Croatia/norther Bosnia, and Emergency Relief in the Balkans

This is E/S Erickson They have been humanitarian missionaries for Croatia and northern Bosnia for almost 18 months and have done much to help the people of these 2 countries. We visited with them from the 16th -20th of Feb. and were able to meet many of the people they have worked with. They are a wonderful couple and have touched many lives. They were featured in a national news spot featuring people that have helped and made a difference in Croatia. They have been on TV several times and people on the streets are beginning to recognize them. They have left their mark on Croatia, and this humanitarian mission and Croatia and Bosnia have left a mark on them. You can not serve a humanitarian mission without being changed, we have seen it in every couple that we've met in these various countries.

This is a symbol of the city of Varazdin, Croatia which is found in many of the the streest of the city and is the city where the Erickson's live. It is a beautiful town of maybe 200,000.

This is Dr. Golubovic, She is the national Secretary general or head of all the the Red Cross in northern Bosnia. I presented her with a certificate of appreciation from the Church for all the time we have worked together to help the people of Bosnia. This was at a ceremony were together we presented newborn kits to new mothers, and hygiene kits to others in the community with needs, and also wheelchairs. The event was covered by 2 TV stations, newspapers and 2 radio talk show host. One of the tlak show host has the largest audience in Croatia, so it was quite a big deal for the local couple and the red Cross.

These two ovens were purchased to help to help a Catholic Charity running a soup kitchen. They feed over 430 people daily who need help. It was very touching to see the response of the volunteer staff when the Erickson's walked into the kitchen, they were greeted with a lot of hugs and kisses and broad smiles. The people receiving the daily soup meal are unaware of good this great couple do, but they are very grateful for the meal. For many it is the only meal of the day. Unemployment is high and the pay for the jobs that are there is low. That is why these people are so used to black market dealing, it has meant survival.

One of the projects that was done in by the Erickson's in Croatia this years was to help fund this play/therapy room for disabled children in a rehabilitation hospital (primarily the only one) in northern Croatia. It is now a bright cherry room with a lot of toys and games for the children where before it was just a grey cement floored room. This little girl is unable to walk and spends most of her day on the floor leaning against something. She can't sit up by herself so life has some definite challenges, but look at that smile anyway. I couldn't read the Croatian words so I read the pictures to her. She didn't seem to mind my inabilities and was appreciative and sweet anyway.

This Picture does not mean much until you realize in was taken from a 3rd story window. Once you know this it gives you a greater appreciation for the depth of the snow. For many communities there was no school for 2 weeks because of the snow, which sent 5 countries into a state of emergency.

Consequently we have been very busy these past two weeks with emergency projects in the Balkan countries. Winter storms with severe cold temperatures hit the Balkans the beginning of Feb. dropping record amounts of snow in the mountain villages. In Romania for example some villages reported between 12-15 feet of snow. All roads and rail lines were closed the only way to access these villages was with snow cats and snowmobiles, where these could not go the military took food in with helicopters. Many villages were stranded with inadequate amounts of food and firewood for heating. The Church combined with the Red Cross in 4 countries to bring emergency food, blankets, and firewood to thousands of trapped villagers. Thousands of dollars were sent to help these people, and because of the Church's organization we were able to respond immediately to the urgent calls for help. During the course of years the Church has developed a very good working relationship with many local and national relief organizations in the Balkan countries and has quietly done a significant amount of good. In 2011 over a $100,000 in aid and services were provided to Croatia and northern Bosnia alone, but you'll never hear about it. All this money is donated by members throughout the world to help others, none comes from the tithes of the Church.

This blog I've written about the good of this couple and the Church have done in helping other, and I haven't even touched on the spiritual blessing of being a member of the Church. These blessing are the greatest of all because they don't as a rule deal with "things", but with happiness and relationships and with peace.
We hope you have a good week, we love you all Oma and Opa

A week of Many Emergencies

Saturday, the 11th, a group of couple missionaries who serve in the the Frankfurt area went to the Tutankhamen Exhibit in Frankfurt. There were 27 of us. We had a great time. The Exhibit was well organized. It began with a History of Egypt and how the interest in Egyptian antiquities was initiated in the the early 1900's. We learned about Howard Carter, the man who spent his whole life looking for King Tut's tomb. He was the first one to open this tomb. We viewed two video presentations and then entered the exhibit which showed the exact replica of the four chambers found. Then we were able to examine the numerous items with detailed explanations . Here is a picture of the containers that the Sarcophagus was put in. These were amazing. There was so much we saw and learned. We had a lovely time which culminated in Dinner at a Chinese Restaurant directly across from the Bahnhof.

Now here is a brief accounting of Monday thru Friday of February 6-10,2012

• Monday: We began with continued cold temperatures. We worked steady as many calls poured in to the office concerning the emergency conditions in Bosnia. At lunch time a walk (We are trying to walk 30 minutes everyday) to PennyMart to purchase a few items we needed then back to work until about 7pm. We got home and fixed Left overs.
• Tuesday: We worked until 10:30AM. Checked out a car from the churches motor pool and drove to Wiesbaden to the Military Facility to go to the post office, pick up a prescription and get a dental exam. We waited over 2 hours to be seen. Dad had a better report than I. I have a cavity under one of my crowns and the military dental doesn't provide treatment for crowns to anyone but the enlisted personnel. So that means I must go to a German Dentist. I am praying that the Lord will intervene before I must make an appointment. We then drove to the commissary. It is always great fun to go to the commissary. We purchased our treasures that we cannot get anywhere else as quickly as we could so we could get back to Frankfurt to drive to a dinner appointment. By this time in the late afternoon it had begun to snow. The drive to the Francois's took us two hours. We were late but brother Francois got home just 30 minutes ahead of us so we were not the only ones late. They were so lovely and gracious. Brother Francois is from France. He met his lovely wife Larissa at BYU who was studying for an advanced degree. She is Russian. They have three darling boys. We had Raucklett for dinner. We melted cheese under a little broiler at the table and put it over potatoes, ham, chicken and corn. It was served with coleslaw. It was fun and we enjoyed it. We had a great Apple crisp for dessert. The family home evening lesson was given by us. I downloaded a story from the friends website-lds.org. The boys loved the Ipads animated story about Heber J Grant. What a great evening!!!!!!
• Wednesday: We worked in the morning until about 10:30. We then drove to the airport to pick up the Smiths. They are wheelchair specialists from the Vancouver area who had been helping the Stiles in Slovakia and the Pages in the Czech Republic with identifying a Good NGO and training them on the new procedures for Wheelchair distributions. We took them to lunch where they spent a good portion of the afternoon explaining the New Wheelchair distribution program to us. We enjoyed them very much and learned a lot. We took them to their hotel and headed for home. We got home after 5:30 because we made a stop at the Media Mart for a TV cable and then on to the Car wash so we could turn the car back into the Motor pool. So we stayed home and prepared Banana Bread to take into the Office for Dad"s Birthday.
• Thursday: HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOR DAD. Those working on our floor sang Happy Birthday and we passed out the treat to all who wanted a piece. This is the tradition in the office. We were taken to lunch by Elfie Herrman, an 83 yr old lady in our building who we have befriended. She took us to a very nice German restaurant in the Taunus Montains. It was very beautiful and the food was good. We returned to the office as we were working diligently to get the Emergency relief projects up and going. Getting the money to them is not any easy process. So we worked until almost dark. Went for a walk, which we really enjoyed together. Upon our return home we felt to full to eat a big meal so we had left overs to include some Jewish Apple Cake I had made for John on Saturday. We worked some more and went to bed.
• Friday: We worked like crazy on the Emergency Relief projects which now included, Northern and Southern Bosnia, Kosovo, Romania, possibly Serbia and Montenegro. The snow is 9 feet deep in most areas. We took our walk at lunch and when we finally finished work at about 6:00pm. we invited our friends the Wells for a dinner of Left overs. Dinner was great and we had a great visit. We watched a movie "Lost In Austin" as in Jane Austin. Very interesting.
• As Dad would say,"There you have it sports fans, a brief review of a week in the life of Elder and Sister Leonard" Have a wonderful week. We love you.
  

Visit to Eisenach Castle

The couple in the center wanted to come to this castle and so we brought them and the Wells. The middle couple (VorWallers) are here on a special 4 month assignment. She is 80 and he is in his late 70's. They stared the Family Services program and wrote the manual for the church years ago when they were in Germany on a mission.
Elder Wells and I standing at the entrance to the castle. He just retired as the dept.chairman of psychology at BYU. We are associating with some amazingly accomplished people.
This is looking out a window at another section of the castle. It is in this section that the Martin Luther room is located. As you can see the day we were there it was cloudy and cold with some snow.

This is the room and the desk where Martin Luther translated much of the Old Testament. At this time the Catholic church was trying to find him and execute him for translating the original Greek text into German for the common man to read (those that could read). The ceramic green thing is the heater that was stoked in the back from another room. Common form of heating in those days.
This is the Great Hall of the castle, here great balls and concerts were held. The famed pianist Franz Josef Liszt designed the the shape of the ceiling which has excellent acoustics. The flag you see was one of the first flags of Germany. In the early 1800's a group of university students met her to try and form a country form the more that 3000 little kingdoms that comprised Germany and that time. The flag had the German colors of Red Yellow and black (still used today). The colors represented: royalty,the protestants and the catholics.
This is a picture of the woman's hall. The upper walls and the ceiling portray the life of St. Elizabeth who lived here until her husband died in Italy on his way to the Holy Land. This whole room is done in mosaic tiles.
This mosaic shows St. Elizabeth engaged at age 4, her espoused was 6. Marriage in those days among the nobility were political or economically based. St. Elizabeth was married at 14, had 3 children, and widow at 21. After she was widowed she took her children to a convent to be raised and when to serve the poor. She died at age 24 of exhaustion and was cannonized shortly thereafter.
This picture shows her husband (the king) going off to fight in the crusades at the age of 23. He died in Italy of Typhoid on the march to the Holy Land. Again this picture is done all in small mosaic tiles
In the castle were displayed many precious items to include this ornate, festive suit of armor. Such a fancy suit would never be worn into battle. However it gives you an idea of the armor that was worn and how cumbersome it must have been. This suit would weigh about 150 lbs.

This week has been busy as usual, but we are learning and feeling like we know our duty much better, so although we are still very busy we are not as stressed. Tomorrow we will be dealing with an emergency project to aid the people of Bosnia. The national head of the Red Cross contacted our couple who oversees projects in southern Bosnia today with an emergency request for food and water. They called us for help, we talked with our boss, and authorized the missionary couple to proceed an immediate expenditure of $15,000 with more to follow once we see that the food and water acutally get to the intended stranded villagers. You will probably never hear about any of this, and if you do it will be a very scaled down version. The church goes about doing good all over the world in a very quiet way
We love you all,
Oma and Opa