Week 18 Rain Rain and some repeat info!

Bok! Bok! Kako ste?

Another few weeks have passed in Croatia! We have seen lots of rain but on Saturday we saw lots of sunshine!
I even got a little sunburnt(: 

I gave a talk in church yesterday on Hearing His Voice. We really do live in a world where there are tons of voices!
So many distractions all around us. Music, our phones, people, and satan! It is vital that we know how the Holy Ghost
speaks to us. God didn't just leave us here stranded and helpless. But He gave us the Holy Ghost! We each need to
learn how we feel the Spirit, and act on the promptings we receive. An amazing place to feel the Spirit is in the temple!
We have been helping teach temple prep to Ivan (the coolest future missionary ever!) and being in temple prep has
 really made me have an aching desire to go to the temple! Temples really are God's house. So I invite you to go to
the temple! Feel the Spirit in God's sacred home.

We had 8 lessons scheduled for this week! And I think we taught 2? A lot of people canceled, or just didn't come, but
that is okay!! We had a lot of great opportunities arise from those lessons getting canceled. It's cool how God is in the
details!! He is a God of Miracles. In Croatian miracle= cuda. And weird= cudno. Sometimes I get these mixed up,
 and that is not good! (example: I know God is a God of weirds- instead of I know God is a God of miracles. EKK!)
 But I was thinking about this the other day. Some people will just say- oh that was weird, like what are the chances
of that? When really it should be said- that was a miracle! I know all the little weird or coincidental things in our lives
are really miracles from God(:

LAST PDAY- we left Croatia and went to Slovenia!! We traveled to Lake Bled and Ljubljana! WOW! Lake Bled has
the clearest water and is a gorgeous view. The castle that overlooks the lake.. I kept asking myself if this was a dream!
The city of Ljubljana is gorgeous with cobblestones, fountains, and such cool history! Then we zoomed back to
Croatia and took a Ferry out to the island of Cres!! No stress on Cres(: We got to have the wind in our faces and
 it was so fun to be on a ferry leaving the mainland! We drove around Cres and then got to the main city.
The cutest little island town! The boats, the colored homes, the flowers! Then we took another Ferry to the island
 of Krk(: I feel so absolutely spoiled to have experienced all this! We were zooming around from 7am-8pm trying
 to fit in all the cool sites! The Christensens are the coolest senior couple ever and really do spoil us! 

I love you all so much! Thank you for all the prayers and support! Remember you are never alone(:
I love being a missionary and am so grateful for the people I've met and the Spirit I've seen touch lives! 

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!

Sister Gittins

Week 17 Slovenia Visit

Tacy was too busy traveling Europe to send an email this week!  She did say over hangouts, that they had done a lot of door knocking and one of their investigators came to church. This made them so happy. They went to Slovenia! Ljubliana and Lake Bled. They also went to the Island of Cres in Croatia which I believe is near the island of Krk where they already explored. They are getting a phone in June along with a Facebook account. Tacy is very upbeat and Happy. She is always expressing gratitude for me and it makes my whole week. I feel like all the down I feel, is compensated when I chat with her! I am so grateful to be able to hear from her! She has also been bowling. I am so grateful to the Christensen's for giving her so many beautiful opportunities within all the hard work! They had a fish cook off also. What a fun mission!

A Note from Elder Christensen on when they went to Slovenia and Moscenice Croatia.
We had the most remarkable P-Day. First, we love these Elders and Sisters dearly. They feel like our sons and daughters. You have raised such incredible, wonderful, genuinely good sons and daughters!! We have been waiting for weeks for the rain to stop. We cancelled our trip last week and hoped for a better week this week. When we left it was raining and then as we headed up to Slovenia, it rained even harder. But all day long at stop after stop, it rained as we drove, but when we arrived, it was dry and NOT raining and beautiful. Get back in the car and drive a few miles toward the next destination and the rain would start again. Time after time. Beautiful in Bled, Slovenia beautiful in Ljubljana, Slovenia, beautiful in Mošćenice, Croatia, stunning on the island of Cres, Croatia. Finally, back to Rijeka and it started to rain again. It was a wonderful day.

 Lake Bled Slovenia ^

Week 16 Mothers Day Call!

Sestra Gittins didn't send a real email this week but she had many adventures as the pictures will tell! It was great to talk with her on Mother's Day! She is full of love and light! She told us she is going to be getting a phone in a few weeks and is also going to be doing missionary work through Facebook! She has a great attitude even on hard days! She doesn't complain and is so Optimistic. She has been to Zagreb a few times for meetings in the past weeks. She loves the people in Rijeka and explained to me that Croatia is Catholic and Bosnia is Muslim.  So it is almost like they are true to their Countries Religion in each place. It makes them struggle to want to embrace what they see as an American religion.  I sure am grateful as a Mother to have a daughter willing to do hard things in order to share what she knows to be True!  She is a blessing to our family!

Always excited to hear from her! This postcard made my day!