The 28th will be a good day.

Dobro jutro,

We started this week of at Mission Leadership Conference in Zagreb at President's house. That's always uplifting, but a very long drive.  Unfortunately no crazy stories to share there except he showed us the video from NBC or ABC or something about sisters serving in Florida and how "we are the happiest people on the earth."  That was cool.

Two great pieces of news this week: WE HAD A NEW INVESTIGATOR ACTUALLY COME TO CHURCH. And, BLAZENKA ACCEPTED THE INVITATION TO BE BAPTIZED! ONFEBRUARY 28TH! AH. That will be a good day for many reasons. We taught her about the gospel (faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy ghost, enduring to the end) the week before and then read with her and discussed baptism, but she said she didn't want to rush into anything. This week when we showed up she was like, "I have been praying and reading and want to ask you something. Do I have to pay to get baptized? How can I be baptized?" We are really happy for her decision. We went through the baptismal interview questions with her. She hugged and kissed me as we left and had eating so much cake- she gave me 5 pieces and a bunch of watercolor paintings she has done. SHE IS THE COOLEST. She is 60, her daughter is in her 30's and we are working with her to help her quit smoking. She asked a ton of really good questions. She knows Greek and was has a degree in archeology. She is just really smart. She always quotes Homer and old philosophers and was telling me about when these countries were under comm. rule and they couldn't pray so they would have to pray in their hearts in their homes, and how she is happy she can pray out loud now. Ah, being a missionary is just the best. There are those hard days when people yell at you, kick you out of buildings, make fun of you, etc etc etc. but then you just help someone see a little tiny glimpse of how much Heavenly Father loves them, or just help them understand WHY they are on this earth and HOW MUCH Jesus Christ loves them and even so much that he died for us! Just saying a prayer with someone who has never prayed, feeling that spirit, that peace that people just are not used to and hunger for more of it. It makes it all worth it. Every blister. Every person calling you a sect or a nun. Every fish casserole eaten.

Good news- I'm not getting deported.. yet. I might have to miss MLC next month, not sure yet. Hm.  We spent a total of  8 hour this week either in the MUP (ministry of laws basically) or working on visas. Good times.

Okay, I feel like I have ranted about this week enough. Okay two more stories.. it was pouring rain and I was like not in the mood to walk the streets and talk to people but Sister Durfee is so good and we are walking and it turns into snow and we talk to this other lady, Slavica, for a good 20 minutes about life and reading and God. SHE CAME TO CHURCH. She loved it. She kept asking me how much the Mormons book was and when I would have to return it, and how much it costed to take the sacrament. The little things we take for granted sometimes just have so much worth to people.

We got out of a lesson and it was a blizzard- the bus tram thing broke so a back-up bus came and we had no idea what number it was or where it went but we just got on it so I asked these two guys next to me where it was going and he realized I cased a word wrong and was like where are you from? So they are speaking English to me and the one friend is like "oni su casne sestre" (they are chaste sisters) hahaha (nuns) and I was like "ni smo, sestre misionarke smo!" It always throws people off when they gossip about us and I like respond to them in Serbian and they are just baffled. But two hours later we made it home on some random bus!

I love you all so much.

Sister Richardson