09-12-2011

Hey kids.

So we've found a different internet cafe here in our BEAUTIFUL town of Sremska Mitrovica and it plays the best mix of like everything. Okay, so it's like soulful music that's usually from the States or Britain or something, but it also plays Serbian. WAY better than that rank bar that we were in last week. Suffice it to say, my heads a little clearer this time around for e-mail and stuff. So great.
I'm just going to describe my town here first off because it's great. We live very close to the Centre area and that is really nice. Our road is (kind of transliterated) Shecher Sokak - which translates to Sugar Lane. That I actually found out from an atheist guy who let us into his home for some chat and some of his low-budget Serbian rap to share. It was pretty funny.... Anyways, there are like 3 cathedrals in this town and then our little chapel which pales in elegance but abounds in Spirit. The streets are windy, the lanes pot-holed and dusty, and the walls covered with all sorts of grafiti in both languages - neither of which I can read which is probably a good thing.... Still, provides Cyrillic practice while we're walking along - and the people gruff and still horribly post-communistic. The town is right next to the River Sava which is very brown, but where all the city inhabitants go and swim and hang out in the evenings. We see the most brilliant hues over that water and the flat land past it in the evenings which is really nice. AND, since our city is so small, we get to see stars! Real stars! Like not the blackness that is the covering over Provo! Ah, to be away from the MTC. There are huge communist-style apartment complexes whose lights turn off every 45-100 seconds in the stairwells which is actually usually perfect for the amount of time that we're talking to people at their doors... The facades that face the streets are usually the backs or sides of houses, and first you must gain entrance through huge metal doors that connect them all. Everything is in huge blocks with people's living space going into the middle of the block, and not lengthwise, if that makes sense. The roofs are red-tiled, though covered in moss and the larger buildings of crumbling brick. It is so perfectly wonderful, and my camera has been thirsting in order to get at some of these visions. So great.
Mom, I got the package that you mentioned, at least I'm pretty sure that I did. I definitely got a bunch of little letters from the people in your Sunday-School class (of which Jason Pynn's was very helpful and I play that advice over in my head quite often). However, I got that the last-ish week of the MTC, so I doubt that you sent that one to the mission home? I don't know. We have yet to receive any post here in Sremska, but it's only been two weeks. We are actually going to have a Zone Conference (Our Zone consists of Sremska Mitrovica, Novi Sad, Beograd, and Osijek - a Croatian city near to us) and President is coming down, so he may have some letters or something.... Nadam se. Nadam se. Nadam se..... :P
Serbian is really fun, actually. The Cyrillic is coming pretty easily, but that just means that now I can understand as much Serbian as I can Croatian, which is practically zero. JK. Basically, there is a large handful of words that I've had to throw out and re-learn, and the "ije" is gone because the predominant dialect here is ekavian and not ijekavian which is cool. So I've just dropped all the many Js from my speach and it's fine. C. Jacobsen has actually been having some issues with that, though, because he's been out for about a year and a half and so all the habits are really formed in his head for that. But, my comprehension is coming up for quickly. Those first few days I just had absolutely no idea what people were saying and couldn't really differentiate the beginnings and ends of words, but now it's coming along quicker. People just speak so darn fast! Yrgh. Suffice to say, I'm learning, albeit never to the extent that I would like and expect of myself. Either way, as they always tell me here - Polako, polako. Uredu je. :)
So sorry to hear about Art! So happy simultaneously, though. I'll say it once, and probably a thousand times, but I just can't get over how lucky some people are to go back home. Ah well, I've got stuff to do. Later, then. I was excited that you all got to see some of the old gang though, especially Bro Reed! So great. 4th dimensionally say hi to him for me! Okay, okay. Good job. :)
Oh, and M.S. (that's a new term that I've just coined today actually - Meridian Script. Okay, so maybe it needs work, because I just think of, well, MS) somebody needs to tell me about all the horrible things you're doing with my room. Something about a bed, hmmm? Okay, okay, let's have it out.
I miss Bear, too. The Vucenovici here just rescued a dog and I told them to name him Bear, but I don't know if they will. Probably some silly Serbian name like Grgun or something like that. Such good memories. Sad, but good. Love you, mom. You'll be fine. I actually talked to a lady from Ottawa on our flight to Chicago and we talked about dogs for a long time. Such attachments there! Ah well, never really gone. He's imprinted on my heart.
This week was mainly spent in telling people about our English class for which we will have sign-ups tomorrow evening. We're hoping for a big turn-out, but we will see. We may actually get called in to help out the Beograd Elders who I guess usually get like 200 people to show up for those, which would be incredible if we were overwhelmed to that extent. I think their sign-ups are either Wednesday or Thursday. Anyways, we're hoping to do some good service by offering this free class and by maybe introducing some people to the Gospel through it. However, we also have our area book now and so are trying to find those less-active members that still live in the area, but that's tricky because the last time that people were in Sremska was like almost 2 years ago. We've got quite a bit of work to do with that.
Pricha: On Saturday it was late but we decided to go and see if we could find one more less-active and invite her back. She wasn't home, but on our way back from her place somebody cat-called us in English and I decided to invite him to English class or something like that. It took about 3.569 seconds for Branko (a man who we street-contacted the first day we were here) to recognize us and stand up. Long story short, we clarified some things, and set up an appointment with his family for Sunday. Yesterday, we went there and taught him and his wife about faith and the action that we need to take when we believe. Their neighbours were also there for most of it. It was really nice. They're a family of gypsy-descent or something like that so basically the dregs of society, but so loving and so nice. They accepted my poor Serbian and I think learned something. Spirit was definitely there. We've a follow-up with them on Wednesday, and we've assigned them 2 Nephi 31, so we want to talk to them about the importance of baptism and such. Funnily enough, they were actually prepared for like lesson outlines and commitments by the JWs that they had been receiving lessons from until recently. Should be good, I'm really hopeful about this family.
Other than that, the work is progressing, though slowly in my eyes. We study, we find, and now we've taught. Time to repeat. Serbia is great, people are great, the gospel is great. I wish you all well this week and hope you'll find joy AND fun in the things you do.

All Love and Hope,
C. Adams

P.S. In the next package that you send I could really use a USB stick. It's seeming to be a prevailing trend in order to print flyers and posters and to store information. That would be great.
P.P.S. Also, did you ever get that envelope with my memory stick in it? Or how about the package that I sent from the MTC?

'Dgenia. CMA