Another week in Bosnia

Squid update, first.  Many of you wrote to tell us that squid is only calamari, that it's good and okay to eat.  Yes, we know that squid is calamari and calling by a prettier and more appetizing culinary name will not make us like it any better.  Some of you also suggested dipping sauces, including ranch dressing as a default.  We saw some pretty good dips that we will probably try.  However, we do live in a second world country and ranch dressing does not exist in our world.  The squid rings still remain in the freezer at this point.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes.  I celebrated with a chocolate croissant for breakfast.  We had planned to eat out with our embassy friends; her birthday is the day after mine.  But they were unexpectedly sent to London for her second trimester check up and ultrasound. They had an appointment scheduled at a different time but it was changed, so off they went.

Birthday breakfast - chocolate filled croissant.  Yum!

Zone Conference was in Banja Luka on Thursday.  We had been having lots of snow and cold weather so were a bit anxious about driving on bad roads.  We left Sarajevo at 6:00 am and were blessed with clear roads all the way.  They were wet but no snow or ice on them.

We followed the Vrbas River most of the way to Banja Luka

Mountain drive to Banja Luka.  Less snow and clear roads.

Hundreds of tunnels through all the mountains here

The drive took us nearly four hours.  Zone Conference theme was using the Book of Mormon more effectively, based on President Nelson's October 2017 conference talk.  We learned some interesting statistics about religions in Bosnia.  

In the country of Bosnia and Herzegovina the percentages:

Muslim 50.7

Orthodox 30.7

Catholic 15.2

Other 2.3

In Sarajevo:

Muslim 83.6

Orthodox 3.6

Catholic 5

Other 7.8

In Banja Luka:

Muslim 4.1

Orthodox 91.3

Catholic 2.7

Other 1.9

In Tuzla:

Muslim 75.4

Orthodox 3.3

Catholic 13.7

Other 7.5

Tuzla, Sarajevo and Banja Luka are the only three cities in Bosnia where missionaries are located.  You can see that the approach to finding and teaching will be different in each city.

It started to snow as soon as we reached Banja Luka and continued all day.  There was probably about 5 inches of new snow when we left the chapel for our hotel.  We checked in and didn't go out again that night.  It continued to snow through the night, making us nervous about driving home.  We had scheduled a meeting with the Red Cross at 10:30.  The meeting went well and we headed for home about 11:30.  The forecast was for freezing rain.  Heavenly Father answered our prayers and blessed us with clear roads again all the way home.  The only problem we encountered was in Doboj (dough boy) where protesters had blocked the main roads.  Police were stopping everyone to give them detour directions.  The police officer that stopped us spoke only Bosnian and German.  He attempted to direct us but we weren't understanding.  He motioned us to pull over and stay put.  Every car he stopped after that, he inquired if they spoke English.  Finally a car with Iowa plates (yes Iowa - we don't know that story but they looked and sounded Bosnian) pulled up beside us and said "follow us, we'll show you the way."  We followed them through back roads around the city for about 15 kilometers until we reached a road that headed to Sarajevo again.  Another tender mercy; we would still be in Doboj if not for the kindness of the officer and the Iowa strangers.

Saturday was another early travel day for us.  We are doing a project in northeast Bosnia, near the Serbian border.

The red arrow on the right shows where we were

We were in a community called Janja.  It is an agricultural area and very beautiful.  We saw Serbia across the river.

Our view of Serbia across the river

We hope to get to Serbia one day but it isn't one of our assigned countries so not sure that will happen.  LDS Charities has partnered with Muslim Aid to provide free medical exams, mostly for war widows in rural areas that don't have good access to medical care and can't afford it.  They did a previous project before we arrived, examining 110 women.  30% of those women had issues that were referred for more screening and care.  Two of the women had advanced stage cancers.  They must participate in a one-hour lecture about the importance of GYN and breast exams, then are examined by women doctors who volunteer their Saturdays to do this.  There are men on the team but women do the actual exams.

John and Mersiha posing by the photo permission sign we are required to post whenever we want to take group pictures

The doctor lecturing

Sign advertising the event.  LDS Charities logo is bottom right

We love the two ladies we work with at Muslim Aid, Edina and Mersiha.  We drove to Janja together.  They told us their personal war stories about how they escaped the country.  They were both still very emotional about it.  We asked a lot of questions and now understand the war and current situation in Bosnia a little better.  It is not good and there are still many unresolved feelings about the way the war ended and how the country was/is divided.  But that is a post all its own.

We see the Heavenly Father's hand in our lives every day and know he is involved in the details of our lives.  He is not only interested but cares what and how we are doing.  We see how he cares for all of his earthly children every day.