Visa Extension and Another Baptism

Monday we drove to Sarajevo with our translator to meet with the Federal Ministry of Health to talk about the potential vision screening project we would like to do there.  Sarajevo is a larger city than Tuzla so we will tweak the project a little to make it work.  All in all, it was a very positive meeting. 

Tuesday we met with the doctor at the University Clinical Center who has been doing all the training for the vision screeners in Tuzla.  The plan is to continue the screening throughout the rest of Tuzla Canton.  This requires training three people each from 65 more schools.  This is a big job for our doctor, but she is a "believer" in the project.  She is excited about the difference it has made in the lives of the children who have been referred to their clinic to help improve their vision.

Wednesday was district meeting with our missionaries and also making the necessary preparations to go out of town on Thursday.

On Thursday we had to leave town as our visa expired on October 10th.  We went to meet with the Maughans (humanitarian couple) in Novi Sad, Serbia.  The Maughans came with us across the pond last June and they will go home about the same time as we do.  Upon arriving in Novi Sad the Maughan's told us about a challenge that has arisen in one of their projects. We listened and discussed with them regarding the problem and hopefully it is getting resolved.
 

 

We returned to Tuzla on Saturday getting a new passport entry stamp so that we will be able to obtain an extension for our visa.  It was a peaceful and relaxing drive.  The leaves are beginning to change.

 

Saturday night we had another baptism.  This young lady is the daughter of one of the members who was baptized earlier this summer. It was truly a spiritual event.  She was confirmed today at church by Elder Winters, bringing our membership to 10. 

This is a bitter sweet time for us.  We are excited about going home, but we are going to have a hard time leaving.  We have made so many friends, both the missionaries and the local people. The members have become like family to us.  We will look forward to a reunion with many of our Tuzla returned missonaries at some future date and hope that it will be like Alma and the Sons of Mosiah when they met in Alma 17. 

Till next week . . .  Doviđenja (Goodbye)     

Media Interview

This was a full week!

Monday we went to Kalesija municipality to attend a closing ceremony for our water project in the village of Hrasno.  Actually we will be closing Phase One of the Hrasno project.  We are in the process of submitting Phase Two of this water project.  We went to the Mayor's office where we visited for a short time and then drove to the project site itself.  This has been a great project.  The local people did all the labor.  The Church helped to supply the materials - pipe, cement, connections, etc.  The local people located an underground spring and built a cement box to capture the spring water and laid pipe to bring the water to those in need.  

 

 

 

Tuesday we stopped by the visa immigration office here in Tuzla to inquire about our visas which will expire October 10th.  We received instructions on what to do, which means we will be able to stay through the end of November.  Check that off the list of "to do's''.

 

Early Wednesday morning we drove with our translator the 2 1/2 hours to Sarajevo for a meeting with the Canton Sarajevo Minister for Education, Science and Youth.  We would like to do a vision screening project in Sarajevo next year.  Hence we will need to meet with the same partners we worked with in Tuzla in order to begin a project in Sarajevo.  The Minister liked our proposal.  Now we will need to meet with the hospital, Institute of Public Health, outpatient clinic, and the Red Cross.

 

Thursday we had the opportunity to go the  Tuzla UKC Hospital where we had a media interview.  The sister missionaries were invited to go with us.  The Church provided some basic vision equipment to the hospital.  Much of their equipment was over 40 years old and in need of repair.  The staff at the hospital trained all the volunteers who did the vision screening in the schools.  This training was provided free of charge.  The UKC Department of Pediatric Ophthalmology has been an outstanding partner to work with.

 

 

Friday was our district meeting.  We have some wonderful missionaries serving in Tuzla at this time.  They are doing wonderful work with the members and investigators.  They have suggested that each member have a calling to help them feel a part of our group.  We are thankful to have these outstanding young people to serve with.

 

One final note.  We received a call from President Rowe asking if we would delay our travel home plans until November 26th.  Of course we said yes.  Therefore that is our departure date/arrival date - we even have an email confirmation of our flight plans.  It really does not seem real yet, but I guess we better start getting use to it.    

 

 

Bosnian Zone Conference

Tuesday was a very busy and special day.  The day began with a baptism at 9:00AM.  Just in case you are wondering why we have our baptisms at such unusual times; it is because we rent the swimming pool at the local hotel for our services.  Hence when it is available is when we have them.  After President Rowe came to church last week Jasmina wanted to have him come to her baptism.  President Rowe told her that he would be back in town on Tuesday for Zone Conference, so we had her baptism at 9:00AM.  She was baptized by Elder Sheridan and President Rowe confirmed her.  There was a wonderful spirit at her baptism.  We were able to also have the sisters and elders from Sarajevo there.

 

 

After the baptism we went to our Tuzla church building and hosted the zone conference.  This was a first.  We are centrally located in Bosnia and the travel time it is about 2 1/2 hrs from both Sarajevo and Banja Luka.  It is a 3 1/2 hour drive from Banja Luka to Sarajevo so it was a nice change.  It was very nice for us not to have to drive 2 1/2 hours back home when the meeting was over. 

 

     

Friday we had the opportunity to deliver some additional Church donated vision equipment to the UKC hospital ophthalmology clinic. 

 

It is incredibly rewarding to watch the people open the boxes and see their faces when they see what is inside.  They have been getting by with very old and outdated equipment.  It really a joy to be able to help people to do their work with quality equipment. This equipment is a blessing to the children the hospital serves.

Saturday we drove to the Sarajevo airport to pick up Elder and Sister Stay.  The Stays' are our Area Welfare Specialists in Frankfurt.  They arrived in Frankfurt the end April.  This is their first trip to the field to visit the couples they work with.  More next week on their visit.   

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. 

Happy Father's Day

We want to wish all the men in our lives a "Happy Father's Day".  We miss our fathers and are thankful for all they did for us so that we could have the wonderful lives that we enjoy now.  Gary received several calls on the computer.  Here are our grandchildren singing a song to him.  Many of you know the song; the words and hand actions that go to the song say. . .

Clap my hands and shout for joy.

  

Hug him tight like this.

 

Give him what? A great big kiss!

 

This has been a week of birthdays for our family.  My sister, Mary Beth Williams had a birthday on Tuesday.  Wednesday our grandson, Taylor Osborne, turned 10.  On Saturday our son, Jesse, turned the big "40".   Where did the time go?  Wasn't it just yesterday that they were little boys?  

 

Monday we drove to Sarajevo to visit with a group called Muslim Aid to discuss potential projects we may be able to do with them. 

Tuesday we took care of little things around Tuzla.  On Wednesday we drove to Novi Sad, Serbia, to meet with our counterparts, (Elder and Sister) Dave and Anne Maughan.  Dave and Anne are from Richland, Washington.  We were in the MTC together and made that long trip over here last June together as well.  We still can not believe that we have been here for a year.  The Maughans are the humanitarian couple in Serbia.  They have humanitarian projects like we do, but they have a challenge to donate wheelchairs, as the government won't allow them to be shipped in.  They government requires them to buy the chairs in country, which is much more costly.  We guess it just goes to show that we have to be creative and let the Lord guide us as we do his work.  Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia.  It is a fairly new city.  We visited the Petrovardin Fortress there which was quite unique.  The road has tunnels that you drive through.  The basement of the fortress had cannons in it and they had built ventilation to let the smoke out.  The fortress overlooks the Danube River, which has been rising with the potential of flooding.  There is quite a bit of history surrounding the fortress.   Construction of the fortress was in the late 1600's.  We had a beautiful day to tour the grounds and relax as we discussed our work. 

Dave and Anne Maughan, Susan and Gary

 View of the Danube

 

Royal Gate

 

Close up of Royal Gate

Discussing humanitarian work

 

 Cannons

More discussion

Notice the water level on the house

Thursday we returned to Tuzla in the evening.  The days are getting longer so we can get more travel in with it being light so late. 

Friday we had an appreciation lunch for the volunteers who helped with the vision screening project.  All the children in the primary schools in Tuzla have had their eyes checked.  The outpatient clinic also visited the kindergartens and completed the screening there.  Kindergarten is not part of the primary schools in Bosnia and not all children go to kindergarten.   Primary school is grade 1 through 9.   We can not say enough about how delighted we have been with the success of this project.  In the fall we will be doing the other 12 municipalities (18,000 students) in Tuzla Canton (county).   The other municipalities are smaller, but we are confident that the screening will be as successful as it has been in Tuzla.  As we meet with the various partners the common thread is that they are glad that we did project as it has helped them to think more of what they can do to protect and improve the vision of children.  Everyone would like to see childhood vision screening become mandatory.

 

Handing our certificates of appreciation

That's it for our week.  We are so thankful for your support.  Your comments really do lift our spirits and give us that extra boost to keep going.  We know that many of you who are remembering us in your prayers and we appreciate it. 

 

Till next week.  Doviđenja(goodbye)    



May Day

With the arrival of pleasant weather we have taken to walking in the mornings.  We live close to the local football (soccer) stadium so we usually go there for our walk.  Even at 6:30 am in the morning it is warm (60's to 70's).  Lately if we wait till later in the day it has been in the 80's to 90's with 70% to 80% humidity.  We love how everything has turned green and the trees and bushes have come alive after the long dormant winter. 

 

 

This was a pretty slow week due to May 1st being in the middle of the week.  May 1st is a big holiday here.  As we went out for our walk early Wednesday morning. we decided that it felt like the 4th of July in our little community of Granite, Utah.  Even early in the morning people were making preparations for their May Day celebration with their family.  Government offices were closed and most stores closed as well.  Tradition seems to be that it is a day you spend with family and friends having a BBQ and enjoying each other's company.  There were a few Pekaras (bakeries) open early in the day so that people could buy fresh bread but by noon everything was closed down.  We went to the weekend house of Emir (our attorney) .  He invited several of his friends, the Smartts from Sarajevo, and ourselves.  We met and followed Emir out of town about 8:45 am for a 30 minute drive to the weekend house where we cooked meat and had salads.  We actually cooked meat 3 times - maybe more after we left at 6pm.  Bosnians are wonderful hosts.  They feel their job is to make sure everyone relaxes and has enough to eat and they do a excellent job of it.   The typical fare is Cevapi.  Cevapi is little sausages.  They also have grilled chicken.  The cevapi is served in a flat bread called lepinje.  Lepinje reminds us of pita bread.  The cevapi is grilled and then you put the meat in the lepinje along with onions, kajmak, peppers and ajvar (minced red bell peppers and eggplant). 

Ema, Emir, and Dijana

 

Ajvar, Cevapi, and Onions

 

Susan, Melina, Elder and Sister Smart

 

Needless to say we had plenty to eat and totally enjoyed ourselves.  We left early to come home for a interview with a couple in Salt Lake.  They are writing the history of the Humanitarian Department of the church and wanted to talk to Gary about the beginning of the wheelchair program. As we drove up the street to our apartment there were no cars in the parking lots of all the apartment buildings as everyone was spending May Day with someone.  May Day celebration continued into Thursday and Friday.  On Thursday some of the businesses were open .  Friday was the same.  But many people had a 5 day weekend.  Hence why we had a slower work week.

 

On Monday we were able to purchase an electronic keyboard for a primary school.  All children learn music in school.  They have a "music competition" which takes place next week.  We were also able to obtain some t-shirts for the orchestra that has their school logo as well as the Latter Day Saints Charities logo.  Pictures will follow as the keyboard and the shirts will be delivered after the holidays. 

 

Friday we drove 5 hours to Karlovac, Croatia as the local Church branch has a project there.  They have rented some land and have a community garden.  We visited the garden last June when we first arrived.  This has been a 3 year project.  They are in the third year.  Hopefully they will have an abundant harvest and be able to provide for themselves.      

 

Karlovac garden June 2012

 

Karlovac is close to Zagreb so we spent the night in Zagreb.  The town has come alive with the pleasant weather.  There are many vendors along the sides of the roads and on the street corners.   There is also an abundance of outdoor seating for their restaurants. 

 

Saturday we picked up the Ferguson's at the Zagreb airport and returned to Tuzla where we will have a week of meetings and work with the various partners in our vision screening project. 

 

Today we had 28 people at church.  It was a wonderful Fast and Testimony meeting.  Our little group is growing.  It looks as if there are some baptisms on the horizon.