Tue 1/24/06 3:52 AM

Dear Family,
It has been awhile since I wrote. Some of you wondered why. Well we were so bored with nothing to do that I just could not write about being bored and nothing happening. WRONG! On the 12 Jan 06 we left at 6:45 am to pick up the Hansens and head to Zagreb. It is a two hour drive. I started interviews at 9am while Roylene and the Hansen's check into our hotel. I finished interviewing at 9pm. I could not get with all of the elders and would have to finish with them after Zone Conference the next day. I did get to swallow a piece of pizza that one of the elders got for me. And I did get to go to dinner for one hour with some of the senior missionaries and Roylene and the Hansen's. Our Zone Conference was with all of the missionaries from Serbia as well as Croatia. It always is a treat to see how these missionaries accept what they are taught from Preach My Gospel and the scriptures and personal experiences. We had a wonderful meeting. They left with a new desire to do more. The theme and training was on how to find people to teach. We came back on saturday after walking around in Zagreb looking for a couple of sweaters for Roylene. She is fun to watch while she shops. We got her to try on some cutel winter hats. JR took acouple of pictures so if he can ever get his computer hooked up we will have him email some to you. We then drove home and stayed in Ljubljana for church where I spoke in church after the Mowers gave their farewell addresses. Roylene had invited a few members and some of the missionaries to dinner. Afterwards I had a meeting with the District President and the National Director of Public Affairs. On monday we held interviews for the departing missionaries and then for a change we went out to dinner with them after a brief testimony meeting. Tuesday we were up at 5 am so we could get them to the airport to return home. Wednesday and Thursday were very busy in the office following up on emails and phone calls. Saturday we left early for the miracle girls baptism. She is the one that was found the day after she prayed to God to find the truth. Also she is the one that I told the missionaries after a prompting to ask her to be baptized on the 21 of January. They found out after extending the commit that that was her birthday. She is also the one that I gave a blessing to. You received pictures of her. Nikolina Lipovec is her name. After the baptism we drove to Rijeka and met with the missionaries and some investigators. One we were able to teach. He is a local opera star. We then stayed over night in a neighboring town and our room was right on the Adriatic Sea. We then spoke at church and met with more investigators and the Branch Mission Leader and the missionaries. And we had lunch and then drove home. We hope to have 5 more baptism this month and 15 more in February. This will give us a great start on the year. It is almost as many as we had all of last year. The missionaries are working very hard and also much smarter now and they are asking for and believing in miracles. They are experiencing them. Keep on praying for this mission and every fast sunday pray to have it move forward in a major way. I know there are many people here that are ready for the gospel. It can and will happen. The Branch in Zagreb has a whole new feeling since we changed Branch Presidents just two weeks ago. The former president is a good man but it was time for a change and you can feel and see a big differenc already. We love all of you. I will try to write sooner next time. But I can not guarantee it. Lots of love. Dad