Sunday, November 10, 2013

11/4/13 Letter


“Rise and shine and give God the glory glory, children of the Lord.”

WOW SO MUCH HAPPENED THIS WEEK I DONT KNOW WHERE TO START SO I GUESS I WILL FROM THE BEGINING!  I mean all I am saying is I like to party so this week was full of parties, holiday fun and full of laughs!  well Tuesday  we did service for a less active, can anyone guess what we did... well this year because I was not home I though I was getting out of raking the leaves, but no!  We picked up all the leaves in the yard and I was very prepared from all those years we did it at our house=) Then we asked if they had something to cut the grass with and u will never believe what they brought out!!!!!!!!!!!..... A sickle...!!!!!!!!!!  

Now Croatia is been known to be ten years behind in the world (I think I have only seen 1 iPhone) but even this was considered way old here for Croatia!  It was so cool!  I can honest say I have trusted  with all my sickle like in D&C 4.4  "For behold the afield is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in cstore that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul!!!   i mean i just felt like Nephi as i was cutting the grass!  AND then we had lunch there but my comp saw and ate some flies in her soup ... well extra protein right ha-ha! But then after that for English class we had a group scavenger hunt in the city!!!! It was sooo fun!!!!!!  Everyone loved it so much as there were about 20 people there!  i love English class so much! 

well then on Thursday we got ready cause we had a Halloween party with spider webs, chili that they have never had here before( PS they don’t like spicy food here at all ha  aka mom u could live here!)  Only about 15 came but it was the 15 people that we wanted that we feel like could be interested in the church so that was good to see! we have has 4 lessons with people from English class and now we feel like there are a lot more who could be interested so I’m just so excited to have English tomorrow as ask people if they want to know more about our church cause they are all our friends now!  And if every church here is catholic ... (aka it like Utah here but instead of Mormon churches they're catholic ...) would u want to know more about what this church is like and how it is different!  I’m excited! But we also played the mummy game where u rap the person up, the game where u put your hand in a bowl and guess what food it is.. Then we played bobbing for apples! i was a face painter! It was way fun and people stayed for a long time just talking us so and having fun!  THEN on Friday it’s like the biggest holiday here! November 1 all saints day or day of the dead! Everyone is at the cemetery all day as they put tons of candles on the graves for love ones! Varaždin has been rated the prettiest cemetery in all of Europe so it was amazing to see!!! Mom u would have loved it and it compares nothing to the ones u took us to see in California when we were little ha-ha!  i have officially eaten “chest nuts roasting on an open fire" as they are the big thing here along with Turkish honey!  Chest nuts taste like bake potatoes here...surprise right!   So i bought a candle for grandma and Grandpa Peterson and lit it for them and put it in the middle of the cemetery where all the other candles were whose ancestors are not buried there.  It was way cool and i really wanted to pass out the dead grandma card to everyone saying "there is more than life after death"... but then a member was like you can’t do that today!   It made me really appreciate the plan of salvation and that we know we can be with our loved ones again and forever. And that there is more than just this life, there is greater happiness that can await us.  We are so lucky to have this gospel! As i have been reading in the bible during my personal study i am so grateful for this church and how our church is built exactly as Christ's church was then when he was on the earth in Jerusalem:   with 12 apostles, a prophet, the priesthood to help others like what the 12 had!  It says in the Bible to not have paid leaders or ministers in his church and that is one thing a lot of people here are mad about how the pope is driving a super nice car with his servants..... all that is worldly things and Christ say give up those things to follow me!  i love how i am here- not here getting money for my service, but because i know this gospel it true, i have felt this burning of truth in my heart  Like I have never felt anywhere else. 

No matter if i am in America or here in Croatia, the church is the same ....and u can feel holy ghost the same and  it doesn’t matter if the church has 500 people back at home or in 10 like here... or if the language is different .  i felt the Holy Ghost so strong yesterday as i gave my testimony of this restored gospel in all in Croatian in church. If that is not truth than i don’t know what is! This gospel is so simple, and i know without a shadow of doubt that joseph smith saw god the father and his son. If Christ promised us that his gospel is the same yesterday and forever then if we wanted to bring back a prophet then of course he would see god like the prophets in the bible did!  If Mary saw a heavenly messenger saying she was going to bring forth the son of god, why is it hard to understand and accept that Joseph Smith saw the Son (Christ) and the Father (Heavenly Father) bringing back his true gospel?  I know if we are truly humble then we all can believe, but if our heart is set upon the world and harden then our eyes will not be open. we had an experience with that this week as a man we met last week read the whole Book of Mormon but said it was good but i don’t want it, ¸and that he didn't believe in god that much... i said well what did u think of alma 22... and he was like wow u really know this book ...and i said well yes because I’m not going to claim i am of one religion and not read what it teaches.  Anyways he said he it was good but didn’t like some things in it and every time we said what ... he could not think of anything.  If we seek to read this book just to read it and find fault in it then u will gain nothing, but if u have question and truly ask if this book is correct in prayer, then u will get an answer!   Wow!  

i just love it here and what i am doing and on Sunday we had 16 people in church!   Finally again!!!! and everyone was so happy.  Church feels like a heavenly home and it did!   My Croatian is getting better as we spoke in Croatian all day Saturday and half of Sunday! Shoot i sill have so much more to go but it will come and I’m sorry my English spelling it getting horrible as i think in their alphabet now!   Yikes sorry!
Well love y'all so much!
xoxox
sestra peterson

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