The Chronicles of Bosnia 2025/2026

Last weekend I attended an Adriatic North District Relief Society birthday celebration in Maribor, Slovenia. Our district includes members from five different countries: Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Slovenia. Because of the distances between us, getting together takes some effort. For this event, we drove about seven hours and crossed through three countries just to attend the party.  Maribor is a beautiful city in Slovenia. Slovenia borders Austria, and the scenery has a similar breathtaking beauty. A lovely river runs right through the center of downtown, and it was filled with graceful swans gliding along the water. I made this fun road trip with two very special ladies. Helen Smith, who is also a senior missionary, lives on the first floor right below us. Suzana rode in the back seat. Suzana’s dedication always amazes me. To attend our small group of members in Banja Luka, she walks two hours just to reach the bus stop, then takes another hour-long bus ride. She mak...

A few weeks ago we received a text from my nephew and his wife, Joey and Cambi, asking if we might be open to some last-minute visitors. They were planning an anniversary trip and had found some cheap flights from LA to Sarajevo . Of course our answer was PLEASE come! We love any chance we get to show friends and family our favorite corner of the world They attended church with us on Sunday, and on Monday Charles and I had a full day of humanitarian work, so they went on a war tour of the city. That evening we took them to our second favorite city in Bosnia, Mostar , to see the famous Stari Most .(old Bridge) After Mostar we took them to see the beautiful Blagaj Tekke Monastary , built beside the vivid blue spring of the Buna River  where water flows straight from the cave beneath the rock    Charles was excited to show them his latest interest, these ancient tombs called Stećci . We visited the historic graveyard in Bosnia filled with these stone monuments dating back to...