What’s Up with the Whites in Croatia?

Mission Updates: May 1 - 9, 2026

I hope you enjoy these blogs, they end up long, but they are only a fraction of what is going on here! And the scenery...it's so beautiful!

This is the church of St. Donatus, (Donat) the centerpiece of our old town in Zadar. We love walking in this area, can't begin to count the many times and people we have loved walking here with, 

We took our Sister missionaries (Quarnberg & Gardner) to the town of Nin, about 30 minutes from Zadar. This was the first official city and capital of Croatia. This is Gregory of Nin, (there are 3 statues of him in Croatia) he was a bishop who fought with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church to allow the people to hear mass in their own language and have scripture in Croatian. He was demoted and is honored in Croatia now. Touching his golden toe brings good luck if you wish for something that is not monetary. 

A beautiful old city with many of its walls and gates still standing. 

Queen's beach is also there, one of the only sandy beaches in Croatia, most are rocky and pebbles. I told them to always remember they are the queen!

This is us at our apartment having one of our weekly interviews with Sister Matulovic-Mahoney our service missionary. We are finishing up the "my plan" for after she is no longer a full time missionary next month. She lives about 5 hours from us on a beautiful island called Korcula. 

We ran in to two of our missionaries at the main gate of old town Zadar. They ended up getting told they could not set up a table, but they tried. 

We were all going in to Zadar and a lady yelled "hi missionaries" she was so excited to see missionaries from her church. She was from the Philippines. 

This was a special morning, I arranged for all of our Zadar missionaries to visit with Ankica and Mišo to learn about the early church in our area, they were the first couple to be baptized in Yugoslavia. They are so important to our branch and he is the Patriarch for several countries. 

Elder McConkie loves getting advice about being a missionary and about his future in basketball as Mišo was a NBA scout for 20 years in the US, 

After church I love getting some time to talk with our missionaries! It's kind of like we are their temporary parents (or grandparents) but they like to ask for advice. 

We had a new member Simone who was from Madagascar when she was converted to our church, went on a mission and now is married to a Croatian man. She lives far away in Croatia and has come to Zadar to live for 6 months while she works. She was in the hospital here her first week so we helped and were glad we could serve her needs. She stayed with us a couple of days. 

Another fun Sunday meal with now 8 missionaries and Simone joined us. 

Our grandson Elder Teige White, in Zagreb about 3 hours from us. He is having some great success with friends joining the church. 

Meanwhile back at home our first granddaughter Madison graduated with her masters (MBA) from UVU, and her husband Jared with his degree in business. So proud of both of them!

And her brother Trey White is starting flight school at a wonderful flight academy. Spreading his wings! 

These are some of the great members of our Zadar branch with our two sister missionaries. 

I love to get pictures from grandkids, this is from Scarlet (Lisa's daughter) drawing our city Zadar. She will be here in 10 days!

Croatia West (our coastal area) part of our zone conference, so many are leaving soon! 

            Always have to get a little crazy after all the sitting still!

This is Slovenia, the beautiful town of Ljubljana. We visited here after zone conference while waiting for our friends Ron and Diane Crump to arrive. 

                          An amazing bronze main door at a cathedral. 

                         The beautiful river through Ljubljana   

On our way to Lake Bled we drove through the beautiful Julian Alps of Slovenia. Incredible world we live in. 

                   These places make me feel reverence & gratitude

                Then we arrive at beautiful Lake Bled, Slovenia

                Diane and Ron Crump arrived at about 2:00 AM

We get some time to share our mission experience and the beauties of this land with them. Glorious! So fun to get these moments. This is truly a wonderful world. Following Jesus Christ and trying to live in a way that honors Him, has given me hope even when many things in the world seem to be unraveling. 

            We take the traditional Plenta boats to the chapel on the island. 

Even way out here in Slovenia, we ran into Elder and Sister Smith serving in Bosnia, and the Reeds from Zagreb, Croatia. No coincidences. 

          I don't want to post too many food pictures, but this was so good! 

             We did a quick morning to Ljubljana on our way back to Zadar.  This is the dragon bridge, symbol of strength and protection. 

                           Is this adorable. Little Cygnets! 

While we were away, our adorable Sister Ellie Kay, (who has gone home but came to visit with her family) came to visit Zadar! So fun. 

Ok, I am going to end this blog and start a new one, they just get too long, but so much is going on!  .....continued on the next blog

  

 What’s Up with the Whites in Croatia?

Mission Updates: April 6- May 1  2026

These are our 6 missionaries now in Zadar. They did what was called "white boarding" where they just like to ask people what brings them joy. The loved it and met so many great people in Old town. 

Our beautiful morning walks along the adriatic sea. This is about a 10 min. walk from where we park our car at our church. We try to do about 3-4 miles as often as we can. I keep saying "let's never take this view for granted! "

April Zone conference in Zagreb, we are in the middle! Love these great uplifting and spiritual days! 

        We do bring out the "crazy" after sitting for so long! 

        And of course we need refreshments to stay awake! 

We also got to take our grandson (Elder Teige White) out to dinner while we were up in his area, his companion Elder Chapman is from Spanish Fork, UT. Great to visit with them, they are working so hard everyday and love it! 

Our kids and grandkids are using our home in Ivins, UT while we are gone and sent this picture of our beautiful blooming cactus (and our beautiful blooming granddaughter Sofia Grace (Lisa's daughter)

Our Zadar 5k (all 5 countries did this in our own areas) We honored Krešimir Čosić, and BYU where he played for a few years. 

   Running along the Adriatic Sea is a nice view as you run!

Right in our old town, is the Church of St. Donatus, built in the 9th century AD. 

And of course treats at the Pekara (bakery) after the run. We did this at 7 AM so there would be no crowds. 

We love our "Old City" of Zadar. We will really miss these historical places when we go home in September. 

We just got new chairs for our branch. Split branch got a new building and new chairs so we are like their little brother and get their hand me downs which are much nicer than our last chairs! 

Bringing in some new friends to our game night. Always a fun hour at our branch. (they forgot to bring our new green couches so we are unmatched for awhile)

Ok, this is the best! My first visitor from the states! Patty Ballou and her husband Kahl. She and I were close friends at BYU-Hawaii in 1975. There are 6 of us that are still very close. It was wonderful getting to share this experience with them! 

                    Getting a good start in Old Town. 

    Hey, did you know we have Roman ruins all over the place! 

            The salutation to the sun at night, solar lights. 

            Morning walks by the sea, so lovely

    Greeting our man by the sea, he has become our best        friend! 

                         The Zadar city gate. 

 

We took them to see KRKA National park (1 hour away from us)

   Patty had to try the seafood dish, this is her octopus meal! 

This was the best surprise. Our member Filip who had been in an induced coma, has a horrible leg recovery and last time we visited him in Zagreb he could barely stand and take two steps. This time he came down the elevator and greeted us at the front of his apartment building with his Dad. We were in shock. Miracles. We hope so badly he can return to us in Zadar. He was baptized just 1 1/2 years ago and we just love him! We were in Zagreb for district conference (all 5 countries). 

Patty also has a brother in our mission. His wife is our mission nurse. We ended up having lots of connections with people in our mission! 

Sister Cordray our mission leader and Sister MacPherson. So many women to love and become friends with!

President Cordray, gives the best presentations in our zone conferences. He is amazing how hard he works, and his spiritual messages. 

Sister Lamb and a sister from Zagreb, like I said, so many people touching our hearts and making our mission happy! 

And then on a prep day, we went to Split and got to play pickle ball on their amazing courts, some of the best in Europe. We had so much fun. Elder Whiting in the white shirt was a semi-pro tennis player so he had to play way down for us. Russell and I showed up to play though! (we won't tell them how sore we were afterwards) 

The Ivancich's from California are in Split, Croatia. Basically our neighbor missionaries only 2 hours away. We love them! 

The reason we were in Split was to surprise my sister and sister in law. They thought they would see us the next day so we had a fun surprise visit! Oh so fun to have family come!

Ok this next part will be too many photos, so I will just drop them and say very little but the pictures let you know we had a wonderful visit and shared so much of our mission experiences with them. We basically stayed right near Zadar. 

Diocletian's palace

Touch the golden toe for good luck. We had the best weather week!

Got to try the Cevapi and the pizza! Trogir

Game night with our branch and friends. Kathy and Russell got to help the missionaries teach a lesson. 

     Beautiful KRKA just an awe inspiring moment with them!

They stayed right in the center of old town. This is by the sea organ and the bench that looks like piano keys. 

My sister Lisa has been wanting to touch our 'man by the sea' since we got her. Finally she can have the luck of the Adriatic Sea!

We had to show them Plitvice Lakes National Park, Craig had rented a van so we could go together. Yes it is for real!

A little boat takes us up the lake to start more waterfall hikes. (about 7 miles of walking)

                           What can I say more?  

Visited the islands right by us in our branch, Oslak and Uglian. 

Their last day here we asked them all to speak in church for our sacrament meeting. They did a fantastic job, wonderful messages and Zveki our RS president did the language translation into Croatian. Notice the beautiful lily's for the special speakers!

And then we had a linger longer meal. Everyone just loved them and I think they left a bit of their own hearts in Croatia! So great to see them, hard to say goodbye, but like I told my sister- It's like we are only in Croatia!!! ha ha (kind of far, but so much to do and so little time left... 4 more months!) 

I will end here because this is way too long! But I have to keep track of what we are doing! Love to all, Stay happy, it's the best way!