Monday June 3rd

Jordan got sent to his first area! He is in Tulza, Bosnia-Herzegovina. I was super surprised to hear this because he studied Croatian in the MTC so I just figured he would be staying there. In his e-mail to me today he said that Tulza is a very Islamic place so there are Muslims and mosques everywhere! He also said you can constantly hear music playing and at one of the mosques there are big speakers and when this guy gets up and starts singing it means its time to pray. He seems really excited to be there but my family and I are a little nervous for him because of the past wars and issues they had there.

Here are some stats I got on the religions in Bosnia:
Faiths:
Christian 46%
Muslim 40%
Other 14%

Christians 
Orthodox
Member: 1,430,158

Catholic 
Members: 692,012

Jehovah's Witness 
Members: 1,206
Congregations: 16

Seventh Day Adventists
Members: 661
Congregations: 23

Latter-Day Saints
Members: Less than 50 
Congregations: 1

LDS Membership (2010): 
Between December 1995 and September 1998 almost 900 Latter-day saint servicemen had been deployed to the "Adriatic North Region" for peacekeeping operations. In the late 2000's, missionaries in the Slovenia Ljubljana mission taught an interested Bosniak youth living in Bosnia who was interviewed by the mission president over Skype and then later baptized.  The Bosniak convert had learned about the church over the internet! At least 2 others LDS couples resided in the country in 2010. The one branch they have was organized in 2011 and they meet in Sarajevo. About 35 members go to an evening devotional on Sundays held at Elder Nelsons home. The ACTIVE membership rate is about 30 people. All church meetings are held in rented spaces or member homes. The LDS church does not appear to face any legal obstacles in performing missionary work in the country. However, the church falls vastly short of the required 300 adult citizen members required to apply as a religious community to enjoy full religious freedom. The Church may face proselyting restrictions due to intolerance of religious minorities in regions with heavy predominance of Muslims or Orthodox. Basically the biggest thing the LDS church does for Bosnia is send humanitarian help! All LDS scripture is translated into Croatian only. 

If you want a lot more information about this stuff then go to Cumorah.com and it has a ton of information. 

Jordan has A LOT of work to do! He only has 7 people in his "ward" and one is close to being baptized. Everyone please send prayers his way!! If you would like to send him letters the address is:

Crka Isusa Krista spd
Svacicev Trg 3
Zagreb 10000
Hrvatska