Helping Hands Service Project, 2 Baptisms and a Relief Society Conferance

   Wearing our bright new "Helping Hands" T-shirts, we jumped into a meaningful service project at the Sarajevo Jewish Synagogue and Community Center called La Benevolencija

                         

One of the first tasks was taking down an old trampoline. They were amazed at how quickly we dismantled it, not realizing most of us had grown up with one of these in our backyards.  I wish I had taken some “before” photos to show just how overgrown things were. 

These pictures are the closest I got to show how it all looked when we first started.

.

                                                             

If you know my husband, Charles, you won’t be surprised to hear he was in heaven doing yard work. He took charge of most of the big trimming and couldn’t have been happier. It really did feel good to get our hands dirty and do some real work. 

.        

Here are the “after” pictures it looked pretty great by the time we finished! There were 11 of us working, and we had everything cleaned up in about two hours.

We teamed up with another NGO called Olamaid for this project. They were the ones who made all the arrangements and even jumped in to get their hands dirty right alongside us. We’re excited to partner with them on a few more humanitarian projects in the future, including some service opportunities for our younger missionaries.

Here’s a photo of our new shirts! They feature the updated Church logo with two hands and the phrase “Ruke Pomoći”, which means “Helping Hands.” The literal translation is “Hands Help,” a simple but powerful reminder of the service we strive to give. Beneath the hands is the name of our Church.

After we finished the yard work, our hosts graciously gave us a tour of their beautiful synagogue, which was built in 1902. It was a special experience to walk through such a historic and sacred space. The men in our group were given yarmulkes to wear as a sign of respect during the visit.

      

  

  

From Chat GPT:  The Jewish synagogue and community in Sarajevo played a significant humanitarian role during the Balkan War, during the Siege of Sarajevo from 1992 to 1995 

La Benevolencija is not just a synagogue but also a Jewish cultural, educational, and humanitarian society. During the war, it became a critical center for humanitarian aid providing food, medicine, shelter, and even running a pharmacy and free clinic. Remarkably, it offered help to everyone, regardless of religion or ethnicity, and is remembered as a symbol of unity and compassion in a time of division.

The name La Benevolencija means "benevolence" or "kindness" reflecting its deep-rooted mission of service and community support.

After the tour, our hosts treated us to a wonderful lunch. I’ve written about this kitchen before, it’s the same one that’s been faithfully serving the community for years. This humble soup kitchen has been feeding those in need for decades since the balkan war. Hopefully we will be helping them getting a new kitchen in the near future.

We had a beautiful baptism in Banja Luka for a sweet woman named Kristina. The service was simple and a special day for everyone who attended.

Since we don’t have a permanent baptismal font, we use a portable one that we assemble on site. We fill it using a small hose attached to the kitchen sink. When it’s time to empty it, we siphon the water out through a hose and sometimes grab a few buckets to speed things along!

After the baptism, we celebrated with lunch at a little seafood restaurant tucked behind the church building. It was so delicious! 

One of our missionaries, Elder Vallier decided to be adventurous and tried fried sardines for the first time. He said they were surprisingly tasty head, tail, and all! I had my favorite Balkan dish, grilled squid.  

Our good friends Haris and Megan were still in Sarajevo and invited all the missionaries over for a fun dinner. They served delicious döner kebabs (kind of like gyros), with fruit and chips on the side.

Megan and Haris have the cutest little girl, you can’t help but smile when she’s around. Megan’s parents were also there, and it was their first time visiting the country their son-in-law calls home. It was really special to see them experience Bosnia for the first time.

Haris’ entire family came too, his parents, his brother and sister-in-law with their two cute boys, plus his aunt, uncle, and a few cousins. It was such a great evening. Haris' family are Muslim and his 2 cousins  took time to teach us more about their Muslim faith, and honestly, we were surprised by how many similarities it shares with our own beliefs in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They truly live their religion. Family is central to their lives, just like in ours. They have dietary guidelines, including not drinking alcohol. They fast and give to the poor. And they pray faithfully multiple times a day. And above all, they’re some of the kindest, most genuine people you’ll ever meet. We’re so grateful for their friendship.

The Adriatic North District (not quite a Stake yet!) includes five countries, and we just held our 2nd Relief Society Conference in Belgrade, Serbia. We had 53 amazing women attend it was such a powerful and uplifting experience. Honestly, it almost felt like a real Stake gathering! 

They also held activities for the Young Women and Primary at the same time, which added so much energy and joy to the day. In total, about 105 people attended it was such a memorable, spirit-filled event!

One of the best parts of the conference was getting to catch up with friends from all over, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, and Montenegro. 

The photo on the right shows two incredible women: our District Relief Society President, who lives in Serbia, and our Young Women’s District President, just 20 years old! who lives in Slovenia.

The photo on the left is of our dear friends Zveki and Kasia Fernandez from Zadar, Croatia. When our son Nathan served his mission, he spent six months in Zadar, and the amazing Fernandez family made sure he was well taken care of with lots of love and plenty of home-cooked meals. Kasia just turned 19 and she serves as first councilor in the District Young Women's Presidency.

Lidia, on the right, is originally from Serbia but is currently going to school in Utah. She happened to be home for the week for her sister’s wedding and made it to the conference. It was so fun to see her again she came to visit me in California last summer!

The picture on the right is my good friend Kristina. She works in the Church’s translation department and actually retranslated the Book of Mormon into Croatian. Pretty amazing, right? What a cool and meaningful way to serve. The picture on the left is of one the early members in Yugoslavia.

Of course I had to make sure we got this group photo of the entire group. I  love all these ladies so much. They are real Pioneers of the Balkans. Some of the first members in this part of the world. 

While we were in Serbia for the conference, there was another baptism happening back in Bosnia! The missionaries there were the only ones in the country at the time, so they handled everything on their own and they did an amazing job. I was able to join in and watch the baptism over Zoom, along with a few other missionaries who had previously served in Sarajevo and knew this young man. It was so special to be part of it, even from a distance!