Jaj.

This week was so full of unexpected miracles and new friends and great surprises. I absolutely adore Trenčín. I am in love with my neighbors who surround me and with those people I see all around. They have really become my big family and I feel like I really belong here. I am always greeted by familiar faces (And new faces, surprisingly), and lots of cheek kisses and hugs everywhere.

This week, I have to say, just so you all can picture this in your heads, was all four seasons mixed into one. Just picture two very confused sister missionaries dressing all up in their winter clothes to go out, then walking outside and discovering that the sun is beating down on them and the birds are singing and the snow is melted. So the next day, they go out a little less prepared, leaving their hats and gloves and scarves, and immediately a huge snow cloud builds above them and pours out the windiest, iciest snowstorm you ever did see! If you want to guess further, the next day we had a really wet rainstorm. Anyway. It was just really fun.

I am trying not to write about food because I do not want everyone to think my missionary purpose is "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel and eating their food", but the food is always just so great I cannot not write about it! First of all, our great french neighbor made us this like lemon tart that was SO delicious. It was just like lemon bars but a little more sour and it was so perfect. I was in heaven. I forgot how good stuff like that is. YUM

Then, on Saturday, there was something called Fašiangy here in slovakia, which is basically a huge "Eat, Drink and be Merry party" for tomorrow the Catholic fast of forty days starts. They have this huge party where they just drink and kill pigs and eat meat and have a costume party for the kids and make homemade donuts with apricot filling and just give them to you for free! Anyway it was really a super great time. We were offered a lot of shots but people got so funny about our nametags when they saw them. We happily ate many donuts and fruit tea and shyed away from some of the scary meat that was happening. There were a lot of people there who said I looked just like I belonged right there in their town! I seriously love slovakia.

We had a really sweet testimony meeting this week. I adore the members here and adore their

fašiangy when they cry over the tuba because...no more parties

examples of converted, constant missionary work. One of our members decided that she was going to read her Book of Mormon on the bus when she took her weekly grocery trip to the mall. It is just a short 15 min bus ride but she decided to utilize it. As she was reading, a woman was reading over her shoulder. When it came about time to get off, the woman asked her what the book was. With all her heart, our little member testified that the Book of Mormon was a treasure, and from God. The woman asked her where she could purchase one. Our dear member hopefully gave her the address for our little church building, and hopped off the bus.

And the woman came to the building! Of course, we were not there at the time, but she saw the Elders phone number and gave them a call, explaining the entire story and asking when they could meet so she could have a copy of that beautiful book. The elders excitedly agreed and they are meeting this week! You never know when or where you are being a missionary and who is watching you. Our member expressed gratitude in sacrament meeting and curiosity at who else on the bus may have heard her simple testimony. I just about died with happiness when she stood again and bore testimony of the truthfulness of this book. It was so powerful!

angry bird suckers

Okay this is about to be long, but this is what has really been exciting for me this week. I have been so amazed at our bodies, and at eternity, and I am confused and really overwhelmed by the greatness of it all! Life is so good! Prezident Nelson had a great talk in Oct. 2013 called Decisions for Eternity. Here is an exerpt that I love:

"My professional years as a medical doctor gave me a profound respect for the human body. Created by God as a gift to you, it is absolutely amazing! Think of your eyes that see, ears that hear, and fingers that feel all the wondrous things around you. Your brain lets you learn, think, and reason. Your heart pumps tirelessly day and night, almost without your awareness.8

Your body protects itself. Pain comes as a warning that something is wrong and needs attention. Infectious illnesses strike from time to time, and when they do, antibodies are formed that increase your resistence to subsequent infection.

Your body repairs itself. Cuts and bruises heal. Broken bones can become strong once again. I have cited but a tiny sample of the many amazing God-given qualities of your body.

Even so, it seems that in every family, if not in every person, some physical conditions exist that require special care.9 A pattern for coping with such a challenge has been given by the Lord. He said, “I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; … for if they humble themselves … and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”10

Stellar spirits are often housed in imperfect bodies.11 The gift of such a body can actually strengthen a family as parents and siblings willingly build their lives around that child born with special needs."
anyway, necham to s vami,
s laskou,
sestra abbott

nech sa páči

I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life! This week has been so incredibly full of miracles and good people and good times and beautiful weather. Every day when we wake up I seriously feel like I am living in a fairy tale! How incredibly lucky we are to be here and we have a castle and wonderful people and nice smelling air and everything is beautiful.

Some highlights:

One of my favorite things about being a missionary is that you are always where God needs you to be. There are people who we see on the streets a second or third time, and it is so evident to us how many chances God is giving these people to accept our message! We ran into one of my favorite people this week and had a chance to talk with him about receiving his answer. He was adament that he was always praying to find the truth, and never receiving an answer. After some discussion, we discovered that he did not really want to receive an answer. He admitted this and admitted that maybe he was not quite ready to receive an answer. God will always, always give us an answer--when we have real intent and desire to act on that answer.

We had a great time this week when one of our members came to our english course. It was probably

beautiful Vah

the weirdest thing in the entire world for me! She speaks english very well, but I have never spoken english with her in my entire life. It was probably the weirdest thing ever. I felt like I could not speak english adn every time I did it felt like I was speaking this foreign language! I do not know why it was so strange but let me just say, I would rather speak slovak. hahah

This week I found in the church building the coolest autobiography printed off by Martha Toronto, the wife of our missions first mission prezident Wallace Toronto. Our mission has the coolest history in the entire world! I could not believe the stories of missionaries being imprisoned, the mission prezident being called at age 24, smuggling things in and out of the country...I found so much faith in the stories I was reading! The Lord is incredible and is really at the head of this work. The pioneers in every country are truly such faith filled people. I cannot explain how grateful I am for everything they did in order for us to be able to spread the gospel in these countries today.

this is how sister ratcliffe gives me my snacks

Another really cool miracle that happened this week was when we were going out to talk with people, and I kept having the thought that we needed to go a different way and contact in a different neighborhood. I was a little confused because there arent always a lot of people out over there, but decided to follow the prompting anyway. SO we turned all the way around and headed over there. While over there, I thought of a less active member that lived down there but who had presumably moved. We decided to ring her bell and just see if she or her family was there. And she was! She invited us in for the first time and we were able to have a wonderful spiritual visit with her, her mother, and her daughter. We are so blessed! I am so grateful for the promptings of the spirit and know that when we follow them the Lord will truly use us in the ways He needs to.

This week, Sister Ratcliffe helped me out a lot. She helped me to overcome a few of my fears. Particularly, she helped me to do a handstand. That was pretty fantastic.

We had so much success this week going door to door, I was amazed! People have been so kind to us and so open to learning more about Jesus Christ and His restored church. It is interesting to see how the spirit can really soften somebodys heart. Maybe at the beginning of a contact, they will say, no, no, we dont want, but after speaking with us, they always seem to realize that what we have is precious and they have question after question. It is totally worth all of the terrifying dogs to go ring everyones bells at their gates, because we get to have these amazing spritual experiences with people!

We helped our dear Sestra Alžbeta shell some stubborn walnuts this week. Highlight.

We made zuchinni bread and delivered it to people. Highlight.

Church was seriously so great. Highlight.

Oh man we got to go to this mans home this week, and seriously it was incredible! We sat in this outdoor indoor villa thing which was all nice and warm and randomly had a motorcycle. Plus he was wearing all white flowy clothing so that was pretty fantastic. His wife was really sweet as well. Didnt really have interest to be baptized in the end but you know, it was a great and strange experience. Gotta have a few of those.

We are so grateful for this older couple that has us over every sunday. They are so sweet and we always feel the spirit so strong at their house. We had a wonderful conversation with them about listening with spiritual ears--that each one of us in life can learn different languages, be it slovak, english, the internet. But the most important language we can learn is the language of the spirit. If we are always actively listening, we can hear what God wants to tell us personally when we read in the scriptures or when we pray. I loved this exerpt from the Bible Dictionary about knowledge:

"One of the attributes of God (Isa. 46:9–10; Acts 15:18; 2 Ne. 9:20). Knowledge of divine and spiritual things is absolutely essential for one’s salvation; hence the gospel is to be taught to every soul. “How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” (Rom. 10:14). Knowledge is not obtained all at once, even by revelation, but line upon line, precept upon precept (Isa. 28:9–10). The scriptures, and also living prophets, are given so that the people might have knowledge of things of God and “know how to worship, and know what you worship” (D&C 93:19). Knowledge is one of the endowments of the Holy Ghost (John 14:26; 16:13; D&C 34:10; 121:26–33) and one of the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:8; Moro. 10:10; D&C 46:18). Peter lists knowledge along with faith, patience, kindness, and virtue as necessary acquisitions for one who would seek for a divine nature (2 Pet. 1:3–9). Since no one can be saved in ignorance of the gospel (D&C 131:6), and one progresses only as fast as he gains knowledge (HC 4:588), it follows that the person who gains knowledge will have “the advantage in the world to come” (D&C 130:18–19)."

I love you all! Have a great week!
s laskou,
sestra abbott

piešok či skale

ALRIGHTY FOLKS,

I know you have all been wondering about what we have been doing up here in little Trenčín, and the answer is certainly missionary work. And oh, it is certainly wonderful! The weather sure makes things exciting--the first half of the week was so pleasant, with birds singing and spring in the air--and then today I think that the clouds fell onto us in buckets of soft white snow! I could not believe how big those snowflakes were!

I think that the Lord really used us this week. We always seemed to be in the right place at the right time. I so enjoy listening to people and understanding them---not just the slovak, but what they are feeling. Praying for charity really works!

On wednesday the day was eventful because we rushed to Bratislava on a train for training! I sure do love trainings. I was pretty emotional because I just am realizing every day how much I love my mission and how much I love the people I serve with and the people I serve. Whenever anything was taught or said, I felt like raising my hand and saying "YES! this is so true! I know it is!" I feel the testifying power of the spirit when others testify, and then it is just one big pot of spirit and testimony and tears.

Afterwards, we rushed back home on the train and got to go to our wonderful neighbors to celebrate

her son´s seventh birthday. It was so much fun! We got to play a little game with him and I felt really weird helping a slovak boy read slovak...and I am an American. It was good. We ate a super incredibly delicious french marble cake and for that I was obviously very grateful.

We had a great time this week because our branch prezident taught us some Yoga! He is a yoga master. In fact, he found the church through yoga! In communism, he went to a yoga class in Brno, in the CZ, where the teacher was LDS: He would share with them "Spiritual Vitamins" Every week in yoga. As communism fell, they were able to share more and more about the church. Eventually prezident got a copy of the book of mormon and was baptized. He brought the yoga tradition to trenčín, and nearly all of our strong members here were converted in this small spiritual yoga class! I absolutely look up to these members. They have incredible conversion stories and I am so grateful for their faith. And I was pretty grateful to do some yoga.

strange snow crystals

We also got to go visit one of our members outside of Trenčín this week. We talked about discipleship and I was just so amazed at her example of discipleship. She sure has seen a lot of good times and a lot of bad times, and is still willing to listen and to make goals to do member missionary work. If every member did as much missionary work as our five members do in Trenčín I think the world would be converted! I admire them. Also she made us some delicious shish kabobs so that was totally great.

Lastly, on sunday I got to give a talk, which is always a great opportunity, but I think I learned a lot more than people got from my crazy slovak that was happening. I spoke about the simplicity of the gospel, and A verse I really loved is in 3 Nephi 11 verses 39-41

 39 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and whoso buildeth upon this buildeth upon my rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.

 40 And whoso shall declare more or less than this, and establish it for my doctrine, the same cometh of evil, and is not built upon my rock; but he buildeth upon a sandy foundation, and the gates of hell stand open to receive such when the floods come and the winds beat upon them.

 41 Therefore, go forth unto this people, and declare the words which I have spoken, unto the ends of the earth.

I love that we are to be built upon the rock. The doctrine of Christ is simple, like a big mass. Maybe

up close you can see ridges, crevices, and different colors, but when you stand on it, it is firm and simple. Sand, though it may seem appealing and intricate, is made up of so many tiny grains that you cannot find a beginning or end to it, and when you stand on it, you sink. Sometimes we think our testimonies are built on the deep mysteries and secrets of the gospel, but those things wont hold strong when we are faced with opposition or a trial. The simple, concrete things of the gospel are those things that will keep us firmly planted on the foundation of Christ when hard things come. I am so grateful for the strength I find in these simple things every day!

s laskou,

Sestra Abbott