October 25, 2010

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