Week 58: Ljubljana, Surprises, and Accordions

Hello everyone!

So, the weather this week started off with even more rain, like it had been the previous two weeks, but the last few days have been sunny again, and that was nice. It's also starting to get cool enough that sometimes a jacket is necessary. I guess that shouldn't be a surprise for late September.

So, last Monday we were in Ljubljana because of district conference, and we were going to start an exchange on Tuesday with the Ljubljana Elders, Elders Sharp and Smith. We figured it'd be better to just stay in Ljubljana for an extra day then use up the time and money for train rides from there and back again. Apparently there's a Subway (the food) in Ljubljana, so Elder Jensen and I got that for lunch after emailing. I was so glad that they had meatball subs. Then we went to meet up with the other Elders and played some sports in the Ljubljana chapel's underground parking garage. Our original plan was to play Australian Handball like Elder Sharp and I did back in the MTC, but we couldn't find anywhere to buy a raquetball, so we did Ultimate Frisbee, soccer, badminton, etc. A bit later they had an activity there, and so we had a spiritual thought and then played a bunch of games including ping pong and telestrations (a mix between pictionary and telephone). Telestrations was even more confusing than normal because there were two languages going around, and not the whole group was entirely fluent in both, of course, so that was funny. That night, walking back to the Elders' apartment with them, downtown Ljubljana was pretty lit up. Huge crowds of people in Slovenia gear with vuvuzelas and such all celebrating. We heard later that it was because the basketball players that won the European basketball tournament were coming back then for a party/reception, and all the trains and busses to downtown Ljubljana were free so that more people could come. I guess they hit a record 20,000+ people in the main downtown square?

These bikes were up in a tree during a rainstorm at night!

In the morning on Tuesday, I went with Elder Sharp to start our exchange. To start off, we went to the chapel to teach a lesson, and while we were waiting some members showed up and gave us some fresh fruit for breakfast. That was a surprise. The lesson didn't show up, but we got some studies in. Then we headed out to go contacting in the main park, Tivoli, but it was raining so there was hardly anyone out at all. Then we migrated into the center of town and there were a few more people. We had some good discussions, but no one set up for lessons right then. At some point in this process we found out that the exchange had to end early, since Elder Smith needed to go to Croatia on Wednesday for some visa stuff. So, Elder Sharp and I got some ice cream at the infamous ice cream place Vigò there in Ljubljana (it was really really good) and then headed over to the train station to buy some tickets, and then waited for the other Elders to show up. Once they did, Elder Jensen and I got on a train back to Celje. At some point around here we heard from the Ljubljana Elders that they were then heading over to a surprise lesson with one of the people that Elder Sharp and I had talked to that morning. Apparently she also knows the Peruvian member that's in the branch here in Celje. Anyway, that evening we had ECG like normal.

There are lots of beautiful buildings in Slovenia.

On Wednesday morning we had district meeting. On the way there some guys from a different christian church tried to stop me to talk to me. Normally I would've stopped to talk to them, but we were going to be late for district meeting and Elder Jensen was way ahead of me and the situation just didn't work out. A little bit later in the day we had a short-notice lesson with an investigator that was apparently really solid last transfer. She still seems to have a good desire to be baptized, but she'll have to marry her boyfriend first, since they live together and have a kid, and that might take a while to actually happen. That evening we did some area book work, and actually got one guy from a sheet of potential investigators who we called that agreed to meet up. He kinda sounded drunk on the phone.

On Thursday we ended up buying groceries, since we couldn't on Monday because we were in Ljubljana, and later while contacting we helped an old lady carry her bags and even actually cross a street. Around then, we ended up briefly meeting up with some of the office missionaries, since they were driving through and had mail to give us. Turns out Saturday was going to be Sister Brown's birthday, so she got a notable quantity of packages. During the rest of the day we had just the normal stuff, like ECG. After that, Elder Jensen and I had Kebab for dinner (in Bosnia they call it Döner), and instead of the normal sandwich thing, I got a Jufka, which is more of a burrito shape, quite like gyros (the greek food). That was really good.

Friday is when some really interesting stuff started happening. Our schedule on Friday was really just only finding and one lesson that ditched, but it was ok since people seemed to listen to us and we had some really good discussions with some people. I feel like we did some good in the world. Near the start of the day, one guy we talked to was really interested in the different holy books of various religions, and so of course was interested to get his own copy of The Book of Mormon, and he said he'd read it. Also, it turns out he's co-workers with the mom of one of the members here in Celje, so he was already vaguely familiar with us. Later, by the river, there was this really awesome young couple that stopped and talked with us right there for something like 20 minutes. The guy had a really awesome beard. They were really good, bright, friendly people, and seemed really interested to actually hear what we had to say. They offered their own viewpoints, and we taught a lot of main principles, and it was awesome. But somehow, at the end of the discussion, they didn't agree to deliberately meet up at a different time. Later on, again along the river, we used the accordion that I've been borrowing from the senior couple's apartment to play some music. People seemed to like that, but not a whole lot more than normal were willing to talk to us. Later that night while we were tracting, a slightly older guy let us right in, and that's always unexpected. We feel like he'd met missionaries before, since he knew that we didn't drink alcohol and that Utah has a lot of mormons, but he also might've gotten that from a movie or something. He have us a lot of candy and peanuts to eat while we were talking with him, and he was really friendly and pretty funny. The conversation was bit disorganized, but we did teach him a bit about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and gave him his own copy to start reading. As we were leaving, he gave us a giant chocolate bar (250g) to take with us to split.

Elder Jensen trying out the accordion in our apartment

Saturday started off with some area book work, calling people, then some contacting, and then companionship study. During comp study we got a call from the Ljubljana sisters, Sisters Bennion and Kanell, letting us know that they'd be driving through Celje shortly, and wanted to sing happy birthday to Sister Brown with us, but they needed our help to make sure we'd all run into each other and still have it be a surprise. So, we called Sisters Brown and Crosby and told them we were meeting up with "2 girls" at the church in just a bit, and asked them if they could come. If we had a lesson set up with 2 random girls with Celje, that's exactly what would happen, so the sisters didn't think anything of it. Then I grabbed the accordion, re-figured out how to play the happy birthday song, and then we headed over to meet up with the Ljubljana sisters and surprise the Celje sisters. The Ljubljana sisters were fairly surprised and amused that I had an accordion, and also knew how to play it. Anyway, we successfully surprised Sister Brown for her birthday, and it was great.

And it came to pass that Elder Jensen and I went tracting. We got two people who said we could come back a different time, and one of them seemed actually pretty excited to talk to us, just busy at the moment. As we continued through the really tall apartment building, we could hear the sound of an accordion coming from somewhere. Eventually we arrived to the door from behind which the accordion sounds were coming. It sounded like a real accordion, not a recording, and whoever was playing was a total pro at it. When we run the doorbell, the playing stopped (I felt kinda bad for interrupting) and a slightly older guy comes to the door. I told him that we're missionaries, that we heard him playing and that I played accordion, and asked to come in and listen. He said sure and showed us in the door. He gave us some little cake squares and water, we talked just a bit about who he is, and then he started asking about what weligion we're missionaries for, and such. Turns out he's kinda Christian, but really doesn't like how (as he stated it) "most Christians have confessional but never improve, baptism to remit the consequences of Eve's mistake, and how a murderer can just pray for forgiveness and then be on the same playing field as a normal man." He had a strong belief in God's justice. He really din't believe in forgiveness of sins at all, but rather that we all have to serve a sentence of sorts for every mistake, and that is made possible by reincarnation. He believed that some people are born into good homes in 1st world countries because they were good in a previous life, and some people are born "in Ethiopia with no clean water" because they did something really bad in a previous life. Honestly, he'd actually thought a lot of this through pretty well, and had a few good points, but really just didn't understand mercy, the Atonement and what it means for us, or the Gospel itself, or how all that works together with justice. So, we read part of Alma 34 with him. At the end, he tried to give us 20 Euros for being good people and spreading good. He was very persistend about givit it, but we were very persistent about refusing it. Then I distracted him and asked him about his accordion. He brought one out of the other room, and man that was a nice accordion. Not the kind I play though, haha. Anyway, he said he'd read the Book of Mormon (we gave him a copy), and said we could come back at the end of October... we'll probably come back sooner and see what happens.

Yesterday we had branch council before church, and then church itself, you know. Since the Monsons, the senior couple here, had some relatives visiting, and one couple within that group is a temple president and matron, they spoke, as well as a local member. Good stuff. Also, "Ed" came to church (the one that was originally planning to get baptized on this next Saturday), and even though we couldn't meet up with him, we gave him a card that said "Call the missionaries!", since he has memory problems. Hopefully there'll be some time soon when he looks at it, calls us, and we can meet up with him right then. We'll see. After church we put in numbers, received a cabbage from a member, and then went to the Monsons' for lunch. With us, the sisters, and the 6 of the Monsons, it was a pretty good crowd around that little table.

 

We found these "American Cheeseburgers' in the grocery store. They were expensive so we didn't buy them.

Your homework this week is to read Alma 34! It explains pretty well why a Savior is necessary. Why we need Christ. It's pretty good stuff. Also, quote of the week: "The most sure way to have a really good idea is to simply have a lot of ideas." I don't know where it originally came from, sorry. In any case, I really like it, and I think it applies to a lot more than just good ideas. For example, good experiences! If you want to have a lot of good experiences in life, you have to have a lot of experiences! Don't be afraid of trying new things!

Here are some photos. Enjoy!

--

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

Week 57: Rain, Frankfurters, Ljubljana, and more Rain

Hello everyone!

This week it has been raining even more than last week. Thankfully it's not too heavy of a rain usually, but it just doesn't stop. My umbrella has been pretty useful recently.

In any case, Tuesday was kinda uneventful. Just some lessons that didn't show up, and a pretty good ECG. After that, while it was raining, we went contacting, but there was definitely no one out. So, we figured out something useful to do for the benefit of our area book. That is, we wrote down some house numbers at certain intersections. So, we were walking around in the rain, white shirts and ties, with umbrellas, writing down house numbers in a little notepad. I felt like we were Google Maps, but before cars or the internet got invented.

 

Wednesday, we had a district meeting with the Monsons there for the first time. I had a short bit of time to use on programming to help with stuff that keeps the mission office's statistics running, so that was great. Later on, while we were tracting, there ended up being a guy sitting in his car right outside his apartment building, with practically no pants. Apparently he'd gone to get something from his car, but forgot his keys and phone, so he was kinda stuck there. We let him use our phone to let his wife know to come home from work as fast as she could.

On Thursday we had lunch and the Frankfurter stand right on the corner, since we found out that it was closing down forever at the end of the day. Just went out of business. So, we had the last 2 sausages that the place sold. They were actually pretty darn good. A bit later as we were walking by again, we saw that the guy was cleaning out the dippin-dots (ice cream) stand attached to the frankfurter stand, and stopped to talk to him again. He ended up giving the leftovers for free. I guess that amount that we got normally would've cost 7 Euros each, even though the cups were about the size of a normal American portion. For a little bit of reference, that much money in Sarajevo would get you a full nice meal with fries and a drink. Good thing it was free. Anyway, ECG that night was combined with the sisters'group since we each only had 1 participant come. I think it's really interesting how much the attendance fluctuates for ECG. When we were contacting at the end of the night, we found a cool young guy that agreed to meet up with us, and he even asked if he could bring friends! (no one ever asks that, so it was cool.)

The next morning, Friday, we were contacting, and Elder Jensen contacted another young guy that was walking behind us a bit, and he ended up being super cool and agreed to meet up with us. When we asked if he knew of anyone else that might be interested, he said he could see if he could bring some friends when we meet up. Later on in the day, we went to visit the family of the Elders' Quorum President, the guy from Peru. Man, what a great family. Since they live in a different little town pretty close, we had to get there by train, including a transfer. While we were at their place talking with them, there was some switching back and forth between Spanish and Slovene. There was one part when it was in Spanish and I was whisper-translating for Elder Jensen, but then it quickly got switched to a very Spanish-y Slovene that Elder Jensen could definitely understand, but I didn't notice the switch and just kept translating into English for a second until Elder Jensen told me that it was in Slovene. Oops, haha. At the end we had to run out the door and be quickly driven to the train station to catch our train back. On our way out the door, we got handed a napkin full of cookies, and it was great.

Saturday was when we had that lesson with the first cool young dude that asked if he could bring friends. Turns out he was just a little bit too cool, and even though he did show up and brought a friend, they definitely weren't taking anything seriously, and it was a waste of time. They might have even come just to mess with us. In any case, life moves on, and we continue searching for those prepared to hear the word of God.

Sunday was pretty crazy. We got up at 3:30am so we could get ready and catch a train to go to Ljubljana for district conference (it's like Stake Conference, but there's no actual stake, just a district). I really hate early mornings, and I couldn't sleep on the train, so that was kinda rough, but the conference was really good. We started of with Priesthood session for the men, then the general session, lunch, and the "adult" session (but in a place this small, that's the same thing as another general session). A lot of really good things were talked about, and we had someone visiting from the Europe Area presidency (I think that's who it was... I don't feel very informed on these things), and it was pretty great. After that, since our whole missionary zone of 12 was there, we went into Center (downtown) to do some group contacting. We sang as a group, and had some of us go split off and talk to people. That was pretty great. There was one point when there was a guy basically preaching against us, and that was interesting. Nothing crazy, though. After that we all had dinner together at the Monsons' aparment there in Ljubljana (they're still somewhat transitioning between there and Celje), and it was some great food and great company.

On our way over to the Ljubljana Elders'apartment with them as we were walking through the city, there were dozens of people with Slovenia flags (and various things like that) gathering at cafés and bars and giant outdoor projector screens to watch sports. Turns out last night was Slovenia vs Serbia in the finals of the European basketball thing, and people were getting hyped. Based on the cheering we could hear from the Ljubljana Elders'apartment, I think Slovenia won.

If you all are keeping up with these emails, you might remember that we had two investigators with dates planned for their baptisms. As an update on that, it's looking like neither will go through on the days originally planned. We haven't been able to meet up with them, since one hasn't been answering their phone and the other doesn't have a phone. The one without a phone also has memory problems, so that doesn't help much. We'll figure it out eventually, haha.

One thing that's been on my mind since we were singing yesterday has been "grace vs works". That guy that was preaching against us was mostly saying that our religion preaches too much about works, and not enough about the Grace of God. Saying that we're trying to earn our way to heaven, and discounting Christ's role in it all. But we know, like he does, that no one but Christ has ever earned their way to heaven. We're just imperfect people that fall short, no matter what. That's why we need grace. A point that we disagreed is where we go from there. I know that I've assigned you this homework before, but like I recommended to that man, you should go listen to His Grace Is Sufficient, by Brad Wilcox. He talks about the proper relation between Grace and our works. Also, go ahead and read this talk by By President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, The Gift of Grace.

Enjoy the pictures...just some shots of what Slovenia looks like. Have a great week!

--

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

Week 56: Chinese Food, Stroller Moms, and Baptismal Dates

Hello friends and family! I forget if it was before or after I sent my email last week, but the weather has cooled off quite a bit. Suddenly people are wearing jackets and coats and gloves. I wouldn't say it's cold yet, but it's definitely not hot anymore, haha. Also, I forget which day it was, but there was one day this week when there was a parade of sorts with people dressed up in folk-type outfits, and playing folk music. #slovenia

A parade of folk music in Slovenia. So fun!

People dressed up in Folk costumes.

Last Monday while we were out doing some missionary work in a part of town called Lava, we went back to visit two houses who'd previously said that we could come back, and they both let us stay and talk! One was an older guy that gave us some cookies, and grapes from his garden. Turns out he's not really interested in hearing anything we have to say about religion, but he's definitely a nice person and it was a good visit anyway. As we left his house, we had a few grapes left to eat that we took with us, but we got to that second house that let us in before we finished the grapes, so I just awkwardly had this bunch of grapes the whole time at the second house (I couldn't eat them since they had seeds and I had no place to spit out the seeds). Anyway, this house was an older couple, and when we first got there the wife was making some peppers to freeze so she could use them later during the year. Slovenes really like their gardens, btw. Turns out that they'd met missionaries before, but never gotten a Book of Mormon or anything, so we gave them a copy and gave a very quick summary of the Restoration, how we got the Book of Mormon and why it's important. At the end of the night, we had dinner as a district (so with the Porters and the Sisters) at a chinese restaurant called "Dva Zmaja", which means "Two Dragons". It was pretty good. I've missed chinese food.

Tuesday we had lunch at the Porters' again (I guess that's been a regular thing for Tuesdays here?) and it was great. Especially the peach cobbler for dessert. Not much interesting stuff happened for the rest of the day, but ECG was a bit different. Only one person came, and it was someone that had never come before. It was fun, though.

On Wednesday we had district meeting, and I taught the lesson about working with members. My emphasis was mostly to serve them and help them strengthen their faith, since that will give them a greater desire to share the gospel with their friends. That afternoon and evening we did some tracting, and ended up running into a member. So, we gave a really quick message and let them get back to their studying. After that we had a lesson with "Mary" (that's not her real name), who has apparently been an investigator for a while, and we put her on baptismal date for the 23rd, so that was pretty cool. She seems to be doing really well. On our way home from that, there was a fashion show thing in the center of town, and all the ladies had strollers. It was notably peculiar. After dinner we had leftover peach cobbler for dessert.

Thursday was zone conference, and that was really good. The Maribor district of 4 drove through here, Celje, on their way there, and so we did some rearranging with seats so that our district of 6 could also get there without needing to use the train. Did I mention that they have trains here? It's cool. Anyway, zone conference was really good. The general theme was "finding", chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel, and one thing that was touched on notably was service and working with members, like I'd taught for district meeting. For lunch we had Chinese food, and I really appreciated it. And as always, it was really good to get to see other missionaries.

I got to see Elder Smith at zone conference, and his companion, Elder Sharp.

Me taking a selfie of Elder Hanks and Elder Mercer taking a selfie!

Friday morning we had a lesson with a guy that's been investigating the church for a year or so now, and he was really cool. He seemed to have a lot of really good questions. That afternoon we had another great lesson with "Mary" and we had a member on the lesson too. A few hours after that, during language study, my stomach started hurting really bad, and I don't know why, but the rest of the evening was gone.

On Saturday morning I felt better, so that was good. That morning when we went running we ended up running at a little track at a nearby school. I didn't see where it came from, but at one point there was a little kitten with a ribbon around its neck, just sitting on the track. Fairly unexpected. That afternoon we prepared some music stuff for the Primary Program, and then in the evening we had another lesson with that family that's a Bosnian husband and a Slovene wife. The language again was the same mix, of course, but it was fun. We re-taught the restoration, and I think they started to understand it a bit better. Why the restoration is important and what it should mean for them personally.

Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and got a personal answer to his prayer.

Yesterday at church we had the Primary Program! We the missionaries helped with it, and it was great. And even better, "Mary" came to church! She had to leave after sacrament meeting, but right then a different investigator of ours showed up, who I'll call "Ed". He stayed for the priesthood lesson, and even after church to spend some time with the members as everyone said goodbye to the Porters, the senior missionary couple here that's leaving today. After all that, we had a really good lesson with "Ed" and got him on baptismal date too! His is September 30th, so if they both go through on time, we might not even take down the portable font between baptisms ;) haha. Anyway, a bit later on in the afternoon we had another lesson with the same member who hasn't been to church for a long time. This week we had the lesson in the church, which is a big step for him. I think it was because of the rain. I think there's other progress that we're making with him really slowly. Since it was raining, for the rest of the night we mostly did Area Book work, calling people, and then played some Slovene Scrabble during dinner. As you might imagine, it was a pretty rough game, haha.

Today so far it's still raining. We went over to the Porters' to say goodbye and see if we could help them with anything, and played some music for them as a last sendoff. They've clearly done a lot for the Celje branch in the time they've been serving here.

Your homework assignment for this week is to study prayer. Why it's important, how we can better use it, etc. Some really good resources for that are "True To The Faith", and the Bible Dictionary. See if you can find something that you can apply to your own prayers to make them just a bit better.

Here are a few photos! One is the folk parade, one is a very absurd-sounding verse in the Slovene translation of the Book of Mormon, and the other two are from Zone Conference, of course. Have a great week!

--

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