THE WEEK

Well what a relaxing P-day. Sister Easton and I don't have to share a computer this time, so we are both happy and just feeling good. 

So this week is just going to be full of excitement and busy work! 

This friday we are heading to Bratislava to meet our new mission president, which means that we are telling President McConkie goodbye this week, which is sad, but as I have said, it is the time for President Pohorelicky to be here and to serve. and WE ARE PUMPED FOR THIS. but not only is President Pohorelicky starting his mission, but he also has to figure out transfers in the next four days, because this week is transfer week! So keep him in your prayers! 

Since I have written last week so many things have happened. 

So I have to go back a little bit though. So we were at the castle on Tuesday last week and in our group was a couple that was from the Czech Republic and the guy was wearing a warmup suit that was rainbow colored, and we had gone up the tower to the top of the castle and our guide was waiting at the bottom for us and he asked us if anyone else was up on the tower still and I responded "Yes! the man with the rainbow clothes" then all the missionaries started laughing at me, because the was the only way to describe it. 

BUT THEN, 

wednesday we went to the cirkus for our culture night and before we stopped at Mcdonalds to grab something to eat and we saw the Rainbow clothes guy, but he wasn't in rainbow clothing this time.

and I about freaked out and then Elder Kuhlmann said "hmm.. the cirkus we are going to is a czech cirkus and rainbow man is here right next to the cirkus. What if rainbow man in in the cirkus?" and then we all died laughing but I guess we laughed too soon, because he really was in the cirkus! 

He juggled! ​​

Check it out!​

OH on wednesday we also met with this really cool guy that Sister Easton found when she was on exchanges and I turned to her while we waited for him "So what does this guy look like?" she responds "well he had blond hair and broad shoulders" so we look around a little longer and i turn to her and say "so could he possibly be shirtless?" and yep it was him, but don't worry he put his shirt on when he walked over to us but until he put his shirt on we were like wow the cobblestone is pretty. hahah 

Oh also this day we were contacting people on the street and this girl talks to us and she honestly looked like she was 12 and she asked us if we were talking to people about God and we said yes we are, but she looked really young and she starts walking with us and chit chatting and I turned to her and I said "How old are you?" and she responds 17. First I went into shock but then we kept talking to her and she ended being a really cool girl who was interested in talking with us more. 

Lesson learned, if people talk to you, God probably prepared them, even if they do look 12 years old, Because God's timing is better than our timing, always. 

on Thursday we went to a spring with Sestra S. and got some SUPER IRON-Y SULFER-Y water that tasted like a mix of boiled eggs and blood. They said its healthy, so we took it home and added some raspberry sugar syrup. IT WORKED and totally HEALTHY! haha

Then the week was pretty normal, but I mean, I guess I don't really know what a normal day in anymore, but the funnest thing is that one day we were walking home from tracting and we found one of the guys the was part of the cirkus and we got to talk to him for a little bit while he was taking down the cirkus signs, but I thought understanding fast slovak speakers was hard, I about missed everything this fast czech speaking man was saying and I had to ask him to repeat himself so that I could catch it. 

and so I was freaking out and telling sister Easton that we HAD to find the cirkus people when we go to the namestie, but we didn't find them, but hey, the church will find them one day :)

Well that is all I have to say for the week. 

The Church is true! I love it, It can heal the wounded soul, mend the broken heart, and bring peace and joy that is long lasting.

Have a miraculous week. 

S Laskou, 

Sestra Ratcliffe

Mcdonalds before

Cotton candy, I am always a sucker for that stuff

monkeys on donkeys

at the cirkus

Sister Easton got a tick and I had to try to pull it out of her leg for an hour then our neighbor came over and pulled it out in 1 minute. 

at the Spring (kyselka) 

at the Spring (kyselka) 

I just love Jericho and Jerusalem Streets. :) 

Slovak Zone

Saying farewell to an Amazing Mission President!

THE LORD IS IN THE DETAILS

This is going to be the most unfulfilling email of my mission because this is probably the most unfulfilling email session of my mission, because sister Easton and I are sharing a computer because one is broken and a man is on the other one, and I forgot my planner at home so I am not really sure what I did this week. So bear with me friends. 

SO THIS WEEK, yep tons of thoughts coming to my brain right now, and by that I mean zero thoughts except for what I ate for lunch yesterday. 

(by the way pizza) we were in brno for training so yeah that was good. 

oh funny story I can start with, so on the námestie there is this guy who works at the icecream stand, and the other day sister Easton and I went and Sister Easton only got one scoop and the guy added another scoop. and I just started laughing and Sister Easton was SOOO embarrassed that this guy gave her a free extra scoop. and then we went back another day and he wasn't there and I bought my usual and the lady charged me 70 cents instead of 50 and I was a little surprised and we went back a couple days later and I asked the guy if the bowl I get costs 70 cents and he says "for you, no."

So.. Karma.  

Another funny one, we were contacting as a district and I stopped this lady and she yells "I will not associate myself with the jehovah's witnesses" and I said "I am not a jehovah's witness" and she responds "yes you are." so I responded "umm... No I am not" then she stormed away. so I didn't really have a chance to talk to her more. but she was nice. :) 

and as usual the week becomes a real blur, but again somehow sister Easton and I ended up on a train going to Bratislava to spend the night, eat halusky and go to zone conference. 

AND THEN THE SINK TURNED ON. 

and by that I mean water works, like the dam broke, and no one could stop it.

TRAINING WAS SOOOOO SAD. and if you know me at all you know that I am just the most sypathetic cryer. I never in my life thought that I would have to say goodbye to my mission president and his family and be so attached to people that I saw once or twice a month. GOODBYES SUCK. 

SO I JUST BAWLED and weeped. 

BUT TRAINING was super intense. President talked to us about testimony and then at the end for a few minutes, he had us write our testimonies and the room was filled with the spirit. It was an amazing feeling of peace and joy. it was like the calm before the storm because right after that, the entire McConkie family stood up to give their farewell testimonies. 

It was a really sad experience but at the same time a very calm sensation was in the room, because I don't think that a single person in that room doubted the call that the Lord gave to our mission president and the call that the Lord has extended to our next mission president. Those two men were called for when they were needed. I am SOOO excited to meet with President Pohořelicky and I know that he is the man to lead this mission starting next week! 

The Lord is in the details I know it! 

Have a miraculous week. 

S Láskou, 

Sestra Ratcliffe

Video from her companion at the cemetery June 13, 2016

TODAY

Walking up some tower stairs

at the top of the tower

sitting on a weapon of war

my souvenir

TRAINING

Selfie with Prez.

MY GREENIE CUT HER BANGS

Celebrating sister Ross's birth, a little late, BAD SISTERS

THE SISTERS 

Pres and sister mcconkie I JUST LOVE THEM

turning the hearts of the children to their fathers

This week was literally wild and I don't think that it is going to stop being wild.

I am going to go chronologically again, because otherwise I am going to be REAL lost. 

Throwing it back to MONDAY: 

Not a whole ton was happening on Monday. Sister Easton and I went shopping for shirts and by the end of the day I told sister Easton that I didn't want to go into another store for a shirt for the rest of the transfer. We will see how long that lasts. hahah 

Then our friend taught us HOW TO BE VEGAN. 

so that went well- ish this week, I mean, yeah, later in the week you will understand why -ISH was added. 

WEDNESDAY: 

our vegan friend had us over for a nice soup with some lentils. Oh boy was that yummy. 

Check it out: 

FRIDAY: 

okay I guess looking back on the week, the week really wasnt that busy until friday and since then we have just been GO GO GO. 

The sisters in Kosice came over to spend an exchange with us here in Trencin and wow that was so fun. Sister Mcpheeters and I were together and Sister Ross and Sister Easton were together. 

Heres some fun experiences: 

We were walking by the train station and we stop this man and start to talk to him, and almost immediately he tells us that he is satisfied with his religion and that we weren't going to convince him. and so we asked him if he had ever prayed to know if his church was true and he said no. so we asked him that if God told him to change churches would he and he said NO. and so we said, "BUT IF GOD TOLD YOU TO" and then he really thought for a second and we brought up the question again "so why have you not prayed to know which church is true?" he laughed for a second and told us that we caught him off gaurd and that we were prepared and he wasn't. hahah.

BUT AFTER THAT

we stopped this guy in the park and we taught him about the Book of Mormon and we told him that we meet with people and if he would be interested and he was literally the most prepared peson I have ever met! He gave us his phone number and took the book of mormon and told us we could meet next week. AKA this week. YAY. 

We took an icecream break on the Namestie and found a huge cultural celebration: vidiš:

Icecream and culture, it doesn't get much better than this. 

​

IT RAINED A LOT THIS WEEK. 

BUT THIS MORNING. 

Bright and Early sister Easton and I and Sister K hopped on a train to go to Trnava to find some ratcliffe family ancestors

speaking of ratcliffe check this out: 

Me and Daniel Radcliffe chillin in trencin.

​But back to the actual cool part of the story. We found this grave, but before we found it we walked around forever and we had to ask someone where it was and the cool thing about the whole experience was when we were walking I was really excited to find it, and we walked past this one gravestone that was not able to be seen because it was covered by a bush and I thought how sad that was that no one could see the gravestone, and when I kept walking my excitement left me and I thought to myself, that much be the grave stone. and sure enough it was, hiding under that same bush.
and all I could think to myself was this:

​And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Malachi 4:6

I KNOW THE THE LORD SPEAKS TO US TODAY. 

his church is on the earth today. 

and he leads and guides us through his prophet Thomas S. Monson.

ITS TRUE!

Have a miraculous week.

S Laskou,

Sestra Ratcliffe

FINDING FAMILY ROOTS

Jan Strapak - family somehow, just not sure how. 

we had to move this bush to see the head stone. 

Just chilling with the relatives you know? 

TRNAVA

We went to Trnava today with Sister K

#TRNAVA 

#WEWERETHERE

so cute!

week of wonders

This week honestly feels like three in one we were just so busy all week! 

I am going to speak chronologically because I otherwise I will be all over the place.

MONDAY: I bought a swamp cooler and it was the best desicion of my life. I was really fed up with the heat and just wanted to be colder. So sister Easton and I ran around the whole city trying to find one and hopped on a bus and finally bought one and then we had to carry her all the way home, across the bridge and to the house. The looks we got were incredible. 

TWOSDAY: not much happened in the morning, but in the afternoon the Bratislava sisters came and spent the day with us for exchanges. I was serving with my BB again Sister Van and sister Easton was with Sister Schaerrer. and it was just a blast and a half. 

There are these people who are on the streets and try to get you to get their phone provider and one of them stopped us and asked us which phone provider we had, UHHHHH "we don't know, people just give us this phone and we use it and have never seen the bill in our lives" then they give us a real strange look and then they see the tag and start to understand. Then they ask us where we are from, try to speak the best english they can muster and then we just teach them the restored gospel and instead of them getting our phone provider information we get their phone number and meet with them! Its great!

WEDNESDAY: spent some more time with blava and then they went home and within minutes of them leaving it began to abslutely pour rain so we walked and everyone on the street just disappeared. then we were really far away from where we were supposed to be so we had to sprint to the city to make it on time to a meeting which we are pretty sure our friend tried to set up sister easton with his friend and so we had to really point out our tags. hahaha 

Being a missionary is just great, getting set up for dates that you didn't know about, and being the third wheel part of the date. hahahaha life is hilarious.

THURSDAY: wow this was a wild day. 

Well the majority of the day wasn't that that eventful, but at the end we had to go to blava to get up to prague the next day and that was just intense. We were sitting there and this man started to bible bash us. so we sat there and listened, then he proceeded to tell us that mormons don't have families and I was like "huh? where did I come from then?" then he followed us onto the train so we tried to escape. and we did it. and then we talked to this really cool guy from trencin on the train and within minutes of him getting off the train at his stop our friend who bible bashes found us and starts talking about history. then we hopped off the train a stop early because I was not feeling comfortable with this guy and as we walked past the window he stared at us. 

so moral of the story: don't bible bash because you are just wasting the lords precious time.

Friday: we were in prague thats basically it.

then the weekend wasn't that eventful. just normal. 

but we did see miracles and we also saw the lords hand in the work here in Trencin. I know that this is the Lords work. its wonderful!

I love this quote from gordon b Hinkley:
An acquaintance said to me one day: “I admire your church very much. I think I could accept everything about it—except Joseph Smith.” To which I responded: “That statement is a contradiction. If you accept the revelation, you must accept the revelator.”

if you want the full talk check it out here: https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1977/04/joseph-the-seer?lang=eng

Isn't that a great thought? if you accept any revelation you HAVE to accept the revelator. because he is the one who revealed it and you cannot just say you like something and not accept the person who said it.

Have a great week kids.

S Laskou,

Sestra Ratcliffe

photos

Dinner, Sister Easton and I are becoming vegans this week so bye bye dairy... 

We got POURED on the other day

Our member just be a boss in those glasses

Buying a swamp cooler so we don't die this summer

Sestra Easton's Pics forwarded on to us . . .

It's raining it's pouring... Slovakia is wet

I don't remember the purpose of this photo. I don't actually know what it is persay either. It's hard to see... But street!

tunnel music

Movie night in our handknitted socks given to us by sestra Doktorova

My companion bought a swamp cooler. Once again, I am very grateful to her and her parents to making this stay in Slovakia that much more enjoyable.

Exchanges with these beautiful ladies!

The Parental's and the Sisters

Sestra Ratcliffe and Sestra Easton are from the same part of town, They did not know each other before their missions.  We were able to meet as parents and talk about our girls.  What a fun night getting to know each other.

We had to send this pic to the girls, they both love Sushi

The Ratcliffe's and the Easton's

Sestra's serving in Slovakia - Who live about 10 minutes or less from each other at home