Week 27

Hey Fam,

So it sounds like everyone is doing good.  Glad to hear that.  I loved looking at that picture of Braxton.  He is getting so big.  I was actually thinking just last night that when I get home he will probably be walking and talking and wont even know me. 

This week has been interesting with a little shake up of our own over here in Croatia. 

So the new mission president got here and he is very nice.  He is only 44.  I say only because President Hill was so much older and didn't have his family with him and now President Rowe is right in the middle of his life and has all 5 of his kids with him.  So for the 4th we went to the mission mansion, I mean mission home and Sister Rowe made us lunch and we played on their tennis court and got to know each other a little better.  Just like with all changes this one will taking a little warming up.  I feel like I knew Pres. Hill so well after just the short time I did actually know him.  All the missionaries would talk about him and had such respect for him and now everyone has to start new.

On Tuesday I did get to see his teaching style though.  While it is very different and he already has many new ideas and opinions it was a good conference.  It was actually a mission conference.  So we had everyone in the mission meet together here in Zagreb and it was fun.  I mean it was a conference so we got to see everyone.  There were a few people who had moved away this last transfer who I was anxious to see.  And Westie of course. 

Well we had a lesson with Marko on Wednesday and I feel like every time we meet him he gets further away from baptism.  Either i am understanding more or we are discovering more.  Maybe a little bit of both.  So for the lesson we went over some of the baptismal questions to see where he is in coordination to baptism.  Well it was a good thing we did that.  We found out that he doesn't believe that God has a body.  While that is a very typical thing for the catholic Croat we talked about it a little.  I felt like I talked a lot more this lesson.  I feel like Elder Lifferth is just so used to just giving a normal lesson that the investigator suffers sometimes.  I don't want to just teach Marko, I want Marko to know me.  I want him to really understand this stuff and I want to let him know that I know these things are true, not just simply give him the information and let him do with it what he will.  So I decided like anything in life, if you want it done you have to do it yourself.  So I talked a lot more.  I asked easy question, mostly so I could understand the response, but also so that he would understand the simple things are important too.  So as we were talking about a dream he had I wanted to ask him a question.  His dream was that he was arguing with God because he had not yet received an answer about the Book of Mormon or the church.  So I wanted to ask him what he thought his answer might me like.  After we watched that talk from Elder Bednar about the Spirit of Revelation from this last conference I thought he had a better understanding.  So I never got to ask that question because Lifferth nudged me when I started talking.  I heeded to that nudge and stopped talking.  I thought I may have interrupted something and that I would later have my chance.  Well I never got my chance and I was a little mad.  It is important to know that I did not understand that dream about the argument with God but just felt like I should ask him that question.  So you can imagine my frustration when I found out that he question may have resolved concerned.  Not only that but I don't speak much Croatian and when a subject lingers long enough for me to come up with something to say I get a little frustrated when my comp shuts me down.... just saying!  So I don't know when he will be baptized but I believe he will sometime. 

So as for the Croatian shake up and how I made out like a bandit.  Well I was excited to have the Zone leaders go on exchanges after mission conference because that meant that Westie would be staying here and we could go to lunch or something.  So I called to arrange lunch only to figure out that he had gone back to his city.  However, he would be return, and this time to stay.... So at this news I was very excited.  Not to mention my companion as District Leader would have to go on exchanges with his companion and Westie and I would work together for a day.  Not only that but I would see him everyday and we could do things together on Pday.  So they have moved up to Zagreb switching places with the Sisters.  Well to make a long story short.  Westie is not in my district which means that no exchange with happen.  His coming formed a new district of which he is the district leader.  I am not allowed to call out of my district to arrange Pdays and he is an office elder.  However, I do see him on Sundays and as a result of the Sisters leaving, Lifferth and I inherited two investigators, brother and sister, who will be baptized this Saturday!  Office elders does mean that Westie gets to sit in an air conditioned office while I walk around in this dang heat though.  I'm a little jealous. 

On Saturday we had a good day.  We had been working with a member here trying to meet with an inactive member who is still a friend of his.  So when he called we anticipated that he would have an appointment to meet with this guy.  However, it was an invite to meet with another inactive member who we had not heard of before.  Better yet this encounter would take place at the Pompeii exhibit which would be leaving the next day.  So we got the chance to meet a new person who we can work with and see this super cool Exhibit.

The exhibit was so amazing.  It was thing that has been uncovered from the city of Pompeii.  They even had bodies that had been petrified by the ash.  It was very cool.  Oh and we got to meet another inactive. 

So other than those couple things that I have bored you with all the details about we walked around in the heat and practically died.  It is so bloody hot!  When we got home for lunch we usually just strip down to our garments and sit in from of the fan.  Then we fill our bellies with water.  Then we get cold because we are sitting in damp (from sweat) clothes and it's all just a mess.  I must say it is very hard to stay diligent when it is so hot and you can either sit at home and not find anyone or got out in the heat and have the same results.  None of the people we have now to teach were found by Elder Lifferth and I.  Marko is from an exchange, which I was not apart of, and we just inherited the brother and sister.  So hopefully we can see the fruits of our labor one day. 

Well I love you all and thanks for everything! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Massey