Running into Americans!!!

October 1, 2012

Hey! How's it going over there in the land of the free and the home of the brave?

It's going pretty well over here. I have to apologize now and say that this week hasn't been the most exciting of my life, so I might have to stretch to keep your attention.

So something random that i meant to tell you a while ago, but I forgot. Have you ever checked out mormonchannel.org? It's pretty cool. They have all of the church radio shows and they are pretty interesting. You can download them and listen to them whenever. I downloaded a bunch and put them on my flash drive and I just listen to them in the mornings or at night when I have time. Sometimes the music that I have gets a little old, so it's a nice change. History of the hymns is a cool one. They talk about the history of the hymn (go figure, eh Copernicus?) but they also have multiple arrangements of the hymns and different versions. They are pretty cool. There's also a cool program called, “Enduring It Well.” It's just got a bunch of different people telling interesting stories about trials they've faced. It makes your own life feel easier. They also have a show called, “Conversations” where they interview general authorities and their wives and stuff and it's pretty casual and interesting. I just finished a cool show with Rob Gardner today: http://mormonchannel.org/everything-creative-discussion/45  I figured that you don't have a whole of time to just listen to stuff, but if you're bored or just cleaning or something, I would recommend them. They have a few of them with Susan Easton Black (my former professor for church history at BYU). She's so cool and they are super interesting. She's just such a good talker/storyteller. That's the end of my plug for the site....sorry.

So about the Christmas stuff......Honestly, I really don't want a tree of any kind. I didn't even like them at home too much....(if my future wife is reading this some how, get over it...I'm just not festive). I found a cheesy little Christmas tree in our apartment (missionaries love them so much they always leave them behind when they move...we had like 3 in Karlovac) and if I fall on my head/go insane and decide I want one, I'll just use that one. (I swear I'm not depressed or anything. I realized that this paragraph sounds a little moody. Sorry for the sarcasm and the strange tone).  

I don't envy Brianne at all about the teeth. [His older sister is getting her wisdom teeth out] That was freaking nasty. I'm glad they don't grow back. It's a nightmare just thinking about it again. Too bad you have to take her. Don't pass out while driving. And don't take 2 Vicodin without eating anything...or just in general. Sure it makes "How I Met Your Mother" funnier (and it makes the iPad look like it's spinning in your hands), but puking blood and stuff for 12 hours bites.  

That's so cool about Brother F. That's probably the best news I've gotten in a little while; definitely a bit of a relief. Do you think that you could find out a way to get their address? I want to send something...like a letter. That guy’s a fighter for sure.  

Have I ever told you how many freaking lizards we have here? We've tried to catch a few geckos in our apartment, but they run away into different cracks and stuff...so we're probably living with 50 million of them, but we only find them every now and then. But you always see lizards everywhere when you're out walking around. Seriously, they're everywhere. And those little buggers are so freakin' fast. You can't catch them. 

That's so cool that M is going to Ukraine! What language is he speaking? Ukrainian or Russian? And I am grateful that I'm in Croatia.

Short story time: Elder M  and I ran into some American guys a few weeks back. They walked by us and they said, "How's it goin' out here, Elders?" We were kind of taken back by the English, but we started talking to them (a bunch of military guys) and one of them asked us where we were from and I said Dallas, and he said "Okay, I've been to that temple many, many times." He asked what ward I was in and I said Flower Mound 3rd, and he said that he knew a bunch of people in Flower Mound. He said that he was from Plano.  And then he said, "What you're doing out here is great." So that was kind of the end of it (we don't know if he was inactive, or really not a member anymore). We ran into them a few days later and they were so cool. There were more of them that time and we talked for a while. Another guy was an inactive guy and he was asking us questions. He invited us to go scuba diving with them...he didn't know about the no water rule....he's really inactive I guess. But I was talking to the guy from before and he was just a really cool guy. He was here during the 90's in the war. He said that he's Porter Rockwell.....he knows what's right and he's devoted to his friends, he just has stupid things in his life that are hard to get over. The other inactive guy was from Utah and he asked Elder M  to send a message to his cousin in Salt lake if he ever ran into him. So now to where I was going with this:

They all were telling us how lucky we were to be here in Croatia. "You lucky dogs...who'd you pay to get put here. This place is awesome." We also ran into a member guy here with the military that was doing joint training with the Croatians and he was surprised to know that the church was here and he was telling us how lucky we were to be here. It's true though. It's a cool place.

You don't worry about my safety because you have no need to. This place is safer than Flower Mound.

Man, you mentioned the triplets+1 and it made me think of a dream I had. I just had a dream where I woke up and I*****was in my apartment. It was super random and super weird. I have no idea where it came from. But it was cool. We just played for a couple of hours and then I woke up. I really miss those kids. It's kind of sad that they'll be completely different by the time I see them again.

Questions:

1.  How much are suits over there?

I think that most suits are like American prices. About $200-$300. I got the short end of the Eastern European (sorry...I meant Central Europe...people don't call it eastern here...that's Serbia and Bosnia, but not Croatia....go figure, eh?) deal. Things are still expensive here. 

2.  Any foods you are missing?

I don't think so. We have pretty good stuff here to tie me over. Well, Riscky's sounds pretty good right now. I hope you and Greers are up for going in about 16 months. I'm gonna eat so many ribs. I miss beef.

3.  Can't think of any more questions.

Feel the need to point out that that's not a question.....

So this last week was pretty slow going. Not a whole lot happened other than people flaking on us.....the same as usual. not too big of a deal.

We went this morning and helped some branch members move...F*****and Z****. They needed help moving their washer and fridge, so we loaded them into the car, followed them to the new apartment on their bikes (I rode a bike with a basket and a bell.... cross that off the bucket list) while they drove, unloaded the car and rode back to the other place to make another trip. I haven't ridden a bike in years...I guess since I got my license (I just realized that I haven't driven a car in 9 months...crazy)... and it bit. We only made 2 trips, but it killed my thighs. I've been on my mission for 9 months and that's the first time I've touched a bike, so I guess I'm lucky. Let's see if I can go another 9.

We ate at a really good palačinka bar this last week. They're like crepes, but they're palačinke. Mine had Nutella inside (they fold them up) and it had crunched up snickers, vanilla pudding, and a chocolate drizzle on top with whipped cream around the edges. The place has over 50 different combinations on the menu. It's pretty good. We also went back to the Chinese restaurant that we went to before and realized that we were just hungry the first time. It wasn't so great the second time around. I had a really good lunch at a place called Conzona's today. It was a tortellini with mozzarella chunks and tomatoes throughout with a bunch of cheese on top, and they bake it in a clay dish and bring it out to you still sizzling. It's way good. I guess that just goes to summarize the week for you....the most exciting part is the food.

I wish I had more to say, but I think that's about it. I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all and Christmas is less than 3 months away...and in 3 days I have 16 months left. Crazy how time is flying!

Love,

P.J.

Yikes...three weeks behind in posting his e-mails...sorry! ~Dore

Wazzup?

First of all, I did laugh at the Star Wars thing, but the groan afterwards was louder than the chuckle ;). 

                        ~For those of you who are curious about what the, "Star Wars" thing is....~

It's been a great week! The weather is cooling down, so how could it be anything other than great?

Ya...it makes sense that I'm here. President Rowe said something interesting in my last interview. He said something to the effect of "Why did you get called here? The Lord could have called you to Tucson, Arizona, but he didn't. He called you to the Adriatic North Mission, half-way around the world to build branches!" It's something that's made me think, Why am I here?

So something that I thought about for Christmas...Seriously, I can't think of anything that I want right now. Maybe a suit eventually. Supposedly sales season is coming up....

I would assume that you could call the phone again after the Skype...I'm pretty sure we can Skype again. We have it on the computer here at the church. But I don't know anything. No one has even said anything since it's still 3 months away....an eternity in missionary land.

Questions for the week:

1.  How do you like your new companion?

He's cool. I think we'll get along just fine. I guess I don't have too much to say. He's not a problem, and I don't think I am, so things are good.  

2.  Any new Elders come yet?

Yup...finally. The first ones since I came. Two came and are in Slovenia, and then a missionary in Sarajevo. I was asking a couple of weeks back if the two missionaries going to Slovenia were actually going to make it there this time (we all know what happened last time ;)) and I heard that President Rowe wanted to send them somewhere else, but he was looking at the missionaries in Slovenia and realized that if he didn't start sending missionaries in there, in a year's time, all of the elders would be gone from the country. All of them.... So people have to start going there. We just need so many more people all across the mission.

3.  How are you doing with the language?

It's interesting. I find myself getting better. And it's weird because we have a greenie sister in the district, and not that she's bad at the language, she's just new.... but, I saw how far I've come. Since I've been the newest one for so long, I kind of felt like I was still not getting anywhere, but now that I got a reminder of where I was, I'm feeling better about things. I heard a guy speaking Slovene a couple of weeks back....I'm a little ashamed to say that the language sounds super funky now. I think I'm going Croat against my will.

4.  Are you planning on buying boots for winter/snow?

Nah...I'm not sure if we're even allowed to wear them. According to the missionary handbook, you can't. It also doesn't really snow here in Zadar. It did for the first time in like 20 years last year, but it should be fine. I don't think anywhere here gets too much snow, and I was fine at BYU without boots. I think it'll be cool.

5.  Did you know they have FB missions now?  I guess that is a mission where the missionaries write home every night!  Can you believe it?  We know someone whose son is on one of these missions.  It's a pilot program.  Where do we petition for this??  Kidding.  I think you might get completely burnt out on your family if you had to write us every day.  How about a cell mission?  You know…where you call your family every day.  Sign us up!!!!! :)

I've heard of the Facebook missions. They've been doing it for a while now. I think it would bite. How would you not be trunky 24/7? I love you guys a ton, and it'll be great to see you again someday....somewhere around 16 months in the future, but I think that a mission would be so much harder with constant semi-contact like that. It's kind of like a giant tease. It's a bit of blessing, I would think, that I don't do that.

6.  Any investigators? 

Eh, a few potentials, but nothing super rock solid. We're working on solidifying things. We've been trying to meet with L*** and A****, but they've been busy, but we'll get there eventually.

7.  Get mooned lately?  We did, yesterday…a trucker on the side of the road decided to climb out of his truck.  It wasn't a pretty sight AT ALL!!!!! 

Nope...well...kind of. A guy with no legs was swimming off of the coast in center (the no legs part is why we were watching him. We wanted to see how he was planning on climbing the ladder to get out) well, and he got out of the water and then stripped off his speedo....it's weird to see a [rear] with no legs attached to it...just a random thought.....

Can you let Grandma know that I got her letter a couple of weeks back, and I'm slowly, but surely working on a letter back to her? Thanks!

Oh gosh...Does Mollie want friends? Tell her not to dance in public. Our family didn't get those genes.

So this last week has been all right. Nothing too super exciting. Elder A  and I got back to Zadar on Tuesday night and pretty much didn't have time for anything after that. And then the next few days until now have just been normal. Trying to hit it hard everyday. But it's kind of funny. The only tags he has are in Serbian Cyrillic, and since the war, people around here don't really care for Cyrillic...so he's just been going around without tags for the last week and is tag-less until we can get some Croatian ones from the office, which will be a couple of weeks because of shipping. He thought about wearing them, but it's better not to get beat up, I should think.  

I also found out that I’ve got a cool Bosnian souvenir coming my way. In all of the larger Bosnian cities, they make pens out of bullets. Well I got Elder B some candy (crunchy M&M's and Jelly Bellys) and got them to him in Osijek, and he got me a bullet pen in Sarajevo when he was there for zone conference. It'll be cool to have.  

I'm pretty sure I'm gonna come home with lung cancer. You know it's pretty bad when you walk into an apartment where they smoke like crazy inside and you don't even notice it anymore. It honestly doesn't bother me too much anymore. It's going to be sad when I step outside of a store where people are smoking out front and get mission-trunky because of it ;).

I hope everything is going well for all of you. I'm trying to think if I have any questions for any of you, but I'm like a guy with an eraser and no pencils....just drawing blanks....don't judge. I came up with it literally like 15 seconds ago... Any interesting news from the ward? It's going to be crazy to go home and eventually be in a "ward" again. I'm gonna laugh if I ever hear somebody use the phrase "small ward." Those two words just can't go together after being over here.

One last thing. We accidently found a Chinese restaurant here in Zadar, and it seems to be pretty good so far. They had good sweet and sour squid and the wan-tan soup was all right. The only downside is that it's a little pricy and far out, but it's good to find new places to eat at.

I'm pretty sure that's about it for this week. I love you all a bunch and look forward to hearing back from you next week!

Love,

P.J.

P.S.: The picture of the chapel is a picture of the church here in Zadar. The Zagreb Chapel is a whole lot bigger and actually is church produced, so it looks like a church, instead of a bottom floor of a house.

Staying in Zadar, blue tongue, and holding a suit together with tape...

 ~P.J. in a niche at the cathedral? I don't know why this struck me as funny~

Hello....

So hopefully this email will be a decent one. I know they've been a bit skimpy for the last few weeks. So just to let you know, I've uploaded some pictures to shutterfly. They are from Zagreb, and today....They are in the Zagreb cathedral, Sv. Donat Cathedral here in town (the one from the 8th century or something), and the cool graffiti that we pass on the way to the church...and a picture of the church building. I realized that you didn't have one yet.

~The Church building in Zadar or Zagreb (I think...)~

So everything is going pretty well here. A little tired. Not really looking forward to traveling to Zagreb again tomorrow...below is why I'm traveling:

So we got transfer calls last Thursday. I'm going to be staying here in Zadar for another 2 months at least. My new companion is Elder A from Provo, UT....my 3rd companion from Utah. He's been out for a year and 2 months. I've never met him before because he's been serving in Serbia for his whole mission so far (in a town called Novi Sad most recently), so I guess he's technically been "Serbing" not "serving"...bud dum ching (drums and cymbal) So things are going to be pretty different for him. But the lucky dog gets to come to the coast. My companion, Elder M, is being transferred to Београд, Србија (Belgrade, Serbia for you American English speakin' folks). He's going to go be a Zone Leader there. Things are going to be weird for him too. Beograd is a huge city....It has 2 million people that live there. That's half the population of all of Croatia and almost as much as the whole population of Slovenia. Supposedly it's kind of like Gotham from Batman. So guess what that means...

Things are lookin' like I'm going to become the First Counselor in the Zadar branch presidency (I think it's a pretty much a done deal). Pretty crazy, huh? Who would've guessed that I would ever be in a branch presidency on my mission? I'm not quite sure about it. It shouldn't be too much to handle. President Perović is super cool and he has a habit of taking the majority of the load onto himself. And just in case you're wondering, I won't be set apart. When I was set apart as a missionary, I was set apart to serve in which ever capacity I was assigned to serve in, so I guess that technically my set apart as a missionary covers this as well. So wish me luck!

Elder C told me about the YouTube video when I saw him in Zagreb...Don't worry. I did get the shirt (supposedly it looks like I didn't...don't worry. I haven't watched it. That's just what I've been told). I just had to get an XL and they were down at the end of the table. It's so random that it was found. How did Sister Gunter find it? Does she know Elder C's mom from when they lived in Mesa? And about the "very visible" statement. I think that that's always the case. It's hard to blend in in these clothes... Sometimes it freaks me out that I'm a missionary, too. It's weird to think that I'm actually one of those people that I've seen all my life. I could never physically picture what I would look like as a missionary or what I would do day to day, because all I've seen are Ft. Worth, Texas missionaries, and it's so different here, so sometimes it's weird to think about the day or to look in the mirror. Especially since I still feel like a normal person. The weirdest part is that everyone around me doesn't think the same thing. 

Oh gosh....How about a nice Skype for Christmas? I honestly can't think of anything. Sorry that this year I'm even harder to shop for than usual. Don't hate me, but I honestly have no clue. Ties would be fine..... I can't think of anything that I need. Maybe some new insoles (Zagreb has an Ecco store, but we didn't get to go into it)...maybe a suit eventually. The tape is still holding the hole shut at the moment, so it can still wait. Don't you just got to love the "missionary repair" attitude? Welcome to the mystical land of missionaries, where tape is a magical substance with the ability to repair and restore any item to it's original "mint" state....I bet you could even patch a bike tire with the right kind....wouldn't really know for sure though. The bikes were stolen 2 months ago and are still missing. I figured that it would be better to wear out the trash suit as much as possible instead of buying a new one right now and wearing it out.......

About sharing the package. I shared some Gatorade powder and some Pez, some of the Kit Kats too...but I don't think the warhead thing is getting passed over. I shared the sour patch kids with multiple people, so I think I'm entitled to all of the warhead powder.... the Velveeta too. It worked out well when we didn't have anything else to eat last Sunday.

~Evidence of the Warhead powder~

I only shot Elder M in the face with rubber bands twice....So I don't think that they are all that distracting. It's not like we're skipping tracting to set up a rubber band gun range...but now that I think about it......Just kidding.  Although we did spend all last week building a race track for the balloon cars you sent me for my birthday...I won. Just kidding again....And if you look on shutterfly you can see how I used one of the punching balloons. I would like to thank Mollie for the original idea.

~This is a frozen Punching balloon ice-ball (with the punching balloon torn off after freezing...not sure what the point was...~

Questions:

1.  What do you want for Christmas?

Things haven't changed too much from the last paragraph, so unfortunately, I'm still a little clueless.

2.  Anything you are missing that you would like included in the next package (Cheetos, sardines, cricket-in-a-sucker, etc?)-I can get the sucker at the Stockyards, you know…

I think I'll pass on the cricket sucker.

3.  How about a new suit?  Quit being so cheap!

Already addressed that concern....So eventually.....

4.  Bri wants to know if you enjoyed the birthday gifts she sent (the stuff tied together in the package).  

Yes, and I told her about them in her email.

5.  Are you staying well?

yup....so far. Nah...just kidding. It's all good out here. The tourists are leaving and restaurant prices are dropping....on a side note, the word "restaurant" has always been spelling kryptonite for me and no matter what, every time I type it, I always end up getting chewed out by the red squiggle line....but I managed to spell it right this last time! Whoo hoo. 10 points for me!

6.  Are you guys cooling off yet?

Yes, we got record rainfall/flash flooding, and it's been pretty cool ever since then. It's around 50 in the mornings and it heats up to about 70. It's great. I actually used a sweater the other day in the rain!

Zagreb this last week was pretty cool....You'll have to look at the others' emails because I don't have time to retype. It was a good experience though. Not really lookin' forward to going back tomorrow, but I have a reimbursement to pick up.

Everything is great though. Guess what? I forgot to mention it, but I hit my 8-month mark about a week ago. It's crazy...and Christmas is in what? Like 3.5 months. Pretty cool!

Love you all a bunch!

Love,  P.J.

Seeing some homeless guys' lives changed and he got mooned!!!!

Dear Family,

It's going to have to be another quick one this week. We are trying to make the 8:00 bus to Zagreb and it's 7:00 right now, so I have half an hour. We are going up today to spend p-day there and then there's a fireside tonight with Elder Rasband for members, investigators, and members and then we have our zone conference with him in the morning, so we are spending the night at the zone leaders apartment (it's pretty nice...it has a loft and a dishwasher....was there almost 2 months ago).....It's going to be fun in Zagreb, but I hate the bus ride. It's 3 and half hours long...they take a 30 minute smoke break about half way. It wouldn't be too bad if I hadn't already been to Zagreb and back this week.

On Wednesday, We left for Zagreb at 8, got there around 11:30 and had an exchange with the assistants until Friday morning. Elder M  was here in Zagreb with Elder H  (the M's nephew) and I went up to Zagreb to be with Elder F. He's way cool. He goes home in like a week, but he's still hitting it hard. So we had fun up in Zagreb. We taught some homeless people that they met at a McDonalds. They overheard them in the corner talking about "the Jehovah’s Witnesses over there" so they got up to talk to them and tell them that they aren't  Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was kind of interesting. They found out the guys were homeless and created a plan to make them not homeless by the end of the month. They found out that the homeless guys were spending 50 kn a day on alcohol and cigarettes and they told them that if they stopped smoking and drinking, that they would be able to afford an apartment. That blew their minds. The guys had never thought of it before. So they taught them the Word of Wisdom, and they stopped drinking tea and coffee and between the 3 of them, they've pretty much stopped smoking and drinking too. It's way cool. Now they are spending their money on new clothes because they have job interviews. It's pretty crazy. But we had a lesson about the Restoration and watched the movie. They all liked it. Two of them said that they thought it was a true story, so we asked them to pray until they knew. They said that they would. It's cool seeing that dramatic of a change in somebody. Three bums that collected plastic bottles for a dime apiece so they can have their smokes and beer to three guys that are getting jobs and an apartment and learning about the gospel.

We also went to a pretty crazy restaurant. It's in the center of Zagreb around the corner from the mission office. It's a place called Karakas, and you walk in the door, go down stairs and the restaurant is all wood paneling and pirate themed. It feels like you're in the hull of a ship. And the waiters wear pirate clothes too....but for some reason, all of the food on the menu is Mexican food. It's the weirdest thing, but it was really good. The waiter was pretty cool too, which can sometimes be a little bit hard to find. 

And while I was in Zagreb I got my PACKAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In case you haven't opened the picture yet....that Warhead candy really does turn your mouth blue. I went and got my hair cut after eating it, and the lady got a bit of a kick out of it. The Gatorade is awesome. And I like it better with the 20 oz. of water. It's a bit like Kool-Aid if you just use 16. The music is great too! A couple of other missionaries made the comment that you're a good package maker/sender. They were impressed that I didn't get any weird decorations or other things like that. The Velveeta was a savior yesterday. Because I was sick last p-day, we weren't able to shop, so we were pretty much out of food. But Velveeta just needs water, so we were in business....It was so good....so much fake cheddar goodness.

So a quick interesting story from earlier this week. We were walking across the bridge from the town center, and a guy at a cafić started waving and yelling, "Hey!" at us. We weren't sure if he was yelling at us or someone else, but when we crossed the street, he kept on yelling. So we walked over to him, and he said "Help me....my soul is so lost" and he was obviously messing with us, but we walked over to him anyways. So we walked over and he had a bunch of empty glasses on his table and he was kind of staggering and one eye was more open then the other....so drunk.... and he said, "Hi, my name is Jesus, you know...your boss...What are your names and what are you doing today?" So we told him that we were missionaries and told him that he had to be serious. He said, "Okay, you don't think I'm being serious?" And then he turned around and dropped his pants.....full moon in full public.....So yeah, we got mooned by a drunk guy claiming to be Jesus. We just walked away..... I've been thinking a lot about this. Maybe this guy had some legitimacy to his claim...after all, Jesus always said to turn the other cheek.... Bud-dum-ching (like the drums.....)

So I've been feeling fine since Tuesday...not sick any more. I think that's pretty much the major events from this last week.  

Guess what? We have transfer calls this Thursday. Can you believe it? Probably not because it's not that big of a deal for you, but this last transfer/2 months just flew by. So we hear this week what's going down for the next 2 months. It's pretty crazy. I hope I stay. I like it here and it feels like I haven't been here very long. So by next Monday, when I email again, I'll know what's going on and I'll let you know.

I better get going. I love you all a bunch. Mollie, don't worry about the lack of the email....I’ll talk to you next week. And Bri, thanks for the email...and I'm glad your dental won't be too bad. I hope you get your papers in soon. And Dad, I'm super excited to see your new truck. It sounds pretty awesome. And that sounds like a ton of fun to work on that '67!

Until next week, Love,

P.J.

P.s.... I tried to attach a pic of my blue tongue, but it's taking too long....so maybe next week.