a day in the life (part 3)

​​got a call from the MUP (police department), had to go get interviews and such. that took an hour and a half... had to take an hour tram to get there

​we eat like this all the time. "pekarna" food. like a bakery in the states but SO MUCH BETTER. they have chocolate filled bread, bread with cheese, bread with meat, bread with potatoes, fried bread, pizza bread, apple bread, you name it.

CONTACTING. for hours. every every single day. It started pouring rain. we talked to this lady who was seriously so funny. she would ask us about something from our lives and then just laugh really really hard. She thought we were so cute trying to speak Croatian and such. But she was interested and gave us her number so we could meet up and chat.  Interestingly enough a lot of people are more willing to talk to us when it is pouring rain. one lady was like what are you doing! come to the bus stop! so we went to the bus stop and were talking to her and she was like uhhh well your questions are a little too intimate for the bus stop! awkward, but we talked about her family.

how did I end up in all these foreign countries talking to people about religion, sometimes I just step back and ask myself that and I laugh. but I have never felt more rewarding in my life. I don't think that made english

a day in the life (part two)

first of all, this week:

we went biking on pday, we rented bikes! then played sand volleyball, then got a call from President that one of the slovenian sisters went home (medical release) so we were companions with the other one-- sister Nydegger!! all week until Friday. It was funny to have the three of us, speaking part slovenian, part croatian, part slovenian, 

We did a lot of church tours this week!  One man walked past the church and I was like oprostite, da li si ikada vidio u nasoj crkvi? and he pointed to his ear and mouthed something so I signed to him!!!! I USED MY SIGN LANGUAGE!! so obviously was different but I signed we are missionaries and showing people our church, do you want to see inside! but he signed back "I don't want to see your church! I don't have time!"  But yeah got rejected in sign language this week, wooooooo.

We went to the pirate themed mexican food place again, Karakas, so good. 

So we get more food money if we are in croatia than if we are in serbia so we got our extra 50 bucks this week and went to a place in centar called candy treasure and literally spent 30 dollars on candy. the kind they just weigh it at the end and you pay. rough week. 

We visited a blind member, helped her to the store. and another member who didnt have a knife or plates but bought us a cake thing and broke it with his hands and handed us each a piece and we just like ate it and then washed our hands off, hmm.

We showed 17 miracles at the church with Serbian subtitles, and got some new investigators from that. 

Lots of contacting

Lots of tracting

yesterday I sightread a song in church and it was so rough, count your blessings when you are home that you have time to practice the piano if you so desire!!!

LOVEYOU

sisterirchardson

​hahahaha i hope you laugh at these as much as you guys do. 7-8 get ready and eat HAFENFLAKEN which is German for oatmeal, or microwave scrambled eggs or like an apple and 3 pieces of toast

8-9 personal study-- bible, book of mormon, preach my gospel, talks from the prophets and apostles! ​

​9-10 companion study this is so ridiculously staged, but we plan for our lessons that day or how we are going to contact!

a day in the life (part 1)

Dragi obitelj i prijatelj, 

Every missionary has seen so, so many the episodes of, "The District" which are training videos where they followed missionaries around interviewed them and film their lessons and stuff. When we watch those we try not to be sarcastic because we just think our circumstances are VERY different!  We decided to picture document one random day, uživaj. It's realllll cheesy and partly sarcastic, but šta ćeš.

6:30 personal prayer, shoes and badge, brush teeth

​6:35ish prayer before leaving

exercise- in Zagreb we run around a lake sometimes stop at these outdoor workout spots! we ran into a member and so she took our pic. always sore, every day. sometimes we do P90X ab ripper X, you can't let that pekarna (bakery) food get to you

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WELL these computers we email at are the worst, I keep trying to upload more and our mail server and the computers can't handle it. 

I'll send part 2 next week, if you want. Let me know if you do!

This week we went to the "museum of broken relationships" for Pday. It was super funny, look it up. Someone tell Tasha that I met a guy who knew her! He had a picture with her and everything! We were emailing at the church and there was a knock on the window and he is a member from Germany who was travelling here. We took a picture. 

It rained a lot! We were just out on the streets though contacting.  We talked to a lady on a bench and I was like hey we're Mormons, have you ever heard of us? She was like yes, thanks though, I am a Christian. I was like hey well we are too! And we got talking, talked about the Book of Mormon and that it is another witness of Jesus Christ along with the Bible. We're meeting with her this week. 

Another lady named Ines- (pronounced like "Enos") we stopped and talked to, had this feeling to talk about plan of salvation with. She was like yeah my husband actually died 7 months ago and it's just me and my three year old daughter. For sure one of the best street contacts my whole mission. She was so bright and radiant. After we taught her the plan of salvation and that she'll see her husband again she was like "wow I would love to talk to you again" and we were like.. YOU CAN! So we are teaching her tonight.  #zlatna #je

We had to go refill our tram bus cards in centar and we passed this big group of Asian tourists who just waved their arms at us and were beaming and so excited and took so so many pictures of us! If anyone sees those somewhere, let us know ha

We started giving tours of the church! People are so so much more likely to actually talk to us when we are standing out front the church because they don't feel like we're infringing on their space, we're on ours, if that makes sense. So we just ask people if they've ever been inside our church or not then invite them in and talk and show them and invite them to come see it for sacrament meeting! For "mission", as they call it. A lot of people cross themselves when they walk into the chapel or just walking past outside.  We've talked to a lot of super nice people. One man thought we were Irish, another saluted us and said "PEARL HARBOR!" and started running, and we got a few fingers and other things. Nothin' new. One man we were talking to said a word and we didn't know it and so we repeated it back to him and said we didn't understand, then he said it in English... not a mission-vocab word. Woops!

We are going to start teaching Bible class in place of our English class. We are excited. Lots of good things happening in Zagreb! I know I say that about all my areas and maybe every week. But really. For Father's day our district got dinner at President's! That was so nice. He showed us how he eats cheese and peanut butter, so so good. CHEDDAR CHEESE. It was manna from heaven. 

WE FOUND OTTER POPS THIS WEEK in a German store, Kaufland. They were actually called "dolphin flippers" but hey, they were good. 

Maybe you're thinking wow, that's a lot of prayer! from these pictures. But really, my testimony of "constant prayer" is something I try to build every day. Someone we talked to this week was like yeah, we probably have different opinions about prayer though because I believe prayer is something you can do in the 4 walls of your own home, that you don't need to be in a church to do it! We were like yes, we agree. And truly, that is how it is. God hears our prayers on the tram, on our knees by our bed, in a moment of despair (missing the bus, having no idea where you are, next bus does not come for 2 hours) or of thankfulness (for Sister Grant's cooking!)

Volim vas puno!!!

Sestra Richardson

Život je takav

Bokić,

This week was MLC at the mission home. Since we now serve in the same country as mission HQ, we took an hour long tram to get there. One of President's daughters and her family were visiting and made us CAFE RIO pork burritos. They couldn't find any cilantro so Sister Allred when on a wild run around all of Zagreb trying to find some. There is this PIRATE THEMED Mexican food place we love and we went and asked him where to buy Cilantro, 3 hours later (it was pday) we found some like seeds of it! So they used that. They call it ˝coriander˝ here. #adventures. I think I drove 4 different mission cars in one day on that adventure. In MLC we talked about ways to improve ourselves and in turn help the people we love in our areas. We talked about working with members and not doing dumb things. Sometimes I just want to read Jacob 6:12 O be wise; what can I say more? and then he says in verse 13 Finally, I bid you farewell, until I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God, which bar striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear. Amen.

Not that we are wicked, but everyone can always do better. That is what the atonement is all about, trying harder the next day and being a little more like Jesus Christ. 

We just got a mileage counter- even with two days of meetings this week (sitting all day) our time spent walking and running was 10 miles per day this week! Not including trams and all that. Whew. I am SORE

We are still teaching the sweetest Muslim lady. She has two kids, we prepared a lesson this morning for her about prophets and how God reveals his truth to them. She said that she prayed in the name of Jesus Christ and felt really good. YES. Sister Allred and I gave the sunday school lesson about the light of Christ, the power of the Holy Ghost, and the gift of the Holy Ghost. That everyone on this earth has the light of Christ with them to determine what is right and what is wrong. The power of the Holy Ghost is to help people feel the spirit and to act and prayer to know of truth, and the gift of the Holy Ghost is just for baptized, worthy members of the church. Let us remember to be careful what we do so we can always be worthy! It is a gift and a privilege.

Last night we had nooooo food so I pulled everything out of the cupboards and there was oats, coconut, and flour. I put two eggs and some oil and we baked em and had the best cookies of my life. #desperation

I think I want to count this week how many hours we contact. We just get sweaty and sunburnt and bug bitten every day. We tracted this 22 story building last night and this guy comes to the door and I was like I have a Book of Mormon. We were like ??? and his mom comes to the door and was super nice to us and we were really confused. Turns out she was a member and has not been to church in a really long time. She was also not wearing pants. It's blazin hot here and no one really wears clothes. Like really sometimes people answer the door and you're like, um, sir. Please. Also there is a lake a people just walk home with there towels on! K

We made grilled cheese like 7 times this week. 

And got ice cream probably 5 times.

And had some really cool lessons. 

So many hours contacting.

We prayed for a family of 5 and we had contacted so many families, we now just praying to teach them

And we cleaned the drains in our bathroom sink and shower, and it was disgusting. Why do I end up doing this in every apartment?? SMH at sestre

This week I've been studying about prophets and the restoration. Joseph Smith didn't just up and start the Mormon church, he restored (brought back) Jesus's Church, the same he created on the earth, which has the priesthood and power of God. 

We went contacting around a lake and they were having a wakeboard competition, that was cool. Lots of people from Albania and England. 

It just up and turned into a rain lightening storm last night and we sprinted home and got soaked. 

Alright, the randomest email. I love you all. Remember to follow the prophet! He knows the way! 

Sestra Richardson

pictures: hold to the rod- the iron rod-the word of God! me cleaning the sink out, nasty, and my sunburn line

Tjedan, kat, obitelj, kruh, vjera, pletenica, (još hrvatski)

Hola,

The title of this email is all the words I have had to relearn or change when I speak. I cant help speaking Serbian! But it's cool to be back in Croatia.

Sister Allred is SO COOL. We get along so so well and hit the streets every day and work hard. So hard. Hardest of my mission. She is ready to go and I love it. She just wants to go and I do too. She is from Missouri but like Utah too now and we are really similar, like even down to that our Dad's names are both Brian ha! I have never been this tan in my life, I didn't even know it was possible. I just sweat every day all day. You just wake up sweaty, walk outside sweat more. We got let in tracting and they talked to us about the Pope visiting Sarajevo and it was right at the end of fast Sunday and they gave us juice and we literally drank the whole container of it. It is hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We met a lady named Boga, which means God, so that is awesome. She was really nice. We have been working with members on family history and one we taught was crying when she learned that she could find her grandma that she has not talked to in 20 years that lives in Venezuela. That is awesome. 

There is so so so much good food in Zagreb. We went to a pirate themed Mexican restaurant! IT WAS SO GOOD. And McDonalds is right by our house, 20 piece mcNuggets is temptation but also sister Allred has AbRipperX so we do that every other day and run on the other day, if that made sense.  We were on a bench rehydrating and this guy walked up to us and mumbled something and we were like "kaj?" was like "drunk" in English. And shrugged and walked away. Since we're whitewashing this week has been a lot of figuring out our area and who is who. 

Not too much more to report on. Just lots of contacting! I have put in rotation again a street approach of showing people my family tree and asking them about their ancestors. We have had good success with that. We are going to start a bible study class and do a free car wash.

*If we do not learn to love the things God loves, we will not feel home where he lives* said the 70 from Finland that spoke at Croatia district conference. I can't remember if I sent this already. 

We went to Metro with President ans his wife hahaha. In no other mission does that happen Im pretty sure. We got real cheddar cheese!!! It's like costco.

I know God wants us to be our happiest we can. He gives us trials so we grow. He allows things to happen to us so we can be better. He puts people in our lives for us to learn.

VOLIM VAS

Sestra ričardsen

IamwhitewashingandinZagrebandmore

BOK!

I can say that again, because on Tuesday I got out of the shower and President called and was like you are getting transferred a week early-and whitewashing that area- so pack your bags you leave tomorrow! SO I got transferred to another country, mission HQ in Zagreb, Croatia! I have too many responsibilities and sister durfee and I have gotten to spend a week together.  We always somehow end up companions! So I've had this week to learn the city!

Whitewashing means the missionaries that were there both leave so you show up and have no idea what is happening.  But I do know that Sister Allred is coming! She is awesome, I am pumped for that.

But, in Beograd before I left I went to the Tito and former Jugoslavija museum and such. I cried and a lot of the members cried when I told them I had to go. :( I loved them so much, for real. It's been a hard transition, ali prezivitcu. 

So then I packed, cleaned, exchanged all dinar money to euros so I could change it to kuna here-- they dont trade straight dinar to kuna..

We got stopped at the border and I had to get out and open up all my luggage for the border police. I just sent a huge package home of some stuff, family. DONT OPEN IT!

So, in Zagreb so so so so many meetings, I have been helping fix a lot of visa problems and processes, I scraped the car going through a tiny tunnel. Our apartment is tiny and we have 3 other sisters staying in it tonight, cause transfers! I found a guitar in it though, #blessings.

So in the time we did find this week to contact I walked outside the mission office and there was this guy working on his motorcycle and I talked to him and invited him to church and HE CAME. Even though the mission office is 30 min away from the church! AND ITS A REAL CHAPEL HERE. ONE OF TWO IN THE WHOLE MISSION! And yesterday was district conference and a 70 from Finland came. I had to do tech and broadcast the whole time, woooo.

A quote from yesterday: "If we do not learn to love the things God loves, we will not feel home where He lives." 

I testify Elder Perry was an apostle of God. I testify that Christ died for us, that we can live again with God and with our families. 

- Sestra Richardson