April 7

April 7, 2014

So, as of April 1st they officially put sisters back in Kosovo. They just pulled two who had been serving in Albania. April 1st here is not only April Fool's Day but is also combined with Halloween. Everyone was wearing costumes and when we went to Center that night to contact there was a HUGE party going on. Fireworks, lights, the fountains were going for the first time since I've been here, really loud music. Two Italian-speaking guys came up to Sister Schofield and we gave them a church invite. There's a funny story that goes along with it for next time, when I have more time to write.

One night me and Sister Schofield went over to Kate's for a lesson and she had what looked like a jar of olives on her table. She poured us each a cup of it. Turned out to be cherries. She set out a little dish for us to spit the pits onto. When she went into another room, Sister Schofield said to me, "I can't eat these," and I let her transfer them into my cup and ate them two at a time so Kate wouldn't notice by the time she came back. If that's not Christlike service, I don't know what is. Kate also drank the juice but me and my companion played the ignorant foreigner card and pretended not to realize that we were supposed to do that too.

On Saturday everyone was invited over to the Swinefords to watch the first session of General Conference live. (6pm for us) It was really cool! I don't think I've ever been that excited for it before. I also really appreciated, for the first time, how slowly and clearly they talk, because I was worried about people like Kate not being able to understand English that well. 

We decided to talk to a shoelace salesman who was set up very close to our apartment one day. We gave him a Book of Mormon and got his number. The next time he saw us he said, "This book is beautiful," and asked if we could give him another one so he could give it to his friend. Considering the normal response we get, I was really touched. On Sunday I was so excited to see him in Church! I sat next to him and asked him how far he'd read. Only about fifty pages, but that made me like him even more. (A little while ago we had been meeting with a man, Dragi, who showed up drunk to every lesson. He'd read the Book of Mormon in about a day and said it was "just like the Bible. I want something concrete." I told him we didn't have anything concrete and we ended up having to drop him.) This shoelace salesman's name is Abraham. He pulled out his phone and recorded when we sang the opening hymn. When sacrament was passed, before it came around to us he asked me, "Am I allowed to take that?" Then he took a piece of bread and held it in his hand for a minute, I think saying a prayer of his own, before he ate it. When the water was passed, he looked very worried and asked me, "Is that alcohol?" He relaxed when I told him it was water. You're perfect, I thought. "Is this sacrament?" was another thing he asked (the actual words he used were Holy Supper). He told me he'd been feeling really sick the day before, but he wanted to come to church so bad. He asked me if church would be at the same time next week, and if he could have a cd of the songs. He was interested to know how the timeline of the Book of Mormon lined up with the Bible. I had Elder Krajnc answer that question. Brother Davis (who is from Texas and found the elders in the park one day) was using me as a translator with Abraham at the end of church. Abraham told him he'd been Muslim before but converted to Christianity. People have been having me act as a translator a lot. It's interesting since my language isn't that great. At one point I thought Abraham said he had a 12-year-old wife, but it turned out he said that his wife passed away 12 years ago. Abraham again told me how beautiful the Book of Mormon was. 

We got a phone call right after church from someone named Adam who was in Skopje I think on business, who had met with the elders once before. He was with his girlfriend Anita and said he could only meet if we had time right that second, so we hurried to center and talked to them about the Restoration, prayer and the Holy Spirit in a cafe there. We couldn't get anything to drink since it was Sunday. He explained to his girlfriend in English as we sat down, "They are angels from God." He speaks it pretty well and his girlfriend understands it, so we did the lesson in both languages. He told us that he could feel Jesus in his heart, that he always prayed every night before he went to bed, and he told us some experiences in his life when he'd felt the hand of God, like when he was going 220 km/hr in his car as a young kid, crashed, and lived. He said that sometimes when he prayed, he felt the words come to his mind which he should say. It's people like this that remind me why I'm on a mission.

We were again invited to watch the morning session (morning for you,anyway) of General Conference on Sunday and took a taxi once we realized the buses weren't running. Our driver, Dimitri, asked us what our church believed in. I told him that we believed in God and Jesus Christ and that God was our Father. I said we believed that the teachings of Jesus Christ had been restored again to the earth. "I'm interested in that!" he said. I gave him a church invite and wrote down his number, and when it was time to pay fare, 167 denar, he only took a hundred and waved the rest away. "You're a good Sister. It's on me." 

Our investigator Benjamin was even at this session of general conference, which surprised me since he doesn't speak English. I felt kind of bad for Elders Krajnc and Barber who had to translate for the entire two hours. Benjamin is Muslim and speaks Albanian at home, and just after I committed him to reading the Book of Mormon, his dad found it, was mad at got rid of it. 

Talk about having a million heart-warming moments this week. I think yesterday, when we met with those three men, was the best day of my mission so far.

I love you.

Sister Riddle

3 Nephi 18:1-25