21st February - 27th Febuary 2017

Well this week was long but at the same time short. We started off with Monday going to Zagreb for a leadership meeting, it was good, it went for a while but when it ended we went off to play some ball! it was good to have some competitiveness in my life! the most competitiveness i get is over a game of uno....

The next morning was just some more meetings that from there we left back to Banja Luka, We got back at like 4 o'clock then we had english class 2 hours later so we had a quick dinner (giros) then it was english. Seeing as it was a new transfer we had about 5 people there which apparently is pretty good for here, it went pretty well though, its sometimes frustrating teaching english when really you don't have any idea how to speak it. I reckon I have learnt more about english on my mission than I have my whole life throughout school etc..

Wednesday was just contacting, we had a lesson with on of the recent converts which was nice, we taught the plan of salvation and went into more depth about it all, he is preparing to go to the temple this year for the first time which will be awesome for him! also had district meeting which was good, we are planning on trying some new ways of contacting people as we are pretty dried up in that area at the moment.

Thursday we had a big skype call with all of the District leaders of the mission and President, it was good i mean we just talked about some things that he wants us to do better etc... we use this new program called Zoom for the skype calls and President likes that so i reckon we will do more things like that in the future. After that it was just back to work, we also had English again, we had 3 people come instead of 5 but it was still good,

Friday was a good it was just a lot of work, we got a few people who were kind of interested, got their numbers and we will call them again probably tomorrow, we already called them but they didn't answer, i guess we will see! We had Cevapi for dinner which was lovely! they make it good here and its cheap too so its easy on the wallet. After that we had to make a few calls etc... just your average day on the mission!

Saturday we had another skype call with President and all the missionaries, we talked about Zone Conference and what we need to do to prepare for it, as we are having an area authority come.... we need to be on tip top behaviour! you know :) We have to lead a couple of presentations which will be fun.... i guess. The internet cut out as well so we had to join in the call via Phone instead of skype... that kind of sucked. Seems to be that bad internet is following me everywhere. After that we cleaned the church and went to lunch and really just had a normal missionary day after that, contacting!

Sunday was church, it was the shortest sacrament meeting I've ever been to! Both the speakers didn't show up as they were sick, we didn't have any notice and there was only have 5 or so of us so we just called it a day right there.. Also I'm stuck on playing the piano... again... that will be 10 months of my mission having to play the piano... i just use the tapping function or whatever it is, it's so I can look like i know what I'm doing when really i have no idea haah. After that it was just contacting and normal life, made some palacinke for dinner which was lovely!

That was pretty much my week though, nothing too fancy I guess we will see what happens! Ill send a couple of photos as well... I'm getting worse and worse at taking them, I just kind of forget and it's annoying to take a big camera around with me, I need my phone back.

Hope that everything is going well for you guys at home, I'm pumped for the tiges I'm glad that they seem good dad. Looks like the car is getting really close, i can't wait to have a drive in it when i get back. Don't watch too many movies without me mum, you gotta save some good ones for me so I can catch up.

Looking forward to this week, i think we will see some miracles, we are pretty empty over here as we started with no investigators. Just gotta keep trucking on! Something will happen.

Love you all very much! think about yous all the time! Be god and safe. and don't do anything dumb and don't have too much fun without me... save that for when I get back :P

Love Elder Winfield

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Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд

Adriatic North Mission 

14th - 20th February 2017

Well​ this week went fast! I'm pumped to be with Elder Deleeuw it's been a blast so far!

Monday was good I packed and gave all my stuff to some elders who were going to Zagreb so I didn't have to take with me all on the bus. after that we spent some time with Zoran, said goodbye to a couple of elders who were going home which was cool.

Tuesday was the big day! Zoran came with us to the bus station and we said our goodbyes it was sad, I'm sure ill see him again. I'll miss Varazdin, we had a lot of good times there. After we got to Zagreb we had the ZLs pick us up and then we went to Ikea where there were a bunch of missionaries, we had lunch there and then we were off to Banja Luka, once we got there it was just unpacking and shopping ect... apartment is on the 4th floor with no elevator.... sucks for heavy suitcases but that's just how it is a guess!

Wednesday was going to the police to get my visa stuff started and then we had a district meeting. After that it was working till dinner where I got some gyros... man I missed gyros.....

Thursday I don't even remember to be honest, I think we just contacted all day - actually yes we did. so yeah.

Friday we also worked in the morning and all throughout the arvo, we then went to the church to have institute and then we had a presidency meeting. I'm the clerk... again... that means I've been clerk my whole mission apart from my first transfer. After that we played a couple of games with the members, got to know them a bit, it's always hard to get to know people at first! Especially when you were comfortable with people from your other areas... I guess again that's just how it is though!

Saturday was a mixed day we had church cleaning and a few other things to do but it was good, I got told I was speaking... I kind of assumed it so I had a talk already ready.... :)

Sunday was church, it was nice to meet all the members, did a lot of translating which is always a blast, they have a different accent here.... anyways then we worked the rest of the day and that was about it!

This week should be fun, we will be heading to Zagreb today for a ZL meeting or something, then on Tuesday we will be back, apart from that though it will just be the norm! contacting! trying to find people to teach. 

There isn't anyone really to work with here as we whitewashed and the elders before didn't really leave us with too much so that makes it hard starting from square 1 again, I'm sure we will find some people though I'm excited for the work. 

hope everything is going well at home and that you are all safe and well :) 

love you all and have a lovely week :)

​Also mum apparently for my Visa I need to get a police check that has been done within 6 months, so the one we got before I came out isn't valid, do you reckon you could somehow get me another, I don't really know the process or if i need to do something from here but yeah :/

sorry no photos either I forgot my camera... :/ ma bad !

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Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

letter from Elder Winfield 13th February 2017

 

7th - 13 February 2017

Hello everyone! Well this week was pretty cool, a lot happened.

First off we had our Pday as normal did shopping ect.... cleaned a little... talked with Zoran at the church, he was getting more and more nervous for transfers but yeah.

Tuesday we had to study in the church as monthly we have this lady who comes around and cleans the apartment nice, which is sweet! haha So we studied in the church and then we accidentally slept a little too much and we woke up and it was 10:30 I was like crap man we gotta go, so we left and then just went straight into contacting and within 5 minutes just down the road we met a guy who seemed pretty interested, we asked him if we could meet at the church for a lesson another time so we could explain the book of mormon ect... he said sure, he didn't have a number though but he gave us his sisters. We said we would meet outside the fire station which is about a 2 minute walk from the church. The next day we waited and waited out the front, it was 10:20 which was 20 minutes after the agreed time so we just thought he dogged us and we were about to head out when around the corner there he is! haha so yeah we had the lesson which went really well and he accepted everything we taught, he is in kind of a weird situation I think as he moves around a bit so I'm not 100% what the go is with that, he accepted a baptismal date though which is really cool so we will see how that goes. The biggest problem is getting in contact with him but yeah I guess we will see...

Wednesday was a normal day, lots of contacting ect... you could also feel the tension around the mission the day before transfers.... it's kind of nerve racking i mean you could go anywhere and it's 2 months and you just hope you get a comp you can get along with. We just worked until the end of the night.

Thursday was the big day of revealing, we actually got a call in the morning from President saying where we are going andIi will be heading to Banja Luka in Bosnia with Elder Deleeuw! He is was my MTC comp and we got along well so I'm super pumped to go with him. It will be a great transfer though I'm sure. After that I had to go deregister from Croatia at the police station and then it was back to it I guess. We had english that night, said goodbye to my english class! I'm going to miss them all a ton, I have got most of them on facebook now so I'll be able to stay in touch when i get back which is great :) (Zoran was pretty devestated too...)

Friday was again pretty normal, just a lot of contacting and we also had our last lesson with the recent convert here which went well, he is shy and really doesn't like prayer in front of others and throughout all of our lessons we have tried to get him to pray and he kept delaying saying next time I will ect... but yeah this time when we asked he did :) it was really cool to see that.

Saturday was a lot we had to clean the church, (Zoran wanted it all nice as President Grant was coming on Sunday) after that we went back and worked ect.. then as we were contacting I got a call from the Krehbiels who are by far up there as the best senior couple (With the Devers) they surprised us by saying they were coming down and wanted to take us out for dinner! It was great although the place we wanted to go to was full we went to another. 

Sunday was church as usual, we had a bigger congregation as we had President Grant and his wife, the Krehbiels, Grahovacs, and another sister from Zagreb. I got asked to bear my last testimony before I left which was nice, it was sad to say goodbye but I guess that's just how it is sometimes. We had a few more meetings ect after church and Sister Grahovac made a lovely lunch for us all :) After that we planned and I packed a little and then we worked a bit. 

So yeah tha'ts pretty much my week, looking forward to being with Deleeuw, it should be really good. Another currency to get uesd to... ehh, at least I don't have to use the Croatian Kuna its annoying to figure out... 

This next week will just be moving in and getting used to the area, we will kind of be white washing it, Elder Deleeuw served there his first transfer but only for 1 so I guess we will see, we will also be the Zone Leaders and absolutely clueless as what to do...... I guess we will see though.... 

I love you all it sounds like you all had good weeks :) 

Happy Valetines day too! 

Love you all xoxoox!

Zoran after finding out that I'm leaving - He has helped us so much and fed us heaps 

 My english class - I will miss em

The Krehbiels surprise visit!

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

31st January - 6th February 2017

Well this week was kind of long but good with a few changes going on. 

Monday was pday as normal, we were pretty busy we had a ton of crap to do... just paper work ect.... after that we went home and had dinner ect... cleaned a little, then we went out working for the rest of the night.

Tuesday was about the same just a whole day of work then english class. 

Wednesday we had another normal day, it started to rain a lot so we went inside and did some planning instead... That night one of the members here was getting their patriarchal blessing and they asked me to translate for the first part, (not the actual blessing though of course) and yeah after that it was good to talk to the Hallings... they are the office couple here who are going home in like a month or so! They live in Michigan though where rich and kim are going so that's kind of cool maybe I'll have to go visit...

Thursday was pretty normal, I taught english that day and it was on goals, it was actually a good topic, I set some goals for myself with the language seeing as we have an hour for language study instead of 30 minutes so I don't have to wake up at like 5 if I want to get any sort of good study in. Also all the snow disappeared too because the temperature rose back up to around 9 or so... it was kind of weird to not see snow everywhere.... 

Friday was Zone conference, we had to take a 6am bus so it was an early wake up, the whole conference was good so I enjoyed that, except the ZLs ordered pizza for lunch instead of chinese.... dissapointing... thats alright though, and yeah after that conference we were allowed to start using the new Schedule so yeah.. we started that! It is a lot better i think, you can just put studies wherever you want which makes life a lot easier.

Saturday was busy we had a few lessons booked but dogged us and didn't show, after that we cleaned the church and had our Branch Council. We then had a lesson with one of the recent converts here who is the branch presidents son, we watched Meet the Mormons, it was good I mean it wasn't in croatian and I'm not sure how much he got but he really wanted to watch it so we did. Saturday was really nice weather but of course when the weather gets good we get busy and cant contact.....

Sunday was church as usual, wasn't the best turn up but that's alright I think next week will be really good, it was fast and testimony meeting, I went up and bore mine about D&C 58:4, I have kind of realised since being out here that I look forward to tribulations and hard times because that always means something good and better is around the corner if you have a good attitude. You just gotta be happy with what you have :) 

Unfortunately this week we couldn't meet with our investigator who we had on date, I think she is just kind of nicely letting us down, she isn't really too keen. I think she just had a heat of the moment yes when she accepted the baptismal invitation, I still think she felt something, she maybe just needs a bit of time. We will keep trying to meet with her though.

This week is transfer announcements so yeah the good old nervous week of it all! I'm glad I only have 2 more of those left after this transfer... I hate not knowing :/ We also have President Grant coming to our branch on Sunday which will be fun. 

Apart from all of this not too much special really happened in the mission just another week :), things are going well, think about you guys all the time :) have all of your photos chilling on my desk. Love you all and hope you have a great week :) and mum don't get into anymore crashes.... need you alive when I get back you know.. xoxoxo 

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Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission