Awesome week!

Dear family,

This week I missed a lot of sleep, but it was definitely worth it. On tuesday, we woke up at 3:30 and traveled for about 5 hours to get to zagreb for a meeting with Elder Kopischke, the Europe area president. It was awesome. He talked a lot about faith and vision. He told us ˝don't bury your dreams˝. I feel like a lot of people in this mission came to croatia with very high goals, hopes, and dreams, but many of them have stopped believing those dreams are possible because of being rejected so many people every day. They've stopped believing that Croatians are open enough to listen and change and be converted, or at least that they will be the missionaries to do it. We've been promised that Croatia and the whole area here will have a ˝rich harvest of souls˝, but it's a little hard to believe when you look at how slowly the work is progressing right now. One really cool thing he said was something like ˝God already sees a temple in Croatia. He knows there will be a temple there; he sees all times in one. but you have to keep in mind that vision. every person you bring closer to Christ, every person you baptize, is bringing more people to fill your temple. and as soon as you have enough people to fill your temple, God's vision, and your hopes, will be realized, and we'll 'see with our eyes that which we have beheld with an eye of faith (ether 12:19)˝. Anyways, the conference was great. Then Sister Lethco came home with me and I got to be senior comp for a week. We started meeting with an inactive family we haven't met with for a few months, and we got 4 potential investigators, except one called us this morning and said we can't come over today after all. it sort of sounds like she talked to her priest yesterday and he told her we were devil worshippers or something like that. That was sort of sad. I met someone named Arijana for the first time here. that was fun. On sunday, we woke up at 3, because the train times changed, and we went to Zagreb again for District conference and to get sister creager back. that was awesome. we have a district presidency again, instead of president rowe just running it, and we also have a district relief society. that was exciting. Marijana is awesome still. She read the talk from sat morning conference this year, and she asked ˝how many people do you need for a ward? for a stake? I just need to know how many people I need to get baptized.˝ I love her.

Have an awesome week!

I love you!

Sister Black

P.S.
If you send a package, just address it to the church (Crkva Isusa Krista Svetaca Posljednjih Dana), and put my name in the return address. there have been troubles with people not being able to get their packages because they're not there to pick them up personally.

hi

... I'm so excited for this week. Elder Kopischke is coming to Zagreb tomorrow, so we're going up then, and then on sunday, we have district conference with the members in Croatia in Zagreb, so we're doing a lot of traveling. I'm taking Sister Lethco, who's been serving in Zadar, back to Osijek with me from tomorrow to Sunday for an exchange, so I get to be senior comp for the week. Sister Creager's going to zadar. I'm pretty excited. I've heard really good things about Sister Lethco, and I'm way excited to meet her. English class has been really good. There's lots of good potential in this class. On wednesday, we had Seminary training with the Taylors, the Senior couple in charge of seminary. That was great. I love it when they come. Then Marijana came and we had seminary. It was really good. Since the taylors were there, she thought more about the questions we asked her, and was less likely to just say ˝I don't know.˝ The taylors brought a box of cookies that Sister taylor had converted into scriptures with a clever quote on the outside and they brought lots of chocolate. This week, Marijana was told by... i don't know, a family doctor or something... that she needed to go to the hospital right away, but she came to aktivnost instead. and then she went to the hospital. she's ridiculous. We went and visited her yesterday, and she looked good, so hopefully she'll be able to leave soon. We had a good lesson with Ivona this week. She likes to talk a lot, and she has a lot of questions and comments, so sometimes it's hard to not have them go on forever and to actually teach her what she needs to hear, but our lessons have been getting better. I hope she will actually meet with us this week though. she's sort of attached to sister creager, and she wasn't very happy when she found out that someone else was taking her place for the week. Ever since elder schouten went on an exchange to serbia and never came back, all the members and investigators are paranoid every time someone goes on an exchange. It'll be a good week. I'm excited. I like being in charge of my own schedule. We're having a friendly competition with the elders for contacting this week for a little extra motivation this week, and we're going to win. even though they both have a lot more mission experience than either of us. and they know croatian. oh well. I'll let you know next week how that works out.
Love you all!
Sestra Black

28 Nov 2011

Well, this week we had a mission-wide croatian fast, where we weren't supposed to speak any [English] all week. That's been hard, especially with certain people who speak english really well and make fun of us any time we speak croatian. On tuesday we started english again after a 3 week pauza, and our english students were saying how much better our croatian is now. That made us feel good. On thursday, we gave a spiritual thought about the Book of Mormon, and I talked about how my family is closer because we read the book of mormon together and apply its teachings, and one of our students was practically at the edge of his seat during the spiritual thought. I saw him take a copy of the book of mormon, but he left too quickly for me to ask if he wanted to learn more. I hope we can teach his family. On friday at aktivnost, we taught a spiritual thought about memorizing scriptures from elder ...scott?'s talk from this most recent conference.

Today we went to Đakovo for p-day, and we traded elder genther for elder adams, a new missionary in serbia, for a couple days. We visited the cathedral there, but there's not much else in Đakovo. There are some famous horses, but we didn't have time to go see them. we got back later than we were planning to as it was. It's amazing how much better the MTC program is now for learning the language. The new missionaries, starting with my group, are learning so much more in the mtc than the missionaries who are ahead of me learned. the difference is pretty obvious.

Well, I don't really have anything exciting to say this week. Nothing really exciting happened this week. I love you all.

love,
Sestra Black

Happy thanksgiving!

Hey everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful week. We're having thanksgiving today for p-day [preparation day, their one day a week to do laundry, read emails, and whatnot /kjb], so I'm pretty stuffed. We're going to go back for pie with the elders after emails. We made 2 pumpkin pies (1 huge and 1 normal sized) and an oreo cheesecake. I don't think we'll be able to eat all of it.

So, this has been a pretty hard week. We didn't have anyone to teach at all this week except for Marijana, who we taught twice. so, we had a lot of time for contacting and other finding [activities]. Once we took Marijana with [us] tracting, which was more fun than going by ourselves, and we had someone there who could actually understand everything people were saying. Monday night we tried to meet with an inactive named Kristina and her family. Only the kids were home though, so we just left them the cookies and a birthday card because it was Kristina's birthday this week. The kids said that they really hoped they could come to church this week, like they always do, but they didn't come, as always. It makes me so sad because they love church so much, but Kristina doesn't take them to church. On wednesday we helped Marijana, who is the branch historian, to finish the branch history for this year. We wrote short bios about each of the active members while Marijana wrote her conversion story. It's a pretty good story. She and her friend were on a tram, and they started making fun of the elders because they were apparently acting really weird. The elders told her that they could actually understand what she was saying about them, and gave her a pass along card. they were curious what the church was like, and they thought we were jehovah's witnesses, so they came to the church to see what it was like. One of the elders had felt like he should stay at the church a little longer after english sign ups, so they happened to be there when she came. So that's how she was introduced to the church. Anyways, it was fun seeing things that happened this year in Osijek. On saturday, we had a conference in Serbia. Sister Rowe and 3 of her kids came. Anna and Jessica turned 7 this week, so we made them a card and gave them gummy snakes. They adore Sister Creager. she served in Zagreb for the first few weeks President Rowe was here, so they're pretty attached to her.

Have you read the special Book of Mormon issue of the Ensign? it's so cool. I read the whole thing this morning from cover to cover. One thing I especially liked was an article from someone who had served in my mission, in Slovenia, about the book of mormon coming to Slovenia. They still don't have a Doctrine and covenants. When I was there we sometimes used the croatian one, but they usually just use the english. It made me really grateful of all of the materials we do have in Croatia, even though it's nowhere near what they have in English. I was also reminded that there are still places that don't have the book of mormon, like Slovakia. I'm pretty sure they just use the Czech one.

On the 6th, Elder Kopischke is coming to Zagreb, so we'll have a multi-zone or mission conference and we'll get to hear him. That sunday we have district conference with all the members in croatia, so we'll be back to Zagreb for that. That should be fun. in between those two, there's rumors of an exchange in my district. My guess is that Sister Creager is going to Zadar for the week, but Elder Lifferth won't tell us anything definite.

Well, Have a great week, and a great Thanksgiving.
Love you!
Sestra Black

Back in Osijek again!

Hey everyone!

I must say, it's nice to be back in Osijek again. I felt very missed. Everyone was overwhelmingly glad to have me back, and that I didn't just stay on exchange forever like Elder Schouten did when he went to Serbia on exchange.
Elder Lifferth is here instead of Elder Jacobsen. Elder Lifferth is on his last transfer, so he goes home in January. Elder Jacobsen is now AP. I am the only one out of the 8 of us in Croatia/Serbia from the same MTC group that is still with their trainer for their second transfer, because 7 or 8 new missionaries came in this transfer, and we have an extremely young mission. Elder Marcek is with a missionary who has been out for about a year, and Elder Adams is with Elder Schouten, who is a transfer ahead of us, but the rest are with missionaries who have been out for the same amout of time or less. Elders Smith and Mulder are together, and Defreitas and Armond are together, and Elder Bishop is training, on his second transfer, before his training is even done. crazy.

On Tuesday, I reached a milestone- I ordered food, and the woman I talked to understood everything I said and didn't ask me to repeat anything, and I knew what was going on for the whole conversation. that was great.

This week we've been speaking Croatian a lot more as a companionship, so that's been really good. I've been able to actually use croatian a lot more recently. and Marijana has been speaking more Croatian with us, so we've been able to get some good practice in. We made pies and had a lesson with Ivona this Thursday. the filling was more runny than we were hoping for, but it still tasted really good. We talked about the restoration.

We've been doing more with calling former investigators from the area book and less actives and updating the ward lists and things. We'd been sort of avoiding that because people are even harder to understand on the phone than in person, but we've had some small sucesses with that.

Oh, last week while I was gone, Sister Creager and Sister Staheli gave Ivona a baptismal date, but she freaked out a bit and said they were pressuring her and such, so that was a little disappointing. She believes everything we've been teaching and loves coming to church and activities, but she's scared of change and the future.

On another not so happy note, Marina stood us up on saturday and she says she wants to be baptized, but she's not doing anything we've asked her to do to prepare for baptism.

We had seminary on saturday about Genesis 24-33. have I said yet how much I love seminary yet? It was great, as always. She asked an interesting question saturday. have you seen the scripture in the new testament that says basically that it's good for women to have long hair, but not men? in corinthians maybe? anyways, she asked if men aren't supposed to have long hair, why do they have long hair (pointing to Heavenly Father and Jesus in a 1st vision picture). She sometimes has really deep questions, and sometimes very interesting ones.

Well, things are good in Osijek. have an awesome day! Make someone smile today.

love,
Sestra Black

Beginning a new transfer and back to Osijek

Dear family,

So, today marks the beginning of my second transfer* in croatia, and unsuprisingly, I'm staying in Osijek with sister Creager for another 9 weeks. In our district will be Elder Genther, who was here last transfer as Branch president, and Elder Lifferth, who has been in Croatia for about a year I think. That was pretty suprising because we all figured elder genther would be training or have someone who came to the mtc with me as a companion. It should be a good transfer. I'm excited.
[* In missionary-speak, a "transfer" is a usually 6-week period of time, synchronized across the mission, at the end of which some missionaries are transferred to work with a new companion and/or in a new city. /kjb]

[the next section talks about the work this past week in Ljubljana /kjb]
Wednesday night we went contacting in the center of town, and we met a man named Lenard, who was a philosopher type. He listened to us, but he was more interested in just having an interesting conversation than really coming closer to Jesus Christ in his life. Thursday, we had district meeting and then talked with a member named Mira, who has just barely started coming back to church recently. I didn't understand much, but it sounds like she has recently realized that she's been missing something in her life, and wants to feel the spirit more, so she's started coming back to church. Later that day we helped a woman named Duša move some things into her storage unit and read Helaman 5 together and talked about it. Friday, we had a lesson with an inactive member named Aiša. that was interesting. She was running around doing stuff most of the time, so it was hard to get a lesson. we talked about obedience with the kite analogy-- if you're flying a kite, it may seem that cutting the string of the kite will let it fly away, that the string is keeping it down to earth, and keeping it from flying, but in actuality, the string is what keeps it in the air. if you cut the string, the kite will fall. it's the same with commandments. Commandments are the secret to flying. God gives us commandments because he has a bigger perspective than we do. He knows what will make us happy and we don't. I don't know how much she was listening, but we got really good burek out of it. That evening we went to visit the Vidras family with the Taylors, a Senior couple, so sister Powell could translate for them. They're a wonderful family. they have a son with severe mental disabilities, who is in a wheelchair. They are really faithful strong people. their friend Marijetka and her 5 yr old daughter Laura came too. she was pretty adorable. Saturday we had a lesson with Sonja and her husband Bojan. we basically went through the articles of faith by their request and talked about each one. That evening we met with Monika, a girl who is going on a mission in like 2 weeks. She's awesome. She's going to england. I'm so excited for her. she'll be an awesome missionary. We had 6 lessons on the schedule, so it was a little disappointing to just have 2, but it was still a good day. On sunday, we took Marija, an older woman in a nursing home in her wheelchair to church. Church was awesome! I'm so excited for the day when Osijek will have a branch that strong. I know it will someday soon, as soon as the people there start believing it will happen. I didn't have to give a talk or teach a lesson for sunday school or give a musical number or a prayer or anything. It was great to just be able to sit back for a little bit and listen to other people teach, even though I couldn't understand anything but a few words here and there. Afterwards we had a lesson with Meta, which went ok, and then a lesson with a member named Dragica. She and her mother were from Serbia, so I could understand the mom about as well as sister powell, which wasn't very much, because she was mostly speaking Serbian with a few Slovene words here and there. Then we met Danica, who wants to be baptized, but her husband won't let her, and doesn't want to hear anything about the church. She's reading the book of mormon, preach my gospel, true to the faith, the bible... pretty much everything we have in slovene, but she's afraid if she comes to church too much or talks to us too much that her husband will stop allowing her to even do that. it's sad. She gave us bay leaves and apples they had grown and apple strudel she had made. that apple strudel was pretty much the best kolač I've ever had here in europe. it was amazing.

Anyways, it's been a good exchange [in Ljubljana]. I've learned a lot from sister powell, and i hope i can take some of those things back to osijek. I'm getting on a train to the edge of slovenia in like an hour, and from there, Elder maynes, the AP will pick up me and elder gonzales, and elder chandler and sister staheli will switch with us, and we'll drive to zagreb, where sister creager will be waiting. It should be a good day. I'm excited to see sister creager again and go back to osijek.

I love you all. have a wonderful week.
love, Sestra Black

živjo from Ljubljana!

hey everyone! I'm having a blast and doing a lot of work here in Ljubljana. Sister Powell is awesome. I had roasted chestnuts for the first time the other day, and they were pretty good. you'd think I would've had some in Osijek because they're all over the place, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. It's pretty interesting being here in Slovenia where I know even less of the language than in Croatia, and Sister Powell has been out longer than Sister Creager, so I feel more like a greenie than I did the first week in Croatia. I can understand some, and they can understand me a little, but there's a pretty huge language barrier. It's really interesting to see differences with how they do things here and seeing what I can take from the slovene missionaries and take it back to osijek. It's also way different here because there are about 50 strong members here as opposed to our 5 or so. it'll be even more interesting at church this sunday. it'll be nice to sit back and let other people run things. In zagreb I got to see elder smith from my mtc district, and here in slovenia, I got to see elder Bateman, who was also in my district in the mtc, so that was fun. the elders here in slovenia made a fort in a park with some fallen branches for their p-day. it was pretty cool looking. That night we had družinski večer (FHE), so I got to meet a few members. yesterday for day of the dead (dan mrtvih), we were passing out family proclamations with little candles, and Amy, a member from the philippenes, who is about our age, came with us because she didn't have work. She's about 5 ft, maybe shorter, and very cute. We taught Urša a new-member lesson about the commandments, and we played a memory game with it so it would be more fun. Her name is Urša, and she has cerebral palsy. She's very fun. I like her a lot. Then we taught english with a spiritual thought to Tomaž, who is a member, and Tončka, who is not. We read Alma 32 and talked about faith. I couldn't understand much after the english lesson, but Sister Powell said it went well. Today so far we taught a lesson to Tadeja, who was baptized last week about missionary work. Since her boyfriend from switzerland who has been a member for a while, was there, we taught that one in english, because he doesn't speak slovene. I was able to imput a little more, so that was good. Oh wow, I meant to say more about last week. So, as I said i think, Elder Schouten stayed in Serbia, and Elder Jacobsen stayed in osijek. All of the members and investigators are worried I'll do the same thing and never come back from slovenia, which could happen, but isn't likely. we should find out today or tomorrow what happens for transfers. I'm pretty excited about Ivona. I hope things continue to go so well with her. We had a good lesson finally for the first time with Marina. She's very anxious to get baptized, but doesn't think her dad will let her start coming to church again or let her get baptized until she moves out. He seems ok with it when we talk to him, but Marina says he just wants to be polite to us. We'll see what happens with that. We, or probably sister Creager and sister staheli while I'm gone, will talk to her dad with Marina and try to help him see why marina wants to be baptized. I hope that goes well.

Well, Have a good week everyone! Love you!
čao! adio! (ah-dee'-oh)
Sestra Black (črn here in Slovenia)

dobar dan from Zagreb!

Hey everyone, I've got to leave pretty soon to catch a train to ljubljana for an exchange for the week, so I don't have almost any time to email now, but I'll be able to email on wednesday. lots of exciting stuff going on in osijek. all of osijek smells like roasted chestnuts. Elder Jacobsen stayed in osijek for this week, the rest of the transfer. we thought he'd go home on thursday. We had an awesome activity where we made halloween cookies, and Lidia's non member daughter came and brought a friend, Klara. Marijana has decided to teach us croatian, so she made us a case chart. it was cute. what we really need though is conversation, and she has absolutely no patience for us speaking croatian because it's way slow and her english is really good. I love you all, and I'll finish this on wednesday. love you!
Sestra Black

from Ariana, 24 Oct 2011

Hello everyone,

So, I forgot to say an important bit of news last week. When President Rowe came last sunday and did interviews, he asked how I felt about doing an exchange to Slovenia. Probably in 2 or so weeks, I`m going to Ljubljana for a week. Crazy. I figured we wouldn`t ever get to do exchanges because we`re so far away from the other sisters in the mission. There are 4 in Slovenia and 2 in Zadar, on the coast of croatia, and the 2 of us in Osijek, but it takes like 8 hours to get to Zadar. and we never interact with Slovenia. It might as well be another mission. so I figured it would never happen. and I don`t even know Slovene. granted, I don`t know Croatian either, but more than Slovene. I can`t even say the word Ljubljana. This sunday we taught primary to Filip (who is 8 or 9 and baptized) and his cousin (who isn`t a member), and we were talking about Ammon and King Lamoni, and when we said the word ˝kralj˝ (king), they corrected us about 10 times, and then taught us the Croatian alphabet. I just can`t make the sound. It`ll probably be a while before I can say ˝lj˝ well enough that they stop giving me alphabet lessons. Oh well. that, and the difference between č and ć, are going to give me headaches.

anyways, I`m really excited about the exchange. So on thursday, we went to Serbia for zone conference. last time was just a training meeting. This time the AP came, and Sister Rowe was going to come, but then she couldn`t. It was very good. The branch president`s wife there in Sremska Mitrovica made Elder Adams promise that we`d go see them before we left. fortunately, they live next door to the church. Apparently, there used to be Sister Missionaries there in Beograd or somewhere close before the war, wherever she was living at the time. She was so excited to see us, and she told President that they should send sisters to actually work in Serbia. I figured there wouldn`t ever be sisters in Serbia while I was out, but now, I`m not sure. There`s a new sister coming out in January, and another 2 in March. President`s trying to get another one so we don`t have an odd number. or have a Croatian serve a mini mission here to be companions with one of them. My guess is that one set will go in Zagreb, but the other set? They could very well go to Serbia or Bosnia or somewhere completely different. There`s only one other city in Croatia that I know of that`s ever had sisters in it. Very interesting stuff. We`ll see what happens. We weren`t expecting any more sisters until Sister Creager and Sister Milius go home next September.

On Monday, we met a member named Zoran. He`s been living on the coast, so he hasn`t been in Osijek for like a year or something. He`s awesome though. If you look through the area book, his name is all over it because he helps so much in missionary work. and he`s a righteous priesthood holder. We had 2 native Croatians blessing the sacrament! it`s awesome. He was planning to move to Zagreb and transfer his records there, and when we told President that he was planning on moving, he said ˝tell him he can`t move. The Lord needs him in Osijek˝. On sunday, Zoran told us that he had gotten a job, so he`s staying in Osijek. The funny thing was that he wasn`t even looking for a job. Interesting how that happens, huh?

Speaking of sunday, we had an investigator at church. A girl named Ivona from the Elders` advanced english class is very interested in the church. The elders gave her a Book of Mormon, and she`s been reading it. Her mom is in our beginners class, and she broke her leg, so we went over there to visit, and we talked about what Ivona had read in the Book of Mormon, and we gave her some things to read and invited her to come to our activity on friday. She noticed a picture in our church of Jesus that she loved. She says that our church feels more like church should feel than the big cold cathedrals, and asked if we had a midnight mass for christmas because she said she`d rather come to our church. We told her we didn`t, but that we had church services every week on sunday that she could come to, and that Sister Creager was even giving a talk in Croatian. She said she`d come, and on sunday she said she`d try to come every week. She said that she liked the meeting, but that the talk by a native speaker seemed longer than necessary.

This week Marijana`s been in the hospital. that place is scary. We`ve gone over to visit a few times, and the elders took her the sacrament to her on sunday. I hope she gets better soon. It doesn`t sound fun to be in that place. A male nurse drew on her hand while she was sleeping with her markers. Creepy, huh? things like that don`t happen in american hospitals. And apparently, the only thing they give her most of the time is tea, coffee, and weird bread. and they get mad at her for not drinking her coffee. luckily she has her own juice and people bring her other food.

Elder Schouten is in Serbia for the week, so Elder Jacobsen is here. It`s interesting. He actually knows Croatian, but people still tell him to speak english. it`s not just us. It`s weird. Like just now, Sister Creager`s keyboard wasn`t working, so I asked the guy at the desk if we could switch it with another one, and he acted offended that I spoke in Croatian and assumed he didn`t know english. People do things like that all the time. It definitely makes it harder to learn the language.

anyways, it`s been a pretty good week. I hope you`re having a wonderful day. I love you all, and God loves you infinitely more.

love,
Sestra Black

Ariana's email address

Ariana's email address is:

Sister Ariana Black <ariana.black@myldsmail.net>

She can read incoming emails but is supposed to reply directly only to family or by post.

from Sister Black of The Adriatic Mission

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

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

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

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"

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