okay so who needed a prayer at 2 this morning?

I just am not sure if I have ever not been a missionary.

if this picture is too awkward for life I am sorry

What is life?
I was born and raised in a skirt with a nametag...
literally though life outside of this is nonexistent.

This week was wondrous. Miraculous. Utterly stupendous and fantastic.
It is likely that I am exaggerating slightly, but I feel like I am not..not really...

Between missing our buses and being pelted with horizontal snow, there is so much to be grateful for. Everywhere we go we seem to run into people who need the gospel-or who need a reminder of what they already know is true. We taught a former investigator this week, who was taught a about a year and a half ago when there were no sisters here in Košice. Maybe he was not ready then but he is sure ready now! There was (quite luckily) a warm hour in the day where it was appropriate to sit in the park and have the lesson, instead of a cafe. Telling the Joseph Smith story in a grove of trees was nothing short of magical. The spirit that lingered in the air was so strong that he nearly could not speak! I love when you are in a place that you can really tangibly feel the spirit when you testify.

a while ago when I got to play a beautiful piano in a concert hall in a museum

Another cool thing that happened this week was that we got Mario, the youngest member of the Slepčikovci family (less active) on date! We are working with them so hard to help the family become activated so that Mario can be baptized. Satan is really working hard on them--because we really need them in our branch--but we hope they will start to see more of the blessings from the gospel very soon!

ANOTHER cool thing that happened (I sound like a teenage boy. This is cool, that is cool, you are cool, your mom is cool) is that we have so many miracles in contacting that result from spiritually planning. One example of this is that this week, we planned to find one man, wearing a hat, and teach him about prophets on the street. So you know, it is winter time, so basically every man was wearing some kind of hat, and we were contacting them all like mad women and talking about a living prophet (which by the way is such a blessing), and then we see him. And boy, was he wearing a hat! The classiest little fedora/top hat thing. We just looked at each other and said, "THAT IS THE MAN". Immediately we began talking to him. He was amazing! He spoke slovak, but actually spoke perfect english as well, with a wonderful british accent (Went with the hat). After a long conversation, we convinced him that maybe there was a God and that the Book of Mormon is evidence of that. He agreed to meet with us again and tešime sa na to :)

Our language is so fun. Slovak is the best language in the world. Literally. The elders helped us this week with a couple pronunciation things that would help us sound less like americans. Slash canadians. And boy! Hoorays all around! That was thursday and we have already had two people ask if we were Polish and one ask if we were from Ukraine. Makes ya feel good when people do not just respond with "we do not speak English".

Lastly, by this time, you are probably wondering why we were praying at 2 in the morning today.

WELL LET ME TELL YOU

I wake up in the middle of the night, slightly confused, and look over and see that Sestra Parsons is kneeling up in her bed. And I am thinking, "Why did I not hear the alarm? This is so awkward, I always hear the alarm...etc" and so after thinking awkwardly for a little while, I kneel up and also begin to pray. We both pray and are about to get out of our bed, and I look over at Sestra Parsons and say, "Did the alarm go off?" And she is so confused! Literally she just tiredly responds, "yes.." And then I say "Do you have the phone?" (Because normally, she gets up and gets the phone when it goes off in the morning) and she is like, "no..." So she gets up and looks at the phone...yep...

2:23 AM.

So who really knows why we were both awake and praying, but nevertheless, like I said, missionaries for life.

OH! Speaking of sleeping, I apparently now talk in my sleep. Which I do not think I have done before. I have said such things such as "Stop, do not go over there, that is a cliff!" And "My dance! My shoes!" And this week, I began to repeat Slovak prepositions in my sleep. So. No sleep only work over here I guess!

foto:doing what I do best:eating chocolate

And also, I love food now. My family will probably die when they hear this, but literally. I love the pickles and the beets and the onions just a lot. I have been given the gift of tongues :) (Cracking myself up over here) And slovak food is so delicious--Sestra Van Dalenova made us the BEST FOOD THIS WEEK IN THE WHOLE WORLD. We went over twice, because we did visiting teaching as sisters, and then we went for a district lunch on Saturday...ah. Little herby chicken patty things and beets and thyme carrots, then this big basically Slovak funeral potatoes, with sausage and eggs and cream and pickles...do not blame me for gaining weight.

Well, love and pray and hope and dream and tak d´alej for you all...

Sestra Abbott

ps. one tragedy that happened this week. I had to go and get this glue for my boot (because I tragically broke it in a moment of extreme missionary work), so it is this like really really extra strong adhesive..well...yesterday it was still in my bag (you know, for emergencies) and it was so cold outside that something happened to the bottle and the whole thing broke inside of my bag. The good news is that only the used part of my planner is glued shut!

hahahaha

bye