April 7

April 7, 2014

So, as of April 1st they officially put sisters back in Kosovo. They just pulled two who had been serving in Albania. April 1st here is not only April Fool's Day but is also combined with Halloween. Everyone was wearing costumes and when we went to Center that night to contact there was a HUGE party going on. Fireworks, lights, the fountains were going for the first time since I've been here, really loud music. Two Italian-speaking guys came up to Sister Schofield and we gave them a church invite. There's a funny story that goes along with it for next time, when I have more time to write.

One night me and Sister Schofield went over to Kate's for a lesson and she had what looked like a jar of olives on her table. She poured us each a cup of it. Turned out to be cherries. She set out a little dish for us to spit the pits onto. When she went into another room, Sister Schofield said to me, "I can't eat these," and I let her transfer them into my cup and ate them two at a time so Kate wouldn't notice by the time she came back. If that's not Christlike service, I don't know what is. Kate also drank the juice but me and my companion played the ignorant foreigner card and pretended not to realize that we were supposed to do that too.

On Saturday everyone was invited over to the Swinefords to watch the first session of General Conference live. (6pm for us) It was really cool! I don't think I've ever been that excited for it before. I also really appreciated, for the first time, how slowly and clearly they talk, because I was worried about people like Kate not being able to understand English that well. 

We decided to talk to a shoelace salesman who was set up very close to our apartment one day. We gave him a Book of Mormon and got his number. The next time he saw us he said, "This book is beautiful," and asked if we could give him another one so he could give it to his friend. Considering the normal response we get, I was really touched. On Sunday I was so excited to see him in Church! I sat next to him and asked him how far he'd read. Only about fifty pages, but that made me like him even more. (A little while ago we had been meeting with a man, Dragi, who showed up drunk to every lesson. He'd read the Book of Mormon in about a day and said it was "just like the Bible. I want something concrete." I told him we didn't have anything concrete and we ended up having to drop him.) This shoelace salesman's name is Abraham. He pulled out his phone and recorded when we sang the opening hymn. When sacrament was passed, before it came around to us he asked me, "Am I allowed to take that?" Then he took a piece of bread and held it in his hand for a minute, I think saying a prayer of his own, before he ate it. When the water was passed, he looked very worried and asked me, "Is that alcohol?" He relaxed when I told him it was water. You're perfect, I thought. "Is this sacrament?" was another thing he asked (the actual words he used were Holy Supper). He told me he'd been feeling really sick the day before, but he wanted to come to church so bad. He asked me if church would be at the same time next week, and if he could have a cd of the songs. He was interested to know how the timeline of the Book of Mormon lined up with the Bible. I had Elder Krajnc answer that question. Brother Davis (who is from Texas and found the elders in the park one day) was using me as a translator with Abraham at the end of church. Abraham told him he'd been Muslim before but converted to Christianity. People have been having me act as a translator a lot. It's interesting since my language isn't that great. At one point I thought Abraham said he had a 12-year-old wife, but it turned out he said that his wife passed away 12 years ago. Abraham again told me how beautiful the Book of Mormon was. 

We got a phone call right after church from someone named Adam who was in Skopje I think on business, who had met with the elders once before. He was with his girlfriend Anita and said he could only meet if we had time right that second, so we hurried to center and talked to them about the Restoration, prayer and the Holy Spirit in a cafe there. We couldn't get anything to drink since it was Sunday. He explained to his girlfriend in English as we sat down, "They are angels from God." He speaks it pretty well and his girlfriend understands it, so we did the lesson in both languages. He told us that he could feel Jesus in his heart, that he always prayed every night before he went to bed, and he told us some experiences in his life when he'd felt the hand of God, like when he was going 220 km/hr in his car as a young kid, crashed, and lived. He said that sometimes when he prayed, he felt the words come to his mind which he should say. It's people like this that remind me why I'm on a mission.

We were again invited to watch the morning session (morning for you,anyway) of General Conference on Sunday and took a taxi once we realized the buses weren't running. Our driver, Dimitri, asked us what our church believed in. I told him that we believed in God and Jesus Christ and that God was our Father. I said we believed that the teachings of Jesus Christ had been restored again to the earth. "I'm interested in that!" he said. I gave him a church invite and wrote down his number, and when it was time to pay fare, 167 denar, he only took a hundred and waved the rest away. "You're a good Sister. It's on me." 

Our investigator Benjamin was even at this session of general conference, which surprised me since he doesn't speak English. I felt kind of bad for Elders Krajnc and Barber who had to translate for the entire two hours. Benjamin is Muslim and speaks Albanian at home, and just after I committed him to reading the Book of Mormon, his dad found it, was mad at got rid of it. 

Talk about having a million heart-warming moments this week. I think yesterday, when we met with those three men, was the best day of my mission so far.

I love you.

Sister Riddle

3 Nephi 18:1-25

March 31, 2014

March 31, 2014

 

So, today for P day we hiked up to the cross that's on top of this mountain in Skopje (the one I said is lit up at night just like the Y). We went with Ana and it took about an hour. We ran into an American couple hiking at the same time as us and took a picture from the top. There was also a playground and ice cream for sale up there, so since we're a bunch of five year olds we played together on the seesaw and swing sets.

Yesterday at Church the Fords and a bunch of other important people came down for the creation of the branch here!!! The branch in Skopje. Awesome. They made Brother Swineford (an American living here with his family) the President, Elmaz is the first counselor, and the elders' recent convert Ratko is the Mission Leader. We're starting to get all organized and whatnot.

It was a good meeting and Kate got up to bear her testimony for part of it. She did it in Macedonian and English. I love her.

After church we met up with Ana, Gordana and her little niece Eva to walk around the park and give them a lesson. I really like Eva because she's a good talker. It doesn't matter that I can only ask very simple questions, she just goes off and energetically answers. As we walked through the park, I asked her the words for stuff like "cotton candy" (Шикерна Вола) and "leash" (Поводник). Probably not the most useful of words, but I'm going to have to learn it all eventually. 

Sister Schofield's crusher/investigator Benjamin is really great for me to talk to, too since he doesn't speak English. We gave our first lesson by ourselves to him. Normally Sister Schofield does most of the talking in lessons so this time I did it almost all of it, for a nice change. I'm still frustrated as usual that my Macedonian speaking opportunities are so few and far between. I've all but given up on language study since we showed a grammar exercise to Kate, copied from our textbook, and she laughed and told us it was wrong. I've noticed that the English-Macedonian dictionaries some of the other missionaries have are unreliable as well. It will kill me if I have to waste more time learning more of the wrong language, or learning how to speak the language incorrectly. We wrote President Ford a few weeks ago begging to let us take classes, and he said he's waiting on approval. 

We went to visit Ratko with the elders and he told us he said to one of his friends, "A few weeks ago I was baptized into this church, and now I'm already a priest! Let me baptize you!" At least he's upfront about his purpose. Maybe that's why he was made mission leader.

My friend Haley from back home wrote me something a while back about it being ironic that Sister Riddle was in Albania. I feel like it's quote-worthy: "Did you find lord voldemort yet? Don't let a strange man use the back of your head." 

Whenever the beggars come up to us and ask us for money and we tell them no, it is the most ironic thing in the world when they say, "God is watching." It's a rule in the missionary handbook that we can't give money to beggars. 

And how's this for irony: a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses knocked on our door. Two women. Just picture our doorway at that moment. I thought it was hilarious. Now I know why people always mistake us for them. We work in pairs and dress alike. They left us a pamphlet about resurrection, and Sister Schofield was like, "Wait, what? I thought tracting was illegal here." Turns out they just don't care about the law.

One day we bought candied apples from someone selling them on the street for just forty cents a piece. They were pretty good. 

 

Well, we were kind of crunched for time today, but I hope I've written a satisfactory-enough email.

Love,

Sister Riddle

Alma 17:11-16, "And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good be examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.
And it came to pass that the hearts of the sons of Mosiah, and also those who were with them, took courage to go forth unto the Lamanites to declare unto them the word of God.
And it came to pass when they had arrived in the borders of the land of the Lamanites, that they separated themselves and departed one from another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their harvest; for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken.
And assuredly it was great, for they had undertaken to preach the word of God to a wild and a hardened and a ferocious people; a people who delighted in murdering the Nephites, and robbing and plundering them; and their hearts were set upon riches, or upon gold and silver, and precious stones; yet they sought to obtain these things by murdering and plundering, that they might not labor for them with their own hands.
Thus they were a very indolent people, many of whom did worship idols, and the curse of God had fallen upon them because of the traditions of their fathers; notwithstanding the promises of the Lord were extended unto them on the conditions of repentance.
Therefore, this was the cause for which the sons of Mosiah had undertaken the work, that perhaps they might bring them unto repentance; that perhaps they might bring them to know of the plan of redemption."

March 24, 2014

Greetings from Македонија,

Something interesting I ate was Салма, which is pickled cabbage stuffed with meat and rice. Elder Prince has been telling me I need to try it, but when he described it to me I thought it sounded gross. Then I ordered something thinking it looked good and when I asked what it was called halfway through eating it he smirked and told me. So there's your foodie story for this week.

 

One day this week me and Sister Schofield ended up in a high school (don't ask) trying to find a room and I experienced a bit of culture shock when we passed by some open doors and saw a huge group of students standing outside smoking.

 

On Saturday we went with Elder Barber and Elder Gierisch to Bitola, a city in the southern part of Macedonia, a three-hour drive away. It was nice because since I've been here I've only ever been in the big capital cities: Skopje, Tirana, Prishtina. Bitola had more of a small-town feel and the lifestyle was much slower-paced and relaxed. I could hear the difference in accents between Bitola and Skopje. I wish I could serve there! Anyway, the reason we went to Bitola was to teach a man named Vladimir who found the church on the internet about four years ago. He wants to get baptized but first he has to meet with the missionaries. Me and Sister Schofield went so we could teach his mom, too. We were forewarned that his mom didn't think too highly of us, that she thought we were a cult or something.

 

Once we found his apartment and were all seated inside, he brought us out a bunch of snacks; cookies, chocolate, dates, and milk, all on a silver platter. Literally. When I was in the MTC at my TRCs a guy who'd served for a small amount of time in Macedonia told me about this, but this was the first time I'd actually seen it. Vladimir told us he knew what Mormons liked to eat, "a lot of sweet", because he'd seen it on the church website. I guess that means, he saw a picture, or pictures, of some people eating and thought they were eating a lot of sugar? Then his mom came in. She shook our hands and stared at us like she was inspecting something on the bottom of her shoe. She started interrogating us. She threatened to call the cops. Vladimir appeared very embarrassed because of her and tried to get her to take a seat and eat something, but she refused. We tried to start with a prayer, but, as I had already anticipated, she interrupted. Her son tried to explain to us that it was just weird for her, having people come over and pray in such a manner. She was very angry. We all tried to be friendly and polite. I smiled at her once and she shook her head and said, "WHAT!" She said several things that we didn't understand and which Vladimir wouldn't translate. Whenever I meet a person like this, I always wonder what they're like with their friends.  Elder Barber explained that the reason we couldn't answer all of her questions very well was because we were still learning Macedonian. Her face softened a lot. She asked if we could talk to her without praying, so that's what we did. A whole lot of getting-to-know-you. When Sister Schofield asked her about her brothers and sisters she laughed for the first time and said they were all dead. She asked about our families, our names and how old we were, what we did before we were missionaries. "Do you watch Dr. Oz?" she asked me with a warm smile.

She wanted to know whether we prayed with incense, or before idols. We told her no. "What do I have to do to be a Mormon? What happens after I'm baptized?"

"Oh, wow," said Elder Gierisch. We again made the attempt to pray, later, and she told us to wait until she found some documents, I think her mortgage agreement, so that we could pray for them. We spent a good ten minutes waiting as she searched the house for them. We ended up deciding it was better to postpone praying until she understood more about the concept. She told us about how another missionary, one who has since gone home, had offended her by asking Vladimir if he was fifty years old (he's thirty). We talked to her a tiny bit about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, and then we had to go. She told us that we were all invited to Vladimir's wedding (he's single). When we were all pulling on our shoes by the door she asked if I would marry her son. "Missionaries can't," explained Elder Barber, "but after the mission..." I gave him a dirty look which I think he missed. I think he was laughing to himself. Vladimir's mom then tried to get me and him to hold hands. I feel like I'm continually gaining more insight into why newly returned missionaries are so awkward. We all descended the steps of the building in quiet excitement and once we were outside, hurrying down the street, Elder Barber told us, "I'm going to call that lesson a huge success." The best part about that story is how it doesn't require exaggeration in the littlest bit.

Vladimir's mom had invited us all back, so we decided to take a very slow approach to teaching her. We figured she was mostly looking out for her son when she was so suspicious of us. Elder Barber took us down a center street to "the best тост shop in all of Macedonia" which really was quite scrumptious because it wasn't stuffed with fries and they used better bread and a different kind of cheese.  Sister Schofield said to me, when we were tramping around Bitola, how the city was even less touched by missionaries than Skopje. 

 

In other news, Sister Schofield's love interest/investigator showed up to his first lesson with a single red rose wrapped in ribbon for her, plus a kiss on the hand. He shook mine. Message received. We met up with Elder Krajnc and Elder Prince and she tried to hide it behind her back.  After the lesson we walked over to where the other two elders were contacting. Previously she had tried to convince them, with earnestness, about how she really thought he was interested in the church, not her.

We played soccer with him again today, and in his last lesson, he committed to baptism. I had my first Macedonian conversation about non-church related things, which was awesome! He gave me his English notebook and asked me to take it home and make corrections in it.

 

1 Nephi 17:13, "I will also be your light in the wilderness; … wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led." From this month's Ensign, which it is a miracle that we get out here.

Love,

Sister Riddle

 

March 17, 2014

Hi!

So, there's Christians and Muslims here.  I tend not to talk to the ones wearing the head covering things when we're contacting because I figure they're already pretty strong in their beliefs, but I guess I should try anyway. 

That last picture I sent to you was taken in Albania, by the way, when we were in the car headed back. I just wanted you to see the mountains. They're prettier in person.

This Sunday I gave a talk during sacrament meeting in Macedonian on diligence. Writing it didn't go as badly as I thought it would. I had Gordana look over it and make corrections when we went over to teach them on Saturday night. It was very helpful because I could see what I need to work on in general with the language. I added another paragraph later and had Kate look over it in the morning before her confirmation--SHE GOT BAPTIZED!!!--and I was pleasantly surprised when she handed it back to me and said there were no mistakes. Macedonia now has 9 members.

This morning the Zone Leaders came down again from Kosovo (they come once a month) and we all played soccer together. Ana and an investigator came too. It was a lot of fun. The investigator, surprise surprise, has a crush on Sister Schofield. At least for once he's the same age as us. Apparently he came to church last week with flowers for her since it was Women's Day, and was very disappointed that we were all in Albania.

Cool story, one day this week when Elder Barber and Elder Gierisch were in the park looking for people to teach, they heard somebody yell at them in English, "Hey, elders!" It was this couple from Texas who had recently moved to Macedonia post retirement to be with their son, who lives here. They were members and had been wanting to know where church was, so they came on Sunday. We have more people in church now just since I first got here. It's awesome. 

We went to Kosovo again a few days ago for Zone Conference. The elders have a car but they were nice and rode the bus with us, since we can't be in the car with them. At the conference they talked to us about emergency preparedness. Sister Ford talked to us again, I really like her, and then President Ford taught us how to teach the doctrine of baptism. He had me come up and role play with him, which was kinda scary. Everybody whispered, "good luck" as I walked up but since it was such a small room he heard them all and whispered "good luck" to me as well. We ate there and then headed back to Skopje. 

On the bus ride back, Sister Schofield started talking to someone who sat next to her, and eventually pretty much everyone on the bus was involved in a conversation on religion. Elder Krajnc was talking about something and a group of guys were all turned around listening to him. It occurred to me that I could practice speaking with some people on the bus, but when I tried I discovered that everyone sitting around me was Albanian. Pfft. 

This week while street contacting, while there has been the regular amount of interest, I've been having better conversations with people. Maybe it's the weather. It's gotten so sunny and warm. It's amazing how much that can do for your mood. 

All the missionaries were talking about how we're going to be with each other, by the end of our time here. "We're already way too open with each other," is how Sister Schofield put it. 

Love, 

Sister Riddle

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2119328537001

March 10, 2014

Hi everyone, 

I feel like the Macedonian is picking up. I fasted this past fast Sunday for help in conquering my fears, and I've been a lot more brave when it comes to talking to people. I still wish we spent more time with Macedonians! But I'm here for missionary work, not to learn another language. This past week, for example, we went to visit the investigator who we had the emergency situation with last week, and the elders had to leave at the very beginning of the lesson for some reason, so me and Sister Schofield gave the lesson all by ourselves. So, it was very short. Ha ha. We spent the rest of the time just talking to her and her daughter. She is very supportive and encouraging of us when we try. Later, the investigator's siblings came over and I gave her brother a Book of Mormon before we left. He's Muslim, but he said he'd read it.

The Sister Training Leaders came down for a day to do exchanges with us. Sister Schofield split off with one and I was with the two others, and then at night we all got together for group contacting. It was great since they speak Albanian, they could talk to some people on the Albanian side of town that we wouldn't have been able to communicate with normally. Maybe someday people will be called here to speak that instead of Macedonian. Maybe since we were a bigger group that night, I don't know, but I got a lot of numbers. We called them all last night and are meeting up with two of them in the next few days. 

Then on Friday we left to go to Albania again, and I was wrong, it wasn't for a zone thing, that's going to be later. It was for the creation of the first stake in Albania!!! Me and Sister Schofield drove down with the Andersons this time and stayed in the mission home. We ate some beef stew in the Andrews kitchen while the two senior couples talked, and Sister Schofield said to me, "Everything about missionary work is so random and awkward. Here we are in Albania with four old people we barely know, eating soup." There are a lot of moments we have like that, where if we just look outside ourselves we realize what unique situations we get put into every day.

I really, really love Albania. It is so warm, so bright and sunny, and there's a lot of missionaries! The next day we went on exchanges with two other sisters there, and my temporary companion, Sister Wilding, gave me a crash course in Albanian. I learned a few basic conversational words and phrases.  Albanian sounds really interesting. We ate at an American restaurant which, ironically, was founded in the 40's by an American missionary couple. The money in Albania is lek. We got on a bus several times there, and every time I was sandwiched between strangers and hung on for dear life as it lurched along. Driving there is crazy! "You feel like you're in Mario carts...If you need another lane in Albania, you can make one," was something Elder Barber said to me. Albania is more lively than Macedonia. There's more fruit stands. Many were selling flowers, although that might've been because it was a holiday. People have their clothes hanging out to dry. We saw people selling live chickens, which were lined up along a sidewalk with their feet bound. Sister Schofield said she saw one being dissected in the middle of the street. There were kids by the roads selling rabbits. 

We were escorted to our first lesson by a very skinny, stray dog. I wonder if they have learned that if they follow people they eventually give them food. The lesson was with a woman and her two children. Sister Wilding said they had agreed to teach them English for free if they could also teach them about the gospel. I helped the little boy. It's amazing how well you can communicate even when you don't speak the same language. I was able to help him learn the words just fine. At the end I think his mom asked him to say what he could to me in English, because he turned to me and said, "Hello my name is Skardi I am twelve, I live in Tirana and I like football player. I have one mother, one father, one sister." It was cute. 

We went to a cultural event that night and then went to an Albanian restaurant with the APs, Assistants to the President. Pretty much the same food as Macedonian, meat and bread. It was Women's Day there so there was a big group of women sitting by us, drinking a huge...keg? of beer, singing. (Only it seemed like everybody had one of those keg things and yet kept getting more.) Somebody shot confetti in the air.

The creation of the stake was awesome. All of the Adriatic South missionaries, a member of the Seventy, and many members from all around, including familiar faces from Kosovo and some LDS soldiers who had traveled that day from the US army base in Kosovo. Seeing them made me miss America and regular t-shirt-wearing Americans. A highlight of the meeting was President Ford trying to speak Albanian and then giving a translation of it directly afterwards in English. "I don't even speak Albanian and it's funny to me," Elder Gierisch said to me. At one point during his talk, President Ford read something, asking how it was pronounced. All the Albanians yelled it to him. He repeated it, and it sounded so unlike what they had just said to him, everyone laughed. I took courage from the fact that not too long ago, Albania was where we are now, with only Italian Book of Mormons and a handful of missionaries. In Macedonia we always give people the Book of Mormon in Serbian.

Something I noticed about Albanians I noticed that I wish were true about Macedonians is that they have conversations with you regardless of whether you speak the same language or not. After time I just accepted the fact that they don't take "I don't speak Albanian" for an answer and just nodded understandingly as they spouted off to me. I got kissed by a lot of strangers.

Love,

Sister Riddle

March 3, 2014

Well hey there,

So a lot happened this week, but I'll try and relay it as I've experienced it. 

On Wednesday we had Sister Training at the mission home in Albania, so me and Sister Schofield left Tuesday afternoon via bus and slept in Prishtina, Kosovo for the night. It was about two hours away. I remember we were in a huge rush for one reason or another when we were packing and trying to get our money exchanged for Euros before we left, so I crammed everything into my normal shoulder bag and just brought one slim Book of Mormon instead of my quad. Nothing really eventful happened on that bus ride other than having one of the guys who stamped our passports say to us, "Don't use 'фала', for 'thank you' here! It's a Serbian word, and they hate Serbs!" He told us the Albanian one to use, which I promptly forgot but made sure to speak English to everyone after that. Once we were in Kosovo we took our stuff to the Jones', the senior couple here who are from Logan. They lived right next to their church there, and it is crazy how jealous I was of their church building! Me and Sister Schofield went to a Thai restaurant there and split some curry. It was delicious and the owner gave us a discount because she loves the missionaries so much, and because the ones who serve in Kosovo eat there a lot. In Macedonia I feel like the only people who know the missionaries that well are the taxi drivers. Anyway, then we went back to the church building and I talked to some members who said they always hang out there, and my companion played ping pong with one of them. On that trip I heard more than one of them describe it as their "second home". I grabbed some Albanian pass along cards, just in case. Luckily, the zone leaders were allowed to drive us to the bus station at the crack of too-early-to-be-awake and the bus ride there took about four hours.

So, I finally got to see our mission office/mission home. It was so comforting to see the church's name displayed on those few buildings between the two countries. The Andersons are the senior couple/people who work in the office there. Sister Anderson took us to "the dungeon" where they have a bunch of church materials in whatsoever language your heart desires, unless what your heart desires is Macedonian. I stocked up on a few German Book of Mormons and took a Spanish one too, just in case. I had run into a guy from Switzerland in Skopje one night and realized how much my German has declined and mourned that I had nothing to give him other than the church's website. 

The Sister Training was really, really great. I felt the Spirit as soon as the others came in the room and we were all talking. I even saw the two who I had met at the MTC by the vending machine one night. We went into a type of conference room and Sister Ford gave most of the presentation. She is a really good speaker and talked about enduring to the end, and doing what we tell our investigators to do all the time by having faith. Here are some memorable quotes from her:

"Would the Lord send you here to fail? Or because He thought it would be easy for you? The Lord sent you here because He trusts you. He knew it would be hard, but He knew you could do it!"

"Instead of thinking, 'Why me?' I want you to say, 'Try me.'"

She said something like we should never be anyone other than who we really are, that when they were called to this mission she thought about all the other mission president wives she had known and how they all seemed so perfect and she felt unlike them. But God didn't call them to this mission, He called her. 

She gave a really great analogy about holding a glass of water out with your arm extended, and that it didn't matter about the weight of the glass, but how long you could hold it. She said that as long as we came back every day to the glass, we weren't failing as long as we were trying. 

She bore her testimony, shared some good experiences, and had a wonderful sense of humor. She's definitely someone I look up to, someone I can relate to, and someone who answered my prayers. Then President Ford talked to us about the growth of the Adriatic South Mission, particularly in Kosovo. He talked about all the political strife in the country, excuse me, in the area's past and how the church had already spread so much just in the few years it's been there. 

He really talked up us Macedonians! "When transfer calls come in next month, what are our Sisters in Macedonia going to do?"

"We could switch beds," Sister Schofield called out. There were some parts where we read scriptures, but they were all from D&C so I felt a bit sheepish with just my Book of Mormon.

The training only lasted three hours, but I decided it was so worth the six hours of travel each way. It just made me feel so good, and it was great being able to see some of my Sisters/sisters. We all ate together upstairs afterward, and some of the missionaries were telling me about the culture in Albania. "Everything they say is so vehement, like it's never just, 'no' it's 'nononononono'. And when I write home every week sometimes I start it out, 'Hey!Hellohihowareyouhow'sthefamily?' and then I cross it out and write: Hello friends and family." I got one of their email addresses and told her to send me her weekly emails so I can stay in touch with all that's happening there. 

While waiting for the bus back to Prishtina, we ran into another American, Trent from Georgia, with a backpack and a beard, who was spending the year traveling the world with a nondenominational Christian group. He was very happy to run into "friends" (meaning as Christians). When we boarded to go back I remembered the single English Book of Mormon I had packed and gave it to him as we got off. I asked him if he knew anything about it and he said, "Very little, but I am interested."

I heard the missionaries lovingly refer to Albania as "the Mexico of Europe", so ''Mexico" must be Albanian for "beautiful, green oasis". The bus ride there had been dark and I had been mostly sleeping. The ride back was so beautiful. So many mountains. Small ones covered in trees, like the Appalachians, and huge steep mountains capped with ice with sharp angles. Lakes with green water. 

Alma 30:44,"...yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."

 

I'm going again on Friday for Zone Training (?) so I'll bring my camera then. We slept in Prishtina again with the Jones, the nicest people in the world, and got back Thursday.

The elders' investigator got baptized!!!!!!!! He told the elders beforehand, "Just down in the water, and then up. No holding me down like, 'Ha ha ha!" Elder Gierisch was the one to do it, and he gave it in Macedonian. The new member may have swam around a bit afterwards, and all the missionaries stifled our laughter. At the baptismal service, an actual Macedonian member gave a talk about baptism. It was so empowering to hear, he being so new himself. One of our investigators attended, which was awesome. To celebrate afterwards all the missionaries went to a traditional Macedonian restaurant. I don't know why they waited to take our order because they told us they only make one thing. We were each given about six sausages and shared two baskets of some type of bread, and ate everything with these green peppers that they only have here, onion, and some red spice. My nose was running and I was sweating halfway through it. It was delicious.

The Fords were there yesterday when our new member received the Holy Ghost, which was also done by Elder Gierisch in Macedonian. I was so happy for him. Partway through church the daughter of the investigator who just had the baby showed up with her friend. She's 12 and the friend is 9. I was a bit concerned that they came by themselves and so after we taught Primary, the lesson was "Heavenly Father watches over me", I said to Gordana that I wanted to walk them home. "It's not very far, she knows the way. She's twelve," she said to me. I still felt uneasy (I guess I have seen more American newspaper headlines than her), so I noted that it was still raining and said that they didn't have umbrellas.  Long story short, when we arrived at their home the mother was in serious need of medical attention. We called the elders and told them to come with a taxi to take her to the hospital. While we were waiting we prayed with her and then she was given a blessing right before we took her.  I seriously wondered if she was going to die. The whole ordeal, the time that we were with her, lasted about two hours. She really did need all six of us. She later said she had been calling her friends for hours for help and no one had come. As of ten minutes ago, I heard from Elder Krajnc that she is in the hospital, recovering.

Later that night I heard secondhand that Elder Gierisch had had the idea to walk the girls home too, but he ignored it because he thought it would seem weird, two men asking to walk two little girls home. Lately I have been praying to help me recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit. This week, and even as I just write this email, affirms to me that I am following it even when I don't recognize it. I've been told a million times before that it's different for every person, I just never considered it this way. Heavenly Father does watch over us, temporally and spiritually. I am trying, thus, I am not failing. I am exactly where God wants to be, at this time. I know that as we "do the small things" as Sister Schofield likes to say, that as we live the gospel and strive to draw closer to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by studying the scriptures, praying, working for the good that is in this world, giving charity, following the words of those with authority from God, that He will bless us with abundance. "He loves you!" as Sister Ford said. Matthew 6:8, "Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Sister Riddle

February 24, 2014

Hi!

So, the Roma people are the gypsies. It's a race, like, they have darker skin. Most of them are pretty poor so they're all the beggars and people you see here biking with a huge cart of recyclables attached. They're all over Europe. There were some in Germany when I was there. 

This week when I went to teach that girl didn't come back, so I taught the little kids with Elder Barber. Three little girls came that day. We planned to teach them the weather and seasons but they got bored after about ten minutes so we spent the rest of the time playing cards with them. I miraculously understood when a six-year-old girl explained the rules to me/saw it being played by them. The game was called "donkey". At the end you all have to put your hand in the middle and whoever is last loses and is the donkey. The little girl helped me cheat, I think mostly because they all really liked to see Elder Barber lose. At one point she said something to me which I didn't understand, and then told Elder Barber and he didn't understand either, so they were all energetically gesturing together and shouting the words at him.  I feel like that's the time where I learn the most Macedonian, because the kids want to talk to you and don't speak English. They were all sad when we left. I will never forget the Macedonian word for "donkey". I'm sure that will come in handy. 

Please pray for me to find opportunities to practice my Macedonian with people.  It's frustrating that I'm in the country and yet struggle to find someone who I can have a conversation with. It's for now a necessity but also a crutch to have the elders always helping us out.

One of the elders' investigators just had a baby. We've been going with them when they teach her because they figure it's nice for her to become friends with girls. I made her chicken noodle soup (I don't need a recipe for it it's so simple) and Sister Schofield made her some brownies. We got all the way to her house and then she wasn't there so I was super disappointed. We went back the next day and she invited two of her friends, too, which was cool. She asked the elders, "She's from America too?" (meaning me) "The first time I saw her I thought for sure she was Macedonian!" The lesson was on prophets. She told me if I ever had a question about the language I could call her and ask her, so that was very nice.

Last I heard about Elmaz was that he was doing better-ish. I'll let you know.

Well, we just went to an internet cafe the last two weeks because the place they normally go has been closed. And yeah, the pub was basically just an American-style restaurant/bar. No, there aren't many fat people here. In America it's kind of like, not everyone's fat but occasionally you see someone who is SUPER FAT. Here, not everyone is skinny but occasionally you see someone who is SUPER SKINNY. From what I can tell, Americans exercise more though. Elder Krajnc said to me, "The way the women here stay in shape is by smoking." 

For exercise one day we met up with the elders to play soccer in the park, and I had a lot of fun and asked if we could do it "every day for the rest of my life...or maybe just my mission", and we have been doing it every morning since. It's great because then I don't dread when we have to exercise (me and Sister Schofield would run or do something lame in the apartment before) and I have some incentive to get up so early. Today since it's P day we played later in the day, and for longer too. I "accidentally" bodyslammed her a couple times and she "accidentally" pushed me once while playing. (We were on separate teams.) We jogged there per request of Sister Schofield and then she had us run laps afterward too. We met up at a nicer park and played Risk afterwards. It was a fun day.

This past week I feel like I've been running a lot, too. One time was when we were late to a lesson. Then one of the elders' investigators backed out of his baptism so they were all super sad, and Sister Schofield really wanted to buy one of them a sword because she felt like it would cheer him up. We got done with a lesson and then she was like, "The mall closes at 9." And we ran all the way to the mall, I don't know how far but it was several intersections, over a bridge, etc. Keep in mind this is while wearing skirts, carrying our bags and everything. As if people don't stare at us enough already. I heard her say behind me, "This is totally going in my journal tonight." When we got there we felt really stupid because the mall didn't actually close until much later. On the way back we walked like normal people, carrying fake swords, and I was confronted by a ravenous beagle! I never took a class or anything but instinct kicked in and I stared at it and screamed. It ran away. Anyway the moral of that story is that their investigator ended up deciding to be baptized.

One night Sister Schofield wanted a blessing, and then they asked me if I wanted one too so I said sure. (Just a blessing of comfort.) Since the elders aren't allowed in our apartment and vice versa we did it in the hallway of our place. Luckily we were uninterrupted, but the longer I'm out the more I realize why people think mormons are weird.

I should go, but I love you!

Sister Riddle