Time For Change - July 18th, 2016

Hallo family! 

Wow! You all really came through on the birthday emails. Thanks for all the good wishes! Haha I think everyone mentioned that it was cool to have a birthday on a P-day. Which is true! Today something very novel is going to happen for the celebration. It's called, Indian food. Sister Pratt and her family went this week and her son said (and I quote) "I have had Indian food now on four continents, and this was the best." WAHOO. So we are going with senior sisters and the Hallings. They are so awesome. When I came into the office for emails I was welcomed with a rendition of happy birthday song in Croatian and gifted a GIANT, soft, chocolate chip cookie from Sister Halling. I am well taken care of. :) 

So....now that I am 21, something HAD to change. So another sister is coming from Slovenia tomorrow to take my spot here in the public affairs busniess. She will be companions with sister Davis and I will be serving WITH A MINI MISSIONARY FOR THREE WEEKS! I am BEYOND excited. Having a native companion in these countries is . . . next to rare. The only way to serve with a native is if you get a mini missionary. She is coming from Serbia and we will be bunking with the other sisters in Zagreb for three weeks...so I will be living out of suitcases. Wahoo. I will train the new sister from Slovenia and then be full time with my new sestra! However she is only here until August 8th, so who knows what I will be doing the last week of my mission! (Except for being her the sat. before i leave for Bakas baptism.) 

We taught a lot of lessons this week. It has been so much fun. We are now consistently having lessons with two guys (at different times) that we met street contacting and they are both really open and receptive. However when I asked him to be baptized he just said 'I don't get it.' So then the member that was there (which usually helps) asks him the same thing in even more flawless Croatian. But he just says again, 'I don't get it.' He did NOT grasp the concept that his baptism was not valid the first time...so back to the restoration of the priesthood! 

Also, last night we were talking to people in a beautiful park and after talking to this young girl she asked if she could ask us something personal . . . so we sat on a bench, she told us her situation and how she has a boyfriend but doesnt know what to study or do in life and has been thinking about becoming a nun... In my mind I am thinking 'perfect, now we can tell her NOT to do that.' It wasn't until later that she told us, the entire time she thought WE were nuns. Nuns giving advice not to become nuns . . . haha. She still took a book of mormon and recognized that is was not a coincidence to meet us right as she decided to take a walk in the park to 'ponder' all that was going on. 

Baka is still doing well and is holding strong for her baptismal date in August. She is actually coming and staying to meetings more than her granddaughter who just got baptized. So wait to be the example baka! 

Here's to another great week ahead of us all! Love you a lot! 

Sestra Rhodes

Me, Milica Vucenovic, Sestra Turner, Sestra Davis

KOKICE! July 11th, 2016

Bok family. 

I got a lot of fantastic emails and updates and pictures from you all this week! I love hearing and seeing you guys. It is always a treat to get online mondays and to see how positive you all are and encouraging and how many miracles that are going on in your lives. 

Here is how he has blessed my week. We will work backwards. The whole week, members from our entire mission filled a giant bus and went to the temple in Switzerland. A family from our branch got sealed, one received her endowment, another family from Serbia got sealed and their son opened his mission call in front of all the other members. It was amazing to see how changed they were after one week at the temple. On Sunday all those that went got to bear their testimonies after their trip (it happens once a year.) It was the. best. sacrament. meeting. ever. The spirit was so strong in that chapel and it was visible how the temple changes people. They were completely lifted spiritually and physically. They bore testimony on doing genealogy work, eternal families,  the priesthood, etc. and in 8 months in Zagreb it was my favorite Sunday. I cannot believe how close we have temples and what a wonderful blessing that is. 

We had great lessons with Baka this week and she said (I quote) "I already know all of this! You can just baptize me!" Haha, I agree. She is the one that picked her date for so far away! We are going to try to change that this week. Her granddaughter (the new convert) also NEVER comes to relief society and rarely to sunday school.  But the best part is that when they were all leaving after sacrament meeting their grandma tells them 'we have to stay you guys!' Although they didn't, she is already a great example for them. Soooo awesome. 

We taught two new investigators and will continue meeting with them. Two young men who are displeased with their previous church. (Take a guess which one.) 

We also had another interview this week, similar to the one I did in Slovenia. There will be a video but the majority of it will be a written article. Now I have one in Croatian! Sweet! It is pretty to get interviews when you are a mormon missionary from America in a small country. But hey, I'll take it. I'll let you all know when it goes up! 

So it was a fantastic week and we are going to go on a hike today! I love you all a lot and hope you have a great week! 

xoxoxo

Sestra Rhodes  

Surprise Church and Concert Appearance - July 4th, 2016

Cao family! 

We had another fantastic week here in Zagreb. I had my very last zone conference :( Usually we would have one more, but this one was special and all the countries are taking a turn coming to the mission home in Zagreb and staying the night. Ours was first this week and it was a wonderful conference! I learned a ton and we did a lot of practicing teaching. We are really focused right now on becoming master teachers and I only wish we would have done this at the beginning of my mission!!!! We also played basketball and volleyball, I got to play some piano and we had an American bbq! (Happy 4th of July ps) I also had to give my 'farewell testimony' that all departing missionaries give at their last zone conference. Only I had to give mine premature. However I always love a chance the testify! 

Baka is doing really great. She could be baptized this week. We are going start with the commandments this week, so that should be fun. She also made us MORE burek...Sister Davis and I just looked at each other and our faces started to turn green. We had already had SO much the previous week and decided we could handle no more, and then she puts a big plate of it in front of us that she made JUST for us. Haha. Too kind of her. 

She came to church this week and stayed for all three meeting as did TWO of our other investigators! They are the single neighbors that have the lessons together. Three investigators at church! It was so fantastic!! We had to help in primary for second hour, so we did not get to go with them to Sunday school but the other missionaries went with them and showed them the way and apparently they were all really active and giving great answers to questions and what not!

Also random part of the week... I had heard some music from 2CELLOS from missionaries before but did not know much about them. Well on our way home on Saturday there were THOUSANDS of people smashed in the center of Zagreb and they were having a free concert in the main square! We heard a couple pieces and it was so cool! I thought they were from the states but then one of them started off by saying 'good evening zagreb!' in Croatian. I just thought, 'how cute he learned a phrase so he could say that to these people.' THEN he continued in Croatian and the second cellist. One is from Slovenia and the other is from Croatia. I have never seen Zagreb so packed and needless to say I was just a bit more excited than my Rugby companion. haha. I may or may not have freaked out a little. Here is the best picture I could get!

Well that is that for this week! I love and pray for you all!!!! 

Pozz,

Sestra Rhodes 

Warmin up, Speedin up! June 27th, 2016

Hej fam! 

It is POURING rain here in Zagreb...rather odd because the rest of the week was blazing hot. Summer has officially begun as well as the awkward missionary tan lines. 

However despite the heat, we had an awesome week. Per president's orders, all of the zone leaders and sister training leaders had to do 'blitz' exchanges with everyone in just over a week. So I went for just over a day to work in Karlovac again. They have a really beautiful river and we talked to some great people. I also introduced the sister I worked with to coconut ice cream King bars...so now the rest of her mission will be different. 

The morning before I left however, we had a lesson with Baka (the grandma.) We went over to her place to teach the plan of salvation. The best part was that her granddaughter the new convert was on the lesson and she was SO AWESOME! She explained things very clearly without us asking and talked about how she can really be ready for baptism and shared her own experiences...she even helped get things on tract when Baka would talk about random things or worry about the Burek (the lunch) that she put in the oven. My favorite part was to see how much she helped in the lesson and to hear how confident she was in what she was saying! So cool! 

The lunch was also fantastic...Burek is a traditional Bosnian (maybe turkish as well) breaded dish, stuffed with meat or potatoes or cheese, ect. that is everywhere here. The reason I tell you this is because late in the week Baka taught Sister Grant and us how to make it! It was a very very funny evening and there is no type of recipe involved...it all comes from the heart.

We also talked about her baptism and when that would be. Her family is going out of town at different times and then she is going to the sea later this summer. She wants her family to be there so they talked about it and decided on the date...August 13th. The Saturday before I leave. I did not even tell her when I leave so that was a little miracle! She and I are glad that I will be here. Then she will go to the sea the Sunday after she gets confirmed. Until then we agreed on lessons twice a week, so we will have plenty of time to teach her and make sure she understand everything! 

I already told this to mom but Sister Pratt sent this quote in our mission newsletter and I thought it was pretty fantastic: "If this world didn't suck, we would fall off!" Haha, so as hard as it may seem, those difficult things in life keep our feet grounded and teach us what we need to learn. I am trying to learn all I can and pic of the pace of the work, the whole mission is and already see miracles on a daily basis. 

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! 

xoxoxo

Sestra Rhodes 

Surprise Soup and Surprise Lesson - June 20th, 2016

Bok everybody! 

This week was really fantastic. We got some new missionaries in our district and had a great district meeting to kick it off. I never really talk about district meeting but they are great. There is a lot of support in numbers and after you have worked hard all week, it is great to get together and share success, build some more spiritual stamina for the week. Plus we had two birthdays in the district so the senior couples brought twix, snickers, and .....my favorite. .... BOUNTY ice cream bars. I am aaaaall about the coconut these days and I did not know that my favorite candy bar came in the form of ice cream. Score. 

I also share the Rhodes family tradition of 'birthday memories!' We have all served with Sister Pratt for a while and it was fun to have a little Rhodes family in the mix of the week. 

I forgot to tell something awesome that happened last week...and the week before. There is a new convert in the branch (who found the gospel online) and he is soooo great. However, his mom is really really sick. She just went into the hospital for the 7th time and before was just in a hospital bed in their home. Well she loves music and loves to sing. So all the young missionaries got together and went over to sing to her....one of the most priceless moments. She wept and her sweet husband just sat holding her hand and cried. So we decided to make it a weekly thing right after church. When we went over last Sunday, right as we all walked in the door...the waterworks started and she just kept saying, "Thank you for coming! Oh let God bless you, thank you for coming! You guys are angels...etc. etc." There is nothing better than making someone feel good. It was my favorite part of the week (aside from the baptism.) She is so sick and just laying in bed, but she still made jokes and sang along. Such a great example of a positive attitude. 

This week we couldn't get a hold of Baka to teach her a lesson, but she came to church and we had Sunday school all combined. (Usually we have a beginners, investigators and new converts class, seperate from the others.) Needless to say, talking about the reign of judges in the book of mormon was not exactly entreguing. Then she asked if they were going to ask her those types of question at her baptismal interview about Lamanites and Nephites...etc.So we put her fears at ease and for the third hour taught her the restoration and a member came in on the lesson. It was a last second thing but the member that came was absolutely perfect, it was not a coincidence that we asked her and not another. 

We set up a time for our lesson this week and will go for the baptismal date! She has definitely been guided through her family here and seems very solid. She also said she will teach us how to make Burek this week! Dreams do come true!!! 

I hope you all have a great week. Send pictures of yourself. That is my favorite. :) Love you all! 

Sestra Rhodes

Some very short, very fantastic people. 

Krštenje plesačice - June 13th, 2016

Pozdrav!!! 

She did it! The dancer got baptized. It was so fantastic. We had a lesson with her and her mom and Wednesday and finalized everything, we made programs, put together musical numbers, brought the clothes and towels and then she came. One of the coolest parts was that her brother who was baptized a couple months ago was the one who baptized her. I sat by her during the service and through the first talk she just cried, and she was slightly worried about the testimony at the end and what she was allowed to say and she did a great job! She told a cool experience about answer to prayer and it was wonderful.

Sestra Davis, Anja, me

The second coolest part is that her grandma drove back from Bosnia to come to the baptism (and woke up early to make Burek for it....sooo good.) She introduced herself to everyone as 'Baka'. Which means grandma, or just a general term for an old lady. She is so funny! That was the first time she had been to the church and she really felt the spirit. By the time she came back the following day, she announced to everyone that she had decided to be baptized. It has been sooo amazing to be in Zagreb long enough to see this family come back from inactivity, watch the kids get baptized, soon the Baka, and see them prepare for the temple. It has been a blessing to be a part of it! 

So that was a great end to the week. Other than that, the normal apartment to apartment, talking to people on the streets went down. :) It is also transfer week this week... very weird to be entering my last transfer. I will be spending it in Zagreb. surprise. ;) I love it here and the members and I am excited to work with Baka and teach her the gospel!! 

 As I am entering this last transfer I have been thinking a lot about change. Have I changed enough? Have I seen other people change because of the gospel? What do I still need to change? Well here is a great quote by Winston Churchill  "to improve is to change, to perfect is to change often." Our God works gloriously in the work of perfection. I am so so grateful that his goal for us is progress. I continue to learn that as serve that Heavenly Father gives us all we need, that we might change, become better and closer to Him. What an amazing plan He has for us. 

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! 

xoxoxo

Sestra Rhodes 

The Zagreb Bunch! - June 6th, 2016

Bok family! 

Greetings from the Zagreb bunch from the first church in Zagreb (an apartment) which is now the office. The very same building that (now) President Monson stood in to dedicate the land of Yugoslavia for the preaching of the gospel. Normally they do it outside, but since they had to do it indoors they threw open all the windows during the dedication. This is however only half the district. Here are the rest. 

A pretty great bunch!! And a pretty cool building right in the heart of Zagreb. 

This week was a good one. Like every other. Our dancer came back from England!! She and her mom told us aaaaall about it and she had her baptismal interview on Sunday. The baptism will be on Saturday followed by a branch palačinke (aka pancakes...aka crepes) activity. She has grown a lot I feel and is ready to take this step, but my biggest desire is for her to be strong in the church forever. As a missionary I did not expect to be this impatient. I want each individual to accept the gospel, accept it quickly, and have a testimony of steel. However it took me 20 (almost 21:) ) gradual years to learn all that I have and the learning never stops! I am so grateful for that, that God's goal for us is PROGRESS. Eternal progress. And that is my pray for Anja, that she will continue to progress, a lot. 

We have also taken over two investigators from the Elders. They are neighbors, two single older women and we always teach them together. One of them is a self referral and the other she just brought along. I have never met two people with so many questions in my whole life. They shoot out questions in our lessons like two fiery machine guns.  Soooo...we are currently trying to find a balance of teaching and them asking questions for 45 minutes. They are both very sincere however, which is obviously key. 

Another cool thing from this week: we had a district (aka Croatia) wide relief society meeting and I accompanied a really cute non member girl who sang. She and her mom came and they are SO AWESOWE. They do not live in our city, but they invited us to theirs! They are good friends if a member there and there is no way they did not feel the spirit in that meeting or during the song. High hopes for them.  She has a picture but will send t later. 

Overall a great week. This next week is transfer announcements. I am perfectly happy to stay in Zagreb. I love this place and the people and genuinely love Croatian. I thought my heart would forever be in Slovenia, but it grew!!! This place is so great and I can't wait to make the best out of the time I have left. 

Love you all! Have a fantastic week! 

Svako dobro, 

Sestra Rhodes