Adriatic North Mission Christmas Conference

We started out our week with a lunch with all Red Cross leaders in the Tuzla Canton (which is like a county).  The church was recognized for their generous help.  People are always thanking us and it is a bit embarrassing because we are merely representatives of 14 million people and Church leaders who have made this work possible.  We try to help them understand the beauty of the work, but we feel most of it is lost in translation. 

On Wednesday we had a marathon English class.  We helped the Elders with two intermediate lessons and one advanced lesson.  We talked about our families.  We played games in the advanced class which were enjoyed by all.  These students have asked that the class go for an hour and 15 minutes instead of 45 minutes.  We had three classes on this day because we would not have a class on Thursday as we were leaving town. 

Thursday morning we along with our Elders left home very early and traveled to Zagreb, Croatia (a 4+hr. drive) for the Mission's Christmas Conference.  All the missionaries in the entire mission were in attendance.  We had a wonderful time!  It is especially great for us (the Winters and the Elders) because we do not have much contact with anyone else.  We arrived in Zagreb about 10AM.  The party started at 11AM so we had time to visit with the other senior couples.  We had a delicious lunch followed by some fun games. 

After a short break we met again in the chapel for a devotional.  There are 5 missionaries going home shortly (4 on the 29th December and 1 next month) .  Each was able to bear his testimony and share  feelings about their mission.  One of those missionaries was our Elder West.  We are going to miss him but look forward to getting a new missionary sometime this week.   Elder West will be going home to Vermont and leaving on Wednesday January 2 to go to Utah where he will continue his studies at BYU. 

We spent the night of Dec 20th in Zagreb as we were meeting with a Rehabilitation Therapy Center on Friday morning.  On Thursday night we went to downtown Zagreb where we walked around with another Humanitarian couple who work in Serbia.  It was quite fun as there were lights and holiday decorations everywhere.  Our meeting on Friday morning was actually to view a facility to see how the Church might be able to help a similar program in the city of Karlovac (Karl-lo-vats) which is about 40 minutes from Zagreb.  We will probably be able to work with them in getting some equipment for the program which is just getting started. 

 

We returned Friday evening and began Saturday morning to get ready for our baptismal service in the evening.  The services are held at one of the local hotels in their swimming pool.  The services are always held after the pool closes for the evening.  We had three baptisms.  A young man, his mother, and her sister were baptized.  So we now have 6 members in Tuzla. 

 

Thus ends another week.  We look forward to Christmas this week.  May we wish each of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Thursday marks the end of 7 months.  Time is going quickly.  We are happy to be busy and look forward to serving our fellowman in the coming year.