30 svibnja 2011

Hello family!
I am really tired all of a sudden. I woke up a little earlier this morning to study Croatian, maybe that's why. ...

I shall start at last pday!!
Monday: We went on a hike. I think I mentioned that maybe. It was really fun. 8 missionaries and one member. He was our tour-guide. It was a pretty intense hike, pretty steep and when we got to the top? There was NOTHING. No view, no spectacular feeling of success, just trees. And a restaurant. We bought food and ate and enjoyed each other's company and then me and some of the others RAN DOWN the mountain! It was unbelievably fun. And I was thinking, How could I have gone this far in life, hiking as much as I have, and never have I run down a mountain? And then I realized that I've always been hiking with mom and can you imagine her letting me run head-first down a mountain? It was so much fun. I understand the dangers, though. There's a good chance I won't ever do it again, but this once was really really fun. And we had sore legs for the next three days. So serves us right.

Tuesday: We had mini exchanges because the other sisters had two appointments at the same time. I went with Sister Nelson and we taught a lady who has been translating for the church for a really long time, she speaks a bunch of languages, and she knows a lot of the doctrine, she just has never been taught by missionaries. And Sister Nelson extended a baptismal commitment! So this lady, her name is Marija, is getting baptized this next month. It's really cool. Actually, I don't know if I mentioned this, but last year as a mission we got 28 baptisms, and our goal for this year is to double it. Which means we need 28 baptisms before the 1st of July. So far we have 10 and do you know what? We have seen a true MIRACLE occur in this mission. Right now we have 18 investigators with baptismal dates. So we are going to REACH our GOAL. It is the most amazing miraculous thing I have ever seen. It's SO awesome. One of those people is a guy down in Zadar, and his wife is a member and I taught her a lot of new-member lessons etc. Met with her a lot and they have one daughter. And I found out this morning that he is getting baptized and I couldn't be more happy for him and her and their family. It's SOOO awesome! I can't describe how happy and surprised I felt when I heard that. AMAZING!
That was a long side-note.

Wednesday: we had a couple of appointments with members, one for lunch and another to help her move. She isn't moving yet though, so we just stayed and chatted and had ice-cream. A good missionary day.

Thursday: Nothing exciting.

Friday: Nothing much. we went to the church to pick something up and I saw a member from zadar, she was there for a meeting, so that was fun. I asked her how everyone was and caught up really fast. And then saw her again on Sunday for church. And then Friday night we had "date night" with the other sisters and sat around eating junk food and talking about stuff. It's pretty fun having four of us in one apartment.

Saturday: I got my package! Yay! Thank you so much, Mom, you really delivered on the crackers. I ate some better cheddars last night and it was so great. It really hit the spot. The cookies are good, but they didn't travel as well as some of the other ones you've sent. So a little stale, but still tastes like home! And I've been reading the conference edition ever since. The pictures in that are AMAZING! Wow. Ooh, and somewhere towards the back there's a picture of some girls reading the Book of Mormon, or should I say "Mormonova Knjiga" because they were from SLOVENIA! That's my mission! Cool cool. And I also got a letter from Jesse! Good to hear from you!

Sunday: an inactive member came that we had visited. Well, we went over on her birthday and gave her a card. And she came to church, that was cool. She didn't stay for sunday school or relief society, but it was good to see her. Then we had choir afterwards, that is so much fun. I'm doing alto and it's hard! But I'm getting a little better at it. We will be performing for district conference in a couple weeks. That means all the members in all of Croatia are coming to Zagreb and we will be singing for them! Yikes! That will be good..?
And finally today. We are planning on going to a park and playing some volleyball and having a picnic with everyone. That will be fun. So overall? I had a GREAT week.

Wow, it's pretty amazing being a missionary.

To answer some questions: yes, I was once in a mission newsletter as a greenie. I have a copy of that Harvest, so you can see it when I come home. We also get the newsletter, it's pretty fun.
My hand is fine, it healed very quickly. The wound was quite small, no worries!
I don't know of any good cello music, Mom, but I feel like I should... Maybe on one of the CDs I have or have heard recently it had cello. I'll think about it. Right now, actually, in the library someone is giving a performance. The piano and I'm guessing a violin. So we have some very good mood music, it's really pretty, too. I wouldn't mind a CD of this kind of stuff. I think this is something they do every Monday, let someone come and perform. It's awesome.
Elder Fowler is going home pretty soon. One month. Kinda weird, because he's been assistant to the president almost my entire mission. There was an elder who went home at the very beginning of May and he's already engaged! That's crazy. Sister Hill said she thought that was the record for missionaries that they've sent home. He was engaged after two weeks, I think. Anyway, I heard some elders joking about Elder Fowler beating that record.
But I don't know anything more about that.

It's so great to hear that you're all doing good! Love you tons and thank you for all the love and support!
You are my heroes!

Sister Laws