Week 99: Piano, Rain, and even more Real Germans

Hello! I hope you all are doing well and that the weather is good wherever you are. This week we had a lot of rain over here in Novi Sad, but that's ok.

So last Monday, after emailing, we actually did some pretty cool stuff. The first one was that we went to a place that sells reeeeeally good crepes. They weren't even expensive! We're definitely going to go back at some point. Later that evening we went with some members and other friends to go see a free piano concert, put on my a mother/daughter duo that happen to be members of this church from Utah. They were also reeeeeally good at piano. On the walk home, as we passed the main square in front of the cathedral, there was a guy standing in front of a statue playing trumpet for everyone to hear. I like this place.

The stage where the piano concert was held

On Tuesday morning we took a little venture over to a fancy hotel to pick up some CDs of the pianists from them before they left town, since plenty of the people that came with us wanted CDs. The rest of the day was pretty normal, except English. For ECG, a bunch of new people showed up, since they saw advertisements on Facebook. They're all really cool and I hope they stick around to become regulars =)

Happy Fourth of July! On Wednesday morning the Zone Leaders showed up to give us a paper that Elder Bird needs for his Visa, and then we went to quickly get lunch with them at the renowned Gyros Master. That evening, just before we were going to hold a Book of Mormon class for the members (and whoever else decided to come), we had a mini lesson with "John". We ended up reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon, and just relating it to the topics that he's already been learning about, like the Plan of Salvation. Then, we had our Book of Mormon class! The only person that came was "John", haha. Well, the sisters were there too. And one member lady showed up about half way through and did participate well. That's fine, though. It was still good.

Thursday morning started off with district meeting, with Sister Marinković teaching the lesson on conversion. After that we got some Chinese food for lunch, and then home for some studies. When we went contacting later, we managed to give a lady one of our cards with the church websites. When Elder Bird and I were at the church before English to do our Facebook work talking with people on the internet about the gospel of Jesus Christ, one of our members randomly showed up and started talking to us. He ended up asking to borrow our phone to call one of the other missionaries that served here that's been gone for a while in other places in the mission. So, when that Elder picked up the phone, he answered in English since he was expecting other missionaries. It was pretty funny to hear his reaction when the member started talking to him and he realized who it was. Cool stuff. For English, another new person showed up, and then at the end I gave a spiritual thought. This time I did it about prophets, and shared our particular belief that prophets are not just a thing of the past, but rather that we also have guidance from them today. I explained about Joseph Smith and the restoration, and then we finished. 

But, after we finished, we put on the short movie "the Restoration" and invited people to stay to watch, which most of them did. That was cool. After that, since Thursdays are when one of the restaurants here has sushi, we had sushi for dinner.

Excellent sushi for dinner.

On Friday morning we had a video call with our Facebook boss who is up in Frankfurt at the Area Office, and the other missionaries in the mission that do Facebook Finding. Then while Elder Bird and I did the day's hour of Facebook work, the sisters were downstairs having a lesson with Sister Marinković's grandma, who lives in Germany but is originally from Serbia. But, this one was in person! I guess the family was on a road trip or something and got permission to visit. So, when Elder Bird and I finished, we got to meet the Marinković family, and we all got lunch together. So, you know how new missionaries never reeeeally know what's going on when they first show up in the mission and they need to speak a foreign language? That was me and Elder Bird, since everyone except for us spoke German (and not all spoke English or Serbian). It was a fun experience, though. There's no better practice in a new language than trying to speak it with natives. Later on in the evening after they all had left, Elder Bird and I went with the sisters to "American Corner" like we do every Friday to help students practice English. That one is always fun.

Hanging out with friends at the piano concert

On Saturday, after having studies, we of course got up to go clean the church like we do every Saturday, but at that precise moment it started absolutely pouring rain. Crazy. So, the roads were more like rivers as we made our way to the church. As we and the sisters cleaned, one of our members was there to "supervise" like she did last week, but also cooked lunch in the meantime. What a great lady. At some point in there it stopped raining, and then in the evening we had the sisters' German class, which is pretty well attended now that it's been going for a few weeks. I like it. After that, while we were waiting for people to clear out, I ended up having my 3rd miniature lesson of Hungarian, but this time by one of the sisters' investigators that was there. Mi mormonok vagyunk. In any case, it just so happened that it started pouring rain again right as we were about to leave. What luck.

Yesterday, Sunday, we of course had church. One interesting thing that happened this time was that the 1st counselor in the branch presidency, the one in charge while Elder Nield is gone, told me that I was giving a talk. So, I made up a 20-minute talk before church started. After we'd finished our weekly business-y stuff, we got up to go home, and at that precise moment it started pouring rain, yet again. Elder Bird asked on the way home, "How does the sky still have water to dump on us?!" For dinner, since I'd run out of food for the week and the Nields are still out of town, I had soup for dinner, haha.

Your homework this week is to read Doctrine & Covenants, section 46, which talks about spiritual gifts (and some other stuff). This week we listened to another talk about Joseph Smith, and and the start it was stated that every member of the church who has received the Gift of the Holy Ghost has at least one of these gifts, such as are listed in D&C 46. So, try to figure out which ones you have, and search to get more =)

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