Fireworks and Friends

We were back in Podgorica for the third week of the month. We arrive on Tuesday evening, ate some packaged soup from the pantry and thought we would go shopping the morning. On Wednesday we got up, dressed for the day and drove to the grocery store. When we arrived we saw plenty of cars, but no people. It was then we realized that all the stores/shops were closed. It was a national holiday, Montenegro's Independence Day. This was confirmed by the fireworks we saw from our balcony that evening. 

Hmmm! Ok, I guess its a good thing we had a few more things in the pantry. Some restaurants were open Thursday also happened to be a holiday and so still no shopping - LOL. We did find a 'pekera', a bakery on our morning walk, and so we were able to buy a loaf of bread. Some of the restaurants were open and so we ended up going to dinner with Elder and Sister Allan. This got us through until Friday, when we were able to go shopping. 

It was kind of a quiet work week - with the national holiday and exchanges visits for the young elder and sisters. But it was nice to catch our breath and have things be not quite so hectic. We taught our "Find a Better Job" class via Zoom, which we have very much enjoyed. 

Near the city center of Podgorica is a small cypress covered hill. Elder Allan taught us that in Serbian,  "pod" - means foot and "gorica" means hill. So Podgorica = at the foot of the hill. 

Sister Allan showed me one of her favorite places to walk - Gorica Park and we took a picture at the courtyard of the cute little Orthodox church. We have very much enjoyed the friendships we have made with other senior couples. We so appreciate the frienship and care we have received from Elder and Sister Allan in Montenegro 💜 We have solved challenges, eaten meals together and shared our commitment to Jesus Christ. 

On Sunday, i had the opportunity to speak in worship service/Sacrament Meeting. I spoke about our opportunity and charge to care for each other, to minister to each other. Under the organization the Lord has revealed - members of the church have the assignement care for each other, usually in companionships. Sisters minister to sisters and men are assigned to watch over families. This arrangement blesses both the giver and receiver and helps us keep the commandment to "love our neighbor, as ourselves". Young Sister Doman was gracious in translating my talk for me, as I spoke. I am grateful for the language skills of the young elders and sisters. 

After Sacrament Meeting, I taught the young primary children. We had Tina's two boys and Miss Emi. We had a fun time learning about how to follow the example of Jesus - in puzzles, games, lessons and songs. We then "broke bread" together as we shared a meal. There was time for visiting and getting to know each other better. 

New Assignment means more countries to visit

 I have been a slacker this week with the blog. Well really we have been traveling so much that it's hard to find time to sit down and post on the blog. We received a new assignment from our Mission Leaders last week. Up till now we have been working in two countries, Bosnia and Montenegro. We have been working mostly with the local members of our church and helping the young missionaries teach their friends. We are loving what we do. For example last week we went to Mostar again for our monthly visit there. We visited our friend Ljubica, who is an absolute gem. But we have two of our young missionaries who have been with us in Sarajevo since we arrived here that will be transferred so we hit the famous bridge one last time.

After helping with transfers we worked on a new online course we are starting. It's "How to find a job", as unemployment is fairly high here and it's hard for people from other countries to find employment. It is who you know, not what you know here. 

We have been getting some training on our new assignment and starting this last Monday we hit the road running, literally. There are 25 senior couples like ourselves serving here and three single seniors. There has been one couple who are assigned to work with them all and be the go between for our Mission Leaders. Well, that couple is going home in a couple of weeks so we have been asked to fill that spot. It means we will travel to all five countries now. That is a two edged sword, we will enjoy getting to know all the other seniors better and to see all the countries. It also means we will have to travel to all five countries. We will get in a lot of windshield time. We started out Monday morning by traveling to Zagreb Croatia for a two day leadership meeting. We got all trained and the other couple we replaced handed everything off to us. We were drinking from a firehose again. We learned a valuable lesson on our way to Croatia, always keep some snacks and drinks in your car. We were stuck in line for 2 1/2 hours at a border crossing.

It is Spring and everything gets greener each day. We saw some new things on our travels this week. One exciting part of our new job is we actually get to drive fast on freeways instead of goat trails. We had to stop and take a picture of this huge nut. It was in front of a nut and bolt factory. On our way back to Sarajevo we brought the luggage for our two new missionaries so they wouldn't have to haul everything on the bus with them.

We are trying to finish up a few things here this weekend because we will be on the road the next two weeks working our way through the whole Mission going to meetings and meeting with new couples who have recently arrived. We are supposed to train them, (like we know what we are doing). 

Time is sure going fast, this week marks our 1/3 mark and I think it will only go faster with everything we are cramming it to our schedule.

We did have time for a nice lunch yesterday with two other of our favorite couples, the Lambs who live right above us and the Bates who are here for a few days. They mainly work in Turkey but have to leave the country every couple of weeks because they can't get a visa. In the last six months they have made 18 trips in and out of Turkey. Next month they have to fly to Bangkok Thailand with a group from Turkey. I guess our job isn't as crazy as their assignment.

We are truly loving what we are doing here. We were talking today on our walk (yes, Helen has me walking with her) and we feel we are making a difference by being here. We love the people that we have come to know and we love our Savior more each day as we see His help in these people's lives.

The Montenegrin Coast

Sister Cordray, the wife of President Cordray (our mission president) encourages the missionaries to take good care of their bodies and minds, while on their mission. So, in the spring and in the fall; she organizes a mission-wide 5K. On the appointed day, all missionaries across the mission (young and old) participate in their assigned area. We were in Montenegro the day of the 5K, so we and Elder and Sister Allan participated with the Podgorica elders and sisters. 

As a district, we had decided to get up early and drive out to the beautiful city of Herceg Novi, near the bay of Kotor. 

The Elders Biehn and McGraw rode with the Allans and Sisters Sundell and Porter rode 2 ½ hour drive with us. There is a beautiful 6K walkway along the water and this is where the young elders and sisters ran their 5K..."On your marks, Get set, Go!"

Elder Allan, also walked most of the route. Lot and I and Sister Allan had the nearly impossible task of finding parking (which is NOT easy) and to meet them at the finish line. And lest you think we were slackers, when we checked the step tracker at the end of our day, we also got in our 5K+, hiking from the parking spaces and down the steep stairs to the shore. 

When the run was done, we were met by Venessa and Duško, who live in Herceg Novi. Venessa treated us to some very delicious carrot cupcakes. 

Duško, who was raised in the area and has been a city guide, graciously showed us around. We visited Forte Mare, which sits on the entrance to the Bay of Kotor. It is a fortress built in the 14th century and has scenic views of the city and the water.  

And after expending all that energy, we bought pizza for a late lunch. It was a great day!

As we traveled back to Podgorica, we enjoyed the photos shared from across the mission. We saw a picture of the Sarajevo missionaries, who had run along the Miljacka River, on Wilson Promenade. We wished we could have been in two places at once.

The mission chat was flooded with pictures/videos that showed missionaries running along the shore, the streets and lakeside. It was good for our bodies and a great unifier in the mission. 

Mid-wee, Lot had the flu and then so kindly (NOT!), shared it with me. Oh, well – we both survived, and I just chalk it up as one of the consequences of having a “physical body”, that for the most part, functions in a quite miraculous ways. When I have recovered from being sick, I am always a little more grateful for my body.   

Our week also was filled with evening classes at the church, office/housekeeping tasks and walks through the city from our apartment to the church. 

On Friday, were back at the coast, on the south end, near Bar. We went to visit our member friend, Tina and her two boys. We first met her in the branch in Sarajevo. She has since moved to Montenegro. As we drove south on the costal highway, we turned away from the sea and headed up the mountain. When we didn’t’ think we could go any higher up the mountain, we made it to her house. She has a breathtaking view from her patio, we almost thought we could see Itay – lol.  

Along the coast, the mountains rise steeply out of the sea.

  

The other thing we did one evening was visit the Niagra Falls of Montenegro. (not quite as big as the ones in North America, but lovely just the same. 

The river  meanders through the agricultural part of the valley. As we drove we saw fields of freshly cut hay (Lot said, "just the smell made him itchy" - LOL), acres of grape vines and endless groves of olive trees. It really is so beautiful and it makes a farmer's heart happy to see things growing. 

On Saturday, back to Sarajevo. We are getting pretty good at the drive and what once seemed "like death defying road conditions", now are more familiar and not near as scary - lol. Because we know that route, we can relax a little and enjoy the scenery. 

Our Sunday worship service was our monthly "testimony" meeting, where members of the congregation can share their feelings about Jesus Christ, His gospel and how those things impact their lives. Our hearts were tender as we listened to Elder Liddle and Sister Gunson, who will leave Sarajevo on Tuesday. (In contrast to Senior/old missionaries, the young elders and sisters are assigned to labor in a certain city for a time and then are transfered to another city, with a new companion). These two young missionaries arrived in Sarajevo only 2 weeks after we arrive in December. Their goodness to us cannot be underscored. We are excite for them to have new experiences and grow in new ways, but we will miss them. 

Sunday afternoon, we were also happy to witness the baptism of Nadžad. He is a friend who has been studying with the missionaries and has now chosen to make covenants with God. 

Spring has come to the Balkans

This week we did the "move" again. We started out in Sarajevo, where had been for two weeks. On Tuesday we drove to Podgorica in Montenegro for two weeks. Before we left Sarajevo, on Monday which is our young missionaries Preparation Day each week, we decide to go for a hike in the mountains. They wanted to hike up to the highest village in Bosnia. You have to remember these are 18 year old youth. I wasn't so excited about the hike but I kept a good attitude about it. We all decided that we would only go as far as we felt we could. It was very beautiful and the wild flowers were out in full bloom. I kept loosing Helen, she would wonder off taking pictures of flowers. Below is a collage of her pics. Also the young elders ran out of water so instead of drinking out of the spout with spring water coming out of the mountain they drank out of the stock tank. Wonder how that will end? (They were using their water filter)

These mountains reminded me of the movie "Man from Snowy River" they are rugged and as you can see it was clear and sunny but an hour later it started to thunder and lightning and then cloudbursts. When we decided we were going to turn around because we made it to the top of the summit and the rest of them went down to the next valley floor. I'm not the smartest guy in the world but I knew if there is only one trail and it goes down then you have to climb back up later. We rested and enjoyed the day before our decent back to the parking lot.

On our way up the mountain we saw the Olympic downhill ski resort from a distance and thought it was neat. The road took us right to it. It has been developed it into a huge resort.

We took our new favorite route to Montenegro through the Sutjeska National Park. We had our young sisters with us and they were amazed at the size of the mountains. They are usually asleep before we hit the city limits, but they stayed awake to see the sites on this trip. I wouldn't let them take any Dramamine like they usually do. I think they take it because of my wild driving.

After we made it to Podgorica we needed to go visit the Relief Society President. She is over the women's organization of the Branch in Montenegro. I always think it's funny because she only speaks Russian and Helen doesn't. I'm not sure how they ever get their messages across to each other but that doesn't slow them up. I was enjoying the coastal beauty of the area where she lives. I saw these signs in a park that said to stay off the grass. Well you can  see for yourselves how well that is working our for them.

 

Signs and driving rules are more like suggestions at best here.

On our way home we stopped at Sveti Shefan, a small island just off the mainland that when the locals built it as a fort to keep the gold in that they robbed from the Ottoman armies. It is a solid city that was never conquered. The walkway was a modern addition before the only access was by boat. The gardens on the shore were so lush and green it reminded me of Hawaii. 

             

If you are wondering, yes, we do work not just sightsee! But we have learned if we don't take a few minutes to stop and see the sights, then we may never get back. Life is full of unknowns.