10/24/2011

This one is kind of hard to follow...put your thinking caps on.

Okay, so we're writing a little late today. I'm actually writing a little later than late today as I've basically just been staring at the screen in a stupor for the last ten minutes. It's been a longweek. I'll try to be coherent but honestyly today I'm just not gonna worry about it too much. Man that indicative spelling of honestly right up there is bugging me. But I'd have to grab the mouse if I was going to fix it. Too much work.

Well, World Traveler C. Adams is once again not at home in dear Mitrovica. We are currently sitting in the awesome internet cafe of Beograd from a few weeks before. Why, do you ask, would our intrepid darers attempt to brave the black city of Gotham otherwise known as the White City of Communism lest their purposes and needs exceeded the very earths temperament and mettle?

That's COMMAND form of do you ask, by the way.

Books. The great culminating answer of answer which resounds across the flowing waves of babbling conversations diluted with the pall of chewable-thickness cigarette smoke can only be: Books. Yes, here we are at the world's second largest book fare in all the world and (i refuse to touch the mouse until I am done with this) selling copies of the book of mormon. The weird word that I hope our audience has abstracted from this sentence is, of course, selling. Why would the Lord's Missionaries dare to sell the word of God?! oh, idk. it's like the peeps hur dont bes spectin' til theyz gotsa pay fer it yuh fil me brah? lawlz? No, the people here just attribute more worth to a 100dinar book than to a priceless treasure printed in Italy (for Serbian). BOOKS. Ah the halls are rank with them. Old books, new books, invisible books, cook books, hebrew books, anti-american books, american books, books of mormon. It's fun. Books.

BOOK! Okay, um. Read a book this week that altered my life for the millionth time. That is, for the millionth time my life has been altered, with this first experience with that book being one in a million. ha. oh i'm witty... Um.... Problem is: the plan is for it to be Christmas back home. Um, what? Problem: finding in English. Problem: Time. Problem: Time. Problem: Redundancy. Solution:

WONDERBOY CHASE SAVES THE DAY! <----- 4th dimensional headline Um, so we can all be giggly girls and talk about it while we gulp tea (of course gulp, this is the 21st century, dang it!) and check our twitter followers for our gulp party. Cool? Cool. (M.S. anyone else who's interested in knowing the book may freely e-mail me. Just... um Mom can't. JS) Well, I can't rightly be with my обично companion today, can I? (Okay, not a swear-word. I couldn't think of the word for "normal" fast enough. Cyrillics was obviously the only expresative means of getting it out. It's artistic. dealwithit. Looks like President Rowe doesn't like us to be getting complacent and falling into routines. Either that, or Father-dearest sold his Dakovo pictures to go back to Osijek, the city of his love. He's there with Elder Genther and here I am with Elder Schouten! They're both in our Zone, and actually C. Schouten was called to serve in Serbia but due to the *ahem* mishap this last February, was unable to serve here. He's been in Osijek for four months dying to come home. His Croatian-Serbian switch is doing well, though. Either way, just with him until Thursday. We mad the switch on last Thursday at Zone Conference. Man, but I feel like this could read as a bad cartoon.... Zone conference was pretty cool. It wen't much smoother than the last one that we had because (why did I use an apostrophe on went?) well basically S. Genther remembered his passport. That's basically about it. Oh, and we had the most divinely supreme food because we asked Dushka Vuchenovich to "help" us. She basically prepared a multicourse meal with actual garnish on our sandwhiches (that's sad) and the most amazing Russian Honey cake thing that I've ever had. (First in my collection of recipes which i've just started. js. Any takers? If you can read Serbian, they're great. But it was cool. LONG. Pres. Rowe basically told me what we're doing isn't working. Do something else. Um, harsh but fair? The Something Else: APPARENTLY there's this thing called the Area Book that we're SUPPOSED to use in missionary work.... шалим се We've been going through ours cleaning it up and finding everybody who's just been "dropped" due to the pull-outs in Serbia or due to negligent missionaries. Too harsh? Problem is, it's been few and far between that people have either been in Mitrovica or used the book. We've got records going back to '02, a bunch from '07, and a few from '08 and '09. It's.... Slow. I think there's a theme here. BUT! We've found people. Like actual, living, breathing people who know who we are and don't hate us! It's kind of cool. Just gonna say. We've had lessons even. Heck, technically we have a new investigator (by virtue of having a follow-up appointment this thursday. (She's apparently read the book of mormon upwards of 15 times and has the most comprehensive list of missionary names that I've ever seen. She's got 'em back to '92. I kid you not. Yeah, she'll prolly get baptized.)) <--Cool. Double duty. It's been.... a LOT of walking. But it's been worth it. We know people, I have more numbers in our phone.... It's been fun. I'm a little sick. What do you do for aching kidneys? kind of kidding.... I think I definitely just had some tap-water on accident. NEWS: I DEFINITELY BLESSED THE WATER IN CHURCH THIS SUNDAY. (Read in Cyrillics, btw. One mess up right at the beginning...) I love my camera. Just so you know. Can't wait for you to get all these shots. Got the package. TP. For real? Alright.... Thanks for the Mapleine tho. Should be really good. PB - divine. Important: I'll prolly be here (okay, transfer rumours aside, I HOPE I'll be here) next transfer. Mama says that anything sent to her address makes it. Please feel free to send me things straight here. (Only the beginning parts of transfers which last 9 weeks if you're scared.) She also says to "pozdrav" you. So this is me saying for her "according to your health". She says hi, that is. List of sketchy Beograd happenings I've seen today: Definitely saw a drug trade. Like 15 year olds! Definitely saw a 7 year old puffin' away. Asked me for dinars.... Teens selling postcards for "needy children" I'm pretty sure that the grandpa on the comp right next to me is telling the teen he's skyping with that he's her father and where her siblings are? Idk. This darn language.... Definitely saw the Mafia drive by. Police forces and riot police holding small bats. Some sort of demonstration, I guess.... List of cool things that I've seen today in Beograd: Freaking communist-style post office! Biggest post I've ever seen in my life. fo real. Inside of TWO Pravoslav churches. (Orthodox) THE TEMPLE is one of these. It's great. They've been working on it for 200 years + and are just starting the inside. It's BEAUTIFUL Pravoslav girl quietly worshipping. Really touching. 2nd Biggest Book Fair in the World (Curse you, Germany! shallim se) 6 of the Lord's missionaries in the Capital City of form Communist Jugoslavia. Word of the Week: Љубичаст Ljubicast - Lj (kako?! No idea how to pronounce this....) ooh, bee, chahst. meaning: Purple Direct translation: Love honour. Favourite word? You betcha. neighbour. colour. and other british spellings too! Done. Pizza Hut time. Yay for American style pizza! If only they'd serve us more water!.... ah well. LOVE YOU Старешина Адамз