Our New Apartment

Yesterday, Saturday, June 29th was our daughter Reachel Bagley's 33rd birthday.   We were able to Face Time with her and her family.  They were are spending the afternoon in their backyard at the pool as she lives in Arizona. Then according to Facebook she continued to party the rest of the day and night.  It looked that she had a great birthday.  We sure are glad that Reachel is a part of our family.  We are also thankful for her talents.  If not for her, this blog would not happen.  Anytime we have a problem, we call our computer guru. She is a amazing mother, wife and daughter.  We are proud to be her parents.

Saturday was a big day for us as well as we moved to a new apartment.  As many of you know our apartment did not have central heating.  This last winter was fairly mild, but we felt it best to get a different apartment with parking and central heating.  The young elders are also moving to a new apartment as well.  They will move tomorrow - pictures next week.  Since we have office furniture we hired someone to move us.  Thursday and Friday afternoon we spent the day packing up the old apartment.  Saturday morning the movers came and loaded everything up.  We only moved 3 kilometers from the old apartment but it was quite the ordeal.   The movers came at about 8AM and we were all moved into our new apartment by 11AM.  The rest of the day was spent unpacking and getting things organized so that we could cook dinner and get ourselves ready for church on Sunday.  Our new apartment is so nice.  We feel very blessed to have it. 

 

As you can see we have plenty of room now.  It is not to late to come over for a visit.  This summer the weather has been quite pleasant.  Last year when we arrived it was usually hot.   So hot that we had three months of drought.  We have a balcony at our new apartment as we did at our last one.  At night you can sit outside and enjoy the cool night air and smell the Lipa (Linden) trees.  They smell a bit like lemon peel.  It is funny, but we don't remember smelling these trees last year.  It is really quite pleasant to just relax and enjoy the pleasant scent.

 

 

We were able to visit Orasje on Monday.  We visited the Pcelica (Little Bee) Kindergarten.   This project consisted of working with the city and Red Cross to replace asbesto pipe to the school with new PVC Pipe.  The children now have clean drinking water.  The local radio station even interviewed us. station.

 

While we were in Orasje, we went to the neighboring town of Domalijevac.  Back in April we were able to distribute potato seed and onion sets to a few families that were in need.  We went back for some pictures for our project journal.  We have a most delightful visit with one of the ladies that received the help.  She was happy to see us again and expressed her appreciation for the help.  It is such a privledge to be able to serve a mission in this way.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past week our daughters Lizzy and Sara were brave souls and drove to Raymond, Alberta, Canada with three boys under 10.  From what we hear all six of the grandsons (Taylor, Landon, Dallin, Mason, James, and Thomas) are having a great time.  We have tried to Face Time with them, but it gets a little crazy?#!*.  We hope that Lizzy, Sara, Rebecca and Jordan will survive as well. 

 

Hope everyone at home has a wonderful 4th of July.  It truly is a blessing to live in America and enjoy all the freedoms that we do.    

Activity and Zone Conference

Monday morning we traveled with our Mission President, his family, and our four elders to Sarajevo.  Once in Sarajevo we met with missionaries from Sarajevo and Banja Luka for an activity. We loaded into our cars and followed behind the elders from Sarajevo to the top of one of the mountains to the Skakavac Waterfall.  The weather was beautiful and a great time was had by all.  Most of the missionaries climbed to the top of the mountain to view the falls, but Susan chose to play it safe and stay back and guard the food.  (If you know Susan, then you know that if someone is going to get hurt it will be her.)  Upon their return, Gary confirmed that it was best that she stayed behind. 

 

After our activity we were on our own for dinner and the young elders and sisters went contacting.  For the month of June we have been challenged to invite people to church.  We (the Winters and the Ivins) met a group of young people who were celebrating the end of school by throwing their grades into the river.  We invited all 18 of them to church.  We gave them the address to the church in Sarajevo - do you think any of them came?  We also met a couple from Podgorica, Montenegro.  They were visiting in Sarajevo.  We got their contact information and forwarded it on the Elder Compton who was just transferred there last month.  

 

 

On Tuesday we had our Zone Conference.  We were privileged to have Sister Ann Madsen (widow of Truman G. Madsen) visit our conference.  Sister Madsen visits Croatia each year as she has roots to the church in Croatia. She was an adopted mother to Krešimir Ćosić.  Sister Madsen has been touring our mission attending the Zone Conferences and introducing the church's new "Come Follow Me" curriculum.  The Zone Conference was good, but next time the activity will follow the conference as everyone had a hard time staying awake.  President Rowe had an object lesson where he talked about the weight and burdens people carry with them.  He had Elder Kroff help in this demonstration as he had Elder Kroff put on every one's coat.  He then showed how we can help to remove the layers and help our investigators remove their burdens. 

 

 

Wednesday we met with Armin and his family.  He has his new glasses and is enjoying them.  We have been so thankful for the opportunity to be a part of this project. We also had the opportunity this week to meet with one of the doctors from UKC Hospital.  All the vision screening in the primary schools is completed and over 700 children have been referred to the hospital for further evaluation.  The outpatient clinic is now in the process of checking the vision of the kindergarten children.  They expect to have all the screening completed by the end of June.

 

Thursday we drove to Bijeljina (in eastern Bosnia) to visit a member who lives there.  Milka has been attending church in Belgrade.  Bijeljina is halfway between Belgrade and Tuzla.  Our member has to take the bus to whichever place she goes.  She has not been to Tuzla since we got our building.  We hope that she will visit us soon.  She just returned from Toronto, Canada where she spent several months visiting her son and family who live there. 

 

Elder Quinn will have his birthday on Friday (28th) of this week.  His birthday package arrived and was given to him in Sarajevo which he promptly opened and was excited to receive some new ties, slacks and a new camera. Today we had a birthday dinner.  Not real sure if the meal was that great, but we had fun getting ready for it.  We made a chocolate cake and even had a "singing candle".  We plan on celebrating his birthday all week long and will have another party next week.    

 

As we close our post today we want to express our sympathy to the family of Becky Smart who passed away unexpectedly on Friday night.  Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time and know that she is once again with her father, Stan. 

Happy Father's Day

We want to wish all the men in our lives a "Happy Father's Day".  We miss our fathers and are thankful for all they did for us so that we could have the wonderful lives that we enjoy now.  Gary received several calls on the computer.  Here are our grandchildren singing a song to him.  Many of you know the song; the words and hand actions that go to the song say. . .

Clap my hands and shout for joy.

  

Hug him tight like this.

 

Give him what? A great big kiss!

 

This has been a week of birthdays for our family.  My sister, Mary Beth Williams had a birthday on Tuesday.  Wednesday our grandson, Taylor Osborne, turned 10.  On Saturday our son, Jesse, turned the big "40".   Where did the time go?  Wasn't it just yesterday that they were little boys?  

 

Monday we drove to Sarajevo to visit with a group called Muslim Aid to discuss potential projects we may be able to do with them. 

Tuesday we took care of little things around Tuzla.  On Wednesday we drove to Novi Sad, Serbia, to meet with our counterparts, (Elder and Sister) Dave and Anne Maughan.  Dave and Anne are from Richland, Washington.  We were in the MTC together and made that long trip over here last June together as well.  We still can not believe that we have been here for a year.  The Maughans are the humanitarian couple in Serbia.  They have humanitarian projects like we do, but they have a challenge to donate wheelchairs, as the government won't allow them to be shipped in.  They government requires them to buy the chairs in country, which is much more costly.  We guess it just goes to show that we have to be creative and let the Lord guide us as we do his work.  Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia.  It is a fairly new city.  We visited the Petrovardin Fortress there which was quite unique.  The road has tunnels that you drive through.  The basement of the fortress had cannons in it and they had built ventilation to let the smoke out.  The fortress overlooks the Danube River, which has been rising with the potential of flooding.  There is quite a bit of history surrounding the fortress.   Construction of the fortress was in the late 1600's.  We had a beautiful day to tour the grounds and relax as we discussed our work. 

Dave and Anne Maughan, Susan and Gary

 View of the Danube

 

Royal Gate

 

Close up of Royal Gate

Discussing humanitarian work

 

 Cannons

More discussion

Notice the water level on the house

Thursday we returned to Tuzla in the evening.  The days are getting longer so we can get more travel in with it being light so late. 

Friday we had an appreciation lunch for the volunteers who helped with the vision screening project.  All the children in the primary schools in Tuzla have had their eyes checked.  The outpatient clinic also visited the kindergartens and completed the screening there.  Kindergarten is not part of the primary schools in Bosnia and not all children go to kindergarten.   Primary school is grade 1 through 9.   We can not say enough about how delighted we have been with the success of this project.  In the fall we will be doing the other 12 municipalities (18,000 students) in Tuzla Canton (county).   The other municipalities are smaller, but we are confident that the screening will be as successful as it has been in Tuzla.  As we meet with the various partners the common thread is that they are glad that we did project as it has helped them to think more of what they can do to protect and improve the vision of children.  Everyone would like to see childhood vision screening become mandatory.

 

Handing our certificates of appreciation

That's it for our week.  We are so thankful for your support.  Your comments really do lift our spirits and give us that extra boost to keep going.  We know that many of you who are remembering us in your prayers and we appreciate it. 

 

Till next week.  Doviđenja(goodbye)    



Doing what we can do

We had a fairly slow week.  Monday we took care of odds and ends here in Tuzla.  Tuesday we drove the 3 hours to Banja Luka to meet with the Rehabilitation Hospital regarding the upcoming wheelchair training and distribution in September.  Wednesday Susan taught another session of flower pin making at the Tuzla Elderly Center.  This is always an interesting challenge because of the language barrier.  By the time we are done, they are all saying "Susan, Susan."  They want her to help them finish their flower.  Some get ahead of themselves and we have to undo, but a good time is had by all.  

Thursday we drove 3 hours to Osijek, Croatia, to visit a group home that we might be able to do a service project with. We try to work with the senior couples that are assigned to the various cities in the mission.  The couple in Osijek is the Preston's from Centerville, Utah.  They have been in Croatia one month now and are just starting to adjust to things.  The group home is establishing a few apartments to teach their clients independent living skills.  They are trying to relocate some of their higher functioning clients to these new apartments.  The clients are taught how to take care of themselves.  They learn how to ride the bus or tram, visit the library, do their laundry, and care for themselves.  There is always people checking in on them, but the clients are learning survival skills.  We are hopeful that the local branch will be able to help furnish and decorate one of their apartments.

Friday and Saturday was spent taking care of finances and entering information on the computer.  It would be great if we could just drive around doing good, but there is quite a lot of paper work involved.  We have to develop a project, then submit it to Germany for approval.  If it is a what we call a major initiative, it is then sent to Salt Lake for approval as well.  After it is approved we then go back and visit the organization and let them know that the project has been approved and begin working with the organization.  We then enter information about the project into an electronic project journal.  Depending upon the type of project this can be a few paragraphs or pages of information.  When we make payments to vendors for materials or services rendered, we must record all the expenses as well.  Then when everything is completed and all the payments have posted to the project we can begin to close the project.   Finally there is a report that needs to be submitted along with pictures.  This is done in English and the native language. 

Anyway, we did what we could do this week.  Tomorrow we will begin our day early with a drive to Sarajevo to meet with the County Coordinator of  Muslim Aid in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

     

Our First Young Woman

In our post last week we were on our way to a baptism.  We had such a sweet outpouring of the spirit there. After coming out of the water, she kept saying "I feel so good!"  We have our baptisms at the swimming pool of a local hotel.  It is a very busy place and sometimes it is difficult to reserve the use of the pool.  We were able to get a slot at 7:45pm Sunday night so we took it.  She was baptized and confirmed the same evening.  She is our first young woman.

 Elder Sheridan, Amela, and Elder Kroff

 

Elder Kroff, Elder Sheridan, Gary, Amela, Elder Quinn, Elder Compton

 

Singing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me"

 

Monday we traveled to the town of Orasje (close to the Croatian/Bosnian border).  We had submitted a project to replace some asbestos lined pipes so that a kindergarten will have clean water.  Since it was approved, we went to get things going on this project. 

 

Gary, Susan and Kristina (principal)  

 

On our way back to Tuzla we stopped in a town called Srebrnik.  We pass through this town on our way to and from the border.  There is a fortress in Srebrnik built in 1333.  We decided it was time to visit.  The view was unbelievable.  Everything is so green right now.  You can truly enjoy the beauty of the countryside.

 

  

 



Early Monday morning we put Elder Compton and Elder Kroff on the bus to Zagreb.  Elder Compton was transferred to the Adriatic South Mission.  Elder Kroff was picking up another new missionary to replace Elder Compton.  The missionaries (9 sisters and 2 elders) had a horrible time getting here.  They were suppose to arrive at noon on Tuesday.  They got here at 7:30pm on Wednesday.  How is that for an adventure to begin your mission?  Elder Stuart, our new elder, is from Logan, Utah.  Needless to say he is suffering from jet-lag.  We are delighted to finally have him here and are confident he will fit in quickly.  Jet-lag, language, and new surroundings can be a little overwhelming.

 

  Elder Stuart, Elder Kroff, Gary, Susan, Elder Quinn and Elder Sheridan

 

The local Cantonal Red Cross is one of our best partners.  They have helped make it possible for the Church to bring wheelchairs and other supplies into the country without paying custom charges.  Their photocopy machine had quit working.  We received approval to purchase a new one.  It is a pleasure to be able to help an organization who does so much for the needy.

 

       

Thursday was Susan's birthday.  While we were getting our car serviced, Elders Quinn and Sheridan arranged to come to our apartment, bake cupcakes from scratch, and decorated the place.  It was a delightful surprise. You can not go the the party store here to get your supplies, nor do they have cake mixes on the shelves at the store.  This took a great deal of thought and effort on their behalf and it did not go unnoticed nor unappreciated. 

 

 

Notice the firework candles

 



Friday we traveled toward the Serbian border to the town of Bijeljina.  Here we did a follow up on the wheelchair distribution we did back in February.  We had the opportunity to visit one of the wheelchair recipients.  He is a diabetic amputee who lives with his two sons and their families.  Everyone is unemployed.  He has no pension.  If he had not received a wheelchair from the church, he would not have a wheelchair.  It is always such a delight to be a part of serving our fellowman.   

  

 

We had an excellent fast and testimony meeting today.  Four of our local members and investigators shared their testimonies.  It is a privilege to see the church grow here.  We look forward to seeing how things will change over time.