Week 70: Adventures in the White City...And Some Other Stuff

Hello everyone! First of all, transfers are this week; I'm off to Celje again! That's back in Slovenia, where I just was before coming to Sremska Mitrovica. So, this week was kinda crazy. A lot of good stuff, and a lot of unexpected, but not much bad. I'd call that successful.

To start of with, on Monday we ran some errands, than went to Belgrade for our p-day. In the process of meeting up with people, Elder Jones and I ended up on a random bus without the rest of the group, and got sent off to the outreaches of the city. Then we got on the same bus line going the other way and eventually ended up right back where we started. Eventually we all made it to a bowling place and had a great time. 12 of the 18 regular missionaries in our zone were there.

Bowling fun with the other missionaries!

Bowling in Serbia!

Then we rode some buses to get back to the church and such, got the car from the parking garage to drive back to Sremska, and quickly discovered that we had a flat tire. So, Elders Criddle and King changed it out for the tiny spare we had, and since all the repair places were closed for the day, we just emailed with the Belgrade missionaries, and then stayed there in the city for the night.

A flat tire changed our travel plans.

In the morning on Tuesday, Elder Jones and I went to a bakery for breakfast and I finished my Slovene Visa application form, while Elders King and Criddle went to get the car tire repaired. Then, since we were already in Belgrade where the Slovene Embassy is, we made a quick stop, but the doorman guy said they were too busy and to come back tomorrow. He wrote down my name as the first one for Wednesday. Then we all went back to Sremska, we did some business stuff, and then some random lady from New Jersey showed up at the church to say hello. She was a Presbyterian that had lived in Utah before, and had recently been living in Poland, I guess. Then we set up our table in Centar, and there were a lot of people at the skating rink there in the square. Eventually some kids started throwing tiny snowballs at us from the skating rink, so we moved to a different spot on the square.

The skating rink in the town square.

Our information table.

That night we of course had ECG. We also found out from the Deckers that one of our members got non-fatally electrocuted (it's a miracle that he's alive) while at work. So, he was in the hospital for a few days.

On Wednesday, Elder King and I headed out to Belgrade to do my visa stuff, since he knows Belgrade pretty well. We got there to the Slovene Embassy just before 10:00 when they open, and there was a bit of a crowd. We were up front when the doorman guy came out and started taking people. Since we were first on his list, he asked what what our deal was, I told him, and then he told us fairly loudly in front of the whole crowd that that doesn't exist. The problem is that I know that what I needed does in fact exist, since that's how I got to Slovenia the first time. He told us to go talk to someone else, we did, and that second guy said that he'd tell the first guy to let us in. Then we talked to the lady inside and waited around and found out some other stuff that we needed to go get, but thankfully all of it was possible to get in Belgrade. So, then we went and ran around a bit to get the things and fill out a new form. Then our phone said that it was extremely close to dying. So, we quickly called some of the Belgrade missionaries to tell them to meet us at the church in an hour with a phone charger. Then the phone died entirely. The only problem was that we needed to renew our parking, and you can only do that by text. So we ran around some more, got a sketchy parking spot, ran back to the embassy, and got there at 12:08, 8 minutes after they close. But, the doorman guy was there and he let us in to talk to the lady since she knew we'd be returning soon. So, we got all my Slovene Visa application stuff turned in. Then we realized that Elder King didn't have his nametag like he did earlier in the day. So, then we ran around town some more to the places we'd been before, looking for his nametag. Nothing. So then we went to the church, joined in on the Belgrade district meeting while our phone charged some, and then went to get a late lunch before heading back to Sremska. In the meantime, we have at least 6 people blowing up are phone for various reasons, and it was kind of absurd. Right as we were leaving the edge of Belgrade, something flew up and hit our windshield, and it may or may not have been Elder King's nametag. It went by really fast, so we don't know. As we got to Sremska, somehow we missed the exit, and it turns out that the next exit is 22 km (almost 14 miles) down the road. Oops. Thankfully we managed to pull a cool and safe U-turn thing at that next exit to avoid paying an extra 44 km (27ish miles) of toll costs. We got into town, got gas, picked up the Deckers, visited that member that got electrocuted, and his family, since he'd just gotten out of the hospital. Apparently the current went from his right hand to his right foot, totally avoiding his heart and not damaging any major organs. He has some solid burns on his hand and foot, though. We gave him a blessing, as well as some other sick family members. Then we went and put up our stand in Centar for a while before we finished off the night with some other random things that needed to get done. One of those things was setting up a miniature Christmas tree in the church.

Our mini Christmas tree.

On Thursday we got transfer announcements! Like I said earlier, I'm going back to Celje in Slovenia, right where I was last transfer. I'll be companions with Elder Love, who I've never met before, and the Monsons will also still be there. I'm excited to get to work on my Slovene speaking some more. Later in the day we got ditched for a lesson, we did some contacting, had district meeting, etc. We also found out that our investigator's sister died recently. The investigator whose name starts with an M. I forget the fake name that I gave him before. Sorry. Anyway, we set up a lesson with him for the next day in the morning so we could talk about it. Also, at district meeting, Elder Decker shined all of our shoes just to be nice. What a great guy. Then we had dinner, ECG, etc.

Friday morning we had that lesson with M, and re-taught him the Plan of Salvation, of course emphasizing the resurrection. Because of Jesus Christ, all people will one day be resurrected, body and soul together again, and we'll be able to see all of our friends and family members again. Though it's hard to be separated from loved ones, it's only a temporary thing. A bit later we looked up where an address is so we could go there for a lesson we had scheduled, and then went to the lesson. He was someone that had been taught by the missionaries before, and he was really nice, but I'm not sure it'll really go anywhere with him, since we could hardly get a word in. After that lesson, I got some information that my Slovene Visa will be ready on this next Wednesday. The original plan was for me to participate in this big carpool switch-around thing on Tuesday, but that won't work since the embassy has my passport. So, I called the Assistants to the President and got a new plan figured out. It turns out that Elder Love will be making it all the way over here to Belgrade. That's a lot further than most Slovene-serving missionaries ever get. Anyway, then we put up our table in Centar by the ice skating rink, saw our investigator "Danny", and set up a lesson for the next day. Then at the end, he helped us carry our stuff back to the church. He's a great guy. That night we went over to a member family home for dinner, and it was great. There are some really awesome people around here.

We love the people here in Serbia.

On Saturday morning we had a lesson with "Peter"and we taught him about some commandments, and he seems to be doing pretty well. He told some off-topic stories like usual, but it wasn't too bad. After lunch we helped Elder Decker with some paperwork and clerical things, and later on we had that lesson with "Danny". We talked about tithing, answered some questions, and then at the end talked about baptism some more. He's still afraid of what people will say to him if he were to get baptized, and how they'd treat him. Thankfully, some members showed up at the church right at the end of the lesson to start with something else, and we got them to tell their own stories of how they came to join the church and their overall experience since then. He's still not resolved on that, but he's coming along. That night we went with the other Elders and with the Deckers to go to dinner at a nice restaurant on the river, but then the whole place was reserved, so we went to a different nice restaurant slightly further from the river. They have some pretty good food in Serbia, by the way.

Yesterday was Sunday, and so we of course had church. It was really good, and since I'm leaving, I gave some notes to some members. I really like these people. After church we did some more paperwork stuff, had weekly planning, then had dinner at the Deckers like usual. It was also really good, like usual. But this time, Sister Decker made a traditional Serbian dish, Sarma. One of my favorites. From there we went to quickly visit some other members, and the visit wasn't exactly as quick as planned, since they also decided to feed us some cake.

As for today, we cleaned up the apartment and packed and such and had our apartment cleaning check. We also have emailed, as you can see. Nothing special.

Your homework this week is to read The Living Christ. It's a statement from modern-day Prophets and Apostles about Jesus Christ. It's quite a good read. We talked about it a lot at Zone Conference last week.

Here are some pictures from bowling and the skating rink and such. Have a great week!
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Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia