Week 83: 10 Dinar, Rain, and Return of the Snow

As a little side note to start off, the weather was really good at the start off this last week. The sun was out and it was warm and feeling like spring. Today it's snowing. No, I don't know how that happened.

Anyway, on Tuesday Elder Heaton was feeling quite ill, so we stayed inside for a while to do calls and such. But, we did go over to the other (currently empty) apartment to grab some basketballs, in preparation for Wednesday's "sports night". I did some needed work on the computer, we contacted a bit, and then we came back for English Conversation Group.

On Wednesday we started off with a nice lesson with "James" (though that's not his real name), that investigator that lives pretty far out of town. We taught him some more about the Gospel, particularly repentance, and he said he'll be traveling soon, but that he'll use that time to read The Book of Mormon some more. After that lesson, while waiting for another lesson that never showed up, we saw an old man on a bike with his dog, a husky, on a leash. The dog was running enthusiastically, pulling the man along on his bike so he didn't even have to pedal. Later on we had district meeting, and at the end, some guy just walked into the church asking for us to pray for him, so we of course did. He said he'd come to church on Sunday, and seemed sincere. Later, while Elder Heaton and I were contacting by the river, a drunk guy walked up to us and asked us for 10 Dinar (that's about 10 cents). We're still kinda wondering what he'd even do with 10 Dinar. After some studies and such, we changed our clothes and headed out for the basketball court for branch "sports night". In addition to me and Elder Heaton, the Deckers showed up for a bit, and one youger guy came, who we know from English Conversation Group. Even though hardly anyone came, we had some fun shooting some hoops.

Thursday started with more contacting. Then we had language study until we got a call from the building manager guy. He needed to work on something in the church, so we had to let him in and such. While we waited, I practiced piano some. When he was done, we did more contacting, and at the same spot along the river we ran into the same guy that had asked us for 10 Dinar. He again asked us for 10 Dinar. A bit later, we went with the Deckers to that other empty apartment to clean out some stuff that's still there in the drawers and closets. Then we of course had ECG, like every Tuesday and Thursday, and then after we got home I made pasta again for dinner.

On Friday we went contacting, we did actually run into one guy that was willing to listen to us, and so took two copies of the Book of Mormon; one for himself, and one for his son. Then we went with the Deckers to visit some members, which was good. After that, Elder Heaton and I went into the center of town with our table and a whiteboard and set up a little stand. We put out some copies of the Book of Mormon, and wrote John 10:16 on the whiteboard. We actually had one guy that came over and asked us what the deal was, like what we were selling, and so we told him about Christ's ministry in the ancient Americas and how the Book of Mormon is how we know about that. He took a copy, and our card. Then it started raining a few minutes later. Since we were right next to a building, and it wasn't raining very hard, we just pulled our stuff closer to the building and that got it out of the rain. But, then everyone vanished and there was no one to talk to, so we just packed up and headed back to the church. That evening we went with the Deckers to again visit the owners of the other empty missionary apartment. The husband gave us more of his award-winning sausage, and the wife showed sister Decker how to make Gibanica (I think I spelled that right), which they'd fed us last time we'd come over. They're great people.

 

Who doesn't love pancakes for dinner? I think I made some pretty good ones!

Saturday was pretty boring for the majority of the day. The Deckers and most of the members were gone to Belgrade for a conference thing for most of the day, and we hardly managed to speak with another living soul the whole day, even including phone calls. Though, at the start of our dinner hour, while in the grocery store, we did run into two of the younger members that had just gotten back from the conference. It was great to get to speak with other humans. Then we went back to our apartment and made pancakes for dinner. Some lady that the missionaries had apparently met last transfer did text us out of nowhere, and we ended up getting a lesson set up for this next week. Right as we were about to go to bed, we got a call from Elder Decker saying we needed to go to the hospital to give a member an emergency blessing. Turns out it was one of the members that Elder Heaton and I had run into at the grocery store, who had since started having extreme abdominal pains, like appendicitis or something. So we got dressed again real quick and headed over with the Deckers and found them and gave the member a blessing. They are definitely going to be ok, but it's undoubtedly a stressful situation for the family. I was glad that we were able to do something to help, though. Anything at all.

Yesterday, Sunday, we had church like always, but there were only a few members in attendance, since so many people are sick or in the hospital at this particular instant. In any case, do you remember that guy that came into the church at the end of district meeting on Wednesday to ask us to pray for him? He did actually come to church! I had the opportunity to play a special musical number during sacrament meeting, which I quite enjoyed. Later, for Elder Decker's lesson, I also got to translate into Serbian; translating what other people say from English over into another language is probably one of my favorite things to do with the mission languages. Speaking on my own in another language is fine, but there's something oddly satisfying about translating someone else's words. After church we of course got our business stuff done, including weekly planning, and had a wonderful dinner over at the Deckers' place.

Today we woke up and it was snowing. In any case, we did some cleaning, bought some groceries, and had lunch at Pizza XL (just like old times, except without Elders King, Jones, and Criddle). I really don't know how the weather turned around again like that and turned back into winter.

Your homework for this week is to read or listen to "Achieving Your Full Potential" by Elder Donald L. Staheli. I don't know where Elder Heaton originally found it, but we listened to it this week, and it's great.

Sorry for not having sent photos last week. Here are some more from visiting Novi Sad last week, part of our trip to Belgrade, and pancakes from this week. Have a great week!
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Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia