Welcome to Sremska Mitrovica!

In early September (I know we are about 7 weeks behind here but trying to catch up) we were re-assigned to Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia.   It is a relatively small town with a population of 40,000.  I categorize it as small because there are only 2 main streets, 4 gas stations, 1 hotel, 4 grocery stores, and 5 gelato stands (and yes we have tried them all and they are all good).  We have a great branch of the church here with fantastic members and if we feel the need to go to a bigger city, the largest city in the mission, Belgrade, is only an hour drive away.

Mitrovica is on the banks of the Sava river and we have a nice pedestrian walkway along the river complete with a pedestrian bridge.  If the internet is to be believed this is the largest pedestrian bridge in all of Serbia.

There are some buildings from about the late 19th century that have interesting architectural styles. The building below is the main municipal building which houses the police station and where we also need to go to get our visa work done.





















Opposite the main town square is the library which also has a small art gallery and performance space.

Behind the library and completing the main buildings in the town center is the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The second main church in town is just down the street.

We meet in a nice rented commercial space very close to the town center.

We enjoy serving with Elder Rosenvall and Elder Shepherd.

After getting ourselves oriented Merritt, of course, had to check out the tennis courts.  He was very happy to find that Mitrovica is home to the Sermium Tenis Klub which has 3 very nicely maintained clay courts.  Even better he has made good friends with Dragan "Rocky" Rosic who frequently attends our branch meetings.   Rocky speaks excellent English having lived for some time in Canada. He and Merritt play regularly and Rocky has been a great resource in helping us get settled in. 

We are enjoying our service here in Mitrovica and reward ourselves frequently with some of the excellent of gelato that is readily available. 

We are doing great.  At the end of September, we organized a mission-wide YSA event in Zagreb.  We drafted three YSA's from different parts of the mission to work on our committee which met several times using video conferencing.   YSA's had to travel great distances to get to Zagreb (some required over 18 hours of travel time) but everyone who attended had a great time and is looking forward to our next mission-wide YSA event in the spring of 2019.   Click here for a link to a slideshow.