Elder Ryan Echols: Week 61: An Artist, Two Serbs, and a Lot of Mountains

Dear friends and family,

This week the weather was really good! Like, reeeally good. Perfect, even. There were some days where the mornings started of foggy, but all the rest was sunny, but not too hot. Fall is great.

Fall is beautiful.

Last Monday after email we got Kebab, and then had a lesson with "Mary". Even though all three of us had fasted for her to get an answer about baptism, she said she hadn't gotten one. Anyway, we taught her about temples and ordinances, and it ended up coming back around to the priesthood and baptism, of course. The rest of the day was just the normal stuff. Tuesday wasn't very interesting. We did have ECG, and only one student came. So, we played Pictionary with him to work on vocabulary.

On Wednesday we ended up talking to a guy that lived right next to the Croatian border. You know, I've talked to some Slovenes that use a number of Croatian words, and I've spoken to some Croatians that use a number of Slovene words, but I've never before spoken to someone like this guy who spoke an even 50% of each. It was really interesting. I ended up giving him a copy of The Book of Mormon and a pamphlet about the Restoration. He said he'd at least read the pamphlet. Let's hope he does. Shortly after that we had district meeting in the park, and the sisters brought Oreos; it was a good district meeting. That evening we had a lesson with "Jane" and had a member in on the lesson. We didn't get to do a lot of talking, but she opened up to us about some tragic things that've happened in her past and how no one has answers, but she's still searching anyway. We did get to quickly summarize the Plan of Happiness for her, especially of the fact of the resurrection, and that all things will be made right in the end. We just need to get her to read the Book of Mormon so that she'll see that it has the answers she's looking for.

On Thursday morning we met a former investigator and his friend. And, when I say former investigator, this guy new the missionaries something like 20 years ago when he was a lot younger, about their age. Since then he's had plenty of contact with the church and been to Temple Square in Salt Lake City, but it's been a while since he's had much real contact with the missionaries. They were really cool guys, and both spoke near-perfect American English. And it also turns out that the guy founded a local church around here, and his friend is a pastor there. The meeting was mostly to get to know them some, but they were really awesome and I think we could have some good discussions with them in the future. We'll see what happens. The rest of the day was just normal stuff.

Friday we started off with a lesson with a long-time investigator that we've met with a few times before, and we mostly just answered his questions. He has some really good questions. A bit later we met up with the sisters and a painter guy that they know for him to show us his studio. I think one of his family members is a member of the church. He's a pretty good artist. Also, it turns out he has a didgerydoo (does anyone know how to spell that? It's a long tube thing from Australia used for making sound) and can play it pretty well, including doing the circle-breathing.

The art studio we got to visit with the sisters.

That afternoon we had a lesson scheduled with "Mary", but we couldn't find anyone else to come on the lesson, so we just walked with her around town a bit. While we were doing that some other Christian guys handed us some little pamphlets. It was pretty funny. At the end of the day we went tracting, and found a little street with some VERY fancy houses. One of the last ones was a lady with her kids that actually listened for a second to hear what the Book of Mormon is and such, but she didn't have a specific time that we could come back, so we left her a copy of The Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet, so she hopefully does some reading and calls us.

On Saturday we tried to go renew my visa, but the place was closed, so we did a bunch of normal stuff. Later on we had weekly planning, and then did some contacting more in the evening. We ran into to younger guys that were apparently Serbians. I had a fun time trying to switch back to speaking Serbian for them. Even though the one guy was kinda feisty asking questions about why our church would be anything special, they were willing to listen to my answers, and like always it just came down to whether or not the Book of Mormon is true, so I gave them the Serbian copy that I had in my bag and he said he'd see if it was devilish nonsense or actually something good. They were some pretty funny guys.

Yesterday was Sunday, so we of course had church, and it was great. A member came that hadn't come in a long time, and everyone was really glad to see her. We heard some good talks, I taught a lesson for priesthood and suddenly lost any Slovene-speaking abilities that I previously had, and after church we all had a branch lunch together. Elder Jensen and I did some contacting and such, and then there was a broadcast for the Europe Area from Frankfurt, and Elder Ballard of the 12 Apostles was there. He talked about miracles, and it was really great. I think stuff is going to change across Europe as a whole, pretty soon.

Today we had a big runaround of confusion as pertaining to my Slovenia visa, but the situation was resolved within an hour. We did some contacting and stuff, bought groceries, did a very small amount of emailing, and then hit the road! We went with the sisters and Elder Monson, of the senior couple here, to go to a place called Velika Planina. It's a place really high in the mountains with some great views. It also reminded me a whole lot of Lord of The Rings, in some spots. Rolling hills in the mountains with a mix of plains and trees and rocks scattered throughout, and I felt like an army of elves was going to come over the hill, or something. It's a really cool place.

Me, Sister Brown, Elder Monson, Sister Crosby, and Elder Jensen at Velika Planina.

Velika Planina is in the Kamnik Alps.

Your homework for this week is to read Mosiah 13, where a prophet, Abinadi, talks about Christ and why he's important for us. Keeping the commandments is good, but it's only because of Christ that we can be saved.