Turn Right on Trail.....

This is the castle we went to see. I didn't really take this picture....well it's a picture of a picture.

These are all just pictures of the beautiful countryside. The first one is a grave yard. Then one of many little farms and the third is of a small church, looking down from one of the high points of the castle.

Another busy week for us in Croatia. Our Area Welfare Specialist and his wife came to Varazdin to do some training with us. We were to go to Zagreb airport to pick them up. The week before we went down just to make sure we knew what we were doing, a dry run, so to speak. Any way, Weds. morning we got in the car and Ned, our GPS refused to wake up and work! Panic set in, prayers were said over Ned, all but a priesthood blessing...About a half an hour, maybe 45 mins, into the trip, he woke up and decided to go to work! My were we grateful for his presence! We got to the airport with his help, even though we had made the dry run, we just weren't very confident that we could make it.

We went to Bosnia with the Coltons, visiting the Red Cross, meeting our translator, visiting an agricultural high school and coming home. All in the most horrible rain I think I've seen since we lived in the mid-west. Seriously, it didn't quit raining all day long, hard torrential rain.But Ned did us proud. We got where we needed to be with his Bosnian maps!  Another blog will give you more details on the humanitarian needs we found there.

It continued to be rainy all week. On Saturday however the sun came out and blessed us with warmth! It was Preparation day. We determined to go see a castle about a 45 minute drive from here. Jim had driven for about 7 hours the day before to Bosnia, so being the senior companion that day, I asked Elder Colton if he would mind driving. What a beautiful day! We saw some of the most beautiful conuntyside ever! The castle was amazing! Ice-cream to die for and and Ned out did him self!

Elder Colton, knowing how his sweet wife loves to take pictures, took an interesting way home....Let's just say we kind of ended up in someones front yard. Ned was cool though, just kept telling us to turn right or left. But toward the end of our meandering....his last instruction just cracked us all up. You guessed it,

 "Turn right on trail ".  Ned is just one of our many blessings! What would we do with out him? We did, this week get Ned an upgrade, now he can be brought into the house and charged, Jim figured that would solve the problem of him going to sleep and not wanting to wake up. Also I have forbidden Jim and Ned to play while they are driving! Just good common sense, don't you think? Ned seemed very happy with his new upgrade and is now on time for work every time we get in the car.

Some other of our blessings...
We have a teaspoon. I found it in some of the old missionary cast offs at the church. It's just one. No 1/4 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon or TBS. measuring. But I feel blessed to have a teaspoon!

I found a cook book at the church as well. Some how, I wasn't present when the computer was loaded, and I got here with no cook books. Now I have one titled, "Where Is Mom Now That I Need Her"?

I also have a plastic cup that besides the metric measuring it has ounces. Makes things much easier for me.

I have a hamper for my dirty clothes. No bleach, but I'm adjusting!

I have 4 bath towels now. We bought 2 new ones, brought 2 from home. So now I can wash my bath towels, and I have 2 new ones to use while the old ones are drying. It takes like 2-3 days for towels to dry. I brought nice fluffy ones. If I had brought yucky ones they would have dried faster. Need to buy some more sheets so I can do the same with them, but getting Jim into a bedding store is proving to be difficult, maybe when he gets tired of dirty sheets!

We did go shopping for winter coats this week. It was so cold and rainy all last week that we thought maybe we should get prepared for winter, so we bought boots for me, sensible ones, and coats for both of us. Apparently I am the biggest European size ever, and I also have the biggest European foot ever. Not good for my self-image, but I will be warm. This week has been absolutely beautiful, So far not a drop of rain, nothing but sunshine! The coats are in the closet just in case! Yeah!

We have a car. One of our biggest blessings. The missionaries before us, bless their hearts, did not. We are sooooo very grateful. It took us 31/2 hours to get to Banja Luca by car, can you imagine how hard it would have been by bus?

We have darling missionaries to work with. They help us in any way they can. This week we have used them to be our social coordinators. We invited some investigators for lunch and they don't speak English. So the missionaries are arranging a time so we can meet with them.

Now the best! We got a new grand baby this week! Her name is Eden Erickson. 6lbs and 5 ozs. 19 inches l From the pictures I've seen, she is beautiful! We are so grateful that she is here. Healthy and Well! A little sad that we can't hold her. She will almost be two before we see her. But we can hold out hope that they might come visit. What do ya think?

Any way, that's just a few of our blessings. Of Course having friends and family loving and supporting us are the best! We love you all and pray for you. Hope you all have a great week!