Aug 23, 2010

Dragi Obitelj i Prijatelji moji,

I know that I have promised you information on what is going to happen for transfers. I know they are not exciting for you, but they are for me and I love to hear where everyone is going. We make transfer predictions all the time since there are only 25 and three coming (in Croatia). Don't worry, I don't get distracted. Since there are not many of us, President just calls us all a couple of nights before and lets us know what is happening to us. But this time for our Zone meeting he introduced the Box B. He said Box B was used in the early days in the church where the presidency would just call out where missionaries were going at the pulpit from Salt Lake City. So after telling us that he said that is what we are going to be doing today and then says, " We will be starting right now" ha ha. A rush of excitement came over the room and I quickly grabbed a pen and paper to write down who is going where. So he started with Zagreb. Everyone is staying the same except for Sister Fitzsimmons who is going to be training Sister Stratton the new one in Zagreb. Then he said, "Sister Dillender, you will be with Sister Whitaker.....in Zagreb." AHHHHHHHHH! YAAAAAAY! He said, “So that means that all four of you Sisters will be in that apartment." Everyone is talking and laughing and then I yell, "WAIT! Can we stay up past ten thirty?" We all just laughed and President just shakes his head...and laughs.

But then the next most exciting part was where the 7 footer was going to go. So a little later President says, "Elder Rhodes you will be training Elder Bakinski." We didn't know what the 7 footers name was since we always just refer to him as that, so we were all left wondering if he was the tall one or not when president says, "Elder Rhodes stand up! Elder Lee, stand on your chair.!" Elder Rhondes stands up to his tall frame of 5'6'' and Elder Lee, next to him stands on his chair, towering about 18 inches over him. Then president says, " the new companionship in Zadar." We all laughed and so did Elder Rhodes. They are going to be such a great sight. He really is 18 inches taller than him and Elder Rhodes is one of the two shortest missionaries in this mission. HA HA HA HA HA! The nice thing for the 7 footer is that in Zadar most men reach at least 6'5'' and it's not uncommon to see 7 footers. He will feel right at home.

I was reading over some of my old Zone Conference notes from when Elder Causse was here. The part that really stood out to me was when he was talking about planning being a sacred part of the day. He told us to be specific in what we do. So Sister Fitzsimmons and I decided to do that and before we left the apartment to do go talk to people we prayed for a lady to be interested and want to learn more and give us her phone number so we could get a hold of her. The first person was a rude old lady the second was a rude old guy and the third was a lady who wanted to give us her phone number. We told her about family history and offered her a chapel tour. She said that would be great and told us that we can make an appointment with her, so, we asked for her phone number and she was happy to give it. She actually asked if we live close by because she sees us walking here all the time. We walk home that way everyday and I wonder what kind of an impression she got from us. Well it couldn't be that bad since Sister Fitzsimmons and I are best friends and we are usually running for the tram anyway. But the faith building exercise for me was : THE LORD BLESSES THE FAITHFUL!

I am sorry I don't have much time to write beyond this today. But from now on I will still have stories of Sister Fitzsimmons plus two more sisters. It's pretty much going to be a party every day!

s ljubavlju,
Sestra Dillender

Aug 23

Hi,

I just also wanted to let you know if you wanted to send something not via email you can send it to my apartment, and I will be there at least until October 24 and if it comes later the other sisters can give it to me:

Sister Babe
Hermanova Ulica 13 H
10000 Zabreb
Hrvatska

The name you send it to is very important by the way!

If you send it to the Sovenia address it just goes to the mission home and takes a little longer to get to me because we wait for them to come down to Croatia so they can give it to us. But either address you have is a good one just the Zagreb one is faster.

Hvala ljepo!
Sestra......Babe!