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

October 27, 2014

Dear Mom,

President Weidmann made a new rule that Sisters can only teach women and Elders can only teach men, no exceptions. This rule had been suggested but not completely mandatory beforehand. Anyway, he sent out the message via text one morning about two weeks ago. So, me and Sister Schofield now have zero investigators, unless you count Natasha. We divided up our investigators and all the phone numbers we'd gotten while contacting among the elders. It's just really hard getting women to talk to us here.

We both went to the dentist today. If you ever are apprehensive or uncomfortable about going to the dentist back home, just know it can be a lot, lot worse. I spent the entire cleaning intermittently spitting out mouthfuls of blood into a little sink that they placed next to my head. The last time I remember bleeding at the dentist was when I was little and they had me show them how I flossed, and they quickly pointed out that the bleeding was my fault for not flossing regularly. The whole cleansing was quite painful and they ended it with flossing my teeth with what felt like sandpaper. Afterwards I went into the bathroom to clean my face off and my gums throbbed. I avoided Sister Schofield directly after my appointment because I knew I wouldn't be able to keep from telling her how bad it had been, and I figured it was better if she was going in to not know beforehand. She came out with an interesting look on her face and started shaking her head. At least now I am tartar-free. (Though in America they seem to integrate their knowledge of how bone doesn't bleed into their tartar cleansings.)

We also took Sister Schofield to the doctor today to try and find out what is causing her headaches. We found some holy water in a bathroom cupboard in our apartment and I suggested pouring it on her head to see if that helped.

Forgot to tell you about the institute lesson at the army base last week. The lesson was only with two soldiers because apparently a bunch of people were just shipped in and out and they don't know everyone who's a Mormon yet. The lesson we taught was on the Atonement, and I think it went really well. We sat in the chow hall with them and two senior couples (the Nelsons and the Tooles) and gave it there. When we first sat down one soldier said to Sister Schofield, "How's it going with keeping world peace?" "Isn't that your job?" she asked him. "No, our job has to do with when world peace is threatened." "I guess we work from the inside," I said. We ate at Taco Bell afterward and at the little grocery store I got some instant oatmeal, chicken noodle soup, skittles, and a protein bar.

I also got a package from Anna aka Sister Boucher (in North Carolina right now). She sent me a shirt, a cd, and some halloween oreos along with a very nice note. I gave a few oreos to the elders and the package was gone after three days. It was so, so nice getting that.

The Nelsons showed us some video they found online of some missionaries who made a song called "All About That Book", which I thought was fantastically cheesy. A few days later when we were in Center I heard the song All About That Bass playing out of a cafe and appreciated the remix a little better after that.

https://www.lds.org/church/news/the-surprising-science-behind-supremely-happy-people?cid=HPFR102414513&lang=eng

Found something scientific yet uplifting on the church's website. I hope you have a good week. I love you so much.

Sister Riddle

John 14: 18, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you."

Sorry for any repeats with the scriptures. I forget which ones I have posted.

October 12, 2014

Hey Mom,

Elder Barber once suggested to us that when the salespeople of Skopje come up to us on the street trying to sell us their junk, that we try and sell religion back to them. A few months ago, a guy named Marian came up to us as we were sitting on the Alexander the Great statue with a clipboard and gave us a health survey. We started talking to him about the Book of Mormon afterwards and got his phone number. Nothing happened for a while, and then I saw him again one night and we sat and talked for a long time. I decided to call him randomly a week or so ago, but he kept bailing on appointments. Then I saw him again one night and he called me later when he wasn't working asking to meet. Bam. New investigator.

We also keep having lessons with this guy named Deon, who is drunk 50% of the time, but receptive to our message. He doesn't want to pray or read from the scriptures when he's been drinking, which I think shows respect, so that's good. It was really weird because in our first lesson he said something like, "The heavenly kingdom will be here, only the world will be perfect and changed." How did that random piece of mormon doctrine find its way into a Macedonian church? I guess it isn't really mormon doctrine, it's just truth, but as far as I knew no other church believed that. 

There's going to be baptism in a few days, two or three of the elders' investigators. 

Guess who gets to go to the US army base again tomorrow and teach an institute class to the LDS soldiers there? Me and Sister Schofield. So cool!

1 Corinthians 2:9, "But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

Love you so much. Keep it up this week,

Sister Riddle

September 29, 2014

Hey Mom,

So, there are 3 missionaries in the MTC Macedonia-bound right now. Elder Rigby should have been getting here in a few weeks, but he's having some visa problems so who knows when we'll see him? Then there's a Sister Hassel and an Elder Somethingorother coming at the end of November. Exciting.

Transfer calls happened in Albania, Kosovo, and for the Elders here in Macedonia. I remember last time for transfer calls President Ford just called me and asked how I was doing.

We had Sister Training in Albania and then Zone Conference in Kosovo the next day. They were both great. Everything is longer under President Weidmann. He set a goal for each companionship to have four more baptisms by the end of the year. It's now a new rule to pray for our companions in every single prayer, and to pray "at every finding opportunity". He's come up with a mission motto for us and says he wants to find a mission hymn as well, so that throughout our lives when we hear it we can remember our missions.

Remember the Albanian lady who heard voices and told me I was fat? Well, her name was Alyria and apparently she talks to Sister White and Sister Curtis about me pretty much every time they see her. I guess she really liked me and said that I prayed "the right way", which is kind of confusing because I pray the exact same way that they do. They also told me they thought it was funny that Alyria has known them both for so long and gets both of their names wrong, she calls Sister White "Wyatt" and Sister Curtis "Courtis" even though she speaks great English, but every time she references me it's always, "Sister Riddle."

While in Tirana I went to a lesson at a member family's house. The woman showed us a picture of her, her husband and little boy in the May 2012 edition of the Liahona. I tried to find it online to paste it into this email, but online there are no pictures. It was a talk by Henry B. Eyring, though. 

Sister Curtis goes home to Missouri on Wednesday, and Sister Wilding is leaving too. I really liked them both.

 

Well, that's really all I have to say this week. I love you so much.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2014/10?lang=eng&vid=3810237340001

Love,

Sister Riddle