Week 102: The Last Zone Conference, Busses, and a Visa

Hello friends! I hope you're doing well and having a good time in life =) This week the weather here has been really quite warm. I guess the fullness of summer has finally arrived, haha.

In any case, on Tuesday it was actually raining a fair amount, so we made some calls to try to set up lessons, and someone agreed! So we set that up for Saturday. That evening we of course had English Conversation Group like every Tuesday and Thursday, which was great =) We're pretty good friends with all of those people, since they're all quite regular by now.

Wednesday started off with some contacting, and we met one guy pretty quick that said he was an atheist, but listened to what we had to say anyway, and took a card. I appreciate people who are willing to listen to new opinions, even if they don't agree. He was cool. That afternoon, President and Sister Melonakos showed up with their daughter Laura so we could have interviews with President. While we each had our interviews, the rest of us played ping pong and practiced putting some serious spin on the ball. When all of our interviews were done, our whole group went to a place called Bajka for lunch. Why? Because some of us had been there before and knew that they have awesome pizza! Somehow we ended up telling riddles over lunch, which was pretty fun. After the Melonakoses (Melonaki? haha) had left and the rest of us had had some studies, we tried to have our Book of Mormon class for people from the branch, but yet again, no one showed up. Oops.

As for Thursday, our morning was taken up by business stuff, including district meeting which was of course good. After that we got some Chinese food for lunch, used our language study to translate an article that needed to get translated, and then a bit later we had a little lesson with "John", who's planning on being baptized this coming week! We reviewed all the commandments, and went over some details for the baptism itself. We're pretty excited! That evening, after having English Conversation Group, we got dinner at the legendary Waffle Boss. The lady that runs that place definitely knows us by now, haha.

Since Friday was Zone Conference, we had to get a bus to get to Belgrade. The plan was for Zone Conference to start at 10:30. So, we got to the bus station around 8:30 and asked about bus times. The lady said that there were busses right then that use "the old roads" that'd arrive in Belgrade at about 10:30, or there was one at 9:00 that uses the highway and would arrive in Belgrade an hour later, at 10:00. So, somehow it made more sense to wait around a bit and take the later bus so we'd arrive sooner and on time. The bus came, we got on it, we departed from Novi Sad on time, and we arrived in Belgrade at 10:30... so we were late for Zone Conference. Nice. In any case, Zone Conference was really good. Especially the part where we had Chinese food for lunch and I got to talk to my good friends Elder Zimmerman and Elder Jensen, haha. Since this was my last Zone Conference, that meant that I had the chance to give my "departing testimony" for everyone. Since the group of us going home at the end of this transfer is pretty big, there were 2 senior missionary couples that gave departing testimonies, and 3 other junior missionaries to do the same, just from this zone. After the whole thing, when we all eventually got out the door and Elder Bird and I got to the bus station, we again had the choice of taking a bus that uses "the old roads" or one that takes the highway. This time the choice was waiting for 15 minutes for the "old roads" bus, or and hour for the highway one. So, we took the "old roads" bus. It didn't have any air conditioning, and it took a really long time. That wasn't very fun =P

On Saturday morning we of course cleaned the church with the Nields and the sisters, and then we planned how to introduce Ministering to our members here during church. After getting Gyros for lunch, Elder Bird and I did some of our studies, and then our lesson fell through. Snap. That evening the Sisters had their German class which was great as always. After that we had a branch financial audit, and since I'm the branch clerk I had to of course stick around to do paperwork things. It was quite a party.

Yesterday, Sunday, on the walk to church, a lady asked us if we were Jehova's Witnesses. We told her no and tried to start a conversation, but she wasn't interested, I guess. For sacrament meeting I played piano like usual, and the sisters had a special musical number that was great. Since we had an extra senior missionary couple, the Mayberries, and they spoke for our sacrament meeting, I ended up translating for them. Even when it's really hard, I really like translating. As for Sunday school and everything else, we talked to everyone about Ministering. That is, the system that the church has to make sure that everyone is being taken care of, and make sure that everyone is ok both physically and spiritually. In any case, that evening we again had a wonderful dinner at the Nields' place, including the delicacy known as rootbeer floats.

As for today, so far we've gone on a little trip to Belgrade to get some stuff sorted out with Elder Bird's visa... but we got to see Elders Beck and Jensen! I also got a cool Serbia t-shirt. When we got back, we did our emailing and talked with "John" a bit. We also got burritos! Novi Sad has some great food.

Your homework for this week is to read 3 Nephi 27. That's another chapter when Christ is teaching the people in the ancient Americas. Something that he talks about is why we call it "The Church of Jesus Christ", and also how we can take His name upon ourselves, and what that even means.

Here are some photos! One is from playing ping pong last P-day, and the other one is from Zone Conference! Talk to you next week!

--

Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia

Week 101: Rootbeer, Black Pen, and Pioneers

 

Hey everybody! I hope you all are doing well and that you've had good weather wherever you are. Thankfully we've had good weather here in Novi Sad =)

So, on Tuesday this week we did some calls to try to set up lessons, and we got one set up with a member that we haven't seen in a few weeks. We set it for Thursday. I also called a guy who lives in Subotica and apparently wants a Hungarian copy of the Book of Mormon. So, we'll see what we can do about that. During lunch, we got a call back from that member asking if we could meet that day, instead of on Thursday, so we set a time for later that day. Elder Bird and I went to the church to do some studies before that, but then our member friend showed up 45 minutes early! I guess he just couldn't wait to see us, haha. We read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with him, and then finished our studies. When we did our Facebook work, I ended up talking with a guy from Sarajevo that opened up a fair amount. We're planning on him meeting with missionaries there as soon as he gets back in town to Sarajevo. For English group that evening, we had a pretty interesting discussion. Somehow it ended up on politics, which is of course often a touchy subject, and it kinda got heated. I think everyone is still friends, though, haha. When we were getting dinner after that, we saw one of the sisters' investigators yet again (we see him almost every single day) riding past on his bike. He saw us, came skidding to a stop, and then came back to talk to us for a bit. I'm going to call him "Shawn".

On Wednesday we went to the MUP (police station) to turn in Elder Bird's visa papers. That place is always pretty crazy, but it wasn't too bad this time. That afternoon we had district meeting with the Nields and the sisters, and Sister Icke gave a wonderful lesson on the Atonement, including references to my #1 most favorite talk, "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. Also, since the Nields like feeding us delicious things, we had rootbeer floats. Later, for language study, I started translating an article thing about pioneers into Serbian, in preparation for pioneer day. I really like translating, since it does so many things at once. It helps me figure out grammar stuff and use more words, but I think it also helps me to better understand the original English content. "The effort to translate, or to improve a translation, is valuable, not so much for the version it produces, as for the understanding of the original which it awakes." --J.R.R. Tolkien

ANM missionaries at the Ikea in Zagreb, Croatia during the last transfer

In any case, on Thursday my blue pen ran out of ink and I couldn't find another blue pen, so I started writing in my journal with black ink for the first time on my mission. That morning we had to get another official paper copied and turned into the MUP for Elder Bird's visa, but that didn't take too long. That afternoon we figured out some business stuff, and then Elder Bird and I had our Facebook work. Something cool happened with that: someone sent us a message seemingly out of nowhere asking to meet with missionaries in Belgrade the next day. So, I of course got that set up really quick and it was great. For language study I finished translating that article thing about pioneers, and then we had English. Though we had dinner at Waffle Boss, where we most often run into "Shawn", we didn't find him that night.

For Friday we helped the Nields prepare some stuff for our branch Pioneer Day party that we were going to have that day, and then Elder Bird and I had ramen for lunch. Then we tried visiting one of our old investigators here that seemingly vanished a few months ago, but he still wasn't there. I think he moved. Anyway, for the activity that evening, we had ordered some food from a nearby place, so we went to pick that up and then finished setting up the church. The sisters had made some pretty cool decorations. We had a reeeally good turnout for the party, too. There were of course us 6 missionaries, and 9 local members, but we also had 12 people there that weren't members (ok, so 4 of them were young children that came with their dad and grandmother who aren't members, but it was still a lot of people!) It was great to have so many people there. We talked a little bit about pioneers to start with, and how these people are really pioneers here, and then we had food. Somehow we did have enough food, and even extra.

Our Pioneer Day decorations included colorful paper and writing on the white board

On Saturday morning we cleaned the church with the sisters and the Nields, scanned some bills, and then had lunch at the legendary Gyros Master. After some studies when we went contacting, we happened to get one lady's phone number, and also met a guy from Costa Rica (if I remember correctly). He was really chill and talked to us for a bit. Before their German group that we have on Saturdays, the sisters had another lesson with "Shawn", and we found out after that he agreed to be baptized on August 18th! We're excited.

We of course had church on Sunday, which is always great. This time we had some visitors! It was a family of 3 who had roots in Serbia and Montenegro, had lived in Argentina (I may be mistaken there) for a long time, and who have been living in Canada for quite a long time more recently. So, they were here visiting relatives. Someone else that came was someone that I'd never met before that we'd simply found in our phone's list of contacts and who we'd invited to church. Apparently he speaks German, so he ended up talking to the sisters some afterward. Anyway, for sacrament meeting, one of our members gave a very passionate talk about Brigham Young and the pioneers, and had me translate for him. After a great Sunday School by Sister Marinkovic on faith and her personal pioneer story, and an Elders' Quorum lesson on Ministering, that member that spoke had me give out copies of that article about pioneers that I'd translated for him so that all the members could read it too. After church we had our boring business-y stuff, and then later on we had a delicious dinner at the Nields' place.

As for today, we were planning to play tennis, but it turned out that it started raining, so we're probably just going to play table tennis later, inside.

Christ visiting the people in the Americas

Your homework this week is to read 3 Nephi 18. That's the chapter, while Christ is visiting the people in the Americas, when he administers the sacrament among them. That is, he blesses bread and wine and gives it to them, telling them to always to the same in the future in remembrance of him. The sacrament is really important. So, read that chapter and think about what Christ says its purpose is, and how it can help us.

The sacrament is important for each one of us.

Here's a photo with some of our decorations for the Pioneer Day party! Have a great week!
--

Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia

Week 100: Subotica, Chalking, and People talking about Sports

Hey everybody!

So, this week has had quite a bit less rain. It's nice to have sunshine again. Last Monday, after emailing, it did end up raining in the evening. It's been good since then, though.

On Tuesday we called people to try to set up lessons, and had a meeting with Elder Nield to go over how things were while they were gone on the mission's annual temple trip. That evening before English, that same member that had cooked for us on Saturday showed up to again cook a meal for us, since she felt like she'd messed up the other meal (even though it was totally fine and we told her so repeatedly). So, we had a nice soup, and then Gibanica, too.

Wednesday started off with a trip to the MUP (police station?) to get some forms that we'll need for Elder Bird's visa when we finally find time to do that. The MUP is kinda far away, and it has very restricted working hours, so it's hard to get over there. That afternoon we had a great district meeting at the Nields' place with them and the sisters, and some guests! That is, the sisters from Belgrade, Sisters Livingston and Roberts, were down here for exchanges, so they joined us for district meeting. That evening we had another Book of Mormon class scheduled for branch members to attend, but no one came except for the 4 sisters. Oh well. After that, the 6 of us went together to get dinner at a place that has traditional Serbian food (most of which is meat). Pretty good stuff.

In the morning on Thursday we got picked up by the Nields and went out to Subotica! That's a town in Serbia that's extremely close to the Hungarian border, so almost all the signs have both Serbian and Hungarian written on them. The reason for our little trip was to visit some members that live all the way out there, since there isn't a branch in Subotica. What great people. That afternoon, after we'd come back to Novi Sad, Elder Bird and I had some studies and did our Facebook finding, and then English Conversation Group of course rolled around. For dinner after that, we tried to get Sushi, but the place where we went had totally run out of sushi, and then it took forever for our food to come out, so we just took it to-go. But, while we were waiting for our food, we ended up drawing various missionary lessons on our paper throw-away place mats.

Friday started off with some paperwork stuff at the church, and then we went to get lunch at a place near the church that we walk past all the time but have never tried. It's called "Bajka", which means "Fairytale", and it turns out that they have reeeeeeally good pizza. We're definitely going to go back there sometime. Later that afternoon/evning, we went over to the river with the sisters to do some big chalk drawings. We drew out the Plan of Salvation with some labels and scriptures. We did it in a place that's pretty busy at night because of Exit, which is a huge music festival that happened this last week. On our way home, we noticed that all of the TVs in the city were set to a certain tennis match with Novak Đoković.

Chalk Drawings we did of the Plan of Salvation

On Saturday morning we cleaned the church with the Nields and the sisters, and it was good to have the whole group of us 6 back together, since the Nields had been gone on the annual mission temple trip to Switzerland. After that, Elder Bird and I had lunch at Gyros Master, and then had some studies. That evening, like every Saturday, the sisters had their German class, and then we went to get waffles for dinner.

Sunday of course started with church, and there were a lot of people there. We had 6 investigators at church! Since there were 19 non-missionaries there, that means we had over 30% nonmember attendance! There was an interesting moment with the sacrament when we were passing the water, too. It turned out that we were one cup short, so Elder Bird and I went and filled one up and re-blessed it so the last person could take the sacrament too. It's kinda a cool teaching moment when stuff like that happens, since sometimes people think you can just fill up another cup without re-blessing it. In any case, the sisters performed a special musical number, singing and playing Ukulele, and that was wonderful. At the end of the day we had dinner at the Nields' with the sisters and some other German visitors, so I got to practice more German! I don't remember my original missionary call letter saying anything about learning German... anyway, we also heard that Novak Đoković won Wimbledon (tennis), and that Croatia got 2nd in the World Cup (soccer, if you don't know). Cool.

As for today, we did some emailing, etc., had a lesson with "John" (he asks really good questions, btw), and then played some games with him. Fairly uneventful day.

Your homework this week is to read 3 Nephi 12! That has the Book of Mormon version of what are often called the "Beattitudes". We talked about that as part of our lesson with "John" and the question came up of how meekness is a positive attribute. Isn't meekness the same as being submissive? Just letting people walk all over you? Perhaps in some sense of the word, but I think what was intended here is submitting to the will of God with patience. What do you think?

Thanks for reading these emails! You'll only be getting a few more. Here are some photos! One is a sign in Subotica that has the days of the week in both Serbian and Hungarian. Another one is a panoramic of part of our chalk diagram of the Plan of Salvation. It's in two parts.

Have a great week!

--

Elder Ryan Echols
Adriatic North Mission
Svačićev Trg 3/1
HR-10000 Zagreb
Croatia