Hello friends and family!
Another week here in Sremska Mitrovica has passed, and I'm still here! Not much
of a surprise there, though. Anyway, on to the interesting things of the week.
On Tuesday we got some posters
to advertise for our English Conversation Group (ECG) and went around town
posting them wherever we could, also trying to tell people about it. Then we
had lunch and studies before working on getting the computer some, since we
needed to finish putting the new one in. We also had a really good lesson with
"Miles", focusing on repentance. That guy really seems to "get
it". It doesn't even matter what "it" is. He just gets it.
Anyway, we put him on date to get baptized on November 18th, and he said he'd
of course come to church on Sunday. Foreshadowing: he didn't end up coming, so
we'll have to push back the baptism. That evening we of course had ECG, but no
one came, so the other Elders had their language study, and we finished the
computer thing for good, finally. That evening we quickly stopped by the
graveyard to see if there were any candles out yet for All Saints' Day, but
there weren't yet, so then we went home and did some work in the area book.
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| Me and Elder Criddle, in Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia. |
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| Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia |
Wednesday for lunch we called in an order to a little grill place around the
corner so they'd have our food ready when we got there, but when we did get
there, they said that we didn't call. Apparently we called a different place
with the same name... oops. We had district meeting and it was of course pretty
good, and then we went with the Deckers to visit a family in the branch. It's a
husband and wife who have a son that's serving as a missionary at the moment.
They're really cool people. Of course, they only speak Serbian, and the Deckers
are still practicing their Serbian, so I got to translate almost everything,
both directions. Live translating is actually really fun, though. I'm a lot
better at that than speaking for myself in Serbian. Immediately after we
visited them, we went to the building next door to visit a different family in
the branch, and it was about the same thing, where I translated both
directions. So in total I was speaking almost nonstop for 2 hours, haha. Again,
I really like translating. Anyway, at the lesson with that second family,
they'd brought a friend of theirs that isn't a member of the church and had
been there before when the missionaries had come and taught the restoration, so
we also taught the Plan of Salvation. Now we just need to get them to take her
to church! At the end of the night, the Tuzla elders (Elders Snell and
Woodhouse) were coming in to stay at our place for the night since Zone
Conference was going to be the next day, and it was one combined with Bosnia
and Serbia zones. Apparently they got stuck at a country border for over 3
hours. That reminded me of the time last year when I was in a car that got
stuck at a border for over 4, if I remember correctly. In any case, they came
in kinda late.
On Thursday we grabbed some breakfast from a bakery with them and then drove up to Belgrade for the conference. There was a bit of a crazy parking situation when we got there, and it was a mess, but somehow we particularly found a single free (i.e. available AND not requiring payment) parking space. Almost everyone else was late to the conference because of the parking stuff. Elder DeFeo from the 70 was there, and he was great. The whole conference was great, really, including the Chinese food for lunch. After the thing ended, there was of course a great commotion of people taking pictures and talking with old companions and such, and like always, it was really good to see good friends that I haven't seen in a while.
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| It was wonderful to be with so many missionaries during our special zone conference. |
We picked up some packages and letters, and
then eventually headed over to the bus station, since our bus wasn't for a good
hour or so. On the bus ride home, some random guy nearby started talking to us,
and apparently he used to be neighbors with the missionaries in Sremska, so he
knew generally who we were. At one point I asked him about his family, and he
showed us some photos on his phone, and in the end I gave him a "The
Family, a Proclamation to the World" that I happened to have in my bag.
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| I got to see the Newtons at our zone conference! |
On Friday we of course did contacting, phone calls, lunch, studies, etc. For
language study I read some of the Bible in Slovene, to try and make sure that I
don't forget Slovene. Right at the end of language study, our landlady showed
up to ask if there was anything that needed to be repaired, or things like
that, and so I had to of course speak Serbian. While I didn't have any problem
really speaking Serbian right after reading 5 chapters of the Slovene Bible, my
brain was definitely confused. I kept questioning whether or not what I'd just
said was correct, since I was speaking Serbian but still somewhat thinking in
Slovene. Oops. Anyway, we had another lesson with "Miles", and we
read 3 Nephi 11 with him, and he said again that he'd come to church. A bit
after that lesson, we crossed the river to look for some new people to talk to,
and we did actually find 2! One of them was a lady that agreed to meet us the next
morning right next to the bridge. That night for dinner, we went with the other
Elders to the home of a really strong member family. They have one daughter off
on a mission, and the other one still home, and the mom does some translation
work for the church. They're really cool people. I got to have Sarma again for
the first time in a long time, and it was great. Also, even though all 3 of
them speak really good English (the daughter's English is just about as good as
mine, haha), they spoke Serbian to us the whole time, assumedly because they
know that we love and need the practice.
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| My Slovene nametags came! I'm not sure I'll ever need them now. |
Saturday morning we of course went to meet that lady by the bridge, and she did
actually show up. Though, the meeting lasted about 3 minutes, since she
basically just ran off as soon as she had her free copy of The Book of Mormon
in her hands. #freeStuff. Then a guy came up to us to ask for money. Long story
short, we ended up inviting him to come to church on Sunday. After that we had
interviews with President Melonakos at the chuch, had American pancakes for
lunch at our apartment, and then later had a lesson with "Davis", and
he still won't read the Book of Mormon, but he had a lot of good questions
about Apostles. After that we cleaned the church with the help of a dear
non-member friend and the Deckers, Then we went to get some food really quick,
and there was another ordering mixup. Oops. To end the day off, we had a branch
activity where we watched "Zaveti" or rather, "The
Testaments" with Serbian subtitles. I love that movie. Our dear non-member
friend was there for that, and everyone (including him) was crying at the end,
since the movie is so good. I'd highly recommend it.
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| A scene from the movie "The Testaments" |
On Sunday we of course had
church, and that guy that asked us for money did actually come, and he stayed
the whole time. I'm not sure we're ever going to see him again, though. I
taught Sunday School, and it was ok. Like I said before, I highly prefer
translating what someone else is saying than trying to come up with stuff on my
own to say. Oh well. I think it went fine. After church we counted tithes and
fast offerings, since I'm the branch clerk, and then I got my last bit of
training to be Data Master. That is, I maintain numbers for all the branches in
the mission. I don't know what the Venn diagram looks like, but I'm also
mission clerk. After that we had dinner at the Deckers with the other elders
and that dear non-member friend, and he discovered that his favorite basketball
player from back in the day is Elder Jones' grandfather, who was pals with Krešimir
Ćosić back in the day. #zadarBasketball
Well folks, your homework this week is to watch "The
Testaments" if you can find it. I'm sure it's out there somewhere. My
favorite part is at the end when Christ approaches Helam, calls him by name,
then heals his sight. I like it because Christ already knew him by name,
without being introduced or anything. He knows each of us personally.
Here are photos, one of me and Elder
Criddle here in Sremska, and then one of my new Slovene nametags! They finally
got here! Haha. Have a great week!
--
Elder Ryan EcholsAdriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia
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