chinchilla happiness

Ahojte!! What a wonderful week we had. I seriously do not remember half of what happened, however. I am trying to conjure up an email but my mind is blank! I promise that I did missionary work this week!! Haha.

One awesome thing that happened on monday is that we only had a wee amount of finding time and we had planned to find a dad in a green polo, so we ran out and began contacting. We had a fantastic contact with a man and got his number, and I was pretty pumped about it, but as we were walking away, sister russell looked at me with huge eyes and was like, "HE WAS WEARING A GREEN POLO!" just one of those amazing moments when you realize that spiritual promptings are a real thing.

We got to go visit one of our members Monika this week, and she has an english budgie and a chinchilla, which is probably my most favorite animal on the whole face of the planet, and just had the best time ever. With a chinchilla and a bird. And I also really love birds.

One thing that I am grateful for are the members here in Bratislava. And in Slovakia. They are incredible, incredible examples to me. They show me what it means to act with the faith that you have inside of you. Faith really is dead without works. And these members work hard. They carry the Lords work here in Slovakia on their shoulders. They put all their heart, might, mind and soul into everything. We had a branch picnic bbq thing on saturday morning, and the families who came were constantly helping. There was nobody in charge--everyone was in charge! Which could be hectic but because we are all united in one purpose, our goals can be realized. We, as a new baby district of Slovakia, have a terrific, faithful, strong district president, who was called to be the president at the age of 23. He holds the same keys as a stake prezident. and he is over an entire country! He is still a single student, and has 10000 other worries and he is responsible for these little members in Slovakia. I wish I could translate my gratitude for these people in words! They are the reason we serve. We serve together with them. And if the strength that I see in these little branches and groups were to be in every ward of however many hundred, we would see extraordinary miracles. They are the pioneers! And I am so, so, privileged to work with them. I cannot imagine attending sacrament in a room with more than 25 people in it. And when we meet together, focused on Christ, the spirit in the room is a tangible one. The peace I feel when I take the sacrament is the same peace I feel when I feel forgiven. It is recognizable and it is real. And I love the Lord for showing me what His gospel can truly do to people and what it really means.

matching oven mitt

One thing that we have been doing is really cooking like the Slovaks! We bought an entire bag of potatoes and are already about through it. Potatoes, onions, and sausage. Klobasa, in slovak. And BOY, is it SO GOOD. I will never be able to eat American bacon or sausage or hot dogs again! Probably the worst thing ever for you, but hey. We made pirohy this week (pirogy?), and we want to try and make russian borscht. One of our members (and my father) have given us recipes and cabbage, so when we have the time (Which may be never), it will be a marvelous undertaking!!

Well, that is pretty much it I think.

Another thing is that there is ALWAYS ice cream here in Slovakia. It is amazing. You know how like in America or New York they always say "A starbucks on every corner?" Here it totally is not starbucks. It is ice cream. And the ice cream here is SO GOOD. better than any other. I cannot even describe it. It is like gelato-y custard-y and wow so delicious. 70 c a cone baby.

Also, today we hiked to the top of the radio tower in Bratislava and bought some expensive lemonade! I did not bring my camera, so if you can, you should google it.

So yeah. Thanks to everyone and good luck to everyone and all that jazz.

Praying always!
Sestra Abbott