Week 82: Russian, a Book Fair, and Football

Since we went to Belgrade today for our P-day, I really don't have much time at all to type. So, here's the 30-second run-down of the week.

Monday, after emailing, our landlady's husband and some repair guys came over to our apartment to install our neighbor's satellite dish from our balcony.

Tuesday, the electricity got fixed in the church, and we turned in Elder Heaton's papers for his Visa. After ECG in the evening we had a bit of a lesson with one of the older participants that has been coming to church recently. He seems open to our message, so we'll see what we can do.

Wednesday, we had a great district meeting lesson taught by Elder Decker, made a lot of calls, and then had a branch activity that no one attended.

Thursday we went with the Deckers to a member family home for a guitar lesson with the daughter. Since they're from Ukraine and speak Russian, I took the opportunity to talk to the mom and learn some basics of Russian. After that, Elder Heaton and I went to a police station to get permission to set up a table in the center of town to hand out copies of The Book of Mormon. The police officer that helped us was a really nice guy. I made tacos for lunch. After ECG we had another lesson with our older friend. We watched the Restoration movie with him.

The Novi Sad missionaries

Friday we went with the Deckers over to Novi Sad so we could help with the church's booth. As we got out of the car, Sister Decker got stung by a wasp. Apparently she's allergic. Though, miraculously, for this one time in her life, the sting didn't swell up and cause a huge problem. Apparently it wasn't even hurting by the end of the day. Cool. Also, it was really really cool to be back in Novi Sad again, after more than a year. I really like that city. It seems so alive. Anyway, we got to see the Novi Sad missionaries and help man the booth and give out some copies of the Book of Mormon.

The Novi Sad Book Fair

Saturday we had a lesson with our investigator that lives way out of town, and it was really good. Like I said a few weeks ago, it's hard for him to come in to town here, but he's really seeming to understand the message and take it to heart. That afternoon we went with Elder Decker to the weekly practice of Sremska's American Football team, the Legionnaires. I now know about 4x as much about football as I previously did, and we have some new acquaintances. After we'd gotten back from that, we went with the Deckers to visit the home of the landlord of the other currently-empty missionary apartment. He and his wife are really cool. Apparently he makes award-winning homemade Serbian sausages, and she's a doctor. After he showed us his "office" where he makes these sausages, we sat down and had a great discussion with them. Great people. That evening we had our branch game night, and though only 3 people came besides us and the Deckers, it was quite a good time and definitely worth the time.

The Deckers, some of my favorite people!

Yesterday we had church, which was fairly normal, helped Elder Decker get a video conference-call up and running, and then at the end of the night went to visit a member in distress. His father is dying and really in bad shape, and so we gave the father a blessing, and then had a discussion with the son for a while. He ended up wanting a blessing too, and so we gave him one also.

Today for P-day we went to Belgrade and did an escape room, which was awesome. Essentially, you solve puzzles until you figure out how to escape the room. That's the first time I've done one, and I really enjoyed the puzzles. We then got some food, and went to play basketball. Pretty chill, and it was great to see all those other missionaries. Plus, two of the Sremska members came along, and their company was quite appreciated.

And I'm totally out of time today! But, I hope you all have a great week!.
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Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia