One of the highlights of our trip, besides the graduation, was meeting Sloane's boyfriend Mike. It was great to meet him as he has become an important part of Sloane's life. We'd heard a lot about him and all evidences point to him being just as great of a guy as Sloane described. We spent a day with them touring Boston and ended up near Boston Commons where we took this photo.
The next day we were joined by Madison and Evan who flew from Utah for the graduation. Here's a photo of Sloane and Madison just after Sloane officially became the most educated person in our family.
We spent another day together and hated to say goodbye. We took this photo just before we headed off to the airport to fly back to Belgrade.
Right after we got back, Sister Taylor and Sister Garside were both transferred and were replaced by Elder Hoisington and Elder Port. The missionaries in this mission are all so wonderful! Elder Port is brand new to the mission and is from New Zealand. We had met Elder Hoisington before, as he was serving nearby in Belgrade, and we are happy to have him here. We try to do whatever we can to help them have enjoyable missionary experiences in Sremska Mitrovica which of course includes eating more than your normal daily allowance of gelato.
We are always happy to receive news from back home, but Merritt was especially happy to hear that three of our granddaughters; Holland, Mary, and Lucy are all taking tennis lessons and loving it.
We were able to bring back some mica coloring dyes for our soap making project and have developed a lavender soap recipe that looks and smells great. They plan to make 160 bars of this type of soap so church members can sell them at the annual folk dance festival that is held in August.
From time to time former missionaries will come back to visit the members here in Sremska Mitrovica. Alex King and Ryan Eccoles stopped by and couched surfed at our home for one night. Alex taught both Elder Hoisington and Elder Port in the MTC so they were really happy to see him. Also, Elder Criddle who was finishing his mission came the next day to church. Elder Criddle started his mission in Sremska Mitrovica and was here for about 6 months. It was great to hear him speak in Sacrament meeting about how his mission experience had helped him come closer to Christ. We had a meal after church and everyone had a good time visiting together.
As the branch president, Merritt gets involved in all sorts of activities. The lastest of which is teaching Nemanja how to swim. He is is the first person in his immediate family to learn. After three lessons he was able to swim the length of the pool on his back and can swim the width of the pool using a freestyle stroke. Some day this training might save his life but more likely he will just enjoy being able to participate in more water-oriented activities. All part of having an abundant life, not just on land but now also on and around water!
The mission provides us with a water filter so we don't need to buy bottled water. (the water is safe to drink from the tap but since we have it we use it). Once a month we fill up 10 two-gallon containers for drinking water. Every 3 months we need to change the activated charcoal filter.
Another part of mission life is ironing shirts. The wrinkle-free shirts that Merritt brought from home are not quite up to the spin cycle of our washing machine so about once a week he gets to iron his seven white shirts. In the summertime, it goes faster since they are short-sleeved. (no laughing at the tennis tan lines on my feet)
Every third Sunday a member of the district presidency comes for a visit and they often bring family members. Tara was happy to have another primary age friend with her for the day. In primary Tara prayed, "I can't wait to come back and finish my drawing and learn more about Jesus." She and her family and great members of our branch.
Merritt was going to get the missionaries from nearby Novi Sad to come and play tennis but when the tennis courts were not available due to the High School tennis tournament, he changed it into a hiking activity in Fruska Gora. Even though it was quite warm everyone had a great time being together for the day.
Also this past month we have spent quite a bit of time preparing for the upcoming YSA conference being held in the Czech Republic, our annual temple trip which will be held in Bern, Switzerland and getting ready to replace our mission wide English conversation group lessons with English Connect. English Connect is a program created by the church to help people develop basic English speaking ability and has been shown to be an excellent way to help introduce the Church to non-members.
Lastly, we enjoy living in a rural farming area. Occasionally we see shepherds with their flocks, which of course reminds us of the metaphor that Christ often used that we are called as shepherds to watch over each other. We often make mistakes but we hope that some of the things we are doing are helpful in keeping the flock in the Adriatic North Mission safe and strong.
