The busy month of October

The first day of October we were invited to join in a celebration for senior citizens at Dom Stari Elderly Care Center in Risan.  Many of the residents had been invited to take part with singing, poetry, story telling or anything they wanted to share.  It was an interesting experience for the two of us.

October 3 was a special day for the Podgorica Branch.  Dragoljuba Pejovica was baptized by Elder Harris and confirmed the next day by Elder Larsen.  Drago walks one hour to church and one hour home again every Sunday to attend meetings.

         

                                                                                The second week of October brought transfers, and we were blessed with two new elders from the MTC.  Elder Eddington (left) is from Cleveland, Ohio, and Elder Geertsen (right) is from Logan, Utah.  They have a lot of energy and many talents to share.

What a great bunch of missionaries in the Podgorica District - especially the two oldie goldies on the end!






On October 14 we were able to travel to Belgrade for a special zone conferenced with the Belgrade/Montenegro zone and the Bosnia zone combined.  Our special visitors were Elder and Sister Charles from London, England.  Elder Charles is a member of the Seventy.  We had wonderful, spiritual meetings as we were trained by both Elder and Sister Charles.

We were blessed during the month of October to have two projects approved and hope to have approval on a third project in the coming week.  This spot will soon be home to a small greenhouse for a center for adults with disabilities.  Some residents will learn how to grow vegetables and be able to provide fresh produce for the center.

Another project that we are excited about is helping with a learning center and toy library for young children of low income families.  We were impressed with this NGO "Parents" and their efforts to help families who struggle financially.  LDS Charities will be providing heating and air conditioning plus furniture for work areas for the children and teachers.

We were able to meet with the director of a clinic in Tivat with our special translator, Rada (on the right).  We hope to be able to help this clinic with some badly needed medical equipment.

One beautiful Saturday, we took a walk down by the River Moraca.   We visited one of the remaining parts of "old town" Podgorica.  This little bridge and some walls are about all that's left of the old town.  Podgorica was about destroyed during the bombings of WWII.

We recently had the privlidge of meeting Brother Nielsen, the Church Historian, and Elder Humala, of the Seventy and Sister Humala in Tivat, Montenegro.  We had been asked, along with Elder and Sister Dever, to deliver a mission vehicle for their use in touring Montengro and Bosnia.  We and the Devers then drove on to Sarajevo, Bosnia, to prepare for a meeting and luncheon to be held with investigators, members, missionaries and the General Authorities.

On our trip to Sarajevo, we were finally able to see signs of Autumn in the colored leaves.

While in Sarajevo, we were able to see the site where a tunnel was dug to help people escape during the war of 1998-99.  This is called "the tunnel of life".  The bullet holes in the walls tell quite the story.

The city of Sarajevo as seen from the top of a thirty-seven story building - amazing sight!

Another view of the city as seen from high above.  Many of the high rise buildings are apartments.

The leaves are turning colors in Sarajevo.  We about froze on our visit - it's definately colder than Podgorica.

On our return trip to Podgorica, we traveled from Sarajevo to Mostar.  As you can see, Bosnia also has many rugged mountains.

The famous Mostar Bridge! This bridge is famously know as "the diving bridge".  Men dive from the highest point into the river - of course, you are charged to watch this fete.

We had fun walking through the cobblestone streets of "old town" and looking at all the interesting shops and vendors.

We were so happy to finally arrive back at our apartment after six hours of driving about three hundred km.  We were here for the weekend, then we're off to Dubrovnik, Croatia for senior couple's conference.