Fri 9/29/06 5:24 AM

It did not go through so I had MaraDee type it. Hope it works on the third try. Love Dad


Dear Family,

I will try this again. Apparently Yahoo was doing things last night as I tried to send the long novel that I typed. It would not let me send it or save it as a draft. I really loose the spirit when that happens. Oh well.

Since my last email we sent home missionaries on the 4th and 5th of September. We held interviews and a special testimony meeting on the 4th and then a dinner. On the 5th we took them to the airport. Then we received new missionaries also on the 5th Sept 2006. All of the new ones were for Slovenia. Two Elders and one Sister. They sure come with better language skills and more Preach My Gospel understanding than they used to. We did orientation on the 6th after they got a night sleep. Fed them lunch and then they are off to their assigned area. On the 6th I also met with President Juhart, the District President for Slovenia. I did some training as he has only been in since May 2006. Then on Friday, the 8th I did interviews of missionaries in Croatia. I finished up with those interviews on the 9th in the morning and then we started with District Conference. It was presided over by Elder Paul who was the First Counselor in the Area Presidency. He is a Seventy and he was just called to be the new Area President in Eastern Europe Area. He will be moving to Moscow. We will miss him. He was the Mission President in Eastern Germany before communism collapsed. Imagine having that assignment. He and his wife Olga are Germans. She really adopted Roylene when we were in the MTC. They became instant friends.

The conference went well. During the main session the Second Counselor in the District Presidency told a story of a man who joined the army in 1991 in Croatia. This man was told with others to save their last bullet in case they were captured by the Bosnian army. Sure enough he was captured in Oct 1991 and moved to a prison camp inside Bosnia. They were starved and beaten. He remembered that Christ also fasted for forty days and that he was beaten and he was given vinegar instead of water when he thirst on the cross. Those thoughts of Christ got the man through it. Then the prisoners were being executed one at a time. When the guard told him to get down on his knees and beg for his life, the man responded he would only beg to God. The guard put a pistol to the man’s head and pulled the trigger but the gun misfired. He asked for another gun and a commanding officer said, “we will do it tomorrow.” So the man and others knew they had to escape that night or be shot the next day. They escaped and in the dark ran. As they came to the river they decided to wait until morning as it was too cold. It is now in December so he was a prisoner for two months. When they awoke at daylight, they discovered that they had crossed a minefield the night before. It was a miracle that no one stepped on a mine or that the mines did not go off. They crossed the river and the man spent 10 days in the hospital. He then said that he was the man in the story. Also, Elder Paul told a story of a Minister that got a testimony but never joined the church and then he died. Also a story of a member that was excommunicated and never came back and he died. A long time investigator young lady came to me after the conference. She has been putting off baptism for 6 years. I talked with her and answered some questions and encouraged her to not wait any longer, as you never know what might happen. She called the sister missionaries two days later with a baptismal date.
On 11 Sept, we went with the senior missionaries to Croatia where there are waterfalls and lakes. It was beautiful. Then I did interviews on 13-15 with Slovene missionaries. Then on the 17th we reorganized the branch presidency in Varazdin, Croatia. I spoke in sacrament meeting and was prompted to encourage the members to reactivate someone and to seek one person each to be taught the gospel and then promised them we could apply to buy land to build a chapel there next year if they did it. Then we went on a mission tour with Elder and Sister Wondra accompanying us. He is the Second Counselor in the Area Presidency. We did Zone Conferences and also a fireside in Ljubljana and Beograd. We also attended church in Serbia in Sremska Mitrovica. I also met with Elder Wondra and President Savic with a government official about the Church’s application to be officially recognized and about missionary visas. It was a long week and tiring but great. I am amazed again at Roylene’s ability to speak by the spirit. She gave beautiful talks at both firesides and in zone conferences. You should all be proud of her. Well, I hope this goes through, as I don’t want to redo it again. Love to all of you, Dad