Week 44: Zone Conference, a New Companion, and Branch Conference

Hello everyone! News for transfers is out. I'll be staying in Sarajevo again, but this time with Elder Smith. In case you haven't been counting, today marks 5 months of me being in Sarajevo. and now it looks like I'll be doing 2 more. Good thing I like this city!

I hope you all have been having a good summer so far. We're almost half way through the year already! The weather here has been pretty warm, but not as hot as it was a few weeks ago. The only downside is that it's been raining. But that's not too bad.

I got to meet up with my MTC companion, Elder Leach, while at the mission home for zone conference! Elder Leach is currently serving in Slovenia.

On Tuesday we and the Tuzla elders started off by doing some normal missionary work, since we were already up in Zagreb and had time for it. We split up a bit to go into different parts of the city for a while, and I went with Elder Hardy. Even though the core of Croatian is the same as the core of Bosnian, all the side-words like "hello", "excuse me", and "have a nice day" are totally different, so I thought it was really fun to try switching over to the local dialect immediately. Once we'd finished with all that and re-grouped, we went to lunch together and then over to Zone Conference to get started. 

I enjoyed seeing lots of my missionary friends during zone conference.

Our conference was together with the Slovene-serving missionaries, so it was pretty cool to get to know some of them that I'd never even met before. Of course we had some really good presentations, but then after dinner we all just had some free time to relax and play games. We got almost everyone playing volleyball at one point, and that was super fun.

Playing volleyball during zone conference

Playing Uno and eating ice cream during down time at zone conference.

On Wednesday, Zone Conference continued with more great presentations. Since President Grant and Sister Grant are going home in a few weeks, this was their last zone conference. It was really good to hear what they had to say. They really do love all of us, their missionaries. 

Listening intently to the special messages presented at zone conference.

Near the end of his presentation, President Grant also handed out copies of the transfer board, telling everyone where they're going to be for this next transfer that starts tomorrow. After that, I went and got my new companion, Elder Smith, from a little meeting point where I also saw Elder Crapo! Love that dude. Then we had our road trip back to Sarajevo.

Me and Elder Crapo during our short meet up!

On Thursday, We got Elder Smith his white card so that he wouldn't get kicked out of the country, and it took forever, and we got some groceries for him, had a lesson that ended with them asking us for money, and then the sisters got their investigator on baptismal date for July 8th! Super exciting.

On Friday we had a lesson with one of our main investigators, and he's still progressing, just a bit slower. A bit later that night we had district meeting, and then went with everyone for the Sisters' farewell dinner. Both Sister Martineau and Sister McColm are leaving, and we're getting 2 new sisters. That means I'm the only one of us 4 that's staying in Sarajevo.

Farewell dinner for Sisters Martineau and McColm

On Saturday we did service up at the barn, had a short lesson, and then did some solid contacting. We didn't get any new investigators, but we got 4 phone numbers, and ran into a couple from Indianapolis that knows about the Mormons a bit. We gave them the homework assignment to talk to the missionaries when they get back to the US.

Sunday we had branch conference, and that was really awesome. President Grant and Sister Grant came down, plus a bunch of other people like some members from Tuzla and the missionaries. President Pruess was released from being branch president, and now it's Elder Newton of our senior couple here. 

Elder Newton, now President Newton, is the new Branch President in Sarajevo.

Missionaries at the Sarajevo Branch Conference: Me, Elder Smith, Elder Hole, Sister Martineau, Sister McColm, and Elder Hardy.

Also, there were a total of 10 investigators there! Of course, some of them are more like "friends of the church and their kids", but it was still great to have them there! And besides, we did have an unusual number of other investigators. For the last song in sacrament meeting, we sang "God be with you till we meet again" and that got a lot of people crying, of course. 

Me and President Grant. All the missionaries love the Grants! They will be missed.

We all had lunch together afterwards there in the church, and it was great to get everyone socializing. These people are great. After church, we did a bunch of planning, and found out that the sisters decided to give that investigator, who's on date for baptism July 8th, over to us, since we've already met the guy, and he lives in our area, and it'll avoid any more gender-rule annoyances anyway. So now we have an investigator on baptismal date! We didn't put him there though, haha.

Good luck to Sisters McColm and Martineau who are leaving Sarajevo.

Your homework this week is to read 3 Nephi 11-12, and ask yourself what the main message is that Christ teaches the people as soon as he arrives. What is most important for us to know from him?

Stuff is going well. Thanks everyone for your support! Have an awesome week!

--

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

Week 43: Lessons, ECG friends, and Plitvica

Hey Everyone! Here's a short one.

So, last week I forgot to mention last time that on Monday we visited that recent convert and his investigator friend, and gave them a copy of the new translation of the Book of Mormon after we read a chapter together. We also then got a text from one of our main investigators that we hadn't been able to see in over a week, and he asked if we could meet up right about then. So we had a lesson! It was great. He really is a friend by now. We talked about the 10 commandments, talking about what each one means in life nowadays. When we got to "though shall not kill" we didn't really have anything to explain, and it was pretty funny. Of course at the end of the lesson, we invited him to branch conference. Usually when you invite anybody to anything, they say something like "If I can find time". Some "if" sentence. But, this time he just said a simple "yes, I will" and it was great that he wasn't even questioning whether he'd come or not. We also invited him to bring his family. I feel like we're really friends with him now. He's doing really well. Later that day Elder King and I got haircuts, and like last time, as soon as we walked in the haircut place, all my vocab and grammar went out the window. I don't know why that always happens with haircuts.

The beautiful Croatian countryside.

Anyway, Tuesday was plenty of normal stuff, including ECG. There's a young brother/sister pair that started coming recently, and they're really awesome.

On Wednesday we had district meeting and talked about hope. What an interesting thing. We learned that hope comes from faith, and hope makes us sure in our path. You should study it. A bit later in the day, the sisters had a lesson with an investigator that apparently Elder Perry and I had tracted into once, but the sisters met him on the street again recently, and he decided to listen to them (your welcome, sisters). And the lesson was really good, apparently. Things seem to be picking up here a bit in Sarajevo.

On Thursday we got Elder King's visa stuff finished, briefly ran into the sisters as they were switching back from exchanges, and then taxied home. We also heard through the Newtons that Elder King's brother got his mission call. That night for ECG that same participant that took a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon came of course, as well as her brother like usual, and it's really great to have them. We're already getting to be good friends with them, and talking a little bit about religion stuff. Elder King even got out a pamphlet and a copy of the Book of Mormon to the sister. I always love it when that kind of thing happens. ECG is a really good way to meet new investigators. We also invited everyone to come to church.

Me, Elder King, Brother and Sister Newton, Sister McColm, and Sister Martineau at Plitvica Lakes.

 Friday started off with Elder King doing his "mother's day" call (he got permission to move it) so he could see his brother open his mission call. Cool stuff. A bit later that morning we also had a lesson with out main investigator, the one that texted us on Monday to have a lesson, and had Haris in on it. It was some really good stuff. It's super useful to have not only a member on a lesson, but a member that is a native of this country and knows the culture here. Right after that, Haris went into with a lesson with the sisters and their main investigator that had that awesome lesson earlier in the week. Apparently it was also a pretty incredible lesson. Stuff is really starting to light up here, and Haris is only helping it. He has some really great tools up his sleeve.

Sister Newton has me do all the mathematical calculations for the construction projects.

On Saturday we started off with service. I really like doing that stuff. This time we were helping build a "sensory trail" to help with the therapy for children with disabilities.

Here we are preparing pool noodles to hang for part of the sensory trail at Riders of Hope.

Elder King and I helping with the sensory trail at Riders of Hope. This one has rain gutters that a ball will roll down.

The rest of the day, we just did a lot of contacting. But it was some pretty good contacting, since we tried asking some different starter questions from usual. Near the end we ran into that girl from ECG (but not her brother) and reminded her about church, and also apparently she'd been reading the Book of Mormon and had a lot of questions. Good stuff.

On Sunday in church I spoke, as well as Haris, and it was really great to hear from him and hear some of his experiences. We also had a few investigators there, and it was really great. The brother and sister from ECG didn't come, but they texted us later saying they were free to meet up, and we immediately went to meet up with them. She had a lot of great questions, he had a lot of good comments, and her Book of Mormon looked like a coloring book. It was some really good stuff. I also really appreciate that we're already just friends with them. That night we did some cleaning and packing up to head out for zone conference in Croatia.

Our road trip to Plitvica Lakes. We had Cool Ranch Doritos!

Today, Monday, we went on a bit of a road trip with the Newtons and the sisters, including a stop at Plitvica lakes in Croatia. That's some really cool stuff. Pretty scenery. Also, the Newtons had brought American snacks! The best. I'm really excited for conference.

Plitvica Lakes is a National Park. You can see why. It's very beautiful there.

Your homework for this week is to read Mosiah 3. It's part of King Benjamin's address. My favorite part is when he asks us to abound in good works so that the Lord can "seal us his". When we obey the commandments, he can better protect us.

Here are a few pictures from Plitvica. Have a great week!

-- 

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

Week 42: Cafes and a new Translation

Hello again, friends and family. I hope you've all been doing well this last week. This week for us was pretty good, though a bit lopsided if you look at our numbers. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we got plenty of new investigators, but then we didn't get any for the rest of the week. Kinda peculiar.

Anyway, on Tuesday right when we started off contacting, we promptly stopped a married couple that was really open and friendly, and we ended up inviting them there on the street to be baptized, and they said yes. It seemed to totally come out of nowhere. They live a little bit out of town though, so it might be a little bit hard to figure out how to get lessons frequently with them. But, I'll talk about them more with Friday. For the rest of Tuesday, we had some more good contacting, a lesson bailed, visited a member, had another 2 lessons bail, and then had ECG like always. Normal day.

On Wednesday we started off with more contacting. For various reasons, that whole morning was pretty rough. We also had 4 lessons that bailed in one way or another throughout the day. But, that evening President Grant came into town for the return of Bosnia's first missionary. When they got into town, President Grant and Sister Grant took our whole district to dinner at an Italian place, and it was really great to have so many great people around. While we were waiting for everyone to gather before going in, a teenage girl came up to us to ask for money. Elder King of course told her that we couldn't give her money, but we could talk with her about God, and then turned it into a contact. Right about then was when President Grant showed up, and then the girl was pretty much trapped/surrounded by all of us. Pretty funny how the tables can turn. The Sisters set up an appointment with her and gave her a Book of Mormon. Points. After dinner, the Grants headed over to the airport to pick up Haris, the fresh returned missionary. I suspect you'll be hearing a lot about him soon.

On Thursday we had a lot of lessons ditch again. I might just stop mentioning in these emails when that happens, just to save space and time... we also had district meeting, and that was really good. For a lot of the day, Elder King wasn't feeling too good, so we spent some extra time inside, out of the heat. We did still go do ECG though, and we had 2 new participants show up! That's always exciting. I feel like we're building a solid little friend circle. For example, one of our older participants, a lady from Ukraine, gave me a CD of some recordings that she did. She sang some covers of some older American songs and put it together as an album. These ECG people are pretty great. After ECG we had a lesson at a cafe with a Muslim guy that was mostly just trying to prove Islam to us. Even though neither side was convinced by the other, we got to at least explain how we're different from Islam and most Christianity, as well as learn more about Islam.

To start on Friday we had a short lesson at a mall. Btw, people around here really love to meet anywhere that isn't their house nor our church. Typically the only places they'll accept to meet are loud places with a lot of people smoking, such as outdoor cafes, restaurants that feel like cafes, or cafes in the middle of a mall. Every now and then we can convince people to have a lesson at the church, and that works really well. Anyway, we had another lesson that day, visited a member, etc. It also rained some.

On Saturday morning, we had a brief meeting with a professor at his office in the Economics college. He seemed like a really great guy, but we didn't have a lot of time with him right then. He said he'd read the Book of Mormon, though. For a large portion of the day after that, we were up at the barn (horseback riding place) up on the mountain to help Sister Newton with her therapeutic riding stuff that she does. It's really good stuff.

Elder King and I helping Sister Newton with a rider at Riders of Hope

On the way back home after that they took us to lunch, and then we got the car from them so we could go visit that married couple that lives out of town a bit. The ones that I mentioned we met on Tuesday. That was a really great lesson. They were still really friendly and really open and everything, and even though the lesson kept going off-topic a bit (that's a regular occurrence with people that like to talk, of course) we managed to always redirect it back to the lesson.

We also had the new Croatian translation of The Book of Mormon! Since the sisters were at the mission office on Friday, they brought some back. This translation is so good. I love it. As a bit of a side note, a lot of times when we're telling people about The Book of Mormon and why it's important, a lot of people just answer with something like "yes, another holy book. I already believe in God. All holy books say the same thing. It's undoubtedly true. I'll take a copy, and might read it, but it won't do anything new for me since I already believe in God and know that I should be a good person." But, what people often don't catch is this: if the Book of Mormon is true, that means that there was a real prophet, named Joseph Smith, that authoritatively established God's church once again onto the Earth in 1830, and that God actually does have more prophets than after Christ or Muhammed or wherever people say that prophets stopped. We try so hard to get people to understand that link, how The Book of Mormon is relevant and important, but a lot of times it just doesn't click with people. Maybe we're not teaching it well enough. In any case, back to our lesson with the married couple. As we taught them about the Book of Mormon, it started out as the situation that I just described. But, Elder King finally got it to click with them near the end. We saw it really hit the husband as something remarkable. Of course, he hasn't studied the book yet and so doesn't know if it's true or not, but he gets the connection. He also promised that he'd read it, and he's a man of his word in every other matter so far, so this is looking good. They really are great people, if I haven't mentioned it yet. I'm excited for them. Also, as we left we traded them their copy of the old translation and gave them a copy of the new translation. We're not sure, but we think that copy is the first of the new translation to be given out in Bosnia.

The Book of Mormon in Croatian is used for Bosnians and Serbians as well because their languages are so similar.

As for Sunday, we had church of course, and we got to meet Haris for the first time. His English is really good (go figure) and he even said it was easier for him to speak in English than in Bosnian. We also got his phone number so that we can get him on some lessons with us soon. Later on in the day, we had dinner with our branch president's family. They're leaving in a few weeks, and we're going to miss them. Though, apparently they're getting replaced with a near identical family, so we'll see if anything even changes, haha.

Today it's been raining and the power's been on and off in some parts of the city, so it was kinda hard to get around by the (electric) trams like we usually do. The stoplights were also out, and so the streets were kinda chaos. But, we went into a Mosque (I think it might be the biggest one in Sarajevo) and that was really cool. We went with the sisters and a friend of the church that's a Muslim, and she explained a bit about what everything is. Pretty cool place.

That's gonna have to be it for today. Your homework is to read Jacob chapter 7, in the Book of Mormon. It tells the story of an encounter between the prophet Jacob and some guy Sherem. See what you can get out of it.

Have a great week!

--

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