Adunare in the Hungary/România Mission

This week seemed to be a good week to document the alternative modes of transporting things we see here.  Romanians are so skillful in using what they have to get the things they want to where they want them. We took the Elders to a nearby town called Santana to follow-up on a referral.  On our way home we saw this wagon pulled by a mare with a colt.  The colt must have been tired from the hard work of the day.  We saw this wagon out in the forest where we take our walk in the mornings. Bikes are used to haul everything.  Here is a good example.  I even saw a guy riding a bike loaded similar to this one and he was also carrying a passenger. These are just a sample of what we see.  We often don't have time to snap a picture.   This person is hauling lumber, but we have seen bikes loaded with all kinds of long awkward cargo. These two guys are pushing baby strollers right down the side of the highwa...

One of the major events of this week was a trip to Brasov.  Our friend's, The Winders, from Shelley, Idaho live in Brasov.  We went there to pick up some tires they brought from Bucharest.   Last week we learned that the country of Romania has a law requiring winter tires from 1 November until 1 March.  The fines for not having the tires can range from $350 to $625.  We called the mission office and learned that they had winter tires for our car, so all we had to do was figure out how to get them.  It's a 9-hour drive one way to Bucharest.  We didn't want to make the drive. So we asked Winders to pick up the tires and bring them as far as Brasov so we could get them there.  The morning of Wednesday, August 16, we got up and hit the road, returning home at 9 that evening.   The Winders are headed back to Idaho in a couple of weeks, so we were grateful to be able to visit with them once more as they are finishing their mission....

Monday each week is Preparation day.  A day to do needful things. Preparation day is very important to our district leader, Elder Gore.  He feels that going to see historical sites is a useful way to spend the day, so with permission from President Hettinger, Brent loaded in the Elders and Soras early on Monday morning and headed to Corvin castle in Hunedoara near Deva.  A 3-hour drive that winds through little towns with speed limits that vary from 15 to 70 and change in the blink of an eye.  The two girls in skirts in the picture below are Sister Castaneda and Sister Folsom and the guy in the green shirt is Elder Paul. The Corvin Castle was built in the middle 1200's and was let go and rebuilt many times.  It is a castle that is being restored back to what it may have been like in old days.  You do not find plush red rugs and such because that is a recent thing.  The bridge that you are seeing is the main entrance to the castle.  ...