Week 62: Transfers, Feminine Dual, and Painting

Hello everyone!

Before I get too far, we found out this last Thursday about transfers, which are today and tomorrow. Long story short, I'm going back to Serbia! Specifically to the city of Sremska Mitrovica, tomorrow. I'm excited. Anyway, the weather this week has been pretty great again, though it rained yesterday.

Celje in autumn.

On Tuesday we just did the regular thing with contacting, and ended up going to a part of town called Lava. We also had ECG, like usual. Nothing particularly special.

Wednesday we did some contacting, had a great district meeting, and then went to visit two members of the church, a husband and wife, that haven't been to church in a long time. They were really nice and gave us juice and chocolate, and we shared a spiritual message with them about repentance, and it was good. Apparently they still read the Book of Mormon and pray every day, and it's just a situation with other members that's keeping them away from church. Sad. For the rest of the day we didn't have a whole lot else to do, so we contacted a lot. We even did some contacting later in the night, instead of putting studies and dinner later, and we remembered why we never go contacting that late: the city is abandoned. Celje is a small town that goes to bed fairly early.

Burek. One of my favorite Balkan foods!

Thursday morning was when we got the transfer announcements. Like I said earlier, I'm going to Sremska Mitrovica, in Serbia. Exactly this time of year one year ago was actually when I first arrived into Serbia from the Missionary Training Center, so I think I'm going to get some serious Deja Vu this transfer. I'm also really excited for Serbian Burek again (that's a type of food that you get at the bakeries that are everywhere). Apparently my companion will be Elder Criddle, and if I'm not mistaken he's just now finishing his first transfer in the field. There'll be a second companionship of elders in Sremska, and so Elder King will be our district leader! In case you forgot, I was companions with him 2 transfers ago. Anyway, after lunch we went to visit an older member that hasn't been to church in at least 3 years because he has a hard time walking, and doesn't want to ride in a car at all. He reads the Book of Mormon and prays every day still, but hasn't made the sacrifice to get to church in recent years. So, we read a chapter of the Book of Mormon with him, and encouraged him to come that next time on Sunday. What a great guy. That evening just before ECG we had a last-minute lesson with "Jane". She told us more about hard things that have happened to her in the past, and we basically just told her that keeping commandments will help her, and so we want to teach her the commandments. We also re-affirmed that the Book of Mormon will help her if she'll just read it. She still carries it in her bag with her literally everywhere she goes. I hope she'll take the time to open it soon.

On Friday we did some of the regular stuff, and took some time at the church for Elder Jensen to mostly finish up his outline for a session of English Conversation Group. Then we had a lesson with "Mary", and Elder Monson was there to help. We taught her all about repentance. Recently she's been very hesitant about baptism, and said that she doesn't yet want to be baptized. We taught her about repentance so that she'll  repent more, since true repentance leads a person to a desire to be baptized. We watched a short General Conference talk about repentance, and Elder Monson also had some great input, and it was a good lesson. From there we went out to Lava again to follow up with some people but didn't get anything.

Me and Elder Monson. The Monsons are wonderful and do so much for us!

That night when we were doing our normal thing of contacting, I ended up contacting two girls that were a bit younger than us. It's hard to explain why, but the Slovene grammar required to speak to 2 girls that are younger than you is very difficult, and that's the first time that's happened since I've started learning Slovene, so I had a fun time trying to speak correctly to them. Then we got Kebab for dinner, and during language study I finished reading our Slovene grammar textbook, and just in time to leave Slovenia!

On Saturday morning we went with the sister to help a member re-paint her late uncle's apartment in preparation to sell it. That was pretty fun, and it was good to have something out of the ordinary. We went home to change, and then had a lesson with a college-age girl that's been friends with the missionaries for a while. She likes hearing what we have to say, but isn't open yet to apply it to herself at all, so I guess she's going to stay as a "friend of the church" for now. For the rest of the day we had some of our studies, reviewed our transfer together, then Elder Jensen cleaned the apartment as I did some packing.

At church on Sunday I said goodbye to the friends I've made here in Celje.

Yesterday before church we had branch council, and then right as church was starting we had a few members show up that don't come very often, so that was good. But you know what's even better? You remember that older guy that we visited that has a hard time walking and won't let anyone drive him to church? He came! And with how slow he walks, I'm sure it was quite a journey. Everyone was glad to see him, and he seemed to be glad to be there. For the talks, I was assigned to speak, plus sisters Crosby and Brown, since we 3 are leaving Celje. I gave a short talk on forgiveness, including the fact that forgiveness isn't just for others, but rather it helps us be spiritually healed also. If you're always willing to forgive, then no one can ever actually offend you. It was also pretty nice to give the talk in just Slovene and not have to worry about also saying it in English (here in Celje they have a little translating set with wireless headsets, so Elder Jensen was in the back just translating the meeting into English into the headsets). After church we did some more cleaning and I did some more packing, and we also went over to the Monsons' for dinner with them and the sisters. I think it's great that we can fit our whole district around a normal/small dinner table. The Monsons are really great, by the way.

Today so far we did some more cleaning, helped the sisters get on their way for transfers, and got haircuts from Sister Monson. I'll be heading out tomorrow morning for Sremska.

The sister missionaries serving in Slovenia.

Your homework this week is to review another talk from the most recent General Conference! These are words specifically sent from God to help us here and now, so they're worth reading.

Here's a photo of part of the river here in Celje, and some Burek! Have a great week!
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Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia