S&I Training in Milano, Italy, Zagreb Baptism, & Pula visit

I forgot to mention that at our training we met Brother Erik Psota from the Neverlands. As we visited we found out that his wife and Peggy Smith, from Camarillo, were missionary companions, and 15 years ago Hannah came and stayed with them for a summer. Small world.

It doesn't stop there. We also met at the same training Sister Simons, also from Camarillo 4th Ward. Bishop Malan was her Bishop. She is doing a great job in Milano, Italy.

Sunday we visited Pula, Croatia and met this wonderful family, Natasa and Miro Bubalo and their grandchildren.

Paul was giving Alan and Anja some CTR items from his collection

We returned from our S&I training in Italy Friday night and drove to Zagreb on Saturday for a baptism. From there we went on to Rijeka where we spent the night with Elder & Sister Manley and then drove to Pula for Church Sunday morning. Coming back we stopped again in Rijeka and picked up luggage for Sisters Hillem and FitzSimmons who were going home and one being transferred to Zagreb. We were about as loaded as we could be. In Zagreb we decided to go see the lights in the square and watched these young people perform. We then dropped off the luggage at the Sisters apartment and went to the Elders apartment where we picked up more luggage of two more Elders who were heading home on Tuesday. It saves them from having to lug it all on the train to Ljubljana the next day.

The baptism was for Tonija Perloga the YSA next to Paul. Elder Nitter, Anderson, & Thompson on the other side. Tonija was coming to the church for French class and the Sisters taught him.

We spent several days being trained in Milano, Italy by the Area Coordinator and the country coordinators. On our way home we came across this sign and had to have a picture. Ravenna, Paul's hometown in Ohio. It was about a 5 1/2 hr. drive from Ljubljana.

These are the men who trained us when we first arrived in the mission. Bro. Jensen from Germany and Bro. Lotito from Italy. We will continue to work with Bro. Lotito who is now over our three countries.

Paul & Elder Millington, one of our Zone Leaders in Ljubljana who went home (NV) on Tuesday.

One evening during our training we went downtown to see the Duomo, very beautiful.

One night after dinner we went to a great ice cream parlor, some of the best ice cream in the world.

This is a Roman coliseum in Verona, Italy, one of the three largest. We have now seen two, Pula, Croatia also has one.

This is the entrance to the castle in Milano.

The night we went to see the Duomo we found our first Burger King. We found our whole group inside eating.

Paul, Brother Posta from the Netherlands and Bro. Fingerle from Germany and Area Coordinator. Wonderful men with strong testimonies and the faith and vision to help the prophecies come to past that have been given for these countries.

The whole group of S&I Coordinators

Elder & Sister Lewis serving in Slovenia/Croatia/Serbia/Bosnia

Elder & Sister Telford serving in Moldova and from Sacramento, CA area

Elder & Sister Irwin serving in the Czech Republic and from England

Elder & Sister Ireland serving in Poland and from Australia, they are hosting the YSA conference this coming summer

Elder & Sister Bell serving in Greece

Elder & Sister Ahlborn serving in Albania and from Layton, UT. They had just arrived from the MTC on their way to their assignment.

Serbia, Bosnia Visit & Zagreb Humanitarian Closing

The end of November we drove to Beograd to meet with Bro. Marin Iachimov, our S&I coordinator from Romania. We visited two Branches, observed a seminary and institute class taught by Bro. Vasica, and did some teacher training in Beograd. After institute they had a Branch activity and we watched the "Joseph" movie. They had four investigators to institute that evening and two ysa. Below is Paul, one of the investigators and Elder Knight.

Lidija, Irene, and Katarina (two yw and their leader) at the Branch activity

We found the fortress in Beograd. It was quite impressive. Walking on all those cobblestones is not an easy matter and notice my new boots $16 American dollars in Croatia.

Here's a view of the mote that goes around the fortress. This pictures is for Tyler, Josh, Robbie and Brayden.

Sunday after church we left Beograd and drove to Bosnia to spend the evening with the Rowe family in Banya Luka. It was the 1st of December and after a wonderful dinner we watched a Christmas movie with the family. We headed out early the next morning (we didn't know what the border would look like or how long it would take us to get over, as it turned out we were the only car there) for Zagreb to attend a humanitarian.

At the closing we met Elder & Sister Colton, from South Jordan, Utah and the RiverRidge 9th Ward, our ward in Utah. Nothing like coming half way around the world and running into each other. The Coltons serve out of Germany and are the Europe Area Coordinators for Humanitarian projects. It was great to meet up with them. They were on a tour of their countries; they had been in the mission field for a week and were holding up quite well.

Elder Schmoe, humanitarian missionary out of Karlovac, Croatia, & Paul

We got back into Ljubljana in time for our District Meeting with Elder Duke our District Leader. He had some wonderful family news, his parents are going to the temple. He is a terrific leader and is from Ogden, UT.

Thursday night we met with Rebekah, our YSA President, to plan our New Year's Eve party. We drove her home afterwards and decided to stop at the Ljubljana square to see the Christmas lights. It was very beautiful.

For Thanksgiving we, our District, met at Elder & Sister Lindorf''s home for Thanksgiving dinner. Each companionship was assigned to bring something and it was delicious. These are our kitchen helpers, Sister Justus, Sister Lindorf, Sister Knudsen and Emillie Toone.

Some of our Elders and Sisters ready for lunch and then back to work. We have so many things to be thankful for and it is wonderful to have a time to stop and really contemplate the goodness of God.

Merry Christmas

(Click Image to Enlarge)

Happy Thanksgiving

Today we celebrate "Thanksgiving" and we wanted to take this time to express our gratitude and thankfulness for your great service in God's kingdom. Words cannot express the love and gratitude we have for your fine work. You touch so many lives, building their testimonies, and inviting them to come unto the Savior. There is no greater calling in the Church than to be of service to God's children. We know the Savior is pleased with your efforts.

It has been a great blessing for us to know and love each of you. What great talents you each possess. We thank you again for all you do. We assure you that our testimony of Jesus Christ continues to grow each day.

Love

Elder & Sister Lewis

Zadar Baptism, Senior Conference & Zone Conference

We are grateful to serving here in the Slovenia/Croatia Mission. We are lead and taught by President and Sister David Hill from Sacramento, CA area. They are the best. We learn so much from them. It's a wonderful time to be thankful for so many things but first on our list is our Savior Jesus Christ and His atonement. We share our testimony with you that He has restored His church again upon the earth. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we have the authority and all the ordinances necessary for each of us to return to Him as a family. We feel so blessed to be able to share this message with His children.

These are some of our missionaries in Croatia. Elder Kempe, from Pocatello, new Elder and Sarah, my niece, works with his sister. Elder Giberson, going home in 3 weeks, Elder Matson, came out with us and is from Ogden, Elder Jones, new Elder from CA, Sister Carter and Sister Sammann.

Sister Carter, Sister Sammann, Sanja (mother) and Branka our new member. Her mother joined the church in August. They are a wonderful family and Branka's husband attended her baptism and confirmation on Sunday.

Branka and her husband Zeyko

The Elders taking down the font.

We had Sister Astle and Sister Peacock to lunch to celebrate Sister Peacock's birthday. They serve in Ljubljana and are in our District.

Last week we had a Senior Couples Conference in Ljubljana. There were eight couples counting President & Sister Hill. Elder & Sister Densley from Serbia were not able to make it and we missed them. Many of our group had never met them. We were taught by President & Sister Hill. Then we each shared one of our most spiritual experiences so far here in the mission. Then each couple presented what their stewardship was and how they were accomplishing it. We did a power point using our pictures to explain how we serve with the seminary and institute teachers and the YSA in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia. Thursday evening we went to an Italian dinner and had a wonderful meal. We had the privilege of housing the Thompsons from Zagreb and the Willfords from Varazdin. It was like a big slumber party but we had to get up early the next day to continue our conference.

For some reason, no one thought of it, we did not get a good group picture. Do not know what we were thinking. Friday afternoon before some of them headed home we went to the Chinese restaurant for lunch. This is one of our favorite places. Everyone orders and we all share. Delicious food.

This week we had Zone Conference on Tuesday. These two Elders are our Zone Leaders, Elder Millington and Elder Jones. You will not find many better than them. They are so grounded in the gospel and missionary work and had such great suggestions for the missionaries on teaching. We are so blessed to have them.

These are some of our missionaries as we are gathering together after lunch. Sisters Peacock & Astle sang a beautiful Christmas hymn for us.

These are two of our new missionaries in Zadar, Croatia. Again Elder Kempe is from Pocatello, ID

Sisters Ripley and Knudsen decided we needed pumpkin pie for dessert at zone conference so the senior sisters got to bake some pumpkin pie. Elder Millington likes a little whipping cream with his.

It has been a wonderful couple of weeks with so many spiritual experiences. We are so grateful to be here and to have this opportunity. We love and miss each of you. We encourage you to open your mouth and share the gospel with someone. What we have is too precious to keep just to ourselves. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and we send our love.

Rijeka, Zagreb District Conference, & Novi Sad

What a great week this has been. The Lord continues to bless the wonderful missionaries of Slovenia/Croatia/Serbia mission. We feel it such a privilege to serve here with these wonderful people. We are lead by President & Sister Hill, awesome examples of living the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are at the Zagreb District Conference.

On P-day we went to the local Merkator Mall where they were advertising Milke chocolate. They had the purple cow and everything.

This week we visited Rijeka. Elder & Sister Manley are always so kind to let us stay with them. They took us to Center, which we had driven by many times but didn't have a clue it was there.

We had district lunch with the Elders and Sisters from Rijeka. We had a delicious Italian meal.

Sister Manley, Hillam, FitzSimmons, Elders Warren Rhodes, Robinson, Lewis, Manley.

We attended Institute Thursday evening. Friday we went to District Lunch, visited with Dragana and Ivan Haci, and presented a teacher training at activity that night at the Church. We taught "How to Study the Scriptures" and then we had the great dessert I learned from the Serbian sisters. Saturday morning we drove to Zagreb and brought the Haci family with us for Croatia District Conference.

It was fun to be with our YSA friends again. We went to the Czech conference with them. Here is Elder Lewis with Marko M and Marko B. Both new converts to the Church.

The YSA's from Croatia met early at 11 for some activities, lunch and a planning meeting. They had people from all the Branches. It was so fun to be together again.

Some were upstairs in the kitchen helping Sister Sambunyak prepare an evening meal and the meal for after Sunday conference for the whole district. Sister Sambunyak is an amazing woman who never stops serving. She is a great example to all of us. Today she has AnaMarija, and Sisters Whitaker and Woodbury helping her. You can see how happy they are.

We stayed and enjoyed the RS and Priesthood Leadership meetings at 3:30 and then the adult meeting at 6pm. Excellent meetings and it was wonderful to see many of our new converts give talks. Also Ivana who is leaving for the Burmingham, England mission this month and on Sunday KiKi, our recently returned missionary from England. There is great strength here.

We left after that meeting and drove to Sremska, Serbia where we spent the night. Got up in the morning and drove to Novi Sad, Serbia about an hour away. We some some beautiful scenery on the way. It is up through the mountains and then they have a beautiful river and a fortress on the banks of the river. Quite an impressive structure.

This is part of the moat around the fortress.

Elder Lewis having a snack of his favorite potato chips here.

We found the Novi Sad chapel and it is a beautiful place.

Another view of the city and fortress

Sister Lewis outside the front doors

This is the chapel. Elder Lewis and I spoke in Sacrament Meeting. Elder Chamberlain translated for me and Elder Jasper translated for Elder Lewis and an investigator translated for both of us during Sunday School.

Elder Christiansen, Branko, Elder Jasper, Brother & Sister Sava and Marija Markovič, Elder Lewis, Brother Jovan and Brother Zoravko. Wonderful, faithful members with stories to tell. We had such a great Sabbath with them.

We leave you with a message we received from President Hill at District Conference, we as leaders as taught in the missionary handbook are to lift, encourage, inspire and bless others. Go and do likewise.