Going Home

This last week we took Ron and Wendy (Elder and Sister) Davison around Bosnia and introduced them to our various partners. 

On Tuesday we visited the town of Kalesija to sign water contracts at the Mayor's office.  While there we were admiring the Mayor's map of Bosnia.  The next things we knew, the Mayor had removed it from the wall and had it wrapped up so that we could have it.  Once again, this is why we love Bosnia and the people who we have met here.

    
Wednesday we stopped into the Tuzla Red Cross where we introduced E/S Davison to the Red Cross staff.  The Tuzla Red Cross has been invaluable in helping us with many of our projects.  We are going to miss them.

In the afternoon we went to the University Klinical Center (UKC) to visit with the opthamology staff.  As we have stated many times the vision screening project has probably been our favorite project.  We could not have done this project without the help of the wonderful staff in the Children's Ophthalmogy Clinic.  We hope to be able to come back some day to visit them all again.  They mentioned to us that the 62 outlying primary schools who were recently trained have begun initial vision screening in their schools.  The UKC are now receiving calls from parents to schedule appointments for their children.

Thursday we drove to Banja Luka to show the Davisons the city as we do quite a lot of work with the Banja Luka Red Cross and Banja Luka Rehabilitation hospital.  We are also looking into doing a vision screening project in Banja Luka as well..  Ron and Wendy quickly noticed the beautiful countryside and have fallen in love with this countryl.  While we were there we saw Elder Graham (a former Tuzla elder) and his companion, Elder Nielsen. 

Friday was a visit to the Tuzla Children's Home to see the finished work on a project we did there which replaced pipes and fixed leaks in the home.  The children who live in the home are delighted with the their new bathrooms.  The leaking plumbing had caused major damage to the floor.  It was nice to see the improvements.

 

Friday afternoon we went to a restaurant nearby and visited with the staff of UKC.  We had a delightful time. 

 

 

On Thursday we received information from the area office in Germany notifying us of a possible airline strike at the Zagreb airport beginning at 11pm on Monday, November 25th.  We were scheduled to fly out Tuesday, November 26th at 9am.  On Friday we felt prompted to call travel in Salt Lake and receive some guidance.  We are now flying out Monday, November 25th at 9am.  Hence Saturday was spent packing and getting everything in order.  We speak in church here in Tuzla at 11am Sunday and will depart for Zagreb after.  We will spend the night at the mission home and hopefully leave Monday morning.  We are not surprised at this new development, our whole mission has been a trail of our faith. 

 

Again, may we say that it has been a privilege to be able to come to the Adriatic North Mission as humanitarian missionaries.  We have loved living in Tuzla and have made many wonderful friends.  They will always be our friends.  It was not chance that we came here.  The Lord has been good to us and we will never forget our time here. 

 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a blessing to the people here and we feel blessed to be God's servants.        

 



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.  

 

Mother's Day 2013

Last week we had a fantastic Fast and Testimony Meeting.  We had 28 in attendance.  Of course we had ourselves, the two sets of elders, the Smartts, and Ike and Gloria Ferguson.  But 18 non-missionaries is still a good number.  There was a wonderful spirit.  After the meeting we went to our translator, Mersiha's parents weekend house for lunch.  That was unbelievably good.  They cooked the meal in a peka cooker that works like a dutch oven.  Mersiha's mother used no oil.  She cooked some turkey, veal, lamb and beef along with vegetables.  It was simply delicious.  Ike and Gloria liked the cooker so much that they bought one and took it home.  It actually made it home via the airlines.  The box was opened at all the securities, but they got it home and look forward to cooking with it. 

Monday we started early.  Our first meeting was with the Minister of Public Health.  We learned that they had not received any forms from the schools to input the information regarding the vision screening.  Next we went to visit some of the schools to see how the screening was going.  Each school does the screening just a little different, but more than half of the screening in the schools is complete.  We also stopped by the Tuzla Red Cross Cantonal office.  The Red Cross has been so helpful in making this project happen. We could not of done it without their help.  In the afternoon we visited with the UKC Hospital.  The Ferguson's brought several things for the optical clinic at the hospital.  Everyone was so excited as we opened this up.  It was like Christmas morning.

 

Tuesday we met with the Ministry of Education where we discussed how we will go about doing the screening for the rest of the municipality.  We also were able to discuss how the information from the screening will be given to Public Health for recording the data.  After our meeting we went to visit some more schools.  While we were at one school the principal came in to talk with us.  She told us about a friend of hers whose son had been screened and they discovered that he had amblyopia. She called the father and he came over to the school so we could talk with him.  He told us that his son was going to be meeting at the UKC the next day and gave us permission to come meet him. In the afternoon we went to the outpatient where the UKC doctors trained the outpatient clinic staff to do the preschool vision screening.

 

 

 

Wednesday morning we met again at the Public Health Department along with the doctors from the outpatient clinic and UKC Hospital.  We were able to decide on the direction we needed to go to finish out the screening here in Tuzla and the plan for the rest of the Canton (county) in the fall. 

   

 

 

At noon we went to the UKC where we meet the Kalfic family.  We do not feel that this was just a chance meeting.  Armin is 8 years old.  Because of Taylor having the amblyopia in the same eye we were able to offer hope to Armin and his parents.  We showed him a picture of our grandson, Taylor.  We told them what his vision was when he was first diagnosed and what it is now.  We were able to let them know that doing the exercises to strengthen his eye and getting glasses will help him.  At least he will not go blind as he would have if had not gone unchecked.  The fact that the screening was able to help even one child has made it worth the effort, but while we were there others came as well.  The doctors at the UKC ophthalmology clinic have seen over 100 children that have been identified by the initial vision screening in the schools.  

Today is Mother's Day and all the elders are are calling their mothers.  We don't know who is more excited the elders or their families.  .

 

 

The elders are in the apartment downstairs making Susan a special dinner for Mother's Day.  It smells wonderful.  We have some of the finest young men in our mission and know that the Lord is mindful of the work that is happening here.  It is an honor and privilege to be a part of the beginnings of the church in Tuzla, Bosnia.

 

 

   

 

 

 

Seed Distribution

Early Monday morning we went with the Red Cross of Tuzla to a town called Zvinice which is about 30 minutes south of Tuzla.  Back in October/November we were able to submit and get approval to distribute seeds to needy familiies who lost all their crops last summer due to the drought.  Normally these people would have seeds from the previous year's harvest to plant the following year.  Since it did not rain for three months last summer they lost all their crops.  We were able to provide potato seed, onion sets, vegetable seeds, fertilizer and fruit trees to more than 120 families.  We met at the feed store in Zvinice where various Red Cross offices  also gathered and picked up supplies to go back to their municipality and distribute the seeds. The people who lived in Zvinice just came to the store to pick up their seeds.  One lady had walked over 7 kilometers to get hers.  We were able to give her a ride back home as there was no way she was going to be able to get everything there.  She lives with her husband and two children.  While she was getting the seed her husband was home turning the soil by hand to prepare the ground for planting.  On Tuesday it was truly a humbling experience to be able to take seeds to a few of recipients.

People waiting for the distribution to begin   

    

    

Checking out the load

Loading it up

 

 Local distribution

 

Making sure everyone gets everything 

 

 25 kg of potato seed

 

A happy receiver

 

Garden is ready to plant

 

Delighted with his seeds

 

Another happy customer

 

Father & Son 

This lady lives alone, her husband died 5 years ago

 

 Very Thankful

 

Each must sign for their seed

 

On Thursday we went to Zone conference in Sarajevo where we learned that we will lose Elder Merl to Sarajevo this transfer.  Another group of new missionaries will arrive on Tuesday. We will be getting another new elder then. 

 

The elders finished this round of English classes. We always give them certificates stating that they have completed the five week course.

 

  

   

 

 

 

We try to use Saturday for our "P" day, but with everything that has been going on it usually does not happen.  Thus ends the week.  We continue to do all the necessary things for our vision screening project.  Hopefully the screening will begin the first week of April.  Tomorrow looks like a trip to Zagreb - unfortunately it is snowing there and they are forecasting snow for here as well.  But we need to go to Croatia to sign a contract with the local Red Cross so that they will be able to get a container of wheelchairs. Hopefully the snow will not stick to the ground.  There is so much travel involved in our mission, but we are thankful to have a car and the ability to travel wherever we need to.