This week has been a week of laughs, hard work, and knowing that God looks out for me.
First: Sestra K and I said the most sincere prayer I have ever said in my life this week, for the interpretation of tongues. We were outside a building about to go in and teach a crucial lesson. A couple we are teaching need to get married before they can get baptized. They really want to be baptized but it is expensive. We taught about faith and how faith precedes the miracle and shared how Enos had to ACT first and did what he could so the Lord could answer his prayer. I literally understood every single world she said to us from the time we said the closing. I testified that we are all brothers and sisters and God wants us to work together and love and support each other and that He is always there for us, and that we are in this together! She and I cried, the spirit was so strong and I felt like someone was there giving me a warm hug. Through her tears she said she knew that we were truly sisters because real sisters cry together! We gave her a baptismal calendar and she is going to write down where she reads in the scriptures every day. They have been being taught since January. Her Book of Mormon is super marked up. She is just praying every day to God for strength. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. Literally right after we kneeled and said a prayer with her and said Amen I could no longer understand her. God had blessed me in that moment. It's lessons like that that walk out of them and you are like THE MISSION IS ALL WORTH IT. God knows us, he answers our prayers! We walked out and said a prayer of thanks in the middle of the street.
My come-to-Jesus-moment for the week.. We were walking and I said.. sometimes I wish Jesus would just pop down here for a minute, show everyone a miracle and then they would all know the truth and would believe. So, in my personal study the next morning I happened to be around Alma 30. That's just not how it works! Even when Jesus was on the earth, his whole life people rejected Him. We need to have faith like a little seed, nourish it and grow it by READING and PRAYING every single day. Faith is not based of seeing, it's based on believing and acting on that belief so you can receive knowledge through the Holy Ghost!
The keyboards here have the Y and the Z switched and the symbols are all in weird spots so I apologize for that in advance.. some emails are just liekeasdjfčaklsjdčflka cannot tzpe
Okay the nun story you all have been waiting for: We are waiting at the bus stop one evening, and me, (thinking okay, talk to everyone, talk to everyone...because hey that is what preach my gospel says to do and am obedient) so this man is pacing back and forth and he looks nice and I say dobra večer! And he is like "Oh beautiful girls.." and he leans in to look at my badge (EVERYONE STARES AT YOUR BADGE. EVERYONE. but it is usually a blessing) and he is like Reek-hurrddsin? Isus Krist? and I'm like yes do you believe in Christ?! And he says do you have boyfriends? This is the point in the story where I realize he is very very drunk and take a few steps back. He puts his hand on Sestra Kropushek's waist so she also steps back and we look at each other.. look back at him and are like.. "yes. yes we do." and everyone around us was just like ?? So he hops on some bus I don't even think was his and we just laughed so much. BUT THEN a nun comes walking down to the bus stop. Like her whole black and white hat outfit and all of it. She is like is this the stop for the Trsat bus? We said yes. So she is like what are your badges? And then after a few questions figures out we are "Mormoni!" She asks what I enjoy in life.. so I tell her, "nogomet!" (soccer) and she just looked at us like we were the most unholy people ever and that was such an unholy thing for us to even think about. So I thought maybe she just didn't understand so I said it again and she was like no I understand. And she asked what do you like about Jesus? I said that he is my brother and that he died so we could live together as families! She said that was beautiful and agreed and Sestra Kropushek said we also believe in the Book of Mormon and HANDED HER A BOM PASS ALONG CARD. WE GAVE A NUN A BOOK OF MORMON PASS ALONG CARD. By far one of the most proud moments of my mission. Hahahahaha. So she got on her bus and we smiled and she waved as it drove off! When she was out of sight we just burst into tears laughing and were like did that for real just happen?!
Sometimes the buses here look like you could travel time in them and other times they are like wooden desk chairs and I can't even understand. I got a bus pass though. Also we went to a little Cafe called Coccos for lunch hour one day and I looked at the menu and told him I wanted some kind of pasta and he was like sory we don't have that. After trying to order more things he was like riba? I said mirzim... (I hate fish) So I said krumpire? (potatoes?) and he said something at a million miles per hour and essentially told us what he would make for us. Whatever it was.. he brought it and we ate it and it was good! There was some kind of potato on there though. I translated the receipt when we got home and it said "turkey with much sauce and pepper" hahahaha. More good stories: we rode up seven floors in a pitch black elevator and could not understand what the lady in there was trying to tell us. So we just laughed. We also saw a pigeon with a peg leg and now we see it EVERYWHERE. People wear ridiculous shirts here that say English things that don't even make sense. Usually something along the lines of "drugs, guns, baseball, Beyonće, shopping, love small children" I asked a kid what his name was in line at McDonalds (yes they have one- it's super gourmet here though) and he yelled SPIDERMAN and then spit out a lot of Croatian. I played the piano in church on Sunday for the Elders singing a duet. Thanks mom. We had branch conference and that was sweet. We went to Trsat Castle on Friday for our branch Aktivnost. The Elders forgot to tell us we could wear our P day clothes so we went home and changed because I am not going to pass up on a chance to wear pants. Ever. A member ordered us a pizza and palačinke and had it sent to our house at like 8pm. The members here are so nice. Mom you know that one blue dress with the baroque looking pattern? A member loved it and literally talked about it alllll day to every person we met as we went to a lesson she helped us with. She said she was going to get fabric like it for herself and make one. She took a picture of it and everything.
I can honestly say I have never been hit on more than on my mission. The men here are not like creeps (usually) (this is the part where I tell you not to worry about me though mom for real) but they are very straight forward. Yesterday like every door that opened when we were tracting old men would be like oh pretty girls! when they open the door and we're just like.. what do you think the purpose of life is? and they're like oh to have one beautiful woman on each arm and we're just like actually do you want to read the book of Mormon? And such. It's good fun. I like just contacting in the streets better than door to door because you can "pick" your audience a little more. There are a lot of atheists here. They love to talk about how they believe what is in front of them. I am like-- well look, this Momonova Kniga is in front of you! Oh how I love Croats.
We got a new investigator on the bus. I started the conversation by telling her I liked her shirt because it was yellow like the sun. She said I speak beautiful Croatian, better than some Croats. That is a first I've heard that! Maybe a last. She is a student and said she is busy but that we could come by some time. The bus is nice because people cannot run away from you. Except when drunks talk to you on the bus and you get off not at your stop so you can avoid them..
OH! We went to klub srce (club heart) this week and were on the news! It's a school for special needs students in Croatia. We talked with them and I matched one boy there exaclty.. like orange top blue skirt/shorts so we got a picture. We donated all these big appliances and so senior couples were there and they gave us cake. We teach English classes there when it is not summer.. so starting in like Sept. I'll forward that article. It's been kind of rainy but usually you come home and you are just really sweaty and gross and sticky. Mmm. We go through at least a whole bottle of nutella each week- just Sestra K and I. The Europe stereotype is real-- they LOVE nutella. We don't even buy nutella brand here. We buy a huge bottle of the cheap brand.
LOVE YOU
Sestra Richardson
PS you send EVERYTHING.. letters packages all that to the mission office which is...
Sestra Jill Richardson
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
10000 Zagreb Croatia
(it has to be exactly like that or it goes to customs and such. so be careful)
pictures: from last P day, the Elders PAID to dress up in these super authenik (I cannot even remember how to spell this word in English) costumes as we walked around the Colosseum, a statue in the middle of Korzo- a street we love to contact up and down. I'll send more pictures to my dad for him to put on the blog.
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