~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.
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.
~Zadar Coastline~
No comments:
Post a Comment