Excited to be in Croatia!

We were able to spend our last night in the USofA with our daughter Madison, in her new home in Holladay, Utah.  It was hard leaving our four granddaughters but it was nice that they came out to send us off with a "Dutch Goodbye". Heather took this photo as we drove past them as we left.  We flew to Denver then Munich then landed in Zagreb 20 hours after take off.

We were picked up by the Randalls who work in the office and the Mayberrys whose place we have taken in Osijek.  After about 3 hours of orientation (and trying to stay awake) the office staff took us on a tour of Zagreb. (this was to help us stay awake as long as possible so we could better get over jet lag..which worked to some degree).  We had a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant (Nocternal) then stayed at the Garden Hotel.  Oh, and the gelato after the meal was delicious!

Here is Merritt sitting with one of Zagreb's creative sculptures on our first day in Zagreb.  The next day we picked up our assigned car (a nice little Hyundai) and using the GPS drove 3 hours to Osijek where we are assigned for the next several months or longer.  We met the younger missionaries (Elder Valentine and Elder Lee) who helped us get into the apartment and showed us how things worked. (like lowering the window shutters etc).    We attended church the next day where we both spoke briefly with Elder Valentine translating.  The members in Osijek are few but they are dedicated.

On Monday we drove with the young missionaries back to Zagreb for the Croatia summer zone conference which covers two days.  We had a chance to meet about 20 of the best young missionaries you could ask for. Each one was impressive.  We also got to meet 4 of the other senior couples who were also great. Some of them will be heading home soon and we only regret we won't be able to work with them longer.  On Tuesday we drove back to Osijek arriving just in time to teach English.  We will teach English each Tuesday and Thursday night when we are in town.

We spent many hours of last week getting in contact with the young single adults.  We were able to FaceBook video with a couple of them and they are also very impressive.  It's very hard to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ here and so they have to be pretty strong to join and remain active.  

This morning (June 25th) we got a chance to go for our first "exercise" walk.  It took us about 15 minutes to walk into the center of Osijek.    There is a stunning cathedral right on the square and some nice shops. The square is a pedestrian area with tram lines running through it.  Today is also Croatian National Independence day.  It was in 1991 that they declared their independence from Yugoslavia.  See Battle of Osijek in wikipedia for more details. 

Not far from the town center are several other churches. We particularly like this one.    

On a sporting note:  Since we have arrived, Croatia has been doing very well in their World Cup group having handily beaten both Nigeria and Argentina.   It looks very likely that they will win their group. Also two Croatian tennis players each won grass court tournaments this past week. Borna Coric beat Roger Federer in a huge upset and Marin Cilic beat Novak Djokovic after saving a championship point.  

We visited the local market and Merritt purchased the requisite Croatian football jersey.  We also bought a 220 to 110 transformer so we could plug in our RoboCut.  We are each sporting shorter haircuts as a result.