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
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