What’s Up with the Whites in Croatia?
Mission Updates: May 9 - June 4 , 2026
I am currently reading one of my favorite books by Neal A. Maxwell "The Promise of Discipleship" for about the 5th time. I love this book and I love refreshing his insights into my thoughts. For instance I just read this: "we are dealing with the work of God and with His assurance that He can surely and certainly bring His purposes to pass. God's determinations, therefore, provide the vaulting reassurance that we all need as we proceed along the demanding path of discipleship, and His long-suffering provides balm for the footsore."
I love the way he is an artist with language!
Beautiful Zadar sunsets!
Sunday's are a busy day for us, we leave at 8:15 and get back around 1:30 to get dinner going by 4 pm. Then we have a Sunday devotional. Great days!
This day the Sister missionaries brought me some tulips for mother's day. Yep, we miss a lot of special times with family but we make the best of it with special people here. I did love getting calls from my 5 children and some grandkids too!
We did get a devotional that night with Sheri Dew, if you know her she is an amazing and insightful woman. Diane and Ron stayed to listen with us. Tidbits:
“Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.”
― José Ortega y Gasset
“we all have a divine orbit"
Another thing we are missing, our beautiful granddaughter Lily Nance is graduating from high school. On to UVU! We love you Lily pills!
I love seeing everyone's amazement and awe as much as seeing it again myself!
Already time for transfers, this time we only had 1 change, Sister Quarnberg (Mapleton) is going to Zagreb. We have had her for 4.5 months and just adore her. I'll say it again, these are hard for me to take!
But...the fun part is welcoming in a new person. This is sister Clayton from basically everywhere. Her father works for the state department (embassies) all over the world. She speaks 4 languages and her Croatian is very good.
This is taking a car ferry over to Uglian island (some of our branch members live on this island) Then when you drive up to the fortress and look on the other side this is what we see. These sailboats look so peaceful. There are over 1,000 islands & islets in Croatia. Only about 50 islands are permanently inhabited.
Buying our Croatian scarfs and ties. Did you know that: the modern necktie is widely considered to have originated in Croatia.
The word “cravat” actually comes from the French word Croate, meaning “Croat.”
Here’s the story:
During the 1600s, Croatian soldiers serving in France wore distinctive cloth scarves tied around their necks as part of their uniform. The style caught the attention of the French court, especially under Louis XIV, and fashionable French society began copying it.
And of course, they are Very expensive!
The Crump's have left us to fly home, always hard to say goodbye, but we love sharing our experiences with good friends and family. It helps us have some shared experiences. And now they know...
These are the happy days, Sister Katelyn Price who served here in Zadar until January returned with her identical twin sister Megan and her parents. We loved getting to walk around old town with them and getting to know her parents. They came to church with our branch the next day. She is a beautiful soul!
We love rubbing shoulders with all of these fun, energetic, dedicated young missionaries!
When we go for our morning walks we sometimes come around a corner and see these huge cruise ships have come into port. Croatia is getting so much tourism now, I know it is good for income, but it changes the landscape so quickly. We know the secret ways to get away from the tour groups, and that is kind of fun!
Once in awhile we will be driving down the streets of Zadar and see one of our missionary companionships out trying to share their light. It is kind of common in UT but not here.
Up on top of the wall that surrounds the Zadar old town we have our YW activity, water color by the harbor. (I just enjoy watching them)
Two of these elders are leaving to go home in a couple of weeks, so for their p-day Russell takes them to see KRKA. They love it! A good break after lots of hard work.
Big news for our little Branch! We get to say goodbye to all of our unmatching chairs and couches, and clean up to get the green ones from the Split branch. We are like the little brother to Split, we get the first hand-me-downs and we are very grateful!
We have also become expert in our janitorial skills! We do it all the time and are thankful just to have a building to meet in!
This is the bridge we walk across to come from our church to enter old town Zadar. It takes us about 10 minutes to walk here. It is a beautiful walk.
This is so very true! How does it happen?
We were told to rent a large van to take all of our missionaries up to the mission tour in Zagreb. It was p-day for the travel day so we got permission to take the whole group to see Plitvice Lakes. They were so excited!
We were going with our daughter in just a few days so we waited for them at the Oštarčević retreat nearby in Lika. So peaceful and beautiful.
While we are here, Lisa, Taylor, Rockwell, Sofia and Scarlett my daughter's family arrive, stay overnight in our apartment in Zadar while we are gone and make the drive to meet us for a big event!
We arrive early for a mission picture, and then do a song together for a video they are making. The main event is still to come at 2:30 today.
After our photo and songs all of the young missionaries go out around the city to work.
While we have 2 extra hours we were able to go visit Filip, our member who was seriously ill and is recovering. We are all hoping he can return to our branch in Zadar. Now his Mom is very ill. So hard, and we love their sweet family. Just barely had time to go visit between sessions.
This is all of the missionaries in our entire mission. We have come to hear....Elder Patrick Kearon. One of our 12 apostles. We are so excited to hear him talk to the missionaries.
They come down and just walk around us and we are feeling so grateful for their visit to our small area.
This is our Elder McConkie, his Dad and Elder Kearon.
This is him getting to hug his Mom. Happy moment!
McConkies, our mission president, the Cordray's, & the Kearon's
Such a great opportunity for all of us.
With just a 1 hour break between the missionary session and one for the entire 5 country district members we have the exciting moment of meeting up with Lisa and family. They came to hear him speak for this meeting.
He is wonderful! Some of his messages: He talked about the power of God’s overwhelming love. Your service is precious and life giving. 1 John. 1:5
5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
We are missionaries of light.
We are the standard bearers of this light.
Savor everything.!!!! Even the hard parts. Use every fiber of your being. Please stretch and watch what it does for you.
Elder White (Teige) gets to see his cousins and aunt and uncle for the first time. I was so excited to see them, what an awesome day, spiritual, happy and even reverent in the experiences with friends, family and our mission family. And then an apostle.
After they spent two days at Lake Bled in Slovenia, they met us at Plitvice Lakes National Park. (yes, we love this place and show it to everyone that comes).
Sofia Grace, so good to get to see these grandkids and hug them!
After a trip out to the islands near us we taught them about Kresimir.
Lisa and her whole family gave our sacrament meeting talks. They were so sweet and thought out. Scarlet (8) talked about how her grandma and grandpa had to miss her baptism because they were on a mission here, and she knew it was because they wanted to serve Jesus. That we gave her scriptures and a card she reads every Sunday. All of our branch members just loved their family.
After church we had 13 of us for a fun spaghetti dinner. Then the missionaries each talked about their experiences on their mission. After dinner they left for Split then flew home. How we have loved showing our family our mission experiences. So grateful!
Then on June 2 our service missionary we have worked with was released after serving an 18 month mission. We have loved working with her.
Such a sweet picture of our Sister Ruby Gardner. She has the voice of an angel!
Taking our missionaries and exchanges out for gelato in old town.
We got in a quick pickleball game with the Ivancich's from Split. We almost got heat exhaustion, but we had a lot of fun!
Ok, another long blog with a very busy month in the mission again.
We are getting close to only 3 months left in our mission. We fly home on Sept. 9th. We hope we can continue serving in the best way we can. We will continue to spread the gospel of JOY along the way! Love you all!
