Doviđenja

And it's almost over.  We moved out of our apartment on Monday and drove to Zagreb on Tuesday to pick up Ron and Cathy Burns.  We remember being on that end of the mission and are happy to be at this end of the adventure.  We have had an extremely busy week meeting partners and following up on projects.  The Burns have been troopers while we dragged them around and they tried to keep awake and remember what was happening.

President and Sister Melonakos, Cathy and Ron Burns

Our departing picture with President and Sister Melonakos at the mission home

Wednesday was spent in Zagreb meeting our partners there and showing Burns a few things around the city.  Thursday we drove back to Sarajevo and introduced the Burns to the most amazing city in the mission.  But no rest for the wicked... we were back at it early Friday.  We met with the attorney first then went to immigration to get white cards so the Burns are legal.  Then a full day of partner meetings.  We had an early dinner at Klopas, where our waiter friend and Utah Jazz fan works.  He was so happy we stopped in to say goodbye.

Nerim, Jazz fan extraordinaire

Saturday morning we had a project activity with one of our NGOs.  We purchased 200 backpacks and school supplies for disadvantaged children.  About 125 of the children or families came to collect the packs.  We held the activity at our chapel and the missionaries were there to help answer any questions about the church.  They also invited people to attend their English conversation groups or take advantage of self-reliance classes.  We feel it was a successful activity, although we would have done things a little differently if we had been totally in charge of the decisions.

Untying the bundles of backpacks

Waiting for children to arrive

We were so busy having our photo taken with the children that I didn't get any pictures of them.  We finished around noon, then helped the Elders clean the building for Sunday.  We did a little training with Burns in the afternoon and called it a day.

Today was the hardest day for us - we both spoke in Sacrament meeting.  We had linger-longer during the second hour and took pictures with the branch members in attendance.  I have done fairly well not blubbering or letting the tears come out full blast but it's an emotional time for us.  Our little branch struggles so and we will miss each of the faithful members who have supported us while we have served here.  Tomorrow we meet with the attorney again and have a partner lunch.  We fly to Rome on Tuesday and will travel for 10 days before we fly home.

We will report our mission on July 28 at 10:30 am in the Sycamores 6th Ward at 6592 W Haven Maple Drive, West Jordan 84081.  You are all invited!

Pictures from church today:

The Rhees family leaves Bosnia July 6 for their next assignment

I love this precious baby!

Sister Roberts and Sister Scofield

Elder Thygerson and Elder Krmpotich

Franz and Mira

Sweet Iris

Begić

Sam Chavez - he's been here on temporary assignment with NATO

President Garvin and Elder Burns - the new Branch Presidency

Our attorney Emir dropped in to say goodbye to everyone

Sarajevo Branch today - I love that Emir wanted to join the photo

It has been a wonderful journey!

Sunday June 23, 2019

There isn't much to write about this week - we are down to 8 days until we have to leave Sarajevo.  It has been a week of lasts - last meal here, last walk there, last time we'll see this...  Most of the week has been spent cleaning and packing.  We thought we sent a lot of things home with my sister in April, but we clearly have more than will fit into our luggage.

We did have a meeting with an NGO to finalize the activity on June 29.  The backpacks have been delivered and are being stored in the classroom at the chapel.

In the foyer first so the van isn't blocking the street

Safely stacked in the classroom

The woman in the picture is Senita, the president of the NGO.  Their offices are down the street from the chapel and she noticed the church as she walked by it every day.  One day she dropped in to ask if we might be able to help with some humanitarian needs.  That is how this project was started.

After our meeting, we had lunch at the Blind Tiger, our favorite hamburger place in Sarajevo.  They aren't quite as good as places at home but they come close.

Ingredients for a refreshing drink

I love the mint lemonade at this place.  They bring everything to your table and you mix it to your taste.  The glass has fresh squeezed lemon juice and fresh mint leaves;  the carafe has ice water (a rarity in this part of the world); the little creamer has simple syrup for sweetener.  The fresh mint brings back memories of my grandparent's spring house on the farm in Hillspring.

All ready to sip - it just needs to be twice the size!

Lunch is served - real fries, too

And it's finished, the final Blind Tiger burger

We went for a final haircut on Friday.  John thought he was taking a picture with his tablet but it was on video mode.

Azra, our cute beautician

Azra lived in Houston for many years.  She went there as a newlywed, a refugee from the Bosnian war.  She went to school and worked in a salon most of the time they lived there.  Her husband also learned a trade and they were quite successful.  They have two children who are now in college.  They decided to return to Bosnia 7 years ago because all their extended family is still here.  She opened her own salon and her husband started a chicken farm that sells to a supplier like Tyson who then sells to the grocery stores.  Her husband was seriously injured in a snowmobile accident over a year ago and is disabled.  Azra is always cheerful and happy and has a positive attitude.  We will miss her!

We told the missionaries we couldn't feed them today - the oven is clean, the fridge has been defrosted and cleaned and all the cupboards have been emptied and cleaned.  I didn't want to get anything dirty again so we took them out to dinner yesterday.

Dinner at Vapianos with the missionaries

I have been distracted with last minute details and haven't been taking pictures like I should.  We have three new missionaries - Elder Krmpotich is next to Elder Cooper.  He is from Caldwell, ID and has Croatian heritage (you might have guessed from his name).  He came straight from the MTC.  Elder Thygerson has returned to Sarajevo and is training Elder Krmpotich.  Sister Scofield remained with us this transfer and Sister Roberts came from Rijecka, Croatia.  She is from the San Diego area.

The Rhees family invited us to dinner tonight, which is nice as we are out of food!  We will leave Tuesday for Zagreb to pick up our replacements and will have a busy few days with them.

Father's Day 2019

Happy Father's Day to all you men who influence us for good every day.  The Rhees children sang in Sacrament meeting and gave the men a special gift they had made.

Father's Day gift from Rhees children

They also put two small candy bars in the bag with the rock.

We had very low attendance at Sacrament meeting today.  Iris and Sara were the only local branch members.  We admire their faithfulness every week.  It is transfers tomorrow so the three departing missionaries spoke today.  Sister Scofield is the only one remaining in Sarajevo.  I took the Elders to the bus after Sacrament meeting - they are both headed to Serbia.  It was just the Sisters for dinner tonight and they requested a salad bar.  We had fresh Bosnian strawberries for dessert.  The Sisters took our car tonight so they can leave for Zagreb first thing tomorrow.

After church we went to Vraca Memorial Park with the Rhees family.  That is the park where President (then Elder) Nelson dedicated Bosnia for missionary work.  They had not been to the park and asked us to show them where it is.  We shared a little picnic lunch with the zillion ants and took some pictures.

John & Karen with Camie, Sommer and Rhett Rhees

Paige, Janey, Kaiya, Camie, Sommer, Rhett, Preston and Gunnar Rhees

The Rhees family will return to the Washington DC area the week after we leave Sarajevo.  We will miss seeing them at church each week.  They are a great family and have been an asset to the branch here.

Our last visit to Vraca Park - our beloved Sarajevo in the background

We were at Summer Zone Conference in Zagreb Monday and Tuesday.  Both days were full of training on the new smart phones.  They have lots of filters and any app has to be approved by the missionary department in Salt Lake.

Talking on our new phones

Bosnia and Slovenia zones combined for summer conference

The missionaries that are about to go home are asked to bear testimony at their final zone conference.  So we had the opportunity this time.  We'll say opportunity but it's difficult to leave!

Bearing testimony at our final (yeah!) zone conference

Missionary shoes

Seeing all the shoes at the entry of the mission home always touches me.  Not sure why looking at a bunch of dusty, worn out shoes gets to me but it does.  Maybe it's knowing what those shoes are doing every day is why.

In the kitchen of the mission home are two white boards - one with mission stats and the other tracks the missionaries that have served with the Melonakoses.

Missionary board

Those currently serving are in the map area, the ones who have gone home are on the left and the ones now in the MTC are at the bottom.

ANM statistics

In the five countries there is a total membership of 1365.  The average Sunday attendance is 200 for the entire mission.  It is a great concern here and in all of Europe.

On Friday we drove 3 hours to Sapna again to close our mobile library project.  There was a little media ceremony then we were asked to cut the ribbon across the rear of the van.

Ribbon cutting ceremony for "Molly"

We helped with some renovations on the van, new wraps on the outside, new flooring on the inside and of course new books and a projector.

School children lined up to tour the van 

Book shelves line both sides of the van interior

Many of the rural schools have no library and would not have access to books if not for the mobile library.  The van also carries national curriculum books to help the teachers prepare lessons.

"Molly" the mobile library

We see many thing here that we find humorous and we will miss seeing them.  This is our neighbor's gate.  The mail has been in the gate over 3 weeks now.  Part of the top batch blew away during a wind storm last week.

Mail delivery in Bosnia

Menu with great looking salad photo

I can't get the photo situated correctly, but you can see the great looking salad photo.  We stopped to have lunch on our way home from Sapna.  It was a hot day and a salad sounded good.  I asked our partner to ask the waiter what kind of salad it was and if I could order it.  He said they didn't have it, it was only a picture.  Hmm, I saw another picture and asked about it.  No, it was also only a picture and not on the menu.  I just gave up and asked what they had.  I ended up with a chicken filet in mushroom sauce.

Life is such an adventure!  We have only one more full week in our apartment.  Since we are without transportation for three days, we will spend part of our time cleaning cupboards and getting ready to move out. 😢

Monday June 10, 2019

We arrived in Zagreb last night at 9:00 PM.  By the time we got to the mission home, chatted with President and Sister Melonakis and unloaded the trunk I was too tired to write the blog.  We have some free time this morning before Zone Conference begins and all the young missionaries arrive.  We brought the sisters with us to Zagreb.  ZC is starting earlier today so the missionaries can purchase their smart phones and be trained.  The smart phone nightmare is beginning.  The leaders received their phones last week at MLC and we already see their faces glued to the screen all day long.  We just have to be positive and trust the missionaries will be obedient... And we won't be here to watch it much longer so we don't have to endure the process!

The drive yesterday took us longer than it ever has.  The usual 5 1/2 to 6 hour drive took us 8 hours.  There is a tunnel under construction and no reasonable detour to avoid it.  We have had near perfect timing with tunnel traffic until yesterday.  The line of cars was almost 2 miles long and our wait was 1 1/2 hours.  We would normally have a book on tape to listen to but can't do that with young missionaries in the car with us.  I had downloaded the priesthood session of conference but forgot to bring the stick with us.

Tunnel construction near Zenica

The construction began about 8 months ago, so anticipate it will continue for another 8 years if it follows the Bosnian plan for road construction.

Inside the tunnel - it's a little creepy

After the tunnel wait, we arrived at the border to a line almost as long.  The wait there was an hour.  When we exited the highway outside Zagreb it took 15 minutes to get through the toll booth.  And that was with 8 booths open.

Going to Zone Conference is a chore for me - I may have mentioned that a time or two - so the tedious drive didn't help my attitude.  My next least favorite chore in the mission is doing apartment inspections at the young missionary apartments. We are supposed to do an inspection once a month and always before transfers.  Transfers are approaching so we did the inspections last week.

Apartment inspection checklist

It's a pretty lengthy checklist to go through and takes some time.  John does the bathrooms so I don't have to look in someone else's toilet.  Most of the missionaries do a passable job, but others... Those of you that have children who will be serving missions, please teach them how to clean before they get here.

The Red Cross of the Federation of BiH hosted the federation first aid training in Sarajevo on Saturday.  They staged several different scenarios; car accident, playground accident, heart attack, land mine explosion, construction accident, etc.  The teams from the local Red Cross offices respond at each of the stations.  They are timed and judged on how they responded and executed the first aid techniques.  Red Cross is one of our best partners and we were invited to attend.  We didn't stay for the entire day but had a good look at what they are trained to do.

Red Cross competition in Sarajevo

Photo op with the Red Cross leaders

Starting on the left, Jasmin is the medical/health coordinator; Namik is the Secretary General; beside John is a representative from the Turkish Red Cross (Turkey financially supports a lot of Red Cross activities in Bosnia); the last gentleman, whose name I cannot remember, is the RC president.

We will be at Zone Conference until Tuesday afternoon, then drive back to Sarajevo. We're keeping our fingers crossed that a Tuesday afternoon won't have as much traffic or such long delays.

It is getting close enough that we are starting to count the days!

Sunday June 2, 2019

Wow, it's June again already!  It feels more like April in our part of the world.  Temps in the 60's and lots of rain.  All the gardens are growing beautifully.  Even our deck tomatoes have blossoms coming.

Tomato plants on our deck

We have spent most of the week catching up on paperwork and submitting expenses for all our travels.  It was nice to stay in one place for more than a day or two.

The reason for our stop in Banja Luka on our way home from Zagreb was to check on the construction at the battered women's shelter.  All of the new doors have been installed.  They were scheduled to put in the new thresholds and begin painting on Monday but it was raining and cool so they postponed until they could keep the windows open for ventilation.

New doors and new hardware at the women's shelter

There were 14 new doors installed.  It really brightens the place up; the women said they feel better with doors that close properly and give them more privacy.

Elder and Sister Brewer went with us to the shelter.  Sister Brewer and the young sisters have been teaching English at the shelter and will begin the self-reliance courses that will help the women to find employment.  Elder Brewer had not been to the shelter and wanted to see what we are always talking about.  We have also donated new beds and wardrobes for the bedrooms.  Those will be delivered this month sometime.

On the way back from the shelter, we stopped to see the Vrućica Beach spa next to the Vrbas River.  It is a beautiful spot and a hot summer destination for Banja Luka residents and tourists.

Hot springs water falling into the Vrbas River

The beach is where warm spring water is mixed with cold Vrbas River water and many claim it will cure rheumatism, cardiac problems and many skin diseases.  Residents even use one of the springs for drinking water.

Hot springs flowing into one of the pools

The area around Vrućica Beach is regulated as a botanical garden and all of the natural springs have the status of National Monuments in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

One of the warm bathing pools

The beach is visited by people of all ages - the older people come to enjoy the healing properties of the warm springs, the younger are probably just looking for some fun.

We were fascinated by a tree on the river bank that appears to have it's roots above ground.

Tree on the banks of the Vrbas River near Banja Luka

Oh the beauties of nature that we enjoy in abundance here in Bosnia!  We took the scenic route home along the river.  It is a bit longer drive but gorgeous this time of year.

Our time here is growing short.  We still have work to finish but it will continue with or without us so we better get used to the idea that we must leave this wonderful place and move on so that others can experience the same amazing things that we have.

Today was our last fast and testimony meeting in Sarajevo.  We have such a love for the members here and pray for the continued growth of the branch.  We know it will happen - we just want it to be at a speedier pace than it is happening right now.