Neil, Nathan

Bok svima!  It was a good week and I had a great time at R&R (return and report) where I got to see all my old MTC people halfway through our transfers. Speaking of, we have 12 week transfers here so at 6 weeks I am officially halfway through my first one! I'm going to focus more on the Spirit in this email; I have been feeling it more and more as I pray and read the scriptures.   I found a note I wrote down on my phone a while back that said simply "Mark 14:38". I went and read it and I would like to share it with you: When Jesus finds His disciples sleeping, He rebukes them and says "Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." We are also told in D&C 93 to "pray always". Especially in the latter days, it is vital that we are "watching and praying" each day. Like the ten virgins, we must always have our lamps ready. Daily scripture study and prayer will allow us to always be pr...

We are always told to count our blessings, but this week I honestly lost track haha... So setting up for the baptism was a whole process just on its own, getting the font built, figuring out how to fill the font with freezing cold water haha, getting all the AC units fixed, lights replaced, walls painted, cameras set up, food made, and programs organized and printed! Needless to say we were busy all week getting everything ready and what a day it ended up being :)  A TON of friends and family showed up, packing the chapel with another 40 or so on zoom with 4 different mission presidents from past years present! The program was beautiful and the baptisms of Dormina and Dayana were really special. The Spirit filled that room as they made covenanted with Heavenly Father and were made clean. And being able to be a witness and participate in the confirmations was an amazing experience. I particularly loved their testimonies after and the spirit of all these amazing saints singing togeth...

Bok svima! Tuesday, we celebrated President Hachi's daughter, Ariana, who turned one year old! We had a yummy vegan cake and got her and Elena some Frozen toys (their lives revolve around Elsa and Ana haha) and then a bunch of people from the branch showed up and it was a full on party! So much Croatian flying around but it was a blast!!  Funny moment: We had an audit early in the morning and I fell asleep in the middle of it haha. The guy was looking directly at me too (he was talking so fast in Croatian I just gave up haha) Also bought a fishing rod so I can go fishing this week with a guy I found on Facebook and his buddies! So stoked!! (We're going to pick our own clams to use as bait and go at dawn to try to get some big ones) I'm excited to fish, but also to have a chance to experience the fruits of finding via Facebook and meet some people in person.  Its been great having the Barrus' here with us, they are a great senior couple and have powerful spirits and test...

First things first!! We are fully back as the Rijeka branch, with a newly sustained branch presidency, Sunday school classes, and a NEW PIANO!! Man, I can't describe how good it felt to get back on the keys for church on Sunday. We had some great talks from President Babić and now President Hachi, as well as my very own trainer Elder Hazel! I translated for the German family visiting from Berlin, which was also super fun (making up half the talks haha)!    Also funny moment this week: Elder Hazel woke up at 5 in the morning the other day to me talking out loud in my sleep. He was going to shush me but then realized I was practicing Croatian in my sleep! It was probably really bad but he thought it was pretty funny the next morning.    Our new senior couple, the Barrus', get here this week and we are really excited to have them here, except they get the car :(  in the meantime, the Lambs came this week and we put on a fun game night. There was a group of random k...

Ej bok svima!  While there was a lot of language mistakes and embarrassing moments this week haha, big highlight was Zone Conference! All the missionaries in Croatia met in Zagreb and had an amazing, spirit-filled time! There was a big emphasis on making changes and being creative with our finding efforts (i have been feeling really restricted by online finding recently so this was awesome to hear)! Afterwards, we all went to a park in the blistering heat and spent the day playing soccer, spikeball, volleyball (with the soccer ball) and finally Sister Field's iconic fishbowl game!! We spent the night at the APs apartment and I had a good time attempting to play the guitar haha. It was so good to see some people in my OG district again and hear about all their wild experiences all over the country!  We were blessed to have lots of lessons this week, huge miracle! But two especially awesome moments this week were our branch party and visit to our friend. A few of us met up at th...