Mother's Day 2019

Happy Mother's Day to all of the wonderful women who have influenced my life for good.  Thank you for your example and for sticking with me through it all!

We had Branch Conference in Sarajevo today.  President and Sister Melonakos and Elder and Sister Swendsen attended the conference.  In anticipation of our leaving, John was released as Branch President today and Hyrum Garvin was sustained as the new Branch President.  John will be the first counselor until our replacements arrive.  Swendsens go home to Calgary in two weeks and there will not be another opportunity for a member of the mission presidency to travel to Sarajevo to make the changes later.  So John and Hyrum basically switched places.  Hyrum leaves for the U.S. May 20 for the birth of their 5th child and returns June 24.  We love the Garvin family and know that Hyrum will be a good Branch President.

We had a branch activity Saturday afternoon - Pizza in the Park - in conjunction with Branch Conference.  We had an excellent turn out.  The missionaries did a great job of inviting members of their English Conversation Groups.  We ate lots of good pizza, played soccer and volleyball and enjoyed chatting with everyone.

We also served lunch after the block meetings today.  John and I did all the preparations so the women in the branch could have the day off.  We all lingered longer than usual and felt like it was a success.  We wish we knew the secret of convincing the local members the importance of attending church each week.  We have great admiration for those who do understand and faithfully come each week.

A young missionary who served in Sarajevo for 7 months before we arrived here, returned last week for a visit with his parents.  They treated us to dinner one night at the rotating restaurant atop the Radon Plaza.  They are a lovely family and we enjoyed getting acquainted with them.

Ryan, Rachel and Kyle Echols at the Radon restaurant

Ryan and another former ANM missionary room together at BYU and will be doing an internship in Osijek, Croatia this summer.

On our walk one day this week, we saw the stairway to...

Stairway to nowhere

The stairs were sitting in the middle of a grassy field.  It is strange to look at but we imagine there is a sad and perhaps tragic story that we'll never know.  We suspect it is all that remains of a happy home that once stood there.

Our calendar is full and we have much to do before our time is finished here.  We feel like we won't be able to accomplish all we should be doing, but also realize that we could serve for years and still not get it all done.  We feel very blessed to have been given 18 months here.