Cold and rainy

We continue to be fascinated by the lovely gardens all around us.  The cherries and strawberries are all gone; we are enjoying corn on the cob and raspberries now.  The corn was a little disappointing - I said it isn't sweet and tender like the corn we buy from Schmidt's Family Farm at the Farmer's Market and John said it sure isn't Taber corn.  All you southern Albertans will know what he means.

The garden directly behind us

I think the last photo of the neighbor's garden was just after they plowed and had started to plant.  Look at it now!  Rows and rows of potatoes, onions, corn, beans, cabbage, spinach, peppers, carrots and squash.  Probably more that I can't see from our window or don't recognize.

Our personal deck garden

We have had an unusually cool week - in the 50's and lots of rain every day.  We even had to turn the heat back on one day.  It's just as well, I got the zone conference flu bug Monday and John got it Tuesday.  The car was in Zagreb for transfers with the young missionaries so we spent most of the week on the couch wrapped in a blanket.  All those dark days and so much rain was starting to get a little depressing.

Saturday we ventured out to shop and visit the Catholic Cathedral and the Srebrenica Exhibition in Old Town.  We had lunch at Apetit, a restaurant we had not tried previously.  It was a little pricey for lunch but good.

Inside the Catholic Cathedral, Old Town

Inside of Catholic Cathedral

We have toured many churches and cathedrals around the world and this was probably one of the least inviting.  Maybe it was the grumpy old man at the back who kept yelling "stop running" or "don't touch that" and the mean sister (nun) at the front that was shooing people away so she could do her flower arranging.

During the siege of Sarajevo, the church's front door was dangerously exposed to snipers and antiaircraft machine guns, which were used periodically to spray bullets across town.  I forgot to snap a photo of the outside so borrowed one from the internet. Blurry, of course.

Sacred Heart Cathedral

Srebrenica (sreb-reh-neet-seh, means silver mine) is located in eastern Bosnia along the Serbian border.  Before the war the population was about 36,000.  The UN declared Srebrenica one of the "safe zones" and the population swelled to as many as 60,000 at one point.  If you're interested you can google and read what a miserable failure the UN peacekeeping forces were.  General Karadžić's ethnic cleansing troops overtook the city in 1995.  The Serb forces culled out any men between the ages of 12 and 77.  In that moment, families were ripped apart forever as husbands, fathers, and sons were taken away to be summarily executed.  Many survivors still don't know what happened to their relatives; they simply never returned.

At least 8,000 people, mostly men, were murdered by the Serb forces over the course of a few days.  Mass graves are continually being discovered.  The remains are pulled out of the ground, identified through DNA testing and given a proper burial in a collective funeral every year on July 11.  The best the victim's families can hope for is that their remains will be someday be identified so they can bury them properly.  Srebrenica is the worst massacre since WWII.  One of the quotes at the exhibit (holocaust survivor, but I don't remember who said it) "It happened once.  That means it can happen again.  It can happen anywhere."

We did not get through the day without a downpour.  We were walking through Old Town, looking for the restaurant and the skies suddenly opened.  We did have an umbrella but took shelter under an awning until it let up.

This street was crowded with tourists 30 seconds before the downpour

We decided we needed to do something more productive on Friday so I started cleaning the bathroom.  I started with the window and noticed a spider nest or pod, whatever they are called, up near the ceiling.  We cleaned it off and that was a mistake.  We realized how dirty the tile walls were.  We're not sure how the heating works here - it is gas but we also have radiator units in each room.  The "white" walls are all gray up near the ceilings.  We have gotten permission to have the apartment painted.  We noticed this when we first arrived and see the same thing in many apartments.  I guess we didn't think it would be the same on the tiles.  So the bathroom got a real deep cleaning from top to bottom.  I post this picture at the risk of you thinking what a lousy housekeeper I must be.  Which may or may not be the case, but... I'm not taking the blame for this one.

Dust on the bathroom tiles

Almost forgot our big exciting outing on Thursday.  We were guests of Brother Rhees at the US Embassy for the 4th of July celebration.  We guess it was a week early so they can all have a proper holiday on the real 4th.  It sounds a little silly but it was kind of comforting to have our feet planted on American soil for a couple hours.  We had to submit our names the week before and enter through metal detectors, etc.  The party was outside under tents, with a southwest theme.  We found it interesting that all the murals they used for decorative backdrops were of southern Utah.  We recognized delicate arch and other landmarks.  There was lots and lots of food, a live band, a magician and lots of games for the kids.  There were tacos, burgers, hot dogs, potato salad and on and on.  The only thing they were missing was green Jell-O.  We met the ambassador, who asked about our name tags and what we did.  She is a lovely lady and very well liked by the embassy staff.  We were not allowed to take photos but I snuck a couple under the tent.

US Embassy July 4th celebration

US Embassy July 4th celebration

Not very impressive but the best I could do without fear of being deported.  I needed some proof that we were there!

Happy Canada Day today.  Today also marks our 6 months in the mission field.  We're already one-third of the way through.  How did that happen so quickly?

I taught the second hour class discussion at church today.  We used President Nelson's conference talk "Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives."  He said one of the things the spirit has repeatedly impressed upon his mind since being called as President is how willing the Lord is to reveal His mind and will.  The privilege of receiving revelation is one of the greatest gifts of God to His children.  He also said through the manifestations of the Holy Ghost, the Lord will assist us in all our righteous pursuits.  And an invitation to all of us, "I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that 'if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things - that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.'"