Dec 6 - Marinating in Salsa

Bok svima!

Here are some questions my mom asked I thought you all would like to hear them.

How are you're C'mas plans going? Good. No, not really we haven't been planning, just singing Christmas songs and talking about it like it's the end of the world and this is the last thing we are going to celebrate. Do you get to share any C'mas with the members, or with other people you're trying to contact? No, but we are going to have a branch activity for it. The plans are still up in the air but I will let you know how awesome it will be. Oh, and if you have any ideas of what 10 or 12 people can do together for fun and games around Christmas let me know! You had said that you really enjoyed Easter in Croatia, because the people celebrated the Savior so much with the holiday. What is C'mas like? Well, I don't really know what it is so much about here. Obviously the day that Christ was born, but I think people are more excited about it just being the Christmas season. There are decorations and Christmas trees up, including ours :). A lot of people have been setting off fireworks and we asked a couple Croats that we know and they said, oh I don't know, people are just excited that Christmas is coming. Do they have a Santa figure, or do they celebrate the spiritual side more? Well they have a St. Nicholas that looks like the pope but with long hair and a beard so it's really just a pope like Santa and it looks awesome. Today on the way to emailing there was this pope looking Santa guy dressed up and standing in the back of a wagon being pulled by a donkey with a guy with devil horns and a big stick behind him. The Santa guy would give people and mostly kids candy and if someone wasn't holding a baby then the Satan guy would swipe them with a stick. Yeah I almost wet my pants on the way over here. The best part is when the donkey got scared and wouldn't walk. The driver had to get out and pull it, but the Santa-pope wasn't ready for it, and then FELL OFF THE WAGON!!!! His wig almost came off, but his pope hat went flying. I started crying because I was laughing so hard. Actually I am crying right now just remembering all of that. What about C'mas traditions, like C'mas trees, and lights, and caroling? All the same! Are you going to make C'mas dinner with some of the other missionaries, or do you go to members homes, and 'feast' with them?¨ I think we will leave the turkey up to Elder Bachynski again, since he passed the really tasty turkey test for Thanksgiving. But we will definitely reel in the Elders for a Christmas day dinner. I know you're going to have a get-together with the Mission President, and some of the other missionaries; what's that going to be like? We have Zone Conference every month like I talked about before. So this month it is pushed back till the 23rd so we can all be together right before Christmas. I don't really know what we are going to do for it, but I hear that it will be great. So if you sent letters or packages I will get it the 23rd which will be perfect so I can save it for Christmas day wohooo.


We were teaching a lesson last night about family prayer and I talked about how much I feel that family prayer has helped my family. We all have our problems but I know that one is NOT that we all love each other. I feel like family prayer has been a uniting force for us and has given us an unseen help through the years. Sometimes we had family home evening, sometimes we did scripture study, but we always, always had family prayer and I am so grateful for it. I feel like it has always been such a nice time to be together as a family just for a little bit. It didn't matter where anyone stood with God because at the time we all stood together and thanked him. I am so grateful for my family and the love that they show toward me.

So when we go door to door we have decided to have new approaches when people open the door. This is what we do, we look at the last name on the door, then look in the dictionary that would be close to the name and link it to the gospel. For example, one person's last name meant to marinate, so we decided to say, when we marinate in the gospel then we become nice and tasty....and then Sister Law's finished with and then Satan comes and burns us in the fiery pits of hell. Ha ha ha I laugh so much. The other one was blacksmith and she thought of, God is a blacksmith and made us in his own image. Well that last one is a lot funnier in Croatian standing in front of someone's door.

I hope you all are well and I miss you!

s ljubavi,
Sestra Dillender