Stubborn Faith and a Little Ice Cream

Well, it's hot as the Dickens out here.

But for real. The humidity is going to kill me. It's SO hot. I'm sweating bullets all dang day and I'm about as brown as brown gets. We're all moved in, had our housewarming party and made tacos (Elder Bates had some taco seasoning from home) and WOW Mexican food is good. But we realized that we have no clima (AC unit thing) and so we about died the first few nights. We bought two fans and got a modified air pusher thing from our landlord....and get this. After the first night, my fan shorted out. So....I'm dying. It's so hot, and I don't do humid hot, you know? I'm a dry heat-roast alive kind of guy. And, our commute from our place by walking and by hot, crowded bus, is 45 minutes- an hour for anything in Old Belgrade, so for like church and meetings and the like. So. Not complaining in the least, I love it, just welcome to the life :)

For the physical aspects of life real quick, we're doing well. We worked on the Vasica farm again in the blazing heat, no problems there. On Friday we headed out to Bosnia for our Zone activity (which means more stamps for the passport, and I've hit 3 countries of our 4... Life's cool) and that was so much fun. I was wrong, however, and sorely upset, that our activity did not include the Bosnian Zone. Which meant, no Sister Crump or Elder Sheridan. Life's hard sometimes. But it was such a fun trip. I did get to spend time with my awesome zone, which means the 3 Gilbert chaps united once more, as well as being with Sister Matthews and Sister Mortensen, and Elder Rad (my "first" companion on the mission. If you remember, he was my companion for a day and a half in Zagreb and in route to Beograd. He's a funny Australian.) We went to some replica ethnic village.

Can't say it was the major tourist attraction, and it was infinity degrees outside, but I'm learning to not give a care where I'm at as long as I'm with awesome people. It was way fun, hanging around, playing soccer and other games (besides Sister Mortensen almost taking my leg off!!) and being with the Rowes. I love that family! They're so much fun. To wrap it all up we had Palacinke and ice cream, which is way dang good combo, and that's that.

We had our Zone conference for this month, during which I had many very personal answers to my prayers come through those in my zone as we trained together on Thursday. As usual, we learned, we grew, we laughed, and life was good. We had two lessons with Nana AND Zoe this week, three with Nana. This gets real good. So lately we've been meeting with Nana, and not as often with Zoe, jsut things have been crazy hectic for them, and etc. But we were speaking with Nana earlier in the week and we emphasized to him the need to meet with Zoe also. He told us, very humbly, that he understands, and he wants nothing more than to be baptized WITH her, so he told us he would hold off on his baptismal date, and do all he could to take the kids off Zoe's hands and give her the atmosphere to learn more and such. It was a humbling experience. But it gets better. We had a lesson with them and the Goodsells (senior couple) and it went very well, we were able to address concerns they had, have a very uplifting experience, and the best feeling in the world came again to me, that feeling of when the Spirit is working through you. When you open your mouth to talk, having a vague idea of what to say, but just going with it, and then the words start coming out perfectly, and you know they aren't yours, as you feel that Presence working in and through you. It feels so incredible, and it brings tears to my eyes when I testify under that influence. I love being blessed with those confirmations.

(last pic with Elder Marks and Nana and Zoe)

Our second lesson with them was even better, and it was so humbling. Up to this point, we knew that Zoe liked church, she was reading and praying, but we knew we just needed more time to work with her and see where her testimony was at. We includes Nana. The three of us were passing early judgement, however good our intentions were, and the Lord came to tell us we were wrong!! We met with them both, and with President Rowe after the Zone Conference. Teaching with him, first off, is an EXPERIENCE. He is so....much a stud. That's the best compliment I have to sum it all up. We began, and spoke for a bit to all get to know each other, and then I asked Nana and Zoe to look back over the past 2 months or so and then to now, and evaluate where they were at, how they felt, etc. Zoe started, and President Rowe is the question ASKER. Everything he asks, every pause and silent moment, every answer returned in question form, everything was done so magnificently that I knew my abilities were so weak compared to his! It was humbling, and inspiring! But the best is yet to come. Zoe bore her testimony to us. She told us how she felt, how things have changed over the past 2 months, and how she KNOWS this Church is true, because she has felt the Spirit so strongly in every aspect of it, and she KNOWS that God wouldn't send His Spirit to a false church. President Rowe committed her to be baptized then, and he explained baptism so eloquently and with such....awesomeness that they both expressed how they want to be baptized as soon as possible. We were blown away, Nana, Elder Wade and I, by Zoe's testimony. It was humbling for all of us. 

We have them scheduled for a week from this Saturday, because of the visa problems that we are working on with them and our Branch President. (that's another story, a good one, but no time for it. Rest assured it's working out. Your prayers have been heard, appreciated, and answered. Thank you, more than I can say.) Church yesterday was incredible, just having their whole family come, again and again. I love it. I love Johan, even though he can be a little pill :) Everything has been working together for these amazing experiences, all the heartaches and hard times with all that's been going on, but with what Nana calls "stubborn faith" we've begun to see the fruits and man do they look so good!!!

2 quick stories then I'm done! First, at our housewarming party, Elder Wade and Elder Proud were playing chess while the taco meat was cooking, and we found the Elder Radakovic is like a grandmaster at chess. Like he studies it further than one can study a subject. But he wouldn't play. I asked him why, and after a bit he told me this bit of wisdom. 

"Chess is not a bad game. But I gave up so much of my time to it, so much time wasted. And for what? It made me competitive. Did it make me a better man? No. I have better things I can do with my time, and those things will make me a better man." 

He put up his "weapons of rebellion" in a sense. Made me do some reflecting and thinking. He's such a stud, really. He reads Isaiah all the time too, which is funny. 

Second. Elder Wade and I were talking to President Pavlovic about Nana and Zoe in a meeting with him. Because of the seriousness of the situation, and whatever else, I let Elder Wade explain (Serbian's rough, you know.) Then President Pavlovic asked me to explain something, and I turned to Elder Wade because I couldn't think of the right words to adequately explain. President stopped me, and related this story to me. Translated, he said: 

"I lived in Novi Sad for 15 years. I knew that city. But if I was ever driving with someone who was actually from Novi Sad, I would turn to them for directions. Elder Hixon, you know this language. I know that you can talk to me because you have before, and it's hard, very hard and you have a long way to go, but I know you know how to do it. Don't turn to others, speak your assigned language."

I saluted such a command, and did my best. I thought about it, and I feel like we all do that quite often. We always turn to someone "better qualified" in our mind, when called on to do something. Moses did it, Enoch, a lot of people responded to calls with excuses for their inadequacy. I remember before my mission, both as a ward missionary and not, I would refrain from doing missionary work when opportunities arose, because "I wasn't qualified," or someone else was more so. We are ALL called to this work! I echo President Pavlovic's words when I say that we know this Gospel, so get the heck out and share it! Nobody is more qualified, and regardless, the Lord will and does qualify us, He just asks that we are willing.

That's all! I love and miss you and appreciate the prayers and support! Til next week...

Love,

Elder Hixon 

THIS mission was made for me

So, this week has been wild, and it gets more wild this coming week.

First, today isn't P Day. I'm short on email time, (no surprises) but then we are out hitting the pavement again. We have a Zone Conference on Thursday and then the Serbian and Bosnian Zones on Friday are going to a Bosnian ethnic village for a Zone activity, which will be our P Day. But we email today. That Village we're going to may not be Lake Bled in Slovenia or the nuts waterfalls in Croatia whose names escape me (the Slovenia and Croatia Zones get the goods), but its an ethnic village in Bosnia. I'm stoked, you're stoked, we're all stoked.

So, that's that.

WE MOVED THIS MORNING. You heard me. We got out of our dump of an apartment, and our new one is way nice. It's right by the Sava, and it's on the 14th floor of the building, so we can see everything. It's got a ton of space, a sanitary bathroom, and it's in the PERFECT location. I'm talking a giant family park, infinity buildings, 3 legit groceries nearby, other cool features that none of you will appreciate...but it's real nice. Our landlord is cool, she does that artwork stuff that's like the pictures and texturized walls that come out at you, like 3D? It's sweet, and I will have to take pictures once we're all settled, but for now, I will forward Mom pictures of the apartment that Sister Goodsell sent me. It's sweet!

So, I'll be jumbled and all over the place, bear with me.

Last Monday, we had a way cool experience. Elder Wade and I went out to go find a family who Elder Marks and Despain had taught twice before, but hadn't been able to get a hold of. We walked out to their place, and they weren't home. Lame. We were on the trek home, and I remembered our boy Dalibor all of the sudden. Elder Marks had met him my first night trakting, and he was way cool. We met him after being rejected in 3 10+ story buildings in a elevator leaving the last one. He took a Book of Mormon, and was way interested in meeting with us. He was way busy, however, and we were never able to meet with him. One day his phone stopped working, which is usually a sign that they aren't in the country. Elder Marks and I searched for him in that building maybe a month and a half ago, and the first door we knocked was this very nice, mid 20's girl who knew Dalibor and confirmed he was out of the country on work or something like that. She was maybe the nicest stranger I've met in Serbia. We thanked her, and for some reason left it at that.

So, Monday, I call Dalibor. Phone still off. I was ticked! I felt like I had been prompted, his name hadn't crossed my mind in over a month. I thought a bit, and figured we should keep looking for him. So Elder Wade and I went back into the building. I had no idea where he lived, but I remembered that girl's door. So we started with her. Her boyfriend answered the door, and then she also came to the door. They told us Dalibor had moved, and we weren't sure where they told us to, but not in Belgrade. The thought "what kind of prompting..." started to cross my mind, when the two invited us in.

2 new investigators, my friends. And perhaps the nicest I've ever met, and they are very interested. Their names are Marko and Tamara, and we meet with them again tonight. I learned a valuable lesson about following promptings. And when I'm not sure about the prompting, I ask myself, "does it invite me to do something good?" If yes, then we go. We were on an exchange this week, and I was clear out in the south end of Belgrade with Elder Marcek. I have some cool stories, but no time for them all. REMIND ME to tell you about some of them when I get home :)

But, we saw a girl running to catch a bus, and it could've easily waited, but it took off. I felt the impression to go talk to her, Elder Marcek and I discussed it for a second, and went. She appreciated her thanks that we were sorry she missed her bus, but told us off real good and said she wanted to hear nothing from us. No big. At least I showed the Lord we will listen to promptings, regardless of the outcome! Elder Marcek shaved my head that night. Aw YEAH it feels so good! Cause it's so hot outside, killer. And we have no AC. So....yeah, I like the cut. I'll send a picture if I have time...otherwise, next week for sure.

I've been reading "The Infinite Atonement" by Tad R. Callister. I STRONGLY recommend it, it's an incredible book. I'm learning so much every day from reading it.

Nana's baptism is likely going to have to be pushed again. This is lame!! It's all this legal work!! And Zoe isn't ready to be baptized yet, we're still working with her on her testimony, but the problem is we can hardly ever meet with both of them and have the duration of a lesson with them both present, because KIDS ARE NUTS. I love them so much but oh my goodness, I have never realized how crazy kids are. And Zoe always will take Johan out so we can have peace, and then we can't really help her learn or grow....it's very frustrating. And she's gone helping watch some friends' kids this week while they're visiting from Germany, and so we're kind of stuck right now. She wouldn't be likely able to attend the baptism if we had it Saturday, and ideally we'd have them baptized together...at the least have her there
.

So, please keep praying for them. They're as awesome as ever, and we all went out to Pancevo this week and had a family night with the Vasica's. It was good. Thank you for your prayers on their behalf already, and please keep them in them.

We have been having a lot of fun and a lot of success. I am very excited for what the next few weeks holds.

That's all folks! Til next week....

I love you all, and I miss you all.

Elder Hixon

P.S. (In another letter he sent me I loved when he said this)

Thank you for your prayers. All is well with us, things are crazy, but I'm growing so much, bit by bit, and I love being out here. Elder Wade nailed it when he said, "I didn't know how it'd be when I was expecting my call, but THIS mission was made for me."

The Art of Missionary Work

I am not sure where I will start or end, because a) my journal keeping went to pot this week, and b) it was just a weird week!

Elder Wade's been way sick. And we had finally had enough of that and we got in touch with a doctor in Germany who's over the medical things for the church in this neck of the woods, and sent him pictures of Elder Wade's throat and etc., and he told us to go to a doctor and referred us. LUCKILY it was a privately owned clinic (which means it wasn't free) but also means that it was not going to kill us. So they did some tests on him, (and you bet we acted like we didn't know Serbian. We were going to be treated well in there, in English.) took some blood and other things. And tests came up positive that he had a gnarly infection and needed some antiobiotics stat. So we gave them the okay on that. And then things got weird. The fastest way to administer said antibiotic is through an injection in the largest muscle in the human body....so yeah. He's had 4 shots like that this week, quite emasculating and fun for him, he's loving that I'm sharing this, too.

But badabing, we're back in action! That stuff worked like a charm. He's a trooper, let me tell you, and he earned every bit of this P Day for going back time and again for that injection, and for working like a champ the rest of the week when he could! We met with the Jovanovic family a few times, once so I could wheelbarrow tons of gravel around for them. I love that good life, and the day they run out of work is the day I can leave Beograd. Kidding, but really. There's nothing better out here! We were able to share with them their burdens and also work on the reactivation effort more, layer by layer figuring out what more help they need. Lena and Zika and Vera came to church today, and that was a blessing! Lena gave me all the sass she could, as usual, but her birthday is coming up so you better believe she'll change that attitude once we surprise the heck out of her!

We met with Nana and Zoe a few times this week also. Things are in a bit of a standstill with the legal matters at the moment, we aren't getting any more bad news, but nothing positive yet. As Nana put it, the Lord is trying our faith right now. The baptism is rescheduled. We are scheduled for June 22nd, which is THE SAME DAY AS ELDER GIDEON PARSONS' FIRST BAPTISM. That's miracles in their finest right there. The confirmation will be on the 23d. No surprises there. We moved it because of all the legal things going on, in addition to not having met with them as much as we'd need to because of the problems going on. But Nana is way excited, and we are so close with Zoe. She just needs her testimony to be sealed solid and she's set. She's set on everything else, but she is taking baptism very seriously, which is way good! I love this family. Johan was a pill the other day on lesson and it was hilarious and I loved it. Katarina V came with us to our most recent lesson when we taught them about temples and eternal families and how that works in the Plan of Salvation. Nana LOVED it. Not only that, but Katarina is going to be the best missionary that the Gilbert, Arizona mission has ever seen. That's my guess. They'll get their calls this transfer most likely. So so so excited for all of them!! (Katarina and Vladan and I believe Lidija also, for now.)

Katarina was perfect that lesson. She was a huge help with the kids, but she was also so bold. She knew when to testify and she knew when to just let the Spirit work. She spoke with the Spirit and with boldness and brought elements to the lesson that we couldn't have, and I was so grateful for that. Grateful for a ton this week!! Grateful that Sister Compare got to spend some time with you all, how cool is that?! Like, I don't think any missionary in the world gets to have his family hang with somebody who he served with that is ALSO returning to the mission that same week. That's legit. Glad you all had a ball. Jealous.

Elder Wade is awesome, also. Glad you guys got to meet his family. That's also pretty awesome. What a week for y'all! Elder Wade reminds me now of a mix between Elder McAllister and Ryan Hixon. Which is flippin sweet. The kid has me laughing nonstop, and he makes me want to outdo him in all ways, which means we are going to get some real work done this transfer! Nothing like good competition. We found a nice spot to try something new in our area, actually yesterday. While walking to go find a family that had been taught twice by Elder Marks and Despain, we saw a nice chunk of sidewalk in a relatively busy part of the neighborhood that was MADE to have the Plan of Salvation beautifully chalked on it. So, we're hitting that hard this week. You know we'll have investigators coming in droves. Get that font filled! (That's right, Beograd is one of three cities in the mission with an actual font. Those three being here, Zagreb, and Ljubljana. Pray I only see two of those.)

Other than that, I have one story. I was having a real bad day with feeling inadequate and not good enough for this work, after just another day in the "vi ste sekta" life, and whatnot, and I prayed that night, pleading for an answer to why I was here. I have the whole experience more accurately in a journal, but in short, I (perhaps semi arrogantly? I'm not sure. I was overwhelmed and frustrated, and I'm sure the Lord understood) prayed and called out to my Heavenly Father, asking Him why I was here. I told Him I wanted to know, truly I wanted to KNOW why from the day I was born until now, why He had here in mind for me. I reflected on and shared with Him the blessings I had received and the many times I had been in the worst of circumstances and had no right to be granted mercy, but yet I was. Why? I nearly demanded, but respectfully as I could. Why, all of that, then, if these people will not hear me? WHY am I here? For what purpose? I believe it was not a random pull out of the hat, my life or my mission specifically. So I pleaded for an answer, and went to bed. I woke up the next day determined to see the answer when it came.

Ann Madsen came and taught us a lot. So I guess her husband was some church author guy? Who knows. But he and she were best friends with Kreso, and WOW. The stories. Kreso was a stud. What an example of sacrifice. Research him. He literally got us here, and in Ann Madsen's words, as best as I could get them down in our district meeting with her:

"He gave up three NBA offers to come back to Yugoslavia and bring the Gospel that had changed his life to those who he called his brothers and sister. HE gave it all so that he could bring the church here. He would constantly be talking with his Apostle friends, pleading with them to send missionaries here. He invented creative ideas of how to get missionaries into this communist block of the world, but always his prayers and ours were on the day when missionaries would be proselyting here. After 6 years, he had taught and baptized 10 members of the church here in Yugoslavia. Now he and my husband have left this life, and I alone was blessed of the three of us to live to see today. When I saw the Serbian members arriving Sunday, I couldn't stop crying. I called out to Kreso and my husband, asking them if they could see this. YOU, Elders, you six, are a direct answer to our prayer and especially Kreso's these many, many years."

I will let it be there. I know our Heavenly Father answers our prayers, and grants us according to our desires, even though we may be dumb and frustrating and imperfect in every way, He hears, and He answers. I learned that this week, and I learned that He loves me, and I have a heck ton of work to do.

I love you all, thank you for your prayers on behalf of Nana and his family, and for Beograd.

Love,

Elder Hixon

Who Cares About English Anymore?

Are we at that 6 month mark? Or approaching? What the heck....

But hey!

Well...I wish I could say this week was a ton different than last....

I'm all healthy, but Elder Wade caught whatever the heck I had after 1 day being here, and he's been outtie. We have 'demanded' a new apartment, cause that thing is trash city, and we are in the process of getting a new one. Not sure about how sanitary ours is, and who knows, maybe that's why the sickness hit! But I do have more than just that to say!

First, I'll hit that quick weekly update of the work. We are still working with Nana and Zoe. Nana is having some serious visa problems (can't say the government is being 100% honest and fair with him....but what can we do about that?) and we are running low on time. He has a little less than 20 days before they'll force him out of the country, but it's possible that he can snag an extra 30. He appeals today...and we have been praying and fasting for a miracle. Keep that family in your prayers, because they need it. They are so ready for the Gospel, and they love it. They make sacrifices every week to meet with us and to come to church, on top of their struggles living here. But we are still on date for their baptism, and we are putting the rest into the Lord's hands. It's been a huge test of faith, and the end of it isn't looking too bright, but we will continue hoping and believing that everything will work out.

I met with President Rowe for an interview this last week (which was awesome. President is a STUD.) and his advice to me was to expect and work for a miracle. So we are doing that. We are meeting with them again today, and as often as we can around their gnarly busy schedule working this problem out.

But the work goes on!

Elder Bates and I went over to the Jovanovic's again (that email you forwarded me was way cool, Mom! I will have to ask the Jovanovic's about this sister! She is awesome, that's all I have to say, because I love this family and they're amazing.) Zika and Sasha and Lena and Marena were all at church this week, and I am pretty sure Vera was but I didn't see her. But she usually is. Which means we are 5 for 6 on them coming to church. Keep the prayers for that family! We are going to tract the heck out of their little gypsy village this week to find them some neighbors to come to church with them. That's the plan.

This month is a sacred month because it has been 41 years since the first baptism in Yugoslavia, and as a mission (our little mission) we are working to 10,000 invites this month to attend church. It's going to be wild! We are praying as a mission every morning at 6:30am for the miracles to come from these efforts, and seeing as that's an easy 9:30pm for all you Arizona folk (and what, 8:30 for the rest of you?) I am extending the invite to join in on that. Just a prayer every night at that time with us for the blessings and miracles that the Lord is waiting on our asking for to give them to us. (that didn't make sense grammatically....who cares about English anymore.) Anyways. We would appreciate it. We have a lot of work to do here, and in Beograd especially. And we need help more than just the 6 of us can do alone.

To wrap this up, here's the District 2.0

Elder Wade- STUD. He's the man. Take everything I ever said about Elder McAllister, then add a year and a half of a mission to him. And that will be Elder Wade for ya. We're kicking it off! He's hilarious, and way good at the language. (Well, he's way good at Croatian. There's some corrections necessary, but all in all he's a champ at it!) So, he's from Gilbert. He went to Highland  and graduated a year before we did. We played the name game, and everyone from Highland that I know (almost) he knows, or at least knows of. And he worked at the plumbing place that Ty did....and says Ty sounds way familiar....anything on that? Sean Wade's the name. Holla back.

Anyways, he's way awesome and it's going to be a fun and laugh filled transfer. He's served in every Croatian city of the mission except Zadar, (why not list them, Osijek, Varazdin, Zagreb, and Rijeka).

Elder Radakovic is serving with Elder Bates. What a funny guy! Wow, Serbs are hilarious and all that, but Elder Radakovic takes it to a new level. This guy's great. His line is "Que pasa con cuesto?" Can't say I have any Spanish left in me, but we're banking on that meaning literally, (though likely not making a lot of sense in Spanish? Who knows?) "What's up with that?" But yeah, he's hilarious and a great leader. It's going to be fun times with him. Not to mention you put a native speaker with Elder Bates, the walking Croatian dictionary, and things are bound to get interesting. Top quote this week was when Elder Bates was telling Elder Radakovic a technical something about the language, kind of like if someone were to tell us a technical English principal or a "why this does this" that we just use and have no idea why, and Elder Radakovic says, half serious and half sarcastic in his Radakovic voice, "I love when missionaries teach me my language." Love that guy.

The Elders who are living in the Sisters old apartment are Elder Marcek and Elder Proud. Elder Marcek is dying this transfer, and he's our District Leader. He's hilarious, downright hilarious. But he can also be very serious when it's time to be, and he's also a great leader and I already look up to him. He's great. Elder Proud also is a funny guy (it's going to be a funny district and transfer, all in all. We're going to film new District videos for the foreign version.) and he is a transfer ahead of me. Which is pretty cool. They both got lost on day 1, (and heck, Elder Wade and I got lost Sunday. Yikes Beograd, why are you so huge?) So it's been way fun.

I love the new district. 6 elders means we are going to do some serious man work! Haha, but I do miss the Sisters, and got to see them earlier this week! Have y'all seen Sister Compare yet?

Anyways, that's all I have for this week. I'll send you some of Elder Marks and I's last pictures, and that's all I have for now. Next week I will have some of the new district, seeing as it's P Day today... :)

Vidimo se, haje cao!

But for real, I love you all and miss you. Thank you for your examples, support and prayers! 

Love,

Elder Hixon