Lesson of the Bird Nest!
Last week when we were visiting an old castle turned into a hospital, we took a walk around the aging grounds.  It was a nice trail, covered over head with large heavy trees.  Looking down, we found a perfect bird nest, resting on the trail.  Because I'm a grandmother, my first thought was..."Wouldn't the grandkids love to see this!"  I picked it up and brought it home.

I have one 9 year old little girl that I try to teach a primary lesson to each Sunday.  She and I have a difficult time communicating as she only speaks Croatian.  I am constantly praying and trying to figure out someway to get a lesson across the language barrier.

This week when I opened the primary lesson manual, in the first paragraph were the words..."build a bird nest...!"  I am constantly being reminded that Heavenly Father is listen and watching over us here.  He finds ways to communicate his love to me...I can do it too!!

This "P-day", still exhausted from the weekend's activities, we took a short drive through the farm fields around Varazdin. They were planting grain and potatoes. We had found on the internet a reference to the "Biggest Castle in Croatia".















We thought we should check it out.  It was only a 30 minute drive to the Klenovnik Castle. Dating back to the 13th century, it has been sold several times and now owned by the City of Zagreb.

It has now become a hospital for patients with tuberculosis. Before its renovation in 1925, Klenovnik supposedly had 90 rooms and over 365 windows.








Walking around the castle, we discovered some old and crumbling walls, with ancient looking steps.






The castle has a beautiful park with lots of huge trees surrounding it so it was difficult to get a clear photo of the whole castle.

April 21 & 22 We hosted our first Single Senior Conference in Zagreb
at the Mission Home.  We had 8 single members, ages 45-55 from the countries of Croatia and Slovenia.  They arrived Friday afternoon and along with our committee we prepared "gathering games" and snacks.  Not everyone knew each other so we played the game where you had to find someone who had done "this or that".  I had to create the game and get it translated into Croatian.


We served dinner for 20 people.  We had special helpers who prepared a spiritual thought to open our conference, taught them ballroom dancing, karaoke and rounded out the night with cake and ice cream.






The next morning I had to conduct a Yoga group, where they just didn't want to stop.  They seem to enjoy everything.














Breakfast was served, special speaker, opening theme activity, learn how to use social media, and then team building games.

Outside for human fooseball and then lunch was served.

Afternoon found them learning self reliance, doing a "Me in 30 Seconds" and watching video training on using and transcribing on Billiongraves.com.

Our theme of Helping Hands ended with a video clip of Alex Boye singing "Have I done Any Good". It kept us busy picking up members coming in on the train and bus and then running them back for their return home transportation.



I think they had a great time, lots of laughing and smiles and they were able to enjoy other members of the church from different parts of the country.

                                               (Sorry they are to bashful to have you listen!)
That evening our branch members (five men) were able to stay at the mission home for the night because District Conference was the next day.  That evening we were treated to a sing-along of their Croatian songs.  We laughed, clapped and cheered.  One particular song we loved was all of them singing about their native town of Varazdin..."The Men from Varazdin".  Hope that you are able to play it....what they lack in skill they make up for in enthusiasm!!!  They are awesome!

Our First Senior Conference was held April 11-13, 2017 in Zlatibor, Serbia, which ended up being a 10 hour drive both coming and going.  (We had to get lost a few times along the way)

We left Varazdin (home), Sunday afternoon and drove to Osijek, on the eastern side of Croatia, just barely south of Hungry.  Along the way we saw many houses with no windows but looking fairly new.  We wondered if it was pay-as-you-go and they couldn't afford the windows yet.  










Large mustard fields (that's what they looked like) covered several acres of farm ground outside of Varazdin.



This is a typical farm home.  The front part is the house and then the storage and barns are all attached.  We wondered if the taxes were less expensive if it was all one building.  We have learned they have a 25% tax here on commodities.  Not sure about other taxes.

These pictures are for my children, who want a large country home.  Especially Amanda and Mike who are becoming the Crnich Family Fixit Upper experts.  How about this one...I think we can buy it for cheap!!!

We stayed that first night with The Mayberry's, in Osijek, another senior companion couple, which we met in the MTC.  We toured their city and saw their special church building.  Each one is so different but all struggling.

The next morning we headed south leaving Croatia and entered Bosnia.  It's a little intimidating to cross the border into a different country here.  Your passport is checked and recorded when you leave the country and in a few minutes farther down the road at another checkpoint, your passport, and car registration are checked again and recorded.  They know exactly who is in their country and who is leaving.  Chris made an attempt to communicate with one of the guards and gave him a thumbs-up regarding his mustache.  It brought a smile to the guard!  Funny how just seeing a smile, makes all the difference.  This is a picture of the Bosnian countryside.

Along the way there is still evidence of the war between Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia with bullet-ridden and bombed out buildings.  Life is improving slowly though with new homes in between the destroyed ones.

This is called House on the Drina River.  Funny thing...the guard at the border asked us where we were going.  Chris said to see the house in the river.  He laughed and said...in broken English...the water washed the house away!  We thought, oh too bad, but later down the road we found it sitting proudly out in the middle of the water.  We thought maybe the guard was having a joke at our expense!

Again crossing the border, this time from Bosnia into Serbia, we soon arrived at Zlatibor, Serbia, a resort town.  While driving, we tried to emerge ourselves with the history and heritage of the local people and visited a few of their unique sites.This part of the country is noted for it's famous "Wooden Buildings".  Once, we think, this part of the country was covered in wood. Today almost all homes are made out of concrete. These old homes are a historic reflection of the past in Serbia.

This is a modern day wooden home, small.





A short climb and sharp descent into one of the canyons near the hotel was the Stopic Cave. First discovered in the early 20th century, this cave boasts an impressive opening.

Water accumulated during the seasonal rainfall, forms cascades of travertine terraces. In one place within the cave, is a waterfall, which is called the Spring of Life. We checked out the cave along with about 100 school students from the area. 

The Senior Conference was amazing.  We met the other 37 seniors from all of the five countries within our mission.  We learned of the things they have accomplished during their mission and plans for the future of the Adriatic North Mission.  Some very amazingly spiritually strong, talented people. We felt to lucky to be there with them and hear their testimonies and receive their encouragement.

We received new assignments and instructions on top of the ones we already had.  There is just not enough time in the day to get everything accomplished that is needed here.  Please if anyone is thinking of a mission, this one is so in need!  It is truly just in the beginning stages of the development of the Church here.  There are several towns with only "groups", some with branches of 6 active members, and the largest having maybe 25 active members.  There is always so much encouragement and helping to lift the burdens that can be done.  Please come!!!



The Zlatibor area appears to be a resort area.  The hotel overlooked a small lake surrounded by walkways and a large center area where children could ride rental battery operated cars and riding horses, while their parents relaxed.  A lovely place to get out of the large city of Uzice nearby.

Part of the conference was a tour of the Morka Gora Valley and historical guided tour of the region.  Boarding a bus, we left the hotel and spent a few hours learning about the culture of the Serbian people and took a ride on their historic Morka Gora train.  It was a figure eight trip, going through at least 16 tunnels.  Of course Elder Crnich was having a wonderful day!

After the conference was over we began our trip home.  Once again crossing the border into Bosnia but this time stopping along the way at the "Bridge Over Drina".  This ottoman inspired bridge was partially distroyed during WW II by the Germans but has been rebuilt and is now considered a tourist attraction.  We took time to take a 30 minute mini cruise to see it up close and personal.

It was another long day as we traveled through Bosnia returning to Osijek and spending another night with the Mayberry's.  After a quick breakfast we were on the road again and another four hours found us back home to Varazdin.  A wonderful uplifting, energizing conference.  We returned to learn that one of our elders was being transferred to Bosnia and that we could expect a new elder to take his place.

                                  A wonderful group of Adriatic North Senior Missionaries!!

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Suffering from a little case of homesickness...somehow this made it seem all better!  Just of center of town in Varazdin, Croatia!

Just so you don't think all we do is play tourist here's a list of things we had going this week..
Two nights a week, Chris teaches Conversation Group at the church.
We attend District meeting with the elders every week.
We clean the church every Saturday morning.
We attend Branch Presidency Meeting weekly.
I teach family history class one night a week.
I teach primary Sunday morning.
We had General Conference, with three different meals served in between conference.
We drove 5 hours round trip to Celje, Slovenia for a meeting with other Senior Missionaries to plan for a Single Senior Conference later this month.
We drove to Zagreb yesterday for all day Zone Conference.
We leave this coming Monday for 6 day driving trip to Zlatibor, Serbia for a Senior Missionary Conference.

A few days after we get back from that we are in Zagreb again to host the mission wide Senior Singles Conference at the Mission home.

And today we spent a couple hours in the center part of town, handing out pamphlets and cards encouraging people to watch the new Easter video Prince of Peace in Croatian... #KnezMironosni.

All this and try to learn the language too...

                                                                     
Monday, April 3rd, we decided an outing with the Elders for our preparation day was on schedule.  We drove about an hour out of town to the Trakoscan Castle, near the Slovenia border.  This castle which was built some time before 1300 AD, was used first as a lookout tower guarding the Croatian valley below from invading Turks.  Through the years, it's ownership changed hands but it was owned for nearly 400 years by the Drasovic family.  King Maximilian gave the estate to Juraj Draskovic (1525-1587) for services rendered, first personally, and then as a family heritage.  

The castle is now owned by the Republic of Croatia and is operated as a museum. 

 One room which was of particular interest to all the boys, was the room filled with artillery, weapons and hunting tools of the era.

                                   Happy to share the day with our Elders Roberts & Smith.