Another week of travel, meetings and visitors from Idaho

This week we were blessed to have a Mission Tour from Elder Jack Gerrard. He is a General Authority w ur church, and the fun thing is he was raised in Mud Lake, Idaho. I didn't know anything good came from Mud Lake except for hay. haha The meetings we were in were all very uplifting. 

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We did a lot of border crossings this week, I think there was five times we crossed. August is the month that Europe shuts down and goes on vacation. Guess where all the poeple from the northern part of Europe go? Yep to the Balkans, so the crossings are from 1-4 hour waiting time. I do many things well, but picking the fastest line to get in doesn't seem to be of my gifts. 

At one crossing we saw several old open top Model-T type cars. They had signs on them that said London to Signapore road rally. I thought that couldn't possibly be true but some young elders stopped at the same gas station as them and yes they were driving these hundred year old cars that whole way. They had planned for it to take 3 months to complete. 

We had to stay in Belgrade for two extra nights to do other assignments. The first night we met up with another couple to visit for a bit. While we were visiting we could see a large bod of people gathering in the next block. Afer a while the Parkinsons, he other couple, said they should get home while they still could. They knew what was going on. The next morning they sent us articles from the news that showed they were anti government protestors. They clashed with the police and the police used tear gas and flash grenades to break them up. 

The next night we were coming back into the city from being in another town and we couldn't get back to our hotel because the police had he roads blocked. We were on the south side of town so we drove clear around to the North side, we got to the block where out hotel was, tree building away the the police wouldn't let us go on. So we drove down a side strret and found one street still open that the police were using to move more police in so we went down it and right in front of our hotel was one parking space open. 

There weren't any others for blocks. Heavenly Father does loves us. I went into the middle of the street to take these pictures of the riot police in their riot line and the protestors who had just overrun the police cars down the block. Helen made me come inside the hotel. She was no fun :-( 

When we got back to Sarajevo we had a fun treat, three of the Perrin sibling from our home town of Grangeville had come to visit Sarajevo. Callie had served here a few years ago as a young missionay and had come back with her sister Elise and brother Kade. They had two college roommates as well. They spent the weeked with us. They were sleeping all over our apartment. Helen was so happy to have some friends she knew from Idaho here. 

This week is our half way mark in our mission. Wow how did that happen? It seems like we just arrived here last week. As we look ahead at the calendar we don't see any let up in our schedule. Sometimes we wake up and don't know what country we are in (LOL), but we like staying busy!

Lukomir, the Highest Inhabited Village in Bosnia

On P-day, our whole Sarajevo district of missionaries went to Lukomir, the highest inhabited village in Bosnia.

It's about a 2 hour drive to the SW and past the 1984 Olympic ski villages on Ingman Mountain. The scenic drive is mostly paved up until the last 16 KM of gravel road - then it's REALLY slow going. Lukomir sits in the middle of the Dinaric Alps and at the edge of a very deep canyon. 

The scenery is wild and rugged. We saw shepherds tending their sheep and on the way back, the band of wild horses that inhabits the area. 

Those who live in the village welcomed us and invited us to purchase hand-knitted hats, mittens and slippers. There are about 10 families who live there, but becuase of the elevation, most relocate during the worst of winter. They had larege lovely gardens, filled with potatoes, onions and cabbage. We had packed a lunch and enjoy eating the beautiful sunshine. 

As we got ready to go, I observed an partly open door into the kitchen to the "Pansion-Restoran, Kod Rehe i Zejnila" (a bed n breakfast/restaurant) 

The woman proprietor was making "burek" and allowed me to snap a few pictures of the process. I was delighted!

I've written about burek before and I've eaten may fair share of burek, but I've never seen it made. Burek is a meat filled dough. The dough is very thin, almost like filo. This woman had rolled her homemade dough very thinly, on a table covered in a flour-dusted sturdy cloth. When the dough was paper thin, she sprinkles bits of uncooked meat in a line. She then carefully started to roll the dough around the line of meat. 

After she had started the process with her hands, she lifted the cloth, to roll the entire log together (super smart idea!). When the meat had been encased by 2 rotations, she trimmed the dough and spiraled the burek log, like a snail, into a round metal pan. She was very skilled at this technique and I could tell she had made burek for many many years. I wished I was going to be around for dinner!

I am grateful she was willing to let me watch and take a few pictures.  

A few more pics, 

And some "fun and games" with the young missionaries and jumping pictures. 

The young missionaries hiked down the canyon from Lukomir to Ummoljani. Elder Lamb read about some ancient tombstones on the way to Lukomir - so while the young missionaries were hiking, we stopped to check them out. The midieval "stecci"/tombstones date about 12th century. Most were very weather worn, but on a few, one could see carved ornamentation. 

It was a super fun day!

Back in Sarajevo - Hooray

We drove back from Montenegro on Monday. It feels nice to be back in the mountains where it is 30 degrees cooler. It is so hot and dry in Montenegro that there are wildfires everywhere. Some right in town and many in the mountains. They suppress the ones close to towns but the ones out away they just let them burn. We drove right by one that seemed to be started by a smoker, since it started right on the road and burned up the hill. There was one we stopped and watched that a retardant plane was dumping on. It brought back lots of memories from my days on fire.

One thing that drives me nuts here is how and where people park their cars. When these cities were built very few people owned cars so there are few parking spots so people park anywhere. If there isn't any place else they just stop in the middle of the road and put on their 4-way flashers and get out and go into the stores. It takes two people to drive here. One to drive the car and the other to watch for parked cars and pedestrians that don't even look they just walk out in front of you like they own the road.

This weekend there was an international Folk Fest here in Sarajevo. Yes since it was music, Helen was not to be deterred from going. There were a couple of group that even had a bass, so she was happy for that. There were dance groups from 14 countries around Europe with authentic costumes and dances. It was fun but they had the music so loud it was worse than a rock concert.

We went to visit this 84 year old lady that we know who lives up in the mountains by herself, except for her 20 cats. Every time we go visit her, we ask her how she is feeling and she always says "Oh I will probably die later today". But she is still there the next time we go. She doesn't speak English, only Bosnian and German so we have to talk to her in German. Her husband died last August so she really misses him. This week it was amazing how she perked up by the end of our visit. So I don't think she died that day.

Saturday was Elder Lamb's birthday, he turned the big 65. So we went with them and the six young missionaries to eat cevapi, a local favorites. It's like 'Little Smokies' that you eat with onions and kaymak in a flatbread. 

We really are having a wonderful time. We see God's blessing in our lives everyday. There are awesome people here that we have come to love. We feel very blessed in what we are doing

Congratulations! and Time marches forward.

The most joyful part of our week was the marriage of our oldest grandchild, Ellie Jane. We extend our best "Congratulations" to Ellie Jane Harrison and Wilson Russell Lybbert, who were married and sealed in Idaho Falls Temple We are grateful to our daughter Nicole (and Google Meet) that we were able to join our family in celebration, as they came out of the temple. 

We believe that in the temple, a husband and wife can be sealed together eternally, that their marriage can last forever. Governmental authority can join a couple only "til death do us part". We believe that by priesthood authority and through covenants with God, loving family relationships will last beyond the grave. This is the sacred purpose of temples. We believe that families are eternal. 

It tugged at a Nana's heart not to be there in person, but we are so grateful for the technology that allowed us to join remotely.  (Please indulge me as a post a few the my favorite pics. )

The beautiful bride and her parents (our daughter and son-in-law) 

The bride's 3 brothers - being very handsome and helpful 😊

The new couple with the bride's cousins (19 of those amazing humans are our grandchildren). I love the cousins holding/helping cousins 🩷 🩷 🩷

We were in Podgorica all this week. On Tuesday it was transfer day for the young missionaries. We met early at the airport and said "Zbogom/Farewell" to Elder Koskialho and Sister Doman (who had been assigned to labor in another area of the mission). 

Elder Wright was companions with Elder Smith for the day and Sister Reese and I worked together until their new companions arrived later in the afternoon. The young missionaries go weekly to the "Dom Stari/Retirement Home" and do service. They visit with the residents or play game. That day, Sister Reese and I taught a few residents to play Uno. It was great fun! My Serbo-Croatian language skills are broad enough to know the 4 colors and the numerals, 0-9; so I did just fine - LOL. 

On Friday we traveled with Elder and Sister Allan's to the coast. The Allan's visited the hospital  where the church had donated medical equipment. We then drove to Herceg Novi to spend a little time one of our members. 

In the afternoon, we took some 'p-day time' and did some sight-seeing. Kotor has a "walled" old town, with a honest-to-goodness moat. Kotor has a deep water port and there was a large cruise ship, pulled right up to the city gate. We did a bay tour, stayed the night in the old walled city and had great time together. 

Elder and Sister Allan will finish their mission and return to their home in America this next week. On Sunday, we heard them share their love for their fellowman and their testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will miss them. We are grateful for the friendships we have made with the other senior missionaries (but that is a topic for a different week).

(the same place where Lot and I were married near 45 year ago in October).