We have had another wonderful week in Croatia! We have spent some time just getting to know our city and enjoying the little bit of Summer that we have been lucky enough to see here. It has rained off and on and one morning we woke up to the clouds hanging right about the 7th floor of our building. Right off my deck! It was just beautiful!
We went to church for the first time on Sunday. Counting us there were 11 people there. It's a struggling little branch, we could feel their strength and the spirit. It's hard to remember that we are Humanitarian Missionaries and supporting and strengthening the branch is not our priority. You just want to do it all!
Monday we got up and drove to Zagreb, the capital city, and picked up Elder and Sister Colton. After we ate lunch, at McDonald's, we visited the Croatian Red Cross. It was such an amazing meeting, they are partners with the church to bring wheelchairs into the country. They were so respectful, and appreciative of our help. One shipment of wheelchairs, 250. are on the water at this moment and we are hoping to get another shipment in as soon as we can get the project written up and processed.. They also asked for newborn kits. All those kits you sisters put together...oh I wish you could all be here to know how much they are apprecitated!
We are headed to Bosnia tomorrow. It will be our first trip there. We have another wheelchair shipment on the water for them as well and have a neo-natal resuscitation training set up by our predecessors for November. We are going over to meet with the Bonsian Red Cross. To make introductions and see what we can do for them.
We are going to try to meet with someone soon that knows about and what the needs are of the Roma people, (gypsies) they seems to be the ethnic problem children of this part of the world. My first exposure to the Roma has been just to see them digging through the garbage in the dumpsters. We saw one little boy eating food that he had gotten by dumpster diving, he was standing in a driving rain storm hungrily eating his prize. It really broke my heart! I know that not every starving child can be helped, but I will at least see to it that any leftovers I have from now on will be in a CLEAN plastic bag, hung on the OUTSIDE of the dumpster! It might be a small effort, but I hope it will help some little tummy not be hungry.
Well, that's my week in a nut shell.. We are happy, safe and well. We Love You All!
And in doing these things thou wilt do the greatest good unto thy fellow beings, and wilt promote the glory of him who is your Lord. Wherefore, be faithful; stand in the office which I have appointed unto you; succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees. D&C 81:4-5
This sweet little lady received on of our wheelchairs 10 years ago, she is still so grateful that she just cried!
Her daughter recognized our badges and went in their house and brought her out to meet us!
Our wonderful bed and YELLOW! BedroomOur Entrance hall/ dryer room
Our cute kitchen. Living room and computer roomLooking out my kitchen window.Looking out my bedrrom window.Looking out off our deck.Our first service project in Croatia! The sun shining through the trees in gratitude! Did I tell you we LOVE it here???
Beautiful Croatia! We are finally in Croatia. After a very long exhausting trip, via New York, Vienna, and Slovenia we are home. Flying into Slovenia was just amazing. Little clusters of homes with red roofs and beautiful old churches spotting the landscape. It reminded me of reading "Heidi" when I was a girl and all my imaginations of the Swiss Alps. Although I didn't see any goat boy with goats in tow. The A.P.'s met us at the air port with Sis, Hill (The mission Pres, wife ) and the missionary couple that takes care of the office,(The Robinsons from up Park City way). We stayed with the Robinsons for the rest of the day, They took us on a little sight seeing jaunt to see an old castle. I forgot my camera and was so disappointed to not get a picture! Maybe we will get back that way sometime in the next two years! Anyway we finally got to sleep, but I'm afraid I have to admit that I slept on Jim's shoulder during most of the three meetings on Sunday. Some great missionary I am! After church the A.P.'s brought us across the boarder into Croatia. It is also very beautiful, but Varazdin is a bigger city and so far we have not strayed far from our apt.
We have been so blessed! While we were in the M.T.C. we found out that we had gotten a car. Yeah! We will be so much more effective with our own transportation. Then when we got here we found out that Sister Hill and the A.P.'s had worked overtime looking at apartments for us. And my did they do it up right! Our apt. is just awesome! Very modern, European, clean and safe. What more could we ask for? It's in a good location in the city. With little shops with in walking distance and even a park by the police station., Every wall in the house is painted a different color. When you walk in, the entry way is lime green, our bedroom is YELLOW! Yeah! I love yellow. A different shade on each wall. Living room is blue and orange. Kitchen is black and white. It all makes for a very cheerful and European feel. Windows are huge so we get lots of fresh air and sunshine and all the floors are wood except kitchen and bath and they are ceramic tile. We never hear our neighbors. Jim thinks the floors and ceilings must all be made of cement, no sound of feet walking over head. That's all good and well, just hope we don't have an earthquake!
This week we have been told to nothing but rest and get ourselves settled. So that is what we have done so far. Some how that has eevolved into some pretty fun adventures! The best adventure so far started with us waking up the first morning with backs that felt like we had been sleeping on rocks! I have absolutely no problems with my back, Jim however does have a back that we baby a little. But Monday morning came around and yikes! both of us were walking around like the old people we are. Where was our wonderful Simmons pillow top? We determined that we would go look for a store that perhaps would have some memory foam, or foam of any kind to put over the mattress. We looked and looked, couldn't find a thing. Then we found a store that had the memory foam mattress pad, but they only had one and we needed two. And it was $200. that stuff is pricey! So anyway, we gave up on that and went to another store that ended up being a store much like IKEA. At that store we bought blanket, sheets and pillows. The night before Jim used a towel and I used a sweat shirt and slept on bare mattress. As we were leaving the store we saw that they sold mattresses as well. Well, the rest is history! We bought each of us a new mattress made of memory foam. They were $250. each. Now we had to get them home in the littlest car you can imagine. We stuffed the first one in over the car seats, mattress sitting on our heads as we crouched down to see out of the windshield.. We drove home in a raging rain storm, giggling and feeling like college students! Brought the first one up the stairs and repeated the process again with the second one. We now have a wonderful bed! The side benefit is that by the time we stacked the new mattress on top of the old one, we now have a bed that is a normal (for Americans) height. They don't use box springs here so most beds are very low to the floor. What a day!
Yesterday we did a little wash, no dryers, no chlorine bleach either. Guess I will have to get over my whites fetish quick huh?
Today we found a dry cleaners, and a new and better grocery store. We have tried three different stores now and this one is the best. It had a few spices that I have been looking for. Chicken seasoning, chili powder, steak seasoning, garlic and cinnamon. I soaked some beans overnight for chili and have made some for dinner tonight, but it's a little strange. Chili powder just isn't the same. It will do though. One thing they do not have here is Splenda. Some one told us that at the M.T.C. so our son, Russ, brought us two big bags of it to the airport. We squeezed it in and are sure glad we did. (Thanks Russ) They also have no Crystal light, sugar free hot cocoa, or spray butter. We both gained so much weight at the M.T.C. that we really are working on getting it off. Keeping to our missionary schedule, getting up at 6:30 and exercising will help, we already are feeling a difference.
Next week the Area Welfare President and his wife will be here for 5 days training us. We are looking forward to getting that training and starting our work. We also are thinking of driving back to Slovenia to be at a member fireside that Elder Nielson is going to be speaking at. Not sure if I feel comfortable with that, but we are considering it. The young missionaries here are delightful and hard working. We will enjoy working with them and getting to know them better. The weeks ahead will be challenging as we feel our way through the Humanitarian work ahead. One of our first projects will be in Bosnia as we will help with a neo-natal resuscitation training up at one of the hospitals there.
I tried to download some pictures for you, but for some reason could not get it accomplished. Jim said it might be that the computer is on a wireless Internet. He will look for some new cords, wires or whatever they are to hook it up directly to the source. We are just grateful that we managed to get Blogger into English. It kept defaulting to Croatian and we don't know enough Croatian to read the directions on how to change the default. I love that I have a family full of computer people! Thanks again Rusty!
It's finally here! After years of saying "We are going to go " , after 2 years of moving to Utah, building a house and putting a yard in, after a few weeks of worrying over mission papers, going to the doctor, having tests done, going to the dentist, and then actually getting our call, after shots,many of them, packing, unpacking, more packing, trips to Vegas to say "good-bye" , after all our planning and good-bye saying, WE ARE MISSIONARIES! The time is here and we LOVE IT!
FRIENDS AT THE M.T.C.
The MTC is an amazing place! We have worked hard this first week. Most nights not getting out of our language training class until 8:00 P.M. We have meant so many wonderful people. Senior couples, like us that are going all over the world. Some going on medical missions, some going as employment specialists, some proselyting, one couple is going to help run a cattle ranch in Nevada, one couple is going to S.L. to be on the security detail at temple square. What ever assignment we might all have. We all have one thing in common. We all leave behind the things of the world,to dedicate our lives to our Heavenly Father and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ! What an amazing, wonderful and exciting time in our lives!
FOOD AT THE M.T.C.
I have sent three boys to the MTC, but never realized what a place of miracles it is! Just the fact that they feed almost 2,700 Elders, Sisters and Senior Couples is an extraordinary accomplishment. I feed my family of 32 or 33 and feel exhausted. Can you imagine? The cafeteria is spotless. I see the workers cleaning after every meal. Vacuuming, cleaning tables and serving areas....I don't even pretend to know what goes on in the kitchen between each meal! It must just be a flurry of activity! The amazing thing is that they serve 3 or 4 entree choices, salads deserts, just about any thing you can think of, all of it is really good! It's like living at a Golden Coral, but better. One huge difference...to see these handsome, clean cut young missionaries bow their heads individually and pray before they dive in is just truly a sight all in itself! Their mothers would be so proud of them! I'm so proud of them!
LANGUAGE AT THE M.T.C.
Our language is proving to be hard. Jim is catching on much faster that I am. We aren't getting an awful lot of time to spend with the tutors, it might take us a while, but with the Lords help we will prevail! After all the good food I've been eating here I have decided to go on the "Croatian Starvation Diet" . Once I'm in the country, I'm not eating anything I can't pronounce. What do you think? We'll see how that works out for me!
SABBATH AT THE M.T.C.
Today is the Sabbath. I could tell the minute I opened the door to our apt. and stepped out onto the side walk. It was just REVERENT! So quiet, still and the spirit just clothed us as we walked to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. I could see the young missionaries, sisters in their Sunday best, elders in their suit coats, walking among us on all sides...but could not hear them. Not even the sound of their shoes on the cement. No happy banter, no running, It was if they were angels with feet not even on the ground. The cafeteria was much the same. No clanking of silver ware or dishes..Just reverence.
After breakfast of cold cereal, (not the usual array of breakfast delights) we attended Sacrament Meeting in one of the 52 branches. It was a wonderful spiritual feast! The group of departing missionaries going to Indonesia sang "Come, thy font of every blessing" The song that Summer, Charity and Charity's mother in-law did last week at our farewell, It was beautiful and made me cry. Here's my heart. Oh take and seal it! Seal it for thy courts above!
After Sacrament Meeting we went to Relief Society and heard one of the General Relief Society Board members speak. It was Sister Ubank. She talked about the six ways that women make a contribution and a difference in this world. I can't possibly relate all that she said, but will share just a few points that she made. 1. Women have the ability to give freely. They give all that they have, Jacob 2:17 Think of your brethren, "Sisters" like unto yourselves, and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich linke unto you. 2. Women know that small and every day things are not done in vain. Making peanut and butter sandwiches, listening to a child cry about hurt feelings, doing dishes, fixing meals ..all consumable tasks that need to be done again tomorrow. They are of great value to our Heavenly Father. We relieve the suffering of children and make society a better place. 3.Women of Faith keep the commandments of God and they teach their children. We know that families are the most important things in the world. The distance between women of faith and women of the world is growing in distance every day."We are important because we Create, Support and Love our families" Julie Beck 4. We prepare women to make and keep sacred covenants in the temple. The Relief Society organization, some 6 million strong,,,is not just a charitable work, it is a faith based work to prepare all women to return to our Heavenly Father. 5. Women keep a record of all the work that we see that God has a hand in. We recognize God's hand in our every day lives, record it in our hearts and write it down. 6. Women pray for each other. Angels will be our companions. We are a mighty force when we pray for each other. Women's work is the highest form of missionary work.Follow the Savior. He went about his work in quiet ways..so that He could have the Holy Ghost with Him. We must follow suit is our everyday lives. Living so that the Spirit might be present.
HUMANITARIAN SERVICE
We started our training on Saturday for Humanitarian. We just got an overview of what is expected of us. We were told to leave all jewelry home. Even our wedding rings. We cannot appear to be rich Americans. It was hard to take those off and give them to the kids to be put away. We bought $15.00 CTR rings. That will have to do for now. Tomorrow we go to S.L. and have more in depth training, we meet with Elder Rudd an emeritus general authority for lunch and to hear him speak, We leave at 6:30 in the morning and will return at 5:00. It promises to be a good day!
THANK-YOU
Thanks to all of you who have loved us, given us money, traveled long distances to see us and attend our farewell, wished us well, and most importantly prayed for us. We feel as if we are the most blessed senior couple in the world! We feel your support and prayers and love you all. I will try to update this blog one more time before we leave the country.
Living room and computer room
