Dear Family,
This week has been good...a lot like the last two weeks, but good. On Tuesday evening at the devotional, they took a picture of all the missionaries in the MTC. This is the second time they've ever done it, the last time being 10 yrs ago. so if you've ever been to the MTC and seen the panoramic picture of everyone, I'm in the new one they just took like that.
Thursday was the first time we taught in the TRC. We were lucky enough to have a volunteer from Serbia who has only been a member of the church for 15 months I think. He was pretty awesome. We didn't have too long to teach him, and at the rate we speak Croatian, it takes a lot of time to get anything across, but we got to know him for a few minutes, and then we talked about faith, how it motivates us to action, and how those actions in turn build our faith. We asked him to read Moroni 7 and then to make a goal of how he could strengthen his faith, and we made goals as well. I love the new way they do TRC. It's awesome.
One of the progressing investigators we've been teaching is named Marilena (she's actually Sestra Carter, one of our teachers). Yesterday we taught her probably the best lesson that Starjesina Mulder and I have ever taught. We were planning on teaching about the plan of salvation, but we ended up just talking about the holy ghost and prayer, that God is our father and he wants to hear from us, and that he is willing to give us knowledge that we seek. Even though Marilena isn't actually a real person, it's amazing how the spirit still tells me what she needs to hear and what will help her be happier and come closer to Christ.
So, the 50 words a day goal didn't quite work. I learned 150 words last week, which is still a lot, but not quite the 250 I planned to do. That was still a lot of words.
The temple is open again! I'm so glad. We get to go there later today. I'm excited.
So, I learned on Wednesday that the sister missionaries have been moved from Zagreb to a city farther east, i think it's called something like Osijek. so now they're there and in Zadar.
I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. First of all, I had a lot of trouble falling asleep, and second of all, at 2am I was woken up by the most shrill fire alarm I've ever heard. maybe it was more shrill because I was asleep, but it was pretty loud and obnoxious. I was so confused; I had no idea what was going on for like 2 minutes. Then we sat outside for a few minutes until they said we could go back to bed.
I've decided that 2 Nephi is pretty much my favorite chapter in all of the scriptures. read it if you get a chance, even if you've never read it, or if you've read it a million times. It's awesome. (scriptures.lds.org)
I decided to read the whole book of mormon before leaving the mtc. that's about 10 pages a day. I've really enjoyed doing that. It's great to read a little at a time, but there's something special about reading it fast all at once. I love that book
That's my week. Thank you for your prayers and support. I love you all. I know that God loves you and knows everything that you go through. Turn to him and you will see his power blessing your life. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sestra Black
