We got to check out Strumica this week! It's right eastern
border of Macedonia, so we got to hear some pretty mangled
Bulgarian/Macedonian. We went out there to teach a guy named Vane, who Elder
Chingas and Prince used to teach. The 3 hour bus ride was nice and relaxing,
and we got to stop through Veles, Stip, and Radovic along the way. We were
greeted by Vane and his friend when we arrived, and then proceeded to walk
through Strumica to go to a pizza place to have a lesson. Strumica is a
beautiful, beautiful small city. It's so nice to get out of the capital cities
of Skopje, Prishtina, and Tirana that we spend almost all of our time in. We
got some pastrmajlija, which is like an oval pizza; because Vane was telling us
it's a specialty in Strumica. We focused the lesson on Vane's friend and we
went over the Restoration. It kinda felt like a member present lesson, because
Vane was backing us up in every way, particularly when his friend was asking us
about the church's history of polygamy. Vase (Va-se), his friend, seemed pretty
interested about it! Vane's only problem right now is he's a 3 hour bus ride
from his nearest church. He said he gave up hope of a true church until he met
the missionaries. Seriously, such a prepared guy. He's very versed in the
Bible, and he said that he's never come across a church that follows more
closely with the Bible, particularly "all the small things" he kept
saying. After the lesson, he was going off to Vase about that for a while,
which was awesome.
We got fed twice in one day this week, and we were in 4
Macedonians' homes. It was so crazy, I felt like I was back in Provo! We had a
lesson with the sister's with one of the Suzana's, a member, friends, and he
prepared us a meal. Then we taught the evangelist family. They asked us for
money this week, so we're feeling like that's their overarching motive in
meeting with us, so they're probably going to get dropped, unfortunately. Although
they did come to church! After that, we went to Prend's house for a late
birthday celebration for him, where he fed us some fish. I've always thought
fish and dirt taste exactly the same, but that fish was pretty dang good! The
mission changes you. We went in for language study at the end of the day, and
our landlord invited us over, so we chatted with him for awhile, and ended up
talking about the church for most of that time. God was definitely blessing us
that day! It felt really good to feel the appreciation of so many people in one
day.
Farewell Nelsons! The Nelson's last week is this week. Their
replacements, the Pulleys, are supposed to be here already, but they had visa
problems, like pretty much every single one of us. So we're going to be helping
them out a lot when they get here! It's really weird to see the Nelsons take
off. Now Elder Chingas, Sister Hassell, and I have officially been here the
longest.
In reading the Book of Mormon this time around, it's really
been sticking out to me how much God is really in control. God's plan is so
perfectly woven, and so intricate, a lot of the time the situation looks pretty
dreary if we're not keeping an eternal perspective.. But God always fulfills
his promises, and always ultimately delivers those that believe in him, whether
that be in this life, or the life to come. One of the best parts of being a
missionary is we get to see that practically every day. Even though there's not
a whole lot of success here in terms of baptisms, I know that God is guiding
this work, and that he is working through me to help his other children.
Elder Rigby
