Week 79: Slovene Holidays, Part 2

Before you ask, I do have information about transfers. That is that I'm going back to Sremska Mitrovica! I'm literally just bouncing between Celje and Sremska, to some degree. Also, I'll be companions with Elder Heaton, who was in my group in the MTC, so we both have a fair amount of experience on the mission. He's never served anywhere but Croatia though, so I'll have to re-teach him the Cyrillic alphabet, haha. But in any case, I'm really excited to get to serve with him.

It's really pretty when it snows.

So, on Monday last week after emailing, we went to meet up with a guy that's just been friends with missionaries so far. We met him at some café and just talked for a while about normal stuff, but then at the end the discussion turned to our beliefs about forgiveness, heaven/hell, etc., and so we just taught him the whole Plan of Salvation lesson, and then at the end gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. He's a really rational person, and asked great questions the whole time, and seemed to really understand what we were saying.

Traditional costume at the Kurentovanje (notice the missionary nametag, haha!).

Tuesday we went up to Ptuj for an event called Kurentovanje, along with all the other Slovenia missionaries and the Melonakoses. We got to look at some traditional costumes (and try them on), then we went in the old castle they have there up on a hill and some some old paintings and statues and stuff, and there was one HUGE sword in the armory that they let you pick up, which was really cool. 

A giant sword!!

The castle was sort of like a museum inside.

Me and Elder Zimmerman.

Then we walked down into town to see some of the festival stuff, and got lunch. Our waiter was dressed as a woman (this holiday is kinda like Halloween in the fact that people dress up in costumes), and a Serbian band came in playing music while we were eating. Then we went to look at a cool Catholic church before going to the very center of town where a band started playing, and some Kurents showed up. Kurents are furry, costumed-guys that have belts of giant bells. They walk around and sometimes pretend to abduct younger ladies from the crowd. They got some of the Sisters, and it was pretty funny.

President and Sister Melonakos with a Kurent.

Then we all went to get krofi, the doughnuts that they traditionally have at this festival. Since we all went to the same bakery, we kinda occupied the whole place, but we got to be good friends with the lady working there. Then we went back and listened to the band and watched people dance and it was really great. At the end of the festival, they put a fake man in a coffin and have a fake, comedic funeral for him, and then light it on fire, symbolizing the end of the festival.

Yummy festival donuts.

And now I'm totally out of time, so I guess I'll tell you about the rest of the week at a later time? Here are some photos!​

--

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