Monday, July 16, 2012

He's moving on.....Transfer!!!

~P.J.'s new area.....beautiful!!!~

Hello, Family!



The last few days have been busy. A lot of pictures were taken at church and a couple of minutes last night were spent packing all that I have here, because I am getting transferred! I wasn't expecting it at all. It came as a complete surprise. I knew that they were closing down a companionship in Karlovac, and because of that, I assumed that one person from each companionship would stay and that the other two would leave. Since Elder B  has been here for 8 months and I've only been here for 4, I thought that I would stay. Well I was wrong. We got the call Friday morning that said that Elder B  was going to Osijek (over in the bit of the country that boarders Serbia...he's in the Serbia zone now), and that I was leaving as well, and that both of the other elders, Elder C***** and K*****, were staying to man the fort in Karlovac. That being said, I'm pretty excited. I really wanted to mess with you and not tell you were I'm going and just email it to Mollie or Bri that way they could tell you after you freak out a little bit, but I don't think that I'm capable of being that cruel.

So here it is: I am going to.................................................ZADAR, CROATIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to be living it up on the coast for at least the next two months! I'm gonna get so awkwardly tanned....unless I just fry....(I know...."Wear sunblock!!!"....whatever....). Oh it's going to be great! Expect some good pictures!

So I leave tomorrow. I gotta catch the 7:55 bus down to Zadar. It's about a 3 hour drive south! It's going to be so strange actually having something to do and look at on P-days because there is nothing to do here in Karlovac after week 3.....I don't think I'm going to miss the town at all, but It's sad to leave the people. The members are so great here and it wasn't too long ago that I finally felt like I could connect with them because I could finally understand what it was that they were saying, but oh well. I will still get to see all of them every 6 months at district conference. I'm a little nervous about going, but I think it will be good. I get to switch dialects. Over here in Karlovac, the language is Štokavian and Kajkavian, but Zadar is the start of the Dalmatian coastline where they speak čakavian. It won’t be that big of a difference though; just some weird pronunciations of words.

 The fiesta would be a cool car if it had more power to it. I see them every once in a while around here, but mostly just Opels, Fiats, Peugeots (nasty french cars), and a few Fords. A Focus would be cool though. That's what I thought your new car was when I first saw the little attachment pictures. That sucks that the car already was a little messed up though.


Another package? Cool, I'll take it! There's not really too much I'm missing. I don't know if you can get your hands on any, or how easy it would be to ship it, but I could really go for some Gatorade powder. I'm not sure if you can even get it at the grocery store anymore, but it would be way good. And the cd's would be great!







Well, the awesome place that you and dad found with the cool dock....is pretty much my new city! But it sounds like a cool place.

Now to answer your questions:

1.  How are your contacts holding up?  What are your plans when you run out?  Please don't try to make a year prescription last for two.  Can you see an optometrist over there?
So far so good. It's been like 6 months, And I’ve only used 3 pairs....and no infections yet, so....so far, so good. Sure, those three pairs should have only lasted me 6 weeks...but oh well. I guess it's what you would call a missionary miracle! It's almost like the fish and bread story in the Bible, but with contacts in Croatia.

2.  How are your clothes holding up?  Do you need anything?
Clothes are good....well, the suit has been in pretty poor shape for about 4 and half months now....I'll probably start looking into getting a new one since I'm going to be in a city with stores that aren't cheap little china shops.

3.  Any new teaching appts?
We got to go teach a less active man and his nonmember wife with the H****** this last week! His name is D**** and he lives south of Plitvica, so a good 2+ hours away. He is the coolest guy ever. He is so nice and loving; just a very bright and radiant guy. He loves church and everything to do with the gospel, but he and his wife  can't make the 2-hour trip to church, so he's starved for contact. He has an interesting story. He was a refugee from Serbia. He came here during the war. Then he went back to Novi Sad, Serbia, where he met missionaries back in 2005 and was baptized in Beograd. He then moved back to Croatia and now lives in Korenica. His wife works at a daycare and he is a park ranger of sorts. He sits in a tree stand all day throughout the summer and watches for forest fires on the mountainside. Yeah, it sounds like watching grass grow, but it's an important job. Well, when we got to his house, we got out of the car and he just walked up and hugged me and said, in English (it's very limited, but he loves using what he knows), "Welcome, my brother!" He was so happy to have us there. We went inside, met his wife, and he showed us every picture/letter he had ever gotten from a missionary. It was way cool. And then when we started the lesson about faith, he ran into the kitchen, and put in a Motab cassette for lesson ambiance, I guess. The lesson was great. His wife is shy and quiet, but she has a little bit of interest and is very nice also. I feel bad for them though. He said that he gets a lot of discrimination in town, because Korenica's small and a lot of the people there know that he's Mormon, not Catholic, and Serbian, not Croatian. And apparently they still aren't too fond of Serbs there. But it was so great going out to visit him. I don't think I've met anybody as warm and loving as him before.

4.  How are your investigators doing?
Good. Luckily the other elders have met them all before, so it will be a smooth transfer. It's a little sad to be leaving them because it feels like we are finally seeing real progress in our area.

5.  Any exciting news about transfers?
See above.......

I think that's about it for this week. I don't have a lot of time left. We have some stuff that we have to do today before both of us leave in the morning. I hope all of you have a good week! I love all of you. And Mom, have fun looking up Zadar. I bet you'll know more about it then I will!

Love,
P.J.
~the old church in Zadar, the Sveti Donatt...I’m not sure how old it is, but I bet you can find out.....~

  ~Zadar Coastline~

~One is of the sea organ....its a pipe organ thing that's played by the waves going into them....it's one of the stereotypical Zadar things to see/sea....hahaha.......~


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