Monday, October 31, 2011

Week 43

Hey Fam,

Sounds like everyone is doing good and that you all have good weather.  The weather here is great as well!  I love wearing long sleeve shirts now, but mostly because I think it looks better.  So it's nice and really quiet here in Zadar with the summer and all the tourists gone.  It was windy and raining one other day this week but now it's all good. 

So this week was pretty good.  Nothing really too exciting.  I have a couple cool stories so I will continue with those. 

So one member in the branch is really doing great.  He has been a member for about 4 months and will be receiving the Melchizedek priesthood this next Sunday.  He has read anything he can get his hands on and is really doing good.  So Elder Truman, as the branch president, had a interview with him this week.  Him and his wife have had some problems with having children and she is now pregnant but seems to being having some problems.  So I asked him how she was doing before he went in for his interview and he said not to good.  So I slipped in the office and told Truman about that before the interview started.  So that is just some back ground info.  So the interview started and I busied myself with playing piano and doing dishes.  So while I was doing the dishes I felt that I should pray for both of them.  This was a tough time for this member and his family and Truman's first interview.  So I thought ok I'll be sure to pray for them tonight.  Then the thought came again, no now while they are in the interview.  So again I thought ok when I'm done with the dishes.  No sooner than the Lord had to tell me one more time that I needed to pray now was I literally running to the couch, soapy hands and all, to kneel down and pray.  I just prayed that both of them would be comforted and that everything would be ok.  I thought that this would be one of those times that you do what you know is right to possible never know why.  Well that wasnt quite the case here.  I later found out that in that very frame of time, and not just the interview as a whole, but in those few minutes, that this member has begun to cry as he told Elder Truman that something had gone wrong in the pregnancy and that the baby was not developing correctly.  I then learned that this was not one of those experiences, but that I was able to see the need for my prayers. 

I was reminded once again to follow impressions as they come and not to delay them.  Also, I now have an increased testimony of the mindfulness of our Heavenly Father.  I know that he knows each of us by name and knows exactly what we are going through.  This is in times of bad as well as times of good.  This knowledge is so comforting to me.

I came across a talk by Elder Uchdorf this week and he put it very well.  It said something to the effect of, God, the most powerful and supreme being in the whole universe, knows your name and loves you!  That is just a little of the thought but nonetheless, how wonderful a thought that is to have.  I am so thankful for the love that I feel from my Eternal Heavenly Father and the opportunity that I have to share that love and knowledge of him with others. 

Also we have a new investigator this week.  He isn't a new face to any members or missionaries but he is a new investigator.  He is the husband of a very strong and active member.  He is down here is Zadar working at a resort as a chef.  Some one that we went to for that buffet and all. So this is how it went down. 

So his wife is living in Zagreb with her parents.  She was down here but has since gone back up to Zagreb while he finishes working the rest of the summer/tourist season.  So he has notoriously avoided missionaries in the past.  Well we had a bag for him that had some stuff from his wife in Zagreb and so we were going to visit him.  So I told Truman that we are not living, or giving that bag to him, until we talk to him about the church and things.  So we went to his house, helped him with some things, and we about to leave.  So I told him that before we left I wanted to make a deal with him.  Mind you that all of this is in English because he doesn't speak Croatian.  So he said ok.  I told him that I wanted him to do two things for me and if he did those two things and didn't want to talk about religion anymore I wouldn't bother him.  You return missionaries can probably guess that those two things are read and pray.  To that he said ok but he doesn't like to read.  I quickly responded that we have the Book of Mormon on CD and he can listen to it.  So that curve ball handled no problem.  Like I said this was in English so I was being as bold as possible.  I talked about his family and how I wanted them to enjoy the blessings of the gospel TOGETHER.  So he was very open with us and told us that he was free every Tuesday.  I was happy to hear that seeing as I hadn't asked him when we could come back.  I hope that it all works out, even if he does want to play hard ball and say he doesn't like to read. 

We had branch conference on Sunday so Pres was down and Truman and I had interviews.  It was good.  Rumor has it I might be a Zone Leader but I told him that wasn't necessary that I am find down here for the winter.  I think I will stay down here for at least another transfer.  Transfers are on the 8th so that is fun. 

So just to prove that I am indeed my mothers child I put on my ˝Relief Society Hat˝ and got us a new family to teach.  I made some banana bread and took it over to introduce ourselves as the missionaries who live next door.  It may have looked a little gay but they understand.  They are the nicest little family with one little boy.  They let us right in and we talked for about an hour.  They asked some great questions about the Church.  One obstacle is that the wife is a vjera nauk teacher.  That means Faith Doctrines.  It is a requirement for all kids here.  So she teaches that.  Good for us that means we have a lot of knowledge to work with!  She said that she hear we have apostles.  So we explained that this is the same church that Christ organized when he was on the Earth, only to have her husband comment, ¨The Catholic church doesn't have apostles.¨  It was great.  I followed it with a, ˝ya and we have a couples quorums of 70 too!˝  It was the bomb.  So look at what a little banana bread can do to people. 

For the Packages just go ahead and send them to the adress that I sent last week.  It is a Coratian address and is in Zagreb.  If anything goes to the other Slovenian address it runs the risk of getting lost and taking forever to get to me.  So that is it and the finally birthday list is as follows.  I forgot my real list at home so these are just the things I remember

Ties
Sour Patch Kids
Beef Jerky
Velvita Cheese
Recipes (be mindful that we can not get cheddar cheese hence the want for velvita)
Reese's peanut butter cups  NOT REESE'S PIECES, enough for two (they are Truman's fav)

And really the exchange rate is great over here like 5:1 so if you don't want to bother putting together a package or buying things you can just put money in my account and I will buy myself a tie and go to dinner.  Same applies to Christmas.  I know the packages are a bit of a hassle and one was already lost (mom never got your package) so money is great and easy.

I think that is about it for this week.  I love you all and hope you have a great week.




 The Sister Missionaries carved this pumpkin for them...


No comments: