Working on Vision Screening Projects

We traveled to Sarajevo on Monday morning to meet with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, and Project Hope regarding a potential vision screening project in Sarajevo.  We are hopeful to be able to do a vision screening project similar to the one we are doing in Tuzla.  We will probably start work in a small district and expand from there.  We plan to work with a representative from Project Hope (a small non-profit organization) who will act as a project coordinator.  We felt our meeting in Sarajevo was very successful.

Tuesday we had a press conference with most of our vision screening partners in Tuzla.  The vision screening project in Tuzla has been so successful.  We feel that it is due to the wonderful partners we have been working with.  The press conference was shown on Tuzla Cantonal (county) TV. 

 

Dom Zdralje, the public health clinic was not at the conference, but we have felt that they do a terrific work with the young children. 

 

 



Wednesday we drove to Banja Luka to meet with the Ministry of Public Health to see about the option of doing a vision screening project in Banja Luka.  While there we saw Elder Fausnaught and Elder Graham.  They are doing a super job.

 

The drive to and from Banja Luka is beautiful.  Lots of communities with churches on the hilltops.  Many homes are also set back off the road on a hill, with a charming farms in front.  This is a picture of a corn crib.  Everyone is preparing their farms for the winter. 

 

Thursday was spent putting together information so that our vision specialists can begin to organize a project proposal for Sarajevo.  The Ferguson's wanted to take the Tuzla missionaries out to lunch.  We had a great time at a local restaurant.  After lunch we walked back through center and stopped for one last ice cream before they close for winter.  We have been enjoying unseasonably pleasant weather.

 

 

Friday we drove to Zagreb.  Ike and Gloria Ferguson know one our young missionaries.  Elder Bennett is from Kaysville, Utah.  His parents took advantage of the Ferguson trip to send some of his Christmas presents. 

We also saw Elder Quinn working hard.  An office couple has been called and will arrive the end of this month.  We think Elder Quinn has done a fantastic job.  We have told him this will look great on his resume.

 

While in Zagreb we took some of the young elders out to lunch at Rocket Burger.  Rocket Burger is owned by a couple from Vancouver, Canada.  They make "huge" burgers and is a favorite of all the missionaries.  

 



 Saturday morning we dropped the Ferguson's off at the airport so they could return home.  We then returned to Tuzla.

 

Today at church the Tuzla Group Leader was changed.  Elder Shepherd will now be the group leader as we will be going home.  After church we took the usual pictures as transfers also came out on Friday.  Elder Sheridan will be going to Zagreb to be an Assistant to the President.  We will miss him as he has been here since he first arrived in the country back in April of 2013.  He will do a great job working with Elder Stuart and Elder Scirkovich.  Four elders, two sisters and two couples will go home on Tuesday, November 12, 2013.  Elder and Sister Westergard went home on last Thursday.  We will receive two sisters and four elders on Tuesday.  There are two more couples coming later this month on the 16th and the 23rd.  Of course there is one more couple who will go home on the 26th.  This is a very difficult time for us as we have very mixed feelings. 

 

We also had lunch after church at the Shepherd's apartment and took a few more pictures. 

 

 

 

       

This next week will be spent getting ready for the Davison's arrival (the couple coming to replace us) and we might attempt to start packing.  We will drive to Zagreb on Saturday, attend church there, return with the Davison's and begin their training.  

 

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.

 

  

    

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. 



Felt Flowers, Elder Kearon and Piano Project

Last fall when we visited the elderly center we saw several of the ladies make flower pins and jewelry.  This sparked an idea for Susan.  She thought that she could go to the elderly center and teach them how to make felt flowers.  Problem #1:  No felt in Bosnia.  Problem #2:  No "big shot" (circle punch) to cut out the circles.  She started asking around and found that there really was no felt material to be found.  If she had found the felt, last resort was to could cut out the circles by hand.  About this time, Jenifer Johnson (a fellow crafter) from her home ward made a comment on the blog.  When Susan responded to her comment that she was having problems trying to make these flowers, Jenifer offered to send her some felt.  Problem solved.  Not only did Jenifer send some felt, she had the Activity Day girls (ages 8 - 12) in her ward cut out the felt with the "big shot" and assemble them into kits.  These young girls went the extra mile and made lots of kits.   Lizzy and Sara, our daughters, were good enough to mail all the supplies to us.

      
We took the young elders to help communicate the instructions.  Sign languages works, but sometimes you need more than that.  The elderly center is a place where the seniors can go during the day.  Making the flowers together was a big hit. 

We will be going back to another elderly center later in the month of June.  Again we want to thank the Activity Day girls and their leaders, Jenifer Johnson and Jennifer Naylor, for all their help.  Not to forget a huge thank you to Lizzy and Sara who never complain of their Mother's requests. 

After our visit to the elderly center we along with the elders departed Tuzla for Belgrade, Serbia.  The purpose of our adventure was for a Area Presidency Mission tour of Adriatic North Mission by Elder Patrick Kearon and his wife.  Elder Kearon is the first counselor in the Europe Area Presidency.  The plan was a fireside on Monday night and a Zone Meeting for Serbia and Bosnia on Tuesday.  We gathered at the church on Monday evening to learn that Elder Kearon's flight had been delayed.  Back in January Elder Kearon was going to come visit, but his trip was cancelled because of a heavy snowstorm.  On Monday night the meeting started at 6:30pm and Elder Kearon and his wife were not able to get there till nearly 9:00pm.  The chapel was filled to capacity with people standing in the back and out in the hall.  Everyone was delighted when they were finally able to arrive and enjoyed the spirit that was present in the meeting.  Elder Kearon spoke of 60 years ago when the first party climbed Mt. Everest.  He told that when they got 300 feet from the top, two were chosen to make the final ascent.  Of course they made it, but no one knows who reached the top first.  This was to make the point that we can do great good, if we do not care who gets the credit.  It will take everyone working together to make it through life, but our Savior will help us the last 300 feet.  The Atonement takes care of everything else.  He also spoke about this video.   (See the video clip below.)  He reminded us that we do not have to carry the pain.  We need to let it go.

    https://www.lds.org/youth/video/reclaimed?lang=eng

The meeting on Tuesday was great as well.  We left in the afternoon uplifted and recharged to be better missionaries.  We arrived back in Tuzla about 8:30 Tuesday evening.

On Thursday we were invited to visit one of the local schools, Brčanska Malta.  Earlier in the month we were able to submit a project to help the school with an electric piano.  We were able to purchase the piano as well as provide the students in the class with T-shirts which had the Latter Day Saints Charities logo and the school logo on the front.  They used these shirts when they performed in their school competitions.  Upon entering the classroom we were seated in chairs reserved for us.  The class then performed several songs for us.  Music is taught to all the students and we were impressed with the quality of their performance.  One of the songs, even though performed in Bosnian, was a song which we recognized from when we in high school.  (Sealed with a Kiss)

We have a trip planned to the Dalmatian Coast next week.  We will go to Rijeka to meet with another senior couple there to see about potential humanitarian projects in that part of Croatia.  Till then . . .