Family,
Things are going well here in Osijek. Things I forgot from last week: 1. did you know that Croatians drive on the right side of the street like Americans? I would`ve expected them to drive on the left, like brittish. 2. I`d take St. Louis`s restaurants over Croatia`s any day. 3. Most people speak English at least somewhat. If we start speaking to them in Croatian, they almost always say, ˝It`s ok, you can say it on English˝. In Croatian, it`s ˝na Engleskom˝, and na means on. 4. I didn`t say anything about my trainer really. Sister Creager is pretty great. She has brown hair and brown eyes, and looks a little bit like pictures of mom when she was younger. The day I arrived in Croatia, we were wearing similar outfits, and the Rowes´ 6 yr old twins said that they had a hard time telling which of us was which. At church on Sunday, one of the elders started talking to me as if I were sister Creager because I was doing something with my back to them, and our hair was done similarly. She loves to laugh, and she loves to talk. She knows the scriptures pretty well and always has good ideas for object lessons and such. It`s a little weird finally teaching with a sister though after being with just elders for 2 months.
Guess what! We`re going to Serbia this week for a leadership training meeting. That should be fun. I`m excited. I didn`t think I`d ever go there, but since we`re now in the Serbian zone, and there are 6 Serbian elders and 4 of us in our district, we`re going there instead of having them come to Croatia.
Seminary with Marijana is great. it was one of the highlights of our week. We watched a clip from the seminary video with little kids talking about the old testiment, and how it isn`t as boring or complex as people sometimes make it. It`s pretty funny. I`d highly recommend it. We then talked about the plan of salvation, and she had some amazingly deep questions about it, about what happens if you are exalted and your husband isn`t, about what happens to children who die when they`re young, about the nature of God... lots of really deep questions, some of which we couldn`t answer to her satisfaction without going into theoreticals. We told her though that God loves each of his children, and he gives them each a chance to get all of the same blessings, no matter what their situation is in this life. I don`t know the answer to everything, but I know that God knows what he`s doing, and everything He does is to give us more joy and happiness.
I`m giving my first talk in church this week. Sister Creager and I are also giving the sunday school lesson. That`s what we get for having a small branch. This week we had Božo, Marijana, Lidia, and Vera. Vera is one of the most active members, but she`s been on vacation, so I hadn`t met her yet.
On Friday for aktivnost, we played that game where you write a sentence, pass the paper to the next person, they draw a picture and cover the sentence, and the next person writes a sentence based on the picture and covers the picture, etc. It was a lot of fun. The members had fun reading our poor croatian. At one point, I wanted to use a verb that I knew was irregular, stajati-to stand, but I didn`t know how to conjugate it, so I just pretended it was a regular verb because Elder Schouten was on my left, and I figured he would recognize the verb, but he wouldn`t know any better than me, and he wouldn`t know if I said something completely different than I meant to on accident. I was right. It turns out staja is a stable or a stall or something, but Elder Schouten read it as ˝he stands˝, so it worked. It was a lot of fun. My sentence was something like ˝Vodenikonji jedu misionare, jer nisu održali zapovijedi Boga˝. We made chocolate chip cookies for it. they were pretty good.
We`ve been really excited that Lidia`s son, Alen, has been coming to church and activities the last couple weeks. It would be great if we could get a non-missionary priesthood holder in this branch. unfortunately though, I think his improved attendance has a little too much to do with him thinking my companion`s cute, so we`ve had to be careful about how much encouragement we give him. We`ll see how things go with him.
We have 2 new investigators: Lily and her daughter, Lea. We`re helping Lea with her english as well. They invited us to eat lunch with their family last Sunday after only really meeting us once. I like them very much.
Mom- thanks for sending the blog address. Give Lydia a hug for me. I hope the surgery goes well.
Jon- I hope auditions for Peter Pan go well. The most popular icecream shop here is called Petar Pan. So far, I`ve gotten: nutela and pistašio, tamna čocolata (dark chocolate) and stračjatela (or however they spell it here), višnija (cherry) and čocolata višnija. They`ve all been very good. I usually do ˝pola pola˝ (half and half) so I can get twice as many flavors.
Will and Rose- good luck with college applications. those aren`t very fun.
Thanks for the emails and prayers.
Have a wonderful week everyone!
Love, Sestra Black
Monday, September 12, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
Croatia!!!
So, I`m here in Osijek. The keyboards are weird, but I suppose I`ll get used to that soon. Right now there are 4 missionaries in Osijek, one set of elders and us. Osijek is tiny church-wise. This week at church there was the 4 of us, 4 members, and 2 investigators, which is about normal. Our steadiest member here is a 16 yr old girl named Marijana (like my name, but with an m. a serbian friend of mine told me that she always wanted to spell my name Arijana, because that`s how you spell it here). She was baptized the weekend I came into the MTC, so she`s pretty new, but she`s pretty amazing. I like her very much. She`s been a big part of helping me feel welcome here in Osijek. She has extremely good english, like many of the youth here, so that`s been helpful as well, especially since not one of the 4 of us knows much Croatian. Marijana always teases elder genther that nothing he says makes sense, and elder schouten that his pronunciation is atrocious. Out of the 4 of us, she says I say her name the least horrible, and that it only sounds a little bit funny when I say it. so we`re sort of in a growing phase here in Osijek. It`s sort of nice sometimes that none of them speak croatian, since I can understand everything they say, so I know what`s going on in church, and it makes me feel better about my croatian that I can correct all of their grammar in my head. but at the same time, it would be nice to have someone to lean on a little when I don`t understand people.
The next most active person probably is Božo. except he`s not a member. because he`s Catholic. He`s funny. He always gives elaborate hellos and goodbyes, and he`s always way excited to talk to everyone. Our branch president is Starješina Genther. He was in the MTC with my trainer, sestra Creager, and they`ve both been out here 2 transfers, and today is their 4 month mark in the country. The other elder here is Starješina Schouten. I think that`s how it`s spelled, but I don`t know. it`s pronounced scout-in. He never wears a nametag because he only has a Serbian one because he was supposed to be in Serbia, and his Croatian badge hasn`t come yet. and people here in Osijek hate serbians. It`s weird having the whole church be run by us. It`s a little different of an experience than having a ward with a bajillion callings. Especially for fast sunday. we all have to bear our testimony and take up the whole block. I`ll be giving a lot of talks here. Yesterday, Lidija bore hers as well, so it was nice to have one testimony in real croatian. Her children, Alan and Lydia (we call her ´mala (little) Lydia´ to tell them apart) came as well, and they don`t usually, so that was nice. They`re about 20 and 17. We`re starting seminary tomorrow with Marijana and her non-member friend, Marina. I`m pretty excited about that. School started yesterday, so the trams this morning were horrible.
I`ve had a horrible cough for the past 2 weeks or so, and it`s driving me crazy.
On friday, we had an activity (aktivnost) where we played signs. A member named Kristina and her kids, Ana and Luca, who are 7 and 9 i think, and adorable, came. Marijana and her friend Filip were also there. It was a lot of fun. Luca didn`t quite get the game, so whenever we asked if he was it, he`d have to ask his mom ˝Jel´ sam?˝ (am I?) or something like that, and he and Ana ended up sort of playing their own game in the middle of ours. it was funny.
Have a wonderful week. Volim vas!
The next most active person probably is Božo. except he`s not a member. because he`s Catholic. He`s funny. He always gives elaborate hellos and goodbyes, and he`s always way excited to talk to everyone. Our branch president is Starješina Genther. He was in the MTC with my trainer, sestra Creager, and they`ve both been out here 2 transfers, and today is their 4 month mark in the country. The other elder here is Starješina Schouten. I think that`s how it`s spelled, but I don`t know. it`s pronounced scout-in. He never wears a nametag because he only has a Serbian one because he was supposed to be in Serbia, and his Croatian badge hasn`t come yet. and people here in Osijek hate serbians. It`s weird having the whole church be run by us. It`s a little different of an experience than having a ward with a bajillion callings. Especially for fast sunday. we all have to bear our testimony and take up the whole block. I`ll be giving a lot of talks here. Yesterday, Lidija bore hers as well, so it was nice to have one testimony in real croatian. Her children, Alan and Lydia (we call her ´mala (little) Lydia´ to tell them apart) came as well, and they don`t usually, so that was nice. They`re about 20 and 17. We`re starting seminary tomorrow with Marijana and her non-member friend, Marina. I`m pretty excited about that. School started yesterday, so the trams this morning were horrible.
I`ve had a horrible cough for the past 2 weeks or so, and it`s driving me crazy.
On friday, we had an activity (aktivnost) where we played signs. A member named Kristina and her kids, Ana and Luca, who are 7 and 9 i think, and adorable, came. Marijana and her friend Filip were also there. It was a lot of fun. Luca didn`t quite get the game, so whenever we asked if he was it, he`d have to ask his mom ˝Jel´ sam?˝ (am I?) or something like that, and he and Ana ended up sort of playing their own game in the middle of ours. it was funny.
Have a wonderful week. Volim vas!
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
safe in Croatia
I'm safely in Zagreb. All of my flights went as planned. I'll be working with Sister Creager in Osijek, as I thought. I love you! have a great day!
love,
Ari
[note from webmaster -- all times for all the Ariana mission entries are Central time]
love,
Ari
[note from webmaster -- all times for all the Ariana mission entries are Central time]
Saturday, August 27, 2011
hi!
Ok, I didn't know I'd be able to email today, but I do get to, so hi!
It's been a good week so far. We had in-field orientation, which was sot of boring, but ok. We talked a lot about working with the members of the ward, ward council, ward mission leaders, bishops, etc, and I kept thinking of how nice it would be to have things like that. There are 7 or so branches in Croatia, no wards, and many of the branch presidents are just missionaries.
We had our last TRC on Thursday. It was probably my favorite one. Elder Bishop and I taught Nikola and Melinda, some of our favorite volunteers, about Receiving revelation through the book of mormon. We shared a couple scriptures and then shared about our favorite people in the book of mormon, and then how we can change our lives to be more like those heroes. We also met Brat Morris's girlfriend, which was fun.
I'm going to miss teaching our investigators here, even if they're not really real. It's been fun getting to know Srdan, Marilena, Zoran, and Vladimir, and trying to figure out their needs and concerns, and help them see how the gospel of Jesus Christ can bless their lives. It'll be even better to be teaching real people.
I'm so excited to go to Croatia. It's amazing how much love I already have for the people of Croatia. I'm so excited to serve them.
Ja znam da Isus Krist živi. Znam da Bog voli nas. Znam da je samo kroz žrtva Isusa Krista da možemo živjeti s Bogom ponovno. Ja znam da je Joseph Smith prevodio Mormonovu Knjigu kroz moć Boga, i da Mormonova Knjiga ima punina evanđelja Isusa Krista.
Volim vas! ‡
Sestra Black
(refer to the last email for the travel plans and calling time) love you!
‡ approximate translation, via Google Translate:
I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that God loves us. I know it is only through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we can live with God again. I know that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon through the power of God, and that the Book of Mormon is the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I love you!
Sister Black
It's been a good week so far. We had in-field orientation, which was sot of boring, but ok. We talked a lot about working with the members of the ward, ward council, ward mission leaders, bishops, etc, and I kept thinking of how nice it would be to have things like that. There are 7 or so branches in Croatia, no wards, and many of the branch presidents are just missionaries.
We had our last TRC on Thursday. It was probably my favorite one. Elder Bishop and I taught Nikola and Melinda, some of our favorite volunteers, about Receiving revelation through the book of mormon. We shared a couple scriptures and then shared about our favorite people in the book of mormon, and then how we can change our lives to be more like those heroes. We also met Brat Morris's girlfriend, which was fun.
I'm going to miss teaching our investigators here, even if they're not really real. It's been fun getting to know Srdan, Marilena, Zoran, and Vladimir, and trying to figure out their needs and concerns, and help them see how the gospel of Jesus Christ can bless their lives. It'll be even better to be teaching real people.
I'm so excited to go to Croatia. It's amazing how much love I already have for the people of Croatia. I'm so excited to serve them.
Ja znam da Isus Krist živi. Znam da Bog voli nas. Znam da je samo kroz žrtva Isusa Krista da možemo živjeti s Bogom ponovno. Ja znam da je Joseph Smith prevodio Mormonovu Knjigu kroz moć Boga, i da Mormonova Knjiga ima punina evanđelja Isusa Krista.
Volim vas! ‡
Sestra Black
(refer to the last email for the travel plans and calling time) love you!
‡ approximate translation, via Google Translate:
I know that Jesus Christ lives. I know that God loves us. I know it is only through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that we can live with God again. I know that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon through the power of God, and that the Book of Mormon is the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I love you!
Sister Black
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Last p-day at the MTC!
Hey everyone! Hope everyone's doing well. We got our travel plans on friday. We fly out from SLC at 10:47am on monday, get to chicago at 2:50pm, fly out from there at 3:40pm, get to Frankfurt, Germany at 6:50am on tuesday, leave there at 12:35pm, and arrive in Zagreb at 1:55 on Tuesday, which is about 6 here i think, or 7 back home. so that's 19 hours of real time and about 27 hours of fake time, once you take time zones into account. I'm so excited to go to Croatia!
I'll probably call from Salt Lake at 9:30-10 or so, which is 10:30-11 there in STL. We go to the airport way early, so I should have plenty of time then.
I'm so excited to have good fresh fruits and vegetables again. the food here's not that bad, but I'm excited to go to europe. The wife of a member of our branch presidency brought us cherry tomatoes from her garden yesterday. They were so good. it made me happy.
At TRC I got to teach Nikola again. It's always fun to be able to talk to someone actually from Serbia with a real accent and everything. Our teachers are very good, but definitely not natives. We talked about the plan of salvation, and he was so excited to talk to us. I like him very much.
I probably said this last week, but we've been teaching eachother as investigators recently. It definitely gives you a lot of insight and a new perspective to be the one being taught instead of teaching for once. On saturday we taught eachother lessons as ourselves, like we do at TRC. It's more like a one-on-one sunday school lesson or visiting teaching, which I like very much. but that's really how they want us to give all our lessons. Everyone can benefit from being brought closer to Christ-- non-members, members, and missionaries alike. Just like a missionary and a non-member have different needs, every single person we come in contact with has different needs, but at the same time, every single person can benefit from a deeper understanding of the same principles and doctrines from the same lessons. It's pretty cool.
Oh, I had a small miracle the other day. I was teaching Marilena, one of our investigators, and she asked a question. I thought of the perfect scripture, but then I realized that I didn't know where it was. I just opened my scriptures flat, trying to think of what to do next, and there was the scripture I wanted, just on that page. It was pretty cool.
Oh, my new companion went to LA last week, and on the way back to the airport they went to the LA temple. They invited their bus driver to the visitor's center, and he was really touched by it. they gave him a book of mormon and took a picture. it was a cool experience.
If you want to reach me in croatia, the address is:
Crkva Isusa Krista Svetaca Posljednjih Dana
Svačićev Trg 3
10000 Zagreb
Croatia
[We've been advised: if you send Ariana a package, do NOT include her name above this (church) address. Instead, write her name above your real return address. This is because if it is addressed to her then the Zagreb post office will only release the package to her in person, which won't work if she's living in another town. /kjb]
Have a wonderful week everyone! talk to you next monday! love you! read the book of mormon! it's awesome.
love,
ari
I'll probably call from Salt Lake at 9:30-10 or so, which is 10:30-11 there in STL. We go to the airport way early, so I should have plenty of time then.
I'm so excited to have good fresh fruits and vegetables again. the food here's not that bad, but I'm excited to go to europe. The wife of a member of our branch presidency brought us cherry tomatoes from her garden yesterday. They were so good. it made me happy.
At TRC I got to teach Nikola again. It's always fun to be able to talk to someone actually from Serbia with a real accent and everything. Our teachers are very good, but definitely not natives. We talked about the plan of salvation, and he was so excited to talk to us. I like him very much.
I probably said this last week, but we've been teaching eachother as investigators recently. It definitely gives you a lot of insight and a new perspective to be the one being taught instead of teaching for once. On saturday we taught eachother lessons as ourselves, like we do at TRC. It's more like a one-on-one sunday school lesson or visiting teaching, which I like very much. but that's really how they want us to give all our lessons. Everyone can benefit from being brought closer to Christ-- non-members, members, and missionaries alike. Just like a missionary and a non-member have different needs, every single person we come in contact with has different needs, but at the same time, every single person can benefit from a deeper understanding of the same principles and doctrines from the same lessons. It's pretty cool.
Oh, I had a small miracle the other day. I was teaching Marilena, one of our investigators, and she asked a question. I thought of the perfect scripture, but then I realized that I didn't know where it was. I just opened my scriptures flat, trying to think of what to do next, and there was the scripture I wanted, just on that page. It was pretty cool.
Oh, my new companion went to LA last week, and on the way back to the airport they went to the LA temple. They invited their bus driver to the visitor's center, and he was really touched by it. they gave him a book of mormon and took a picture. it was a cool experience.
If you want to reach me in croatia, the address is:
Crkva Isusa Krista Svetaca Posljednjih Dana
Svačićev Trg 3
10000 Zagreb
Croatia
[We've been advised: if you send Ariana a package, do NOT include her name above this (church) address. Instead, write her name above your real return address. This is because if it is addressed to her then the Zagreb post office will only release the package to her in person, which won't work if she's living in another town. /kjb]
Have a wonderful week everyone! talk to you next monday! love you! read the book of mormon! it's awesome.
love,
ari
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
week 6
Family:
I only have 1 more p-day at the mtc! crazy. This week has been good. I got a new companion on wednesday. She's going to Bulgaria like sister meyers. She's about 5'1" and she has curly brown hair. She's way cute. I like her very much. Her name is CECTPA Tate. She's in LA today doing visa stuff with the elders in her district. She left at 4 in the morning and she'll get home tonight. I also have 2 new roommates who will be serving in Arizona.
Oh, I forgot to say last week, but I'm coordinating sister for my zone now. That means I make sure the sisters in my zone are doing well and that they're keeping the rules. My zone has 4 sisters serving english missions, and sister Izatt and me. We have 4 more english sisters coming in on wednesday, one from new zealand. so now sister Izatt is the music coordinator for our zone so i don't have to do both jobs.
At TRC this week we had 2 serbians: Alit and Nikola, so that was pretty cool. We talked about receiving revelation through church attendance, and we challenged the volunteers to write down questions or what they wanted to learn this sunday before going to church. I would recommend that to everyone reading this too. I have found that whenever I specifically am listening for how I can better help my investigators come unto Christ, or if I have questions I want answered and I'm listening for answers, I always get a lot more out of the church service than when I don't.
This sunday we heard from the general primary president, Rosemary Wixom. it was pretty cool. I got to talk to her for a minute afterwards and she told me to love the children of Croatia. I already planned on doing that.
President Samuelson, the president of BYU, came to speak last tuesday. it sort of felt like I was getting the back to school devotional once again. It's weird to think that they'll be starting in just 2 weeks or so, but I won't be going there. This will be my first year without marching band for 7-8 yrs, and my first year without being in school for over 15 yrs. weird.
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. Ja znam da Bog voli vas i ako slijedite Isusa Krista, Bog će blagosloviti vas da ćete imati radost i mir.
God loves you! never forget that. Be diligent in reading the Book of Mormon. I know that following the counsel in that book will bring you closer to Christ than anything else.
Love,
Sestra Black
I only have 1 more p-day at the mtc! crazy. This week has been good. I got a new companion on wednesday. She's going to Bulgaria like sister meyers. She's about 5'1" and she has curly brown hair. She's way cute. I like her very much. Her name is CECTPA Tate. She's in LA today doing visa stuff with the elders in her district. She left at 4 in the morning and she'll get home tonight. I also have 2 new roommates who will be serving in Arizona.
Oh, I forgot to say last week, but I'm coordinating sister for my zone now. That means I make sure the sisters in my zone are doing well and that they're keeping the rules. My zone has 4 sisters serving english missions, and sister Izatt and me. We have 4 more english sisters coming in on wednesday, one from new zealand. so now sister Izatt is the music coordinator for our zone so i don't have to do both jobs.
At TRC this week we had 2 serbians: Alit and Nikola, so that was pretty cool. We talked about receiving revelation through church attendance, and we challenged the volunteers to write down questions or what they wanted to learn this sunday before going to church. I would recommend that to everyone reading this too. I have found that whenever I specifically am listening for how I can better help my investigators come unto Christ, or if I have questions I want answered and I'm listening for answers, I always get a lot more out of the church service than when I don't.
This sunday we heard from the general primary president, Rosemary Wixom. it was pretty cool. I got to talk to her for a minute afterwards and she told me to love the children of Croatia. I already planned on doing that.
President Samuelson, the president of BYU, came to speak last tuesday. it sort of felt like I was getting the back to school devotional once again. It's weird to think that they'll be starting in just 2 weeks or so, but I won't be going there. This will be my first year without marching band for 7-8 yrs, and my first year without being in school for over 15 yrs. weird.
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week. Ja znam da Bog voli vas i ako slijedite Isusa Krista, Bog će blagosloviti vas da ćete imati radost i mir.
God loves you! never forget that. Be diligent in reading the Book of Mormon. I know that following the counsel in that book will bring you closer to Christ than anything else.
Love,
Sestra Black
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Crazy week
Dear Family,
This week has been very interesting to say the least. On Thursday, Sister Meyers and Elder Seymour, the other Bulgarian missionary, found out that they didn't have everything done for their visas, and there was a chance that their exit date might be delayed. We also learned that President Rowe, wanted more missionaries in Serbia, so one Slovenian and one Croatian elder are now learning Serbian with only 3 weeks left to learn it. Luckily, Croatian and Serbian are virtually the same language besides the alphabet, but the Slovenian elder now needs to re-learn a lot. They're great elders, and they'll be fine, but it's way stressful for them. Oh, and that also means that the other Slovenian elder is now the only one in his class, and he's a solo missionary, so until this morning, we had 5 solo missionaries, 3 sisters and 2 elders, which is pretty much unheard of.
TRC on Thursday was good. We talked to the volunteers about revelation through the book of mormon. Instead of preaching to them, we just read some verses of Alma 5 and talked about them and about applying the scriptures to your life and listening to what the spirit has to tell you, whether it relates to what you're reading or not.
On Friday, we learned that Sestra Meyers and Elder Seymour were most likely not going to Bulgaria any time soon, so their flight had been cancelled, and they would be given a temporary reassignment in the United states. It was sort of fun to guess where they'd go, like it was a new mission call, but it was sad as well. Bulgaria is having a huge celebration this week for the 20 yr aniversary of the church in Bulgaria, and they were excited about going to it. and they're ready to leave the MTC.
On Saturday, we were about to go to personal study, but our schedule was changed and we were told to go to a workshop instead. It was about teaching with the Holy Ghost. As part of the workshop, the teacher pretended to be an investigator, and the elders started to teach him and ask him questions about religion in his life, trying to persuade him of the truth of the gospel. Then Sister Meyers spoke and just simply testified of truths of the Gospel, not trying to convince or prove anything, just to tell him of God's love for him and His plan, and all of a sudden, the spirit of God filled the room, and the whole tone of the discussion changed. It was amazing.
Monday afternoon, Sister Meyers and Elder Seymour were called to the travel office, and they were told that her visa had just arrived, and they were leaving this morning at 4 am. crazy, huh? Last night we stayed up until 12:30-1 packing and such, and we got up to take her luggage to the travel office just before 4, so I didn't get much sleep last night, but all is well. My companion's on a plane to Bulgaria! We were all so excited.
Cool Croatian trivia: hvala=thanks, hvaliti=to praise
I think to truly praise and worship God, we need to really be focus on gratitude.
otkupitelj=redeemer, kupiti=to buy. Our lives are not our own. Our souls were bought for a huge price. We have so much to be grateful for.
I love you! Have an awesome week, I'll say more next week. Only 3 more weeks until I go to Croatia!
Love,
Sestra Crn
(Sister Black :)
This week has been very interesting to say the least. On Thursday, Sister Meyers and Elder Seymour, the other Bulgarian missionary, found out that they didn't have everything done for their visas, and there was a chance that their exit date might be delayed. We also learned that President Rowe, wanted more missionaries in Serbia, so one Slovenian and one Croatian elder are now learning Serbian with only 3 weeks left to learn it. Luckily, Croatian and Serbian are virtually the same language besides the alphabet, but the Slovenian elder now needs to re-learn a lot. They're great elders, and they'll be fine, but it's way stressful for them. Oh, and that also means that the other Slovenian elder is now the only one in his class, and he's a solo missionary, so until this morning, we had 5 solo missionaries, 3 sisters and 2 elders, which is pretty much unheard of.
TRC on Thursday was good. We talked to the volunteers about revelation through the book of mormon. Instead of preaching to them, we just read some verses of Alma 5 and talked about them and about applying the scriptures to your life and listening to what the spirit has to tell you, whether it relates to what you're reading or not.
On Friday, we learned that Sestra Meyers and Elder Seymour were most likely not going to Bulgaria any time soon, so their flight had been cancelled, and they would be given a temporary reassignment in the United states. It was sort of fun to guess where they'd go, like it was a new mission call, but it was sad as well. Bulgaria is having a huge celebration this week for the 20 yr aniversary of the church in Bulgaria, and they were excited about going to it. and they're ready to leave the MTC.
On Saturday, we were about to go to personal study, but our schedule was changed and we were told to go to a workshop instead. It was about teaching with the Holy Ghost. As part of the workshop, the teacher pretended to be an investigator, and the elders started to teach him and ask him questions about religion in his life, trying to persuade him of the truth of the gospel. Then Sister Meyers spoke and just simply testified of truths of the Gospel, not trying to convince or prove anything, just to tell him of God's love for him and His plan, and all of a sudden, the spirit of God filled the room, and the whole tone of the discussion changed. It was amazing.
Monday afternoon, Sister Meyers and Elder Seymour were called to the travel office, and they were told that her visa had just arrived, and they were leaving this morning at 4 am. crazy, huh? Last night we stayed up until 12:30-1 packing and such, and we got up to take her luggage to the travel office just before 4, so I didn't get much sleep last night, but all is well. My companion's on a plane to Bulgaria! We were all so excited.
Cool Croatian trivia: hvala=thanks, hvaliti=to praise
I think to truly praise and worship God, we need to really be focus on gratitude.
otkupitelj=redeemer, kupiti=to buy. Our lives are not our own. Our souls were bought for a huge price. We have so much to be grateful for.
I love you! Have an awesome week, I'll say more next week. Only 3 more weeks until I go to Croatia!
Love,
Sestra Crn
(Sister Black :)
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Hello again
Hi,
This week has been pretty good. Most exciting news of the week: We're leaving a week early!!!! Our new departure date is August 29 instead of September 5. Brat Morris wrote it on the board in Croatian, and then he left to become our investigator, Srdan, so it was a little while before we paid attention to it, and a little while longer until we figured out what it said, but once we found out, we were so excited. I'll probably send some pictures from that day.
I forgot to say last week, but we've had some new roomates for the past couple weeks. They are 3 sisters going to Desmoines, Iowa: Sister Madsen, Sister Brown, and Sister Neville (pronounced like Cruella DeVil, or however you spell it, but with an N) I like them very much. It makes it a little harder to get to bed on time though with 6 sisters in the room. They've had a lot of trials hit them in just the few weeks they've been here with medical and family things, but they're very strong girls, so they're pulling through.
I got a letter from the sister missionaries in Osijek this week. They figure that's where I'll probably start because sister Laws, one of the sisters there, is the one who I'm replacing. So, my trainer will probably be sister Creager. I'm so excited to go to Croatia.
I got a haircut this morning. I got 4ish inches off.
Oh, Charissa: I ran into a Sister Morgan last night, and she says her sister was your companion. It's a small world when you're a mormon missionary.
I played a flute duet in sacrament meeting this week. One of the roomates going to Iowa was a flute major at byu and she brought some duets. Sister Meyers accompanied us. We played "I stand all amazed". It was fun.
Oh, that reminds me: Sister Madsen, the one who plays the flute, had a birthday on Friday. We decorated the room with baloons and streamers for her birthday. It was a lot of fun. The cleaning check people wrote on our cleaning check report thing that it made their day to see our room.
Starjesine Mulder and Armond also had birthdays last week. Sister Meyers got 20 cupcakes from her mom the same morning as elder Armond's birthday, which is the exact number of elders in the 2 foreign language districts. It was great.
This week for TRC I taught with Elder Adams about prayer. We taught Sister Carter and a return missionary who we hadn't taught before. At first I was wishing we could teach someone besides our teacher because we teach her all the time as a progressing investigator, but it was a lot of fun to teach her as herself when she wasn't pretending to be someone else. We started off with reading Enos 1:4-8, and then we discussed how we could improve the quality of our prayers. God not only wants us to speak to Him, but He wants to speak with us. We could probably all do more listening and pondering with our prayers.
Volim vas! Bog voli vas!
I love you!
Sestra Black
This week has been pretty good. Most exciting news of the week: We're leaving a week early!!!! Our new departure date is August 29 instead of September 5. Brat Morris wrote it on the board in Croatian, and then he left to become our investigator, Srdan, so it was a little while before we paid attention to it, and a little while longer until we figured out what it said, but once we found out, we were so excited. I'll probably send some pictures from that day.
I forgot to say last week, but we've had some new roomates for the past couple weeks. They are 3 sisters going to Desmoines, Iowa: Sister Madsen, Sister Brown, and Sister Neville (pronounced like Cruella DeVil, or however you spell it, but with an N) I like them very much. It makes it a little harder to get to bed on time though with 6 sisters in the room. They've had a lot of trials hit them in just the few weeks they've been here with medical and family things, but they're very strong girls, so they're pulling through.
I got a letter from the sister missionaries in Osijek this week. They figure that's where I'll probably start because sister Laws, one of the sisters there, is the one who I'm replacing. So, my trainer will probably be sister Creager. I'm so excited to go to Croatia.
I got a haircut this morning. I got 4ish inches off.
Oh, Charissa: I ran into a Sister Morgan last night, and she says her sister was your companion. It's a small world when you're a mormon missionary.
I played a flute duet in sacrament meeting this week. One of the roomates going to Iowa was a flute major at byu and she brought some duets. Sister Meyers accompanied us. We played "I stand all amazed". It was fun.
Oh, that reminds me: Sister Madsen, the one who plays the flute, had a birthday on Friday. We decorated the room with baloons and streamers for her birthday. It was a lot of fun. The cleaning check people wrote on our cleaning check report thing that it made their day to see our room.
Starjesine Mulder and Armond also had birthdays last week. Sister Meyers got 20 cupcakes from her mom the same morning as elder Armond's birthday, which is the exact number of elders in the 2 foreign language districts. It was great.
This week for TRC I taught with Elder Adams about prayer. We taught Sister Carter and a return missionary who we hadn't taught before. At first I was wishing we could teach someone besides our teacher because we teach her all the time as a progressing investigator, but it was a lot of fun to teach her as herself when she wasn't pretending to be someone else. We started off with reading Enos 1:4-8, and then we discussed how we could improve the quality of our prayers. God not only wants us to speak to Him, but He wants to speak with us. We could probably all do more listening and pondering with our prayers.
Volim vas! Bog voli vas!
I love you!
Sestra Black
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
July 26, 2011
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
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
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
week 2
Drugi Obitelj, (except i don't know the vocative form for family. oh well)
This week has been really good. I love being a missionary. I'm learning the language really fast, but I still get really frustrated that I know how to say very little, and it takes a century just to say one sentence. I'm glad I have patient teachers.
I talked to my teacher, Sister Carter, who got back from Croatia a year ago, and she says there are only 2 cities where sister missionaries serve--Zadar and Zagreb. There are only 4 sisters currently in Croatia. One has been in Croatia for 3 weeks now, 2 have been there for 11ish, and 1 is coming home when I go out. So when I get out there, my trainer will have been out there for only 4 months. Crazy, huh?
They've been making a lot of changes here in the MTC in how they're teaching us. Because they've been putting so much more emphasis on having us focus on the needs of the people we're teaching and tailoring our lessons to what they need in their lives, there are a lot of changes. For instance, the people who we're teaching in the TRC are no longer supposed to pretend to be not members of the church. They're supposed to be themselves, and we're supposed to help them, as members, come closer to Christ by teaching the basic principles of the gospel. We still teach during class to our teachers and each other as we pretend to not be members of our church though. On Friday, we learned that the investigator we had been teaching was actually the Slovenian teacher, who also knows Croatian. It made it more real though to not know who he was.
Now we're teaching Marilena, who is actually Sister Carter, one of my teachers, but she's pretending to be a non-practicing Catholic from Zagreb. It's so much easier to understand her than Uroš, our old investigator. Partly because she wasn't throwing in Slovenian words, but partly because she talks more slowly.
I watched the new Joseph Smith movie on Sunday. It's really good. I would highly recommend it. It's made from the old one that they showed in visitors' centers, but they've taken out a lot of stuff and added other scenes.
So, some elders in my district have decided that they will learn 50 words a day, besides Sundays and P-days, and I couldn't have them passing me up, so I'm doing it with them. It's crazy. That's a lot of words to memorize in one day. I've still got 13 words left to catch up from yesterday. The elders in my district are so good at memorizing. It's not fair.
Wow, 30 minutes isn't very long. I need to get better at writing these.
I know that God lives and loves me. I know that the Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ as does the Bible. We can find more happiness in life by reading those books than by any other book. I love you all. Have a wonderful week.
Sestra Ariana Black
PS- thanks to whoever sent the cookies. they were very yummy.
Also, someone who knows Sabina could tell her that her email didn't go through, that would be great.
This week has been really good. I love being a missionary. I'm learning the language really fast, but I still get really frustrated that I know how to say very little, and it takes a century just to say one sentence. I'm glad I have patient teachers.
I talked to my teacher, Sister Carter, who got back from Croatia a year ago, and she says there are only 2 cities where sister missionaries serve--Zadar and Zagreb. There are only 4 sisters currently in Croatia. One has been in Croatia for 3 weeks now, 2 have been there for 11ish, and 1 is coming home when I go out. So when I get out there, my trainer will have been out there for only 4 months. Crazy, huh?
They've been making a lot of changes here in the MTC in how they're teaching us. Because they've been putting so much more emphasis on having us focus on the needs of the people we're teaching and tailoring our lessons to what they need in their lives, there are a lot of changes. For instance, the people who we're teaching in the TRC are no longer supposed to pretend to be not members of the church. They're supposed to be themselves, and we're supposed to help them, as members, come closer to Christ by teaching the basic principles of the gospel. We still teach during class to our teachers and each other as we pretend to not be members of our church though. On Friday, we learned that the investigator we had been teaching was actually the Slovenian teacher, who also knows Croatian. It made it more real though to not know who he was.
Now we're teaching Marilena, who is actually Sister Carter, one of my teachers, but she's pretending to be a non-practicing Catholic from Zagreb. It's so much easier to understand her than Uroš, our old investigator. Partly because she wasn't throwing in Slovenian words, but partly because she talks more slowly.
I watched the new Joseph Smith movie on Sunday. It's really good. I would highly recommend it. It's made from the old one that they showed in visitors' centers, but they've taken out a lot of stuff and added other scenes.
So, some elders in my district have decided that they will learn 50 words a day, besides Sundays and P-days, and I couldn't have them passing me up, so I'm doing it with them. It's crazy. That's a lot of words to memorize in one day. I've still got 13 words left to catch up from yesterday. The elders in my district are so good at memorizing. It's not fair.
Wow, 30 minutes isn't very long. I need to get better at writing these.
I know that God lives and loves me. I know that the Book of Mormon testifies of Jesus Christ as does the Bible. We can find more happiness in life by reading those books than by any other book. I love you all. Have a wonderful week.
Sestra Ariana Black
PS- thanks to whoever sent the cookies. they were very yummy.
Also, someone who knows Sabina could tell her that her email didn't go through, that would be great.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
First Week at the MTC
Dear Family, (and friends listening in)
Dobar Dan!
I love it here at the MTC. I have the most awesome district and companions. I'm a solo sister, which means I'm the only sister going to Croatia right now. There are 7 other elders going to Croatia, and 2 elders going to Slovenia in my district.
My companions are wonderful. I have one companion named Sestra Izatt, and one named CECTPA Meyers. Sestra Izatt is going to the Czech Republic. She's 6 ft tall, blonde, and looks like a super model, only prettier. She is very friendly and has a wonderful testimony. She left a boyfriend at home. She has a wonderful laugh. CECTPA (that's sestra in cyrillic) Meyers is going to bulgaria. She's my height, and she looks like rapunzel from tangled after her hair got cut off. (or that's what one of her teachers told her yesterday). She has one of the most gorgeous singing voices I've ever heard. She has been here for 4 weeks already, so she keeps Sestra Izatt and me on top of things. She's such a good quiet example. I look up to her a lot. I want to be like her.
I love learning Croatian. One of the nicest things about it is that there are no articles, and not as many verb forms as in other languages i've studied. Our district is doing a pilot program where, instead of starting out teaching in english and then switching to our language when we actually know it, we're only teaching in croatian. this is the first Croatian district to do this program. It's sorta scary because my second full day here, I was teaching a lesson about the gospel in Croatian. We did a lot of reading in that lesson. Pretty much all we could do was say a prayer and testify that God loves us. Oh, and I accidentally had him read John 4:16 instead of John 3:16. Don't do that. It doesn't exactly teach the same doctrine... I about died laughing when I went back to my classroom and found out what he'd read. But our pretend investigator kept a straight face the whole time. I don't know how he did it.
There is a huge focus in the MTC on getting to know the person you're teaching well and seing them as God sees them, and then showing them how the gospel will bless their lives personally. As representatives of Jesus Christ, it's our responsability to show people how much God loves them and how much God wants to make them happy through his plan of Salvation.
I love this gospel. I know that God lives! I know that Jesus is His son, and it is only through His name that we can be saved. I know that Joseph Smith resored the church and priesthood of Jesus Christ to this earth today and that a prophet speaks today.
I love you all!
Sestra Ariana Black
Crkva Isusa Krista Svetaca Posljednjih Dana
Dobar Dan!
I love it here at the MTC. I have the most awesome district and companions. I'm a solo sister, which means I'm the only sister going to Croatia right now. There are 7 other elders going to Croatia, and 2 elders going to Slovenia in my district.
My companions are wonderful. I have one companion named Sestra Izatt, and one named CECTPA Meyers. Sestra Izatt is going to the Czech Republic. She's 6 ft tall, blonde, and looks like a super model, only prettier. She is very friendly and has a wonderful testimony. She left a boyfriend at home. She has a wonderful laugh. CECTPA (that's sestra in cyrillic) Meyers is going to bulgaria. She's my height, and she looks like rapunzel from tangled after her hair got cut off. (or that's what one of her teachers told her yesterday). She has one of the most gorgeous singing voices I've ever heard. She has been here for 4 weeks already, so she keeps Sestra Izatt and me on top of things. She's such a good quiet example. I look up to her a lot. I want to be like her.
I love learning Croatian. One of the nicest things about it is that there are no articles, and not as many verb forms as in other languages i've studied. Our district is doing a pilot program where, instead of starting out teaching in english and then switching to our language when we actually know it, we're only teaching in croatian. this is the first Croatian district to do this program. It's sorta scary because my second full day here, I was teaching a lesson about the gospel in Croatian. We did a lot of reading in that lesson. Pretty much all we could do was say a prayer and testify that God loves us. Oh, and I accidentally had him read John 4:16 instead of John 3:16. Don't do that. It doesn't exactly teach the same doctrine... I about died laughing when I went back to my classroom and found out what he'd read. But our pretend investigator kept a straight face the whole time. I don't know how he did it.
There is a huge focus in the MTC on getting to know the person you're teaching well and seing them as God sees them, and then showing them how the gospel will bless their lives personally. As representatives of Jesus Christ, it's our responsability to show people how much God loves them and how much God wants to make them happy through his plan of Salvation.
I love this gospel. I know that God lives! I know that Jesus is His son, and it is only through His name that we can be saved. I know that Joseph Smith resored the church and priesthood of Jesus Christ to this earth today and that a prophet speaks today.
I love you all!
Sestra Ariana Black
Crkva Isusa Krista Svetaca Posljednjih Dana
Friday, July 8, 2011
Contact information for Ariana at the missionary training center
Ari's MTC address:
Sister Ariana Black
MTC Mailbox #103
Slovenia-Croatia 0905
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604
Remember: you can send me letters for free at www.dearelder.com!
Mission = Provo MTC
Mailbox number=103
Mission=Slovenia-Croatia
Departure date=0905
Sister Ariana Black
MTC Mailbox #103
Slovenia-Croatia 0905
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604
Remember: you can send me letters for free at www.dearelder.com!
Mission = Provo MTC
Mailbox number=103
Mission=Slovenia-Croatia
Departure date=0905
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Lydia update
Lydia’s been doing well overall. She is off oxygen about 90% of the time, she has tolerated walking and climbing stairs better, and she is sleeping better at night. Tonight she has a sleep study at Children’s, I think mainly to figure out if her episodes of shallow breathing and slowed heart rate during the night are important.
Yesterday we left her in her crib alone for a few minutes and she pulled out her trach tube and threw it out of the crib. Fortunately I heard her distress from where I was sitting about 15 feet away, and we had her breathing with a good airway within maybe a minute of when she started turning blue. We got to tell the 911 dispatcher that she was OK after all, so no ambulance this time, but now we are skittish about her ever leaving our direct line of sight when she’s awake. Sigh. This is way too much adrenaline.
Oh, and to correct my last post, I forgot to count her albuterol inhaler, so really she takes 3 meds. Still, that’s way better than when she was in the hospital.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Lydia's getting better
After the hair-raising experience described in that last post, I figure I'd better report on progress. Lydia is improving gradually and during the day she is more or less back to her usual self: playful, eager, loving, and at times mischievous.
She is down to only one medication, plus the thyroid supplementation she had been on before her pneumonia. But at night she is still on a ventilator. It drives us crazy with alarm messages that often are spurious but which, especially after last Tuesday, we can't ignore.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)