19 June 2017 - Week 11

This week has LOTs of pictures.

For our Monday preparation day, we got our laundry done and then decided to see if we could find the Siria fortress. See it way up at the top of the picture! It is straight up the mountain on both sides we looked at.  Brent wants to climb it someday.  

On our way, we also found a couple of monasteries. One was way up in the forest on top of a mountain.  The ride was pretty but there was really not much to see but a gate, and it was locked.  We stopped to check out the map that explained about it. 

 The second monastery was in a town called Lipova.  The name of it is Saint Maria Radna and it a currently occupied monastery.  We were the only people there at the time we stopped, but we could see that they must have lots of visitors sometimes. 

 We looked at the saints at the bottom of the stairs and then climbed up to the entrance.  

There were two benches at each of the sanctuaries for kneeling to pray.  Here is one of them. 

This hallway leads from the chapel to the monastery living quarters.  The pictures on the walls are all pictures of Mary.  Some have Jesus and Joseph, but true to the name of the church, they all showed Mary. 

Here is a view of the courtyard.  You can see the dormitory type living quarters of the monks. 

The towns we traveled through were quite small and we saw lots of huge homes. This photo shows 3 of those large homes side by side.  They are under construction.  What you see is the red brick that is used to build the basic structure.  They will cover the red bricks with stucco and then paint it. 

Thursday brought another trip to Timisoara and a visit to Dr. Petrean Cosmin, the dentist.  The stitches in Brent's mouth were bugging him like crazy and he was happy to open wide to get them out. 

We met the Timi Elders so we could inspect their apartment.  A little extra job that is done by Senior missionaries.  The Elders had an appointment while we were at the dentist, so we met them at the church and took them to lunch.  The restaurant is called "homemade." This is what we could see from the street. See the little black spot on the door, that's the only indication that there is something inside. 

The Elders said, "I think you will like this place!"  Getting a little closer, you can see that the sign says, "homemade  restaurant and more "  

I was a little hesitant, just but look at the fun inside. 

Such cozy eating nooks with fun tables and chairs.  See the birdcage light fixtures?

The food was excellent too.  Jamie and Elder Hunstman had a good ole American style hamburger with homemade fries and even fry sauce.  Brent and Elder Innis (who is from Australia) had a pork chop on a mamaliga corn pilaf with greens sprinkled on the top.

In Romania most of the people believe that you can get sick from wind in your ears.  They take precautions to be sure they are not in a breezy draft.  Many adults have cotton in their ears to keep the wind out of their ears.  The photo below was taken on an 85-degree day.  Notice the sweaters and scarfs on their heads.

As we drove to the Elders apartment in Timisoara, we saw this beautiful tree.  The flowers as so cool. I had to get pictures.

Friday we went to see Sora Piper with the Soras.  The Pipers are going to live with their daughter in Italy until September.  Brother Piper is an excellent repairman.  They need his help at a hotel there. Many Romanians are working outside Romania.  The pay is better in other countries.

Transfer info came to us on Saturday.  This highly anticipated event happens every six weeks in the mission field.  We were pretty sure we would loose at least one of our young missionaries.  We were right.  Elder Wilstead was transfered to Sibiu and Sora Anderson was transfered to Oradea.  Elder Wilstead called us and asked if we could take him to Decathlon in Timi.  He needed a set of weights so he could keep himself in shape.

This store was quite an experience.  It is a sports store with bicycles, scooters, tents, balls, lots of sports stuff and they encourage the customers to try everything out.  There were kids riding all over the store.  

Father's day in Romania found us at church in both Arad and Timisoara. 

On our way out of town we passed by the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral and decided to pull over and take a look.  This is the same church that I have posted the green tile roof photos of.

Here is one of the very detailed carved doors on the front of the building. 

Entering into the building, the first thing you see is some ladies dressed in their religious robes, selling things.  Hmm. And to get in the door you pass by several beggars.  Stepping into the sanctuary the gold everywhere is overwhelming.  Worshipers were kissing icons, crossing themselves, and saying prayers.  I did not want to interrupt, so I took one picture. 

 We left the church and crossed the street just in time to see some boys and women dressed in ethnic costumes ordering pizza and crossing the street. 

Sora Anderson and Sora Alger wanted to get pictures by the check out Timi sign. That's all.  It was a big week.