Kroska gets ‘a clue’ during Argentina mission

by Darren Diekmann

St. Joseph resident Clara Kroska returned home March 29 from the most difficult and rewarding experience of her young life, an 18-month mission trip to Argentina with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Kroska, 21, is a 2013 graduate of Albany High School and is the daughter of Susan and David Kroska.

Before leaving on the mission in September 2014, Kroska underwent six weeks of intensive training in Spanish and teaching methods at the Missionary Training Center near Provo, Utah.

Some of the training is specialized for the location the church has selected for the missionary.

“This was so fun,” Kroska said. “We learned how to teach the gospel to people and learned Spanish as well. I would not have been able to do the mission without the training at the center.”

Despite this training and a year of college Spanish, the language barrier was the most daunting part of her experience early on in the mission. None of the Argentinians she met spoke English, Kroska said. And there were almost no English speakers in the mission.

She said it was made even more challenging since most locals did not speak a standard form of Spanish but rather an Italian-influenced version called Castellano. The only English she spoke was with her parents on the phone just once a week, which made for a frustrating and somewhat lonely first part of her experience.

She did go to Argentina with a group from the training center, but did not really know anyone from the group, she said.

“It was hard, but it’s OK,” Kroska said. “It keeps you focused and keeps you from being distracted. You get used to it and start getting involved in the work, and you just go forward.”

She did have a lot to distract her. The missionaries woke up every day at 6:30 a.m., exercised and then went to work.

“We went out and spread the word and we talked to everybody,” Kroska said. “We had appointments, we worked with members of the local church, we shared the gospel with everybody.”

Then they took a break for lunch, followed by their studies, which included the Book of Mormon, the Bible and language study.

The day continued with preaching until 9 p.m. at night.

“We went door-to-door,” she said, “and did street displays. We did a lot of street contacting, talking to people on the street.”

Sometimes local church members would give them names of people to visit.

Throughout this daily routine, each missionary was almost always with her companion. Two missionaries are grouped together by the church to team up for spiritual support.

“I had many companions,” Kroska said. “They changed them often. I had companions from Spain, Chile, Columbia, U.S. and Canada, from all over the world.”

The missionaries stay, as a group, in apartments rented by the LDS. Kroska and her group moved often to different locations and three different cities. Bahia Blanca – located on the east coast about 400 miles southeast of Buenos Aires, with a population of 300,000 – was the first. Here she stayed in about five locations throughout the city.

Housing was comfortable with few problems, except for the occasional cockroach, she said.

The missionaries worked hard but it wasn’t all work. They had one free day a week. They would spend the day shopping, going to museums or the beach and hiking in the mountains. Kroska said she particularly liked going to the beach. However, as missionaries, according to the missionary handbook, they were not allowed to swim. But Kroska indicated it wasn’t that inviting anyway.

“It was white sand but it was pretty rocky,” she said, “and the water wasn’t clear blue.”

Kroska said she noticed a few stark differences between central Minnesota and Argentina. One was the housing and architecture that revealed such contrasts between rich and poor.

“There were mostly older parts of the city where the buildings were antique and the houses were small and seemed really cramped,” she said. “They were made of concrete and falling apart. Then there were parts where everything was new, with huge mansions and everything was beautiful.”

Another was the frequent fear of being mugged. The missionaries would carry transparent bags so thieves would see they didn’t have anything valuable. But that was not always a deterrent.

“I got robbed twice,” Kroska said. And she described it as “beyond terrifying.”

She was coached in her training not to resist. She didn’t and wasn’t harmed either time.

But this was the exceptional experience, mostly a result of poverty, she said, and she is left with a warm feeling toward the Argentinian people. Every day in her work she experienced their warmth and generosity.

“Argentinians are very loving people,” she said. “Once you get to know them they share everything.”

Kroska said every part of her stay was rich and rewarding.

“This experience has given me an increased confidence in myself to accomplish what ever I set out to do,” she said.

And it has put that into sharper focus. Before Argentina, she “didn’t have a clue,” she said. Now she plans to attend Brigham Young University next year. And she knows if she teaches or goes into dentistry she wants to be of service to God, her church and to other people.

Kroska said she plans to continue her education at BYU next year, studying math and Spanish with an eye to either going into dentistry or teaching.