Deep Breaths

 

Well, we had a good run as DL. That ship is sailing.
 

I got a phone call 5 minutes ago. President Rowe said that the Lord has a change for the work starting tomorrow, because it is necessary. I am going to serve as Serbian Zone Leader with Elder Blackburn. Elder McAllister, my love and dearest friend, is going to serve as AP with my brother Elder Sheridan, and Elder Scirkovic is coming to serve here with my companion Elder Fisher, and Elder Fisher is the new District Leader.

WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

I was supposed to serve with Elder McAllister next transfer, we all knew it!!  And we had an exchange for tonight and tomorrow, but no longer!! The current game plan is to pull strings via prayers and long talks with President Rowe to get he and I serving together at some point. But, seriously this is wild?? It's not even a transfer! I am freaking out!! Elder Charles from the Seventy is coming this week on a mission tour and I'm supposed to be leading his arrival meeting and Zone Conference this week??
 

Deep breaths, it'll be okay.

Maybe.
 

So this week was easily the coolest and craziest (even without that last shpeel) week of my mission. I'll cut to it right now. We were at the Police Station getting Visa work done, and we ran into an African guy (no surprises and significant because that is rare) and after some talk, we got his number, and his Serbian girlfriend's numbers, and got an appointment to teach them. But that's not all. They first took us on a private tour of the Red Star Soccer Stadium, because what do you know? He plays professional soccer. That was such a blast. 

We went over to his rockin' place on Friday night and ate with them, and another one of his friends who plays (both are originally from Liberia) and while we were over, Omega (that's his name) calls a bud and says "Come over and meet my friends." The bud's name was Miguel, and he also plays for Red Star, and he is from Peru. So we're talkin' little to no English, barely some Serbian, and all Spanish on this guy. So, I am going to have to dig deep if we're going to teach him too, and work my old Spanish. We then taught them, Nena (Serbian girlfriend who loves us), Omega, and Alex (other Liberian soccer player) and the Spirit was so strong. These people literally fell out of the sky, the Lord blessed us with them. It wasn't because we found them through our hard work. But BECAUSE we upped our work and obedience, the Lord saw fit to bless us and trust us with them, and to show HIS power, He gave them to us when we weren't even expecting to find anybody. "Just in a police station, complaining about the Serbian Bureaucracy" as Elder Fisher will recount the story. It was so awesome. We hope that things progress with them, their situation is wildly all over the place, so I'll update y'all next week about it. But seriously, when does that happen?! Cal, the Lord HAS been answering your prayers buddy! So thank you for them!!!

A quick crazy story about them, when Omega first got to Red Star, it was because he wrecked them when playing for his National Team, an agent for Red Star bought him from his agent at the time. This new agent was a huge member of the Mafia, (I guess all of Red Star is run by the Mafia) but Omega and Nena say he was a really good man. He hooked them up with everything they needed and was like a father to Omega (he doesn't really have one that he knows much of) and things were going well. Then they got a call after a few days that this agent had been shot in the head the night before by another member of the Mafia. Wild!? So he got put with another agent and that's how that went!
 

Other than those little bits, we had a great meeting on Sunday, Elder McAllister, Blackburn, and I (how fittingly poetic) led the third hour combined meeting and taught the members (I think we had 20 this week?) about why we teach the Restoration first, that every other doctrine and question and concern can be brought back to a testimony of the Restoration. We taught them how to teach it to their friends, and it just went over very well. Better than we expected, and 2 of the members had referrals that they had taught a bit to in the past month and want us to meet up with them. So, I'll report on that next week.
 

That's pretty much all I have to report on a the mass scale. I love you all. This Church is true. Go do some hard things this week, leave your comfort circle. And remember that whatever sacrifices we are called upon to make are for our good.
 

Love,
Elder Hixon