Week 71: Transfer Madness, Christmas, and more Christmas

Merry Christmas!! This week has once again been kinda crazy, but that's ok. I'm back in Celje now! So that's good. Ok, here comes the recap.

Last Tuesday morning, we went with the Deckers to Caritas to help package up some gift packages for sick children. After that, Elder Criddle and I went back to the apartment and I did some of my own packing until a bunch of other Elders showed up as part of the transfer. We exchanged some luggage around, and then  I went with Elder Love (my new companion) and Elder Christensen over to Belgrade. We got burritos for dinner at the end of the day, and stayed the night with two of the Belgrade Elders.

In the morning on Wednesday, Elder Love and I went out to the car and found a parking ticket from sometime the day before. Oops. Then we went to the Slovene embassy for me to get my passport and Visa, and waited outside in the cold for 2 hours in a crowd of other people waiting. Right as we got in, our 2-hour parking ran out, so when we were done we had to rush over to the car and move it to a different parking place. Then we ran some circles looking for a place for lunch, and then a place to pay that parking ticket from the night before. The bank that we went to to pay it didn't take payment by card, so that made it a bit of a hassle. A few hours later we got back in the car and headed out in the direction of Celje. A few hours later we were passing Zagreb, and needed food again because we're human beings. So we used the GPS to try and find food, and it was another huge runaround for some reason. Since our phone was from Slovenia and paying for parking is by texting, I couldn't get our phone to pay for parking, but I asked one of the Zagreb missionaries to text in the parking for us. We had dinner at a food court at some huge mall, I burned my tongue on my food, and then we went back to the car to find another parking ticket. Apparently the parking guy got to our car before the text came in from the other missionary to pay for it. Nice. That means that I got two parking tickets in the capitol cities of two different countries in less than 24 hours. Then we drove to Celje, dropped off my stuff at the apartment, and gave the car key back to the Monsons. Celje is decorated pretty well for Christmas.

Me, Elder Love, and Elder Christensen in Belgrade.

On Thursday we bought groceries and did transfer planning, and that kind of thing. Just before English Conversation Group, we all had some cake that someone brought because it was someone's birthday, and then after ECG we had a branch choir practice to prepare for the program for Saturday.

Friday morning we did some calls and sent some texts to try to get some lessons set up, and then went and looked up some church members' addresses so we could deliver some Christmas cards from the church. After lunch we went to deliver all those cards, and of course since people are spread out through the whole city, we ended up walking a big loop around almost the entire city. A little bit later we set up a table in front of the church and put up a TV to play some Christmas videos as we handed out Christmas cards. After that we had branch choir practice in preparation for the Christmas program, and then Elder Love and I finished the day with language study.

On Saturday morning we again set up the table and TV in front of the church, and I think it was again successful. We had curry for lunch, then companionship study before we went to do some classic contacting. It was interesting though, since now there's not a companionship of sisters in the city, we can go into their half of the city. Then we went to the church early to help set up and prepare for the Christmas program for that night. Just before the whole thing started, we had a fairly short lesson with "Mary". Yes, this is the same "Mary" from when I was last in Celje. She seems to be doing really well. She knows she wants to get baptized, but just doesn't know when, and she doesn't feel like it's right now. Then we all went in and had our Christmas concert/program, and it was wonderful. Someone played a different version of Jingle Bells on piano, at that was really good. We of course also had some choir pieces where I was accompanying, and I also did 2 short pieces on accordion. A lot of people came, both members of the church and not, and it was great to get to see a bunch of people that I know. There were of course cookies and such, and people stayed around to talk a bit, and everyone seemed to really like it.

Christmas decorations in Celje, Slovenia.

Sunday we of course had church, and some members came that didn't come a whole lot while I was here last time, so it was great to seem them come. I actually also blessed the Sacrament for the first time in Slovene. Usually local members do it here in Celje. For the second part of church, Elder Love and I went with a local member to help with the primary class, since the regular teacher was home sick. It was kinda crazy, but we managed to handle them by playing some videos of the Nativity and talking about it, and singing some songs together. Once we got home we of course did weekly planning and such, and then went to the Monsons' for our Christmas Eve dinner, and since we had the evening off as approved by our mission president, we stayed to play some games with them.

Our little Christmas tree and a few gifts from home.

Monday was Christmas! But you probably knew that. First thing, Elder Love and I opened some packages and letters from home marked as "do not open until Christmas", and then a bit later went over to the Monsons' for breakfast. The rest of the zone came too. So, we had all 12 junior missionaries, all 4 senior missionaries, and then President and Sister Melonakos both came, along with their daughter. It was really great to see all those missionary friends of mine, plus some new ones that I hadn't met yet because they just got to Slovenia in the 2 months since I left. 

Fun with missionary friends on Christmas.

Anyway, we all had breakfast, watched "The Best Two Years" (with permission), played some games, had lunch, and of course all Skyped our families. There was a little bit of confusion on times for Skyping and such, but it all turned out fine, of course. It was obviously really good to get to talk with my family, even if for just 40 minutes. While some other people were Skyping, some of us played some more games, shared some family photos, etc. I really like being with other missionaries like that. After dinner and some more games, we all went into the center of town where they have the lights and big Christmas trees and little booths for the Christmas market and we all just explored a bit and took some photos before people had to leave. Once the other missionaries left, we helped the Monsons clean up a bit and then went home. It was a pretty good Christmas.

Skyping with my family in Loveland, Ohio on Christmas.

Yesterday morning (Tuesday this time) I made an agenda for district meeting for the first time ever, since this is the first time I've ever been a district leader (our district is comprised of me, Elder Love, and the Monsons). We planned a lesson, then had lunch and district meeting. At the end, Elder Monson drove us over to our lesson that we had scheduled with a member, and came with us. Even though it was kinda short, I think the member really appreciated it since he has a hard time walking or getting much of anywhere because of that. He had a bowl of these things that were basically mini cheese puffs, but flavored like peanuts instead of cheese, and as we left he insisted that we each take a fistful "for the road". Elder Love gave me us as soon as we got out the door. After Elder Monson drove us back to the main part of town, Elder Love and I went contacting some before English Conversation Group. Then no one came to English, since it was apparently the Slovene day of Independence and Unity (not to mention the day after Christmas). So after taking care of some business in the church, we went contacting again. One guy who we tried talking to said "I'm a Bosnian" and kept walking, so I took a few steps with him as I said (in Bosnian) that I could speak Bosnian. He stopped for a few seconds, but he wasn't interested after all. We did run into one guy that stopped and kinda debated with us for a few minutes, but was willing to take a copy of The Book of Mormon plus a pamphlet, so that's good. Then we got dinner at the Kebab stand and went home for language study.

Today we've done some contacting and emailing so far, and I also got a long over-due haircut. Like always, my language skills fell out of my pocket on the way into the haircut place.

Your homework for this week is to find a chapter in The Book of Mormon or the Bible that talks about Christ. Now, that shouldn't be too hard, but then you also have to read it and try to learn something new from it ;) Enjoy!

Here are a few pictures. Most of them are from Celje, but the one with Elder Love (and Elder Christensen) was actually in Belgrade. Have a great week! Merry Christmas!

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