vidimo se

No time this week to write--  it was a great week, and we made it without and GPS all the way from Sarajevo, to Tuzla, to Zagreb. 

I will be home Tuesday night!

 

On Saturday, December 12 from 6 to 9 PM you can come stop by my house if you feel so inclined!

 

Talk - on Sunday, December 13 at 9 AM.  Our church address is 2633 South 50 West in Bountiful.  

Hvala i cujemo se,

Sestra Richardson

Spasitelj se rodi!

Poz., 

decided to share this week in points:

- showed meet the mormons to our english class, ten of them stayed to watch it and loved it and actually had questions related to mormonism

- last night - (we are tracting a lot more now because so so cold) the first door on the 18th floor wont let us in, we knock some more doors, she comes back and is like wait! I read your card and come in, so we taught her two lessons!!!! the restoration and the plan of spasenje

​THIS CARD!!! is the one she read.

bozic.mormon.org anyone?

- had a lesson with the mother of the first missionary from Bosnia! He is serving in England right now. she is so solid. told us about how she had a dream that she would add more to her beliefs (she was muslim) about ten years ago, and how she now realizes that her dream is fulfilled and she knows of the fullness of the gospel! we actually shared JS-matthew with her, she is super deep. 

- ate sarma, there is a place across from the church that is like a student eatery and has alllll balkan food for super cheap. SO GOOD

​

- tracting met this man who was like "i have all the holy books" and I whipped out the book of mormon and he was like nope...and we handed it to him, and he was like now I have all the books! hmmm

- made a pumpkin pie, who knew you actually cook the crust and the pie filling at the same time? not sister lee and i. sorry mom

- talking to a guy on the street "oh i know all about mormons, my brother lives in salt lake.... (five minutes later) are you jehovahs witnesses?"

- Met a Croatian who showed us his picture kissing the pope's hand. he promised a lesson with us. he worked security for when the pope came to sarajevo this last summer, had some stories

- Got yelled a refferal (go talk to my neighbor! they believe in God!) and it led us to a strange tunnel and a dark door, lots of spiders, no one answered.

- people telling us very, very, interesting stories...more than in any other city. this is a very very interesting city I am in

- contacted some people who had taken english classes from missionaries in banja luka

- SUPER nice girl gave us her number and agreed to have a lesson, but bailed :(

- sister lee got sick, slept for 14 hours straight, then we worked through the rest of it

- waiter told us he learned english listening to Tupac CDs during the war

- ladies gave us candy and oranges while tracting

-translated a talk up front in church (FROM english to bosnian....) rough.

- Thanksgiving - so we had mexican food at the senior couples house here. not sure why, thats just what they chose and wanted to do? mexican food and pumpkin pie. then we went to the sarajevo city hall because we got 3 free time hours for thanksgiving

​

​It is very very cold. Many layers being worn in this picture

I know you are expecting this email to be something really mushy about how the mission has completely changed my life and such.

It has.

But, it is not just making it through all of your mission and then on to home or semester to semester or life step to job, etc.! It is about enduring, with joy, to the end and living the gospel joyfully and gratefully every single day of our lives! This is just a piece of my life and I am excited for more. I am grateful for the knowledge I have gained on my mission, for the people God has helped me work with. I am still changing, and I still want to pray and learn and read and work hard! I know that God knows our situation always, and he wants us to see the good in it. Man, has this been a hard 18 months. I think I omitted most of those hard moments from my emails. A lot of time spent in prayer. One thing I do know and I am proud to say is that I know Jesus Christ redeemed us from our mistakes in this life, and when we feel we cant go on or that something is too hard or we are too tired, He knows. He knows! We can trust in Him, we can find strength in Him. I am happy I made the decision to serve and mission and I would do it again. I am grateful that I even have this opportunity at all. Every time in life when we think we are going to do something to try and, in a sense "pay back God" for all he has done for us, we just end up seeing more miracles and more love in our life,, we understand more, we receive blessings. 

This week a friend emailed me: “The best missionaries are not the ones who have had the greatest number of baptisms, or who have given the most discussions, or who know the most doctrine; the best missionaries are those who, when they have finished their missions, feel as though the Lord could put his hand on their shoulders and say, ‘My son, you have done all that I have commanded you to do. I am pleased with your labors.’”

Volim vas i cujemo se,

Sestra Richardson

Sarajevo, Bosna sa sestrom Lee

Zdravo, 

This week was all kinds of new. For pday we went and visited one of my favorite members, Djuli, in the hospital. She is on bed rest, she is 5 months pregnant, and wanted us to teach her friend that she was in the same room as. She was so bold with teaching her! We loved sitting there talking to all of them. We were talking about the fall of Adam and her friend was like oh but when my child is born and that is his first sin and the member was like no! Nope, lie. Do you think that he is really sinning by being born? And lots of other things we talked about. Random meeting with them, but we loved it. The Zagreb sisters are now teaching her friend (during hospital visiting hours). 

Momcilo and prayer this week- praying in the name of Christ, praying from the heart, all of it! He really got it in our lesson Monday night. He gave such a good one. Cried.

On Wednesday I got out of the shower (I feel like all important calls on my mission come while I am in the shower) and President had called, we called back and he told me to pack alll everything up! So I packed and we went to the office, I got Sister Bradley and we did some more switching and running people places. That night we stayed at the mission home and then the next morning I was up at 5 to register for classes and we drove to BEOGRAD! Surprise there. Stayed one night there with Sister Barrett, the next morning Sister Lee and I drove a good 6? hours to Sarajevo. They just got a new apartment and it is nice, but more importantly I love the people here. 

I feel like I just got transferred to another mission again. Go from teaching Catholics to teaching Orthodoxs (sp) to teaching Catholics, to teaching Muslims! They are such, such kind people. Really I feel like I am in a different mission. Talking about holy books, covenants, messengers from God. There are mosques, catholic churchs, and call to prayer in Arabic every morning, throughout the day, and night! You can hear it pretty well almost anywhere you are. The people here are SO NICE though. I have never, never had so many people actually talk to me!!!!!! 

Other things from this week:

ate canned meat sauce (pashteta)

was in the car for a total of 18 hours

no one says amen at the end of prayers.. because we say them in the name of Christ

had a dinner with one of the leaders of the Muslim community here and he showed us his mosque in his house

sister lee told me world war one started here, interesting city

gave a talk in english in church on the spot? because only one embassy family and one other american family were at church, and all six missionaries and one member who insisted I do it in English. very very strange. So one local was at church this week. But, it is a branch here! not a twig!

Got to skype teach an investigator in kosovo, while in beograd

THE INTERNET is the driving force in my mission right now! we are seeing miracles!!!

Copied and pasted:

We also got to see the impact of technology in missionary work this week. The missionaries in Kranj received a media referral about a woman in their area. They contact and meet this woman and find she has already read the Book of Mormon and is praying. Several weeks prior she had started playing a computer game with a man from Australia. His game name (striplingwarrior) and several other things raised questions for this woman that led to gospel discussion. This member sends her a Slovene Book of Mormon and tells her to read and pray about it. She reads it cover to cover in 3 weeks and then started offering kneeling prayers. The missionaries are now in contact with her and are helping her progress towards baptism. She also is married and has two children that will be coming with her to church this next Sunday.

Also, one really really cool story involving me. I was asked to make a document of all the internet success stories.

In August 2014, a woman named K messaged a sister in the ANM, “Jill, I am not sure if your mission allows the use of social media or not  but I see you are serving in a mission that covers Serbia.  I have a friend who lives in Čačak, Serbia.  I met her when she was working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean.  Does your mission cover her area?” 

Čačak was opened as a group on October 11, 2015. On November 6, 2015 this same sister had been called to help manage Facebook and websites for the mission. She saw the message and replied, “Hi Kayla! Good news, we just opened up a group in Cacak and we have two full-time Elders newly assigned there. Are you still in contact with your friend?”  It was the Lordćs plan that she saw the message when she did, more than a year later, when there was a newly opened group there and Elders assigned to teach! 

After more discussion, Kayla replied, “I have been messaging her (Jelena). This was her reply when I asked if the missionaries could come by.: ‘that is so nice...i am so proud and happy that they are here....i will go to our church and ask for them, i would like to meet them and talk...... really great’ “

She explained to Jelena what Church the missionaries were from. She asked for her number and said she seemed open for a visit. Jelena’s number was given to the Elders in Čačak, and they had a first lesson with her on November 18. When Elders Ewell and Matthews called her she said she wanted to meet the next day. An hour before the appointment, she called and wanted to be sure they would come! She knew nothing about the Church, except that her friend she had met on the cruise was a Mormon. The Elders had a first lesson with her, she accepted a Book of Mormon. She asked about what the Church is like in Čačak and the worship service, she said she would like to come.

More interesting things I can tell you when I get home. 

I love being a missionary. I love serving with Sister Lee! She came out the group after me, she is super sweet. From Idaho. 

I was studying this week about Jerusalem, when Jeremiah and Lehi prophesied that it would be destroyed.  I was thinking about the modern-day warnings we received from prophets. Do we listen to all the counsel we are given? Or do we shrug it off and say it is not for us.. R-rated movies, modesty, internet usage, video gaming, word of wisdom, DAILY scripture study, prayer. We are all guilty in one way or another of not heeding to some counsel, but the best question to ask is how I can I change so I can do better tomorrow?

​Sarajevo- apparently nicknamed the city of stars because that's what all the houses on the hills look like

walls across from our apartment..

Lep pes

Dobar dan brate in sestre (slovenian), 

This week we skyped Momcilo three times. He is in the Berlin mission boundaries, some branch there. I kid you not when I tell you he is the most solid person I have taught my whole mission. We taught him a lesson about prayer that was very simple, but he seemed to finally get it. Then we each, us 5 missionaries (two elders in Germany, us three sestra here) went around and each said a prayer to demonstrate. We talked about how just like if you were to call your earthly dad, you wouldn't just recite the same thing to him every week, you would tell him how you feel, you would tell him you love him, and ask for help! So he said this short, short, simple prayer and then as we were congratulating him and saying thanks he told us there was a weird warm energy in the room he was in! We were like ah, yes, that is the Holy Ghost and it confirms truth! Then he insisted on reciting a few other prayers. I am so pumped. His baptism is now scheduled for Dec. 6- my last Sunday in the mission. Hopefully I will be able to tune in via Skype. Really I would get yelled at for another 18 months just to have another investigator like him! He said that after he gets baptized he wants to use a nickname from the Book of Mormon, (this is a tradition taken from another religion..but I think its not blasphemous if he wants to do it), but he says he doesn't want it to be a prophet or anything because he is not that good yet, but he wants a name who was a follower of Christ. At the end of another lesson, he proceeded to told us that he had done all the homework in the "additional study" section at the back of the word of wisdom pamphlet and taught US for a good 20 minutes about all he had learned. He read us scriptures, made an analogy, all this stuff. He told us he could never thank us enough for even having Skyped him one time, let alone now like the 8 or 9 times. I cried! Ah. The spirit is enlightening. 

We have been "inducting" Sister Rhodes this week. Ate at our favorite restaurant, went running, ate at the Hallings apartment, watched seminary videos during dinner, she showered in the moldy shower, eating many many loaves of bread, handed off email addresses, passwords, websites, phone, etc. She will be great! I am excited. I think I am getting moved to Sarajevo next week but I am not sure.. they are trying to prep for next transfers, who will train the new missionaries.  She told me that it is bad to wash my hair every day so I tried to do it every other and a bee attacked me, indoors. So I yelled, "It smelled my hair!" and swatted it. Sister Allred has it on video.

The couch has been giving me crazy dreams and I wake up half on and half off of it. I think it might have to do with that I register for classes this week and I have noooo idea what I am doing. 

Yesterday I was Sister Grant's companion. She, President Grant, and I drove to Celje, Slovenia and gave the internet presentation there. There were a few side comments that I could not understand, language barrier is real again! It was cool though to talk to them for a while. I am so grateful for them!!!! We drove back a "faster way" but got lost. Got to see some Slovenian countryside!

From the AP's email: "The missionaries in Zadar met a man at church yesterday who has been studying about the church on the internet for a year now! He lives far away from the branch but chose to come this Sunday. It's no coincidence that the Zadar branch was having a Flood the Earth training/lesson this very day! The members felt a great desire to engage in online missionary work when they saw this fellow brother who, though far away, had come to love the church through the internet!"

We also had a lesson with a less active family from Venezuela. The dad doesn't want the 12 year old son to be baptized because he doesn't think he knows enough about the gospel. The dad never comes in on lessons with us. But--- this time we brought pictures of when we were each baptized as kids, pictures of us with our dads, and he stayed for the whole lesson even when he said he would not! 

Finished reading 3. Nefi 11 this week-- How grateful I am to have the correct knowledge of Christ, of God, of the Holy Ghost in my life. I know he is our brother. There have been some crazy events recently (from what people have told us on the streets?) But I know that if we look to Christ our hearts will not fail us! We will not sink in the water, as Peter did. 

I love you! 

Sister Richardson

​In Celje----- that city has old roman ruins under it and they uncovered this old baptismal font from 400! Apparently most the churches around here actuallyused to do baptism by immersion.

​View from the top of Zagreb-- we went to the Zagreb eye tower thing last pday.

Rhodes, Richardson, Allred. Sister Rhodes likes to cook and is good at is so we made a ton of food this week. Except I actually made the peppers. :)

Don't be stiffnecked!

Zivijo, 

This week brought all kinds of surprises. The fun never ends on a mission, really. The sad news is I have been demoted to the couch-bed in our kitchenroom/living room, where I have to sleep sideways because there is a big bump in the middle of the cushion! And the curtain thing is broken so the streetlight blinds my eyes all night, but, the good news is...

I am in a trio! President Grant called Sister Rhodes (strange that she, Sister Allred and I all have a friend in common- Claire Christiansen) from the Slovenia side of the mission to this side! So she has to learn Croatian now! On Saturday we went to a baptism in Maribor and then drove to Kranj and slept on the floor and went to sacrament meeting in Kranj, then Sister Duffy, a mini missionary and I drove to Ljubljana for third hour and did the internet "Flood the earth" presentation there! 

The members were actually very pumped about all the internet things in Slovenia! I had a mini missionary from Slovenia help me give the presentation, since Rhodes and Allred were in Kranj... but since there are a lot of older people in the Ljubljana branch I spoke Croatian and they understood me! So that was a bit of a miracle. Except when one lady said something back to me and I was like uh, I think yes, maybe..good.. and turns out she was baggin' on the whole concept of what we were trying to do. I am grateful I am not trying to learn Slovene! I threw in a couple phrases I knew in their language and they thought that was so funny. It was hard staying awake during sacrament meeting when I could not understand! 

So then we took Sister Rhodes back with us yesterday night and put all her stuff in. She is going to be taking my calling and working with Sister Allred. It will be nice to have someone that speaks Slovene instead of Allred and I trying to make stuff up and calling to ask people if it is correct. She will be great! So, we are training her this week and then President said I will be going somewhere else in the mission "sending you out to pasture" is the phrase he used! But I am going to put my shoulder to the wheel to the end! But this week we are going to be not sleeping AKA training Rhodes.

HAHAHAHAHAHA I should not be laughing at this, maybe I should, but there was this dead cat in the road by our apartment a few weeks ago, and people just kept running over and over it and we took a picture of it. Then this "missing cat" poster shows up on our building and surrounding buildings this week, WITH PICTURES. So we compared the two pictures and realized that it was the cat that died.. awkward... so Sister Allred decided to call them cause that seemed like the nice thing to do. So she calls and is like "Hello, so we are not sure but we think we saw your cat." and the lady is like yes... and sister allred says "It died." 

             Then there is this pause for a good 10 seconds and the lady is like... no, we found her? and sister allred is like oh, well good job! and hangs up. Language fail. Also someone must have bought them a similar looking cat and gotten the cash reward because that was for sureee the dead cat! 

A member this week showed us THE NEW/UPDATED BOOK OF MORMON TRANSLATION!!! She has the whole thing printed. That was so cool. Hopefully that actually comes out sometime in the next five years.

I hurt my neck and got a cold this week. I just took drugs and continued on, we had a lot to do! A few lessons bailed, but Sister Allred got the restoration video on the websites for our country! She just asked Frankfurt and after many emails they gave us the materials to do it! So we are the only countries in the world right now that have that! Hopefully all the rest will get them too.

My last zone conference this week. I helped Pres give the tech presentation and he teased me a lot about marriage and kissing boys. I bore my testimony. 

I testify that these are the last days. The days before Christ will come! It's not called the last years.. or the last century.... but the last days. 

I read this morning much about that. Let our hearts not fail us! Let us not fall by the wayside! Let us trust in God and trust in His plan for us! Do not get distracted!

Doctrine and Covenants 5and 8 Oh, this unbelieving and stiffnecked generation—mine anger is kindled against them. !!!!

Sister Richardson

​allred and I in Maribor

​DONT BE STIFFNECKED! I just put heat and icy hot we randomly found on it one morning and did not turn my head at all and it got better after taking some drugs and a few days 

​I was told these are the "alps"??

Svi sveti

Zdravo i Lp, 

Sestra Allred and I are teaching the most solid investigator of my whole mission, his name is Momcilo and he lives somewhere in the Germany, Berlin mission. We skype teach him. He speaks Serbian, it is awesome to teach him. He actually said "I want to be baptized" when we invited him, WHAT. It is scheduled for Nov. 21, but there is some political things that could maybe hold that up. But we will get to watch the bap over skype, that will be sweet. He asked us about the reformers who came before Joseph smith and why they were important, he talked about the authority of God and asked so many good questions. The Lord may be moving His people, but He is preparing a way.. a crazy way.. for scattered Israel to hear the Gospel! 

We the 30th anniversary broadcast of the dedication of former Yugoslavia. We filmed it and edited it and put the subtitles in three different languages all within 10 hours. There have been some long nights and some random assignments for us lately. It may not sound like it but I am going to cry when I leave the mission. We had the last MPAC (mission public affairs council) meeting last night and Pres Grant was saying his two cents about me leaving the council.. cause I am leaving, and our skype cut out. But I had a good 10 second cry this morning in the shower about how much I love where I am right now and all that is happening. AH

We biked last pday and got protein shakes, protein has hit the balkans ladies and gentleman! Today we cleaned out our apartment and slept, we are so creative. We ate so so so much candy for Halloween though, which we bought ourselves from Kaufland, livin the dream. Some sisters do "six months to sexy" where they diet the last six months of their mission, I am just trying to eat everything that is not in American, all the food that is dear to me! Ha!

Satan was rampant in these parts this week! He tried to get us down but we wouldnt let him!  We contacted people and they'd say nah, then people we didn't even contact would stop us and yell at us! Then, we tried to get these cards printed for our presentations and went to get the bid at a graphic design place, they said theyd be happy to work with us and email the bid to us. Then we got the email, they said because of their (religion) preferences they would not print our cards! So we had to scramble to find another place! Then we texted this member we had visited once before and she said, "NO! you cannot come over and share a message!" And many other, very, very weird and uncomfortable things. Contacting got all shades of weird this week. We had a Halloween party in the branch and we got told off by a member, everyone really loves us in this branch. 

We talked and walked with this Jewish guy for an hour. He was nice, we "scheduled a lesson" with him that we would walk back and talk to him later. We talked about the plan of salvation. How blessed we are to have such a specific knowledge!  

This weekend was great though- on Saturday morning we had a baptism at the mission office in the old font that they closed off because they have one at the chapel, so this was the first baptism here for 7 years! Here meaning at the mission office. It was of a guy who literally just walked into the church three weeks ago who used to be a Catholic priest. He is baptism number 26 for our mission this year! Each soul is precious! 

Then we watched the broadcast from Pres Grant about the 30 anniversary... the subtitles in the language were off but we did not have time to fix them but it was still good. Then did a service project, assembled hygiene kits for the refugees. Lots of them. 

Then Sat we went to Beograd, had dinner at the Raiceics! Then slept in the BEo apartment, went to church there, did our presentation. Tasa told me he knew I would be there, he prayed me there. He got baptized 40 years ago in Austria. He is the best. We did our presentations despite the projector not working, drove to Sremska and did it there, drove home. 

That's all I got for you this week. The Lord is aware of each and every one of us! 

Love you! 

As Sisters in Zagreb

Lp, 

First of all, WE GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE THIS MORNING FOR PDAY!!!!!

JK the temple I refer to is the bar next to our house called, "temple." But we like to make jokes about this. Those who have a real house of the Lord in their vicinity, make sure you take the opportunity to go and worship. I miss the temple a lot. I will be spending a lot of time there kad se vratim!  A member in the branch here gave me some names to do when I am back.
​

We cleaned the office out in prep for the 30th anniversary of the dedication of former Yugoslavia and because two seventies were coming. There were a lot of crusty ties and skirts from missionaries past. We found some weird things, a few translated epistles from Elder Shepard. 

This week I was on exchange in Karlovac with Sister VanWagoner- in the elevator we realized she was the one that mom or dad? met her aunt at Costco. She is from Centerville.  We did hours and hours of contacting. We went and visited a member to invite her to the open house and her friend was there and asked me if I knew how to shoot insulin into someone? I said yes, and she whipped out her needle and  handed it to me and I was like wait, wait, nah! She told us about how she went and visited NY when Tito reigned in these lands..and more interesting stories.. never a dull day truly.  Most of Karlovac was flooded! There has been so much rain and everyone has been very on the spritz? about it.  Sister VanWagoner taught me how to hula for morning workout, I thought about the "hookee lao?" Is that right, Grandpa Gary? We throw our nets out into the sea.. and all the ama ama come swimming to me? :)

​See those trees? They are now in the water!

Three people this week told me I look like Anne Hathaway. I think this is a sign that I am getting paler. #mormons

We gave this old old man a tour of the church. He was a doctor, he asked us a lot about infant baptism and said he would come to church.

For pday last week we had to run some errands then we ate hot chocoalte, then soup, then ice cream. We are getting creative lately. Today we are going running and biking then sitting in a cafe and drinking hot chocolate.  We got McDonalds twice in one day last week, fail. It smelled like throw-up outside and Sister Allred and I agreed that that was fitting for the situation. 

I GOT TASHA's WEDDING INVITE. And Grandma Fran's Halloween card! Exciting! 

Also this week. We spent a good eight hours at the mission home- me downloading illustrator and finishing our "Flood the earth" presentation, writing the scriptish for it, more. 

THEN we went to Osijek and presented on Sunday. Three hour car ride in the silver box both ways. We slept through most of it and showed it with red eyes and drool-covered cheeks. Nothing like it. But the presentation went well, we are trying to education people about Facebook and the new websites. We got a good response. So tired this week. SO MUCH TO DO. BUT IT IS ALL GOOD THINGS.

from the park next to the church in Osijek

We are teaching a man over skype! He lives in the Berlin, Germany mission somewhere and name is Momcilo. Our second lesson is tonight. He is so cool.

This week we had a really cool lesson where we got on our knees and demonstrated personal prayers, we prayed like a personal prayer and we taught her how to. We explained how when we pray in church and in public the prayers are different than what we would say in a private prayer. 

The highlights of the week-- we had the opportunity to have Elder Hamula of the 70 and his wife, and Reid Nielsen (who is actually from Bountiful) of the Church History Dept. come. They spoke in a fireside for the members on Thursday night. I liked Elder Hamula's talk- about how we must correctly understand our Heavenly Father in order to correctly follow Him. Many people say oh, I believe in God, it doesn't matter how you call him or what you think He is it is all the same. But it is not. When we correctly understand who God is, we understand that we will one day return and report to Him and we want to make Him proud! I got thinking about the connections between my Heavenly Father and my earthly father (and mother). How when I return, I want to be able to say I worked hard, I tried hard, I did good, I am tired, but I am ready for more! That is the feeling I want when I return to my Father in Heaven.

The next morning, us sestre, the Grants, two senior couples, the APs and the office elders got to meet with the Hamulas and Brother Nielsen again for a few hours in the mission office. We sat in a circle and had a really real chat. President Grant presented some data, which we discussed, and then each of them said some remarks.  Brother Nielsen started off and talked about his mission in Japan. He said that when he was a young missionary he got a letter of a friend who was somewhere in South America, and included in the letter was a picture of he and a big group of people all dressed in white, soon to be baptized, talked about how even more were scheduled to be baptized. He said he kneeled down and he prayed, he prayed that his service, the contacting and talking to people he was doing every day, the low numbers, the effort and the desire would be acceptable to the Lord. He said he never really felt completely at peace with his answer. Then many, many years later they announced in general conference a temple in Japan and he was at home, surrounded by all his kids, and he listened to the session, then between sessions he got in the shower and he wept. A lot. At this point in his telling the story I was also crying a lot and he said at that moment, he just felt that not only was all the effort he put into his mission worth it, but that the Lord was pleased with him. He told us that sometimes he would get up in the morning on his mission and say another day of going out on the streets, another day of maybe not numerical or even any very visible success, but he pushed forward and he did it. And he felt that the Lord was there for him and he learned to rely on Him.

I ruffled through my bag, through pekara wrappers and my planner and a huge to-do list and found tissues, wiped my makeup off my cheeks, blew my nose, and our QandA moved on. His short, five minutes of talking was spot-on to me, right in that time. They asked us some questions, we asked them some. We talked about the 30th anniversary of the dedication of former Yugoslavia, and some quotes from President Monson. Usually they dedicate countries outside, but because of the unique-ness of this area... they did it inside and just opened up all the windows! They told us some neat stuff.

Cujemo se i volim te,

Sestra Richardson

3 countries - 1 week

Pozz, 

I have a transfer goal to give away ten Book of Mormons, not too hard, but to give them to people who are very sincere about reading it! Monday night we contacted this lady named Ana, she was so nice. She pulled out of her coat a "PEČAT ŽIVOGA BOGA" little card this and handed one to me and told me it had already been blessed, but then handed Sister Allred one and told her that card hadnt been blessed yet, but instructed us on how to bless it ourselves...  BUT she talked to us about the Bible and I was like well, we believe in another book of Scripture about Christ! We talked about it and she was very anxious, asked if I had the book we were talking about! I said of course and we handed it to her! she said she has read the Bible 7 times in one year before and would love reading our book. She said she saw a strange glow coming from our eyes, and that she felt something warm. 

Two investigators we are teaching had family members die just recently. One of them, it was her father. Many members in these countries, I have heard, testify of how they heard the plan of salvation right in that kind of a moment in their life when they need it and then get baptized and are anxious to do their work in the temple. We are praying for them. There is a lot going on on this side of the world! 

We got to go to Lake Bled this week in Slovenia! Elder Christopher Charles of the area presidency came so we had to take a car for them to use at the Slovenian airport, and we didnt really get a pday..for like..since we have been in Zagreb haha it feels like..so! We got to take a little like gondola? cant think of the right word here, a little boat this out to the island in the middle of the lake and roam it for half an hour, them go back and have famous Lake bled cake. We went to all this with a senior couple. They are the best.

At church some of the members were like, um, your eyes are very red are you tired? Ha! No rest for the Zagreb sestre. It rained for probably 5 days this week? and it was raining this morning too. But we still rode bikes! 

Awesome moment//we got a text from an investigator who was taught last year! She wanted to meet up. We had a great lesson. She has some doubts, but we are working with her, teaching her about how she can receive the answers for herself!! AND SHE CAME TO CHURCH. She is 30, super cool lady. She said she would be baptized! No date yet, though.

Friday, Elder Charles had a zone conference with the Croatia zone! Even though we are not STLs anymore, since the meeting was in Zagreb, we had to get the food. It was late and that was stressful. We got noodles and they were very spicy.. why am I telling you this.. but the conference was super good. Elder Charles and his wife asked us what the greatest things this mission, the Adriatic North mission, had going for it? After several answers from the missionaries, he said,"I think it's opposition." Wow. That hit me hard. He is a visitor that is in our mission and understands the dynamics of it! They were mission president and wife over the Greece Athens mission. The opposition helps us grow and we are strengthened because of it! They talked about great things, about talking to everyone, about inviting to baptism on the first lesson. He also spoke in church in Zagreb Sunday and called people out for being late! Spittin fire! They did it with such love though, and even I needed to hear what they had to say! 

Thennn we drove to Bosnia. I hadn't been yet. We had to take some sisters there. We got the best gyros of my whole entire life. Bosnia has the best food in the whole mission for sure. I slept on the floor of their apt in Banja Luka, then we got up at 5:30, took the sisters elsewhere and drove home. My eyes are still very red. And so much rain here! 

We started working on a presentation for some branches in the mission, we will be travelling on Sundays and presenting it during Sunday School hour. It is really cool - foursquare, Google+, some other cool things, Facebook, more and more!  Some Belgrade missionaries were here this week though, and they told us a few good stories. Two ladies showed up at the church there and said they saw a video about researching family history and they wanted to know more, and the man that the sisters are teaching and who will be baptized soon was also a referral who referred himself because he read an article about Joseph Smith he found! The truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independently, til it has penetrated every continent! 

Hey we finally found this article. Not as many pictures as the printed copy, but: http://www.jutarnji.hr/iza-zidova-tajanstvenih-misionara---quot-mi-smo-sretni-sto-za-svoju-crkvu-svaki-mjesec-dajemo-desetinu-place-quot-/1405365/ look for a quote by yours truly! 

Well, that is that from me this week. I love you. I have been thinking about why the Lord asks so much of us. You know why? So we will grow! We promise to do things that He asks and then He promises back, blessings. We should keep the commandments, hold strong to the covenants we made and make, because we can't afford not to!

Love you,

Sister Richardson

Oh that I were an angel!

POSTOVANI

This week I grasped the concept of Paul/in his earlier life Saul and his trials and his work to bring the gospel forward! I admire him and his zeal and faithfulness after his conversion, even knowing he had done wrong in the past, he moved on and did what God asked of him.

Also, Alma 29 this week really hit me! Alma said, "O that I were an angel, and could have the wish of mine heart, that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God, with a voice to shake the earth, and cry repentance unto every people! 

Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the earth.

 But behold, I am a man, and do sin in my wish; for I ought to be content with the things which the Lord hath allotted unto me."

Sometimes I also sin in my wish that I could get on a very, very high tower and go cry repentance to EVERYONE all at once and everyone would want to turn to correct paths. 

But, Alma continues, "I know that he granteth unto men according to their desire, whether it be unto death or unto life; yea, I know that he allotteth unto men, yea, decreeth unto them decrees which are unalterable, according to their wills, whether they be unto salvation or unto destruction."

Why are we happy as missionaries? Because "I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.  And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me"

 "Yea, and that same God did establish his church among them; yea, and that same God hath called me by a holy calling, to preach the word unto this people, and hath given me much success, in the which my joy is full."

Amen.

The beginning of this week was very crazy and sleep-deprived. We welcomed 11 new Elders fresh off the plane and all their trainers and bought them sandwich meat and had to scan some legal documents so we spent a day like office sisters? Sister Allred accidentally called this Elder "Bowels" instead of "Bowles", and of course he is the one that ended up getting trained here. Clearly we are very mature. #crijeva

​​President Grant, The Zagreb Sestre, Sister Grant.
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Podgorica, the newest city in our mission (wait I take that back, we just barely barely opened up ČAČAK!) and the only city open in all of Montenegro, which is only opened to Elders, has had two baptisms lately! Elder Harris is there and he is training again and his other trainee he just trained is training too. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing! Awesome to see the work there.
​

Two good tracting stories this week--- we have been doing that more so than contacting lately cause it is getting colder and darker earlier and I think rained for a solid 3 days straight this last week!  So Sister Allred and I are a power companionship in that we are fine with working hard and naporan, fine with talking to people, getting yelled at, threatened, whatever we handle it and move on and work harder. EXCEPT

We laugh so much. And I am not even kidding you I think Satan knows that and sometimes he gets us! We see a huge pug dog waddling down the street and we chuckle through a contact or whatever. Anyways so we get to this door tracting and it says "FAJT BARNABAS" and sister allred is like "faaat" and we had already rang the doorbell, this large stara baka comes to the door in a huge bright neon sweater and Sister allred said it just sounded like I was really emotional as I was trying to explain the another book about Christ. We were laughing very very much a lot after that door. Even when we finished the 8 story building and were on the tram home we were laughing so hard, I cried all my makeup off! Everyone was staring at us. At least they know we are joyful in sharing the good word!

Story 2 //// I cant find the dash or the apostrophe anymore on this keyboard. Europe problems. Another day we are doing this building and there was what I call a "hall of no return." You get into the building and onto a floor but then instead of a free for all all the doors are available to knock on, you have to buzz a clear glass door to even get let into the HALLWAY to get let in. So if you ring the bell, someone has to walk out there door and down the hallway to even see who it is. So this man in his 50s talks the long walk down the hall of no return and cracks like door open and says are you jehovahs witnesses? I say "no, we/re mormons!" He says "even worse!" and makes his way back into the hall of no return. 

So we are like two floor down and this same guy comes back and is like actually, I want to apologize and I have a feeling I should ask you what your church is and how it is different from the Catholic church. Sweet! So we start testifying, Joseph Smith, the proper power from God, baptism, the whole 9 yards. Then he felt the Spirit and I am not even kidding I think it scared him and was like well, my church is older than yours and I will never read your mormon book! and walked away! Zanimljivo. 

This week is full of good stories/ I am writing in my journal one night and Sister Allred comes jumping out of our room and is like.. Theres a bee in my laundry!!!!!!!!!!! I kind of chuckled but opened the door and there was this huge thing the size of a large baby carrot buzzing in her laundry basket and then got all crazy in our small room! So I herded it outside using a crusty kitchen towel, some yelling, and turning on and off different lights and opening the windows. We slept with our windows closed that night and woke up all sweaty. Yum. 

PS "like" facebook.com/mormoni.rs

facebook.com/mormoni.hr // the edited orange pic is SO GOOD

facebook.com/mormoni.sloveniji

Robin told us that when she got out of the font and I wrapped a warm white towel around her and hugged her even though she was all wet that is the first time she has ever felt a motherly influence in her life. Like a hug a mother would give. It made me cry! She is a really special lady. We talked about goals and the temple this week with her. She is a blessing to the branch. 

Our phone kind of, the sim card broke this week and we had a mission public affairs meeting and some other interesting things where we really needed our old phone. I really laid on the floor one night and told sister allred that when I get back I will just hibernate in a glass case at home for 3 days because my body and mind are very tired! But enduring to the end also!! We have THREE members of the seventy coming to ZAGREB in the next 8 weeks.. it will be busy and good. 

all the new elders and their future trainers

That's it for this week. I have reviewed some conference talks and a few old talks as well from Elder Holland, and I just want to end with, IT WILL AT WORK OUT! President Grant always always quotes me as, when I lost the car when I was serving in Rijeka, he called the senior couple and I ended up talking to him and I was like, "Don't stress president! Just don't stress!" (car got towed haha but it all worked out!) God did not send us on this earth to be constantly worn out and fretting! He sent us here to help us learn and grow and we can be happy as we do so! Even when life sometimes gets shaky!

Volim vas,

Sestra Richardson

Što ste naučili ovaj vikend?

Halo, 

Sorry about the late email, very late. It has been an interesting week as per usual and will just get a little crazier from here! Especially with 12 new Elders arriving tomorrow! That is HUGE for our mission! 

This week we....

- We went and helped a member Id never met before, with her computer.

- TRANSFERS but we were not surprised, Sister Allred and I will be another two months together, in Zagreb again! #callingsaregreat So that will be the two of us together for 6 months total! She is great though and I think we are doing great things

ROBIN! got baptized. She is so genuine. She met the APs at a bus stop and was like "Mormons! In Croatia?" and three weeks laters, baptized. Both the APs just went home so we are going to teach her all the lessons (she is going to teach us them, she is so smart. just gets it) She was confirmed yesterday. Good story: she wore her bra, obviously, to get baptized in and got out of the water and was like I forgot an extra bra!! so we blow dried hers in the bathroom and all had a good laugh about it. We have been in a lesson with her and translated for her in church. There is a special spirit at baptisms. Really amazing. She said this is what she has been looking for her whole life. Then conference right after, that night so really a huge spiritual boost. A lady who I accepted a baptismal date from me asking her a YEAR AGO in Zagreb came to watch, and she said "one day she wants to be a Mormon!"  Malo po malo, progress.  I spoke about the Holy Ghost and shared the words of Let the Holy Spirit Guide. Robin is here teaching English, she is from Arizona and living here for a while.

​Dont let the sweaters fool you because we have eaten so much ice cream in the past week. Unhealthy stress relief but man, nothing beats the ice cream here. Except Aggie Blue Mint. But everything else, is sub par to Balkan ice cream. 

​me in my natural habitat- eating ice cream so so much. worth it

This guy crossed Sister Allred this week contacting and today I was casually buying some bananas and I turned around and there was a Jehovahs Witness and she put a pamphlet in my face and was like "do you have one?" I laughed and said, Sestra, imam već (Isusa) ali hvala! She laughed and was surprised we spoke Croatian. This guy told us "Bog nije bankomat!" and how we need to be grateful for what He has already given us and not just expect crazy things! Wise words from a man I thought was actually going to punch us, on the dark streets in the cold wind.
​

We trained a senior couple about the websites. Met this cool kid named, Andrew, whose dad is from Chicago.  Made an interesting trip to the local medical clinic, pricat cemo o tome kasnije. 

Apostles- so awesome to sustain three new brethren to the quorum of the 12 apostles. I think I am allowed to tell you? that we received translated news releases about it but had to fill in the blanks as far as how many and who right as they were announced! Stressful! And because of the time change that just complicated things a bit! But you can see more of some things we are working on (notice the good cover photos, thank you paint haha) www.facebook.com/mormoniSPD www.facebook.com/SPDmormoni and www.facebook.com/mormoni.sloveniji

Conference was just what I needed. I dont have my notebook which I need to review, but what stuck with me was that we just need to do the little things, day by day, and work on one thing at a time! I loved Uctdorf's SIMPLIFY. The gospel is simple. Let us always remember Christ, remember to do those things so that we can always have His Spirit to be with us. That is the most important.

Love you, have a safe week

Sestra Richardson

Waking up on the wrong side of the (room)

Bokić svima, 

Zone Conference went well last week. Sister Allred and I taught about the importance of teaching our friends to study, not just read the Book of Mormon. I read the Book of Mormon prije moje misije but I never studied it like I have learned to do.  If I read a recipe book every die for the rest of my life, it will not benefit me at all! I have to study it out, refer to it often, and act upon what I read! The same applies with the Book of Mormon. We also had the all sisters in the zone role play during our presentation. The Zadar sister slept over on our floor and couch.  Then we picked up a senior couple at the airport real quick in Presidents car and taught English and were on exchange // sister Vukorepa and I in Zagreb, Allred went to Rijeka. 

One of the weirdest things that has happened to me while Ive been inside my apartment...... I hope I can do this story justice because it was so, so strange. So I will begin telling it from sister Allreds point of view. The day after we exchange back- that night she wakes up on the couch with her pillow and her blanket, in our apartment, realizes she is on the couch, and goes in to our bedroom, puts her hands down on her bed to climb into it.. all of a sudden I am startled awake because someone is grabbing my ankles! 

So then I realize that the wall is on the left of me, not the right.. and that I am definitely laying in Sister Allred's bed?  So then she asks me why I am in her bed and I tell her I do not know! and then I exclaim "I do not feel well rested." which just seemed so correct at the time, and look at the phone, it is 1230am. I go to to the bathroom, come back, and we both BUST UP laughing and are so so so very confused about what just happened.. then I realize her blanket is in my bed and hold it really close to my face in the pitch black night to make sure it is hers and throw it on her bed. Really, really I do not know what happened. We did go to bed talking to each other a little bit, maybe Sis A just slept walked into the other room and I took her bed? I really do not know. She said she has woken up before and we are just both talking to each other in our sleep. 

In other strange events.. a member in Zagreb passed away and his dying wish was that the missionaries all sing "Praise to the Man" and "Abide with me" at his funeral, in English. He has not been to church for 15 years so we did not know him. So we ended up on Friday at a huge Croatian cemetery rock building thing (clarification: building, made of rock), singing with the Elders after very little practice as the casket was rolled in and as the family entered. We threw rose petals into the hole as the casket was lowered. It was interesting. That is actually the first funeral I have ever been to in my life so I have nothing to compare it to.  A member of the branch gave a talk about eternal life and we were the only people to say Amen at the end of it. Zanimljivo. 

Recent convert in Belgrade, Serbia, it was her birthday yesterday and she called and we got to talk for a few minutes. She told me I am like the daughter she never had. She told me of some miracles she has seen recently. I LOVE THE PEOPLE HERE SO MUCH.  I sent her a card and a ring of mine that was her favorite color. I love her so much really really.

This whole week was, as per usual, a lot. of. contacting. Last night I was very done. Very done. This guy Luka crossed the street and we contacted him and he actually asked us a lot about questions he wishes he could ask God. We testified of Joseph Smith. He agreed to a lesson Wednesday and we are very very pumped for it. Honestly our first sit down lesson in a while. But we keep pressing on!  There is a YSA conference in the mission home this weekend and if our lesson goes well Weds. we are totally going to invite him. Every inv. who has ever gone to that has been baptized. I ask for your prayers to add to my own.

We taught a jehovahs witness, in the church, last night. She asked if she could see the library in our church so we ended up talking to her about Joseph Smith.

We played ultimate frisbee for Pday last Monday and are doing it again today. Fora je bila. Also I am still sore from last week of it. My body has aged 10 years in 16 months.

This week I studied a lot about repentance. Why does God want us to repent?  What role does the sacrament, and our personal prayers have to do with repentance?  How often should we repent? What does "Godly sorrow" mean? How do we show God we want to repent?

Volim vas,

Sestra Richardson

Not sent from an iPad, but rather from a rusty time travel device known as the computer at the church

Svirala sam...klavir

Bok bok bok, 

Well you heard from me Wednesday, but here's an update of the last few wdays.  

We contacted this lady named Maja as she was out walking her dog and talked to her, of course, about the Book of Mormon. Explained it all, she asked a few questions, and she gave us her address so we could come over Monday night and teach her. Super nice lady. Seriously 20 minutes later we get a text saying it was her and not to come over and to delete her number.... satan is still around everybody but we are on God's team and nothing can stop the work from progressing! The truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independently til it has penetrated every continent, visited every Croat and climb! Swept every Balkan country, and sounded in every ear... 'til the Great Jehovah shall say "the work is done."

Sister Allred and I were talking about the second coming and about how the righteous be taken up in the clouds and then the wicked will remain on the earth and the earth will be burned..... we were talking about the process of the righteous all the sudden lifted up in the air and she said "it's kind of like when you are sitting on the couch and your mom comes to vacuum so you just lift up your feet for a second and your put them back down and everything is cleaner... .I hope this is not sacrilegious but we had a good chat about it.  

I still have a cold and maybe a sinus infection? from that time I squirted Serbian water up my nose with my filtered water bottle to try and get rid of my cold a few months ago. It's all good though, all good. The work moves on.

A miracle in my eyes---- we were cleaning out the family history center at the church and the office missionaries told me I could throw away this really old printer because we got a new one. Everyone said we could but as we walked out of the building I had this feeling DON'T THROW IT AWAY. So I put it in the back of the car instead and it just stayed there.....I wasn't sure what to do with it but just not trash it.  A few days ago the director of the family history center contacted us and they actually really really needed that printer for a few reasons or another and asked where it was. phew! So luckily we got it all back. Some missionaries have a miracle and 35 people get baptized, but you know what I saved a printer this week! Through small and simple things.. ha

We went tracting and written on someone's doorbell was "squeeze more" and Sister Allred and I, who have both not worn makeup like all week, just laughed so hard we cried. Squeeze more is how it literally translates but like press hard is what it really means.  Good ol' door to door. 

SATURDAY we had a car wash again. One out of two we have done this week. We gave 4 groups of people church tours and gave out lots of Book of Mormons and pamphlets. Now we are washing lots and lots of old crusty towels in our washer today. It was great. A good success. Lots of people crossing themselves in the chapel as they walk into it. They really respect the chapel.  THEN we got cleaned up a little bit and drove to the center of the city--- got to go to the Paul Cardall humanitarian concert!  For kids with heart defects, like Paul had. We could only go if we paid our way and brought an investigator. It was a great concert. We did the Facebook advertising for it. I thought it was a good turnout considering what they charged for tickets.  The concert was touching, one little girl played and it made me cry. That was great. 

SUNDAY was super funny to me- of course Brother Cardall attends church in Zagreb, where I casually play the piano. No pressure. I chose some hymns to play cause the branch presidency didn't so I chose some super easy ones. But they sing an intermediate hymn every week here so I get up at the time we are supposed to sing that and start walking up to the piano and the brother conducting the meeting motions me to sit down, very very awkward. So i stop in my tracks and turn around and he calls out Paul to come play something instead-- so he comes and wows everyone! then I played like sweet hour of prayer for the closing hymn. Bahaha. good journal moment. Then we went to the mission home for some public affairs stuff and had dinner with him and other important people. and worked and worked. misionarski rad. He said at dinner that he had played with Aunt Linda in Hyde Park, she on the violin! And showed me a picture of you all together. Awesome!

We are prepping for zone conference Tuesday, reading about the HOW of studying the book of Mormon. What is the difference between STUDYING and READING? 

Also been listening to a lot of conference talks. I am excited for general conference. It gives me a lot of peace. 

Love you,

Sestra richardson