Week 59: Firewood, Burgers, and Conference

Hello again, family and friends! I hope you all enjoyed General Conference this weekend! And if you didn't maybe you should go and watch it right now ;) Watching General Conference will definitely help you have a better life than will reading this email. In any case, the weather has been a lot better this week, in case you were wondering. Very good weather.

After email last Monday, not much happened except that we got Kebab, which is the only fast-food place that we've eaten at here in Celje. It's pretty darn good. For our missionary work that night, we did a lot of phone calls out of the area book, seeing if long-past investigators wanted to learn more about why The Book of Mormon is important for their greater happiness. Also, that night I discovered that you can play a guitar like a Ukelele if you just don't play the two lowest strings (there's a guitar in our apartment that is missing the two lowest strings). I also tried playing the accordion upside-down; it was kinda rough.

On Tuesday we had Elder Jensen put together an outline for a discussion for English Conversation Group, since all missionaries make one. We also went contacting, during which time we ran across a covered woman, clearly of the Islam faith. Elder Jensen left it to me to talk to her, and turns out she's not from Slovenia, so my speaking Croatian/Bosnian/WhateverItIs helped. That discussion reminded me a lot of being in Sarajevo, where almost everyone is of the Islam faith. In the end she took a copy of the Book of Mormon in Serbian, and said she'd read it. I always carry a Serbian one with me ;)

Wednesday we had interviews with President Melonakos, and that was great. It was also of course great getting to talk to Sister Melonakos and everyone else while we were waiting. They're such awesome people. A bit later we had a lesson with that investigator that needs to get married to her boyfriend before she can be baptized. We're still trying to figure out how to work that out. Then we went out to the edge of out area to visit an older member that has a hard time walking, and so never comes to church. He's a really cool guy, and speaks slow enough that you can understand every word that comes out of his mouth. He also really really loves reading The Book of Mormon, which is awesome to hear. Even though he can't come to church, at least he's keeping up his reading. He had a well-used (well-loved) copy in Slovene, and a reeeeeally well-used/loved copy in Croatian that looks like it's been around for a long time. That night we heard from the sisters that one of their investigators didn't show up to a lesson, and then we ran across him in town about 20 minutes later. So, we called the sisters and told them where he was so they could come and help him show up to the lesson. Got him.

Me and Elder Sharp on exchanges in Ljubljana.

On Thursday morning the Ljubljana Elders drove here to Celje to start that exchange that didn't work out quite right last time. So, Elder Sharp and I drove back to Ljubljana, got a low-quality lunch at a grocery store, and promptly had a lesson with a semi-recently baptized member. It was kinda awkward though, since it was supposed to be with him and his girlfriend and we were going to set up a date for her to be baptized, but she wasn't there since they were apparently then in the process of breaking up, so we hear. But, we taught him about Repentance and how to use the Book of Mormon's index to help his studies. A bit later we had a lesson with a guy that's apparently a DJ from south America, but he speaks pretty perfect English. He had a lot of good questions and comments about the Book of Mormon, the history involved with that, and that he knows very firmly that it's true. We also talked about the logical consequences of that, such as Joseph Smith then being a prophet of God, and that the church he established is God's church and that the authority (Priesthood) necessary to perform ordinances (like baptism) that are essential to being saved is only found in this church (if you have questions about that, please ask your closest Mormon friend about it. That can include me). From there we went to the church to have ECG, after which we had a spiritual thought about commandments. A discussion started up off of that, and we ended up teaching all of them why we don't drink coffee, tea, or alcohol, nor smoke or do drugs. That stuff is part of what's called the Word of Wisdom, which is a commandment from God to keep us healthy. Again, if you have questions about that, please ask your closest Mormon friend about it. When we got back to the apartment from there, we realized that we left my suitcase in the trunk of the car, parked way back at the church. Thankfully the Ljubljana sisters were in a position to help, and so they drove the car over. They also gave us each an apple, and it was great.

The beautiful mountains of Slovenia.

Friday we headed out early in normal clothes and got on a train with the sisters to go out to the home of a family of church members. We got off at an obscure train station where the father met us, and then drove us up into the Slovene mountains/hills to their home. What a great view. We helped them move a giant pile of firewood up a hill and stacked nicely in their shed so they have it all ready for winter. In the meantime, the daughter came home from school, the mother was cooking food, and we heard from the father the story of how the family joined the church, as well as how he met his wife. What a great family. They also had an old friendly dog, and a friendly grey cat. At the end they fed us lunch/dinner (it was a reeeally big pile of wood, so it took plenty of time) and then the father drove us back into Ljubljana. What a splendid time. When Elder Sharp and I got back into town, we rushed over to the apartment, changed into missionary clothes, then rushed over to the church to show up on time for a lesson that didn't show up. So, we did a roleplay and went home to finish the day with language study.

Helping move a lot of firewood.

Lots of firewood is needed for the upcoming winter.

On Saturday we did some studies, then got in the car and drove back to Celje to finish the exchange. When we arrived, we went with Elders Jensen and Smith plus Sisters Brown and Crosby to Celje's best restaurant, Stari Pisker. The sisters split a burger, and we 4 Elders ordered 6 burgers, meaning that we each had a burger and a half. Man, those were some good burgers. Right after that we all went to the church for district meeting, featuring our honored guests of the Zone leaders Elders Smith and Sharp. While we were having that meeting, there was apparently a wedding happening outside, just down the road, since we could hear an accordion and a baritone playing music together, plus a lot of cheering, and then a lot of honking as everyone got in their cars for their honking-car promenade 3 times around the city. Anyway, after district meeting, Elder Jensen went home and had weekly planning, and that was about it.

Check out the size of those burgers!

Good food and good company.

Yesterday, Sunday, we headed over to the church first thing, and starting at 8am the men watched the priesthood session of General Conference, and the women watched the women's session in a different room. Since this church only has one TV, we men were all squeezed into the office, watching it on a computer, but it was really great. It was also really interesting how the language thing went this time. There's someone here in Slovenia that recieved and translated the transcript early, and he set up his own way to put subtitles on his computer screen, so he played the conference sessions with the subtitles in Slovene on his own computer, and broadcast that out to the other branches in Slovenia. Anyway, for the other sessions we were all together in the main room. We watched the first session, had a 10-minute break to have some snacks, then watched the second session. There was a fair number of people there, including some people who aren't members of the church, and it was great. Right at the end of that first full session, our young friend from ECG, "Phil", and his mom, "Jane", showed up and watched the second session. Apparently Elders Smith and Jensen talked with her a bit at the end of ECG on Thursday while I was on exchanges, and got her phone number to send her details about General Conference, and they came! They're really awesome. After the second full session, they even came with everyone over to the Monsons' place for a big lunch/dinner together before the 3rd full session. That was really good food, and some really good company. Also, "Jane" took a copy of The Book of Mormon to start reading, and she said they'd probably come to church next week too. Elder Jensen went over a bit early to the church before the third session and ended up teaching a member part of one of our lessons for practice. That last session had less people come, but it was of course still really good. So, at the end of the day we'd watched something like 7 or 8 hours of General Conference. We still need to see the last session, too, haha.

Beautiful Slovenia.

If you hadn't guessed, your homework for this week is to watch General Conference! Maybe you already have, and that's great, but if you haven't, you should! If you watch General Conference listening for something that you can apply to your life right now, you'll always find something. God speaks to us through Prophets and Apostles, and confirms the truth of their words in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. So, go look at the list of general conference talks, and pick one that seems to call out to you. Apply it in your life. Repeat.

Here are some photos of the Slovene mountains/hills, me and Elder Sharp in Ljubljana, and then lunch at Stari Pisker. Have a great week!

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