Neil, Nathan

Pozdrav svima! Short one today: This week Elder Childs and I became a trio with Elder Bouta from Kiribati! He served in  Cape Town, South Africa for 42 months and he will be here another three months until January (when they can get a flight home for him)!! He is a great missionary and is even learning Croatian so he can be more effective here. He sets the bar and we are all learning a lot from him and his example.  COVID restrictions are back, only allowing vaccinated members into the church (or those who purchase a self test) which has hit our branch hard. But the members are doing great ministering to those who can't come, and participating in church. Still teaching the blind son and his father, praying that they will continue to progress and doing what we can to help them along the way!  Spiritual thought: Since it's Thanksgiving, this thought will be about gratitude :) Mosiah 24:21 reads, "they poured out their thanks to God because he had been merciful unto them, an...

Bok bok Highlight of this week was watching Elder Childs rock R and R (all trainers and trainees come to Zagreb for "Return and Report" and have to prepare lessons and memorize scriptures and such). He worked hard and was ready and had an amazing experience and I'm so proud to have the privilege to be his trainer. We did some painting and repair in the church this week, and it looks pretty clean and revamped now. Getting ready for our Christmas activies and the branch is really coming together as a family too which makes me so happy. People are ministering, loving, and supporting one another and are striving for the temple, and I am glad I get to be apart of it.  Spiritual thought: A word we hear often in the church and on the mission is "love". And I feel that it is a word that often gets overlooked and underestimated. The most powerful and memorable acts I have witnessed have been those of pure Christlike love. They weren't in a talk given, a lesson taught...

Ej bok!  This week was so strange but so fun!! We got back from Zone Conference in the middle of the week and thought we would be a little out of it. But next day we contacted everyone and had an entire day chock full of lessons. Literally back to back to back. A real miracle for us. Then the next day absolutely nothing. Just Facebook finding and planning haha. And then right after that we get a call asking us to go to Plitvice!!! (Another one of my bucket list places to see) and so we spent Saturday at the beautiful natural park with the 30 Russian missionaries at the hotel waiting to go to their mission. It was gorgeous (see pictures) Really grateful for that opportunity I had to witness God's creations and their beauty. Just a wild week :)  Favorite moment was meeting with Miroslav and Viktor again (father and blind son) at the church and teaching them about the sacrament. After a great discussion, Viktor sat down in the chapel and began playing the piano and the Spirit was...

Pozdrav svima!  I will keep this one short because p day is basically over. We had zone conference today and drove up a mountain called Sljeme and saw some beautiful fall colors and then went to Mirogoj for All Saints Day which was one of my bucket list things to do while I was here (see pictures below) this was one of my favorite moments feeling the love of family and the Savior. We had a great English class this week with a lady who then asked to read some of our pamphlets about the gospel that we had in the church. We also had a great Halloween party with lots of friends and family! Meeting with Miroslav and Viktor this week! Lots more amazing moments but I don't have time to write them all haha  Spiritual thought:  As I was looking at all the candles at Mirogoj, I thought about what they meant to me. Each candle was shaped differently; some small, others large. Some intricate, others simple. But what made them special was not their outward design, it was the candle bu...