We finished up the month of November with a Thanksgiving Dinner and activities in Belgrade complete with double elimination Ping-Pong tournament. Heather did great. We really enjoyed being with all the other missionaries who are serving in Serbia.
December 7th we returned to Belgrade to attend a concert at the symphony with Elder John and Cathy Swendsen. The music was fantastic! We also enjoyed seeing the Christmas lights at Knez Mihailova (large pedestrian shopping area in Belgrade)
After the concert was over we had a bit of an adventure finding our car. Turns out you should never trust someone that says. "Oh, sure you can park here no problem". We parked in the Austrian Embassy parking lot (after hours of course). When we came back the car was gone and the towing service number said to call back in the morning. We borrowed the Swendsen's car to make the one hour drive back to Sremska then drove back to Belgrade the next day. Belgrade actually has a nice website where you can enter your license plate and you can find out which tow yard is holding your car. After arriving and presenting my passport and showing the keys to the car it turns out there was a small problem. Since the car is not registered in my name they weren't about to release the car to me just because I had the keys. So about 8 hours later, armed with an official-looking document and $120 I was finally able to get the car and drive back home. Here is a photo of the tow trucks they use. It has a giant claw on it (which is why these trucks have the nickname "Spider") that go under your car and they pick it up and take it away. Lesson learned, I am sticking to parking buildings from now on.
As part of the Church's "Light the World" campaign for service our branch organized a project to paint the interior of one of our member's homes. We managed to get most of the paint on the walls. It was fun serving together.
Every Christmas Heather puts together "12 days of Christmas" packages. With the Sister's help, she assembled and distributed 7 of these for members of our branch. It wouldn't have been possible without the translation help. Sister Briana Luthy and Sister Emma Henderson are the best!
On December 23rd, two days before Christmas we held the Sremska Mitrovica Branch Christmas Party. It was great to see everyone having a good time together.
Just before Christmas we got some real snow, so we indeed did have a White Christmas this year. That's our mission car under there. Coming from Albuquerque/Portland this is a bit new for us.
Snow is not our favorite thing but we did enjoy watching some snowmen being made in the courtyard after church.
It wasn't all fun and games. Merritt slipped on the ice and fell on this pipe. Fortunately, it caught him in the ribs and not in the head. Heather had to help him get his shirt on and off for several days. After about 4 weeks he made a full recovery. (We later learned that this fall actually cause a collapsed lung which re-occurred in February but more about that in a future post).
On Christmas day we traveled with our Sisters to Novi Sad for Christmas Dinner and activities with Dean and Louise Fitches. They were great hosts and we enjoyed a Mexican Christmas dinner.
On the 28th and 29th of December, we helped with the annual Winter Youth Conference in Zagreb. The city center has an amazing ice rink (actually more of an ice loop that goes all the way around the central plaza). The setting is made all the more stunning by the surrounding classical buildings.
Click this link to see a slideshow from the Youth Conference.
We drove a nine-passenger van to Zagreb and back, about eight hours round trip. A couple of the youth came from Belgrade and stayed at our apartment for the evening. The next day we took them to the Sremska Mitrovica train station (shown below) to finish their trip home.
Dunja and Suzana were great company for our trip. They are outstanding!
Well, that wraps up 2018. December was a very busy month and it was also a very busy year with lots of changes for us. We are enjoying our service here in Serbia and looking forward to what 2019 will bring our way.
Well, that wraps up 2018. December was a very busy month and it was also a very busy year with lots of changes for us. We are enjoying our service here in Serbia and looking forward to what 2019 will bring our way.
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