Dear Mom,
This week was good. Sister Schofield's parents got here on Saturday night and we got to go pick them up from the airport. I could feel her mom's relief after not seeing her daughter for a year and a half. Sister Schofield is staying with them at the Swinefords for another week showing them the sights in Macedonia. She flies home Friday. On Sunday she gave a talk on sacrifice and our investigator that dropped us came for the first and last time to church. I forgot to tell you a funny conversation I had with him one day. He had told me that there was a demon in his house that tried to possess him every morning at 4am. The next time I saw him, I said,
"How is the demon?"
"Well, he's good. I'll tell him you said hello."
"How is the problem with the demon?" I clarified.
A few days this week me and Sister Hassell contacted walking around Бит Пазар, which is like a pepped-up flea market. I felt prompted to talk to one woman sitting next to a table of clothes she was selling. She was a Jehovah's Witness and asked me right off the bat if I was a Mormon. It always catches me a bit off-guard when someone here actually knows who we are. She wasn't very open to our message but her dad and another man selling stuff near her were. We had good conversations. While talking to the other man, who turned out to be Muslim, I asked him out of curiosity, "What do Muslims believe that God is? Energy? A spirit?"
"God is One," he responded. I felt so frustrated because that's what they all say and it doesn't answer my question. While walking back towards with Sister Hassell towards Center I remembered a man with a bum leg we had run into earlier in the day. He was just sitting on a bench looking out at the Vardar and we decided to talk to him. He had also been Muslim. "This bench is wood. Nothing else can be like it. What is this? Stone. It cannot ever be anything but stone. This river is a river of water. The river is one, and that is how God is. God is One, and He will always be One. He is without beginning and without end. That is it." I also remembered another Muslim saying to me, "We believe that no one can be similar to God," and the man in the Бит Пазар saying something about how Moses didn't see God and we cannot see God because we don't have the strength. Or maybe it was power. Those are the same words in Macedonian. It clicked and I said this to Sister Hassell, "Ooh. So that finally makes sense. They think that God is something very powerful but they just don't know what that something is because we're unworthy to see him. And they can't describe to me what He is because He cannot be described; He's unknown. He's something unique and individual to Himself. Nothing on this earth can be used to describe Him or compare Him to." We were both like, "Ooooh." We paused near some concrete staircase and she said to me, "Get out your thoughts."
"I'm just trying to remember what their needs were so I can remember them for next time." I pulled out my planner and wrote down Islam: people in the Bible who saw God. "He said Moses didn't see God, but didn't He?" The words came to my mind, The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto His friend. "Is that in the Bible or the Pearl of Great Price?" (There is no Pearl of Great Price in Macedonian, Serbian, anything. Plus it just makes things simpler if it's in the Bible. Not that I don't have confidence in the Book of Mormon as scripture, I just think it helps to build upon what people already believe.)
"I don't know."
"And that Jehovah's Witness lady, she made it seem like they believe that the Bible is the end. Which is kind of sad."
"Yeah, that is what they believe. There was a guy who realized one day that people were doing things that really went against what was in the Bible, so he went through the whole thing and that's how Jehovah's Witnesses started." She went on to say how she was so thankful for the living prophets and how, when she heard them speak, her testimony was strengthened because she felt that they were really speaking to her and made her feel so good. She had us pray and then we continued contacting. When we got home I pulled out my scriptures. "It's in the Bible! Exodus 33:11, 'And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend...'" So that, and Genesis 1:27, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." are two evidences in the Bible that God has a body. Which is backed up by modern revelation, stated clear as day, "God is the Father of our spirits. He has a glorified, perfected body of flesh and bone. We lived with Him in heaven before we were born. And when He created us physically, we were created in the image of God, each with a personal body." (Russell M. Nelson) Cool that we can know that. I personally have never pictured God as anything else but my literal Father. Why is it so important to know that we are children of God? Why is this knowledge so precious? What happens if we don't know that?
I finally got a Macedonian Bible from a Baptist church here. It is so cool to me seeing well-known scriptures, like the ones stated above, articulately stated in perfect biblical Macedonian! For language study I have started memorizing scriptures. I already have the First Vision committed to memory. I also finally found a reliable Macedonian-English dictionary. Only ten dollars. Wow.
Articles of Faith
We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.
We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things. - Joseph Smith. https://www.lds.org/bc/
I know these things are true. I love this church. I am so glad we have so much more outside of the Bible. More truth.
President Weidmann called me last night and delivered the shocking news that I will be staying in Skopje and have two trainees, Sister Hassell and Sister Barch. Sounds like a waste of phone credit to me.
I'm trying to think of what else to tell you. We have an investigator Zoran who loves to talk about history and anything in the humanities department, particularly the 5th century. He ALWAYS goes off-topic. I wonder how he'll react when I tell him the Book of Mormon ends in the 5th century. The other day we ran into him on Stone Bridge and he asked me, "Дали си видела Крамер контра Крамер со Дастин Хофман?" (Have you ever seen Kramer v. Kramer with Dustin Hoffman?) I looked Sister Hassell dead in the eye and responded, "Не. Никогаш не чула за тоа." (Nope. Never heard of it.) So glad she is a Jimmy Fallon fan.
I actually had the idea to share stuff about marriage this week, which is weird because I'm actually not married. I was reading in the Book of Mormon yesterday and saw two verses that I hadn't really noticed before. 1 Nephi 16:7-8, "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, took one of the daughters of Ishmael to wife; and also, my brethren took of the daughters of Ishmael to wife; and also Zoram took the eldest daughter of Ishmael to wife. And thus my father had fulfilled all the commandments of the Lord which had been given unto him. And also, I, Nephi, had been blessed of the Lord exceedingly." Awwww. I think this email is turning out a lot cheesier than I had intended it to be. Anyway, here's this video that will make you cry: http://www.
This church is true. Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know that God loves us.
Love,
Sister Riddle
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