Wednesday, January 8, 2014

6.1.2014 (6 January 2014) - Zilina



Hello Everyone!!



      This week has been fun!! Of course we had the brand New Year! We missionaries went over to the Wrightsons for dinner and made Halusky!! There was a ridiculous amount of food and it was amazing. Then we were given to watch a movie. We had to be in by 7 (for our safety) and we also could stay up to watch fireworks if we wanted. Which we didn't. We were so tired and went to bed and I woke up when the fireworks started but was way too tired/lazy to get out of bed.  

       Both Sister Krauel and I were sick this week (not anything bad, though). On Tuesday, Sister Krauel was just not feeling well and was sorta dizzy so instead of clipboard for English we practiced for our up coming concert and on Thursday, I had a huge migraine and upset stomach. We were suppose to go clipboarding (this time for Family history) but instead I took a nap on the floor of the primary room while Sister Krauel did some calls. In the end everything turned out well and we're healthy and happy!
      To answer a few questions: 
       The weather here is beautiful...not really cold!! What do we do when it's cold?...CONTACT!! Thus far the weather is pretty mild and hasn't been hindering our contacting or tracting. We try to do service but we don't find many opportunities.
 
      The branch here is much bigger than in Kosice. The branch has been here for close to 20 years but there's only 12ish active members, half of which are one family. It's very hard/depressing for them to see little progress and sometimes they feel they've exhausted all their resources/options. We don't do too much less active work here, but we are trying to get a hold of one sister.
 
      So our investigator, E, is not taking the lessons anymore. She doesn't have a desire to know if it's true. She feels good when she's with us but likes her church group (more for the social aspect I think).  She's still coming to English Class. 
  
       We have a really cool investigator, Fi. He's a YSA and has been making pretty good progress lately. He told us he has desire/intents to read the Book of Mormon and find out if it's true. We committed him to read every day and he's been doing really well. There is one problem though...he can't meet very often because he's busy with school and scouting. 

        The work is super slow. Sister Krauel and I are really struggling to find investigators. We tract and contact a lot. We are preparing to do a joint concert with the Trencin district in a couple weeks (not gonna lie...it's super stressful trying to coordinate a concert with another city!). We teach an English class (Sister Krauel and I teach conversational). I'm content to just let Sister Krauel teach (it was her profession before the mission) but sometimes she forces me to participate. ;) We also teach a family history class and hold a weekly game night. We clipboard for our classes and do singing displays too. Mostly we're super busy, as we should be. :)  
 
        Well I've been thinking a lot lately about faith and diligence and I've been reading in Alma (I think from the 12th to the 26th chapters). It's so interesting that as members and missionaries, the progress/success of this work hinges upon our faith and our diligence. As we show the Lord, we trust in Him and will do all that's required of us (and more!), He will bless us with strength to accomplish everything so that we may have success. I also just really admire those missionaries [she is referring to those spoken of in Alma]. They endured so much and yet kept their faith and stayed in a good mood (after all, your attitude dictates your altitude). Right now we struggle to find people to teach but I  know I'm learning lots here in Zilina. I'm learning to cultivate an attitude of gratitude and of faith. I'm so grateful to be serving here in this beautiful country and I'm so grateful to be a part of the missionary work for this area. So I wrote down a scripture I want you to look up. I thought it was pretty cool.  Alma 17:11. Now remember I love you all and you're awesome! 


S Laskou,
Sestra Whitney Sarah Johnson <3

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