Walking Path in Croatia

We have a beautiful walking path near our apartment in Varazdin, Croatia. I've had a goal to get a picture of it for each one of the seasons so you can see how beautiful it is. I finally went out this week and obtained my "winter" picture. It was still pretty cold, but the trees had dropped their snow and I was a little disapointed in that, but you get the idea.

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

These ball things just captivated us last winter, we asked everyone we knew what they were and no one knew until we had some short term specialists from the U.S. come over and told us that is was mistletoe. I guess it's a parasite to trees but it sure makes them look beautiful in the winter, it's usually the only green you see!

My friends





After we walk through the forest path for awhile it opens up to a walk way along a lovely river, I usually count the swans that are there and on this particular day in November I counted 23. So I decided in honor of my 23 swans I would count my blessings on the way home. One for each swan, I had a lovely walk the rest of the way, and counted way more than 23 blessings!

Meet Vedran, he is our 14 year old Aaronic Priesthood Young Man.



He takes his responsibilities so seriously and does a tremendous job. He's kind-of like a one man show, does the job of the deacons, and teacher, never misses a beat! He's always early to set it up and stays to make sure it's cleaned up. Jim never has to worry about the sacrament. Vedran has 5 sisters and he's the only boy, he is the sparkle in all of his sisters’ lives. They absolutely adore him!


Who wouldn’t? What's not to love?

     The mind numbing cold has been the story of the week here in Eastern Europe. Everyone is struggling with the terrible cold and snow. I think the low in Banja Luka this week was -25. We came from Croatia on Thursday and our house was almost impossible to get warm. We figured it out the next morning when we woke up. We had run out of heating oil! No kidding, I thought I would freeze to death! I decided to stay in bed wrapped up in my down comforter and heavy quilt while the hot water recovered after Jim's shower. About 2 hours later Jim came up and said, hey, we have to be out of here in 30 minutes. I ventured out, locked myself in the bathroom and turned the water on. The outside room temp. Was so cold that the hot water made a steam room! At least it was warm enough for me to get dressed and ready to go. We went to the Red Cross and made arrangement with them to receive church funds for emergency relief to the people stranded without food or heat in the small villages surrounding Banja Luka. They will make up food boxes and snow cat or air lift them into those who are so affected by this terrible weather. We also met with an Islamic group to see what we could do to help them serve the Islamic community here in Banja Luka. We are going to develop a project with them in the near future.


I came home and got back into my bed with the added layer of my winter coat. I fell asleep while reading and woke up an hour or so later with my feet like rocks of ice! Even under my covers they were freezing! They didn't have the extra layer of my coat on them. We finally got heating oil delivered and by bedtime the house was up to 56 degrees, so we slept toasty and warm with two pair of long underwear on, one down comforter, one heavy blanket, and heavy socks. Today I know I have heat enough in the house, but I still feel cold. Just a throwback to yesterday!

Jim took me out to eat last night for my birthday and we sat by this huge fireplace that was so wonderful! The food was amazing and it was a very special outing, but the warmth will be my lasting memory of my evening out.

Don't worry about me, I'm just really a baby when it comes to cold, my friends in Las Vegas will tell you it's true. I think I'm the only person down there that carries a sweater or a sweat shirt with me all summer long just in case the air conditioning gets too cold!

This next week we will finally get to meet our supervisors from Germany face to face. They are coming on Weds. and will be with us until the following Monday. We are really looking forward to spending some time getting to know them. We have Skyped with them, talked and e-mailed many times and feel like we know them, but it will be wonderful to have them here in Croatia and Bosnia with us for almost a week. I hope the weather improves a little for them!

Another news flash is that we have officially been put into the Adriatic North Mission! Bosnia is no longer and orphan country without a mission! We believe that the process to open the country up to missionaries will soon be a reality! Assigning us to a mission is the first step! Ohhhh! Prayers are being answered and we are sooooo unbelievably happy! Over and out with all our love....

Replacements.....

A few weeks ago we got this e-mail.
From: John Leonard



Date: Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 12:57 PM


Subject: RE: Your replacement


To: Humanitarian Service of the Church of Jesus Christ of


Dear E/S Erickson,


The missionaries assigned to be your replacements for Croatia are Elder and Sister Winters. They live in Sandy, UT. The Winters would be excited if you could contact them, here is there contact info….


God bless you,

All along I’ve looked at the ticker on the right side of this blog and pretty much ignored it, thinking we had plenty of time…..REALLY??? It’s only a little over 5 months before we are coming home? Where has the last year gone?

As the time will go quickly and before we know it we will be on a plane headed home my mind has been swirling with things yet undone. We haven’t done a project in this city, or we haven’t contacted these people in this organization, or we need to get another shipment of this on it’s way… It’s a little like cleaning a kitchen with ten people in the house. As soon as you get the sink clean and dishes put away from lunch, it’s time to start dinner or some kid comes in and asks for a toasted cheese sandwich!

We Skyped with our replacements the other day, telling them to bring this or that and trying to be excited about them coming, we really are, but honestly I can’t even bring myself to think about saying good-bye to all those who we have grown to love so much, so true to my Pollyanna outlook on life, I won’t. There will be a time for that and as for the here and now, we will just try really hard not to be too trunkie over the next few months.

We still have not heard about humanitarian replacements for Bosnia or for the member leadership support missionaries that we hope will be called to take care of our little Branch/Group here in Banja Luka . I will keep you all posted on any new developments.

One of the things that we have not done is develop any projects in Southern Croatia along the coast. We have neglected that part of the country for a couple of reasons. One, there has been so much need in Northern and Eastern Croatia that we have stayed pretty busy. Two, we didn’t really have any contacts down on the coast so it means cold calls to people who might or might not want to see us. And Three, we tried to avoid the tourist season at all costs; we have heard that it’s pretty crazy down there during the summer and not necessarily missionary approved beaches. So this week we took a road trip to the coast, we made three cold calls, one was very receptive and I think we have a potential project with them, the other two were very kind but projects with them are not likely. We went to a city, ZADAR, and just fell in love with it! No wonder their tourist season is so Hugh! The blue, blue Adriatic sea, the beautiful sunset, and the kind accommodating people we met made for a wonderful two day road trip for us. The only downer was that the wind was blowing like crazy and the wind chill was sooooo low that we almost froze to death! They also closed the freeway on our way home and sent us trough all these mountain passes with switchbacks and semis driving REALLY slowly. We found out later that the wind had caused the closure. I loved the ride because I saw so much of the country side, but Jim complained most of the way home….now what’s the matter with driving 30 mph on switchbacks for about 3 hours? Just slow down and smell the roses, right? He’s such a man!

This is in Zadar at the Kresimir Cosic Park. He was born in this city and they claim him as their local hero.
Bigger than life, what do ya think? Tihana (our Croatian translator) and I look pretty small!
Basketball is everything here in this city, For those of you who are too young to know this guy, he played for BYU and filled the Marriott Center every time! He also brought the church to Croatia and started the translation of the Book of Mormon.
Our current mission office is in the space where that translation took place and was donated to the church by Kresimir.

Tihana and I ran for the car, but Jim braved the wind and got a picture of the arena and our hero's back side!

This is the sunset from our hotel room, it was just breath taking and a pretty great view to wake up to as well!
There was a whole row of ambulances parked in the parking lot, we thought that was strange until the hotel manager told us that they were mine workers, we thought, "I wonder what they mine, coal, silver, gold???" and then it dawned on us. Oh ya, there's been a war here, they are still cleaning up LAND MINES!!!!  Thus the ambulances, we felt pretty dumb!

This is the "Old City" in Zadar, we had time to walk around in between appointments, but it was soooo cold we took a quick look and ran back to the car! Maybe next time! It really looked fun and had a ton of great looking shops, but not today!

This is the city from the dock, It really is a beautiful city.

Today we are back in Bosnia, we’re hoping to meet with the Red Cross tomorrow and then have the weekend to do seminary and church on Sunday, then back to Croatia on Monday. Last Saturday, our preparation day, we got the stairway about half way painted. Up to the 2nd floor of the house, this Saturday I hope we can get up to the third level. We are making progress with our house painting project! The missionary apartment is all done and ready to be occupied, but so far we haven’t any word on missionaries being allowed to come into the country. It is our constant prayer that it will happen sooner rather than later.

This is my Vanja, the kids all call me "Grandma Debby", none of this stuffy "Sister Erickson" stuff here! I can't remember when it started, but I love it, that's one thing that's been hard on a mission, not being Grandma, so it feels good!

I know The Lord directs His work and in due time it will come about. He’s trying to teach Debby Erickson to be patient. All our love from your (trying not be trunkie) missionaries from Croatia and Bosnia.

Orthodox Christmas in Banja Luka...

  On January 6th, Jim's Birthday, we came into Banja Luka and  were again excited to see the Badnjak trees on every street corner. read here about Bosnia Christmas traditions






One of their traditions is that after staw is spread out on the floor the oldest woman in the family comes in and clucks like a chicken and begins throwing candy into the straw. There is a scramble for the candy by the children, but they all ended up sharing what they had gathered. I had the honor of helping Nada, but they had to give me clucking lessons!

I wish this was a better picture, this was Christmas Day, January 7th,  We had Sarma, refried beans, pork from one of their pigs that they slaughtered, (I asked if that made them sad, they said, "no we feed it to eat it") corn bread, pickles and peppers that had been preseved earlier in the fall, goat cheese, and some wonderful cakes and home made coconut candies. I'm bringing home that recipe!


!

This is their traditional bread that has a coin baked in it. Whoever gets the coin has good luck for the whole year.

The Mission Presidents niece and their nanny, Jamie, Sister Robinson, (they came to say good-bye as well because they went home to Utah last week) Grandma Nada, Tihana, our Croatian translator, Sister Tanner, the mission nurse and her companion, Sister Rowe.
The Tadic family invited guests from Zagreb to eat Christmas dinner with them, they stayed at our house and attended church the next day. Grandma Nada brought all the women a pair of Bosnian slippers Sunday. Our guests were thrilled!

Pretty cute feet, don't you think?

We had a great Bosnian Christmas, New Years followed and now we are trying to get going again on humanitarian projects. We have several in the works, but January is pretty much a loss. Most offices have been closed all month or are just making due with a skeleton staff. The new year will bring us many opportunites to serve and hopefully we will see the Church becoming legal and the young missionaries arriving! Oh happy day! We really are praying that it will happen before we go home!

Providing food for the poor.

Year End Projects..

L.D.S. Charities provided enough money for each family to receive a bag of staples for Christmas.
The Red Cross chose what to put in the bags. Oil, rice, pasta, sugar, milk, hotdogs, and coffee. They made 400 packages like this and distributed them at two locations in the city.




This is the director of the Red Cross. She told us that because the price of milk had gone up so high, many of the people haven't had milk for a long time. This is one reason we depend on local partners. They understand the needs of the people they serve. We never would have thought to put milk in the Christmas packages. Or coffee.



This is a project that has been in the works for quite some time. We put in a wheelchair order in the fall for the Red Cross. 250 wheelchairs are on their way, but the Red Cross building is not handicap accessible. Soooo, we built into the cost of the project enough money to have a ramp built. If any building in the city should have a ramp, you would think access to the Red Cross would be a priority. Now they will be able to fit the wheelchairs to the recipients IN the building and not in the parking lot.

This was a project that we did with the Caritas organization in Banja Luka.

Caritas is the Relief organization for the Catholic Church here in Europe.
We went with the directors assistant to the grocery store and paid for the goods, the store manager was so pleased to meet us, evidently they don't get too many people that come in from
America and buy such large quantities of food to give away. Delivery was free!

This what we bought that day at the store. 3,000 kg of flour, 240 kg sugar, 240 liters of oil, 120 kg salt, 120 kg rice,
 and 144 kg pasta.. 

It  made enough for 120 food boxes for the poor that come to the Caritas soup kitchen.



The Caritas organizations choose to put more into each gift box and do fewer boxes. It was so appreciated! They gave us a beautiful thank-you note that had been meticulously translated into English. We came home after visiting these two organizations and both expressed how humbled we felt, how blessed we were and how very grateful we are to be a part of this amazing work. To know that people had just a little extra in their pantries this Christmas, or that they might not go hungry on at least this one day, well, it certainly gave us a reason to quit being babies about being away from home this Christmas and to ponder a little more the true meaning and significance of that day.



The third soup kitchen we worked with was the Caritas soup kitchen in Varazdin, Croatia. they chose to buy meat with the money we provided them to add a little more nutrition into their usually meatless soups. We went to the butcher, who gave us a great deal, and bought the meat. They serve over 300 meals a day to many who depend on them for their only meal of the day.

 



    Christmas Eve, Saturday afternoon/evening, we had our Sacrament Meeting in Banja Luka with our little branch. I'm sorry to say that I didn't get very many pictures and the ones we did get were not great, but I will post what I have.  It was an absolutely wonderful day. The Tadic girls came over and helped me cook, turkey from Slovenia, (Elder and Sister Taylor gave it to us), mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, salad, pies and boiled custard. Our landlord and his wife both came to our meeting and stayed for dinner, along with all of the Tadic family and our investigator, Goran. So including Jim and I we had 15 people in attendance. My favorite memory of the day was our meeting. We tried to plan something special, the kids all practiced and practiced their musical numbers and sang just like a choir of angels. "The Stars are Gleaming" and "Away in a Manger".  Vedran our 14 year old boy sang the echo part in "Away in a Manger" and was just adorable!  Our two translators sang, "Picture a Christmas, Vickie had worked hard to translate it into Serbian and it was also amazing. Vickie and Maja took turns translating the video "Joy to the World" and Mika gave a wonderful talk about how Mary must have felt becoming a mother of the Christ child. It was one of those meetings where we were just so proud of all of them because they really did it themselves. Someday they will be the leaders of this branch and they certainly showed their abilities on Christmas Eve. But most important was the spirit that they brought with them, they are truly amazing people.



Mika (the mother of the Tadic family) and our landlords. It was fun to have them come to our meetings and then stay for dinner.



Mika with her beautiful smile!

We don't usually wear our badges when we are in Bosnia, (because the church is not legal yet) but I had put mine on because as soon as we cleaned up we were out the door and on our way to Croatia and I was afraid I would leave it sitting on the counter. We had an interesting experience on our way back to Croatia that night. It was late before we got going, Christmas Eve and the border station was pretty dead. We zipped right through on the Bosnia side and only waited a couple of minutes on the Croatia side to check our passports. As we stopped at the customs booth the usual questions were asked, anything to declare? Cigarettes, Alcohol? Jim said no, we don't smoke or drink, I think the customs guard was a little bored because he asked us another question which they don't usually ask, "what are you doing here in Croatia?" I'm sure it was strange, having two American old people going into Croatia on Christmas Eve. Jim explained that we were humanitarian missionaries assigned as country directors to both Croatia and Northern Bosnia. We bring in wheelchairs, help supply clean water and do area projects in both countries. He got a little emotional and said, "Thank-you, thank-you for being here for our people! Have a Merry Christmas!" Then he leaned all the way out of his little booth so he could shake Jim’s hand. What a gift he gave us! We are so blessed. I will never forget this Christmas Eve and the grateful heart that touched ours.

This is why we made this trip back to Croatia on Christmas Eve. We spent the day with the Young Elders so they could Skype their parents on our computer and have a day with a little something that was familiar to them. Elder Marks was the only one of us that got a package through on time for Christmas, so we watched him open it . I also fixed another dinner so pretty much I spent the whole holiday cooking....hummmm sounds like home doesn't it?

Our package from home came on January 3rd, at first we thought that it hadn't been opened by customs because all of the papers on top hadn't been broken, but when I went to throw the box away I realized that it had been opened from the bottom and retaped with the blue customs tape. We didn't have any custom charges though, so that was good.



I knew immediately what I had when I saw this mailing label! Hurry Jim! Let's get home!!!!
Then I got a little sick when I saw how much it cost to mail the package, not to mention what was inside!



Ahhhh! a Kindle! We are so excited to have an e-reader! It was soooo worth the wait !  We sure have great kids! They also sent See's chocolate, really did a number on my diet, peanut butter, sweaters and socks for Jim and tons of Splenda, diet pudding, sugar free jello, Crystal light  along with ingredients to make more monster cookies for the Tadic kids! Does anyone see the irony in all this????   See's chocolate and Splenda in the same box? I have to wonder! A little note about my Kindle,  my children have created a Kindle monster, I stayed up most the night last Sunday reading, I finished the book I was reading, but I think I broke a few missionary rules. Self control is the goal for the new year, diet and missionary rules! Sleep is good, but highly over rated. Thanks kids for a wonderful little bit of love from home!