June 16, 2014

June 16, 2014

Hey mom,

One day last week me and Sister Schofield decided to talk to an old man sitting on a park bench. He seemed really enthusiastic and invited us over to his house since on that day we only had a few minutes to talk. We invited Elmaz to come to the lesson with us. I don't remember this guy's name, but it was a great lesson. We asked him if he'd had the opportunity to read from the Book of Mormon and he showed us where he was in 2nd Nephi!!! That has NEVER happened. He had come to church the week before and wanted to know what he could read for the following Sunday so he could be a part of the discussion. He asked us what we wanted him to read for next time and told us that we had to come over every week and keep teaching him. He gave us each a huge plate of strawberries and cherries at the end. He's totally getting baptized. Knock on wood. He said to Elmaz during the lesson (talking about me), "She needs to perfect her Macedonian! So that she can teach the gospel!" Elmaz said to him, "For the amount of time she's been here she speaks very well." That was nice of Elmaz and I also thought it was cool that this investigator already took everything that we were telling him so seriously.

I've called Dragi a couple times but he hasn't been answering. He seemed so genuinely interested! I'm sad. 

We took Benjamin to Family Home Evening this week and had a very interesting time. There's a woman named Maria who has been coming to church and likes to make unique comments quite frequently, plus she makes them all with a scottish trill. At the end of the lesson on Wednesday, she gave everybody a sponge. This man Zoki, who is an investigator who speaks a bunch of languages, turned to me and said, "I see no purpose."  Neither did I.  Anyway, Zoki is a guy from Skopje originally but he was taught by the missionaries in Germany and is keeping it up here. So, go German missionaries! We've been told before that our Macedonian name badges are in fact, wrong, and we asked him more specifically what was wrong about them and he helped us make all the necessary changes. Who knows how long until we actually get the corrected name badges, though.

     After the lesson when everyone was eating cake I turned to Gordana and said, "Howdy."

"Good," she responded.

"No, howdy means hi."

"Howdy?"

"Yes."

"How? Dy?"

"Howdy," I nodded.

"Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy."

"Yes Gordana, hi."

"Howdy. Howdy. Howdy. Howdy."

I laughed. So did she. 

"Howdy. Gotcha!" 

I kept laughing.

"That was good. Teach me another one."

"Badonkadonk."

While in a lesson with Benjamin the other night he made a good comment. "Во љубов нема години." In love there are no years.

On Wednesday we're going to Albania for a mission conference. We weren't due to have one for a while but since the Fords are leaving at the end of this month they wanted all the missionaries who hadn't had one with them (myself included) to come. 

2 Timothy 1:7, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

Love,

Sister Riddle
                                          
                                                Beautiful poppies in Macedonia