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.