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.