Monday, June 27, 2011

Week 25

Hey Fam, 

Well this week has been pretty good.  Nothing really to exciting. 

Well transfers were this Sunday and I already told you that I would be staying here in Zagreb with Elder Lifferth.  I am indifferent with the whole thing.  It would have been nice for a change but I will be just fine here in a place I have learned and I know the branch.  Elder Lifferth is the district leader in a district of 10 people and i hope he doesn't have a heart attack.  He over thinks way to much and just ya is interesting.  I mean it in the best of ways but I have come to realize that he reminds me ALOT of Jeffery.  That is all I will say about that....  So we had to shuffle some people around, make sure no one was left alone and not one missed buses and trains.  So that was fun.  I am actually the the second oldest missionary in Zagreb right now.  Let me clarify, age determined by living in Zagreb.  So everyone else besides one moved here after me.  So I know the city better than most missionaries, I kinda like that. 

Also the BYU international folk dancers ensemble was here this weekend and that was fun.  Lots of young Americans!  Church was translated into English from the pulpit, that was nice.  So that was fun to see lots of people that are well, normal.  It was actually really nice to talk to all the guys most of which were return missionaries.  They were just really interesting in how things were going and really saw the missionary prospective on them coming and preforming here.  They did a performance that was just on one of the main squares of town and as people would come and watch we would talk to them.  It was pretty cool. 

We got to teach Marko once and we taught him about the Word of Wisdom.  Well he is a true Croat, he loves wine and coffee.  It was kind of interesting.  Toward the end of the discussion, for clarification, I asked him if he liked wine.  He said, ˝Yes, I USED to˝  I thought that was so good.  He already was talking about drinking wine in the past tense.  We will definitely follow up with him and see how it goes.  I feel like Elder Lifferth is not so optimistic, maybe that is because he actually understands all of what Marko is saying haha.  I really like Marko and I am excited to see his success.  We had a member on the lesson with us and that was good.  We try to find new members to fellowship him and met him so he will actually know people when he comes to church.

There were 3 holidays this week.... ya don't ask me why all in the same week.  So the town was dead.  People either stay inside and watch soccer or go down to the coast on days off.  So we walked around and talked to all of the 5 people we saw.  it was miserable really.  we did talk to this one girl from Seattle Washington who is an artist that lives in Paris.  She asked if she could draw me, just a face sketch.  So I said sure, you know i get that all the time.  So she is going on like a little tour drawing people for a project she is doing.  So we sat and she drew me and we talked.  It was fun and was a break from walking through the abandon town. 

So that really is about all.  I hope you are all doing good and having fun in that summer heat.  LOVE Y'ALL.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Week 24

Hey Fam!!

So this week has been pretty good.  We had zone conference, a convert baptism, and more rain.....

So zone conference was fun.  I got to see Westie and that is always fun.  It was President Hills last zone conference.  He will be going home at the end of the month.  We still haven't met our new mission President.  But I have seen a picture and read a little bit about him.  He has a deal in the church news so that has a little info about him.  Also at zone conference we did what we like to call ˝Box B˝.  This is when Pres. just tells us all the transfers while we are all together.  So this way it is live action with no delay on knowing where everyone else is going and such.  The bad thing is that if you don't like where you are going you cant hide your emotions.  Well I found out that I will be staying here in Zagreb for another transfer and I will be with Lifferth still.  So that isn't too bad I guess.  I kinda wanted a change but whatev.  And I found out that with so many people going home at the end of next transfer that means we will be having 8 more come in.  So inevitably I will be training.... NOOOO.  I really don't want to.  Partly because I don't want the responsibility and partly because I still don't know everything and my greenie will think I am stupid lol.  So that means that I really have to kick it into gear this transfer so that I can be just a little more  prepared for this whole training deal.  So that is that i suppose.

Marko is doing good, at least from what i can understand.  He came and saw a baptism and then came to church the next day so that he could see her get the Holy Ghost.  He only stayed for the first meeting but that is better than nothing.  So we haven't rescheduled his date but we will do that hopefully this week.  So we are just teachin him and all is well.

So nothing to great has really happened this week.... I just feel like I have had a pretty blah week.  This rain one day and then blazing hot and humid day that follows is really not working for me.

Oh i do have one thing to tell you all.  Elder Lifferth and I, which basically means just me because he isn't to spontaneous, have adopted the neighbors dog.  We live in the basement basically of a lady but we have a door on ground level and she walks upstairs to her front door.  so really she lives upstairs and we live on ground level.  anywho... she has a dog that kinda just chills outside and we open the doors and windows in the morning just to get a breeze going.  so for awhile I would try to get him to come in but he wouldn't.  he would be like half in and half out.  So... i started bribing him just for the sake of him coming in and he would come in for food but then just leave.  well i was on an exchange the other day and i called him in and he just came right in.  then he left but then he would come in lay on the cold tile in the entry and just chill.  so he was just wondering in and out and he pleases and it is fun.  well when elder lifferth came back home zak, the dog, continued to let himself in.  So he came in while elder lifferth was in the other room and i called him and told him someone was at the door for him.  when he saw it was zak he yelled at him to get out but i just pet him and told him it was ok and he stayed.  yes, he loves me more.  so now we have a dog, but not really.  so that is fun and entertaining. his name is zak, pronounced like bach with a z.

well sorry nothing really else has happened just been walking around talking to people.  oh that reminds me of another story.

I was tracting the other day and i knocked on the door and an older lady asked who it was so i told her.  and she was like, boys boys enough already.  so i kinda chuckled but she heard me.  she asked me what was funny and i didn't know what to say.  so i told her.  it is funny that you say that before you even listen.  she said, why is that funny and i told her, oh no reason I just get that all the time.  well she didn't reply to that and we moved on.  it was just funny that she caught me laughing at her.

ok that is really all now.  so i hope you all have a great week and everyone is happy and healthy.

THEN WE GOT THIS EMAIL LATER IN THE MORNING: Titled "Best P Day Ever"
So for this p day we just did a picture exchange at the church on the church computer.  So while we were loading pictures and people were taking their turn on the computer the rest of us were playing ping pong and card games and stuff.  So then I started the Martha story...... oh it was the best thing ever.  We all laughed our heads off!!!!!  it was so amazing and now about a half hour later, which is now, we are still talking like that.  So every person in my district now knows Martha and we all love talkin like her.  It is amazing.  We are still laughing when people still say certain things.  Well i just wanted you to know.  Love you all!!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Week 23

Hey Fam!

So I must apologize for last week.  All of us missionaries were hurrying out the door because we were going to play racquetball.  So sorry for the scramble of an email and not much information.  I promise to do better this week.  Although nothing has really happened this week it has been pretty good.  That is besides the crazy weather.  It will rain like crazy one day and just kill the missionary work, because there is only limited activities we can do in the rain, then the next it will be like 80 degrees making a very nasty muggy day that is no fun to walk around it all day. 

One of the days when it was raining we had gone over to the old church here in Zagreb to see if they needed any help because they are currently turning it into the mission office.  When Krešomir was alive he bought it for the church.  It is the whole level of an apartment building so it is pretty good size.  However now that we have a legit building it hasnt been in use for a long time.  So the mission home is moving to Zagreb and so they have remodeled this building so it can be the office.  ANYWAY..... we went over there to see if they needed any help and they said not so we started walking home and just talking to people along the way.  Until it started to POUR!  It was insane.  It was just like home lol.  One minute nice and sunny and the next a complete down pour.  So lovely Elder Lifferth and I are in our white shirts and ties were running through the rain to get on a tram to get home faster.  Then at the end of the tram line we have to walk about 10 mins to get home.  So we decided to wait it out in a dollar store shopping for little things that our apartment is still lacking from when Elder Warren and I opened it.  So that was fun....

We had a lesson with Marko this week.  I would say it went fairly well.  Because he is still struggling with receiving an answer about the Book of Mormon we decided to focus a little bit on that.  So during my personal study, which is basically fully devoted to trying to figure out what we should teach our one and only investigator, I was reading through the latest conference address looking for things that might help him.  So I read through Elder Bednar's talk on the Spirit of Revelation and I felt like that might help him to better recognize an answer when it comes.  So we watched that with him, in Croatian, so it's a good thing I read it over first so I knew what we were talking about.  At the end as we were discussing it he said, ˝That is what I feel when I read the Book of Mormon, maybe I have already received my answer.˝.  So I feel like that helped him and maybe this week we can move forward.  His original date was on the 18th but we are definitely moving that.  I realized this as I was looking over the baptismal interview question that is really not even close to being ready.  I did ask him why he wants to be baptized and he told me that he never thought he needed to be baptized but now that  he has talked to us he wants to be obedient and knows that is what he needs to do.  I liked that answer a lot because I feel like many members of the church dont even do something things because they dont know why they need to.  Marko, if for nothing else, just wanted to be obedient.  That is a great step I think. 

So we really have been just doing a lot of work to try and find new investigators and I must say that it can be very discouraging.  I just tell myself that they dont understand.  But at this point I'm just telling myself whatever I need to so that I can maintain a positive attitude.  So this walking around talking to random people is getting kind of old.  I'm afraid of the fact that i am already saying that.  At the end of this month i will be a fourth of the way done with my mission and I feel that if I start saying that now this could be a very long mission.  Like the other day I was just going to talk to this guy and ask him where I could find a place to recycle our plastic bottles and he was the biggest jerk ever!  Before I could even say anything he just put his hand out and said, which doesnt even make scene to me, ˝nothing nothing I wouldn't I wouldn't˝.  First of all that doesnt even make sense.  Which makes me not want to talk to him anyway.  Second, he didnt even give me the time of day.  What the heck did I do.  So it is experiences like that one that make it that much harder to talk to the next person...Sorry that was just me complaining about mission life.

Yesterday we had District Conference, which is basically Stake Conference.  However, since we dont have enough member in the whole country to make a stake so we have a district.  So that means that all the member is Croatia were in Zagreb yesterday and an area 70 was here to talk to us.  It was really good.  I liked it a lot.  I mean I only got to understand like 3 of the speakers but what I caught from the other ones was also very good.  Even our mission presidents wife gave her talk in Croatian!  The area 70 was Elder Donaldson and he was so fun to listen to.  He would stop everyone and a while and ask the translators if they needed a break or ask them if they were saying everything right lol.  He was very good.  Also, other things that I was hoping would be mentioned, were mentioned.  So for example, we have some what of a problem with member missionary work here.  A return sister missionary that got home about a month ago spoke and really brought down some fire.  It was great.  Then Elder Donaldson did something that I really liked.  He showed the congregation his notes.  They consisted of about 3 lines that wanted to say.  Then he told us that he was only the mouth piece by which the Lord would be speaking today.  He told us that he didnt do this to brag but to show that what he was saying was not from him.  He some of the exact things this country needed to hear.  It was a really good experience.  And to top it all off we had a lunch after wards.  That shows you how few members we have in the country.  It you can feed all of them in about an hour.  But there is a lady that works for the American consulate here and she went to the Army base in Italy and bought Root Beer.  It was an answer to my prayers. 

Well I feel like I have done a whole lot a blabbering today.  I just want to let everyone know that I love them so much!  Thank you all for all your love and support.  I hope everyone has a great week! Love you all!!!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Week 22

Bok!

Hey yall this has been a pretty good week.  Sound like you all are doing great.  This week has been full of adventure!  So I will start at the beginning of the week with all the adventures.  So............

Last Monday we went and played Beach Volleyball with the district and that was super fun.  On Tuesday we had English Class but before that because our apartment has been so graciously blessed with a blender, we decided to share that blessing and have a smoothie party before District Meeting.  I made the smoothies and we drank them during the meeting.  We also had a lesson with Marko and it was about the first half of the Plan of Salvation and he was asking a lot of question, at least that is my comp told me.  My understanding is getting better but not good enough to talk about the intricacies of the Plan of Salvation.  But the fact that he is asking questions is good because that means he actually wants to know.  So I kinda got to sit there and try to figure out what is goin on for most of the time.  So on Wednesday we had like nothing to do so the Sisters showed us where a guy lives that said the Elders could come and teach him.  So we did that then went to lunch.  Then we were supposed to have a lesson with someone at the church but they didnt show and so we ended up going to dinner with the same sisters again lol.  So then on Thursday we have weekly planning and that is always fun... it just means we set goals and stuff.... aka not contacting/tracting.  So then when we were about done we got called to help a member move.  That was pretty fun.  When I started taking things to the wrong place then just said everything in English.  It was nice.  Then we ended up doing that like all night and we got home a little late.  So that was fun and we got to talk to some members and ya just nice time.  Then on Friday we had a lesson with Marko and the last part of it the past District President came and helped us.  So that was nice.  He is such a cool guy im glad that he was able to come and help us out.  After words he was giving us feedback and he was kinda telling Lifferth that he needs to just calm down and be himself then he points at me and says, ˝you have a lot to learn from him.˝  It was an amazing compliment and he said before that he really likes my ˝curiousity and zeal˝.  Then he invited me to lunch on Sunday.  I told him that his wife already invited me for Wednesday and he told me I could both times.  On Saturday their daughter was baptized and she is so cute.  She always tries to talk to me and I dont understand anything lol.  But they have two little girls and they are so cute.  Also on Saturday the Pope was in town.  That wasnt to good for Mormon missionaries.  Not to mention the trams were all messed up and streets everywhere were closed.  It was crazy.  But we did get to see the Popemobile lol.  And probably the funnies story of the week is that the people that live in front of us have a tv that when we walk up to our door we can see it.  So we saw that the Pope was getting ready to leave and I wanted to go in and see it.  But Elder Lifferth told me that if I wanted to go in I had to ask them in Croatian.  So I did and they totally let us come in and I got to see the whole ending thing and it was pretty cool.  But when he got ready to leave I kinda figured the route he would be taking and it went through my head that he would be passing by the Elders that live in Centers apartment.  So after I had already said thank you and left the peoples house I was on the phone I just walked back in and was commentating in English where the Pope was and  then they walked out of their apartment and totally got a video of the Pope passing in front of their house in the Popemobile.  It was great fun.  But it was crazy with him here. 

So I am super scatter brained and Cant focus so i will talk to you next week.  Love you all!!





We got this email a little later Ü
I also forget to tell you all about another funny story that happened yesterday.  So I was walking home in the rain after doing some tracting and I saw an old lady get of the tram and start walking home.  And well like I said it was raining.  So I just went up to her and offered my umbrella and she took it.  it was old and I found it in a trash pile but took it because it still worked.  So I gave it to her and just kept walking because I didnt really want to be in the raining longer than i had to and i was kinda far from home.  She was yelling thank you and come back but i didnt really want to talk for an hour in the ran just i just said have a good night and kept walking.  so i thought it was kinda funny.  she looked a little startled but she took it and it was all good.  so that was my good deed for yesterday.  Love you all and  hope you have a good week.