Zagreb, finally

We are at home in Sarajevo - we can hardly believe it!  Our heads are swimming with all the new information, new language and finding our way around.  We left Salt Lake City Friday morning at 8:30 am and arrived in Zagreb at 11:00 am Saturday morning.  We missed an entire night en route and are still catching up.

Two weary travelers at the Zagreb airport

One of the large bags took a very long time to come up the baggage carousel - we were a little worried, as all the other passengers were gone but it finally popped through the chute and we sailed through customs.

President and Sister Melonakos met us at the airport

We went directly to the mission office for a nice lunch the office missionaries had prepared for us.  They tried to do an orientation but we were so tired we don't remember most of it.  The two senior sisters in the office took us for a walk around Zagreb and Old Town Zagreb.  The objective was mostly to keep us awake.  We definitely have to go back and see it when we can remember what we are seeing.  We stayed three nights at the mission home in Zagreb.  President and Sister Melonakos are both delightful and are wonderful hosts.

Sunday morning we attended Zagreb Branch Conference.  Zagreb has one of the two "church" buildings in the mission.  The other building is located in Slovenia.  All the remaining branches meet in rented space.

Zagreb chapel

The missionaries and a couple of branch members preformed a beautiful musical number.  Two of the young missionaries played the violin and the senior office sister played the piano.  Sunday evening all the missionaries came to the mission home for a potluck dinner.  Elder and Sister Newton arrived later that evening.  We spent the next few days on a whirlwind drive meeting some of the partners we will work with.  Also the missionaries in Banja Luka that are part of our zone.  Banja Luka is a 4 hour drive from Sarajevo.

Elder Dennis and Sister Dionne Newton with us at the mission home.

Our apartment is roomy and comfortable but needs some repairs.  We will talk to the church attorney this week about painting and how to go about repairing things.  Nothing too major, just light switches hanging out of the walls and other things that will slowly make me crazy.  And may I just say that I'm not overly fond of European bathrooms?  Ours is pretty fancy but not very functional.

View from our front balcony

Our view out the back

Last night we drove to Tuzla, which is part of our branch but functions as a group.  It is a 2 hour drive.  We took the sister missionaries with us.  We went for a baptism and it was great!

Elder Cooper at the Tuzla baptismal font, conveniently located in a hotel by the chapel

A young woman was baptized.  Several of the branch members were in attendance.  We were very surprised to walk in and find our church attorney there with his family.  They are not members but were in Tuzla visiting their parents for the weekend.  He had some insurance papers for the Elders there and when he called, they invited him to the baptism.  He is a huge asset to the church in Bosnia; not sure how we would function without him.

In Tuzla, after the baptism

Elder Newton welcoming the new member to the church.  Emir, the church attorney, is translating for him.  Elder Snell and Elder Woodhouse are in the background

Today we attended our first meeting in the Sarajevo branch.  There were 22 in attendance until about half way through Sacrament meeting when two more arrived.  Another brother joined us some time after that for a total of 25.  We have one deacon, who passes the Sacrament by himself and did a fine job.  He also gave the closing prayer and prayed that the Coopers would feel comfortable here.  Touched my heart!  We only have a 2-hour block here (loving it already).

The front of our branch space, located in downtown Sarajevo

The foyer - I asked where the ugly flowered couch was that we see in all our chapels at home

Our chapel.  There is also a small Relief Society room, a small Primary room and an office

Our Sarajevo missionaries doing language lessons at district meeting last week.

In the Adriatic North Mission there are 5 countries, four currencies and three languages.  I think we were told there are 1700 members but the average Sunday attendance is only around 200 between all the branches and groups.  The church is still new here and it will be exciting to be part of the growth and watch as things progress.  We are grateful to be here and for all the wonderful opportunities we see coming our way.  We love being attached to those black name tags again and hope we can do what is expected of us and more.