18 September 2017 - Week 24

We had a busy week including a trip to a castle, a trip to the dentist and a legendary storm on Sunday.  So, here we go.

The mission office had some street contacting materials made for each area of the mission.  Frank and Cheryl Leavitt who came to the mission at the same time as we did and are assigned to Bucharest, were assigned to get them to the areas.  They called us and we scheduled an appointment to meet and pick the materials up.  We planned to meet in Deva and see the Hunedoara castle while there. We had some lunch at the mall in Deva and headed over to see what we could see at the castle. It was closed to the public, but there were some interesting things going on. This is the same castle where Brent took the Elders and Sisters a few months ago. It was the home of Vlad the Impelor or 3 years.

Brother and Sister Leavitt and me in the khaki skirt with the peach color shirt.

Brent took this beautiful shot as the sun was going down and the lights came on. 

A wedding had just taken place and the bride and groom were leaving the castle.

There was a bridal shoot going on.  We don't know if it was real or commercial.

We do not know what was going on for sure, there seemed to be a tour and a wedding, but we saw a parade of characters and food.

Of course, Brent has to visit with this guy about his bow. Unfortunately, the character did not speak English.  Brent did get a good look at the bow though.

We grabbed a guy who was there taking pictures with his friends and asked him to take a picture of us.  After we were done, Brent said, "What would you have done if he ran off with your phone?"   Hmmmm, I didn't think about that. 

Torture side exhibit, note the head laying on the ground in front of the guillotine.

In the castle, we saw a lady sitting in a chair of nails.  It is a bit hard to see, but there are big nails sticking out of the back of the chair and on the seat.

We went to our hotel for the night and spent some time at the pool, (not swimming, the water was too cold)visiting about our missionary adventures. 

The next day we had breakfast at our hotel, loaded the missionary supplies into our car, and headed up to the castle again.  It is set up with a self-guided tour which we enjoyed very much.  Sora Leavitt posed like a proper lady.

Stained glass window of the castle namesake John Corvin.

As we left the castle and headed for our car, we found a souvenir shop.  Hmmm... are people who come to visit the castle really looking for Mickey and Minnie?

Now it's off to Sibiu to deliver the missionary materials to Elder Wilstead. We planned to meet the missionaries at the church building. It was good to see Elder Wilstead again.  He was serving in Arad when we arrived in April. Look at these beautiful grapes growing by the church gate. 

We walked down to "centru" the center of town to see the sights and have some lunch. 

Following a great hamburger lunch, we walk back to our cars and head toward the Transfargarsan highway.  Here we are almost at the top of the mountain pass. 

We drove through several underpasses and through the mountain. 

Near the top, there was a little village with souvenir shops and place to spend the night. 

It was a very enjoyable and beautiful drive.  We decided to drive over the mountain instead to turning back at the top.  We saw a fox and some sheep.

The shepherd was following behind, talking on his cellphone.  Hmmm, that's weird. 

Coming off the mountain, into a cute little town we saw a parade of cows going home for the evening.  They strolled along, munching on the grass as they went.  It was quite fun to see.

We kept driving so we could be home for Brent's dental appointment the next day and arrived at 1:30 am.  It was a long day, but we enjoyed seeing the Leavitt's and some new countryside.

Here is a look at the dental office and the implant procedure.

Everything went well.  The doctor was pleased. Brent was miserable the first day but recovered enough that the next day was pretty good for him.  A little pain reliever helped.  He felt good enough to attend district meeting the next day.  Good thing!  He wouldn't want to miss this epic planking competition. 

Elder Gore was the winner, followed by Sister Folsom.  Elder Innis is the other Elder on the floor.  Elder Paul was the first out, he's sitting on the couch.  Elder Custer, standing, kept the time and Sister Casteneda, sitting on the other couch watched and giggled. Crazy! 

Now to show what happened when we went to church in Timisoara on Sunday.  I could see out the window of the branch building that the clouds were gathering and the wind was blowing, but it didn't seem too bad. Then all of a sudden a huge gust of wind blew.  It popped tile of the roof of the houses next door and across the street.  One of the pieces of the roof hit a glass window in the branch building which shattered the glass and scared us all.  The rain came in torrents.  The wind howled like a tornado.  This is what Brent found when we finally went out to see what happened.  A tree was laying on the car parked just in front of us. The ground was littered with pieces of broken roof tiles. I think the person with the pink umbrella in the background is one of the 3 members who were in the branch meeting with us.  They just grabbed their umbrellas and disappeared before we could figure out they were gone. 

As we drove through the city, headed toward Arad, we saw many trees that were snapped off right at the ground level just like this. 

The streets were littered with trees and branches and down power lines.

We passed a semi truck on its side.  

And, look at the rainbow in the sky reminding folks God is in charge!