Elder Echols

Elder Echols

Monday, December 5, 2016

Week 16 (and 15) : Pie, Eggnog, and Belgrade



Hey everybody! Sorry for missing last week's letter. Here's what happened for week 15:

-We made a pumpkin pie for our English Conversation Group (ECG) on Tuesday, and they loved it.
-Zone conference was on Wednesday, with President Johnson. Really good to get to see MTC pals again.
-Made our own Orange Chicken from scratch for lunch on Thursday. We did that with a member we've been helping out.
-Committed an investigator to baptism in our first lesson with him! It wasn't his first lesson with missionaries though, so we had a bit of a head start.
-During ECG on Thursday we talked about what we're thankful for and each made lists. #Thanksgiving
-After ECG I was a part of an incredible priesthood blessing that branch president McAlpin gave. The Priesthood is real, and God has truly restored his authority to the Earth once again.
-Friday night we tried some of the sausages they have around here. They sell them like giant hotdogs. Pretty good stuff.
-Sunday I gave a talk in church in Serbian, and it went pretty well (though it was kinda short).
-Sunday night we went so some religious concerts with some people we've been working with. I didn't understand most of what the choirs were saying as they sang =P

And now onto this week.

I don't remember what day it was, but we made eggnog this week. We don't have a blender though, so we had to do it in a mixing bowl with an electric egg beater. As the eggnog mixed, it also grew in volume (probably tripled). We poured the foam into a pitcher (filling it all the way), and I scooped a bit into a little cup which I put in the freezer to try to make eggnog ice cream. The next morning, the pitcher of foam was 1/3 full, but now with liquid. I love eggnog. The little cup from the freezer was really good ice cream, but it was so much air that it just vanished when you ate it.

Monday, P-day, I got a haircut! First one not in the USA. Elder Jex got his first, and since I have no vocabulary pertaining to haircuts except the word for hair (kosa), I just said "isto", which means "same". So, I got the same cut as Elder Jex.

  
Tuesday night I went out to Belgrade/Београд with Elder Osborn for companion exchanges while his companion stayed in Novi Sad with Elder Jex. While in Belgrade the next day and a half, I went tracting for the first time! We did a whole apartment building with 15 floors, 4 apartments per floor. The whole exchange, we didn't get any new investigators, but it was definitely ok. In general, with the whole exchange, I learned a lot. Plus we had some really good burgers for dinner on Wednesday at a "Tex-Mex" restaurant ;)

Friday, once I was back in Novi Sad, Elder Jex and I did some more really good street contacting. Still no one that wanted to learn more about God's plan for us, but we got closer than any other time we've been contacting.

Saturday we had a really good lesson about the Atonement and prayer, and we went with the McAlpins trying to visit church members that live pretty far out of town. We hit some wrong addresses and people weren't home, but it was a nice adventure. At the end, the last person we visited was someone working at a really nice restaurant. That restaurant has a nice view of the river (though we couldn't see it, since it was already so dark outside) and has live music. While we were waiting to talk with our friend, we did end up ordering food, and it was sooo good. And not even very expensive, compared to restaurants in the US.

Yesterday, Sunday, I gave the Sunday school lesson almost solo, and it went fairly well. We went through 3 Nephi 11, where Christ first visits the Nephites. There's some really good stuff in there about repentance and baptism. After Church we showed a less-active member a bit about doing family history using FamilySearch. That's a website where you can track your ancestors and see what your heritage is. Pretty cool stuff. RelativeFinder is also a cool one for looking at family history. Apparently Elder Jex and I are 10th cousins twice removed.

Anyway, your homework is to study 3 Nephi 11! Suprise. It's good stuff though, and since it's getting into the Christmas season, it's good to study about Christ. Also, that reminds me about the Church's "Be a light to the world" thing that's going on. It's really good and a really simple way to bring the Christmas spirit, the spirit of Christ. I challenge all of you to look at it and do something special each day as a little piece of service.


Have a great week! God loves you.
--
Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia



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