So I have to admit this week has been very emotionally and physically draining. I had to help organize my first funeral in Croatia. There was a member here in Zadar that had been sick for awhile and in the hospital. She passed away on Tuesday and the rest of the week was consumed with trying to contact people and organize a service. Because the branches are so small here missionaries serve as branch presidents in some of the cities. Well my companion is the Branch President here and so we had a lot to do. From what we had known she didn't have any family. However, after having searched through her wallet we found a number and got in contact with some family members in Zagreb. So they came down here on Wednesday to be caught up to speed on what we had already done and organize some other things. I thought that maybe they would be mad that they weren't contacted sooner but they were really nice and very appreciative. So it was an interesting experience. The family was very considerate of her obligations to the church in the way that although she will be cremated she will be dressed in her temple clothes. My companion and I worked through the whole thing together and all is well now. It all ended, for us at least, with a small service here in Zadar before she is moved up to Zagreb where the family lives and the main service will be.
Throughout the whole thing I had a great opportunity! So I don't really know why but when missionaries serve as branch presidents they aren't really sustained or set apart. So when the week was getting really stressful and Elder Truman and I were thinking of what else we can do to help the branch and family he asked me if I could give him a blessing to help him. He spends a lot of time in the spare bedroom which has now been named ˝the revelation room˝ as that is where it is quieter and he studies in there. So as he came out from saying his personal prayers and we were talking he asked me to give him a blessing. As I begun, I took a deep breathe and my head began to spin and little. I was a bit nervous, I had never done this before. As I stood there with my hands on his head in silence for a moment I tried to clear my head as to be sure that what I said was from the Lord and not my own thought. This turned out to be a great experience. As I searched for the Lord's will to be dictated through me to my companion I could feel the spirit working through me and it was truly a great experience.
So that was one blessing for me this week, that I gave. But my companion managed to one up me this week. We went over to an investigators house and gave his mom a blessing. She is sick but we decided that it would be better to not bring our oil until they understood a little more about it. Well the member that accompanied us was so nice as to explain to her that next time we might bring the ˝holy oil˝. Wasn't that so nice of her!
The other blessing was to a member who had found out that she was pregnant this week and has had some problems with that so they asked Truman to give her a blessing. Her husband has been a member for about 3 months and told us that he anxiously awaits the day when he wont have to call on the missionaries to offer a blessing to a member of his family. It was great to hear that a recent convert already has such great goals for him and his family.
We played tourist last week after emails and I got lots of cool pics. Just for Lance I visited the 5 wells, Lion's gate, and the sea organ. This is along with all the b-e-a-utiful sunsets that I see off our balcony. I have attached a few.
So that is pretty much my week. Hopefully we can hit the ground running this week with the funeral over. I have specialized training on Wednesday in Zagreb and I am excited to ˝go home˝ for a day.
Well I love you all and hope you enjoy the pictures!
This is Elder Massey and Elder West (his companion from the MTC) holding signs for their car wash/service project they had a couple weeks ago while still in Zagreb
This is from a couple weeks ago as well, at Dajana's baptism Ü
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