July 21, 2014

Yello Mumsy,

 

Blago's baptism had to be postponed. He and his wife have been divorced for about twenty years, but they still live together in the same apartment in separate rooms. Apparently it goes against the "living with a member of the opposite sex out of wedlock" rule, even though I thought that was just fancy language for saying they can't be sleeping together.  Everyone else will be baptized according to schedule, though. The family we teach has even mentioned their son going on a mission when he's old enough, in ten years. Metia asked me what she can read when she's done with the Macedonian Gospel Fundamentals book, since she doesn't understand Serbian. I felt so bad. I'm going to copy and paste from the church website in Google Translate and ask her if it works. She keeps saying she can't wait until there's a Book of Mormon translation into Macedonian. 

At Family Home Evening this week, Maria gave everyone a wooden spoon and gave me and Sister Schofield matching purple and yellow hats. Our branch is crazy, but it's also crazy how well they all work together. If you'd ever lived in Macedonia you would understand how miraculous it is to have a bunch of Macedonians, a Serbian, a few Albanians, and a Roma family all in the same room and have peace. We were talking about Noah and the ark, how God sent a flood to destroy the wicked, and how the rainbow symbolized that He wouldn't ever do it again, and Ratko made the conclusion, "Now we can do what we want." I love the reactions from people who have never heard the gospel before.

Elmaz is really the best first member ever. We bring him on a ton of lessons since he can relate to everyone and he knows English, Macedonian, and Albanian. I remember after a lesson, riding back on the bus with him, he was wearing a shirt that said "Legend in my mind" and talking about how he was going to help bring sooo many people into the church. He is the cutest, sweetest old man. He asked Sister Schofield why the mission president and people from Albania and Kosovo didn't come to our next baptism, like they had at his (since he was the first person baptized in Macedonia).

 

Love,

Sister Riddle

July 14, 2014

Hey Mom,

This week was a week of firsts. First of all, we were told on Wednesday night that we were all being emergency evacuated out of Macedonia because our new president was worried about the rioting that was to take place there starting Friday. We thought it was a tad extreme, but thus marks the first time I have ever fled a country. 

We rode with the Nelsons, who were going to Kosovo that day for a meeting anyway, to a city called Gjakova on Thursday morning. We worked a little bit with the elders there. We couldn't really do much more than just stand with them as they talked to one man on the street in Albanian, although Sister Schofield did try out saying "thank you." ("Falemnderit.") We asked them what they had talked to him about and they said, "We told him that Jesus' favorite color was purple, so if his favorite color was purple too he should definitely come talk to us." So they were a lot of fun. At the end of the day they gave us a self-help book for newly returned sister missionaries who have trouble adjusting back to regular life. No comment. We wanted to stay in that city because there was going to be a baptism, but then one of the APs called and said we should be working with other sisters in Pristina. 

I worked with Sister Curtis all day Friday. We had a lesson with a woman who told me I was fat, but beautiful. (She spoke English. Pretty sure Sister Curtis wouldn't have translated that for me had it been in Albanian.) That lesson was the first time I have ever promised someone that if they came to church, the voices would stop. 

We also went tracting which was exciting for me since I'd only done it once before in Albania, never in Kosovo. We got phone calls from people wanting to meet for a lesson twice while in one apartment building, so we kept having to leave and come back. Once, after ringing a doorbell and waiting so long in the hallway that the motion-detector light went off, I decided it was a good idea to sing the theme song to Three's Company, and Sister Curtis performed some impromptu beat-boxing. 

We did group exercise both mornings I was there, volleyball with all the missionaries. Combined we were 12 missionaries in that city, and everywhere we went while working we kept running into the others. It was great that Pristina could have a doubled work force. We also did group street contacting our second morning which was SO MUCH BETTER than street contacting in Skopje. People are so much friendlier and willing to talk, plus street-boarding and tabling aren't illegal there. In Macedonia they're illegal in pretty much any place where there's lots of people. We Macedonians were invited over to lunch at the branch president's house, which was normal American delicious food, and then we were approved to go back to our country. I had so, so much fun with Sister Curtis and Sister White. Side note: I saw a sign advertising "pop con" and told Sister White how much I loved seeing English fails printed in mass, and she told me her favorite had been a t-shirt that said, "You count touch this."

We had really missed our investigators though and we met up with Blago in Center on Sunday. We were teaching him about obedience and prayer and he started telling us his life story, about his son's death, how he was so glad that we had found him and how much we meant to him, everything he hadn't liked about other churches, and how his life was now so much easier because of the church. He said he felt so supported by us and the people in the church, and that no one had ever done for him what we had done for him. That's the only time I've ever seen someone as old as him cry so hard.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints really is "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth." (D&C 1:30)

Love,

Sister Riddle

July 7, 2014

Hey Mom,

We dropped Billy Crystal. He was creepy. 

At church on Sunday we had six investigators come to church!!!! Including Abraham again. I'm so happy! During the second hour we talked about the law of chastity, and he stood up and said, "In the Bible it says that men should only have one wife. But Abraham had three wives. Why is that ok?" He really gets the discussion going and I like that. At the end Elder Krajnc passed out a copy of The Family: A Proclamation to the World in Macedonian to everyone. On the way home, Elder Barber said something about it being a "shady" translation. I asked what made it shady and guess who he told me did the translation for it? Billy Crystal. Yeah. Apparently the very first missionaries here commissioned him to do it. But I guess it is one of the few church materials we have in Macedonian.

We made some new pass-along cards in Macedonian, because all we had before were ones in Serbian and the church invites. They look quite good. We put our numbers and the website for the church in Macedonian on there. When you go there it's quite short and incomplete, but I guess it's something. 

http://www.crkvata-na-isus-hristos.org/

I asked Blago who he wanted to baptize him and he said me. We haven't talked about the priesthood with him yet.

Our family is doing great. All of them were in church on Sunday and we tried to have a lesson with them after but it didn't really work out because everyone was milling around and kept interrupting. 

So, apparently a few years ago here some Albanian men killed five Macedonian kids. The other day they sentenced them to life in prison, and apparently people were protesting saying that it was racist and that the men were innocent. We were over at a lesson with Ana and Gordana and the elders called us about a thousand times telling us to stay inside. Gordana ended up driving us home, and a portion of the city where the courthouse was was blocked off. Gordana was on the phone with someone and I heard her say, "Бомби фрлаат," which as we all know, is Macedonian for, "They are throwing bombs." We stayed inside for most of the day and I got to take a nap. NAPS ARE AWESOME. I MISS THEM. Then the next day we were in Шутка (Shootka), where the Roma live, teaching the family at their home, and on the bus back the driver told us he could only take us so far because they were protesting again. We took a taxi the rest of the way home and it took twice as long since we had to go around that part of Скопје. 

We had Zone Conference earlier this week in Kosovo and I met President Weidmann and his wife! They are from Switzerland, don't know if I told you that before. I was so impressed with his English. 98% of the time he sounds just like an American. He seemed to really care about us all and was excited about working with us. He also brought us a five-foot long Toblerone bar. Afterwards the missionaries took some butcher knives to it and served it up.

2 Nephi 8

Well, I love you.

Sister Riddle

June 30, 2014

Dear Mom,

 

Today for P-day everybody asked me what I wanted to do and I said I wanted to go into some of the churches and mosques that we pass all the time. They looked at me like I was nuts, but that's what we did today. Only we didn't have time to go to a mosque today, so we'll do that later. The churches were mostly open space with a bunch of old religious murals. They each had little shops for you to buy icons or crucifixes.

Elder Krajnc randomly bought me a skirt. He even gave it to me in a little gift bag. He said he noticed I didn't have a lot of skirts and he hadn't given me anything for my birthday last month. It looked like it was too small but I'm wearing it today and it fits fine and is actually really cute.

 

Me and Sister Schofield are breaking some Macedonian records. Three investigators on baptismal date and a ton in church on Sunday!!! Almost every seat was filled. Even Abraham the shoelace salesman came again. I was so happy to see him! I've been hounding him, I mean inviting him to come every time I see him. He showed me where he was in reading the Book of Mormon; he'd read through most of 3rd Nephi. Wow. I assumed he'd just dropped us. I gave a talk on the Word of Wisdom during sacrament meeting and then for second hour Abraham started a very good discussion about the Sabbath Day. He raised his hand and said, "I've been reading the Bible for twenty years. It says to rest on the seventh day. The seventh day is Saturday, not Sunday." I told him we'd come and see him one day this week as he was working. I had tried to plan lessons with him before and he always said he was working, which I interpreted as him politely blowing us off. But then he said something about missing us and seemed very open to us coming to teach him at work. 

To all those praying for us, thank you!!

On Wednesday we go to Kosovo again to meet the new mission president and have Zone Conference and maybe do exchanges with the sisters there.

One of our investigators asked us to call him doctor because he's a veterinarian.

Another one of our investigators, named Живко (Zivko), is the Macedonian version of Billy Crystal. He looks and even sounds a lot like him. Apparently the elders have taught him before but they dropped him because he never came to church. He came to church this week after our first lesson with him.

One day about a week or so ago, me and Sister Schofield were street contacting and I asked her if she wanted to go contacting in the park. On the way there she asked if we could pray, so we found a semi-private place in a kind of alleyway and asked for help. We were both just so tired and downhearted that day and didn't want to talk to anyone. Then, once we were in the park she made eye contact with a man sitting down and we went over to talk to him. Immediately I thought he was very nice and seemed open to our message. He worked for the Red Cross and another humanitarian organization and said he'd come to church on Sunday. That week he really did come and was showing me some pictures of his family on his phone. We set up a lesson with him, his name is Неџел (Negel), and I asked him to bring his family. On Monday after we emailed we met up with him, his wife and two little boys and Elmaz and walked over to the Nelson's house to have the lesson. They are the most incredible and amazing family I have met since coming here. We talked about the Apostasy and the Restoration, bore our testimonies, talked about their beliefs, etc. A highlight of the lesson was when his wife, Метија (Metia) told us very emotionally, "I think God sent you to us." I said to Sister Schofield later that I didn't think she realized how literal and accurate that statement was. We've met with them since and they are on baptismal date. Their boys are too young to be baptized with them, but one of them will be old enough in August. They are all just so, so great.

Our investigator Blago (Благо in Cyrillic, in case you were curious) said he wants us to meet with him every day so he can adequately prepare for his baptism. 

I forgot to write that last week it was Elder Gierisch's birthday. We walked over to their apartment on the way to contacting, and they were out on their balcony. I shouted "Happy birthday!" up to him. He responded by nailing me with a water balloon.

Yesterday we had a branch activity and met up at the park to play soccer. Only no one really showed up except for Ana and Gordana. Benjamin came super late. After playing soccer they wanted to play volleyball and I decided to sit on the bleachers and just watch. Sister Schofield and Elder Gierisch kept telling me to come and play and finally I yelled, "MAKE ME!" Sister Schofield said something to Elder Gierisch, who nodded and then came and physically dragged me onto the court. 

Billy Crystal gave me some huge praise on my language that made me feel super good so I have to tell you about it. In our lesson with him he said, "You're very good at the accent. You seem like someone who was born here, and then lived in America for a few years and then came back. Plus you have a Macedonian face. You seem Macedonian."

Alma 26: 27-31, "Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

  And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God.

  And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.

  And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

  Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us."

I hope this week that everyone reading this will realize or realize more that God answers prayers, that He is in your life, and that He knows and loves you. Because I for myself know that to be true. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love,

Sister Riddle