Week 89: Churros, Packing, and The Return (part 3)

Hello everybody! I'm back in Novi Sad again! Right back where I started my mission. Full circle. But, this time it's really hot here. It was also hot in Sremska before I left. Summer is here (too bad we skipped spring).

So, Tuesday was kinda crazy. We cleaned our apartment a bit, then went to the Deckers' for breakfast, which included some amazing American pancakes, and churros. So good. Then they came back with us to our apartment to do a cleaning check (which we passed, mind you). After that, Elder Heaton and I went out to visit that awesome guy that had texted us out of nowhere to ask for a copy of the Book of Mormon. This was our second visit with him, and it was even better than the first. At the end we committed him to be baptized on May 26th! I'll try to stay informed on how that's going. After that lesson we came home to try and squeeze in a quick language study, and then went with Elder Decker to visit a member that's been having a bit of a rough time recently and who'll be moving to Belgrade for work. So, we got to say goodbye to him, which was nice. Then we picked up Sister Decker and went to visit some other members. Our visit kinda went over, so then we had to rush back to the church to make it on time to do ECG, but everything turned out fine. After English, one of our participants stayed a bit, and ended up showing us some of his guitar skills. I can't even describe how amazing he plays guitar. It reminded me of the time in Sarajevo when we went to see part of the international guitar festival. It was incredible.

The weather has been beautiful...and hot!

Wednesday was slightly less crazy. We again started off with breakfast at the Deckers', though, but this time it was so they could invite a member of the Football team. He's a really great guy from the United States, and it was awesome to meet him. A bit later in the day we drove out to meet up with our other fairly solid investigator, the one who can't come to church because he lives so far away and there's no public transit on Sundays. We got lunch with him and walked around a bit, and it was good to get to see him before I left Sremska. When we got back we had district meeting, and worked on some translation stuff, and the rest of the day was pretty boring, haha.

On Thursday morning we went with the Deckers again to visit some members, this time so Elder Decker could teach one of our younger members guitar. It was once again really nice to get to see them before I left. Later in the evening we had one of the members come to the church so I could help her with some family history stuff.

Friday was almost exclusively packing and cleaning the apartment. So much fun. At the end of the day, the former Osijek Elders, Elders Christensen and Rosenvall, showed up so we could do transfers. The only problem is that they arrived late enough that they had to sleep over for the night. We were fine with that though, haha.

Beautiful spring in Serbia

On Saturday morning Elder Rosenvall stayed with Elder Heaton and I headed out with Elder Christensen so we could go to Novi Sad. After an oddly large amount of traffic between Sremska Mitrovica and Novi Sad, we arrived to our new home, and I managed to remember how to get to the apartment, and then even what floor it was on, even though I haven't even thought about that in over a year, since I got transferred out of Novi Sad to Sarajevo last January. We unloaded our stuff, then went over to the church to help the Sisters and our senior couple clean the church. Our sisters here are Sisters Marinković and Smith, and the senior couple are Elder and Sister Nield. The rest of the day included getting some stuff set up on the branch's new computer, and unpacking.

Sunday of course included going to church, and me re-meeting all the members that were here when I was here last time. Elder Christensen and I each gave a talk, and we all had a great Sunday School. The rest of the day included planning, our phone temporarily losing it's ability to make or receive calls (but it could still send texts), and helping the sisters figure out what to do for visa problems, plus doing more set-up on the branch computer.

One of my favorite places to eat in Sremska.

Your homework for this week is to read Mosiah 16! It's a short one, and hopefully you know the context because you did your homework last time, 2 weeks ago ;) Have a great week! Here's a photo of one of our favorite food places in Sremska, Tešić, and a cool town square.
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Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia