So, last week we didn't actually end up going to Fruška
Gora, since Sister Smith had to pack or something like that. Anyway, this week
was really warm again. I guess that's what happens when it's summer, though.
On Tuesday morning we had a training meeting thing about
using Facebook for proselyting. So, now Elder Christensen and I are 2 of the 4
missionaries in this mission that can use Facebook. He and I help moderate some
of the church's Facebook pages. Honestly, it's quite a lot like normal street
contacting, but on the internet; we try to start good discussions with people
and get them interested in learning more, but we also have all the conveniences
of the internet like them being able to answer whenever they're available (not
when they're rushing to work and we try to stop them), or not needing to try to
get their phone number so we can stay in contact past those first 5 minutes. A
lot of people already post really good comments by themselves, too. It's cool.
Anyway, as we were leaving the church, a guy came up to us to talk to us. Turns
out it was the guy from my very first transfer here in Novi Sad back in October
or November 2016 that said he'd like to be baptized, and then never showed up
to the meetings we'd set up with him. He asked us when English was, so we of
course told him, and then we went to get lunch at a Chinese fast food place
that we'd seen a few days before and wanted to try at sometime. It was awful.
If you're ever in Novi Sad, don't bother getting the Chinese food by the bus
station. From there we went home for our daily studies, and later on we of
course had ECG. The guy from that morning and my first transfer in Novi Sad did
indeed come, as well as plenty of our regular friends. That was also when we
got to meet Sister Icke for the first time, since she and Sister Smith had
traded earlier that morning. After ECG, Elder Christensen and I went to meet
one of my other old friends that I know from the first time I was here in Novi
Sad, and we went out to get some really good burgers at a place called Toster.
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| Elder Christensen, using Facebook for missionary work. |
Wednesday started off with some clerical work in the church
office, and then going over to the police station to turn in my papers for the
renewal of my Serbian visa, but it turned out that the person I needed to talk
to was only going to be there at 2:00, so we'd have to come back then. So, we
went home for lunch, and then over to the church for district meeting. We kinda
had to rush district meeting so that I could get back over to the police
station in time at 2:00, but we did fine with that and I did get my papers
turned in for my visa renewal. Then we had our language study before President
and Sister Melonakos showed up for interviews! It's always good to get to see
them. Sister Melonakos got a kick out of the fact that I'm learning German from
Sisters Icke and Marinković. After interviews we went with President and Elder
Nield to get some dinner at a Chinese fast food restaurant (a good one this
time), since all the sisters from the branch were then having an activity at
the church. Then, at the end of the day Elder Christensen and I went back to
the church and did our first session of Facebook proselyting, which was pretty
cool.
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| The clock in the Novi Sad missionary apartment, with the faces of some missionaries who have served there. |
Thursday started off with some normal contacting, during
which we figured out where a place is to get Sarajevo-style Ćevapi. After our
contacting and some other business-y things, we went back to the Sarajevski
Ćevap place for lunch, and it was really good. After lunch and language study,
we did our Facebook work for the day, which included me getting into a chat with
a guy that frequently posts really good questions on the church's posts. The
evening then of course finished with our typical Thursday activity of English
Conversation Group.
Friday started with more office work, and then getting Gyros
for lunch before coming back to the church to do our Facebook proselyting. Then
after language study and some contacting, we went with the sisters to the park
to set up a display of sorts. This time, instead of a whiteboard, we mad a
little tower out of copies of The Book of Mormon. We got a few people to stop
and talk to us, and one guy told us his story and said he'd come to church.
Once we were done in the park, we all headed over to American Corner, where we
talk with local students in English to give them practice speaking with native
English speakers. That's always really fun, since we get to just relax and talk
with them. After that we finished the night by going with one of our friends to
get some dinner at the really good Mexican food place.
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| Our tower made of copies of the Book of Mormon |
On Saturday morning we went to the church to clean with the
Nields and the Sisters, and then practiced with the Sisters for our musical
number for the next day. When we finished that, it was raining, so Elder
Christensen and I took the opportunity to do our daily Facebook work, and got
some good conversations going with people. One guy in Bosnia even said he'd go
to church there. After lunch back at home, we went out contacting since it had
stopped raining, and discovered that there was a festival of sorts in the
center of town. They had a bunch of booths with food and souvenirs, plus a
little stage with some performances. We stopped to take a break for a few
minutes and buy ourselves some "Kuroš Kolač"es, or "chimney
cakes". Those are from Hungary, and they're really good. As we continued
on contacting, we discovered that the center of town, "Centar", kinda
looked like Disney Land. It was pretty cool. When we got back to the apartment
for dinner at the end of the night, I somehow ended up teaching Elder Christensen
a bit about Autonomous Differential Equations.
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| Teaching Elder Christensen some math!! Have I mentioned I love math? |
Yesterday for church Sister Icke gave a talk in excellent
Serbian for only being in the mission field for 2 months, and then the 4 of us
did our musical number, "A Child's Prayer", with me on piano accompaniment.
Then Elder Nield spoke and I got to translate. We had pretty good attendance
for church overall, including one son of a member who isn't a member himself.
He stayed for the whole thing, and our lesson for Elders' Quorum was again
about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. That same member from last time that
taught the other guy all about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon this time
took the initiative to ask him at the end of the class if he'd like to be a
member. I like how gutsy this guy is, haha. Our visitor said he'd have to think
about it, but he said he really liked church and we did get his phone number,
so we'll see what we can do there. After church we of course had some office
work to do, and then went over to the Nields' for dinner and our Skype calls,
since it was Mothers' Day! Dinner was of course delicious, especially including
dessert, but it was even better to have that Skype call with my parents and
sister.
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| A Skype Family Photo on Mother's Day |
So far today it's rained some, and we've emailed, and we've
decided that we're going to an escape room later. So, we'll see what adventures
we can get out of that.
Your homework this week is to tell your mom that you love
her! Hopefully you already did it yesterday (and today again), but that doesn't
mean you can't do it again.
Here's a photo of our district (plus a friend), an infamous
clock in the Novi Sad apartment, and the white-board remnants of my math lesson
for Elder Christensen.
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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