Spending our first weekend in Tuzla

We stayed Monday in Croatia as Gary had a doctor's appointment Tuesday morning in Zagreb.  They ran some blood tests to make sure nothing was wrong as Gary lost 15 lbs the first two weeks after we got here.  The tests came back normal so we guess it was just stress.  Anyway after the appointment on Tuesday we packed up the little car and headed out for Tuzla and the 5 hour drive one way. 
Wednesday was a real trial.  In the morning we went to the police station and started our registration process again.  This time for Bosnia.  In the afternoon we went to Posta (Post Office) to see about our Internet.  Which we did not get. On the way Gary had a 3/4 gold crown come off his tooth.  We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for a dentist.  No dentist was found that could correct the problem.  After the dentist we went to get some groceries.  At the checkout the girl told us our credit card did not work.  What else could go wrong?  Now you can see why he has lost weight.  Here we are in a country that we can not understand what they are saying, no Internet, and a crown that needs to be re-cemented.  As it turns out our landlord came by later that day and told us that he had ordered the Internet and then gave us the password to use his internet until we get ours.  The next day we went to get some gas and the credit card worked fine so it was just that store.   On Friday we drove to a Zone Conference in Saravego and we were able to visit a dentist who fixed Gary's tooth.  So your prayers in our behalf are working. 
I said that we have access to the Internet, that term is used very loosely.  We can only use one piece of equipment and the best signal is in the entryway of our apartment.

Sara sent us an email the other day reminding us of the counsel we received when we were set apart.  She also reminded us 'that the Lord trusts us and will not let us fail.  He is just helping us learn.  We can't really be grateful for his assistance if we didn't know what we were missing to begin with'.  Good thing we have people to remind us and help us to not become discouraged.

Today we held church in the Elders apartment downstairs.  We were hoping for two young men who once lived in Salt Lake City would come, but they did not show.  It was just us and the Elders.
Our missionaries are Elder Chandler from Meridian, Idaho and Elder West from Connecticut.  We hold the modified meeting here.  Sacrament meeting followed by Sunday School.  The Elders live in an apartment just below us so we do not have a big commute.  This afternoon we had the Elders to our apartment for dinner.

Last week as we read the Relief Society Newsletter it made us think of a garden project that they have in Karlovac, Croatia.  This is a project which involved the members of the Karlovac Branch.  The church has helped lease some land, erect a building and help with a pump so they can water their crops as well as help in purchasing the seeds.  There are about 10 families of the branch involved. Each family plants what they want  Gardening is done a little different here.  Notice how they stake their tomatoes. They cut up the plastic bags from the stores and use them to tie up the tomatoes. They also do companion gardening to make better use of the land.  (see the corn and beans)

Thus ends our first weekend in Tuzla.  If we had not had the limited access we have to the Internet, we would have had a pretty tough week, so we are truly thankful for what we have.  You should be thankful as well, or you would not be reading this.  Hopefully we have enough strength to publish this.  We shall see.  Next week we will return to Varaždin for another load.  The way it looks we think we can make it in two more trips.  Till next week doviđenja (goodbye).