April 28, 2014

Hey Mom,

I miss you too! So much. Thank you for the long email.

 

Yeah, the more I'm on my mission the more I realize that God really customized this for my weaknesses.  I do hope it gets better though. Mostly just the language is so frustrating. Did I tell you how the dictionaries here are useless? I don't completely trust the grammar books here either. I don't know what to do other than continue to memorize words which are wrong and hope that at least some are right.

 

Thanks for the recipes. I'm excited to have Sister Schofield try rice pudding, because she's never had it but she likes Salep so much. They taste pretty much the same. 

This week Sister Schofield got both pooped on and thrown up on. She got pooped on by a bird when we were sitting outside waiting for someone. Just on her skirt, but still. A few days later we went to visit the Elder's investigator with the baby, her name is Sebina by the way. Sister Schofield loves kids so she was holding the baby, and luckily she angled him away from her face to hand him off just as he erupted. It got on her skirt and boots. In both instances I laughed hysterically. I'm a really good companion. 

The Sisters from Kosovo came down on Wednesday to do exchanges with us. I was with Sister Hawkins for the day and my companion was with Sister Curtis. We mostly just contacted except for a lesson we had with an old man on a park bench, and then a lesson with Benjamin later. With Benjamin it was mostly just her talking since Benjamin speaks Albanian too and Sister Hawkins' Albanian is so much better than my Macedonian. It was good though because the lesson was on the priesthood and I know nothing about that.

We went to the Andersons' farewell party that night at their house. Now it's just the Nelsons. I definitely miss the Andersons but I'm happy because the Nelsons seems really cool. I always appreciate anyone with a sense of humor. On the way back from their house, a stray dog followed me and Sister Hawkins all the way to our apartment. We went inside just for a few minutes to get some more hand-outs, and when we came back outside he was still there, waiting for us. He licked my hands and continued to follow us. "Is he going to follow us the entire time we're contacting?" I asked.  "Maybe he's like a guard-dog." I think he spoke English because right after she said that, the dog barked loudly at a man that passed by us. He did, in fact, follow us the entire time we were contacting. He would stop and sit by our feet when we talked to someone, then get up and continue to lap us as we walked. "Whatever happens, we can't name him," she told me. I named him Jimbo. On the way back, Jimbo continued to bear his teeth at the men and even chase after them for a few minutes before he came back to join us. "I'm starting to fear for every man that passes." Jimbo went up to one guy and bit his heel, I think he only stopped attacking because we yelled at him. After that he minded his manners. He followed us to our doorstep again and I think may have waited until the morning for us, only a guy who worked at the store next to our building shooed him.

We also taught Ana and Gordana about the priesthood. When we were planning beforehand, Sister Schofield said to me, "Get ready because Gordana hates that only men can hold the priesthood. She thinks it's sexist." We began the lesson with me saying, "Ok, so what do you guys know about the priesthood?" 

Gordana immediately responded, quite calmly and matter-of-factly as if she were ticking off the points on her fingers, "It is discrimination. Only men can hold the priesthood, not women. It is against women that we cannot do this--"

I interrupted, "We may not know why God has only let men have the priesthood, but--"

She continued the same, "Yessssss, it God's decision. We know that."

Sister Schofield said, "And God loves us just the same as he loves men. He loves us all equally and it's not like men are better than us."

Gordana nodded, "Oh yessssss, God loves us all. We are His children. He loves us so, so much..."

"Are you being sarcastic, Gordana?"

Gordana stared at her for a long time like a deer-in-headlights. Finally, she shrugged.

"She doesn't know if she's being sarcastic."

We continued the lesson.

We've been a lot more successful for some reason lately. The other morning I think every single missionary was talking to someone, all at the same time. It was like that for probably an hour. It was great. There's a lot of laws here that make it impossible to advertise the way most missionaries do, like street boarding, but we have a box that the elders decorated and it says on it, "Do you have questions for God? What is God's purpose? What is your role?" Sister Schofield thinks it helps a lot. 

There are two restaurants that are on either side of a street where we often do our contacting, and yesterday I said to her, "Do you think we're bad for their business?" 

"Yep."

 

People are so confused about what we do. They think we want to sell them something, or that we're "recruiting people", that we're students. I heard some woman rushing her husband past us, "They want an interview." Our landlord asked us if it was easier for us to get a job in the States if we served a mission. It's interesting how differently people react to the same information. Mostly we get rejection, but that makes the happy instances better. When I was with Sister Hawkins I gave a man a Book of Mormon, he took it it seemed without really noticing or caring and continued to talk to us. Before we parted I asked if he would read from it. He seemed confused at my question. "Well, of course! You said it was revelation from God." When me and Sister Schofield were at the mall one day, she asked a woman if she wanted to have a copy. "How much?" 

"It's free."

She gasped and seemed touched. "For free? You would do that for me! How sweet. Yes, of course I'll take it. Thank you."

3 Nephi 20: 22

"And behold, this people will I establish in this land, unto the fulfilling of the covenant which I made with your father Jacob; and it shall be a New Jerusalem. And the powers of heaven shall be in the midst of this people; yea, even I will be in the midst of you."

Love,

Sister Riddle