22nd - 28th December 2015

So first of all I would like to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS here from Zadar, can't believe the year is already nearly over things have gone pretty fast but at the same time it has been a long time since I had left on that plane. 

It was a very busy week this week with zone conference in Zagreb but it was great being able to see some of my mates from the MTC which I hadn't seen in about 3 months because I was in the Serbian zone before.

So on Wednesday we took the bus which was a good 4 hour bus ride so I got a good sleep on the way, once we got there it was like a family reunion seeing all my mates from the MTC, we were so excited. Then the zone conference started which was pretty much going through some of the numbers for the year and going over rules that are specific to our mission. We then got split off into two groups and then we went into the middle of Zagreb and caroled for about 45 minutes and during that I had one of those moments where I realized I was in the centre of some crazy country singing songs in some weird language and that everyone is looking at us like whats wrong with these people, as no one really does anything like that here in the Balkans.

That night we got to go walk around the center of Zagreb and have a look at what was going on, it was fun just to walk around with a bunch of other missionaries, you don't realize but its so hard to just be with 1 other person all the time, you can kind of take friends for granted because as soon as I went on that bus ride home it was just me and Elder Hillock again. But it was okay I had Christmas and my Skype home to look forward to.

So on Christmas eve we were allowed to go to Midnight Mass here in Zadar which was crazy, a lot of people and it was just a solid hour of a catholic priest just repeating prayers ect... quite boring but interesting, it is pretty much the same as what the do here for Catholics in Australia except that it was in another language which made it a lot different of an experience.

So yeah then the next morning I went to the Devers which are the Senior Couple here in Zadar and I made Palačinke which went well, we were full after that! We then enjoyed just relaxing until my Skype call and it was so good to here from my family and friends! It's funny though how nothing changes too much, so far anyway. We then just watched 17 miracles and just relaxed, played UNO it was just a relaxing day. 

Then the next day just back to the normal things, working ect... I'm not too excited for working over new years break and during all the party season and everyone will be lighting fire crackers and just drunk... I don't know what we are going to do but I guess just keep going.

Investigator wise we still have a couple of eternal investigators who we try and see occasionally and then unfortunately we haven't found any really good investigators during our contacting time, it is frustrating, sometimes you just question, whats the point. But I know if you just keep pushing forward with faith and working, something good will come.

Well I hope everyone has a great New Year and enjoys the holiday season! 

Love Elder Winfield

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Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

15th - 21st December 2015

So this week was a very busy week! we started off with exchanges with the zone leaders which was great we had a lot of fun although we couldn't get 5 minutes without getting into a conversation with a random about random things, one guy was interested in being taught but then went on about how babies cry when they come out of the womb because the world is so evil. Another was telling us how he believes in all religions which really didn't make any sense but that's fine I guess when you are talking with everyone you get all kinds of personalities and people. 

So most of the week was like normal, just contacting people and trying to find new people to teach. We didn't have a super successful week but that's okay we will get them next week! 

We had a really busy week because we organized a branch activity for Christmas with a Christmas party on Saturday, a lot of people brought there friends and there probably was a good 30 people there! very successful! There is also a guy in our branch who is from India and knows about cricket so I brought my cricket ball and he liked that. He doesn't really follow it much more as there is not TV showing it in Croatia ect... his wife is a member and all his kids are too young to be baptized but they always come, we are hoping to work with him a bit more he is a really cool guy though!

So I don't know whether this is a Croatian thing or just Zadar but 1 month before a holiday and 1 month after people are permitted to light there own fire crackers and fireworks ect.. so you literally do not go 5 minutes without a big fire cracker going off by you it is crazy! I am not looking forward to new years.... at all.... 

So last Sunday I had to give a talk for 15 minutes and it went fine, nothing to special I wrote it all then just kind of read most of it off the paper it's hard to talk like you would at home! then at the end when I was baring my testimony I used the word "Porodica" which is family in Serbian but here in Croatia it is "Obitelj" so I was a bit embarrassed after that, I'm slowly adjusting to the grammar and words though and the mission president said I would return back to Serbia just "be patient" haha its fine though Zadar is nice it is just different though.

I also got called as the branch clerk so now I deal with all the tithing and pretty much help President Dever who is a senior missionary here, President and Sister Dever have all the missionaries over for dinner every Sunday night, they are the coolest senior couple! So I don't know, usually people who get called into the branch as something will stay there a while......... :/ 

The weather has been beautiful here though, it's around 12-16 degrees everyday, the sun has been out everyday, it hasn't been windy although apparently there is this big "wind season" called the Bura and if you ask the locals when Bura is coming they say today... it's quite funny, but its really windy apparently it blows over old grandmas so I assume its going to be quite intense. 

So in closing I wish everyone a merry Christmas! I'm looking forward to skyping my family and I hope that I don't get too sad after the call. It should be fine though, I'm also really looking forward to the Christmas Conference at the mission home where I get to catch up with all the good mates I've made I haven't seen then in over two months! it gives me just a little glimpse of what it would be when I get back home and see everyone.

Merry Christmas, Love Elder Winfield!

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Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

8th - 14th December 2015

Hello family :) I arrived here safely in Zadar, it was a good 3 hour and a bit bus ride so that was fun. It has been a really busy week here in Zadar I'll give you some information about what we did this week. First of all we couldn't make the bus for Tuesday night so we had to stay at the Zagreb elders house, I bought some Burek and realized the only good burek in the mission is in Serbia :( so I'm going to miss that! Elder Hillock and I left early the next morning on our way to Zadar! On my way I was pretty nervous and unsure about what this transfer is going to be like because, 1 we have both only been out in the field for 2 months and 2. I didn't really know Elder Hillock from the MTC, I wouldn't say we didn't get along but he was probably the person I got along least with out of the 11 other elders! But I'm trying to have a good attitude about it all. He is a very obedient missionary and loves following every single rule. (my favorite) so it took a little getting used to as my old companion was a lot more relaxed and my type of personality but that is okay. 

The first thing I got asked when I came to Zadar was "are you able to give a 15 minute talk this week" and I said sure but yeah it was a little stressful as it all had to be in the language and I couldn't ask anyone for any help but it went well I thought. One thing about Zadar is that the people here are a lot more nicer here! A lot of them will actually stop and talk for a few minutes. In consequence Zadar has a lot of eternal investigators.. so we taught about 5 lessons during the week to all of them and we told them that we wont be teaching them any more if they don't want to be progressing so that was good to kind of get rid of the excess "baggage"you could say as the elder previous to me had been here for 10 months straight, he was a bit attached to the investigators and didn't want to give up but yeah we need time to find people and these investigators who aren't going anywhere are just filling up our time.

So a lot of this week has just kind of been setting up things, I think we have the newest district in the mission we have elder hillock and I with a grand total of 4 months missionary experience and the sisters have a greeny and the trainer has been out for 6 months total! So we are very new.

In Zadar they just had a baptism with a young guy about 22 who had been investigating the church online for about 1 year and then he finally got the guts to come to church and 2 weeks later he was baptized! It apparently was a massive miracle, so I met him on Sunday and we taught him the restoration again as you have to go through the lessons again with recent converts but in more depth, so that was really nice, its good to see things like that happening!

On Sunday I got to meet all the members, there is about 10-15 that come every week so not many.. so its a bit of a change from the bigger branch in Beograd! Not many people come to English class here and they have it twice a week so I'm hoping we can advertise that a bit more then it apparently has so I designed some English cards which we will print out soon! looking forward to that.

So it's warmer here than it is in Beograd which is nice but you do get the big sea breeze which kind of sucks but its fine. I'll take some cool photos within the next few weeks for everyone there is a lot of history here and they have a really big Italian influence here, a lot of people can speak Italian and yeah it looks like a pretty European city! 

Everything is a lot more expensive here too so I have to live of eggs for a while as I spent a little bit to much money eating out this last week and a bit >.< whoops! but that's fine eggs are good! sometimes....

With Christmas coming up we get to spend the 23rd and 24th in Zagreb at the mission home which is going to be great! I get to catch up with all my mates from the MTC which I haven't seen in about 2 months! I talked to a couple of them on the phone last night and it was so good to hear their voices! only a glimpse of what it will be like to come back home after 2 years! cant imagine what that will be like, but it's still a while away although after this transfer I will be 1/4 done with my mission! it's going fast!

Looking forward to this week as we seem to have a bit more time to contact people on the street, we also have the branch Christmas party this week and there is this traditional dish that they always serve up and its this stupid dried out dead looking fish, I'm not really keen on eating it, they always have it at Christmas! I look forward to Skyping home on Christmas day it will be a bit weird to see everyone's face again but I'm looking forward to it.

Hope everyone has a good week I'm thinking of you all hope you have a great Christmas and don't party too hard without me :( 

Love Elder Winfield!

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

1st - 7th December 2015

Okay so this week was massive a lot of things going on so I will try and make it as exciting as possible! so yeah to go straight to the point I'm getting transferred to Croatia, Zadar which is a city on the coast! but yes I will explain more about that later.

So first we started off the week pretty normally, we didn't have much to do on P-day so we just relaxed with the zone leaders and ate food, it was a great day and we got a lot of things done so that was fun.

The rest of the week just involved contacting and and teaching some lessons to our investigators, 3 of them are really close to baptism and it is why I'm a little angry that I have to leave Serbia, Beograd but I guess that is where the lord wants me so I will go there.

So yeah on Thursday it was my birthday and I would like to thank everyone for all the birthday wishes, they were so good to see when I checked my email! So in the morning we went to the chapel to see whether we were going or staying and where we were going and yeah, I saw my little face in Zadar being companions with Elder Hillock who was in my MTC group so between us we have 4 months of experience on the field! I feel like this is going to be a very hard transfer but if I can get through it doing well I feel like the rest of my mission will be a lot easier. So back to my birthday, the senior couple here Elder and Sister Peterson took out our district to Vappianos and said they would pay for it all, it was so nice! then we went contacting and while I was doing that we got told we had to pick up something from a family here in Beograd and then they surprised me with a surprise birthday dinner! sister Reacavic made me punina paprika (Capsicons filled with rice and other fancy thing) and my favorite thing! Burek, we then ate and enjoyed the rest of the night, my birthday was great :)

Then on Friday and the weekend it was just normal working ect.. saying goodbye to some families! it's quite hard to leave an area you love its like leaving home again! I hope I can come back here to Beograd. 

And today I have just went around and bought things I wanted to buy before I leave to Croatia! it will be a good 8 or so hours of traveling, first by car then bus so I'm really not looking forward to that. 

So I leave tomorrow in the afternoon, I'm excited, I'm angry that I have to leave and a little nervous mainly about having to speak Croatian, I don't want to accidentally start speaking Serbian and then people getting offended because of that! I love the Serbian language I find that it suits the way I speak better but I guess I will have to get adjusted to it. 

So like I said me and my soon to be companion will have next to no experience in the language at all so it will be interesting how I will go, I feel like I will grow the most in the language this transfer, but it will be the toughest 2 months of my life at the same time. I'm looking forward to the challenge and hope that everything will go well when I travel!

Next weeks email should be good as I will have new photos and new things to talk about! Thanks again for the birthday wishes and presents! I only have 1 more birthday before I come back! ;) doesn't sound to bad when you say it like that.

Love Elder Winfield!

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Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission