Today we went to church is Zagreb. We needed to pick up a computer and monitor that we are borrowing for our Banja Luka house from the church, so we thought we might as well go to our meetings there since we aren't in Bosnia this weekend. Wow! I didn't realize how much we missed going to regular meetings! In Zagreb they have a lovely chapel, Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood meeting. Of course it's all in Croatian....but I had a lovely little lady that I had met just once before that snuggled up next to me and said, "can I sit here and translate for you?" What a wonderful gift she gave me!
I was able to follow along in Luke 2 as they discussed the birth of the Savior, the people around him at the time of his birth and the faith of those amazing Book of Mormon people in the Americas. I could feel and hear the sweet testimony of the teacher. I marveled at her poise and her knowledge as she delivered her lesson. It was the first Sunday School lesson that I had really heard since we have been in country. Usually I sit in the class and do personal scripture study as the strange syllables and guttural sounds of Croatian flies over and around me.
In Relief Society I was brought to remembrance how important it is for us to keep the Sabbath Day as a day set apart to remember our covenants and worship our Heavenly Father. I remembered as a young mother how I would dash around the house on Sunday morning, looking for lost shoes, filling a diaper bag, changing a diaper that always got dirty right before we were to get in the car, I would be doing girls hair, sometimes very impatiently, struggling to get the kids out the door while their dad was always already at the church and no help to me. I wondered how many young mothers were there in that room with me today that wondered the same thing I did in those rushed and hectic mornings, "And now I'm suppose to teach a primary, Sunday school or young women's lesson and have the Spirit with me???" It took me years to learn how to do that, how to spend my Saturdays making sure the shirts were ironed, the shoes and socks were found from under the beds, the slacks hanging in the closet and diaper bag packed. I even learned to do my cooking on Saturday so I only had to put it in the oven and turn it on as I walked out the door. Jim laughed at me one Saturday and said, " I believe, my dear, that if you could get them all ready for church on Saturday night and then polyurethane them, you would!" I responded with a happy, "You bet I would!" but alas hair still needed to be done and diapers changed. Eventually, I think, as I worked at it our Sabbath Days became a little easier and the Spirit lingered a little more in our home, but as I look back on it I wonder... if I ever did enough?...what could I have done better?.. what would I do different if given the chance? and I have to say nothing..I just did the best I could, one Sabbath Day at a time.
What a wonderful gift I was given today... Church, a friend, and sweet memories. It doesn't get better than that.
1 comment:
It is amazing that we had the exact same lessons today at Church! I love that we are all learning the same thing all over the world! Keep up the great work you are doing and I hope you have many translators waiting to help you!
Post a Comment