Sestra Madison Ratcliffe: WVC KREW PART 2

So I am sure you are all anticipating the transfer news...

Here it is:

as you can see by the title Sister Easton and I are staying together,

and we will be serving in...

TRENCIN!

We are staying together in Trencin and she is killing me here.

How morbid.

When we got the phone call Elder Needham asked me if I wanted to know my area or my companion first I said area. he said you are staying. I wasn't surprised. then he asked "on a scale of 1-10 how well do you and your companion get along?" I said well I don't know probably a 9.. and he responds GREAT well you have two more months with her to make it a TEN!

hahaha we were in shock.

but it turns out that most people said the same. There are only six missionaries travelling throughout Slovakia today.

WHAT AN UNEXPECTED CURVEBALL.

You just can never know what our heavenly father has up his sleeve.

As far as what happened this week, wow all I can say is this week felt like an eternity.

honestly one transfer into one week is how I am feeling about this week.

So on Tuesday we had a meeting with a lady who lived in a village outside of Trencin.

So we got the bus times and started heading over there. it was about a 2 hour bus ride so we made sure to bring snacks and its a good thing we did because about and hour and a half into the journey our bus got stuck in traffic for an entire hour. So we sat there stranded. people we getting of the bus and walking to the next village to wait until the bus came to the village. I fell asleep and I woke up with the largest indent on my face, because in the buses there is a handle you can hold onto on the seat in front of you and I fell asleep on that handle. It was pretty.

but we finally made it and the lady was so sweet and her husband has bees so he gave us a GIANT jar of honey. We literally have so much honey in our apartment! hahaha

Then on Wednesday we had service and the guy we were serving took us to get some kofola afterwards and I don't know if it is just a coming to the end of the mission thing, but all I want to eat lately is Halusky. All day everyday. So sister Easton and I made halusky after service and then later in the week the Elders wanted to try our halusky so we had a halusky cook off, and met in the building and ate a TON of halusky. there is definitely a difference in theirs and ours, but its halusky, it never tastes the same.

Then on Friday we took a train to Bratislava to meet with our new mission president.

and oh he is SO CUTE. he spoke to us only in Czech and it was so cool.

I actually had a really neat experience before we went to Blava where I was concerned that I wouldn't understand when he spoke in Czech because I don't understand Slovak very well, and we were walking home from service when I had a thought come to my mind "don't you think I would give you the gift of tongues to understand your mission president?" Immediately I knew that was from God. My heart was filled with joy. I knew that God would give me the gift of tongues to understand my mission president, just as he gives me the gift of tongues to understand the people on the street. He never leaves us alone. He hasn't forgotten about our needs. He knows perfectly well what we need and how we can get it.

and the gift of tongues works, because even though I might not have understood every single word that he said, I understood the spirit of what he was trying to say and that was enough for me. :)

Then the weekend cam and it was fast and testimony meeting and I got up to bear my testimony and I don't know why, (probably the lack of food in my stomach) but my knees were weak when I got up to bear my testimony. I also don't know why but I have been crying a lot this week so that is nice, but its not because I am sad. So much has happened this week and that is how my body has responded to it all. Its great! hahah

But I just was thinking at church about change. I thought that for my last transfer I would have this HUGE change where I would have a new companion and a new area and I was ready, but the Lord had other plans, and while I was bearing my testimony I realized that when things around you are stagnant, when your circumstances are unchanged, you have a choice.

You can change your circumstances for the better or for the worse.

we can choose to react as lehi and say "I have chosen the good part" or we can continue to do what we have always done and always get what we have always got.

So with Lehi, Let us choose the good part.

choose to be changed in the way God has planned, because:

".. my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

I hope you all have a wonderful spiritual week full of miracles!

S Laskou,

Sestra Ratcliffe

RED WHITE AND BLUE

and for our song before personal study we sang my country tis of thee, america the beautiful, and the National anthem

Sister Easton and I are staying together!

*see group email for more detail*

Being stuck on a bus for 3 hours.

IT WAS SO HOT and then I fell asleep on the handle infront of my seat and woke up with a giant indent on my face. Luckily by the time the bus started moving again the indent faded