Please accept my apology for not posting to this blog for three months. Ryan continues to have great experiences in the work of the Lord in Pula, Croatia. He and his companion, Elder Anderson, from Cardston, Alberta, Canada, are the only missionaries in Pula, since the missionary couple, the Petterssons, returned home to Utah. Elder Dixon and Elder Anderson, who just recently arrived from the MTC, lead the little group of seven members of the Church in Pula as they continue in their efforts to build a branch of the Church in that city.
Ryan is really enjoying his work. In his words, "I am happier than I have ever been on the mission aka in my whole life." He certainly looks happy in following photo of Ryan and fellow missionaries looking out the window in an old building. We received the photo yesterday from Sister Hill, the mission president's wife.
Here are a few excerpts from recent emails we received from Elder Dixon:
May 18th
Welp, we just got back from a P-day adventure. We went to a really old castle called Dvigrad, hiked through this beautiful canyon in search of some caves that we didn't find, and went to a town called Motovun that's on top of a hill where there's a really pretty view of villages and viniards. I had a 'Croatia' moment while we were in the car. We drove past rolling hills with scattered groups of trees and small villages in between while everything was in bloom. All of that was under a blue sky, and it was beautiful. I thought about how rare a chance it was to be where serving and having the calling I have. I'm in a beautiful place and serve among some wonderful people. I wish you all could see beautiful Croatia and meet the members and missionaries here. It all combines to make a pretty quality experience!
Were teaching some new people. We are teaching another drunk-type guy. We will see if he is as humble and awesome as Mario, and will give all of it up! We also have an English student that is going to come with us to District Conference on Sunday. We have never taught him personal lessons, but he has been to almost every spiritual thought since I have been here. We just announced to everyone at our spiritual thought that an apostle was going to be coming, and he said he wanted to come! He's a big stud, and would make an awesome member. Keep him in your prayers. We would love for him to take the lessons from us and be baptized.
May 25th
This weekend was District Conference. It was so awesome. It was also tiring. We woke up at 3:30 in the morning on Saturday to get to a meeting in Zagreb on time. We had meetings and contacting throughout that day. Then, in the evening, we took a bus to Karlovac, a city about 45 mins out of the 'Greb, to sleep there over night. We woke up at 4:30 the next day to get to a bus to Zagreb. That evening, after all was said and done, The Pettersons drove us to Rijeka, where Elder Nelson had to go to the doctor the next day (today) for his eye. At 10ish we got on a 2 hour bus to Pula. It's p-day, so we got home, and we both crashed and took naps, and now we're back on track.
It was all worth it though. Those were some of the coolest meetings ever. Saturday morning was a meeting with Elder Christofferson and just the missionaries. That was so sweet. President and Sister Hill talked to us, along with Elder Wondra from the area 70, as well as Elder Christofferson's wife. Then Elder Christofferson addressed us. He just opened it up to questions. He is truely a remarkably good man. I was amazed by how calm and good he was. We each got to shake his hand. It was pretty amazing to look into an Apostle's eyes. He just has a goodness and a purity about him that you would expect from an Apostle. In every way he fits the mold you of an apostle. In response to all of the questions he recieved, he simply would turn to the scriptures and teach the pure doctrine. There was no opinion mixed in with it. It was simple the doctrine, nothing more, nothing less, and the Spirit was strong. I've grown to really love him. He is the man.
So, I went to the restroom during lunch, and immediately following me was Elder Christofferson... I decided to use the stall instead of the urinal in order to avoid any apostalic awkwardness, but when I got out he was combing his hair in the mirror. So I went to wash my hands, and we were standing next to one another, just he and I, and he said, "Did you survive the meal?" I kind of laughed and said, "Yes, I did. Thanks for all you've said. It's been a good weekend." He said, "Your welcome. Yes it has." We said bye or something, and he left. Haha, I never thought I would have personal one-on-one contact with an apostle in a bathroom in Zagreb, Croatia!
June 1st
Elder Nelson and I have been really blessed to make contact with a lot of people. We've been getting a lot of numbers from people and have had several chances to teach. We're struggling to find people who really want to read the Book of Mormon or progress in any way, though. Peoples' non/committal tendencies can be pretty frustrating, but I know there are some exceptions out there ready to hear the gospel. I've felt lately a greater need to prepare myself to be able to teach the people who are prepared when we come in contact. I need to be the missionary the Lord can depend on to teach his receptive children. The more ready I am, the more willing the Lord is going to be to bless us with prepared souls to teach and baptize.
Yesterday, Elder Nelson and I were walking down a sidewalk by the harbor contacting. We noticed a couple kids across the street pointing to us and talking to their parents. Elder Nelson was like, "Dude, those are Mormons". Haha, sure enough, about 6 people crossed the street, and when they were about 20 feet in front of us, the dad said in English, "We are members from Italy!" We got talking to them, and they live in Milan and were in Pula on vacation. I asked them if they knew Elder Toronto. They didn't, but they knew the story of their ancestor that converted. They were checking out the Croatian on our name tags and Book of Mormons and thought it was so cool. When they were leaving, they all wanted to shake our hands and stuff. I got that missionary-hero feeling when I shook the kids' hands, haha. That was pretty sweet. It's not every day you run into an LDS family on the streets of Pula! It was tight.
June 8th
Every companionship is training in our zone, save the zone leaders only. So, I guess this makes me the first trainer in Pula, training the first greenie to ever come to Pula. Btw, his name is Elder Anderson from Calgary, Canada. Pretty cool, eh?? Pray for the brother. And more for me…
I’m pretty nervous x 10097342439074397607. My language skills are weaker than I would like, and I still have the junior companion slash greenie feel going on. I’m going to have to step it up, be a little better, rely on the Lord a little more, etc. I really want him to see some real success and have a blast. I didn’t find or teach very many people during my first four months, and I don’t want that to be the case for him. I really want to help him hit the ground running. It’s pretty out of control, because the Petterssons are going to be leaving in a month, and after they leave, there isn’t supposed to be a senior couple coming here from what I know. Therefore, it will just be Elder Anderson, myself, and 7 members in Pula.
June 15th
I'm very impressed with Elder Anderson. He knows so much more Croatian than I did coming out of the MTC. In fact, he puts my greenie speaking skills to complete shame. He's going to own the Croatian language. He looks a lot like Brian Garner, Ed's friend, especially when he's smiling. He's from Cardsten, Canada. He is a stud. It's been pretty sweet so far. He's already taught his first lesson, blessed the sacrament, given a talk, prayed at meetings, and contacted people on the street. We are planning to get up early from here on out to study the language, so that we can hit the ground running. I have a feeling this is going to be a sweet transfer.
I was pretty nervous coming into this transfer, but it's going good. I've experienced a boost in my ability to understand and speak. So much that I think that Elder Anderson is under the false misconception that I'm fluent in the language, haha... Hopefully I can keep him in ignorance... :) JK.
June 23rd
The greatest experience happened the other day. We were on our way home, and at the rate we were going, we were going to get home 5 or 10 minutes early. So, we decided to take a longer route and talk to a couple more people. We stopped a young guy -- 20s -- and began talking about the Book of Mormon. He was a cool guy but didn't seem really interested at first. I was holding out a copy of the Book of Mormon as we were explaining a little about it. After a minute or 2 of talking, I felt something fall on the book. We all heard something so we looked down, and a bird had dropped a gift directly onto the Book of Mormon. (You can use your imagination and take a guess at what type of gift it may have been... haha.) That guy -- looked up and said, "That's just your luck." After that, I said, "I think that means you need to read this book." We laughed about that, and after a minute or so, we got his number and we gave him a pamphlet. I guess that gift was a gift from the heavens, because since then, we have met, and he is currently in the process of reading the Book of Mormon. Haha, the Lord works in mysterious ways... I think if that bird didn't come to lighten up the mood a little, he wouldn't have given us his number.
We had interviews with President today. He is the best. I love interviews with him. He's so directed to understand our needs. I appreciate the man. I wish you all could know President Hill.
To answer Mom's question, Pula is its own district. After the Petterssons leave, it will be just Elder Anderson and me. I'm kind of excited. It will be pretty cool to just go at Pula, just me and Elder Anderson.
June 29th
Things are going great with Elder Anderson. He is the man. I've never enjoyed missionary work as much as I am right now. We are so busy! I have know idea where time is going. It seems like weekly planning shows up about every 48 hours. The thought that I have been out almost a year blows my mind slash freaks me out. It just makes me want to work harder!
Elder Anderson and I officially walked home our first drunk the other night. It was funny and sad all in one. He was eighty-ish. I felt he was a little old for that stuff.
We are teaching the guy we contacted when the bird pooped on the Book of Mormon. He is such a cool guy - one of the coolest people I have met in Croatia. He just gets it. He's been a pleasure to teach. We are only a couple lessons in plus seeing each other on the street, but I feel good about him. He's reading the Book of Mormon right now like a champ and is committed to pray about it before Wednesday. Pray that he'll get an answer. He's the man.
So, Elder Anderson and I were living off of noodles, gouda cheese, chicken seasoning, milk, and corn flakes last week because we were out of dough for the month. We were really puzzled as to why we ran out of money so early. So, we were planning to finish off the last 5 days of the month with the same noodles and cheese with seasoning on top, haha. In desperation, I looked where I usually keep my food money, and behold - 400 kuna aka about 80 bucks. We were so happy, man. We went shopping and now we are eating like kings, because we scraped by for like a week, haha. Funny huh!
July 6th
Things have been going really well here. Our investigators are progressing more and more, and we are continuing to find people. We're very blessed, Elder Anderson and I. I am happier than I have ever been on the mission aka in my whole life. There's not enough hours in the day and we're pretty busy, but I love it. I hope we get busier and busier. I love this work. I love the gospel. Life's great out here.
The "bird poop investigator" is doing good. ... He's really great. Such a cool guy with great questions. He's probably our most progressing investigator. Keep him in your prayers. On a side note, he also follows American baseball which is uncommon here. He likes to update me when the Diamondbacks win.
Ryan is really enjoying his work. In his words, "I am happier than I have ever been on the mission aka in my whole life." He certainly looks happy in following photo of Ryan and fellow missionaries looking out the window in an old building. We received the photo yesterday from Sister Hill, the mission president's wife.
Here are a few excerpts from recent emails we received from Elder Dixon:
May 18th
Welp, we just got back from a P-day adventure. We went to a really old castle called Dvigrad, hiked through this beautiful canyon in search of some caves that we didn't find, and went to a town called Motovun that's on top of a hill where there's a really pretty view of villages and viniards. I had a 'Croatia' moment while we were in the car. We drove past rolling hills with scattered groups of trees and small villages in between while everything was in bloom. All of that was under a blue sky, and it was beautiful. I thought about how rare a chance it was to be where serving and having the calling I have. I'm in a beautiful place and serve among some wonderful people. I wish you all could see beautiful Croatia and meet the members and missionaries here. It all combines to make a pretty quality experience!
Were teaching some new people. We are teaching another drunk-type guy. We will see if he is as humble and awesome as Mario, and will give all of it up! We also have an English student that is going to come with us to District Conference on Sunday. We have never taught him personal lessons, but he has been to almost every spiritual thought since I have been here. We just announced to everyone at our spiritual thought that an apostle was going to be coming, and he said he wanted to come! He's a big stud, and would make an awesome member. Keep him in your prayers. We would love for him to take the lessons from us and be baptized.
May 25th
This weekend was District Conference. It was so awesome. It was also tiring. We woke up at 3:30 in the morning on Saturday to get to a meeting in Zagreb on time. We had meetings and contacting throughout that day. Then, in the evening, we took a bus to Karlovac, a city about 45 mins out of the 'Greb, to sleep there over night. We woke up at 4:30 the next day to get to a bus to Zagreb. That evening, after all was said and done, The Pettersons drove us to Rijeka, where Elder Nelson had to go to the doctor the next day (today) for his eye. At 10ish we got on a 2 hour bus to Pula. It's p-day, so we got home, and we both crashed and took naps, and now we're back on track.
It was all worth it though. Those were some of the coolest meetings ever. Saturday morning was a meeting with Elder Christofferson and just the missionaries. That was so sweet. President and Sister Hill talked to us, along with Elder Wondra from the area 70, as well as Elder Christofferson's wife. Then Elder Christofferson addressed us. He just opened it up to questions. He is truely a remarkably good man. I was amazed by how calm and good he was. We each got to shake his hand. It was pretty amazing to look into an Apostle's eyes. He just has a goodness and a purity about him that you would expect from an Apostle. In every way he fits the mold you of an apostle. In response to all of the questions he recieved, he simply would turn to the scriptures and teach the pure doctrine. There was no opinion mixed in with it. It was simple the doctrine, nothing more, nothing less, and the Spirit was strong. I've grown to really love him. He is the man.
So, I went to the restroom during lunch, and immediately following me was Elder Christofferson... I decided to use the stall instead of the urinal in order to avoid any apostalic awkwardness, but when I got out he was combing his hair in the mirror. So I went to wash my hands, and we were standing next to one another, just he and I, and he said, "Did you survive the meal?" I kind of laughed and said, "Yes, I did. Thanks for all you've said. It's been a good weekend." He said, "Your welcome. Yes it has." We said bye or something, and he left. Haha, I never thought I would have personal one-on-one contact with an apostle in a bathroom in Zagreb, Croatia!
June 1st
Elder Nelson and I have been really blessed to make contact with a lot of people. We've been getting a lot of numbers from people and have had several chances to teach. We're struggling to find people who really want to read the Book of Mormon or progress in any way, though. Peoples' non/committal tendencies can be pretty frustrating, but I know there are some exceptions out there ready to hear the gospel. I've felt lately a greater need to prepare myself to be able to teach the people who are prepared when we come in contact. I need to be the missionary the Lord can depend on to teach his receptive children. The more ready I am, the more willing the Lord is going to be to bless us with prepared souls to teach and baptize.
Yesterday, Elder Nelson and I were walking down a sidewalk by the harbor contacting. We noticed a couple kids across the street pointing to us and talking to their parents. Elder Nelson was like, "Dude, those are Mormons". Haha, sure enough, about 6 people crossed the street, and when they were about 20 feet in front of us, the dad said in English, "We are members from Italy!" We got talking to them, and they live in Milan and were in Pula on vacation. I asked them if they knew Elder Toronto. They didn't, but they knew the story of their ancestor that converted. They were checking out the Croatian on our name tags and Book of Mormons and thought it was so cool. When they were leaving, they all wanted to shake our hands and stuff. I got that missionary-hero feeling when I shook the kids' hands, haha. That was pretty sweet. It's not every day you run into an LDS family on the streets of Pula! It was tight.
June 8th
Every companionship is training in our zone, save the zone leaders only. So, I guess this makes me the first trainer in Pula, training the first greenie to ever come to Pula. Btw, his name is Elder Anderson from Calgary, Canada. Pretty cool, eh?? Pray for the brother. And more for me…
I’m pretty nervous x 10097342439074397607. My language skills are weaker than I would like, and I still have the junior companion slash greenie feel going on. I’m going to have to step it up, be a little better, rely on the Lord a little more, etc. I really want him to see some real success and have a blast. I didn’t find or teach very many people during my first four months, and I don’t want that to be the case for him. I really want to help him hit the ground running. It’s pretty out of control, because the Petterssons are going to be leaving in a month, and after they leave, there isn’t supposed to be a senior couple coming here from what I know. Therefore, it will just be Elder Anderson, myself, and 7 members in Pula.
June 15th
I'm very impressed with Elder Anderson. He knows so much more Croatian than I did coming out of the MTC. In fact, he puts my greenie speaking skills to complete shame. He's going to own the Croatian language. He looks a lot like Brian Garner, Ed's friend, especially when he's smiling. He's from Cardsten, Canada. He is a stud. It's been pretty sweet so far. He's already taught his first lesson, blessed the sacrament, given a talk, prayed at meetings, and contacted people on the street. We are planning to get up early from here on out to study the language, so that we can hit the ground running. I have a feeling this is going to be a sweet transfer.
I was pretty nervous coming into this transfer, but it's going good. I've experienced a boost in my ability to understand and speak. So much that I think that Elder Anderson is under the false misconception that I'm fluent in the language, haha... Hopefully I can keep him in ignorance... :) JK.
June 23rd
The greatest experience happened the other day. We were on our way home, and at the rate we were going, we were going to get home 5 or 10 minutes early. So, we decided to take a longer route and talk to a couple more people. We stopped a young guy -- 20s -- and began talking about the Book of Mormon. He was a cool guy but didn't seem really interested at first. I was holding out a copy of the Book of Mormon as we were explaining a little about it. After a minute or 2 of talking, I felt something fall on the book. We all heard something so we looked down, and a bird had dropped a gift directly onto the Book of Mormon. (You can use your imagination and take a guess at what type of gift it may have been... haha.) That guy -- looked up and said, "That's just your luck." After that, I said, "I think that means you need to read this book." We laughed about that, and after a minute or so, we got his number and we gave him a pamphlet. I guess that gift was a gift from the heavens, because since then, we have met, and he is currently in the process of reading the Book of Mormon. Haha, the Lord works in mysterious ways... I think if that bird didn't come to lighten up the mood a little, he wouldn't have given us his number.
We had interviews with President today. He is the best. I love interviews with him. He's so directed to understand our needs. I appreciate the man. I wish you all could know President Hill.
To answer Mom's question, Pula is its own district. After the Petterssons leave, it will be just Elder Anderson and me. I'm kind of excited. It will be pretty cool to just go at Pula, just me and Elder Anderson.
June 29th
Things are going great with Elder Anderson. He is the man. I've never enjoyed missionary work as much as I am right now. We are so busy! I have know idea where time is going. It seems like weekly planning shows up about every 48 hours. The thought that I have been out almost a year blows my mind slash freaks me out. It just makes me want to work harder!
Elder Anderson and I officially walked home our first drunk the other night. It was funny and sad all in one. He was eighty-ish. I felt he was a little old for that stuff.
We are teaching the guy we contacted when the bird pooped on the Book of Mormon. He is such a cool guy - one of the coolest people I have met in Croatia. He just gets it. He's been a pleasure to teach. We are only a couple lessons in plus seeing each other on the street, but I feel good about him. He's reading the Book of Mormon right now like a champ and is committed to pray about it before Wednesday. Pray that he'll get an answer. He's the man.
So, Elder Anderson and I were living off of noodles, gouda cheese, chicken seasoning, milk, and corn flakes last week because we were out of dough for the month. We were really puzzled as to why we ran out of money so early. So, we were planning to finish off the last 5 days of the month with the same noodles and cheese with seasoning on top, haha. In desperation, I looked where I usually keep my food money, and behold - 400 kuna aka about 80 bucks. We were so happy, man. We went shopping and now we are eating like kings, because we scraped by for like a week, haha. Funny huh!
July 6th
Things have been going really well here. Our investigators are progressing more and more, and we are continuing to find people. We're very blessed, Elder Anderson and I. I am happier than I have ever been on the mission aka in my whole life. There's not enough hours in the day and we're pretty busy, but I love it. I hope we get busier and busier. I love this work. I love the gospel. Life's great out here.
The "bird poop investigator" is doing good. ... He's really great. Such a cool guy with great questions. He's probably our most progressing investigator. Keep him in your prayers. On a side note, he also follows American baseball which is uncommon here. He likes to update me when the Diamondbacks win.
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