Just another week

I am writing most of this Saturday evening.  We are leaving for Serbia right after church on Sunday and not sure when I'll be back at the computer tomorrow.

The mission auditor arrived on Tuesday to audit the branch finances.  They live in Maribor, Slovenia and wanted to see more of Bosnia before they return home to Bountiful in two weeks.  We spent the day touring Sarajevo with them.  We did the gondola ride again and walked far enough to see the bobsled track, then rode the gondola back down to the bottom.

Always an awesome view from the mountain top

We ate lunch at the bottom of the gondola trail.  The restaurant is called Spite House and has an interesting story.  The house was built in the mid 1800's and used to occupy the land where the magnificent city hall is now located.  The owner refused to sell his property, even when they offered much more than it was worth.  In 1895 the owner finally agreed to sell his property for an extravagant price and only under one condition: the authorities would have to move his Ottoman-era house, brick by brick, and rebuild it on the other side of the river.  The old man got his way and the popular story says he spent every day of the move sitting in the middle of a bridge smoking cigarettes and carefully watching workers transport each brick.  When the house was finally rebuilt, it was named Inat Kuća or the House of Spite.

Inat Kuća or the House of Spite

The branch finance clerk works at the embassy so the audit didn't take place until 4:30 pm.  After they finished, we all went to dinner at Mala Kuhina, one of our favorite restaurants near the chapel.

We had an appointment in Zavidovići on Wednesday so the Crnich's spent the day touring on their own.  Elder Crnich's grandfather is from Croatia - he left for America when he was 16.  The name was originally spelled Crnić (sir-nitch) and they have had fun finding his ancestors and doing some family history while they served here.

Elder Chris and Sister Melonie Crnich

After dinner on Wednesday we were strolling through Old Town and stopped for a gelato.  A cute young gal came to serve us and startled us all when she screamed and said "Oh my gosh, you're that old lady from Titanic!"  I think we all looked confused so she asked me - she was very obviously referring to me -if I had seen the movie Titanic.  I have never seen it and didn't have a clue what she was talking about.  She apologized for calling me an old lady and said I was beautiful, just like the lady in the movie.  That didn't work, but we all had a good chuckle over it.

We made another visit to the refugee safe house this week to deliver toilet paper, deodorant and baby food.  One of the women hugged and hugged me and patted my cheeks and skipped around me.  We've never seen anyone so happy about TP.  I'm sure her gratitude was for more than TP and she was expressing it the best way she could, not knowing how to speak to us in English.

A trunk full of toilet paper and deodorant

While we were at the house, we got to see more of the crafts the children have made with the supplies LDS Charities provided.  The house is much cheerier and brighter with all the decorations.

Crafts at House For All

Today we did a lovely hike to Waterfall Skakavac.  It is 12 km outside of Sarajevo in the mountains.  Rhett Rhees invited us to go with him.  He assured us it was an hour hike on mostly level trails.  He lied.  Big time.  We are tired and a little achy tonight but we hiked the whole trail.  We left at 7:30 am so we could hike in the cooler part of the day.

Above the clouds at the beginning of the trail

Beautiful nature to see along the trail

Rhett and John adjusting their shoelaces.  Or resting?

Level?  I don't think so

Cool cave along the trail

We made it

John and Rhett at Skakavac Waterfall

It was an hour and a half walk in and an hour and a half walk out.  We took a different trail each direction to see more of the scenery.  It was pretty spectacular.  The road leading to the trail was a little scary - one lane gravel.  We had to back up several times to let a car coming the other direction pass by.  It was okay unless we were the car on the outside, hanging over the edge of the cliff.