11th - 17th April 2017

Well... this week was interesting. We ended up having a decent amount to do. First off for pday I don't even remember, I think we went bowling or something, who knows, I'm losing my memory! 

Tuesday we just worked all day, and then our english class was pretty bland, the sisters were in Sarajevo and the senior couple was in Serbia for a conference so we just taught a humble class of 2 people some english, oh well.

Wednesday was pretty much the same, just work work work, it was good to be able to do that though, I missed just trucking through a 4 hour session of contacting, we had lunch actually with a member which was cool, he gave us these books on how to make banja lucki cevap, so that was cool, ill show yous it one day :p

Thursday was the big transfer announcements, I knew  was staying, I just didn't know who was coming with me, we opened it up and boom, I'm going to be back with Elder Bowles again, it should be great, he is a good guy. We had a good time our first time around too, it was exactly a year ago too so it will be interesting to see the changes.  Deleeuw will be off to one of my old area Sremska Mitrovica, he will love it there just as I did :) I told him one word and that's all he needs to know, "Pletenica" I won't bother explaining it all now to you guys... one day.  Anyways after that we just worked some more and then had english that night, again 2 people, the same people, and again no sisters or senior couple. 

Friday we had to catch a 7am bus to get to Tuzla so that Deleeuw could deregister, the bus took like 5 hours... I hate buses >.< I got a bit of sleep which was good but yeah, after that we just helped out the Elders there a little and had dinner there, we had to stay the night there too as there weren't any buses coming back. 

Saturday we cleaned the church in Tuzla then had lunch and headed back to Banja Luka, lucky the elders had a car and they could take us as they were going that way anyway, once we got back it started pouring down rain and then we had to clean the church in Banja Luka. 

Sunday we had chruch as usual, we changed our start time from 11 to 10 so that was fun, had to leave a lot earlier which sucked, lucky the senior couple picked us up because again, it was pouring down rain, apart from that though not too much happened, just normal work, we also ate dinner at the senior couples place which was nice, sister Bradford is a great cook! 

Today will just be a whatever day I guess we will see what will happen, Elder Bowles comes tonight and then it begins! my second last transfer, it should be great I'm looking forward to it. 

Hope yous had a great Easter, I am looking forward to our skype which is soon too, speaking of that, how are we going to do that with liam out as well? :/

Anways, love you all! I don't have my camera so I might send photos later, we will see.. xoox :)

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

4th - 10th April 2017

Well this week was quick! We had a lot on in the end which made it go really fast. 

Monday we started off with just a normal day, we ended up going to some place where you can play pool and darts and things, so we took one of our english class students with us, he is kind of an investigator you could say too, although he is pretty entrenched in his orthodox beliefs, it was still fun though to be able to have some fun etc... After that we got a call from the sisters saying we need to go give a blessing to some lady who lives about a 10 minute drive away from where we live so we got the senior couple to take us and the sisters there. Turns out she didn't need a blessing but for us to move a bunch of stuff around in her living room... we were there for like an hour just moving these huge closet things, which had like china and really nice things inside of it so we had to take it all out then move it... it was good to be able to do some service but yeah, elder Deleeuw and I were screwed after that.. it was like a 4 man job but the room was probably the size of my room down stairs back at home..

JUST A SIDE NOTE: ONE OF THE SISTER'S PARENTS (MENTIONED ABOVE) LIVES IN SALT LAKE CITY AND SENT LIAM A PACKAGE TO CHEER HIM UP. WHAT A SWEET BLESSING. THAT SISTER SENT AN EMAIL TO HER MUM SAYING: The elders did most of the work... we just made sure they didn't break anything... At one point elder Winfield was like "Sisters, just keep doing what you're doing" and we were like "Okay! What were we doing?" then he was like.."nothing." Haha.

ELDER WINFIELD HAS PAPPA BUR'S SENSE OF HUMOUR HAHA.

Tuesday we left to Tuzla for our exchange that we would be doing with the other elders there, I was staying in Banja Luka so I got back and it was just contacting and some english class..

Wednesday I had a fair bit to do as Zone Conference was on the Friday and we were in charge of the food, so I just ordered like 20 pizzas for everyone, luckily they were chilled with only a few days notice. Wednesday was kind of rough work wise, it rained pretty much all day, and at night it poured down and we didn't have our umbrellas, still not sure why i didn't but it happened and we got soaked.

Thursday we switched back and that went fine, once we got back to we had to get some more things for Zone Conference like water bottles etc.. anyways we got all that done then we had our district meeting and following that we had english and yeah after that we pretty much just set up all the chairs and tables for Zone Conference. 

Friday was the big day... kind of. We got there at like 9am and yeah, we had to start the meeting without president Grant as he was stuck at the border. Anyways so that all happened, we had our presentation on finding and my bit was about the Forsbury Flop and high jump, talked about how we need to change things up so we can do better as he did. Anyways so the conference went well in the end, after that there was a lot of talk on transfers so it should be interesting!  not sure how I feel about it all but it should be okay. After the Zone Conference, some of president Grants family came and one of there relatives son's came here for a mini mission over a period of like 4 or so weeks or something, and while he was here they found one of members who is really strong here, so they wanted to meet her, so I called her and yeah then they invited her for dinner and we had to translate so we got to come along :) woo! so that was fun. translating makes me tired though I was done at the end of the night. Got your guys package though, thanks for all the lovely letters and chocolate! black forest.. mmmm yum. and also the card game skip bo! I taught deleeuw how to play so we have been playing a bit. 

Saturday was just a normal day we had contacting, cleaning the church, we also met with one of the recent converts here, we taught him the Law of the Tithe along with a couple of other commandments, we are trying to get him all prepped to go to the temple. After that I don't even remember what happened to be honest.

Sunday was also a big day, we had President Grant come down, I had to translate his whole talk... that was fun, I was actually a little surprised I did a lot better then what I thought I would. Anyways after that we had lunch at the senior couple's house with the Grants and the sisters... after that we went to a members house to give a blessing and to show a new BYU Pathways program to one of the members who is looking to study so that was cool, again though my brain was fried with translating at the end of the day, apart from that though that was my week :)

This week will be transfer reveals so that's always intense... only 1 more after this one... 

Hope you all have a great week I love you all :) xoxo

go tigers. ;) :)

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

28th March - 3rd April 2017

Well this week went super fast! We had a ton on. First up, on Monday we had a surprise visitor from one of the other branches I served in so that was really fun, we went bowling, I won finally!!!!! It was close with me and Deleeuw, he beat me like 3 times when we went last time but yeah... after that we just chilled at the church, played uno etc... just you know the good old fun things. It was a really fun pday though! Much needed. That night we went to work and just did the same old... contacting! 

Tuesday was really busy, we had a big skype call with all the district leaders in the mission then we had to have our district meeting right after that. After all of that we had to go home and quickly pack so we could make our bus to Zagreb. We arrived that night and had a good dinner, that was about all we did though. They also kicked some Gypsies off the bus at the border... that was interesting.

Wednesday was just working with the AP's we found some people who they can now teach which was cool, the people in Zagreb are a lot nicer than here, it was weird having people actually stop for like a second. We had our MLC meeting at 5pm and that went for a good 3 or so hours, after that it gave us a little bit of time to play some basketball! woo! the court was so dusty because it is clay and it hadn't been watered at all... we were all covered in red dust by the end, good fun though.

Thursday we had more meetings and then it was the drive back to Banja Luka, that night we also had English so we taught that which was fun, one of the guys who is our one and only beginner student is cool, we are actually going to chill out with him today so that will be fun.

Friday was just a normal day although we had a skype meeting with the Mission president and the AP's we talked a lot about prepping for our Zone Conference which is this week, we have an hour long presentation on finding so that will be interesting! Hope it goes well. After that we picked up our papuce which are some woolen socks that these ladies make, I requested to get a pair of Black and yellow ones made for the tigers! they look great! I'm going to get them in yellow and black too so yeah... We also bumped into one of our Advanced English class students and one of his mates so we went and had ice cream with them and talked for a good hour which was fun. We had institute that night too which was fun as always, we play uno for a little at the end... I didnt win this time it was weird... i usually get at least one win!

Saturday was pretty busy we had to clean the church and then prep for General Conference, we watched the Saturday morning session live, a fair few members came which was good, apart from that though the day was normal!

Sunday again was really busy, we had time to find in the morning so we went out, we were about 2 hours into walking and it was hot so we took a 5 minute bench break, I guess it was inspired because some guy ended up talking to us for like an hour and we have his phone number and he wants to meet up so that is cool, problem is that he is a pretty devout orthodox man! Oh well it was still fun being able to have some sort of success, you never know maybe he will convert ;) After that it was lunch then off to the church for another conference session, after that session we had dinner at the church which the Senior Couple here made and then watched one more session before heading back home.

So yeah that was about my week, this week will be good, we have another exchange, I'll be staying here though which is good I'm kind of sick of travelling! We also have our Zone Conference which we will have to prep for... we are on food too which sucks... i guess pizza it is! cant complain too much right? 

Hope you guys are doing well :) you'll be in my prayers achy! hope you get better quick. keep me updated on what the surgeon says.

Love yous! xo

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission 

21st - 27th March 2017

I don't really have much time to email again today, another 30 minutes, we are super busy, this week we will be in Zagreb till probably Friday with meetings and an exchange with the ap's.

I just have a lot of random stuff go on and extra meetings etc... and yeah we do exchanges with the whole zone which is not very many but still takes time because they are meant to last for 2 days..life is busy up here at the moment, it will cool down soon..

sorry I really didn't have any time again so I'll send a bunch of photos instead :) love you all! just know I'm doing well. xo

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission

14th - 20th March 2017

Just a short one this week I didn't have a lot of time to email so here it is :) This week I was in Sarajevo and we went up with the missionaries there to a lookout view then had some good food to finish off a good day! Ill send some photos too.

Tuesday was the exchange so I stayed in Sarajevo, it was fun we had a lot of lessons to teach so we were pretty busy, they also had an english class of like 20 people! it was nuts... what do you do though... we had to split in to two groups of 10 and we just taught half and half each. 

Wednesday was fun we had a lot on again, we actually got invited to a soccer game so we got permission and took our lunch and dinner breaks to watch it, it was awesome, finally had some competitiveness in my life, and the team we were there for one (we went with a less active too btw.)

Thursday we switched back, we had lunch at some place in between Banja Luka and Sarajevo, got some cevapi as always, I still prefer the cevapi here though, don't know why. Anyways then it was just back to normal life here in Banja Luka! Had english class and taught our humble little beginner class of 2 :) we have more in the advanced but the senior couple here took over that for us.

Friday we just worked as normal and then we had a conference from Zagreb which was getting streamed here to Banja Luka, it was for the Relief Society but we were all invited so that was interesting, we then had some food after that.

Saturday was just a work day, we cleaned the church ect.. and yeah that was about it...

​Sunday we had church as usual, we had a pretty decent turn out though so that was cool.​ Apart from that, that was my week! Hope you are all doing well I love you all xox

--

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

7th March - 13th March 2017

Well this week was quick, I feel like I was legit just here a couple of days ago emailing.... Well...

Monday was fun and wet... it rained all day and then we organised to go bowling with a couple of the member who dogged us but we still went, its super cheap, like $3 for an hours worth of play so I mean that was alright. Also got myself a haircut, I still don't trust anyone here but I had to get over my fear and yeah, it wasn't too bad in the end.

Tuesday was the same with the rain, it did not stop all day... We went tracting to change it up a little, it was weird. I still hate tracting I realise... I guess that's where all the stories come from though. We also had our district meeting which was fun. My shoes broke, well they didn't break but they are definitely not waterproof so they got soaked... that's alright though it shouldn't rain too many more days before my mission finishes. After all of that we had English class which was fun, we also had a surprise drop in on our English class from the last mission presidents wife which was cool.

Wednesday was rainy again.... it was really annoying, we had a bit to do though with our zone conference being on Thursday we had to prep and all of that, we had a 20 minute presentation to present and then another 10 minute one on top of that. We also were in charge of food as the zone conference was here in Banja Luka so I made the sweet and sour salad dressing (that's for the recipe Dever's) it actually worked out pretty good though.

Thursday was the zone conference, we had a visit from an area 70 too Elder and Sister Adler came, there presentation was really good, they challenged us to record ourselves in the language bearing our testimony then for 30 days every night we bear our testimonies in the language to our comps and then at the end we will do it again on the camera, he promised we will see the gift of tongues! I guess we will see, it was weird recording myself though. After the conference finished we went and got gyros with the aps which was fun, then we had to quickly clean up as much as we could so we could have our english class again.

Friday was back to it again, we were pretty busy though with a few things popping up. At the end of the day we had institute which was good. Apart from that though it was really just a normal day. oh and we also got taken out to lunch by the last mission president and his wife, the Rowes, he is a business man and comes down here a bit so it was cool to see him because I heard a lot about him, definitely different then president Grant! They seemed really cool and nice though.

Saturday was pretty much all contacting except for cleaning the church, we really need to find someone because we hadn't for a bit, we didn't unfortunately but we did have these 3 teenagers follow us then telling us for an hour that our church is a made up cult ect.... and yeah a lot of other pretty bad stuff but I mean it was fine, they were like 16, they didn't even know what they believed in, they were just a bunch of spuds, pretty funny though, sometimes it would be nice to not be a missionary to so I could tell them what I really wanted to say but I mean sometimes you gotta just relax and take the hit! Plus they were 16 so I mean what else can you do.

Sunday was church, we had an okay turn out, about 6 or so.... I had the lesson for Sunday school, it went pretty well so that was good, and yeah then we just had our normal day from there!

Today we are heading down to Sarajevo for a fun Pday and an exchange with the Elders there so I won't be back until Thursday which is weird I'm sure that will make this week fly by also. It should be fun though i guess we will see, i forgot my camera again.... i'm sorry >.< ill remember next week and I'll have some good photos from today I'm sure. wish me luck! :)

Love you all and hope you are doing well, keep your head up Liam I know its always hardest at the start of the mission, especially when its not even your mission at the moment! Just keep going with a positive attitude and you will be alright, also learn tones of Indonesian with your comp because a native will help you a lot more then any utah comp you will get :)

lataz :)

--
Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд

Adriatic North Mission 

28th February - 6th March 2017

Well this week was quick, I don't even remember what happened! Well on Monday we were just at our senior couples house emailing and playing a few games because the internet broke at the church, we got it fixed though but the problem is only 2 of the 4 computers work with the internet so we have to wait for the sisters to finish before we can email..... but yeah 

Tuesday was just a normal work day, we had district meeting and then we had english class later that day, we 4 new students which was cool, they are all young and one of them is really good at soccer so we might go play with him one day.

Wednesday was good, we just worked in the morning and then we had a skype call with president grant to prepare for the Zone Conference which will be this week. After that we had to get driving to Tuzla which is a city about a 3 hour drive away from here, we met up with the elders there and yeah then we started our exchange, I was with elder Hardy and I stayed in Tuzla, Elder Deleeuw went with the other elder, we also had dinner at some place on the way, it sucked we waited like 1 hour for just cevapi... dissapointing butt hats alright.

Thursday I worked in Tuzla which was fun, the people are a lot more nice there, we then had english class, they also have a really cool english class there, after I played ping pong with some guy from the class, he was pretty good in fact he beat me so he was better :P I was about to win but i forgot how to play ping pong, it's been soo long since I last played. We then went to some place for dinner with the other elders in Tuzla.

Friday was just working again then we had a lesson with someone that they had found the week before, we ended up just sitting on a bench with him talking for a while, he had some interesting views and probably wont progress anymore, he was nice though. After that we headed back to Banja Luka, we got there at like 7pm, just in time for us all to get Giros... we then went back to apartment and they stayed at our place the night.

Saturday was again just work, we had to clean the church by ourselves because the sisters were going to a baptism in Sremska, where I was a few months ago! I really wanted them to bring me back a Pletenica, from my favourite bakery but...... they didn't. disappointing..., tha'ts alright though, maybe another time right?

Sunday was church and we had a couple of visitors (a senior couple from slovenia) who were going to do the audit, lucky I didn't have to go in for that even though i was the clerk. It wasn't the best turn out at church because of the rain though. After church we had to prep for our Zone Conference presentation, it will be interesting. It was a fast Sunday so when we got back for dinner i made my favourite chinese meal i know how to make, it was lovely! I mean no bias but I was satisfied :P

This week will be fun though, we have a Zone Conference here and we also have a general authority coming down for it so I hope that our presentation goes smooth and I don't make a fool out of myself, I'm sure it will be fine though. 

Apart from that nothing new has really happened, we are still trying to find someone to teach 24/7, I hope we find someone this week we really need it, I guess we will see though. Next week my email might be short because we are going to Sarajevo for our exchange and we are leaving on Pday so we will see... I hope you are all well I love yous :)

-- 

Elder Winfield

Starješina Winfield

Старешина Винфилд 

Adriatic North Mission