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