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.