Our journey through the month of June!

Mission transfers came the first week of June, and we found ourselves on the way to Sarajevo again to pick up our new elder.  This is a little farming village north of Niksic.

This tiny one-lane bridge spans the Tara River which is the border between Montenegro and Bosnia.  It's a good thing the traffic on this bridge isn't too heavy (both meanings) or there would be quite a traffic back-up.

   






This is a big fountain outside a mosk in Sarajavo's old town.  The major religion in Bosnia is Muslim.  Sarajevo is a huge city with many modern as well as old pre-war buildings.  We were even able to find a McDonald's there - not a choice we'd make in America, but something that's missed in Montenegro.

During the month of June, we were able to close a project that LDS Charities had at the University of Montenegro School of Dentistry.  Dr. Andelic, the director, is so thankful for the new sterilizer that was provided..

We were invited  by our "Give Us A Chance" friends to a display of their art projects in a local gallery.

On June 24th and 25th, we had a special two day zone conference at the mission home in Zagreb, Croatia.  This is the sharp looking missionaries in the Podgorica, Montenegro district - notice the awsome ties - and the odd one in the middle.  Sister Grant wanted a picture of Sister Taylor with her "boys".

President Grant gave us the option to fly from Montenegro to Slovenia, then drive to Zagreb for the conference.  We jumped at the chance to see this beautiful country!  This church is on an island in the middle of Lake Bled, a popular place for tourists from around the world.









Another big tourist attraction is Bled Castle which sets high on the rock above the Lake.

                                         The main gate and cobblestone walkway into the castle.

                                                                                                   



                 These ancient elk horns and bones and the suit of armor were on display in the castle.

           Many well-maintained hotels, hostles, villas, shops, cafes and homes surrounded Lake Bled.

World famous "Bled Cake" (made only in Bled).  It was a really delicious treat containing pudding, whipped cream, a very flaky pastry top and bottom, and a dusting of powdered sugar.  Of course, it contained no calories!

The border between Austia and Slovenia - unfortunately this is as close as we could get.  We were unable to capture pictures of the Alps because of the pouring rain and low hanging clouds.

                                A beautiful old rock bridge and Inn by the outlet to Lake Bahinjsko.





A display being made to show how hay is stored in Slovenia.  After the hay is cut, it is laid over the cross beams to dry.  What a time consuming process!










This is an actual hay shed with the left over hay from last year.  These are seen throughout the countryside.  We also saw large round bales of hay in big white plastic bags.

It was fun to drive through the country roads in Slovenia and see the well-kept homes.  Many had flowers hanging from pots on porches and windows.





Ljubljana Castle sitting on a hill above the "old town".











Cobblestone streets in "old town" Ljubljana.











Dragon Bridge over the Sava River.  If you look closely, there are four bronze dragons on the four corner posts.











All along this bridge rail are padlocks called "love locks".  When a couple becomes engaged, they put these locks on the rail and throw the key into the river.

This huge green market by the river, sold many yummy looking fruits and veggies.  The watermellon
was delicious!

One of the streets in "old town".  The old buildings and churches were interesting to see.

         The famous Triple Bridge in Ljubljana.  These boats took tourists up and down the Sava River.





We spent our anniversary night at an awesome bed and breakfast which was newly remodeled from an old clothing mill.  This was in the breakfast area.











The entire room was made from rock walls and old red brick.  It was beautiful!






We feel very fortunate that we were able to visit this beautiful country on our forty-fourth wedding anniversary.  We were also grateful to be able to spend two days in the mission home with President and Sister Grant, Elder and Sister Morgan, Elder and Sister Johnson and about twenty awesome young missionaries.

May in Montenegro

We have finally put our jackets away, so we hope they will not have to come out again until December. So far spring in Montenegro has kept us guessing what the day will bring.  Some days are very hot, some have been pouring rain, some are cool and windy and some are warm and windy.  Some days the wind almost blows us over, especially the "canyon wind" created by our apartment building and surrounding buildings.  At least it's beautiful and green with many trees still in blossom.



The first week of May, we were able to meet with a wonderful group called "Give Us A Chance" that we have been working with.  These young adults with special needs, some of their parents and other volunteers meet three times a week for activities and educational training.  We enjoy meeting with them and laughing and "talking" (through a translator).  They found out that we like chocolate, so they treated us to a yummy chocolate cake.



                                                                                                                                             






During the month, we had a "Branch Activity".  We played games and, of course, ate goodies.  We had five investigators, one member, and six missionaries in attendance.

We were able to take a trip to Bar on the Adriatic coast and help UNHCR distribute some hygiene kits to Roma refugee children.  It was such a beautiful sunny day, we had to walk down to the sea and stick our fingers in the water.  On our way back to Podgorica, we saw this big sailboat - wish it had it's sails out.

On May 13 - 15 we were able to attend Senior Couple's Conference in Belgrade, Serbia.  It was fun to get acquainted with couples from our mission and spend time with President and Sister Grant (and their daughter visiting from Utah).  We had some wonderfully spiritual meetings, some good laughs, some interesting food, and a bus and walking tour of Belgrade.  This picture was taken at the old fortress by the Danube River where the country was dedicated to missionary work in 2003 by Elder Holland.  It was a very impressive place.  A member (the fellow kneeling on the left) was at the dedication and told us what a spiritual experience it was.

Who is that old gray-haired couple on the bus?  It was fun to take this double deaker bus tour and be sitting out in the fresh air.  Belgrade is an interesting city with many, many beautiful old buildings.    The picture on the right is the Moscow Hotel.  It is quite an impressive building.  It's very old, but very well
maintained.  We hear that  many famous people have stayed
here through the years.








                                                                                       

 This beautiful old home was in the prestigious area of Belgrade.

This is the Presidential Palace.  Notice the important dignitaries coming down the red carpet.  The guards were very impressive to watch - they didn't even bat an eyelid.  Thankfully, they are changed every half hour.  It was fun to see the ceremony that went with the change.  We just wanted to get a picture of the guards, but were invited by an official to stand on the steps so that he could take our picture.







The war in Belgrade has been over for many years, but there are still reminders.  They have kept these two buildings as "reminders" of what NATO did to their country.








This is a cafe on a fun street that we found - notice all the flowers everywhere.  The walkway between the shops and cafes was made from river rocks and was very hard to walk on, but we really enjoyed the sights and the atmosphere.






Some of the cafes had small groups of musicians walking around and playing their instruments.  We were still full from lunch at KFC (yum for both of us after Serbian food for two days), or we would have eaten at one of these beautiful cafes.







After couple's conference, we stayed Friday night at the hotel and attended our zone conference on Saturday at the church in Belgrade.  It's great to attend this conference and feel the energy of the young Elders and Sisters as they talk about their missionary work.  We six missionaries returned to Podgorica late Saturday with President and Sister Grant and their daughter.  The AP's drove to Podgorica to transport a baptismal font to our chapel.  We all had dinner later that night with our wonderful translator couple, Rada and Srdjan.

On Sunday morning, May 17, we had Branch Conference.  We had seventeen in attendance - a record for the Podgorica Branch.  Not everyone stayed for Sunday School, lunch or pictures.

On Monday afternoon, May 18, we met Elder and Sister Cullimore and Elder and Sister Canova at the airport.  They are the Church wheelchair specialists from Salt Lake.  The Cullimores have been over this program for nine years and now passing some of the countries they work with, including Montenegro and Albania over to the Canovas.  After a get acquainted dinner on Monday evening, we spent Tuesday in planning and program reviews before meeting with the Red Cross who is our partner in Montenegro for the wheelchair distribution.  Wednesday we did wheelchair recipient visits with Canovas and had some very touching experiences.  Wednesday evening Elder and Sister Orton (from Preston) serving in Albania came to take the couples to Albania for meetings.

May 21 was Independence Day on Montenegro.  Podgorica celebrated by putting these flags up along the main street.  That was the extent of their celebration  Most people were just happy to have two days off.

Happy Spring!

The last few days of March and the first week of April were transfer days for the Adriatic North Mission.

Usually the transfers don't involve us, but we were busy this time with three trips to the airport - one to take Elders to different assignments and two to bring new Elders here to Podgorica.  The four new Elders in Podgorica - Elder Hixon, Elder Uhlig, Elder Trotter and Elder Bennett.

We were also asked by President Grant to deliver one of our Elders to Sarajevo, Bosnia, and his new assignment.  We were excited for the opportunity, but a little nervous about exploring new country.  As you can see by the road behind us, driving anywhere in Montenegro is a challenge.  We actually counted eighty-three tunnels on this trip.  They are a little scary with dripping water from the top and rocks rolling onto the road.  As we entered Bosnia, the road was more like a trail, with hardly room to pass another car.  The drive back to Podgorica from Sarajevo was not so fun.  It rained in the lower areas, but we drove into snow in the top of the mountains.  We were very thankful to arrive safely back in Podgorica.

Downtown Sarajevo - interesting city with new, modern buildings and many old buildings that still show signs of war.

Old narrow streets in Sarajevo.  They are barely wide enough for a car to pass through.

Since arriving in Montenegro, we have been involved in two different hygiene kit projects.  Our second project was for kits to be provided to refugee children throughout Montenegro.  The kits contained shampoo, toothbruses, toothpaste, hand soad, a towel, a brush and comb, nail clippers, crayons and a coloring book which showed good hygiene practices.

Elder and Sister Taylor with their great group of hygiene kits helpers - a little tired, but happy to have been part of a great service project.  Our wonderful team consisted of six missionaries and two investigators.  What a good way to spend a Saturday!

We have been very busy during the month with meetings and visits and writing projects.  We have traveled from one end of Montenegro to the other.  During our trip to Pljevlja, we crossed the Tara Bridge which is 163 meters high and is a very famous bridge in Europe.  It spans the deep gorge of the Tara River.

Because of several meetings that we had scheduled for our visit to Pljevlja, we spent the night.  We could see this view of a shepherd with his sheep from our hotel window.

While in Pljevlja, we helped the Red Cross deliver our hygiene kits to a group of Roma children.  Our translator, Jovan, loved being with the children as much as we did.

On our return trip to Podgorica, we passed this beautiful little village by a crystal, clear river.  In the background on the hill is a step ditch bringing water down the mountain.

We visited the Municipality of Berane, where we helped UNHCR distribute more of our hygiene kits to a camp of Roma.

The children at the camp in Berane.  They loved having their pictures taken.  It's amazing how children are the same wherever they live, no matter their circumstances. They love to have fun and laugh and have someone notice them.

When we arrived in Podgorica, these rocky mountains were bare and gray.  Now they have green bushes and trees growing around and on them. What a difference it makes!

One of Montenegro's fun roads to drive on.  We're still trying to figure out how plants and trees can grow out of solid rock.

This is our view every time we cross the Moraca River going and coming from church, doing business on the other side of the river, or just out for our walk.

Our "garden" on the balcony.  It's not quite the same as the big veggie and flower gardens at home, but it's the best that we can do in limited space.  It's amazing how well plants grow in this climate.  We will enjoy this through the summer and into the fall.  It helps us to feel like we're not in the middle of a big city.