The weeks are zipping by...

The weeks are passing so quickly now...it seems we just turn around and it is Sunday again.  Sunday is always an interesting day because church is certainly an experience.  Alan and I sit in church and as I have said before, it is all in Serbian and I keep waiting for the "gift of tongues or ears" to work but sadly it doesn't. Just imagine what it would be like to sit in church and not understand, it is worse than the  driest speaker (I almost said high counselmen) you have ever heard. Sometimes our branch president will translate a copy of his talk into English and we can see they give wonderful talks.  But we have been here so long now that even in Relief Society the teacher forgets to have it translated for me and then turns to me and says in English, "Sister Seelos, what do you think about that"?  Dah!  We all just have a good laugh and move on.  I just have to remember that these are choice times that I will never forget. 

We had one investigator at church.  He smokes as do many of the investigators.  He says that he needs to smoke about every 20 minutes but he said that when he is in our church he does not have the urge to smoke.  Smoking is one of the obstacles that people have to overcome when they decide to join the church
(I can only identify when I think of giving up Chocolate, FOREVER!)

Last week was Easter and many people brought us decorated boiled eggs.  It is their tradition and many people color their eggs using onion skin. The children here go house to house with their Easter baskets and it is kind'a like Trick or Treating...they get boiled eggs or treats.  Even our English students brought us eggs the following Tuesday.  I took them home and put them all in the fridge and took a picture.  

The leaves on the eggs were attached with nylon net before dying.

Last week Alan, I, and Nemanja went to visit our sweet member who initially walked 9 miles to church (our 9 mile man, as we call him).  If you remember, he used to live in another town in a house with no water, heat, electricity.  It was a bare shell of a house.  Anyway, we moved him into a small apt. in town that some of his distant relatives are paying for.  He is so proud of  his new place that is basically two small rooms and a bathroom.  But after what he came from, it is luxury.  

Alan, Zivan, and Nemanja

Zivan in his living room/bedroom

Outside the small apartment

We have another couple here in Belgrade who are from Washington DC, the Goodsells, that have become good friends and confidants.  They will leave to pick up their missionary son in Germany May 5th and then travel home together.  We will miss them and their support.  Duska, our Relief Society Pres., had them and us to dinner on Friday night.  She is a wonderful cook and when people ask me what I will miss from Serbia besides the people, it is Duska's cooking.  She cooked a very traditional meal of stuffed peppers, sarma (stuffed cabbage leaves), and tomatoes and peppers with her wonderful bread.  She also had one of her cakes for dessert (her cakes could rival the Beehive house cakes).

Yum!

Duska...she would hate this picture

Ada, her great daughter.....

I think that we have mentioned in the past that Alan has been talking with an Orthodox Priest about coping his church records.  So many of the records in Serbia were destroyed during the war which can make it difficult to do genealogy work here.  We are hoping that the Priest will be willing to have them copied to preserve them from ever being destroyed.  Alan and our Branch President are meeting with the Priest on Tues. night.  If he agrees, church headquarters sends a team out to copy the records.  So that is our prayer this week (among others)

OK...for our "Only in Serbia" moment:

If you have a family member or friend who is a lawyer, you may want to make sure they do not see this segment because they will be very envious and may end up moving to Serbia just for this perk!

We have a prominent Sremska Mitrovica Lawyer who has his office down stairs in our apartment building and we thought you might like to see the office of an important lawyer in Sremska.  (Daniel, whatever you do, don't let Zac view these pictures)

Attractive entrance!

Spacious desk area

Inviting waiting room!

Never a dull moment (AKA Restful moment)

This has been a hectic week...(Sorry, I am writing this down more to help me remember than for your un-enjoyment) On Sunday we had Branch Conference with a dinner following which I got to make the bulk of the meal except for dessert. We had sweet and sour chicken nuggets and one of our older sisters said that she might learn to like that funny tasting chicken that Sister Seelos made. (you just have to smile).  Monday we had the Senior couple from Osijek here to visit for the day.  They took us out to lunch for Alan's birthday which was very nice. Tuesday we had a District Auxillary women's meeting here in Sremska which included all the women leaders in Serbia.  We hosted and prepared refreshments.  Wed. was District meeting here and I prepared a huge relish plate with dip for their treat. Today is Thursday and we are having the Easter Party tonight which we had to plan.  We will have an Easter Egg hunt (they loved that last year) followed by the Sister Missionaries talking about Easter and then showing a video. Following, we will have another dinner...which I prepared the main course and salad.  (People here are poor and when they bring something, it is usually a bread of some kind). Friday we trek to Novi Sad to take the baptismal font and then turn around and travel south to Sebac to pay for trees Sremska will plant (after we leave) for a humanitarian project.  Saturday I will prepare lunch for the sisters and Aleksander to say goodbye since he is leaving for Montenegro. (more on him later)...Sunday of course is Easter and I will prepare Easter Dinner for the missionaries.  And in the mean time Alan is running around doing the Priesthood stuff..Whew! Enough said...

If you remember Aleksander left the church and wanted his name removed from the records...but he has now calmed down and says that the truth is that he has a testimony of the gospel and believes it spiritually, but he can't live it physically.  He is a bartender by trade and he smokes and drinks.  We love him and hope that some day he will be able to embrace the whole of the gospel. 

Now for the "Only in Serbia" moment...we are calling it "Only in Sremska Mitrovica" this time. There is a artist living in Sremska Mitrovica that paints murals on many of the buildings and they are all representing Roman culture because of the Roman history here. (Seven of the Roman Emperors come from Sremska)
The artist's name is Dragan Martinovic and his work is very impressive.  Daniel and Anna loved these pictures when they visited (so this is for you both).

Only in Sremska, but impressive, hum!

During this Easter weekend may we all remember Christ's Sacrifice for each of us.  "And this is life eternal, they they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."  John 17:3  If you know that, you are blessed because many do not have a testimony of this.  Be Thankful!

Still here, just in case you were wondering!

It's been so long since I have written that you probably thought that we had dropped off the face of the earth....no, we're still here.  But like I have said in the past, after being here for over a year, everything seems just ordinary because we are used to it and we wonder what to write about.  But we did travel to the south end of Croatia and so I will give you a little travel log.

We traveled down to Zadar which is about 5 hours from here and is where the southern most church branch is located.  They have about 30 that come to church but 6 of them are missionaries.  Since Zadar is on the coast I think I expected it to be a little more lush.  It very much reminds me of California's ...more dry with palm trees and scrub brush on the mountains which are about 30 minutes east of the coast. The mountains are very high...maybe even higher than Utah's and they are also snow capped.  As for the coast, the ocean is beautiful and the little villages nestled into coves are truly picturesque.

This was even prettier than the poor photographer was able to capture!

Also all over the country side were hundreds (honestly, hundreds) of stone fences.  The area and mountains are almost pure rock.  We did not know what the fences were for, but when we checked the internet, it indicated that they were just to define property lines and keep their sheep in and that they are centuries old.  I guess when you have some much rock...you use it.

Many of these fences went straight up...and there is no mortar holding them in place. 

We stayed two night in Zadar in a 'full board' hotel call the Falkenakuser.  Full board here means the same as 'all inclusive' with breakfast, lunch and dinner provided.  This is quit common over here.  It was nice to just go down stairs and eat (too much).  They upgraded us and we had a nice ocean view with a living room.

View from our balcony!  

In Zadar we wanted to see the 'sea organ'...it is a man made set of pipes under the walk way that plays certain cords when the sea hits the pipes.  

It doesn't look like much, but it sounded great.  The sound comes up through the little holes you can see in the cement.

They also have a huge circular solar panel just behind this that collects solar energy during the day and then send a giant light ray into the sky at night.  (Sorry no picture)

Zadar is a very old city (just like all cities in Europe) and as we walked into the center we saw many old remains.

Centuries old church

Protection for an old shrine

Remains of an old wall...they use those rock for everything.

Over half a century relic, but still functioning :o)

 As we drove North back towards Rijeka where we stayed one more night, we were reminded that there are more castles in Croatia than all of England, Scotland and Ireland.  So if you want to see castles, come to Croatia.  Just a couple of the several we saw.

In Rijeka, Alan said goodbye to our favorite Hotel Jadran on the sea with its beautiful surroundings.

This was the last time we will probably ever stay there...but we will always remember it.

The home across the street from the hotel...each floor is it's own apartment.

We went from Rijeka to Zagreb and the mission home to pick up our missionaries who had attended a training meeting and also to pick up a automatic shifting car that the sisters can drive to do exchanges.

Alan hugging our old car goodbye...he loved the stick shift.

And this is our new car...or old beat-up car...resulting from Elders driving.

Travel log over...kind'a like seeing someone's boring travel slides, hum!
When we got back, I was in charge of the dinner for Zone Conference and had to prepare for that.  I may change my middle name from Ann to Cook(ing).  Anyway, I have included a few pictures from Zone meeting.

An old couple from Centerville

Our Serbian Zone...the Preston's standing just to the side of Alan are also from Centerville.

Typical spaghetti (boy scout banquet) dinner...but they loved it.  The Elder with glasses is Elder Fisher, also from Centerville.

Well, this has been a long blog and it's time to give you a rest, so I won't bore you with an "Only in Serbia" moment this time.  Maybe next time you will get two. Just know that we are doing well and are starting to feel rushed knowing that we have such a short time left here.  I promise, I will write again sooner than this last time.

A Baptism and a quick return

We had a very special day on March 13th as Slaganja got baptized.  We decided to stay here in Sremska and do the baptism in the church.  Now this is no easy task...Alan and Nemanja had to move the foyer furniture into the chapel and then set up the deep vinyl swimming pool that we used last summer in the foyer.  He then had to run a hose from the upstairs out the window and back in the foyer window to the font to fill it.  He fills it 3/4 full with warm water the day before and them fills it the rest of the day on the baptishmal day with hot water.  That makes the water a little better than room temp.  Then after the baptism, everything must be done in reverse.  But, of course, everything doesn't go that smooth and the pool collapsed when it got 3/4 empty and distributed the rest of the water through out the foyer.  That foyer is now well mopped! 

Slaganja was always reluctant to get baptized, but the Lord works in mysterious ways (as we know) and she had a dream.  (Shortened version) She dreamt that she met Duska (R.S. Pres.) on the street who told her to come with her because she needed help and they had to hurry to the church.  Slaganja ask why and Duska said, "Because Christ is there".  Slaganja did not believe her and ask if He had been there before and Duska said, "Oh yes, several times".  They hurried to the church and she did see Christ.  After that dream she said she knew that what the missionaries had been teaching her was true and and she needed to be baptized.  She was baptized by her son Nemanja and a happier boy you could not find.

Sister Palmer, Nemanja, Slaganja, and Sister Zander

The Ibraimovic family are now all members and our trusty baptismal font

That was our wonderful news for this week....and on the other side our newest missionary, Radoslav, who had been in England for a month came home due to anxiety.  But, this is not uncommon because our Sister missionary, Sister Zander, went home with depression.  Missions can be difficult with hard work.  It seems even more hard for members who maybe grow up in the church where it is less structured.  We don't know the reason always but we pray for these young people who have returned that they will find purpose in their lives and stay active.

Living within the structure of the church is also what causes a lot of converts over here to go inactive.  Although, church structure over here is less structured (1-2 hour church, no weekly YM/YW, sometimes no home teaching--you get the idea) it is so much more than they are used to.  Both the Orthodox and Catholic church members attend basically on Easter and Christmas and maybe on their Saint Day. Not much obligation there.  So just having members remain faithful, pay tithing, and attend church is a big thing over here.  Then when they go on a mission and it is much more regimented it can be overwhelming. 

We did have transfers and now have a new missionary, Sister Matthews from Heber City.  She is wonderful and has been in the mission for over a year.  When we first got here she was in Novi Sad.  She and Sister Palmer are Sister Trainers which is like the counter part to Zone Leaders.  But this also means that they will taking our car often to visit other sisters and has caused a problem.  We have the only stick shift car in the mission and neither of them drive stick shift.  So now next week we will travel to Croatia and pick up a different car.  We worry with it having Croatian license plates that we will get stopped more and may receive more tickets.  The Serbs and the Croatians tolerate each other but still don't like each other.

We still teach English class two times each week and have made some wonderful friends and these friends sometimes come to church and many of them came for Slaganja's baptism.  It seems once we get them through the church doors and they start to feel comfortable it becomes less threatening.  The missionaries are teaching one man who just started to come to English class and we have a baptismal date for him in April.  Our English class also comes to our Friday night activities.  So English class is a great finding tool.

Svetlana and Mirco...Lupco is the man to right and we are teaching him the gospel.

Egor and Aleksander-- Egor just got this haircut and he is Nemanja's friend

Our "Only in Serbia" moment:  We watch several new stores and businesses start up and then within one month or six weeks we watch as they pack up and close.  We are sure that people are hoping to somehow make a better living and it doesn't often work out.  

This was a store across the street selling material.  It was open for one month and
yesterday the horse and wagon showed up, hauled the material away, and then
closed the store.  These horse and wagons are used by many and seen often.

Sad and Happy Times

Last time I wrote, we were so excited because Aleksander had been called on a mini mission.  How quickly things can change.  He is now not going on a mission and has asked to have his membership removed from church records. There are a combination of many things that probably contributed to this decision, one of them being a friend who didn't want to see Aleksander leave and he spread a few lies plus Aleksander, did not have much confidence in himself and the reality of it may have scared him. Testimonies, especially new testimonies, over here are very fragile and Serbian trust (both on his part and the members part) is not a common attribute. He is a great young man and we hope someday he comes back. 

Our good news is that Slagana is getting baptized Thursday, March 13th.  She is a great woman and will be a super addition to this branch.  President Rowe is on a very tight schedule, especially as he is trying to accomplish so much before he leaves July 1...but Slagana made him promise to come to her baptism and he is driving several hours to Serbia and told her that he wouldn't miss it.

Slagana & Dragon with Pres. and Sister Rowe

Alan and I were discouraged for a while, but we remembered our motto to "Go Forward in Faith" and that is what we are doing.  Our little branch has one more man scheduled for baptism in April....and our sweet Sisters work hard to find those who will listen.  This is not always easy...as I mentioned earlier, there is not a lot of trust here and a great reluctance to change.  They want something better in their lives but really don't believe that there is anything better out there.  But slowly the 'mission' membership is growing.  The five countries had 422 members out to church last Sunday and the goal (before the Pres. leaves) is to have 500 (inactive or new members) who attend church regularly.  It is perplexing to try and understand why other countries, such as Russia, Africa, and Philippines, have such an influx of people joining the church and here in the Balkans, it is such a struggle.  We hope their time is coming soon.

Last Friday we had a leadership training meeting with the other senior couples in our District.  We went to Belgrade and after our meeting we walked (2 miles each way, yes I am proud) to the Belgrade fortress.  Belgrade is an extremely busy city with many people going here and there.   Many people are on the streets walking because parking is awful and people take buses or walk.  It is probably much like the city of New York.

Sister and Elder Goodsell, Elder Seelos, Elder and Sister Preston (from Centerville)

This Fortress is huge and these few pictures do not do it justice...it overlooks where the
Danube and the Sava rivers come together.  The best placement for protection.

This part of the park surrounding the Fortress is where Elder Nelson stood when he
dedicated Serbia to the preaching of the gospel.

Another part of the Fortress...notice the line of tanks and they are from many countries.

It would take a little effort to load this cannon.

The lookout tower on the corner of the Fortress and as you look past
you can see where the two rivers come together.

History reports that this Belgrade Fortress has been taken over and occupied by more countries than any other place on earth.  Anyway, that is what they tell us.  

This is a government building coming back from the Fortress...the government buildings are
usually the most beautiful and the best taken care of.

Our only in Serbia moment is a sweet one...This rather elderly man who happens to be a missionary was caught sleeping on the job, which is something that he very seldom gets to do.

Doesn't he look weary...and yes, that is the true color of the walls in that room.

We feel so blessed to be here in Serbia and although it can be difficult at times, it can also be exciting and wonderful at times.  We have such a short time left and feel such an urgency to get more work done.  We can't wait to see our family but can't imagine leaving our Serbian family behind.