TRANSFERS!

We received word about transfers on Thursday.  There had been many rumors and much speculation so everyone was anxious for the final word.

Elder Quinn will be going to Zagreb to work in the Mission Office.  Elder and Sister Erwin had to go home unexpectedly as Elder Erwin was having some health problems.  Since Elder Quinn is quite good with computers, he will be working with Elder Meline in the Mission Office.

Elder Kroff will be going to Zagreb where he will be an Assistant to the President.  His companion will be Elder Mecham.

Elder Stuart will be going to Banja Luka.  His companion will be Elder Fausnaught. Both Elder Stuart and Elder Fausnaught have been in country since the first week of June.  They will be challenged with the language, but the Lord will help them work miracles.

Elder Sheridan will remain in Tuzla.  He will be training a new missionary who will arrive in country on Tuesday. 

Tuzla will be getting sister missionaries this transfer.  We know that we will be getting Sister Matthews who came in April along with Elder Sheridan.  She will be training a new missionary as well.  Rumors had it that maybe we would have a local sister serving a mini-mission, but no word as of yet.  Rumors are rumors.

We had a wonderful meeting today.  Elder Kroff and Elder Quinn gave talks.  Elder Stuart shared his testimony.  The closing song, "Families Can Be Together Forever" was sung in Bosnian by the Elders.

We drove Elder Stuart and Elder Kroff to the half way mark to Banja Luka this evening.  Tomorrow morning we will take Elder Sheridan and Elder Quinn to Zagreb.  Tuzla is in some big changes and we are excited to see where it will all take the future of the church here.

 

  

    

Stays from Frankfurt

On July 20th we drove to Sarajevo to pick up Elder Randy and Sister Rebecca Stay at the airport.  They are our Area Welfare Specialists in Frankfurt.  We had an uneventful (pleasant) return trip back to Tuzla.  We were able to have the Stays speak in church on Sunday and then spent an enjoyable afternoon together with the elders. 

Monday we drove to the mountain village of  Hrasno to show the Stays a clean water project which we have been working on there.  Phase 1 (one of our first projects) is just about done.  We are hopeful to get Phase 2 approved and on the books for next spring.
 

After our visit to Hrasno we headed to the town of Sapna in Eastern Bosnia.  On the way to Sapna we stopped in Kalesija to visit the greenhouse to see how the greenhouse garden was doing.  This is the same garden which the young elders helped to plant back in April.  It is also the one that the tomatoes came from (last week's post).  You can see how the garden "grows".  The crop is only tomatoes and paprika (bell peppers).

 

 

After the Kalesija sidetrack, we continued to Sapna to evaluate the restroom situation.  School is out for the summer and the smell is not nearly as strong as it was the last time we were there.  The plan is to get the corrections made before school starts the end of August. 

  

We called it a day and drove back to Tuzla, where we had a delightful dinner out by the lake.  Tuesday morning we packed into the car and drove to Ljubovija, Serbia across the Drina River separating Bosnia from Serbia, where we met Elder and Sister Maughan (humanitarian couple for Serbia).  We met with the deputy mayor of Ljubovija where the Maughans discussed a potential water project.  Ljubovija is a small town with a population of about 4,000.  The town loves the Maughans as they were able to help the school children with boots last winter.  After visiting with the city officials we drove up into the mountains to a Roma village where we viewed the potential water project and picked blackberries. 

About 6:00pm we started our trek to Novi Sad where the Maughans live.  On the way we passed several roadside markets with wagons loaded with cantaloupes and watermelons.  Agriculture is an extremely large business in Balkans.   As you can see, they grow their produce big.  This is a cantaloupe.

Wednesday we went to the market, did some sightseeing, and had lunch.  After we went to the Maughans apartment where we had some training from the Stays and discussed "words of wisdom" for the couples who will eventually follow ourselves and the Maughans on this mission.  The Maughans already have a couple called to replace them.  We do not yet.  We pray that a couple will be called and be able to overlap with us for some training before we go home in November.

 

 

 

 

The clock in the picture above was on the wall of the restuarant where we ate.  If you start at 4:00 you will understand how many people feel about time when they are eating or having a drink with friends. 

 

We left Novi Sad Wednesday about 5 PM and had a pleasant drive back to Tuzla.  The roadside is field upon field of sunflowers, corn, and hay.  We might also mention that the Serbian countryside is flat! You might think that you are in Kansas.

 

Bosnian Zone Conference

Tuesday was a very busy and special day.  The day began with a baptism at 9:00AM.  Just in case you are wondering why we have our baptisms at such unusual times; it is because we rent the swimming pool at the local hotel for our services.  Hence when it is available is when we have them.  After President Rowe came to church last week Jasmina wanted to have him come to her baptism.  President Rowe told her that he would be back in town on Tuesday for Zone Conference, so we had her baptism at 9:00AM.  She was baptized by Elder Sheridan and President Rowe confirmed her.  There was a wonderful spirit at her baptism.  We were able to also have the sisters and elders from Sarajevo there.

 

 

After the baptism we went to our Tuzla church building and hosted the zone conference.  This was a first.  We are centrally located in Bosnia and the travel time it is about 2 1/2 hrs from both Sarajevo and Banja Luka.  It is a 3 1/2 hour drive from Banja Luka to Sarajevo so it was a nice change.  It was very nice for us not to have to drive 2 1/2 hours back home when the meeting was over. 

 

     

Friday we had the opportunity to deliver some additional Church donated vision equipment to the UKC hospital ophthalmology clinic. 

 

It is incredibly rewarding to watch the people open the boxes and see their faces when they see what is inside.  They have been getting by with very old and outdated equipment.  It really a joy to be able to help people to do their work with quality equipment. This equipment is a blessing to the children the hospital serves.

Saturday we drove to the Sarajevo airport to pick up Elder and Sister Stay.  The Stays' are our Area Welfare Specialists in Frankfurt.  They arrived in Frankfurt the end April.  This is their first trip to the field to visit the couples they work with.  More next week on their visit.   

Where has the year gone?

On Tuesday we drove 5 1/2 hours to Rijeka ,Croatia.  That is such a pleasant drive.  Croatia has some fantastic roads.  They are toll roads, but you are able to drive at 120kmh (75 mph).  The roads are well maintained, not at all like the roads in Bosnia, which are all secondary roads.  Upon arrival in Rijeka we met up with Elder and Sister Babbel.  Together we went to a shopping center to pay for a washing machine which will be donated to a homeless shelter.  After paying for the washing machine we went back to the Babbels' where they fed us a wonderful lunch.  When lunch was over we drove 2 hours to Zagreb to prepare for meetings the following day. 

Wednesday morning we met with the Croatia Red Cross. For the last three years we have been working with the Croatia Red Cross cleaning wells which were polluted during the war in the 1990's.  The crews clean over 1,000 wells each year.  The church has decided to continue another year with a new project.  We were able to sign a contract with the Red Cross and move this important work forward. 

After our meeting with the Red Cross we stopped by the Mission Office for a lunch date with E/S Erwin, the office couple. There is a new restaurant in Zagreb called "California Burrito".  It is the closest thing to Cafe Rio/Costa Vida that you can get here.
 

Thursday morning we left Croatia and drove back to Bosnia.  We took the route through Banja Luka, the second largest city in Bosnia as we needed to evaluate a clean-water project which was completed last June.  We took Vicky Tadić, a Banja Luka church member with us as we couldn't remember where the school which we had worked with was located.  Previously this school had a septic system.  Whenever it rained the children had to be sent home from school as the tank backed up and the "drain field" overflowed.  The Church was able to provide the materials and supplies so that the city could connect the school to the city sewer system.  This project was quite successful and still working very well.  After visiting this project we went with Vicky to our favorite restaurant in Banja Luka, "Mala Stanica".  They have great salads and a chocolate souffle that can't be beat.  Vicky was waiting for her mission call and the mission call letter was waiting for her in Croatia.  She went to Zagreb on Friday for a pre-missionary training conference.  She opened her call at the conference with all the other missionaries.  **Vicky has been called to the Gilbert, Arizona Mission.**  We know that she will have a wonderful experience serving 18 months there. We left Banja Luka and returned to Tuzla about 4PM. 

 

 

 

Friday we were able to go to the Tuzla children's outpatient clinic.  The Church was able to purchase a few items from their "wish list" to help them with their work.  The outpatient clinic has been doing the vision screening of kindergarten children as well as performing screening on preschool children who come to the clinic for immunizations.  Did we mention what a great job they have done? 

 

 

 

 

Thus ends another week in the lives of the Winters in Bosnia and Croatia.  Time has gone by so quickly.  We feel a great urgency for the many things we still want to do before we go home in November.        

Elders' New Apartment, Canada Day and The Fourth of July

We decided that the families of Elder Kroff and Elder Stuart would probably love to see their new apartment as well.  Of course it is always a better picture with a person in it - the elders were happy to obliged.  Be sure to check out the materials in the china cabinet.  They were very proud of their decorating.

 Studying

 

 Front Room

 

 Church Materials

 

Kitchen

Another Kitchen View

 

Elder Kroff's Half of Room

Elder Stuart's Half

 

We asked Elders Quinn and Sheridan if we needed to put pictures of their apartment on the blog and they said "No, we have already sent pictures home". 

 

Most of our week was spent getting organized in our new apartment.  We also had to get the original copy of leases for our apartments (ours and the elders) so that we could turn in a change of address with our visa.  Since the lease is signed by the branch president in Sarajevo, we took the opportunity to drive there, meet with our lawyer and pick up the copies of the leases.  We stopped on the way home to get some gas and the owner of the coffee shop approached Gary and asked "in English" if we were missionaries.  He and his wife lived in Salt Lake City for 12 years.  Both he and his wife had worked at the Marriott Hotel on West Temple Street in SLC.  They have a daughter that was born in LDS Hospital.  They have been back in Bosnia for about a year.  You can be sure that when in Sarajevo we will be stopping there for our gas. 

 

Our daughters returned from their adventure to Canada.  But not before they helped celebrate Canada Day on July 1st.  They were able to ride on the float that Jordan Court's (Northern Stone Design, Ltd.) company entered.  A great time was had by all.  When Dallin (age 2 below) found out they were going home to Utah, he cried "I want to go to my Canada house!" 

 

Dallin thinks the ice cream is Yummy! 

Dallin, Landon and Taylor

Waterton Park

Face Time with Grandma and Papa 

  

The Float

Taylor, Mason, and Dallin

      

The Courts and Winters at Waterton Park



Today our mission president, President Rowe and his mother (she has been serving a mission here) came to attend church with us.  It was a great meeting.  Sister Rowe will be going home on the 19th of July.  We will miss her. 

Elder Kroff, Sister Rowe, Ferid, and Elder Stuart



We hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July.  Holidays are always hard, but we enjoy the pictures and messages we receive from friends and family. July holidays at home are wonderful celebrations; out of the country they are also wonderful, but still just ordinary working days. All the best till next week.