. She is amazing. She has a hard time understanding why the members who live a 15 minute walk from the church cant go every Sunday when she travels so far. She has such a strong testimony and is such a great example of sacrifice to do what the Lord wants.
Saturday morning we went out contacting. We ran into R. She is so sweet and loves us but unfortunately isnt interested in the church. We talked to her for a little bit and then we went and cleaned the church. After cleaning the church we spent the rest of the day contacting and tracting. We actually had a decent night of tracting. We had one man that we were able to talk to about the Book of Mormon and he took a copy and said that he would read it and that we could come back! We also tracted into another man who apparently the Elders had contacted the night before and had gotten his information to meet up with him. So that was kind of crazy.
Sunday was a good day at church. We only had 7 people there including missionaries but we had really good meetings. After church we did contacting and checking up on some potentials who had told us that we could come back today. But, unfortunately none of them were home. Contacting was fine until it started pouring rain and we didnt have an umbrella. By the time we got home we both had to completely change our clothes because we were completely soaked from head to toe. I dont like the rain. Especially when I am out in it. We went over to the senior couples house for dinner and then we watched a broadcast from Germany that was for the women in the Europe Area. We are hoping that we can find a way to get the members to come and watch it at the church because it was really good. They had several different speakers from the area representatives as well as Elder Bednar and Elder Ballard. The talks were all really good and it is hard to explain what they talked about but the overall theme was finding strength through the Atonement and being examples and standing for what we believe even when it is hard. It was just really good!
Well, I guess that is all for this week. It was a good week and it went by way too fast which I fear might happen with this next week. But this next week is going to be a great week! We are going to work harder than we have, tract more doors than we have, and we are going to help the members start to make changes in their lives.
I hope that you all have a great week! Love you lots and lots! Thanks for everything!
Volim vas!
Sestra Clark
Shoutouts!
Emails...Dad, Mom, Carrie, Grandpa, Lex, Tys
Sretan Rođendan...Tyson!
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