How is my family doing today? And this week and next week and forever?
So this is what happened this week, last Monday I forgot to tell you that transfers were yesterday because Sister Nelson and I both thought we were going to stay another transfer together in Zadar, and we usually don't get transfer calls until Wednesday or Thursday, so I wasn't really thinking about it, and President Hill called us on Monday night and told us that Sister Nelson was going to be transferred to Zagreb, and I was staying here in Zadar! So yesterday we got a bus to Zagreb and picked up my new companion, Sister Dillender, and came BACK to Zadar, so I just traveled all day long yesterday, but now I have a new companion!
Sister Dillender has been here one transfer longer than I have, and she has served in Zagreb the whole time, she's from San Francisco/Oregon, and she's a really fun sister so this transfer is going to be great. The next transfer is right after Christmas just so you know, so we'll be getting all 3 big American holidays together!
Well, like I said before, I think, that Croatia doesn't celebrate Halloween, we may not get to do a lot for that, because one member told us we can't call it Halloween or bring pumpkins to the church, but we'll probably have a costume party or something. I'm sure we'll figure it out.
So what else did I do this week?
Well, it was a little weird, because the whole week Sister Nelson and me knew we couldn't be companions anymore, and she had to pack and do last minute stuff a lot, so it was weird, but good. Mostly just a regular week except that it wasn't regular at all. lol.
On Tuesday we met a tourist from Korea who immediately became our best friend, we had lunch with her and took pictures, it was really funny. She taught me how to say Hello in Korean, but I forgot in less than an hour.
And we spent the whole week meeting with people and Sister Nelson saying goodbye, and taking pictures -- and Saturday night while Sister Nelson was packing I cleaned the apartment and organized our spare rooms, which was actually really fun and something I've been wanting to do anyways, so that was the perfect time to do it! And yesterday we had church it was really good, the members were all there and they brought Sister Nelson stuff for goodbye presents and it was a really fun church day, and then we got on the bus!
And now I'm here again in Zadar, new companion, new transfer, and that's about all that I've done!
Mom asked some questions again, so the weather is changing, but it's still half the time warm in Zadar and half the time chilly, but nothing really bad, it's rained a few more times than usual, like in the mornings during studies, and then by the afternoon it's sunny again, or it's just a cloudy day like today, but it hasn't been too cold and we never get snow here, so I don't have to worry about that at all. Buttermilk, I don't think that is here at all, but I'll look when we're at the store today. What is it if I don't find it here? Like, what would I substitute for it? Oh, and I made chocolate chip cookies this week for Institute and the members really like them! They weren't exactly the same because the sugar here is weird and we made them small so there were more, but they were good, it was yummy to have mom's recipe!
So I just got an e-mail from Amelia! That's crazy, what time is it there?? Wait, I think it's a reasonable hour on the east coast, that's crazy. I'm not always here this late at internet, so that was good timing!
Ok, I don't think I have anything else to say, except this p-day came really fast (and slow, too) but it snuck up on me, so I didn't really think of lots of things to share.
Oh wait! I just remembered something.
I read a really good conference talk, this may turn into a weekly thing telling you about conference talks that I've read, because I LOVE doing it - oh which reminds me, side note: that we listened to Elder Eyring's talk from this last conference for district meeting on Tuesday and it was SO SO good! We didn't watch it conference weekend, and it was so good. The one about trusting in the Lord, I loved it.
So back to the talk I read this week, it's from President Faust from the April 2002 conference, it's called "It can't Happen to Me" and he talks about just because we're older and wiser doesn't mean we can let our guard down and think that we can sin and we'll be ok. And he shared a quote from Spencer W. Kimball that I really like :
"Develop discipline of self so that, more and more, you do not have to decide and redecide what you will do when you are confronted with the same temptation time and time again, you need only to decide some things once. How great a blessing it is to be free of agonizing over and over again regarding a temptation. To do such is time consuming and very risky."
I really liked that because it's really easy to wonder over and over again, "Should I watch this movie even though it's bad?" Or "Should I sleep in even though the alarm is going off?" (That's for here in the mission field, you can all sleep in if you want to) but if we have self discipline and are determined, then we don't have to keep asking ourselves those questions.
And then I read a different talk which has some of the same idea, by Elder Scott "Peace of Conscious, Peace of Mind" from October 2004, that talks about peace of mind comes from outside elements, like stress from work or a family problem or something, but peace of conscious comes from knowing we're following God the best way we can, and comes from repenting from our sins, and it was really good, too.
So read conference!
Yay.
Lots of love to all of you!
Sister Laws
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
October 18, 2010
HI FAMILY!!!
I LOVE hearing from you!
Guess what today is?
Today it has been a YEAR since I turned in my missionary papers!!!
That's incredible! It does not feel like that long. Time is just plowing on. I know what Jesse means, that time is flying, because if Jude has been alive for 6 months that means that I'VE been in Croatia for 6 months!! Not quite, but close.
They say by six months out you're supposed to be able to say everything you want to when you're learning a foreign language on a mission. I don't think I'm there yet, but I guess I have another week or so for that :)
But I LOVE Croatian. I gave a talk yesterday in church on service, it went good. I used four points from True to the Faith and how we can serve others 1. gladden hearts - by being grateful, and loving people around us (like asking questions or giving compliments) 2. say kind words - I used President Monson's talk from relief society broadcast, we printed it off at the church so we could read it after me AND Sister Nelson heard such good things about it from our sisters! 3. perform labors for others that they cannot do for themselves - temple work, using our talents, and visiting teaching (we're trying to get the ladies here to start visiting teaching regularly, so I had to throw that one in there!) and then 4. share the gospel - by serving others we have opportunities to share the gospel and actually have people listen! I used D&C 64:33, True to the Faith book and quotes from general conference ensigns. We have conference ensigns from the year 2002 to now, and I've been going crazy reading them! In fact, I read a talk by Elder Holland this morning, titled "The other Prodigal" and it was SO good. He spoke about how the other son from the parable was diligent, and obedient, but his weakness was in being angry at his parent's love for his brother when he returned, and how we don't have to be mad when other people get attention, either from others or from God, because God's love is limitless for all of us, and "just because God is smiling on one person, doesn't mean he's frowning at us" or something like that. It was really a great talk.
And I just want you all to know that I truly know that I was MADE to be on this mission - I know because I love this language and it makes so much sense and is so much fun to learn, and because I've had a few people tell me that I look slavic, which is something that if I wasn't here in a Slavic country I would NEVER know, and just being in Croatia with these people is so great and sometimes I just feel like I fit in (other times I feel like the biggest American ever, too, lol) and I can't believe I'm a missionary sometimes! I'm so grateful that God convinced me to go on a mission, because really, it's a miracle that I made it to this exact point in my life :D
One thing I thought was really cool that I read this week in e-mails was how active you all are! Golfing, volleyball, triathlon, and all of that fun! You are all a good example of that.
We play ultimate frisbee a lot of times in the morning, and lately it has been so dark when we go to play that we can't even see the frisbee! And every so often we play basketball (I am sorry to say that I am AWFUL at basketball) and when it's raining in the morning we just do sit-ups and stuff in the front room. Our apartment is nice and big, so we have plenty of room for that.
Which reminds me we had apartment checks this week, they try to do them about once a transfer or something, one of the senior couples came to Zadar and just looked around to make sure we didn't have anything growing in the closet, and it was acutally kinda fun to deep clean everything for that. I love to organize! And because we have a big apartment that has been passed from sister to sister there is plenty of junk and messes everywhere, so that was fun to put everything in order! It makes me excited for when I have my own house (someday).
I'll answer some questions really fast that Mom asked me: I haven't got my package yet (I got a letter from Michael though! Yay!! Thanks for the updates on your life!) and I actually forgot that I was expecting it! Which made me happy, I have something from home to look forward to!
YES, I would like some piano music, we have a primary's songbook so unless there's a specific arrangement or something you were thinking for that, and the new song would be great to see, and if you could send some of the Christmas music that we played, because I'm thinking ahead (sometimes I do that too much) and we're probably going to do something for our branch for Christmas in a couple months, and it would be fun to have that sheet music a little in advance so I could brush up on it. That would be really great!
As for the food: we do not have miracle whip, we have mayo, we do not have hershey's chocolate syrup, we do not have skippy peanut butter regularly and peanut butter is NOT the same here at ALL, except that it's recognizable as some form of peanut butter, the Europeans do NOT know how to do peanut butter (unless France was an exception, Michael) and we do not have oreos, which is why it was so great to get some! We ate some with the peanut butter, and some with chocolate milk (which we made from some powder that expired a year and a half ago that was in our apartment :D) and we do NOT have the good ranch mixes, there's one store that sells some kind of ranch mix that I haven't tried yet, and a different grocery store sells really good "American caesar" dressing, which we usually get. We DO have cereal, we have the best cereal ever! I really like the cereal here. I will be sad to go back home where the cereal is not as good.
Oh, which reminds me, last p-day we went to a member's house, she has a friend from Macedonia that we wanted to teach (she went back to Macedonia though, they only spend half the year here, the other half there or something like that) and her friend made us Macedonian food!
It was really good, stuffed peppers, beans, some casserole thing with rice, a really good and simple soup, and then a salad with tomatoes, onions, cucumbers? I can't remember, and Macedonian cheese which was SO good, I don't know how that salad was so good, but I really liked it. I think it was the cheese. And then dessert, and these weird "black figs" or something like that, it was really fun to try new stuff, and a yummy feast!
Thank you for sharing scriptures and what you did at church, it's fun to compare sometimes.
Good luck to Amelia with her new calling, you're going to be great!
And thanks for the update on your kids Kelsey, they're so cute!
LOVE YOU ALL!
Sister Laws
I LOVE hearing from you!
Guess what today is?
Today it has been a YEAR since I turned in my missionary papers!!!
That's incredible! It does not feel like that long. Time is just plowing on. I know what Jesse means, that time is flying, because if Jude has been alive for 6 months that means that I'VE been in Croatia for 6 months!! Not quite, but close.
They say by six months out you're supposed to be able to say everything you want to when you're learning a foreign language on a mission. I don't think I'm there yet, but I guess I have another week or so for that :)
But I LOVE Croatian. I gave a talk yesterday in church on service, it went good. I used four points from True to the Faith and how we can serve others 1. gladden hearts - by being grateful, and loving people around us (like asking questions or giving compliments) 2. say kind words - I used President Monson's talk from relief society broadcast, we printed it off at the church so we could read it after me AND Sister Nelson heard such good things about it from our sisters! 3. perform labors for others that they cannot do for themselves - temple work, using our talents, and visiting teaching (we're trying to get the ladies here to start visiting teaching regularly, so I had to throw that one in there!) and then 4. share the gospel - by serving others we have opportunities to share the gospel and actually have people listen! I used D&C 64:33, True to the Faith book and quotes from general conference ensigns. We have conference ensigns from the year 2002 to now, and I've been going crazy reading them! In fact, I read a talk by Elder Holland this morning, titled "The other Prodigal" and it was SO good. He spoke about how the other son from the parable was diligent, and obedient, but his weakness was in being angry at his parent's love for his brother when he returned, and how we don't have to be mad when other people get attention, either from others or from God, because God's love is limitless for all of us, and "just because God is smiling on one person, doesn't mean he's frowning at us" or something like that. It was really a great talk.
And I just want you all to know that I truly know that I was MADE to be on this mission - I know because I love this language and it makes so much sense and is so much fun to learn, and because I've had a few people tell me that I look slavic, which is something that if I wasn't here in a Slavic country I would NEVER know, and just being in Croatia with these people is so great and sometimes I just feel like I fit in (other times I feel like the biggest American ever, too, lol) and I can't believe I'm a missionary sometimes! I'm so grateful that God convinced me to go on a mission, because really, it's a miracle that I made it to this exact point in my life :D
One thing I thought was really cool that I read this week in e-mails was how active you all are! Golfing, volleyball, triathlon, and all of that fun! You are all a good example of that.
We play ultimate frisbee a lot of times in the morning, and lately it has been so dark when we go to play that we can't even see the frisbee! And every so often we play basketball (I am sorry to say that I am AWFUL at basketball) and when it's raining in the morning we just do sit-ups and stuff in the front room. Our apartment is nice and big, so we have plenty of room for that.
Which reminds me we had apartment checks this week, they try to do them about once a transfer or something, one of the senior couples came to Zadar and just looked around to make sure we didn't have anything growing in the closet, and it was acutally kinda fun to deep clean everything for that. I love to organize! And because we have a big apartment that has been passed from sister to sister there is plenty of junk and messes everywhere, so that was fun to put everything in order! It makes me excited for when I have my own house (someday).
I'll answer some questions really fast that Mom asked me: I haven't got my package yet (I got a letter from Michael though! Yay!! Thanks for the updates on your life!) and I actually forgot that I was expecting it! Which made me happy, I have something from home to look forward to!
YES, I would like some piano music, we have a primary's songbook so unless there's a specific arrangement or something you were thinking for that, and the new song would be great to see, and if you could send some of the Christmas music that we played, because I'm thinking ahead (sometimes I do that too much) and we're probably going to do something for our branch for Christmas in a couple months, and it would be fun to have that sheet music a little in advance so I could brush up on it. That would be really great!
As for the food: we do not have miracle whip, we have mayo, we do not have hershey's chocolate syrup, we do not have skippy peanut butter regularly and peanut butter is NOT the same here at ALL, except that it's recognizable as some form of peanut butter, the Europeans do NOT know how to do peanut butter (unless France was an exception, Michael) and we do not have oreos, which is why it was so great to get some! We ate some with the peanut butter, and some with chocolate milk (which we made from some powder that expired a year and a half ago that was in our apartment :D) and we do NOT have the good ranch mixes, there's one store that sells some kind of ranch mix that I haven't tried yet, and a different grocery store sells really good "American caesar" dressing, which we usually get. We DO have cereal, we have the best cereal ever! I really like the cereal here. I will be sad to go back home where the cereal is not as good.
Oh, which reminds me, last p-day we went to a member's house, she has a friend from Macedonia that we wanted to teach (she went back to Macedonia though, they only spend half the year here, the other half there or something like that) and her friend made us Macedonian food!
It was really good, stuffed peppers, beans, some casserole thing with rice, a really good and simple soup, and then a salad with tomatoes, onions, cucumbers? I can't remember, and Macedonian cheese which was SO good, I don't know how that salad was so good, but I really liked it. I think it was the cheese. And then dessert, and these weird "black figs" or something like that, it was really fun to try new stuff, and a yummy feast!
Thank you for sharing scriptures and what you did at church, it's fun to compare sometimes.
Good luck to Amelia with her new calling, you're going to be great!
And thanks for the update on your kids Kelsey, they're so cute!
LOVE YOU ALL!
Sister Laws
Monday, October 11, 2010
October 11, 2010
Hi family!
Thanks everyone for e-mailing me this week! It's great to hear from you all.
We had a busy week - we went to Zagreb for a mission tour on Thursday, Elder Schuze from Germany came and talked to us. It was really good. He was a member in Eastern Germany during communism and he gave us a lot of insight on what it was like to be a member then and for these Croatian people. We're all just young American (or Canadian) kids so sometimes we get impatient with people here, because we don't understand everything, so it was really great. He really encouraged us with everything and told us to be PATIENT. But also the zone leaders told us that in Croatia in the last 3 weeks us missionaries have found 25 new investigators - which is a really big deal for this mission - and there are some baptism scheduled in one of the cities for the end of this month. It's a great time to be a missionary! And Sister Nelson and I found three new investigators on Saturday, too. A really nice older couple and their sister-in-law who lives next door. They have a really cute family and hopefully we can get all of them in on the next lesson Wednesday morning. It's a really exciting time for this mission, I think, especially because Elder Nelson came and gave that dedicatory prayer, it's given all the missionaries and the members here a lot of hope! Which is kinda different from at first when I came here, I noticed during my first transfer that everyone was a little worn out with all the rejection, so it's awesome that everything is picking up!
Last p-day Sister Nelson and I were "tourists" here in Zadar, we walked around and took lots of pictures. It was a bad time of day because all of the shops close in the afternoon, I guess because it's hotter and there aren't a lot of tourists during that time, and then they re-open during the evening, but it was fun to just walk around and enjoy Zadar. It's really pretty here. On Tuesday we made no-bake cookies! They were really good. I love no-bake cookies.
Wednesday seemed like one of those really busy days where not a lot happens. We were just working hard being missionaries! Thursday we went to Zagreb. Friday was a national holiday, so there wasn't school and lots of people out, but it was also Saint Šime Day for the Catholic church, so everyone was going to mass and everyone we stopped said "Danas je Sveti Šime!" so that wasn't really fun, we tried to ask people what that meant, like he who was and stuff, some people didn't know, but I guess he was like a protector of Zadar, and he tried to leave Zadar in ships for some reason, but he went out three times and there was oil (or something that was stopping him from leaving) so he knew he had to stay in Zadar! And we heard he was buried in Jeruselum or something. It was a big deal I guess. Luckily we had weekly planning, english class, and a lesson with a girl the Elders found that night, so we didn't spend as much time contacting people.
Saturday was a busy day, we had young women's and it was one of the girl's birthdays so we ordered pizza and started to watch the movie, Legacy, since we as missionaries can't watch other movies, and then we went to her house for palačinke, and then we walked really far (like an hour) to a neighborhood where we found our new investigators, we figured it had been a while since missionaries had been there and we were right!
And then YESTERDAY we had a couple visiting our branch from Arizona and they brought everyone their own bag of treats with a picture of President Monson and pictures of the Savior from their ward in Arizona to tell the members here how much they love them, and they brought us missionaries American peanut butter and oreos - which is kinda funny because Sister Nelson said a couple weeks ago, The peanut butter here isn't that bad, and it really isn't, but when we opened the American peanut butter it was like "this is SO much better!" we forgot how good it was. And the American couple, they came because they were on a cruise and they invited a non-member couple to come with them, which was cool, and then there was another couple visiting from Germany, so we had a member translating from Croatian to German for them sitting in front of me, and Sister Nelson translated from Croatian to English for the Americans and sitting behind me! So that was really fun. It was an exciting Sunday. And then Sister Nelson and I walked an hour in the opposite direction to look for an inactive member, but we couldn't find her, she doesn't live there anymore, but we saw a really pretty sunset over the sea and we tracted a little bit while we were out there, which was also interesting, because it's been a while since missionaries have been there, so people were more receptive.
So overall it was a GOOD week.
I'm glad your weeks were good, too. It's fun that you're all getting ready for Halloween! Croatians don't celebrate Halloween, but there's a little bit more of an American culture in the branch, because of all the missionaries from there, so we'll probably end up having a Branch Halloween party or something fun like that. We'll probably dress up like missionaries for it.
Have a super week! Love you all bunches!
Love,
Sister Laws
Thanks everyone for e-mailing me this week! It's great to hear from you all.
We had a busy week - we went to Zagreb for a mission tour on Thursday, Elder Schuze from Germany came and talked to us. It was really good. He was a member in Eastern Germany during communism and he gave us a lot of insight on what it was like to be a member then and for these Croatian people. We're all just young American (or Canadian) kids so sometimes we get impatient with people here, because we don't understand everything, so it was really great. He really encouraged us with everything and told us to be PATIENT. But also the zone leaders told us that in Croatia in the last 3 weeks us missionaries have found 25 new investigators - which is a really big deal for this mission - and there are some baptism scheduled in one of the cities for the end of this month. It's a great time to be a missionary! And Sister Nelson and I found three new investigators on Saturday, too. A really nice older couple and their sister-in-law who lives next door. They have a really cute family and hopefully we can get all of them in on the next lesson Wednesday morning. It's a really exciting time for this mission, I think, especially because Elder Nelson came and gave that dedicatory prayer, it's given all the missionaries and the members here a lot of hope! Which is kinda different from at first when I came here, I noticed during my first transfer that everyone was a little worn out with all the rejection, so it's awesome that everything is picking up!
Last p-day Sister Nelson and I were "tourists" here in Zadar, we walked around and took lots of pictures. It was a bad time of day because all of the shops close in the afternoon, I guess because it's hotter and there aren't a lot of tourists during that time, and then they re-open during the evening, but it was fun to just walk around and enjoy Zadar. It's really pretty here. On Tuesday we made no-bake cookies! They were really good. I love no-bake cookies.
Wednesday seemed like one of those really busy days where not a lot happens. We were just working hard being missionaries! Thursday we went to Zagreb. Friday was a national holiday, so there wasn't school and lots of people out, but it was also Saint Šime Day for the Catholic church, so everyone was going to mass and everyone we stopped said "Danas je Sveti Šime!" so that wasn't really fun, we tried to ask people what that meant, like he who was and stuff, some people didn't know, but I guess he was like a protector of Zadar, and he tried to leave Zadar in ships for some reason, but he went out three times and there was oil (or something that was stopping him from leaving) so he knew he had to stay in Zadar! And we heard he was buried in Jeruselum or something. It was a big deal I guess. Luckily we had weekly planning, english class, and a lesson with a girl the Elders found that night, so we didn't spend as much time contacting people.
Saturday was a busy day, we had young women's and it was one of the girl's birthdays so we ordered pizza and started to watch the movie, Legacy, since we as missionaries can't watch other movies, and then we went to her house for palačinke, and then we walked really far (like an hour) to a neighborhood where we found our new investigators, we figured it had been a while since missionaries had been there and we were right!
And then YESTERDAY we had a couple visiting our branch from Arizona and they brought everyone their own bag of treats with a picture of President Monson and pictures of the Savior from their ward in Arizona to tell the members here how much they love them, and they brought us missionaries American peanut butter and oreos - which is kinda funny because Sister Nelson said a couple weeks ago, The peanut butter here isn't that bad, and it really isn't, but when we opened the American peanut butter it was like "this is SO much better!" we forgot how good it was. And the American couple, they came because they were on a cruise and they invited a non-member couple to come with them, which was cool, and then there was another couple visiting from Germany, so we had a member translating from Croatian to German for them sitting in front of me, and Sister Nelson translated from Croatian to English for the Americans and sitting behind me! So that was really fun. It was an exciting Sunday. And then Sister Nelson and I walked an hour in the opposite direction to look for an inactive member, but we couldn't find her, she doesn't live there anymore, but we saw a really pretty sunset over the sea and we tracted a little bit while we were out there, which was also interesting, because it's been a while since missionaries have been there, so people were more receptive.
So overall it was a GOOD week.
I'm glad your weeks were good, too. It's fun that you're all getting ready for Halloween! Croatians don't celebrate Halloween, but there's a little bit more of an American culture in the branch, because of all the missionaries from there, so we'll probably end up having a Branch Halloween party or something fun like that. We'll probably dress up like missionaries for it.
Have a super week! Love you all bunches!
Love,
Sister Laws
Monday, October 4, 2010
October 04, 2010
It's October!
Which means it was general conference! Yay!!!!!
I loved General Conference. We watched it in the branch presidents office, we fit about 15 chairs in there and we did it ALL in Croatian.
Well, all that we could watch, because only the two morning sessions are at reasonable times here in Croatia. Saturday we made a branch dinner at 4:30 and then watched from 6-8p and then on Sunday we watched from 6-8. We had fast Sunday too, because we didn't cancel church, because we could watch conference without cancelling church!
So. The Croatian was played as an audio, but we pulled up a video file too, and watched the speakers while we listened to the Croatian translation.
Aren't our leaders the best ever? Sister Nelson and I made an awesome coloring sheet, too, I'll send some pictures, that we used and gave to the kids that came. So much fun!
Other than that:
IT'S OCTOBER!
How is everyone doing?
All your e-mails sounded great and I'm happy to hear from you ALL again this week. Last Monday at FHE one of the members made potatoes... for dessert! (For me, since I'm from Idaho :D) It was the weirdest thing I've ever eaten, I think. It was sweet with plums inside. I didn't know potatoes could be made like that. But the texture was a little bit too much for me. I didn't really like it.
One of my favorite things that I've had here, though, is stuffed peppers! It's not just a Croatian thing, because Sister Nelson's dad makes them and she's had them at home, and they are so good! ground beef and rice, stuffed in peppers, and cooked in the oven with whatever sauce or spices. I don't know exactly how I'd make it, but we had some this week at a restaurant and it was super super good.
And on Friday I made Mom's bowtie pasta salad recipe! It's so good! I think the coleslaw recipe that Mom gave me is a little different, but it worked out just great. We still have a little, I ate some for lunch before I came here.
I made it while Sister Nelson took a nap, because she has been sick this week. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't get her cold. We'll see, the Elders were sick this week, too, so it would be pretty hard to not get sick at this point. I'll try.
ALSO on Friday, the assistants to the president came down from Ljubljana and brought our mail and I got something from Jesse! It was a picture book of Jude and it was SO CUTE! Thank you thank you thank you! He's a cutie, and it was a fun fun surprise.
Earlier on Friday, ok we serve at an old people place 2-3 times a week, they are special old people, so they aren't all there, we go and carry lunches to other old people who still live in their own apartments, but need a little help. So we carry lunches. I think I probably mentioned this before. And on Friday was Dan Starih, which means Day of the Old People, or Old People Day (if you remember English the right way) so they had a festival! They had music, and special food, and dessert, and all the old people were wearing chef's hats and aprons, and it was really fun. And there is one old lady that we carry lunches to, who can't hear and can't barely see or read, so we went to her house and we were trying to tell her it was Dan Starih, but she couldn't understand us, and kept saying, "yeah, I know I'm old..." and we were like, "no! it's dan starih! you need to celebrate!" it was really funny. We get along quite well with our old people. Sister Nelson is really good with them.
One other interesting thing: we went to an inactive member's house on Saturday to "help sort clothes" or so she told us on the phone the night before (or so Sister Nelson understood from the Croatian) but we ended up first, walking clear back across town to a soup kitchen where we picked up her food, then we helped with her laundry, and then we cleaned, and THEN we managed to squeeze in a spiritual thought. Other than the fact that I was annoyed that we ended up being her slaves for the morning it was a very interesting experience. The soup kitchen was a very organized, clean place, we were in no danger (don't worry, Mom) and Sisters before us used to volunteer there, so the ladies working knew who we were. It was intriguing. I don't know how else to explain it, it was kinda like living in a different world for 10 minutes. The laundry: We got to use a pulley between two buildings for hanging up the clothes to dry! I was excited to do it and if you'd believe it, it was hard to pull when there was clothes on it! It's hard work, it looks easy, but it's not. And the CLEANING. Lets just say that I couldn't breath because of the dust and I will never own more than 2 cats in my life. There was no cat poop involved, though, so that was fine. It was good to help her out and an eventful day, what with that and then conference later.
My favorite conference talk was probably Elder Oaks and I really liked Elder Holland's, too. And Elder Eyring's was good, but I didn't understand it as well as some of the others. As a matter of fact I didn't understand Elder Oaks, either, but I could tell they were good so I hope we can get together and watch it all in English soon. That would be awesome. Sister Nelson said they did that last time on a preparation day or something. So that was cool.
Today we're planning on being tourists in Zadar!
We're going around to a museum or two and taking lots of pictures, so I'll send some next week!
Love you all!
Sister Laws
The first is a picture of the room we were in for general conference, I meant to take at least one while we were all in there, but I forgot!
The next is the picture of the "conference speakers" thing we made, I don't remember what I said about it in the e-mail, we drew it for a couple of our investigators who are younger, but I think I'm the one who enjoyed it the most :) The point was to color the ties and take a few notes.
And then mine after it was all done!
I was glad to hear that Mom and Dad survived having the kids with them this week! And those pictures of Hawaii sure looked nice, Kelsey! Lucky!
Love you all tons!
Keshia
Which means it was general conference! Yay!!!!!
I loved General Conference. We watched it in the branch presidents office, we fit about 15 chairs in there and we did it ALL in Croatian.
Well, all that we could watch, because only the two morning sessions are at reasonable times here in Croatia. Saturday we made a branch dinner at 4:30 and then watched from 6-8p and then on Sunday we watched from 6-8. We had fast Sunday too, because we didn't cancel church, because we could watch conference without cancelling church!
So. The Croatian was played as an audio, but we pulled up a video file too, and watched the speakers while we listened to the Croatian translation.
Aren't our leaders the best ever? Sister Nelson and I made an awesome coloring sheet, too, I'll send some pictures, that we used and gave to the kids that came. So much fun!
Other than that:
IT'S OCTOBER!
How is everyone doing?
All your e-mails sounded great and I'm happy to hear from you ALL again this week. Last Monday at FHE one of the members made potatoes... for dessert! (For me, since I'm from Idaho :D) It was the weirdest thing I've ever eaten, I think. It was sweet with plums inside. I didn't know potatoes could be made like that. But the texture was a little bit too much for me. I didn't really like it.
One of my favorite things that I've had here, though, is stuffed peppers! It's not just a Croatian thing, because Sister Nelson's dad makes them and she's had them at home, and they are so good! ground beef and rice, stuffed in peppers, and cooked in the oven with whatever sauce or spices. I don't know exactly how I'd make it, but we had some this week at a restaurant and it was super super good.
And on Friday I made Mom's bowtie pasta salad recipe! It's so good! I think the coleslaw recipe that Mom gave me is a little different, but it worked out just great. We still have a little, I ate some for lunch before I came here.
I made it while Sister Nelson took a nap, because she has been sick this week. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't get her cold. We'll see, the Elders were sick this week, too, so it would be pretty hard to not get sick at this point. I'll try.
ALSO on Friday, the assistants to the president came down from Ljubljana and brought our mail and I got something from Jesse! It was a picture book of Jude and it was SO CUTE! Thank you thank you thank you! He's a cutie, and it was a fun fun surprise.
Earlier on Friday, ok we serve at an old people place 2-3 times a week, they are special old people, so they aren't all there, we go and carry lunches to other old people who still live in their own apartments, but need a little help. So we carry lunches. I think I probably mentioned this before. And on Friday was Dan Starih, which means Day of the Old People, or Old People Day (if you remember English the right way) so they had a festival! They had music, and special food, and dessert, and all the old people were wearing chef's hats and aprons, and it was really fun. And there is one old lady that we carry lunches to, who can't hear and can't barely see or read, so we went to her house and we were trying to tell her it was Dan Starih, but she couldn't understand us, and kept saying, "yeah, I know I'm old..." and we were like, "no! it's dan starih! you need to celebrate!" it was really funny. We get along quite well with our old people. Sister Nelson is really good with them.
One other interesting thing: we went to an inactive member's house on Saturday to "help sort clothes" or so she told us on the phone the night before (or so Sister Nelson understood from the Croatian) but we ended up first, walking clear back across town to a soup kitchen where we picked up her food, then we helped with her laundry, and then we cleaned, and THEN we managed to squeeze in a spiritual thought. Other than the fact that I was annoyed that we ended up being her slaves for the morning it was a very interesting experience. The soup kitchen was a very organized, clean place, we were in no danger (don't worry, Mom) and Sisters before us used to volunteer there, so the ladies working knew who we were. It was intriguing. I don't know how else to explain it, it was kinda like living in a different world for 10 minutes. The laundry: We got to use a pulley between two buildings for hanging up the clothes to dry! I was excited to do it and if you'd believe it, it was hard to pull when there was clothes on it! It's hard work, it looks easy, but it's not. And the CLEANING. Lets just say that I couldn't breath because of the dust and I will never own more than 2 cats in my life. There was no cat poop involved, though, so that was fine. It was good to help her out and an eventful day, what with that and then conference later.
My favorite conference talk was probably Elder Oaks and I really liked Elder Holland's, too. And Elder Eyring's was good, but I didn't understand it as well as some of the others. As a matter of fact I didn't understand Elder Oaks, either, but I could tell they were good so I hope we can get together and watch it all in English soon. That would be awesome. Sister Nelson said they did that last time on a preparation day or something. So that was cool.
Today we're planning on being tourists in Zadar!
We're going around to a museum or two and taking lots of pictures, so I'll send some next week!
Love you all!
Sister Laws
The first is a picture of the room we were in for general conference, I meant to take at least one while we were all in there, but I forgot!
The next is the picture of the "conference speakers" thing we made, I don't remember what I said about it in the e-mail, we drew it for a couple of our investigators who are younger, but I think I'm the one who enjoyed it the most :) The point was to color the ties and take a few notes.
And then mine after it was all done!
I was glad to hear that Mom and Dad survived having the kids with them this week! And those pictures of Hawaii sure looked nice, Kelsey! Lucky!
Love you all tons!
Keshia
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