 |
| Sretan Bajram! Beautiful Sarajevo all decorated for the holiday! |
 |
| District Bajram party with our investigators Edina and Haris |
 |
| The Elders love each other and playing Word of Wisdom Bingo! |
First off, I am feeling the same as
you with the premature snowfall. TODAY IT IS SNOWING! And its no small
snow, this is borderline a blizzard here. Im so glad that I get to use
my new boots and coat in the right manner. Merry Christmas to all. :)
This week seems like it may have lasted about a year
with all the things that happened, but I will just touch on a few of my
favorites.
First, Zone Conference. Wednesday I
got to attend my first Zone Conference with all of the missionaries and
President Rowe coming into Sarajevo. It was incredible! I loved meeting
the other missionaries that are serving here in Bosnia. There are only 6
others. Elder DeFraites and Elder West serve in Tusla with Brother
& Sister Goodsell. Elder Adams and Elder Gibson serve in Banja Luka
all by themselves! Its incredible to see the work that is being done all
over this country! We talked a lot about faith and about using the Book
of Mormon when we teach. It was everything that I needed to hear! At the
end we got to hear testimonies from Elder Shillabeer (who is leaving in
2 weeks) and Elder Gibson (who is being transferred to the Adriatic
South Mission). It was strengthening to me to see what these two
missionaries have become through perserverance and hard work and to
think that I can become like them someday! I was able to add my
testimony to theirs by closing our conference by singing and playing
--Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing--. The spirit was so strong the
whole time we had all of the missionaries there, we hardly wanted to
move! After the closing prayer we all just sat and drank in the spirit
for a few minutes. It was an incredible feeling!
 |
| Our Beautiful Edina! |
In terms of our investigators things have become a
little bit tough. We had two baptisms fall through this week and our
other baptism on date called us and told us that she cant meet with us
anymore. Satan is working hard here! We are keeping up our faith and are
trying to resolve their concerns. Its hard to not just want to force my
testimony on them sometimes. THEY KNOW ITS TRUE! It has been reminding
me how important daily scripture study and prayer are. Every person we
talk to that is having problems isnt reading the scriptures! Its not
just investigators either, it can happen to life-long members too. READ
THE SCRIPTURES PEOPLE!
 |
| Beautiful Cathedral in downtown Sarajevo |
One fun cultural experience I got to have this week
was Bajram (Bye-rum). Bajram is a holiday in Islam that is similar to
Christmas for Christians. Bajram started on Friday and went through
Sunday this week. On Friday all the men go to Mosque and the women stay
home and prepare a TON of food. When the men get back they go and find a
lamb and slaughter it. Half of the lamb they keep for their meal and
the other half they give to the poor and those who are less-fortunate
that they know. Pretty cool huh? The idea of Bajram is great....just not
when you're a missionary! We didnt have any lessons on Friday, Saturday
or Sunday because everyone had Bajram, even if they werent practicing
Musilms! haha It was cool to be out and about on Friday and see all the
men and women in their --Sunday Best-- walking around town. It was like a
Muslim version of Conference Sunday!
 |
| Boiling water for our showers, looking my best! |
Another fun experience that Sestra Trumbo and I have
had this week is bucket showers! The power went out on Wednesday night
and for some reason when that happened it completely shut off all of our
heat: water and apartment. We havent been too cold, but it definitely
has been an adventure boiling water on the stove, getting it to be the
exactly right temperature and then deciding how to use the precious
water the best way possible. haha Oh Bosnia, you will forever have
surprises in store! haha
One thing that President Rowe said in Zone
Conference has really stuck with me this week. He said, --When prophets
pray, they EXPECT an answer!-- Knowing that we will receive an answer
when we pray is SO important. Exercising our faith to pray is
incredible, but we can receive even more blessings when we pray
EXPECTING an answer. I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and
that we can each strive to expect answers from Him because He is our
loving Heavenly Father.
Thank you for all your prayers and support. VOLIM VAS PUNO!
Sestra Giles
 |
| Love my weekly letters from Grandma:) |
 |
| We love waiting for the bus! |
No comments:
Post a Comment