6 November 2017 - Week 31

Lots of happenings this week beginning with a Monday Night branch Family Home Evening Halloween party.  Not many costumes, Jamie is dressed up like a Grandma and Sister Piper brought her umbrella so she could be a rainy day. We had some treats and watched a movie.  Wallace and Gromit and "The Curse of the Were Rabbit". 

Left to right:  Sora Andersen, Elder Andersen, Elder Wilsted, Ioana, Elder Gore, Sora Folsom, Carmen, Sora Castaneda.

On Wednesday we attended a Multi-Zone Zone Conference in Bucharest.  It was a special meeting with the Europe Area President, Elder Johnson. The Elders and Sisters rode a night train to arrive early on Wednesday morning.  We got up at 3 am and drove to Timișoara where we flew, arriving at 7 am Wednesday morning.  The office elders picked us up and delivered us to the Mihai Bravo chapel.  We were so happy to see some of the other mission senior couples.  We are the only couple on the west side of the country so we rarely see any of the other couples in our mission.  

We were able to meet Sora Stahle who just arrived in Romania.  She is related to our daughter-in-law, Janel.  Janel told us she was coming to Romania, so we were hoping to be able to see her and "tender mercy"  she was assigned to our Zone. 

Sora Leavitt, who arrived in the country at the same time as us, was in charge of the lunch.  Sora DeSpain, Sora Shurtleff, Sora Hettinger and Sora Leavitt made a wonderful spread of pulled pork, coleslaw, chips, drinks and YUMMY carrot cake with creme cheese frosting.  Here is a picture of her mixing coleslaw with her bare hands. It was delicious.  She is singing a "witchy, scary song" that she taught at a Halloween party a few days prior.  

Each of the missionaries were invited to meet the Johnsons personally.  They shook hands and visited with every missionary. 

We were well taught by President Hettinger who took us back to some of his mission experiences, when he served a mission in France.  We were reminded about some of the concepts taught in "Preach My Gospel"  about having high standards in our work and review of our mission standards of excellence.  He compared following the standard of excellence to following Moroni's Title of Liberty.  

Sora Hettinger asked the question, "What is the value of knowing someone's story?"  We discovered that the more we know about people the more we are able to understand what motivates them and how they think. We learned the principle that - It is more work to help people learn how to do it themselves. She also referred to Preach My Gospel chapter 13 where we are taught to get to know our members and investigators.  It is our happy obligation to learn about people and help them. She reminded us that in Alma 59 and 60 we read the story of Moroni and Pahoran where neither one understood the circumstances of the other.  Once they learned about each other, they were more understanding and helpful. 

We learned about the church "Light the World" campaign and our Zone 5 member plan.  President Johnson taught us using a 4 section grid about high yield, low maintenance missionaries.  Sister Johnson reminded the sisters that they should always make sure that others can see their name tags.  

Next we were able to enjoy the Yummy lunch that was prepared for us.

After everyone else is done, Sora Leavitt finally got some lunch.

Here are some of my favorite Elders waiting for the second session to start.

Elder Hunstman, Elder Gore, and Elder Wilsted.

Another tender mercy - our grandaughter Klarissa, who is in the Provo MTC preparing to serve in New Hampshire, sang in a devotional and her Mom was able to capture this photo of her. 

Our next project for the week was to prepare for the Saturday baptism by setting up the baptismal font.  This was our first experience with a swimming pool type font.  We had seen it in the corner of a room in our branch building, but were not sure that all the pieces needed for assembly were there and that it did not leak.  Then we had to decide where to put it.  Our facilities representative for Romania encouraged us to set it up on the ground floor to lessen the chance of problems caused by the weight of the water.  We picked a corner on the main floor that seemed fitting and went to work. 

We started filling the font at about 1:30 in the afternoon.  The baptism was scheduled for 5:00.  We ran a hose from the bathroom with straight hot water. We were finished filling just in time. 
Here is Elder Andersen with our new convert Carmen, before the baptism. Carmen has overcome many challenges to get to this point.  We are so proud of her efforts. 

Branch members and investigators following the baptism.

L to R:  Sora Folsom, Sora Castaneda, Carmin, Elder Wilsted, Elder Gore.

Goodies and conversation following the baptism.

Taking down the font.

We got busy pumping the water out of the font and had it all put away by 9:15 so we could go home and prepare for the Sabbath. 

A very good week!