We started off March with a trip to Novi Sad for a baptism. While there we met up with Tatiana and her daughter Jelena. Rocky also went with us and we got this photo of us all together.
After the baptism, once again buckets were used to empty the baptismal font. Here is Elder Fritches demonstrating that a branch presidents work is never done.
The following Sunday Ada Vucenovic reported about her mission in The Ukraine. Ada was a fantastic missionary and we are benefiting as a branch by having her back in Serbia.
The young members in our branch enjoy visiting together.
On a Pday in March, we traveled to Belgrade where we had a chance to tour a movie set. It is economical to film in Serbia and there are several large sound stages along with elaborate outdoor sets that have been built on the outskirts of the city. One of the showrunners is a member of our church and arranged for us to get a special tour which was pretty cool. It would be cooler if we could recall the name of the show, but unfortunately, we've forgotten. It was a fun day with the missionaries.
Heather got her check-up on her eyes at the vision center here in Sremska Mitrovica and her glaucoma looks OK but the doctor did recommend we also have it checked in Belgrade where they can do some more sophisticated measurements.
We also had a visit by our dear mission president and his wife, David and Rebecca Melonakos. Being responsible for missionaries in five countries keeps them on the road about 50% of the time, we appreciated them stopping by to check on our sisters and we were able to give them a short tour of the town and they were able to meet with some of our members. Here they are with Sandra Vajda who was baptized back in February.
Well here is our first ice cream photo of the year. We shared it with Sister Henderson who is transferring to Zagreb and two of the sisters from Novi Sad who came to pick her up. We will certainly miss her and Sister Luthy who also went to Zagreb to work in the office over media.
Sister Taylor and Sister Garside are the new replacements. They are excellent missionaries with whom we enjoy serving.
We recently started a soap making project in the branch. Here Miroslav is learning along with us. It's amazing what you can learn on Youtube these days. Our first batch was pretty generic soap using olive, palm and coconut oil along with some lavendar oil to make it smell good.
Here is the final product. It turned out OK for batch #1. We packaged them up and gave them as gifts to all the senior missionary couples in the mission.
Speaking of hobbies our landlord, Dusan, makes sausages. Sremska is famous for its sausages. We've been told there is a saying that translates loosely as: "In Sremsak Mitrovica it's a pity there are not enough days to eat all the sausage." Dusan invited us over and gave us a tour of his operation. He has won numerous awards and sent us home with some samples that had us going back to buy more. Merritt especially likes his spicy Sremska Sausage.
In April we had some extra time in Belgrade and were able to spend the afternoon in the National Gallery. They have some fantastic works there, this is one of Merritt's favorites. We will probably go back again when we get the chance.
In April we also had our mission-wide senior missionary conference which was held in our backyard in the Fruska Gora national park which is about a 20-minute drive away. It is always great to hear what all the other senior missionaries are up to and share ways we can improve our service. As part of the conference, we took a tour of some nearby monasteries that were built up in these hills hundreds of years ago.
After the senior conference, some of them came for a brief tour of Sremska Mitrovica. It included checking out some of the artifacts from the Roman era and of course sampling some gelato.
Not surprisingly with the better weather and having made enough progress in his recovery from his collapsed lung, Merritt has gotten back on the tennis courts and has been giving lessons to Sister Taylor and Sister Garside. They play as if they were born with racquets in their hands.
Another highlight to this spring has been the opening of a new restaurant just around the corner from our apartment. It's called Diana and they serve up a pretty delicious hamburger as well as many other good dishes. We try to stop by every other week or so and splurge on a nice meal.
On April 14th we had a district conference in Belgrade. We chartered a small bus so all our members could attend. They always like to get together with the members from Novi Sad and Belgrade. It was a good day.
As part of a district activity, the Serbian missionaries got together for a hike in Fruska Gora. The weather forecast was for rain but we decided to do the hike anyway. Fortunately, the sun was out the whole time we were hiking and only as we got into the cars did the first raindrops fall. It was a seven-mile loop hike that also included stops at two monasteries. (Sister Gunnell, Sister Icka, Elder Christiansen and Elder Woodhouse) (Merritt with Elder Rosenvall and Elder Corona)
We hope you are enjoying your "spring" wherever you are.
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