It is weird that yesterday, all I could think of was "Woody" saying "It's your last game!" at the end of the Toy Story Mania ride in California Adventure. That's pretty much what it feels like now in Serbia.

So it has still been blazing hot. No one is outside, and air conditioning makes us happy...So we were thinking of productive, indoor finding activities. We decided to look through the old potential investigators lists in our area book and calling them -- all of them, regardless of the notes or dates. (but if they said "please don't contact me again," we wouldn't call.) Wow. Everyone loved that? I guess everyone else was also at home, trying to figure out reasons to not go outside. Basically, every 10 numbers we called either told us they were interested and asked us to call them back the next day to schedule a time, or they scheduled lessons with us right then. What?  It was so weird and SO SUCCESSFUL.

My favorite phone call, was when we called a number for a young man named Dragan. His father answered the phone and had no ideas what we were talking about, so he gave the phone to his wife.  His wife began talking to us, and I asked if her son was home.  She paused for a moment and said, "My son passed away a couple of years ago." And my heart stopped... I felt SO TERRIBLE. My first instinct was to be a nice person and to say "SO SORRY FOR BOTHERING YOU." and hang up the phone. But the Spirit of the Holy Ghost very directly prompted me, and reminded me, that I am here to help families be together forever, and that they need the knowledge of the plan of salvation. I said, "I am so sorry for your loss. I apologize. My name is Sister Chauncey, I am here as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. We have a list of names and numbers here of people who were previously interested in our faith, and we were calling them to see if they were still interested in learning more." I believe, with help from our friend Dragan on the other side of the veil, she said "If Dragan accepted you, so will we. Call me tomorrow and we can set up a time for you to come over and talk."

Mind. Blown. Miracle right there. We are going to visit her tonight. I am very very excited to meet her.

Sundays here are absolutely the BEST. We had a family visit us from America. The father served a mission here in the early 90s (yep, during the war), and the mother is from Cacak, which is a city about 3 hours from Belgrade. They both stood up and shared their testimonies  That was so incredible. Two of our members in the branch also served mini missions in Rijeka for the past month, and they got up and spoke as well. What an incredible spirit there. The father asked us afterwards where we have served and he said "I cant even believe that there are branches and missionaries in places like Tuzla and Osijek. Those cities were both destroyed during the war... and now the gospel is growing there." It reminded me of my love for Osijek, and how a blessing it was for me to serve there.

I am really excited to come home? But I have also never done anything for such a long consecutive period of time... and so I actually don't believe that its going to happen.

Well... I don' t even know that to tell you. I am picturing people asking me "How was the mission?!" and I can't even think of a word to describe it. Saying "It was great!" doesn't even began to explain it, or accurately depict it. It has been an emotional and a spiritual roller coaster. I can't even tell in words what this mission has been for me. It has literally changed my life. My faith has grown, as well as my testimony of the Savior and His love for His children. He is real. He is here. The promise is true then--- when ye seek, ye shall find, and when ye seek for Christ, ye will find him. I also learned that we cannot live the gospel without real intent. When we go to church, when we read, when we pray without the real intent of learning more about Christ, and learning to apply his teachings in your life, it isn't worth anything. Most importantly, as it says in Moroni's promise we must do it with real intent, having faith in Christ. If we don't have the faith that Christ is going to help us, the real intent won't do any good either.

I have also tried to learn to let go of my self imposed demands to be perfect. My mission has been kind of crazy, and not at all what I expected it to be like. It was certainly a lot more challenging, and there were many expectations I had set that didn't happen. For a while, I hated myself for that. I want so much for things to go perfectly, but, occasionally because of others and most often because of myself, things dont go the way as planned. But I have also learned that nothing is going to be perfect. Nothing will go exactly the way as planned. First of all, I learned to let that go and love myself, my friends, my family, and my mission more... but I also let go of the expectation I set that I had to make things perfect. I was trying for most of my mission to do everything on my own. When it was time to go contact, I would go out there and talk to as many people as I could, and half the time fail, or get too scared, or feel like I didn't say the right thing at the right time. When we had lessons, I would try and logically find the perfect verse for that person, which I KNEW would convert them immediately. I worked hard. But I worked alone. And when you try and make everything perfect by yourself, you run out of steam - quickly. It is impossible to make things perfect on your own.  BUT... we were never asked to do that. We were asked to lean on Christ, the only ever perfect being, and to reach our perfection through him.  Our efforts and work and sacrifice will never be enough without Christ. Mosiah 2:21 reminds us of that! "I say unto you that if ye shoudl serve him who has created you from the beinning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another--I say, if ye should serve him with all your whole soulds yet ye would be unprofitable servants." Rather, we must come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him. He makes our efforts and sacrifices worthwhile. It really is all because of Him.

I know that this gospel is true. The only way for happiness and success in this life is by applying the principles of the gospel in your life. The Church of Jesus Christ is Gods church on the earth today. I "can feel so" every time I read the scriptures or the words of modern day prophets. God lives. Christ lives. And because He lives, so will we - as a family, forever. That is the greatest blessing of all, as I have learned more than ever the meaning of my family because of my mission.

I can't tell you enough how much I love you. Thank you so much for your support during this time.
I can't wait to hug you all next week. 

Catherine

 Milica was baptized on Saturday.  We had three baptisms in the whole mission, apparently!! Things are on an up for us. 

It was a great service. Milica was so prepared and so excited. I have been grateful just to be apart of her conversion process. We laugh and joke about how we are going to have a lesson with Milica, but she is going to be the teacher. She knows so much and truly understood what it meant to make this baptismal covenant. We took all the pictures and signed all the paperwork and had the big hullabaloo that comes with a baptism, and then in a quiet moment, when all had gone upstairs, Sister Davison stayed behind to pick something up, and saw Milica staring at the picture of Christ above the baptismal font, being baptized in the river Jordan. She just stood and stared, and raised her hand to gently touch the picture of the Savior. She loves him, and I am so sure that He loves her. She has already been called to be a Sunday School teacher. There is no one more qualified in this branch than she is. I think about other converts and the idea of THEM becoming a sunday school teacher and I think..No... but Milica has already been teaching and testifying and doing missionary work, even before her baptism. She gets it. She really does.

I sang "Teach Me To Walk In The Light of His Love", in Serbian at the service. I stumbled upon it accidentally, I didn't even know we had it in our hymnbooks. I didnt know the members knew it either, until I started singing, and they all started humming along. They are a very participating audience. 

Before her baptism we also had the privilege of having a lesson with her and President Rowe. THAT was such a cool experience. He was in town for the weekend up until Wednesday, so he came over on Tuesday night to have the lesson. He grabbed a chair, pulled it right in front of her, and just went for it. He had limited time because we had rescheduled the lesson, but he still came. He is just a "lion" when he teaches.  We had to teach her all of lesson 5 (and by teach, we mean review because she had already studied it all on her own) and we had prepared to have him talk about missionary work (too fitting, really, it was) and we didn't even have to tell him that, he just came in and started talking about how the thing that has brought him closest to God is when he shares his testimony with other people. I was translating for him and he went on a roll for a couple of minutes. Milica understands hardly any English, but after President Rowe left, she turned to me and said "At that moment when you were not translating, I didn't need you to translate. I understood everything that he said. How could that have happened?" And we said "That is a gift of the spirit, it is called the gift of tongues." And her spirit was so touched by that. It was the first time I saw her tear up. In her classic youthful self she just laughed because she didnt know how else to respond to her tears and said "Alright, lets move on!" She is my favorite person ever. I love her so much. 

We had a couple of funny experiences this week. One of them being that we have discovered there is a fast food restaurant that sells palačinke on the go, and it is right next to the church... (we have made 3 emergency palačinke runs, so good thing it was there). We also had an American come to church! He is a soldier here, stationed in Germany, and he is here to teach the police how to deal with special operations? Something epic like that. He normally looks up the chapels in the areas where he travels, and when he typed in Bosnia, it said that there werent any branches (which is a thing, yeah, we are apparently underwraps...we are trying to get that lifted). So he hadnt been to church for a few weeks. He was sitting in the passenger side of his buddy's car, and then he sees the Elders walking down the road. In the middle of a stoplight, he jumps out of the car, and starts running down the street yelling HEY! HEY ELDERS!! They were a little surprised. Hahaha. But he found out where the church was! And he came! And on a great Sunday :) 

Our other funny experience this week was with a little old lady. We were walking down centar, contacting, and we usually need to hop on the bus at about 2:35 to get to the hospital out in trapist for childrens English class, and we had about 10 minutes left to contact until then. We thought we would walk down the end of the road and then back up, when out of nowhere this little grandma yells CURICE! CURICE! (Girls! Girls!) and we turn around, and she kind of shakes her head and starts walking away. We ask her if she needs any help, and she says yes, that she just needed help walking home because she struggles walking. It was the sweetest thing I have ever been asked. We said "Absolutely", and she held on to Sister Berretts arm as we walked and talked with her for a half an hour. She was a little forgetful. She said something that we couldnt hear, so we asked her to repeat herself and she said "...I cant remember what I said." She was so cute, though. We were late to the hospital... but only by a few minutes. :) 

I have officially been in Europe for a year, as of this week. I think I have lived here longer than I ever lived in Idaho for college. Thats weird. Ive been here for a long time. It was a memorable week. 

Also the Davisons took us to this place called "The Cascades". That was sooo cool. Basically a giant, rushing, river/waterfall that powers this little town. I think I got some good pictures from it... And some good videos, but I will show those to you when I get home. 

To:  Chris Chauncey, Judy Chauncey, Caroline Chauncey, Candace Abplanalp, Taybor Abplanalp


This  past week/weekend was the mooooost crazy of my mission. It was so busy and so many things were going on. We had Zone Conference this past weekend, in our city for the first since I have been in Banja Luka, and we had to prepare our own presentation, as well as find and fund the food. And, we had an exchange going on at the same time. And apparently there was only bus from Tuzla to Banja Luka, so then we had the four of us in the city/apartment, and then the Sarajevo sisters came at 8:00 in the evening. So... it was just crazy. We had 6 sisters in our apartment on Friday night. But it was great.

Sister Mahabier was here with me in Banja Luka. We had a lesson with Nevin, the guy she met last time. He is the one who speaks Dutch. It was so crazy, because we literally havent seen him since the last time she was here. He has been so busy recently that he hasnt been able to come to English class or anything... and the FIRST night Sister Mahabier is here for English class? He is there. We had a cool lesson with him. Sister Mahabier is such a powerful missionary. She was teaching and testifying in 3 languages! Even though I don'st  peak dutch, when she started talking about her conversion experience, I could see a light just shining through her eyes, and I felt the spirit testify to me that what she was saying was true. We have a couple of members here in the Balkans who have gotten bapitzed in other countries, and they move back here and we find out that they didnt speak any English, or Italian, or whatever language it was they didnt learn, and we think HOW did they get baptized??? But... seeing Sister M testify like that. I would have gotten baptized too. 

Sister M also taught me how to knit. I am knitting like a madman when I have a spare moment. It is really addicting. 

We had a lesson with Milica when Sister M was here. We havent met with her for a while, but she has been reading and studying in the meantime. It was an unorthodox lesson (haha, no pun intended...) but we did Law of Chastity, Word of Wisdom, Tithing, Fast Offerings, and Prophets. Instead of trying to teach them all to her, we just had her explain to us what she understood about the subjects. She really gets it, and she loves it all. We also had a church tour after English class for our English students, and one student asked if we come to church and partake of the sacrament with a fast? And Milica turned around and said, "Thats an excellent question, and can be difficult to understand for those who come from Pravoslav roots, because we go to church fasting, right? But here, we take the sacrament as a renewal of the baptismal covenant, so that we can testify to God that we will remember him and do as he commands us." 

I love her.

We will be preparing for her baptism this weekend. We were so excited when we could go through the weekly planning session in Preach My Gospel, and set plans and make goals for an investigator to be baptized in the coming week. So exciting!!!!!!!!! I will let you know how it goes :) 

We had Branch Conference yesterday. Because of senior couples going home, and new ones coming in, and the fact that it was Branch Conference, we had 4 senior couples in the church, and President Grant, and even President Rowe is in town this weekend!! But it was so packed. We had what seemed to be 3 times amount of missionaries to members. But it was great. We had less actives come and some investigators as well. Milica had to be out of town because she had to go visit her mother, and it was either this weekend or next weekend... which is fine, we would much rather that she be here next weekend :)

Also, because the senior couple has left Sarajevo this weekend, President has decided to immediately pull sisters our of Sarajevo. I am so sad! I will miss Sarajevo, and I didnt even serve there... it is known to be the best city in the mission. I wish things could be different, but I trust President and know that we really have no other option. But my heart broke :( Sister Kropushek will be going back to Zadar to open it up for sisters, and Sister Washburn will go with her from Tuzla. Its pretty crazy. Lots of action going on over here.

Tomorrow is my year in the field mark. Wow. Happy St Patricks Day, and everything. Time certainly flies, doesnt it? I think about going home... and I realize I dont have much more time being a missionary. It kind of makes me panic and start working really hard. Haha. So I guess thats a plus. Some missionaries get tired and trunky and im like WAIT NOOO IM NOT DONE YET. Although, I am getting pretty exhausted. It takes all my energy to stay up and write in my journal at night. Sister Berrett has helped me so much this transfer, and I have felt more like a missionary from being with her. She is so fun and we laugh and talk all the time. And she is the most motivating person I have ever been with. I just love her. I have really enjoyed this transfer. And Im excited to see what the final months of my mission will bring :) 

Love you all.

I SANG WITH SOME SISTERS IN SREMSKA. IT WAS GREAT.

Well Im in Tuzla today! Surprise! Weird thing happened with Sister Mahabier and her visa. She needed to return to Holland to resolve it, so I am here with Sister Washburn for a few days until she returns. In the mean time, President got Sister Vasica to go back to Banja Luka for a few days with Sister Berrett, while Im here. Anyway. Its been a crazy couple of days, and yesterday I spent most of my time in Sremska Mitrovica, in Serbia, for the Sremska Branch conference. (because that was kind of a middle point for all of us to exchange. belgrade, tuzla, and banja luka, and I needed to hitch a ride from President and Sister Grant, who were going to Sremska anyway... its complicated and everyone was confused why I was there). But I got to spend the day with the sisters in Sremska, who are awesome, and I got to meet these two (biological) sisters named Adda and Milica. They are sisters, who sing... I may have nosed my way into their business after they sang at the conference, and casually mentioned that I also sing... and I may have convinced them to sing with me... The closest thing I have had to the Chauncey sisters in 13 months. They were so talented. You know, sisterly blend and all. And as they sang their parts, I would make up another alto part to it. It sounded pretty stinking good :) I was happy I made some friends. They were really cool. They are pretty famous in the mission for their voices. It was SUCH a treat.

Last week!! We had a cool experience after English class on Thursday. We have been wondering how we could casually invite people to learn about the gospel, so we set up a "class" after english class, that lasted about 15 minutes, and have decided we will teach them every week as an intro to Mormonism class, kind of thing. Not only did all of our students voluntarily stay to listen, but they all took copies of the Book of Mormon. It was so awesome. Sister Berrett and I are trying to figure out ways we can have more lessons in that kind of a setting. It was non threatening and really succesful. It was great. 

We also had a fabulous lesson with Milica on Saturday. We taught about the Priesthood of God and baptism. She had so many good questions and I told her I appreciated that she cared enough to ask questions and to want to understand. She said that she had never learned about God as a kid because her parents were not ones to go to church. She loves the church and coming to church, but she is also still new to the whole idea. So she loves to ask questions. She said "I have found a peace here. Sincerely, I have found it. I have felt a feeling and a peace I have never felt before. And I am not going to lose it. At least, I hope I never do." Amen, Milica. She inspires me.

During English class on Thursday, Sister Peterson (My former companion, who is now back in the states at BYU-Idaho)  called Marija, our church member, and I got to talk to her for a minute. That made me laugh SOOOO hard. I forgot how funny she is. Phrases like "wack attack" and "ouuuhhh mah gash" were prevalent, in her serious Texas accent. I died laughing.  It was a tender mercy to talk to her.

It was also a tender mercy to get to spend some one on one time with the Grants, as they drove me from the edge of Gradiška (a city here) to Sremska. I love my mission president and wife. We talked the whole time. I forget how much I just love spending time with people. And they remind me so much of you guys, mom and dad. It was fun to spend that time with them.

I have had a lot of ups and downs this week. Probably the biggest down, and afterwards the biggest up.  They were truly my hardest days on the mission so far. Sister Berrett, ever the optimist, just said "well... come on, why don't we just go tracting". I dont even know how my feet left the door, but they did, and we had a wonderful night. The Lord has really blessed me and has brought such an incredible missionary spirit into my life, just from those few seconds of trying, and a companion to help me there. We met so many nice people, and even a few potential investigators. I havent been down from the cloud since. I am so much more optimistic. I read a quote this morning in a Liahona from 2013 that I think has helped explain what my feelings have been:

       "However many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines.”
Im very grateful for the light that I feel now. A hopeful, happy light. I feel like singing that there IS sunshine in my soul, because thats how it feels.


I love you all.


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SISTER KROUPSHEK/ MY MTC COMPANION FROM A YEAR AGO:

This week we had a bit of a surprise exchange with Sarajevo. I went to Sarajevo with Sestra Kropushek. OH MAN! Was that a brilliant reunion. It was so fun to be her companion again for a couple of days. We had a great time, (I mean great as in productive and really fun. It can be both). 

One thing we tried out was "shopping contacting" which was to go into a store, look around at the merchandise, and start conversations with the workers there. If we want to baptize people who are normal and have steady jobs and a family, what better place to look than at their work while their working? That way they have to be nice to you. :) We had a great conversation with one woman for about 30 minutes. It was awesome. She was really kind and really open. We gave her a pamphlet and said we would back and ask if she had questions. It was awesome and really natural. I am sold on the idea.

Milica officially decided on a baptismal date on the 21st of March, because, as she said, it was the first day of spring. Very symbolic. We were making a baptismal calendar with her yesterday and the time looked tight to teach her all the lessons before the 14th, and she asked if we could do it the weekend after, which was the 21st. She got so excited about it, we could NOT say no! It will be great to prepare her for that. 

Also for Valentines day we decided to do a kind of "tract our own building" idea. We made chocolate chip cookies and Jesus Valentines Day cards with John 3:16 on the back and knocked on our neighbors doors to give them a Valentines Day treat and to get to know them. It would have worked better if people had actually been HOME that evening... but, alas, we only met a few people. But it was okay! We actually got let in and people were super nice to us. It was successful enough. So, Happy Valentines Day to us! Remember Valentines Day last year when I was at the dentist getting a root canal? And the one before that, when we were having a cookie party at the Oak Ave house? Good times :)

Its a really gorgeous day today and we are going to spend it outside painting. Yes. Painting. And no, we dont know how to paint. But we found paints in our apartment and we are going to paint with them. Cant wait to show you the results.

OKAY Everyone and their mom wrote me an email today so thats about all I have time for. Love you so much!! 

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We are at the Davisons to
We had some good moments this week. We went to the Nizols on Tuesday night for a sort of Family Home Evening. We made burritos with the Elders there and tried to convince Rada to give a talk in sacrament meeting. She almost said yes! Its okay, baby steps. The burritos werent too bad, actually. Although it seemed too spicy to the rest of them. That is one thing that does not exist in the Balkans - spicy food. As you can tell, I am excited to have mexican food again. That was a good night.

We also had a kind of "talent show" activity. The Davisons danced, Elder Bennett played the piano, and I sang. That was fun. Elder Davison accompanied me. I have not really sung in a while, and I enjoyed it. I sang, "Smile", by Charlie Chaplin. Well, its originally by him, but Josh Groban also did a really fabulous cover of it. I think it was less for the people I sang it for, and more for me. The lyrics are this:

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking.
When there are clouds in the sky
you'll get by.

If you smile through your pain and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through
For you.

Light up your face with gladness,
Hide every trace of sadness.
Although a tear may be ever so near

That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying.
You'll find that life is still worthwhile-
If you just smile.

Its not technically a hymn, but there are certainly gospel principles in that. Much like Ezra Taft Benson said, "Be cheerful in all that you do. Live joyfully. Live happily. Live enthusiastically, knowing that God does not dwell in gloom and melancholy, but in light and love"

Being happy actually invites the spirit to be with you, which invites the presence and power of God into your life. Pretty neat stuff. And that is what I am focusing on this next transfer. Its a new start. I am focusing on the joy of missionary work, and the Spirit of the Holy Ghost which will accompany it.

We are at the Davisons today, waiting for my new companion. Sister Berrett. She was in the MTC with Sister Lee, and I heard all about her -- only good things! I hear she is practically perfect in every way and such a sweetheart. I am really excited to work with her. It will hopefully be a good transfer for the two of us. We will be STLs together in Banja Luka. Sister Lee is also now STL in Zagreb, so I will get to see her next week when we go for Mission Leadership Council. 

I also made lunch for everyone today. Its Australia Day, you know. (okay, so maybe I didnt know either). Anyway, we made chicken alfredo with a salad. Pretty delicious! Elder Davison asked if I was a cook, and I said no (and then I laughed to myself because actually, yes, I am called Cook all the time) but then he mentioned, "but you love to eat! And people who love to eat make the best cooks." Maybe I have an undiscovered talent... we will see. 

We had a lesson with Milica. She is still perfect. Haha. She said she has been sick and busy the last month, but she also admitted to Sister Vasica that she felt kind of awkward because she didnt know how we would react to her negative response to tithing. She is so amazing, though, and it is really understandable why she struggles with it. She and her family were really well off before the war, but during the war, her parents were in a concentration camp, and after it they had to start from the ground up, rebuilding their lives. She really takes care of the money she has, and she uses most of it to care for her mother and son anyway. She said "I understand that tithing goes to a good use, but doesnt the money I use go to a good use too?" She is right. It does go to a good use. We will have to help her understand more the blessings that come from tithing. She knows the church is true. But, like everyone, she has come to a trial of faith. Keep her in your prayers. I know she will get baptized, but it will be in her time, and the Lords time. We dont want to push her. She even told us that she has told all of her coworkers that she has found the best church ever, and the best people ever, and has been inviting everyone to come, but that they just won't listen. She also said that she knows the missionaries will come and go, but she can stay here and do more missionary work when we leave. She is basically already a member. And she finally met our member Marija!! Which was so great to see them get along. Im excited to see how they progress together.

So our adventure in the woods happened because we were visiting one of the Vasicas family friends in a distant little village, and on the way there we happened to see a really gorgeous park with beautiful woods and a little river running through it. On the way back from visiting, we took our lunch break there. It was really exciting. We meandered through it and took a little adventure. It was really pretty and we took lots of pictures. You know how you both keep telling me that the song "Just around the riverbend" reminds you of me? I took a picture that I thought was pretty funny, and in tribute to that song... Im at the corner where the river bends. :) Im not sure if you will laugh or cry at it, but I hope you like it. The visit with the family went well too. They are too far away for us to actually teach them, but it was mostly for the connection to be made. They were both pretty shocked to meet an American. They kept on asking Sister Vasica to translate questions for them, even though I understood perfectly well (although sometimes their words were mumbled due to the lack of teeth). The little old lady kept on referring to me as the American Princess. I liked that. They were both really sweet. 

Anyway, so transfers are exciting! Our Elder Bennett got called to Montenegro, and Im still a little jealous, but I will get over it. Sister Kropushek will keep it up in Sarajevo, and I will be here with Sister Berrett, Elder Unice, and Elder DYER!! Im excited about that. I love that guy. Also, Sister Lefler is going home this transfer, two transfers early. She is just too sick. That will be hard for me, but it really is the best thing. I have felt like I still have an older, more wiser sister to rely on when things get tough, but now... its really just me and Sister Kropushek. At least I still have her. 

Okay thats about all I have for today. I love you all.
P.S. I watched  the Restoration video in a bunch of different languages. Sister Vasica told me that Russian is a lot softer than Serbian (she studied russian in college) and it sounds like someone trying to speak Serbian while also speaking French. So I watched the Restoration in Russian... she was so right. It blew my mind. It was really funny.

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Thursday, January 15th, was my year mark. Hooray!! We finally started English class back up that day. I bought myself a gyro (so good) as a present for being a year out, and I asked Elder Davison to take a picture of me with it and he said "... is this the picture that you are going to send home to your family that says you hit your year mark?" and I said, "well... yes" So he and Sister Davison decided they wanted to take me out to lunch to the restaraunt I have always wanted to go to. The one in the Kastel fortress here :) It smelled and looked just like "Pirates of the Caribbean," but the food was a little weird. Sesame seed covered potato bits? We aren't sure. I did order some pretty great grilled chicken, covered in bacon and stuffed with cheese. Pretty delicious :) So that was great fun.

I also called Sister Kropushek (My MTC companion) that day and we talked for a bit. It was so good to just chat and talk about the mission. She is my whole MTC experience, you know? Every up and down, she was there for all of it. It was good to just talk and make goals for the rest of our missions. We figured out that exactly from our year mark we had 200 days left. So it was 365 down, 200 to go! now its... 196, or something like that. Downhill slope!

On Sunday, Mary ( a new church member) came to church again. It was so good to see her. She seemed much better than she did last week. We were worried about her. She also told us she is ready to work on her Family History work, and take some names to the temple to do some baptisms. SWEEEEET. I have become her official "Family History" Rep. Haha. I am going to help her and take her through it all. Turns out her cousin is really interested in Family History and has done a bunch of it. What a coincidence. And, with the counsel of our branch president, Elder Davison, she wrote down her mother's family history only about a week before she died... Koja slučajnost. She is so prepared!! It is going to be really great to work with her on that. We also decided to look up what resources we have for these countries on family search, and we found a big list of baptisms from Sarajevo, all in old script Cyrillic. Good thing I write with it every day, so I knew it pretty well. But even in English, it is hard to decipher sometimes!! It was just so exciting. Indexing is going to be SO MUCH FUN when I come home... maybe im dorky.

Today we went to Prijedor (Bosnia) to the hospital with Brother and Sister Davison. They are humanitarian missionaries and they set up with a hospital about an hour's drive away to give them equipment to test hearing on babies. They haven't had the proper equipment for a year, and these babies have not been able to get their hearing checked, which is such a crucial thing to test!! So we went down to the hospital with them so Sestra Vasica could translate things, and there was a bunch of press there and that was exciting. But the best part was when we got it up and working, the press left, we got dressed up in scrubs, and went with the doctors to see the babies. They were SO CUTE AND TEENY. i thought of little Scout the whole time. I forgot how beautiful newborn babies were!! It was such a treat for us. And they had these babies wrapped up so tight in this white fabric, and had them all lined up in a row to get their hearing tested. It was so funny looking. I thought they looked like burritos. (Man, Mexican food is on my mind lately. I can't decide the first restaraunt I want to go to when I get back... Lolas in Carlsbad, Souplantation, or Chick Fil A?)

I have had a lot of good conversations this week and I think I am doing better.  This is Sister Vasicas' and my last week together. It has been quite the experience. I thought I was going to benefit in the language,(because she is a native speaker from Belgrade, Serbia)  but I benefited in different ways than I have expected. She has been a really big help to me in the last couple of weeks, and I am really grateful for her patience and love for me. She is really a blessing in my life. Even though sometimes we want to punch each other. In my opinion, she is too blunt, and in her opinion, I am too sensitive. HaHaHa... Serbs...

I love you all and I am soooo grateful for your support and love for me. 

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This picture is Sestra Chauncey with Sestra Brianne Peterson at one of the many waterfalls in the town of Jacije, Bosnia. It is not too far from Banja Luka, where she is now living.  THIS part of the country is FULL of waterfalls, and beautiful hills and mountains.  She says it looks like a fairyland in places.

This week I had my first time as a Sister Training Leader, and I'm sure I didn't really teach anything, but I learned a lot. Sister Lefler came from Sarajevo!! I was SO happy to see her again. We had such a great time. Sister Lefler is actually quite sick, however. She has had vertigo for about 5 months now, and it really is physically debilitating. So we had lessons, and in our free time, I insisted that she rested. She is so inspirational, in spite of it all. She is a mental and spiritual missionary giant. I love her and learned so much from her and her insights into missionary work. She is so wonderful :) We spent lots of time talking and laughing, and - of course - singing. We spent our entire last night together singing christmas carols. It was so fun. Weve decided we want to do a musical number for the Christmas Conference we have every year... and we will probably get Elder Graham to play for it, lets be honest. One question I asked Sister Lefler this week was, "Do you think that other mission's missionaries are this close?" Every one of the missionaries here feels like family to me. I'm not sure how its like in other missions, but... we are a pretty tight nit group. I love my mission.

HOW TO TEACH MUSLIMS
I also learned a lot about Islam. Sarajevo is predominately Muslims, and Sister Lefler knows how to teach only Muslims. She has witnessed miracles, and they have incredible members in Sarajevo, and all of them with a deep love and respect for the Islam religion. I do too, honestly, after hearing all of the similar beliefs they have to our faith. It was just fascinating to hear about, and she gave me tips on how to teach Muslims. When I was in Croatia, and contacting people on the streets about the Book of Mormon I would say something like, "Ova knjiga može ojačati vašu vjeru u Isusa Krista" "This book can help strengthen your faith in Christ", but we can't say that to muslims, obviously, because they don't believe Christ was the son of God (although they very much believe in him as a prophet, and believes he will come again to the Earth to ressurect the dead... its interesting)  So, to a Muslim, you would say "Ova knjiga je druga sveta knjiga, I punina s pričama o proricima." "This book is another holy book, and its filled with stories about prophets." Because the Quran is filled with stories about prophets, and they can connect with that, and they are encouraged to read other holy books. So I just learned a lot how to teach Muslims, which came in handy, when Sunday came...

THE BEAUTY OF BOSNIA
But one more quick thing about the exchange. One other surprise blessing was the drive from Banja Luka to Travnik (the halfway point between Sarajevo and Banja Luka) and getting to see the beauty of Bosnia. It looked like a fairy tale. We drove through mountains and hills and across rivers and lakes and even took a 30 minute pit stop in a city called Jajce, which has waterfalls flowing through the city, an old cathedral equipped with catacombs you can adventure into, and a giant fortress in the center of the city, at the top of a hill. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I fell in love with Bosnia from this drive. I have struggled leaving Croatia, because it really did feel like home to me, and it really helped me to love this country when I saw its beauty. It was awesome :) 

Okay. So now about Sunday. We had SUCH a great experience on this one, little, beautiful road here. Apparently, the missionaries in the recent past have done service for these people after the terrible flooding happened, and this road really needed a lot of work done, and these people fell in love with the missionaries. This little road (and community) is nestled into the corner of a Bosnian mountain, and has a little stream running through it, which means that the houses need bridges if you want to get to their front doors. Sister Peterson wanted to introduce me to all of these people before she left, so we go to meet this people, and they are the nicest people I have ever met. They were so friendly with us, and as we walked down the street, this girl who we were talking with would yell at all the houses "Anna!" or "Tea!" and a face would pop out and say hello. It was one of the coziest places you have ever been. We also met a man, who was this girls uncle, who has family in Florida, and tried very hard to speak English with us, and we tried very hard to assure him that we spoke Serbian. He had a friend over, and we started talking to them about the church. He was from Florida, we asked if he knew about the church, and he said "Yes! Mitt Romney is Mormon! I love Mitt Romney! I do not love Obama." It was funny, that'S exactly what he said... I chuckled to myself thinking how Mitt Romney is affecting people all over the world. Here I was in Bosnia, and a man knew about the church because he knew about Mitt Romney. Anyway, we start talking with the both of these people, and we find out they are both Muslim. Sister Peterson started talking to the woman, and I started talking to this man, and I basically used every tip that Sister Lefler gave me about introducing the Book of Mormon to muslims, and asked him if he would like a copy. He was so excited. We started talking about that, and his friend leaned over and she asked "Do you have one more?" It was such a great experience. It was just an hour filled with meeting really nice people, and teaching and finding new investigators. I just walked away and I was so happy. Missionary work is just the best.

Also, our recent convert Marija just gave a talk in church. It was about service. It was the best talk I had ever heard... probably just, ever. It is SO cool to see people growing in the church here. She is a very successful, normal woman, who loves the gospel. She is just... amazing.

So, this is my last p day, and my last week, with Sister Peterson. It is so crazy to me. Its the last week of her mission!! I just cant even imagine the end of my mission. I dont WANT it to end. I am just learning and growing so much right now, and I just can't imagine going home... but Im already more than halfway. It seems so short, and yet I feel like Ive been here forever. Anyway... it is going to be a really busy week because basically Sister Peterson needs to fill me with all of her knowledge about being an STL, about Banja Luka, and about how, whenever she seems to enter a city, the work explodes. She is just really good at what she does. Its going to be a big week. I feel sort of like I am white washing the city... at least, thats what I felt like last week. Sister Lefler and I had a list of people to go visit last week, and I just looked at all of these names and thought "I have no idea who these people are" and it was kind of uncomfortable for me. So... yep! It will be a busy week. It was a good week, and i have some pretty great pictures coming soon :) One week to go, and then I am basically in charge of all of Bosnia. Haha.

I love you all!

 

Well, here I am in Bosnia! My last few days in Osijek were alright... actually, they were kind of sad because we had planned on seeing and saying goodbye to a bunch of people, but we had to do a bunch of busy work and deregister me from the country, and things like that...the entirety of my last day was spent at the police station, which was a bummer. But that night, Sister Lee treated ourselves for having a really hard day, and we went out to dinner at this hotel we had always loved and wanted to go to, so that was really fun. 

On Wednesday we made the transfer. We had a "return and report" meeting for all of the trainers and trainees in a  little town called Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia, and President decided we could all do the switch there. Elder Ščirković, (I think I forgot to tell you this, but they sent him to Tuzla in the middle of the transfer, which broke our hearts because we just had so much fun with him), but he was actually been transfered AGAIN, to Zagreb, to be AP AGAIN for the last 4 weeks of his mission, and so there were a bunch of transfers happening mission wide, so we got to see him one more time!! We were all at the meeting, sister peterson, her companion, all the trainees from Bosnia and Serbia and Montenegro, the APs, the Grants... it was such a fun reunion, and such a spiritual experience. There is something so uplifting about being together with all of these missionaries. There is so much power there. It literally reenergized me. One thing i learned from that meeting was that it doesnt matter how new you are in the mission, or how long you have been here, you can always repent, change your ways, replan, refocus, and restart. Just because youve been here the longest doesnt mean youre doing it right. Life is about change. And the Saviors atonement makes it possible for us to change - again and again and again. President Grant asked the new missionaries to make a plan and a goal for what they want to do on their missions, and then he also asked the oldest missionaries to make a plan for their last 18 days in the field. No matter how far along we are, we can make goals, and we can achieve them. It was just awesome, and it helped me decide to remake plans and goals for my mission too. I loved it. After the meeting, President asked the APs (who were taking us back to Banja Luka, the whole district was there because the Elder here is training another missionary) to escort the Osijek sisters back to Osijek. It was great. We all had a caravan and the Banja Luka sisters got in our car, and we all drove back to Osijek together, and picked up some McDonalds :) You know how much I love McDonalds... it was so much fun. And then the APs drove us all the way back to Bosnia. We have Elder Uhlig, who is Elder Ščirković's companion now, who is from Germany, and he is basically the favorite elder in the whole mission. He speaks great English, but it is accented, and its so fun to hear him talk. When we got to the Bosnian border, we asked him to sing some songs for us in German, and so he sang us a bunch of primary songs in German, and it was so cool. He seemed kind of embarrassed about it, but we thought it was the best thing. Its just so much fun to be a missionary!! 

      We have had a great last couple of days as Ive been working hard with Sister Peterson. I didnt realize how much I loved her until I became a trainer, and I appreciated her so much more. I was so naive coming out in to the field, and she helped me work hard and adjust, and having a new companion from the MTC, I realized how hard it is to train another missionary ... and I just really appreciated Sister Peterson so much more after that. We have been having such a great time here. She is SO FUNNY and we have been doing good contacting the last few days. I read this really great letter the other day and this missionary was talking about how missions are like golfing. When you swing, you have 55 things on your mind, and are trying to make it perfect, and when you think too hard about it, you dont enjoy it. You just have to swing. And even though we go out and we have 55 things we are thinking about and trying to improve, we just have to swing, and just go for it, and just learn as we go. So thats what Ive been doing the last few days, and sometimes I swing and I get a hole in one, and sometimes I swing and I totally miss the ball, but hey... at least Im swinging :) Its been a really good last couple of days. 

Bosnia definitely feels like a different country. The houses are different looking, they use cyrillics, and they have giant pravoslav churches and muslim mosques everywhere. Last night, we had dinner at the Davisons (our senior couple who is adorable and from Australia... cant ever get myself away from these Australians :) ) last night and the call to prayer went off from a nearby mosque. It was sooo cool!! We had like, a half an hour long discussion about the Muslim religion after that, and it was really cool to learn about. Elder Bennett is the Zone Leader here and he served in Sarajevo for a long time, so he knows everything about Islam, and he filled me in. Taybor would love it here. :) It was so fascinating. Also, they speak Serbian here, not Bosnian. All of bosnia is muslim, except for Banja Luka, because it is a part of the Republic of Serbia. Serbian really isnt a totally different language, but it is. It is actually a lot easier than Croation. I dont know why, but Serbian has adopted a lot of Latin rooted words, so they use words like "pantalone" and "supa" and "muzika" for pants, soup, and music, while in Croation they use "hlaće", "juha" and "glazba". I also have to get myself out of the habit of saying "Bok" for the word "hi", and start using "Zdravo". I like the words zdravo more anyway, but being in Croatia for so long has just gotten me in the habit of using it! It would be like an Australian coming to America and just using "G-day" all the time. Its just really weird and kind of goofy sounding... except there is a little more animosity between Serbia and Croatia, then Australia and America... so its kind of offensive in a way, to say Bok. So I feel really stupid a lot. Im getting used to it though :) 

Im sending a picture in this email of the sunrise that greeted us this morning. It is totally beautiful here. There are mountains and trees and they are all changing color for the fall. Ill probably also send the picture we took with Elder Radaković yesterday. He came to Banja Luka!! He got off his mission last transfer, but he is just going around visiting people now, because he hasnt quite found a job yet, and is just hanging out. He came to Banja Luka for a person he baptized, it was the man's birthday. It was awesome. He walked into church, and I was giving a talk, and he looked so confused. He was like "what is she doing here?" It was really fun to see him again. It was basically the reunion of my entire first district. It was awesome. We also have a recent convert here named Marija, and I have been so inspired by her. She has such a cool conversion story, and she is on fire. The church has only been in Bosnia for about 4 or 5 years. Before President Rowe became President Rowe, he was actually working here in Banja Luka, and he and his family taught another family the gospel, and they became the first members here, and started the church up. The church has the coolest membership here, and it is so exciting to be in a country that is so new to the gospel. We really are making history. Bosnia is having so many miracles right now. The church is just going to explode. It is such an exciting time to be a missionary.

This week I am basically just printing off 100 Neal A Maxwell talks and reading them, because he is one of the most quoted people by modern prophets and apostles, and I was too young to remember any of his talks. Im really excited about it. I read two this morning, and Im already inspired. 

I love you all. Im doing really wonderful. We are going on a exchange this week with the Sarajevo sisters. So I get to be with SISTER LEFLER for 2 days!!! AHHH!! If you can remember, she was with me in the MTC for 3 weeks. She has been in Sarajevo her entire mission. They just had a miraculous baptism this past weekend. They are doing so well. Im so excited for this exchange.

Thank you for keeping me in all of your prayers! I promise Bosnia isnt scary. But I do appreciate all the love and messages Ive received. Čujemo
   

Okay... well, this is personal news: I cut off a foot of my hair. Yep. I have short hair. I know it might not sound like THAT big of a deal, but it was. We also bought blonde hair dye and attempted to give me highlights, but that kind of failed because my hair is still super dark. I have kind of highlights though. 

Thursday we had a 3-Zone Multi-Zone Conference, and a member of the second quorum of the seventy came to visit. We also had the District President of Slovenia come, and gave the best talk on faith. It was so awesome. He asked us, "If a missionary works really hard all day, but doesnt have any faith, will he get results?" And he didn't even answer the question, just told us to think about it. It was really inspiring to realize that working hard doesnt cut it in the Lords work. The Lord doesn't work according to the work of man. He works according to the faith of man. Granted, we can't just have faith without works to have succeed, but in the same realm, we can't have works without faith to succeed. I also got to have a great show of my new hair style because we got to Zone Conference late, and all three zones were standing, waiting to take a picture in the chapel, and in we come and everyone just goes WAHHHHAT? Some people hated it, and lots of people loved it. I love it, so Im fine with it :) I also got to see ELDER BROWN AND SISTER KROPUSHEK. I didnt even have time to chat with Elder Brown and see how the heck he was doing, we just had a little bit of small talk and then I got distracted. We did get a picture of the "tricycle" though. That was good.

Two more big things happened on the way home from Zone Conference in Zagreb. First, Sister Russells (The Senior missionary couple) daughter is coming to Croatia next week, and the Russells needed to buy a bed and a mattress for her so she could stay in their apartment. Where do we stop?.... IKEA. Oh my goodness I was so stoked out of my mind. I have been feeling super Christmasy lately (you know me) and IKEA was just decked out in Christmas decor. You couldnt have seen a happier Sister Chauncey. We had dinner there and got to walk around the store for a little bit. I was very happy.

 Then, on the way home from Zone Conference, we got a call and found out our member Nikola, who recently had a stroke, died in the hospital that day. It was kind of a shock. We have been going almost every day to go visit him and see how he was doing, and he seemed to be on the uphill. We had not seen him that week because I was sick, and apparently the hospital decided to move him to a type of a nursing home for better care, and he died from the stress of the transportation. They had a funeral service for him on Friday. I went to a graveyard on Halloween, fittingly enough. We had to ask people whether or not he had gone to the temple, because we needed to know whether or not to dress him in temple clothing. Turns out, he was, and we didnt have time to get temple clothing to him. How perfect is this: Elder Radavanović, while he was packing for his mission, randomly put HIS temple clothing in his bag, even though he knew he would never go to a temple while in Croatia. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and because Elder Radavanovic' had clothes, they could dress Nikola in the proper temple clothes, before the burial. We also found out that Milkas husband passed away, which was less of a shock.

Saturday... We thought the week was weird, and then we got to Saturday. We got a call from President Grant, and theres another emergency transfer - and Im involved. Im going to Banja Luka, in Bosnia, to be Sister Training Leader with Sister Peterson for the last 3 weeks of her mission. This will have been the 3rd missionary I have sent home, and its my trainer. I cant believe that!! I am already as far along as she was when she trained me, and now she is ALREADY going home. These missions really do go by so quickly. Im nervous but Im excited. President told us he doesnt even know why he feels its necessary, but he got this prompting and he needs to act on it. I trust in my mission president and Ill act in faith. So Saturday was lots of planning for the next week (we had not even done weekly planning yet), and then we went out with our member Anita, because it was "Dan Mrtvih" or "Day of the Dead", where everyone goes to the graveyards and places candles on the graves of their loved ones. We went and put one on for Nikola. It was kind of hauntingly beautiful to see all of these candles. There was a large statue of Christ in the middle of the cemetery, and people who have had loved ones die in wars, or who died and don't know where they are buried, put candles there instead of on a literal grave. All the candles are red, and it was beautiful to walk through and see the whole place lit up. We have some pictures, but it does not quite do it justice. It was really great.

So now we are rushing around seeing everyone we can before I leave on Wednesday. We met with our investigator Dubravka yesterday, and she was pretty bummed I was leaving. Sister Lee still struggles with the language and so one concern she had was how she was going to talk with Sister Lee when I wasnt there. I just laughed and said she would get along just fine without me. Dubravka was really nice with the compliments yesterday. She told me I was fluent, which was nice, but really I had practiced our lesson a lot before we went in there. Sister Lee is also really good and really brave adding in comments when I asked her to. We taught her the plan of salvation. We also asked her to get baptized. She said "Da, ali već sam se krstila." "Yes, but Ive already been baptized"  So we asked her just to pray to know if this church and this life was the life that God wanted for her. She kind of said yes, and then ended up telling us a lot of her concerns and questions she has about religion and the purpose of her life. The baptism question really helped us understand more about her as a person and her needs. So we didnt set a particular date with her, but we definitely have her thinking about it, and we have a better idea how we can help her. malo po malo!

Also here are some things I would like in my christmas package: funfetti, ranch dressing, but also mostly funfetti. AND CHRISTMAS STUFF FROM TARGET. lots of christmas stuff. In banja luka, they dont celebrate christmas on December 25, the celebrate on January 7, which is kind of weird... Im still going to celebrate on December 25.  

Yesterday was also a great fast. I have been praying for guidance lately on how I can improve myself, and certain things Ive been struggling with. I have been looking for specific guidance from the words of the prophets and the scriptures, and I have been looking for some specific amount of guidance that I have found bits and pieces of in different places, and so yesterday, it was just me sitting and pondering and writing myself a pep talk. It was weird, I felt like I was writing myself a general conference talk, but I was just thinking about change and agency and the atonement, and wrote myself the talk that I needed/wanted to read. I didnt bring it with me, I wanted to type it to you today, but I can type it to you later if you want to read it. The thing I realized is that the Lord knows that we are going to mess up. He knows we are going to sin. He knows that we are going to have struggles with the same dumb sins and problems, and that is why he gave us the atonement. We are not supposed to be perfect now. And we should not -- cannot get upset with our sinful nature. We have to use the Atonement of Christ, and let that perfect us. We can't perfect ourselves. It was just a really great study time, and lots of personal revelation came.

Anyway. I love you all. I pray for you every day. :) I have lots of pictures this week, so get ready!

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