November 29, 2010

Hi family!
I had a really good week.
Monday, last p-day, nothing exciting.
Tuesday, one of the old ladies at our service place touched Sister Dillender's hand with her own after she told us that she had herpes on that hand so it's always cold now. So we've been joking about Sister Dillender having herpes all week.
Wednesday, the most exciting thing was we started making food for Thanksgiving!
Thursday, THANKSGIVING! We made FOUR PIES: cheese-cake-ish one, cherry, apple, and chocolate pudding. They were all good except for the cheese-cake one - we forgot we had the oven on broiler so the top got baked all weird and it ended up looking like some kind of egg dish thing. And we made the crusts for all of them, too, because Croatia doesn't do pies so that was hard, no wonder people say that pastry is hard to work with, it IS. And Croatia also doesn't do pie pans, so we found one pie pan at the church (from Frontier Pies, so it was obviously from America) we made the apple pie in a bread pan and the cherry pie in a glass dish that was luckily really deep because I forgot to measure out the cherries and put both jars into the recipe, which all in all turned out really yummy. And then the cheese-cake pie was in one of the Elder's skillet (if I remember what a skillet pan is) pans! With a metal handle, so we didn't have to worry about it melting. Which also worked fine. And then we got to the Church and found ANOTHER pie pan in the cupboard that we had missed. So that was funny. And Thursday morning we walked the pies all the way to the church and when we got there we realized we forgot the keys AND the phone, so we couldn't call the Elders to let us in, so we had to leave the pies on the back porch and walk all the way back home and to the church again, which worked out because there was more we could take early. We had turkey, we looked for ham but couldn't find any that looked normal, and none of the whole turkeys (which are all quite small here in Croatia) looked good so we just bought some turkey breasts and a couple legs, which the Elders cooked and it was SO delicious. We had stove-top stuffing from America. We used the potato flakes that Mom sent me, except we made them at the church and when I was halfway through with the two original packets I realized we hadn't brought any milk, so they were really tasteless, but we made some real mashed potatoes with it, too, and then the two other flavored packets that didn't need milk, so we had plenty. We made the gravy packets, thanks again to Mom, it was good. We had some vegetables and a fruit salad which we put vanilla pudding into, because we thought it was a good idea, but we got to the church and told the elders and they said "is that pudding from Croatia?" and we said, yeah. And they explained that they had tried nearly every kind of vanilla pudding and Croatia did NOT know how to make pudding. So when we got around to the fruit salad later in the meal we found out that Croatia does NOT know how to make vanilla pudding, it had a weird metallic aftertaste, so that failed! It was pretty gross, so we stopped eating it and shared it with the members that night at Institute :) And the crowning thing to the whole meal was the ROLLS which I made from a recipe we found in the apartment. They were SO SO SO good! I plan on bringing the recipe home, it was super delicious and nice to have good rolls, because Croatia also doesn't make rolls. So our meal turned out to be a success! It was the most American Thanksgiving on foreign soil prepared by young missionaries! Just like I thought and hoped it would be. And after the meal we read one of the gratitude talks that Mom sent me, which was really good, and we made Thanksgiving Plates! (we wrote on paper plates everything we were grateful for) And I totally intended to send pictures of our wonderful meal, but I forgot to bring my camera. Next week I will. And if you noticed, Sister Dillender and me made almost EVERYTHING for it. The Elders made the turkey and the boxed stuffing and the packet gravy. So it was DEFINITELY a sucess :) It was so great and so much fun! And the whole time we were cooking pies and rolls we listened to the Forgotten Carols! Yeah Christmas music!
And on Thursday when we were walking home at the end of the night we say a dead cat on the road with its insides on the outsides and it was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in real life. I had no idea cats' insides looked like that and I was so disgusted I couldn't stop looking. Just so you know.
on Friday (And actually every other day of the week) it rained, and we were walking home and I had forgotten my umbrella at the church and Sister Dillender's umbrella broke, but LUCKILY I was wearing my rain coat! It works! the hood and everything! And my rain boots work, too. They were good purchases. And it really did rain almost every single day this week and yesterday ALL day long. I really like the rain :) Also on Friday one of the old couples that we deliver lunches to for service gave us chocolate for Sveta Kata! That Saint Katharine Day or something like that, it was really sweet of them. Sveta Kata is every November 25, exactly one month before Christmas, and to celebrate they put candy under kids pillows! I learned about it on the 26th, or I would have told you all sooner so you could celebrate it! But for future reference! And I will definitely try to find out some more holidays or traditions that Croatians have and pass them along!
And of course we've been eating leftovers (they're gone now) and every time we would stuff ourselves again and feel like we had another Thanksgiving dinner. And on Saturday I ate my third Thanksgiving dinner and then had leftover pie on top of that and then had a big cup of the hot chocolate that Mom sent (THANKS AGAIN) and made myself disgustingly sick! I felt so gross. But I dipped chocolate chip cookies in it and it was really really delicious at the time. So.
And the most exciting thing on Saturday was that we got contacted by a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses. We basically let them say their bit and took their little paper and let it all go, because we didn't want to get into an argument. I've never experienced it but the JWs here can be a little confrontational. (All the ones I've met have been nice, even these two.) Anyway, it was funny to be contacted when we're the ones supposed to be contacting!
Yesterday was a good Sunday. We heard from a member that North and South Korea are preparing for war. That's kinda sad to hear about. Any updates on the situation are appreciated! We heard it might end up being the third World War, but I would say it's a little early to be jumping to those kinds of conclusions.
And then THIS MORNING We put up the Christmas tree! That was fun, we haven't decorated it yet or anything, and we need some more lights because one strand popped in my face for no reason, and scared me and another one doesn't work, and we need more decorations because we don't have that many, but it's really fun preparing for Christmas! The Holiday Season is here! And also there are lights and decorations up all over Zadar, like on the streetlights and grocery stores, so that's really fun. And I thought of just a couple other things I wanted to ask for 1. The Pocket Handbook for Missionaries, it's a really small book and 2. crest whitestrips, for fun.
Thanks everyone for e-mailing. Sounds like everyone's Thanksgiving was great! Jesse, your record player sounds BOMB, and the fair sounds like it would have been fun. And Kelsey, I love the quotes from your kids! So fun. Everyone have fun in the snow! And I'll have fun in the rain :)
I've been reading a lot of the conference talks from this last conference, Thanks Mom! and I really liked President Monson's closing remarks, and Elder Bednar's "Receive the Holy Ghost" and I really liked Elder Scott's "The Transforming Power of Faith and Character" the first time I read it, because of his language and the concepts, I was like "I do not understand this..." It was like I didn't know English or something. But I read it again and it was really really good and just what I needed to hear! And then this morning I read Pres Uchtdorf's, I can't remember the name, but it's the one from the general session, not the priesthood session (which I read a couple days ago and is ALSO really good) and he was talking about simplifying when life gets harder and crazy and focusing on the most important things, like the gospel, and how that's wisdom. And THEN in Mom's e-mail today she said, "when life gets like this I have to just slow down, focus on what's really important, breath without hyperventilating, and KNOW everything will be OK." Which is like exactly what Pres Uchtdorf said! So that was really cool.
Ok! Love you all!
Sister Laws