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! "
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!
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?
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!
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