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. 

 



 

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.