July 2019 Update / YSA conference in Czech Republic, Bern Temple trip, Saltzburg, Vienna Budapest and Sremska

July was a very busy month which started off with getting this photo of our four granddaughters celebrating the 4th of July.   We relish learning about the culture and traditions of Serbia but sometimes we do miss our own cultural events.  

The second week in July we spent in the Czech Republic for the Eastern European YSA conference.   Merritt needs to work on his calendaring skills as we made a big mistake and we showed up in the Czech Republic with four Young Single Adults a day early.   We only discovered this when we were about 2 hours from the conference site so we rented a large Airbnb and spent the extra day seeing Prague.   Here we are on the St. Charles Bridge.  This makes our third time seeing Prague and it is always a pleasure to spend time in this amazing city.  

Here are our YSA's enjoying the sights in Prague

The next day we drove to the conference site (we took over a hotel/resort in the forest complete with a lake, tennis courts and football pitch) and enjoyed the week there with our YSA's and meeting YSA's from all over Eastern Europe. 

This is Ljubica Ivanovic from our branch.  The conference was a great opportunity for YSA's to meet up with others.  In our mission, most branches only have 1 or 2 YSA's and so it was great for them to join in with a group of 150 YSA's and spend time in workshops, eating great food and just being able to hang out together.

Here is our group having breakfast on the patio, just to give you an idea of the diversity in our mission we had four attending, 2 from Slovenia, 1 from Croatia and 1 from Serbia.    We enjoyed getting to know them all better. 

One of the workshop leaders was Melissa Dalton-Bradshaw who has an NGO for refugees. It was great spending some time with her.  Her husband joined us on the last day and Merritt and he planned to play some tennis but the weather didn't cooperate. : (   Click here for a video slide show from the conference. 

We made the 16 hour drive home to Sremska Mitrovica on Saturday July 13, slept in our own beds for about 6 hours then got up and went to church after which we then drove with another missionary couple (Dean and Louise Fitches) for 8 hours to near Venice where we stayed the night then continued the next day to Bern where we helped feed and put on activities for the youth and YSA of our mission for the week.  Click here to watch a video slide show. 

We work with Jon and Becky Rands who are the mission YM+YW specialists to pull this off.  They are amazing people to work with.  (Plus they play tennis!)   One of the hidden benefits of missionary service is the friendships you make with the other senior couples. 

We stayed at an Airbnb that was part of a large farmhouse up in the hills near Bern.  Switzerland is amazing.   Merritt especially enjoyed seeing the wheat fields and farmlands as we drove to the temple each morning. 

Milan from our branch, Filip from Osijek and Ivan from Novi Sad.  The week of the temple trip is an opportunity for the members here to see each other and serve in the temple together.   Everyone is excited about the future temple being planned for Budapest.  It will reduce our 14-hour temple drive to a much more manageable 4 hours. 

One of our activities included making S'mores at the fire pit located in the wooded area behind the temple   Milan demonstrates his golden touch.

Of course, the proof is in the tasting and they tasted great as you can see here. 

You can't get YSA's together without some Karaoke (which I have finally learned how to spell).   Here Merritt and Lidija from Beograd sing a rousing rendition of Johnny Cash's hit, "Ring of Fire".  Yes, we do have some fun on our mission. 

We cook a lot of meals and organize several activities during this week but one of the highlights for us is being able to catch up with some of our friends from other branches like Danaja and Robert Kremerenski from Osijek.  

We were also fortunate to have two of our YSA's volunteer to oversee breakfast one of the mornings so we could to be in the temple. We have visited this temple three different times in our travels but this was the first time we actually had a chance to attend a session.  It was a great experience to be reminded of the love our Heavenly Father has for each of us, his children. 

We spent a lot of time in the kitchen and got a lot of great help from the other senior couples who are there to help organize things.   Heather and Valerie Elder worked in the kitchen together last year and it was great to repeat the experience this year.   Heather was not a fan of having hotdogs but when you are on a budget you have to do what you have to do. 

Did I mention that Switzerland was beautiful? How did Merritt's grandparents leave this place to immigrant to America?  

After our two weeks in the Czech Republic and Switzerland, we traveled home with the Fitches by way of Salzburg, Vienna, and Budapest.  While in Salzburg we took the Sound of Music tour as this is where that movie was filmed.  We lucked out and got the front row on the bus. 

Here we are with the Salzburg Castel in the background.  If memory serves correctly many different armies tried to conquer this castle but none were successful.  

Just another photos of us on one of the beautiful lakes near Salzburg.

From Salzburg, we went to Vienna where we had an opportunity to attend church in English.   It was very nice to be able to sing and understand the hymns.  The Sunday School class was especially interesting with a very full group, and great discussion led by the teacher.  

Saint Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.  Amazing!  Merritt paid the 5 Euro fee to climb the tower and enjoy the view of Vienna from the top.  Living like a king!  Note the unique colored tiles on the rooftop. 

Merritt loves "public" transportation and while in Vienna he got his first chance to try out one of these "public" electric scooters.   He downloaded the app, entered his credit card and off he went for an hour using the well thought out bike lanes to go all over Vienna.  Highly recommend (just avoid cobblestone streets!) 

Part of Schonbrunn Palace.   Similar to layout as Versailles in France, and almost as hard to spell.  The Austrians and French were two of the main powers in Europe during the 1800's and their state buildings, cathedrals and monuments attest to that fact hundreds of years later. 

From Vienna, we went to Budapest.  We LOVED Budapest.  We only had one day there but we hope to come back sometime.   We took a river tour which allowed us to see quite a few of the beauties Budapest has to offer without having to walk.   Below is the Hungarian Parliament Building which is right on the Danube River.  It is on the Pest side of the river, Buda being on the other bank.   It is still the largest building in Budapest and was opened in 1902.

The historical Chain Bridge that joined Buda and Pest across the Danube.  It was the first permanent bridge that spanned the river and was opened in 1849.  It's center span was the longest single span of any bridge in the world at that time.  In WWII the retreating German army destroyed the bridge in 1945.  Later it was rebuilt in the same style and re-opened in 1949.  

Church of the Blessed Virgin is located in one of the main squares of the city.  We enjoyed the "scale" of the city in Budapest which made it very walkable. 

Over a two month period in 1945, the fascist Arrow Cross Hungary militia killed 3,500 citizens (800 of them Jews) by lining them up on the banks of the Danube and after shooting them so that their bodies then fell into the river.  In total, nearly 20,000 people in Budapest were killed by this fascist group.  Never again, can we allow wicked men to commit violent acts such as this without making them pay for their crimes.  People say that it can't happen here but it can if we allow hate speech and racism to find safe harbor in our societies.   These bronze shoes line the bank of the Danube as a memorial to the people whose lives were taken. 

Matthias Catholic church is shown below. It is on the Buda side fo the river and is located in the heart of the Buda Castle Area. It was originally built in 1015. 

One of the must-do things for any visitor to Budapest is to watch the lights come on from Castle Hill.  Below is the Chain Bridge with Church of the Blessed Virgin in the background.

Did we mention that Merritt loves public transportation?  He really enjoyed riding the Budapest Subway.

After we got back from our travels Merritt enjoyed working out with his Serbian brothers (Milan and Nemanja) at the gym.

The first P day back from our trip Merritt does what he always likes to do: Play tennis with the missionaries on P-day.

As you can see July was a very busy month full of great experiences for ourselves and those we serve here in Serbia and the ANM mission.