Croatia

Joyce and I spent a week in Eastern Europe and Austria.  We have dear friends, Richard and Carrie Westergard, in Zagreb, Croatia serving a mission for the LDS Church.  The following pictures are an indication of some of the experiences we had.  I have known Richard almost my entire life.  We were next door neighbors as little boys in Woods Cross, Utah.  We moved away from there in 1963, but returned in 1967 to Centerville, Utah.  Richard and I were teammates in high school, we played football together and were roommates in jr. college, we were at Utah State together and ended up in the same dental school together.  So it is has been about a 55 year friendship.  It was great to see them and they were fantastic guides and hosts in Croatia.  Here you can see Richard and me in front of the Roman Coliseum in Pula, Croatia.

 Her are Carrie Westergard and Joyce in the back seat.  (So they could chat with one another easier)  The boys stayed in the front seat for navigational purposes.

 Joyce and Carrie are doing their thing here in Rovinj.  Rovinj is a beautiful sea side town on the Adriatic across from Venice.  My friend Richard and I soon learned that it is quite an education watching these two go at it in the stores in the area.

 Here we had to stop to check out a missionary.  He had a tender tooth and wondered if he was going to have problems.  Richard is a dentist and kind of handles these types of questions.

 Here is a morning shot from our room on the bay near Rijeka, Croatia.  This sea side town is Opatija.  It was beautiful.

 This is a shot from the Citadel down on the little seaside village of Piran.

 Rovinj was one of our favorite places and here are Richard and Carrie spicing up the pictures.

 Still gracing the streets of Rovinj.

 Beautiful old town.  Rovinj at sunset.

Rapp or Reacher?

With the passing of Vince Flynn this week those of us who read his books and love his characters are saddened.  Personally, I also enjoy tremendously the work of Lee Child.  I still cannot accept the fact that Tom Cruise played Jack Reacher even though the movie itself was a pretty good adaptation of the novel One Shot.  Brad Thor and Daniel Silva are two others that I have enjoyed in that genre.

But Rapp and Reacher have been my favorite tough guy fictional personalities who take care of problems.  They tell me that real men always want to take care of problems.  Which is my favorite?  It is hard to say really.  I love Mitch Rapp and his no nonsense approach to dealing with problems with finality.  I love Reacher because he is big, tough and tender at the same time.  5 guys surround him and he wonders if it is going to be a fair fight, for the other guys.

As I have read about Vince Flynn through the years I have been impressed with his life, his character, his love for his family and respect for our American Heritage.  Many eulogies have been written the past few days and I mourn as a fan and someone who respected his work and his desire to succeed.  His wife and children are really in my thoughts.  I realize there probably will not be another Vince Flynn coming along.  Mitch Rapp will be in one more Flynn book that comes out this Fall.  As a tribute I guess I will start with Term Limits again and read all his books and have myself a Flynn-a-thon.

Yapping Dogs

This morning is lovely on the benches of the everlasting hills.  There were a few weeds to attend to, peach trees to water, some vegetables to tend to.  Nothing that couldn't be done in an hour or so.  As I write this the Sun has still not crested the mountains above our home.  Sounds tranquil, doesn't it?

Yapping dogs.  There ought to be a law against them.  Those pesky yapping dogs that have no reason to bark and seem to be without a brain.  There ought to at least be a class kind of like driver's ed, it could be called dog ed, or something like that.  There would need to be a least a full week on what to do if you dog is incessantly barking at 6 AM at somebody 60 yards away working on their own property.

I cannot imagine that all the other surrounding neighbors fail to hear the little beasties.  And the owners must have earplugs in or something because it doesn't seem to cause any reaction.  The thought came to me that their should be some device, a whistle or something that one could blow that would cause sufficient discomfort to the dogs that it would cause them to stop; of course without doing any damage to them.

Is their something about the little yappy dogs that can cause one's skin to crawl.  A big woof from a labrador or something like that doesn't seem so bad but the higher, repetitive pitch of the little canines is like fingernails on a chalkboard.  I must be alone in this because I have little yappers all around me.

The Glory of Their Times

I have read a lot of books over the years on baseball.  I would be hard pressed to come up with one that is better than this classic.  Honestly, I had never heard of this book before, but I came across the title in some blog and decided to check it out.  It is a fantastic read for anyone who has some appreciation for the history of baseball in the United States.  The author followed through with a personal desire to interview baseball players who played in the early 1900's.  So in the early 60's he sought out some of these old timers, traveling thousands of miles and spending a few years of his time.  He tape recorded the interviews and with little editing he has created a timeless baseball masterpiece.  This is one I give a heart felt recommendation.  It would be a great Father's Day gift for any dad who loves baseball.

El Salvador II

To finish the last post I would like to offer the following.  Our group Smiles for Central America had a group of 126 people.  There were physicians, 7 oral surgeons, 4 endodontists, and 23 general dentists with 3 dental hygienists.  Others in the group worked long grueling hours in hot sterilization areas, they worked in labs, registration, radiology, surgery recovery, dental assisting and the humanitarian areas.  Everyone played an integral role in our brigada.  We saw 1051 patients.  We calculated the dentistry done in 5 days at $2.2 million dollars.

The great thing though is the benefit that will accrue to the Church, to El Salvador and to the world.  In the years to come there will be more Returned Missionaries there.  These missionaries will have had experiences that will bless their life and mature them.  They will be more desirous to have improved education, to have a better family life and to acquire meaningful employment.  That will benefit El Salvador and the world.  Their missionary efforts will also bless the lives of others in the countries they are called to.  Now, in Central America, missionaries are being sent outside that region where before they would serve in a neighboring country.  They are going to South America and other parts of the world, including Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

So to all those who supported this effort with their donations--THANK YOU SO MUCH.  It did a lot and went a long way.

Pinatas for the Orphanage

These guys kept us out of trouble and raced us through the traffic

 Good guys to know

This Sister is excited to serve a mission.  The Elders won't be able to sleep at night.

El Salvador

Joyce and I went with our friends from Smiles for Central America to El Salvador.  Principally it was to do dentistry and offer humanitarian service.  Over the years our focus has been on young people ages 16-24.  These are the young men and women who are desiring to serve missions for our Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Over the past 4 years the number of native Central American missionaries has doubled, due to the efforts of our group and the desire of the young people to serve.

This is a report of our latest brigada.  It will include a lot of photos.  There were some families in my neighborhood who donated money at the last minute to help us get the supplies and material we needed to fulfill our humanitarian services in San Salvador.  This will be a grateful report to them also.

We arrived in San Salvador late 25 April.  We were glad to get to the hotel.  The next morning we arose early, had an orientation, and then proceeded to an LDS Stake Center that we had commandeered and turned into a medical-dental clinic.  The main dental clinic was in the Cultural Hall and the Oral Surgery clinic was in the Chapel.  The physicians and labs were in rooms located in other parts of the building.

Cultural Hall Clinic

Joyce in Oral Surgery

The Oral Surgery Clinic in the Chapel

Once the clinic was organized then young people were registered and started their journey through.  First stop, hair cuts for the young men, pictures and then all the medical stuff.  Then they proceeded to the dental clinic where digital x-rays were taken.  These x-rays could be accessed via wireless connection by anyone with a lap top or iPad.  As a point of pride, my son Ben wrote this software program on the airplane ride down to Central America a few years ago and they are still using it with great success.

Once the x-rays were done then the fun started.  A dentist was assigned a pre missionary, all fillings were done and if wisdom teeth needed to be extracted then they were then sent to the oral surgery clinic.  It could be a long day for someone with a lot of decay and the necessity of extractions.  After all was done, their missionary application was complete and it will be sent to the Stake Presidents and then the Area Presidency.

During the week everyone was given the chance to go on a humanitarian trip.  These included an orphanage, a cancer hospital and the houses of members of the Church who had special needs.  Our visit was to a family consisting of a man, his widowed mother, his sister and his daughter.  He was blind without work and they were existing from day to day.  He had a job for many years with IBM, but eye surgery left him blind and he lost his job.  We came to find out that for over twenty years they housed the missionaries in their small home and the widowed mother fed the missionaries.

We had a poignant meeting.  The leader of our humanitarian group is Cynthia.  She asked me to kind of conduct a little devotional meeting.  I immediately called on my wife Joyce to express her thoughts.  She was magnificent and a tremendous Spirit was there.  I translated her thoughts into Spanish so they were understood by the family.  After she was through this old, widowed woman, so humble yet incredibly strong pored out her feelings of gratitude with tears and emotion, proclaiming the great blessings she has had from God throughout her life.  It gave perspective.

Another part of our humanitarian effort took place on Sunday.  We were escorted by our police friends to a small, poor LDS Ward about an hour from San Salvador.  There we attended their Sacrament Meeting.  Afterwards we had gifts for them including beautiful blankets, toys, clothing and we took each family group and photographed them, framed the picture and presented it to them.  For many this is the one and only family picture they have ever possessed.  There were a lot of dress up clothes for the girls, capes for the boys, soccer balls.  White shirts, blouses and ties with a lot of food given to those in dire need were part of the whole humanitarian effort.

Joyce passing out blankets in the Blanket Room

Princesses in their new Dress Ups

Almost all of these items were carried down from the US in big black duffels.  United Airlines was incredible in their help, streamlining the checking of all these bags.  Here you can see them in the basement of the Church Building.

Later that afternoon we attended a Fireside of Perspective Missionaries that was transmitted throughout El Salvador.  More in the next post.

58

Thursday last was my birthday.  My perfect wife planned a weekend outing.  I came home from work.  She told me what clothes to put on and we headed south to a restaurant we have come to like for special occasions called Franck's.  (If you like to experience incredible, unusual flavors in your mouth try this place)  Sitting there were two of our dear friends who drove up from Richfield.  We had a great evening of food and talk.

Friday we went to the Mummie exhibit at the Leonardo museum in Salt Lake.  Later we caught a movie.  Safe Haven.  It sounded kind of like a chick flick and my guess was correct but I enjoyed the sentimentality of the thing.  Dinner came later at an Italian restaurant I had never heard of but our friends had frequented before.

Both night's respite were at Little America in some nice rooms.  It was just a great surprise and fun birthday.  Hooray Joycie for doing and planning it all.