Well...here goes another letter. I never know how to start them. This week has been a good week. It has been a crazy busy run around week. It has been good but is starting to take its toll on me...I am exhausted all of the time! But thats ok! I would rather be crazy busy than not have anything to do.
Monday...for pday it was a chill day and we just hung out at the church and surrounding area. One of the members who lives in Osijek to go to school was leaving to go home for the summer so he wanted to hang out with all of the missionaries and he made us lunch. He described it as meat and cheese which is about what it was. A piece of meat with sour cream and cheese on it and then mashed potatoes. It was pretty good. We just hung out at the church and played games and played the piano and other things. It was actually kind of nice to not really have anything we had to do. After we went tracting and it was one of those nights where no one wanted to talk to us. We had door after door after door after door shut. For 3 hours. It was not one of my favorite nights of tracting.
Tuesday morning we decided to do language study with the Elders because it is hard with me and my companion both being so new. There are some times that we have questions that neither of us can answer. Elder M is really good at the language. We have had natives tell us that he is the best missionary they have ever heard with the language and since he goes home in 2 weeks we decided we need to take advantage of it and have him help us. He is really good about helping us and correcting us and answering and explaining questions to us which is nice. So we did language study with him and he basically just explained grammar principles to us and practiced with us. It was really helpful and we are going to do it several days a week for the rest of this transfer before he leaves.
Tuesday we had a lesson with V. We decided to talk to her about the sacrament and why we have the sacrament and what we are supposed to do during the sacrament. When we asked her what we were supposed to do during the sacrament she looked at us like we were asking her a foreign question. We then explained that it was a time to ponder about Christ and what He has done for us. She got a huge grin on her face and said, "Thanks for telling me that, I had no idea what I was supposed to do or what the point of the sacrament was." So we decided to use this topic for all of our members that we taught this week and we found out that even some of the members who have been members for years didnt understand why we had the sacrament or what to do during it. It ended up being really good to talk about and I think we helped a lot of people to understand. We gave them all a picture of Christ and told them that they could bring it to church and look at it during the sacrament. I was playing the piano and was sitting in the front row so I didnt notice if any of them were using it but it was a lot quieter during the sacrament than usual.
Wednesday we had our first official food fail in the kitchen. Everything else we have made has at least turned out even if it wasnt exactly what we were wanting. We decided to make orange chicken. It hadnt even cooked for half the time it was supposed to before it was completely burnt. And even without the burnt it tasted nasty. It will definitely not be a repeat.
Wednesday we had a lesson scheduled but when we got to the persons house they werent home. They live right by D so we decided to go and visit her instead. Since we werent planning on visiting her we didnt really have a lesson planned so we just talked with her and shared some scriptures. It ended up being a really good lesson and she was really glad that we had come to visit her. Even though we were first upset that our appointment fell through, it ended up being for the best.
Thursday for language study we decided to do it with the senior couple to help them learn. They didnt have any language study in the MTC and they are trying to learn on their own but arent succeeding. We all cringe when they speak because it sounds so bad. Its probably what Croatians do when I speak. Anyway...we decided it would be helpful for them to help them learn as well as for us because I know when I teach something it helps me learn it better. So we decided to try it. It didnt go exactly as planned. Sister Pwas really good and asked questions and listened to what we were saying and took notes and wrote down some things to work on. Elder P was determined that his way of learning was better than what we were telling him. So we arent really sure if we will keep doing it with them because we arent sure how much help it will be.
Thursday we went to E and J's. J still hasnt come to church since she came that one week. We think we know why but arent really sure how to help her. We are hoping that just consistent contact will be good. They are probably one of my favorite lessons that we go to each week because they are always so sweet and so happy to see us. They really have a great understanding of the Gospel and we always have really good discussions with them. We are hoping that if we keep going and keep encouraging and helping that we will be able to get her to come to church again. Her son still really wants to come to church so we are hoping that maybe that will help her want to come back again.
Thursday night we also had English class. I dont know why but it was a really good English class. We taught more information than we ever have taught before and the students were understanding and practicing and participating. By the end of English class we were wiped out.
Friday was moving day. It went well. We only had one car to move stuff but we were able to make it in 4 trips. The Elders were kind enough to help us so me and my companion were at our old apartment and would load up the car and then the senior couple would drive it to the new apartment where the Elders would unload it. Until we got to the heavy stuff and then the Elders did it all while we worked on putting stuff away at our new apartment. It went pretty smoothly and we managed to get everything moved in not very long.
After moving we had an appt with D. She has been struggling with understanding the importance of tithing so we decided to take the seniors with us to help talk to her about it. When we got to the lesson she told us she wasnt feeling well because she had some Canker sores in her mouth. Elder P's first reaction was to give her a blessing which she accepted. It was amazing and immediately brought the Spirit into the room. Its not something that I think of when investigators are struggling because it is usually just me and Sister M and neither of us can give blessings. I thought it was really cool when that was immediately what he asked when she said she wasnt feeling well. The rest of our lesson went well. We talked about the why of tithing and the blessings that can come from it. We talked about how it is a principle of faith and that although sometimes it may seem hard, life is harder when we dont pay our tithing because of the blessings that we miss out on. She still doesnt completely love the idea of tithing but we could tell that she was really feeling the Spirit and I think she is more ok with it than she was before. Now if we could just get her to be open to moving her baptismal date up...she is set on waiting until October.
Friday night for Aktivnost we played psychiatrist and it was a lot of fun. For one of the "problems" you had to act like the person that was sitting next to you when you were asked a question. One of the Elders had to act like me and all he did when they came to them was laugh. Apparently I laugh a lot. Ok actually I knew that. But they like to point it out to me all of the time. It was really funny though because everyone was spot on to the person they were acting like. There were a couple times that someone would act like someone and then the real person would say I dont do that as they were doing exactly what the other person had just done. That probably doesnt sound as funny as it was. But just trust me it was funny. And I was laughing...a lot.
Saturday we went out to Čepin to visit Z. We decided to bring the Elders with us to experience it so we took the bus. When we got there she said her house was too hot to go inside so instead she wanted to go on a walk with us. So we just walked and talked. It was a little bit weird but it was good. We shared part of our lesson with her and then just talked to her as we walked around the town. Luckily it was nice weather outside.
Saturday night we played soccer. I am still not the biggest fan of soccer and every week try to come up with a reason as to why I have to sit and watch rather than play but it never works out. They make me play. This week I actually scored a goal which I was pretty proud of myself for. I still dont like soccer though.
Sunday...was an interesting day. We had church in the morning. And again had a losing battle with the air conditioning/opening of windows. Sister M had to give a talk. She was super stressed out about it and we had stayed up a little bit later than usual because I was helping her translate it and helping make sure her grammar was correct. It took longer than it should have since niether of us are super great at it yet. But we finally got it finished. She gave her talk and did a great job but at the very end I noticed she rushed to finish and then as soon as she was done she booked it out the door. About 30 seconds later someone started screaming and she had passed out in the other room. Croatians dont know how to react in a situation like this and they all ran into her. I quickly ran in to find her laying on the ground face first. I quickly laid her on her back while yelling at everyone to go in the other room because we didnt need 30 people surrounding her and watching. After a few seconds of no ne moving I realized I probably needed to tell them to leave in Croatian rather than English (haha). Anyway... We got her up, got her water, and I used my fan to cool her down (the fan Dad brought me back from China is a life saver! I carry it with me and use it all of the time). She was dehydrated, stressed, and it was really hot in the room (it may not have happened if they would have let us turn on the air conditioning). After a few minutes she was still kind of out of it so we decided it was best to take her home to rest. So Sister P drove us home and I got to play nurse for the day. I put her to bed with some ibuprofen because she had a really bad headache, and a water bottle and made her drink a lot of water. She slept for a few hours and then I made her come eat and then I sent her back to bed for a few more hours. So I got to spend the day organizing the apartment, and doing studies. You might be surprised by this but our apartment is really organized. I even made a detailed list of everything that came with the apartment so that future missionaries that move out of this apartment will know exactly what stays and what goes. Just a little bit of my OCD took over. Our apartment seriously looks good. That only took a few hours so then I did personal study, language study and just some other things around the apartment. We had an appt at 6 and Sister M was feeling better so we decided to go and not cancel it. I made her take a water bottle with her and was constantly making sure she was doing ok and we took it very slow. The Elders told me I was acting like her mother.
Our appointment was with V. She wanted to make us and the Elders dinner. She made Punina Paprika which is peppers stuffed with meat and I think rice and it is in tomato sauce. There is more to it than that but it was really good. We ate dinner with her and her husband and then read a chapter from the Book of Mormon. She was baptized at the first of last transfer and her husband is investigating the church right now. Afterwards we headed home. Sister M was feeling ok but was a bit exhausted and I didnt want to wear her out too much so we went home and did comp study and planning. Luckily she is feeling a lot better today.
Today for pday we went to Ilok which is a city about an hour and a half away from Osijek. There was supposedly a castle there but it wasnt really that great of a castle. But there were some cool buildings that we saw and then we ate lunch there. It was pretty cool.
Anyway...Im off for the day. Have a great week! Love you all!
Shoutouts
Emails from Justin, Dad, Carrie, Mom, Grandpa, Lex, Allie
No comments:
Post a Comment