On the Road Again

We played catch up in the office on Monday till 6pm when we took the sister missionaries halfway to Banja Luka for an exchange.  Sister Matthews went to Banja Luka and Sister Compare came from Banja Luka to Tuzla.

Tuesday was apartment inspection day.  We visited the elders' and sisters' apartments and found things in order. One apartment needed a copy of the lease and another needed some light bulbs changed out.  Both were told how to defrost their freezers.  The modern convenience of a frost free refrigerator does not exist here.

 

Wednesday we hit the road at 6am and drove the 6 hours to Rijeka, Croatia. The Babbels have been working with Sv. Ana Caritas home for women and children.  This project consisted of buying hygiene supplies in addition to materials to be used in the home.  This is a shelter for women and children who suffer from domestic violence and abuse.  The home works hard to help the women learn to be independent and take care of themselves and their children.  We were joined by Elder and Sister Babbel, Sister Iaccarino, and Sister Maxwell as well as two local members, Dragana and Ema.

 

In the evening we went to dinner with the Babbels and Elder and Sister Seelos from Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia (how is that for a mouthful).  The Seelos were in town waiting for their son and his wife to return from a quick visit across the Adriatic Sea to Italy.  That is out of our mission, so the Seelos' could not go.  We had a delightful evening visiting some sights in Rijeka.

Thursday morning we got up early so we could drive to Pula on the coast and see a few sights before this mission ends.  Well it was raining and the GPS was sending us every which way but the right way, so we decided to just go to Karlovac for our appointment at noon.  Of course we got there by 9:00am.  Luckily the people we were meeting with were flexible.  We were meeting with an organization that is coordinating a therapy center for disabled children.  At this time we have been able to purchase the specialized floor mats for the center.  We hope that we will be able to help them with more equipment for them as time goes on.  We also discussed the results of Karlovac Branch's ongoing garden project.  Over the last three years the members have been growing a branch garden.  They have been able to save money and stretch their budgets so that several branch members have been able to attend the temple during the anual mission temple trip for members.  After our meetings we continued on down the road to Tuzla arriving home close to 5pm. 

Friday was another early morning excursion.  Normally we leave for Zone Conference at 7am, but Susan needed additional pages in her passport so we left at 6am for an appointment at the American Embassy in Sarajevo at 9am.  Everything went smoothly and she now has enough blank pages in her passport to complete our mission.  Upon arrival at the church in Sarajevo Sister Matthews became ill and was taken to the Sarajevo sisters' apartment to rest.  President Rowe felt impressed that the Sisters needed to hear the message he and Sister Rowe were presenting so we took the wonderful iPad to the Seniors apartment and did FaceTime with them.  The majority of our meeting was given by President and Sister Rowe.  Last week they went to the Mission Presidents Seminar in France.  It was held in the same room where the Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I was signed.  Several of the brethren were there but most of the comments he shared were from Elder M. Russell Ballard.  It was a great meeting and everyone left ready to do more.  There is a new couple in Sarajevo.  They are Elder and Sister Shepherd from East Millcreek, Utah.  There has not been a senior couple in Sarajevo since the Smartts went home in May.  They may not stay long there as another couple will be coming in October, but apparently President Rowe felt that Sarajevo is where they are needed at this time.  This was the last Zone Conference for Elder Compton and Elder Kroff (2nd row - 2nd and 3rd from the left) as they will be going home the 1st of October.  We will miss them and wish these two former Tuzla elders the best!

That does it for this week.  May we close this week with our testimony that the Lord is mindful of each of us and the details of our lives.  We know that Tuzla is where the Lord wanted us to live.  It was not a mistake that we were assigned to live here and that we were able to do the "first of it's kind" vision screening project for the young children of Bosnia.  Because of regular vision screening done in elementary schools in the United States our grandson's vision was saved.  We are thankful to be able to help the children of Bosnia in a similar way. 

Visit to Rijeka

We went to Rijeka, Croatia on Tuesday to follow up on the purchase of the washing machine for the homeless shelter.  The washer had been delivered, installed and is working great. We are working with another couple in Rijeka, Elder and Sister Babbel.

While we were visiting, there was another group at the shelter from Italy.  They are the group which painted the mural on the wall in this picture. 

 
We also visited the Caritas Home for Women and Children, who are victims of domestic violence.  We would like to be able to do a project to provide hygiene kits for the women and children who come to the shelter.

 

In the evening we visited the Trsat Castle in Rijeka. This is just one of the many fortresses that were built in the 13th century.  It had been over 100 degrees during the day so the breeze from the top of the castle was enjoyable.  The view was also unbelievable.

 

 

  

Since we just celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary and Gary's birthday we had a delightful evening in a hotel located right at the edge of the Adriatic Sea.  The hotel is elevated so it gives you a beautiful view of the sea.  Gary took a swim in the Adriatic.  Where is Susan you ask?  Anyone who knows Susan, knows that she does not like to get her hair wet.  Hence she is taking the picture.  We ate breakfast the next morning on a balcony which overlooks the sea.

 

 

 

 

We returned to Tuzla in time for the concluding celebration of Ramadan which is Bajram.  This is 3 days of celebration which marks the ending of the holy month of fasting.  For Bosnians it means family gatherings, exchanging gifts, and eating a lot of food.  They also visit the graves of their loved one and give to the poor.  They are not celebrating the end of fasting, but thanking God for giving them strength and helping them with self-control during the month of fasting.  Bajram is one of the biggest holidays in Bosnia so many stores were closed.  This meant that we did not have much to do, but we were able to catch up on paperwork in the office. 

 

Most vacations will end this next week.  We have three full weeks on current humanitarian projects including people visiting from the states to help us with clean-water and wheelchair  projects.  We look forward to these busy weeks. 

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.