Sept 29 Chocolate is Gods Apology for Broccoli

Hello hello, greetings from the sestry na slovensku! Well, actually just one, me, but I thought it would sound really nice to say the sestry.

Also the title of this email is just a great slovak saying which I heard this week. I was called to the right country.

We had a "charged" program this week, very busy with a lot of random changes and fun.

One awesome thing that happened was that we were contacting, and we saw a girl that looked asian, so I told Sestra Ross that it was her turn (She lived in China for four years so I get excited about these things). We stopped her, and she did not speak slovak, but she spoke a little english, and Sister Ross asks her where she is from, and she is from China!! AND THEN they just start speaking this unknown language of syllables! I was amazed. My mouth was like wide open. I was so happy. Chinese was spoken. (*Disclaimer. Sister Ross says she has forgotten a lot of chinese because of slovak, and that they just talked about food. But I do know that at one point they talked about Jesus, and it sounded pretty good to me! I felt the spirit!)  A moment was shared.

The weather has just been so incredibly pleasant, we have started to wear tights and light coats and

beautiful blue danube

sweaters, and it it just wonderful not to be drowning in your own sweat and breathing so much already breathed air all the time. People are very willing to talk to us and walk with us and we are seeing a lot of success! We are working very hard on teaching "Our unique message," which, of course, is the message of the Restoration. I have come to appreciate and feel the significance and necessity of the Apostasy, and it is incredible to teach Gods prepared people about it. The moment when they just "get it" is one of my most favorite things. You can like, I dont know how to explain it, but it is just a little lightbulb in the back of their mind that lights up their eyes when they understand that no, we do not think the pope has the priesthood, and yes, we do have that same miraculous power in our church that Christ used on the earth. The prepared people are always hungry to learn more and we are very grateful to the Lord for putting them in our path!

One scripture I have been using all week this week is 3 Nephi 14--

 "13 Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, which leadeth to destruction, and many there be who go in thereat;

 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

Sometimes we wish that everyone would recognize that narrow path, but as the scripture says, there are few that find it! We are incredibly blessed to find those few.

walnuts

This week had been the week also of orechy. The week of nuts. All of the trees seem to have some sort of edible thing on them, and the slovaks are so good at using every single thing that comes off of them. I feel so incredibly unresourceful all the time. Every slovak seems to know what leaves are good for what tea, and what herbs, and which nuts are good to harvest with a stick and which you have to wait until they fall, and whether or not the wild rosehips are ready for tea or jam, and I am over here like, WHAT ARE ROSEHIPS and people think that I am completely naive because I have no idea how to roast a chestnut or suck the juice out of a honeysuckle flower! I am living in the most resourceful country in the entire world! I have never seen a slovak let anything go to waste. I seriously have so much to learn from them.

Speaking of food, I cannot even tell you how much food we ate on Saturday. We went to lunch and had pizza, it was a little treat for ourselves after not eating dairy for so long, and then directly after we went to visit an investigator, who had made us an entire meal, complete with chicken, fried cheese, and potatoes and tea and banana bread (Which I made for her because it was her birthday, but she insisted that it was so yummy that we must as well eat half of the loaf), then we brought more banana bread to our members, who fed us plum poppy seed knedliky and kinder chocolate. We were running around and were late for slovak study with the elders, who had kindly made us tea when we ran into the room.

My tummy was very full.

We also had a wonderful, wonderful training here in Blava yesterday. I was so grateful for everyone who came down from Prague and CZ to help us down here in little Slovakia. We were grateful to all see each other and to get letters and packages. We were really grateful for Prezidents training, when he talked a lot about having the courage to face opposition, and about Lehis dream. I am not going to tell the whole thing right now, but we talked about how sometimes, people, even when they have tasted of the miraculous fruit, still give in to temptation from the great and spacious building, or wander down strange paths.

I was thinking about that again this morning, when I read another verse in 3 Nephi 18, which reads, "32 Nevertheless, ye shall not cast him out of your synagogues, or your places of worship, for unto such shall ye continue to minister; for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them."

devin hrad

We do not know when these people will feel of the Lords love again. In addition, I read the conference talk, Waiting for the Prodigal, given last conference. I am grateful for the examples of people who reach out in love to those who have perhaps wandered down strange paths or given into the tauntings of the great and spacious buildings. I know that as members and missionaries, as family members and friends, and as brothers and sisters, we all have the responsiblity to love one another, and perhaps wait a little while. I sincerely hope that we will all see those opportunities to reach out in love to those who have wandered a little, or stumbled on their way, so that Christ may heal them--because He will and He does! We see it every day. These people are His sheep and he wants them to return. Sometimes they just need to remember what His voice sounds like.

Anyway, I am very grateful for living prophets and apostles, for our leaders in the church and in our districts, stakes, wards, and branches. I am excited for conference and for the week that lies ahead! Everyone watch for me (We do not watch until the second week of the month.)

s laskou,
sestra abbott