Thu 6/07/07 6:48 AM

Dear Family,
It has been since the 19th of May since I last sent an update. We have made another round of Zone Conferences since then and I have spoken in church in Ljubljana Branch on the 20th of May and in the Karlovac Branch on the 27th May. I spoke in Ljubljana about Happiness Comes From Living The Gospel. We have some Sister members that are on the way to apostacy. I don't think that they will repent anytime soon. I am afraid that they will suffer alot before they are humbled and turn their lives around. I always tell the missionaries that we are living the Book of Mormon here and this is just another example. I spoke about doing temple work in Karlovac on the 27th May. Afterwards I met with the Branch President and a missionary did the transalation for me. The Branch President does not speak English and I don't speak Croatian. I tried to help him see what specific members needed to do to get to the temple either for the first time or return to the temple and which ones don't have a recommend. On the 1st of June 2007 I met with the President of Croatia. That was quite an experience. Elder Hafen flew in for the meeting and we had the former District President and the current District President and a Sister Member with us. The purpose was to start the process of getting a better agreement with the country of Croatia even to the extent that Branch Presidents could perform civil marriages and have that recognized by the country. Elder Hafen also extended an invitation to have him come to BYU and to also meet the Prophet. I hope he accepts. He will be in the US in September to attend the United Nations. We had to make a quick trip to Zagreb on tuesday this week as I received a mission call for a young member Kristian Mraz in Zagreb. So I made appointment to meet with him and some of the missionaries that wanted to see where he was called to. He is going to London England South Mission in August. I also met with the Zagreb Branch President and with my First Counselor of the Mission and also with the District President and the Branch President together. Some of the members are not supporting the District President and we are trying to resolve that. Last night I met with the Branch President Bogdan Kralj of Ljubljana and a young Elder of his branch so I could train them both on filling out papers for the young man to go on a mission. He is Davor Majc and he is a second generation member here in Slovenia. When he receives his call that will be the fourth fulltime missionary from this mission. We are working with four others who we hope to have papers in on this year. One is from Serbia. That will be a first for sometime. I also received approval from Elder Hafen while he was in Zagreb Croatia to open a new city in Serbia called Subotica for fulltime missionary work. It is in the area now that is part of the Novi Sad Branch boundaries. It is about one hour by car away toward the Hungarian boarder. We have had two baptisms from this city this month and have two more scheduled. In the Novi Sad Branch we could reach a total of ten baptisms for the month of June. That is unheard of in this mission. I have given permission to a senior couple to sign a contract for renting space to hold church in Subotica. It will function at first as a group that is part of the Novi Sad Branch. But I hope we can organize a full Branch there this year. It is possible with alot of faith and alot of hard work. Tomorrow we receive two more couples. The sad part is they won't have visas for Slovenia. I really needed one of them here. We will have them start in Ljubljana but I can only keep them legally without a visa for 90 days. We don't have anyone coming to replace the Ferres or the Miles yet. It is impossible to get them here ontime now with the time it takes to get a call and to obtain a visa. Oh well we will move forward and still accomplish things. The church that are being built in this mission have a anticipated completion date of 28 Feb 2008 for Ljubljana and 15 May 2008 for Zagreb. I hope that really happens so we can be apart of the open house and the dedication. What a blessing to serve in this time. We also just received approval to open a Family History Center in Novi Sad Serbia. That is really a first. I am excited to see all that the Lord does for the people of this mission. With all of the resources that are comitted here we know that the Lord loves them and believes in them. We I guess that is about it for now. I have not heard from some of you for quite awhile so you must be busy. I hope Rick and Laneys move went smoothly. Especially the long trip across the country. We love each of you and think of you often. Have a great month. It will be gone before you know it. Look forward to seeing Jay and Kira really soon.
Love Dad