Goodbye Elders, Hello Sisters

As we told you in our last post, this new round of transfers threw us for a loop.  We lost Elder Quinn to the mission office, Elder Kroff to the president's assistance duties, and Elder Stuart to Banja Luka.  Sunday night we literally "packed" everything Elders Kroff and Stuart owned into our car and drove them half-way to Banja Luka.  Elder and Sister Ivins met us at the half-way point.  We then packed them and their stuff into the Ivin's car which is a wee bit smaller than ours.  They had the back of the car totally full of suitcases (too bad we forgot to take a picture).  They also had more suitcases stacked in between them in the backseat.  Not to mention, they had things on the floor in between their feet and stuff on their laps.  The drive was only 1 1/2 hours to the half-way point, so it could have been worse. 

Monday morning we packed all of Elder Quinn's things into our car.  Elder Sheridan only had to take an overnight bag, so we did not have nearly as much in the car.  We drove to Zagreb where we dropped the elders off at the Mission Office.  We were able to see several other missionaries and pick up the mail for Tulsa.  All the missionaries who are going home meet at the misson office.  They usually all travel from the MTC to the mission together, so it is like a family reunion.  They spend their last night at the mission home.  It is interesting to see how they have grown from their service.  We have seen several go home and miss them and their influence for good in this mission.

We took care of our meetings regarding wheelchairs and water projects with the Croatia Red Cross in Zagreb on Tuesday morning and then returned to Tuzla.  Late Wednesday night the sisters arrived in Tuzla.  We met with them on Thursday and helped them get registered at the immigration office.  Thursday was also Gary birthday so we went out to lunch to celebrate.  Thursday night the elders arrived by bus.  We always try to pick them up at the bus station as they have lots of luggage.  This time they also had some of the sisters' luggage. 

Our new missionaries are Sister Matthews from Heber City, Utah, Sister Orgill from St Louis, Missouri and Elder Graham from Sandy, Utah.     

This week we also took care of things in the office as well as made a payment for supplies to rebuild a primary school restroom in an outlying village.   Friday we met with the Ministry of Education and the University Klinical Center Hospital to discuss the plan to continue the vision screening of all school age children (31,000) in Tuzla Canton (county) this fall.  We also worked on ideas for going to Sarajevo to see about implementing a potential vision screening program there as well. 

Summers are slow in Bosnia.  Everyone goes on vacation.  These vacations are anywhere from one week to six weeks long.  We have learned that Europeans are serious about their vacations.  Speaking of vacations, our own children recently gathered together in Utah.  Rebecca and her family came down from Canada.  Reachel and her family came from Arizona.  They had a great day at Snowbird.  They shared it with us via pictures on Instagram. We look forward to the time when we can once again vacation together.       

We always have the missionaries over for Sunday dinner.  Today we are having Hawaiian Haystacks.  Everyone has been fasting, so there will not be leftovers.  But there are never any leftovers - hungry missionaries.