09/19/2011

Okay, so here's the deal. We started out the day planning on going to a town in Croatia called Илок but the silly Нови Сад elders decided that it would be a good idea to throw a tank full of Euro diesel into the car. So here we are sitting in their city hanging out in this totally sketchy internet cafe. But, there's always a silver lining - they definitely have a McDonalds here. Ah, such horrible, greasy, american food! :P Anyways, now I've seen about a million times more of Serbia than I'd done heretofore. No big deal though.
Okay, about Сремска Митровица и Храна тамо: It's a tiny little town with a very European feel. Everyone rides on bikes with baskets or on mopeds in flip flops and shorts. There are probably 4 Orthodox cathedral deals and whatever. Our diet consists of rice with which we use this stuff called Vegeta (basically a bullion) and pasta. We eat a lot of pasta. I splurged this week and got a little bit of meat, which was nice. There's a wonderful thing called бурек which Брат Морис says is actually best in сремска, in this little place down some back alley. We will see. Everyone who talks to us (actually talks to us) offers us something. Usually сок (they are crazy about it here. It's just juice, but they have literally EVERY flavour imaginable. NBDeal) or like grapes that they grow themselves. There was also a man who we talked to the other day who pulled some смоква off of his tree and gave it to us. I guess they're figs, but I'd never had them before. Really good, just tasty and stuff. The people here, on the other hand, just basically eat паприке и парадаизе which I think is strange. We talked to this one man for a second time the other day and he had this stuff called салина, some homemade хлеб and (of course) парадаизе. It was really good (of course, he had to share it with us) and also this nummy сок.
Normal Sunday:
6:30 - "Arise" bahaha. Jk. We actually do get up on time.
8:00 - Personal Study
9:00 - Companionship Study
10:00 - Language Study
11:00 - Sacrament. This usally actually starts at around 11:05 or 11:10 which is just whenever the Вученовић и Ивановић families show up. Actually, grandpa Вученовић has been there for two weeks now in a row. We sing, led by Ада Вученовић and have a prayer and then do the sacrament which usually takes about 3.257 seconds to get through. It's pretty funny. About two weeks ago, Преседник Вученовић asked C. Jacobsen to give a talk, but has apparently forgotten about it. Yesterday, then, he just handed out some parts of a talk given by I think President Ballard, and had members come up and read it. Сестра Ивановић got to the end and was like, "И све то сам прочитала у име Исуса Христа, амен..." which is to say, "all this I read in Jesus name... amen..." Too funny. Then for the rest of the time Преседник Вученовић just talks.
12:00ish - Sunday School or Priesthood/Relief Society (depending on the week). Somebody gets up and talks for an hour. I assume good things are said? Idk. Apparently now, though, we are going to be teaching out of PMG every other week in Sunday school which should be fun. I don't know if I told y'all about the disaster that was my part of our Sunday School lesson given that first Sunday, but I'm definitely going to be prepping a little more material for that. Dang, I just can't wing things here! Sheesh.
1:00 - Lunch of Blue Fanta and Rice, etc. (P.S., whatever it is that America has been telling us is "Fanta" is a lie. They have the nectar of the gods here and it is the most wonderful thing EVER)
1:30/2:00 - Second Companionship study for гуштери (newbs).
After that - Kind of depends on the day. Sometimes we've just gone contacting and tracking, but some other times we've had appointments and the like. I don't know, we'll see.
9:00ish - Home, dinner (if we feel like it. Oh what healthy children we aren't....)
10:30 - Sack time. AND! Pedak the next day. So, good times.
Anyways, that's what it looks like on a Sunday. Pretty standard. So fun. Oh, and I've no calling outside of missionary. No assignment that is. Our branch has 3 priesthood holders (which is almost more than the rest of Serbia jk) and so we don't have to worry about it. But, there are tons of places in Croatia where Elders are.
I had no idea that they were doing the I'm a Mormon thing in Seattle! So cool! We definitely just sat around and watched like ALL of those videos about the people on Sundays in the MTC. There's this one army guy who spins a cat at the beginning, which is SO funny!!! Can you tell we were cooped up? Anyways, have fun with that! They are so cool and a really good way to get out the word that we're not a crazy sect like everyone thinks that we are.....
JB. For real, gurfrend. For real. You're the girl who's the crazy mormon at school now. Hold up that pride and stick it to 'em. Seriously, though, just answer their questions and don't just brush it off. I think one too many times in school I just went along with the prevailing trend of poking fun at myself and my religion in order to get by. There are tons of times now that I wish I would have just told people what we believe. I mean, we believe it, right? Why not? You go gurl.
I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT JOSH GARDNER IS IN OUR AREA. Okay, nvm, I can believe it. Basically predicted it as soon as he got his call. As you will remember, he was my roommate (or Scott's, anyways) during our first semester at the Y. Funny kid. WAY excited about, well everything. And I mean, like lugnuts could do it for him on certain days... Really funny kid. Just love him up when you see him and stuff. Sheesh. What a kid. I don't know what you remember, but he's the egg kid. From Arizona, so he doesn't actually understand rain or cold.... When he and Riley (the other Arizonan) saw snow for the first time it kind of freaked em out. As we approach winter, help 'em out and let him know that jackets and umbrellas are okay.... He just won't understand it.... :P
Go something classy with the room. Idk about coloration. Something that the summer sunsets will hit well with on the wall. And maybe paint a mural reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel on my closet or something. or do some cool sort of tagging. Idk. Have fun! But yes, wood beds rule. Js.
Tape recorder thing. I just want to be able to record like stories. I'm writing every day in my journal, but it's not the same as when I speak. You know how I am. I just want to be able to like compile some stories onto a card or something and send them home for you to store and listen to. That would be way cool. Sestra Izatt in the MTC had a tiny little digital one which took cards which would be nice for just putting onto the computer and stuff. Don't really know cost on that. Let me know. Just would be fun to be able to listen to you all a little too, when you sent back the cards. Oh, speaking of which, the internet cafes that we go to never really have capabilities for anything other than internet. So, yeah. Not really gonna be able to drop pictures into the file there. C. Jacobsen has a harddrive type thing filled with pictures and then he sends cards back home (so that he won't lose them and stuff). Still waiting to hear about that card I sent home, btw. Anyways, may do something like that.
Anyways, too many and simultaneously too few stories to dish out from this week. Had our first zone conference here which was great! Our zone is Serbia and also Osijek which has elders AND sisters. The sisters almost died en route to Сремска Митровица but we saved them from the sketchy bus with a sketchy cab. Conference was good, but didn't really meet the people much. The Serb missionaries are tight, but we don't really know the Croats. Well, Jacobsen does, but whatever. The work is slow, but it's coming along. Thank you so much for your prayers and advice and hope. Thanks so much for everything!
Oh, and hello to Elder Freeman's mom, who apparently reads this. I'm looking at him right now. What a dork. :P He says, "and by the way, Elder Freeman loves you." Oh, and he wants Betty Crocker stuff in his package. And you could send me some mapleine extract or something for палачинке... That is all. :)
Which reminds me, mom, I got your package you sent. Got it on Thursday? Yes thursday. That was nice. Thanks so much! No idea what to do with all this pancake mix without Syrup in this forsaken country, but nbd.:P C. Defreitas is definitely jealous of my granola though, I'll tell you that right now. Oh, and definitely send me General Conference magazines when you get them. Could definitely use some of that. Apparently Душка Вученовић translates and already knows about the October session talks. Lucky dog...
Okay, I'm peaceing out. Latuhs.

Старешина Адамз