06 lipnja 2011

Dear family!
Hija. haha.
I typed that in without even thinking about it. J in Croatian is pronounced like a "y" so that says hiya. That's kinda cool.

SOOO my week was good. I don't remember if I told you, I think I did, that the pope was coming to Croatian. That was cool. Well, I asked president for permission to go see him and he said that it would be better if we didn't. because of the crowds and everything. It would have been kinda cool to say that I've seen the pope! But it's actually not that important is it? Zagreb unfortunately disagreed with us missionaries about the importance of this visit and everything was all messed up while he was here Saturday and Sunday. And when I say everything I mostly mean the trams. The tram schedule was weird, nothing was going to center (luckily we didn't need to go either) streets were taped off and police were everywhere. There is one set of elders serving here who actually live in center so they were late to church on Sunday because of it. AND the pope went RIGHT BY THEIR APARTMENT so they DID get to see him. And they took a video and pictures, so that's pretty cool. Have you ever seen the Pope Mobile? It's a pretty ridiculous looking contraption. I'm planning on finding some kind of souvenir though, to comemorate the experience. I was in Croatia when the Pope came. Cool!

What else was good this week? We went to mass last night. Sister Nelson has never been and Sister Creager has never been, so that was fun for them. It was actually pretty weird, when I went in Zadar we were at an old cathedral, like pretty old. So there were lots of statues and old-looking stuff. Well this one that we went to is quite new. Newer anyway. And so it was a lot more modern and had less of the weird creepy stuff, but what it did have was creepy, don't get me wrong, but it was modern. And then before the mass started (people arrive early and we did so we'd get seats) all these old people were praying together out loud. Chanting. And that was kinda creepy. Last time they didn't do that. And the building was all dark, they didn't have many lights on... this time was definitely more weird. But the experience is interesting and I like the songs they sing. One of them said something like, Jesus Christ is the Shepherd and ... I can't remember. Watches over his herd or something. It sounds a lot better in Croatian. So we kinda had a Catholic week, didn't we? haha.

Well another thing we did was help a member in the family history center. She's actually a professional geneologist and is doing a lot for people looking for family trees here, because nothing for Croatia is really online. Family history wise. She's a really amazing person. Anyway, we went and helped do something. I can't even remember the technical word for it. Oh, and our family history center is the busiest in central Europe and usually centers only have one or two "file readers" (that is not the technical term for that, either, but again, I can't remember) and ours has FOUR. So we helped her out and that made me really excited for when I come home and can do family history on my own time! I know our own family tree has been sought out pretty well, but there's stuff you can do online with familyhistory.org or whatever the site is. Anyway, all in good time! That will be fun.

OH! And this week, so I guess most of the stuff we did this week was about the Sambunjaks. This lady, pro geneologist is Sister Lidija Sambunjak and she invited us over for dinner on Thursday. That was really good food and really nice to sit and chat with her. She is from Slovenia and her husband is from Croatia. They live here in the Zagreb branch and have two daughters. So her husband couldn't be there because he was helping someone move and so we just got to chat and get to know her. She has the best meet and marry stories! It was so funny to hear her tell it. Super fun. She knows english really well so Sister Creager didn't feel left out. So that was Thursday. Friday we helped at the family history center. And Saturday the Sambunjaks' oldest daughter, Hana, got baptized! It was pretty great. She was so sweet. Her birthday was this last week (so she's eight. we don't do that differently in Croatia. haha.) And she bore her testimony at the baptism, she said that she knows God loves her and she knew she'd be with an eternal family. So so cute. And us four sisters sang for the program thing. We sang the song "Baptism" maybe. It's called "Krštenje" in Croatian, which means baptism. About Jesus getting baptized. And their family members came and there was food afterwards and so. All very good fun stuff.

Overall: GOOD WEEK!

I think that's everything. Oh, Mom asked that I share something spiritual today. I don't have my study journal with me. I'll bring it next week. But one thing from this morning. I'm reading in Helaman. Nephi was preaching from his tower garden thingy. And he said (in my words) "How could you let Satan have so much control over your hearts when all he wants to do is drag you down to hell?" Obviously he said it better, but it was a really good verse. vs. 11 I think. And it may have been chapter 7. I'm not sure though. You'll have to find it on your own. And then I read Uchtdorf's talk from conference this morning about "waiting on the road to damascus" and how we can't expect a vision or visitation to say that we have a testimony. I think that's something very prevalent (I pulled that strange English word out of the depths of my brain, am I using it the right way here?) in Croatia. Valuable. I have been reading talks a lot and they are pretty good so far. I think it was... Scott? A talk on service and I thought that was quite good. Oh, that reminds me. I noticed this week that Elder Hales didn't speak at conference. Is he sick? Is he ok? Did they mention anything about it when they were live? That's kinda scary. I like all the apostles a lot more than I ever have, because I've been reading so many ensigns and all the conference editions, and I think it will be more sad from now on to see any of them die. But I guess when an apostle dies there's not a lot to be sad about, since they live so righteously. Another thing I've noticed, lately as in these last several conferences, a lot of people have mentioned and tesitfied that President Monson follows the Spirit. All the time. It's kinda interesting that they've been saying it so much. I think (my opinion) that we can expect Satan to be tempting people into thinking that Pres. Monson is just a regular guy, and our leaders are preparing us by bearing firm testimony that he is a prophet of God. Which I know! He is! That's the geratest thing ever, that we have prophets today. How do people survive without them?

Everyone, have lots of fun! I miss you all, love you all, have a great week seeing each other and talking and chatting etc.
Oh wait, questions: our new mission president. His name is ... I have the hardest time remembering his name. I don't know anything new about it. I think I already told you he lived in Bosnia? He has four? kids. or five. And they'll be living in Zagreb. They moved the mission office this week to Zagreb and will be moving it more of course, so the mission home will be moving soon, too. I don't know much.

Thanks for the updates on the French open! I'm glad I wasn't there to see Federer lose to Nadal AGAIN. But I'm glad he beat Djokovic.

Oh, and I heard from Rebekah Sappington this week. She said that she's moving to St. George again and she gave me some updates. Apparently the Watters caught our old house on fire when they were burning weeds! I don't know anything more about that. And she said Sister Pierce had a heart attack (I am racking my brain but I honestly cannot remember who that is. So I'm just passing along this information in case you parents want to know) And that Terri Gardella (who I'm pretty sure was my 7th grade math teacher, is that right?) died. I don't know how. That's pretty weird.
Thought you'd be interested in hearing.

Ok. Long email this week. Have a good one!

Love you all!
Sister Laws