When Dejan was a young boy in Bosnia, his parents sent he and his sister away to escape a war that was sweeping their country. Then suddenly the border closed, making it impossible for them to be reunited with their parents.
They had to find another way...
Join us as Dejan shares his story of hope and faith as he and his sister travel through several different countries and refugee camps alone before finally reaching the arms of their parents once again.
Ultimately, he and his family were able to find safety in Canada, where he was also introduced to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
*** Please SHARE Dejan's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***
To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/mb_7jNJDHgU
-----
Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.
When Dejan was a young boy in Bosnia, his parents sent he and his sister away to escape a war that was sweeping their country. Then suddenly the border closed, making it impossible for them to be reunited with their parents.
They had to find another way...
Join us as Dejan shares his story of hope and faith as he and his sister travel through several different countries and refugee camps alone before finally reaching the arms of their parents once again.
Ultimately, he and his family were able to find safety in Canada, where he was also introduced to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
*** Please SHARE Dejan's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***
To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/mb_7jNJDHgU
-----
Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.
Hey everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.
Alisha Coakley:And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.
Scott Brandley:On today's episode we're going to hear how one refugee left war-torn Bosnia and discovered just how aware the Lord is of us. Welcome to Latter-day Lights, everyone. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today and we are really excited to have a special guest. Dejan Tahic Is that? Did I say that?
Dejan Tahic:right Perfect.
Scott Brandley:Perfect, All right. The helps to have notes on your paper. So, Dejan, welcome to the show. It's a pleasure to have you here.
Dejan Tahic:It's a pleasure to be here.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, yeah, I was so excited when you words are hard. Today, you guys, I was so excited when you reached out to us and you shared a little bit of your story. I have not heard one anything like your story before and I went and I searched and I heard that you were on another podcast called Latter-day Lives, right Like L-I-V-E-S, yeah, and I was like, oh, I was like I haven't heard of that one because they're not doing it anymore. Right, like they quit doing it a little while ago.
Scott Brandley:And so I was like oh man.
Alisha Coakley:So anyway, I started listening to your story and I was telling you I turned it off because I was like no, I don't want to hear anymore, because I want to hear it when you come on as a guest. So I'm so excited to be able to hear more of your story, dejan, and just to really get to know you, and so I want to invite you to tell us a little bit about yourself and your family. You know who are you and what do you do.
Dejan Tahic:Okay, so, as you said, I'm Deon. I come from Bosnia. I've lived here since 93.
Alisha Coakley:Okay.
Dejan Tahic:I have a wife and I have four daughters.
Alisha Coakley:Four daughters.
Dejan Tahic:Wow, four daughters.
Alisha Coakley:Yep. Are any of them adults yet? Are they married?
Dejan Tahic:No, oh you poor. Thing. Yeah, I know, I know, I know all this one is eight and then seven.
Scott Brandley:Oh wow.
Dejan Tahic:And then four, and then almost two.
Alisha Coakley:So instead of saving for retirement, you're saving for weddings.
Dejan Tahic:Exactly.
Alisha Coakley:Do you have any rules yet? Are your daughters going to have to wait six months in between or have double weddings, or have you thought about any of that yet? No, not yet, oh well you might have to start thinking about it. I'd be like temple wedding and church reception for everybody and that's it.
Scott Brandley:Yeah exactly Hot luck, there you go.
Alisha Coakley:Or marry someone really rich and just let them tan a little, just be like, no, we've got it yeah.
Dejan Tahic:So where do you live? I live in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
Scott Brandley:That's my old stomping grounds. I grew up in Alberta, yeah sorry. I grew up in Magrath, which is just below Lethbridge, and then, when I was 10, I moved to Vauxhall, which is Little east, yeah, northeast a little bit, yeah, yeah.
Dejan Tahic:So I see, yeah, I know, Magrath, I've been there many times. I think that this year we went to that parade that you guys have for the the first of July. First of July parade yeah.
Scott Brandley:Yeah.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, so.
Alisha Coakley:Very cool.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah.
Alisha Coakley:Well, look at that, it's a small world. It really is a small world.
Scott Brandley:It is it is.
Alisha Coakley:It's a big world, but it's a small world, very, very cool.
Dejan Tahic:So, like I said, I'm married. I've been married for the last nine years. I'm a convert to the church, so I'm a convert of 10 years.
Scott Brandley:Wow.
Dejan Tahic:So basically I joined the church and the next year I got married.
Scott Brandley:So oh my goodness.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, very cool, that's awesome, all right. Well, we are not going to postpone any longer. Dejan, why don't you go ahead and tell us where does your story begin?
Dejan Tahic:Okay. So before I do the majority of the story, I just want to go ahead and just introduce a little bit of a background story to you guys about the war in Bosnia, about the Bosnia in general. So Iso, the Bosnia was made in just during the World War II, just before the World War II ended. So at that time we had six I'm going to call them states. We have six of them. So basically Slovenia, bosnia, herzegovina, serbia, montenegro, macedonia and there's another one, croatia.
Dejan Tahic:And in 19.during the after the World War II and up to 1980, we had a president called President Tito, and during that time the country was perfect, everybody was taking care of each other, it was friendly country, the industry was good and everything. It was a wealthy country in Europe. And in 1980, president Tito passed away and ever since that time the country steadily progressed toward authoritarian government. So basically, after his death in 19. he died in 1980, but in 1992, because of all the authoritarian government upheaval, their Bosnia and not Bosnia Croatia and Slovenia wanted to separate from Yugoslavia. So they wanted their own independence, they wanted to be their own country. So that happened and that came war, because Serbia didn't want that. So the war came and the next country, next state that wanted to become independent was Bosnia, and that's where I'm from and they, I think. In the referendum they voted 99.7% yes in favor of the independence. And because of Serbia and Serbia was more of an authoritarian government they boycotted it.
Dejan Tahic:They didn't want to for Bosnia to become independent, and what they did at that time is they attacked militarily. So they, yeah. So right away they attacked the capital, serbia. They saw that if they attacked the capital, that they can actually control everything and the independence will stop. But that didn't stop them. The independence still happened. Bosnia became its own country and because of that first siege of Sarajevo, they killed what is it? They killed, I'm going to say about 10, 11,000 people just in that first siege. Oh my gosh, yeah, wow. So that is kind of a backstory, how the war started, basically.
Dejan Tahic:And then on, I was 15 at the time I'm going to say 14, 15, somewhere in that range and I woke up just a normal day. I woke up to go to school because I just started high school, it was my first year of high school and I started going, got it getting dressed in the morning and I'd always meet one of my friends in the morning at my house so we can walk to school together. It's a smaller town, so we walked everywhere. So we went to, we started walking and everywhere we went there's these military vehicles all over the place, like you can't go anywhere without seeing a military vehicle and we were wondering what is going on here. So like we went to school anyways, and in the distance you can hear the bombs going off. It's close by, but it's not in our town yet.
Scott Brandley:So it feels surreal, like what were your feelings when you could hear that going on.
Dejan Tahic:I was scared. Yeah, I was scared, but I was also 14, 15 years old, I didn't really know what to think of it. So we went to school and we stayed there the whole day and then, when I came home, my parents told me and my sister because I have a sister as well, she's a year older than me my parents told us that me and my sister, they're going to ship us out to our aunts in Serbia so we can live with them for a bit, and then my parents will grab some stuff, some clothes and whatnot, some important documents, passport and stuff like that, and they'll meet us at my aunts. So me and my sister went alone. We just got it on the bus and we just went there.
Alisha Coakley:Like that day, like right when you got home.
Dejan Tahic:I think. No, I think it was the next day. Okay, Next morning.
Alisha Coakley:So, like no time to say goodbye to anybody, you didn't have any idea how long you were going to be at your aunts.
Dejan Tahic:Just get up and leave, basically.
Alisha Coakley:What did you think? Did you have any idea that it could be a while? Or were you thinking it would just be really short?
Dejan Tahic:We really think it was going to be short, Even like a couple of weeks. We'll be dark and nothing. It would be like nothing really happened.
Alisha Coakley:Right.
Dejan Tahic:A little that we know. 30 years later, I'm in Canada, wow Okay.
Alisha Coakley:So so you and your older sister, who you guys are both about 14, 15 ish, 16, somewhere in the age range you get on a bus or a train and head to your aunts house by yourself.
Dejan Tahic:We go to Serbia just close by the Belgrade and let you know that Serbia is the one that attacked Bosnia, so we're going in the enemy country. Oh, wow, yeah.
Alisha Coakley:Wow yeah.
Dejan Tahic:So when we got there we didn't really go anywhere. We just stayed in the house with our family. They treat us good, they treat us perfectly, they fed us and gave us clothes, because we didn't have anything with us other than whatever we were wearing, basically.
Scott Brandley:Wow.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, so, yeah, everything was good there. I had, we had freedom to go wherever we want, but because we were in Serbia, in the enemy country, we didn't really want to risk it, we didn't want to get caught right. So we basically stayed in the house and just played around the house on the street there a little bit. That's about it. And so my parents' original plan was to come within a couple of days with some necessities, and in the meantime the border between Bosnia and Serbia closed. So now they're stuck over there and we're stuck in Serbia.
Alisha Coakley:Oh man.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, so the next plan it was my parents' backup plan was for children to go to Croatia, because my dad has a brother over there that was in Croatia. So that's what they did. So they went to Croatia and we stayed in Serbia for, I'm going to say, a couple of months or so. Oh my gosh. So the only way that we could talk is either on the phone or through the letters. So, yeah, majority of the time it was just letters writing letters, and I still have those letters. I had it backed up on my computer here, so sometimes I look at it just to remind myself of it.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, so they were in Croatia. Me and my sister were in Serbia and they're trying to get to Serbia. But that's what, the border is closed there too now. Oh no, so now they're stuck over there and they can't go to Bosnia either, because the border between Bosnia and Croatia closed as well. Oh my gosh. So now we're stuck. We're stuck in Serbia and they're stuck in Croatia. And what happened was my parents had another plan for me and my sister now to go to a different country, like totally different country. So Serbia borders Hungary. So me and my sister got some money from my aunt and they sent us to on the bus and over the border to first bigger town in Hungary, it's just called Mohac, it's only like 17,000 people. But now, because we're there, now we have to get registered with the Red Cross and now we're in the refugee camp.
Alisha Coakley:So you didn't have family or anyone you're going to.
Dejan Tahic:Oh no.
Alisha Coakley:Oh my gosh, that is.
Dejan Tahic:No, it was just me and my sister, 14, 15 years old, At the foreign country. We don't know the language. We are at the refugee camp but with some other Bosnian people, Bosnian families, but still it was foreign to us.
Alisha Coakley:Wow. As a mom, I can't even send my 16 year old into Walmart without him getting lost, and this is like a. No, I'm not even joking. I literally told my kids to meet me at Walmart after they went to the temple or whatever, and I told them wish Walmart to go to. They went to the total wrong Walmart and they're texting me and they're like we're in this aisle, where are you?
Alisha Coakley:And I'm like I'm in this aisle, you're not in this aisle, just to find out, so I can't even. This happened last week. I cannot even imagine how much anxiety your mom felt having the two of you guys go by yourselves, not knowing the language, having all this worth stuff happening, and just hoping and trusting that, one, you guys have enough money to be able to complete your trip and to feed yourselves and get whatever you need. And then two, to find all the resources and to be able to communicate with someone and then to check in right To make sure, like, hey, I can contact. I couldn't even Because back then.
Scott Brandley:Nothing happens to you along the way.
Alisha Coakley:Oh my gosh yeah.
Scott Brandley:That's.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, I can't so okay. So how do you what?
Dejan Tahic:was that like being in Hungary? So we're in Hungary. In the refugee camp and this is a smaller refugee camp there was maybe 50, 60 people in total there, so it was an old army station basically. There was one maybe like three level building there, the walls all the way around, with the guard in the front. So basically we had to have a permission to leave the place. If we wanted to go in the town we had to have permission. So they gave us these little cards that every time you want to go out they would give it to the guard in the front and he would stamp it and you have to show it and, on the back, make sure that we came back.
Dejan Tahic:There was a certain time that we had to be back by. We had a little bit of freedom, but not too much really, and especially because we don't know the language, we can't really talk to anybody outside of the compound. For food wise, we had to go. We had to walk about 15, 20 minutes to this firm. I don't know what kind of a firm it was, but we would go into their cafeteria and we would eat there whatever they, whatever they were having, we would be having as well, and after that we would walk back to the refugee compound and we would stay there, play games with you know whatever, do whatever we want on the inside, and then, yeah, we would stay for a while probably I was going to say maybe, like two months, and then all by itself, you were in.
Alisha Coakley:Hungary, by yourselves, for two months in a refugee camp.
Dejan Tahic:Just another refugee camp. Yeah, me and my sister, wow, yeah.
Alisha Coakley:How often were you able to talk to your parents?
Dejan Tahic:Probably like once a week. Oh my gosh, yeah, so they would actually send us money because there was no way of us getting any money other than my parents. So they would send us money there. And then we would get changed over there because it was pay phones right, there were no cell phones there or anything, so it was a pay phone that we had to use. So we would have to get changed from a store or something so we can have it for a phone call. So, yeah, so once a week we would be talking to our parents and I don't think we wrote letters there. I don't remember seeing any letters but, yeah, sorry, it was mostly phone and so we were there for a couple of months and my parents finally got a passport and they finally came to that refugee camp and we were reunited after a few months of being alone, separated. Yeah, I'm sure that was a pretty good reunion right.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, it was pretty emotional yeah.
Alisha Coakley:I bet.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah.
Alisha Coakley:What was it like in the camp? Like what did that? I mean, did you have private quarters at all? Was it just one big, huge room with cuts, or it was basically what it was.
Dejan Tahic:It was, each room had about three or four families. It was a huge room and the only separation between us was just some blankets around the beds, and that's basically it.
Alisha Coakley:Did you meet anyone in the refugee camp who kind of took you under their wing like any other families, that kind of?
Dejan Tahic:We had families that they treated as like their own family. That's nice, yeah, and because we didn't have really any cause, we relied on Red Cross donations. So what they would do is that they would bring these clothes and they would just pile it on the floor on the ground, like outside, and all these people would just like savage, just pile it on the clothes, trying to get through a good clothes as fast as they can. So that's basically how we got our clothes, whatever was left of it.
Alisha Coakley:Oh my gosh.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, wow, yeah, my parents came and they stayed with us for the remainder of the time and that refugee camp actually closed down probably a month after they came. So now we were sent into a different, bigger refugee camp and it was much bigger. There was probably a thousand people there and yeah, it was. I don't know if everybody was from Bosnia, but there was a lot of us there and that town was kind of in the middle of the hungry, between the Mohaj and the Budapest kind of, so it was along that road. So we stayed there. We had more privacy-wise. It was basically the same as the first one, but we had more freedom to go into town. Nobody was checking on us to make sure that we come back at some time, so we were out quite a bit. Somehow I made myself a fishing rod and I would go fishing in just the past time and bring some fish to the compound and fry it and eat it.
Alisha Coakley:But yeah, Were your parents able to work at all?
Dejan Tahic:No.
Alisha Coakley:Wow. So just whatever they had saved, and then just contributions from volunteers and, yeah, donations from charities. Wow, yeah, it does.
Dejan Tahic:So hard. Yeah, you're not allowed to work there unless you have a water permit for the visa. Right, right, yeah.
Scott Brandley:Wow.
Dejan Tahic:So we stayed in that refugee compound for a while and then I don't know why, but for some reason we were transferred over to Budapest, my family and a few other families as well. So we were transferred there and we were up on a hill. Basically there was a campground there and each family had their own private quarters. Okay, so this time we had our own bungalows that we can stay in, with all four walls in there and security and everything. The food was provided to us as well by the campground. And At what point? My dad noticed an ad on the wall that US and Canada were looking for families to come in as refugees. So he applied for Canada. I don't know why. I don't know why Canada, because we never knew anything about Canada. We just knew there was gold there.
Alisha Coakley:You go Super nice people.
Dejan Tahic:Yes.
Alisha Coakley:Canada is way less moody than Americans.
Dejan Tahic:So he applied and then he came back to our uncle and he said yeah, I applied for us to go to Canada. I'm like why Canada, why not US? Yeah, the dream country for everybody in Europe at that time was to go to US. You know the all new Beverly Hills in California.
Scott Brandley:Right.
Dejan Tahic:But I'm glad that he applied for one of them at least, because that kept us, it made us come here, away from being a refugee, for I don't know how long it would have been a refugee for.
Alisha Coakley:How long were you guys from the time that you got into Hungary with just you and your sister to the time that you guys got to Canada? How long was that?
Dejan Tahic:I was going to say about a year, wow, yeah.
Alisha Coakley:And you didn't get to do school or anything during that time.
Dejan Tahic:Nope, I lost my school in that.
Alisha Coakley:Oh my gosh, yeah, I don't like getting over to Canada. What was that whole process?
Dejan Tahic:So government of Canada. They got us tickets. They paid for the tickets under agreement that we're going to pay them back once my parents get jobs. So they got us tickets and before we came to Canada they sent us places so we can get our health checked to make sure that we know some English before we come. Because we didn't know any English. My sister knew a little bit from the movies and stuff from the songs, but to hold a conversation with somebody that wasn't happening.
Alisha Coakley:Unless it's in song form right.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, exactly.
Scott Brandley:You can just sing to each other.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, that sounds like my kind of lifestyle man. Yeah, wow.
Dejan Tahic:So we finished the English there and they sent us a ticket and we were on our way to Toronto. Basically, yeah, we landed in Toronto. It was November, it was cold. Yeah, I think it was November 27th or something like that 23rd or 27th. So there were also some families that we were friends with in that second camp in Hungary as well, but in that second camp as well, they came with us to Hungary and they also came with us to Canada as well.
Alisha Coakley:Oh good.
Dejan Tahic:So we have a family that lives within like an hour and a half of us here. That was with us in the refugee camp.
Scott Brandley:Wow.
Dejan Tahic:And we were still friends with them.
Scott Brandley:So yeah, that's awesome.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, wow.
Alisha Coakley:So, were you guys able to acclimate pretty quickly once you got here, like were your parents able to find jobs and housing and all the things that you needed?
Dejan Tahic:The first thing we had to do my parents had to do is take more English English is the second language here before they could local job. So they did take those classes and they passed those classes and they both actually got a job with local furniture building place. So what they were doing is my mom was a seamstress and my dad was building sofas and stuff. Wow, yeah, and that's where I worked as well. After high school, after I finished my high school, I started working there as well, but, yeah, so once they got a job, they were able to pay off the Canadian government for the tickets and they gave us the house here Not gave us, but we still have to pay the rent and stuff but they found us a place where we could stay. When we got here, they bought us some furniture in the beginning, bought us some clothes. So that was all good, yeah, and I'm grateful for that, because it was going to them and we needed to get the clothes. Really bad, real bad.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, were you guys ever able to go back to Bosnia and grab extra belongings or anything? Or did you just have to leave it all? What were they able to take? Were they able to take photo albums or keepsakes or anything?
Dejan Tahic:Not even Nothing, really. They just grabbed some clothes. So far, I only have one picture of me and my sister when we were, I don't know, maybe 11, 12. Really, that's basically all I have. I don't have any pictures of my mom or my dad when they were younger or anything, just the one picture that I had of us.
Alisha Coakley:That would be so hard.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, and go ahead. We're going to say something.
Alisha Coakley:So what? I'm just curious do you have any idea what happened to the home you were in in Bosnia and all of the belongings?
Dejan Tahic:Is it?
Alisha Coakley:just you just don't know, or did the government?
Dejan Tahic:take it. So my I went back home in I don't know how long ago, but I went once to visit my family because I still have a little bit of family left there and I went to visit my home and it was just a parking lot. It was, it was bombed, it was completely destroyed. Oh no yeah.
Alisha Coakley:But that probably in some weird way, makes you feel like grateful that you did get out when you did, because you just don't know if you would have been inside of there, right?
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, exactly.
Alisha Coakley:Not that it makes it easier, but just you know wow.
Dejan Tahic:And to make it worse, when I went there I actually went to visit my neighbors and all of their houses. They were still standing. I went to visit them and I was talking with them and only our house in that area was gone.
Alisha Coakley:Wow yeah. So your parents definitely were inspired then to leave when you guys did yeah.
Dejan Tahic:I'm glad we did leave.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, oh, my goodness.
Dejan Tahic:So yeah.
Alisha Coakley:So you're here, so you're in Canada. You guys get established and you're not, like your family wasn't members of the church or anything like that at that time. So take us, take us. How did you guys get to, or is it just you that's a member? Did your family join? Where does that story come from?
Dejan Tahic:It's only me. So Okay, we come from generations of Islam religion, so my religion is only being passed on to me through generations. So basically I was a Muslim through just passing being passed on to me through generations. My parents were never really religious. I'm not sure how many times they went to the mosque or anything like that, but in my life I've never seen them go to the mosque. So we were not very religious. We were not practicing at all, so I was basically a blank slate. When I came to Canada, the way that I became a member was through my wife, so my wife is a lifelong member. I don't know, scott, if you know where Hillspring is.
Scott Brandley:Is it over by Cardston? Yeah, yeah, so I have. My wife's aunt lives there, okay, there you go.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, so my aunt lives there. My wife is from there.
Scott Brandley:Oh, I'm sure they know each other then, yeah.
Dejan Tahic:I'm sure they do. It's a small place.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, 10 to later, 10 to later who they are. Yeah and yeah. So my wife is from Hillspring, she's a lifelong member and I go online. I wanted to go try online dating, right. So I go online and I just stumble upon her. There was something about her that just pulled me to her, so I messaged her on there and, long story short, she didn't agree to go on a date with me. So we went on a date and we had a good time, and so we're dating for a while and then all of a sudden she asked me do you even know what a religion I am? I'm like no, I don't really care. But when I said I don't care, I just I don't care what religion she is. Whatever religion she is, that's fine with me, right?
Scott Brandley:Right.
Dejan Tahic:And she proceeds to tell me that she's a member of a church who, jesus Christ, was the saints. And I'm like what's that?
Scott Brandley:Because I never heard of it before.
Dejan Tahic:So she explained it to me and she invited me to a church at one point. So I agreed to go to church and from the moment that I stepped into that church, everybody was friendly to me. There were missionaries sitting next to me right away. I don't know how it is there's always missionaries right next to the somebody new at the church.
Scott Brandley:Yeah.
Dejan Tahic:So they, everybody was welcoming me, everybody was friendly. I never really experienced that much love in one place toward me ever and I'm like I really I need to be here. This is, this is the place for me. And shortly after I started taking discussions with the missionaries, there were a couple of sisters from Utah. They were both from Utah and they were teaching me and we were reading the Book of Mormon together and I was reading it by myself and at the meet I so we were taking discussions and they I was getting close to wanting to be baptized. I wanted to do it on my birthday for some reason, just as a, you know, happy birthday to me, right, yeah? And the sisters asked me if I would be able to do it a little bit sooner, like three months sooner, and I'm pretty sure they knew that they were getting transferred and they just wanted to finish the work.
Dejan Tahic:They wanted to finish the work that they started right, Right, and they wanted to be there. They wanted to finish the job and so I decided I decided to get baptized. So I got baptized in August, August 23rd of 2013.
Scott Brandley:Wow.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, so I was there for about 10 years, just past 10 years, so oh my goodness.
Alisha Coakley:And then so were you still dating your wife at the time?
Dejan Tahic:or did you guys get married, or Okay, we were still, we were still dating. We were dating for a year after I got baptized. Then I asked her to marry me and she said yes, and here we are. We're still married. Can use nine years later. That's awesome, going on. So I was, you know, awkward. I didn't know how to do it. I didn't know how I because it was my first time getting married, right, so I didn't know how to, how to go about it. I'm not very romantic kind of guy, so. So I asked her to marry me and she said, yes, and here we are.
Scott Brandley:That's awesome. So so I have a question when you were taking the discussions and learning about Christ and you know, and the different teachings of the church, like what was your, what were your thoughts? Cause you had never been exposed to that kind of stuff before, right. So like what, what?
Dejan Tahic:went to your hand.
Scott Brandley:Like what did you think?
Dejan Tahic:Yeah, I was never exposed to it. I I'll tell you honestly, I didn't know what to think. I was blank-swayed. Whatever they were feeding it to me, I was taking it in. I love, I love how this religion is all about family. I really like that aspect of it and that's what really sold me. I really wanted a family and, yeah, I really wanted a family on my own and I'm glad that I stumbled upon my life when I did. Otherwise, I don't know where I would be right now. I don't know if I would have four daughters, if I would have four boys, but I'm glad, I'm really glad that she was there when she was.
Alisha Coakley:That's just the warmest of my whole heart. I love that so much. I mean just to think. You know, if anything had been different, there's a good chance you might not have ever met her, you know.
Alisha Coakley:But, everything lined up. You know, heavenly Father, I always say he's so creative, like, he's such a creative author when he's writing our stories. He's just like, ooh, we're gonna throw this little plot twist in for you and we're gonna give you this challenge and then you're gonna overcome here. And I just, you know, I love seeing like, the progression of like, even though it was so hard and you literally sacrificed everything, everything you know, to get to where you are today.
Alisha Coakley:I just think it's such a beautiful testament to how aware Heavenly Father really is of us, you know, and how his timing is perfect, like, yes, it wasn't, you know, boom, boom, boom, super, super fast that everything happened and it was resolved. Like it took a long time of being in the refugee camp and then it took time for you to adjust when you got to Canada and then, even getting to Canada, you still had, you had time that you had to grow and develop and work on yourself and stuff before you and your wife were ready to be together. And I just I love your whole story. It is such a beautiful story.
Dejan Tahic:I feel like ever since the war started and whatever I went through to get to this point, that whole thing was Heavenly Father's plan for me to come here to meet my wife, to have my family that I always wanted. And yeah, I strongly feel that was. That was Heavenly Father's plan for me.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, Now how long did it take for the worn Bosnia to finally end?
Dejan Tahic:It ended in 1995. So it was about four years.
Alisha Coakley:Wow, I just I can't even. I literally cannot even imagine what that would be like to have to go through that kind of stuff. I hope it never comes here, you know. I hope that we're able to stay away from it. But it's nice knowing that Heavenly Father has a plan Right. So even if we do have, whether it's a physical war or whether it's a spiritual war that we're fighting, it's nice to know that he's got us. You know he can get us wherever we need to be.
Scott Brandley:Right. So where's your sister now? And your parents?
Dejan Tahic:So my dad lives he's just downstairs here. He's a good babysitter for my kids. He loves having all the girls here and keeps him busy. He spoils them quite a bit. My mom yeah, my mom has passed away in 2008 from lung cancer. My sister lives in Michigan. Okay, yeah, she lives in Redford, michigan, right by it's like suburb of Detroit. She's been there for a while. She has a one son and they were here visiting this summer for three weeks. So, yeah, so we don't get to see them as often as we would want to, but they come to visit quite a bit.
Scott Brandley:Yeah, what do you? What did they think about you being LDS? Yeah?
Dejan Tahic:My, my sister is all for it. She's not a member, but she, whatever. Whatever is my decision that's. That's good with her. My dad is the same way Like in the beginning. I actually was hiding it from him because he's a he's a old school guy.
Dejan Tahic:He's a very intimidating yeah. I thought that if I was to tell him beforehand that I was going to join the church, that he would disown me, and I didn't want that, so I so I actually hid it from him for probably a couple of months before I actually told him. And then I told him he was. It was actually surprising because he was welcoming, he was, he was okay with it.
Alisha Coakley:Wow.
Dejan Tahic:Yeah.
Alisha Coakley:Just goes to show you. I there's a, there's a quote by Andy Andrews. He's like my favorite person ever as far as like an author and a speaker and stuff and he says worry is just imagination used in an unproductive way. And I love that Cause I think about the. You know, like you were so worried, right, you're just not being productive enough with your thoughts. He just had to be a little more. A little more productive with your thoughts to to not worry. And you know, everything turned out okay. That's awesome.
Dejan Tahic:That's, really that's really wonderful. Yeah, it was just wasting my time, basically.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, exactly, oh, wow. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. Is there? Do you have any last thoughts, any testimony, takeaways or or messages that you'd like to leave without audience?
Dejan Tahic:Sure, when I, when I think of the war like and I I don't just mean the war in Bosnia or war in Ukraine or whatever war is happening there I think of the soldiers and innocent people that gave up their lives for the freedom. And we need to remember that, even though, even though we fight in different theaters of war or being spiritual because we're not in a physical war with anybody else but our being spiritual war we can still admire the courage, self discipline and the strengths and sacrifice it took to go into battle, and that alone should stir in us the diligence to prepare for, to prepare ourselves for the spiritual values we have within ourselves, so that we can be prepared for, so we can face this spiritual war within us as we strive to stay faithful to God. So that's basically what I have. I love that so far for my final thoughts really.
Alisha Coakley:Wow.
Scott Brandley:And there's so many different. Oh, go ahead, scott, go ahead.
Alisha Coakley:Nope, you go.
Scott Brandley:I was just going to say, like, hopefully we never experienced war right, but you did. You experienced the physical effects, you witnessed war firsthand. So I think that really gives you a unique perspective when you do talk about, you know, physical war versus spiritual war, so that's really unique.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah, yeah, and I was thinking a little bit about just the, like I said, the sacrifice that you had to make.
Alisha Coakley:I think that we tend to hold on so tightly to all of these tangible things, even things that are, you know, like pictures right, like keepsakes, like those things that have so much emotional value to them, you know, but ultimately, when it comes down to it, like just really considering what matters most.
Alisha Coakley:I know there was a talk given by Elder Ballard not too long ago in one of the previous conferences where I believe it was titled of things that matter most, and he talks about just how important it is to have those relationships with your family, with your friends, with your ward and your community, and especially relationships with, like, your Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, that those are the things that really matter most. It's not all this other stuff that gets in our way. You know, and even though it would be wonderful, like, like my heart hurts that your family didn't get to keep your keepsakes and your pictures especially, you know that it hurts so bad, but at the same time, you know, knowing that, that it's not about those things, right, it's not about having those little, those tangible items that you can hold on to. It's about having that relationship, you know, looking back and seeing just how much you really loved and cared for your parents as a teenager. Teenagers don't usually like their parents very much, you know.
Scott Brandley:But you have this unique and the eternal treasures right, the eternal treasures.
Alisha Coakley:Not necessarily the physical treasures.
Alisha Coakley:Yeah. So I love that Scott said that you have this unique perspective, because I think you have it in so many more ways than you even realize. I mean, maybe you do realize it so many more ways than even I realize, I guess right, but that is a beautiful thought that you know it does take a lot of courage to give those things up and to trust. And even though you didn't know about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, they still knew you. You know what comfort that is to me to know that even those who don't know the Savior are still known to the Savior.
Scott Brandley:Nice.
Alisha Coakley:So it's good. It's not me. I don't know where it came from, but it's. We'll put that on a bumper stick or two. Scott, okay, yeah, yep, no. So just thank you so much, dan. I really appreciated your vulnerability and your willingness to open up. That was a very beautiful, beautiful story.
Scott Brandley:Well, thanks to all of our listeners that tuned in to hear Dejan, and you know we really appreciate you and your willingness to stick with us and be a part of our story as we continue to share stories like this with you. And if you get a chance, please go and share Dejan's story by clicking that share button. And if you want to hear more stories like this, hit the subscribe button too, and you'll be alerted every time we share one.
Alisha Coakley:Absolutely, and don't forget listeners.
Alisha Coakley:If you have a story that you'd like to share, or you know someone who has a story, something that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others, be sure to reach out to us. You can find us at Latterday Lights dot com, or you can comment anywhere that you're hearing this podcast and we will be able to reach out to you and get in touch with you, or you can send us an email it's Latterday Lights at Gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you. We would love to keep spreading truth and light and love as far and wide as we can. Recently I think I shared this already on one of the previous podcasts we had our numbers come back, where we've had over 100,000 different listeners since the show started, which is so just inspiring to know that that many people were able to get a little bit more light in their life, and so we would love, love, love to help you guys continue to share your stories and to reach out and to really, to really touch the world in a way that matters most Awesome.
Scott Brandley:All right, well, that being said, Day on has been a pleasure, and till next week. We hope you have a great week and that you tune in next week where we can share another story with you. So till then, talk to you later. Bye everyone.