Week 103: Yet Another Trip to Belgrade, and a Baptism!

Hey friends! The second half of this week was pretty interesting, so you'd better put your seat belts on (after you get through the less-interesting start of the week, haha.)

Tuesday started off with some phone calls (it was raining again), and we ended up accidentally calling someone that comes to English every now and then, thinking that he was someone that'd talked to missionaries before about our religion. That was a pretty funny mix up. After lunch and some studies, while we were contacting around town, we got a phone call from a member asking if we were "still planning on meeting today". We didn't know we were going to be meeting with him, but we set up a time anyway, haha. When we got to the church 30 minutes early, he was already there. I suppose he really wanted to see us this week! So, we had a lesson, and then at the end one of the sisters' investigators showed up and sold the member a little portable radio. Those two are getting to be pretty good friends. We of course had English Conversation Group that evening, and then afterward we had dinner at the legendary Waffle Boss.

Wednesday started off with some business-y stuff at the church, but then it started raining again right as we were going to go get lunch, so we ended up ordering some burritos to get delivered to the church while we did some other work that had to get done at some point anyway. Later that afternoon when it had stopped raining, we went back to the apartment to pack up some stuff for our impending trip to Belgrade, and then went back to the church for our weekly Book of Mormon class. In additional to our ever-faithfully-attending friend "John", we had another participant! It was a member, and she had some pretty good questions and actively participated. Right after that, Elder Bird and I headed out to the bus station, and rode a bus to Belgrade to start exchanges (and take care of more visa stuff). When we got there, we stayed the night with Elders Jensen and Beck, and they even fed us dinner. What great guys.

Me and Elder McNeil on exchanges

On Thursday morning, after having language study with those Elders, Elder Bird and I went over the the MUP (ministry of internal affairs) to get his visa stuff figured out. After waiting in a line for a while, they had him sign two copies of the same paper, gave one copy to us, and told us we were free. So then we met up with the Zone Leaders and switched companions to start exchanges. I went with Elder McNeil, and we stayed in Belgrade while Elders Bird and Bradshaw went back to Novi Sad. For lunch, Elder McNeil and I got shawarma (the first time I've had it), and did some studies and contacting before English. Somehow the two participants we had in that group steered the discussion towards talking about the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and it was a nice little talk. After English, we ended up getting dinner with a member that was simply there at the church, and the Belgrade sisters. We went to a cool little diner that was nearby, and the member told us cool stories about the history of the church in Belgrade. Apparently back in Novi Sad, our friend "John" had his baptismal interview and passed! We expected no less. Also, the sisters got another investigator who said they want to be baptized! This one is now planned for the end of September. So, the sisters have 3 people planning to be baptized in the next 2 months! Crazy stuff.

Me and Sister Icke.

Friday morning involved a video call with the bosses about how Facebook Finding is going, and what we can do to improve, and that was really good. For lunch after that, Elder McNeil and I got some really good "šiš" sandwiches in town, and then got on a bus to go up a mountain. The purpose for that one was to visit one of the people that's planning on being baptized, who happens to be someone that I helped get in contact with the missionaries through the Facebook stuff that we do! It was really cool to get to meet him in person. That evening we got on another bus and headed back over to Novi Sad. When we arrived, we met up with the 4 missionaries there for Chinese food, and it was great to have such a group of us. Elders Bradshaw and McNeil stayed the night with us, since they were both just going to be here for the baptism the next day.

Playing ping pong at the church.

And now for Saturday. First thing in the morning, Elders Bird and Bradshaw went to the church to set up the portable baptismal font thing that we have here. A bit later, Elder McNeil and I went to take their place, since the baptismal font can't be left unsupervised when it's full. Since we were stuck there at the church preparing for the baptism, we ended up ordering burritos to get delivered again, haha. That afternoon, people started showing up from all over the place. The Čačak missionaries came, as well as the Sremska missionaries, some senior missionaries from over in Croatia, and members from both here and Belgrade, plus plenty of friends of the church who aren't members. It was really quite a great turnout. Even "John's" mom came! We hadn't met her until then. I gave a talk about baptism, Elder McNeil did the baptism, sister Icke spoke about the gift of the Holy Ghost, we had a musical number, some other people spoke, and it was all wonderful =) We also had treats afterward, so that was great too, haha. After everyone had headed out, we drained the baptismal font and cleaned up before heading out. Elders McNeil and Schmaltz stayed overnight with us so they could both be here for church the next day.

Speaking of church, that's what we had on Sunday! Yesterday. It was again quite a crowd since we had a lot of visitors, and we had some fun situations with translation during the whole thing since there were a number of German-speakers that ended up with us unexpectedly. In any case, Elder Schmaltz confirmed "John" as a member, gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost, and gave him a blessing. After that, since we had testimony meeting, it was hard to finish on time. Everyone wanted to share what wonderful things the Lord has for us and is doing for us! The Spirit of God was definitely present, and it was great. We also had great lessons during the rest of church, and then took care of some paperwork stuff after church was over. We also had a great dinner at the Nields' place with me and Elder Bird, Elders Schmaltz and McNeil, our local Sisters Marinković and Icke, plus two Croatian-serving senior sisters, Sisters Thompson and Ezard. But that's not all! We also had the branch's newest member, "John", with us. He's so great. This whole weekend was awesome. After that, our visiting friends left to get back home, and things returned to normal.

So, your homework this week is to read Alma 7! This chapter is usually known for talking about Christ and his Atonement, but I want you to focus on baptism! Of course both are related, since without Christ and what he did for us, baptism would just be getting wet. But since Christ did come to this Earth, and he did suffer and die for us, and he did rise again the 3rd day. So, since baptism is more that just getting wet, what does it mean? What should we do after we've been baptized? That's your homework.

We can follow Christ's example by being baptized

Here are some photos from this week! Sorry I'm not sending pictures of the baptism. There are just certain things with privacy that mean that I can't.

Have a great week!

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