MISSIONARIES IN MONTENEGRO

This past week we went to Podgorica, Montenegro to help train the Olsons in their humanitarian work.  If you have looked at our MTC pictures Sister Olson was the one with the broken arm. She broke it on the first day at the MTC and had surgery on it 2 days before leaving for Montenegro. We were so impressed with the determination they showed to make it to Montenegro despite the challenges they were facing.  The Olsons have just recently returned from a mission to Ghana where they were used to making the best of hard situations.

Montenegro is in South Eastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the southwest and is bordered by Croatia to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, and Albania to the southeast. Serbian is the language spoken by most of the people.  We didn’t go to the coast during our time there but according to a local young woman I spoke with on the plane some of the most beautiful beaches and also mountains are in Montenegro.

Elder and Sister Olson have their work cut out for them.  Other than the four young missionaries and themselves, there are less than a dozen members of our church in the country. He is the branch president (or spiritual leader of the congregation).  She is the primary president (children’s organization, 4 children attending), and they both teach institute (young adults, 3 attending) on Friday nights. They also supervise and help care for the young missionaries serving in Podgrica.  While we were there they were also shopping and doing the cooking for a branch party on Saturday.  We went to the grocery store with them and it was really the largest and best stocked grocery store I have seen in a while. The food is delicious there with what seemed to be an Italian influence.

The first night we arrived Elder Olson pulled out his wallet to pay for the parking at the airport. Later that evening when we were going to get some dinner, he couldn’t find his wallet. Russell and Elder Olson went down to the car assuming he had left it there. They were gone for a really long time and came back empty handed.  We scoured the apartment looking for it. We knew that if we didn’t find it there could be some serious challenges.  Sister Olson said a very heart-rending prayer beseeching God for help in finding the wallet. We went back to the car, she pulled back the seat on the passenger side and there was the wallet. Russell and Elder Olson looked stunned. They had both pulled that seat back with no success in finding it.  I am confident that we had an immediate answer to a sincere prayer.

Initially we had a lot of important but mundane topics to address with the Olsons. Part of the training we needed to accomplish was to teach our Church’s specific direction in how to identify and structure potential humanitarian projects  (spend funds), how to keep track of humanitarian projects on the computer, and how to track humanitarian funds and get bills paid.  After a couple of days of it Eileen  and Sister Olson needed to get out. We went to a shop and were trying unsuccessfully to communicate with the owner.  A young lady approached us and said that she could speak English and would translate for us. Ana was a delightful young lady working in a prominent position at a local bank. She offered to assist the Olsons in any way that she could and gave us her card.  This was truly a blessing as the Olsons speak very little Serbian and could benefit from some networking as they search for projects.

We went to lunch at “Niagara Falls”, a beautiful location with some falls that look like a very miniature Niagara.  Afterwards we took a drive to some ancient roman ruins called Doclea. On Sept. 7, 2010 Elder Russell M Nelson, visited Montenegro. He and a small group of members in Podgorica assembled at the ruins of Doclea, remnants of a Roman Empire civilization dating back to the year 1 A.D.  Elder Nelson said, "At those ruins I knelt in prayer to bless the land and the people of Montenegro."  It was wonderful to see a location with such rich history both dating back to the time of Christ, and then also where an apostle of God had prayed for the people of Montenegro.

Wednesday we had a visit with two officials of the local Red Cross.  We have a shipment of 600 wheelchairs that will soon be arriving at the port. Our church has partnered with the Red Cross to fit and distribute the wheelchairs to those in need.  This will be the fifth shipment of wheelchairs our church has donated in Montenegro.

Thursday we went to a facility called Komanski Most. This institution has 115 residents who have various mental disabilities.  We met with the director and four other employees and then took a tour of the facility. We were impressed with the cleanliness of the facility, the love and care the employees showed to the clients and the efforts that were being made to help each individual become as independent as possible. Arts and crafts were being done in one room complete with classical music playing in the background. In an outdoor location rock music was playing over the loudspeaker with men dancing to the music. There was a sensory stimulation room for the 13 residents with autism. Recently our church donated a greenhouse so that vegetables could be grown.  The hope is that the adult men and women will learn some gardening skills and also be able to benefit from their labors by eating the produce that is grown.

We truly enjoyed our visit to Montenegro with the Olsons.

Millenial Bridge in Podgorica

This was the mundane part of the training

The Falls

Roman Ruins

Russell and Eileen at Roman Ruins

Inscriptions on ruins

More inscriptions

Sister Olson and Sister Healy

Orthodox church in Podgorica

At Komanski-this woman was a resident who wanted to make sure the other residents were working

The director at Komanski with 3 of the residents-they were very anxious to have photo taken

Greenhouse donated to Komanski from our church