29th March - 4th April 2016

hey, I'm on a bit early today I'm not sure if I will be able to email a big email we are going to a place called Krka Falls in about 2 hours and I still have to do tithing with our branch president so yeah. All you guys looked so nice for the wedding and Liam really suits the missionary ;)

I miss Cal, we had some serious fun working together, I would like to work with him again after the mission, although the pay will be hard to get by on and studying wouldn't really be an option if I did that but I think I could, I guess we will see, still have a lot of time to think about that one!
The ca'rs looking good, good progress!

I miss kicking the footy, next Monday I'm going to show all these americans how to do it... they just don't understand. 

Also general conference was good, I liked the talk from one of the new 12 Elder Stevensen, elder Urchdorf, president Monson and elder Holland. 

I'm bummed about the tigers... :( 

You think I'm gone? where am I going then dad, staying in Croatia? or going to Bosnia or Serbia or Montenegro or Slovenia? I think I might go I hope I stay though, I definitely won't be with my comp again.

We did contacting ect.. we met up with some investigators that we found but all of them dropped us straight away so that was  a bit of a bummer, I got my Croatian visa! woo

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

22nd March - 28th March 2016

There was nothing really written in his email for some reason. It was just a few lines and he said he was going to send heaps of pictures. Maybe he was going out for the day ???? 

15th - 21st March 2016

Well pretty quick week only feels like yesterday I was emailing home! We had a lot of stuff

to do to prep for our cultural night which was pretty annoying as it was pretty much just 

me running it! It went well in the end we had a lot of non members come although a lot of

them left early, we didn't have too many members there which would of made it a lot 

better, I guess you cant win them all though. 

A lot of contacting this week which made the majority of our time, I have also started 

waking up an hour earlier so I can get better at the language I realise how important it is

to be able first understand exactly what they are saying and then get exactly the point 

across that you want and if you cant do that it will make things a lot harder then what 

they have to be.

We had a lesson with someone who we have taught for a while now, he said that he thinks

as long as you live the 10 commandments and be a good person you will be saved and 

that when Jesus comes down he wont say that only the Catholics can come to heaven ect..

. So that was pretty frustrating in the end... We will keep having lessons with him maybe 

he will continue to learn and change. We had 2 of our less actives come to church which

was great, they struggle financially to get there which makes it tough, I just hope they will

continue to come.

I also spoke on Sunday which was good, I was still writing it as sacrament meeting was 

going because I only got asked the night before church, I didn't mind the challenge though 

I always like writing up talks and then getting a native to correct it because you can really 

see where you are in the language.

English class has been going really good too, we have 3 students who usually come and 

they have recently been asking more questions about our faith and they bring us 

chocolates! We must run a pretty good English class!

This next week I will be going to Karlovac on exchange with the Zone Leaders which 

should be fun I have never been there before I heard its pretty small though, we also have 

Zone Conference in Zagreb the day before Easter so that should be great, all in all it's 

been a good week though just have to keep going forward in faith! hope you all have a 

great Easter and celebrate hard! but remember... don't have too much fun without me.

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission

8th - 14th March 2016

Well this week was pretty long! We couldn't find anyone new but we had a really good
lesson with a less active which was cool, we had an exchange mid week which was fun. I
hung out with my old MTC companion Elder Matthews! President Grant, his wife and
relatives came down to Zadar!

So on Monday we had a pretty relaxing P-day just sitting around enjoying life, we had to
go to the doctors for my companion which was pretty sucky :/ that's okay though, the next morning President Grant calls and said he was coming down to Zadar with some of his family! So we had to find a restaurant to eat at, they wanted something nice, not too expensive and by the sea which
was actually harder then what it would seem but we found a place eventually, it was very
nice! Elder Hillock and Bolan ate a fish eye which I would never do, I did try some muscles
though I actually didn't mind them! 

On Wednesday and Thursday we had English and just the usual, I love our small English
class of 4 ladies who usually come, they bought us some chocolates which was very nice!
Enjoyed going on exchanges with Elder Matthews, it was weird living back in the old
apartment for a day, although I do prefer my new apartment, just not the area. Had some
good/bad weather this week really reminded me of home where you would get all the
seasons in a day! There was a fair few tourists out (They are all starting to arrive) which
makes work a lot harder, unfortunately though we couldn't end up finding anyone new to
teach!

On Saturday we had a lesson with an inactive lady who lives with her grandson who is 8
years old, we taught him the restoration which went really well he understood it all and I
think he is starting to actually comprehend the gospel, they didn't come to church though
we was sad :( next week I think we will really try to focus on getting her to church!

Sunday we had District Conference which was broadcast over the internet and seeing as
our Branch President (Elder Dever) and his wife went to Zagreb for the actual Conference
it was left to us to run the Branch! It went well in the end though we had more
investigators then members there! and our investigator came too which was great,
although I think he was a bit bored after watching 2-3 hours of speakers on the TV.

This week should be great we have some exchanges with the Zone Leaders and our
Cultural night which we are organised is on this Saturday so we will be pretty busy with
that, we pretty much called everyone on our phone so we should have a lot of
investigators there! I will represent Australia and make some classic snags on the barbie!

Hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission

1st - 7th March 2016

Well this week had its ups and downs as always but in the end it wasn't too bad. First up we had a pretty chilled out Pday just emailing, relaxing, played a few card games then went to McDonalds for some food! 

On the Tuesday we had 2 lessons booked in! Busy day! I couldn't imagine having 20 investigators to juggle all the lessons during the day, we had two and it was chaos. The first one was with a lady we met the week before and was crying pretty much the whole time and telling us about her husband who has cancer and how the markets wont even give her 2 apples and the bakeries wont give her free bread... at the end she just said she needed warm words so we decided to meet with her on the Tuesday, once we got there it was pretty much just 45 minutes of her and her husband talking at us and telling us that we are not good enough people because we don't give ect.. complete waste of time. We had another lesson booked after English class with someone we have been teaching the last couple of weeks, he has come to church about 4-5 times in a row now! he is doing really good although he said in his plan of salvation lesson that he wants to take it slow and that its hard to give up something he has always believed in (The catholic church) he was actually born and raised till 7 years old in Switzerland and knows German, English and Croatian, he has been through a really rough life though.

The rest of the week was just pretty normal stuff, contacting and tracting ect... We had someone from the district presidency come down and visit and the week before we had some people from Zagreb come down. I also have forgot to mention in previous emails that I am the Branch Piano Player! I know its hard to believe but you should really see me go I had the office ladies from Zagreb fooled! They told me that they didn't think I played piano and they are right I don't, but on all of the piano's here in this mission they all have a tap function so as long as you tap the key on time which can be hard at times, the rest will be done! 

It has been a pretty slow start to the transfer but its okay, my goal is to find someone who we can actually teach on a regular basis ect.. we are also organising a cultural night to try and get some members to bring friends and to invite investigators. So if I can find some good sausages I'll make snags on the barbie in bread! 

But yeah that was pretty much my week this week, I'm looking forward to the next one as always, I really think we can find someone new just have to keep praying and looking for that golden one!

I also found out that the only place you can buy golden gay time ice creams are in Australia! I then realised how much I miss them.... 

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

23rd - 29th February 2016

NO OFFICIAL EMAIL THIS WEEK


Bozo is a stud such a legend l am so in awe of his dedication and example, learn from him and keep doing what you are doing it is exactly what your meant to.  Bozo just got his patriarchal blessing which was really cool! i wasn't in there at all but he said it was the most spiritual experience he has ever had. He will be moving here to Zadar so he doesn't have to drive 2 hours to get to church, so he is leaving his job and his family, he is giving up so much! wow.
Right now we are working with an inactive old lady and her grandson who will turn 8 in about 3 weeks so we are going through all the lessons with him, she hasn't came to church in a couple of weeks but I hope she does. 
It was a pretty average week, just a lot of street contacting and started to do some tracting which sucks in these areas, missionary work here isn't the most exciting thing on the planet but someone has to do it!

I have 6 more weeks left in this transfer, to be honest it's pretty hard, I would suggest my comp has a decent amount of mental problems which can make it hard to get a long with him. But its okay I'm just trying to continue to push on and just work on the language and focus on the people. Investigator wise this week we found a lady who was just in tears because her son had cancer and said she couldn't work or afford to pay for anything ect... she said she "just needed warm words" so we are hoping we can meet with her this week and teach her the Plan Of Salvation, she cancelled on us on Saturday though which sucked.

I'm still not that big! I want to try and be around 90 - 95kg when I get back then in the summer I'll shred down with fitness to around 85ish... hopfully!

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

16th - 22nd February 2016

Well this week was pretty quick in the end! We had Zone conference which took out a whole day but it was a good refresher and good to see all my mates like always!

So I just looked back in my planner to see what I did and I realized it was literally all street contacting and meetings which took up the week, so I'm surprised it went by pretty quick. Maybe instead of saying things that I did during the week I'll just give you an update on whats going on and how I'm going in general.

So I'm still here in Zadar which in fact got voted the #1 tourist destination in Europe which everyone here seems to be pretty proud of and tell us pretty much everyday although I'm not here for a holiday I'm here for the lords work! So it doesn't really effect me at all but I would love to return here for a holiday after my mission.

We have a teaching pool of about 2 people which is one better then when I first got here so that's nice, we had a first lesson with an investigator who has been coming to church for the last few weeks but said to the Sisters who were previously here that he didn't want lessons, so last Sunday I thought I would ask and he said yes so we did, it went pretty well he said he wants to take it slow and just keep coming every week, I just want to make sure he knows the basics because he is just diving right into the deep end by going into the Sunday School class with all the others.

​We also had our Zone Conference in Zagreb which is a 4 hour bus ride from Zadar then a 45 minute tram, so that was fun, President called me up to recite the first vision in Croatian in front of everyone, I'm so lucky I practiced it or I would of looked like a spud!! 

I have now been out on the actual mission for 4 and a bit months and on Sunday i was listening to one of the ladies who had a talk and I realised I could understand 90% of what she was saying without having to wreck my brain, it was a good feeling. I still know very little of this language but its enough to get me around, im making sure i study everyday so I can get it down. 

Sorry for the short email, I guess there isn't anything too exciting happening this week! Maybe next week will be better!​

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission