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

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