Last visit to Serbia- Oct 31st -Nov 4

We needed to visit members in Sremska Mitrovica and Belgrade one last time to finish a special project. We've grown close to these members and really enjoyed our visit. We were on the road by 10:30 am Thursday morning and arrived in Sremska at 3 pm.

We met the missionaries serving in Sremska--Elder Benson and Elder Port. We had the opportunity to interview a recently released missionary from Belgrade, Elder Bogosavac, who served in South Africa. He was very thoughtful in his responses.

We enjoyed visiting with Elder and Sister Austin who serve in this small but historically important city.  Both Elder and Sister Austin taught folk dancing at Brigham Young University and helped plan BYU  international tours. They are a lot of fun. They have already taught international folk dances at the Young Single Adult Conference and the Single Adult Conference.

We had dinner over one of the wonderful families in Sremska, the Vučenović family. There is something special about having a common faith that transcends cultures and countries.

Today at 9 am we drove to Belgrade and are staying in a nice apartment very close to the Belgrade church building. We have felt very safe the entire time we've been on our mission. Perry went on a tour about The Communist Era while I stayed back to nap since I was getting over a cold.

We met Sister Gittins from Cache Valley and Sister Calderon from Finland in front of the church.  We have loved serving with Sister Gittins.  Elder Youngs and his companion, Elder Robinson, were also there.  It's so good to see the missionaries that have served with us- Sister Gittins, Elder Beck and Elder Youngs.

We drove out to visit the Serbia District President Vasića and his wonderful family of seven children ages 7 to 24. We interviewed the oldest son who had recently returned from serving a mission.
   
On Saturday we worked in our apartment and ended the day having dinner with all of the Belgrade missionaries. We enjoyed going to church on Sunday. The strength of the members in Belgrade is wonderful. The Branch President worked a Saturday 11pm to 7 am work shift and still was leading this branch on Sunday morning.  Perry bore his testimony in Serbian--rather he used Croatian, but used double conjugations like they do in Serbia.  One of the Sisters said it brought her to tears--in a good way.

Elder and Sister Benich who serve as Humanitarian missionaries in Belgrade invited us over to dinner. We were able to be with great young missionaries that have served with us in Rijeka- Sister Gittins, Elder Beck and Elder Youngs.


Monday morning we drove Sister Gittens and Sister Calderon to Novi Sad for a p-day visit to the Fortress and catacombs. It was fun visiting with the missionaries from Novi Sad, Serbia and Osijek, Croatia.