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