Things Shall Give Thee Experience

Monday, the 13th, we had a meeting with the Mayor of Tuzla.  The meeting was basically to introduce ourselves to the Mayor and let him know why we are here and what we would like to do for the community.

The Smartts, Winters, Edina (translator) Anna and Jessica Rowe
Elders West, Shillabeer, and Chandler, Jasmin Imamovic (Mayor), Rowes and niece Audrey

 
After our meeting we returned to our apartment where we had interviews with President Rowe.  Gary and President Rowe went out and bought a desk and office chair for our computer.

The Maughans, the Humanitarian couple from Serbia came over on their way to Sarajevo.  We had a wonderful night in the town centar.

Elder and Sister Maughan, Jessica, Anna, Sister Rowe, Audrey, Susan and Gary

The next morning the Maughan's went to Sarajevo and we stayed in Tuzla because of restrictions following the accident.  When the Maughans returned late Tuesday afternoon, they had all kinds of information about potential water projects and the upcoming Neonatal Resuscitation Training.

On Wednesday Elder Mattson and Elder Baldwin brought our computer equipment down from Varaždin and set it up.  Earlier in the day Gary had bought a mobile Internet device, so they set up the computer and printer.  It was like Christmas morning for us when it worked.  (It was slow, but it worked).

Thursday we were out checking out hotels for the people who will be coming from Frankfurt this coming week when we received a phone call from Elder Smartt telling us that we would be having the internet installed at 2:30.  We hurried home and waited and they came.  It was fantastic! 

Friday we went with the Elders to the Red Cross.  We arranged to have the Red Cross take us to some of the organizations they work with when the Leonards come on Friday.  The Elders will be able to do service at the Red Cross.

Today we had a sister from Bijeljina come to church.  She is a member and has been going to Beograd (Belgrade) but it takes twice as long and she has to cross the border to get there.  She has only been going twice a month because of the cost to go.  Tuzla is only an hour away and no border to cross.  She brought her husband as well.  He is not a member.  We also had an investigator come.  If our attendance continues to grow, we will have to look for a place to hold church instead of in the Elders apartment.  But that would not be too bad.  They need a place to teach English classes anyway.

We are grateful for your prayers in our behalf.  We know many of you fasted and prayed for us.  Our names have been put on the prayer roll at the temple as well.  We can not express adequately the comfort that we have received and know that it was because of your prayers.  We now have the Internet and we are trying to focus on what "we can do" while we work out the accident complications.  Your prayers in our behalf are appreciated. 

The challenges are great, but we know that the Lord is mindful of us.  Through this we have met some wonderful people,   One of them is an attorney, Emir.  Emir is Muslim and has been working with the Smartts in Sarajevo to help the church become a recognized religion in Bosnia.  As we were talking the other day he said, "all of this has happened for a reason, we just do not know why yet."
Yes, all these things shall give us experience.

Thank you for remembering us.