Happy Christmas (again)!

Zdravo svima,

This week was Serbian Christmas! It seriously feels like it has been one big holiday for a month now. The AP's texted the whole mission and said we have, if we want to, permission to go to the midnight mass thing. We went to Sveti Sava (temple) and they had tons of fireworks, huge fire outside, chanting, bells, lots of alcohol and smoking, the whole bit. Inside obviously I didn't get any pics of, but there was a priest in a big gold sparkly hat singing and chanting and just tons and tons of people there crossing themselves and kissing pictures of saints and there were big gift shops selling candles and crosses and music and all kinds of things. It was crazy to be out at midnight! Not crazy, but just weird since I've been inside at9pm every day since last May.

WE GOT TO WATCH MEET THE MORMONS. President Grant got a special copy that he can only show to missionaries and it says "Special screening version do not copy" or something along the bottom. We watched it at leadership meeting and zone conference, it was great. I am was determined to get into kick boxing after that! The last one about the missionary mom, when the boy opens his mission call and is like "English speaking!" we said a laugh/heavy sigh when he said that, it was hilarious.

I got a new unofficial calling- I am now the manger/have all the passwords for everything facebook, google drive, foreign language (English) class for the mission. I have to make the guidelines and everything and make the pages again and the logos. It just really needed to get cleaned up and President Grant basically just handed it all off to me and gave me a 3000 advertising budget for the year/ when I go home (I hope I am allowed to tell you that) and so here I go! Any suggestions would be welcome once I get the pages up and going officially. The problem we're running into right now is we have one facebook account now for the mission, then like 20 PAGES for each area's language class, and we need just the missionaries in that area to have access to post for their page only, but, I cant give that access as an "admin" with their myldsmail.net accounts for some reason, and we cant use our personal facebooks, so I might just have to make a new gmail account for each city to be able to use the facbeook. Complicated! sigh.

We taught some of the people we got to church last week- one is a Nazarene. He and his family. We discussed the where and the when of the Book of Mormon. Just how complicated and the time and location and the plates from the book of Mormon is evidence that it is true.

We had our branch Christmas party this Saturday, the primary children sang "stories of Jesus" but "приче о исус" when they sang and when they read Cyrillics faster and better than I do I just have to laugh. We had one young man just show up at the Christmas party and was like I got a Book of Mormon at the book fair and got your church address inside it and I want to learn more. We are really excited for this coming year!

I love you all!!! So a part of my studies this week I read Alma 32 about how Faith is like a little seed.. we have to nourish it and grow it though! I want you all (if you are still reading this) to email me your favorite way to nourish your seed of faith daily. Remember that our testimonies "don't have to be this tall to enter" but they grow line upon line, precept upon precept. Faith is not us seeing Jesus come out of the clouds- that is a KNOWLEDGE. Faith is us reading, hearing, feeling, and having that belief. But it's not like some belief in something that is crazy and not real. Faith is truth and knowledge based.

Serbian New Years this week- I will be on an exchange in Sremska! 

Love you all!
Sister Richardson

PS TOP RAMEN