short hair dont care spring everywhere

Hello glorious citizens of the world! It has been yet another eventful and spectacular week here in Bratislava! I am literally so in my happy place here--I am a tram-riding, halušky eating slovak missionary who is in love with this place! Our area is so awesome and the church is growing so quickly!

I have some exciting things to write today!

To start, we are moving buildings here in Bratislava. How exciting! We have been in the same church building for about seven years, and had one other before. ( I keep accidentally turning these letters into the Latin font so I am really sorry if anything looks strange ) It is beautiful and bigger and will be the nicest building in our mission! I have not been inside yet. But Thursday we are moving into it and then Sunday Prezident McConkie is coming down for sacrament meeting and to dedicate it! It is really exciting and also really confusing for people on the street that we contact, because we do not know what building to tell them. Haha. But still! EXCITING THINGS ARE HAPPENING! And then at the end of March, we are having the zone conference here in Bratislava for all the missionaries and members in Slovakia (and Brno, I think.) So that is the most exciting thing ever. Plus it is way more accessible.

This week was hilarious because Sestra Eggers got the hiccups in the middle of a contacting session. She stopped someone and, after hiccuping three times, I could not contain myself, and neither could the girl we contacted. The contact ended in abrupt tears of painful laughter.

Next exciting thing that is happening is that we have two of our investigators on date! Igor, (a cartographer and archeologic who is getting his PHD)  who Sestra Eggers and Parsons found in their first transfer, and this week Zuzana, a really wonderful YSA girl who loves to wear all purple. It is really the most wonderful thing to see the light in their faces and to see them progress in their knowledge of Gods plan and see their relationship with Him strengthen. They will both be such wonderful additions to our branch here in Bratislava, and it is so amazing to see them recognizing the Lords hand in their lives.

We ate district lunch this week at the Narnia Pub. It literally looks like you are walking into the closet when you walk in. Their halušky did not quite live up to our standards, but, hey, it was Narnia.

We had an awesome contact this week with this man who, first off, did not understand our Slovak at all, so it is a good thing he spoke English. We were talking to him, and he asks, "so what is it that you exactly do?" And I say, "We invite others to come unto Christ...and be baptized! We meet with people two or three times a week and help them prepare to be baptized by the right authority. Is that something you would be interested in?" And then, the best thing happened, and he just said "Yeah! I would be interested in that!" Literally I was doing everything in my power to calmly set up an appointment and get his number instead of jumping and shouting for joy. It was the best thing ever! Owning our purpose over here. Owning Blava.

THEN, we had a day that was a little tricky, and the weather was a little illusive, looked real warm but was real cold. We were going into town after unsuccessfully contacting in a park, when we saw one more girl and stopped her. She was in a hurry (Like the majority of people) but she said that she worked a couple floors above us in our church building. So we gave her a card and wished her a merry doo da and an "uvidime sa"

WELL then I am in sacrament meeting, and who comes in and sits next to me? This lady!! Wow! She is a psychiatrist and had an appointment right after sacrament, but she came back for relief society and loved it! we set up with her and she is so amazing. Too bad we are changing buildings this week haha..but our building is still only about five minutes away. * MIRACLELAND*

Haha, so at church, I played my musical number in sacrament meeting,

Oh! Hey! Všetko Najlepšia to the women in my life! happy womens day! One of our members handed out flowers to all the women in our congration, it was so cute.

So anyway that was fine, and then in Relief Society, the sestra who is teaching is like, okay, now we are going to have an opening song by sestra abbott. And I am so confused. She just hands me the hymn book and is basically like, okay, sing "Did you think to pray" (This is in slovak), and I am like, "Sama? Alone?" And she just nods her head so enthusiastically. So I sang the opening song for relief society alone. Hahah was literally so weird.

Aside from wonderful spiritual experiences I have had this week, I have become a real hard core rebel because sestra eggers and I CUT MY HAIR! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Just all day on Saturday, I kept seeing girls with such cute hair, and was telling sister eggers how much I loved my short hair, and how I really needed short hair, and then I decided that I could not wait until Monday to cut it, so I decided that we were just going to go home that night and cut it before bed. So we did! haha! I put it in a ponytail and she just snipped it right off! And then, evening it out and cutting it was kind of a team effort. And now it is so cute! and I have short hair! Totally a rebel over here.

Lastly, this week I have been reading conference talks, and I just loved this poem in Prezident Monson's talk from October 2013--everyone probably already knows it but it is just so cute I have to put it in here.

Good timber does not grow with ease,
The stronger wind, the stronger trees.
The further sky, the greater length.
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Ah! So good! It is so cute. It has been stuck in my head all weekend. How much I want to become this good timber. Without opposition we cannot possibly grow to our full potential. I want to be weathered and worn, beaten and battered, strengthened by stumbling. The Lord really does bless us when we face our weaknesses by facing Him. I love that we can overcome them with the Atonement of Jesus Christ, which can be that power that holds us all together when the storms get rough. Truly, the strength we are able to receive is far beyond any strength that worldly comforts can give us. He is the Christ, the Savior of the World, and if He can save the world, He can save me and He can save you!

Bye,
S laskou,
sestra abbott

Tic-Tac we lit on fire