Too busy to post on our blog!!!

Instead of posting a week behind I figured i would just play catch up and post two weeks worth. We have had seven new couples arrive in our Mission in the past 3 weeks. We are chasing all over the place to help them get acclimated to their new lives here in the ANM. Driving here is very exhausting so by the time we get to our hotel for the night or home, we are trashed.

Week before last was transfers in our Mission. We had 13 young missionaries go home because they finished their time here. Two had been with us in Sarajevo. We will miss them a lot. Sister Pack is on the far right and Elder McLeod is the one in the coat. They can return home knowing they did a fantastic job here. They sprinted to the finish line. Elder McConkie, the seven footer, got transferred to Serbia. He was not happy to leave here. 

We got three new missionaries to replace them though, so I'm sure we will come to love them just as much. Two of them are straight from home. They look so young and scared but they are prepared to go to work.

One of our stops to meet with a new couple was in the famous tourist city of Split. It is so awesome there this time of year. We spent the night there. One evening we took in a walk around town and our first swim in the Adriatic Sea. There is a palace in the middle of town that that belong to a Roman Emperor built in 293 AD.

Last week we were in Podgorica, Montenegro again. We try to spend half our time there but with all the traveling we are doing for training we are only getting down there a week or so per month. We went to dinner with our friend, Nenad. He had recommended a restaurant that serves local cuisine. He warned us the serving sizes were big but, we weren't ready for what we got. He laughed when we ordered salads and a loaf of bread also. 

One day we had planned to go to Bar, which is a town on the coast, not a drinking establishment. haha The two people we had planned to visit had things come up that they had to attend to, so we took a little sightseeing adventure. We found an olive tree that is said to be one of the oldest in existence, so we checked it out. It has been checked with a core sample and is  2240 years old. This tree was living before the birth of Christ. The city has built a nice garden around it, with a fence to protect it. It used to be a favorite place for men to meet and visit and drink. As the story goes one night it was cold so they decided to start a fire under the tree. Yes you can guess how that ended. Part of it started on fire but they got it put out.

We finished out our stay in Montenegro by helping with a service project that Elder and Sister Allan had arranged with the local Red Cross. It actually wasn't the local chapter, they were in a city 2 hours up in the mountains right on the border with Albania. We delivered and handed out a truck load of food to several Roma families, who are refugees from the Kosovo war. 

When you see the living conditions of these people it makes you very grateful for what we have in our lives. I find myself giving increased gratitude to my Lord for where I was born. I would like to bring all the spoiled young people in America over here and let them see that what they have is actually pretty good. It does cause us to reflect on our priorities in life.

One of our greatest Joys

This past week or so has been busy with some of our regular missionary work - teaching a "Find a Better Job" class over Zoom, visiting members of the congregation and preparing lessons. But in this post, I am going share one of the greatest joys that we experience - the joy of relationships. 

When we served our first mission, an unexpected joy was that we became life-long friends with some of the other missionaries serving in Germany; both young and senior. With some missionaries, our hearts will be eternally tied together - because of our shared experiences and service.  Since we got home from Germany; we've met for weekend retreats, gone to dinner, sent wedding gifts and kept in touch. 

Our experience this time is also filled with personal connections. Only this time, we have had much more interaction with the young elders and sisters. We've shared meals, driven to meetings, shared fun sight-seeing P-day activities, counseled together and labored together to invite others to make covenants with God. We've given and received gifts, been taught and helped teach lessons and encouraged and been lifted up. Together, we've served, studied and prayed.

We greatefully give a "huge shout out" to the young missionaries for their gracious willingness to help us with "language" tasks that are beyond our current Bosnian skills. They proof read flyers to make sure we are not saying something offensive or crazy. They provided live translation for our talks when we give the message or our testimonies in Sacrament Meeting. They have helped us understand parking tickets and traffic signs.

Today, Lot and I counted. In the congregations of Sarajevo or Podgorica, we have served with over two dozen amazing young missionaries and 3 senior couples. This does not count the interaction we've had mission-wide, with the 75 +/- young elders and sisters and the 51 senior missionaries. 

So today, I will just post some pictures of these amazing human beings - that have blessed our lives forever. 

On the road again

As the Willy Nelson song go "On the road again" that seams to describe our life here. It was two weeks ago when we left Sarajevo for our first trip around our Mission. We went to Montenegro for a week to help with the work there which Helen talked about last time. So this week we drove from Podgorica to Belgrade, Serbia. It was a road that we hadn't been on before, the scenery was breathtaking. 

 Once we got to Belgrade we entered the address of the hotel that we always stay at. It was then that I realized that the hotel we stay at has 4 hotels in town with the same name. Oops, instead of being one block from the church we were at one that was 45 minute walk. Helen thought is was great because she got in her morning walk. Me, I was mad at myself the whole way. I won't make that mistake again.

At our Zone conferences we have between 70-100 people. We have had an awesome couple who cooks the meals for us all at these meetings. They are Elder and Sister Lane, but sadly they are at the end of their time here. Sister Lane wanted to go out with a bang so they made a huge buffet table for us.

It was fun to see the expressions of the young people when they came in to eat. They were told that something special had been prepared but weren't told what it was.

They really enjoyed the hard work by the Lanes.

 

After our meetings in Belgrade we drove 450 kilometers to Zagreb Croatia and did it all over again for the other half of the Mission. Our only official assignment at they meetings was to meet with our senior missionaries to hold a meeting to discuss any problems and to share the new instructions for them from our Mission President. 

We love getting to know all the missionaries throughout our Mission. We have gotten seven new couples in the last month that have arrived here. They are spread out through all five countries and one of our responsibilities is to go and do some training with them. We are excited to see more of these beautiful countries and to get to know the new couples but it does take us away from our own cities were we love working with the people we have come to know. I think it's all Helen's fault we got this additional assignment, she is such an over achiever. I am just the chauffeur. Really, we are loving this experience so much, it's hard work but so rewarding. Like it says in the scriptures "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God". 

Don't pass up an opportunity to help someone in need. God will bless you for it.