August 2, 2010

Hi family!
I got a lot of pictures from you this week, thank you bunches! I love seeing you all! And your kids are such cuties. Dad asked about my hair, from the pictures that I sent last week, it's gotten a lot lighter from the sun! And I'm tan for the first time in my life. Tanner than I've ever been anyway :) I have a line from my watch and lines from my sandals! Dad also asked about the Croatian beaches, I haven't really been to a real beach, sometimes we sit by the ocean on a bench in this little park for lunch, but there aren't many swimmers around there. So I haven't seen any naked people, but I have heard a few stories from other missionaries. We won't be contacting there!
Anyway! I hope Nyah's baptism is wonderful this Saturday, I'm sure it will be, and I can't wait to see pictures of her most perfect dress. And of Baby Sophie on her blessing day.
This week has been good. The funniest thing that happened, Sister Nelson and I were tracting, and so we took the elevator to the top floor and I step out of the elevator and I hear "Sestro!" And I turn around and the elevator door is closed and Sister Nelson didn't get off fast enough! So I was without a companion for about two minutes. She ran up the stairs and we had a good laugh about it. AND we had rain this week! It was a nice change up from the heat. It rained on Thursday, Friday, and part of Saturday. And Thursday night in the middle of the night there was the biggest thunderclap ever! It woke us up! And then we were walking around Zadar on Friday and there was some thunder and it scared us both so bad that we jumped, and the people in cars laughed at us. It was pretty funny. Thunder in Croatian is "grmljanje" or something like that, and a thunderclap is "grom" And so on Friday when we had service, I can't remember what I told you about service, but we carry lunches from an old-people's home to old people that live in apartments closeby. So on Friday we talked with all our old people about the "grom" and they were cute about it, because we didn't know the world for thunder, so they made sounds and acted it out and then we were like, Oh! Thunder! And we get to eat at service when we want, and we had stuffed peppers, they were really good. And we've also had the cow guts like I told you, and some rice with octupus in it. I tried it the first time, but this last week when they made it again I couldn't eat it. I just feel like gagging when I think about it. But it's fun to try new things.
Also, I can't remember if I've told you this or not. But I have gotten more clumsy or something since being on a mission, because I'm constantly slipping and almost falling and Sister Nelson always asks, Are you ok? I thought you sprained your ankle! And I'm like, nope, I just can't keep my feet under me anymore! It really started at the MTC and I still slip all the time. It probably doesn't help that in the older part of town-- where we do service and stuff -- is all cobblestone. It can be pretty slick.
Oh, Mom said she had D. Todd Christofferson at stake baptisms! That is so cool! I didn't see him at the MTC or here in Croatia, but he did dedicate the Zagreb church building, so all our Croatian members like him a lot. He's like Croatia's apostle. And his talk in last conference is really good, I read it the other day.
Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting, it was really good. We had visitors from the Netherlands, Slovenia, Albania, and Bosnia, so half the testimonies were in English, which was nice for me, because I could understand everything! And then we got to teach primary! The family from the Netherlands has three kids and we basically let them color a picture and gave them a really simple lesson, because the oldest daughter knows some English, and we let them pray in Dutch and sing their primary songs in Dutch and it was so cute! That is really fun for us to be able to do primary.
Have a great week, love you tons!
Sister Laws