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