Bit će nova godina

Hola. IT WAS SO GOOD TO SKYPE and thank you for the letters, cards, packages, emails I have gotten from recently.

The best story of this week: our two awesome investigators, Visnja and Marta wanted to take us to show us how college is here. They are both studying ENGLISH so we went to two lectures with them, one in English and one in Serbian. They were... semi-boring but cool to see how they work! So we got "coffee" before one of the classes, I was like oh actually I dont drink coffee I'll just take a hot cocoa (which is like hot pudding here) and Visnja was like oh I don't either! So we talked about missions, family, the plan of salvation, tithing, the sacrament. So we were showing pictures of family and stuff and she showed one and she was like this is my dad at his book signing! I was like what book? And she was like it's called "drugs, alcohol, smoking- not friends to life" (well that's how it is directly translated) AND SO WE TALKED ABOUT THE WORD OF WISDOM and she was so excited and said she really wants to come to teach and meet her family. They are so so nice and I am just SO EXCITED. Investigators here and so few and far between (I think that's an English phrase?) and it has been a great week just because we could teach somewhat of a lesson.

This week we taught a lesson about prophets and another investigator and she was just like, "yeah I guess that just makes sense. That God would give a man on the earth to guide us." The most frequent question we get lately is "What will happen to the world? It is so bad." The answer is to do good, and fear not! Yes, Christ will come, but for those who are righteous and repent and believe we don;'t have to fear. And we have a prophet to guide us! On a side note.. you know how they study lives of the prophets each year in relief society? Well they are studying Ezra Taft Benson in 2015, then 2016 Howard W. Hunter, 2017 will be Hinckley, 2018 Monson. Then that will be it.......... so we (my comp and I) are making predictions about Christ's coming.......

CHRISTMAS- we had pizza Christmas Eve at an Embassy family the Rogersons, then the next morning slept in (YES! We got 24 hours "off") and opened packages, stocking, etc. Then we made waffles with the Elders at the church and ate so much, then we bused to the Andrewsens (another embassy fam) house and ate so so much american food, they had starburst, lucky charms, peanut butter, etc etc etc. They made us take home everything we didn't eat, so much food have we now. They bought us tons of presents! Like 20 each! So nice of them, so generous. We went around and opened them one by one and it was just so nice to be in pajamas and in a house. The Skype was so good too! Thank you all! So much!! Sorry I cried for like two seconds and automatedly bore my testimony it just kind of all spewed out.  We just ate and laid around and enjoyed our day off. Obviously no one celebrated here so except for that it felt like a regular day. They will celebrate Christmas on the 7th. There are tons of fireworks going off all the time outside, it just sounds like gunshots all the time. 

We skype-teach a family from Serbia who moved to France and were baptized there. We teach them from the kids picture book "Book of Mormon stories" and I love it. Even though their knowledge is so simple, their faith is so pure and their love for family so deep. We talked about Joseph Smith and the mother was like, "I already know this! Let me teach it to YOU!" So she just taught us! Haha.

This week, as I said I would, I bought myself a dress for P day. They like altered to fit me perfect on the spot. It was great, and free, yeah Serbia!

LOVE YOU. SRECNA (with a thing over the c) NOVA GODINA! Be safe! Be cautious! Pray always!

Sister Richardson

pictures: from Christmas morning (upholding the broom tradition) and at the Andrewsen's house for Christmas, and from yesterday SO MUCH SNOW.

Srećan Božić = happy Christmas

I'm gonna make this as fast as I can we have a lot of P day plans and I will talk to you on the 25th! Lots of pday plans meaning I took out some dollar from my account and Sister Konietz likes to shop and so do I so we are going to buy ourselves Christmas (THEY HAVE THE BEST DRESSES HERE)

Monday: We played basketball with the Elders (no contact basketball is just as awkward as you can imagine it) and Sister Konietz and I dyed our hair. Mine is not a huge difference but hers is very dark brown. I donno why we did this, but it is done! We taught a family home evening to an embassy family, I gave an object lesson with salt and pepper and how through Christ, even thought it seems impossible, we can be completely clean.

Tuesday: We have been visiting those who (whom?) we haven't seen at church in a while and inviting them back and visiting them. We ended up just finding a lot of cats and wrong addresses. I will share the Elder's short experience: they contacted someone on the street, obviously in Serbian, and the guy says back to them in perfect English, "Wait, so you guys are like real latter-day saints?" They say, "Yes...?" And the guy raises his fist to the air and yells, "Joseph Smith, yeahhh!!" Then walks away and says "Have a good day boys." You know Joseph Smith's history how it says:
 33 He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.

Well, that is so true. Even if people say John Smith, Joshua Smith, Joe Samuel, they know him. Joseph Smith restored the gospel of JESUS CHRIST to the earth, we can forever praise both of their names!

There were a lot of cops everywhere, I asked someone about it, apparently the Chinese President was here?

Wednesday: We had a really, really long day. After Sister K taught her German class (I just sit in the back and study Serbian!) we remembered we hadn't eaten since like 10am (it was 7pm) so we went to KFC- never been before- and it was like the cleanest building I have seen my whole mission! It was so delicious! So we're sitting there and hear these two girls our age speaking English behind us, I turned around and was like hey I'm a native speaker can I help you? And we talked for a long long time with them! Tender mercies. I will keep you updated.

Thurs: The most exciting thing I can really say is that we got in bed at 9:30, get a call at about 11 saying there was a very minor car accident picking up the Montenegro Elders from the airport and travel plans for the next morning had changed to get to the Christmas concert, well we could not sleep after that so we ordered a pizza and talked. Not the most obedient thing I've done on my mission, but I think we both needed it for sanity's sake! Sister Konietz was supposed to go home the end of January but she is extending until February and going to serve in Slovenia!

Friday STARTED AT 3:30AM, I got out of the shower (usually a shower wakes you up) and was still so so tired. The senior couples and so many missionaries in mission cars and rented vans drove to Zagreb. I slept most of the way, we had the CHRISTMAS MISSION CONFERENCE. It was great, a little stressful from so much travel but President and Sister Grant gave great remarks and we took some pictures and sang and it was a time of peace and reflection on the savior. Some of my old MTC companions got me gifts: including a potato and a Muslim prayer hat and a stress ball and much more. It was great though! 

President Grant announces that one of the traditions he heard in Croatia was to have 2 big roasts pigs, so he ordered two and had them arrive at the church in a taxi! Bahahaha. So they carved it and we had a huge feast.

Saturday: More Misionarski rad (missionary work) and lots of it. Contacting, tracting, finding. 

Sunday: We translated for sacrament meeting and taught primary again in two languages and that night Skyped a family we have been teaching who are from Serbia but live in France and were baptized there so we are reteaching them some of the lessons.

LOVE YOU ALL
MERRY CHRISTMAS. It's not super Christmas-y here because Orthodox Christmas is on January 7th.

Christ is our reason to rejoice! 

Sister Richardson

PS Family: make a list of things to ask me or you wanna talk about when we skype! I have no idea I will just talk for an hour straight!

pictures: pig heads, riding the bus sister k took this of me, and Sister Kropushek (to my right) trained me, I trained sister durfee, and now she is training!

Exchange in Novi Sad

Hola,

This week we visited Čačak. The family of 6 there (not sure how they even got baptized, I wish I did) but they will not even let us sit down at their table until they have paid their tithing in full. They wanted to be sure that they were squared and settled in manners concerning the Lord. They own a lot of goats and chickens and a cat and a dog and he really wants to (the father) be self sufficient on his farm. They killed a chicken just for us to feed that day. They hold sacrament meeting on their own and are SO FAITHFUL. We went there with the Morgans, the senior couple. Man, I just took a step back and was like wow. THEY JUST GIVE SO MUCH. They scrimp and save and are saving to go to the temple and get sealed as a family in Frankfurt in April. There are just some amazing people on this earth, so good. The dad kept saying I look like his best friend's daughter and the mom and I made jokes about how we are so good at cooking because we both just using instant potatoes. (even the instant potatoes are better here) but I translated for them and the senior couple and I too spoke for 5 hours straight- our whole visit. Then we visited one more member in that city. So at some point the word "pattern" came up, I sat there for like 8 seconds, and the word just came to me (in Serbian) - uzorak. It was crazy. I do not in any way profess to be good at the language, but God gives us what we need! I always pray before I translate that I can convey to both parties what they are trying to say.

We returned to an appointment made from tracting and the lady opened her door and the dog ran out and then she said she was no longer interested and the dog just disappeared- it ran into her neighbor's apartment. Hahahahahhaa. He just opened the door and it ran in there. It was so weird. I hope you find these things funny that are so random that I tell you! 

The zone leaders here just decided they wanted to look more Serbian so on P day, the day before zone conference we dyed their hair dark brown/black. It was, interesting. Then they went and got it cut after. Hm..

So we had zone conference. Sister Konietz and I gave a presentation about how the restoration is the most important message we have to the world and so important! We have the church of Jesus Christ on the earth- the same on He Himself established. Somehow I am one of the older sisters now in the mission. It's so weird, I feel like I just got here! After that I went to Novi Sad on exchange, that night after we taught English class there we went to an investigator's house. We knock on her door, she lets us in and there are like 30 people all crammed into her house- she brings us fish soup, fish stuffed with rice, fried fish, grilled fish, fish with bread. Oh and some kind of fish you slurp off the bone. Did I mention I don't really enjoy fish? Haha. So then her whole family was there and we go in and just sit and everyone tries to speak English with us and tell us to marry their sons and (I laughed) and was like haha.. maybe after my mission! But we did talk to an aunt at the end of the table and share a Book of Mormon with her in the midst of them trying to give us rokija (some kind of alcohol, I dont even know the english word) and just laughing that all we wanted to drink was juice! They thought we were so sweet that we wouldnt touch the alcohol. You know in Peter it talks about: 1 Peter 2: 9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. So yes, we might be a peculiar people! It may seem, but God is unchanging even when it might seem like we are strange to the world. 

We taught a few family history lessons to members this week, it's really cool to see the spirit of Elijah in the hearts of so many people!

We were in a taxi going to an unveiling art exhibit thing of one of our investigators and the driver  was talking about he had three sons and sister konietz went to say "that's great" in english really loud just as he said that he was divorced and I said "baš mi je žao" (im so sorry) the same time as she said that's great and just right after he said he was divorced. It was so so uncomfortable. Then he gave us a card for his massage parlor. The awkward moments of a missionary. 

LOVE YALL

pics: exchange in Novi Sad this week with Sister Powell, an orthodox temple in Beograd

Chesnuts literally roasting on an open fire

They really have those here, people have little carts and they roast them and sell them! I will buy some and tell you how they are. #authentic

We had leadership council this week in Zagreb. Every time we cross boarders we have to get out passports stamped and so mine is getting quite full! The meeting was really uplifting, we talked about finding all the lost sheep and that the Lord would go out and search for the one until it was found and all were accounted for. We got to drive "the box" (this huge van the mission owns) (and I'm pretty sure the biggest vehicle in all of the Balkans) there with the Zone Leaders and sang Christmas songs most of the 4 hour drive. The bus ride home was 6 hours. I am an expert at travel.

Dad would enjoy this: we skyped a family who were baptised in France this week but are from Serbia so we teach them more! It's great to see technology help and bless the work! It was weird though to be over skype and not be able to do things like turn the book of mormon pages to where they could read or like give their two small kids high fives. Technology is our frienddd!

I finished my study of the gospels this week- Matthew, Mark and Luke. How blessed are we to have the freedoms to read and study the bible and the life of Jesus Christ! My testimony of my brother and savior grows every day.

In random moments from the week: An Elder from Montenegro called us this week and was like hey I'm calling all the old apartments I lived in, is there a piece of long black silk there? We were like excuse me? He was like, it's cape. I lost this cape of mine. Bless his soul.  We went to the local hospital to ask if there was any kind of service we could help with for Christmas and they were like "No?" We were like well can we donate anything? "No." Okay well is there another time we could come back? "No." It was strange. ALSO there was a white rabbit just hopping around in the middle of centar. Just on this big tiled area, with no one around us. I didn't get a picture, but, yeah. Weird.  We played volleyball for a branch activity with some investigators and members and the elders saturday and I am still sore, it was super fun!

I had to translate part of fast and testimony meeting yesterday, the brother who spoke talked about how powerful and great it is that we get to partake of the sacrament. 

Okay another good story: We took a cheesy picture by our little tree in our apartment one night before bed, at district meeting the next day the elders were like wait you took a Christmas picture? Like one with Santa? We just played along with it and were like uh.. yeah yeah? So the next night it's like 8:30 we were doing calls and going through our area book and they called us and were like so like we found the Santa you were talking about in city centar, it's him right? Like you didn't just go to a photo place or anything right? I WAS CRYING I was laughing so hard. They somehow actually found a Santa. They thought we were for real. Oh my. So they got a picture with him I guess! The story goes on, but you will see that story on our Christmas card.

This guy handed me his business card on a street corner and I just said, "trade?" in a Serbian accent and handed him a restoration pamphlet. Hahaha. That was after a long day of contacting and I just needed a laugh. We talked to a couple and the man said he believes in the sun and in nature. I asked him how he knew that the sun will come up each morning. He said "from experience." I asked him if he would try an experiment for himself and read the book of Mormon and ask God if it was true!

God's work goes forward! I love you all and pray that you will be safe for finals and the holidays!

Love, 
Sister Richardson

дан захвалности = day of thankfulness

Zdravo from Beograd, Serbia! I am adjusting to a new country and language which I love just as much!

My last lesson in Rijeka, we taught our investigator Nanci and the lesson before we had kneeled and prayed with her that she could find a job. Well, this lesson she told us that ten minutes after that prayer and we had left, her old employer called her and told her she could have another job! I was sad to leave a lot of really cool people and new friends we were teaching that we had worked hard to find in Rijeka, but I love Beograd too. We are going to work hard here too to find people. It is really cold so we are having a meeting this week with the four elders serving here to see what we can do for finding activities because it's hard to get people to want to stop and talk to you in this cold! I tried to say snow yesterday- it's a slightly different word here. Also asked the landlord about his obitelj and he was confused- the word family is porodica here!

Thanksgiving we spent at the Rogerson's. They are one of four embassy families who are in our branch here. It was so good. We got jello and pumpkin pie which are two things they don't really have here, they have to buy them special from the embassy store. It was really nice to be in a house!

A dog got on one of the buses with us this week. He just hopped on and went person to person smelling them and I think looking for food. One guy was joking and was like where is your bus pass!? And kept asking the dog. I laughed really hard with him at this. Then the next stop the dog just hopped off! They are really smart. There was one we saw yesterday that I was scared was going to run into the road and so waiting at the crosswalk I whistled so it would come near instead of into the road but it just waited, then when it realized the sign was green and the cars were going the other way it walked across with us! Funny.

Sister Konietz, who is from Frankfurt, Germany (lives across the street from the temple) is great! I am excited to learn a few German words from her. She got really sick this week with a cold and aches and congested and I kept getting these weird headaches when I'd stand up and feel like puking when I'd eat. It was weird.. I would get up and work out at 6:30 and then just be exhausted or hurt or anything and end up asleep on the floor and she would try too to come do something and we'd both end up in bed, sleeping literally the whole day.  So we slept almost the whole day for three days. I am feeling pretty good now though, and we are sister training leaders for Serbia so we have leadership meeting in Zagreb today, so much travel! We watched Mr. Kreuguer's Christmas though. I tried to study but it kind of hurt my brain. We did go through a ton of the area book, we are following up and contacting a lot of former investigators.

For church Sunday we got to translate a primary class. Children are so smart. One like got up out of his seat and ran to point at a picture and was like Jesus blessing his disciples with the God's power! I had a smile the whole day after that.

Last P day when I sent a package home they gave me a nun's discount, 10% off, which I saw later on the receipt. Good stuff! 

Love you all!

"So much PDF everywhere"

Dobar dan,

Well.. news. I am going to Beograd, Serbia! Transfers are tomorrow. 

I am really excited! We spent four hours this morning de-registereing me from Rijeka and paying fees. I leave tomorrow morning and am know it will be another great chance to serve. It was sad yesterday to say all my goodbyes to the branch here. I really love everywhere I have met and taught and there are some really cool people here.

One of our investigators, Josipa, has accepted a baptismal date! For Dec. 20, but I won't be in Rijeka anymore. She is really cool. She like marked up her Book of Mormon and says she just thinks it's really interesting and she could really focus when she read it unlike other things she has to read and study. She is 17 and studying nursing. She gave me a hug after our lesson Saturday. 

This week we took 8 boxes of Book of Mormons (or is is Books of Mormon?) onto Korzo on Wednesday and Friday and handed them out with cards talking about it. We had them in lots of languages. A group had done this about a month earlier with the Koran but they also handed out a rose with it, so. Hard to compete with that! But I talked to some great people! One 25 year old man I talked to said, "You know, I've always wondered why the bible just kind of stops. I think God would try to talk to us." Točno. I also stopped one man that said, "sorry, English only" and I said well, I speak that better than I do Croatian! So we proceeded to talk together for a while. He was from Florida. He was working on the ship ports here and flies planes and stuff. He said in Florida he let the mormon boys in to talk about John Smith all the time. I said well do you have any free time on that boat? He laughed and said of course! I gave him an english book of mormon. :) And three of his friends one. I also had three seperate people ask me if I had ceramic teeth.. I said no I don't smoke.

On my last day of English class we took a picture and one of the students, Jadranka, came by the book of mormon activiy on the street and hugged and kissed me and gave me a huge Milka bar. I told her we didn't have those in America and she said well good, eat it all up! I just love the people here so much. We sang and danced the hokey pokey in class when we learned body parts. They laughed really hard with/at us.

There is this old man we talk to every Sunday at our bus stop as we both go off to church. I wrapped up a Mormonova Knjiga for him and sticky-noted 3rd Nefi 11 when Christ comes to the Americas and told him I was leaving so is was his Christmas gift. He told me this Sunday a story about how he "went to communist meetings for 18 years but then I found Jesus." He says people from his meetings asked him why he stopped coming, he said "come and see!" So he had people come to church with him and they were like you're right, love and agency is so baš lijepa. He told me he found the Lord Jesus when he was praying, that he asked if he was there and the Lord made him feel peace. He was so humbled by that and says that time, many years ago, was when I found Jesus and started my life.

More news. I bought some chocolate to give as gifts and the next morning.. I came out and there were nibbles eaten out of the paper and chocolate bar I had bought! So, we put out the mouse trap with chocolate on it. I got really sick one night- I think I got food poisoning from a dinner appointment.. anyways so the next morning I am laying in bed and the alarm goes off so I am like Sister Durfee, please tell me there is a mouse cause I cannot get up I still feel like death. She is like.. uhhh... so I come out and there it was in the trap! Gross. I gave a talk in church about choosing the correct path and decisions and made an analogy to the mouse and I think I grossed out a lot of the members. Woops! They all got a look of terror as I told the story. So that was gross. We promptly scrubbed the house from head to toe after and took it out and threw it in the trash outside. Yummy.

Okay so. One thing about Europe-- sister Durfee and I were waiting at a crosswalk light and there was a couple across the street eating each other's faces (kissing very intensely, for anyone who didn't catch that) and we couldn't avoid looking near them because we had to wait to see when the light would change and we could go across. People, especially young high school kids are just kissing and hugging and they have no problem doing anything and everything in public. So we finally awkwardly pass them as the light changed and we crossed the street and Sister Durfee said, "so much PDF everywhere." I started wheezing I was laughing so hard and I said, "did you just say.. PDF? as in portable document format?" I laughed and laughed I had to stop walking and I cried I was laughing so hard. She had meant PDA.. as in public display of affection. So, that is something I will quote for the rest of my life.

"The harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few." Luke 10:2

"Fear not, from thence forth thou shalt catch men." Luke 5:10

I LOVE YOU ALL.
Sestra Richardson

me and English class students, the NASTY MOUSE, the book of mormon finding activity.

our alternative less painful? mouse trap, day two of finding, end of transfer dinner the senior couple treated us to

A week in Zagreb

Hi my loves! 

(PS I made my blog private, if you want viewing privileges just email me and I can add you)

Sunday was district conference, for the whole district of Croatia, in Zagreb at the chapel. It was great to see members from all around the country! After that I had an exchange with Sister Marks so I just stayed in Zagreb and her companion went home with mine. We contacted on the street a few people who talked about how the Bible is really confusing to them. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and the Bible together and about modern day prophets. I am again, just so grateful that I know exactly what is expected of me and what I can do to return to live with God!

Zagreb was a lot of work. Hard work. Sister Marks is a lot of fun and we just talked and talked and talked and worked. She just gets me and really understands missionary work. It was a breath of fresh air! We had a meeting with President Grant about facebook English class pages and I spent some time designing, updating, etc. etc. just a lot of things that needed finalization. Check out facebook.com/RijekaEnglish and there are like 12? other pages too of what we have been doing! Lots of work. I'm glad everything is (hopefully) finalized though now. Never thought I'd be using that skill on my mission! The best part is they only have ghetto programs on the church computers like paint and microsoft publisher, unlike using adobe illustrator like I'm used to. We made logos and flyers and updated a lot of things in the mission! 

I bore my "Aggiemony" to Sister Marks during the exchange, and since this is her last transfer she will be going home soon. She decided that she wanted to go to Utah State too so we like did her application and everything and that night made a blue smoothie to celebrate! An awesome member, Ivana,  fed us rabbit, deer, and boar stew that I literally was picking bones out from as I ate. It was very flavorful! The same member we went with to Varaždin for P day and the "center of the world".. see the pictures. AND especially for the Richardson family would love to know, we got milk out of a machine on the side of the road! I will send a picture.

We drove President's car to run a few errands and the lights were broken (we had to take it into the shop the next morning) so only the brights or no lights worked! Cars honked at us the whole time that our brights were on. Not our fault! Zagreb's English class is super cool, one baka brought us oranges and chocolates which was great because we were so busy this week that we just kind of forget to eat, I lost 10 pounds haha so no complaints here! 

We exchanged back on Friday, and Lucky and his son David came to Aktivnost! So, turns out he is actually not a Catholic minister, but was in the ministry for a Catholic priest, which means he was a priest's assistant thing for most of his teenage years. We played UNO and games with him and he got to meet a lot of members and asked a lot about baptism because of a wall of pictures we have of people's baptisms. He kept telling members at Aktivnost how I had stopped him on the street and basically forced the book of Mormon into his hands and made him read a verse and he felt something crazy powerful, and that we stopped him while he was on the way to church that night at Trsat- a huge Catholic cathedral!

We taught another new investigator this week, Josipa. We actually found her like 3 weeks ago talking to her on the street and I kept calling and calling her. Finally she answered and I asked if we could meet up and talk more. She said both her and her mom have been reading from the Book of Mormon I gave her and wanted to talk the next day! Her mom ended up not being able to come to the lesson, but we taught her and she loved it. She hugged us at the end and was beaming. The spirit truly touched her. The member we had in on the lesson asked us to hold of on teaching her tithing because she thought it would scare her away. Hahaha. She is a senior in what we would call high school. The Lord knows her, he knows each of us! It's really cool that after talking to, contacting, tracting thousands of people that the Lord blesses us and shows us his elect! 

Transfers are announced Thursday morning via a mission-wide email, we'll see where this next transfer will take me or if I'll enjoy a warm winter in Rijeka! 

LOVE YOU ALL. 

castle in Varaždin, P day, getting milk from a machine! I have drank almond milk my whole mission, but I couldn't resist that and it made me feel horrible inside haha but it tasted good! 

The week the car vanished

Dobro jutro,

You're probably dying to know why the title of this email is. Well. To make an exhausting story short... once upon a time we got the car keys from the senior couple this Thursday and went to get the car where they had parked it last. IT WASN'T THERE. So we searched and searched and no luck. We, the Elders, and the senior couple are all searching at this point at like 9pm and they realize that actually, we were the last ones to drive it, on Sunday for a dinner, and so where we parked it it should be. We went to where we had parked it.. no car. We called the APs because we needed it to get to Slovenia the next day for a trainee meeting. They gave us the towing number.. the next morning we called and sure enough they had our car. No one really ever gave me instructions on the car and where to park it.. so turns out you can only park in certain blue spaces in a north park of Rijeka. Cool. So after we paid 500KN to get it out of the tow place the next day, (like 100USD) we were on our way and all was well in Slovenia. Now I guess I can say I've had my car towed in a foreign country? Hm. President called at one point in the night I told him Don't stress! Don't stress! He thought that was hilarious that I would tell him not to stress especially when we were the one with the vanishing car.

This P day we went and hiked up to an old bunker on the hill. It was really cool, really sketchy. We went tracting that night and an old baka let us in and we tried to talk with her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. She told us how hard life had been for her, we shared with her words of peace and comfort and quoted some things from the book of Mormon. She made us eat bananas and told us about her family who had all passed away. She showed us her bible, held together by bandaids. SHE WAS SO SWEET. I thought about the widow's mite, and even though she had so little she gave so much. As we were leaving she tried to give us all the money she had in her wallet and told her thank you for telling people about Jesus Christ. We would not take her money but she insisted we take all the fruit she had- like 4 bananas and 2 apples and gave us 2 chocolate bars and cried as we left and said we were so beautiful. She really was so giving and sweet. Not something we expected but, hey, that's a mission. We also tracted and met a Buddhist-Christian. She was really nice too and we talked about why the word of Wisdom is actually a great idea and how she agrees with it one hundred percent.

There was a movie about Amish people that was translated into Croatian with the title as "Mormoni" and I had a record 6 people ask me this week about that and I proceeded to pull out the phone and be like yeah so, I also only have one mom and one dad too. Good to clear these things up.

I'm on a week long exchange in Zagreb this week with Sister Marks. She is super cool, we had district conference yesterday and that was so uplifting. Jesus Christ is our Savior and our Redeemer. Our Heavenly Father knows us and cares about us, 

I LOVE YOU ALL

Sister Richardson

Elder Dyches, birds, bunnies, big Book of Mormons

Bok svima, 

Everyone asked for more details this week. This email will be my attempt at more details. So the Croatian Book of Mormon has Moroni 10:3-5 in it in the very front. I love opening that to people on the street and having them read that promise and then talking about how if we ask God in the name of Jesus Christ, sincerely, that we can know if the book is true! So on Tuesday we were walking from club heart to the church and I said this prayer that I would contact every person from there to the church that God would put in my path because we didn't have a lot of contacting/tracting time that day. We were walking up the street and I stopped this really nice girl who said she had read the Bible many times and used to believe in God but doesn't know anymore. I testified about the Book of Mormon and that God exists, He loves her and He knows her. She read Moroni 10:3-5 and just burst into tears and hugged me tight and then Sister Durfee and said it's a good thing it's a good thing! she said they were good tears. She said thank you so much and we talked a little more and gave her the Book of Mormon. There are just a lot of people here that are ready for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The elect hear the word and remember it from when they were told the plan of salvation in heaven. 

We printed a huge Book of Mormon this week for a sweet family we are teaching. We wanted a bigger copy so lds.org is awesome and we totally just printed and bound one for him! What a blessed time we live in that we can do that and have so many resources available to us. When we went to teach him (this is the minister and his family) he asked us a lot of questions about life, the world, what the purpose is. We prayed really hard in planning his lesson and what we should teach and made a picture of the plan of salvation and taught about that. It was perfect. He cried and said he is always searching for answers. He said he will be baptized when he finds out it is true. He said the sweetest prayer at the end of our last lesson and cried and said he is so happy and I cried a little bit too. They are a really sweet family, really patient and really loving. Really excited to learn too. We are really blessed to have met them.

OH MY I am just #blessed I don't even know where to start with this Thursday. First we get the car, drive to head to Zagreb for zone conference and we're stopped on the side/the middle of the street next to a Tisak (like a stand with treats and magazines and such) and I'm in the car with my hazards on while (you park almost anywhere if your hazards are on) Ses D is ten feet away buying us granola bars for later on. The cops speed up behind us and the driver gets out and runs around I thought towards me, I really was shaking I thought we were going to get ticketed or something! I am just always on high alert. But they were just buying a snack at the Tisak too so I was a little shakey from that....

Then we had zone conference. We talked about numbers, we talked about success stories, we talked about FAITH. Faith is so important. Faith can move mountains. We talked about the difference between hard work and hard work with faith. Elder Dyches from the second quorum of the seventy came and taught and it was really powerful. At the end he asked if anyone had questions and no one did, but an Elder raised his hand and said will you just keep talking? It was really cool. Then president Grant came up and told me that Elder Dyches was going to interview someone from the mission and that it was going to be me! So there is this quote in Preach My Gospel about how not to share all the spiritual experiences you have just willy nilly because they are sacred and personal, and that's what that interview was. I am really lucky though that I got to spend some time talking to him. How about a promise if you write me a handwritten letter I'll share some of his wisdom with you? :) Just kidding, I'll share a little here.  We talked about training, trainers, life, even raising kids, missions, sports, and the world. At the end he asked me if I had anything to ask him, because it might be my only chance to ask a general authority a question in a setting like this. I asked him what one decision in his life has made the biggest change in his life? So much wisdom from him. It was really powerful. I prayed and thanked God for that opportunity. It was really powerful, my body was all warm and kind of like a burning inside, hard to describe, when I talked to him. These witnesses of God truly have the spirit about them. I made the comment that for a doctor he had good handwriting and signed my planner to prove you could read his signature. He said his dad was a pharmacist and always complained about doctor's handwriting.

THANK YOU MOM FOR THE PACKAGE AND THE NEW AGGIE GAME DAY SHIRT. YESSS. Okay also I got a letter from a "Jeff Barry" who lives in Logan and all it had in it was the USU beating BYU news story, that's it. I do not know a Jeff Barry unless I am just losing my mind.. so. Anyone know about that? I rejoiced though and loved it!

Okay a worldly story, sorry. Yesterday we were talking to someone outside the church on the sidewalk and all the sudden I just like smell something so gross, like I thought I was going to throw up it was so strong and I just started running toward the church building doors to run up there because I thought I was going to lose my non-existent breakfast (fast sunday) and Sestra Durfee runs after me and was like I think a bird just "went" on my head! Sure enough, there was this slop of green mess on her hair, it was so so so so gross like. I wish I could email a smell you would maybe pass out it was so bad. So we run and scream up to the church, I stuck her head in the shower and washed it out and put dish and hand soap in it. Don't worry though, we got a good picture. So disgusting. Who does that even happen to? Besides us. We had to laugh like all day. She sat through church with wet hair. 

So they don't do Halloween here but the younger crowd knows what it is. We were practicing contacting approaches on a side street together and a about 20 year old came up and was like hey! You're nuns for the Halloween party tonight that is so awesome! We laughed and started to teach him and he was like I'm kidding, I know you are "Mormoni." But, instead of Halloween they have "Svi Sveti" which translates to all holy but I think it's like all saints day in the states. A mix between that and memorial day. We went and visited Ivan's mom's grave and put down and lit candles and brought flowers. It was really peaceful and a strong spirit was there. He told his conversion story and how he has been prepared for the gospel. It was really powerful. 

I love you all! Make good choices!

Sestrichardson

ripping open the package, the halloween aktivnost for our branch, one of the coolest members in the world, Emma. she gave me that necklace (she made it)! 

my glasses case from the states, street "brother pants", at a gorgeous house of our friend Matea- she and her family fed us dinner last night. she is great!

Zima is here

Dobro jutro,

I've really seen the hand of God in my life this week. One quick example: So we taught two hours of English classes, covering one class for the Elders and then we ran up and all around by the church looking for the car we share as missionaries in Rijeka. We were going to drive it home to take it the next day for an exchange. We found it finally- and we get in, Sestra Durfee stands behind the car to back me out and I  try to turn it on- the key wouldn't turn. The wheels were locked, you know how cars do that? Anyways I was just kind of at the end of my patience rope for the day, I told her to get in the car because I was going to pray. She got in, I spurted out a really impatient, but really sincere prayer in English (we never pray in English) and told our Heavenly Father that I really just did not have it in me to try and figure out the car right now. I ended the prayer, we sat there for a minute. I turned the key- it worked. I shed like three tears as we drove away safely to our house and Sestra Durfee prayed again and thanked God. Just so many blessings I see. Every day. 

Our English class is really getting into asking some great questions. At the end of every class we give like a three minute spiritual thought. They had lots of good questions, we ended up talking about the restoration.  I am really excited to talk and teach them more. They are really excited too. 

I finally watched some of conference in English- wasn't Elder Bednar's talk powerful? How he said, "In a future day, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Jesus the Christ absolutely is the Only Begotten Son of the Eternal Father. As members of His Church, we witness He lives and His Church has been restored in its fullness in these latter days." What a powerful testimony from an apostle of God!

We had an exchange this week- Sister Orgill came and Sestra Durfee went! We met two hours between Zadar and Rijeka. That was so nice. Sestra Orgill is like the perfect missionary ever in my eyes and she taught me a lot! So that was in total 8 hours of me driving this week! It was really windy on the roads.. like the warning signs said cars were going to blow off the road! And they have before.. so we had to be careful. It also snowed in Otočac a little as we were just driving through. Crazy! Sister Durfee is from Arizona and was so thrilled with the snow. 

I finished studying Matthew this week. My testimony of the Savior continues to grow. He loves us so much. I think of how much I love my brothers, and sister, and everyone! He loves us that much and even more perfectly and He died so we could all be together as a big family forever. There is nothing really much cooler. 

One night Sestra Durfee made a whole pan of brownies, the next night I made a pan of peach cobbler. We ran out of food at the end of the week but had flour, sugar and cocoa and I found an old can of peaches! Sestra Durfee said "I am becoming so domestic and will "get wifed" so quick when I get home." I told her I am not cooking again the rest of my mission. Hahahaha. It got FREEZING here this week. I got yelled at a few times for not wearing tights so I got those out for the winter and my coat and mens sweaters (thank you Target) and that was that.

GUESS WHAT. So remember when we contacted that Catholic minister? We got to teach him yesterday! And his wife and their 4 year old son! They are the most precious little family! We taught the restoration, we taught them how to pray. He said a really sincere prayer at the end and they totally agreed to read the Book of Mormon! When we talked about the authority of God they really listened and did not argue, did not question, we just talked about how they can ask God themselves to see if what we teach is true. THEY ARE SO SO SO GREAT. They gave us sok and fruit and were just so great! They were sad to see us go when we left. I asked him why after that initial first time we met him on the street he wanted to talk with us more. He said he just felt like this special glow all around us and something special. We walked out of their house yesterday just beaming. We rounded the corner nearby and I shed like two tears and we offered a prayer of thanks to God for leading us to this special family! The wife owns her own salon so I joked I might get a new hair color or trim so we can have even more time to talk with them! I can not even explain how happy we are for them.

I love you all!

Sestra Richardson

carving pumpkins for aktivnost, a boat thing from last p day, IT IS SO WINDY and cold

Krštenje AnaMarie

Bok bok bok,

I just got fingerprinted! My visa is almost done! That is exciting news. BUT MORE EXCITING...

ANAMARIA CHOSE TO GET BAPTIZED. 

It was so beautiful. 

She was so happy. 

It was like that innocent, peaceful, happiness and the spirit of God was there! There is nothing better. I promise. You just can't trade a worldly moment for seeing something as special as that moment was and feeling the spirit like that. We have been teaching her for about a month, her dad is a member. She has wanted to be baptized for a long time now, it was just kind of a matter of making it happen. We set up the font (big pool) and filled it up Friday, it took several hours. I played the piano (thanks mom) and said the opening prayer for the service. It was so beautiful! And one of our investigators came because he wanted to see how it worked! It was just such a blissful day. Just the fact that I got to see it was just. So cool. She was beaming after, really excited. 

More things: we went to Bakar for last P day, we got there and realized all there was to do was look at like old houses and a church and so we just came back. But a cute little city.  We had a mexican night for family home evening. Sister Durfee and I made a pinjata out of water bottles and made it into the shape of a cactus. It was.. ghetto. Robi totally destroyed it with a bat and we ate tacos.  Some guy we contacted we talked to and he asked us if he could take a picture of us. I was looking great- no makeup, spilled something on my skirt. It was great. Not sure why he asked that. But he was heading to the states in a few days to go on a Caribbean cruise. SO long story short, if you see a pic of Sestra Durfee and I floating around on the internet, that's where it's from. 

We went running in pouring rain. Need I say more? English class was great, as usual. Tracting this week we had lots of people tell us we just came by a few days ago (the Jehoviah's witnesses) and a few people like "there are two girls at the door- Mormons- from America who can't speak this language!" and just laugh and laugh at us. It was quite the experience. 

We have some awesome investigators, one we read the Book of Mormon aloud with in a lesson yesterday and she was like wait.. can we read more? So we read more with her! She is super excited about it.

Guys. Why am I on a mission? Happiness. Even when we just have a moment to teach and testify in the street for a moment and teach about how much God loves them, the plan of salvation, etc. people feel it! They feel the happiness that we carry. Life can be hard, the mission can be hard, but we are most happiest when we follow Jesus Christ! We follow Him. We try to be like Him. That's why I'm here. That's the message everyone needs to hear. The happiest, most important message in the world. 

Doviđenja, 

Sestra Richardson

pics: Bakar seaside, AnaMaria's baptism, running in the rain in the morning.