Thursday, August 8, 2013

1st Letter From Croatia!

Hello Family!!! 


I'm at the library which I have not been to sense I was like 5 haha! 

We got to President's house we had a big dinner with my group and the next morning I was in heaven cause our mission house has a pool in the house, a tennis  court and a punching bag! So i woke up and punched on the bag! Then we helped make breakfast. Don't worry mom I was the last one to stay up to help sister Row with everything like cleaning up and with making dinner! I love their family so much and they have twin girls that as so adorable! I want them! Then the time came where I was walking up the stairs to found out where I was headed to serve. I was so excited and and like shaking cause I couldn't handle it anymore! shoot if this was to much for me I cant even imagine what its going to be like when we meet the real big guy aka God! He said, "Sister Peterson the Lord has a special calling in mind for you and desires you to open a small, but very European town called Varazin." My heart was racing and I couldn't stop smiling!!!! This place I have never heard of gave me so much joy! My comp is Sister Mortenson. I talked to her mother every Friday in the temple telling her I hoped I was with her daughter-and well surprise I am!  He continued on and said THAT WE WILL BE THE ONLY SISTERS SERVING IN CROATIA SERVING IN THE SLOVENIA ZONE!  I DON'T KNOW SLOVEN! THE LANGUAGE IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT! I'm am going to Slovenia to do splits soon and well its all going to be all on the Holy Ghost!  Mom u thought I would not go to Slovenia and here I am on the border of Croatia!  President said that he doesn't know the last time they had sisters and are dying for some fun sisters cause its dead right now!  He told us to really build the branch cause their are only 6 members!  Anyways, after that we had a meeting with our trainers and then went contacting random people on the streets! So we were off to make the hour and 1 and a half drive on the bus to Varažin. We talked to this guy Tone about the church for like 20 min! It was so fun cause he spoke English haha! We talked about how the Bible and the Book of Mormon go hand in hand as they both talk about prophets and Christ! We talked about how the book of Mormon can answer questions of the soul and any answer he has he can find it in this book! He has not textted back but we gave him a book of Mormon! 

Well Varazin is so beautiful like I'm living in a dream!
I live next to a CASTLE- and ton of the buildings are pink- could it get any better?  Because we are opening an new area we have planned like 3 days getting an area book together dividing it with the elders who are great! So its me my comp and a set of Elders in the place! My Croatian as gone all out the window like it feel like I was never in the MTC!!! It doesn't really bother me cause my comp is amazing with the language even though she has been out only 4  months in the field!  She just translates everything for me! I try and then she totally changes my sentence to what it should be haha! Sister Mortenson is amazing and we get along great! She is a huge football fan and our families would be bff! We are called the blond bombshells cause we getting ready to rock this place! She is more shy but other than that we are allot a like!  I didn't realize how much we see the Elders in the field cause we see them everyday. 

Mom, you would be proud to know that one of the first things we did when we got here was go to a seminary cause it like one of the biggest and most beautiful!! Our first day we when tracking was on Saturday and we gave a Book of Mormon to this one lady who owns a bakery! I told her her garden looks beautiful and what kind of flowers she planted to spark a conversion!  Then a guy opened his door in this underwear and and changed to come to talked to us haha! I't's 101 here and I feel like in in Texas but then I see clothes hanging on wires to dry. Tracking is fun as we just walk and walking knocking door to good but the people are so nice here and they always as where i am from when i try to speak cause i cant at all hahah  Blair don't worry i don't stand out here just when i speak English  as i have seen many people with blond hair!  the hardest thing about tracking  or being a missionary in general is looking for the elect. my comp is like what door and u feeling and i have no clue! i just try to talk to everyone cause i don't who i really need to be talking to!  and everywhere is dead around 1 to 4 cause its so hot they think it bad for your health so thy stay inside and even will cancel activities cause its to hot to walk.  

On Sunday their is this amazing 66 year old woman member who has a glass eye! her name is maria and this Sunday she came to church cause she told God she would go to meet the new sisters even when the doctor told her not to cause of her eye! their faith and love for this gospel is so humbling!  then on Sunday it was only the bishop his daughter who is so funny and cute, maria who is so funny and such a strong member, stanko who is a shy guy that doesn't talk much but just likes being around us and then this lady who is not a member but found out about church through English classes and goes but doesn't want to get baptized an then the elders! that was everyone at church! then our senior couple just left to Serbia and the night before gave us the job to teach the lesson in RS as it felt like a member was just sitting in on a lesson! church is only two hours here cause we have to switch off with priesthood with Sunday school cause there is not enough people!  the senior couple doesn't really care about us and are leaving soon and then we are not getting a nother couple in so its just us 4 missionaries! but church was great at it amazed me that in our church we have these long pause for an hour and here  3 members spoke and me and an elder and it took the whole time! we may be small but their hearts are so big!  Even though i cant talk i just smile and try to love everyone cause thats what they do to me as Maria gave me a kiss on both my cheeks the first time i meet her!  then this one other member who is out of town, when she found out that sister were now in Varažin she screamed and said I'm coming back as soon as i can!  have friends in the church really does make a hug difference!
so i feel so loved and try my best to communicate!  

Yesterday everything is closed in Europe on Mondays so  we when to this place out  15 miles outside to the center of the world so i stood in the center of the world! the we went to see this church where apparently this priest said wine didn't turn into water and then when the water turned into wine!  Then on the bus i was talking to this lady and my Croatian was so bad she said, "Lets talk in English!" Well I tried and gave her a Mormon.org card! Then we after that we headed to Maria where she cooked us hot dogs ha and we got to know her more!                    

Then the other day we were getting rid of all the spiders in our place cause no one has lived there in a long time. (Preston you would make a KILLING OF of Pest control  here!) Anyways, I went to get down cause the vacuum would not reach and one of the boards to my bed broke as I stepped on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhh are u kidding me just my luck??? The bored was so thin anyone could have broken it-as i think it was a bed for kids! So I'm on the look out for a wooden board to replace it cause I can't tell Prez Row or he will sent me home! I haven't even been out a week and i am breaking things!!!!???!  Mom the wood is like the wood u use to make your crafts out of! But it gets better. So I decide to drown the spider on top on the ceiling with window cleaner an some of the paint starts coming off cause its like water paint! Yep not in America! That was fun but I prayed and the wall looks fine!  We don't have a microwave so we melted our butter in the sun and our meat thaws in the sun. Mom thought of u cause it works really well!  Then  yesterday we made cookie to give to this less active member and she called us and said she is having a really hard time but would love to meet so we are going to visit her soon!  

I am sorry to say but its been a way easy transition and I feel bad cause i feel like things are more relaxed then the MTC cause we don't leave our house at 7. The MTC was crammed with so many things and such a tight scheduled! I almost feel bad cause we still have not really felt like we have hit it hard. a I want to but we just have no one to teach cause every thing is new and I really just want to get out in teach! But starting tonight and tomorrow we are going to do chalk drawings of Lehi coming to America  after Jeremiah said Jerusalem was going to get destroyed  (look at the Book of Mormon story: Mormon message), in the center of town where people will sit and drink coffee for hours and hours. I will be singing in town another day and then on Friday's we hold activities for members and non members to come and play games so this week will be looking fun!  I'm just excited to hit it hard and meet with people but contacting is so hard as i don't speak! and then I walk away hitting my head as a person walks past me, but today I though it better to talk to a random person and they think I'm weird the god getting mad and saying you walked pass so many people! to tonight I am going to try to be better!  I do love it here and I know this is the place I need to be right  now! 

I cant imagine my life night not if i was not here cause this is the best with the best chocolate milk is sooo good!  Oh and mom guess what came back to haunt me! beets!!! Everyone here eats red pickled beets-u would love it and u knew u was going here on my mission! I'm going to go but i love u all and thank u for all of your support cause it has really made my time here amazing!  By prepping me in your letters  it has not been a shock to me!  Lets get this show on the road and make this branch a fun ward! 
 
love u all 123,
sestra peterson
 
PS Kat is in Bosnia and Frampton is 3 hours away from me!And pizza and ice cram is the best here!

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