Week 23: Bosnia and Exchanges

Hey everybody! Crazy week with mid-transfers and everything, but here's the rundown.

Tuesday, we started off by doing some tracting. It was a good start to the day, really. We picked back up on a row of buildings that we'd started on a previous day, and very quickly found a college-age girl that was super open and interested in our message and reading The Book of Mormon. The interesting thing though, is that she's only at that apartment having lunch with her parents on one day a week, and we happened to get her precisely then.

 

Later on in the same building, we came to a door that had a slightly older lady answer. I asked if she was a believer at all, and she said that she used to be. With a slight tear in her eye she said that she had lost a child and wasn't a believer anymore. She then said goodbye and shut the door. Even though she had shut the door on us, it really didn't sit right with me to leave yet, since one of the principal things we share with people is the Plan of Happiness, which includes the fact that we'll be able to see our loved ones again after this life, and that families can be eternal. So, I knocked on the door again, and told her that she could be with her child again after this life, and that our message really is one of hope that we wanted to share with her. She reaffirmed her answer to be a no, and again shut the door, still with a tear in her eye. It really is so sad to me that we have this incredible truth about the eternal nature of families, and she wasn't willing to hear what it was.

After we'd finished tracting for the day, we had another Skype lesson with our investigator from out of town. He really is pretty excited about learning more about the church. After that we had ECG, and I got to say goodbye to the friends there that I've met.

Elder Osborn and I were only companions for a short time

Wednesday, I packed. We also cleaned the apartment while we were at it. For lunch we went to a Chinese restaurant, and I burnt my tongue. Oh well. To finish off the day we visited one of our investigators and shared a spiritual thought, and I said goodbye. I really am going to miss all these people that I've met from Novi Sad. But, I'm sure we'll see each other again at some point.

Thursday, we loaded up in the car and went up to Belgrade to pick up Elder Froc from the airport, since he flew in from Montenegro so he can take my place in Novi Sad. Then, we 3 drove over to somewhere just over the border into Croatia to meet up with another 5 missionaries involved in the mid-transfer. We all had lunch together and then swapped companions, beginning my time with Elder Perry. When we got back to Sarajevo, I officially met the Newtons, and then we went back to our apartment for me to unpack.

Reunited with Elder Froc and Elder Isom, who were in my MTC group

For those wondering, Bosnia is very mountainous, apparently. Sarajevo is settled in a bowl of sorts among the mountains. I hear that there's been some particularly cool history here, so we'll probably go explore some museums on our P-days. Some parts of town are small windy roads among hills of building, all covered in snow, but some parts of town are bigger and more open modern areas with lots of shopping and restaurants. Most people here are Muslim by religion. I definitely like it so far in this city.

Sarajevo, Bosnia

Beautiful snow!

Friday, we headed over to Tuzla with the Newtons to see the baptism of one of the investigators there that Elder Leach has been teaching. It was really good to see Elders Leach and Crapo there, of course. 

Elder Crapo, Elder Leach, and myself

It was also very good to have my first time seeing a baptism out here. The new member was so happy to get to make that covenant. It was pretty interesting though, since the baptism was done in a full-on swimming pool that they'd rented out for the baptism. After the baptism I promptly ended up switching Elder Perry for Elder Palmer before we headed back to Sarajevo for us to go on exchanges. Apparently he's served in Sarajevo before, so it's been pretty interesting hearing him talk about his memories here from the start of his mission.

Lots of missionaries attended the baptism in Tuzla

Elder Palmer and I on our way back to Sarajevo after the baptism

Saturday, we did some contacting, and cleaned the church a bit. We had two lessons scheduled for the day, but neither person showed up in the end, so we did more contacting. We've also been doing a lot of roleplays as part of the exchange. It was pretty interesting going contacting on the street, since the assumption around here is that everyone is Muslim, and so I can no longer use the common ground of Christ as our Savior like I did with the Orthodox Christians back in Novi Sad.

Sarajevo Street

Sunday, we had church, of course. This week there weren't any native members that came, so we happened to have all of our meetings in English. After church, Elder Palmer and I visited one of his good friends that's an inactive member. I think this whole exchange, he's been trying to get me to meet his old investigators and such so I can carry on his work from when he was serving here. Sounds like a good plan to me. Anyway, that inactive member we visited and his wife fed us as we talked to them and shared a spiritual thought. All the food was homemade and really quite good. When we got home we did some planning and Elder Palmer made some phone calls, and then we went contacting. Pretty relaxed day.

Your homework for this week is to look through the titles of recent General Conference talks, and pick one that catches your eye. And of course, then read it. While you read the talk, ask yourself how you can apply it to your own life. Think of one specific thing in your life that you can can change to better live by the principles taught in that talk, and then start living that one new thing. Even doing something as simple as this is a way of repenting and coming closer to Christ, and it'll help you have a happier life as you progress.

Anyway, to summarize, this week has been a good one, though a bit weird. Bosnia is pretty cool, and I'm looking forward to getting to work with my new companion this week! Haha.

Have a great week!

 

--

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

Reunited with my MTC companion, Elder Leach, while at the baptism in Tuzla

In the Beautiful Bosnian Mountains

Week 22: Zone Conference and a Frozen River

Hello everyone!

To start off with the biggest news, I'm being mid-transferred to the city of Sarajevo, in the country of Bosnia & Herzegovina! More on that later.

You know what's a rough time? Trying to get your hair cut in a foreign country where you don't know haircut vocabulary. I think it must be a pretty funny thing to witness from the outside, too. But, haircuts aside, I actually am feeling pretty good about speaking in a foreign language every day for everything that matters most. This week I feel like I made a switch of some kind; now I'm a lot more confident about speaking, and I feel like I understand a lot more than I really should when natives speak. Have you all ever heard of the Gift of Tongues? It's when you get divine help to go from speaking zero Serbian to conversing on the street with natives, in something like 5 months. Though, I readily admit that I have a lot more to learn, and I do still definitely hear plenty of words I don't know yet, and I definitely make plenty of mistakes when speaking. But, my point is that the Hand of Heaven really is in this work, helping us to be able to preach of Christ.

Also, as for weather over here, it got pretty darn cold last week into this week. It was cold enough that the entire surface of the Danube river was frozen over solid here in Novi Sad. Quite a sight. It's also been snowing on and off some.

The Frozen Danube, with the Fort across the River in View

The snow is really pretty!

Anyway, last Monday was pretty busy, filled with the regular stuff like emailing and grocery shopping, but also with getting haircuts and sending off a few letters. It was snowing pretty hard most of the day, too. That night as we got back to work, we found one guy while contacting on the street who was willing to accept a copy of The Book of Mormon. In case you didn't know, The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ; it's a book of scripture quite like the Bible, and we believe that both are the word of God. Also, if The Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet in our day and age. Isn't that cool? If you don't already have one, you can request a copy of The Book of Mormon from Mormon.org or LDS.org (for free). I promise that it's a book that can change your life for the better.

Reading the Book of Mormon will draw you closer to God

The Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible both testify of Jesus Christ

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference over in Belgrade. As always, it was really great to see a bunch of the other missionaries, and to learn how we can improve. I got to play piano for some parts of the meetings, as well as after while we were waiting a bit. That was a pretty great set of meetings. Oh, and lunch was catering by Burrito Madre; we even got churros with our burritos. A very good set of meetings indeed.

Wednesday started off by going with the McAlpins out of town a bit to visit some members. They unexpectedly fed us some soup and Sarma and such, and it was super good. I really love Sarma. During that trip with the McAlpins, I found out that I'll be accompanying for a special musical number at church on the 22nd. So, that'll be fun.

Enjoying Dinner with the McAlpins

When we returned from that visit, Elder Osborn and I went contacting and tracting, and had a decent amount of success. We then went to a lesson with an investigator. It went pretty well, and we invited him to be baptized at the end, but he didn't directly accept it. We'll obviously keep working with him, though. I think he's headed in the right direction.

Thursday, we started off by mailing a copy of the Doctrine and Covenants off to our out-of-town investigator, as well as some other stuff. We then went contacting, and Elder Osborn promptly got off a Book of Mormon and got her contact info. Later on tonight when we contacted her again to try to set up a meeting time, she said we could meet once she'd read the (whole) Book of Mormon. I'm not quite sure how to feel about that. She very well could be one of those people that really has their interest piqued by The Book of Mormon and plows through it in less than a week, but maybe not. We'll see!

Later on, we had a lesson with a member at the church, and just as we were finishing up and heading out to go contacting some more, the power went out there in the church. When we returned an hour or so later for ECG, the power was still out, so we went on a little bit of a scavenger hunt to find the right switch to flip back. Once the gazda (landlord) showed up, he was able to show us where the right switch was hidden, and then we got on with our English Conversation Group.

Something fun we saw while out contacting...a big shed full of corn!

After ECG we went to get dinner at this little home-made soups and sandwich shop. Great food for really good prices, and the guy working there was super nice. We had a solid conversation, and at one point he said that we spoke Serbian really well for being Americans. He also said that he wouldn't have guessed that we were Americans; maybe Czech or Slovak, but not American. Score. What a friendly guy. He didn't seem particularly interested in religion, but we left our card anyway.

Friday, we did a lot of contacting on the street. Later on in the day we had a lesson with one of our investigators that's doing pretty well, and answered a lot of his questions. We also got to share about the First Vision with his son who was there. Really good stuff. On our way out of that lesson, we actually got a call from our investigator that lives way out of town, and so we ended up heading over to the church to have a little Skype lesson with him. We talked a little bit about the Doctrine and Covenants, and then to finish up we gave him Moroni's challenge, from Moroni 10:3-5, inviting him to find out for himself if The Book of Mormon is true. It was a pretty good day to me.

So, now about the fact that I'm going to Bosnia. On Thursday this coming week, the 19th, I'll be moving over to the city of Sarajevo (the capital of Bosnia) to be companions with Elder Perry. Apparently some other Elders in the mission have been having Visa problems, and thus the unexpected switch-around. We got the call to notify us of the transfer on Saturday morning during studies. So, soon I'll be speaking Bosnian! For the rest of Saturday, we did a lot of contacting.

Yesterday, Sunday, we had church of course, and that was pretty good. After church we helped with tithing and such, and later had dinner at the McAlpins. A fairly regular Sunday.

Your homework for this week is to read Alma 46! It's the chapter in which Captain Moroni creates the Title of Liberty. It's a chapter that talks a bit about what it's like to stand up for what you know is right. As you read it, see what you can learn for yourself about standing up for your beliefs.

The words Captain Moroni wrote on the Title of Liberty

Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty

Well folks, that's it for this week! I'll be emailing from Bosnia next week of course, so that's exciting. I hope you all are doing well!

Видимо се!

--

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

Week 21: Christmas (Round 2) with Burritos

Hello family and friends! This week was a pretty atypical one; we didn't have much regular work time. Lots of sickness generally going around (which I thankfully haven't caught yet), and lots of driving too.

On Tuesday, we did a whole lot of contacting and tracting. That was a very solid block of time to get some good work in. We ended the day with ECG and briefly making a stop on the way home for Elder Osborn to buy a traditional Serbian Christmas ornament for his grandmother.

Wednesday Elder Osborn's birthday, so we got a fair number of messages and calls throughout the day from people who wanted to tell him to have a happy birthday, but he was actually feeling sick enough that we didn't get to go out and work much. I read a LOT out of the blue grammar textbook. Slept, too. Eventually we had a lesson scheduled with a member, and we did make it outside to head over to the church for that. As part of Elder Osborn's birthday, we went to Caribic Pizza for dinner (we have coupons for there, and it's really close to our apartment, so I think the employees recognize us by now). Later that night, Wednesday, it started to snow! A really good, proper snow. It was great. A bit of a birthday present for him, I think, since he's been wanting snow this whole winter so far. I really do love snow too.

Some of the snow we've been enjoying!

Thursday, started off with something notable lame: the investigator that we miracle-tracted into last week dropped us. He texted us and essentially said that he was 0% interested anymore. Sad day. But, from there it got better. We got to borrow the car from the McAlpins and drove way out of town to visit one of our contacts that's been super interested. We haven't been able to visit him and his family before this, but we did Skype with him once last week. He really knows his Bible, has awesome questions, and is super interested. In his own words, he's "searching for truth"and I think he knows that he found it. We're really excited to keep working with him and his family.

Friday, Elder Osborn was still pretty sick, so we stayed at home for most of the day. I slept a lot. We listened to some talks from General Conference. That night the 2 Elders from Sremska (including Elder Valentine from my MTC group) came over to our apartment to begin our 24 hours that we get truly off once a year for Christmas. Here, since people celebrate Christmas both on December 25th and on January 7th, we get the choice of which day to take 100% off; we did January 7th for this year. When they arrived and our 24 hours started, we got some food, played some games, and had a pretty good time before going to bed.

 

On Saturday, Serbian Orthodox Christmas, we slept in (naturally), then popped over to the Fortress across the river to explore the catacombs a bit. At first, we only could find one very dim flashlight in our cars, so we tried making some torches out of nearby dead sticks and some newspaper. They wouldn't light for the longest time though. Eventually we did get them to start up, but then they just burned out very quickly and brightly, maybe lasting a whole minute or so each. Oh well. We did find a quality flashlight though, and went exploring briefly.

From there we headed down to Belgrade to meet up with all the other missionaries serving in Serbia. There was plenty of ping-pong, and some Uno too. While there, I also got a Christmas package that my mom sent at the start of December (Thanks Mom!). Included in the package was a new camera, to replace the one that vanished somewhere between the MTC and Frankfurt. So, I'll be sending more photos once again! Sorry for the lack thereof until now.

My package included a camera, an Alphasmart keyboard, and a bag of Cheetos!

After the games, some of us went venturing out for food... but it was Christmas. So, it was quite an adventure trying to find anywhere that was open to sell us food. Eventually we happened upon a place called Burrito Madre that was open; that was some good food. I found it highly amusing, though, seeing the menus and walls scrawled with Serbian pseudo-Spanish. This place also had a bunch of bookshelves lining the walls near some of the tables. Next to our table was a yellow book, written in Serbo-Croatian, whose title translated to "Elementary Mathematical Logic and Set Theory". Naturally, I picked it up and read some of it. I'm now somewhat versed (in a very limited way) in how this kind of math is notated differently in Serbo-Croatian vs in English. In any case, it was really good to have the day off to spend with other missionaries.

Yesterday, Sunday, the McAlpins were in fact sick also, and so they stayed home from church. I tell you, it's pretty interesting trying to run the entirety of church meetings as two young adults, neither older than 21, in the middle of Serbia. But, I definitely think it went pretty well; thankfully other people are often willing to help when asked.

Later on last night for dinner we had Missionary Pantry Surprise, round 2. This time it comprised of beans, corn, pasta, and tomato sauce, and the ever-essential chopped hotdogs. Not too bad, once again.

Your homework for this week is to read Alma 32, which talks about faith in the second half. It explains what faith really is, how we can help our faith grow, and what blessings come from having faith. I know that even if you simply have a desire to believe in Christ, in the Bible, in The Book of Mormon, or anything else of God, that desire can grow, turn into rely faith, and in time become a great foundation for peace in your life.

Well, that's it folks! I hope you again have a good week, and that you all do well as you get back into classes and work if you haven't already.

Sa ljubavi iz Srbije,
--

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

Week 20: Miracles! Oh, and the New Year.

Hello everybody!

So, I just have to start off by saying that this week was ridiculous (in a very good way). We had 4 days in a row where a golden investigator (someone really looking for truth in their life that is open to listen to our message) came out of nowhere. 2 of them were referrals (meaning other missionaries somewhere found them, but the person in question lives around here), 1 was someone that the missionaries had talked to a long time ago, and 1 was literally just someone we found while knocking on doors. So, here's the story.

Monday we had a good P-day. We had some extra time to play air-hockey. There was also a nice sunset. After our Preparation time was over, we tried going tracting (knocking on doors), but it didn't work

Tuesday, we met up with someone who seemed really interested in meeting with us, but they turned out to not be interested in our message whatsoever. Disappointment.

Wednesday, we walked really far out to our first meeting with one of our referrals. Apparently he saw the missionaries in Slovakia and was prompted to stop them and talk to them. Miracle #1. The lesson went really well, and he definitely feels the truth of The Book of Mormon when he reads it. He has real potential in a lot of ways.

After that when we went contacting on the street, a whole lot more people were willing to stop and listen than normal; we got 3 or 4 people that agreed to meet up with us sometime.

Thursday, we started off by looking up the address that one of the people had given us the day before so that we could go meet with them at noon. However, the street didn't seem to exist. We did find one street on the map with a name that was somewhat close though. So, I decided we were going to try it anyway and hope we miraculously would run into him when we got out there (since he didn't have a phone number to give to us the day before). 1 Nephi 4:6. We found the street with the almost-right name, found the building with the right number, and of course had no idea what apartment number he'd be in. So, we decided to tract the building and hope to run into him. A few floors in, a guy opened the door who was really interested in what our message was, and let us in on the spot. Miracle #2. We taught him about the Restoration right there, and he's really interested to meet up again and come to church. He had really great questions that showed he was really thinking about what this would mean for him.

When we left there, Elder Osborn and I were pretty much speechless. Again, that was the first time Elder Osborn had ever been let in from knocking on doors, and he's been here for quite a while. After that we mailed off a copy of The Book of Mormon and some pamphlets to our other referral, who lives pretty far out of town apparently. That night we also had ECG, of course.

Friday, we had another lesson with the guy who met the missionaries in Slovakia. He's super interested to learn more about Joseph Smith and the angel Moroni and how we came to have The Book of Mormon.

As a little aside, I would like to mention to all of you what an incredible story it really is of how this church came into existence. It's also unique in the way that it's either entirely true, or entirely false. Either Joseph Smith was visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ, or he wasn't. Either he was visited by the angel Moroni, or he wasn't. Either he translated an ancient book by the power of God, or he didn't. You can read about it all here, in Joseph Smith History. You can also read The Book of Mormon for yourself, and pray in sincerity of heart to know if it's true or not.

Moroni 10: 4-5 says, "And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." This tells us that we can really receive an answer to know whether or not The Book of Mormon is true. I encourage you to find out for yourself.

Anyway, later that evening on Friday, we got word that our package with The Book of Mormon and pamphlets that we'd mailed already got there to our out-of-town friend. Serbian post is good. We also met up with that man that someone that the missionaries had been working with a few years ago. He said that he wants to come back to church and "finish what [he] started", and get back on the right path for his life. Miracle #3.

Saturday, we started off the day by talking to people on the street, but we quickly were stopped by the fact that our out-of-town friend called and wanted to Skype to talk about the stuff we'd sent him. It was only 15 minutes since he was on break at work, but he's super interested. He has a lot of questions about the stuff he'd already been digging into, and said he can ask them all when we come to visit him this week. BTW, we got permission to go visit him this week. But, he even brought his copy of The Book of Mormon with him to work to read on break. Miracle #4. This guy even has a wife and a few kids, and so we're excited for how much the gospel will be able to bless them too.

Later that day, around 4:30pm, we got word that we weren't allowed to go tracting or contacting after 5pm (keep in mind that it's New Year's Eve). We could already hear clubs starting to turn it up, and people on the street were obviously dressed up a bit and going to parties. All the fancy restaurants looked loaded. It's amazing how much the entire atmosphere of the city changed for just that day. From what we could hear later on in the night from our apartment, the party definitely went on all night. There were fireworks at midnight, too.

Sunday morning, we headed out to go to church, and the streets were desolate. We assume that people were sleeping in a bit ;) Church had a smaller number of people in attendance, but it wasn't bad at all. That night for dinner we collaborated with the 2 other young adults in the branch here, and ended up with something we decided to call "Missionary Pantry Suprise", since it was us putting together the few food items we had there at the end of the week. So, it consisted of potatoes, little pieces of hotdog/sausage, and rice. It was actually pretty good.

Your homework for this week is to read Joseph Smith History. It's only one chapter ;) But, it tells the story of how this church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came into being, and how we came to have The Book of Mormon as an additional witness of Jesus Christ. I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God, alongside the Bible.

That's it for this week! Happy New Year!

--

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