Gardens everywhere

I'm writing this Friday evening and Saturday, as we are leaving right after church on Sunday and probably won't have an opportunity to write on Sunday.

We have spent the week at home catching up from our travels.  We didn't know there was so much paperwork involved with humanitarian work.  We spend a lot of time on the computer populating spreadsheets, writing reports and entering financial information.  Creating a request for a new project is a tedious process with lots of information to provide and documentation to attach.  We requested two new projects this week.  One is to provide child car seats, booster seats and cribs for the family refugee center outside of Zagreb.  We partner with the Red Cross there and they have no way to transport the children to medical and other appointments without the seats.  The child safety seats are required by law in Croatia, the same as at home.  The second project is to provide workshops and counseling for mothers with severely disabled children to help them cope with their situation better.  At this time there are no programs in the public schools to educate or provide therapy for disabled children (with any disability from down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, etc.).  There are also no social services offered to caregivers.

The Elders took our car Wednesday evening for transfers and didn't return until Saturday afternoon.  They wanted to stay in Zagreb until Sunday afternoon but we need the car no later than noon on Sunday to leave town again.  The ANM Senior Conference is in Lake Bohinj, Slovenia beginning Wednesday.  We are taking the opportunity to drive up the coast of Croatia to get to Slovenia rather than through Zagreb and staying inland all the way.  We should have lots of beautiful pictures to share next week.

The spring weather continues to be beautiful.  There are gardens everywhere.  I don't think I've seen so many tidy, well-tended, manicured gardens anywhere as we see here.  In a previous blog there was a photo of our neighbor burning his garden twigs and vines.  John has been friendly with him but he speaks no English and we speak limited Bosnian so it's been difficult.  We use our tablets and google translate with our landlord but we discovered this neighbor can't read.  He is Serbian and is 77 years old.  He is already in the garden when we get up at 6:00 am and spends most of the day there.  He is trying to teach us the names of what he has planted.  We had a somewhat uncomfortable but very funny experience with him the other day.

The driveway leading to our house passes by the side of this neighbor's house.  We were returning from our morning walk and said hello through the fence.  He motioned us in and lead us around the opposite side of his house.  We thought he wanted to show us something in his front yard, which is beautiful; full of tulips, roses, pansies and a variety of trees.  He sat us in chairs by the front door, went into the house and returned with an industrial size bottle of gin and three shot glasses.  Remember what a social culture exists here - you would never go to someone's house and not be offered something to drink, usually coffee or tea, and something to eat.  It's the same when we visit an office or business - we are always offered something while we wait or before a meeting starts.  It's not normally whiskey at 10:00 in the morning, however.

He was being so kind that we almost felt bad declining the drink.  We started saying, "ne alkohol" and he looked little hurt.  He kept pointing to the glasses and indicting just a little with his hands.  We continued with the ne, ne until he said "crkve?"  He was looking at our name tags and I think realized we don't drink alcohol because of our church.  Da, da we said.  Da crkve.  He seemed okay with that, then offered us kafu (coffee).  Ne kafu, ne čay (tea), ne duvan (tobacco).  He kept repeating "ne kafu?"  Then he offered Srpska (Serbian) kafu, like it might be different.  Ne kafu.  He kept shaking his head and repeating "ne kafu", as if there was no reason to live if we didn't drink it.  He finally sent his wife inside for something and she returned with some purple colored juice.  He pointed to one of his trees to indicate it was juice from the tree.  There isn't any fruit on the trees yet but we think it was plum juice.  And he assured us there was ne alkohol.  We hope we can still be friends.

The people behind us have a huge lot and have been busy all week.  We don't know if it was all family or friends helping but there was a big crew the day the tractor arrived to till and furrow the ground.  They immediately went to work planting.  We can hardly wait to see what comes up through that pretty dirt.

Large field behind our apartment

Planting crew in the field

Saturday morning we decided to be brave and climb the hill at the end of our block.  It goes straight up the hillside.  The pictures don't really show how steep it is.  John says it was a 45 degree angle.

The road to heaven, straight and narrow

It is probably only a half mile but it felt like five miles.  We stopped to rest and catch our breath a few times along the way.

About 3/4 of the way up, looking back down

We finally reached the top and had a nice view of the other side of the mountain, including the airport.  We watched a plane take off while we rested there.

View toward Dobrinja and the airport

We followed the road along the top of the mountain.  Several of the people we see planting gardens on the hill behind us live along here.

View toward the city from our hilltop behind the house

We weren't sure where the road lead so we just kept walking.  We finally started going downhill again and followed the road down to the other steep road on the other side of the house.  We were gone about an hour and a half and both of us are taking Aleve tonight.  We should be doing that walk everyday...

Beautiful hillside by our house

We are excited for a relaxing trip along the Croatian coast next week.  We feel so blessed to be serving in such a beautiful part of the world.  We're grateful for good health and amazing technology that allows us to keep in touch with all of you.  We love you and feel your prayers - keep them coming!  We need them personally and the young missionaries here need them.

Bosnia the beautiful

We are so totally in love with the beauty of Bosnia!  We have been driving quite a bit the past two weeks and everywhere we go, we are awed by the gorgeous scenery.  Most of it is postcard perfect.  Today we drove to Tuzla to attend church there and check on the Elders.  The road is much better without snow and ice on it.  Sorry the second picture is blurry through the dirty windshield.

On the road to Tuzla, April 2018

On the road to Tuzla through the windshield

Only one member was at church in Tuzla today.  Elder Lee is being transferred so he spoke, then we watched two conference talks.  The Elders had made potato soup for us so that was the second hour activity instead of a lesson with four missionaries and one member.

We left home at 5:45 am last Monday to pick up the Sisters and drive to Zagreb.  They were going for return and report (don't ask, we're not really sure, but all new missionaries do it when they have been in the field about 6 weeks) and we were asked to come along and cook meals for them.  We stayed at the mission home with the missionaries.  We did dinner Monday night; breakfast and lunch on Tuesday, then headed back home to Sarajevo.  We were told to plan for 16 but there were 19 and there was barely enough food.  We forgot how much 19 year old boys can eat.  Everyone was fed but several would have eaten much more if it had been available.  8 dozen cookies disappeared in five minutes.  We'll do better next time.  Or maybe they won't ask us again - even better!

Wednesday we spent 12 hours with the greenhouse specialists and our supervisor from Frankfurt visiting project recipients.  The specialists are from Australia and come twice a year to follow up on past recipients and to find new ones.  We visited 10 greenhouses that were erected a year ago.  They visit with the people to find out how successful they have been, what they are growing, how many in the family the produce will feed, where they are able to sell the produce, etc.  They also look to see if the greenhouses are well maintained and cared for, and being used properly.  LDS Charities partners with the municipality and they provide education on how to plant at what time of year.  We are just at the end of the winter crops so many of the greenhouses were empty and the soil was being prepared for summer crops.

Visoko greenhouse being prepared for summer crops

We visited greenhouses in two areas - Visoko is about 45 minutes from Sarajevo; Zenica about an hour and 20 minutes.

Visoko greenhouse - the women are planting tomatoes

Zenica greenhouse ready for seedlings

The gentleman in this greenhouse had started several different plants in the greenhouse.  The starters are now big enough to be planted in the soil.  And below is another pretty picture of a hillside in Visoko. 

Hillside in rural Visoko

The last greenhouse we visited in Zenica was immaculate.  The yard looked like it came out of a landscaping magazine.  It was amazing, never mind the greenhouse!

Beautiful yard outside Zenica

I want this yard (and the gardener that comes with it)

Transfer announcements came on Friday.  They were all nervous and had created their own transfer boards, guessing where everyone would be assigned.

Transfer anticipation: Sisters Icke and Heder, Elders Leach and Corona

Elder Evans was in Banja Luka on an exchange so we had Elder Leach with us.  They all look happy now....

Transfer shock

As you can see, no one had guessed anything correctly and they were all a bit stunned.  We are losing our sisters and will have four elders in Sarajevo after transfers.  The only one staying here is Elder Evans.  I think we're going to miss having sisters here.  One exciting development is that Podgorica, Montenegro will now have a set of sisters.  They have had four elders and the country was considered too unstable for sisters until now.  Our missionaries were a little distressed with all the changes but they are getting used to it and will press forward.

John helped our building manager mow and trim the yard yesterday.  He said it felt good to be outside doing some manual labor.  And the yard looks much better now.  Life is good; the sun is shining and our world is green and full of spring flowers and blossoms.  We love being here and are starting to feel like we know a little about what we're doing.  We feel so blessed to be serving a mission here.

It's the simple things

We are official residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina now!  We picked up our visas on our way out of town Tuesday morning.  It was getting close to our 90-day temporary limit and the attorney said we may not get back into the country without the visas.  It gave us a late start and we had to cancel one appointment but better safe than sorry.

The drive to Zagreb was beautiful.  Everything has suddenly turned green, the flowers and trees are blooming and the farm animals have emerged from the barns!  We were an hour getting through the border, just because of the slow processes and lots of vehicles.  They stop you leaving the country and a few meters down the road, they stop you entering the country.  Crossing into Croatia is like entering another world almost.  The roads are suddenly a freeway with decent speed limits, not just the 2-lane windy roads we have in Bosnia.  There are lots of toll roads in both countries.

Zagreb is a much larger city than Sarajevo, a little over 1 million people.  There is a great public transit system with buses and trams.  We need to learn how to use the tram system if we spend much time there.  Parking is a huge problem (there isn't any).  Wednesday we attended the open house for the Jesuit Refugee Center Integration House.  LDS charities renovated the space for them, including a small kitchen and bathroom.  We saw the space when we first arrived in January and it was a mess.  It now has a nice reception area, a play area, an office, a classroom, kitchen and bathroom.  We invited the local District President and the Zagreb Branch President to go with us.

President Babić, Tvrtko Barun, John, Karen, President Sambunjak 

JRS presented us/LDS charities with a certificate of appreciation.  We were interviewed by a reporter from Al Jazeera, that I hope never makes it to press.  Neither of us are very good at answering reporter's questions without some preparation.  JRS also provided a lovely lunch prepared by some of the refugees.  It was mostly Iranian food and very good.

Lunch prepared by refugees at Zagreb integration house

On Thursday we visited the large refugee center in Zagreb that can house as many as 500 residents.  We are building a laundry facility there with commercial washers and dryers so that the refugees can do their own laundry.  These people touch our hearts; most of them arrive with no papers and no possessions except what they are wearing.  Once they receive asylum in Croatia, the integration house helps them to assimilate into the community.

We experienced a tender mercy while in Zagreb.  We took a taxi to the mission office, which is near the city center and about a 35 minute walk from our hotel.  This was our first time back in Zagreb since we arrived from America and we are not familiar with any part of the city.  When it was time to return to our hotel, one of the senior office sisters walked us to the train station where the taxis are lined up.  We showed them the address and they quoted a fare double what we had paid to come in to town.  John said no way; we thought maybe if we walked a block or two away from the station we might get a taxi for a better fare.  We started walking, having absolutely no idea what direction we were going.  We did try to flag a taxi several times with no luck.  So we walked.  Unbeknownst to each other, we were each saying silent prayers for direction.  We stopped talking and kept walking, thinking we would recognize a street name or landmark we had passed before.  We made decisions to turn on a street without knowing where it would lead us.  We walked about 40 minutes, without retracing steps or doubling back, and arrived directly in front of our hotel.  We looked at each other and smiled - how did we do that?  WE didn't do it; Heavenly Father is always aware of us and wants to be involved in the details of our lives and wants us to turn to him for help, even if we created a situation or made a poor choice.  We know he is there and will come to our aid, always, always, always!

We returned to Sarajevo about 7:00 PM Friday night.  Saturday we shopped and cooked for our return trip to Zagreb on Monday.  In Zagreb we discovered the American Food Store.  We were a little disappointed, as most of the shelves were stocked with cold cereals, but we did find chocolate chips and peanut butter.

It takes so little to make me happy

It's the simple things like cooking spray and mac & cheese (that I never eat at home) that make me so happy.

Today was General Conference in our branch.  We watched the Sunday sessions, with potluck in between sessions.  Sister Icke wasn't feeling well so I stayed at the apartment with her so Sister Heder could be with their investigators at the chapel.  She felt better in the afternoon so we went to church and watched the afternoon session.  Everyone else left after lunch except Zlatko, an investigator and the missionaries.

Waiting at the border on the bridge that spans the Sava River

The Sava River separates Bosnia and Croatia.  We sat on the bridge quite awhile waiting to enter Bosnia.  The city is Salvonski Brod on the Croatia side, Brod on the Bosnian side.  It was all one city back when the area was Yugoslavia.

A slow week in Sarajevo

We so enjoyed watching General Conference last weekend and getting the spiritual boost we needed.  We get to have another day of conference on April 15, when we will watch the Sunday sessions with the Branch.  It will be interesting to return home and see how all of the changes have been implemented.  We have been ministering here (no Home or Visiting teaching) and we all meet together for the second hour (priesthood, Melchizedek and Aaronic, and Relief Society) so we won't experience much change here for now.

On Tuesday we took a few hours off to visit some local museums.  There is great history associated with each of them.

The Despic House

The house belonged to the wealthy Orthodox Christian Despić family, who donated it to the city along with another property now housing the Museum of Literature and Performing Arts (we did not visit that museum).  The house is noted as the venue for the city's first theater performances and is regarded as the precursor of modern theater in the area.  The house was established as a merchant house in 1881.  The Despićs were one of the wealthiest and most prominent Serbian families in Sarajevo.  It offers a good insight into the way of life during that period.

Original Brusa Bezistan building

We would not have recognized this building.  Of course we can't see the roof tops but it is right in Old Town and hardly noticeable unless you are looking for it.  This substantial building was erected in 1551 by Rustem Pasha, Grand Vizier (high official in some Muslim countries, especially Turkey under Ottoman rule) of Suleyman the Magnificent.  It was used for selling the silk that Pasha himself produced.  It was badly damaged during the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo.  Following extensive repairs, it became part of the Sarajevo museum system and houses archaeological finds documenting area history.  The domes are used to store archive documents and sicils (court records).

Jewish Museum

The Museum of the Jews in Bosnia and Herzegovina is housed in the oldest synagogue in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  It was built in 1581, so the Jewish people have a centuries old presence here.  Entering the synagogue feels a little like stepping into a different, sheltered world.  Particular attention is devoted to the suffering of the Jews during World War II.

Book listing Jewish victims

This huge book hangs from the ceiling of an upper floor and lists all the Jews by name who lost their lives during conflicts in Bosnia, including WWII.

One more to go and your history lessons will be done for the day.  Our last stop was the War Childhood Museum.  It has only been open since January 2017.  The founder, who was a child during the Bosnian war, authored a book first and the museum evolved from there.  The museum's collections feature diaries, toys, photographs, items of clothing and a variety of other objects donated by child survivors of the war.  All the items are presented alongside first-person recollections from the individuals who donated them.  In addition to the items, you can listen to testimonies and read snippets from oral history interviews.  It was all very touching.

War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo

Sorry, that photo isn't very clear.  That happens sometimes when you borrow a photo from another website.

What a difference a little sunshine makes.  Saturday we went downtown to celebrate Sister Icke's birthday.  The actual day is today but since we can't really celebrate on Sunday we took the missionaries to lunch Saturday.  There were so many people walking about, enjoying the sun.  Sarajevo has a "café culture" and folks love to sit outside to drink coffee and smoke.  If a formal sitting area isn't there, they'll drag a box or old chair, whatever, outside to sit.  We see lots of gardens being tilled and hoed.  Makes us want to work in our yard and garden boxes at home.

Sister Icke with Sister Heder, showing off her sauerkraut 

Sister Icke is from Germany and mentioned once that she hadn't seen any sauerkraut here.  So that's what we gave her for her birthday.  She didn't seem to mind the gag gift.  Now if we could only find some good brats to go with it...

We tried a new place called Cakum-Pakum (sock-oom, pock-oom).  It is a pancake and pasta place and is so cute.  It's very small, only 8 tables.  We were the only ones in the restaurant for awhile.  When they say pancakes here they really mean crepes.  I had a chicken and mushroom stuffed pancake that was quite tasty.  We invited Brother Lott to have lunch with us, too.

Birthday lunch at Cakum-Pakum

Cute décor at Cakum-Pakum

Saturday evening we went with the Sisters to visit a branch member who lives 30 minutes outside the city.  We were told she is the strongest member in our branch but she has not been to church since we arrived (hope that isn't the reason).  She doesn't speak a lot of English but with translation we had a good visit.  She promised to come to church April 15.  The Orthodox celebrate Easter today and her elderly mother is not well so she couldn't come today.  We did have a college professor touring with Arizona State University visit the Branch today.  Also another embassy worker that will be back in July with her husband for a 2-year stay.

Enjoy your Sabbath - our day is almost over.  We are continually shown that Heavenly Father loves all His children, no matter where they are, and He wants us all to return home to Him.

Happy Easter 2018

We have had a full day with our missionaries and Zlatko.  They all arrived this morning to watch the Saturday sessions of conference with us.  We had watched the Saturday morning session at 6:00 pm yesterday but downloaded both sessions to watch again today.  We made Easter baskets (bags - couldn't find any "baskets") full of Kinder chocolate eggs, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (compliments of the embassy) and other assorted local candies, notebooks and pencils.  Zlatko was a little confused and surprised, knowing nothing of the Easter Bunny tradition.

Our missionaries and Zlatko with their Easter baskets

We had a lovely Easter program in Sacrament meeting on March 25.  Our 6 Primary children and one deacon sang Gethsemane and did a really good job with it.  The 2-year old contributed a word or two here and there but the others all had the words memorized.  I was amazed they could even say the word Gethsemane.  The Elders and Sisters sang a beautiful rendition of I Know That My Redeemer Lives.  All four of them have very nice voices.  Gunnar, our deacon, and Brother Lott both gave good talks on the Atonement.

The best part of our day was walking into the chapel to find our newest member, Zlatko dressed in nice slacks (left in the Elder's apartment by a previous missionary), a new white shirt and tie (anonymously provided by Brother Lott).  He had gotten a haircut and looked like a new man.

John, Zlatko, Karen on Zlatko's ordination day

 

We all made a fuss over him.  He received the Aaronic Priesthood after sacrament meeting and was ordained a priest.  His entire demeanor changed - he is usually pretty quiet but was just beaming all day.

Elder Evans, Elder Corona, Zlatko, Sister Heder, Sister Icke

John ordained him and showed Zlatko his Priesthood Line of Authority.  Zlatko was surprised and excited to see that it went back to Jesus Christ.  It was pretty sweet.  He changed into his jeans and sweatshirt and said he would leave his good church clothing at the chapel.

It has been raining almost every day so most of the snow we got last week is gone already.  Everything is melting, leaving huge puddles everywhere.

We received word Thursday afternoon that Social Services had located Fadil's family and that he would be buried Friday afternoon.  All the missionaries and three branch members went to the cemetery to honor Fadil.  It was my first experience attending a Muslim service and I was quite touched.  Certainly not what we are used to but I was impressed.  There were three men being buried at 2:30 that day.  There was a general or combined service for all three at the beginning.  The priest or Imams, I think they are called, went to the front and called the Muslim men to assemble.  No women can participate and we all stood off to the side.  The men lined up in rows; probably six or seven rows with 20-25 men in each row.  I couldn't get any pictures with so many people around, since they discourage it.  They prayed and chanted for about 15 minutes, with the men participating at various points of the prayer with hand and head gestures.  When that was completed, they separated into three groups and we each followed an Imam to the grave site.

We waited at the grave site for the cemetery van to bring the casket.  It was a plain, wooden box covered with a green cloth.  John thinks there was no lid or cover on the box, only the blanket but I'm not sure about that.  The men removed the casket from the van and handed it on; they had formed a double line and moved it along until they were at the grave.  Everything was manual; one man jumped into the grave to guide the casket and they lowered it into the grave using big moving straps.  They handed several 2x8 pieces of boards the width of the grave and placed them on top of the casket.  They pulled the man out of the grave, the Iman said a few words and picked up a shovel.  He started putting the dirt back into the grave.  There were six shovels there and other men took them and started shoveling.  After a minute or two, a man would tap the one shoveling on the shoulder and take the shovel from him.  They all took turns until the grave was covered with a large mound of dirt.

Burying Fadil

Covering the grave

With the grave covered the men all squatted on their haunches while the Iman prayed some more.  It was quite lengthy and some of the older gentlemen had to stand up part way through.  And then it was over.

Fadil's sons at the grave

We spoke to Fadil's sons after the service.  They were both crying and visibly shaken.  I felt most of the tears were regret as they were saddened knowing they did not have a good relationship with their father and now it was too late.  They were very gracious and thanked us for taking care of their father.  None of us were wearing name tags and they finally asked if we were a church.  We were sad for the sons but we know Fadil is in a good place and happy and all that other stuff can be fixed later.

On Monday we took the missionaries to the Sarajevo Tunnel.  When the city was surrounded by the Bosnian Serb Army, the Sarajevan's only connection to the outside world was a mountain pass.  Between them and the pass was the airport which couldn't be crossed by either side because it was controlled by the impartial UN.  Many Sarajevans were without food, medicine and water with no way to get in or our of the city safely.  So they decided to tunnel under the runway.  Coal mine engineers spent four months in 1993 digging a passageway that was about 5 feet tall and three feet wide.  Once completed they could enter the basement of an apartment building, hunch over and hike through humid air and emerge at the other end.  From that house they could hike over the mountains to get supplies.

Outside of the tunnel house, still with it's "war wounds" 

Inside the tunnel - only about 50 feet remains as part of the museum

Us outside the museum tunnel exit

The following is from a sign at the museum: "Thousands of shells rained on Sarajevo during the aggression against Bosnia and Herzegovina and UN forces registered an average of 330 impacts a day.  In just one of such days, on 22 July 1993, Sarajevo received 3,777 shells fired from the surrounding hills.  In the siege that lasted for 1,425 days, every single shell left scars on the asphalt roads, pavements or town buildings.  Many of them wounded or killed one or more citizens in the besieged town while explosions were leaving marks in concrete, similar to flowers.  On some locations in town those scars were painted with red resin and hence they were named Sarajevo roses.  As a result, the Sarajevo rose became the symbol and the memorial of those who were killed in the besieged Sarajevo and of their heroic struggle, whereas red color is the reminder of the blood of Sarajevo inhabitants shed while queuing for bread and water, of children playing carefree and of all those who were only trying to survive in the town without an exit.  In the the first phase of the project, 100 of Sarajevo roses were marked but many of them disappeared due to various reconstruction and rehabilitation activities."

Missionary feet at a Sarajevo rose

Today we tried to have a traditional Easter dinner with ham (compliments of the embassy again), funeral potatoes (improvised, as we have no frozen hash browns or cream of chicken soup), deviled eggs, veggies and dip, rolls and orange cake with cream cheese frosting.  It was a good day with remarkable young missionaries, good food and a spiritual uplift from conference.

We know that President Nelson is our prophet and that the things we heard and witnessed during conference are right, true and correct.  We know that Jesus Christ was resurrected and that he lives.  We are honored to wear his name next to ours each day as we try to help further the work of the kingdom in this part of the world.