Week 65: Exchanges, Pink Eggnog, and Old Slavic Graves

Hello everyone! Welcome back! I don't know if you went anywhere, but welcome back. This week, the weather was just kinda boring. Grey skies. Winter in Serbia.

So, last Monday we finished weekly planning since it didn't get done on Sunday, and then later in the day we went to go find a guy that we had a lesson scheduled with, but he wasn't at his store nor his home. There were some nice old people that talked to us on the way over there, though. A bit later we of course did our emailing. That's pretty much the only interesting stuff that happened on Monday.

On Tuesday we got with the other Elders to get some documents scanned for our visas, and then we went to the police office to turn them all in. That took a notable amount of time, so then we had lunch together at Tešić again and got ćevapi. That evening, a new lady came to ECG, and she's pretty cool. Apparently she's applying for a job on a cruise shop, and wants to refresh her English skills. After ECG we went with the Deckers to visit two members, a mom and her daughter. She had some really good questions, and it was more good translation practice for me when the Deckers got involved in the conversation.

Tuesday we had district meeting, after which we started exchanges. I went with Elder King, and Elder Criddle went with Elder Jones. After that, basically me and Elder King just did a lot of contacting, since we didn't have anything else to do. We talked to this one guy that really liked talking, even though he didn't really want to listen to what we had to say. He was pretty funny. Anytime he'd start walking away, he'd start telling us something else that'd keep him around for another 5 minutes. Elder King even got him to stay around to hear a joke before talking more. Eventually we finished the conversation, and continued on. We got tired of contacting after a number of hours, so we got some ice cream. Elder King ordered some mystery pink ice cream, and it ended up being eggnog flavored, I guess. Then we went home to do area book work.

Thursday morning, while I was eating a freshly-opened box of cereal, the cereal box tipped over and fell straight downward to the floor while upside down. So, about 70% of my cereal ended up on the floor, and the other 30% either landed on my bag or was still in the box. Oops. That morning Elder King and I went over to a lesson that the other Elders had, and it was an older lady that was pretty cool. Then Elder King and I had comp study before another lesson with "Miles". We talked about recognizing the Spirit, and it seemed to really click with him. After that, I did some work for Data Master, and Elder King started making a survey for us to use soon during contacting. Then we went contacting. Once ECG rolled around, we switched companions again so that Elder Criddle and Elder King could go to a member home for a birthday dinner. Btw, it was Elder Criddle's birthday. Sister Decker brought cinnamon rolls to ECG for him, but he wasn't there. Elder Jones and I had tacos for dinner after ECG before switching back to me being on exchanges with Elder King.

Cinnamon Rolls for Elder Criddle's birthday!

On Friday morning we had breakfast at the Deckers' so that Elder Criddle could have some of those cinnamon rolls. They were super good, btw. After that, Elder King and I did more contacting. Somehow we ended up looking at the big old gravestones around the outside of a little Orthodox church. Apparently the oldest church here in Sremska Mitrovica. The gravestones were written in really old Slavic writing, and it was really interesting to us. We met up again with Elders Criddle and Jones to switch back, but first we ordered some really low quality food for lunch. Elder Criddle and I had some study, some phone calls, then some contacting. He and Elder King were going to go to help Elder Decker with some service stuff, so I almost switched to be with Elder Jones again, but the thing got cancelled at the last minute.

A really old gravestone with Slavic writing.

On Saturday morning we had another lesson with "Danny", and we answered some of his questions. We also went through the talk from this October 2017 General Conference about miracles, by Elder Hallstrom. At the end he had some more questions, and we read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with him, since he hasn't been having the desire to read it at all. We had lunch with the other Elders over at Te[i] again, and then had language study before Elders Criddle and King went off to that service thing (football practice) that got re-scheduled. Elder Jones and I went contacting a while, including trying to find a guy that Elder King and I had met, but the store where he said he works was locked, even though the hours said they should be open. Then we went over to a different lesson. That guy was pretty old, and definitely an atheist. He said he wouldn't believe in God even if an angel came and told him to believe. He was nice, though. That evening we had a branch game night, and it was great. We played some ping pong, had some music, played some Uno, and had some desserts.

Yesterday, Sunday, we of course had church, and a lot of members showed up, but not many investigators. Good talks, good lessons. After church Elder King translated a meeting for Elder Decker, Elder Criddle and I did the tithing / fast offerings stuff, and then went home for weekly planning. After that we had a wonderful dinner at the Deckers', finished planning, had language study, etc.

The Sava River, here in Sremska Mitrovica.

Today we had another lesson with "Miles", and he's doing fairly well. Still having some problems with making it to church, but he shows up to lessons consistently. We also got lunch with the other elders, of course, and here we are emailing. That's pretty much it for today, besides our normal stuff.

Your homework for this week is to read that talk, Has the Day of Miracles Ceased? by Elder Donald L. Hallstrom. It's really good, and helps explain why good people may or may not get the expected answer to their prayers.

Elder King and a really warm coat.

That's all for now. Here's a photo of Elder King trying on a coat that he might eventually by, plus a panoramic from along the Sava river, here in Sremska. Have a great week!

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