#trainsfordayz

going into my apartment for the first time

This week was really just exciting. That is the only word I have to describe how many trains we had to catch, people to see, and goals to keep. Last week started in Bratislava and Brno for a mission conference (wonderful, wonderful, all good times) and ended here back in Košice. Because I had to go and do all my visa excitement on wednesday, we had to stay in Bratislava for about half the week. It was fun to be with all the other slovak sisters but also sad to be away from our area for what seemed like a year! 

Prague

I love Bratislava, and I love all the people there. It is incredible to me to see so many people everywhere speaking in different languages and from so many different cultures. Sister Seninger and Sister Rosenthal were brave and decided to leave me, Sister Parsons, and 

first time on the namestie (main square)
in košice. 

Sister Eggers by ourselves to contact on a namestie for a while...maybe too brave. Haha well, we really tried and it was really funny. We are all able to understand most slovak, and we stopped a couple of really interesting people who had a lot to say. One man was telling us that we were all pieces of God and expounded on the conception of Christ and we were all just standing there hoping he wouldn't ask us some complicated question that could not be answered in our limited slovak. But it was still fun, nevertheless. We had so many miracles there, because Sister Seninger spent the first few months of her mission there. We saw so many people who she had contacted before and handed out a Book of Mormon and a lot of pass-along cards (Okay, we are always handing out a lot of those, but still.) 

me eating halusky and looking like a complete crazy person.

On Monday night we made halušky (noodles and cabbage)... so that was the best thing ever. 

I contacted by myself on the train for the first time. It was a party. 










Sidenote: This little tiny spider keeps landing on my computer screen and I keep thinking my mouse is moving on its own, and it is actually a little frightening because I'm afraid it will land on my head. Help. I promise I'm not in an attic or anything, its actually really beautiful here in this library, but you know, still....

Prague

Okay sorry I'm focused. Wednesday we had to go to like 40 million doctors and people to do our visa stuff, and that is really all the detail I'm going to go into about that. Enough said. I'm healthy and now reside in Slovakia. 

Wednesday night we basically ran out of Bratislava to catch a train back to Košice, and the nine hours passed by slower than normal because it was dark, but it was still fun because I felt like I was in a Harry Potter movie. 

from our apartment window

Okay so anyway THEN we finally made it back to our beautiful area! Oh, I love it so much. We have had so many miracles the few days we have been here. And the new members we are working with are so great (I see the spider right now, by the way). Between teaching and contacting, I feel like we have already been here for a year. 

The biggest miracle we had this week, though, was when we got our investigator Inga to come to church! She is a mom! And has the cutest two little girls, who are 2years and 6months old. We were so excited to walk her to church on sunday morning. Church starts at 9 so we went and waited outside her apartment at 8. Unfortunately, it took her a really long time to get her kids ready and it was 8:45 and we weren't sure what to do because it was branch conference and I was playing the piano and it was really a fiasco so when she finally 

entering our church building for the first time

came out and we discovered that the busses all didn't come until 9:00, we told her that we were just going to have to run and we would meet her there. I'm sure it was really a sight to see two sister missionaries running down the street for almost 3 kilometers to a 
church building in long skirts and laughing the whole way. The congregation was waiting for us when we got there five minutes late, and we burst in, threw off our coats, and casually walked in, and I sat down to the piano and wiped the sweat off my face. Needless to say, Inga came to church and loved it so it was all worth it. (even though my voice was basically gone when we had to do a musical number.)

Yesterday, we had a miracle because the night before, Sister Seninger felt really strongly that we needed to go to a certain place and find a woman in a brown coat. We did! She was so wonderful and we talked to her for almost 45 minutes. Shortly after we had a bench lesson with a woman who is so incredibly prepared--she asked every question a missionary could possibly want-- and who we will most likely be teaching again this week. 

These are just literally 1/2000 miracles I see every day here on my mission. I am so grateful for the people here and for everyone around me. I wish I could write everything about every person I have met here but 1) that would take me eight years and 2) probably inappropriate to just tell other people's lives for them. I'm excited to finally be here in Košice, where I can see people selling beautiful flowers everywhere and run when the sun is coming up over the city, and be surrounded by wonderful people anywhere I go. Even on sketchy busses. (Miracles happen on sketchy busses. Am I even spelling busses right? is it buses? I really just don't even know english.) Anyway. And I love the Van Dalens too!

cvicova (tenderloin dumplings and cream)

THEY FEED US SUCH DELICIOUS FOOD I COULD DIE. Honestly I don't even know what I was eating, but there were potatoes and sausage and soup and walnut cake and I just was so happy that my stomach was bursting. Also, the elders made 6.6 lbs of halušky last night so at least I'm not as bad as some people with the food thing. Just kidding. I eat what I want. 

Scripture of my week: Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

really small elevator with sister seninger

There is really no reason for us to be ashamed at all of this gospel 
because every ounce of it is true! It is a map for every person in this life, truly. I hope to share it in everything that I do and say and have never felt more grateful for anything in my life. Not even for halušky. Right now, there are a lot of people that are surprised at
 my slovak and that I can understand anything, but I'm actually just like a four year old telling people (quite brokenly) what I know and handing them pictures of Jesus. Which is fine because its the best I can do! The Lord expects nothing more of us and I know that He is able to make our weaknesses strengths. 

I love and am praying for you all! Thank you for all of your emails and notes! Talk to you soon!

Uvidíme sa!
Sestra Abbott 

church in prague

church in prague

church in prague

lock bridge in prague

pink apartment we stayed in in prague

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