Monday, May 18, 2015

May 18, 2015

Hey Mom,
 
This week we went over to Susana's and helped her pick cherries. It was really fun and she gave us some that we have in our fridge now. 

One day a long time ago when we were in Shootka teaching some old woman, while passing back to head towards the bus, a girl stopped me to talk to me. She was just in her front yard and her family was washing some rugs outside. I finally remembered to call her and then we went and taught her and three of her family members at their home there. They were Muslim but had no problem reading from the Book of Mormon and praying with us. It was cool because they all really listened when I spoke.

It's ice-cream-eating season again. Been having a lot of it. Today it was a scoop of strawberry. 

We ran into the guy from Connecticut again at a crosswalk and gave him an English Book of Mormon.

Yesterday we had to stay inside after church due to protests so I cleaned the house really nice. Today we have to go in after 5. 

Sorry for the short emails lately. Not much is happening. But my flight plans got changed and now I have to fly out of Albania and I have a layover in Rome and Detroit.
 


Love,
Sister Riddle

Monday, May 11, 2015

May 11, 2015

Hey Mom,
I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22. That's what Sister Hassell wrote on our mirror for my birthday on Friday. My companions also made me breakfast and got me some cool presents. The Notebook in Macedonian (the book not the movie) and a t-shirt that says "Ah, frick" on one side (do I say that a lot?) and "Hey look! It's Turkish German!" on the other. (In the videos they use to train missionaries called The District, there's an investigator called German who is really big. One day when we were by Stone Bridge we saw a really big guy and Sister Hassell said, "Let's go talk to him. He reminds me of German." He turned out to be from Turkey. We saw him again a month or so later and I said, "Hey look, it's Turkish German!" thus the reason for the quote on the shirt.) For our lunch hour all the missionaries went to our NEW CHURCH BUILDING and had pizza and a cake that Elder Prince made me. He told me it was a "sexist cake" and that I'd find out why when I ate it. For every slice of cake there was a piece of paper with a sexist joke on it. E.g. "What do you call a woman with an opinion? Wrong." 

I also got presents from the elders :) Elder Prince and Chingas got me a plain blue shirt for the summer, and Elder Gierisch and Rigby got me some chocolate mints and a collar and leash for Sister Hassell. I'm always losing her when we're contacting. The collar has spikes that dig in if she resists. Elder Krajnc got me another book in Macedonian. He is flying out of Tirana tomorrow so yesterday after church and lunch at the Nelsons he left. We (the sisters) all wrote him goodbye notes. The elders' landlord George took us all out to dinner again in Elder Krajnc's honor. Everyone misses him.

On Saturday the sisters, Elder Prince and Elder Krajnc drove to Delcevo, a city near the Bulgarian border, to go to Natasha's house to see her and meet her parents. We talked about the church and overall it was a great meeting. I got to hold one of her puppies. And the city was beautiful.

We went to the army base again, probably my last time, after a zone training in Kosovo. The institute lesson was on sacrifice and afterwards we ate chicken nuggets in the chow hall with the soldiers.

 
Something cool happened a week or so ago. We had a lesson in this guy named Avdo's house, who is Muslim. He wasn't really interested in the church but at one point he told me, "You have a bit of an accent. You sound like someone from Stumica or somewhere in the east." http://www.ezilon.com/maps/images/europe/Macedonia-road-map.gif No idea where I might've picked that up from, if his statement was even accurate, but still cool. 

It's really hard to stay focused nearing the end of my mission. I'll see you soon.
"I do not think it pleases the Lord when we worry because we think we never do enough or that what we do is never good enough." -Boyd K. Packer

Have a great week.

Love, 
Sister Riddle
 

Monday, May 4, 2015

May 4, 2015

Hey Mom,
 
Guess who came to visit Skopje this week? Sister Kokol (she served here for 3 weeks training Sister Schofield, and we did exchanges and stuff with her). She's been home since October but came to Albania and Kosovo again to help do research for BYU. She was able to come to the NEW CHURCH BUILDING on the first Sunday we used it. Afterwards she and Zoki came contacting with us.

Elder Krajnc leaves in a little over a week! I'm going to miss him so much! He got his flight plans and it only takes him an hour to get back to Slovenia, ha ha.  Susana loves him and so we're going to have a lesson with the elders at her house this week.

Sascho got confirmed on Sunday so now we really do have eighteen members.

Well, I can't really think of anything else to tell you about.

Love,
Sister Riddle

Sunday, May 3, 2015

April 27, 2015

Hey Mom,

Today for P-day we went and played laser tag again. Guess who got overall 2nd MVP? Yours truly!!! I don't know how that happened because I usually lose every game I play (just games in general). The first round I hid behind a tree and got more points than anyone. By the end of the third round Elder Chingas told me he hated me. High praise. I told him my trigger finger hurt from shooting him so much.  The place where we play laser tag is in city park, about ten minutes walking from the main entrance. There is a big field with boards to hide behind and a two-story shack made of brick and wood. It would be so illegal in America. Making it all the more fun. I was hiding behind a large glass window waiting for a round to begin and realized that the corner I was squatting in had a lot of old cobwebs and rusty nails sticking out. 

Also today I got to hold a little tiny baby puppy. One of the little Roma kids that we talk to a lot was holding one and let me pick him up for a minute.

On Saturday Susana got baptized, along with the elders' investigator, Sascho. We took her and her boyfriend out to lunch afterwards. Susana is so nice; she is the equivalent of my Macedonian grandma. We usually have lessons at her house since she lives right by us and she always feeds us SO MUCH. Yesterday when we went to see her she asked if we'd had lunch already and we told her yes, so then when we were about to leave she said she wanted to give us dinner since we'd already had lunch. And this was after she'd already given us homemade doughnuts and lemonade. On Sunday she was confirmed but Sascho didn't come. So, Macedonia now has seventeen and a half members.

Elder Barber update: apparently he's working at a bakery where he has to get up at like 4am, which is pretty funny because he hated getting up at 6:30 every day as a missionary. It's also ironic that now he spends his days making sandwiches for women. He emailed me today and said he misses Skopje.

Elder Krajnc had been serving in Kosovo for the past few weeks, but he came back on Saturday just in time for the baptism.

Helaman 5:5-8, "For they remembered the words which their father Helaman spake unto them. And these are the words which he spake:
Behold, my sons, I desire that ye should remember to keep the commandments of God; and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words. Behold, I have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of Jerusalem; and this I have done that when you remember your names ye may remember them; and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said, and also written, that they were good.
Therefore, my sons, I would that ye should do that which is good, that it may be said of you, and also written, even as it has been said and written of them.
And now my sons, behold I have somewhat more to desire of you, which desire is, that ye may not do these things that ye may boast, but that ye may do these things to lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, yea, which is eternal, and which fadeth not away; yea, that ye may have that precious gift of eternal life, which we have reason to suppose hath been given to our fathers."

Love,
Sister Riddle
 

"He was a million miles from a million dollars, but you could never spend his wealth." Preacher, OneRepublic. Did you know they're coming to Skopje on June 1? There have been posters all over town for the past few months. When we got back from Sister's Conference in Tirana the elders had posted one on the outside of our door. I wish I could go ;)