November 24, 2014

Hey Mom,

So we planned to go to Albania for another mission conference/Thanksgiving celebration this week but Sister Schofield has the flu so we she might not be well enough to make the trip. She sure does get sick a lot. We're taking her to the doctor today.

We found another family!!! We started talking to this taxi driver named Mervan who speaks a bit of English and he said that even though he was Muslim he liked talking to other people about their religious beliefs. We met up with his wife and went to their home one day last week. His mother and 6-year-old daughter were also there for the lesson. Unfortunately Sister Schofield gave most of the lesson because once their little girl came in she showed me her toys, books, and videos on their iPad and I was pretty much no help during the lesson. Sister Schofield said it was ok though because she thought it was important that we showed we cared about them and not just converting them. The little girl was so cute, she only speaks Albanian and a little bit of English and almost everything I said to her she responded, "Yeah." I do the same thing in Macedonian when I don't understand. 

Anyway, not much new to report on other than the new missionaries get here next Wednesday December 3rd. 

Happy Thanksgiving.

http://media.ldscdn.org/images/media-library/by-speaker/other/quote-dc-59-7-1173972-gallery.jpg

Love,

Sister Riddle

 

November 17, 2014

Hey Mom,

 

So this week we went to Albania again for mission conference. We got there the night before and went out with some of the elders for dinner. It's so nice to be with different people. We slept in Tirana with the sisters there and then drove to Durres the next day since there's a chapel there. The best speaker wasn't the main one. We slept in Tirana again and drove back to Skopje the next day. 

I finished reading Jesus the Christ. A fantastic way to spend 800 pages. I'm happy though because now I can read more scriptures during personal study.

Language classes are going well. The other day I translated the phrase "too gay to function" into Macedonian and Elder Krajnc gave me a man point. I didn't even know he knew what those were or how to give them. He's been holding out on me. 

By the way, apparently it's never too early for the opposition to start working against us. Remember how I said I wasn't worried about there being anything anti-mormon online? Yeah I was wrong. Online and on tv. Apparently there was an hour special on the other night about how we're here illegally. Which is pretty rich considering the church is the most rigorous rule-following organization ever. I can personally testify and reassure anyone who wants to know that through the amount of things I have signed, pictures I have taken, trips to visit our lawyer, Elena, or to go to the ministry building, that I know that we are here 100% legally. If we didn't care about the law we would be tracting and have a better meeting place, probably. 

On a personal note, I don't know how anyone gets by in life without prayer. This morning I didn't have time to pray and I feel like I'm going to die. Be grateful for prayer and that Heavenly Father not only is willing to communicate with us but has commanded us to pray. 

 

"Choose to converse with your Father in Heaven often. Make time every day to share your thoughts and feelings with Him. Tell Him everything that concerns you. He is interested in the most important as well as the most mundane facets of your life. Share with Him your full range of feelings and experiences.

Because He respects your agency, Father in Heaven will never force you to pray to Him. But as you exercise that agency and include Him in every aspect of your daily life, your heart will begin to fill with peace, buoyant peace. That peace will focus an eternal light on your struggles. It will help you to manage those challenges from an eternal perspective.

Parents, help safeguard your children by arming them morning and night with the power of family prayer. Children are bombarded every day with the evils of lust, greed, pride, and a host of other sinful behaviors. Protect your children from daily worldly influences by fortifying them with the powerful blessings that result from family prayer. Family prayer should be a nonnegotiable priority in your daily life." -Elder Richard G. Scott

Love you all so much,

Sister Riddle

November 10, 2014

Hey Mom,

 

So, usually every week we do service by picking up trash in Skopje. Did you know it's the most polluted city in Europe? Disgusting. 3rd most polluted city in the world. Zoki our language teacher told us that. This week we had all of our language classes by his work and then afterwards decided to do our contacting down there instead of at our few usual places. It was such a nice change. A lot more people talked to us there. 

The only truly Macedonian materials we have are the Gospel Fundamentals book and some Joseph Smith pamphlets, which aren't very helpful when contacting. Everything else we use is in Serbian. For the past several months we've been using some self-made passalong cards. President Ford had it approved for a one-time printing of I think 5,000 denar worth. But we're running out and thus designing new ones in the hope that President Weidmann will be sympathetic to our cause and approve more to be printed. Anyway, since I still wanted to pass out things in Macedonian and we were short on cards, I had the idea to write out parts of my testimony on these card-sized pictures of Jesus that the Yarns gave me right before I came out on my mission (about a year ago!) I also wrote out the information for where to come for church and our phone number on them. So far they've gotten a great response because people are more willing to hold onto a picture of Christ than our card, which does have a picture of the first vision on it, but people don't always recognize that. I gave one of them to a couple that was intermittently staring at us and making out one night while contacting. They were from Czech Republic and said they were followers of Christ and in turn gave me a couple booklets about their beliefs. I thought that was really nice of them. 

Did I tell you that in Macedonia you can buy actual chestnuts roasted over an open fire? Well, more like open grill, but still. I haven't tried any yet. They were here when I first arrived in Skopje, which is a reminder of just how much time has passed. 

http://www.mormonchannel.org/music-videos?v=2098657586001&cid=HPMO110314451

Love you,

Sister Riddle

November 2, 2014

Hey Mom,

So not much really happened this week worth talking about but I figured I'd share this video with you.

https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/unto-all-the-world/unto-all-the-world-franco-and-maicons-story?cid=HPWE102914520&lang=eng

Love you all. Keep going on.

Sister Riddle