Week 97: Transfers, Summer Conference, and the Odyssey

Hello everyone!

I'm sure you're wondering about transfers (if you knew that the announcements were this week), so I'll just start with that. I'll be staying in Novi Sad for my last transfer! That means I started here and I'll end here too. Also, both of the sisters are staying right where they are, meaning I'll get to keep learning German on the side. My new companion will be Elder Bird, from Idaho. Anyway, onto the rundown of cool things that happened.

After our adventures and emailing in Belgrade last Monday, we rode a bus back over to Novi Sad, during which time it started raining. So, we were definitely soaked by the time we got back to the apartment, haha.

Tuesday morning started off with us trying to visit an investigator guy that hasn't been answering our calls recently, but he also didn't answer his door. After lunch we packed up some stuff in preparation to go to Zagreb, and then went to the church to do our Facebook work and some other business-y stuff. From there we went over to the bus station and got on a bus to Sremska Mitrovica. We showed up at the apartment that I lived in last transfer, and Elders Rosenvall and Heaton pretended to not be home, haha. They eventually let us in and we got some pizza for dinner at my beloved Pizza XL.

Seeing friends at zone conference is always great.

In the morning on Wednesday, the 4 of us slammed into the back seat of the Deckers' car, with the Deckers up front, and drove out to the highway to intersect with the Novi Sad car. I hopped out and switched over to the Novi Sad car with the Nields and the Novi Sad sisters. The sisters played Ukulele in the back until they eventually ended up playing Christmas songs and we turned on some other music, haha. When we all showed up in Zagreb for summer Zone Conference, a bunch of us played tennis with Sister Melonakos, who is a pro, and then everyone played volleyball. After that, we had some food cooked/barbecued by the wonderful senior missionaries in attendance, and then went down to a huge park for more games. There was kickball, ultimate frisbee, and even spikeball. Once it was getting to the evening, we all went back up the hill to the mission home and had rootbeer floats before a comical fireside. We had a few performances, including the Assistants to the President introducing a song that they wrote about the mission. Elder Christensen and I, along with Sisters Icke and Marinković, performed the song "Gospel Rap". I think it's by James the Mormon. That was fun.

Missionaries practicing a musical number.

In the morning, more people played some tennis, we had a nice breakfast all together, and then Zone Conference itself began. All of the presentations were really good, but my favorite part was probably transfer announcements, haha. Usually transfer assignments are sent out by email. This time, we had a huge video call with everyone across the mission and President Melonakos read out names 1 by 1. That was pretty cool. Anyway, after all of our good studying and stuff, Elder Christensen gave his departing testimony, and that was the end of Zone Conference. But, when we went outside to start loading up vehicles to depart, we discovered a certain Jessa Locey (someone that served here as a sister missionary, including in Sarajevo at the same time as me, that got home about 6 months ago) and her family. It was really cool to see her again, and Sister Mom Locey went around taking pictures of missionaries and sending them to their mothers, which was pretty funny. Then began the odyssey.

Sister Locey and I served together in Sarajevo last year.

Sister Orchard and I also served together in Sarajevo.

The first part wasn't too interesting. We just loaded up in the cars we were in as we came to Zagreb and headed out the way we came. When we got near Sremska, we stopped at that abandoned hotel on the side of the highway where Elder Jones fell in an uncovered manhole at transfers in October. I hopped in the Sremska car in the back row with 3 other elders. The Novi Sad car continued onto Novi Sad, but we pulled into Sremska to see if there was a bus headed to Novi Sad. The last one for the day had left more than an hour before that. Oops. We did find out in advance that there was a bus in the morning at 9:15. So, Elder Christensen and I went with the Sremska elders to get food at Tešić, and it turns out that some other elders (including Elder Jones) were there getting dinner before continuing on their way. So, Elder Christensen and I spent yet another night in Sremska.

On Friday morning we had Elders Heaton and Rosenvall drive us up to the bus station, and got there at 8:45 or so. We bought two tickes for "the soonest bus to Novi Sad". Somehow that was at 9:45. Weird. So, we waited around for an hour, got on a bus, and then rode the bus for an hour back to Novi Sad. Eventually we got back home and dumped our stuff before having lunch and then doing our Facebook work. Then we helped prepare for our branch barbecue! When people started showing up, it was great. A pretty solid number of people showed up, including someone that I'd talked to on Facebook! Apparently she'd come to church a long time ago and knew a lot of people back then. It was really good to have a bunch of people all together like that socializing.

Saturday morning started off with church cleaning like normal, but this one also included some guys showing up to check our fire extinguishers. After doing some work as Data Master and then getting lunch at Gyros Master, we went home for Elder Christensen to pack some and for us to clean the apartment. I also happened to throw a cake in the oven. The Nields came over to do cleaning check, and then we went with them to the church. I brought the cake. We helped Elder Nield assemble a new lawn mower, and then did our Facebook work before the sisters' German class started. They had another really good turnout. After that, I stuck 2 candles in the cake, lit it up, and we had Elder Christensen blow them out. Happy 2 years!

The cake I made to celebrate Elder Christensen finishing his mission!

On Sunday we of course went to church, which was great as always. Elder Christensen gave another departing testimony, and then the sisters surprised him with their special musical number, which was "God Be With You 'til We Meet Again". After church we of course did some paperwork stuff like every week, and then went home for our studies. We had a great Final Supper over at the Nields' for Elder Christensen, and then went back home for him to finish packing.

Me and Elder Christensen. He will be at BYU in the fall, so I will get to see him again then!

As for today, Monday, we got up and printed off some emails to look at in the car, and then we drove to Belgrade. We picked up some luggage and a passenger (Elder Koncurat) to go over to Zagreb. So, another journey has begun. We'll see how long it takes to get back to Novi Sad this time, haha.

Your homework this week is to read Enos. Chapter 1. All of it. This week at zone conference we talked a lot about repentance. Enos is a really good example of true repentance. Also, praying is really good.

Enos praying in the wilderness

Here are some photos! Have a great week!
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Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia