Week #27

Blago Milosrđe-Treasures of Mercy

Every night before we start planning for the day, we talk about the mercies of the day. This week had a lot and it was a result from the trials of a few weeks ago. So on Wednesday night, we were talking to President Rowe and at the end of the conversation he gave us an assignment. To every person, we were to act like we would never see them again. So we needed to be bold. He said that if we offended people because we were telling them to repent and get over their sins, he didn't care. He just wanted us to be bold and push ourselves. So the next day we pushed ourselves. There's one particular person I talked to on the bus. I would have stopped and just gave him a pamphlet, but I kept pushing that he needed this truth. I didn't have an extra Book of Mormon, so I took the little things out of my Book of Mormon and gave it to him. He said that it wasn't necessary. And I told him, "No, it is necessary. You need to read this book. You need truth." Because I was so persistent, that changed his heart to see that I was holding something special. I don't know if he's read it, he was leaving town the next day, but I know that this week I said what I wanted to say. Which is a good thing because it's transfer time and I'm leaving beautiful Rijeka to....drumroll....Zadar!!! The only other sea city in our mission :) I'm so excited because that is where the church started in Yugoslavia. Krešmir Ćosić lived there and everyone in Croatia loves him. (If you don't know anything about him, look him up on Google. He had a pretty amazing life.) The sad thing is that I'll leave the people of Rijeka especially the investigators and branch members. The harder thing is that Sister L is leaving too! She's going to Osijek and there are no other sisters coming here... So we have to put all our investigators on the Elders workload. I really hope they can handle it. Because the last two weeks we found 8 new investigators! It's been cool to see after our hard moment we were able to see so many people who are so willing to read the Book of Mormon and find out for themselves. But I'll have to just hear about it because I'm starting a new tomorrow. It's so weird. All I've known is Rijeka. Change is an exciting thing, but it's hard. I don't know what the future is going to be. It reminds me of new investigators and when they enter the waters of baptism. It's a new life. So much changes, but the gospel builds on some one's knowledge, not completely erase it. So it's something that I'll be experiencing. I have had a wonderful 6 months so far and I'll only add on that and have even more success with Sister Cr (it's her last transfer so we're going to make it her best!)

Our latest new investigator we found during a hard tracting night a week ago and she said we could come back on Sunday. I thought she was just going to blow us off on Sunday or tell us that we're nice girls but no. (It's happened plenty of times before.) No she let us in and she was so ready to find out truth! She had some great questions and whenever we revealed something unique about the gospel (baptizing at 8 years old, having a prophet today,...), she would reply "That makes sense" or "I've thought of that too!" It was sooo great! Both Sister L and I just came out of the lesson with smiles on our faces. I'm sad that we won't have another lesson with that woman and her son who said he would like to read the Book of Mormon too. BAH! It was awesome :D


I have two funny stories. In my zeal to talk and push our English students because of President's request, I got in an interesting conversation about the gold plates with one English student. She had read the first part of the Book of Mormon about Joseph Smith's experience and the testimonies. She asked me some questions and I thought I understood what she said and answered correctly. But then a member who was kind of listening in on our conversation asked me when I had seen the gold plates. That caught me off guard and I told him that I hadn't. Then I made the connections and I had told the English student that only a few people have seen the plates and I was one of them. Opa! (oops!) Good thing she was there and I was able to straighten it out. Pa joj. I'm learning every day. Which brings me to the second story. In my talk on Sunday, I was baring my testimony and letting the branch know how much I loved working with them. Well in English, I wanted to say "I will miss you all." But the verb "faliti" means "to be missed". So what I ended us saying was "I will be missed to you all." haha I know I want them to miss me but I didn't think I would force it on them ;)

The investigator with a baptismal date but is smoking now and is having tons of trials with work and her husband, we saw her this morning before we went off to finish up packing and all the other hundreds of things we need to do today, and I shared with her the scripture in 2 Nephi 25:23. I told her that if she did her best to stop smoking and try to get to church that Heavenly Father would help her find a new job and everything will just work out, BUT she needs to do all that she can do. I'm not sure if she actually will, but I know that what I said was true. I can't even count how many times Heavenly Father has given me the strength especially during school to do all the things I needed to do, because I didn't give up. I kept pushing and Heavenly Father pushed me farther. And I know this is true for you too. I don't know what you're all going through, but Heavenly Father knows. He's there for us. I think of it like I'm this little child learning how to walk. Heavenly Father can't carry me around everywhere. It's not like he can't, but I won't learn if I don't get up myself. I also have to fall sometimes to realize why it's important to keep walking. I also grow from getting up right after I fall. And I know there are many times when Heavenly Father has caught me just like my father did when I was learning to walk. Keep going! Keep walking! Get up and move! For this is the time to prepare to meet God. We have this wonderful opportunity to fall and learn how to stand up. We will live for eternity, but we only have this one time to be mortal. We are so blessed to show our faith and do what Heavenly Father knows is best for us. I'm grateful for this time to be a missionary. I only have this short time to focus all my efforts on bringing people to truth. I feel like I have been training the last 6 months, so now I have the chance to start over in Zadar and build on my knowledge. Ugodan tjedan! Have a good week!  Volim vas puno!!!