Greetings from Slovenia!
I hope you all have had a great first week of the new year.
It's kinda weird to think that it's 2018 now, but I guess I get that feeling
every year, regardless of the number. But anyway, I'm sure you're here to hear
about the Slovene adventures I had this week.
On Tuesday we tried going contacting, but the city was
mostly still just abandoned from New Year's. Then we had some companionship
study, lunch, and then went and printed off a "Baptismal Calendar"
for one of our upcoming lessons, so we could get a date set for him to
potentially be baptized. Then we went contacting around town in the hopes of
randomly running into him, since we wanted to remind him about the lesson, but
he's really hard to get a hold of. While we were out and about, we got a call
from a different investigator that's kinda been in and out for a few months,
and he said he wanted to meet for a lesson that very day. So, we set up a
lesson. Turns out the first guy didn't come to his lesson, but the second guy
did, and he walks in and says "I made a New Year's resolution to be
baptized. When can I be baptized? What do I need to do?" So, we ended up
using that Baptismal Calendar for him instead, haha. He also wanted a new copy
of The Book of Mormon since he couldn't find his other one from before. I don't
remember if I gave him a false name in my emails last time I was in Celje, but
this time around I'll call him "Ender". Maybe that's the same as
before, maybe not. His planned date for baptism is currently set as January
27th (Elder Love's birthday). Anyway, "Ender" took notes the whole
lesson, since he has a really bad memory. I've never seen him take notes
before, so I think he's really serious this time, haha. It's great. Once the
lesson was over, I called the Zone Leaders and they were super excited.
Especially Elder Jensen, since he knows "Ender".
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| Me and Elder Jensen. |
That evening, no one came to English Conversation Group, so
we helped the Monsons take down the Christmas decorations in the church, and
then I worked on finishing up that end-of-year stuff that was a bit of a mess.
Then the Newtons showed up! The Newtons are the ones in Sarajevo that were also
there the whole time I was there, in case you forgot. So, we went with them and
the Monsons to get dinner at Stari Pisker, Celje's most popular restaurant. The
waiter gave me a menu in Italian. Someone near us ordered something called
"The Tomahawk", which is essentially an extremely massive steak that
they set on fire when they bring it out. And when I say massive, I'm talking
about 2kg or so. Anyway, both the food and company were really good. Quite a
good time.
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| The Tomahawk steak, all set on fire. |
Wednesday started with some more contacting, since our plan
to go to Ljubljana to get some finishing visa work for me done fell through.
After that, we went to the library to use the computers so I could try to sort
through more of that end-of-year stuff while Elder Love worked on making an
outline for ECG. While we were there, "Ender" showed up. So, we set
up a lesson for later that day. From there we had lunch and companionship
study. Our lesson with "Ender" fell through, so we went contacting
some more.
Thursday started off with a District Meeting that
miraculously ended precisely on time, and then Elder Love and I got Döner Kebab
for lunch on the way back to the apartment. That stuff is so good. During lunch
I finished my doughnut jigsaw puzzle. We did some studies, and then tried to
find a former investigator's place that doesn't seem to exist. We found the
right street name, and numbers 12 and 10, but we needed 6 and there were no
more buildings in that direction except for the train station itself. Weird.
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| My finished doughnut puzzle. |
That evening we had 3 people come for ECG, and this time we
set up a table so that everyone had a hard surface to use for writing. I don't
know why we didn't think of that before. After it was over, somehow our casual
discussion turned to the topic of The Word of Wisdom, which is the commandment
pertaining to health (see Doctrine & Covenants section 89). Then we helped
the Monsons clean the church before heading home for dinner and language study.
Friday morning we planned out some lessons for
"Ender", "Mary", and another investigator, then we went to
the church for the lesson with "Ender". He didn't come and his phone
wouldn't pick up. So, we tried to set up some more lessons, and then did some
contacting before lunch. While trying to set up lessons, we got a text from
"Jane", one of the people I knew from last time here in Celje, saying
that she was an atheist and that she didn't want to continue any further
discussion. It was really weird though, since we'd seen her just last week
before the New Year and she seemed plenty willing and open to meet up, and had
previously never been anywhere near an atheist. It was quite a sudden turn
around. So, I guess we won't be meeting with her any more. After lunch we did
have a lesson with "Mary" over at the Monsons' place. She gets the
whole baptism thing logically, and is really ready and understands a lot of
other stuff, but somehow the desire to get baptized just isn't there. We did
figure out that she'd be able to come with all of us to attend the baptism in
Ljubljana on Saturday, the next day. After that, Elder Love and I went back to
the church and I worked on the end-of-year stuff and FINALLY figured out what
was causing the problems, so then everything was fine. At some point
"Ender" called us and explained why he couldn't come for the lesson,
and we re-scheduled it for Saturday morning. And the other lesson we had
cancelled on us. Then we went looking for more formers! We did find one lady
that said she'd come to ECG this next week. She had a cute cat. She also got a
huge kick out of the fact I'd been in Bosnia, and then also Elder Love's name.
Then we did more contacting. We do a lot of contacting.
On Saturday morning we started off with more contacting.
Then we had a lesson scheduled with "Ender" but he didn't show up.
But then he called 30 minutes later explaining the situation again, and we
re-scheduled for later in the day. Then we had lunch and language study before
the lesson rolled around. We taught him the Plan of Salvation, he took more
notes, and it went really well. A bit later we went to the train station to go
to Ljubljana to attend their baptism there. We met "Mary" at the
train station and I got a lot of good language help on the train ride. We also
had one investigator ride with the Monsons in their car at about the same time.
We got there on time, and it was really great. All 12 missionaries serving in
Slovenia were there, and apparently we had 12 investigators in attendance
collectively. That seems like a pretty good ratio to me. It was really good to
get to see my old pals, like Elder Jensen. Plus, I was surprised to run into
Elders Criddle and Sharp who are currently serving in Sremska Mitrovica. I
guess they got to come up because Elder Sharp, in the last few transfer, helped
teach the lady that was getting baptized. And Elder Smith was there, Skyping
from the US! In any case, what a great place to be. Elder Love and I had
interviews with President Melonakos before we left (by the way, President and
Sister Melonakos were there!), and then we rode back to Celje in the car with
the Monsons and that other investigator of ours, but first we got ice cream. On
the way to the car from Vigò, the ice cream place, someone's ice cream ended up
on the ground, and it was really sad. Anyway, on the way back, "Mary"
rode in a different car with some other missionaries, at least one of whom she
already knew.
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| Me and Elder Sharp at the baptism. |
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| Me and Elder Criddle at the baptism. |
As for yesterday, Sunday, we had church. The lessons were
good, and both "Mary" and the other guy that came to the baptism were
there. I guess I could give him a pseudonym. Let's call him "Zed".
So, "Mary" and "Zed" both came to church. We had a good
discussion during class for Elders' Quorum about how to help members, who
currently don't come to church, so that they will start coming to church again.
After church there was of course some business-y stuff to take care of, and
then we went home and had weekly planning. The Monsons had us over for a
wonderful dinner, like most Sundays. It was a good day, but nothing too
out-of-the-ordinary really happened.
Your homework is to listen to or read the talk, "Tomorrow
the Lord Will Do Wonders among You", by Elder Holland. It's quite a
good one, and it mainly talks about the fact that we shouldn't give up. We get
credit in heaven even for trying and trying while failing and failing, as long
as we keep honestly trying. Don't give up!
And now here's a photo of my finished puzzle, the Tomahawk,
and good friends of mine. Have a great week!
--
Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia
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