čao svi

Hey everyone, how's it going. it's only been like 4-5 days, so i don't really have that much to say... so I recently met the first black person I've seen in osijek. His name is something like Cyriecus (he says to call him Sirius, but i don't know how his name's supposed to be pronounced). He went on and on about how in his country, everyone talks to each other and accepts each other, but Croats just look at like you're crazy, and they all go to church, but they're not really Christian. He studies at the Evangelical college down the street from our house where everyone thinks we live. We also met a man from india who owns a restaurant just a block away from our house. As much as I love Croats, it was fun to talk to someone who wasn't one.

I may have talked about this before, but the 2 main philosophies we fight here are ˝Bog je jedan˝ and ˝Svi ima svoje˝ I'm so tired of those phrases. The hard thing is that they're true in a sense, but they use it to mean something completely false. ˝Bog je jedan˝ means God is one, and svi ima svoju vjeru means that everyone has their own faith/religion, and you shouldn't try to change that, but just respect that we're all different. There's only one God for the whole earth, and we all pray to the same god, and people can come closer to God by following any religion. that's true, but they use it to mean that God doesn't care how we worship him, and that yeah, Jesus said everyone has to be baptized, but he couldn't have actually meant that because hindus and muslims have great religions too, and what matters religion-wise is just that you follow the traditions of your forefathers. It drives me crazy. When noah was a prophet, everyone on the earth had to listen to just that one prophet, or they'd drown. God hasn't changed. If he wants the whole earth to do something, he tells the prophet. I don't see why people think that's such an incomprehensible concept. It's bold, but not scripturally unfounded or illogical

We made Marina (Marijana's friend that has been investigating for about a year) a calendar to help prepare her for baptism and fix her relationship with her dad. If she does everything we she possibly can to be ready, God will do the rest and soften his heart. We read Moroni 7 with her, 29-33 or so, about how God will do miracles, if we have faith, that we can do ˝everything that's expedient˝ in Christ. and then we read the next verse, of what's expedient in Christ-- to be baptized. She really felt like those verses were written for her. She has been doing more than she has before, and she doesn't quite have faith that our plan will work, but she's putting forth work.

We finally met with Vera for the first time since elder lifferth left. She thinks that she made the decision to be baptized way too fast, and that it wasn't really necessary, that it doesn't matter what church you belong to. that was really sad to hear from her.

Last night when we were tracting, we ran into a woman whose daughter is in a hospital in Rijeka because she has autism to the point of aggression. We felt the spirit really strong as she shared her concerns about God and we just testified that God loves her and that our trials in life are because God loves us and wants us to grow, not because He doesn't care and wants to make us suffer. She didn't let us come back or have her number, but she said she'd read the plan of salvation pamphlet and hopefully get some answers that way. I think I'll write her a letter about some of the restored truths we have from prophets in our day on this subject. and maybe give her the conference talk from last year that had the story about the girl in the icu who had angels watching over her. I wish the people here in croatia could understand how much they need what I'm trying to give them.

Well, that's all for today. Transfers are in a week. I'm pretty sure I'm staying here for another half a transfer at least. I'll let you know next week though. Thanks for staying tuned. Have an awesome week!

love, Sestra Ariana Black