Week 86: Football Friends and Serbian Easter

Hello everyone! This week our weather was pretty darn good. Stuff has definitely started to warm up. Every now and then it looks like it might rain, but usually the skies are blue, now, which is nice.

Tuesday involved a fair amount of contacting. At one point as we were walking through the park, we started talking to a guy sitting on a bench. After a few minutes, one of his friends rode up on a bike and joined the conversation. Then a few minutes later, a 3rd friend walked up and joined in at the end. We got the 2nd guy to take a copy of the Book of Mormon and got his number, so we'll see what happens there. After lunch we had studies and went with the Deckers to visit some members, and then had ECG at the end of the night. One of the guys came who plays on Sremska's team for American Football, and it was nice to have a new person there.

 

Wednesday morning had some really great weather, and we naturally went contacting again. After lunch we had district meeting and Elder Decker taught a great lesson. Later while we were out contacting again we ran into one of the other members of the American Football team, and stopped to talk to him for a few minutes. A few minutes after that, I got a call from Elder Jensen for some business-y stuff, but it meant that I got to speak Slovene for a bit, which was nice. From there we went with the Deckers to visit some more members, which I always love, and then to end the night we went to clean out the other apartment the last bit.

On Thursday morning it started raining some, so we did one of our studies until it stopped, and then we went contacting. We had lunch, visited some various members, and then it started raining on us again while we were walking back. And, like every Tuesday and Thursday, we had English Conversation Group in the evening.

Leading English Conversation Group (ECG)

Friday started off with more member visits, and the whole time we were walking there and back it was looking like it was going to start raining really hard. After we got back and had lunch and studies, nothing particularly interesting happened except some rain.

On Saturday morning we went to the main square with our table and whiteboard and set up our little stand. This time we wrote Matthew 28:6 on our whiteboard, since this weekend is Serbian Easter. A few people stopped, and one guy took a copy of The Book of Mormon. After a few hours we packed up and went to get lunch before having our studies. That evening for dinner we went with the Deckers to a member home and they fed us a wonderful Serbian pre-Easter dinner.

Some interesting graffiti in Sremska

Yesterday, Sunday we had church like always, but it was a little bit different since it was Easter, here in Serbia. The custom on Easter in Serbia is to greet people by saying "Hristos voskrese" and replying with "Va istinu, voskrese". That's really old Serbian (or Slavic, generally) for "Christ resurrected", and then "In truth, He resurrected" as the response. It was really cool to hear people saying that as they came in, and then the testimonies that people shared during church were very heartfelt. To add one more thing to the coolness, during church we got a text from an unknown number, using that Easter greeting. When I had a chance, I replied with the appropriate response, and then they replied asking if they could get a free copy of the Book of Mormon. What?

So then I set a time to come visit them and deliver it. I think it might be someone that took a card while we had our table set up on the main square on Saturday, but regardless, it's really cool that they took the initiative to contact us. That doesn't happen very often at all. Also, our landlady stopped by our place that afternoon and gave us some home-made Sarma (delicious food) as an Easter gift. That night we of course had a delicious dinner with the Deckers, and it was a wonderful Serbian Easter.

Abinadi teaching King Noah and his priests about Christ

Your homework for this week is to read Mosiah 15. In this chapter, the prophet Abinadi speaks about Christ. Why Christ came, what he did for us, etc, especially including the resurrection.

Here are some photos of some cool sights around Sremska, plus a Serbia scarf that I bought.

Have a great week!

--

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

Week 85: Exchanges, KFC, Conference, and Easter

Hello everyone! This week the weather has turned back around again to a more positive outlook, such as sunshine and warmer temperatures. I definitely like it so far. And now onto the outline of the week!

On Tuesday we had an early Easter lunch with the Deckers and some of our friends from Caritas, the event having been prepared by our Caritas friends. Guess what they made? Among other things, they made Cheesy Potato Casserole, also known as Funeral Potatoes, a "Mormon classic". We were pleasantly surprised, haha. The whole lunch was really good, and we were pleasantly surprised with the whole thing! At the end of the day, after English, the Belgrade missionaries showed up to get dinner with us and start exchanges. So, Elder Sorensen stayed with me, and Elder Heaton temporarily went to Belgrade.

Lunch with the Deckers and our Caritas friends.

They even made us heavenly potatoes!

Wednesday involved a whole lot of contacting, and we had a LOT more success getting to talk to people than we normally do. I think we had lengthy conversations with 4 or 5 people, and got off 2 or 3 copies of the Book of Mormon, and got some phone numbers, which was great. In the evening we had our branch "sports night", and we went to play basketball with some of the younger members. After basketball, we went to a pizza place for dinner, and it was wonderful to get to know them all better.

Thursday started off more contacting, but somehow there weren't nearly as many people outside as there were on Wednesday. We had lunch at Tešić, and Elder Sorensen got to say hello to his old friends, the employees there. We of course had English that evening, and then packed up our stuff to drive to Belgrade to finish the exchange. We stayed the night at the Zone Leaders' place, and Elder Sharp made us crepes.

On Friday, we went to KFC for a late breakfast. Apparently the KFCs here have chicken sandwiches and fries. Or, maybe that's a general change including the ones in the States, and I'm just uninformed on what KFC restaurants are doing, haha. That afternoon, back in Sremska with Elder Heaton, we did a lot more contacting. We met some cool people, including a set of 3 guys chilling by the river. Elder Heaton started talking with them about basketball, and we ended up inviting them to church and such.

Saturday started off with a short-version district meeting with the Deckers, since Sister Decker had a piano lesson scheduled with one of the younger members here. That evening we gathered as a branch to watch the first session of General Conference, when Russell M. Nelson was sustained by church membership as the next president of the church, and prophet. Conference was really good, like every time, and Sister Decker had mad some cookies for us to have after (they vanished very quickly).

Watching conference on a little screen at church.

Church on Sunday was us watching another session of Conference, which was again wonderful. If you haven't watched General Conference this year, go do it as soon as you can. It was also great to see a member come who had been in the hospital recently. Sister Decker had made some Reese's-type egg desserts for us to have after, and everyone loved those too. Later in the evening we of course went to the Deckers' for another wonderful dinner, but this time we had a few extra members with us to make it even better. After eating, Elder Heaton and I stayed with the Deckers to watch one more session of conference.

Another great dinner with the Deckers and other friends

Today, Monday, we got Elder Heaton's visa! That was good. We also got groceries and had some ćevapi for lunch and emailed like normal. Also, recently this large rabbit has shown up in the center of town. I'll attach a picture. Also, with the recent rain and rise in temperatures, the river has been pretty high. I'll attach a picture of one of the playgrounds near the river.

The playground is under water, as you can see, from all the rain we've had.

Anyway, your homework is to watch General Conference! If you've already watched all of it, then watch some more from last year, or listen to one of the talks that touched you the most. If you listen to the words of the Prophets and Apostles while seeking guidance from God, you'll get it.

President Russell M. Nelson (middle), with his 2 counselors. These men are disciples of Jesus Christ

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Have a great week everyone! And Happy Easter!

Христос воскресе!

--

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