Hey everyone, it's been an awesome week, despite lots of annoyances. We had 20 lessons cancel on us this week, and a lot of them were with our progressing investigators. On Tuesday we had a lesson with a woman named Iris. We'd called her every morning that week, reminding her to wake up, pray, and read from the book of mormon. She did that all week, and she could see that it blessed her life. We talked a little about how when we keep God's commandments, we're blessed and our life is better. Sister Milius asked her to be baptized, and at first, she said ˝no way, I'm not the type of person that gets baptized. i smoke, i drink, i don't keep God's commandments, etc˝. We talked a little about that, and she said that if she was prepared by the 17th, she'd get baptized on that day, and that she would do everything we asked her to to prepare between now and then. Only one problem-- she was out of town for the rest of the week, and she's moving to the coast for the summer at the end of the month, and not to Rijeka or Zadar, so nowhere near missionaries. Not sure what to do about that.
We also had seminary on that day. We talked about the book of Deuteronomy and keeping the commandments, following the prophet, scripture study, and tithing. We thought Andrea would come, but she couldn't, so it was just Marijana. but it was one of the best lessons we've had yet, i think because everything was simplified and tied really clearly to simple doctrine, even though Marijana knows more about the gospel than almost anyone in Osijek, what was powerful was the simple truths she was taught before baptism.
On thursday we had 5 lessons cancel, which was sort of discouraging, but as we were going home, a man stopped us and said he had a lot of problems right now, and that he wanted to find God in his life, and that he felt like the Catholic church just cared about money and he wasn't finding what he needed in church, so he asked if he could come to our church and meet with missionaries. Apparently Božo talked to him when he was in the catholic church, and he said to come to our church and read the book of mormon. He didn't end up coming to church, but the elders are going to start teaching him. but that wouldn't have happened if our last lesson wasn't cancelled.
On Friday at aktivnost Andrea was talking to Filip and asked ˝hey, why aren't you baptized yet?˝ He's slowly progressing, but he's got a lot of outside forces pushing him both ways. i think that's why he hasn't committed to be baptized yet.
On Saturday, Elder and Sister Smartt came into Osijek for the weekend. It was great. They're from Tennessee, and they came as our middle english class was finishing, so they started talking to our students, and some of our english students could understand them, but others who we can talk pretty easily with couldn't understand them at all. We had to translate for them into non-southern english or croatian. They took us to dinner and it was pretty much a training meeting, involving several role-plays with real people. it was great. We texted lots of random english students and former investigators and such telling them that we had special guests in town, and 2 people from that came. I translated for Sister Smartt, which was difficult. That was my first time translating for a meeting. I've probably got a lot more of that to go. Elder Bell translated for Elder Smartt, which i was very grateful for. Elder Bell speaks really fast, but Elder Smartt didn't give him almost any time to translate. He did really well though despite that. Luckily, everyone there could at least understand some english except for Lidia. For Sunday school, Elder Smartt taught the plan of salvation and invited everyone in the congregation (Lidia was the only member there, and we had about 7-10 investigators/guests). We talked to them afterwards, and Suzana, a woman who we've taught once, but we haven't been able to schedule with for weeks, accepted right off. at first i thought she just didn't quite understand what Elder Smartt was asking because of something she said, but she really did understand, and said she'd be baptized on the 17th. so we got a baptismal date, and pretty much all we did for it was sending her a text. we decided the Smartts should come to church every week.
We had seminary again on Friday because Marijana's a little behind, and Filip, Andrea, and another investigator named Andreja came. We talked about Joshua and how the priests had to put their feet in the river before the river stopped so they could cross on dry ground. We then talked about what was keeping each investigator from being baptized, and how they can ˝put their feet in the water˝ and show their faith. It was a pretty good lesson.
Earlier today we had a lesson with Andrea about tithing. she just got a divorce and has pretty much no money, so that was hard for her. she said she'd pray about it, and when she prayed to end the lesson, she asked God for a way to be able to pay tithing. we did an object lesson with candy for that that Emina loved for some reason.
So, baptismal dates:
Iris- March 17
Suzana- March 17
Valentina- March 24
Andrea- as soon as she will agree on a date. She's more decided on getting baptized and knows more what that means than the other three combined. I think she just doesn't want to pick a date and have to re-set it because she's not ready on time. She told us she wanted to make it a surprise. We told her to pray about the 17th. I think she'll settle on that date. We'll see.
In other news, transfers are on the 14th, so i'll let you know next week whether I'm transferred. there are 3 sisters coming, so my guess is either sister milius and i are co-training, or I'll move out of Osijek and train in Zagreb or something. We'll see though.
Love you all! have an awesome week!
love, ari
