Elder & Sister Robinson from Kamas, Utah, arrived on Wednesday morning. They will be trained this week by Elder & Sister Lindorf who are going home to Oregon today, Aug 3.
This was a busy week for our young people. First of all nine YM/YW gathered together under Sister Justus and headed for Stuttgart, Germany for their first EFY. Two sisters, Lidia & Katarina flew direct from Beograd and two, Jakob and Patricija, drove in from Slovenia with us, and we picked up three more youth, Daniel, Rafiela, and Victoria from Croatia and two American brothers from Bosnia met up in Zagreb and flew out for the week.
Patricija and Sister Hill
The Assistants, Elder Dixon and Elder Fowler, came over to help us put the back seat into the "box" so we could get started.
In Zagreb we picked up the Plentaj sisters and their Mom and Daniel and went to the InterSpar for something to eat before taking them to the Elders and Sisters apartments where they were spending the night.
At 8 pm we met Neal and Boyd from Bosnia at the Church. The Zone leaders took the boys home with them for evening studies and planning.
Sunday morning we picked up the boys luggage. Don't they clean up well? We are so proud of each of them and their courage and committment to God. They are going to make great missionaries. The Church is only a block away so they walked and we went to pick up the girls for Church.
They were ready and waiting. They had a wonderful night with the Sister Missionaries and had a little fireside with Sister Justus.
The Lindorfs and Robinsons on their way to the mission home for their first day on the job.
After getting the YM/YW off on their trip we picked up the YSAs in Zagreb and took them back to Ljubljana where the first van loaded and took off for the Poland YSA Conference. They went early because four of our YSAs were going to be filmed for "Mormon Messages" They will be on the country website by the end of August. We are so excited for them. It was quite a process. First they were approved by their Priesthood leadership. After the names were submitted then they had to write a 100-150 word testimony about the gospel in their own language and in English. Actually they had to do two separate ones. Then they had to rewrite one or two times. After getting to Poland it took about 1 1/2 hours for each of them to be filmed.
On Tuesday we joined the rest of our group in a van had headed for Poland on Tuesday morning. It was about a nine hour drive from Ljubljana.
The week was filled with fun and spiritual activities. Each morning at 7:30 there was a devotional. Breakfast at 8. After breakfast there were sport activities, games, service project. Lunch and then institute and workshops in the afternoons. Dinner followed by a fireside and dance. This is some of our Croatian group. Marko, Toni and Aleksander.
Elder & Sister Haywood from Brigham City. They serve with us in S&I in Brno, Czech Republic.
Elder & Sister Densley, humanitarian missionaries in Serbia, brought our YSAs from that area. They have been so great to work with these young people as well as their main responsibility. Here they are finishing up some paper work for their projects. They go home in September. Sister Densley taught we to make crochet bookmarks and cut my hair everytime we were together. They are from Santa Clara, Utah.
This is the facility where we stayed. It was in a beautiful little town called Szczyrk, Poland, in the southern tip. It took some of the Polish YSAs longer to get there than it did us. Poland is huge about 14 hours from one end to another. This was an olympic training village and was nestled in the mountains. Beautiful place. They treated us so well.
Andera Basten from Serbia, one of our group, sang at the fireside. She has a beautiful operetic voice and is in her last year of music study at the university. We were so happy to have her with us. They also had a choir which practiced and sang at a couple of the firesides.
These are some of our Croatian YSAs. Tihana, Silvije and Marko all from Zagreb and Varazdin area.
Marin Iachimov, our S&I coordinator from Romania, brought his family with him, Daniela his wife and their two children. They are the most wonderful example of gospel living. We were so happy to have them with us.
The day of the service project we were prepared for rain. It had rained all week. Sister Ireland, the couple in charge of the conference and serving in Warsaw are from Austrailia. They are also S&I and we have been with them several times. They and their committee of YSAs did a fantastic job. They are in for a well needed rest. Anyway, Thursday morning it was raining when we got up but after breakfast it stopped and as we got ready to leave on the buses the sun started to shine and we had a beautiful day. We had about six groups going up the ski lifts and building bird houses at the top and then gathering trash off the trails on the way down. It was a gorgeous day, not too hot not too rainy and everyone had a great time. You see our "Helping Hands" vests in Polish.
Our group missed out on the ski lift ride. We were on the opposite mountain but we had a great time anyway. Most of our group were from the Czech Republic and we had an opportunity to get to know them and their stories as to how they found and joined the church. Almost every one of them are the only member in their family. They have to be so incredibly strong and they are.
Elder Lewis and I coming back on the bus. It was about a four hour project.
They fed us really well. Toni and Aleksander are eating breakfast. We had to laugh at Toni's plate. On the way home Tihana thought some of the guys did not get enough to eat. We all had a good laugh over that one. All the meals were very good.
On our path coming down the mountain we came across this beautiful lizzard. We had never seen one like this before. This is for my grandsons. Hope you find it in all these pictures.
A bus load coming back.
We had some fantastic firesides each evening. Wednesday night we heard from President Naughmann, Mission President, Hungary. He spoke on "Steps to Righteous Leadership". Thursday, President Irwin, Mission President, Czech Republic spoke on "The Rescue" and on Friday Elder Schutze, Area Sevenity who was with us all week, spoke on "Be a Pioneer for the Church in your own country". This is our Slovenian group, Elder & Sister Lewis, Ursa, Barbara, Uros, Monika, Samir, Borut, ???, Jure, Elvi and Tilen. The finest group of young people anywhere.
Each country had a banner and by the end of the week the crafts people decorated them for us.
Radmila is from Moldova. She was a great help to us. We were looking for a computer to use for our workshop. Ours did not have enough sound. She willingly helped us out. She's holding one of the bookmarks I learned to make. All the youth were so helpful and friendly.
Elder & Sister Schutze from the Area Seventy spent the week with us. He relates so well with these wonderful youth. He also grew up as the only youth in his branch and had to often stand alone for what was right.
Elder & Sister Moon serve in Poland and were in charge of the institute and workshops. The YSA committee chose and approved all the classes. We had several of our S&I coordinators and teachers here to teach. We also did a workshop on "Let your light shine in your Homeland".
This is our wonderful group from Serbia. Radislav, Petar, Elder & Sister Densley, Anderea and Ljubica. As I said, the Densleys have done a wonderful job with the youth in Serbia as well as their main responsibility as Humanitarian missionaries.
Friday night they had a dance awards night with emmys. This was a fun activity. Tihana received an emmy.
Monika and Jure had a great time every evening. In fact we have quite a few dancers in our group. Even those who didn't like to dance stayed and watched.
On the way home we went with the Croatian group and drove thru six countries on the way home: Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. We went to Varazdin and dropped off Marko and Tihana first.
We had the great opportunity to meet Tihana's family. Her grandmother taught her how to make the lace. She is our lace maker and makes this most beautiful lace in a way you can't believe.
After dropping off all the YSAs on Saturday night we drove back to Ljubljana and turned in the two vans. Went to sleep for a few hours and then picked up the "box" from the Assistants and drove back to Zagreb to go to Church in Zagreb and then to the airport to pick up our EYF group. Here they are coming off the plane.
They also had a terrific week with 450 other youth from around Germany. This was a great privilege for them to be invited and they just loved it. Sister Justus was their chaperone there and back. I think you are all familiar with EFY and they were encouraged to do five things: read every day, pray every day, always have a temple recommend current, serve a mission and be married in the temple. These are the great hopes for our countries. They will be courageous and strong.
Daniel from Zagreb and the Plentaj sisters from Zadar.
Neal & Boyd from Bosnia. There Dad works for the embassy there. Daniel, Jakob.
Monday evening the Branch in Ljubljana had a farewell party for the Haglund family. They have been here for three years working in the embassy. He has served as Branch President for the last year. They are returning to TN to complete a PhD program. Tara has been such a support and blessing to her family and the Branch. Her musical abilities are going to be missed. We wish them well and it has been a privilege to know them.
Pres. Majc is conducting the program. They had fun games for the children and great Slovenian food.
The Vidra family, whom we love.
Dora and Sister Justus
Some of the games. It looked like Duck Duck Goose to me.
Ivan and Roana Majc. Brother Majc helps all us missionaries with our visas. Without him we would not be here. He has a wonderful family. A 2nd generation family. They have five children. Their oldest son is our Branch President, and their daughter Barbara went with us to Poland.
Ivan, Urska and Brother Lotric
Elder & Sister Lindorf saying some goodbyes.
President and Sister Haglund & family
What a wonderful week for us. So filled with the spirit and meeting such great Saints from all over the world. Come join us. There is no better work.
