Date
November 17, 2014
Area
Zadar Croatia
Companion
Elder Miner
Week 61 Exchange with Rijeka
I had another busy week! I was able to see a lot of past companions, I always really enjoy that. This week I celebrated my 1 year mark in the field, it's crazy to know how much time has gone by. And I still have 11 months left. That'll go by very quickly.
This week we had English Class sign-ups. Our facebook got over 1,100 likes. I thought that was really cool. We had about 15 people sign-up, which doesn't seem like a lot but I'm pretty sure that's a record for Zadar. I was pretty happy about it. College has started here again, so we got a lot of college students who want extra help on their English. I'm excited to get into to. My whole mission I've taught the beginners English class, but now we're going to teach the advanced English class. I've never done that before, so it'll be a new experience for me. Most of these people probably know better English than I do because they actually studied it. But we focus on conversation, so it won't be too hard to teach them. Mostly just correcting their wording and accent. I'm looking forward to it.
On Wednesday Elders Gelhaus and Harmon came down to Zadar. It was really cool to get to see my old companions again, I really like those Elders. I consider them very good friends now. Elder Harmon is leaving for home in a week, so I was happy I got to see him again before he left. They were given a new assignment by President Grant to really get our member work started with missionaries. President Grant has a big new project he wants to get started. The first step is for us to contact all 1,300 members in the mission. Many of them haven't been contacted in a very long time, and we only have old information. For some of these members it's going to be a big project. Especially for Zadar, since the next closest church south of us is in Montenegro. The main goal right now is to contact them and get the most updated information we can get. Our trip to Split a few months ago has already given us a lot of good information, but it isn't done yet. So that will have to be followed up on. Along with the few members we have on islands, hopefully their phone numbers still work because it would be a real long trip just to see if someone was still at the same address. Luckily, Croatia has an online phone book that helps us. The goal is to let everyone know we are still thinking about them and want to help them come back. It's a really big project, but I'm excited to get it started. Elders Gelhaus and Harmon have the assignment to go to literally every city in the mission (save Montenegro) and tell the missionaries there about the new project and how to do it. I thought that was crazy! Every city in the mission in under 2 weeks is a LOT of travel. But it's also really cool, I'm jealous of them. Being able to see the whole mission is awesome. And Elder Gelhaus is going to be in charge of the whole show. That's awesome because his mom is less active, so he's going to really learn how to work with them and be able to use that to bring his mom back to the church. Elder Gelhaus and his mom converted to the church when Elder Gelhaus was just 13 I believe.
The second half of the week I was in Rijeka with Elder Sprague, my MTC companion. It was really cool because the day we got together was the 1 year anniversary of our first full day in the field, and when we both got new companions. So I told him we would celebrate by going to a nice restaurant in Rijeka, he took us to a place called The Garden or something like that. I got a big meat platter, that wasn't very expensive, but it was very good! Rijeka is an awesome city. To me, it looks like San Francisco if it were smaller and European. And the Elders apartment, which is very nice, has an amazing view of the city. They're right on top of the hill over-looking the whole city and the coast. It's a very beautiful place.
It was a lot of fun to be with Elder Sprague again. He spent most of his mission so far in Serbia, and Rijeka is his first place outside of Serbia. We got along great, it was really cool to be able to talk with him again. He's a good missionary, very devout and a hard worker. He also has no fear when it comes to contacting. Even if it's a young attractive girl our age. For me, and most Elders, it's a bit hard to contact them. But it's like Elder Sprague doesn't really notice who he's talking to. I have to say, I'm impressed. I learned a lot of things from Elder Sprague in my time with him in Rijeka. I was also able to give him a lot of good feedback as well, and he took it all great. It was one of the best exchanges I've been on.
Rijeka has a ton of great members. We had an activity and I got to meet some of them. One guy, named Ivan, said he met dad at the temple dedication. Ivan was really cool, we talked a lot. He's the first councilor to the branch presidency in Rijeka, as well as the clerk. I don't think I've told you yet, but those are the 2 callings I have. As a young missionary, I'm actually not allowed to be the first councilor anymore. That's a new rule I think. But, I was made one right before that rule was made, so I still technically am. Which I think is part of the reason I've been in Zadar for this long. Since the system wouldn't accept me as a councilor anymore, they made me a clerk as well. I've had to work a lot with the church's MLS, which is a good skill to have in the church. I'm not too great with it, but I know my way around. I really enjoyed getting to see and get to know the members better there. They are a great bunch.
To get to and from Rijeka we took the coast road part way. The A1 free way goes way out of the way towards Zagreb before splitting off to Rijeka, so it was just about the same amount of time. And it was worth it, such a beautiful drive. We passed by some castles and wonderful views of the coast with islands. I took a few videos and photos.
We're going to receive transfer calls this week on Thursday. I'm really excited and anxious to hear what's going to happen. I really have no idea, but I feel a change coming in my mission. My guess is that I'll be leaving to be Zone Leader somewhere else and that Elder Miner trains one of the nine new Elders coming in. I could be completely wrong, but that's what makes sense in my head. If I've learned one thing about transfers, it's that I'm always wrong. So I guess we'll have to just wait and see to be sure. This transfer has probably been the most talked about transfer in my mission, because so much has to happen. There are a lot of missionaries leaving and coming. After this transfer, I'll be one of the few older missionaries left in the mission. I think there are probably 10 or so Elders left who have served more than a year, after this transfer. It's crazy to think about how much the mission has changed and will change from when I first got here.
I had a fun week! And I'm excited for this coming week. I'm going to work extra hard, just in case it is my last week in Zadar. I feel really good by the amount of work I've put into this place, and I really love Zadar now. Its so awesome. Zadar will always be special to me, and I'll always be wanting to come back. Just like dad does.
I love you! I hope you have a great week!
Talk to you later, bye!
-Elder Lamb
Zdravo papa!
Rijeka was great! I didn't realize it was so big. Is it the 3rd largest city in Croatia? I wouldn't doubt it. To me, it looked a lot like a smaller, European version of San Francisco. A big city on a hill right on the coast. It was very beautiful. You said you saw one of the signs, did you see the road called Krivi Put? I thought that was pretty funny. I got a bit worried when I realized we were headed towards Krivi Put. I'm pretty sure I saw that castle. It really is a pretty one. I tried to get a video of it, it's in the video where we're driving through the town with the castle looking walls. There's a fortress on a hill and it showed up at the last second, so I turned my camera side-ways to try to film it and I think I got it for maybe half a second. It does look really cool. The whole coast road looks great. We didn't take the entire coastal road, we went about half way. We met the Elders in a city called Otočac, which is about half way between Rijeka and Zadar, and also Zagreb and Zadar. It's been our usual meeting place. For Rijeka, it takes the same amount of time to go the coastal route half way, because the A1 freeway goes towards Zagreb before it heads down. So you take the coastal road half way down, then get on the freeway when it gets close again to the coast. It really is beautiful. I'm serving in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I think stopping in that town would be really cool. And going to Venice would be awesome too! We could take a ferry from Pula or Rijeka to Venice if we wanted to. I'm telling everyone that we're coming again in the spring of 2016. Anka said if I'm married by then I could stay at their nice little place near the coast (they have that place and an apartment in Zadar). I don't think I'll be married by then, but she will definitely have us over for a meal. She just fed us Sarma 2 days ago. It was REALLY good. She's a great cook, and a very good host. I really like Anka, she does a lot for us in her old age. Šime is doing alright, he just had eye surgery and is recovering from that. But he's just about done. Anka is worried about rushing everything with Šime in the church (which is a common concern). Šime did say he wanted to be baptized, but not yet. There's some lengthy court case they're involved with whee someone built a house on land they own and it's been in court for the past decade or more. But we're still trying to work with him. The main problem is he just LOVES to talk and talk and talk. It's hard to find a gap in-between his words to get something in. And he was a ship captain, so he has a lot of stories to tell. It sounds like the Holiday season really is underway. I remember how fun it was. The only sign of the holidays out here are a few 2015 lights being hanged up in a few places, and the stores have started to sell themed candy and other Christmas/ new years stuff. But you don't see it anywhere else though. That's really cool that they're making the Nativity even bigger this year. It is a really good missionary tool I really liked those nativities, they were always so much fun. Are you going to be involved again this year? The internet is full of garbage. We've had to deal with some of that out here. Especially with the recent "shocking news" about Joseph Smith having multiple wives, I thought that was common knowledge? But it was in the newspaper here.. So people know about it. Luckily, there was also a news segment run about us that was very well done. They interviewed the Assistants to the President, and followed them around while they did missionary work and also interviewed President and other members. It was very well done and put us in a good light, and people have seen that to. So there is definitely talk about the church lately. It's interesting to see how that all plays out. I'm hoping the Rome temple gets built quickly too. It's been in the works for a long time. I remember when they announced it. I hope there aren't any other problems. I don't know if the Croatia district would go to Rome or not. I heard it would be about the same drive distance. There are 2 trips a year to the temple. I wish so badly I could go. I heard about Ankica's call. I think that's really cool. Mišo was replaced by some local counselors. I think coming to zadar on a Sunday is a great idea. They're actually used to it here. In fact, this Sunday we had a girl here who was a Sister in Zadar 8 years ago. She was here with her mom and younger sister. She gave a small talk too, that's happened a few times in my time in Zadar. Past missionaries come back a lot, and if they're here on Sunday they have them talk in sacrament. If we give them enough heads up they might have you talk too actually. I think that'd be cool. I have a meeting with President this Tuesday, with the other Croatian Zone Leaders through skype. I'm guessing I'll find out what's happening to me then. I really don't have a clue what's going on, but President has a reputation for telling you what's happening to you before it happens. I'll be sure to let you know when I know, transfer calls will be officially on Thursday, so I will know by at least then, and I'll be sure to let you know what's happening on the following Monday.
Volim te papa! Govorit ćemo kasnije! -Starješina Lamb