Our apartment explosion!

I can tell that the time must be starting to pass more quickly because it seems like I type the blog and then it's blog time again.  There are days that I am happy that time is passing quickly but as our time grows shorter, I find that it makes me sad.  I look at the people we have met and learned to love and I think that I will probably never see them again, at least here on Earth.  I now know what my sons meant when they said that it was harder to leave the mission than leave home.  It's kind'a like birth and death....you are born, leaving heaven and the ones you love to come to Earth to ones you learn to love and then you die and leave Earth to go back to ones that you love.  We will deal with it once, but the people over here deal with missionaries coming and going all the time....sometimes they really struggle with knowing that they won't see them again.

We finally have the church transformation completed.  The members, and even our English class people (non-members), are excited.  We have new paint, new furniture, and large nice pictures.  They even gave us some money to stock the kitchen that only had pans and sacrament cups.  Now we have a few dishes, silverware, utensils, and real water pitchers.  We look like a real church instead of sterile building.  We find that people gather in the foyer to talk and they linger longer because it is comfortable.  It has given the missionaries an inviting place to have lessons with investigators.  And it has given members a place they are proud of.

Entrance coming into our church (Before)

Entrance now coming into our church...we still need to get
a table cloth for the table.  The line by the loveseat is
a copper pipe for water.  They don't hide water lines.

Hallway to Branch Pres. office and kitchen (Before)
The kitchen is a very small galley kitchen.

Looking up the stairs to the hallway
(After)

Looking back down the hall--the door below goes into the
chapel. (After)

For many many years the church here in Sremska has been perceived as a cult church and there has been negativity attached to it.  Mainly because some people joined for money reasons and when they didn't get the money, they talked badly about our church.  We are trying hard to move past this image and doing the humanitarian hygiene and school kits has helped greatly.  Recognizing mostly Alan, because of his white shirt, people are beginning to say "Dobro Dana" (Dough-bro-don) and smile at us more because their children have come home from school and told their parents what our church donated.  Even our branch President has said the feeling is changing and we hope this opens up more opportunities for our missionaries.  Alan just arranged for two more wheelchairs for two community people and we hope that to will help more people realize that we are a caring, Christ centered church.

The "Only in Serbia" moment is kind'a odd this time.  When we were in Rijeka with Daniel and Anna we stayed at a hotel that had a beautiful pine tree outside and on this pine tree were some unusual pine cones that I had never seen and I loved the look of them.  Alan was looking around the base to see if any had fallen and a man from the hotel started talking to him.  And you know Alan, before we knew it the man had pulled over a chair and was retrieving off the tree some of those pine cones for me.  We bought them back to our apt and have enjoyed them for weeks, but one day we heard a 'pop' and looked over and one had exploded....then two days later the other one exploded. :o{   I guess we won't bring them home as a keepsake.

A before explosion and after explosion.

That little spike ran through the middle of the cone

Who turned the tap on?

Well, the humidity is 89% and I feel like I could shampoo my hair just standing in the open.  For those of you who have lived with humidity, you know that it changes everything; makes the air heavy to breath, makes it cooler or hotter, ruins hairstyles, crackers are never crisp and cookies are soggy; clothes and bedding feel damp, etc. etc.  Anyway all moisture aside, things are going well here.

Saturday we put our humanitarian kits together.  We put 200 hygiene kits together and 70 school kits for the Roma children who attend school.  We had a great turn out of investigators...now a great turn out over here is different from what might happen at home.  We had 6 investigators and 6 members there to help us.  And sadly, the Masons organization we invited did not come.

We had fun doing this...we did just like the Humanitarian
Center and just passed the kits along.  We laughed a lot.

Having Breakfast and talking.  You can see some of the new
furniture that makes everything more inviting.

 We also gave the School 10 white boards, 20 lab chairs, 35 desk chairs and 15 double desks.  They were so appreciative.  Some of the chairs and desks they were using were by our standards "throw aways"...  It has been a great experience and one that the branch really enjoyed.

Our sister missionaries are doing great work.  They are teaching about 10 people and have committed one family of parents and a 16 year old boy, Nimahnja, to baptism on Nov. 23.  For Nimahnja, it is like his spirit has always known the gospel...he is reading the BOM and loves and understands it.  He has started coming to our Seminary class.  But the best is that he has ask Aleksander (our lost sheep young man) to baptize him.  Aleksander is so scared and yet so honored.  This is a great growing step for him.  (Aleksander is the young man in the picture above laughing)  Nimahnja's father smokes and is a very nice man, but he said it  may take a little longer than Nov. 23rd before he is ready.  His mom we are not quite sure of yet.

We are getting another missionary ready to go on a mission.  He is almost 26 so we have to hurry.  He and Alan are at the dentist and doctor as I write this.  He speaks English very well and has been going to the University in Novi Sad.  But school is different here.  They do not give release time where you can miss two years of school and then come back and pick up where you left off.  They would make you start all over....unless they can see merit in what you are doing.  We hope that the fact he will travel to another country and learn a new language will make them guarantee that he can come back.  But also, they make you pay tuition to hold your place.  The church pays out a lot of money to ensure that kids in these countries can go on missions...but then "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all else will be added unto it".  Hopefully that will be the foundation that is needed here to help the gospel grow. (Speaking of the word gospel, very often here people say, "what means gospel"?  It is such a common word for us and yet most people haven't heard of it and if they have, they think it is the Bible books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

We did take the Sisters to the Belgrade Zoo on Monday for their P-Day.  Belgrade Zoo has 20 white lions and tigers.  The most in all the world at one Zoo.  We didn't see them all and not even the new baby white lion that was reported on Utah News, but I have included a picture of a white tiger. It is a very old Zoo that was built in part of an old fortress and on a hill so there is a lot of stairs and up and down walking.  (Just what I love)  It is an OK Zoo and had some different things like bulls and cows....but if you come from such a large city, you may never get the chance to see farm animals.  They had one lonely Elephant, one lonely giraffe, and one Hippo, but there seemed to be multiples of the other animals.

White tiger

This shows how old and the stairs

Part of the Fortress wall

After the Zoo, we took the Sisters to the Delta City Mall so Sis. Palmer could get a new camera....and low & behold the Belgrade Elders came walking by.

A great bunch of young people!  The Elder in the crazy shorts
is from Tasmania, island off Australia.  The taller Elder is from
here in Serbia, others from US.

"Only in Serbia":  There's a lot of kissing in public in Serbia and to prove it, here's of photo of Alan and I kissing in public.  He's always been a great kisser!

                                                                                                                                                                              

A DEATH, A BAPTISM, AND A MISSIONARY RETURN! (Sounds like a Mormon movie title)

As soon as we drove away from taking Daniel and Anna to the airport Alan's phone started to ring.  The missionaries were calling to tell us that the little lady we had been helping get to the doctor and helping to get morphine to ease the pain of her cancer was in the hospital and it didn't look good.  We rushed home to the hospital and her daughter and grandson were there in tears.  The daughter said that the hospital said she had to go buy diapers for her mother 'right now'.  So we took her to the store and got the diapers and returned.  She rushed them into the hospital but by the time she got there her mother had passes.  They think differently over here....they don't tell people that they have a terminal illness and maybe they feel it is better if the family does not have to watch a loved one die.  They also do not embalm people here before burial, at least they don't provide that for the poorer people.  So we had her funeral on Wed. and since she wasn't a church member and an Orthodox Christian, the funeral was very orthodox.  They pay the priest to conduct the funeral.  It is held at the small chapel at the Cemetery. He chants and waves incense around as the people attending the funeral stand (no benches in the church).  Everyone has to light a thin candle that each person holds while the Priest chants from the book of John.  It doesn't last long (about 5 minutes while the candles burn down) and then everyone moves out to the cemetery and the coffin is lowered into the grave on ropes and everyone throws a handful of dirt into the grave and then the workers immediately shovel dirt over the grave as everyone stands there.  Since that time we have been at the daughter's house and every night she lights an incense ball and carries it around the house to insure that her mother goes to the right place in heaven.   (Now aren't you thankful for the knowledge and the blessings of understanding that we have in our lives)  The daughter is investigating the church but we are not sure if she is gaining a testimony or is more dedicated to the friendships she formed.....but even that is a start.

On a happier note, our sweet man who walked nine miles to church (by the way we did loan him a bike which makes it much easier) requested baptism earlier than scheduled and he wanted it done in Belgrade.  He has a brother there and we think that he was hoping that he would come (he didn't).  So on Friday, Sept. 27th, the branch traveled to Belgrade for his baptism.  We have never seen such JOY radiated from someone being baptized.  One of the missionaries said it best, "His smile was too big for his face".  He was so excited and happy!  He was hugging everyone and even kissed one missionary on the cheek.  We had to calm him down a bit.  But his joy was infectious.  (So much we take for granted)

Our three wise Sisters who taught him, our branch pres. who
baptized him, and one of our past Elders that initially
started teaching him.

Our sweet nine mile man!

He comes faithfully every Sunday and next week he will be made a Priest.  He is so excited to help with the Sacrament.

And finally our young "live in" O'Brien missionary returned from the MTC on this last Wednesday.  We were so excited to see him and he could not stop talking about how great America is.  How beautiful and hugh the mountains are; how big the freeways are; how kind people are (they smile at you even when they don't know you); how good the MTC food is (?); and how he will live there one day and be a policeman.  We had forgotten how much he talks and how fast he walks.  We took him to the Ukrainian Embassy to arrange for his Visa and then to the Belgrade Elders to be his temporary mission companions.   He will leave for the Ukraine in about 10 days.  He learned Russian and the Ukraine languages while he was there....he really has a talent for languages cause he speaks like a pro.  But then how could we tell :o).....

He wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get a
better picture.

And now for the awaited "Only in Serbia" moment:

Now if you look up Serbia on the internet or in any brochure this picture will be shown.  It is a very interesting building.  But we have found out that here in Serbia it is called "The Two Idiots" building.  It seems that this tall apartment building was built with new elevators and technology, but they forgot to put stairs in the building....so if and when the power goes out, people are stranded and sometimes, they say, for days.  The part that the banner hangs over is abandoned with no one living there.  We joke about "Only in Serbia", but if we start looking around, we will find our own "Only in America" moments as well.  Start looking!

Were they really here or was it a dream....a very good dream!

Yes, Daniel and Anna came and it was great to have them here...it felt like being home.  They spoke in church and everyone has told us how much they loved their talks.  The best is that they got to meet our little branch of saints and now know why we so love the people here.

We left on Monday for a week of traveling around out mission.  We first went to Ljublijana in Slovenia.  What a beautiful country Slovenia is...probably the prettiest in our mission with mountains and pines.  We went to a Cathedral there that was gorgeous inside.  This picture does not do it justice.

That is real gold ornamentation and every picture
is bright (not like the photo) even the ceiling
is painted in murals.

  We took a boat trip there that was fun but we loved the tradition they have of hanging locks on cables on their river bridges.  Lovers hang the lock to signify their love for each other and then throw the key in the river.

Locks of Love...

This old couple didn't have a lock and if they did, they couldn't
remember where the key might be, but they still love each other!

We had a package for Wendy and Ferrin's niece, Sister Flanders, and thanks to Anna's persistence we finally found her and delivered the package at the park.  Our mission is so big (5 countries) that we don't meet altogether except maybe for Christmas so we hadn't met her yet.   

Daniel, Anna, Kylee Flanders, & Sister Fugal

We traveled on to Lake Bled which is another beautiful place.  (You will get tired of me saying 'beautiful place').  It has a lake, castle, island, mountains, and pines, everything but an ocean.  

Island in middle of Lake Bled with church in middle.  You
can take a boat out, but it was raining and no boats
were running.

Daniel's the only one who got a picture of the castle, but
we got a picture of the King and Queen.  So there!

I am sure this blog is like watching home movies of someone's vacation but if I don't record it, I don't remember it.  So continue at your own risk.  We went on to my favorite place, Predjama Castle.  It is a castle that was built into a cave and the only castle that was never conquered by an enemy.  It is amazing.

There are more castles in Slovenia and Croatia than there are
in England and Scotland.  Well kept secret.

That afternoon we dropped Daniel and Anna in Trieste, Italy and we went back to Rijeka Croatia because we could not travel outside our mission boundaries.

We stayed in a Hotel (Jadran) right on the ocean.  Infact, the
balcony hung over the ocean and we felt like we were
on a cruise ship.  We read, we slept, we went sightseeing
and enjoyed the R&R.

We stayed in Rijeka for 2 days and went on to Pula which is an old Roman city on the ocean.  It has a Colosseum that is more intact than the Colosseum in Rome.

This is a picture of a picture I took to show the whole Colosseum.
They started building it when Christ was 6 years old and  finished
it 1 AD.

This was amazing to see, especially knowing how old it is.

Are you sick of the travel tour yet....The next day we went to Trieste and picked Daniel, Anna, and all his ties up and drove back to Rovinj.  Not my favorite, very touristy.  Saturday morning we planned on going to Plitvice Lakes.  And on the way we had an adventure.  We came to a line of cars all stopped and people out milling around.  Daniel & Anna walked up and found out that there was a war mine that they had discovered and needed to be blown up.  So we sat there for a while...we were playing SkipBo on top of the car and people were visiting and then all of a sudden the cars started moving.  We never hear a blast...maybe they found out it was a dud.  We were a little worried being in Croatia with Serbia licence plates because everyone kept looking at us like 'this is your fault'.  Maybe we were just paranoid, but there really are still a lot of bad feelings between the two countries.  Anyway, we finally arrivedat the lakes and 'oh my goodness', yes, they are beautiful.

It is a national park....So many water falls and aqua colored water.  It takes your breath away it is so pretty.  We spent all afternoon walking the trails and left after dark and drove to Zagreb.  That is where the mission offices and mission home are located.

Everywhere you go in Slovenia and Croatia there are tunnels that they are carved through the mountains to allow the mountain or animal paths to continued growing over the top of the auto put.

Some of these tunnels are short and others can be up to
2 miles long.

Well this is getting long winded, but it was so fun and relaxing.  We drove back to Sremska Mitrovica on Sunday.  Daniel and Anna packed up and Monday morning we took them to the Belgrade Airport.  Yes, we cried and were so sad to see them go but are so thankful that they could come and see where we live.  They and we have found out that maybe (no there's no maybe about it) don't live in the prettiest part of our mission, but we feel like it is home and we are happy where we are.  And most of all, we are happy we could share it with Daniel and Anna.  Thank you so much for coming!

They're driving us crazy or is it they're driving crazy?

"Only in Serbia".....Serbians drive sooo crazy!  And Alan has mastered the Serbian way of driving...I have mastered just shutting my eyes tight and not saying a word. ;o)  On the AutoPut, which is their freeway, it is not uncommon to have cars pass us going at least 100 miles an hour.  The AutoPut only has two lanes going each way but it allows for fairly easy driving.  But to get to most of the small towns or even to NoviSad the small two lane highways (which are narrower than normal) must be used.  Big semi-trucks and all wind through these small towns.  What makes it scary is that people pass with very little leeway into oncoming traffic and if they decide to pass you and there is no space between you and the next vehicle, oh well, they just nose their way in.  They are very aggressive drivers and honk if you show the slightest hesitation about moving when the light changes red; or if you are not traveling fast enough; or if you are waiting for a pedestrian; or etc. etc.  Anyway you get the idea.  Alan has amazed me, we travels into these big cities like Belgrade and NoviSad like a pro.  Belgrade is like driving in NewYork and just as big and congested as New York.  He looks at a city 'paper' map (GPS is not so reliable over here) and somehow he imprints that map in his mind and away we go.  Even the young missionaries are impressed.

We had five investigators to church last Sunday which was very exciting.  We had given some white shirts and a pair of suit pants (left by missionaries) to our sweet man that walks to church.  He wore them Sunday and looked very nice and he was so proud.  We also have two sisters that came who have set baptismal dates (the sisters are doing a great job) and also attending was our non-member missionary man that invites everyone to church but will not commit to even being taught by the missionaries.  We are slowly teaching him in church; he just doesn't realize it yet.  We are also finalizing the buying of items for the hygiene and school kits.  Our humanitarian missionaries have been great to work with. Hopefully we will be able to have it all collected and assemble the kits the end of Sept. after we get back from our trip with Daniel and Anna.

Yes, Daniel and Anna arrive next Friday and we are so excited.  They will speak in our Sacrament meeting on Sunday and then Monday we will leave for Lake Bled.  Because we can't leave our mission area, they will continue on to Italy and we will travel down the coast of Croatia which is reported to be beautiful.  We will meet another missionary couple down there for an evening and then hopefully have some time to rest.  (We have had very few P-Days).  Then in a few days, Daniel and Anna will travel back to Croatia and we will meet up and continue sight seeing.  When we came on our mission their coming seemed so far away and now it is here...it marks the half way point of our mission.  It reminds me of that old saying that said something like, "Don't spend so much time looking so far ahead that you miss today".

Sorry, no pictures this week, we have been too busy or like the old people we are, we forget the camera.  Also, if we don't post on the blog for a week or two, just smile and know that we are having a wonderful time on the coast with our kids.