January 1, 2013

Branch Christmas Party

Christmas in our Apartment

Senior Sisters

Zagreb Mission Conference

Missionaries who have served and are serving in Osijek

Gingerbread House at the Branch Party

Snejana and Neva who made the Gingerbread House

Branch Party

Branch Party

Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Siječanj 1, 2013

Sretna nova godina  Happy New Year! Dear kiddos!

It seems like forever ago that we sent a letter home.  It has been so nice to celebrate with you over Skype.  You all look wonderful and we were so impressed with your talent show and reading and acting out of the nativity.  Thank you for including us.  We felt like we were at home for the two hours we had with you.  We do love each of you so much.

We had a very nice Christmas here in Osijek!  The mission Christmas conference was really fun.  President and Sister Rowe are a great mission president and wife.  I remember Jonny and Michael talking about their presidents while they were on their missions.  They said (and probably the rest of you also said, too) they were sure their president would be a general authority following their mission.  President Rowe is of the same caliber.  And Sister Rowe is such a great support and help to him.  We love them both.  It is always so
fun to be with all of the other missionaries, to eat and have fun with them and then to have a pep talk and assurance that the Lord is in charge here on our mission and will help us as we seek for it.  I asked President Rowe if all was okay following interviews with him.  He said, "Everything is good.  We have a good boss."

I don't know if you guessed the reason for Pres. Rowe and Pres. Babič’s (District Pres. for Croatia) visit to our Branch on the 23rd.  They came to call Zoran Korajac to be our new Branch President!  We have been so excited for the last few weeks anticipating this happening.  Zoran is such a good guy, with a strong testimony, full of faith, very humble, compassionate and hard working.  He has spent his past few summers on the coast where he makes twice as much as he can make working here.  When Pres. Rowe called him he told him the Lord was calling him to be the Branch President and wanted him to stay here in Osijek.  He was afraid to pray about it because he knew the answer before he prayed.  So now we are praying for a good woman to become his wife and praying he can find a better job here in Osijek.  We decided that is part of our mission call now and most every young woman we see walking down the street Dad will ask me if that might be the one for Zoran.   It is so great to have a Branch president who speaks the language of our members and can relate to the members far better than we can.  Dad is one of his counselors so he will continue to help however is needed.  Our call when we came was "member/leader support" and to do whatever else our president needed.  We are thrilled!!!

Our Branch Christmas party was really fun.  We had about 40 people with ham for about 75!  After everyone had all they could eat, we sent home left-overs with many people.  We had lots of members and
investigators come, ate, sang carols, played some ping pong and enjoyed watching a friend of Zoran’s break dance (like Seth and Tim).  One of the great traditions for Christmas here in Osijek is to go visit your friends and eat their special Christmas cakes, which are sort of like petit fours.  We went caroling with the missionaries and were invited in to a couple of homes to eat cake after caroling.  We also caroled for our landlords and ate their cake and talked with them.  We spent about an hour and a half caroling in a rest home.  One of our members lives there.  Many of the residents have Alzheimer's.  They didn't know who we were but sure enjoyed our singing.  We went up and down the halls, and in and out of rooms that had 3-4 people in them.  They would follow us and some would join in singing.  It was a nice day!

Two things we have really enjoyed in the last couple of days:  Our friend Božo, the 72 year old most active member of our Branch (not yet baptized) came by Saturday morning on his walk to Aljmaš.  We joined
him and walked for part of his 36 mile walk.  He does this weekly.  We talked about his dream of having a wife and children and that he was so sad that had never happened.  We talked about the spirit world and
that he could still realize that dream one day.  He has a brother who died very young while serving in the army and his mother died last fall.  I told him that maybe our dads were teaching the gospel to his mom and brother right now in the spirit world and that as soon as he was ready, he could go to the temple and do the work for them.  He is the one that we are reading the Book of Mormon with each week.  He has a testimony but something is keeping him from really seeing the truth.  He told us that day that he has a large stone inside him that he has to remove before he can get baptized.  It was a great walk and talk.  As Dad and I returned home we talked about it being like on the road to Emmaus.

Second, we have been trying since we arrived in Osijek to contact a member family who lives about an hour away from here.  After having no success on the phone again today, we drove to their apartment in
Županja to just see if we could maybe find them home.  The mom invited us in and we had a great visit with her and her daughter and son.  Her daughter is taking tests to enter medical school this fall and the son
was busy studying.   They are very busy but said they would love to join us at church some time.  It was a nice visit and we are hopeful they will really come when they can.

We have had a very nice couple of weeks celebrating Christmas and New Years. We received many Christmas cards in the mail from you and our siblings, nephews and nieces and friends.  We were so surprised to receive them and have really enjoyed each one.  We have read and re-read the cards just like we have looked at and re-looked at the photo book from all of you.  We are still thankful to be here and know that this is where the Lord wanted us to serve.  We love the people here and are so excited for Gary and Ann to arrive and get acquainted with the people throughout this mission and help to hasten the work.

We continue to see the hand of God helping and directing us each day. We know we have been blessed far more than we deserve.  And we know part of what we do is a direct result of each of you praying for us
and all the missionaries.  Tanya reminded us that we need to write a few of our blessings down each day so we are trying to be better at that...to be a little more reflective.  We love you each so much.

Love, mom and dad/mutti and bumpa

Christmas Eve, December 24, 2012

Christmas Eve, 2012

 Dear Family:

It was so fun to be a part of the annual Christmas Pageant on Sunday afternoon with all of you.  We were absolutely amazed at how organized and how well you all of you did.  We love you so much.  All of you are so great. We have so many great memories of being all together on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our family for the last 45 years.  We spent part of the Christmas holiday together in Twin Falls in December 1967, when I wanted to ask Grandpa Babbel if I could marry mom.  She wasn’t ready for that discussion until a little later in the program.

We remember the years when our only gifts were from the DI and all of the great DI Christmases since then.  We especially remember the Christmas we got the piano and the Christmas at the Cabin with diamond rings.  Today, we spent all day helping some “Christmas Families” in need.  You kids have helped carry on that tradition that Grandpa Babbel began with Gary and Candy when they were 10 or 11.

We just sent the missionaries home after doing the Christmas story from the Bible.  They each had to play 2 or 3 parts and they were almost as hard to keep focused as all of you kids were when you were young.  We love to read and remember the Bible story of his birth and life.  We know more assuredly that He lives and that he set the perfect selfless example for all of us to follow.  We are blessed to understand (in small part) the divine plan of happiness.  We are happy because of Him.  We take for granted the blessing of being born in America and that we had so many selfless, inspired men and women who laid the groundwork of our free country and opened the door for the restoration of the Gospel. This means so much to us as we serve here in Croatia and see the struggles these people have endured over the last 400+ years (about the same time the Ivins family first arrived in the New World).  They have had many wars even since the late 1800's when the Babbels came to America.  For the most part, our ancestors have been spared the horrors of war.  We are so grateful for our ancestors who joined the church and came to Zion (America) one at a time leaving family and friends behind.  Looking back we can see clearly how the pieces of the puzzle have come together through the good choices our ancestors made, including our own parents and grandparents who met and married and multiplied and replenished the earth so we (mom and dad) could meet and marry and start our own new nation.  Of the many choices we have made, the best and most important choice was our decision to marry and to start a family and bring you into the world.  We are so grateful for the choices you have made to marry each other and raise such remarkable families. Thank you for doing your part to help our family progress toward perfection and ultimately realize our divine destiny as one big happy eternal family.  

As you know, having days like this help us know that “We’re richer than Bill Gagen!” per Grandpa Babbel.  We know that you have had some fear and trepidation and a few problems that help us remember that we must live by faith.  But most of all you have taught us that you have been able to do hard things.  Through it all we have learned that "The Greatest Blessing in our Lives, Before, Now and Forever, is to Love and Be Loved.  The Greatest Ingredient of that Blessing is Unselfishness.”  So with this we come back to the Christmas message. Our Heavenly Father and Jesus are the perfect examples of that simple recipe for happiness.  They love us--unselfishly.  They are happy when we love each other, The Lord and ourselves.  We know that.  The key is for us to keep loving—unselfishly.  As we keep this one commandment, to love one another, we will remain in Their Love.  Our favorite scriptures of the week are John 14 and 15.  We thank you for being here on earth at this time.  We thank you for your choices and know that you and your children and grandchildren have been and will be reserved to come to the earth “for such a time as this”.  We love you.  We thank you and we are proud of you and we congratulate you and wish you the very best Christmas ever and the very best and Happy New Year.  

Love Mutti and Bumpa

Weds, December 19, 2012

Srijeda (Wednesday) 19 Prosinaca (December) 2012

Dear Kiddos,

Hello to all of you.  We are busy enjoying this season of celebrating the birth of Jesus just like each of you must be.  We think of all that is going on at home and miss each of you and celebrating with you.  But, we are happy and especially grateful we can be here on a mission and have the privilege of representing Christ.  We are so thankful for Him and enjoy bearing our testimonies to our Branch members and to others we can communicate with, sometimes not so successfully (at least in Croatian).

Dad has gone to take one of the members shopping for some food.  He will take him to deliver some chocolate to a few places and on a few other errands.  I just made some brownies to take to our Missionary Christmas conference tomorrow in Zagreb.  All of the missionaries from all 4 countries will be there and it will be a fun celebration.  We have also been preparing for our Branch Christmas party this coming Friday.  We found a box of decorations in the Church closet along with 2/3 of a tree.  So, we went with the Elders and got a nice tree from Hungary for about $20 so we will use it and enjoy the nice, fresh smell.  For the party we are going to cook some ham and baked potatoes, green beans and fresh carrots and have a fresh fruit salad with mom’s lemon dressing.  We have asked the members to help bring something if they can and all of them said they would bring cake or cookies.

Tashie, Geremy and Greyson, and Christian and Amy sent a picture of them taken at our 8^th ward Christmas party.  They had a photo booth at the party with a few hats, beards, etc and took pics of all the families.  It was such a good picture and great idea that we are going to do the same thing here.  A friend of one of our members is coming dressed as Michael Jackson and will dance for us.  (We will miss Tim dancing; maybe you can get him to dance again for all of you at the Babbel family Christmas party.)  We will have some special Christmas music, sing a few carols and have a spiritual message from one of the members or Elder Mulder.  We have invited all the English class, investigators and even the guy who sold us the tree.  We hope to have 50 or so but will be happy with whoever makes it.  

We have had some positive experiences as we have been around to visit some of the less active members and invite them to the party and to Church on Sunday.  When we can take a member with us to invite them, they seem more eager to come out.  We bought the ham and other things for the party at a store, Metro, which is like Costco.  A member had a card to get into the store and sent a text to another member who works there.  He came down to visit with us and agreed to come and help cut the ham.  We are hopeful he will really come.  We feel as we get 1 or 2 of the members to come again who used to come all the time, it might trigger some interest in some of the other members to come back.  We had a fast on Sunday with the missionaries and our 17 year old young woman to ask for help in the missionary work.  She asked us to join her in fasting for 5 baptisms to take place on one day.  There is a lot of faith with our members and a willingness to help in the work.

We met with a mom and her son (16) and daughter (19) yesterday.  The mom hasn’t come for a long time but her kids have come to Aktivnost and also to church a few times.  They love to come but live about 25 minutes away in the car.  We are happy to go get them and have wondered why they haven’t wanted to come lately.  The mom told us why; she said she doesn’t feel comfortable using our gas.  She did say she will let them come once or twice a month and we can go get them, so we are grateful for that and want to respect her wishes.   They are humble people.  

The snow from our big storm has about washed away with the rain.  Some snow is forecast for the next few days so we may still have a fresh, white Christmas.  Pres. Rowe and Pres. Babić (District Pres.) are coming to our Branch this Sunday and will speak and also teach Sunday school.  Everyone is excited for that and hopefully that will also get many of the members out.

We will have the missionaries over Christmas Eve.  We will have dinner, sing some carols and read the Christmas story.  They will also come on Christmas day for dinner and to call their families.  We read “That Thine Alms May Be in Secret” with the English class.  I read it to Dad a couple of days before and we both cried all the way through it.  It wasn’t quite the same for them because we had to explain the meaning of so many of the words to them.  Another evening in class we read “T’was the night before Christmas.”  They enjoyed reading it but again we needed to stop often to explain what was being said.  They are pretty good readers and I think they enjoy taking turns reading.  We also read the Christmas story from Luke and some from Matthew.  It has been really fun for us to read with them.  We also have a book given to us from the Bretzings.  They said while they were away as mission president the book was a great treat for them to read at Christmas.  We have been reading and enjoying it.

We are happy and are so thankful for each of you.  We are excited to talk with all of you Sunday and will enjoy being with you during your talent show.   Have a great day.  We hope you are not too busy and can enjoy Christmas every day.  Read some of your Christmas stories!   Enjoy some music and sing some songs.  Visit your neighbors and have lots of fun.  Peter, we can hardly wait for you to get home with everyone!  Have a fun time at the Babbel family party.  Enjoy it for us, too.

We love you all.  Love, mom and dad  xoxox

December 5, 2012

Leaf Artist

Otok

Otok

Chapel in Zagreb:  ONLY Chapel in our Mission!

Srijeda (Wednesday) Prosinac (December) 5, 2012

Dear Kiddos,

We have had a good day and week.  We went early this morning with one of our most faithful members to purchase some food for another member who lives with his mother over an hour away from here.  We bought fruit and vegetables, bread and some meat and some staples (flour, rice, beans, pasta and milk that stores for several weeks on the shelf).  As we walked into the store, Zoran said, "I love this time of the year...everything looking like Christmas."  We have had a touch of snow and it is cold and Christmas decorations are up everywhere.  I thought about being home and helping to prepare some food and gifts for a Christmas family.  We left the store with our trunk full of food and headed to Otok.  The young man and his mother were happy to see us.  We went into their home and all sat around their kitchen stove where the heat was.  They told us of their needs.  He has AIDS and they have been struggling for a long time.  It was nice to have Zoran with us to translate.  He brought a Book of Mormon with him along with a reading plan to help read the book.  Dad talked to the young man about the reason for fasting and paying fast offerings.  He said that the funds are to help the poor and the needy.  As we fast two meals we give the money we would have spent on food to the Bishop to be used to help someone else.  And the amazing thing is all the donations are kept together and are used around the world to bless the lives of all who need it.  Then, when we one in need is back on his feet, he can pay his donations to help someone else.

The member receiving assistance doesn't speak any English but he does speak German in addition to his Croatian.  It was amazing to listen to Dad speak in German to him.  He quoted the 4^th article of faith about the principles and ordinances of the Gospel, faith, repentance, baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I thought about all the times Dad would help you recite the articles of faith while showering or while he was showering, and how he would often recite them in German.  And then I thought about Esther helping to save the Jewish people from being put to death.  She was told by (I think it was her father?) that who knew if she was saved for such a time as this.  Maybe Dad recited his German for years for just such a time as this.  It was a good experience.  Dad anointed the member with oil (in English) in preparation for Zoran to give him a blessing in Croatian.  Before the blessing Dad asked me to say a prayer in Croatian.  My Croatian is still lacking quite a bit!  Then we went with the member to a neighbor to purchase 5 meters of wood to help keep his mother and him warm during the next few months.  Dad asked for a receipt and everyone just looked at him and then laughed.  A receipt?  It was a good experience for all of us.

Tonight we have been getting the Church books figured out with internet banking that Dad just got signed up for.  We are happy to be on top of things.  We are going early in the morning to take a couple of members on a family errand about 2 hours away.  We may have a couple of hours to wander around.  We may try to find a sawmill that belongs to the husband of another member.  It would be great if we could have a visit with him.

Our District Conference Sunday was really a nice day.  We had 21 of us from Osijek.  The elders rode the train to Zagreb and we were going to have 2 members ride the train home.  We asked Božo if he would mind taking the train and he said no, that was fine.  When we tried to find him later to drive him to the train with the other man, we couldn’t find him.  We called his phone and he said he was already on the train headed back to Osijek.  He had walked to the train station in the rain about 3 miles and bought his own ticket!  Dad will write to you about the conference later.  He has gone to bed and I am going to join him.  Thanks for going to the temple together last night and doing all the names for our Branch.  They will be so happy when we tell them.

We love you all so very much!  Love, mom and dad/mutti and bumpa

Dec 10, 2012

Monday morning Dec. 10, 2012 

Dear Kiddos,

We want to give you a report on the “Kingdom” here in Slavonia—not to be confused with Slovenia.  You may need to be reminded that we are in the flat plains (between a few hills and mountains) of south central Europe.  I was surprised to find out that our elevation here in Osijek is less than 300 feet and our river, the Drava, runs (down) into the Danube  about 10 miles from here.  The Danube, the major river in central Europe running about 1800 miles, starting in the Black Forest of Germany runs and passes through the capital city of 4 countries, Vienna Austria, Bratislava Slovakia, Budapest Hungary and Beograd Serbia.  It also runs through or touches Croatia, Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, and Romania.  The two main rivers in Croatia end up in the Danube.  Zagreb, which sits at the foot of a ski mountain, is only about 500 feet over the sea (above sea level) and its’ river, the Sava, runs into the Danube at Beograd, Serbia, about 200 miles further down the river.  You get the idea that there isn’t a lot of slope on the Danube, especially between here and the Black Sea (sea level).  Next time we’ll learn a little about population distribution if anybody asks.

We prepared to teach a Sunday School lesson yesterday about fasting and the blessings that come from it.  We are grateful we could talk with each of you (we couldn’t reach you, Jonny and Lindsay) and help you recall times we fasted together and times you fasted on your own for a specific purpose.  We read together the 3^rd paragraph of the “Proclamation on the Family” that starts with “In the pre-mortal realm… “and details why we are here and how we plan to remain as an Eternal Family.  We didn’t spend much time on talking about fasting yesterday, but we are prepared to talk more about fasting in a later lesson.  It was so nice to hear your recollections that we want to share them with you.  You might recall more as you read the memories shared.  We would encourage each of you to fill in the details from you own memories and return them if you choose to and we can create a “Small Plates of Ivins” of our most moving memories. 

·         Grandpa and Grandma Babbel asked all of their children and grandchildren to fast and pray for Mike Babbel to get a job.  He got a really good job and is still happy with it.

·         Christian remembers fasting for Robyn and Jason while we were living in our old house to get pregnant.  Following the fast, we knelt in prayer and went around the circle, each of us asking a prayer. 

·         Grandpa and Grandma Babbel asked all the family fast and pray for Lee Brundage to get a job.

·          Our family had a fast with the Back family for the future of Meridian Title.  Allen started his own title co.

·         Michael remembered fasting on his mission to have a greater testimony of the gospel.  He said he remembered the card Richard Wilson carried in his wallet that says: “Nothing is more important than my membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints.” Michael said he felt that his testimony helped support Betsy through her parent’s divorce.

·         Betsy said the prayer following Rosie’s baptismal interview with the Bishop.  Betsy said she felt a witness of the spirit that Rosie was doing the right thing.

·         Tasha and Geremy asked us all to fast and pray for them to get pregnant.  They knew they would if they were patient and waited for the Lord’s timing.

·         Peter remembered that we asked all of our family to pray for Dad and me to be healthy enough to serve a mission.

·         Amy said she and Christian fasted and then prayed about their decision to get married.  She felt peace and complete confidence to go ahead with their decision.

·         Just this summer Bishop Mott asked the ward to fast and pray for Gabe Stout following his serious motorcycle accident.  Amy said still today people in the ward talk about what a bonding opportunity it was for the ward.  New members to the ward felt a connection to all during the fast.

·         Robyn fasted and prayed for her friend that had quit coming to Church.  Over the next several weeks some of their common friends asked Robyn what they could do to help their friend.  Jason felt the friends wanting to help was an answer to Robyn’s fast, a different answer than Robyn expected.

·         Christian remembered two elders fasting for a lady in the hospital.  Following their fast the elders went to visit the lady in the hospital.  The elders both fainted during their visit and replaced the lady in bed.

·         While Tasha was the Relief Society president in Africa one of the sisters lost her place at the market where she sold her wares.  She didn’t have much and her livelihood came from what she could sell.  A fellow Congolese had taken over her place.  She fasted for a couple of days and when Tasha heard she was fasting she went to take her some food from the Church.  The sister told her she was fasting because she didn’t want to be angry at the man.  She went to the man and told him she forgave him.  A few weeks later she found another spot to sell her wares.

·         Tiffany went to Nauvoo for a semester with  BYU.  While there she began to question if Joseph Smith was a prophet.  She called Dad to talk to him and he was in a meeting and couldn’t talk right then.  She fasted to know if Joseph really was a prophet.  She said it was so good for her to find out on her own that he was indeed a prophet.

·         When I was called to be the Stake Young Women president for the Bountiful Stake I fasted and then went to the temple to know who I should serve with.  I had the impression that Carole Ann should be the secretary.  I sat in the Celestial room of the Bountiful Temple and after pondering and praying, I knew who should be my counselors.  It was an incredible experience.  Dad had driven me to the temple because I wanted to walk home after being there.  During my walk home it was confirmed to me over and over again that these were the sisters who should serve with me.   

·         Tanya emotionally recalled how all of our family (Babbels and Ivins), her entire ward, friends and friends of friends had fasted and prayed for her when she had her heart attack.  She remembered one less-active man from her ward told her that he had fasted and prayed for her.  She was filled with gratitude and love that so many cared about her.    

·         We can’t write down even the thousandth part of what we have cumulatively fasted and prayed for over the past 50 years.  We could estimate that about 20 of us have fasted 10 times a year for 25 years.  That is a lot of fasting. 

It’s our “P” day and we’re going to go for a walk.  We love you.  We fast and we pray for each of you. Thanks for your faith and prayers for each other and also in our behalf.  We feel them and know that each of you feel a greater confidence in asking Heavenly Father for the things you want and need knowing that there is great power in joining together in doing this.  We are praying right now for Tanya and her Doctor as she has her wrist operated on.  We love you. 

Bok.  We love you!  Mom and Dad/Mutti and Bumpa  xoxo

--

Elder and Sister Ivins

kayivins@gmail.com

Matije Gupca 7a

31000 Osijek, Croatia

385 (0) 91 444-8114 (Elder Ivins)

385 (0) 91 444-8115 (Sister Ivins)

Thanksgiving in Osijek

Brother Bilič and road kill art (see Brian)

New missionary Robert

measuring his pants

Tree of Life art in leaves

photo of Tree of Life

Farewell to Sister Lethco and Elder Bates with Fani and Toni

Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving dinner

Thanksgiving left-overs

Utorak Studeni 27, 2012 (Tuesday November 27, 2012)

Dear Kiddos,

Hi all!  I am sending a short update since our last email home to you.  We did tell you about our finding a turkey, a large breast and 3 legs, but I don't know if any of you read about it.  Dad washed it all, rubbed everything with salt and put chunks of butter on it and placed it all in a cooking bag.  It turned out really good with lots of juice for gravy.  We had mashed potatoes with the gravy, dressing, sweet potatoes, green beans, hot rolls and pomegranate fruit salad with lemon dressing.  We only had 7 of us for dinner and had enough food for 20 of us.  So Sunday we ate the left-overs with the missionaries, one of our members and one investigator.  We really missed rot kohl and cranberry salad and MaryAnn's cranberry relish.  We haven't found any fresh or frozen cranberries here.  We made a giant banana cream pie and apple crisp for dessert.  We were all so full that we ate very little dessert.  But, we did enjoy the desserts later over the course of the next couple of days.  We also missed pecan pie and lemon pie.  We haven't seen pecans but we have plenty of lemons so we will have lemon pie sometime soon.  It was a nice day being together with the missionaries and our member Violeta.  We all shared a few things we were thankful for and talked about Thanksgivings from the past.  Violeta told us how she is very grateful for her brother and how good he is to her.  We hope you all had a great day and enjoyed just being thankful and together with your families.

We only had 19 of us to Church on Sunday.  We have been having  close to 25 for the last several Sundays.   We are trying to be aware of who isn't there rather than who is there and focus on inviting those people the next week.  This Sunday, Dec. 2, is our District Conference in Zagreb.  We have rented the Kombi 9 person van again and will also take our 5 passenger car.  Zoran, one of our really strong members, will drive the van.  If everyone goes who have signed up to go we may rent another 5 passenger car and then Dad and I will each drive one of the cars.  The 4 other missionaries may go on the bus if we are too many people.  Everyone wants to go even though it is almost a 3 hour drive.  We'll see Saturday when we pick up the van if we really need the extra car or not.

We had a really nice time with Bozo this morning.  We are reading the Book of Mormon with him every Tuesday.  He has been taught by most of the missionaries over the last six years and still loves to come to Church; he just isn't sure if he is ready to get baptized.  He is working on his 1500 page history and is now trying to edit it and add pictures to it.  He is very busy but would like to really study the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants after the first of the year when he is through with his history.  He said he loves to come to Church because it always makes him feel so good.  He asked us to pray for him.  We told him we already do and so do our children.  He was very grateful and can't imagine that you all do that and don't even know him.  Please continue to pray for him and for the work here in our mission.  He is the only investigator that Dad and I have right now.  We are being a bit bolder and asking people we see on the street if they would like to know more about our church and why we are here.  We met a nice guy the other day.  He said he didn't believe in God but did believe he would be with his wife forever.  We wanted to tell him how he could do that, but he wasn't ready to listen to us.  We know there are some people who are ready to listen to us, we just need to find them.

Our weather has continued to be absolutely perfect!  I walked 25 minutes to the church yesterday to meet dad and was so grateful I could be out enjoying this beautiful place.  Sunday Dad and I both spoke in Church, he about the blessing of paying tithing and I about being thankful.  I started a gratitude list in my journal.  It is amazing how blessed I am!  I left lots of room so I can continue to add to the list each day.  I am so thankful for each of you.  You are why Dad and I are here.  You encouraged us to come.  You are why Dad and I are so happy (and also why we get lonely). You are why we will be so happy to come home again.  Thanks for the great blessing you are in our lives.  We are thankful to be here in Osijek.  We love the people and are anxious to help as many as we can learn about the church.  We love you.  Be happy.  Stay busy and help others.  Love, mom and dad/mutti and bumpa   xox       (we'll meet you in our prayers)

Elder and Sister Ivins

Elder and Sister Ivins

--

Elder and Sister Ivins

kayivins@gmail.com

Matije Gupca 7a

31000 Osijek, Croatia

385 (0) 91 444-8114 (Elder Ivins)

385 (0) 91 444-8115 (Sister Ivins)

Pre-Thanksgiving Report from Dad

November 14, 2012

Dear Family:

I started writing this as a report  to Bishop Mott and then I added President Taylor and then decided I would expand the report  and send it to all of you.  We got word that Tyler and Ayden Hernandez were baptized in the MP 8^th Ward.  I don’t know if you remember that Mom and I took them to visit their father around conference time in April and they opened their Christmas presents from their dad and his family.  A baptism had been planned earlier but our Stake President, Brian Taylor, called it off because of the disharmony it was creating in the family.  I wrote to Bishop Mott in response to his email to us: 

“We are thrilled that their dad was there and that their mother gave a talk.  I can remember so well the great feeling of love and gratitude we all felt when Kailey was baptized the week-end of our big wind storm almost one year ago.  I am sure that same feeling was present for Tyler and Ayden.  I have used the experience with these three young people as a pattern when teaching about the blessings of trying to bring families together through baptism and not divide them.  Family and religious traditions are strong here and sometimes it is hard for some investigators, especially some of our great young adults, to tell their families they are preparing for baptism.  Many are not able to get their family involved in the teaching and the conversion process.

There have been seven baptisms in our branch since we got here in May.  One was the grandmother of a 16 year old girl who was baptized in June of 2011 and five are young adults between the ages of 17 and 21.

The young missionaries are great.  They work hard and are a great help to us with the language—which we find very difficult, if not impossible.  We are grateful for our priesthood leaders.  We love our Mission President, Ed Rowe, and his wife, Brooke.  They have five kids here with them in Croatia.   We are so grateful for our inspired call to serve in the Adriatic North Mission.  It has been such a blessing for us to see many baptized, but our greatest reward has been helping eight of our members take a 20 hour bus ride (each way) to the Frankfurt Temple.  We have really felt their love and gratitude for the blessings of the temple.

We are grateful for our inspired call to the Adriatic North Mission at this time.  We have had the opportunity to visit all four countries which comprise our Mission: Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina which is one country and is abbreviated “BiH”.   Osijek, where we serve is in the East of Croatia near the Hungarian and Serbian borders close to where the Drava and the Danube meet and is primarily flat, flat farmland about 300 feet above sea level.  We have been to the coast (Adriatic Sea) on the West and to Belgrade in Serbia on the East.  We have been in the Alps in the North, where Slovenia touches both Austria and Italy and through the mountains in the South near Sarajevo, BiH, where the 1984 Winter Olympics were held.  We love all these lands and the people here."

I now expand on a few things I only mentioned to our Bishop.  We went out to Baranska Petrovo Selo a little town about 25 miles North of Osijek near the Hungarian border to visit Brother and Sister Bilič.  They are the older couple, who were sealed in the Temple in August. They told the Elders that they would invite their adult daughter, Evica (pronounced Ehveetsa) to come to their home and meet with the Elders and us.  

On the way we talked about what lesson we should give.  I suggested the Plan of Salvation and Eternal Families because it is “my” lesson when I speak English but I don’t do it in Croatian.  Elder Mulder thought we should teach the Restoration.    We got there and sang a song and had a prayer and then we got way side-tracked.  They thought I would fall asleep, but it was actually Elder Mulder who started falling asleep.   When we finally tried to get on track and start a lesson, Elder M. asked me to start the lesson in English and he and Elder Bates would translate.  The Biličes speak no English, but, fortunately their daughter understands English (pretty well).  I think Elder M wanted to see what I thought we should teach.  I was sitting next to Evica and she was sitting next to her mother.  I wasn’t sure where the lesson would go, but I asked Evica “How did your mom and dad like their trip to the Temple?”  It turned out to be a heaven inspired question.  Both her mother and her dad  just lit up when she translated the question into Croatian for them.  They made her very happy too.  She started talking to her mother and her mother  replied to us in Croatian and Evica translating in mixed English how much her parents loved the Temple.  Sister Bilič was at that moment a living testimony to Evica of the joy of the Gospel.  Evica was able to help us understand also that their Temple trip was a life changing event and what was being said and experienced at that time was really true.   It was a living testimony from mother to daughter and daughter to mother and then back to us.  It was such a thrill for us to be a part of this exchange between the mother and father and their daughter and to have them express how much joy and happiness they have felt as a result of going to the Temple and being sealed.  The Biličs didn’t need to say many words in order for Evica and us to understand how they feel about the Temple, even today, three months later.  It was fun to have Evica help translate for her mother, expressing her Mother’s feelings and telling her mother how this made her feel.  She added her own observations and tried to help us understand what her mother was saying by summarizing her mother’s thoughts and feelings, explaining that her parents had not stopped talking about the Temple since they returned from the Temple in August.

Mom pulled out her little quote book and read  some quotes from Brother Bilič when we were visiting with them helping them to prepare to attend the Temple in the  summer:  “The Temple is the place where we prepare for our meeting with God.”  And “No one knows what is waiting for us there.”  We really enjoyed the moment as we basked in a wonderful atmosphere of love and gratitude and their desire to return to the temple.  We asked Evica to read 2 Ne 2:25 and we asked what the great word toward the end meant.  She said the word “radost” a couple of times and couldn’t find an English word to use.  We told her that the English word is “joy”.  She liked the English word.    We then asked her if she could think of anything that would add to the joy that her parents were feeling about the Temple.  At first she said that would be impossible because they were already full of joy. We asked her to read in D&C 18:16 which says that if your joy is great with one soul, how great will be your joy if many souls come unto me.    She read and tried to help her mother understand in Croatian.  As she thought about it and talked to her mother, both of their faces lit up and both she and her mother said together:  “If we could go to the temple together.”    It was a very tender moment for them and for us to watch and listen to them talk and laugh and we were all close to tears.  It was so great to watch Evica make the discovery that she could give her mother more joy by getting ready to go to the Temple with her parents.  Mom quoted from 3 John:  “I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth.”  I got the inspiration that for us, walking in truth may mean having a temple recommend and attending the temple together.   Evica promised to come to Church this Sunday and she said she would also invite her 17 year old daughter, who is apparently living independently, to come to church with her.

Unfortunately, this whole family is very poor.  Evica is divorced and recently lost her job working in a distribution center for United Colors of Beneton. Her parents have a garden, a few chickens and pigs and are barely getting by.   We had a closing prayer and then took care of business.  They needed money to get their car registered and so the missionaries and we bought and/or placed some orders for some of Sister Bilič’s hand-made crocheted goods.  They ended up with enough kuna to get their old beat up car that runs (most of the time) on faith registered.

Brother Bilić was recently called as a counsellor in our Branch Presidency and he told us he has been waking up very early in the mornings thinking about who should be called to which position.  Sadly for us we don't understand his Croatian very well  and he hardly speaks a word of English.  But we are often surprised at how well we are able to communicate with the help of the missionaries and the spirit.

I had a few comments to the Bishop about the young adults who have decided or are trying to decide how to involve their family in the teaching and conversion process.  The Missionaries try to get families involved in the teaching process because it is so much easier for new members to have the support of their family when it comes to coming to church and living the word of wisdom, etc.  Unfortunately, the approach has not been too fruitful. Most have had to make the decision to be baptized in spite of family resistance and not with their blessing and support.  Most eventually see the Gospel and the Church as a positive influence in the lives of their loved ones who join the church and work toward becoming fully converted.  President McKay  is quoted as having said, “The church helps bad men become good and good men become better.”  Good people can see the change for good in those they love.  We have been in this area long enough that after our next transfer--next week--most of the missionaries that were here when we came in May have moved on or gone home.  The converts do not like to see them leave and neither do we.  Elder Bates is a man after my own heart.  He says he doesn’t do well with change—and neither do I.  He has been told (unofficially by the President) that he will be going to Beograd, Serbia to be a Zone Leader.  Our District is in that Zone so he may still come here on exchanges and for interviews.

Now, with regard to our ability to speak Croatian.  Mom has been working hard to study and learn and talk one on one with some of the members and neighbors.  I haven’t studied and learned the written words as well as she has.   But even when I know the written words from the scriptures etc. it is really tough to make the connection to what is being said and what we see or have seen written down.    It is a lot easier for me when we sing the songs from the book and pronounce the words syllable by syllable.  But mom is usually playing the piano and it is harder for her to multi-task.  But the real problem is when they speak fast, or even a normal speed, we can barely follow even when we know what is being said.  One example is listening to the Sacrament prayers while we are reading them.  It is so hard to hear the words as they are being said because of the way they pronounce them.  The Croatians think it should be easy for us because they pronounce every letter and say it just like it sounds--the same letter(s) has/have the same sound(s)  every time in every word.  But the hard part is where they put the accent.  I can barely hear my own name because they are always putting some letter at the end--so we are hearing Jamesa Ivinsa or Josephu Smithu.  I had a hard time figuring out if they had made a typo on the baptismal program of Robert and Mirko which were written, “The Baptism of Roberta and Mirka”.  I didn't want this letter to sound like I am  complaining.  I just want to express our appreciation for the incredible job the young missionaries do, some of whom haven't been here much longer than we have.  I woke up this morning with one scripture on my mind:  “Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength, that ye may stand blameless before God at the last day.”  I know this is for me.  But, I hope I can also extend  this charge to Bozo and to Andrej who have not been able to make the big leap of faith and get baptized so they can really help move the work of the church ahead in Osijek.   We need their help to build this branch and be ready when the time comes to become a Ward in a Stake of Zion.  The missionaries want to have an Osijek Stake.  We read about Tonga which has fewer people than Osijek and has 17 stakes.  Oh that we had a king here who loved the Church.

Sorry for being so long-winded.  This has been a combination of what I wrote to Bishop Mott and President Taylor and some things I had written in my journal  and a few new thoughts that  I decided to write here as well.  This may end up being something  for our use only because nobody else will take the time to read it all.  

We love the Lord.  We love our mission.  We love the people.  We miss all of you and we love you.

Mom and Dad; Mutti and Bumpa

--

Elder and Sister Ivins

kayivins@gmail.com

Matije Gupca 7a

31000 Osijek, Croatia

385 (0) 91 444-8114 (Elder Ivins)

385 (0) 91 444-8115 (Sister Ivins)