Merry Christmas

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. Just so you know, Santa was able to find us here in Bosnia.

Look what Santa left us

Christmas in Bosnia was different. First off it was warm and sunny, about 50 degrees. On Christmas Eve we had a roast beef dinner.  Christmas morning began early as Elder Kroff's family wanted to talk to him on their Christmas Eve as they had other things going in their morning.  At 7am the Elders came up and he was able to Skype them. While he Skyped Susan made pumpkin pancakes. We did not have an Aebleskiver pan, so the traditional breakfast of Quiche and Aebleskivers did not happen here.   After breakfast and the first Skype session was over, the Elders returned to their apartment for their morning routine. All the stores were open and it was just like any other day. Most people are either Muslim or Orthodox Christian so the big celebrations will be New Years Eve.  Orthodox Christmas will be celebrated on January 7th. They do have some decorations up in the stores now and the street lights are on.  Every street light has a decorative light. 

Street Lights

 

The Elders taught their beginning English classes at 4 and 5 pm. As soon as those classes were finished they came back to our apartment where Elder West Skyped his family.  All the English classes this week had a visitor come to their classes.  The classes sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and just as they began the second chorus, Santa came in,  Needless to say, the students loved it.  Elder West was certainly a good sport.

Santa Claus came to English

We first Skyped with Reachel and her family in Arizona and watched Coco and Levi opened their presents from us. Then we tried Lizzy and Sara but the boys were not up yet. We called Rebecca in Canada and talked to Mason and James while Thomas sat in his highchair and smiled at us.  As we were talking to them we got a message from Lizzy that said "we are up" and ready to open our presents.

 We are up and ready to Skype

 

We called Lizzy and Sara back and read the Christmas story from Luke 2 together and then watched Taylor, Landon and Dallin open their presents. Since the presents under our tree were from them we also opened ours. While we were talking we heard their door bell ring and figured it was someone for Lizzy and Blake. But no, it was Jesse and Gentry! We were able to see all of our children and grandchildren. It was a wonderful Christmas.

Wednesday was our grandson, Levi's, second birthday.  He is a boy through and through.  He loves playing with cars and trucks and is looking forward to the arrival of his little brother next month.  

Levi Sims Bagley, age 2 

 

We also went as close to Serbia as you can go without going there on Wednesday . The Drina river separates Bosnia and Serbia. We visited a village called Zvornik where we met with the principal of the primary school and talked to her about helping the school children receive clean water.  Now, the children have to bring drinking water from home.

Thursday we went to the village of Kalesija to sign the contacts for the water project that we visited back in September. When weather permits they will start work on it.

Signing Contracts
 

Friday we headed out for Zagreb, Croatia.   Elder West went home Saturday morning. We drove him up and brought Elder Genther from Springville, Utah, back with us to Tuzla.  

 

 Elder West and Elder Kroff

 

Three Elders and one Sister returned home Saturday. We are going to be getting 8 Elders and 1 Sister on January 22nd. We will also be getting two Senior Couples, one on February 5th and one on February 10th.  Rumor has it that will be getting several more Sister missionaries as well as Senior Couples in May.

On our way home from Zagreb we received a call that our new car was ready to be picked up in Sarajevo.  You wonder why a new car?  The car we have been driving is licensed in Slovenia and the new car is licensed in Bosnia.  Makes it a little easier to renew the licensing when the car is licensed in the same country you live in.  We would need to go through Bosnia and Croatia to get to Ljubljana, Slovenia so if someone who lives in Croatia has our old car it will be more convenient to renew the license in July. The drive to Sarajevo was interesting.  As we started out the weather was cloudy but warm with no snow on the ground. The higher in the mountains we went the colder it got. The roads were fine, it was like driving up the canyon to go skiing. There was snow in the mountain tops, but arriving in Sarajevo which is surrounded by mountains like the Salt Lake Valley it was again cloudy and warm with no snow on the ground.  

Just like a Christmas Card

 

That is it for the week.  We did receive word from Rebecca on Saturday morning that they had to put their dog, Zeus, down as he was having serious health problems.  Needless to say, Mason is taking it pretty hard.  He knows it was the right thing to do, but Zeus was his and he was a good dog. 

We want to wish everyone an enjoyable New Years Eve and wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.  May the Lord bless you and yours in the coming year. Till next year . . .

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.
  

Signing Contracts and Closing Ceremony

We had a fairly productive week.  On Wednesday we left early in the morning for a town called Uskoplje (U-scope-ya) which was a 4 hour drive.  We signed contracts for a water project.  We had visited this project back in September but have not been able to get the contracts written, translated, and signed until now. 

 

We spent the night in a town called Vitez (Vee-tiz) and in the morning went to the town of Nova Bila.  Here we meet with several public officials to have a closing ceremony for a water project that Latter Day Charities had completed earlier in the Fall.  This particrular project provided water to people who had not water in the village for 100 years.  The area we visited reminded us of Summit Valley in Utah. 

 

        



We hiked around in the snow and climbed up and down ladders and looked at the water holding tanks.  The Mayor and the Prime Minister of the Central Bosnia Kanton (this is like a county) came as well as contractors and many people from the Red Cross.  Remarks were made and then we went to lunch with them.

It is considered polite to offer people who comes to visit you something to drink.  Tea, coffee, juice or water.  Luckily they have several herbal teas.  It is also being hospitable to offer you food.  When we got to lunch they ordered us some bread, cheese and cold cuts along with drinks.  Just when we thought we were done, they ordered more food.  This time several types of cooked meat.  Needless to say, we left there very full. 

Before leaving for home we went to the town of Travnik which is famous for their cheese. The shop we visited gave us lots of samples and we bought some to take home.  Then we made the 3+ hour drive back to Tuzla just in time to help the young elders with their last English class of the day.. 

Friday we had a meeting at the Tuzla University Klinical Center with the head of Pediatrics to inform her that the request for a C-Pap respirator had been approved and we made arrangements for that to be purchased after the first of the year.   We also discussed the Early Childhood Vision Screening project which has also been approved for next year.  The doctor mentioned that they have programs to help every aspect of newborns except vision.  She felt we were an answer to their needs and desires.  We told her their willingness to work with us was an answer to our prayers as well.

   
Have you read this article in the December Ensign?  http://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/12/church-leaders-visit-heads-of-state-members-in-croatia-and-bosnia?lang=eng&query=bosnia
We were in attendance in the meetings in September and are most delighted to see reports of the work in Bosnia in the Ensign.

So there you have it.  No Christmas lights yet, but we are enjoying listening to Christmas Music on the Mormon Channel.  Today the Elders discussed with us when they can tell their families they can Skype with them for Christmas.  Christmas in Tuzla will be the same as any other day so they will call home after their English classes which will still be early in the day for their families. 



 

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow. . .

This was the view from our window this morning -

The snow started yesterday and continued all day and through the night.  This morning we had about 10 inches of snow.  The weather helps it feel more like Christmas.

This week we spent much of our time at home on the computer.  We were taking care of last minute changes and additions to our final 3 projects for the 
year which we submitted to the area office for approval on Thursday. 

(1) Our projects consist of helping obtain tables and chairs, a TV. 
     a DVD player, and a CD player for a Kindergarten in the town of Sapna.

(2) A water filter for an elementary school in another small town about 45
     minutes from where we live. 

(3) We also will be able to help get a C-pap machine for the Neonatal Unit at
      the Pediatric Hospital in Tuzla. 

In addition, we received word that a children's "vision screening" project which we have been attempting to develop has been approved at the area level and has now been sent to Salt Lake for final approval. 

It is a great blessing for us to be involved in providing assistance to people in need.  We are reminded that when Joseph Smith was asked who should be helped, his answer was that it was our duty to help those in need "whether they are in this church, or any other, or in no church at all wherever we find them". 

As the countdown to Christmas approaches we see signs of Christmas decorations in the stores.  There are street lights, but they have not been turned on yet.  Hopefully we will see them on soon. 

We have enjoyed watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on You Tube.  As we close this week we would like to share our favorite You Tube video for the week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugV6QGcafEE&feature=g-high-rec

Today was a great day at church.  We had 17 in attendance.  It is wonderful to see the gospel grow in this part of the vineyard.  Christmas is in our hearts.  

Our 2nd Baptism

On December 1st we had our second baptism in Tuzla.  The young man who was baptized back in September was able to perform the baptism.  The spirit was very strong and we can feel things are starting to pick up in this part of the vineyard.

 Our two newest members

Sunday was Bosnian Independence Day, but it was celebrated on Monday.  This was only celebrated in the Federation of Bosnia, not the Republic of Srpska.  If this is hard to follow, don't worry.  We are having a difficult time understanding it all as well.  We can not begin to imagine what these people have gone through.  But everyone we meet is very kind, friendly, and helpful. 

Our week consisted of a visit to a school in the town of Sapna (Sap na).  Sapna is close to the Serbian border.  The people in this town are refugees from the war.  People did not live here during the war, because this is where the fighting was.  They have now returned and attempted to start over.  What we will be doing is to help get tables and chairs, a television, vacuum cleaner, DVD player, and a CD Player for a classroom which will be made over so that they will be able to have a kindergarten (They currently do not have one).  Children go to primary school (5/6 years old to 13/14 years old) and secondary school (14/15 years old to 17/18 years old). In Sapna both schools are at the same location.  Some of the students in the kindergarten will have disabilities. 

Students on the Playground

 



Potential classroom

 

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to go to Sarajevo and visit a school for the developmentally disabled and distribute some more school kits. It was great.

 A delighted young man

Two very happy young ladies

 

If you remember we had sign up for English classes last week. The final count was 101. The Elders taught two beginning classes on Tuesday, two intermediate classes on Wednesday, and one advance class on Thursday.  The classes consist of approximately 20 people in each.  We can tell that this is and will be a fun experience.

 

Gary explaining what a "yard"is (not the measuring kind).

 Students hard at work.

 

Tuesday we received a package from our children.  They sent us a Christmas Tree to hang on the wall of our apartment.  Included in the package was ornaments, a star and all the supplies to hang them.  On the back of each ornament was written a Christmas memory of our children, their spouses and grandchildren.  We read each and every memory and hung them on our tree.  They do have some Christmas decorations here, but being a mostly Muslim country, we were not sure what kind or a tree we would have.  We have heard that Christmas is not really celebrated here, so this tree is perfect.

 

Merry Christmas to All

Aunt Sara helped Lizzy's boys make us ornaments

 

  

 Even the Elders wanted a picture by the tree

 

We look forward to being able to listen to the First Presidency Devotional, but it will have to be Monday night as we will not be getting up at 2am to watch it live.  We have not had snow yet, but with our new decorations and the ability to listen to Christmas music on the Mormon Channel we are starting to feel like it is Christmas time.  May you experience the spirit of Christmas in your activities is our wish.  Till next week . . .  

           

No Black Friday Shopping

We had a very busy and exciting week.  Tuesday morning we went with the Red Cross to a school in Gnojnica (Ganoy-neeca) about 30 minutes from Tuzla.  Here we were able to distribute some of the school kits which we were able to purchase to help some of the most needy children.  The children's families are required to provide these supplies but some are not able to.  The children still come to school, but they do not have the supplies as do most of the children.  The kits cost about $14.00 each.  The expressions on their faces tell it all.

 1st Graders

 



 Distributing School Supplies

 4 recipients

 Everyone loves their supplies

A typical kit

 

When we finished with the school, we left for Banja Luka (2 1/2 hr drive).  Here we were able to purchase some sofa beds and kitchen cabinets for a safe house for abused women and their children.  Most places you are unable to use a credit card so everything is purchased with cash.  We were able to arrange for the sofa beds and cabinets to be delivered and installed.  The safe house recently replaced the furnace with a new one energy efficient one.  They did not have the funds to purchase the pellets needed to fuel the furnace, we were able through the Church humanitarian program to help purchase fuel pellets as well.  We feel we need to clarify that anytime we say "we purchased" we are referring to the humanitarian program.  None of this would be possible without the generous donations which have been made to the humanitarian program of the church.  We are just servants of The Lord helping those in need.

 

Upon returning home we met our new missionary, Elder Kroff.  Elder DeFreitas was transferred to Zagreb (Za-greb) and Elder Kroff came to Tuzla(Twos-la) from Zagreb.  He is from Montana and has lots of musical talent. 

Thursday we did not have our Thanksgiving. The Elders had scheduled English sign up for Thursday evening from 6 to 8 so we decided to postpone our feast till Friday. Thursday morning we went to the local office supply store to purchase additional chairs for our building.  Until now we have had 10 folding chairs and the four chairs which came with the table which we use for the sacrament.   Remember our car is not very big, so we managed to get 10 chairs into the car with our two Elders squished in.  But these new chairs are much more comfortable and look great.  

Elder Kroff

 

Elder West

 

Elders Kroff and West

 

The Elders put out fliers and hung signs all over and we hoped for a good turn-out.  We arrived at the building early and so did the people.  By 5:30 we already had over 20 people sign up.  By the time we were done that evening they had over 90 people.  More continued to call, but when we reached 100 we had to tell them "next time".  There will be two beginner classes, two intermediate classes, and one advanced class.  

Standing room only

 

Friday we went to the Tuzla Soup Kitchen.  The soup kitchen provides meals each day to over 3,400 people regardless of race or religion.  When we visited with the people who run the soup kitchen they told us they would like a refrigerator and got quotes for a used one.  Our translator was able to find a new one for less than used one, so we got the new one.  They were delighted with it.  Merhamet (a Muslim organization) runs the soup kitchen. They have a wonderful organization with values similar to those of the Church. We had a closing ceremony; the local TV station came to interview us.  We think we were on TV, but we don't have a TV nor would we be able to understand what they said.  The great part is that people are getting to know us and what we do, which in turn creates a desire to learn more about us and the Church. 

 



Elder West, Adil , Susan, Gary and Elder Kroff

 

After the ceremony we returned to our apartment where we cooked two chickens instead of our turkey.  We found a recipe online to make cranberry sauce from dried cranberries.  We had mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls, vegetables and a rectangle pumpkin pie made from a real pumpkin with our own pumpkin pie spice.  It was a wonderful meal and a lot less clean up than when we have dinner at home. 

 

 Cranberry Sauce

 



Pumpkin Pie

 

We have so much to be thankful for.  Our family, friends, health, a comfortable place to live, a building to hold church in, and modern technology that helps us stayed connect to all of you. We hope each of you had a wonderful holiday. 

 

Another thing Gary is thankful for - no "Black Friday Shopping".

ZONE CONFERENCE AND VISAS

Monday bright and early (7am) we packed up and along with the Elders headed to Sarajevo for Zone Conference.  It was a beautiful drive.  The leaves reminded us of the canyons in Utah. 

Scenic drive to Sarajevo

 As always Zone Conference was uplifting.  President Rowe taught us about "Hastening the Gathering".  We also learn to love and serve the people we work with.   Everywhere you go you see people who look just the same as people you would see on the streets at home.  They look the same as we do.  Often people will come up to us and start talking to us because they think we are Bosnian.  That is where the language barrier comes in.  The only difference we notice is that most people are very tall. 

The best part of the conference was when I was helping clean up the dishes after lunch.  One of the other senior sisters shared with me that last week when she was at the NRT closing ceremony.  She shared that at the closing ceremony that she and the three young elders were standing by the wall during the program. One of the participants commented to her friend that "those young men came to my house and gave me a book to read which I did not read, but if they are with this organization (Latter-day Saints Charities'), I will read it". Isn't it wonderful what happens when we get the face of the church out there?

After the conference we drove back home arriving about 7:30pm.

Elders Mecham, Brown, Adams Radaković, Shillabeer, West

Sisters Trumbo, Giles, and Audrey McKinnon

 

   Elder DeFreitas, Susan, Gary, and Elder West

 

Wednesday we received word that the projects which we had submitted had been approved.  One of the projects was for a women's safe house for abused women in Banja Luka (Bon-ya Lu-ka).  We are helping them get some fuel (pellets) for their new furnace, some cabinets for their kitchen and some new couch/beds for women and their children.  Another project was some additional wordworking equipment for the sheltered workshop serving the physically disabled,  The last approved project is for a refrigerator for the Muslim soup kitchen. They serve over 3,000 meals per day to all needy people regardless of religion. 

 

Friday morning we received a phone call telling us that we could come to pick up our visas.  Our visas are now in our passports and they are in force until next October.  

 

        We are legal



We received word that Elder DeFreitas, one of our missionaries  is going to Zagreb, Croatia and we will be receiving Elder Kroff from Croatia.  We are going to miss Elder DeFreitas but we are sure that we will learn to get to know Elder Kroff. 

We have been searching online for recipes to make a Thanksgiving dinner this week.  It should be interesting.  Things they do not have:

     no sweet potatoes
     no turkey
     no cranberry sauce
     no olives for each of our fingers
     no canned pumpkin
     no pumpkin pie spice
     no frozen pie crust. 

They do have chickens, dried cranberries, potatoes, and whole pumpkins.    Thanksgiving is an American holiday.  Canada has one in September.  But there is no Thanksgiving in Bosnia.  We will actually celebrate it on Friday as the Elders scheduled sign ups for our first English Classes on Thursday from 6pm to 8pm.  We figured that Friday would be okay as we are 8 hours ahead here so that it will be Thanksgiving still when we wake up on Friday morning.  We feel that we have so much to be thankful for.  We are especially thankful for each of you who has remembered us in your thoughts and prayers and appreciate your notes and emails.  We hope each of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and we will tell you how the meal turned out after the fact.  We are crossing our fingers.   
     

NRT Continued , , ,

Our 2 day NRT training in Sarajevo was held in a hotel.  We had 47 doctors, nurses, midwives or delivery attendants. Each eager to learn.  The training started early Monday morning.  As the people arrived they were given a packet which contained an information sheet, a test, and other information that they would need during the training.  The students filled out the forms and took a pre test.  At the end of the training another test was given and the scores were significantly higher.  The students were well trained and learned well.  The training was given by Dr. George Bennett (retired anesthesiologist) from St. George, Utah along with Dr. Carolyn Rich-Denson (neonatologist) from Ogden, Utah,  Several local doctors also helped with the training.  Marcia Bennett, Dr. Bennett's wife, is really the backbone to the whole operation. She makes all the arrangements, working with all the local people, the humanitarian couple in charge and all the travel arrangements. She was awesome, what a woman! She and her husband have been traveling all over the world for the last 8 years.  This last trip was 5 weeks long.  We met the Bennett's in Zagreb in October to try to develop a similar project in Croatia for next year.  Anyone who has done international travel knows how hard this is on a body, but all the doctors who work in this program are dedicated to saving lives and know that it is the work of Our Heavenly Father.

Speaking of international travel, we had two people come from headquarters and attend our training in Sarajevo.  Dean Walker, Manager of NRT and Vision Care programs, and Aaron Meacham came.  The purpose of the trip was to train Aaron as he is new to the humanitarian department. They had come from Hungary.  After they left us they were headed to Albania.    

After the training we had a closing ceremony where each student was given a certificate of completion, each clinic or hospital that was involved received a training mannequin and equipment to train others at their facilities, they also receive equipment for their clinics.   We heard from Dr. Bennett, the Doctor who helped put on the training (the champion) and Gary.  Each of the training doctors was presented a pin from the American Pediatric Association .  A picture of a new baby was also presented to the champion.  As Gary shared with the students that we live in Tuzla, two ladies on the front row got excited over this.  We learned later that they live in Tuzla.  He also told them how we had five children and eight grandchildren.  He then told them that we are going to have another grandchild in January and that he hoped that the people who helped in the delivery of that child would be trained and know how to help him if he has trouble breathing.  As he was speaking I remembered that our grandson Dallin caused some concern to the nurses when he was born and the Neonatal Resuscitation team was called in.  It turned out that he was just fine, but the people knew what to do and were right on it.  If help is not given to these babies in the first 30 seconds numerous problems can develop.  How thankful we are that we have healthy children and grandchildren. These doctors who spend their time training neo-natal resuscitation could be doing other things, but they spend their retirement time helping others. That is what "Pure Religion" is.  It is a humbling experience to be a part of such a wonderful program.  

Wednesday we packed ourselves up into two cars and a Red Cross van with all the equipment in and headed out to Banja Luka which is a four and a half hour drive from Sarajevo. The Red Cross helped bring all the equipment in as they can get the supplies through customs without having to pay all the extra fees. There were 10 of us in our caravan, and every car was packed full. Upon arriving in Banja Luka Dr, Bennett, Dr. Rich-Denson, and two of our translators went to the hospital and started training 6 trainers that would help teach the others who would come to the training on Thursday. 

Thursday we started all over again.  This time there were 57 students.  Plus 8 nurse students who also took part in the training.  The training again went very smoothly and we had a nice closing ceremony.   Again we found out that one of the trainers lives in Tuzla.  After the ceremony we packed up and drove the two and one half hour drive home to Tuzla. 

Did we mention that while we are doing all this training that we received an email about flooding in Slovenia.  Due to heavy rains in Austria it was necessary to release water from the dam which caused flooding in both the Sava and Darva Rivers.  There is extensive damage and we are helping to cordinate the emergency relief efforts.

As we close this week we would like to share the following which we heard at one of our devotionals held each morning before the trainings.

". . . The significance of this great work is expressed eloquently in the word of F. M. Bareham.  He said in 1909:
          'A century ago (in 1809) men were following with bated breath the march of Napoleon and waiting with feverish impatience for news of the wars.  And all the while, in their homes, babies were being born.  But who could think about babies?  Everybody was thinking about battles.
          In one year, between Trafalgar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of heroes: Gladstone was born in Liverpool; Tennyson at Somersby Rectory; and Oliver Wendell Holmes in Massachusetts.  Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, and music was enriched by the advent of Felix Mendelssohn in Hamburg.
          But nobody thought of babies; everybody was thinking of battles.  Yet, which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809?  We fancy God can manage His world only with great battalions, when all the time he is doing it with beautiful babies.
   And about that same time in Vermont, God sent a little boy to Lucy Mack and Joseph Smith Sr.  That little baby grew up to seek the Lord in humble prayer and ultimately to restore the Gospel that we all might understand who God is and what the purpose of life is.  Can there ever be anything more significant that a baby?  Anything of greater potential and wonder?"

 

Training

 

Two people who do not know what they are doing

 

Aaron, Dean, Gary, and Susan

 

More practice

 

Carolyn and Sister Giles

 

Nevena and Dr. Bennett

 

Carolyn watching

 

Closing Ceremony Banja Luka

 

  Grading Tests