This one scares me....no mother want her son to be cold.
Team,
Sounds like a pretty cool week you all had! How often is it really that you get to shake the hand of an Apostle, huh? That's not yet happened for me, but maybe someday, huh? So this week we're in Novi Sad again with Elders Freeman and Adams (small little Adamsy world). We just had to get out of Sremska because well, it's teeny. So up in the bigish city again an loving it.
MOM. PACKAGE. LOVE. Okay, that was like way legit. We had our most recent Zone Conference this last Saturday and then I got the package filled with Christmassy stuff. I didn't know about this one's existence (unless it's one of the three?) and so just kind of tore right into it an then afterwards realized that it was for Christmas. Some of the invisible things I've saved for Christmas (which they celebrate usually here on the 25th but also on the 7th of January if they're bored or have the funds to do it again. Kind of weird. The best thing ever was that voice recorder, though! I've listened through all of the messages and a bit of the music, even got into th conference talks this morning! Thank! I'm prolly going to keep that 8gb card with me until its full but I'm excited to send the two one gig ones back and forth, if I can! It's really way too much fun for me. Basically the whole busride today I was using it just talking about the flat, icy ground. Sad, okay maybe a little.
Zone Conference was good, though. We did a lot of role-playing which was pretty fun. We ordered this Bomb cake (as always it was on the home front because we're in the middle of everything....) made out of rasberries and had pizza. It was nice.
The real news is that this week we also had our kind of Stake Conference, though we call it District Conference. The Spirit was literally like thick enough to cut with a knife as all of the Serbian members (and quite a few investigators too) came to listen to our Mission President in Beograd. There was a calling shuffle and now the old District President is going to be spending all of his time translating the Doctrine and Covenants which will be a huge blessing. President Rowe asked that all of our investigators who were there listen to us as representatives of Jesus Christ. Zlata and Milica I think really had that speak to them and now we're going to meet with them on Friday. So stoked.
We had a great lesson with Mirko an Emilija too. Somehow we went from Ammon and Aaron's different accounts of how God exists into the Restoration lesson. Spun through that and then asked them to be baptized which they didn't turn down, even if they didn't accept. I know that they feel the spirit, and this was actually the first lesson that we'd ever as a companionship pointed out to them the fact that they were feeling the Spirit. It was way cool. I love 'em both to death.
We had english class sign-ups again. We had a ton more people show up this time and so I'm pretty stoked. We're also doing a lot of individual classes with people who speak better and seeing if we can't do about half and half time spent between English and the Gospel. We'll see. These Novi Sad boys had some success with that last transfer so we'll see what we can't do! It's definitely going to keep us busy.
Friday the visibility level because of the fog was about 30.56 feet. That was nice and all, but since then the frigid air has been freezing all particles of water from that fog an leaving them all over the ground as this weird hoar frost or snow thing. Last night actually we spent part of the evening with Mama, our landlady, building a fire. We have a stove-chimney thing in our kitchen. She was telling us about how hard winter is and ladada and C. Schouten kind of agreed with her and then she looked at us and was all like, no you don't understand. Winter is HARD. She kind of looked scared.... Apparently it's no at all uncommon to have a lot of the winter be around -20 celsius. Little worried.
Finally started our visa application process. Should have them in about 10 days now.
Got Cyrillic nametags. WAY LEGIT.
Старешина Адамз
Црква
Исуса Христа
Светаца
Последњих Дана
I'll take a picture.
To je to for now.
Čao
Старешина Адамз
Croatia
Monday, November 21, 2011
11/14/2011
Okay,so I am a week behind...sorry gang. Here is the letter from last week.
Team!
I don't know why I throw out all these weird interjections. I just feel like I need to address somebody when I type, but really I don't know who all reads these besides mom.... Ah well, here we are again. E-mail time.
This week was super busy. Last Thursday we planned everything out together for our Transfer, Month, and week really well. I hate planning, but love to have a plan so it's kind of a Catch 22 for me. Anyways, we ended up teaching a bunch of times to a bunch of different people that we've been finding over the past couple of weeks and it just all worked out in the end. We've now got 6 investigators and a bunch of other people who we're very hopeful to begin teaching very soon. The thing is is that they'd better never take me out of SM because I love the people here far too much for any of that to be happening. There are too many people that I'm so ready to begin teaching and who are so ready for the gospel that I can't even begin to describe it. So.... I won't. Just have it at that.
Last P-day recap, though. After Internet we went and walked around the city and took more pictures. We also went to what they call the Palace here. It's actually the Palace Ruins of the City of Sirmijum (once the 3rd largest city in the Roman Empire as I'm often reminded). It was way cool. For like 150 dinar we got a cool booklet that we can't read yet, a fun ticket, got to see the on-display art there and walk around and climb on ancient Roman Ruins. Pretty cool, huh? We also drank tea with Mama, taught a lady named Umija and her sister (name? I can never remember....) and had FHE with the Vucenovici. It was all pretty great.
We spent a lot of our week postering and flyering for our English class sign-up on this Thursday. The Novi Sad elders a couple of weeks ago related to us the huge success that they've been having due to individual English courses held with a bunch of people these last two months. It's going to be a whirlwind adventure, tell you what. We printed up some really big posters and put them all over the place and this time around (I think because they were bigger and more professional-looking (thank you C. Defreitas)) they didn't get torn down by the students! A lot of people actually have been saying that they have heard about the class and so that gives me a lot of hope! We'll see! We'll see. :)
We actually had a party to end our last English class which was a lot of fun. Everybody brought food and we had music and these great games and talking in English and it was a lot of fun. Love parties, you know?
We had District Meeting on Saturday. We're now the the Novi Sad - Sremska Mitrovica district. We meet every week and that is a nice boost now. It's myself, Elder Schouten, Freeman, and Adams. Yupp. Gonna be a problem. The two new guys here are Elder Adams and Elder Gibson (who committed somebody to being baptized in Beograd on his first EVER lesson - such spoiling of the children... jk) I gave the language tip about numbers and how to use them in different ways. It's fun! Sounds like it will always be Tuesdays from now on. We also have another Zone Conference this Saturday which is going to last like 8 hours. Should be pretty good information. :) Big things a'happening.
RUMA. Ruma is a town not far from Sremska where the missionaries used to live because of the high amounts of members who used to live in that town. There are now many many inactive families there and a ton of potential investigator papers. In fact, hidden in the Dungeon beneath the Beograd Church a few months ago we discovered the Ruma Files. Anyways, Thursday we spent the day there trying to find people. It went well and we had some good conversations, but we packed way too light. Winter fell on us as we waited for the bus in the evening. Dang cold. Dang cold. Anyways, not much accomplished, but we now solved the mystery about Ruma - now we can focus 100% on SM. Not to mention the MASSIVE Palacinke we had at this pizzeria there. Good day overall.
Church was great yesterday. We taught about the Restoration and I think it went really well. Next week we're having District Conference which is roughly similar to stake conference but for all the members in Serbia. Should be way legit. Pretty stoked about it. Yesterday we also walked to Lacarak (a city not too far from Sremska). We crossed over some railroad tracks and left some 20 dinar coins on them. When we came back it was pretty late and there was another train coming so we only had time to look for a little bit. Found one of them though which was pretty cool. Smashed up treasures. Didn't find the person in Lacarak, but made a friend so it was good.
The harvest moon rises almost every night as our breath visibly escapes us. We teach, we learn, we act and hopefully remember. It's not much, but I sure hope that it means something to somebody. My life is summable into a few words - palacinke, investigators, walking, excitement, study, friends, hopes, fears, hope of rain, fear of failure really. This and foreign arabic money. Love.
Старешина Адамз
Team!
I don't know why I throw out all these weird interjections. I just feel like I need to address somebody when I type, but really I don't know who all reads these besides mom.... Ah well, here we are again. E-mail time.
This week was super busy. Last Thursday we planned everything out together for our Transfer, Month, and week really well. I hate planning, but love to have a plan so it's kind of a Catch 22 for me. Anyways, we ended up teaching a bunch of times to a bunch of different people that we've been finding over the past couple of weeks and it just all worked out in the end. We've now got 6 investigators and a bunch of other people who we're very hopeful to begin teaching very soon. The thing is is that they'd better never take me out of SM because I love the people here far too much for any of that to be happening. There are too many people that I'm so ready to begin teaching and who are so ready for the gospel that I can't even begin to describe it. So.... I won't. Just have it at that.
Last P-day recap, though. After Internet we went and walked around the city and took more pictures. We also went to what they call the Palace here. It's actually the Palace Ruins of the City of Sirmijum (once the 3rd largest city in the Roman Empire as I'm often reminded). It was way cool. For like 150 dinar we got a cool booklet that we can't read yet, a fun ticket, got to see the on-display art there and walk around and climb on ancient Roman Ruins. Pretty cool, huh? We also drank tea with Mama, taught a lady named Umija and her sister (name? I can never remember....) and had FHE with the Vucenovici. It was all pretty great.
We spent a lot of our week postering and flyering for our English class sign-up on this Thursday. The Novi Sad elders a couple of weeks ago related to us the huge success that they've been having due to individual English courses held with a bunch of people these last two months. It's going to be a whirlwind adventure, tell you what. We printed up some really big posters and put them all over the place and this time around (I think because they were bigger and more professional-looking (thank you C. Defreitas)) they didn't get torn down by the students! A lot of people actually have been saying that they have heard about the class and so that gives me a lot of hope! We'll see! We'll see. :)
We actually had a party to end our last English class which was a lot of fun. Everybody brought food and we had music and these great games and talking in English and it was a lot of fun. Love parties, you know?
We had District Meeting on Saturday. We're now the the Novi Sad - Sremska Mitrovica district. We meet every week and that is a nice boost now. It's myself, Elder Schouten, Freeman, and Adams. Yupp. Gonna be a problem. The two new guys here are Elder Adams and Elder Gibson (who committed somebody to being baptized in Beograd on his first EVER lesson - such spoiling of the children... jk) I gave the language tip about numbers and how to use them in different ways. It's fun! Sounds like it will always be Tuesdays from now on. We also have another Zone Conference this Saturday which is going to last like 8 hours. Should be pretty good information. :) Big things a'happening.
RUMA. Ruma is a town not far from Sremska where the missionaries used to live because of the high amounts of members who used to live in that town. There are now many many inactive families there and a ton of potential investigator papers. In fact, hidden in the Dungeon beneath the Beograd Church a few months ago we discovered the Ruma Files. Anyways, Thursday we spent the day there trying to find people. It went well and we had some good conversations, but we packed way too light. Winter fell on us as we waited for the bus in the evening. Dang cold. Dang cold. Anyways, not much accomplished, but we now solved the mystery about Ruma - now we can focus 100% on SM. Not to mention the MASSIVE Palacinke we had at this pizzeria there. Good day overall.
Church was great yesterday. We taught about the Restoration and I think it went really well. Next week we're having District Conference which is roughly similar to stake conference but for all the members in Serbia. Should be way legit. Pretty stoked about it. Yesterday we also walked to Lacarak (a city not too far from Sremska). We crossed over some railroad tracks and left some 20 dinar coins on them. When we came back it was pretty late and there was another train coming so we only had time to look for a little bit. Found one of them though which was pretty cool. Smashed up treasures. Didn't find the person in Lacarak, but made a friend so it was good.
The harvest moon rises almost every night as our breath visibly escapes us. We teach, we learn, we act and hopefully remember. It's not much, but I sure hope that it means something to somebody. My life is summable into a few words - palacinke, investigators, walking, excitement, study, friends, hopes, fears, hope of rain, fear of failure really. This and foreign arabic money. Love.
Старешина Адамз
Monday, November 7, 2011
11/07/2011
Gang!
Actually we do have Daylight Savings in Serbia, thank you very much! In fact, that happened last weekend, which means that we're not only 10 hours ahead of y'all (as well as hundreds of years culturally :P) but now a week! Oh, goodie! :)
In regards to Elder Gardner - AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! WHAT?! Ohmygoshthat'ssocrazycoolI'msuperexcitedforbothmembersofthatpartyandcan'tevenbelievemycrazyawesomebrainrightnowohmygoshholycrap! And all that other stuff too.... I'm so proud of Elder Gardner too, I tell you what, he really is meant for the land of cold and wet! Don't let him ever go back to nasty Arizona, if he's going to keep bringing my friends into this goodness. So cool. In fact, if it's in his jurisdiction just aim him at Morgan, and have done with it, dang it. js.
Oh, hey mama. I just want to let you know that your package made it to Serbia. That's great, right? Cool, and all and yeah, I'm a believer of the Postal System. Um.... Here's the thing: My freaking Zone Leader decided it would be a funny idea to have it within 40 feet of me at our district meeting, not give it to me (along with letters!!! >[ ), and then has the GALL to call me and tell me about it later that day. *Okay, for all of you righteous people in the audience, yes, the White Handbook says "Do not talk negatively about missionary leaders to other missionaries or members at any time"p. 56, BUT..... okay. No excuses.* Actually, he had a perfectly legitimate excuse - he was busy "sealing the deal" AKA signing and buying another apartment in Beograd with our old District Leader Elder Hansen right after our Bomb District Meeting on Friday which leads me to my next point:
MORE ELDERS IN SERBIA! That's right, gang. We're moving up in the world. We're all the way up to 8 of us here now. Transforsures (not even just Transfer Rumours) were given to us on I believe Wednesday. The new guys are coming in on either today or tomorrow, which makes me no longer the lizard (Гуштер - pronounced gooshtair), which is the way that they say "greenie" or new guy". We're getting two more into Serbia (one in Novi Sad, and another in Beograd) which means that Elders Armond and Defreitas who came out with me will be together in Beograd, and the two old Serbs will be training once more. Elder Schouten and I will be staying in Dear Sremska Mitrovica until the year is out at least, working crazy hard and baptizing tons dang it. :D Father Dearest (Elder Jacobsen) is going up to be Assistant to the President in Zagreb, and Elder Bishop is training in Karlovac! Can you believe it?! I can. He's such the perfect guy for it. Okay, I get a little goo goo for transfers but come on, it's way cool. I'm just excited to see Serbia growing again. Apparently there used to be like 30 or 40 missionaries here back in the day, though I'm pretty sure that member was exaggerating... Still. Here we go, onward and upward!
Speaking of baptizing (as is kind of important to our job here...) no we did not baptize anybody this last week. What I meant was that there is somebody in our area who has a baptismal date (now moved to Saturday the 26th of November) who has decided to take that covenant upon herself. Here name is Biljana Biberovic. She has read the book of Mormon roughly 15 times, alongside a myriad out of the Bible and the Doctrine and Covenants. She has met with missionaries for the last 15 years and actually attended Church for about 8 of those consistently but was never baptized because of an addiction to smoking and to drinking alcohol. I'm under the impression that in the last 3 or so years she has been breaking herself of that and waiting for the missionaries to find her again as they always have, I guess. She's a way nice lady and we're excited to baptize her on the 26th and confirm her on the 27th. Way excited. She also just wrote for us a list of about 10 names of her close friends who she wants us to invite to her baptism who we're probably going to teach and baptize and well, just no big deal! :) Big plans for Sremska. Big plans for Serbia.
We went to 7th Day Adventist Church on Saturday, which was pretty fun. I really agree with a lot of their teachings as basically they've got the most accurate interpretation of scripture that I've seen out of a Protestant Church. Way cool. In their kind of Sunday School deal we just broke off into little discussion groups (and I actually participated a little!) and talked about Galatians 4 an kind of the Spirit vs. the Letter of the Law idea. They brought up the two commandments that Jesus gave while he was here (Love your God, and Love your Neighbour) and how that will lead us to follow all the others. Way cool. We sang, we prayed, I felt the Spirit, it was nice. They're just missing the authority, you know. Ah well. Anyways, we were looking to use their font for our baptism because they baptize by immersion (see? Totally correct interpretations) and we'll probably talk to their preacher who was out of town on Wednesday. Anyways, way cool. One of their members is a student in our English class and is a really great lady. Like her family. Want to teach her. We'll see! :)
Okay, my Area Book addiction: I feel the need to explain. The first month and a half we kind of spent figuring out how we were going to run Sremska, what we needed to do to get the branch back to where it was (used to have 60 members here!) and small chores. Kind of boring, but very necessary. We tracted a lot, which I basically compare with WWI carpet bombing style of missionary work - expensive (time-wise) and not accurate whatsoever. There was also a lot of "contacting" done, though that's basically like Vietnam idea of "walkabout". We basically just waited to get "shot at" and that was our success.... Not a big fan. Anyways, I present unto you the heat-seeking, laser-guided missile system known as the area book. We've been basically finding anyone and everyone who used to be an investigator, or who used to be a potential, or friend or whatever and finding them again. A lot of pull-outs in Serbia have led to a lot of dropped investigators who didn't really know why they got dropped. It's been really great. We have also created the "Go Box" in the which we hold information and addresses of said people and whenever we have a little bit of time between meetings and tasks we just pull that out and go right to them. In fact, we had two lessons just last night because of that! So cool. Okay, so I'm in love with it and all, but what can I say?
Um.... What else? We just cleaned our apartment, all the leaves are falling, we've got basically the busiest week that I've ever seen as a missionary lined up (okay, not crazy, but more lessons set up than we have in a long time - like 5!) and I feel like we're just on the brink. It's so cool. Oh, I love to be a missionary. For your consideration, Alma 31: 5 which reads,
"... as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just - yea, it had hadmore powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them - therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God."
Been trying this one out. Just doctrine. I believe that the knowledge of who we really are and what we need to do really will change and shape people. Really. Compare this with the quote by President Packer in PMG on p. 19 which says,
"The Study of the doctines of the gospel will improve behaviour quicker than a study of behaviour will improve behaviour."
So that's all for now, folks. Except below I've written out the "Our Purpose" in Serbian for your enjoyment. It reads in English: Our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them to receive the Restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Much easier for me in Serbian at this point. Cool, that.
Love you all! Pozdrav!
Старешина Адамз
Наша сврха кау мисионари је да позовимо друге да дођу Христу тако што им чемо да прихвате обновљено јеванђеље кроз веру у Исуса Христа и Његово помирење, покајање, крштење, примање Дара Светог Духа, и да издрже до краја.
Actually we do have Daylight Savings in Serbia, thank you very much! In fact, that happened last weekend, which means that we're not only 10 hours ahead of y'all (as well as hundreds of years culturally :P) but now a week! Oh, goodie! :)
In regards to Elder Gardner - AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! WHAT?! Ohmygoshthat'ssocrazycoolI'msuperexcitedforbothmembersofthatpartyandcan'tevenbelievemycrazyawesomebrainrightnowohmygoshholycrap! And all that other stuff too.... I'm so proud of Elder Gardner too, I tell you what, he really is meant for the land of cold and wet! Don't let him ever go back to nasty Arizona, if he's going to keep bringing my friends into this goodness. So cool. In fact, if it's in his jurisdiction just aim him at Morgan, and have done with it, dang it. js.
Oh, hey mama. I just want to let you know that your package made it to Serbia. That's great, right? Cool, and all and yeah, I'm a believer of the Postal System. Um.... Here's the thing: My freaking Zone Leader decided it would be a funny idea to have it within 40 feet of me at our district meeting, not give it to me (along with letters!!! >[ ), and then has the GALL to call me and tell me about it later that day. *Okay, for all of you righteous people in the audience, yes, the White Handbook says "Do not talk negatively about missionary leaders to other missionaries or members at any time"p. 56, BUT..... okay. No excuses.* Actually, he had a perfectly legitimate excuse - he was busy "sealing the deal" AKA signing and buying another apartment in Beograd with our old District Leader Elder Hansen right after our Bomb District Meeting on Friday which leads me to my next point:
MORE ELDERS IN SERBIA! That's right, gang. We're moving up in the world. We're all the way up to 8 of us here now. Transforsures (not even just Transfer Rumours) were given to us on I believe Wednesday. The new guys are coming in on either today or tomorrow, which makes me no longer the lizard (Гуштер - pronounced gooshtair), which is the way that they say "greenie" or new guy". We're getting two more into Serbia (one in Novi Sad, and another in Beograd) which means that Elders Armond and Defreitas who came out with me will be together in Beograd, and the two old Serbs will be training once more. Elder Schouten and I will be staying in Dear Sremska Mitrovica until the year is out at least, working crazy hard and baptizing tons dang it. :D Father Dearest (Elder Jacobsen) is going up to be Assistant to the President in Zagreb, and Elder Bishop is training in Karlovac! Can you believe it?! I can. He's such the perfect guy for it. Okay, I get a little goo goo for transfers but come on, it's way cool. I'm just excited to see Serbia growing again. Apparently there used to be like 30 or 40 missionaries here back in the day, though I'm pretty sure that member was exaggerating... Still. Here we go, onward and upward!
Speaking of baptizing (as is kind of important to our job here...) no we did not baptize anybody this last week. What I meant was that there is somebody in our area who has a baptismal date (now moved to Saturday the 26th of November) who has decided to take that covenant upon herself. Here name is Biljana Biberovic. She has read the book of Mormon roughly 15 times, alongside a myriad out of the Bible and the Doctrine and Covenants. She has met with missionaries for the last 15 years and actually attended Church for about 8 of those consistently but was never baptized because of an addiction to smoking and to drinking alcohol. I'm under the impression that in the last 3 or so years she has been breaking herself of that and waiting for the missionaries to find her again as they always have, I guess. She's a way nice lady and we're excited to baptize her on the 26th and confirm her on the 27th. Way excited. She also just wrote for us a list of about 10 names of her close friends who she wants us to invite to her baptism who we're probably going to teach and baptize and well, just no big deal! :) Big plans for Sremska. Big plans for Serbia.
We went to 7th Day Adventist Church on Saturday, which was pretty fun. I really agree with a lot of their teachings as basically they've got the most accurate interpretation of scripture that I've seen out of a Protestant Church. Way cool. In their kind of Sunday School deal we just broke off into little discussion groups (and I actually participated a little!) and talked about Galatians 4 an kind of the Spirit vs. the Letter of the Law idea. They brought up the two commandments that Jesus gave while he was here (Love your God, and Love your Neighbour) and how that will lead us to follow all the others. Way cool. We sang, we prayed, I felt the Spirit, it was nice. They're just missing the authority, you know. Ah well. Anyways, we were looking to use their font for our baptism because they baptize by immersion (see? Totally correct interpretations) and we'll probably talk to their preacher who was out of town on Wednesday. Anyways, way cool. One of their members is a student in our English class and is a really great lady. Like her family. Want to teach her. We'll see! :)
Okay, my Area Book addiction: I feel the need to explain. The first month and a half we kind of spent figuring out how we were going to run Sremska, what we needed to do to get the branch back to where it was (used to have 60 members here!) and small chores. Kind of boring, but very necessary. We tracted a lot, which I basically compare with WWI carpet bombing style of missionary work - expensive (time-wise) and not accurate whatsoever. There was also a lot of "contacting" done, though that's basically like Vietnam idea of "walkabout". We basically just waited to get "shot at" and that was our success.... Not a big fan. Anyways, I present unto you the heat-seeking, laser-guided missile system known as the area book. We've been basically finding anyone and everyone who used to be an investigator, or who used to be a potential, or friend or whatever and finding them again. A lot of pull-outs in Serbia have led to a lot of dropped investigators who didn't really know why they got dropped. It's been really great. We have also created the "Go Box" in the which we hold information and addresses of said people and whenever we have a little bit of time between meetings and tasks we just pull that out and go right to them. In fact, we had two lessons just last night because of that! So cool. Okay, so I'm in love with it and all, but what can I say?
Um.... What else? We just cleaned our apartment, all the leaves are falling, we've got basically the busiest week that I've ever seen as a missionary lined up (okay, not crazy, but more lessons set up than we have in a long time - like 5!) and I feel like we're just on the brink. It's so cool. Oh, I love to be a missionary. For your consideration, Alma 31: 5 which reads,
"... as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just - yea, it had hadmore powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them - therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God."
Been trying this one out. Just doctrine. I believe that the knowledge of who we really are and what we need to do really will change and shape people. Really. Compare this with the quote by President Packer in PMG on p. 19 which says,
"The Study of the doctines of the gospel will improve behaviour quicker than a study of behaviour will improve behaviour."
So that's all for now, folks. Except below I've written out the "Our Purpose" in Serbian for your enjoyment. It reads in English: Our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them to receive the Restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Much easier for me in Serbian at this point. Cool, that.
Love you all! Pozdrav!
Старешина Адамз
Наша сврха кау мисионари је да позовимо друге да дођу Христу тако што им чемо да прихвате обновљено јеванђеље кроз веру у Исуса Христа и Његово помирење, покајање, крштење, примање Дара Светог Духа, и да издрже до краја.
Monday, October 31, 2011
10/31/2011
You know what is weird, he doesn't even know it is Halloween since they don't celebrate it over there. Just saying.
Um.... Cool week? Inflection? No. Cool Week. Sure of it. Here we go, round the Mulberry bush once again:
Last Monday was basically the longest day of my life. I kid you not. Man, oh man. It's no wonder mom gets all worried. I feel much better this time around, though. Sometimes I just get lazy and drink the water that the nice people here offer me, you know? Bad plan. Just a bad bad plan... Either way, better today.
Um... I can't actually remember the exact order of things, so this could get a little scattered. Today. Today is easy. I'm in an internet cafe in a town called Osijek which is in Croatia. I've just been to the MUP (Croatian Policeish Station) trying to change Elder Schouten's registration. Why would we spend our pday doing such things? I'll tell you why: he's now my companion and living in SM. On our exchange which was only supposed to last a week, on Wednesday morning as we tried to a catch yet another bus going to Belgrade we received a call from President. He asked us how we were, told us that we were now companions and that was that. Apparently due to increasing legal compexities with having Elder Jacobsen in Serbia (as he never officially unregistered from Zagreb where he'd been living because his stay was apparently only meant to be a transfer at most) the opportunity was too prime to pass up and so we've been pulling the switch these last couple of days. We're Dead. Šalim se.... I hope.
So we had a sleepover in Beograd from Wednesday to Thursday (we worked a double shift Wednesday and the morning Thursday), a sleepover with the now Osijek Elders (Jacobsen and Genther) Thursday to Friday, and a sleepover in Beograd from Friday to Saturday (did the same thing in the bookfair again). Not to mention the fact that we got in last night at around 10 and spent the night here in Osijek! Maybe someday we'll all be settled again, though I doubt it. President sure keeps us on our toes! So, C. Schouten and I have SM which is terrifying because it means that I have the best working knowledge of the city and the people who live in it. (Elder Jacobsen doesn't count. Too far away.) AAAAHHH! I'm cool, man. I'm cool.
Saturday: Novi Sad Elders were late to exchanging shifts at the book fair so we missed our bus. That made us two hours late to our lesson that we had. You'd think that our lessonee would be mad, right? Eh, not really.... Our lesson went good. Except for the part where her JW brother in law started to whip out all of these WatchTower quotes and bible bashing us. Ah well, she did kind of prepare us for that. Whatever. Outside of that, I mean the baptismal date that she has is kind of cool. I'm gonna do that one more time. HER BAPTISMAL DATE IS COOL. JS. There is now officially somebody getting baptized in SM on the 19th of November. Um, what? I have NO IDEA what just happened to me. We walked out of that lesson, where she basically just told us all the logistical problems that there might be with being baptized. No doctrinal issues, you know, just whatever. She's read the BoM like 15 times AND IT SHOWS. When we told her about Mosiah 18 she was like 'uh huh. Oh, and here in Third Nephi is the prayer that you'll say when you baptize me, right?' AAAAAHHH! itskindofcoolbutwhatever,youknow? So that was kind of a cool part of my week. Elder Schouten and I butchering the Serbian language. Tell you what, there is a God and he loves me because there is no possible way for that sort of thing to occur without Him. Jel tako? Which is to say, isn't it like that?
Sunday: Gave another talk. Blessed the sacrament (much better this time as I wasn't dying of a fever of like 112 degrees... jk mom). Taught Sunday School. Saw a pig being slaughtered. Drove to Osijek. Cool Day.
Once more: someonesgettingbaptizedinSremskaMitrovicawherethathasn'thappenedforabout3orsoyears. Ahh, gets better every time. :)
The Characters
President Vučenović
Really cool guy. Played basketball in high school. Used to be the District President over Serbia. Used to live across the river in Maćvanska Mitrovica. 56 years old. Craziest accent for me to practice my understanding on. Knows like everything about the people living in our area. Really helpful.
Duška Vučenović
Used to be a head cook at a classy restoraunt before the war. It shows. She makes the best punina paprika I've ever had. For some reason always is baking things whether she is expecting somebody or not. Speaks super fast but ennunciates so it's okay. Translates for General Conference. Currently translating for the Doctrine and Covenants team (There were guys from Salt Lake here in Beograd the other day to talk about its progress. Gives me hope.)
Ada and Milica Vučenović
Best singers together that I have ever heard. 12 and 15.895 respectively. Come to English, really cool if somewhat dramatic. Ada's in love with my MTC teacher Brother Morris. It's pretty funny.
Mama.
Jovanka Osterman. Really nice lady who leases her apartment behind her house. Early fifties. Loves the missionaries and has housed very very many of us. Calls us her children and demands that we call her mama. Only uses first names. Funniest lady ever, if you can understand her. Darn serbian language....
President
International lawyer for some huge law firm. Has lived in Bosnia, Belgium, Azerbaijan, and everywhere else cool in the world as far as I'm concerned. Married to a wonderful woman who he met in High School (also in Provo). Have 5 kids ranging about 5 to 17. Best gravelly laugh in the world! Basically the next new apostle...
The Missionaries (Serbian Zone)
Elder Freeman
Zone Leader. Novi Sad. From Lehi, UT. Really good at contacting and talking with people. Served for 5 months in Rijeka, HR before being transferred to be with Elder Beaument in Beograd due to the February Fiasco. Really excited about the work, really laid back kind of guy.
Elder Defreitas
Newbie with me. Originally called to Serbia, switched to Croatia, switched to Slovenia (studied their weird frenchie language for a month in the MTC), switched back to Serbia. In Novi Sad being trained. From Virginia Beach area, Virginia. Good with the language. Likes to laugh and eat Banjalućki čevap.
Elder Hansen
District Leader. Beograd. From Provo, UT. Funny as all get out. The single best Palačinke maker in the world (has bought a professional style palačinke maker. It's great for district meetings....
Elder Armond
Came out with me. In training. Beograd. From (you guessed it) Provo, UT. The best smile the world has to offer accompanied with the best prayer-scripture-reading voice in the world. It's wonderful. Loves Beograd. Never wants to leave.
Elder Schouten
My new trainer. Sremska Mitrovica. Been out 4 months at this point. (One transfer ahead of me). From Orem, UT (we really branch out, you know?). Is probably gonna be my best friend and worst enemy in the world pretty quick here. Way cool guy but he wants me to do this whole work-out thing that we're supposed to do. What a dumb idea.... Quiet, reserved. Nervous about the language. Happy to be in Serbia.
Elder Adams.
Yours truly.
The Beaument
Returned Missionary. Our idol. Served for 22 months solid in Beograd. Had 2 in SM and about 4 days in Novi Sad before the February thing happened.... Has many, many quotes up on the walls of the Beograd apartment. Pričaj Srpski, bre!
Elder Genther
Branch President. Osijek. Funniest guy you will never meet in your life. Bottom one of 7 brothers and 8 sisters. From UT somewhere... Not sure where. Loves to eat palačinke. to je to....
Elder Jacobsen
Pops. New DL in Osijek. Almost dead. Trunked. Šalim se.
Sister Creager
Training. Osijek. Same 'age' as Genther. Blonde.
Sister Black
Trainee. Osijek. Currently en route to Slovenia for the week. Same age as me. Way cool. From Saint Louis, Missouri.
That's about all I've got for right now and stuff but whatever... Hope everything is going well for you all.
I do get Tio's snail-mail and absolutely love it! I will probably at some point reciprocate.... Time. Not enough time...
Čiao.
С. Адамз
Um.... Cool week? Inflection? No. Cool Week. Sure of it. Here we go, round the Mulberry bush once again:
Last Monday was basically the longest day of my life. I kid you not. Man, oh man. It's no wonder mom gets all worried. I feel much better this time around, though. Sometimes I just get lazy and drink the water that the nice people here offer me, you know? Bad plan. Just a bad bad plan... Either way, better today.
Um... I can't actually remember the exact order of things, so this could get a little scattered. Today. Today is easy. I'm in an internet cafe in a town called Osijek which is in Croatia. I've just been to the MUP (Croatian Policeish Station) trying to change Elder Schouten's registration. Why would we spend our pday doing such things? I'll tell you why: he's now my companion and living in SM. On our exchange which was only supposed to last a week, on Wednesday morning as we tried to a catch yet another bus going to Belgrade we received a call from President. He asked us how we were, told us that we were now companions and that was that. Apparently due to increasing legal compexities with having Elder Jacobsen in Serbia (as he never officially unregistered from Zagreb where he'd been living because his stay was apparently only meant to be a transfer at most) the opportunity was too prime to pass up and so we've been pulling the switch these last couple of days. We're Dead. Šalim se.... I hope.
So we had a sleepover in Beograd from Wednesday to Thursday (we worked a double shift Wednesday and the morning Thursday), a sleepover with the now Osijek Elders (Jacobsen and Genther) Thursday to Friday, and a sleepover in Beograd from Friday to Saturday (did the same thing in the bookfair again). Not to mention the fact that we got in last night at around 10 and spent the night here in Osijek! Maybe someday we'll all be settled again, though I doubt it. President sure keeps us on our toes! So, C. Schouten and I have SM which is terrifying because it means that I have the best working knowledge of the city and the people who live in it. (Elder Jacobsen doesn't count. Too far away.) AAAAHHH! I'm cool, man. I'm cool.
Saturday: Novi Sad Elders were late to exchanging shifts at the book fair so we missed our bus. That made us two hours late to our lesson that we had. You'd think that our lessonee would be mad, right? Eh, not really.... Our lesson went good. Except for the part where her JW brother in law started to whip out all of these WatchTower quotes and bible bashing us. Ah well, she did kind of prepare us for that. Whatever. Outside of that, I mean the baptismal date that she has is kind of cool. I'm gonna do that one more time. HER BAPTISMAL DATE IS COOL. JS. There is now officially somebody getting baptized in SM on the 19th of November. Um, what? I have NO IDEA what just happened to me. We walked out of that lesson, where she basically just told us all the logistical problems that there might be with being baptized. No doctrinal issues, you know, just whatever. She's read the BoM like 15 times AND IT SHOWS. When we told her about Mosiah 18 she was like 'uh huh. Oh, and here in Third Nephi is the prayer that you'll say when you baptize me, right?' AAAAAHHH! itskindofcoolbutwhatever,youknow? So that was kind of a cool part of my week. Elder Schouten and I butchering the Serbian language. Tell you what, there is a God and he loves me because there is no possible way for that sort of thing to occur without Him. Jel tako? Which is to say, isn't it like that?
Sunday: Gave another talk. Blessed the sacrament (much better this time as I wasn't dying of a fever of like 112 degrees... jk mom). Taught Sunday School. Saw a pig being slaughtered. Drove to Osijek. Cool Day.
Once more: someonesgettingbaptizedinSremskaMitrovicawherethathasn'thappenedforabout3orsoyears. Ahh, gets better every time. :)
The Characters
President Vučenović
Really cool guy. Played basketball in high school. Used to be the District President over Serbia. Used to live across the river in Maćvanska Mitrovica. 56 years old. Craziest accent for me to practice my understanding on. Knows like everything about the people living in our area. Really helpful.
Duška Vučenović
Used to be a head cook at a classy restoraunt before the war. It shows. She makes the best punina paprika I've ever had. For some reason always is baking things whether she is expecting somebody or not. Speaks super fast but ennunciates so it's okay. Translates for General Conference. Currently translating for the Doctrine and Covenants team (There were guys from Salt Lake here in Beograd the other day to talk about its progress. Gives me hope.)
Ada and Milica Vučenović
Best singers together that I have ever heard. 12 and 15.895 respectively. Come to English, really cool if somewhat dramatic. Ada's in love with my MTC teacher Brother Morris. It's pretty funny.
Mama.
Jovanka Osterman. Really nice lady who leases her apartment behind her house. Early fifties. Loves the missionaries and has housed very very many of us. Calls us her children and demands that we call her mama. Only uses first names. Funniest lady ever, if you can understand her. Darn serbian language....
President
International lawyer for some huge law firm. Has lived in Bosnia, Belgium, Azerbaijan, and everywhere else cool in the world as far as I'm concerned. Married to a wonderful woman who he met in High School (also in Provo). Have 5 kids ranging about 5 to 17. Best gravelly laugh in the world! Basically the next new apostle...
The Missionaries (Serbian Zone)
Elder Freeman
Zone Leader. Novi Sad. From Lehi, UT. Really good at contacting and talking with people. Served for 5 months in Rijeka, HR before being transferred to be with Elder Beaument in Beograd due to the February Fiasco. Really excited about the work, really laid back kind of guy.
Elder Defreitas
Newbie with me. Originally called to Serbia, switched to Croatia, switched to Slovenia (studied their weird frenchie language for a month in the MTC), switched back to Serbia. In Novi Sad being trained. From Virginia Beach area, Virginia. Good with the language. Likes to laugh and eat Banjalućki čevap.
Elder Hansen
District Leader. Beograd. From Provo, UT. Funny as all get out. The single best Palačinke maker in the world (has bought a professional style palačinke maker. It's great for district meetings....
Elder Armond
Came out with me. In training. Beograd. From (you guessed it) Provo, UT. The best smile the world has to offer accompanied with the best prayer-scripture-reading voice in the world. It's wonderful. Loves Beograd. Never wants to leave.
Elder Schouten
My new trainer. Sremska Mitrovica. Been out 4 months at this point. (One transfer ahead of me). From Orem, UT (we really branch out, you know?). Is probably gonna be my best friend and worst enemy in the world pretty quick here. Way cool guy but he wants me to do this whole work-out thing that we're supposed to do. What a dumb idea.... Quiet, reserved. Nervous about the language. Happy to be in Serbia.
Elder Adams.
Yours truly.
The Beaument
Returned Missionary. Our idol. Served for 22 months solid in Beograd. Had 2 in SM and about 4 days in Novi Sad before the February thing happened.... Has many, many quotes up on the walls of the Beograd apartment. Pričaj Srpski, bre!
Elder Genther
Branch President. Osijek. Funniest guy you will never meet in your life. Bottom one of 7 brothers and 8 sisters. From UT somewhere... Not sure where. Loves to eat palačinke. to je to....
Elder Jacobsen
Pops. New DL in Osijek. Almost dead. Trunked. Šalim se.
Sister Creager
Training. Osijek. Same 'age' as Genther. Blonde.
Sister Black
Trainee. Osijek. Currently en route to Slovenia for the week. Same age as me. Way cool. From Saint Louis, Missouri.
That's about all I've got for right now and stuff but whatever... Hope everything is going well for you all.
I do get Tio's snail-mail and absolutely love it! I will probably at some point reciprocate.... Time. Not enough time...
Čiao.
С. Адамз
Monday, October 24, 2011
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
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
Monday, October 17, 2011
10/17/2011
Greetings, Mortals.
First thing's first: It took me about 3.59801 after I'd signed off that it was the very important week of which includes the date of October 12th. JESSICA BREANNE ADAMS I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! ican'tbelievethatyou'
rereally18yearsoldbecauseitmeansthatdad'salmostfiftyandthati'mbasically20andallthiscrazystuffisjustwaytoomuchformeandsotheregoesmybrain.brainexplosm.....
Anyways. Oh, and happy birthday to you, too, Dad! Yay for added days which make months which make years! Oh, math....
Sooo.... You know how in Rocky and Bullwinkle when dawn breaks over the horizon? Yeah, you know how winter breaks over Serbia? Roughly equivalent. It's been a pretty fun last little week and a half. Scarf time, gloves are out. Layers, baby. <---- I'm pretty sure that this is a Wendy Adams quote, but I could be wrong.... No snow, yet, but the nights are frigid (we've got this boss heater in our room which is pretty sweet, but it only heats our room....) and the tiles in our apartment are gonna give me frostbite, I'm sure. Ah well, all things in the service of our God. :P Our gazda (landlady) suggested boots, so I may look around a little for some of those. idk. People just keep referencing this ridiculous amount of snow that was here last winter (though for some reason or another this backward language has NO word for "ridiculous" which has been causing me to basically trip and stumble every 4th word as that is .25 of my vocabulary in English....) (Math again! yay me) and that just kind of freaks me out a little? Inflection?
I'm gonna work backwardsish.
Yesterday I had a talk in church! I was assigned this on Saturday evening at about 9:23 so there wasn't much time to prepare. Oh, mormons.... Anyways, got up early in the frigid apartment air and planned it out. I talked about hope (patterned after the spiritual thought further down). The culminating part of it was the horribly translated lyrics of Disney's Hercules - the song "Go the Distance". For all you English majors out there, I know that MLA says that I'm not supposed to do songs in quotations, but come on, give me a break! Basically the worst translation in the world, but there you have it. What a great song. I just talked about how we all have this hope in gaining an eternal life with God after all this is said and done and how we need to share that. Decent, though towards the end I just kind of threw out the window cases and clitic word order. No big deal.
Still Sunday. We walked all the way to Lacarak (pron. Law-chaw-rock) looking for a referral and decided to try and find (again) a less-active who was on the way. As we're sitting outside in the frigid Serbian air she rides up on her bike behind us at her door and invites us in. REALLY cool lady. Jelenica or something like that. She said to come back whenever and it was okay to bring like a spiritual thought or something. Awesome stuff. She works as a popcorn maker along the river and had brought some home. We just shared some of that amazingness and talked. It was really nice. Just a normal lady. :)
Saturday we had district meeting (first of Serbia for a long time!) in Beograd. Elder Jacobsen and I woke up at like 5 so that we could catch the bus at 6 (in the frigid air, mind you) so that we could be there at 7 so that we could have palacinke (Serbian crepes - WAY better than that frenchie crap... and pronounced pal-uh-cheen-kay) at 8 and district meeting at 9. We were running late - so we ended up running to the bus station. Funny how that works out. No bus at 6. Stood in the frigid air for an hour and then still beat Novi Sad elders to Beograd. Palacinke were amazing (Elder Hansen has like a professional palacinke maker. It's WONDERFUL.) The district meeting itself was pretty cool. We talked about investigators (and ones that Sremska will soon have, I'm sure *nadamsenadamsenadamse* <--- I hope I hope I hope) and the book fair coming up in Beograd. It's 8 days long and requires people at the booth from 10 to 9 every one of those days. Should be fun. Sremska's definitely down for help. We're all just taking a shift on next p-day and then the other two companionships will hit the town on the off shifts. Should be sweet.
We drove down on Wednesday with President, Sister Rowe, Sister Turner (our mission nurse) and Mama Rowe (Grandma Rowe who is companions with sister Turner). Elder Defreitas and I had a terrifying moment or two at the border where we realized (as soon as President started speaking to the Serbian borderlady in English - crazy guy) that we had the most language experience in the car. No problems though. Dodged a bullet there. Perhaps literally? Just kidding... maybe. Said our goodbyes in Dear Sremska Mitrovica and then it was back to the old drawing board in Sremska. Just been trying to figure things out and what we want to do with the rest of the transfer. English class was fun on Thursday. All Thursday, however, I was in constant remindership? of the importance of NOT eating week-old bread that Elder Harris didn't end up eating on the exchange as apparently this whole preservatives thing has not yet found Serbia. (Though I don't in any way blame them because of the quality and overall amazingness of their bread. Mom, if you want a challenge, try making some potato burek - which is wonderful, btw) Anyways, I was pretty sure I was following father-dearest's (Elder Jacobsen's) example of discovering giardia water, but it was just like a 24 hour bug. Grozno. (Gross)
We talked to Mama for a while. She's such a cool lady, and if I could every understand what she really means then I'm sure we'd just be best of friends... Ah well. Just falling in love with her, home here in Sremska, Serbia, burek, the constant smell of campfire, and smoke-filled internet cafes. It's the greatest.
Something that's really been giving me comfort though has been this Churchill quote that I vaguely mentioned last time. Thanks to Bethany for sending it to me: “We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all our strength that God can give us: … That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be” This has kind of summed up my hopes and fears and dreams and doubts. If you ever have a quote that you think would help, I'm always thirsty for more. Send 'em right along! :)
Anyways, looking forward to this week. We're going to have Zone Conference again on Thursday and then a mini exchange thing over the weekend where rumour says I may either be with Elder Defreitas (same age as me mission-wise) or Elder Schouten (Osijek. One transfer older....) for a couple of days. Then on to the Book Fair! Yay! Anyways, hoping that you are all well.
Word of the Week:
Љубав
Ljubav
Pronunciation: Lj (face it, kid, you're never gonna make this sound right) - ooh (as in for fireworks) - baav
Definition - Love.
Све љубав и нада
All Love and Hope,
Старешина Адамз
First thing's first: It took me about 3.59801 after I'd signed off that it was the very important week of which includes the date of October 12th. JESSICA BREANNE ADAMS I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! ican'tbelievethatyou'
rereally18yearsoldbecauseitmeansthatdad'salmostfiftyandthati'mbasically20andallthiscrazystuffisjustwaytoomuchformeandsotheregoesmybrain.brainexplosm.....
Anyways. Oh, and happy birthday to you, too, Dad! Yay for added days which make months which make years! Oh, math....
Sooo.... You know how in Rocky and Bullwinkle when dawn breaks over the horizon? Yeah, you know how winter breaks over Serbia? Roughly equivalent. It's been a pretty fun last little week and a half. Scarf time, gloves are out. Layers, baby. <---- I'm pretty sure that this is a Wendy Adams quote, but I could be wrong.... No snow, yet, but the nights are frigid (we've got this boss heater in our room which is pretty sweet, but it only heats our room....) and the tiles in our apartment are gonna give me frostbite, I'm sure. Ah well, all things in the service of our God. :P Our gazda (landlady) suggested boots, so I may look around a little for some of those. idk. People just keep referencing this ridiculous amount of snow that was here last winter (though for some reason or another this backward language has NO word for "ridiculous" which has been causing me to basically trip and stumble every 4th word as that is .25 of my vocabulary in English....) (Math again! yay me) and that just kind of freaks me out a little? Inflection?
I'm gonna work backwardsish.
Yesterday I had a talk in church! I was assigned this on Saturday evening at about 9:23 so there wasn't much time to prepare. Oh, mormons.... Anyways, got up early in the frigid apartment air and planned it out. I talked about hope (patterned after the spiritual thought further down). The culminating part of it was the horribly translated lyrics of Disney's Hercules - the song "Go the Distance". For all you English majors out there, I know that MLA says that I'm not supposed to do songs in quotations, but come on, give me a break! Basically the worst translation in the world, but there you have it. What a great song. I just talked about how we all have this hope in gaining an eternal life with God after all this is said and done and how we need to share that. Decent, though towards the end I just kind of threw out the window cases and clitic word order. No big deal.
Still Sunday. We walked all the way to Lacarak (pron. Law-chaw-rock) looking for a referral and decided to try and find (again) a less-active who was on the way. As we're sitting outside in the frigid Serbian air she rides up on her bike behind us at her door and invites us in. REALLY cool lady. Jelenica or something like that. She said to come back whenever and it was okay to bring like a spiritual thought or something. Awesome stuff. She works as a popcorn maker along the river and had brought some home. We just shared some of that amazingness and talked. It was really nice. Just a normal lady. :)
Saturday we had district meeting (first of Serbia for a long time!) in Beograd. Elder Jacobsen and I woke up at like 5 so that we could catch the bus at 6 (in the frigid air, mind you) so that we could be there at 7 so that we could have palacinke (Serbian crepes - WAY better than that frenchie crap... and pronounced pal-uh-cheen-kay) at 8 and district meeting at 9. We were running late - so we ended up running to the bus station. Funny how that works out. No bus at 6. Stood in the frigid air for an hour and then still beat Novi Sad elders to Beograd. Palacinke were amazing (Elder Hansen has like a professional palacinke maker. It's WONDERFUL.) The district meeting itself was pretty cool. We talked about investigators (and ones that Sremska will soon have, I'm sure *nadamsenadamsenadamse* <--- I hope I hope I hope) and the book fair coming up in Beograd. It's 8 days long and requires people at the booth from 10 to 9 every one of those days. Should be fun. Sremska's definitely down for help. We're all just taking a shift on next p-day and then the other two companionships will hit the town on the off shifts. Should be sweet.
We drove down on Wednesday with President, Sister Rowe, Sister Turner (our mission nurse) and Mama Rowe (Grandma Rowe who is companions with sister Turner). Elder Defreitas and I had a terrifying moment or two at the border where we realized (as soon as President started speaking to the Serbian borderlady in English - crazy guy) that we had the most language experience in the car. No problems though. Dodged a bullet there. Perhaps literally? Just kidding... maybe. Said our goodbyes in Dear Sremska Mitrovica and then it was back to the old drawing board in Sremska. Just been trying to figure things out and what we want to do with the rest of the transfer. English class was fun on Thursday. All Thursday, however, I was in constant remindership? of the importance of NOT eating week-old bread that Elder Harris didn't end up eating on the exchange as apparently this whole preservatives thing has not yet found Serbia. (Though I don't in any way blame them because of the quality and overall amazingness of their bread. Mom, if you want a challenge, try making some potato burek - which is wonderful, btw) Anyways, I was pretty sure I was following father-dearest's (Elder Jacobsen's) example of discovering giardia water, but it was just like a 24 hour bug. Grozno. (Gross)
We talked to Mama for a while. She's such a cool lady, and if I could every understand what she really means then I'm sure we'd just be best of friends... Ah well. Just falling in love with her, home here in Sremska, Serbia, burek, the constant smell of campfire, and smoke-filled internet cafes. It's the greatest.
Something that's really been giving me comfort though has been this Churchill quote that I vaguely mentioned last time. Thanks to Bethany for sending it to me: “We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask what is our policy? I will say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all our strength that God can give us: … That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory—victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror; victory, however long and hard the road may be” This has kind of summed up my hopes and fears and dreams and doubts. If you ever have a quote that you think would help, I'm always thirsty for more. Send 'em right along! :)
Anyways, looking forward to this week. We're going to have Zone Conference again on Thursday and then a mini exchange thing over the weekend where rumour says I may either be with Elder Defreitas (same age as me mission-wise) or Elder Schouten (Osijek. One transfer older....) for a couple of days. Then on to the Book Fair! Yay! Anyways, hoping that you are all well.
Word of the Week:
Љубав
Ljubav
Pronunciation: Lj (face it, kid, you're never gonna make this sound right) - ooh (as in for fireworks) - baav
Definition - Love.
Све љубав и нада
All Love and Hope,
Старешина Адамз
Monday, October 10, 2011
10/10/2011
This is a great letter. I could tell that he had been down about things, but he is so excited now. Yay!!!
Ah, Zagreb, citz of bigness and Croatianness and well.... nessess. You know how it is. This is where we's be right now! I'm in Croatia battling a weird keyboard in the Nacionalna I Sveučilišna Knjižnica. That's a mouthful right there, I'll tell you what! Anyways, been up here since Tuesday night and just been loving it. Here's the story:
Got the call Monday evening that since there would be a Zone Leader council in Ljubljana and since Elders Freeman and Defreitas had to drive up anyways, why not the rest of us? So we came up and crossed the border - yet again - and ate in Slavonski Brod and then got into Zagreb. I've been hanging out with Elder Sherman - the ZL up here in Croatia - and it's been quite the ride. Linguistical differences aside, the countries are roughly similar in many aspects... People are super nice once you get to know them and they talk super quick too. Ah well, it's all in a days work.
Okay, so the city is huge and (okaz, Ićm done fighting this kezboard and Ićm not going to be able to tzpe anzthing if I keep having to backspace all over the place, so the three main things that it switches are the y, z and č which is an apostrophe. So, sorrz, but Ićm gonna be layz and zoućre going to get so much more information, if somewhat garbled...) Ićm lost everz time we drive around - oh zes, drive. We have a car up here in Yagreb, in fact a couple of them. Itćs prettz ridiculous. Itćs absolutelz beautiful too especiallz out in the hills where we had a lesson with a guz named Martin who just moved out there. We also had a lesson basicallz straddling the border into Slovenia we were so close to it - also in the middle of the woods. It was prettz great... I definitelz can now describe to zou what it means for a hill to roll. :)
The coolest part about this whole experience has been that wećve basicallz just been teaching lessons. So great. Itćs not that we havenćt reallz had lessons in Serbia, itćs just that we havenćt zet had lessons in Serbia where Ićm serving... Soooo itćs been reallz nice. Elder Sherman is absolutelz wonderful and Ićm learning a lot about what I need to do in order to turn things around on the home front in Sremska. Thatćs basicallz been the overarching theme in mz mind this whole time and itćs been verz enlighting. Anzwazs, though, the lessons! Oh, itćs been great! Itćs like Ićve had a purpose doing this whole missionarz thing - at least a more obvious one - and wećve reallz just done some good work is what it comes down to.
Mz Favourite Lesson:
Okaz, so we met with a guz named Marko (less active who hasnćt come in like 3 zears) this week. Twice, actuallz. The first time we just had some sok and hung out and talked about the church and missionarz work and stuff. He seemed kind of down, so we just cheered him up and set up for another appointment. At the second appointment, we were running a little late and so as we walked up the stairs to his apartment Elder Sherman calls out, "oh zeah, what should we teach him?" And we're like, ummmmmm obedience? Zeah, wećll plaz Simon sazs or something! (Wećve basicallz just been the biggest walking comedz act ever this week - so fun to just throw it around with him...) So we ended up talking about sports. That is to saz, THE sport - Futbol. We talked about out of bound rules and throw ins and keepers and defenders and all of the weird little rules. We also talked about how bz keeping the rules there is in no waz less fun. We were just the guzs, during this lesson, who saw him run out of bounds and just called him back in to plaz. I shared how hard it was to understand the rules of rugbz the first time I plazed and how it hurt sometimes. But, with practice, I got the rules and then the game became verz, verz fun.
We also shared with him a big quote thatćs been going and around in mz head for the last little while and Ićve actuallz no idea who said it but here it is - "The best time to plant a walnut tree was 20 zears ago. The second best time is todaz." So, we invited him to come and plant a walnut tree at church, to come back into the boundaries and plaz bz the rules. He and I get along reallz well and so we just made it fun, and I think that helped oh so much. I know that he rememebers and knows whz itćs true. Ićm sure of it.
Oh, P.S.? He came to Church zesterdaz. :)
Branch Conference
So it was Branch Conference this week in Yagreb. (Oh mz gosh thez have a huge branch - like 30-35 people were there!! - and a reallz reallz beautiful church and everzthing.) President Rowe talked and pulled up some reallz good points that I needed to hear. He just basicallz talked about the historz of Croatia and the Church and related it to the storz in Luke 18? about the rich guz who couldnćt give up his monez to follow Christ. I wondered and recogniyed what mz monez was and realiye now that Ićve just got to give it up in order to see miracles. Heaven knows this land, people, and missionarz need miracles. Oh so badlz. Itćs gonna suck, but itćs gonna be soo much better in the end.
Anzwazs, thatćs it for now. I maz or maz not have some more time at the office later. But, I hope that zou are all doing well and that zoućre remembering to live everz daz. Look up this Holland talk that I told Bethanz about and listen to it. Blew mz mind. It was great. Thanks for doing all that zou can to help me out here on the miš. Temporal and otherwise. Zou rock. Love, and all that jayy.
Starješina Adams (This weekćs appelation) :)
Ah, Zagreb, citz of bigness and Croatianness and well.... nessess. You know how it is. This is where we's be right now! I'm in Croatia battling a weird keyboard in the Nacionalna I Sveučilišna Knjižnica. That's a mouthful right there, I'll tell you what! Anyways, been up here since Tuesday night and just been loving it. Here's the story:
Got the call Monday evening that since there would be a Zone Leader council in Ljubljana and since Elders Freeman and Defreitas had to drive up anyways, why not the rest of us? So we came up and crossed the border - yet again - and ate in Slavonski Brod and then got into Zagreb. I've been hanging out with Elder Sherman - the ZL up here in Croatia - and it's been quite the ride. Linguistical differences aside, the countries are roughly similar in many aspects... People are super nice once you get to know them and they talk super quick too. Ah well, it's all in a days work.
Okay, so the city is huge and (okaz, Ićm done fighting this kezboard and Ićm not going to be able to tzpe anzthing if I keep having to backspace all over the place, so the three main things that it switches are the y, z and č which is an apostrophe. So, sorrz, but Ićm gonna be layz and zoućre going to get so much more information, if somewhat garbled...) Ićm lost everz time we drive around - oh zes, drive. We have a car up here in Yagreb, in fact a couple of them. Itćs prettz ridiculous. Itćs absolutelz beautiful too especiallz out in the hills where we had a lesson with a guz named Martin who just moved out there. We also had a lesson basicallz straddling the border into Slovenia we were so close to it - also in the middle of the woods. It was prettz great... I definitelz can now describe to zou what it means for a hill to roll. :)
The coolest part about this whole experience has been that wećve basicallz just been teaching lessons. So great. Itćs not that we havenćt reallz had lessons in Serbia, itćs just that we havenćt zet had lessons in Serbia where Ićm serving... Soooo itćs been reallz nice. Elder Sherman is absolutelz wonderful and Ićm learning a lot about what I need to do in order to turn things around on the home front in Sremska. Thatćs basicallz been the overarching theme in mz mind this whole time and itćs been verz enlighting. Anzwazs, though, the lessons! Oh, itćs been great! Itćs like Ićve had a purpose doing this whole missionarz thing - at least a more obvious one - and wećve reallz just done some good work is what it comes down to.
Mz Favourite Lesson:
Okaz, so we met with a guz named Marko (less active who hasnćt come in like 3 zears) this week. Twice, actuallz. The first time we just had some sok and hung out and talked about the church and missionarz work and stuff. He seemed kind of down, so we just cheered him up and set up for another appointment. At the second appointment, we were running a little late and so as we walked up the stairs to his apartment Elder Sherman calls out, "oh zeah, what should we teach him?" And we're like, ummmmmm obedience? Zeah, wećll plaz Simon sazs or something! (Wećve basicallz just been the biggest walking comedz act ever this week - so fun to just throw it around with him...) So we ended up talking about sports. That is to saz, THE sport - Futbol. We talked about out of bound rules and throw ins and keepers and defenders and all of the weird little rules. We also talked about how bz keeping the rules there is in no waz less fun. We were just the guzs, during this lesson, who saw him run out of bounds and just called him back in to plaz. I shared how hard it was to understand the rules of rugbz the first time I plazed and how it hurt sometimes. But, with practice, I got the rules and then the game became verz, verz fun.
We also shared with him a big quote thatćs been going and around in mz head for the last little while and Ićve actuallz no idea who said it but here it is - "The best time to plant a walnut tree was 20 zears ago. The second best time is todaz." So, we invited him to come and plant a walnut tree at church, to come back into the boundaries and plaz bz the rules. He and I get along reallz well and so we just made it fun, and I think that helped oh so much. I know that he rememebers and knows whz itćs true. Ićm sure of it.
Oh, P.S.? He came to Church zesterdaz. :)
Branch Conference
So it was Branch Conference this week in Yagreb. (Oh mz gosh thez have a huge branch - like 30-35 people were there!! - and a reallz reallz beautiful church and everzthing.) President Rowe talked and pulled up some reallz good points that I needed to hear. He just basicallz talked about the historz of Croatia and the Church and related it to the storz in Luke 18? about the rich guz who couldnćt give up his monez to follow Christ. I wondered and recogniyed what mz monez was and realiye now that Ićve just got to give it up in order to see miracles. Heaven knows this land, people, and missionarz need miracles. Oh so badlz. Itćs gonna suck, but itćs gonna be soo much better in the end.
Anzwazs, thatćs it for now. I maz or maz not have some more time at the office later. But, I hope that zou are all doing well and that zoućre remembering to live everz daz. Look up this Holland talk that I told Bethanz about and listen to it. Blew mz mind. It was great. Thanks for doing all that zou can to help me out here on the miš. Temporal and otherwise. Zou rock. Love, and all that jayy.
Starješina Adams (This weekćs appelation) :)
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