And they did! O'Brien, our Serbian young man got his mission call. It is quit a process to send someone on a mission call from over here. The Salt Lake City office doesn't recognize the mission papers because the phone numbers from here and some of the spellings don't fit. So we had to call Salt Lake directly to get that worked out (several times). Then after it goes to the mission president, it has to go to Germany headquarters and then on to SLC. And the mission call takes the same route back to O'Brien. Many of us met at the church Sat. night to open his call and have cake and ice cream. He was hoping so much that he would go to America. But... he has been called to the Ukraine, Kyev mission to speak Russian. The saving grace for him is that he will get to go to the Provo Training Center and must arrive on July 30th. He wants to leave next week so he can spend several un-missionary days there but I don't think the church will go for that.
He has had to have shoulder surgery before he leaves....so after a series of doctor visits to Belgrade, he had surgery on Monday to repair the cartilage around his shoulder socket. He had to stay in the hospital overnight and then we picked him up on Tues. the doctor said that he can go to America in a month and keep up his exercises there. Alan and I have decided that he may be "our mission". If we can help get him on a mission and trained..when he comes back, he may become a church leader here in Serbia and do great things to forward the gospel here. He is a super young man who has given up much (a family and a professional soccer career) for the church. But he doesn't hesitate a minute telling you that he is the blessed one.....and he is.
Happy July 4th to everyone....There is nothing to remind us of the holiday here and the missionaries told us not to celebrate it too openly because so many people harbor dislike for the Americans. We don't get treated badly, probably because we are old, but the missionaries encounter resentment almost every day. It really puts into perspective the blessings we have in America, especially when you are away from them. The countries over here have so much animosity toward one another....in Serbian people even get upset if someone is speaking with a Croatian accent. Just being able to cross state boarders in America without a passport is a blessing. We just wish the gospel could spread more rapidly so there could be more love and kindness among the people. If you have an extra prayer left over, say one that these people's hearts will soften and except the gospel.
Our "Only in Serbia" moment this week was when (on the same day) we saw a woman here in Sremska crossing the street with her bathrobe flowing in the breeze, slightly covering a wispy night gown...she has just been to the market. And later in Belgrade, we saw a man in his stripped PJs and slippers just coming out of a market after coming down to buy his paper. Never a dull moment.
He has had to have shoulder surgery before he leaves....so after a series of doctor visits to Belgrade, he had surgery on Monday to repair the cartilage around his shoulder socket. He had to stay in the hospital overnight and then we picked him up on Tues. the doctor said that he can go to America in a month and keep up his exercises there. Alan and I have decided that he may be "our mission". If we can help get him on a mission and trained..when he comes back, he may become a church leader here in Serbia and do great things to forward the gospel here. He is a super young man who has given up much (a family and a professional soccer career) for the church. But he doesn't hesitate a minute telling you that he is the blessed one.....and he is.
Happy July 4th to everyone....There is nothing to remind us of the holiday here and the missionaries told us not to celebrate it too openly because so many people harbor dislike for the Americans. We don't get treated badly, probably because we are old, but the missionaries encounter resentment almost every day. It really puts into perspective the blessings we have in America, especially when you are away from them. The countries over here have so much animosity toward one another....in Serbian people even get upset if someone is speaking with a Croatian accent. Just being able to cross state boarders in America without a passport is a blessing. We just wish the gospel could spread more rapidly so there could be more love and kindness among the people. If you have an extra prayer left over, say one that these people's hearts will soften and except the gospel.
Our "Only in Serbia" moment this week was when (on the same day) we saw a woman here in Sremska crossing the street with her bathrobe flowing in the breeze, slightly covering a wispy night gown...she has just been to the market. And later in Belgrade, we saw a man in his stripped PJs and slippers just coming out of a market after coming down to buy his paper. Never a dull moment.
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