What’s Up with the Whites in Croatia?

                  Mission Updates: July 2 - July 23, 2026

1. A little over six weeks remain in our mission. It hardly seems possible. Somewhere alongthe way, the days turned into months, and now we find ourselves looking toward home.

   It feels as though the Lord has blessed us with protective blinders during this season of service—helping us stay focused on the work at hand and the people we have been privileged to serve. But now those blinders are beginning to lift, and we can feel our hearts gradually turning toward home. The thought of seeing our family and dear friends again fills us with joy, even as we treasure these final weeks here.

   We are determined to finish strong, and there is certainly no shortage of work to do. Our replacements, Brad and Rosie Nielsen from Draper, Utah, will arrive on September 1. We’ve enjoyed several Zoom meetings with them already, and their enthusiasm is contagious. We know they will love this mission and will be a wonderful blessing to the members and missionaries here.

   In the weeks ahead, we’ll be finishing projects, putting everything in order, and preparing our apartment for their arrival. As we begin to close this chapter, our hearts are filled with gratitude. Serving here has been a sacred privilege. We are grateful every day for the opportunity to represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and to witness the Lord’s hand in this work. This beautiful mission has changed us in ways we are only beginning to understand, and while we look forward to going home, we know a part of our hearts will always remain here. 

We are up on a 6th floor for our apartment and this is going on right out our window on the building next to us. It should be done about the time we leave!

We were able to take Elder Teige White (our grandson) and his companion to Plitvice Lakes on p-day on our way up to zone conference. 

                             It is such a beautiful place!

Jake and Lane and kids come back and are in an Airbnb right at the sea. 

             Grandkid sleep over at our mission apartment. They tell us they pray for us every night. 

      Papa sings his famous lullaby to them as they go to sleep. We have missed these moments! 

We show them our beautiful Riva walk in Zadar old town. This is the sea organ, an artist made it with etherial sounds of the sea coming in and out of pipes.

                   Gotta say you went in at the sea organ! Jake gets us                                              started jumping in. 

 

We love having the time to just show them around this beautiful old town. This cathedral of St. Donatus built in the 9th century on top of roman ruins. So much history here. 

          Love the Zadar sunsets, but the crowds are coming! 

Now our daughter Krista arrives with her husband Scott. This is their 25th anniversary celebration too. 

We have a dinner with the missionaries and Elder White (Teige) gets to see both Jake's family and Krista and Scott at the same time. 

               The girls get a few minutes to hang out together. Things to buy- Croatian ties- they originated in Croatia (Croats), silk Croatian scarfs, Kairos necklace and lots of fun things. 

Everyone having fun trying out the diving board into the sea and watching the crazy boys do stunts off the high dive. 

The things we love most, chillin by the sea and just talking about the things that matter most. And playing card games. Feeling a little bit of home is good for the soul so far away. 

Then a boat afternoon to the island across from us. We had a fun two days with both families here. Now back to the mission...

Krista and Scott were our sacrament meeting speakers. They did a great job. Everything has to be translated into Croatian. We had German, Austrian, Egyptian speaking people there and from Ireland etc. So many wonderful members who come to church while on their vacations. I always love this. (Scott got hit by seagul poop walking to church and it hit his new tie, his pants and shoes) oops for the poops!

This was unique and special, Scott spoke about his mission in the Philippines and told such inspirational stories about members who sacrifice for the Lord. Teige was the translator and he is very impressive with his language skills. He has learned Croatian, Serbian and Slovenian on the mission. It is so great to have him here, but not for long, he is released Aug. 4. 

Sister Gardner and Elder Steadman have beautiful voices, they sing "Be Still My Soul" in Croatian. Teige plays the piano. 

Krista and Scott get to meet Ankica and Miso some of our favorite people in our branch. 

And the Sunday table shot with Krista and Scott joining in. These missionaries are so fun and work very hard. It is nice to chill for an hour on Sunday. 

For their last day here we went to KRKA national park about 1 hour from us. The district from Split also 1 hour away also was there. It was a fun day. 

                  It is this beautiful! What a world we live in! 

Krista and Scott take our Zadar Sisters who are zone leaders to exchanges in Split, Croatia. They get some good gelato treats too. 

Wednesday nights for 1 hour we have branch and friend game night. 

 

Then on Saturday July 18 we had a branch party by the sea. We had so much food, water gun fights, lots of friends came and so many others walking by stopped to talk to us. I spent a long time visiting with a sweet lady from Poland curious about our church. 

We have so many visitors from cruise ships and traveling through. This couple were my daughter Lisa's friends from SLC. Monica and Spencer. 

We love the p-days when all 8 of us Zadar missionaries get to play early morning pickleball, soccer, play some games and this time we had crepes for brunch. Easy fun days. Teige had to borrow our computer to get ready for school and coming home in 2 weeks. 

This is one of the Croatian made ties, inside is somewhere or something significant about Croatia. 

Funny, the men are supposed to wear white shirts, ties and jackets for the devotionals on zoom, so this is how Pres. White was dressed! At least he looked presentable on the zoom meeting. 

We are working on getting out to visit members who live a long way from Zadar. We took Sis. Gardner and Clayton out with us to visit Simonne. (originally from Madagascar) She is married and lives out in Croatia far away from us.  She is working in Zadar for the tourist months, and is a member of our branch now. We love her, She served her mission in Africa. 

We found a nice park in Nin, to give her a nice message. 

Visiting Katarina, a member who is loosing her eyesight.  She loves to give me basil every time we go. She said she was going to kidnap us so we can't leave in September. 

Just at the harbor where we walk across the bridge to old town. You can see all of the crowds getting on boat tours from Zadar. So many islands and beautiful places to see. 

  What’s Up with the Whites in Croatia?

Mission Updates: June 5 – July 2, 2026

Hello, friends, and family! I've officially given up apologizing for the length of these mission updates. Every month is overflowing with people we love, places we discover, and moments that strengthen our faith. Even these photos only tell part of the story! If you'd like to journey along with us, each picture has a short caption that shares a little more about our life here on our mission.

      The beautiful spring/summer flowers and bees are everywhere!

       Our wonderful Old Town in the early morning light. 

Elder Kearon and our entire missionaries from our district (all 5 countries) See if you can find us in the almost back left. 

Love these missionary sisters. Sister Shuman just left for home, and Sister Clayton. 

We get to celebrate at Zveki's house (RS president) her 8 year old son Kris. (pronounced Crease)

Zone conference, Teige (Elder White) wants to join us seniors for dinner (of course he would, Grandpa pays and it's better than anything he's had all month!)

This is our last zone conference with Pres. and Sister Cordray. This is our Croatia West zone. 

They like to ham it up, acting like this means they are dying in the mission, (that is what you say for a missionary on his last week with you in the mission) We have had several die with us in Zadar! Some born here too. (are you getting the lingo, and a mother/father is the first one to train them, etc)

Taking our missionaries to the town of Nin. The first capital of Croatia. This is the smallest cathedral in the world. 

      We do a lot of silly things to entertain ourselves!

Lots of dinner pictures, this is Jerome on the back left, he is a member from the Philippines and we love having him with us for 2 years. 

Two of my really good friends serving here, Lisa Ivancich (Roseville, CA), and Shelly Smith (Hurricane, UT)

     We say our last goodbyes to the Cordray's at zone conf. 

We will miss them, and we are also excited to get to work with our new mission president and his wife, the Moores from Oregon. They arrived June 23. 

This was a fun picture Jared sent us, this is Teige at the Stake center before leaving on his mission to the ANM. We had our papers getting started and just hoped we might get to go there. Now we are all in the same district in Zadar! 

            

                    Another branch linger-longer after church.
           

This is Anna Louise, our service missionary and her Mom. We are at the split, Croatia branch where she gave her homecoming talk and Russell and I spoke with her also. She has finished her 18 month service mission, doing family history and billion graves. 

        This is called the way of the cross, a beautiful set of sculptures and stained glass out in a dirt road place near us. 

We took all of our district out for a "last supper" croatian style meat boards before Elder McConkie and Elder Anderson leave us. 

Then off they go to head home. With gift bags of goodies and notes in hand. We have loved having them here with us and are excited to hear about their decisions for life ahead. 

And here they come! We get to have our grandson Elder Teige White with us in Zadar for his last 6 weeks in the mission. This is a very rare thing and we are so happy to get to have him here. He is a very hard working missionary and has piano talents too that will help our branch. We also get Elder Steadman one of the nicest missionaries in our whole mission, and he has the voice of an angel! Music will be fun in our sacrament meetings now!

        Our 4 elders in Zadar and we have 2 sisters too! 

We stayed up late to watch the Croatia/England World Cup Soccer (football) game. 

Trivia: did you know most of Fiddler on the Roof was filmed here in Croatia?

Our granddaughter Joss is on her way with her family. They start in Slovenia and we get to see them in a week. She sent me her pictures. 

This is our apartment complex, about 6 just like these all around us. They have been under scaffolding the whole time we have been here, and look like they will be done just about the time we leave! Nice for our replacements!

This was fun, a cruise ship coming in and we know 2 couples from Utah (not together) who are on it. We are on our morning walk and this is what we see coming by us. 

We had lunch with the Partridge's who served here with us at the beginning of our mission (from Kaysville), and then the Bird's from Tremonton found out we were here and came to join. (We are their fowl friends!) How sweet to get to have visits from them. They came to the church and met the missionaries. 

We have amazing musical talent with this new district! We told them to prepare a musical number every Sunday!

Elder (Teige) White got to speak for his first Sunday with us. This is our district president (like a Stake President when you only have a district) President Flis was here sitting behind him. 

And again a table shot (it seems like I am feeding missionaries a lot!) What a joy they are to talk with. 

Then we were surprised by Luke Wagner (he served here with us in Zadar and was released from his mission 2 days prior) was here with his parents. What a great family. They gave us some new white shirts and ties for our branch members who might need them. 

Time for the first p-day with the new elders. They wanted to go over to the island next to us, Uglian. This is the fortress and views that look like the islands of Greece! 

       It's a tough background for a picture, but someone has to do it! 

They were so very hot, and if you don't know the Jr. missionaries cannot go swimming while on their missions. So this is how they cooled off. It felt wonderful!

President Brian and Sister Angelica Cordray. On their way out. They are no longer mission president, The Moore's are. They have done a wonderful, loving, dedicated work. They will live now in Frankfurt Germany. Farwell friends!

I have taught the missionaries the "I love my life" photo position! My grandkids call it the 'Grandma pose'. 

For a service each day two of our missionaries deliver soup to the homebound elderly. Today I was able to go with them and visit. 

The day before the big Zadar District activity here (5 countries for a Relief Society, and a primary and youth activity) We played some pickleball and had some of our other senior missionaries get to take a trip up our elevator! It is quite the experience!

          You just pray it will get up and down the 6 floors safely!

This was our district fireside with our brand new mission president (Pres. Jeff Moore), and his sweet wife Debbie and their daughter Sarah. (from Oregon) We had the privilege of helping them get around Zadar and to the activities. (They only flew in 2 days before to Zagreb, drove the 4 hours to Zadar and had no idea where they were or what was going on) So we became very close friends very quickly. They will be wonderful for this mission! He speaks Croatian from being a young missionary here. 

So to begin our district full day, we had a baptism in our branch. This is the cutest boy in the world. His name is Kris, and is our Relief Society President (Zveki) son. What a wonderful way to start a great day, Pres. Moore was also here with us. Russell was very busy and so were our missionaries setting up our branch that fits about 60 and we ended up having 150 members the next day! A crowded but wonderful day! 

Our Relief Society group went on a tour of our city, Zadar. Jasmina from our branch is a professional tour guide. 

Two of our favorite sisters serving in Slovenia (Barbara Nielsen- Celje, and Sister Tana MacPherson-Maribor) 

One of the best ladies, Sister Beth Lamb, from California. They are going back home about the same time as we are in a couple of months!

Then we headed back at the RS activity, I spoke on relationships and communication. My daughter in-law Lane (Jake's wife) and her mother Leslie Thomas came to the Zadar activity right then to be with me. It seemed to go well and ladies from all 5 countries helped add to the conversation. This was the last time I will be involved in a district activity and I told them how much I loved them and had learned from them. 

Then the best thing... we got to hurry off from speaking, and look who was waiting for us! Our grandkids! Jake, Lane, (Joss, Rosie and Tommy) came to see us, along with Lane's parents (Tom and Leslie Thomas). What a joy for us. We absolutely loved it. We are in a terrible heat wave and it is so muggy and hot, but showed them Zadar anyway. 

Are we lucky, family and friends getting to see us on our mission! 

We asked Tom (an area seventy from the SW states) and Leslie to speak to the district Sunday. They gave wonderful talks (that had to be translated into Croatian, Serbian and Slovene. What a blessing they were to our members, and Pres. and Sister Moore also spoke. We loved it. We were packed in like sardines! Russell conducted in Croatian and I am always so proud of him. We were so happy with the way it all went and our Jr. missionaries helped out so much! Tired but happy!

                                Jake and Tommy at church

Teige (Elder T. White) wore the tie that Jake had given him from his mission to Mexico years ago. He had signed it and told him to have fun. So glad they got to see each other!

President Jeff and Debbie Moore and us in the Zadar branch. Fantastic people! (and my orange lilies for a sweet touch)

 Ankica, Beth and I. We have lots of good times on the mission together! 

We had after dinner after church together,  then they they were off to see Split/Dubrovnik down south. Jake and Lane will be back next week to spend some easy going time with us. Joss wants a grandkid sleepover!

We got to have some good talks. The weekend went so well. Then we both looked at each other and said: "we did it!".  And it was quiet. 

                Lovin' the elevator ride, and goodbye for a week!

The next morning, pickleball and games at our apartment to cool off with our missionaries for p-day. Then we took them grocery and errand shopping. 

Well, another month has come and gone, and now we have just two months left in our mission. It's a bittersweet season. We are soaking up every day, grateful for every opportunity to serve and every friendship we've made. At the same time, we're genuinely excited to hug our family and friends again, sleep in our own bed, and settle back into the familiar rhythms of home.

What an incredible adventure this has been. It has stretched us, humbled us, and filled our hearts in ways we never expected.

Until next time... choose happiness—it really is a choice. Hold your loved ones close, try to become just a little better each day, and don't forget to enjoy a little chocolate now and then!

Sending our love to all of you.