24th - 30th November 2015

Elder Winfield didn't send a big email this week but he did send some info. It is his birthday 3rd Decebmer if you would like to email him. 

BELOW IS A NOTE FROM THE CHURCH RE SENDING THINGS TO CROATIA

IT IS RECOMMENDED BY THE CHURCH THAT NOTHING OF VALUE IS SENT TO HIM. ANYTHING OVER $50 WILL BE OPENED. SOMETIMES THE MISSIONARIES WILL NOT RECEIVE THE PARCEL SENT TO THEM. SOMETIMES IT IS KEPT BY CUSTOMS OR THROWN AWAY AND SOMETIMES THEY DEMAND MONEY FROM THE RECIPIENT.

THE CHURCH THEN RECOMMENDED THAT IF A GIFT IS GIVEN IT WOULD BE BEST TO BE THINGS OF SENTIMENTAL VALUE INSTEAD SUCH AS LETTERS, PICTURES, SMALL ITEMS WORTH LESS THAN $50 TOTAL ETC. 

Cheers,

Suzy.

Well this week we just contacted a lot like normal. We then had thanks giving on Thursday so we got a lot of the day off because of that which was good, we then played indoor soccer with two of our investigators on Saturday which was fun! We then taught a few lessons yesterday we are so close to getting some baptisms, but yeah I think I will probably leave which kind of sucks but that's fine.

I have to head off I'm going to get some lunch and have fun at the church for our last p day! I'll email some photos later :) sorry I didn't do any big email I will next time :) love you guys wish you the best this week!

17th - 23rd November 2015

Hello family! It has been another normal kind of week but exciting at the same time.
I went on exchanges again with the zone leaders so that was fun we contacted a lot so yeah not too much different there!

So I have now been out for 7 weeks here in Serbia! it has been hard white washing the area but I have enjoyed the challenge! We opened this new area up in Beograd with 0 investigators and now we have around 8 names that are looking pretty good and 3 are looking good for a baptism before the end of the year! With transfers coming up on the 8th of December I hope that I can stay here for Christmas! I am really enjoying the area and people and members. 

We have had a pretty long last week with a lot of contacting and finding, we ending up finding a lady who seemed really interested with the Book of Mormon so we are hoping to meet up with her this week we have a few lessons planned for a few investigators so I'm really looking forward to that! 

It has started to snow! I woke up Sunday morning seeing it and it was weird because the last 4 weeks have been in the mid 20's then all of a sudden it just dropped to the negatives! crazy. So this week our investigator went to church and we are meeting up again on Saturday after we play indoor soccer or basketball and we will invite him to be baptised then lets hope it goes well I think it will. We also have another investigator who we have an appointment with after english class so we are hoping that will go smooth too.

Nothing here is really too much different we do the same things everyday so I'm looking forward to the weeks to come, this week we have to help take elder Morgan one of the zone leaders to the airport, so we will stay at there place a few nights of the week and we have thanksgiving on Thursday which is some american holiday so we get a half day off! woo! 

We also had an unfortunately incident happen with one of the elders in Zadar "elder Williams" getting leukemia cancer so he had to leave to home and arrived yesterday, he had been out exactly a year and won't be coming back out so we are hoping everything goes well for him.

So yeah we didn't have any super amazing experiences this week, we talked with some good people on the streets and did a lot of hard work and got to teach some lessons to the members which was great but I think this week will be even better! I'm excited to see how it goes. Wish me luck!Love Elder Winfield :)

                    

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

10th - 16th November 2015

Hello family! unfortunately this week was pretty bland because we had Return and Report and the Zone conference so that was 2 of our days gone so on Monday we played indoor soccer with some of the members that was really fun! and if you go here https://www.facebook.com/Escapegame.rs/photos/a.826800977333991.1073741830.804255882921834/1198544600159625/?type=3&theater

You can see the escape game that we played as well that was really fun! so that was last p day then on Tuesday we had Zone conference all day then on Wednesday we had Return and Report which is where all the greenies and their trainers get together and had a review on the first 6 weeks ect.. so that was fun I taught my 5 minute lesson on the restoration and it went pretty well I thought so I'm really glad that's over I was stressing a little about it!

Thursday was just a normal day we went contacting and on Thursday night we went along the side of the river where people go for a walk or run and we saw these guys playing basketball so we asked if we could join in and they said yeah so we played with them in our shirts and ties and all for about an hour that was really fun! We didn't really gospel them too much, we should of but they have our card now with the Serbian Facebook page of the church and all that so that was great. 

Friday was again a normal day again but this time we went tracting and it was my first time since I have been out here so we went tracting in the zepter building which was one of our goals at the start of the transfer it is 30 stories high and one of the biggest buildings in Belgrade and they are called the "Dva Budela". It means the 2 idiots and they are called that because when the war happened the power cut out and there was only elevators so everyone in the building was stuck there for 2 weeks without being able to get out! So yeah we tracted 120 apartments and 1 old grandma was a little interested so we gave her a book of Mormon and she said she would read it but she will need some time as she is old but that was really nice!

Saturday was pretty normal just did a lot of contacting and then yeah we went to help the sisters clean the church and had burritos for dinner which were surprisingly tasty. 

Sunday was church and unfortunately our investigator Daniel didn't turn up which was very disappointing, he hasn't being answering our texts or phone calls either not sure how everything is going there but we are going to ask his member friend Dushan what is going on and hopefully set something up for this week! We then had dinner at the Reacavics and she always says whenever you come over to my house for dinner, that's it you are not working for the rest of the night! she thinks its crazy that p day ends at 6pm and that we should go over all the time in the winter because work is hard when it's snowy, they are such a nice family though hopefully you will be able to meet them one day! they are amazing!

so that was my week, pretty bland like I said but we are going to play basketball today for p day and do some more escape game rooms! then we are getting our visas! wooo they arrived!

have a good week family!

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission

3rd - 9th November 2015

This week was a wonderful week, it was full of success finally! a lot of random crazy things too so that was great. I'll kick it off and go by day.

Tuesday: so on Sunday we got a call from Zika saying that he wants us to come over again and do some more service so we went over in the morning (he is a gypsy) so we went over and he was in the middle of killing his turkey's he had 3 and 2 were already killed and the other one was just chilling out the front of his house. He got us two seats to sit and watch what was going on! So we were like what is going on?! We soon realized and he grabbed the last turkey and tied its legs and body so I couldn't, move then his wife came and sat on the basket so only its neck was exposed then he chopped its head off with about 4 hits! poor thing, he comes over with the turkey head in his hand and with his funny smile he says "gotovo je" which means it is done. Later he was telling us it is hard to do that but I guess they need to so they can survive! anyway they have about 50kg of turkey in their freezer! Apart from that we contacted a bit and that was okay but we didn't find anyone.

​Wednesday: It was just a normal day so we contacted a lot and then went to english class, nothing special really it was normal! The zone leaders were doing an exchange with the elders in Mitrovica so they had some other people down here which was cool we had some food after as well which was nice sister reacavic cooked some burek and yumm food!

Thursday: We were going to have a normal day, we had to pay some more bills and get a few things done around the house when all of a sudden during lunch the other elders needed 25000rsd which is like $250 from us because his card wasn't working and they needed it so Sister Racavic can cook us food for the zone conference which is tomorrow! so we got the money and went to sister Racavic's and when ever you go there you have to eat and she made us punina paprikas which is stuffed capsicum and it was yum! a little spicy but great I need to get the recipe off her we ended up spending the rest of the night there translating for the senior couple who was there.

Friday: Had a pretty normal day we called our referrals that we got and went to a place in our area which was really nice and we hadn't been there before. In the park there are places you can play bowls so there were these 70 year old men all playing bochie it was really funny I wanted to go join in but it would of been weird! We organized our first lesson for Saturday with a muslim named mahmud! He was found at the book fair.

Saturday: We had our first lesson with Mahmud and it went well, I didn't say much but I could understand pretty much everything he was saying, he taught Australians in Kuwait and when I said I was from Australia he said I looked like one, I have had a few people say that since I have been here :/ strange! We challenged him to real and pray about the Book of Mormon so he is going to do that he has the next 2 weeks off of work so he is spending that time with his family so we will see him in two weeks I guess, he didn't seem so interested in joining as he was pretty into the muslim faith so we just went through the restoration with him. You never know though! After that we had to rush as the lesson went longer then expected as we had a dinner appointment with a family who was converted around 1 year ago the dads name is nana and he is from ghana! crazy right! so once we eventually got there he taught us how to make peanut butter soup.... of all things ask tom apparently it is a very popular dish in Ghana so yeah we made that it wasn't too bad and the family is funny they have 2 kids and his wife is from Serbia she is funny two at the end of the night they were arguing about gay marriage it was a little strange but ehh hahah so that was a good experience we are hoping to go there again some time, the  branch president really wants us to get to know the members and get them excited about missionary work and teach them the lessons! they haven't had a baptism in Beograd for 1 year now so we are hoping to get on this month.

Sunday: So we contacted another referral, his name is Daniel and he is friends with Dusan who is 18 years old and a member here, he invited his friend to church and he is interested, he also is friends with a girl called Ada from Sremska Mitrovica.  So he has been to church twice now but this was his first time in Beograd! We had sacrament meeting and he came up to us and said you guys are the guys I'm meant to talk to right and we said yep! They tasa the 1st member ever in Serbia took all of us up for Sunday school and taught the restoration really well and in depth so that was good as there were a few other investigators the other missionaries had as well so he enjoyed that! Seeing as he already had a big lesson we asked him what his expectations were and asked if he had any questions so he expectations were to join when he finds out it is true and he wanted to know our rules so we taught him the law of chastity and the word of wisdom and he was fine with that and understood why and all so that was amazing! We challenged him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and soft committed him to baptism when he knows that its true! We then asked him to say the closing prayer and it was so good, better then mine! He is definitely ready its just a matter of him finding out and then teaching him all the lessons! very exciting our plan is to get him baptised by the end of this month before we get transferred! It is very exciting so it just shows how when you put in you get out and with faith things will come.

This week we have zone conference and then RNR which is where all the greenies and there trainers get together and have interviews and kind of review the whole first 6 weeks, we then have to teach one of the 4 lessons in our language in less then 5 minutes... In front of everyone! a lot of pressure! I'm extremely nervous for that as I feel I'm struggling with it a little so keep me in your prayers hopefully I do well I guess you will find out next week!

Tonight we have booked out an indoor soccer field were we will play soccer with our investigator Daniel and a few in actives and members and other missionaries! I'm looking forward to that, hopefully it will all go well! I'm looking forward to the next few weeks, they should fly by as we have a lot of things to do! and hopefully when we find out where we are going for transfers which is on my birthday I hope I can stay here! and that I get a good companion!

Well thanks for reading I know it's long but yeah it has been a great week hopefully everything goes well with our investigators and this week with RNR and zone conference!

love Elder Winfield

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

27th October - 2nd November 2015

So this week was the most successful week on the mission which is great! I have really enjoyed it, we had the book fair in Beograd which we had a stall for so we spent a lot of time there! It was really nice because we got to know the members better and we sold 50 book of mormon's for 100rsd each which is $1usd so around $1.40aud because we couldn't give them out for free as it was against the book fair rules.

We went on splits this week with the zone leaders so I was still in Belgrade as the zone leaders are in Belgrade, I was with elder Morgan and he is from Salt Lake City, he was trained and Belgrade like me so it was cool to see, he has been out 1 year.  When me and elder Morgan were preparing for English class we got a call from this lady in Kosovo and she said that she wanted to be converted very sheepishly over the phone and we were like what!? We had to go to English class so we said add Beograd Missionary on Skype and we talked later, she said it was a really long story but long story short she wanted to be baptised! As I said before she lives in Kosovo so it's not our mission it's actually the Adriatic south mission but some how she got our number. So there is a lot of problems with Serbia and Kosovo and this lady is from Serbia and her dad lives in Belgrade so she wants to get baptized when she comes to Belgrade for Serbian Christmas which is January but she doesn't want any of her family to find out because they will disown her, it is also not safe for her to go to church in Kosovo because she is Serbian. Very complicated which sucks! The sisters are teaching her over Skype so hopefully that goes well!

This week elder Pantelakis and I received some referrals 3 to be exact so we are really hoping one of them will be baptized as elder Panelakis has 9 months left and still hasn't had a baptism so I'm excited to get him one.

​the top photo is at the book fair, this was at night so not as packed but during the day it was like you were on the train on the way home from footy on a friday night! the bottom picture is some weird fruit im not sure what its called  but it was nice!

This picture was from the balcony of my zone leaders pace, we went on transfers so it was cool to stay in the other apartment it  has a crazy good view~

-- 

Apart from going to the book fair and contacting that has pretty much been our week! tomorrow we are going to do some service for Zika (pronounced zshika) so I'm excited for that, he is a gypsy and lives of not much really so we are helping him cut wood for the winter.

This week has been hard because we ran out of hot water so cold showers are not fun whatsoever! We are going to pay our bills this week so hopefully they turn them back on soon! Today officially marks me being out on my mission for 3 months! It has been a very big learning curve but its been good for me, I'm excited for the next 3 months to come hopefully I can stay here in Beograd but I will find that out on my birthday!

Next week is RnR (return and report) which is pretty much something all the trainers and trainees go to where we have to teach of the lessons (Plan of salvation, the restorations, the gospel of Jesus Christ or the book of Mormon) for 5 minutes in Serbian so I'm really nervous for that because I'm still struggling a little with that.

This week I got the finger which is where you go to stop someone on the street and they just wiggle there index finger side to side and keep walking! it's quite funny you just have to laugh all of that stuff off or you will get yourself down so much, I know there will be someone soon that we will be able to baptise just have to keep going! the member work this week has been great so I'm excited for the weeks to come.

Hope everyone at home is doing well always thinking of you guys and you are in my prayers! have a good week love elder Winfield :)

here was a big traffic jam because the lights were not working so cars were just everywhere, everyone was just sitting there beeping there horns it was quite funny!​

-- 

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission