~Elder Quinn can fry up some chicken...thanks to his Chicken Express days!~
~Table set for the 4th of July dinner (wow...considering these are four 19-21 year old guys...check out the table setting! I want to know which one of them had a mother who taught him that???)~
Bok, Family!
Guess what is this week? July 11th....know what that is? It's my 6
month date. Isn't that crazy? I know I'm not supposed to keep track of time or
whatever, but it's not messing with my mind. It's just crazy to think that I'm
already a quarter done. I'm pretty sure that I can do everything 3 more times.
Does it feel like it's already been 6 months to you?
I'm glad that Bri's birthday went well. Texas de Brazil sounds so
good right now. I could go for sirloin or something. Oh my mouth is watering
just thinking about it! I haven't had steak since Texas de Brazil before I
left. That's too bad that Mollie couldn't go, but she doesn't like meat
anyways.....
So I got a surprising email from J***** W***** this week. I've been
thinking about writing a letter, but I haven't gotten around to it. He said
that he was guessing email addresses and he was hoping that it was right. But
it sounds like he's doing well in Brazil. It's weird to think that it's almost
been a year since I've talked to him.
Your 4th of July sounds good. The swimming part, especially. I was
never a huge fan of swimming, but now that I can't, I miss it more. Especially
since it's so hot and humid. The rivers look so good when we walk by them! If
you think "Little Niagra" was cool, just wait until you come here and
go to Plitvica. You can't swim there, but it's cooler, I'm sure. Our 4th was good as well. I'm attaching
pictures, because Shutterfly won’t upload on this computer. But we had Fried
Chicken, Mashed potatoes (from the branch garden), salad (also from the garden)
with ranch dressing (from America), Velveeta (from my birthday package), cherry Koolaid, and
lemon white chocolate chip cookies. It was all so good. And Elder K***** busted
out a can of A&W root beer and we all had little shots of it (yes, their apartment has shot glasses). It was so good. Fried chicken, fake cheddar
cheese, and root beer.....just like America. It was kind of funny. Everybody
pitched in stuff that they got from packages and had been saving for a special
date.
And what the heck, Steve Nash? He used to be cool. He was pushing
the limits by going to Phoenix, but now he is officially dead to me!
1. Did you guys ever get your fan?
So we bought a fan at Kaufland. The thing is so ghetto! You
touch it and the metal post bends, but it does the job. It helps, but it's
still hot.
3. How is English class going?
English is going all right. We have 3 students and none of them seem
super interested in the gospel yet, but we keep trying.
4. Did you find anything out about transfers?
Nope. We get the calls on Thursday or Friday. The only news is that
we are pretty sure that Karlovac is getting lowered down to just 2 elders, but
even that's a rumor...although I'm guessing it's true. And the rumor that
Tuzla, Bosnia is opening... It's definitely opening. We just don't know if it's
this transfer. Cool story: Sis. Turner, the mission nurse was looking for an
apartment for the senior couple and doing health inspection stuff, and these
two 20 something guys came up to her and said, "Is the church here now!?
We used to live in Salt Lake City and we were baptized, but our parents died in
a car accident a little while back and we moved back to Bosnia, and we haven't
been able to find the church for a while now." I guess they were super
excited and emotional. Isn't that just crazy? In a city of a couple hundred
thousand people, they run into each other. So Tuzla has at least 2 members that
no one even knew about.
5. Who are you teaching?
We had an awesome lesson with a lady this last week on
Saturday. We hadn't met in a couple of weeks just because we had been busy, but
I called her on Friday and set up a time for 10 in the morning. The previous
time that we met she had mentioned that she had issues with organized religion,
and that she didn't see the need for it and wasn't too thrilled with it in
general. Well Elder B**** and I had been thinking about organized religion, and
it's something that comes up a lot, but we never really had a good solid answer
for it, other than "it's what we're commanded to do.....we help each other
when we have church".....Well, we finally got the conference Liahona from
April this last week....better late than never, I guess. And I’ve been reading
through it during studies. Well, on the first day I was reading, I found a talk
from the Saturday morning session called, "Converted to his gospel through
his church" by Elder Donald L. Hallstrom. The whole talk is about how the
purpose of the church is to help us live the gospel. It was so perfect. And the
even better part is that she knows perfect English, so we were able to use it.
So we set up the lesson and asked L***** (a member who knows perfect English and went to school where M***** taught...they already kind of knew each other)
to come with us. She came and the lesson was great. We talked a while about her
career, like usual, and she was showing L****** photos from different reunions
and things, and then we started the teaching aspect of the lesson. She
started by saying that she read what we had asked her to (Moroni 10) but she
told us that by saying, "I read what you asked me to." We asked her how she
felt when she read and she said that she really likes it and says that as far as the
chapter goes, she believes it is true.
We then moved in to talking about organized religion....And I don't
want to get all missionary with you, but it was one of those experiences
where you feel like an instrument....you open your mouth and words come out
beyond your control. I don't even remember what I said, other than the fact
that it was about organized religion, and the need for it so we can live the
gospel. And then we read verses from Moroni 6 about coming to church and being
led by the spirit. But it was pretty powerful, for me at least. But L****** talked about her experiences with being a convert, going inactive, and coming
back into activity and how the church helped her. It was so good. We finished
the lesson by asking her to come to church. She had been to activities in the
past. She said that she would try to come. So fast-forward to Sunday at church.
Guess who came? M****** showed up! It was the first time we've had an
investigator at church in over a month. It was so good. And all the members
were talking to her and she looked like she was enjoying herself. We asked her
if she would stay for Relief Society, and she said that she didn't know that
church was for 2 hours, and that she had never been invited to stay for the
next meeting, but she said that she would. I talked to her before she left, and
she seemed very happy and like she enjoyed herself. The only down side is that
everything in church was about temples yesterday and we have never mentioned
temples to her before, so now we have a direction for our next lesson. Now we
are working on teaching her about prayer and the need for it. Except
unfortunately she is going down to Split on the coast on Thursday to visit
grandkids and she could be gone for up to 2 months. But we'll see what happens.
I think that's about it for today. I don’t have a ton of time to say
much else. I love you all a bunch and hope you have a super awesome week! All
of you stay out of trouble!
Love,
P.J.
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