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

Week 19: A Scarf, A Green Book, One Call, and an Awful Onion

Hello friends and family! Merry Christmas to all! I hope you've been having a great holiday season. This week was a pretty good one for me, and I hope it was for you also.

On Monday evening, our branch had a Christmas-themed FHE activity together. There was much singing, some testimonies given of Christ our Lord, as well as food and games. One of the best parts was when we each got a piece of paper taped to our back, and we went around writing nice things about people on their backs. There was so much love in that room right then, even though people hadn't yet looked at what was written on their paper. Right then I definitely felt like these people are my family. We also had a White Elephant gift exchange. Since it's started getting cold recently, I'd been planning on buying a scarf, but hadn't yet gotten around to it. However, the gift that I got out of the exchange at this activity was a red plaid scarf! It was a little Christmas miracle to me that I ended up with it. From that point we had some food that people had brought to share, and then some of us played a game called 4 Women On A Couch. I don't really want to try to explain it here, but I think I can just mention that it's pretty confusing in the best way possible, super funny, and everyone loved it, even if they were just watching.

Tuesday we went contacting on the street. No one really listened to us. That evening we had English Conversation Group scheduled, but not a single soul showed up. Tako je život, ponekad. It was really weird that no one showed up, though.

Wednesday we started off with the McAlpins briefly having us over so I could help with some computer stuff, and they also quickly fed us breakfast so we could still get working on time. Having such a great breakfast (and generally something out of the ordinary in the morning) really started the day off well. When we went out contacting right after that, a lot more people than usual seemed open and willing to listen. I think something like 4 people were willing to listen to us, with 2 open to meet again.

Thursday we headed off to Zagreb, Croatia, for our zone's Christmas Conference. We met up with some other missionaries in Sremska Mitrovica to get carpool stuff situated, and I ended up in the back row of "the silver bullet" (the mission's 8-seat van) with Elder Froc, from my MTC group, and Elder Rice. That was a pretty fun car ride. Once at the mission office, we all had our conference-y stuff, including talking about setting goals and keeping high expectations and such. Very good stuff. From there we all went out into Centar to go caroling. It was really fun to be there singing with other missionaries, being "a light unto the world". We also got to explore downtown Zagreb a bit and see cool Christmas stuff they have set up there. When we got back to the office, there was hot chocolate prepared for us, and we all got to sit and talk a bit. After that stuff, we went to the mission home for the night where we had a Christmas talent show! Everything was great, whether it was silly music, or smaller groups of missionaries singing really well. Then we played some games, and watched a documentary about Krešimir Ćosić.

Friday we started off with Sister Grant talking to us about using music in our missionary efforts as well as our personal lives. She referred to the church's music as "the green scriptures" since the hymnals are always green. As a gift, we each received one of the newly translated Croatian Hymnals! The first official hymnal in any of the languages/countries in our mission area. President Grant also talked to us about some really good stuff, including how to help avoid people ditching us for appointments! That's going to come in handy. To close that meeting, some of shared testimonies, and it was really good. These people are the best.

For the drive home, I got to be the driver! This was my first time driving since becoming a missionary. It was pretty interesting though, since we were stuck waiting to get through the Croatia/Serbia border for 4.5 hours. There were some parts where most people would just turn their cars off while we all waited for the line to move any significant amount. We eventually got through, and it was all ok. Quite an adventure.

On Saturday night we went over to the McAlpins' so that Elder Osborn could Skype his family, since they got special permission to do it a night early. While we were there, the McAlpins also fed us waffles, since Sister McAlpin found out that waffles on Christmas morning are a tradition for my family. The McAlpins are like having grandparents that live just on the other side of town, and it's pretty great. After Elder Osborn and I retired to our apartment for the night, I opened up all the "wait until Christmas to open this!" letters that various people sent with me. Thanks so much if you were one of the people that sent a card or letter!

Christmas Stocking my Mom sent from home

Yesterday was Christmas! We had our branch Christmas program, and it was really good. Small branches like ours generally don't sound entirely on-key for hymns, but it doesn't even matter ;) After the program we all had a big Christmas lunch together. After that Elder Osborn and I did some weekly planning before we headed over to the McAlpins for me to get to Skype my family. In case you hadn't already guessed, it was really good to get to talk to them (I love you guys!), and even briefly see my cat. From there we went to visit a sick investigator and give a blessing of healing, and then we headed home.

Skyping with my sister Kayla, my mom, and my dad on Christmas!

The last week or two, there's been a mysterious stench in our kitchen, and we've been searching for the source of it for quite a while. Last night we finally found it. Hidden away behind a pile of rags, in a little plastic bag, we found an onion. A red onion that seemed like it had been rotting for years, though it was probably "only" a few months. It smelled beyond awful. We got rid of that thing fast. Hopefully our apartment will go back to not smelling weird fairly soon =P

As for your homework, I'd encourage you to figure out a way to serve the people around you, even though the Christmas season is technically over. Figure out even one simple way to serve, and go do it! Be a light to the world.

Have a great week! Enjoy your breaks from school and such, and have a Happy New Year!

--

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

Week 18: A New Companion and Some Crazy Dogs

Hello Everyone!

As you heard about last week, I got a new companion on Tuesday! Again, his name is Elder Osborn. Elder Jex and I drove up to Belgrade on Tuesday morning, I left him there, and brought Elder Osborn back in his place. The rest of the day we did some planning, and had English Conversation Group, like normal.

Elder Jex waving...I'm sure I'll see him whenever we go to Belgrade.

Wednesday we got to work, of course, talking to people on the street for most of the day. We had a lesson fall through. I made a breakfast burrito for my dinner. Nothing else too interesting happened.

Thursday we had a member lesson scheduled at the church, but as we were getting there we encountered him on the street near the church, and he said there were some dogs, and to come see, while looking worried. We get there to the church gate, and there are two large angry dogs in the church's yard, barking at us. We knew they belonged to the blind guy who lives next door, though, so we went and knocked on his window. He opens it after a bit, we inform him of the issue, and he says his not-blind wife isn't home, but that he'll come get the dogs onto their leashes. These are pretty big dogs, btw. We lead our blind neighbor over to the church's gate and show him in. As we're trying to guide him to the dogs that trust him, the dogs are growling at us and looking like they're going to attack us. So, we backed off and let our neighbor do his thing. We tried to direct him  from a distance to where the dogs were in the yard, but it most definitely didn't work. Eventually the dogs crawled back through the hole in the fence from whence they came, and we led our neighbor back to his house. Since then, the hole in the fence seeems to have been blocked off from their side, but we're still wary of vicious dogs as we arrive to the church each time.

Friday was just the regular thing, going contacting on the street. Though, we did talk to two people that said they'd like to meet up with us again! That's a first for me. Later that night we volunteered at American Corner like usual to help local students practice speaking English.

Me and Elder Jex at American Corner

Saturday we helped plan our branch Family Home Evening that'll be tonight, and then finally got a chance to go clean the muddy paw-prints that were all over the church's very large porch (from when the dogs invaded). After that, we had a lesson with our investigator that seems closest to being ready to be baptized. We still have some work there, but she'd be an awesome addition to the Novi Sad branch, and we love helping her build her faith. Shortly after that lesson we had it scheduled to have a lesson with one of the two people from Friday that agreed to meet up with us. He didn't show up.

Yesterday, Sunday we had church like usual. President McAlpin gave the talk in sacrament meeting, and it was pretty touching. He told some stories/parables about how we can be more loving and serve others, as this Christmas season ought to remind us, as well as about how loving of an act it was for our Father in heaven to send his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, in order to save all of us from sin and death. "O How Great the Plan of Our God!"

After church we got Elder Osborn set up in the computer system, and then a bit later had dinner at the McAlpins' like usual. Really good food, like always. But, this time the McAlpins had invited a married Serbian couple that they know through their humanitarian work. It was really great to have them there. I love getting to talk to people of other faiths who are doing such great work too.

Later that night, once we'd returned home, we ended up listening to multiple talks by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. He's such a good speaker. I noticed as we listened to those talks that many of them are about the hopeless, and how Christ has felt their despair, and how we ought to never fear, but rather take up hope and just keep trying. He gives such hope, such courage, and such reassurance when he talks about the loving but impossibly difficult path that the Savior walked for us, so that we never need be alone. I know that God, our Heavenly Father, loves us more than we can imagine, and that's why he sent Christ to be our Savior and Redeemer. He understands every pain, both spiritual and physical, that we ever will experience. If we turn to Him, we allow Him to help us through difficult times. I invite you to learn of Him, and thus find hope and peace even in hard times.

So, your homework is to listen to None Were With Him, by Elder Holland. Share it with your friends and family, too.

Thanks for all of your support! Have a great week.

--

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