The Whites of their eyes!!!

Last Wednesday was a milestone in Bosnia. WE GOT MISSIONARIES!!!!  Wow it feels good to say that! We have waited, prayed and looked forward to them for our whole mission and it finally happened!  We have not been disappointed.  They are amazing young men and they will do a wonderful work in Banja Luka. Already they are out hitting the streets, learning the language, teaching investigators, interacting with our little branch members and loving their new assignment! And we LOVE them! Think about it. Banja Luka has never seen missionaries, never seen young men with name tags, dressed in white shirts and ties, never had the opportunity to accept or reject the message that they bring, never been amazed that someone would come so far, work so hard or learn their language and love the country like missionaries do. We are sooo excited for the country. Not only did we get missionaries but Sarajevo, (in Southern Bosnia) got two sets of missionaries as well. They got a set of sisters as well as elders. These missionaries are ground breakers and we invite you all to join us in praying for their success in opening up a new country to missionary work!





Elders Radosavljevic and Hansen

Elder Rad (the name I call him because my tongue just cannot wrap around his name and spit it out) is of Serbian decent, thus the name, and is from Tasmania, Australia. His Grandfather migrated there 50 years ago, so he doesn't know the language of his ancestors but is excited to learn and really for just coming out of the MTC he is already doing very well.  Elder Hansen is from Kaysville, Utah and has been serving in Serbia, so his language is great and he is an amazing young man with great leadership skills.

 


This is a terrible picture, I hope it doesn't hurt your eyes, I should have looked at it and got a better one but I was hungry! We were in the middle of wheelchair training and had our Utah short term specialists with us so we invited the elders to come eat with us on their first night here. It was a great evening and a good chance to get to know them.



This was their dinner, have I told you that  meat is a big deal here. Our friends in Bosnia love their meat!

This was Jim’s dinner, another really bad picture, my camera was on some strange setting....good excuse for bad pics. Have I told you that I think I'm a partial vegetarian? I didn't order a meal at this restaurant, I know better. I ordered my favorite side salad and just played Helen Keller from other peoples plates. I left stuffed!

We had a great night out with our new Elders and our short term specialists. It seemed a little surreal for us to be sitting across the table from missionaries, after waiting so long for them, to have the blessing of seeing them actually be allowed into the country was something we had almost given up on. Our time is short here and we feel it a great blessing to see the whites of their eyes before we go home.