Osijek, Bucharest Conference, Skocjanske jame, Farewells

The first farewell we have been involved in. We had four Elders, two Sisters, one Senior Sister and one couple leave the mission field. We gathered together at the Mission Home for a wonderful dinner prepared by Sister Hill and then had a great testimony meeting.

President & Sister Hill

Dinner line

The Willfords stayed with us Sunday and Monday night. Monday we had the day to go see some of Slovenia. The Willfords served in Varazdin, Croatia and had only been to Slovenia a couple of times. We finally got them up to Bled. A beautiful lake with a very small island on it and a large castle built on the top of a ledge. It was a fairly cloudy day but still beautiful. This is a really big tourist attraction in Slovenia.

We also drove south west to Skocjanske jame which is one of 7000 caves in Slovenia. This was a beautiful cave, we could not take pictures inside. It was very warm compared to our last cave. The first part was called the silent cave and then it goes into the murmuring cave where there is a river which flows through and under the cave.

Our guide and small group of seven

This is the viewpoint from above and across the gorge with Elder & Sister Willford

We traveled to Bucharest, Romania for a week of training and faculty meeting with the East Europe faculty of S&I. It was wonderful being with these men and missionary couples again. We receive so much good training to take back to our missions. Bucharest is a city of 3 million people. One of the beautiful buildings outside our hotel is the Peoples Palace. Elder Lewis and I were able to take a tour through 4% of it on our last day.

This is the East Europe Faculty for S&I

Brother Marin Iachimov and his family. He is our leader

Brother Donaldson came early to train the mission couples. This is in front of Bucharest's beautiful chapel.

Bucharest Chapel

Tuesday morning we were fortunate to be in the city for the commemoration of the 20 year anniversary of the dedication of Romania by Elder Nelson. The District met on the hill in the park where the prayer was offered. The District President had the dedicatory prayer read by four brethren, and then testimonies from four members. Elder & Sister Heywood had just arrived to the Czech Republic for their service. They have been in the country three weeks and were a little overwhelmed. It brought back memories for the rest of us. Elder Ireland is on the right.

This is a beautiful park

The gathering of the District

This is the Outreach center for the Bucharest Chapel. A very nice facility and also a nuclear bomb shelter required by the government.

Our arrival into Frankfurt, Germany where we changed planes.

We started this trip to Romania by driving to Osijek for a visit with their Branch. The weather was stormy and we received a call from Bro. Iachimov to not drive. We were already six hours from home and thought about flying out of Beograd (an hour away from us) but couldn't get a flight out. After Church we drove the Elders and Zoran out to visit a couple who live about 40 minutes away from the Church and do not get in often. Had a nice visit with them and then returned to Osijek where we headed back to Ljubljana. We arrived home about 9:30 pm. Got on line and purchased airline tickets with the help of Kory and Katie and took a flight out Monday morning at 7:55. It was a wonderful rewarding week. Coming back we missed our connecting flight in Munich and didn't get out until 8:45 that night.

Winter is still with us.

Sunday morning on our return to Ljubljana we took Sister Justus with us and went to Church in Maribor, about 1 1/2 hrs. east of us. Sister Justus gave a wonderful presentation on pioneers. We then returned to Ljubljana to prepare for the Willfords.

We leave our testimony that the Lord directs this great work. We are humbled to be a small part of sharing and strengthening His children. We can all do our part by having faith in Jesus Christ, repenting and being clean, letting the Holy Ghost be a part of our life every single day, and enduring happily to the end. What a great work, we are so blessed. We send our love and reminder to Choose the Right.

February Rijeka, Zadar, Varazdin, Ljubljana & Beograd

We were out preshopping for the outreach center here in Ljubljana. We have some startup funds so we were checking prices and trying to find items. At the Mercur they always have a great animal exhibit. Paul always wants his picture taken with them for the kids. So I hope you Grandchildren are checking this site out.

We had a busy weekend. We met Brother & Sister Lotito, our area S&I Coordinator from Italy, here in Ljubljana and did some teacher training with our institute teachers here. We have been busy today bringing the attendance sheets up-to-date for the end of the semester.

Elder Lewis and I went on to Beograd for training with their teachers. We have just one seminary and one institute class here and Bro. Vasica teaches both so we invite the Branch members to come also. Our hope is that they go home with some new teaching skills.

We ordered pizza for everyone and then had institute afterwards. Some of the Branch had gone ice skating. Sunday we attended Church and Elder & Sister Densley invited us to dinner with the Elders and Nikola, their translator. We had a great visit and got home that night about 9:30. It's just about a six hour drive.

The week before we visited Varazdin on Saturday and Sunday. The Willfords had borrowed the car for two weeks so they could get around to all the members before they leave their mission. We spoke in Church on Sunday. The Elders translated for us. This is their Sunday School class. Sister Teresa is teaching and has been a member for several years. Then we both drove a car back to Ljubljana.

One night we went with Sisters Knudsen and Ripley to dinner at Anton's restaurant. He started working about a month ago and hasn't had a day off so if anyone wants to see him we go have dinner. He is an excellent cook. Sister Knudsen wrote vhala on our dessert plate for him.

Three brothers from Salt Lake, Germany & Sweden came into Ljubljana for a Family History presentation. Elder Lewis picked them up at the airport and then we were able to go to the presentation in Zagreb on Saturday on our way back from Rijeka. It was really great. I think I can find 30 minutes a day to do indexing.

While we were in Zagreb we went to Center, I wanted to get a table runner, and we stopped at Tony's for a kabob. You can see how good it is.

Sister Thompson, Elder Lewis, Brother Walker and Brother Rockwood from Family History.

Every day we have our scripture study. Here Elder Lewis is studying alone. We have been assigned to read the Book of Mormon the month of January marking a new copy with all the references to Christ. It is an amazing experience. I recommend it to all of you.

In Rijeka we visited Institute and here is our teacher and her husband, Dragana and Ivan Haci. A great couple we love serving with. She does some translation for us in Serbian and Croatian when we need it.

Elder & Sister Manley are always so good to us. We stay with them when we come and always have a wonderful visit. He is Branch President in Rijeka and they are from Eden, Utah.

After Institute we had an activity. We played "Do You Love Your Neighbor". It was great fun and then Sister Manley had some baked cookies for us. Do you like my new scarf? Everyone wears scarves here. In the winter you use them to keep your neck warm and then they have beautiful silk ones. Sister Justus found a place where they make them and we went down and got one.

This Sunday, February 7 Kelly and Rob will have Brody blessed. We know it will be a wonderful family affair. Thank you for all of you who are supporting them. Kaylee just had her 11th birthday on January 31st and won this great bike at school for something they were invited to participate in. Kelly and Courtney will celebrate their birthdays on Thursday, February 4th, then Gage turns 3 on the 27th of February and Mallorie 8 on the 28th. It's a busy month. We love you and send our love. Be faithful and true to the covenants you have made. The goal is not worth giving up on, give it your very best. Keep reading and praying.

We are so proud of Mallorie, she just finished reading the Book of Mormon Children's Book. Great job. We are excited about your baptism on March 6.