Saturdays are usually our "P" (preparation) days as we always seem to have meetings on Monday mornings. This week we used Monday as our "P" day since we spent Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday in the car. Remember we took Elder West to Zagreb and picked up Elder Genther. Saturday we went to Sarajevo and picked up the new car and then on Sunday night we delivered our "old" car to the Croatian border where President and Sister Rowe met us and took the car so that another couple who lives in Croatia could use it. Our new car is licensed in Bosnia. The drive to the border was interesting as it was dark and there are no street lights. It was also very foggy, you could see about 50 feet in front of you. So on Monday we were to the church building where we mopped the floors, straighten out our storage closet, and cleaned the bathrooms. For some reason, dust accumulates very quickly here. We also had to do grocery shopping as the stores were closing early on Monday and would be closed all day on Tuesday.
From what we understand, there is the usual party and celebrating just the same as at home for New Years Eve. Then on New Years Day people go visit their relatives. Gifts are also given on New Years Day. We spent a very quiet evening at home and went to bed about 10pm. However we knew when it was midnight as there was lots of noise outside. When we went to bed we could hear music coming from somewhere in the center of town. At 2:30am they were still going strong. Wednesday we spent the day setting up a new printer that had been sent to us from Germany. It is now all set up, but just one problem, it is in German. Luckily when we inserted the CD Rom to set it up there was an option for English. We have not figured out how to change the language on the printer, but we can copy, scan, and print. We can read the pictures and eventually we will learn what those other words mean. Thank goodness for Google Translate! We had the Elders over for dinner on New Years. No traditional fondue this year, we had home-made Chinese instead.
Thursday we drove 3 hours to Banja Luka to visit the Safe House as the kitchen cabinets previously purchased had been installed. They look very nice and it seems that they make a difference.
The old cabinets
The new cabinets
Staff, Winters and Goodsells
We also talked with some people about the need for water filters in some villages close to the Croatia border where the chemicals used for agriculture have contaminated the soil and drinking water. We spent the night at another senior couples' (Goodsells) home. Friday we visited a Children's Home (orphanage) and discussed the possibility of doing a project with them.
Children on playground at Children's Home
We returned to Tuzla about 4:30 PM just as it was getting dark. Saturday was spent as it always is; getting ready for Sunday. Our Fast Sundays are difficult. Fasting is a principle we are still trying to teach our members. We have to take it in "baby steps", but the people are coming along just fine. We usually have a practice song between Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School. Today we did Sunday School first. Elder Genther gave an excellent lesson on the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement. Our practice song was learning a new Sacrament song. The song we had chosen was "I Stand All Amazed". Guess we were listening to the spirit because it was perfect after Elder Genther's lesson. The spirit was strong as we began learning the song.
That does it for our week. We have had usually warm weather as opposed to the weather in Utah. Our temperature has been in the 40's where in Utah it has been in the 20's & 30's. That is okay with us as our landlord forgot to sign up for central heating so we heat our apartment with the heat pump in the air conditioner. We feel we are being watched over and blessed. Till next week . .
You are busy little Bosnian bees. I want to know what Chinese food you made. Sounds like you had a relaxing holiday and got right back to work. We're proud of you and know you'll be working hard throughout 2013!
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