Zdravoooo

Bok!

Hey! Thanks for all of the letters that you all have been writing me:) I love reading them and hearing about what everyone has been doing.Thanks for all the drawings boys! there are too cute! I loved them all, (especially the duck on fire, evan!) And thanks for the flies dad!! My district really loved them! Thanks for the package as well! the moccasins look super duper!

 

The language as been coming along. If any of you have any ideas to help me learn the language faster let me know! If you ever run into Margaret, maybe she will have some good ideas to help me out. We have about six hours a day of language study. It feels like i'm back in school again! All of our teachers are great! All recently returned missionaries from our mission. Our teachers are Brat Rubisch, Brat Freeman, Brat Hansen, i Sestra Black.

 

This last week we had TRC. I actually dont really know what that stands for, but we go and teach a spiritual message in Croatian to either a native speaker, or a return missionary! I reallly like doing this because, unlike our investigators, they help us out with the language when we're struggling to come up with a word. It was so awesome!

 

This week we also started learning the Cyrillic alphabet, I wrote out all your names in cyrillic, so hopefully I'll be able to send ya another letter today:) We started doing everything in cyrillic last week, aaaaand yeah it was pretty good. Once we get it memorized it should be pretty easy! Writing it is easy, but we all sound like a bunch of kindergartners trying to read for the first time! haha i love it!

We also moved classrooms this week, 'cause they're fixing our air vent or something. I miss our old building! haha we're usually in the building with all the weird languages, but oh well.

 

We taught --- this week. It was the BEST lesson we have ever taught! We went in there with as little written down as we could manage and tried our best to talk with him, bring the spirit, and bear our testimonies. We focused on repentance, because he just got out of jail. He kept talking and talking and all I could pick out was the word mir, which means peace. SO we talked about the atonement, and Stestra Clarck bore an awesome testimony, then I got to ask him if he would be baptised so that his sins could be washed clean, and he said YES! first lesson! oh man, that was definitely the highlight of this week:) Even though we know our --- is just our teacher, he is actually a real man, from Croatia, and it's amazing how the spirit will help us see what he need to hear.( We found out that last week, the real ---'s mom got baptised! I already love these people!) 

 

Sister Madsen (she teaches at byu, and her husband is Truman G. Madsen) came and spoke to us about our mission and Kresmir Cosic! Sister Madsen is just amazing! She got her hip replaced about a month ago and she is leaving for Croatia a month after we do to go and teach and implement the new youth curriculum in Croatia! Her family was good friends with Kresmir when he was playing at byu. You all should google his story, cause it is pretty incredible. She also told us a little about our mission: there are 13 branches, and two groups. Their temple in the Frankfurt templeand it's about a 20 hour bus ride away (doesn't make chicago seem so bad). There are a little over a thousand members, and only about 500 active. She told us all about our mission president and his family, and all of the ward members there. It just made me so much more excited to  go and meet the members and nonmembers out there! Sister Madsen was so inspiring and wonderful! I wish I could write more about her!

 

SOOOO many people in our zone have gotten sick this week! it's just crazy. Poor Sestra Kovatch ( the sister the Clarks know) got a virus in her intestines! wah! I don't even know what that is! she was just horribly sick this week, but thankfully she is on the mend.

 

This Sunday was great! We went to the new sister meeting finally, haha. we also had a great relief society meeting! ALL of the sister missionaries meet together, and we listen to a speaker. This week we had Mary Edmunds come and speak to us (google her:))Her motto is "do good and be good", and her life truly exemplifies that! She was HILARIOUS, oh my gosh haha. Don't worry though, she was spiritual too! She really lifted all of our spirits, and I think we would have been more than happy to let her speak to us for another hour.  

 

Oh! and if you remember the talk in priesthood session given by president Eyring, the young boy convert that he talked about is a boy from Bosnia!

 

Me and my companions have been doing just super together! I love them so much, and I know I'm lucky to be with them. They both truly want to be here and serve the Lord. I think that that might be a trait that goes all around the adriatic north district! haha oh I love it here. Thanks so much for all of your support and help to get me here!

 

I love EVERYTHING about you all, and miss you so much!!!!!!

love,

Sestra Rankin