Trips to Belgrade, Ljubljana and Venice to see the Smiths (first 2 weeks in November)

Had a fun P-day outing in Belgrade taking a tour of one of its neighborhoods.  We enjoyed this creative building size "graffiti" art.  There is a lot of architectural detail in Belgrade which we love. 






This is one of only a handful of these iconic carvings of this type in the former Yugoslavia

We also connected with  Ivan Kovacevic in Pancevo outside of  Belgrade.  Ivan had tried to start up a Pickle Ball club without success.  We wanted to introduce the game to our YSA's but were not able to find any equipment for it until we hunted this man down on Facebook.  He sold us a ball, a net and some paddles that he had made and then gave us a tour of the town where he lived.  

We visited with Elder Jon and Sister Becky Rands in Celje, Slovenia.  We work with the YSA's and they are responsible for the Institute program in the mission so it was a good opportunity for us to get to know them better.  They gave us a nice tour of their town and we had dinner together (plus of course some tennis got slipped in there).



Tennis shot


We held a YSA event in Ljubljana, complete with Pickle Ball.  We had a great lunch provided by the Rands after which we presented about institute and self-reliance.  We focused on the Find a Better Job portion of self-reliance.  On of the attendees, Tim, who was baptized last year was very excited about the lessons he could take to actually be able to find employment.  Tim commented, 'we have an excellent educational system that teaches us about what we are studying but they don't have any instruction or assistance on how we are to actually go out and gain employment".   In the next couple of months, the missionaries will start a class in Ljubljana for Tim and other to attend.   It is always great to spend some time with the YSA's in the mission.  They have great testimonies and are true pioneers in their cities and countries. 




Pickle Ball with paddles made by Ivo (on the far right, one of the YSA's from Kranj)


We also enjoyed spending some time in Ljubljana as part of this trip.  It never disappoints. 






Visited Lake Bled, this time during winter and we had the whole lake almost to ourselves.








Met up with our good friends the Smiths in Venice (they were supposed to meet us in Ljubljana but Norwegian Air had other ideas)







It was great to see some great friends in this historic city.