happy happy easter week everyone

I am so happy to be here testifying of Christ during this wonderful, wonderful time of the year. I am so reminded of his life in everything I do! I mean, yes, I am a missionary, but there are also flowers! And green things! And beautiful weather everywhere we go! And random snow storms in the middle of a beautiful day that remind me that God has something like a sense of humor. Easter is such a big holiday here in Slovakia and I love how much everyone loves it. There are some crazy traditions ...Friday is when everyone does their fast, and all of the stores are closed all weekend. Then on Sunday, it is Easter of course, and everyone in the country pretty much goes to church. Then, there is a very interesting tradition which involves the boys lightly whipping the girls with a wooden whip and chanting a little rhyme, after which the girls give them painted eggs and candy. Right.
Also, they splash water on them for fertility and such.

Since I am in Bratislava, I got lucky and did not really get splashed with water or whipped, but in the villages and towns outside of Blava it is pretty normal.

A really fantastic thing that happened this week is that we had a CONCERT! hooray! It was really really great. We advertised with flyers and such and texted everyone in our whole phone for our free Easter concert on Friday night. It was so successful and wonderful. We as missionaries sang for half of it, then we had a wonderful member who is great at piano play for the second half. He is literally a professional so that was pretty amazing. And we even had refreshments afterwards! We split up and taught so many people there and got a lot more numbers. There were probably 40-50 people there! It was really a success.

We got to go to Sanjas this week again, and the coolest thing in the entire world happened because she HAS A SALAMANDER WHO LIVES IN HER BACKYARD. It is black with bright bright orange spots and is poisonous. So. We did not touch it.

just put that in for the boys there

We had a great meeting with a girl who we contacted on the street last week and asked her to read a very specific chapter and come back with it prepared...and she did it! We were so happy. She read in Alma 32 and was so determined to find faith because she had a desire that she knew would grow. My favorite part about teaching people right now is to see them go through the repentance process..to see the spirit working on them, and then to see them change and grow through their desires. It is really really an amazing thing.

Hahahahah something so funny that happened this week is that we taught someone over their zvoncek {Bell thing? Intercom?} when we were tracting because they thought that we were the pizza man. So basically, when they found out that we did not have pizza, they asked us who we really were, and in the end, did not let us in but let us teach them over their intercom thing. So that was terrific.

Today we went to the zoo! It was great fun and I want to send a hundred pictures but I just cannot because I forgot my camera cord and I also do not have very much time. SOOOOOOO

Basically, everyone, I am so excited for general konference and hope that if you have not already watched it then you will. And watch the easter video because that is incredible.

Love and pray for you all!

Sestra Abbott

PS transfers this week pray for me :)