Mission Moments: Hello family!‏

Well! Here we are back at emailing today. We are emailing a little bit later because we decided to be adventurous today and go see a castle this morning that was a little ways outside of Tuzla. It ended up being beautiful and was a good change for a little bit. I took some pictures and will try to send a few.

Anyway...now for our week. Monday was a chill Pday and Monday night we started off doing some contacting and then we went with the Shepherds to J's and B's because Elder Shepherd needed to talk to them and needed a translator. So we did that for a little bit and then we went out contacting some more. While we were contacting we ended up in a weird part of town that we arent usually in and ran into S who is a member. We met with her my first week and then she came to church my first Sunday but then we hadnt heard from her or been able to get in contact with her since then. We were a little bit worried about her since it had been more than a week since we had seen her so it was good to run into her and be able to talk to her for a little bit.

Tuesday was zone conference. We got up early and rode up with the Shepherds to zone conference so we got to ride in the car. We got to zone conference right as it started. The zone conference was a little bit different than our past ones. It was shorter than usual and was kind of an introduction to President Grant but it was really good. He started off talking about the importance of asking questions...but even more importantly to get the student or the investigator to ask a question. He then spent the next two hours answering any question that we asked him. It was really good. We got to hear about his experience in the MTC and the seminar for new mission presidents. He talked to us about the vision for the mission and such. I honestly cannot compare him to President Rowe because they are so different but I think he really is going to be great for the mission. He then talked about how we can have the Spirit with us more as missionaries. He taught institute for a time so he is a really great teacher and I learned a lot from him. Sister Peel and I then got to take the bus home from zone conference. The bus from Sarajevo to Tuzla is about 3 and a half hours. The problem is there are no freeways in Bosnia so it was through mountains and backroads that are super windy. The bus driver was going extremely fast and there was no air conditioning on the bus. Poor Sister Peel was sick the whole time. I felt fine but spent the whole bus ride fanning her trying to help her get a little bit of air to feel better. It was bad. We got home and she went home and crashed.

Wednesday morning...we started off the morning with correlation meeting. It was...interesting. The senior couple here...bless their hearts...sometimes they are really difficult to work with and I dont agree with them most of the time...well none of the young missionaries do. So meetings can sometimes be really frustrating. But we try to be really patient with them. After our meeting we honestly spent the rest of the day out contacting and passing out English flyers for English class signups.

Thursday morning we woke up and did studies and then needed to get out of the apartment for a little bit so we went outside and did an hour of contacting before we came home to do weekly planning. Weekly planning doesnt take as long as it has in the past because we have so little people here to teach. We are still struggling to find. We talk to so many people every day but we cant seem to find the people that want to keep learning more. Right now we are really working with the members and helping to strengthen them so that we have a strong church and strong members that can welcome and help investigators. So that is mostly what we talked about during weekly planning...how to best help the members.

After weekly planning we went out and did some tracting. It was probably the best tracting night I have had since I have been in Tuzla. We had some really good conversations with people and everyone we talked to was really nice. I dont know if any of them will go anywhere right now but maybe in the future. We also had English class signups Thursday night. We had a lot of people come. More people came to signups than I have ever seen in even one English class so I hope that the people will actually come to the classes.

Friday morning we had District Meeting. We did kind of a review of what we learned in zone conference and how we can apply it in our work. We also talked about obedience. Obedience has been something that I have come to have a strong testimony about on my mission. My companions and I have decided that as missionaries we honestly have two options. We can choose to be obedient or we can choose not to be. Once we choose to be obedient the choices are made for us. I have seen the blessings that come through obedience...it doesnt make it so we dont have struggles but it helps us to know that when we are doing everything we are supposed to things will work out even if there are bumps on the way.

After District Meeting we did some area booking. The area book here is really small because missionaries have only been in Tuzla for about 2 years and Sisters about one year. So we were able to go through the entire area book and right down the addresses and kind of map out a plan of how to go and visit them.

We then had a lesson with A. It didnt go as well as our first lesson with her because she has been sick and is going in for surgery so she wasnt focusing very well. She has been reading the Book of Mormon though and said she will continue and that we can come back after she is feeling better.

We then went to J's and B's. B is hoping to be able to go to the temple to do baptisms next month with other members from the mission so Elder Shepherd asked us to help her to be ready for that. So we took her a copy of Strength of Youth and read through some of it and discussed her with it and told her to read some before next time and then we can discuss it more with her to help her understand it.

Saturday morning we went out contacting and then we went to visit E. He hasnt been praying so we talked to him about the importance of prayer. He said that his life has been going good so he doesnt need to pray. We helped him to see how even when life is good we still need to pray. We also talked to him about how he can strengthen his faith.

We then went to the church for another session of English signups which went well and we had a lot of people come and then we met with A. She is a member. She is 14 and is the niece of J. She has a hard life and feels as if she is alone at times. So we helped her to see that she does have people that care about her. She talked to us about how she met the missionaries and how she felt when she was baptized and we challenged her to start reading the Book of Mormon again. The Shepherds were then going to J's because it was her year mark of being baptized and they asked us if we would go with them. So we went and it ended up being good. We were able to talk to J about her baptism which brought back memories for her and we talked to her about how she needs to start preparing for the next step...the temple.

Sunday...M came to church in Tuzla today. She is the member that lives about an hour and a half outside of Tuzla and usually goes to Beograd for church but she decided to come here this week. But the bus got here at about 8 in the morning. So the Shepherds needed us to go with them to pick her up at the bus station and then we went to their apartment and had breakfast and talked with her to translate for them then we went to church. We more than doubled our church attendance from last week...we had 15 people at church today! I got to speak in church today. It wasnt the greatest talk I have ever given because by the time I got up to talk there was only 5 minutes left of Sacrament meeting and a few members decided to leave early and caused a big distraction. I had also had a hard time preparing for my talk because I would have something ready and then I felt I needed to go a different route so I changed topics about 5 times but it went ok. After church we did some contacting and then we made phone calls and such to English students to make sure everyone knows that class is starting this week, etc.

It has been a good week! We are still hoping to see some progress and things start to pick up here in Tuzla. It is proving to take a lot of work because there is a lot that needs to be done here. But I really do love it here. I love the members and I love working with Sister Peel. At Zone Conference we talked about how missionary work is expanding to be more than just teaching investigators but it is also working with members and reactiviating. That is a lot of what we are doing right now. We are helping the members to know what it means to be a member and helping them to see the importance of living the Gospel and coming to church. Because right now that is really what we need. We need members that can be that strong foundation for when we do bring others into the church. I am so grateful that I am able to be here right now and even some days it is really hard I know that Tuzla is where I need to be right now and I hope that I can help to make even just a small difference in the lives of the people here. I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Thanks for everything!

All 4 Tuzla missionaries are USU Aggies!