It's December already

I'm trying to recall what we did this week that I can write about.  We seem to be busy every day but I didn't even take any pictures.  That usually means we have been consumed with month end paperwork.  We did have our first snow this week but it wasn't anything to write home about.  It has been quite cold though.  We haven't been able to get the heaters working at the chapel and it was about the same temperature inside as outside today.  So after testimony meeting the Branch President (John) wisely cancelled the second hour and sent everyone home early.  I kind of like this Branch President.

Today Brother Garvin conducted Sacrament meeting for the first time.  He did exceptionally well, except forgot to translate into English for us non-Bosnian speakers.  I was quite pleased with myself about how much I understood.  Or think I understood, anyway!

Monday was Statehood Day in Bosnia.  It is one of the few national holidays they observe and almost everything was closed.  The Elders were unable to use the internet cafe they frequent so they came to our house to email home.  They occupied all five of our laptops and tablets for 3 hours.

The Eternal Flame

I wrote about the Eternal Flame in one of the early blogs.  This is what Statehood Day is all about.  We are in Bosnia so of course the politicians have not been able to agree on which historical events should be chosen for commemoration.  In the Federation (where we live, the Bosniak-Croat entity), November 25 is celebrated as Statehood Day.  On this day in 1943, the Anti-Fascist Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted a resolution declaring Bosnia and Herzegovina an equal community of Serbs, Muslims and Croats.  The Serbs deny the historical importance of this event and instead choose to celebrate November 21, the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement in 1995, when the Serbian entity, Republika Srpska was established.

We don't even agree on Christmas - there is the traditional Christian Christmas celebrated December 25 and the Orthodox Christmas celebrated January 7.  But that is because of the difference in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, not that the politicians don't agree.

John celebrated his 76th birthday on Wednesday.  We were busy most of the day but did take time to have dinner at the rotating restaurant where we had the Senior Conference a few weeks ago.  We also had District Council that day.  The Elders had all bought matching sweaters and bought one for John as well.  Now all the Elders from the Sarajevo district will be dressed alike when we go to Winter Zone Conference in Zagreb in a week.  That seems to be a popular thing among the Elders in the mission.

The used car lot in our driveway has one less vehicle, finally.  LDS Charities donated one of the used mission vehicles to a partner we work with frequently.  They are recently established in Bosnia because of the refugee issues and did not have a vehicle in the country.  It happened to be at the time the mission cars were being replaced, so it worked out well.  The other spare car is being sold back to the dealer, when all the legal paperwork is completed.

The Church's Light the World campaign is underway.  I love to see all the creative ways people have to share their light.  We invite you to Light the World and make it a better place this week!  Visit mormon.org/Christmas for information on how you can serve this month!