ASK THE MiSSIONARIES

We started Saturday morning October 6th as we do every Saturday, getting ready for Sunday.  This week we were getting ready for conference as well  We checked the computer and made sure we have all the current software so that we would be able to watch conference.

           Elder West, Gary and Elder DeFreitas getting ready for conference

 



Isn't modern technology wonderful?  Yesterday at 6pm our time (10am Salt Lake) we were able to turn on our computer and watch conference LIVE!  It was nothing short of a miracle.  We were able to hear history being made without any delay.  How exciting.  The broadcast came through strong and clear without any difficulties.  We chose to download the Saturday Afternoon Session and watch it for church today.  The second session would have started at 10Ppm our time and go till midnight.  We will watch the Sunday Morning Session live at 6pm this evening.  We will then download the Sunday Afternoon Session tomorrow and watch it for Home Evening.
What was our favorite talk from yesterday morning after President Monson's announcement?  Elder Nelson's  "Ask the Missionaries".

   Our conference live-stream broadcast

 

August through December we have lots of birthdays in our family.   We to want wish three of our eight (almost nine) grandchildren a Happy Birthday. 

     Dallin turned 2 on August 24th.  He is singing "Happy Birthday to Me".

On September 27th Landon turned 5.  He is showing us his birthday presents.

Yesterday, October 6th James turned 4.  Here he is leading "If the Savior Stood Beside Me".  As the choir finished singing and President Uchtdorf stood up to announce the speaker my iPad binged us this wonderful picture.

 

 

Our daughter Rebecca and her husband Jordan share the same birthday.

Their birthday was on the 24th of September.

 

These precious little ones are such a joy to our lives. We thank The Lord for them daily and are so thankful for their wonderful parents who are doing such a good job raising them. They send us pictures and videos which helps Gram Gram and Papa through the "down" times. We miss being able to celebrate with them, but thankfully we do have the convenience of modern technology so we have been able to send them birthday messages, singing grams and Skype with them. It is just that their attention span is only about 30 seconds so it is hard on their parents. They have quite a challenge keeping them from touching the computer. But we so appreciate their efforts and it helps this Grandma a lot.

The week was spent looking for a location to hold church which is closer to the center of town. It has been narrowed down to three and now is being narrowed down to one. It will have to be approved by others before we can make a commitment on renting the space.

We also visited with several of the organizations, proposed projects and were thankful that their projects were approved. Now they need to get 3 bids so we can make purchases for the supplies. There is lots of paperwork to be done and procedures that need to be followed so that everything goes smoothly. Thankfully we have a checklist that helps us get it all done.

Speaking of checklists, we have been working on getting all the paper work and necessary things done so that we can apply for our Bosnian Visa. On  Friday we were able to get some very important documentation so now we are ready.

We have filled our all the forms in Blue ink, ALL CAPS, and in Bosnian as much as we can.

We have our background checks, Apostitle, and insurance information translated into Bosnian and all has been stamped and certified.

We have been to the hospital and had many tests done and all the forms are stamped and certified as well.

 

We have new passports pictures.  US size is too big.

We are awaiting an invitation letter which is in the mail from the NGO (which is church here) and we will turn in our papers. Hopefully by the end of the week.

 

All the important paperwork and documents.

We also got news that our car is repaired. We need to take care of the paper work so that the insurance company which is in Ljubljana, Slovenia pays the car repair company here in the correct currency.  Our Father Heaven has been watching over us. We prayed and fasted last week if our upcoming trip to Croatia was important that everything would fall into place and even a miracle would happen. Our prayers have been answered, the meeting is important and we will be able to go to Croatia next Sunday afternoon after Church. We will be meeting with several doctors, the Ministry of Health, Red Cross and two NRT specialists from Salt Lake to set up a Neonatal Resuscitation Training for next year in the fall.

Can you believe we have been on our mission for 4 months now? We want to thank everyone for all their fasting, prayers, and notes of encouragement during these challenging few months. We know that we are blessed because of your prayers in our behalf. Thank you again so much. 

 

We bear testimony that The Lord is mindful of each and everyone us.  He knows us by name, He knows of our struggles, doubts. and inner most thoughts and desires.  He knows the plan. Through the Holy Ghost He will help us to do what we need to do.  He can and will make up the difference, of this we have no doubt.