New Roads - a Boom and a Bust and Our First Sr. Conference

Our week started out with us being in Montenegro on Sunday. We needed to get back to Sarajevo on Monday, because Sarajevo was the host city our Senior Conference. A Senior Conference is when all the senior couples in our Mission get together for training and lots of fun. It happens twice a year. So on Monday we needed to get back to help get things together. As we started out it had been raining a lot so we decided to go the longer way, that isn't through the mountains. As we were driving, Google Maps said it had found a shorter way. We have learned when it says that, to always verify it because sometimes it is an idiot. This way looked OK, but we were curious why it hadn't shown up as an option before. 

Well, we should have gotten a clue when it was a one lane road and in a hour and a half all we met was 3 horses and about 20 cows. 

After a drive clear across Montenegro, through the mountain on this tiny road, we made it to the border with Bosnia. When we approached the check station a man came out and said "passport" when we gave them to him he said "problem". Then another man came out and said this crossing is only for local traffic, not international. He said "go back" so we drove back another hour and a half. Oh how we love Google Maps. (Not) Helen said I could swear if I needed to, but I used great self control and abstained.

After our 3 hour border crossing bust we made it to Sarajevo. Total travel time 8 hours ,to go 125 miles.

Our Senior Conference was awesome, there are 22 couples and 3 single Senior missionaries here - so there was lots of fun and time to get to know each other. Since our mission cover five countries this was the first time we met several of the other couples. 

Our conference started with a presentation by our good friend and country advocat, Emir Kaknjašević. He gave a great presentation about the history, culture and his Muslim faith tradition. He has been a wonderful friend of the church for many years. Emir was accompanied by his lovely daughter, Ema. 

It was very rainy all week, so our site seeing was a little wet.

 

On Saturday we decided to head back to Montenegro again. Seems like we live in our car. I woke up in the night last week and didn't even know where I was - that is a scary thought - lol. 

Anyway on our trip back we stopped and visited with our friend Michael, who lives in a refugee facility up in the mountains, which used to be an army training camp. He is such an amazing man.  After we visit with him, it makes me grateful for what I have been blessed with in my life. 

Then we don't know when to stop trying new roads through the mountains. This time we found a new road, but I verified it before we took it. Unbeknown to us, it took us through a National Park that the locals call the Bosnian Alps. It was an awesome trip.

Pictures just don't do it justice!

We hope you all have a great week. Please take the time to reflect on the blessing you have receive from our Lord. We see the struggles of our brothers and sisters, from other countries of the world,  just to survive and take care of themselves and thier families. We have met people that live on three pieces of bread per day. We acknowledge the blessings of God in our lives, and the many comforts and freedoms we have enjoyed. If you live in a place of freedom and comfort, please remember from whom these blessing come. 

House of the Lord, Holiness to the Lord - the Temple

Before I begin this week - I have to say that Lot wrote last week's post, but we forgot to push that little button labeled "Publish" - Opps, real life 😜

There are not words sufficient to express the joy and happiness we felt as we attended the temple in Frankfurt Germany this week. Temples are holy places where one makes sacred covenants/promises with God - covenants to live uprightly before God. 

There is not a temple within the boundaries of the Adriatic North District (the geographic ecclesiastical district in which we live), so members of the church who desire to worship and serve at the temple must travel to a temple in the area. There are several temples closer to where we live (Frieburg Germany, Bern Switzerland and Rome Italy), but because of transportation considerations; our members usually attend the temple in Frankfurt. 

The temple sits a little NW of downtown Frankfurt in a small village called Friedrichsdorf. It is a beautiful village and it was familiar to us, as we visited there when we served in Germany. We traveled with our friend, Ljubica, who is 87 years young. We flew from Sarajevo to Frankfurt and then traveled the short 30 KM to Friedrichsdorf. 

During the 4 days we were there, we enjoyed serving and worshiping in the temple, fellowshipping with other members of the district and a few short walks in Friedrichsdorf. The weather was perfect; the skies were clear and blue and spring had arrived in Germany. We were able to stay in the patron housing, on the temple complex. 

On Tuesday night, we drove down to Heidelberg to go to dinner with our dear friend, Mariusz. When we first served in Germany in 2021-22, he showed us such kindness and care. He helped us with language, electronics/technology concerns and became our friend. We were so happy to be able to make connections with him while we were there. 

On Wednesday evening, the district hosted "palačinke"/crepes dessert bar. The district president, Tomislav Flis and others made hundreds of crepes, which others of us happily ate. Many thanks, to all the crepe makers! 

It was a time of visiting and sharing. We met the parents of one of our young missionaries, Elder McConkie and became aquatinted with other members of the district. 

On Thursday evening, after spending the day in the temple, Ljubica took us to dinner. We introduced her to "Flammkuchen' (a kind of thin crusted pizza) at a darling restaurant within walking distance of the temple and then attended a wonderful fireside. We also introduced her to the colorful boiled eggs sold in every German grocery store, all year around. 

And so I end as I began, what a privilege it was to be at the House of the Lord - where I feel God's love for me and for all of His children. 

Adventures with friends

Our new couple the Lambs, that replaced our friends the Stafford's who went home to Boise, had to go to Germany for some training. So we needed to stay here in Bosnia to take care of some things. We will not be able to spend as much time as we had hoped in Montenegro this month. Helen has been as to be our Church's official representative here in Bosnia. That means she has to sign all the legal papers for visas and apartments and such. She even has an official stamp that she has to stamp everything with. All she needs now is a sheriff's badge.

We have been looking at apartments because we are getting another set of young missionaries to work here in Sarajevo. We decided on one that is super nice. It will be the envy of all the other missionaries, but if it works to get them to want to come here, then it is worth it. 

This week transfers were announced on Thursday. that is when our young missionaries get moved around to different areas. We cover five countries and have about 75 young people that work in them. We as senior couples don't usually move but the young people do. So on our P-day (preparation day) we decided to do a little site seeing, in case if our young friends were to get transferred. 

We started out on our adventure by visiting "Tito's Bunker". It is only about 45 minutes from us. You should look it up online. It's amazing, it was built to house 350 people in case of a nuclear attack. They started it in 1953 and didn't finish it until 1979 at a cost of $5 billion. What a waste of money and effort. The amazing thing was it was kept completely a secret until 2011.

These are pictures of the outside. It looks like a normal house along a small country road but the walk in door and the garage door are the entrances to the bunker. You can see our wonderful Muslim tour guide. We asked her how it was kept a secret for so long and she said back then nobody asked questions even if something seemed odd.

This shows how long the halls are inside, I guess if 350 people were going to live and work in there it had to be big.

Next we went to Mostar to see our dear friend Ljubica, who lives there. She and Helen have become great friends.

We asked Ljubica who painted the pretty little picture behind them on the wall and she said a young sister missionary that had served in this mission a few years ago. When I looked closely at it, she had signed it. It was Callie Perrin who is from our home town in Idaho. How crazy is that, what a small world.

We also visited the Old Bridge in Mostar that is world famous. It was built by the Ottoman king when they conquered this area.

We finished the day with another very famous site near Blagaj. The monastery was built in 1520 by the Dervish. It is at the site where a large river comes out of the mountain.

We had a grand day, then on Thursday when the transfers were announced, none of our missionaries are being transferred. Well we had a fun day anyway.

Then on Friday it was March 14th which is Pi Day, 3.14. It t is one of Helen's favorite days of the year. Anyone who knows Helen knows how much she loves pie. She even sings a song about it.

Well you might say it was a very fulfilling week.

We did work also, it wasn't just all site seeing and baking - but those were very fun.

Zone Conference, Housekeeping and Friends

Our Monday started early, as we had planned with Elders McConkie and Liddle to drive to Belgrade early, rather than later in the day. This early departure allowed the elders to spend part of their P-day (preparation day) with the Belgrade Elders. It allowed us to spend our afternoon in exploring the city. After our arrival, we went by foot to visit the St. Sava Church. It was only a 15 minute walk from the hotel where we were staying. The weather was beautiful and it felt like spring. 

The St. Sava Church is The Church of St. Sava is the largest orthodox church in the Balkans and ranks in the top 5 largest in the world. It is a relatively new building, compared to some of the cathedrals we visited in Germany (groundbreaking 1935, finished 2004). 

St. Sava's church was built in Neo-Byzantine style in the shape of a Greek cross with a large dome in the middle - it creates an open floor space and vaulted ceiling. It does not have any benches or places to sit. It has 3 choir lofts, about 25 ft. off the floor. Each loft had the capacity to hold 700 singers (all standing) So a total capacity of 2100 singers. I would like to listen to a concert there. 

The walls and ceilings are all decorated in art frescos and millions of mosaic tiles, many of which are sparkly gold - making it quite ornate. There are depictions of many saints and depictions of the life of the Jesus Christ. (photography inside was prohibited. This photo was copied from Wikipedia)

As we left the church in search of something to eat, paused in front of a restaurant. A man spoke to us and said, "Are you looking for some ćevapi?" We told him we were. He smiled and said, "I recognize you as missionaries (pointing to our name badges) and know the BEST place. It is just around the next corner!" He was not a member of our faith but he and his friend had previously had good interactions with the missionaries and he kindly helped us. We have found the Balkan people to be very friendly and helpful. This was a great example our our overall experience. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday it was our missionary Zone conference. It was so good to be gathered with the other missionaries in our zone, both young and more experienced :-)

We had presentations and small group learning. 

We ate and stretched, when we needed a break. 

We fellowshipped and and visited. 

Tuesday night, we even played a version of 'Family Fued', missionary style - 

But most of all we felt God's love and had opportunity to consider how we can better invite others to "come unto Jesus Christ".

The rest of the week included many "housekeeping things" like a car inspection, so that the car registration could be completed and checking on a new missionary apartment. 

Elder and Sister Stafford left on their journey home on Tuesday, while we were in Belgrade. We will be forever grateful for their kindness to us - especially when we first arrived in Sarajevo. They were gentle guides who helped us settle in and mentored us in some of the ways a senior couple can serve, lift and bless. 

"Thank you" - is not big enough 💜

Elder and Sister Lamb are our new "upstairs" neighbors. They are no strangers to the Balkans - having served as a couple in this mission several years previous. Elder Lamb has an ever stronger connection, as he served here as a young missionary in the late 1970s. We are grateful for the experience they bring and we look forward to working with and coming to know them better.

Each day we count our blessings and are grateful for this time we have been given to serve here in the Balkans. The two great commandments are first, to love God and second, to love our fellowmen. Some days it is challenging, but it has been such a rich experience to learn what it looks and feels like to strive to keep those two commandments. 

Four countries and exciting events

Our week started out with us in Montenegro where we had been for a week. We headed back to Sarajevo on Monday by way of Croatia. We love the Dalmatian Coastline, it is very beautiful. With all of these border crossings our passport books are getting filled up. We will probably have to get new ones before we are done here.

Once we arrived back in Sarajevo we got right to work helping our young missionaries with their work. We spent as much time as we could with our friends, Elder and Sister Stafford

They left for their trip home on Tuesday March 4th. We are sad to see them leave. We have gotten to be great friends in only 3 months. We had a lunch after church on Sunday, so Helen and Sherry Stafford made sandwiches for our part. They could get jobs at Subway.

We are happy that as of late we have been able to help share our beliefs with several people that speak English. We had a friend from China, that chose make covenants with God through baptism a couple weeks ago. This week our friends Alper from Turkey and Michael from Sierra Leone decided to become members with us. Even though we are in Bosnia, we meet so many people from all around the world. People are allowed into Bosnia and Montenegro are fairly easily, so many come here in hopes of getting into the EU.

As we drive around Bosnia we see lot of reminders of the war, that was fought here from 1991-1995. It was a terrible thing that has left many scars on the cities. Even more damaging are the scars, both physically and mentally that it has left on the people. For the older people it is still very tender for them. We see graffiti all around saying "always remember" certain events or battles. There are large cemeteries almost everywhere you look. 

On March 1, Bosnia celebrates their Independence Day. There wasn't a lot of activities during the day that we saw, but at night they had a huge parade with lots of fireworks and noise. 

(Sorry this week's post is late. I forgot to mention but this week we left early Monday morning to go to Belgrade Serbia for meeting until Wednesday night. Our hotel room was in the corner of the building and we didn't have internet.)