What's up with the Whites in Zadar? Aug. 8-24

We were heartbroken to hear of the tragic loss of two police officers who were shot and killed in our small town of Tremonton, Utah. Another officer and a police K-9 were also injured. It was difficult to believe the reports as the news unfolded. In the midst of the sorrow, it has been heartening to see the outpouring of love and support from our community and surrounding areas.

Sending some calm, prayers and love from Croatia to our friends in Tremonton! 

🙏

Since our last post, our granddaughter Madison was married to Jared. This is a picture of us talking with her on FaceTime as they walked out of the temple. It was about 11 p.m. for us here in Zadar, and my sweet sister stood in my place to hug her and celebrate with them.

To be honest, I still don’t know if we made the right decision. We could have made the long trip home from Croatia if we had chosen to. A few others who have done that told us how hard it was to return to the mission afterward. Since we are still fairly new here, we felt it might be best to experience the wedding from afar.

It didn’t truly hit me until they called again around 4:30 a.m. our time. That’s when Madison danced with her father, our son Jared. The tears started then and didn’t stop for nearly an hour. I knew they were fine without us—but at that moment, I wasn’t fine without them.

Thankfully, our kids carried us around on FaceTime the whole evening, letting us share in the joy of the celebrations. It was such a beautiful day for Madison and Jared—so much love, so much support, and such a wonderful party!

Taking the wedding plunge! Their wedding reception party was at my daughter Krista's backyard. This was the final leap before they ended the party. I love the way hesitant people just couldn't take the peer pressure! It looks so fun!

These are some of my cute grandkids at the temple. 

Zone conference with Elder Gerard from the Area Presidency over central Europe. He spoke to us and was with us for the day. A very kind  man. 

Always people to feed, luckily I'm not in charge but just helping a little.

I love getting to run into the Elders and Sisters I know when we come to zone conference. Sister Porter, Sister Unsworth (her Dad plays the organ for the tabernacle choir), Sister Sundell, Elder Wagner. 

This is Sister Anna Louise Matoluvić-Mahoney. She is the service missionary we work with that lives about 5 hours away from Zadar on the island of Korcula. 

And finally I got to meet up with my cousin (Kathy Bates from Washington State) who serves in both Turkey and Croatia. We rarely see each other, but got a minute to connect. They are coming to Zadar in September so we are excited to show them The Old City! Their calling has changed and it is too complicated for me to explain, but they will bless the lives of so many in Turkey as they open up a new mission there. 

We took Elder Schreiner out for his "last supper" as he was about to leave to head home after serving for 2 years. He was with us for almost 6 months, and this was a so hard for me. Elder Wagner is also leaving us to become the AP (Assistant to the President) in Zagreb. So this is called in missionary terms...a "white wash". Both Elders leaving and two new ones coming. Sister Porter is also leaving us for Belgrade Serbia. (I just cry when they leave) 

This is the last game night for 3 of our missionaries.  This is a great bonding time for members and missionaries and to welcome in friends of the church. (a lot of Croatian spoken here). Russell is getting good at it, so I just smile and go along with it. The missionaries tell me what I need to know! 

This is district council at our house. We have both the Elders and Sisters over for dinner first, then we have a combined district right now with Split, Croatia so we do it over zoom. Two Elders are visiting on exchange, the one in the middle is going to end up being in Zadar with us in one week from this picture! Elder Warner, he is only 10 weeks out, we love  getting to know him. 

This is all of us, giving Elder Schreiner our last heart pictures to take home with him. 

All of our departing missionaries spoke in Sacrament meeting and sang. So beautiful!

Sister Porter tries out our new translation kit. It's wonderful! We really needed a good one with all of our visitors in summer. 

So many amazing visiting families, That is the best part of being in a tourist location, we get to meet so many people, who give up a lot of time from their vacation to come to church and take the sacrament with us. This warms our hearts to learn about them. This one from Germany, 

This family is from Finland, where our son Jared served his mission. They are all such incredible people. 

Another couple from Germany. 

This is Sister Johnson and Sister Draper two sisters that are serving together now in the mission office of the Adriatic North mission. There was an article about them in the church news. We just love them!

Then come the hard times; saying goodbye to missionaries you have grown to love and know so well. Travel well and we hope you always know we love you and thank you for being such amazing young missionaries. Elder Schreiner returns home, Elder Wagner to Zagreb.

Goodbye Sister Porter, she is heading to Belgrade, Serbia

Hello to Sister Kay, (from Kaysville) our new missionary who has been in Slovenia speaking Slovene the past year. She now has to start her Croatian. 

Our new Elder's Elder Warncke from Germany, and Elder Wagner from South Jordan. 

Our grandson Elder Teige White was also transferred to Slovenia, so he will be a long way from us. He's excited, this will be his 3rd language, Croatian, Serbian, and Slovene. 

We went to visit one of our members, Katarina. 

We went on a p-day to visit Paklenica National park near Zadar and tried a little hiking. (It was hot!) 

We are amazed sometimes at the large cruise ships that come right up to our harbor. It's like a little city just arrived. 

And the quiet, serene beaches turn into a lot of people having a good time. 

I love the view from our window as we watch some of the cruise ships slowly meander in to port. Sometimes we have 3. Zadar has been discovered!

Two sweet senior Sisters: Sister Somer from Germany, and Sister Hladky from Austria

Our mission President Brian Cordray and Sister Angie Cordray from Germany and New Mexico. They were able to visit the Frankfurt temple with some of our mission. 

Wow, I always think I will wait a month before I post, but we have a big week ahead and there will be too much coming. I am trying to keep my photo journal going! 

Thought: "Each of us is a representative of one side or the other, one fold or the other. There is no time-out. Every moment we are radiating the energy of whatever mind we have chosen. Knowing this, we can deliberately and authentically radiate that which is nourishing for ourself and others." 

 M. Catherine Thomas 

Until next time. Doviðenja (Goodbye) 

 What's Up With The White's In Zadar, Croatia:                 

                        July 22- Aug 7                                               

I keep thinking there won't be much to blog about! Well, as you can see we keep having more experiences of love, serving, sharing and fun! 

We said goodbye to our sweet Sister Sundell (from Las Vegas) , I just love her, we have a lot of enthusiastic energy together and it makes me sad to see her leave Zadar! 

But, with that comes a fun "welcome to Zadar" to Sister Hunter from Arizona. 

We now do our district council with Split (2 hours away along to Dalmatian coast) so this is how we do it, all of us in Zadar sit on our couch and then zoom in with the Split Elders (Warner, Powell) and the Ivanich Seniors. 

Russell and I have been doing some work finding an affordable place along the coast for our Senior Conference in October. (58 people, 27 couples 4 singles) We finally landed on one that works great, This is right next to our hotel, it is in Biograd, Croatia a coastal city about 40 minutes away from us in Zadar. 5 countries will be joining us, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Montenegro, Such a fun bi-yearly conference. I will be presenting on staying mentally healthy on a mission. For me a walk along this beautiful coast does it!!!

We love all the people who show up at church on Sunday. Left is Orijana Juresko a strong long time member of our branch. Then some visitors from the Slovenia branch the Sambunjak family, they are amazing! 

This is Melinka Vovodić. She has been a friend of the church for 5 years. Last Sunday she just announced she was ready to be baptized, so many have worked with her and loved and supported her, then suddenly she knew it was time. We were all so happy for her feeling peace and sure about it. 

This is Freddy (our RS president's husband) and Kezia their daughter who is about to leave us to go to college in Slovenia. We will really miss her and her contributions to our branch! She helps teach primary in the Croatian language. 

This is Anna Louise Matolovic-Mahoney our service missionary painting at the red cross for service. She went to a Young Single Adult activity in Hungary with over 300 people. 

We visited the museum of ancient glass for prep day! I love glass art. 

So old and amazing they were able to preserve them. 

Glass blowing and some amazing artistic ability in ancient days. 

A constant: Cleaning the church, getting ready for the baptism. Always work to be done!

Our friends the Thompson's that are a senior missionary couple up in Karlovac came to visit us on an errand to Zadar. They are from Blackfoot, ID.

Sister Porter, our new member Milenka, and Sister Hunter. 

                               We explored until we found the Zadar Sphinx!                                

Our Beautiful Madison, (our first granddaughter is getting ready to get married Aug. 9th) She sent us some photos. Sooo very hard to miss this, my heart hurts... but we will be on facetime for the celebrating! 

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 The baptism day! Aug. 2 It was a day of love and joy!

                             

                           

 Zveki our Relief Society President gives her a hug.

Treats and celebration afterward

This is Robert, he came to visit us in Zadar on Sunday. He is a great new convert in Rijeka our grandson Teige was able to be a part of. He bore a beautiful testimony. He found the church by listening to the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square singing a Christmas song. He kept listening so many times he knew he needed to find the church that was singing. He is such a good man!

This is a sweet family who came to our branch Sunday from Prague. The Vojtova family. Converts from 10 years ago. 

  Our Grandson Elder Teige White and his companion from Finland Elder Koskialho. 

Elder White was able to do a baptism in Belgrade Serbia to a sweet lady.  She has only 1 leg and is amazing.  

Croatia Aug. 5 celebrates their War of Independence 

These are our friends another Senior couple the Hatch's they are in charge of the housing for all of the many missionaries and senior missionaries over the 5 countries. So it was fun to get a visit from them! 

This is a sad goodbye to President and Sister Ellison (From Hurricane, UT) He was the 1st counselor in the Mission presidency and she was the do everything mission secretary. I told her loosing her was like loosing my safety strap. They gave us their pickleball net so we can have some fun times with our missionaries and on our early mornings! 

The Parkinson's (2nd counselor of the mission presidency) and the Ellison's just happened to meet at the airport in Amsterdam. Ellison's are leaving, Parkinson's returning they had a daughter get married in the states. Parkinson's are from Michigan. 

If you look you can see the lady swimming on her back in the Adriatic sea, and a sailboat. This is our view while we walk along the path in the morning. Almost no one around 

Then we go down to see the  sunset and are overwhelmed with how many people are there! It has become a major tourist destination. We are excited for fall when it gets more quiet again!  

          God Helps me....that's what I think, and then I am calm.

                                        (Carl Bloch)

              (Russell put this in our branch newsletter and I thought you would like it1)