čao svi

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

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

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

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

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

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

love, Sestra Ariana Black

Ariana’s bye week

Ariana told us a week ago that she might not write this week. She and her district were meeting in Bosnia, or something like that. . . . [Update] so of course 5 minutes after I get around to posting this, I see she wrote today. :) /kjb

Another author for KJB to read

Recommended by an Argentine co-worker when he heard I'd read some Borges: Julio Cortázar

Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

Zdravo!

Well, Bosnia was fun. I got permission to do emails today since we were gone on monday. This week was pretty good. I gave marijana a list of the 3 or 5 inactive members who are her age, and she looked them up on facebook and asked if they'd come to church, and one of them, a boy named Toni accepted the invitation. his mom used be an active member and play piano for our church, but then she got a paid job to play piano in a different church, so she stopped coming. Toni has started to read the book of mormon, starting with suggested chapters from marijana, and now he's just reading from the beginning, and he came to church on sunday, and he's working towards receiving the priesthood, and he says he'll start going to seminary. I'm way excited about it. Hopefully that will lead to the rest of his family being active again.

I almost planned myself an exchange to bosnia (with president rowe's permission of course), but it's ridiculous going from osijek to sarajevo and back again, or meeting somewhere in the middle and switching companions, so it didn't work out. but we might still do it a different time. It would be interesting going from a catholic to a muslim country. (don't worry mom, i still have been practicing my asking for big things skills)

So I don't know how much I've said about this, but on the 1st of June, we'll have a celebration to commemorate the first baptism in Yugoslavia 40 yrs ago, and it'll be a huge event with tons of famous people there and lots of cool activities and events, including baptisms in the Adriatic, a history tour of where Čosić translated the Book of mormon, hiding the manuscripts because of communism, where the first baptism was, the first place they met, etc., so we're working really hard to get all of the members and their family and friends to come to the event. and maybe the missionaries will be able to attend as well. it depends on us making our goals. And then we have district conference that sunday in zagreb, which will also celebrate how this is the first time of having missionaries in every european country, with the opening of Bosnia, Montenegro, and Macedonia this transfer.

The most heartbreaking thing of the week was that Kristina decided that our church isn't different enough from the catholic church to be worth disappointing her family and being baptized again. It was really disappointing. We haven't quite given up on her completely, but it was really sad. Things were going so well, and then all of a sudden, she gave up. I've been told several times that I'm not allowed to get discouraged, but it's frustrating when people don't want to make the changes in their lives that you know will make them happier than any other choice they could make.

Did I tell you Marijana's grandma's getting baptized? We set a date for the 19th. I'm excited. That shows all the people I talk to every day who say they're too set in their ways to change religion. we had a lesson with her where basically she just talked forever about how she knows our church is true because it helps people and does what Christ would want it to do. The biggest problem is her husband thinks she's crazy and isn't very excited about all of this, but he'll come around hopefully.

President Rowe was here on sunday, which was awesome, as always. He visited with all the members, and his croatian is getting a lot better. he's been slowly learning. after Church he gave marijana a blessing for her health problems and the surgery she was going to have on monday, but the surgery was pushed to the 16th. It was a really great blessing about God showing his power through her. I wish she could be a normal healthy kid. She's got a lot of faith. In less than a year, she's helped the branch here more than all the other members combined except maybe zoran, and probably more than some of the missionaries that have been here. My experience here would've been a lot different without her.

Oh, speaking of zoran, he moved to the coast for the summer, like everyone else in this city, so we're down to no priesthood besides the missionaries once again. luckily, Toni and Alen are both working on being more active and receiving the priesthood.

Well, things are pretty good here in Osijek. Have an awesome day.

love,
Sestra Ariana Black

Avery, From Mission to Madness: Last Son of the Mormon Prophet

I read this biography of David Hyrum Smith maybe a few months ago. It is missing important details one would want for definite diagnosis, but it probably has all the biographical information that is available. A must read for LDS psychiatrists.

Orson Scott Card, A War of Gifts

This long short story must be one of the most unlikely, not to say bizarre, Christmas books ever written. Yet it shows remarkable skill in its craft, and extraordinary insight into human motivation.

James Rollins, The Last Oracle

Re-read this a few weeks ago. Was worth one read, probably not two.

Charles Dickens, Hard Times

It was one of my 50-cent library discard airplane reading books. Picked it up mostly because a smart friend with good taste loves Dickens. I still avoided it for a long time. Finally took it on the plane and finished it a day or two later. I can't believe the dude's skill. He wrote this for serial publication, i.e. keeping to a strict deadline for each chapter. Good characterization, plausible motives, a morsel of mystery, and of course lots of plot. A somewhat too-obvious theme (though the introductory essay by Robert Donald Spector argues for a more nuanced message). I can't believe Dickens published this book that is so down on monogamy with a poorly suited partner, knowing his wife would read it ... but then again, he reportedly took no pains to hide his mistress either.

It was fascinating that the day after I finished the most persuasive pro-divorce chapter of this book, I had a most inspiring conversation with a faithful Protestant colleague who was remaining faithful to (as he phrased it) "the woman I covenanted with before God," even though she had recently divorced him. He was living the advice of Ephesians 5:25.

Otto Reimherr, ed., Quest for Faith, Quest for Freedom: Aspects of Pennsylvania's Religious Experience

Includes an essay by Reimherr, "The Susquehanna: Mormonism's Jordan," but I also read essays on two early African-American clerics, Isaac Leeser and his remarkable contributions to American Jewish culture, a comparison of 3 early Roman Catholic intellectuals in Philadelphia, and a history of Katherine Mary Drexel.

Rick Riordan, The Son of Neptune

So despite not thinking much of the first one, I like reading these books. The quality is improving.

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

The book was on my dresser for a year or so after I started it, waiting to be finished. I finally did.

I'm sure it's been said before, but . . .

Still waiting for a plot, waiting for interest, waiting for relevance, waiting for enlightenment. . . .

Hey everyone!

I hope you're having a wonderful week. Things are pretty good in Osijek. This week has had some miracles and some big disappointments. Dužanka, who I thought was about to get a baptismal date, gave up. She was beginning to get answers, but it was too much work, and things didn't happen as fast as she wanted, and she's overwhelmed with life, and she says she can't do it anymore. We haven't given up on her yet, but if she's given up believing she'll get an answer, she won't get one. The highlight of the week was friday. We had a lesson with Kristina where we watched the restoration movie, and we finally got her and Marijana together. It was awesome for Kristina to have someone who's going through what she is. My testimony of member-present lessons was strengthened. At aktivnost, Matea, an investigator who is going to school in Zagreb, but is from here, came, and she brought 2 friends.

Marijana's grandma came to church this week, and we asked her if we could meet with her, and she agreed. Marijana asked her if she'd get baptized, and she said maybe. I knew she was ready. she's seen how much the book of mormon and this church has blessed Marijana's life, and she wants to learn about that. Marijana has been sharing scriptures that she's found through her scripture study with her grandma, and it's been softening her heart to the book of mormon. I'm so excited about that. and seeing how excited Marijana is about it makes it so much more exciting. For english spiritual thought, we made a chart for questions of the soul, and invited people to find answers from the book of mormon, and it got a few people more excited about the book of mormon. that was cool. We also had a very good lesson with Žužika, a woman who has a really cute family who we met with once, but haven't seen in a couple months. She really got a good understanding of our purpose, and I feel like we were bold and loving in our invitations. She didn't accept everything, but I feel like I did everything I could to help her understand our message.

Elder Wade and Mulder were here for some visa stuff for a couple days from Varaždin, so we sent them on some goose hunts for us to find people. It was fun to have some servants for a couple days.

Seminary was awesome, like every week. Elder and Sister Taylor, who are leaving in a couple days, came to visit for the last time. I love having lessons with her. We'll be talking about something in the old testament, and she'll bring up a scripture in the Book of mormon that goes along perfectly with it that she found in her scripture study that week. She knows much more about the book of mormon than most kids her age, especially ones that have been members for less than a year. She really understands the principle of finding answers and revelation through scripture study.

On sunday, President Babić, the district president, came to Osijek with the district Relief Society president and her councilor. That was cool. They've never come before. I was disappointed Kristina didn't come. She needs to come to church, or she can't get baptized. I would've loved for her to hear President Babić's talk too. it was really good. I gave a talk about charity too. It's sort of annoying. there isn't really a good translation for the word charity. in the bible it usually just uses ljubav, but that's love, and most of the official church stuff uses dobrohotnost, but most people I've talked to say that's a horrible translation, and I'm not sure what connotations it has. I think the new Book of Mormon they're translating uses the word dobrotvornost... i don't know. I can't wait until the new Book of Mormon comes out. That'll be exciting. They're pretty much done, they're just working on finishing the guide to the scriptures that's in the back.

have an awesome week!
love you guys!
Sestra Ariana Black

Happy Serbian Easter

We pushed Kristina's baptismal date back to May 12th. It was one of the better lessons we've had with her. We used the baptismal calendar more effectively, so I think she feels more like she has a road map and plan to get to baptism, not just a date that we hope she'll be ready by. We put on the calendar when she'll talk to her parents and a goal for us coming to her house to meet her family, along with a place for her to mark her reading. I think she saw more that we wanted to help her be prepared, not trying to rush her to do something. it was good.

We had a good lesson with Du?anka this week on the plan of Salvation. She read 9 chapters of the book of mormon. We talked more about how she'll get an answer from God of whether the book of mormon is true. She wants to get baptized, and we still need to figure out a date, and we have to help her understand a few things, but it's been really cool to see her faith grow in a pretty short period of time. We also had a good lesson with a woman named An?a. We could tell she really felt the spirit while we were talking. she's got lots of potential.

This week we had an awesome lesson with Marijana about family history work, and she's actually working on it. I'm excited about that because before, she hadn't wanted to do any family history work because her family isn't the greatest, and she didn't want to be closer to them, but I think she saw how family history work is missionary work, and she trusted my promise that you can get the same joy that comes from missionary work when we do family history work, and that it helps us be closer tied to God's family. It's always cool to see her actually apply the things we teach her. Yesterday we had a lesson with her with someone who she helped us contact. To prepare for the lesson, Marijana prayed for guidance, and then found some cool scriptures and insights to share in the lesson. It wasn't a great lesson; the people weren't ready to listen to our message as much as we thought, but we shared our message boldly and brought the spirit. It was a good teaching lesson for Marijana though. Sometimes you do all you can, but they're just not ready. We had another lesson or two sort of like that this week too. That's the saddest thing about missionary work. you do all you were called to do, but some people just aren't ready to accept it.

Sister Moody is doing great. Now that she's a bit more confident in talking to people in Croatian, she's just talking to everyone. She told her family that she loves being a missionary, so I guess that means I'm doing my job well. She gave her first talk yesterday. It was about the Book of Mormon. It was good. We had 6 Members there, so that was exciting, since we haven't had more than 3 for a while. Alen was given a calling to bring the bread for the sacrament, so hopefully that will help him progress towards being more active. He started recently to show some desire to be more active and have the priesthood, so that's been cool to see. Zoran says he's moving for real this time, so we'll be out of priesthood leaders again if Alen doesn't step up quick. We really just need to baptize some more of them soon. We have a goal in our mission to baptize 40 people by June 1, the 40th anniversary of the first baptism in Yugoslavia. It's about 1 person per missionary, 2 per companionship. So we're working towards that.

Love you!
Sestra Black

Easter and Transfers!

Sretan Uskrs!!!
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. Mine was pretty good. You may be thinking, if you've been following this closely, why does the title say transfers? didn't she just have transfers like 3 weeks ago? Well, we had them again. 2 of our missionaries were moved down to the Adriatic South mission to open Macedonia, Since our language is closer to Macedonian than Albanian is, so a lot of people were moved around. Elder Wade was transferred to Vara탑din, so Elder Marcek came here to be the Osijek district leader.

Things are going pretty well here in osijek. Kristina, our investigator with a baptismal date, is doing well. We've still got a few things to work through, but things are good. We'll probably have to push back her baptismal date so she can have the chance to go to sacrament meeting a few times before she's baptized. She's got strong faith and a strong desire to follow Christ, but she just has a hard time accepting having to change her viewpoint though. her desire to follow Christ has, to this point, been much stronger than that though. I have faith she'll pull through this though. I'm excited for her.

This sunday was awesome. Iris came to church for the first time in a month and a half or so. We introduced her to Marijana, who talked to her about her experience with quitting smoking, and how it was horrible to go through, but it was worth every second. Marijana had been smoking more per day than Iris had, so i think that was encouraging to Iris. We've been trying to have a lesson with the two of them together for a while, but it hasn't worked out so far. I think now that they've met, they'll both be more up to the idea. She's progressing pretty slowly, but every time we start thinking she's not worth our time right now or that she needs to be dropped, she starts progressing and coming closer to baptism.

We showed Marijana the YW session of conference as part of seminary, and it was really great. We all took notes, and after the conference, shared what we had learned, and she had some good insights. she said she learned a lot, and she was really excited to show it to her friend Marina because she thought it could help her. My next project for her is to get her excited about family history work. She's gotten excited about missionary work, and i think once she understands that family history work is another way she can bring people to baptism, and that then we'll have more people helping us to get a temple in Croatia on both sides of the veil, I think she'll be way excited about that, which will help her respect her family more, and will help her be a stronger member and be more excited about going to the temple.

We got a new investigator named Du?anka last week who shows great promise. I hope we can help their family get baptized. She really wants to know that God exists and loves her, and she is willing to do the work to find out through the Book of Mormon. She's got 2 cute little kids named Luka and Lana, which makes it harder to have lessons, but I think there's great potential for them.

This week we also saw Luka, the 9 yr. old son of an inactive member in our ward. He was really excited to see us, and he talked to us for a little bit. He was with his grandma, who really doesn't like the church, so we couldn't talk long, but it was fun to see him. He and his sister are some of my very favorite people in osijek.

For easter, we went to mass with our old investigator, Ivona, and then went to our church, and then worked on some finding activities we're planning, and then went tracting. Nobody wants to listen to two girls talking about Jesus and the resurrection on Easter, because everyone's celebrating, but we've been told to go tracting from 6-8 when at all possible, so we did.

Well, I hope you all have a good week. love you guys!
Ari