We had the amazing opportunity to attend the Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia zone conferences all in our first 2 weeks in the mission. We attended our Croatia zone conference. in Zagreb first. For Susan it was her first zone conference ever. We wanted to meet all of the young missionaries and senior couples in the mission. On Tuesday, April 10th we drove again to Zagreb to meet President Melonakos’s assistants and drive with them. We first traveled to Tuzla, Bosnia and arrived in time to walk around the town and have dinner. The next morning we attended the Bosnia zone conference. It is the smallest zone in the mission and we could feel the closeness of the missionaries.
After zone conference we drove with President and Sister Melonakos to Beograd, Serbia. It was fun getting to know them better. We have really enjoyed them. I work closely with Sister Melonakos helping missionaries with health
issues. On Thursday, the Melonakos’s and we went on a 2 hour walking tour of the center of Beograd. It was really interesting to learn a little of the history of the city. We ended the tour at the beautiful Kalemegdan park and the Beograd fortress overlooking the Sava and Danube rivers. Elder Jeffrey R Holland dedicated Serbia for the preaching of the gospel in 2012.
On Friday, we attended the Serbia zone conference and got to meet the amazing missionaries and senior couples. There are 2 humanitarian senior couples in Serbia and Montenegro. The Swendsen’s and the Cary’s shared touching examples of humanitarian projects. I love that the goal of LDS Charity is to help the poorest of the poor, foster self-reliance and allow branch members to serve.
One of our "successes" so far was the filming of YSA youth from across all the countries. They shared their testimonies and experiences for posting on Facebook. What a wonderful, faithful group of young people!
