I have finally gotten the ability to send pictures, so I'll just do a few snapshots from the last few months.

 These are my favorite people, the Raičević family.They are always all talking at once and they are the funniest people ever! I call Sister Raicevic my Serbian mother, but she could never replace you, mom!

 Me and Sister Derenthal on the exchange, 

and me with my American food from one of our embassy families!

 They got us taquitos!!

ATTENTION: I am serving in Banja Luka, Bosnia (technically Republic of Serbia, but Bosnia) as of tomorrow,Oct. 6. I'm torn apart to be leaving Belgrade, but the Lord has something in mind for me in another land, I suppose. I'll be with the magnificent Sister Marlow, who finishes her mission in 9 weeks! aka I will be her last companion. Hopefully. You never know. I'm really excited to see new things and meet new people (except let's be real, I meet new people every day anyway regardless of where I am) and be a missionary still. I love being a missionary. It's really hard. But it's better than anything else I could be!

My last week in Serbia was a delight. Sister Derenthal and I were on an exchange together (see Karlovac, Transfer 2)! We still love each other a lot and got to catch up on 6 months of mission, and we've both grown a lot. I love her and am so happy for the stellar missionary she is!

Also, what about General Conference?? I think that every time I find more and more excitement in watching our inspired leaders speak the words of the Lord to us. I found so many things I need to work on, and instead of being completely overwhelmed, I am grateful for the opportunity to improve myself and be more what my Heavenly Father wants me to be. He knows best and He loves me!

I'll try to keep you all more posted in the following weeks. We've had some busy p-days these past couple transfers :D

I love the gospel. I am grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. I am overwhelmed at the thought that He pleads for me with the Father, and that He wants so badly for me to return to live in His presence forever. I love the fact that I can share this message of hope with everyone I meet. The church is true!

С љубављу,

Сестра Вац

Hello!

First off, I'm sincerely sorry that I don't have the capacity to attach pictures to my emails today, because I would love for you all to see what Sister Berrett and I did today:

For the last few weeks it has been continually impressed upon the minds of Sister Berrett and I that we are in desperate need of haircuts. Today we finally succumbed to the impression and, as a result, I got a haircut after ten months of avoiding the scissor. What made this even so fantastic, however, was that we were accompanied by our favorite member/Serbian mother, Sister Raicevic. It's a known fact that anything done with Sister Raicevic turns into a party. So we got the full treatment, with shampoos, cuts, blowdries, and a whole lot of styling. You will see pictures later. The cool thing about Serbia is that there is a hair salon on every corner and the average price of a haircut is about 4 to 5 American dollars. And they are not bad cuts, either. So we treated ourselves and had the time of our lives. Don't worry though, I only got a trim.

Also, one of our investigators agreed to get baptized! I told you all about him last week, I think, the one who lives really far away. He is the most spiritually prepared person I've met here. He teaches himself more than we teach him. It's been a really cool experience to teach him, albeit over the phone. Hopefully (fingers crossed) missionaries will be down there to meet him this week, and then things will really get moving!

We find out about transfers on Thursday, and then everybody moves starting next Monday. The last week of the transfer is always chaotic. We'll see what happens! I've already been in Belgrade 4 months (two transfers), which is the typically amount a missionary stays in a city here. I could get the boot! Stay tuned.

Read your scriptures!

I am so sorry that it's been a while since I've written! I am not even going to try to summarize everything that's happened to me in the past few weeks, nor will I probably even hit all the highlights. 

First of all, if you love me, you will go to crkva-isusa-hrista.rs and make it the homepage of your web browser. Yes, I know it is in Serbian. We are trying to get the good name of the church out there in these countries because our web presence is not so redeeming and mostly false. Just a suggestion.

Okay... let's see. We have been teaching this really, really cool man who is actually like 3 hours from Beograd and we teach over the phone. We didn't really ask for it, he found us and asked if he could get baptized. So we'll see where that goes. He is so, incredibly sincere. And not too far from Sofia, Bulgaria, so he could go to church there.

We're also teaching the coolest lady who is a pilates instructor up the street. She's awesome and when we contacted her on the street she told us it must be God's will that she learn from us because she normally never, ever walks down that street but just felt like she should that night. Cool stuff! The church is true.

We've celebrated 3 birthdays in the past two-ish weeks (mine, Sister Berrett's, and our Serbian mom Sister Raicevic's) which has involved a lot of home-cooked Serbian specialties from Sister Raicevic. I had lost some weight at the beginning of the transfer but now I have probably gained it all back. Life is good!

We had a cool zone conference last week... I don't really know what else to say about that. But it was really, really cool.

I noticed something cool in the Bible the other day. John 11:39 says that when Jesus was raising Lazarus from the dead, He commanded those who were there to move the stone from the place of Lazarus' burial. Isn't it interesting that when He was about to raise the dead He did not simply exert His power to move the stone without asking others to do so? This shows me that, although God is a god of miracles, He also requires us to put in some effort to do what we can first. He will not do anything that is unnecessary. We must first trust in Him and be His tool by doing what we can to help others (aka removing that stone) and then He will step in and do the real miracle.

Have a wonderful week.

Sestra Watts

Dear wonderful, amazing parents,

We had an amazing week this week, Sister Berrett and I. We started teaching a man named Goran who actually lives in Pirot, which is southern Serbia, 4 hours away by bus, but he found us online and referred himself, so we're doing over the phone lessons! He is an hour away from a city called Nis, which has a few members in it who watch our Beograd sacrament meeting via broadcast and bless the sacrament themselves, so we're going to try to get him down there for church. He is honestly the most sincere investigator I've ever known. On our first phone call he asked what he needs to do to get baptized, and yesterday he told us all these times when he felt the Spirit (i.e. at our church in Sofia, Bulgaria, or when he read about us online) and RECOGNIZED it! He is so cool. We are praying that the Lord clears a way for him to get baptized and attend church regularly. We have been very open with him from the start by letting him know that it will be hard because he needs to commit to coming to church. He's willing! I'll update you on that.

We ALSO met this really cool woman named Gordana who agreed to meet with us on Saturday. We invited our member Sister Raicevic to come on the lesson, but she didn't get there till we had already finished! It was the best lesson though. Gordana agreed to keep on taking the lessons, too! And she invited us to her pilates class. We might not be able to resist.

So yeah, we're pretty happy. I was happy when we weren't teaching people, too, for the most part (it was an acquired feeling), but life is just so much better when people actually want to hear what you have to say. Thank you for your prayers, and I love you both so much. 

I promise I read both of your emails and printed them off so I could fully appreciate them. SO cool mom got to go to MN. Weird about the Torontos. Weird. Now we have to go celebrate Sister Berrett's birthday (which is tomorrow) by stuffing our faces at the Raicevic's house. Of course. 

P.S. I am so sorry I haven't been sending pictures this transfer. The internet place we go to and the computer at the church don't let me upload pictures! Ugh. I want you guys to see the Raicevic family so bad. They are the best.

LOVE YOU,

Vasa cerka

I am going to be a little bit coarse here and start out with the announcement that a middle aged crazy man almost relieved his "waters" all over Sister Berrett the other day. We were talking to this woman on the street, and all of the sudden this man walks between us and starts... yeah. Long story short I whisked Sister Berrett right out of that situation (the other woman had just told us she wasn't interested anyway) and let's hope the man was very drunk and very ashamed of himself. Good times.

The weather was an absolute delight this past week, with mid 60s temps in midday, and delicious rainfall after dinner and all throughout the night basically every single day. We pretty much ran to get out the door every day and soak in the cool before the 90 degree weather comes back as forecast for this week. We talked to a lot of really cool people. There was this one small family that we talked to for a really long time, and I really thought they had a lot of potential, but then it turns out they're from a village 200 km away and we don't have the church out there. We gave them information though, and who knows, one day they might be our first baptisms in that small town of southern Serbia --you know, when the Mormons take over the world and everyone starts converting :) Get ready, nonbelievers! It's hard to resist the true church.

I was also on the B.E.S.T. exchange with my MTC companion Sister Washburn last week! I can't even TELL you how much both of us have grown since those first 9 weeks of our mission. Her -- and hopefully my-- Serbian has skyrocketed in the last several months. It was the most surreal experience to be together again, but this time doing real missionary work in real, live Serbia. Unforgettable. I love that woman.

Alright, I think that's it from me. Live it up out there. Life is good, the church is true (promise!), your family is essential to your happiness, and you are more loved than you think.

Zbogom!

Dobar dan!

I'm going to start this one off with a fun little thing that happened this week that I probably think is a lot funnier than Sister Berrett does.

Background: We buy bottled water here. It's just a precaution, and it barely makes a dent in our budget because you can buy a big old 6 liter thing of water for about 80 cents and that will last us about 2 days. Typically we buy a few of those on pday and they last us the week.

This week, we happened to be running out of water on Saturday, and seeing as we couldn't purchase water on Sunday and we definitely wouldn't make it without, we ran to the shop up the street and quick grabbed a jug that wasn't our normal brand, but we were in a hurry so we took it. Come Sunday morning, I open up the bottle and start pouring myself a glass of what we THOUGHT was nice, NON-carbonated water--- then I saw the bubbles. Turns out, we had accidentally bought carbonated water. I'm okay with that since I was blessed to acquire a taste for the stuff; however, Sister Berrett absolutely LOATHES it. So poor her had to drink milk all day in the heat and fill up her tiny bottle at the church whenever she had the chance. The end.

Friday was the best zone conference I've ever had. I probably say that every time we have a zone conference, but I'm SERIOUS this time. Top 2 highlights: at the end of the meeting, President opened the time up for us to share our testimonies. The Spirit was so strong strong in that room as both people I knew well and some I barely knew got up and shared what they believe and what brings them hope. Then at the very end, we sang a song from the LDS Children's Songbook simply entitled, "Baptism." We had to sing it twice because some of us (I won't mention names...) were crying too hard to get through it the first time (Note: it is a tendency for some people to cry when they feel the Holy Spirit very strongly; it's a joyful cry, not a sad one, like seeing a baby born or something). It was a very sweet moment.

The other day we met the best couple while we were in a park. We talked to them about prophets and the Book of Mormon and they basically accepted everything. They are the most hipster Serbs I've ever met, too, which I absolutely loved. Plus, the woman had curly blond hair, so I couldn't NOT love them. I am excited for them and hope we get to teach them more!

Okay that's enough of me. You all keep living your lives.

Ooh! Let's get a fraza dana up in here today:

Haos (house [but the h is harsh sounding, don't know how to describe it]) -- Literally, "chaos," but the kids use it fairly often as a kind of filler type word, like we say "crazy" or when somebody says/does something cool/legitimately crazy.

Bye!

Sestra Watts

And in her email to mom in response to the arrival of our Serbian exchange student:

Wow, you guys look like you're already having a blast with Suncica. Good! She's the coolest. Tell her I say hi too. But don't let her teach you any Serbian. I want to come home and talk to her and have you guys not know a thing we're saying. 

Okay, this title seems pretty intense, but it's just that with every companion I have, we eat completely different things. With Sister Kawai, it was a lot of rice. Sister Berrett and I are now in the process of figuring out what our go-to will be when it comes to lunch and dinner breaks, so stay tuned for any updates.

Hey! I am now with my new, beautiful companion, Sister Berrett. She is fresh out of Rijeka, Croatia, and ready to tear up Belgrade with her love of missionary work and all things gospel. I am really excited about this transfer, and you all can expect at least a few baptisms to come from these next two months.

This past week was another Mission Leader Council, and we focused a lot on finding faith in our goals to find people ready to accept the gospel and enter the waters of baptism. We talked a lot about how we go about developing faith in our ability to succeed as part of that. One of the things that I decided I want is to hear more stories from others who have served missions or participated in missionary work.

That being said, will anyone reading this who has served a mission/ been a member missionary in any way send me a story of success, or when you've seen the promises of the Lord fulfilled in your life? Thank you. Send them directly to me at katarina.watts@myldsmail.net

I want you all to know of my love for Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. After everything else in the world falls apart, they will be there with open arms to welcome us into their rest.

Have a wonderful week.

(And here portions of a couple of emails from the past few weeks when she only had time to write to her parents)

Aug. 3

Just so you know, I'm in Zagreb right now (naturally) and I potentially don't have a lot of time to email (of course).

We found out about transfers last week, and I am thankfully staying in Belgrade. My new companion is Sister Berrett! We're already friends because I saw her at MLC a lot, but I don't know her very well. From what I hear though she is an excellent missionary and she works hard and talks to everyone. I am really excited to serve with her. Sister Kawai got sent off to Zadar again. I'm in Zagreb as part of the transfer travels, I actually drove up here with Sister Chauncey, the sister from my district who's going home TOMORROW. We've been together since last night (Sunday), and it has been really cool to talk to her about her mission and everything that she has learned. I was afraid that all her talking would get me thinking about going home, but she's actually inspired me to work harder while I'm here instead. But yeah we had a long time to talk because the drive to Zagreb is about 4 hours. 

I'll hopefully have time to email you all in a few hours when things settle down for the day, but I thought I'd fill y'all in really quick just in case. 

July 13

First of all, DON'T FREAK OUT. I know that it is past curfew and it's not even p-day anymore technically. It's been an insane day. Even more so than normal.

So on Friday we get a call and find out that Sister Hertz, who's serving in Novi Sad, is getting kicked out of the country because of visa problems. So President had to rearrange the companionship situations a little bit in the mission. Sister Kawai and I did not get moved, but we were asked to be a taxi for the entire day today for moving sisters. So last night we drove down to Novi Sad, stayed the night there with Sister Hertz and Washburn, then took both of them and headed to Sremska Mitrovica (2 hour drive). There, we met Sisters Deschler and Kropushek, took Sister Kropushek and left Sister Washburn in Sremska with Sister Deschler. Then we crossed the border into Croatia and went to Osijek (2 hours), where we left Sister Hertz to be in a trio with Sister Derenthal (my old companion-- it was SO good to see her again) and Sister Lee. So now it is just me, Sister Kawai, and Sister Kropushek in the car. We drive all the way through northern Croatia and cross the border into SLOVENIA, and land in Ljubljana (4 hours). There had been a trio splitting their time between Ljubljana and Kranj because they were short a Slovene sister, so Sister Kropushek got moved allll the way up there to even out the companionships. The crazy thing is, Sister Kropushek has 3 weeks left of the mission and doesn't know a bit of Slovene. What's wonderful about it though is that her grandfather is originally from Slovenia, so she has the chance to look up tons of relatives, living and dead, while she's there. It was especially nice for Sister Kawai and me as well, seeing as we'd never set foot in Slovenia, and it is the most beautiful country in southern Europe. We honestly felt like we were driving into Narnia on that border cross.

At this point it's almost 8 pm, so President, having foreseen the insanity of asking us to drive back to Beograd tonight (probably 6 or 7 hours from Lake Bled) invited us to stay at his home in Zagreb (2 hours) and email y'all, sleep, and then drive back in the morning.