Weather and Such

birthday at sister alžbetas

What an exciting week we had over here in Trenčín! We started out our monday with the most miraculous way to begin a week. We talked with so many people who were so open and willing to listen to us. We got invited to tea three times in two hours! I have never had so much mint and fruit tea, and never needed to use the restroom so badly. But each person was incredibly prepared to hear the message of the restored gospel. The Lord really is in His work and puts us in the path of prepared people.

Another exciting turn of events was when the electricity shorted (lets all remember the tragic events that occured in the first week of july), and we were powerless for a morning. This time I simply was not having showering in the dark so we went and asked our neighbors for help. I love how people here always live the "love your neighbor as yourself" commandment. Our sweet french neighbor ran out to help us at 730 in the morning and her french dad helped us as well. We felt pretty trilingual when we said "Bonjour" and "merci". In the end, our other neighbor came home from work for a minute because he is an electrician and helped us out. YES. Light returned and the food in the fridge remained fresh!

The weather here has been a little crazy, for those of you looking for a forecast. We had some nice snow at the beginning of the week, pretty magical falling on the trees and everywhere, and then it

foggy

brutally turned to rain by sunday and turned everything to ice. I am literally a grandma tiptoeing around the streets of slovakia while Sestra Ratcliffe slides around the ice like a pro winter sport olympian. I am just so scared of falling! Anyway. Today it got really warm and everything seems like it is becoming spring. Do not worry--I still have my guard up, and I am still prepared for the ice rain.

THEN Sestra Ratcliffe reached the humble age of 20. We celebrated jubilantly and she was such a great birthday princess. We ate a ton of food and got to go visit Sestra Alžbeta, who of course made us a birthday feast and sang "Heppy Birthday" with all her little heart. Seriously the greatest role model for me in the whole world. They had, coincidentally, peanut butter in Lidl and so we got to make peanut butter fingers! Oh glorious things I forgot how much I love them. So addicting. SO american.

kofola in a peanut butter jar for lack of a bigger cup.

Besides that I think this week has been full of little miracles and of Gods hand. Is it not miraculous that God cares so much about each of His children? I want so badly for each one of His sons and daughters to feel that indescribable love that I feel so frequently, telling me that I am truly His daughter. God is so real and so involved in our lives. He always knows how to help us even when we do not know how to help ourselves. I hope that every one of us can have experiences for ourselves where we can say, " I know I am a child of God" without a doubt.

Love you all!
sestra abbott