Sestra Erin Rhodes: BOK!!! Nov. 9th, 2015

Good-bye Kranj - Beautiful Alps!

Draga obitelj,

What an amazing, crazy, fast fast week it has been. Here is the recap for you all.For starters, right now I am writing from Zagreb. My new home. Last monday Sister Duffy and I went to mission leadership council in Zagreb and that evening I found out that I would be moving to Zagreb to work here and to work in a calling that involves helping out with the new country communication pages (church websites in the native language). So...President announced it officially at zone conference on Thursday, I gave my testimony to my Slovenian fellow missionaries along with Sestra Christensen who is going home and said farewell to Slovenia yesterday after church. Quick change and the task of learning Croatian and working in a new country has lead to some pretty earnest prayers and going through my american beef jerky way too quickly... but I know the Lord is in charge and that President Grant receives revelation for this mission. So I will do my best to rely on the Lord in this new phase of my mission. Whew...here we go.

Other amazing parts of the week. We talked to two really amazing moms in Kranj in our last few hours of Slovenian contacting, and it was a big blessing to be able to not just have small, meaningless conversations for my last few hours, but to teach the gospel and share what we believe. Sister Duffy and I enjoyed our last few days together. We also have been teaching a very much older man who brings his daughter (25 yrs old) to sit in for our lessons. He is not really interested, but we kept going back in hopes for his daughter. Well we decided we needed to talk to her once without her dad, and invited her to come into Kranj, cent 'na kavico.' "on a coffee or tea" they say. She came! AND she had soooo many questions and is just so cute and shiny and the best part... after a good plan of salvation talk, we invited her to church AND SHE CAME! There were multiple visitors that day and the members all greeted her and she stayed for two hours and really enjoyed herself! Sad to say goodbye right when we are making some headway but she is in great hands of sister duffy and sister arsenjuk and the members!

Sister Arsenjuk, she is a member from Maribor, a dear friend, and SHE TOOK MY PLACE IN KRANJ! I am soooo excited, she is going to be serving a mini mission for a bit and I know it will help her grow sooo much.

Also..... to be saved for last. Not only did I get to go back to Maribor to teach my friend Tina, but this weekend, she was baptized and confirmed and sister duffy and I drove with the elders from Kranj and their investigator all the way to maribor for the baptism (getting pulled over for looking suspicious and foreign on the way from the scarriest looking, undercover cops, with Slavic accents ..... story for another day.) We sat in the back and then right before Tina went to get baptized we saw each other and she gave me a giiiant hug and was just filled with light and the spirit. What an amazing day to be a part of and to feel the spirit that is there when someone decides to follow Jesus Christ. Sister Duffy and I sang 'I stand all amazed' in Slovenian while she was dressing.

So....that was my week. Wonderful. Fast. Spiritual. A little tough. But sooooo rewarding and I am excited to start the next challenge! We are now going to look around Zagreb. Should be fun. >)

I love you all and pray for you daily! Stay close to the Lord and know that He is in charge!

xoxoxo

Sestra Rhodes