Sunday February 24, 2019

Monday evening we went with the Sisters to Zoran and Ranka's home for dinner.  She is an excellent cook.  I didn't get the sarma I was hoping for but she did make homemade burek and a nice chicken soup for us.  Burek is very popular in the Balkans and is sold in every bakery in the city.  It is similar to Greek boureki or bougatsa, if you are more familiar with those foods.  Burek is a baked, filled pastry made of a thin flaky dough known as yufka (phyllo).  It is usually filled with a meat mixture,  potatoes, kaymak (similar to clotted cream but quite sour) or spinach and kaymak.  Not all those ingrediants together, just one ingredient per pastry.

Bosnian rolled burek

Ranka served yogurt with the burek; the plain drinkable yogurt is supposed to aid in digestion.  I like yogurt drinks but prefer mine a little less sour and with some fruit or honey.  We had a lovely evening with Zoran and Ranka.  Both of his daughters live in Salt Lake City and we hope to be able to meet them when we return home.

John is finally getting his dental work completed.  He had to wait 3 months after the implant posts were inserted before finishing the work.  He went twice last week for impressions, x-rays and fittings.  He has another appointment tomorrow.  He won't know how to act with a mouthful of new teeth!

On Wednesday we went with our Red Cross Partner to Kalesija to close a water project that has been underway for almost 5 years.  It was funded and started but the contractor and others involved stole the money and disappeared after declaring bankruptcy.  In 2014 devastating floods in the area destroyed the well and what had been done up to that point.  LDS Charities agreed to re-fund the project in 2017 and start again on a different piece of property donated by a local farmer.  We worked hard to get the municipality to push their contractors and workers to complete the work in a timely fashion.  It was mostly completed in October, but for a few minor details.  We should have had the closing before Christmas but the city waited until last week for the grand "opening" of the well.

Pump House with Bosnian flag

The Bosnians love the media and always have them in attendance when we sign a contract or close a project.  We aren't too fond of all the attention but have learned to expect it.  The first thing they always ask us is how much money we donated.  We gathered at the school for a few photo ops, then we all trekked up the hill to the pump house for more TV interviews.  It was quite the production.

Walking from the skola to the pump house

Controls inside the pump house

We did several photos with the mayor turning the handle to open the pipes to allow the water flow from the reservoir into the homes.  It serves 160 homes in the rural community of Hrasno, or about 800 people.  This community has not had water since 2014.  They are a happy group now.

Us with the mayor of Kalesija

The mayor had two signs put on the building; one on the entrance wall and one above the door.

Partners sign recognizing contributors

It looks like the printer slipped "Municipality of Kalesija" into the wrong spot on the sign.  Oh well.

After the ceremony, we returned to the school for lunch.  They fed us roast lamb, burek and baklava.  I asked if the lamb was roasted on the spit and they proudly said it was.  I don't mind lamb but it has to be cooked right so it's tender and moist.  This was like chewing the insides of a baseball - stringy and soooo tough.  It was a long lunch for me but we made it through.  They all seemed to be enjoying the lamb; maybe I got the one bad piece on the platter.  They presented us with an appreciation certificate and a very nice door knocker that we will bring home with us.

Presentation from the mayors

Can you tell we are in an elementary school classroom?  Here are some links to read more about our event.

https://ckfbih.ba/udruzene-snage-160-domacinstava-u-hrasnu-kalesija-dobilo-vodu/

https://kalesija.ba/zahvaljujuci-sredstvima-opcine-i-donatora-160-domacinstava-u-hrasnu-ima-vodu/

Meeting with Sarajevo Red Cross (Davor on left, Namik on right)

The Sarajevo Red Cross is one of our best partners.  They really have the vision of humanitarian work and of encouraging self-reliance.  Davor has become one of our good friends in the city and helps us with things other than our work.  He likes to play in the Krešimir Ćosić basketball tournament every year in Zagreb.  Namik is the president of the Red Cross.

I've mentioned before that receiving mail here is impossible.  I have figured out why.  The trash bins around the city look somewhat similar to the blue post boxes at home.

Sarajevo trash bins

I think people are putting the mail into the trash bins, thinking it's a mail box.  Probably not, but it's a good theory.

We ended the week with a baptism.  There have been 5 baptisms in the Sarajevo Branch since we arrived.  We think that is extraordinary!  Sara was baptized yesterday and confirmed in Sacrament meeting today.

Elder Lee and Sara before her baptism

Baptismal service for Sara

Sara requested that the service be in English.  While they were changing clothes after the baptism we sang a few hymns in English.  It is the first time the English language hymnals have been off the shelf since we arrived.  As we were singing I was surprised to be thinking "oh no, I don't remember the English words anymore."

Sarajevo District missionaries with Sara

Sara with her parents.  Sweet family.

Sara bore a beautiful testimony in Sacrament meeting today.  I hope that she will journal her conversion story and one day share it with others.  We are so happy that she chose to be baptized while we are here!

Sunday February 17, 2019

We spent our Sunday traveling to Tuzla and attending church there.  There were a total of six in attendance - four missionaries, one member and one eternal investigator.  The Elders there always do great organizing and keeping the group going.  Elder Roper is the group leader and conducted the meeting, blessed/passed the Sacrament and offered the closing prayer.  Elder Wimmer played the piano, blessed/passed the Sacrament, and gave the talk.  For the second talk we watched Elder Christofferson's last conference address.  The investigator is at church almost every Sunday and she gave the opening prayer today.  The member left after Sacrament meeting so the five of us discussed the Come Follow Me lesson.  Well, three of them discussed it in Bosnian and we mostly listened.

We arrived back home mid-afternoon and enjoyed a quiet dinner with just the two of us.  No huge quantities of food prepared today.  It made cooking and clean up much faster.  The missionaries were on their own today but I'm sure they survived okay without us.

Sister Landon called us Friday afternoon to say she had been pick-pocketed and what should she do?  This was a first for us.  After making sure she was safe and asking where they were, we told her to call Emir, our local attorney, for advice.  Then to call the mission office to cancel her mission credit card.  Emir is our hero and we think he is the best thing that happened to the Church here in Bosnia.  He had the Sisters come directly to his office, where they went online to cancel Sister Landon's personal debit card.  Then he walked them to the police and helped her file a report.  She also had her driver's license and monthly tram pass in the wallet.  Apparently this is a common scam near the university campus.  Someone takes the wallet, removes the cash and passes it to a buddy to turn in for a reward.  About 2 hours later she received a call that her wallet had been turned in.  Everything was intact, minus the cash.  She lost 70 marks, or about $40.  They didn't even take the tram pass.  The office had not yet cancelled her card, so the only thing needing to be replaced is her personal card.

We had a Branch activity Friday night.  The missionaries planned and executed the evening.  The first 30 minutes was about Family History.  Rhett Rhees talked about why we do Family History and then told how he found stories about his ancestors on Family Search and compiled them for his siblings and children for Christmas gifts.  He related how he was touched by the Spirit while he was working on the project and encouraged us to participate in some aspect of Family History.

Rhett explaining Family History; Elder Lee translating

The Elders explained the pamphlet (the name escapes me) where we can record names and other information to gather four generations.  The Sisters talked about the Billion Graves app and how it could help Family History research in Bosnia.

Elder Thompson

Sister Fritch and Sister Landon explaining Billion Graves

We had a good turn out for the activity, mostly students from the English Conversation Groups.  We watched the movie Coco, which was the real draw.  It was in English with Croatian sub-titles.  It didn't do much for me but the kids seemed to enjoy it.  And he was looking for his family so it was kind of Family History related.

Sister Landon, Zoran, Ranka, Sister Fritch

We met Zoran and Ranka when we arrived a year ago.  He was baptized in the U.S. some time ago; she is not a member.  They have not been to church in a year until last Sunday.  We took the Sisters and dropped in on them a couple weeks ago.  The Sisters have been keeping in touch since then.  They came to the movie night and we are invited to dinner Monday evening (we hear she makes wonderful Sarma - I'm hoping that is what she feeds us).  It's interesting how Sisters can open some doors the rest of us aren't able to.

Wednesday we drove to Bihać to meet with an LDS Charities' global partner about a refugee project they have asked us to participate in.  Their person flew in from Brussels and met us there.  A new camp has opened in an old refrigerator factory building.  The building itself is in disrepair and could use a lot of work.  They have brought in some portable units for living quarters and showers and toilets but the majority of space contains huge tents filled with sleeping cots.

Refugee camp inside an old factory building

No dogs allowed but this puppy snuck in the morning we visited.  Most of the building is fairly dark and pretty depressing.

Portable units for sleeping

This is in the family area of the camp

The roof leaks when it rains or snows so that is part of the water on the floor.  The director of the camp told us that the women throw water on the floor when cooking or cleaning vegetables or doing laundry by hand.  They could empty the water into the sinks or shower areas but...

This tent is designated as the mosque

Part of the cafeteria area

The Red Cross prepares and serves the food.  They receive three meals a day.  The camp was approved for 1500 occupants, they are already at 2000 and over capacity.  We will report our findings and thoughts on the project to the area welfare manager, who will make the final decision about partnering on the project.

We always eat at the same restaurant in Bihać but got brave and tried another one this trip.  We walked from the hotel and got a little lost on the way.  We were the only customers on the restaurant side.  It was quite dark in room and we had trouble reading the menu.  I ordered a small calzone and was very surprised when it arrived.

Platter size calzone

The calzone filled a platter!  It looks burned but wasn't, it's just the very dark room.  It was tasty but I left most of the crust on the plate.

The big news this week is the change in the missionaries being allowed to contact family weekly if they want.  We have mixed emotions about it - we can see some positives and how it will help a few missionaries.  We also see negatives and the potential for privilege being abused.  Our missionaries won't be able to call or text, as they do not have smart phones or tablets.  Most of the missionaries we have talked to have the same feelings about it as we do.  They think it could become a distraction.  Most of them don't think they will do things any differently than they do now.  They do think it will be nice if they need parents to help with college applications or background checks.  And I won't be emailing parents so often, asking questions or communicating information to parents between P-day emails.

Sunday February 10, 2019

We took one of our NGO partners to lunch on Monday to thank them.  The entire office showed up, but that's only six people so it was okay.  We selected Klopas, as it is one of the only smoke-free restaurants in the city.  We arrived first; the waiter greeted us in excellent English and asked how we found the place.  We have eaten there before but don't recall this waiter.  He asked where were from and when he heard Utah, he exclaimed that he is a Utah Jazz fan (we hear that a lot here).  But this one truly is an avid fan.  He pulled up his pant leg and showed us his tattoo of the Jazz logo on his shin.  Then he said his mother and sister are nurses and live in West Valley City.  His grandmother had gone to Utah as a refugee during the war and his mother followed later.  Is it a coincidence that we live next door to WVC and met this man?  We don't think so.  We gave him our card and asked him to tell his mother about us.  We'll return before we leave here to get their names and numbers.  I thought later about asking if I could take a picture of his tattoo, but didn't do it.

We had a nice lunch with the Muslim Aid office.  They are our partners on the cow project.  We'll be with them tomorrow all day doing follow up visits to meet the new born calves.

Muslim Aid office staff lunching with us at Klopas

The three ladies on the left are the project managers that we interface with most of the time.  The other two ladies are office support staff and the gentleman is their agronomist.  They are all a great group of folks to work with on projects.

We left early Wednesday morning for Tuzla.  The mountain roads were a little icy going over but the day warmed up enough to melt everything on the roads and we had a smooth drive home later in the afternoon.  We had three visits to make - the first one at Red Cross to get a project agreement signed.  We are helping with a spring garden project in five smaller rural municipalities close to Tuzla.  Next we went to the Lotosice retail space in the Center Square that we helped to renovate.

Our friends Enisa and Enisa at Lotosice

They had their grand "reopening" last week while we were at Zone Conference in Banja Luka.  We presented them with a framed certificate to hang in the store.  It just says that Lotosice and LDS Charities partnered to renovate the space.

Back and front page of Lotosice catalog

Lotosice works with disabled women.  The retail space is where they can sell the souvenir products they manufacture.  They were kind enough to put the LDS Charities logo on their catalog.  They use a laser tool/blade/beam (not sure the correct term) for many of their intricate items.  They have some very nice products and gave us each one to bring home.  We always offer to purchase the items, as we feel guilty taking away their revenue, but they are so gracious and insist it is a gift of appreciation.

Gifts from Lotosice

Enisa's daughter Vedrana and new baby boy

This is the baby we made the quilt for last fall.  He is adorable.

Our next stop was Teočak (tay-oh-chalk), a rural community about 40 kilometers outside Tuzla.  We provided new desks and chairs for the kindergarten classrooms in three rural schools.  The furniture they had was falling apart.  We also donated a new laptop, projector and screen for the largest classroom.

New furniture in the Teočak kindergarten classroom

No more slivers from the old wooden desks and chairs.  The children were so excited to see us.  The teacher put our names on the overhead projector and the children clapped for us.  They are just starting to learn English in school so can't talk to us yet.  Their English teacher was with us to translate (the principal speaks no English) so they counted and showed off a little for us.

Our names projected in the Teočak classroom

Teachers and principal with us in classroom

The tall gentleman with his head in the light is the English teacher.  He played professional basketball (another Jazz fan) in the European league for a few years.  We invited him to play in the annual Krešimir Ćosić tournament in Zagreb in May.  He said he was too old and has a ruptured disc but we're going to keep working on him.

Today is the opening ceremony for the EYOF2019 Sarajevo. I wasn't aware of this mini-Olympic event in Europe until we arrived in Sarajevo.  It's quite a big deal.  It is a European Youth tournament and considered to be the most important sporting event to take place in Sarajevo since the 1984 Olympics.  1,350 athletes from 46 European countries will compete over the next five days.  The mascot is named Groodvy and resembles a ball of snow.  His multicolored hair represents all of the athletes who will be participating in the competitions.

Groodvy, the EYOF2019 mascot

I'm posting this for my friend Nancy who likes to know what her friends around the world are eating.  Missionary dinner tonight was meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy and cauliflower.  You all know how much missionaries can eat.

3 kilo meatloaf before going into the oven

3 kilos is about 6.6 pounds of ground beef.  I didn't take an after photo but the leftovers fit into a quart-size zip lock bag.  And some of them weren't as hungry today because the finally admitted they had eaten a bunch of pancakes around 3:00 pm before coming to dinner.  Elder Thygerson's 19th birthday is on Wednesday.  We will be out of town so we celebrated with him today.

Elder Thygerson's 19th birthday cake

All the missionaries got a small heart shaped box of chocolates tonight, as we will be gone on Valentine's Day as well.  This group is a great group and we will miss the ones who are transferred in March.  Some of the Elders could really use a mom hug once in awhile, but we can't do that.  So John hugs the Elders and I hug the Sisters.  Mission life is the greatest!

February 3, 2019

Weather update first - we have had howling winds and rain the past three days so most of the snow is gone.  There is standing water everywhere so now we'll probably hear about flooding.  Not to worry though, more snow is predicted for tomorrow.

Elders Christiansen and Thygerson spent Tuesday night with us so we could all get up at 4:30 am Wednesday morning and drive to Banja Luka for Zone Conference.  I probably don't need to remind you that ZC is one of my least favorite missionary activities, especially when we have to drive to another city.  The drive is normally 4 hours but we discovered that a new section of road has been opened.  Driving that section at 130 km rather than 80 saved us 20-25 minutes drive time.  We usually return the same day but we scheduled appointments in Banja Luka Thursday morning.  The Elders and Zone Leaders returned to Sarajevo on the train and we stayed the night.  We had dinner with President and Sister Melonakos at the hotel.  We rarely have any one-on-one time with them so it was nice.

As part of ZC we were given some play dough and asked to sculpt something that portrayed our mission or what we thought our mission should be.

Play dough sculptures at Zone Conference

There were some interesting thoughts and explanations.  John made the rhino looking cow in the upper right corner.  It was taller and more cow-like but he knocked it onto the floor and the poor cow's legs shortened an inch in the fall.  Mine is the basket in front of the cow.  It has gifts in it of self-reliance, service and sustainability (the LDS Charities project goals).  I also added the gifts of hope and opportunity.

Thursday morning we visited the women's shelter in Banja Luka.  They have several things they would like help with, so we told them to send everything and we will see what we can do with the budget we have.  We then visited Nova Generacija, the children's daycare center.  We have completed our project to install a new pellet stove to heat their building.  They have been using an old wood stove that wasn't very functional and the cost of wood was getting too expensive.  We provided a new stove and another partner contributed a two-year supply of pellets.

New pellet stove at daycare center

The new unit takes a lot of space in their kitchen area but they are loving how well it works and keeps them comfortable.  A two-year supply of pellets also takes a lot of space - their storeroom is full, the front porch is full and even under the stairs is stacked with bags.

Pellet bags stored under the stair way

We brought the Sisters back home with us Thursday afternoon.  One of the tunnels is under construction and we waited 20 minutes to get through.  The Sisters counted 140 vehicles waiting on the other side.  Our wait going was only 3 minutes so our timing has been good.  We have heard of waits up to 45-minutes.

I forgot to mention that the women's shelter has a therapy workshop for the women, where they can make items to sell.  They always want to give us a trinket to show their appreciation.  This time it was a small ship; quite well made and nicely painted and decorated.

Decorative ship from the women's shelter

One of our good partners and now good friends as well is the NGO Merhamet.  They are a global humanitarian organization that does much good around the world.  We have partnered with them on some refugee projects.  Whenever we visit their offices or a project site, they take many pictures of us.  We weren't sure why, but when we visited last week, they shared their summer bulletin with us.  There was a one page article about what we were doing together.

Past Merhamet president, us and Sidik, the Merhamet Secretary-General

They took several pictures while we were in the office on Monday and someone mentioned the web site so when we returned home, I pulled up the site and there we were!  Less than six hours later, we're making headlines.  I'm having trouble pulling their website or would give you the link.  Maybe next week.  My laptop automatically translate into English and this article is proof that not everything translates well.  We donated 1,000 foil emergency blankets and an electric commercial cooking pot/unit so they can produce more food to help feed the refugees.  The English version stated that we donated 1,000 muffins, a cake and cigarette holder.  If the Presiding Bishopric learns how we are spending LDS Charities' money, we may be sent home early.