Week 37: Baptismal date, the Weather, and the Regular

Hello everybody! This week has been a crazy one, but definitely a good one. The weather started off by getting a bit warmer than last week, just enough for the snow to melt off. Then it snowed again. And then it got warm again. Apparently the seasons here last 2 days each.

Anyway, now for the fun stuff. On Tuesday we put someone on baptismal date! He's one of the investigators we've been working with for a few weeks now. We had a really good lesson on the plan of salvation, then asked him if he'd be baptized on a specific day in May. Then we changed the date around a bit so it fit schedules better, and taught him the Word of Wisdom. He does smoke right now, so we'll be helping him to quit in the following weeks. After that we had lunch, some other lessons bailed, did some contacting, and then we closed the night with ECG. Since it's the start of a new transfer, there were a few more people that started coming, but not quite as many as showed up the first time last transfer.

Wednesday we did some contacting, got ditched for a lesson, had burgers from the secret courtyard place (Lammel's), and then we had district meeting. After that we did our studies, and then did more contacting. We've been putting a bigger focus this transfer on getting copies of The Book of Mormon out in willing people's hands. I think we handed out 4 copies on Wednesday.

On Thursday we did some area book work and cleaned up our phone's contact list some more, and ordered sushi for lunch. A lesson whiffed. Later on, while we were contacting, Elder King contacted a guy wearing a Utes shirt, and turns out the guy was from Las Vegas. He'd had a few Mormon friends before, but never read The Book of Mormon. Thankfully I had an English copy to give to him. We explained Moroni's promise, and he said he'd give it an honest shot. That night we also had ECG.

On Friday while we were contacting we contacted a drunk homeless guy (though we didn't know either of those things about him until we were talking. And besides, everyone needs the Gospel!) and he ended up showing us his pile of cardboard where he apparently sleeps, and we gave him a copy of The Book of Mormon. We set up a return appointment for the next day, but he thought it was Thursday that day. We had lunch at Woki, and then there was an online video call for district leaders. We had a lesson with our recent convert, and had him pick out a friend to try inviting to church. About an hour after that lesson, we got a call from him saying that he'd invited his friend and the friend was coming! I love that guy. Also, we got an online referral! He lives between here and Banja Luka, though, so we're planning on visiting him on our way to Zone Conference this next week. Apparently he's already read the whole Book of Mormon on LDS.org.

On Saturday it was raining, and then snowing, and then it went back to rain. It really messed up our contacting, since no one wants to be in weather like that. We cleaned the church, had some lessons ditch, had our apartment cleaning check, did weekly planning, etc. As many productive things as we could find that didn't require us going outside. Our return appointment with the homeless guy was supposed to be that day, but he wasn't there.

Yesterday, Sunday, we had church, and since neither of the two people in the branch presidency were in town, I conducted and Elder King presided. I also had a talk. And played all the piano. And translated. Our recent convert's friend did come! It was great. We got to talk, and had a first lesson with him. He seems like he's on a really good path already. After church we did a whole bunch of contacting, and then some more area book stuff. We also had dinner at the Newtons' place.

At church on Sunday, McKayla Dreschler, a former ANM missionary, came to visit. Left to right: Sister Martineau, Sister McColm, McKayla Dreschler, Elder King, Elder Echols

As for today, apparently it's a holiday for Bosnia, so the streets were kinda like they are in "I am Legend" if you've ever seen that movie. For our 3 hours of contacting, we talked to 4 people. Thankfully, 2 of them became new investigators. Also, all of the shops are closed, so we're doing emails at the Newtons' place right now (thanks guys! You're the best).

So, you homework for this week is to read Ether 12. It talks a lot about faith and miracles. Pretty motivating, too.

Here are some pics of us at Pigeon Square. Have an awesome week!

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