There is {music, goodness, laughter, miraculousness} all around

Oh, beautiful week which we had here in Trenčin! I have to say, that I have never been happier I do not think. I have really gotten to the point where I go to bed with a smile on my face and wake up..okay still without a smile but guarenteed to have one in at least ten minutes. I am becoming more and more grateful for the Lords hand in our lives. We saw miracle after miracle this week.

We have been teaching a ton of new people. It is great because they are all quite kind and willing to listen and ask many questions. I think I had fruit tea bought for me about 6 times this week. I am surprised at how many elect people there always are in Trenčin! You would think that after having missionaries in this small city for all these years that everyone on the street would know our message and who we were. But still, every day we are teaching people in their homes, on the streets, and in cafes!

We had a really cute mom come to english this week. I do not think I talk much about our english classes here in Slovakia, but I love them! We teach free english once a week, and our english students are some of my most favorite people. We always feel the spirit so strong. My favorite thing to teach is beginners (Okay, actually, I love conversation as well. Intermediate is just intermediate.) BUT aj tak I love beginners because I always get to talk about my family. So many times this week has my family picture been whipped out to show people! Hahaha my family is probably one of the most "Looked at with open mouths" family in all of Slovakia! You should see peoples reactions. Most of the time they think I am older than my mother, and they are always surprised at the size, and they think we look like a magazine family and ALWAYS ask where on earth we are. It is so funny. But the point of all this is to say that it always brings the spirit so strong! I have such a testimony of family and how a strong family can be built on the gospel. People always say, well, how do your parents do that? And I can only ever answer that they are obedient to and love the Lord. It is the best.

Oh, so, also, we went to Prague this week for our leadership meeting and it was SO FUN. Sister

Parsons and I finally got to go to Prague together! We did not get to go at the beginning because of her visa, but we had the best road trip ever with the zone leaders and it was so worth the year wait to be in Prague together. We had a great meeting (SO excited for training this week!!!) and we had lunch with the McConkies and then we got to go to this strangely elegant and extravagant doctor to get some antibiotics for sister parsons. I am not sure what was happening in there but seriously there was a chandelier and we were filling out her medical forms on a tablet. So that was pretty confusing. It was QUITE the contrast from the medical care which we have here in Slovakia, let me just say. I really cannot remember what it was like in America.

Then, after

WAIT I HAVE TO TELL YOU

that we had to drive through seriously the thickest fog I have ever seen! There and back because it was early in the morning and then it gets dark so early...Elder Driskill was seriously the best chauffer in the world! I could not believe how calm he was! He was still cracking jokes and sister parsons and I were paralyzed in the back seat with fear because we were on the freeway and we could not even see two feet in front of the car. Lets just say, it was slow, but somehow we made it alive (AKA we are missionaries.)

Then, after what seemed like the longest journey I have ever taken, we returned to Trenčin and proceeded to have the most miraculous week ever. The Lord truly compensates! We literally got ahold of almost all of our less actives, one of which came to church on sunday (Seriously, biggest miracle. We thought he had died or something), and we found a mom who met with us today and is the kindest human, and we painted the park, and we just talked to everyone, and met our neighbors and they invited us over,  and ah! I wish I could write out everything that happened but I feel like it would be underappreciated for the amount of typing it would take. But it was seriously great.

I think all this joy is coming from the fact that we downloaded this new youth song onto our phone that is like, "I feel so grateful in my heart, its good to be alive!" And it has literally been stuck in my head all week. Cheese but whatever.

Food: we were fed an abundance of pretty good potato pancakes yesterday, and I just wanted a drink of water more than anything, but our host told us that that was NOT allowed because it would ruin my pancreas because of how greasy the food was and all I was allowed to drink was hot water or tea. SO, when eating McDonalds, NO soda or anything, just hot drinks, for the sake of the pancreas everyone.

I am going to make a save the pancreas campaign.

Well I think that is all. I enjoyed more than I have before reading Jacob 5 this week (Still goin strong on this 9 pages a day in the KM..It is great!) and I was just thinking about how sometimes, we work really really hard, and it does not matter whether you are in a good spot of ground or a bad spot of ground, your tree brings forth good fruit. And that is a wonderful feeling! That is when you really see the fruits! But sometimes, you work real hard, maybe harder, and you love your vineyard more than anything, and you just see bad fruit. I know that for sure I have seen that on my mission before. But I know that right now, I am seeing the success that never giving up brings. If we can plead with the Lord of the Vineyard not to give up on His little trees, he will again say to us, okay, let us go down, and let us work, and prune and dig and do all that we can. And after we do it all, let us say, What else could we have done? And I know that with the Lords help, we will see that good fruit and He will help us know what to do in order to see it. He is truly the master gardener!

I love you all and hope you have an extraordinary week!
s laskou,

sestra abbott