Representatives from the different Red Cross offices came to pick up their chairs. We had a young lady come to get her chair. Fatma is 16 years old. She was only able to attend primary school and then was not able to go to secondary school because of her disability. But that did not stop her. She has competed in the Special Olympics and won 3 gold medals in swimming and table tennis. She told us that is now learning archery. She has also written 3 different books which she gave us a copy of.
As part of the "ceremony" we were interviewed by Bosnian National TV. After the ceremony everyone loaded their wheelchairs into cars and vans to distribute to those in need. Later that night at English class sign-up one of the students from a previous class commented that he had seen us on TV.
Wednesday we drove to Croatia where we met with the Croatian Red Cross in Zagreb on Thursday morning. We discussed a wheelchair distribution for Croatia and talked about our ongoing well cleaning project. We also started putting together an area project where we will buy materials for hygiene kits and have the local church branch and young adults in Zagreb assemble them. This will give the church members in Zagreb the opportunity to serve and help the Red Cross with hygiene kits for their emergency response efforts.
After our meeting Thursday morning we went to the Mission Office. We missed our new elders by just a few minutes. They had just caught a bus to go to Tuzla. The bus ride from Zagreb to Tuzla is 5 1/2 hours long. Our new missionaries are Elder Quinn from Dallas, Texas and Elder Compton from Mesa, Arizona. Sorry, no pictures till next week. Can you believe it, we have 4 elders now? We were told that we would be getting new missionaries. Last week we went apartment hunting and found them a great apartment just around the corner from our church in the center of town. We also went shopping to get them dishes, silverware, pots and pans, bedding and towels as well as a microwave, washing machine, and vacuum.
We went to the mission office to pick up the Office couple, the Erwins . All of the senior missionaries were able to go to a conference in the mountains just above Zagreb. We stayed at a ski lodge and had a wonderful time, There was a total of 18 rooms in the lodge. We used 16 of the rooms. The senior missionary numbers grew this week when we received two new couples on Tuesday. We now have 14 couples in addition to three senior sisters. The conference was wonderful. We learned about "Hastening the Gathering". As President Rowe, our mission president spoke to us regarding statements Elder Russell Nelson has made regarding the Adriatic North area we were struck with the thought that Elder Nelson is to Adriatic North area as President Monson was to the people in the former East Germany. In September Elder Rasband visited and said to us: "What a privilege be on the front end of a beginning." It really is exciting to see how the church is growing in this part of the Lord's vineyard. Doors are opening and you really can feel we are on the dawning of a new era.. We were also counseled to Go to Work and Build, which we can do through Faith, Hope, and Charity.
During another part of the conference we divided the men and women. The elders discussed welfare issues and the sisters did a craft which Susan was able to teach. Lizzy and Sara had sent all the supplies to make felt flowers with one if the new sisters who came this last week. It was a lot of fun and all were thankful for them sending us the supplies to have our own enrichment activity. Susan will be teaching this same craft to some of the Bosnian ladies in the Tuzla Senior Center in the coming months.
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