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.
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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.
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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