The past two weeks have flown by in a whirlwind of activity! Sorry there wasn't a blog post last week, but we were doing more important things, like trying to patch a hole in the portable baptismal font! Oft times trials come to those who are tying to do good things and last Saturday was no exception. As the Elders were filling the font Saturday morning for a baptism scheduled for Saturday afternoon they noticed the floor was a bit wet. Upon further investigation, it was apparent the font was leaking. Using their keen investigative skills they discovered a small slit in the font, directly over an electrical panel in the floor. Needless to say, when we arrived with the young sister missionaries after service at Riders of Hope we found a very comical situation which included Elder Smith lying on his back on the floor with his finger in "the hole" and Elder Echols trying to mop up around him and keep water out of the electrical box!
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| Assessing the problem... |
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| Containing the leak! |
After a quick assessment of the current situation, including a vain patching attempt with duct tape, we determined that the font had to be drained, dried and then repaired. Keep in mind at this time it was around noon and the font takes about 3-4 hours to fill completely and the baptism was scheduled for 3:00. While the young missionaries drained and dried the font Denny and I ran to the mall across the street and scoured the stores for something akin to a tire patch. We found what was called "puncture repair" and headed back to the church. Drained, dried and "puncture repaired" with duct tape for good measure, the font was ready to fill about 2:00. Let's just say we created a new type of bucket brigade getting it filled. Because the three sisters and Denny and I had come directly from the barn, we rushed home to make ourselves presentable for the baptism while the elders filled the font. Between the hot water heater shutting down every 62 seconds (Elder Echols timed it) and the slow water flow from the hose, it was a daunting process.
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| Helping the draining process along... |
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| The inside repair job... |
But.... good will always prevail! The font was full enough for our new friend to enter into the waters of baptism and make sacred covenants with God. It truly is awe inspiring to witness the light of Christ in someone's eyes, to see others as God sees them and to know that their lives will forever be changed.
Sunday morning after church we began our trek with the film crew from the LDS Church Europe Area office. I told you about the projects and our pre-production filming with Ilia in the last post so this week you just get some pictures of the film crew from Frankfurt in action! Suffice it to say, it was a busy but very rewarding week and a reminder of all the miracles we are blessed to be involved in as we serve in the Balkans. We enjoyed our time with Brian, Joel, Stuart and Gilles.
Oh yeah, and my dear friend, Senada, from Riders of Hope finally had her baby! Congratulations to Senada and Emin on the birth of their son, Eren! Can't wait to see him in person! (Sorry no pictures to share of the precious little guy)
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Our first stop was the Refugee Center in Zagreb, Croatia.
The team interviewing our friend Dino from Croatia Red Cross. |
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We were thrilled to have our new mission president,
President and Sister Melonakos, join us for the day of filming in Zagreb.
Hopefully they will get more screen time that us for this video! |
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Brian, the boss, and producer Joel behind the camera. They were
a phenomenal team to work with! So blessed to get to spend time with them. |
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Sister Melonakos, Denny and I with some of
the medicine LDSC donated to the refugee center. |
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| Producer Stuart filming children at the refugee center. |
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This happy boy kept trying to get in the videos, so I finally
offered to take a selfie with him. He was very happy to say "cheese"! |
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| The interview with our dear friend Adisa from Mala Sirena. |
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| Joel filming the star of the video, Tarik, and therapist Edita. |
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We were honored to have Gilles, Director of the European Area Welfare Dept.
join us for the week as well. He is very supportive of our work here. |
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We were touched by the interview with a young mother whose
daughter was saved at birth by newborn resuscitation techniques
the doctors learned through training from LDS Charities. |
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Filming of a war torn building in Sarajevo. Denny tried to get them
to go inside and film but they quickly declined the suggestion. |
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| Nothing intimidating about a huge microphone over your head... |
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| Getting ready for our on camera interviews...for five projects! |
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| And Joel actually gets paid for this.... flying the drone! |
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| It was fascinating watching the drone fly over the cities. |
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| It was fun to walk around with Stuart and this huge camera in Mostar. |
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| Filming time lapse from the mountains overlooking Sarajevo. |
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It's a bit hard to see, but the drone is right in the middle of the
Olympic logo. I hope the footage of take off or landing in this spot
will be shown in one of the videos...it was pretty cool! |
That about sums up our last couple of weeks.... now back to our work following up on existing projects and finding new projects to finish up our 2017 budget.
We love you all and send our love and prayers to each of you!
Never a dull moment when on a senior mission. The photo of the mother who had her baby saved brings to life how meaningful that project is. And she is just one of the thousands who were blessed by the training.
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