We found the closest thing to Costco that Bankaluka has to offer 

(i.e. bulk products for cheap). The huge size Milka bars were about 

2 dollars at the most. HEAVEN. Family, get ready to love me.

Attention! 

You may or may not be wondering why I haven't written a big letter in a million years; the truth is, I don't really have a genuine excuse for that. I get distracted a lot. By my mission.

The reason for this letter is to attempt to say something meaningful, seeing as this is basically my last email home before... I'm home. What a foreign concept. This would be a lot easier if I actually felt like I was leaving soon, but my heart is under the impression that this Thursday when transfers are announced, my name will be assigned to any of a number of BALKAN cities and next week I will do the normal thing and get a new companion and stuff. But I would be kidding myself if I submitted to that belief.

SO. In an effort to avoid pouring out the rampage of emotions that are churning through my soul (I will name just a few: excitement, depression, nervousness, severe apprehension, irrepressible joy, fear), I want to bear a firm testimony and then exit as peacefully as possible.

Ha ha.

I think one of the most succinct ways to express what I feel is found in the scriptures. My chosen passage comes from the Book of Mormon. It is Ether 12:4--

 4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

Sure and steadfast. This means trusting in the Lord. This means that when things are hard and the summer is blazing hot, you just keep on going. Or when the temptations are swirling and you want to forgo the rules for a bit of "fun" or because you need a "break", you turn yourself around and walk away. When you're in the moment, you really don't think you have the willpower (in Finnish, that is called sisu) to get your carnal and devilish self out of there, but I promise you, you will be able to succeed. God doesn't put us in situations so He can have a good giggle as He watches us struggle pitifully with something that we don't have the power to overcome; no, with every trial, there is a solution. There is the strength to go on. It just probably won't come from your own self. So where in the world do we find it? HINT: LOOK UP. 

I'll see you all eventually (some sooner, some later, some not till the afterlife). Be good.

Црква је истинита!

Сестра Вац

     I used that squatty toilet thing! I feel accomplished.

I said farewell to Elder Porter for the next 6 months at least :( 

He is from my MTC group and also happens to be hilarious.

Katarina has not written a post for her blog in awhile (must be pretty busy), so here are some excerpts from her last couple of letters to us:

Last Monday:

As far as Easter dinner goes, for lunch we had some pasta mixed with eggs, cooking cream, and Russian salad from the freezer that I made. It was actually really good. And dinner was a carrot and some Easter Milka chocolate, I think, because we were still full from lunch. Our senior couple left after church to take some members to the temple in Bern, Switzerland to do endowments (one of them for the first time! Hallelujah!), otherwise they would have fed us something nicer. But the temple is a great excuse! P.S. teaching temple prep in Serbian is something I never would have expected to end up doing, but it happened! Cool.

Oh yeah. Serbs celebrate Easter on May 1st this year, so it was just us and the Catholics celebrating. Actually, I wasn't even thinking to celebrate, and just do what we did for Christmas and celebrate it when the general population does. Then yesterday morning I realized... I won't actually be here for their Easter. But I'll celebrate with Sunny! Funny story: yesterday (Sunday) morning, I was ready for the day early (as is my habit on Sundays since we don't exercise), so I was reading the new Liahona. I had the Lamb of God on in the background (I listen to it more than anything else-- it is the best religious music ever), and I came to the last page, where there is an excerpt from a talk about the Resurrection. In the midst of reading it, I realized that the song "I am the Resurrection" had come on, and so I laughed and decided it was a sign from God that resurrection should be my theme of study and pondering for the day. Fast forward to halfway through personal study, I am immersed in all the scriptures I can find concerning resurrection, and it FINALLY hits me that today (yesterday) is EASTER! I had COMPLETELY forgotten! I cannot explain to you how hilarious and amazingly significant that revelation was. I guess Heavenly Father was trying to remind me all morning, but I was too dense to realize it. 

#Hallelujah ! Love you both.

March 21:

 I had a dream that I showed up at the airport and only you, dad, and Clayton were there to meet me, and you weren't even excited. And then you told me Jens "tested 125% positive for insanity" (direct quote from dream-you). And then we went home and I sat on Facebook all day. Needless to say, I don't really feel like coming home very much. Life is hard here, but it's a much easier kind of hard. Much less dramatic and worldly.

This week was a great one! I'm glad to be a missionary regardless of what happens, though. I have felt such a love for my mission recently, stronger than ever. 

We got to bear some serious testimony to a woman the other day whose husband recently died. It was not an experience I've gotten very many times on my mission where we're in a contact on the street and the Spirit testifies so strongly and the 3rd party listens so intently. At the end she said, "I wish that what you're telling me is true" and we said it is! And we read from the Book of Mormon and asked her to pray about it. We did all we could for her, and then left it up to her agency. She said she would do what she asked, but she couldn't meet with us at this point in her life. She's too busy. But we're praying for her! 

Just a short one this week because I haven't written in forever. 

Our hearts were broken last Wednesday when our investigator on date to be baptized last Saturday, the 27th, texted and said she wouldn't be joining our church. Her parents apparently reacted very strongly against her becoming Mormon, and she doesn't want to go against their will. We've done a lot of mourning and praying, trying to figure out why this happened. All I know is that Heavenly Father's love is real and He lets us choose what we want in life so that we can learn and grow. While I'm not ready to say that I'm grateful for this experience, we've learned a lot from it. I so hope and pray that she comes back. If anyone was ready to be baptized, it was she. 

We've seen a lot of blessings this week, too. People have been more open to our message. We work hard. We're still happy, even though for right now we're also a little bit sad. The church is still true and the Book is still blue! 

Love,

Sestra Watts

Hello! 

We're a week into our new transfer now, and I suppose it would be good to announce that I am training a new sister. She's fresh out of the States, and doing a real good job of making me realize what an old geezer I am. It's kind of embarrassing. But anyway, her name is Sister Barnes, and the only thing you need to know about her is she has curly hair... so, naturally, we get along GREAT. 

So yeah so I went up to Zagreb last week to get my beautiful new companion, and we've just been doing hardcore missionary work ever since. I am impressed with the drive and determination of Sister Barnes. It can't be easy to come out here and not be used to the language or culture. She's an all-star.

And then we stood in front of a mirror and realized how different we are in height.

The church is so true it's insane. 

Happy Late Valentine's Day! 

Sestra Watts

Rina didn't write a letter to the world this week, but here are parts of her letter to us.

Attention, parents! I have not been transferred to Slovenia. Seeing as this week is the first of a new transfer, travel plans to get all missionaries to their respective locations can get pretty creative. With that in mind, I only ended up in Slovenia for a couple of days to help people get to where they need to be. We got to Celje, Slovenia Sunday evening, had an amazing p-day in this town called Ptuj (great name, I know) where we saw some things celebrating the chasing away of winter. They have a huge parade (it was Sunday, we didn't see it) where they dress up like CRAZY and go insane. I got to try on one of the headdresses. It's very traditional. And then we had the three hours Monday night of missionary work in Slovenia, which was SO HARD. I think it was worse than being a new missionary. I was with Sister Yardley (from my MTC group, she's also a Croatian speaker) and then a Slovene missionary Sister Redding. Sis Redding barely taught us a few opening phrases in Slovene before we were out the door talking to people. The languages are similar, but they're not THAT similar. Especially the shorter, common phrases that you have to use. It was the most intriguing thing because we understood maybe half of what they were saying (I'm not sure how we understood because I don't remember any specific words, it just kind of made sense-- WEIRD) but we had absolutely NO idea of how to respond, so did our best and then turned to Sis Redding and she'd take over till the end. It was sooooo fun. And also I have a huge appreciation for how far I've come in this language. Crossing the border back to Croatia was the biggest relief. I can communicate here!

Okay. Now for the big news: I'M TRAINING! Finally! My last chance! We have two Serbo-Croat-speaking sisters coming in, and I get one of them! Sister Yardley has the other one. I'm staying in Banja Luka (it'll be my longest area-- 6 months by the end of the transfer) and am also still a Sister Training Leader. That is what MY trainer did when she trained ME, so I think that's sweet. President told me like a month ago I'd be training, but he pretty much swore me to secrecy. I'm so excited! As I type I am sitting in the mission office in Zagreb, and the missionaries' plane will land any minute and then they will come to meet us! I couldn't be more excited. I'm a little nervous, but I know I won't ruin her. 

Our investigator is still amazingly on target for baptism. She came to church on Sunday and President Grant was visiting, and he thinks she's in for sure. She loved church. And TWO of our members, having heard last week that she was on date, felt inspired (without conversing with each other beforehand) to bear amazing testimonies about baptism and their own conversion. I cried because it was so wonderful to see the members get excited. I've never experienced that before. Another amazing thing is that one of those members, has recently been reactivated, and now wants to receive her endowments in the temple in the spring. President Grant asked us sisters to teach her temple prep, and she's so excited, and we're so excited too! ALSO, Sister Varty (the senior sis) bore her testimony in Serbian because on Saturday for our hour of language instruction with them we taught how to bear testimony. We mostly just gave them phrases to say (kind of rote), but in recent weeks we've also been doing a lot of grammar, so imagine my surprise when Sis Varty gets up and bears a completely UNIQUE testimony with sentences that she had made up entirely on her own, correct grammar and all. I also cried at that. The members LOVED it.They need to see that the missionaries try.

Okay. Sorry if I'm giving you a lot of information at once, but one last thing. Literally 10 minutes ago I was talking to Sister Halling, a senior office sister, and she saw the picture of mummi you sent me and asked who she was. I told her about her, and her being from Finland, so she mentioned the recent area authority visit from a Finn (whom I did not meet). Then she told me that her husband's cousin actually baptized that area authority about 40 years ago! So I said what years? And she said '75-77. His name is Dean Halling. Isn't that when Pappa served as president?? I told her about that too. I don't know. That's pretty cool, huh?

Can you believe I've been in three countries in the last two weeks? #smallmissionlife

Two weeks ago was MLC in my favorite place, Zagreb. We watched the coolest live broadcast from Salt Lake City which was streamed to every single missionary in the world. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, that's for sure, to receive specific training directly from living prophets and apostles. I may have cried a little bit. 

Then last week we got surprised with the go-ahead from President to take a lovely little trip down to southern Serbia (where missionaries and Mormons do not exist) to do some hardcore family history work for Sister Vukorepa (if you didn't already guess, that name definitely originates in the Balkans) for a day or two. She's got a ton of ancestors from this little village right outside of Niš, Serbia, so we got to spend some time in this archive in Niš looking at old records, searching for her family names. You can't find this stuff on the internet. Her family tree on familysearch.org is thriving now. And then we actually went to the aforementioned village and had this HUGE dinner with Sister Vukorepa's cousins! I've never eaten so much meat and bread in my life. Worth it!

We also passed through Belgrade on the way down, and I got to see some of my favorite people while in town. That big, old, beautiful city still holds a place in my heart. Some of my fondest memories took place there.

You're probably wondering how we managed to get any work done here in Banja Luka the last couple weeks. Do not worry, though, we still had plenty of time to teach and preach on the streets of Bosnia. We also put an investigator on date for baptism for February 27th :) we're really excited for that.

Phrase of the day:

Na vrh brda vrba mrda (roll your "r"s and make your "h"s like a cat's hiss. Also, "a" is pronounced "au" like "authentic") -- Something like, "On the top of a hill, a willow sways." It's a tongue twister.

God be with you!

Sestra Watts

P.S. Happy Black History month! 

Hi everyone.

Last Thursday we got to watch this broadcast from Salt Lake! Every single missionary in the world got to watch it live (except the ones for whom it was too late at night-- they had to wait till morning). We got to see Elder Oaks, Bednar, and Andersen speak, as well as a few members of the 70 and other auxiliaries. It was probably the most inspirational thing I've experienced in a while. I am so thankful to be a missionary. I know that this is the Lord's work. It's deathly hard sometimes, but that's just how good things are. And, as Dumbledore says, "what is easy is not always right." What a genius.

I also fainted on Saturday, for maybe the second time in my life! I hit my funny bone really hard during personal study (long story, don't ask), and it got to hurting real bad that I just thought "I'm going to put my head down to deal with the pain for a bit" and what felt like an hour later I was waking up like in the movies when the camera is from the person's perspective and it's all blurry and confusing at first and you don't know where you are. I then promptly told Sister Vukorepa what had happened. She said I was only down for about two seconds though. And also that I apparently gave her this 5-7 second long blank stare before I went down that I don't remember at all. She said it looked like my spirit left my body almost. No one home when she looked into my eyes. I think that's probably what the dementor's kiss is like. How cool is that?

Have a great week!

 I finally finished reading the grammar book they gave us at the MTC.

The sick shirt that Sister Vukorepa got me for Christmas! It's the famous Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic.

I think it's been two weeks since I've written a general email, which means that I haven't even told you all about Christmas yet! That was January 7th. We got to go to a Serbian Orthodox liturgy at midnight on Christmas Eve. It was fascinating. Completely and wildly different from your average LDS sacrament meeting. It was basically a huge prayer put to song. We were exhausted because it was the middle of the night and we're missionaries, but it was definitely worth it. I feel like I know these people a little better now since I am more familiar with their traditions.

Then Saturday the 9th was the anniversary of the Republic of Srpska! They celebrate it almost exactly the way we celebrate the 4th of July. Fireworks, cookouts, parades, helicopters, alcohol-- you name it, we saw it. And we completely were not expecting it. We were the only city in the mission that was affected by it, too, since there are no other missionaries serving in the boundaries of the Serbian Republic (it's a part of Bosnia). It was crazy and also kind of awesome.

The 13th was our Zone Conference, which took place here in Banja Luka. All the Bosnian missionaries came in, and we had a great time talking a LOT about repentance and God's Plan of Salvation. We've been focusing a lot on repentance this year already as a mission. It's amazing to me how much my understanding of it has deepened in the last few weeks. You guys! Repentance is not punishment -- it is how we become free from punishment. We all sin. Sorry but that's just how it is. We suffer. We do or say things we regret. The cool thing about repentance is that it means that Christ paid a price wherein he took upon himself all --ALL-- our sins. When we repent, we confess our sins to our Father in Heaven (not a paid minister) and we strive to change our behavior so that we don't have to go through that guilt process again. Repentance means change. It means turning to God and letting ourselves be cleansed. It means becoming better (a.k.a. happier). 

And then I went on this beautiful exchange to Sarajevo, where I served with a new missionary Sister Johnston for a few days. She's an amazing missionary and already owns this language. And Sarajevo is the coolest city. There are the cutest stray dogs absolutely everywhere! I don't know why my friend Will would be reading this, but if he is, I often thought about the fact that he took home one of those little guys a while back. Good times. 

I think that's gonna be it from me today. Don't forget to read your scriptures! Happy New Year.

 The view on the drive from BL to Sarajevo.

Sister Johnston and I on the top of a very high tower (it was crazy windy),

I guess it's a good thing we decided this year to celebrate Christmas according to the Julian calendar (Jan. 7) because now our Christmas will actually be white! December 25th passed warm and sunny, but this past Sunday real winter began. It snowed all night and all day and actually just started back up again as I type on Monday afternoon. 

Now, I'm not yet an expert in the metric system, but if I had to wager an educated guess, I'd say the depth of snow is approximately 1,000,000 centimeters, give or take. But really, though, we got about 8 inches, I'd say. It made walking to church really fun. I'm used to Minnesota and it's immediate snow plow action on streets and sidewalks, whereas here, you kind of have to forge your own path for the first day. It was pretty fun. We still had 4 members come to church, too! It was a really good day. Everyone in the building bore their testimony during sacrament meeting! I was just so happy the whole meeting, too, and I really don't know why. I felt so much love for everyone. One of the best set of church meetings I've ever attended. 

Another fun thing: on Saturday afternoon, right before all the crazy weather started, Sister Vukorepa and I had the brilliant idea to eat lunch on this boat restaurant, which I have been dying to do since I got here 3 months ago. It was pretty fancy (remember, the price for fancy here is not nearly as much as in America), and had a great view of the river and the local fortress. 

The downside of things is that this weather has made it so our trip up to Zagreb scheduled for tomorrow for Mission Leadership Council has been postponed another two and a half weeks! I don't know that I can wait that long! We're thinking of just driving up to Zagreb anyway and showing up at President's doorstep. Wouldn't that be an uncomfortable situation.

So, I hope you all had a lovely new year! Have fun going back to work and school and stuff!

Love,

Sestra Watts

    Sister Durfee and I rejoicing in our recent reunion.

How was everyone's Christmas? Good. 

I'll start at the beginning of the week. We did an exchange with the sisters in Tuzla! Sister Vukorepa left me and I stayed in Banja Luka with.... Sister Durfee! Remember her? My beautiful, tall companion from Zagreb? Yep that's her. Oh, how I love small missions. You get to see your friends all the time!

Here's an interesting thing that I'm not entirely sure is true, but it's my current theory: people in the Balkans respond better to tall people. I feel like in America, if two ladies over 5'11 were to stop you on the street, you'd either run and hide or you'd think you'd walked onto a beach volleyball court. But here, they just eat it up. That might be because the females are taller here (but the men typically aren't -- what's up with that?). In any case, we had a lot of fun! And we talked to some groovy people. 

Next: I'm still getting excited for Christmas! It was fun to Skype our families on Friday the 25th, but the rest of our festivities will not take place until January 7th. That means I'm still listening to Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas CDs and the halls are still decked. How neat is that?

Yesterday, Sunday, we put on a Christmas program for church service. Our district sang "Away in a Manger" (in the language, of course), other people sang, we read the Nativity, all that awesome stuff. And, of course, we invited everyone and their dog to come. The cool thing is, a ton of people really did come! I think we had more non-members there than members. Probably 50-50 (which, okay, isn't that hard if you only have 5 active members in the whole county). But we had a bunch of English class students and investigators there who loved it, and some more friends joined us for the luncheon that we put on afterward. One of our students makes desserts for a living, and she knows that cheesecake is in my heart (it's really rare here, and when they do make it it is NOT the same), so she showed up with a PHILADELPHIA style cheese cake. #Heaven.

It was a really good day. I love singing. I appreciate that a lot more now that I'm out here. There's nothing that gets me in the gospel mood more than singing a good hymn. Hallelujah!

Happy New Year!

We also ate at the FANCIEST restaurant ever (at which I paid about $13 for a meal
and dessert) on Friday. Definitely upscale. That red ball was a cheesecake.

Guess what? Eastern Orthodox people don't celebrate their Christmas until January 7th! So, while I could say Merry Christmas, I'm going to wait a titch bit. We as missionaries in cities where Orthodoxy is the primary faith have the choice as to when we will celebrate Christmas this year. My district chose to do it on the 7th. I'm way excited to see what they do here in Banja Luka. The city is already beautifully decorated with lights and little shops. And, in the end, it doesn't really matter when we celebrate, as long as we make sure to take the time to gather as a family (if that's an option) and commemorate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

So, we had our zone conference in Zagreb last Thursday and Friday. We went caroling in downtown Zagreb! At the conference (it was the Bosnia and Slovenia zones combined) we got split into groups and each group had a poster that said #SpasiteljSeRodi (#ASaviorIsBorn) and our Christmas website --bozic.mormon.org-- and we scattered and sang Christmas carols in Croatian, and people were videotaping us and taking pictures, and it was awesome! I don't think the church has ever gotten this much attention in these countries. People seemed to really like it. I liked it. And we got to run around a little bit and see the city (it's my favorite city EVER, so that was awesome) all decked out for Christmas. We had good meetings at the mission home too and also did a talent show! My district sang a rendition of "The Coventry Carol" and "What Child is This" that worked out pretty nicely.

I love this mission so much. I love how personal it is. We're a pretty small mission, so you really get to know and love everyone, missionaries and members. It's kind of like how we build our church buildings. I have this theory that religions model their churches after their views on God. Some religions build huge, breathtakingly ornate structures that almost demand silence and respect when you enter their doors. In my mind, they represent God as a beautiful, unreachable Being whom we both love and fear. Other faiths do not have physical churches, but rather consider religion to reside solely in the heart. This to me is a depiction of God not of substance, but rather as an idea that is both everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, our buildings are not immense and ornate, but they are still clean, real, and holy. God is over all, but He is our friend. He is perfect, and while we are not, we can still have a personal relationship with Him. We have divine potential. We have individual worth. But along with our inner worship of our Heavenly Father, we are part of something bigger and better. Our friends and family worship with us in these sacred buildings and provide support, love, and encouragement as we try to live our faith the best we can. I am so thankful for that.

I love you all, and hope you have a wonderful Christmas! Tell someone you love them.

Love,

Сестра Ватс

Okay, good people! Transfers were posted last Thursday. The jig is up! I found out where the Lord wants me for the next 9 weeks. Guess where: here in Banja Luka still! No surprise there. I will, however, again be a Sister Training Leader, hence the "fire pot" comment coined by our dear President Grant.

My new companion will be Sister Vukorepa. I know her pretty well, and she seems to be one groovy sister. She finishes in 9 weeks, too, so it looks like this will be my second time shipping off a home-bound sister missionary. I said a tragic goodbye to Sister Marlow this morning (she will be missed), and now I am spending the day with Sister Lee from Sarajevo until Sister Vukorepa arrives in BL tomorrow morning. Yay! We have fun. 

In other news, we had three investigators at church yesterday, and while the meeting could have gone a LOT smoother, it was cool to hear as one of them talked about how much of a miracle it was that he'd met our elders. Apparently he had been really depressed one day when he ran into them on the street, and they helped him to realize that maybe God really was looking out for him. It was pretty cool.

I know there are other interesting things that happened to us this week, but sometimes when I sit in front of the computer to write them down, my brain stops working. Just goes to show that too much technology fries your brain. Remember that, kids!

Alright, I'm done. I hope your week is spectacular.

It's almost Christmas!

Sestra Watts

We celebrated Thanksgiving with our Canadian senior couple (bless their hearts), so I had to pay a little tribute.

It was just another normal week in the ANM, with such adventures as Thanksgiving, accidentally finding an ex-suitor of Sister Marlow's onmormon.org, prosthetics, eating district lunch at a grocery store cafeteria, and having 4 wonderful investigators come to church on Sunday, where Sister Marlow and I gave talks. 

Instead of going into all that, however, this week I want to focus on a really important event in history; that is, the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. And, instead of elaborating with my own words, I am going to defer to the internet on this one. 

The Church released some amazing things yesterday in relation to Christmas and what it means for us. I hope you find a few minutes to take a look and watch the videos:

English:

christmas.mormon.org

Croatian:

bozic.mormon.org

It's the Christmas season! Enjoy it.

Sestra Watts

Sister Marlow and I preparing to walk 40 minutes holding our Thanksgiving pies in plastic bags.

Zdravo!

This week I was on an exchange. It feels like forever since I've been on one of those. I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be with the famed Sister Peterson, who happened to come out at the same time as me. We finally had the chance to get to know each other this week, though, since she was in the other Croatian-speaking district in the MTC, and we did not mix with that district (I'm kidding; we just had a bit of a rivalry is all). She is a wonderful soul.

So, because we had an exchange with the sisters in Tuzla, we drove and met them halfway in a town called Doboj at the beginning and end of the exchange. Now, on the way to Doboj to pick up Sister Peterson, Sister Marlow and I spotted a turkey farm. This is significant because it is almost impossible to find whole turkeys in the Balkans. We joked about buying a turkey and saving it until Thanksgiving so we could do the holiday the right way. Then, when the exchange came to a close and Sister Marlow and I were once again reunited, we were feeling pretty adventurous (or stir-crazy on account of being 4 hours in a car), so when the sign for turkeys rolled around the corner, we pulled over and got out of the car. After making a quick phone call to our senior couple to get permission to buy a turkey for our district's Thanksgiving celebration, we were promptly greeted by an elderly lady whose hands indicated that she had just come from doing something, don't ask me what, that your typical privileged American would probably consider beneath them. Man, I love these people. Anyway, we relayed to the woman our desperate need for a turkey, and she called for a man to come help us. The man then told us that the smallest turkey he could give us was 9 or 10 kilograms. 

Now, you have to remember that this story is about two helpless, patriotic, young girls who simply wanted to pay tribute to the stars & stripes with a good ol' Turkey Day turkey. So when the helpful gentleman offered us a plucked and cleaned 20 pound fowl, we accepted before we knew to what we were agreeing. We were later informed by our beloved Sister Varty that 20 pounds of meat is adequate to feed about 40 average humans. At that point, however, there was nothing we could do, as the beast had already been carried (or maybe I should say forklifted) into the trunk of the car, and the money transaction completed. Unapologetic, we arrived home to tackle our next obstacle: fitting our new friend into the freezer. Thank goodness ours is larger than that of the average Bosnian resident, or it would have been a real struggle. Now, we just need to wait patiently and refrain from buying too much ice cream since we're tight on storage spacet. It was a successful day!

I've enclosed a picture of me and Sister Marlow at the turkey farm. There were... a lot of live turkeys there. You only see a few. It was terrifying.

The church is good and true! Missions are a lot of fun in every way! 

Sve najbolje,

Sestra Watts

The sunset over the Vrbas river in Banja Luka on Sunday night.

This is some artwork in Banja Luka. There are so many walls here with HUGE murals on them.
 This one's really small, and really pretty compared to the rest. Some ten story apartment buildings have a whole
 side wall dedicated to the weirdest paintings. I'll get pictures of those later. The poem says
 "Spiders in the corners, don't worry. I won't sweep you."

Attention, everyone! I went to Sarajevo on Saturdayy! The most historically awesome town around. We had zone conference there, which made it so we didn't get too much time to look around, but afterwards Sister Marlow and I got permission to go out on the town for an hour as dinner break before we started the 4 hour drive home. It's a gorgeous city. You're just going to have to take my word for it though because both of us completely forgot to take pictures. All I have from that day is of the two of us at McDonalds for breakfast (breakfast included chicken nuggets and french fries-- desperate times...). But trust me, it was amazing there! We drank out of this sketchy fountain downtown because legend has it if you drink from there, you will one day return to Sarajevo. I am not sick yet, so I think it was okay water. They also were selling so many beautiful Muslim scarves and rugs and a million other cool things. We also had some of the best burek in the country. I love Bosnia a lot. Oh, and the conference was good too :)

Another highlight of the week is that one of our investigators told us she wants to get baptized once she confirms that this church is true! We've been teaching her for a few weeks, and she loves the church a lot. She was even friends with Kresimir Cosic, the first member in the former Yugoslavia. We're really excited because she will obviously come to know it's true if she's sincere-- and she is! That's a big blessing.

Okay. You all stay strong and keep believing.

Sestra Watts

We did a humanitarian project for the refugees on Saturday with some members. This is me with soap.

Hi everyone! Did you know that the internet is one of the Church's best proselyting tools? People are reading about the Mormons all day everyday on any number of websites and blogs, and some of them are actually finding accurate information! The Church has spent a lot of time trying to correct the rampant hordes of false information that is so prevalent on the world wide web. They are doing such a good job, too. I really feel strongly about the admonition to not put your trust in amateur bloggers and wikipedia articles. That being said, I know that my letters get posted on a blog every week. That means that you probably shouldn't trust me; however, it DOES mean that I get to refer you to beautiful, official websites about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that have so much more validity than I do. Just a few examples are:

mormon.org

lds.org

mormonchannel.org

crkva-isusa-hrista.rs

And so much more! Please visit them and see what there is to be seen that is true and good in this world! I'm sorry if this sounds like a commercial, but I only write things that I care about in these letters. The Church is true! 

My week was a fantastic one. If you hadn't already guessed, some of it involved witnessing a very good presentation on flooding the earth with wholesome technology. Internet devices have so much capacity to do good things, but also the raging tendency to tempt people with so many terrible things. Resist the temptation! Stick it to the man! Watch a Mormon Message, or a Ted talk, or do family history work or something. Keep your life clean and free of internet baggage. You don't need that bringing you down. Little phone games are as pointless as a dewlap on a moose's neck. Don't give in!

Okay. That's my rant for today. Missions are the best! Superlative intended!

Lijepi pozdrav,

Sestra Watts

Hello everyone! 

The only thing I can remember about last week was the fact that we probably tracted more than I ever have before in a week. It was awesome. Friday was an interesting day. All we had planned for the day was to go out and find people to teach. It was really hard to get out the door, but we prayed a lot and went out there anyway. The first several hours were pretty bleak and by dinner time, we were not looking forward to going back outside. But we prayed again and set off to knock on some doors in search of the prepared. It was probably the one of the funnest/funniest nights I've had in a loooong time. First of all, we met a really cool couple that were slightly older with a perturbed teenage granddaughter that let us in to teach them. I don't think they'll get baptized, but the old man was hilarious and gave me marriage advice (he told me to NEVER marry someone shorter than me, or else I'll have to kiss his forehead goodnight) and really liked the Book of Mormon. So you never know.

Then we knocked on the this one door, and the woman took a pretty long time to answer. When she finally did, all we saw was a wet, shampoo-lathered head poke around the door, and we already knew we were in for a fun experience. The head in question turned out to be a really nice woman who would probably have loved to talk to us, had she not been momentarily occupied. So Sister Marlow handed her our card, and she took it with a sopping arm that appeared from behind the door. It could have been a lot more scarring of an experience; nevertheless, I'd still have to rate it on the awkward level of your average colonoscopy. We said our goodbyes and hurried on to the next door.

Our third interesting encounter was actually a little miracle. It was a young man who told us that he'd actually just barely run into the elders down in Podgorica, Montenegro about 3 days prior, and had received a Book of Mormon from them! We told him those people were our friends (they're in our same mission), and asked if he was interested to learn more. Even though he wasn't, he promised he would read the whole book. We're hoping he realizes how true it is! 

Our final tender mercy for the night was accidentally ringing the doorbell of one of our English class students! She was so excited to see us, and let us in for some kolač (little cake treats). She's actually 7th Day Adventist, so it was cool to talk to her a little bit about living in a predominantly orthodox society. 

The Lord hears your prayers, and He answers them, if not in the way you'd expect! I know that more than ever before. I also know that He has a really good sense of humor. 

I hope you all have a great week!