Zadar, Croatia

Monday we helped the Elders get a new sim card for their phone.  Then we made preparations to go to Zadar, Croatia, to meet with Elder and Sister Matosić. 

Tuesday morning we started out at 6:15am for our drive to Zadar, Croatia.  We arrived in Zadar about 1:15 in the afternoon.  We visited in Zadar with Elder Baldwin, Elder Proud, Sister Compare, and Sister Sturtevant.  After joining them for district meeting Elder and Sister Matosić drove us around Zadar to see the sights.  We were able to go to the Kresimir Čosić Sports Arena.  Kresimir Čosić is responsible for bringing the church to this part of the world.  If you would like to know more about Kresimir Čosić -
 
https://www.lds.org/church/news/print/church-members-in-croatia-celebrate-the-churchs-40-year-presence-in-the-country?lang=eng

After the sports arena we drove to a lookout point where we could see all the town of Zadar.  This was followed by a trip to centar and a visit to water's edge.  Sister Matosić had mentioned that they would take us to the sea organ.  We could hear the organ before we saw it.  The organ was built after World War II.  Rather than build a boring wall, they made the sea organ which is played by the waves.

http://www.oddmusic.com/gallery/om24550.html

We also visited the market place via some Roman ruins.  Susan purchased some handmade lace.  Croatia is famous for their handmade lace.  She did not purchase any of that kind (a bit pricey).  But we were able to see some of this lace.  We learned that the lace from Hvar is unique in that the thread is collected from the aloe leaves of agave plants that grow on a nearby island. The leaves are picked at a certain time of the year and are then specially processed to produce a thin, white thread. The Benedictine nuns in the town of Hvar are the only ones who make the Hvar lace, which is also called "aloe lace".  There is also Lepoglava lace and Pag lace.

 

 

Notice the bench (piano keys)

Holes for the sea organ

 

Boy is that sun bright. 

 

 

 

Agave plant flower

 

Meanwhile back in Bosnia Tuesday was Bajram (Eid-al-Fitr).  Which means it was a holiday (4 days of holiday).  On top of that, the Bosnian soccer team played Lithuania Tuesday night.  They won the match 1-0.  The win qualified Bosnia for the World Cup which will be in Brazil in 2014.  They celebrated till the wee hours of the morning.

 

The reason for our trip to Zadar was to see about the possibility of doing a project there.  We visited a school for troubled youth and the Zadar Red Cross.  These are potential projects, but we will want till our replacements get here to decide whether they want to do any of these potential humanitarian projects.

 

After our meetings we visited the docks before we departed for a meeting in Karlovac. 

 

 

 

While in Zadar we saw pomegranate trees, olive trees, and kiwi vines.  Did you know that kiwi grows on a vine?  They have large leaves and the vines are much like grapes.  The drive to Zadar was beautiful.  As we drove back we saw a huge mountain range - how we missed it on the drive in is beyond us.  It is definitely autumn time and we enjoyed our drive. 

 

Olive trees (you need to look close to see the olives) 

 

 

 

We met with the Branch President in Karlovac, Croatia, regarding the branch garden project.  While there we were able to see Elder Stuart.

 

 

Thursday we stopped at the mission office in Zagreb.  We visited with two new senior couples.  Elder and Sister Lambert and Elder and Sister Croft.  We like to take the office couple out to lunch when we are in Zagreb.  We do not have an office couple at this time, but we were able to take Elder Quinn and his companion Elder Brown to a new place that serves hamburgers. 

 

  

Lunch over, we returned to Tuzla arriving in the evening.  Friday we had district meeting with the sisters and elders.  Saturday we use as our P-day which brings us back to Sunday. 

 

That does it for the week.  We are making prepartions for our vision specialists from Salt Lake and still making numerous lists for our replacements.  We know that they will be overwhelmed just like we were, but the Lord will bless them just as he did us.  

 

Transfers

The first part of this week was spent in recovering from a terrible head cold.  Susan started coming down with it on Friday night and by Sunday she was down for the count.  Monday Gary started to get it.  Drinking lots of herb teas and taking the essential oils that our daughters have sent helped us to recover.  By Thursday we were both feeling much better. 

It was a good thing that we felt better on Thursday as we were scheduled to go to the town of Osijek, Croatia.  Once again it is about a 3 hour drive from Tuzla.  We arose early and arrived there close to 10:30am.  In Osijek Elder and Sister Preston have been helping us develop a project.  It is working with a home for psychologically ill adults.  The patients currently live in an institutional setting.  The government of Croatia has implemented a program that patients with the capability to become more self-reliant could be moved to live in an apartment or home setting with the hope of gaining more independence.  The residents will shop for their groceries, cook their own meals, care for their clothing and clean their apartment with staff supervision.  This has been a community effort.  The government has provided the apartments and has remodeled the interiors with new walls, ceilings, floors and windows.  They updated the plumping, electrical, heating and cooling systems.  The Church is providing the basic household appliances.  Other organizations are providing furniture, bedding, closets and dishes.  One the patients who will be moving into one of the three self-reliance apartments is a member of the church from the Osijek branch.  Our primary purpose in driving to Osijek was to pay for the refrigerators, washing machines and stoves for three independent living apartments.  We also enjoyed seeing the work that has been done and in visiting with the Prestons.

After going to the store to purchase the appliances and arranging delivery we had the opportunity to visit the three apartments.  Like our apartment, from the outside they do not look like much, but they have done an excellent job remodeling the interiors.  The pictures are not much, but you get the picture.  One apartment even had the furniture in it and is ready to be moved into once the appliances are installed.

 

We spent the rest of the week getting several projects ready to close as well as submitting a new clean water project for approval.  We also continue to make notes and get things ready for our replacements. 

 

Friday morning we got word on missionary transfers.  All the missionaries have been very anxious about this transfer.  Elder Sheridan will be training a new missionary here in Tuzla.  Elder Graham will be going to Banja Luka to work with Elder Fausnaught.  Elder Stuart who has been in Banja Luka will be going to Karlovac, Croatia to replace Elder Brown who is going to be working in the mission office. Elder Quinn will be staying in the office.  Elder Meline is going to Rijeka.  As a side note, Elder Merl will be training a new missionary as Elder Compton is going home on Tuesday along with Elder Kroff.   Our sisters will be staying her in Tuzla.  We hate to see Elder Graham leave.  He is a great young man and he is our pianist.  But we will live, and the Lord will provide.  We are delighted to be able to keep Elder Sheridan and Sister Matthews and Sister Orgill.  They have all done such a wonderful job with the work here.  As we left church today everyone was gathered around the keyboard singing "I Know That My Redeemer Lives".  

 

 

 

With next week being conference, we look forward to being able to hear the messages that the Brethren have prepared.  Since we do not yet have the Internet in our church building, we will have Fast Sunday as always.  Then we will be able to download the talks and share the messages in the following weeks with our members.  Everyone is anxious to be spiritually fed and hear the word of the Lord.  

 

We also want to acknowledge birthdays this last week.  Rebecca and Jordan share their birthday on the 24th.  Landon is now our favorite 6 year old.  They all had a wonderful day. 

 



 

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.

 

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.

 

  

    

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. 

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.