I thought you might enjoy some of this email from the sister and her husband. They go home next tuesday, but some of her feelings about the mission and what is happening will be of interest to you I hope. Love Dad
Our dear friends and family,
COUNT DOWN TIME…
This will probably be the last letter of our mission as we are being released on Monday, Oct. 9th and will be leaving for Ljubljana Mission Home on Sunday, the 8th after Church. Mixed feelings of sadness to have to leave all the people we have met and love, and such joy and excitement to anticipate the joy at seeing all of you again soon. Many of our couple missionary friends have felt a little lost when they get home without the rigorous missionary routine, but there is much to be done at home, so I’m sure that we will adjust just fine. It was comforting to hear in a Conference talk that nothing is ever done…there is always one more meal to prepare, one more lesson to teach, one more person to meet, one more of everything, so it isn’t unusual to feel like…”…if I just had a little more time…”. We have been trying to sort through some of our stuff that we want to bring home and try to get five 70 lb. suitcases of stuff that we brought fit into four 50 lb. bags. After an exhausting search to find the cheapest way to send bags/boxes home, we concluded that $ 700 per 60 lb. bag was too much $$, so we’re just going to drag them around with us. Most of our clothes are pretty worn out with these rough washing machines (it takes 60 minutes on the “fast” cycle of continuously washing a load), but the clothes are nice and clean. We have no dryers in this country, so our clothes have been beaten by the fierce wind and sun and detergent. Look out department stores when I get home. EH’s pants are really worn out from constantly being washed/drycleaned, so we look pretty bad, but hey, we match the other people who live here like this all the time. There are NO thrift stores here (I guess people just give their clothes to the gypsies that they don’t want anymore???), so I haven’t “thrift-stored” for 18 months. Life is rough.
WEEKEND REPORT…
We probably have had one of the very best weekends of our lives this past weekend. As I reported to you last letter, Lahorka Halmi, one of our dear young adults and a very special, precious young woman that I have come to love through helping her and talking endless hours to, was baptised in the Sea by Eugene on Sunday. What a beautiful experience that was. I’ll start with the preparation of that hugely important event. Lahorka has been staying with us for some time as she had exams and then was preparing for her baptism. What fun we have had gabbing girl-talk and laughing. She is a very mature young woman and has done well in her college studies and is now in the exam process and will graduate sometime in the Spring. She has been waiting to be baptized for a long time to respect her parents’ wishes, but decided to get baptized now as the time seemed right. How thrilled we were that she chose EH to baptize and confirm her. As the week went by, we heard that more and more people would be attending – some people including missionaries who live in Karlovac where her parents live. One of our favorite people, Brother Bzik came from Zagreb and President and Sister Weight were able to come from Slovenia . Her parents and sister, Svea, came also, of course. With all the people from all these cities arriving Sat. night and Sunday I realized that I needed help with the food, so I arranged to have a local market make big meat and cheese platters – thank you Billa! I fixed American Orange Jello salad, a huge macaroni salad and delish Mushroom Soup and cranberry bread and juice for 50 in our tiny kitchens in our apartment and at the Church. Sometimes I think that one of the biggest miracles that I’ve seen on our mission has been how I can feed so many people in such a tiny space. Dessert after the baptism was provided by several of our women friends. I guess the word went out into the street about the food as an old totally unkempt drunk man, stinkiing to high heaven came into the Church as we were eating and the missionaries fixed him the best dinner of his life and sent him on his way. Probably at least an average of once a week, Eugene as Branch President gets someone asking for money. But this time we could give this guy a big plate of food.
Hoping for an overcast day so there wouldn’t be the usual gawking sunbathers with their skimpy clothes, Sunday weather was perfectly overcast and the sunbathers stayed home. We all went down to the Sea on buses and in cars and walked down many stairs to reach the prearranged beach site after the Church meetings, the luncheon, and little pre-program. The two young boys of a recent convert were baptized first and then Lahorka and EH waded into the sea for the ordinance. What a beautiful happy experience it was for everyone. Lahorka was so excited and happy that her beautiful family could be there to share her joy. The boys and Lahorka swam around for a little bit after, but EH got out really fast. She has been asking me all day (probably at least 10 times), “I’m really baptized, aren’t I?” She is very hugable! The Lord has really blessed us to know these really special people that are the pioneers here in this country of Croatia . Wow! What did I ever do to be so blessed???
We managed to watch and tape Conference from our satellite all sessions. The most amazing thing happened on Sat night and Sunday night. We had 19 people here watching our leaders in the beautiful huge Salt Lake City Conference Center on Saturday night (including Pres. and Sister Weight and missionaries) and about 15 on Sunday night after the baptisimal festivities. The broadcast started @ 6PM both nights for the 1st session and the 2nd session was from 10PM -12AM. Eugene worked very hard to provide Croatian in the translation sets for the non-English speakers in our apartment. His “Sherman-Tank” persistence pays off sometimes. Beautiful, timely, and well-done Conference! President/Prophet Hinckley is the Energizer Bunny poster child!
OUR LAST ZONE CONFERENCE…
Traveling to Zagreb for the last time was a sad feeling. The Sheraton Zagreb has been our “Hotel of Choice” for about 10 times in the last 18 months. Always accomodating and lovely has been our experience there, so every “last” thing is thought provoking. No more beautiful Russian-looking buildings, Austrian-Hungarian architecture and old, old walls, stone buildings, cobble-stoned streets, and castles dotting the countryside on the drive there and to Slovenia. Post-card- perfect tiny farms and country scenes, eating fresh, home-cooked beautiful meals in tiny restaurants will be missed. Seeing breathtaking winter fairyland landscapes with everything covered with snow including 200 year-old tree forests in the winter in cars and quiet electric trains are beautiful memories. But best of all was seeing the beautiful adorable missionaries and couples every six weeks and hearing our Mission President and his beautiful wife give counsel and love to us all. What a great example of Christ-like love and concern they are – always positive, upbeat, energetic when they should have been out of energy after their rigorous travel-speaking-leadership schedule. It is amazing! Sidebar…He just announced that they have the okay to have groundbreaking ceremonies for new Church buildings in Ljubljana , Slovenia , and Zagreb , Croatia . What a RED LETTER DAY! There are blessings and miracles all around us and we will just have to sit back and watch it happen now. The efforts of many who have served in the past are bearing fruit now. The Lord’s Spirit is distilling upon the people in these countries and it is exciting. We have received letters from loved ones in many countries on missions and they are experiencing many things very similar to us.
FRIENDS…
If I tried to name all the friends we have made and the many gestures of love afforded us both here and at home, it would be impossible not to leave someone out, but we want to say Thank You to all of you who have loved and supported us in so many different ways. We hope we can be a support system to you when you need it. Being away from home for so long has not been easy, but we have had a wonderful experience here in this beautiful country with the Adriatic Sea right out our doors/balcony every minute we are home. Day or night, rain or shine, moonlight, stars, or dark, it is unbelieveably beautiful, unspoiled and therapeutic. Nighttime is my favorite time to look out at the Istrian harbor with its lights sparkling in the harbor from the many houses dotting the hillsides, boats, and hotels. The moon will be full on the 7th with its wide shining path across the beautiful blue-black water. I wish my little camera could capture the beauty of that moon, but all that shows up in a photo is a little pin dot of light. It’s pretty far from the flash of my little camera….
We hope to see many of you at our welcome home on Sunday, Oct. 29th. Church starts @ 10AM and Lunch will be at about 1:30 at our house, 20885 Marcon Drive , Walnut, and if you want, you can bring a dessert to share. Fun and love will be served. Thanks, Shelly!!!
PROJECT…
As we leave, Croatia has once again been authorized to receive Humanitarian Relief from our Church, so we are setting up the head of the Opthamology Clinic here in Rijeka to have a volunteer team of doctors come over from the U.S. to train and equip the clinics in the latest techniques. What a huge project this will be if/when it is completed. We are having to hand off the project tomorrow to another couple to work with the doctors here. A Dr. Damir Kovac, one of the nicest guys ever, is heading up this project and is excited to get some pediatric opthamology training and equipment.
Until we see you in about 3 weeks, Dovidenja/Good bye. Love is stretchy and includes everyone.
xoxo Jerianne and Eugene
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