Crossing the border

Well, we tried to cross the border.  We attended Sacrament Meeting in Rijeka last weekend.  We ended up staying over an extra day for our P-day to explore.  There is so much to see in this beautiful city.  We stayed at the Hotel Jadran, which is now our favorite place.  On Monday we drove to Slovenia to see the Postojna Caves, a network of  passages  where you can see stalactites, and stalagmites in a variety of colors and shapes.  We also saw Predjama Castle which is built under a natural rocky arch in the side of a mountain, built in the 12th century.  Amazing and magnificient!  On our way home, we decided to take a different route in the mountains.  That should give you an indication of trouble to come.  It was dark, we were tired, and were ready to be home.  When we approached the border we noticed it only had one gate.  Two guards (not knowing English) came out and waved their hands to stop.  One of them told us that we could not cross because it was a small crossing.  We needed to turn back and go to a different border crossing.  It took a while to understand what they were saying, because we thought you could cross at any border, small or otherwise.  I'm sure there was a reason, we just didn't understand what they were trying to tell us.  We finally caught on and with much disappointment, turned around.  We drove about 10 miles and were able to cross at the next border and get home.

View from our balcony in Rijeka

All is well in Croatia.  We had a whopping twelve people in our English class on Thursday night.  That is a record!  We always end with a spiritual thought for those who want to stay.  Everyone  usually does.  It is a good time to answer any questions that may pop up.   We have made new friends in English class.  Nenad is one of them.  
I sometimes get the impression he thinks we will move here after our mission.  I asked him, “what about our family?”  He said we could go back and visit them every year.  On Thursday he invited us to a restaurant where they serve good hamburgers.  We met him and walked over to  the GP Grill.  The hamburgers were enormous, big enough for us to share.  Next time EK and I will make sure to split one.

We went to Zadar and stopped to visit a church member who lives two hours from Karlovac. 

Dušan and his wife Slacica  are Serbian refugees.  Dušan has been a member for 10 years.  He was thrilled to get visitors from the church.  We visited for about 1 1/2 hours.  He speaks very little English, but we were able to communicate quite well.  We felt the Spirit in his home and we were all sad when we had to leave.  He  will be traveling  to Karlovac in a few weeks  and will stay with us, since we are fortunate to have an extra bedroom.

Sister Hertz's mission is coming to an end and she is heading home on Thursday.  She has served well and we will miss her.  We took everyone out for a farewell lunch, and then had  District Meeting.  We were able to take a last picture of all of us, along with our two visiting missionaries serving a mini mission.

The word of the week is: doviđenja (doe vee jen ya) which means goodbye.  It is always difficult to say goodbye to our missionaries.  Love you, Sister Hertz!