Winding up the Senior Conference - August 17 - 21

 The Senior Conference did not start well.   One senior couple, and President Field's family did not arrive until an hour and a half after the appointed time.  President Field was still upset with us, and we had organized the Conference and were conducting it (truthfully, Liz was doing all that.)   I don't know if that had to do with why they would be so late - their explanation was that they had to drop one of their sons off before they could come, but that wasn't in the plan and they didn't call to let us know.  Even after they arrived, they didn't really participate.  

    We spent some time letting everybody tell a little bit about ourselves, so we could get to know each other better.  We had mostly not met each other, although we had seen each other via Zoom on the Senior Conference call every other week, and occasional other events.  

    President and Sister Field were supposed to be the first speakers, but they stood up in front of us for a few minutes and told jokes.  Well, at least that helped get our schedule closer to the plan, because they took 5 minutes instead of the scheduled 45.

    We were next, and Liz had asked me to let her use the entire allotted time.  She had prepared an excellent presentation using Google Slides (similar to Powerpoint) and it was impressive.  The disturbing thing to me was that during all this time, President Field would not make eye contact with either of us.  On the other hand, he didn't send us home in disgrace, so it could have been worse.

   For the next speaker, we had arranged to have Jeff Hein, from Plano, TX, speak to us via Zoom.  He served his mission in Germany and Austria, and he did a great job addressing missionary issues and expressing his love.  That was the end of our active participation, except for starting and stopping each session.

   We had arranged for refreshments to be served by the hotel, and they did very well.  The fruit platters were good, but we weren't in the mood for the meat and cheese platter.  It was hot that day and we mostly grabbed up the drinks.  They had bottles of apricot juice, which was very popular with the group.  Other favorites were Coke and water.

  The second day, we had speakers from the ranks of the senior missionaries, and then we had the afternoon to seek entertainment on our own.  One group formed who took a hike along the river that flows down out of the Julian Alps.  I volunteered to drive some of the hikers up to the trailhead, after which I had a most-delicious nap.

    Liz went with a group who were going on a spectacular zip line.  It was a guided event, and their guide met them at a place close to the hotel.  They went to the zip location in a big, ex-army, 6X6 truck.  It took them up a very rugged road to the top of the first zip line in a series of 6.  Each of the 6 ziplines were approximately 1,000 feet long, and they went from one side of a big gorge to the other, then down a little bit to the next one to zip back to the first side.  Everyone raved about how fun it was, and what an amazing view they had.  What they hadn't realized was that they had to scramble down the rocky mountain over an unimproved trail between the ziplines, and it was extremely steep.  Liz slipped at one point and slid down a large rock, skinning her knee in the process.

The final day was more relaxed and more spiritual, if possible.  We all took turns telling what great things had happened as a result of our missions.  We took a group photo, which was awesome.  And look at the mountains in the background:

I just couldn't resist taking photos of the clouds hugging the mountains.

This is all of us.  The photo was taken at the same spot as my photo of the mountains, above.   Looking this direction the mountains are not so majestic, but they are equally rugged.

Being older, we senior missionaries are able to make our own decisions, and we had already decided that we wanted to gather again at Lake Bled.  So we jumped in our cars and headed across the big mountains to where Lake Bled is located.  We might have been the only ones who chose to go the longer route around the mountains.  At least most of the rest went up and over the mountains, for which there are two routes:  the steep route, and the extremely steep route (we took that one last spring while exploring this location.)  Amazingly, we all arrived at Lake Bled at about the same time.

On the way to Lake Bled we passed this house.  Considering that this is a stone house, that is an amazing archway in the corner.  But what impressed us was the pleasant addition a little white paint makes when artistically applied.

This is a close-up of the windows.  They are simple flush windows.  The framing is paint, and the windowsill is paint.

By the time we got to Lake Bled it was evening, but we had arranged to meet the other seniors at a restaurant where they have great lamb chops.  Not everybody likes lamb, of course, but we certainly do, and the others found menu items equally good.

Spending more time with the other senior missionaries was certainly a rewarding experience.  We have so much in common and we all feel like long-lost siblings.  It was a sad thought that we will not see most of them again, unless it is at a mission reunion way down the road.

The next morning we had breakfast and then said goodbye to the other seniors.  We had one more task.  Liz's brother, Bill and his wife were coming to visit the next week and we wanted to give them a good view of Slovenia.   We have been intrigued by Villa Bled, which used to be Tito's summer palace back in the Yugoslavia days.  So we drove there to see if it would work to impress Bill and Barbara, international travelers that they are.

This is the entrance.  The red carpet is symbolic of what was inside, sheer opulence.  We went inside and spoke with the registration clerk and made reservations for our stay with Bill and Barb.  The price is high, but not excessive.

This is the view from the side of the hotel.  The church on the island is one of the iconic things around Lake Bled.   On the left of the photo are some tables, where guests enjoy breakfast while soaking up the view.

I love the flowers.  The steel grate at the right side is also impressive.  We decided that Villa Bled will do for our guests.

This is a roadside.  We stopped to take a photo because the flowers were so pretty.

Here are some photos other seniors took, of the missionaries, and rivers and gorges nearby.

This is Liz with the zipline bunch.

So, that was it.  We loved the senior conference.  We are only sad that this is the first one we've been able to enjoy while on our mission.  It should have been the fourth, if not for COVID.

And here are some photos we took in the days following our return from our long auditing & Senior Conference trip.  When we came on our mission, the auditing department encouraged us a get an extra large passport book, so that we'd have plenty of room for all the border crossing stamps.  Then we didn't get to travel due to COVID.  But, now we have a goodly number of stamps in our passports and we feel much better about it.

This larger panel is above the doorway of the cafe.

All the above photos of painted flowers, are at the cafe in THE City Park.  They are above all the windows there.  We have been there several times, but this was the first time we noticed these.

We see beautiful doors quite often.  This one in Maribor's Center is particularly ornate.  It is clearly an older door.  The building is now used by the Maribor Sport Authority.