Sestra Locey: Monday, October 24, 2016

Dear all,

First and foremost I would like to say, ABBY SENT ME AN EMAIL!!!!!!!!!!! I got it and started to cry. It was the best moment ever. I am so happy. I read all about her and I read her emails. I have shed quite a few tears in this internet cafe today!

Because Sarajevo is mostly Muslim, they don't have any pig here. It is always so great to go someplace else and eat bacon or ham or pork!

On the tower, looking down.

(I don't remember what I wrote last week so some things might be a repeat. Sorry.)
Okay, going back a little bit. The STLs came here for an exchange our last week of the transfer. (So I was still with Sister A.) They came and we spent P day together and we went to Baščaršija (old town) and bought a bunch of souvenirs for them. We've been there before, and it's way cool there! We went up the Avaz Tower and looked at the view! It was very pretty.

We did a group finding activity together and found a bunch of new investigators! (10, because it was with the elders, we split the numbers so we got 5 that day. That's the most we've ever had in a day. Actually, that's the most we've ever had in a week. So, when we find new investigators, that means that they listened to something that was taught and that they committed to something. If we meet up with them again and teach them some more, then they turn into progressing investigators.) We did chalking! So we drew a picture of the Salt Lake Temple really big and then wrote, "Kako mogu porodice biti zajedno zauvijek?" (How can families be together forever?) (When I say that we drew it I mean Elder Morgan, who is an amazing artist and is now home, drew it.) It was a lot of fun. But, it was raining. It is hard to draw with chalk in the rain. But it was cool. We were freezing afterwards!

There has been some snow on the tops of the mountains! It reminds me of home, and it is so pretty!! And all the leaves are changing too! It's awesome!

They do a lot of their contacting along this river walkway.

So I realized that I really didn't talk about the missionary work last transfer. I shared a few experiences but not a lot. So, quick recap of last transfer: we had two investigators who we were working with but we had to drop one because he wasn't really progressing and the other is hard to meet with. We taught a few lessons every now and then, but we mostly contact all day long. We have English and service and those are nice breaks. Contacting is really good but when you do it all day long, it is tiring.. Almost everyone here is Muslim so when we contact, we have to get creative with what to talk about because they don't believe in Jesus Christ or the Bible and those are easy things to go off of! But it is good. The most common thing I say is, "What does faith mean to you?" We can usually tie that into something. (:

Fun Fact: DJ stand for Disk Jockey and MC stands for Music Creator (I knew DJ from a while ago but I learned MC from the lawyer we work with here).

I always thought of myself as a pretty patient person, and I am with people, for the most part.. But I have realized that I am not very patient in terms of situations. So I have been working on being more patient. I have also realized that all of the Christ-like attributes tie into each other. It's cool!!

Sad news: In the MTC our Branch President was President Wiseman. Last week we found out that he had passed away. It was very abrupt. They found him in the mountains. He was a great man and I was looking forward to giving him a big hug when I returned from my mission. I guess I will just have to wait a little longer until I can see him again.

We had a lot of driving last week. We drove for transfers and then to the mission conference. The mission conference was AWESOME. We drove to Banja Luka the night before because it is like a 6 hour drive to Zagreb or something so we split it in half. We spent the night with the STLs in Banja Luka then went to Zagreb in the morning for the conference. SO good! The drives were beautiful!! There was a rainbow, the trees were changing colors, it was rainy then sunny, the clouds were awesome, etc. There were also cows on the road. That was weird to me. I haven't ever see a bunch of cows being driven somewhere like that! It was cool though!

The conference was in the Zagreb chapel. It was an actual church building!!! It was so cool!! I haven't seen one of those in SO LONG. It was a beautiful sight to see. And they have an actual chapel with a stand and everything! It was so cool. Then, we sang our opening hymn from the brand new CROATIAN hymn books!!!! SO COOL. That was one of my favorite parts!!! They just came out with Croatian hymn books and I want one so bad!!! We need to order some for Sarajevo. I am STOKED! We are currently singing hymns out of a little booklet of copies of hymns in Croatian.

And the conference was amazing and the spirit was so strong and it was just so good!! Then we were able to chat for a bit after, and it was so wonderful!! I love those people! And all the new missionaries were there, so I got to meet some of them! It was so cool.

Elder R is training. His trainee is Elder I. I don't know much about him but I'll let you know when we get to know him a little more! He is very nice though, and so far I really like him.

Funny story: we (me and Sister H) were sitting at our table, which is on this raised-up part, and the phone rings so we get up and answer it then we go back to sit down (not on the phone anymore) and her chair had moved and she sat down and the chair tipped over and she and the chair fell off the ledge! Hahaha, it was hilarious but I felt bad because it looked painful. But she is okay.

We went to service last Wednesday and we painted a door with oil-based paint (a fact that I didn't find out until later). Then we went to rinse the paint brushes out with water, and it wasn't working really well, so I used my hands and ended up covering them with paint that was sticky and wouldn't come off!! It was bright blue. My nails are still stained a little bit. But! They had paint thinner so I used that and got some of it off and later used more and scrubbed it off with a towel too. It was a mess. I was afraid I was going to have blue hands when I met Elder Hallstrom!! But I only had blue rimmed finger nails instead. (: