Happy Halloween!

Our district! Happy Halloween!

Halloween treats for the Elders:)

We love our aprons!

Zdravo!

Missionary work here in Sarajevo is in full-force, as well as the fun weather that October brings: Snow one day, blazing heat the next! I definitely look like a foreigner with my snow boots on when its 75 degrees and my sandals on when its 30, but hopefully we will have a consistent temperature soon! :)

This week we met a 24-year-old girl named M... and her 20-year-old sister, A... who have become really really close to my heart! The Elders tracted into her about a week ago and gave her as a referral to us. All last weekend I kept thinking that we need to call M..., we need to call M..., we need to call her! We finally got around to calling her and she was so excited to meet with us. We went over and taught her, her sister and her roommate. Lets just say that M...,is PREPARED! She asked a lot of questions in the lesson, but actually accepted the answers we gave her to those questions (which doesnt usually happen here). We got on the subject of baptism and she was really intrigued. She told us that she was raised Catholic and was baptized as a child, but she doesn't think that is right because she wants to choose to be baptized! We then explained how we each choose to be baptized and in our church the youngest age that you can be baptized is age 8 and we have an interview with the Bishop about why we want to get baptized. She loved it! The next words that came out of her mouth were made of pure gold, "Well I think I might need you to baptize me again because I want to listen to you and I want to choose to be baptized!" Yes. Sestra Trumbo and I nearly fell out of our chairs.

 

 The most touching part of our meeting was when we were closing with prayer and M..., told us that just the night before she had decided that she wanted to start a new life. She had gotten rid of a lot of bad things in her life and when she woke up that Monday morning she told herself that --It was the start of her new life!-- Then we called. She told us that she knew it wasn't a coincidence and I knew it wasn't either. The spirit had been prompting me to call her because Heavenly Father knew she was ready for this message. I am so grateful I followed that simple prompting. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying! We have another lesson with her tonight, and I cannot wait! 

Sestra Trumbo dressed up as me:)

This week was also Sestra Trumbo's Birthday and Halloween! We had a DELICIOUS dinner at the Smartt's complete with pumpkin cheesecake to honor Sestra Trumbo. :) Needless to say, I am really really glad that she was born. I am so lucky to have her as my companion!

I dressed up like Sestra Trumbo:)

For Halloween we decided to dress up as each other! We switched clothes and nametags, bags and even jewelry! It was so fun to walk into English class and have everyone be so confused. I made pumpkin cookies for our english class (which actually turned out!) and Sestra Trumbo and I sang Thriller on our walk home to celebrate the day!

Minute-to-win-it cookie game!

This week we also had our Branch Fall Party. We had quite the feast including homemade chili, cinnamon rolls and so much more! We had about 40 people attend and only about 10 of them were members. We decorated sugar cookies, socialized and then ended everthing with a Giles classic, Minute-to-win-it! It was a really great opportunity to meet people and show them that Mormons truly are normal! 

We love our Saturday english class students

We finished up our first round of our 6-week English course this week too! It has been so fun to get to know these people, have fun together and share the gospel with them! We couldnt help ourselves and ended the class with playing the Cookie on the Face game with them. It was awesome!

Needless to say, its been a VERY busy week! I have really relished the time that I have had to read the scriptures. This week I decided to start over in the Book of Mormon. I love that everytime we read this book we can get something different out of it! This time around in 1 Nephi I have noticed a trend in the way that Nephi views faith and obedience! In 1 Nephi 3:7 we know that Nephi says that ...--I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men, save He shall prepare a way for them to accomplish the things which he commandeth them.-- But as I kept reading I realized that he says that same thing in 

9:6 --But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words.-- 

Then he says it AGAIN in 1 Nephi 17:3...3 And thus we see that the commandments of God must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and ^astrengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them;

I love getting packages:)

What great faith Nephi has! This week I am committing to have more faith like Nephi to do all that the Lord commands because I KNOW that he will give me the strength I need to accomplish the things He had commanded me. I know that as we are doing everything in our power to obey the commandments that He will bless us.

I love you all, thanks for all the letters, emails and prayers!

Sestra Giles