Bok! Kako ste?
Hi! How are you?
It`s been a good week. especially yesterday. Monday evening we met with Ivana, a lovely 27ish yr old searching for more direction from God in her life. It`s been hard to meet with her because she`s uncomfortable with having her roommate there when she talks about religion, and she`s afraid of church buildings. It was a little disappointing because she feels too busy to read the book of mormon, too scared to go to church, and doesn`t think it`s worth our time for us to meet any more. So that was disappointing.
We were going to go to Serbia on Wednesday, but we got a call from the elders on tuesday night that we weren`t having it anymore. we didn`t believe them at first because sister creager is [very trusting], so they tease us sometimes, and that seemed more likely than that president would cancel it after we had already bought bus tickets, just the night before, but it was real. so, we`re going on this thursday instead. Oh well. On thursday, one of our english students brought us gunja (quinces). We`d never seen them before. they`re like apples, but a little more like pears, and a little more sour. they`re greenish yellow, and both the top and bottom sort of look like the bottom of an apple. they`re a little bigger than apples on average I think. on the coast they`re called dunja, which is probably closer to what Charissa might know them as. I dunno. we cut them in half, put butter and brown sugar on them, and baked them. it was yummy.
Saturday we visited a member named Kristina and her 2 kids, Ana and Luka. Kristina said she`d come to church and translate for president rowe for branch conference, but then she was sick. it was very sad. I love her and those kids. her kids need church.
Sunday was awesome. President Rowe came for branch conference. When elder genther read the sustaining names, it was much shorter than usual because it was just the general authorities, President Rowe, Brother Smart, and Elder Genther. That`s what happens if you don`t have a stake or any branch auxiliaries or anything. Sister Rowe (President`s mother), and Sister Turner, who are serving as senior sister missionaries, came as well. Sister Rowe was awesome. She went up to every single person at church and figured out what their family situation was like, how they needed to grow in the gospel, and then started to help them to get there. I wish we could always have her here. She just went around being everyone`s grandma. She made a deal with Alen that if he worked on learning about the priesthood, she`d work on croatian, and in 2 months, she`ll come back and check on him and see his progress. She knows how to say ˝Ja sam Baka Rowe˝ (I`m Grandma Rowe), but that`s about it. She`s trying really hard to learn it though. it`s cute.
We had 19 people at church yesterday--6 local members, 6 non-members, and 7 missionary type people. That may not sound like a lot, but it`s a record since I`ve gotten here. member and non-member attendance multiplied by 6 from last week. most people will never be able to say that. President should come every week.
Oh, about the subject-- yes, the name of my mission has been changed from the Slovenia/Croatia mission to the Adriatic Mission. The boundaries and everything are still the same right now, but they thought that name was better. Our mission used to have 7 or so countries, the ones on the adriatic coast under Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia... I don`t remember exactly which ones, maybe macedonia, i don`t remember, but then they were taken out, and right now we only have young missionaries in Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia. We have a senior couple in Bosnia, and it seems very likely that young missionaries will be put there soon. about the other countries, I`m not sure, but we`ll see. It`s an exciting time for The Adriatic Mission.
I love you all!
Sestra Black
Monday, October 17, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Hey everyone
This week has been interesting. Did I talk about the Ukranian guy at english? well, he came back to english class, after we thought we`d scared him away by talking about the book of mormon. I`m glad, because he seemed really cool. Also, Alen read a chapter in the Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 18) without being asked to, and said he wanted to talk about it because it really touched him. that was cool. On wednesday, we had an awesome seminary lesson with Marijana. We talked about Noah, and how the flood was an act of mercy from God. The people who were destroyed were sent to the spirit world to learn about God in an environment where they could accept the gospel, and unborn spirits didn`t have to be born into a wicked world anymore. We also talked about the importance of marrying in the covenant, which is taught in that part of the bible, and we talked about the importance of temples. We were prompted to tell her that if she did everything she could to prepare to go to the temple spiritually, she`d have a way to go physically and monetarily the next time there was a temple trip, which should be next spring or summer. We were a little scared about that, because she doesn`t have money for the trip or a passport, which are really expensive here, but we felt we should promise that. Elder Genther called President Rowe, and it sounds like it really is possible, which was an awesome faith-strengthening thing to hear. Marijana also said that she`s going to be a full time missionary like us when she`s older, and that she`d read the whole book of mormon by the end of the year like we challenged, so that was awesome. On the tram ride home, we were talking to Marijana in english, and a guy named Zlatko started talking to us, saying he wanted american friends to improve his english. We gave him a flyer for our english class. He came to english class and our church activity on friday. he talked with the elders for a while, and said that he didn`t have much homework that weekend, so he`d read the whole book of mormon this weekend, and if he found out it was true, he`d get baptized and join our church. that was pretty crazy. On thursday, we took our investigator marina to the hospital, and it was pretty scary. I`m glad american hospitals are less scary. Sister Creager thought it looked like the asylum from batman. It wasn`t all that professional. At aktivnost on friday we had 8 people there, which is a lot for us. Marijana brought a friend she had met that day, and Zlatko and Marijana`s friend Filip came as well. We live the same direction as Filip, so we talked to him on the tram ride home. We had thought he was just coming to activities because he`s in love with Marijana, but the two of them aren`t on the best terms right now, and he`s still coming. He told us that he really likes the missionaries and how they don`t judge him and they care about him, and that he really wants to know if there`s a God, and basically said that if he could learn that God exists, that he would want to join our church and go on a mission. He met with the elders Saturday, and it seemed to go well. Crazy. We`ve been praying for priesthood here, and things are starting to happen. Speaking of which, I heard the Sacrament prayer for the first time by a fluent Croatian speaker yesterday. A member named Ervin has been coming back to church, and the elders have been working with him for the past month or so, and he blessed the sacrament this week. That was awesome. Also, a member named Zoran should be coming back in town from the sea this week. apparently he`s a ninja by profession, and he`s amazing. I`ve heard a lot of good things about him. That will be great. On friday we made an awesome apple pie for aktivnost. everyone loved it. we don`t have corn starch here though, so it was runnier than we would`ve liked, but it was really good. On saturday, we were visiting Marina in the hospital, and Filip was there, and he said a croatian word with an american accent. he started laughing and we decided he`s been hanging out with missionaries too much. It was pretty funny. he said ˝yeah, just ask my mom. She asks where I`m going, and I tell her I`m going to aktiiivnost (as american as he can say it). She thinks I`m crazy. Oh well.˝ Sunday was sort of disappointing. Ervin and Božo were the only people at church. Marijana was in Zagreb, so she didn`t come, and not even the sunday school teacher was there. The elders were expecting 5 investigators, and Božo was the only one who came. pretty disappointing. But we had a worthy native priesthood holder there. That was cool.
Croatian phrases to answer the phone:
Molim- it means like a bajillion different things. please, you`re welcome, I ask/request, etc... It`s the most common way to answer the phone as far as i can tell.
reci mi- talk to me
slušam- I`m listening
halo- hello
Love you all, hope you`re doing well.
Love, Sestra Black
Croatian phrases to answer the phone:
Molim- it means like a bajillion different things. please, you`re welcome, I ask/request, etc... It`s the most common way to answer the phone as far as i can tell.
reci mi- talk to me
slušam- I`m listening
halo- hello
Love you all, hope you`re doing well.
Love, Sestra Black
Monday, October 3, 2011
week 5 in Croatia
So, I`ve been here for a whole month now. crazy.
On monday for FHE [Family Home Evening /kjb], marijana taught us a croatian game sort of like scattergories. it was so hard to think of croatian words that fit into the catagories. She beat all of us missionaries like 150 to 50ish. I got 2nd or 3rd place though.
On tuesday, for our spiritual thought for english class, we talked about the book of mormon, and a really cool man from ukraine talked to us afterwards. It`s so frustrating to not be able to communicate. He didn`t quite understand what we were saying. so frustrating. It`ll be nice when we actually know the language. He didn`t come back to english class thursday. He`s the only one we lost though, which is good. I wish people could understand what the book of mormon is, and how important it is. If only I could get people to read one chapter with an open heart, like 3 Nephi 17 or 2 Nephi 11 or Alma 32, before completely dismissing it as blasphemy, that would be awesome. The book of mormon testifies of Christ and brings people closer to him. I wish people weren`t so quick to condemn something they don`t know anything about. One thing we`re trying to do in our branch is challenge them to read the book of mormon by the end of the year. I don`t know if anyone besides us missionaries will do it, but hopefully it will at least encourage them to take it off their shelf.
After our intermediate class, one of the members, Vera, came and talked to us for a while about how she`s so busy, so she can`t fulfill her calling, and it`s useless anyways, because she`s in charge of fhe, and we never have more than like 5 non-missionaries come anyways. I wish we could help the members here realize how important it is that they start trying to help out the branch and do what they can to support it. If the missionaries had to be taken out Osijek, the church would not exist. The church is important to them, but they expect us to always feed it to them. that`s not how God wants his kingdom to work. He wants everyone, and every community to be self-reliant as much as they can. right now we`re trying to figure out how to teach the branch to fish instead of just giving them fish, spiritually. Dad, you probably have some experience with people not seeing why they needed callings and not wanting to do them. any advice?
On saturday, we watched conference with Lidia and her son, Alen. Her daughter, who isn`t actually a member, stayed for 2 talks, which was more than I was expecting. I love spending time with Lidia. I wish the elders would spend more time trying to teach Alen the importance of the priesthood. It would be so awesome for Lidia to have a priesthood holder in her home. I wish there were more that we could do to make that happen.
On sunday, we had normal church because conference isn`t until 6, and we don`t have a way to watch any of the old sessions during that time. We watched the morning session of conference at the house of one of the elders` investigators. It turned out that Lidia expected us to come over again, but we had misunderstood, because she originally said we couldn`t come because she wanted to watch it in Hungarian, because that`s her native language. Again, it would be nice if we could understand and speak croatian better. We felt really bad about that because she was waiting for us and had trouble getting it to work. She eventually got it working, but we felt bad that she was waiting for us.
Marijana has been really sick, so we didn`t have seminary this week. Lea was sick too, so we didn`t get to see her either.
I`m excited to see what this week brings.
Love you!
sister black
On monday for FHE [Family Home Evening /kjb], marijana taught us a croatian game sort of like scattergories. it was so hard to think of croatian words that fit into the catagories. She beat all of us missionaries like 150 to 50ish. I got 2nd or 3rd place though.
On tuesday, for our spiritual thought for english class, we talked about the book of mormon, and a really cool man from ukraine talked to us afterwards. It`s so frustrating to not be able to communicate. He didn`t quite understand what we were saying. so frustrating. It`ll be nice when we actually know the language. He didn`t come back to english class thursday. He`s the only one we lost though, which is good. I wish people could understand what the book of mormon is, and how important it is. If only I could get people to read one chapter with an open heart, like 3 Nephi 17 or 2 Nephi 11 or Alma 32, before completely dismissing it as blasphemy, that would be awesome. The book of mormon testifies of Christ and brings people closer to him. I wish people weren`t so quick to condemn something they don`t know anything about. One thing we`re trying to do in our branch is challenge them to read the book of mormon by the end of the year. I don`t know if anyone besides us missionaries will do it, but hopefully it will at least encourage them to take it off their shelf.
After our intermediate class, one of the members, Vera, came and talked to us for a while about how she`s so busy, so she can`t fulfill her calling, and it`s useless anyways, because she`s in charge of fhe, and we never have more than like 5 non-missionaries come anyways. I wish we could help the members here realize how important it is that they start trying to help out the branch and do what they can to support it. If the missionaries had to be taken out Osijek, the church would not exist. The church is important to them, but they expect us to always feed it to them. that`s not how God wants his kingdom to work. He wants everyone, and every community to be self-reliant as much as they can. right now we`re trying to figure out how to teach the branch to fish instead of just giving them fish, spiritually. Dad, you probably have some experience with people not seeing why they needed callings and not wanting to do them. any advice?
On saturday, we watched conference with Lidia and her son, Alen. Her daughter, who isn`t actually a member, stayed for 2 talks, which was more than I was expecting. I love spending time with Lidia. I wish the elders would spend more time trying to teach Alen the importance of the priesthood. It would be so awesome for Lidia to have a priesthood holder in her home. I wish there were more that we could do to make that happen.
On sunday, we had normal church because conference isn`t until 6, and we don`t have a way to watch any of the old sessions during that time. We watched the morning session of conference at the house of one of the elders` investigators. It turned out that Lidia expected us to come over again, but we had misunderstood, because she originally said we couldn`t come because she wanted to watch it in Hungarian, because that`s her native language. Again, it would be nice if we could understand and speak croatian better. We felt really bad about that because she was waiting for us and had trouble getting it to work. She eventually got it working, but we felt bad that she was waiting for us.
Marijana has been really sick, so we didn`t have seminary this week. Lea was sick too, so we didn`t get to see her either.
I`m excited to see what this week brings.
Love you!
sister black
Monday, September 26, 2011
3 pictures from Osijek
See her first few pictures by clicking on this sentence.
"I wish I had some of people, but all my pictures got deleted, so that`s all you get. enjoy! love, Sestra Black"
"I wish I had some of people, but all my pictures got deleted, so that`s all you get. enjoy! love, Sestra Black"
26 September 2011
I hope everyone is having a good week.
Last p-day after emails, we had a picnic by the river with the elders, and it started to rain. It was fun, but Sister Creager was not happy to be wet and cold. oh well. For our activity for FHE we taught some american card games, and they taught us a croatian one. That was fun.
This week, Marijana called the elders and said she would give a talk in church. That was awesome, and really surprising because she`s really shy with things like that. She did very well, as far as I could tell. I couldn`t understand most of what she said because she was nervous and talked super fast. I know she talked about the Atonement, and shared John 3:16-17 and the scripture where Jesus forgives the soldiers who crucified him. We talked about the fall and how the atonement overcomes it in seminary this week. She continues to ask good questions and learn from the scriptures. Her friend, Marina, finally has agreed to let us teach her seminary, so we`ll have 2 students. I hope this means she`s not prejudiced against us anymore and will start coming back to church eventually. She was really mad last transfer when the elders she liked were taken out and sisters were put in Osijek, and she hasn`t come to church since.
I`m excited for general conference. I asked one of the members if we could watch it in their house because the church doesn`t have internet, so we`ll at least get to watch the two morning sessions Saturday and Sunday night. not that we`ll understand much of them, but at least most of the translators are american return missionaries, so they should be easier to understand than croatians. It`ll be a while before we get to watch the other sessions. So, all you people in america should take full advantage of how easy it is to watch conference there, and actually pay attention and watch all the sessions. let me know what people talk about, especially in the evening sessions, because I won`t get to watch those at all for a while.
On wednesday, we went to Danaja`s (one of the members) house, and she wasn`t there for 15 minutes or so, so we talked to her parents, who aren`t members, and usually don`t want anything to do with us, from what sister creager says. Danaja`s father got us some figs from his tree, and used his cane to get the branches down to pick the figs. it was pretty great. they were yummy figs.
Once this week we split this huge pizza with the elders that was probably 3-3.5 ft in diameter. it was practically bigger than the table. it was great.
On Sunday, during sunday school, a member from Bosnia that we didn`t know existed came to church. His name was Jakov, and he was just dropping by on his way home from sweeden or somewhere. so that was interesting.
Oh, we also got the ˝daughters in my kingdom˝ book about relief society. I heard about it in the mtc, but i figured we wouldn`t get them for a long time. I really wish they had them in Croatian. It would be great for the members here.
Fun word etymology: the word for decision is odluka. od means from, and luk means harbor (as well as onion and bow, like a bow and arrow, but that`s irrelevant to this). so odluka means ˝from the harbor˝, so once you make a decision, you`re sailing off from the harbor... yeah, that was a fun connection to make.
Well, have a wonderful week. love you!
Sister Black
Last p-day after emails, we had a picnic by the river with the elders, and it started to rain. It was fun, but Sister Creager was not happy to be wet and cold. oh well. For our activity for FHE we taught some american card games, and they taught us a croatian one. That was fun.
This week, Marijana called the elders and said she would give a talk in church. That was awesome, and really surprising because she`s really shy with things like that. She did very well, as far as I could tell. I couldn`t understand most of what she said because she was nervous and talked super fast. I know she talked about the Atonement, and shared John 3:16-17 and the scripture where Jesus forgives the soldiers who crucified him. We talked about the fall and how the atonement overcomes it in seminary this week. She continues to ask good questions and learn from the scriptures. Her friend, Marina, finally has agreed to let us teach her seminary, so we`ll have 2 students. I hope this means she`s not prejudiced against us anymore and will start coming back to church eventually. She was really mad last transfer when the elders she liked were taken out and sisters were put in Osijek, and she hasn`t come to church since.
I`m excited for general conference. I asked one of the members if we could watch it in their house because the church doesn`t have internet, so we`ll at least get to watch the two morning sessions Saturday and Sunday night. not that we`ll understand much of them, but at least most of the translators are american return missionaries, so they should be easier to understand than croatians. It`ll be a while before we get to watch the other sessions. So, all you people in america should take full advantage of how easy it is to watch conference there, and actually pay attention and watch all the sessions. let me know what people talk about, especially in the evening sessions, because I won`t get to watch those at all for a while.
On wednesday, we went to Danaja`s (one of the members) house, and she wasn`t there for 15 minutes or so, so we talked to her parents, who aren`t members, and usually don`t want anything to do with us, from what sister creager says. Danaja`s father got us some figs from his tree, and used his cane to get the branches down to pick the figs. it was pretty great. they were yummy figs.
Once this week we split this huge pizza with the elders that was probably 3-3.5 ft in diameter. it was practically bigger than the table. it was great.
On Sunday, during sunday school, a member from Bosnia that we didn`t know existed came to church. His name was Jakov, and he was just dropping by on his way home from sweeden or somewhere. so that was interesting.
Oh, we also got the ˝daughters in my kingdom˝ book about relief society. I heard about it in the mtc, but i figured we wouldn`t get them for a long time. I really wish they had them in Croatian. It would be great for the members here.
Fun word etymology: the word for decision is odluka. od means from, and luk means harbor (as well as onion and bow, like a bow and arrow, but that`s irrelevant to this). so odluka means ˝from the harbor˝, so once you make a decision, you`re sailing off from the harbor... yeah, that was a fun connection to make.
Well, have a wonderful week. love you!
Sister Black
Monday, September 19, 2011
Another day
Lydia looks great but the docs want to keep her one more night to make sure she will be OK at home. She's getting tired of being here, though.
Serbia
This week had some interesting things. On Tuesday while we were watiting for the tram, we ran into a drunk pentecostal who was telling us all about how the pentecostal church was the first church, and how we don`t have the gift of tongues or healing in our church, and how Joseph Smith added to the bible, etc. We just let him rant for a bit and didn`t really say anything or answer his questions because he didn`t want to hear what we had to say, and he was being really argumentative, so he wouldn`t have listened anyways. We just told him that we knew that the book of mormon was true and that it is a witness that God loves all of his people, and then luckily the tram came, so we just said ˝thanks for sharing what you believe. Have a good day˝ and then left. I`m sure he thought we just didn`t have any answers to why our church isn`t like the pentecostal church or why we believe what we do, but he wouldn`t have listened to anything we could say to defend why our church isn`t of the devil like he was saying. That was interesting.
On Wednesday, we met a woman named Ivana, who the missionaries had been teaching a few years ago, but then she got busy and just stopped having lessons. We ended up on the opposite side of town trying to find her house because there`s a street with the same name as the group of apartments where she lives. so she came and rescued us in her car. She gave us really good icecream. She asked us about how to get direction from God in our lives because she has a hard decision to make about her career. We talked to her about faith and revelation from prayer and scripture study. It was good.
Thursday, we went to Serbia for a zone conference. The 4 of us in our district left on a bus in the morning, and about 30 min from Osijek, Elder Genther realized that he didn`t have his passport, which is sort of important if you`re going to a different country, so they got off the bus at Vukovar and went back to Osijek, and then came back on another bus. so that left me and sister Creager alone on a bus to Serbia. Just before we crossed the border, we asked the bus driver when our stop was, because we didn`t want to miss it and go all the way to belgrade. He was surprised and wondered how we had even gotten tickets on that bus to sremska mitrovic, because the bus didn`t even stop there. He told us there was a stop close to there, and he could drop us off there, but it was just this little gas station on the side of the highway. We called the elders there in sremska mitrovic, and they came to the stop to pick us up. We were very happy to see them. It`s not fun to be lost in a country where you barely speak any of the language. The conference was good, and lots of fun. 3 of the 6 Serbian elders (Elder Adams, Defreitas, and Armond) were with me in the mtc, so it was like a little reunion. Before, when there were only 2 elders in Serbia, they were just part of the Croatian Zone, so this was the first time ever, as far as I know of, that sisters have gone to Serbia at all. This was my first zone conference, so I was never used to anything else, but sister creager kept saying how weird it was that we only had the 10 of us there, and that we couldn`t see the rest of the missionaries in Croatia.
Seminary with Marijana was once again a highlight of the week. She showed us how she had found answers to some questions of hers in the scriptures without us leading her to a specific chapter or anything, so that was really cool. She`s so much fun to teach because she has really good insights and she loves the gospel. Elder Genther is trying to get her to give a talk in church, but she`s too nervous to speak in front of people. It`s sort of sad, because any talk she gave would be better than having the branch always just listening to us missionaries trying to communicate in our broken croatian.
Yesterday I spoke in church. This was the first time I`ve written out everything I was going to say for anything since the 1st week of the mtc, but I figured it was better on the people`s ears if I wrote it out first. I had Marijana correct it so it would actually make sense and be grammatically correct. I talked about testimony. I think it went ok.
Well, that`s pretty much all the important stuff for this week. I love you all. I hope you have an amazing week!
Love, Sestra Black
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Doing better
Lydia got here to SLCH at just the right time yesterday. She got her first doses of Tylenol and an i.v. antibiotic in the ER, but by the time she got to the PICU, her temperature was 40.3 (= 104.54 F), and she was having a tough time breathing. That didn't last long -- hooray for ibuprofen -- but she needed a ventilator. The trach made that easier. After 4 or 5 hours she was already off the vent, and by last night she looked like her usual self, plus a few tubes.
Today she was transferred out to dear old 7 East, and was switched to oral and inhaled antibiotics. She tolerated room air part of the day. She fell asleep a short while ago during Dad hug-and-sing time, and looks comfortable on some O2. We'll see how the night goes, but the expectation is that Lydia will go home tomorrow.
With the worst danger apparently past, Winona was finally ready to tag with me and try for a night's sleep at home.
Thanks to everyone who has been so thoughtful and loving, especially anyone I forgot below.
Tom: thanks for being there and being prepared.
SLCH doctors and staff: thank you again for your expert care!
Jon & Rose: thanks for the help finding & printing the references for my talk while I drove home from the ER.
All the presidency: thanks for your genuine concern, and for covering stuff for me.
Steve & Cara: thanks for the friendship & time & ride.
Tanya: I finally got some of the soup, and it was great. Thanks!
Choir: thanks for dinner.
Winona: thanks for being you, sweetheart! and for helping me attend conference.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Back in
Lydia's in the SLCH ER; plan is for her to go up to the PICU. Probably H. flu pneumonia. She's already had a dose of antibiotic, and we'll see but likely she'll start improving soon. She's also had a priesthood blessing.
Winona wants to stay with her today. Kids at home are OK.
P.s. before this week, she's been fine, with no vent, no lung or heart meds, & no oxygen for the past month.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Hello
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
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 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
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