Week 15: Mission Conference for Serbia, Bosnia, and Montenegro

November 28, 2016

Hi Everyone! This is Elder Echols' mother. Although Ryan didn't have enough time to send a group email today, he gave me permission to share a little excerpt from his personal letter to me regarding the wonderful conference he was able to attend last week! The area presidency did a mission tour and held a confernce with the missionaries serving in Serbia, Bosnia, and Montenegro. Here is what Elder Echols had to say about it:

"At the area presidency mission tour conference we heard a lot about setting goals and then making specific plans to help us achieve those goals. Also how to effectively extend a baptismal invitation, and we were reminded about following mission rules. One of the best parts for me was hearing from President Johnson, of the Europe Area presidency. He talked about the differences in the prophetic calls of Jeremiah, Lehi, Daniel, and 1 other prophet from that time that I forget. We started by reviewing their stories, and imagined them "opening their calls" to be prophets and finding out where they'd be going. Daniel gets one that sounds really nice; Lehi's is pretty good, but then Jeremiah and the other guy sound like they have a really hard one, and that people never listened to them. Then President Johnson asked, "so which of these 4 was the best prophet?" And of course it's obvious to us all how stupid of a question that is. Then he did the same thing with Alma in different cities that he visited after he gave up the judgement seat, some where the whole city was converted, and some where nobody listens. President Johnson again asked, "in which city was Alma a better missionary?" and it's again obviously a stupid question. And we're also starting to get the idea of where President Johnson is going with this. His point was, of course, that our call is different from someone who goes to Brazil or one of the other missions where each missionary gets at least dozens of baptisms. For our mission the average baptism per missionary per year is barely over 1. But that doesn't mean that we're bad missionaries. Every mission is different but we are blessed for our service."

As Ryan's mother, I feel so blessed that he has wonderful leaders who help him be the best missionary he can. He gets to have so many special experiences while on a mission. I know Ryan loves the people he is meeting and is glad to help and serve them in any way he can. He loves his Savior, and knowing the happiness and peace that has brought into his own life, he wants to share it with others. His sincere desire is to do what's right and help others be happy.

--Sister Rachel Echols

 

Week 14: Visas and an Early Thanksgiving

Hey everybody!

This morning we had a huge runaround trying to get stuff worked out for Elder Jex's Visa, so I'm short on time.

On Monday some other missionaries came to visit Novi Sad for their P-day. We had lunch with them and showed them around some. That's part of why I was so short on time last week.

Goofing around while sightseeing with other missionaries on p-day

Tuesday we had my first meal with local members! We had to take a long bus ride out to their place, and we though we were lost for quite a while, but then we magically showed up at their house. They fed us Sarma, with is basically meat wrapped in cabbage, soaked in sauce, and baked. Or something like that. Super good. I (deliberately) ate one of the whole peppers from the sauce. That was fun.

On Wednesday we got to go try and find a Referral that we got from online. He lives an hour's drive outside of town, so Elder McAlpin drove us. When we got there it was a bit of a miracle. We showed up at pretty much the exact time we needed to, and he was super open to learning more. First lesson that wasn't on the street! That was great. Finally got to feel like I was doing something worthwhile. We left him a copy of The Book of Mormon (in Serbian, of course) and some pamphlets. It's gonna be hard to figure out how to visit with him, since he lives so far away.

Thursday we had our Thanksgiving dinner with the McAlpins (senior missionary couple here in Novi Sad) and some members and other friends. That was quite enjoyable. After that we took a few of us to go visit the fort across the river. It was good to get to have some time off.

Friday morning I re-read Alma 34. I love that chapter. The Atonement is real, and Christ can truly help us. Also, random thing: in certain little corners of this city, I feel like I'm in South America. Though, I've never been to South America. This city is cool, though.

On Saturday while we were home for lunch there was a wedding promenade outside. Apparently here in Serbia the groom and his party drive around the city 3 times, honking all the while, go pick up the bride, then drive around the city 3 more times before ending at the church. This bride evidently lived in the apartment building across from us. So, we got to see the party outside on the street a bit. There were 2 guys in the group with accordions playing and singing. Also a pizza guy was in the group with a pizza to deliver.

Sunday we had District Conference, which was broadcast from Serbia. In the middle we had a break to eat a nice potluck lunch. When we came back for the second half, the sound was all messed up. It sounded a bit like chipmunk aliens. For you tech people, it was on their end, so we couldn't fix it. We ended up listening to it over a conference call, with the speaker over there holding a phone. Fun stuff.

Today we had a big run around with Visa stuff. Ate our whole morning. But we met another golden investigator today! So now we have two people that are actually interested in learning about the gospel, as opposed to zero. That's a good feeling. I know that what we teach is true and can really bless people's lives if they open their hearts.

Btw, we made tacos at some point this week. So, we ate better this week than we have yet.

Your homework this week is to read Alma 34 and think about what you can do in your life to better come unto Christ. I know that following him will bring you happiness and peace.

Have a good week!

-Elder Ryan Echols

--

Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia

Week 13: Exchanges and R & R

Hey everybody! I'm totally short on time today, so this has to be brief.

Notable events for the week: exchanges on Thursday, and our R & R meeting on Friday. And no, R & R doesn't stand for Rest and Relaxation. :) It stands for Return and Report.

On Thursday, I temporarily got to be companions with Elder Mangeris, who is awesome. He is a wizard at these languages. People argue with him when he says he's not native. He can speak with their accent. Awesome guy. While we were on the street, we actually stopped someone who listened and talked with us. He essentially had the same question as Joseph Smith, "Why are there so many churches with different doctrines, if there's only one truth?" We talked about the apostasy shortly and went into the first vision and The Book of Mormon. That was really cool to get to do. 

It is notably cold here as of this week, especially in the mornings and at night, of course. Last p-day we went shopping, and I got a big black missionary-ly coat. It has fur a bit on the inside and is really nice. I also got a hat and some gloves.

Here's me in my new coat I bought in Serbia

On Friday we had Return & Report in Beograd/Belgrade. That's basically a meeting to check on how new missionaries (such as myself) are doing. Really good stuff. I got to see 4 of the other Elders from our MTC district. It was really good to get to see them as well as President Grant, who we each had personal interviews with. We also got to listen to him and the APs talk to us about goal setting and stuff like that.We each went up in front of the whole group with someone else role-playing as an investigator, and had 5 minutes to briefly teach one of the 3 main missionary lessons, or about the Book of Mormon. We've been practicing that of course, since we knew it was coming. I thought it went pretty well. Got good feedback. I got a lot out of it.

This week's homework is 2 Nephi 32 and 33. They are short chapters, but they talk about how we can learn from the Spirit.

Have a great week!

--

Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia

Serbian Waffle Fries!

Week 12: Some Graveyards and Burnt Pancakes

So, this one's gonna be pretty short, folks. Sorry about that.

Tuesday was All Saints' Day, and so we went to visit some graveyards and see all the flowers and candles people had put out by graves. Most of the graves here are really big family graves written in plenty of different languages like Hungarian, German, or Hebrew. It was cool seeing how much people respect their deceased.

At some point this week we made American pancakes. They were pretty good, except for the fact that most of them were overdone. The first one was solid black on one side. Elder Jex was the one to turn on the stove, and I was the one to actually cook them, and I had no idea how high he'd turned up the stove. The pancake was way past overdone by the first time I even thought to check it =P We threw that one out.

Yesterday in church I of course bore my testimony in sloppy Serbian, and taught Sunday School with Elder Jex in more of my sloppy Serbian. Other than that, it was a pretty regular week. Sorry for how short this email is.

Your homework is to read Ephesians 6. It's one of the chapters that talks about the whole armor of God. Verse 19 is one that sticks out to me a lot right now. We each need to open our mouth and share the gospel with those around us, no matter how scary it is.

Have a good week!

--

Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia