Senior Conference week

Today we watched the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference for our church meeting.  The embassy families all watched from home so only 5 of us viewed in English.  We had more viewing the Croatian version and sweet old Franz asked if we could do German for him.  John sat with him in a classroom and together they watched the German version.  During the intermediate hymn he went outside for his smoke break.  He was apparently paying attention to the speakers, as he laughed at Elder Uchtdorf's German shepherd joke.

We are starting to see fall here.  We'll have to go to the mountains and get better pictures but the leaves are changing colors and starting to fall.

Changing colors at Vraca Memorial Park

Vraca Memorial Park

We hosted the Adriatic North Mission Senior Conference here in Sarajevo this week.  We have been planning and working on it for 6 months, since the previous conference in Slovenia.  The part that took the longest amount of time and the most effort was finding a suitable location within our budget.  We probably contacted 20 facilities and visited 10 of them before deciding on one.  We chose the Radon Plaza Hotel, which is only a few blocks from our apartment.  It was the last one we checked out, and only because we drove past one day and thought "why not?"  It is a 5-star hotel and we assumed it would be out of reach for us.  It is also further from Old Town and Centar, where we were to spend our free afternoon.  We used our LDS Charities email for the initial contact - they came back with such an unbelievably low room rate, we had to check further.  We made an appointment to meet with the hotel event planner.  We introduced ourselves and started to explain what we were doing when he stopped us and said, "I know who you are.  I Googled you.  I know what you're doing in my country and you can have whatever you want."  Thank you LDS Charities!

Conference name plates

The conference theme was "Can you imagine..." taken from President Hinckley's talk about pioneers in the church.  Each couple introduced themselves and talked about what they envision or imagine for the mission, these countries or their assignment.  We had name plates made for everyone.  You can't see it very well in the photo but we quoted Elder Holland "We are sometimes so close to history, so close to miracles... that we don't realize we are experiencing a miracle."  That's how we feel about serving here.  Just the fact that we are here is a miracle.  Having a tiny branch of the church here is a miracle and the members are indeed pioneers.  We are experiencing a miracle!  It is exciting to be a small part of it.

Emir Kaknjašević speaking at our conference

The first evening we asked our local attorney, Emir, to talk to us about his role in getting the church registered in Bosnia.  He has been with the church every step of the way and is the best friend the church could have in this country.  One of the missionaries asked him why he did some of the things he did.  At first he joked and said for the money.  But he seriously said he feels it is good for his country to have religious diversity and tolerance.  And the church does such good things - he referred to LDS Charities work again.

Emir joined us for dinner at the revolving restaurant on the top floor of the hotel.  President and Sister Melonakos nabbed him away from us for dinner, saying we get to see him all the time.

Emir with President & Sister Melonakos, Sister Ezard and Sister Turville

After his part concluded, we asked if he wanted to leave.  He stayed and listened to a few couples introduce themselves and even stayed to be part of the group picture.

ANM Senior Missionary group photo - Sarajevo, October 2018

John & Karen with Valerie & Reed Elder

Look at that view of a city that we have grown to love!  The food was delicious, too.  The following night we had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Old Town.

Group dinner at Dveri Restoran in Sarajevo

After all the planning, we decided that the most difficult part of being in charge is herding people from place to place.  Getting them on the shuttle and off the shuttle and into the restaurant and to the conference room on time.... Seems like someone is always missing or lagging behind.

One of the best activities of the conference was going to Vraca Memorial Park at sunrise.  This is where then Elder Nelson dedicated Bosnia for missionary work.  President Melonakos read the dedicatory prayer to us.  I had heard parts of it before but was very touched this time.  President Nelson pronounced wonderful blessings upon the people of this country and blessed the pioneer members.  It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it now.  I know one day the church will thrive here; I have no doubt.

President Melonakos at Vraca Memorial Park

Wednesday afternoon was free time to see the sights before dinner at Dveri.  I love this picture.

Sister Rands and Sister Turville sharing a fresh pomegranate juice

Rands have been here 3 weeks, Sister Turville 4 days (when this photo was taken).  I didn't get pictures of all the seniors but here are some and their assignments.

Donna & Carl Loveridge from Bountiful; mission auditor, MLS

Becky & Jon Rands from Sandpoint, ID; CES Seminary/Institute

John & Cathy Swendsen from Calgary; humanitarian

Jennifer & Everett Brewer from Taylor, AZ; MLS

Margit Ezard from England, via Germany; Self-Reliance

Louise & Dean Fitches from Santaquin, UT; MLS

You'll just have to wonder about all the other cool people that are serving here!  It was a wonderful conference and we are very glad it is over.  Now back to work to catch up on everything we neglected for the week.