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

Neonatal Resuscitation Training

This evening we find ourselves in Sarajevo as early tomorrow morning we will be helping with a Neonatal Resuscitation Training (NRT).  As a have talked with our daughters and said the term "NRT" each has asked what is NRT.  Check out this site - very impressive.  http://ldscharities.org/initiatives/neonatal-resuscitation-training?lang=eng.  There will be a 2 day training here in Sarajevo.  Then on Wednesday we will drive to Banja Luka (a four hour drive) where we will have another 2 day training.  We are excited to take part in this training.  In the training medical professionals are trained to save babies lives.

Last Wednesday we traveled to Varazdin, Croatia and back.  We needed to get the snow tires on our car.  The tires were stored at the church in Varazdin.  Now that we have our car back, it was a necessary trip.  Wednesday here was a different Halloween.  It fact, it not Halloween as we know it.  No costumes, no treats, none of it.  On November 1st they have All Saints Day.  But that is a Catholic holiday, so not much celebrating in Tuzla as most of the people are Muslim.  It is a big holiday in Croatia however.  In fact, that is what it is called, a holiday - no one goes to work. 

 

Monday was Coco's third birthday.  We called her with our voice internet phone and sent her a singing birthday video and another video with birthday wishes.  We are pretty sure she enjoyed all the birthday celebrations and had a great time.  She is a happy little girl and we love that she is in our family. 

The last weekend  Lizzy, Sara, and Rebecca were able to go the Arizona to attend Time Our For Women together with Reachel.  Blake, Jac, Andrew and Jordan kept the kids at home so the girls were able to enjoy some time together.  Hence TOFW.  Thomas was the only one able to go.  The girls had a great time and we are pretty sure the boys had a great time as well.  At least the little boys and girl did.

This past week we received an email from LDS Living which told about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir having their own channel on You Tube.  Of course we clicked on the link and checked it out.  It is another impressive site.  What a delight when we looked at the General Conference link and saw Teri Crockett on the picture with "Lord I Would Follow Thee". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFzucJUazTE .

Isn't modern technology wonderful?  Yes, there is the bad out there, but there is also so much good that we have access to.  We can talk to our children and grandchildren via Skype or our magic jack internet phone.  We can live stream conference.  We are able to download conference and put it on our iPad in less that a week after conference.  We can watch BYUtv.  We are able to listen to music and talks via the Mormon Channel, and now we have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on You Tube.  In fact every week we download a conference talk in Serbian or Croatian and then play it back in Sacrament Meeting,  Speaking of Sacrament meeting, we had 9 people at church today.   

We apologize that there are no pictures this week.  But you get what you get (and you don't throw a fit), and with the internet not being as strong as ours at home we are not able to download them.  Did we say that?  Yes, we who complained about no internet for weeks, are thankful that we have such a good connection.  Again, we see that The Lord is in the details of our lives.  We are hopeful to be able to have a good internet connection in Banja Luka on Wednesday as we are 8 hours ahead of time in the states.  We will be following the elections with our fingers crossed as we are sure most of you will be also.