4 December 2017 - Week 35

Our week began at 3 am on Monday morning, as we woke and prepared to drive to Timisoara for a 6 am flight   to Bucharest.   We were so excited to be able to spend some time with other senior missionaries in our mission.  We arrived at the airport to the cheery face of Elder Hunstman, one of our favorite missionaries.  We got to know him when he was serving as Branch President in Timisoara and invited us to come to their Sunday meetings.  

We arrived at the mission home to the warm hospitality of President and Sora Hettinger.  They fed us a wonderful brunch of breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, juice, and fruit.

Elder Andersen, Elder DeSpain, Elder Shurtleff, The Biehns and others.

Sora Godfrey, Elder Biehn and Sora Biehn sitting with Sora Aleman, Elder Godfrey and Sora Hettinger in the background.

Elder Leavitt, Sora Leavitt, and Sora Brown

Brother Brown, Sora Shurtleff and Pres. Hettinger

We visited and shared about the mission work in our area of the mission. 

Cute Sora Hettinger is wearing her Grandmother's apron.

We got back into the cars and enjoyed a driving tour on the way to downtown Bucharest.  

King Carol I whose vision was to have a unified Romania. 

Bucharest Christmas market

Beautiful lamp posts everywhere.

The Palace of Parliament measures 330,000 m2 (~3,550,000 sq ft) and is regarded as former dictator’s, Nicolae Ceaușescu, most cherished jewel.

We reached Old Town Bucharest the location of Revolution Square and were dropped off for a walking tour.  We went to a park on the oldest road. So sad to see graffiti on the monuments. 

Monument to those who died in the 1989 Revolution.

On Dec. 21, 1989, Ceausescu, the Romanian leader, gave his last speech here in the final hours of his 25-year rule and was booed and jeered. The next day, afraid of the angry crowds and his own army, which had begun to desert him, he fled from the roof of a Communist Party building by helicopter, the last time he ever saw Bucharest. On Christmas Day, he and his wife Elena were executed in the nearby city of Targoviste after a 55-minute trial. - TheSun.com

This old road in Victory Square is paved with tree trunks.

An alley in old Bucharest with umbrellas for a roof.  So cool! 

We arrive at the Bucharest Opera House.

The Athenaeum - Opera House

The beautiful foyer of the Opera House.

This grand stairway reminded me of a scene from "Phantom of the Opera."

The Opera House theatre.

A little video of a man and woman practicing on the organ and harpsichord.

Beautiful ceiling of the opera theatre.

We asked a girl to take a group photo for us on the steps of the Opera House foyer. 

After our tour of the theatre, we walked through the streets on our way to a place where we would eat an early dinner.  We were just about to the restaurant when we saw this beautiful old monastery.   

Now for dinner at the historic  "Caru' cu Bere." It was opened in 1879.  The building is a gothic revival building designed by Austrian architect Siegfried Kosczinsky in 1899.  It is noted for its art nouveau style interior.  It serves Traditional Romanian dishes and features Romanian music and dancers...." restaurant. The Romanians love to eat outside on the street, even when it is cool and rainy like this day was.  I have to admire their desire to enjoy each others company outdoors.  The photo below shows the outside eating area of the restaurant.  The silver lamps you see hanging down are actually heaters.  

Looks like this building could be used for church instead of eating.  It was very beautiful. We were told that during the "cold war" this was a hangout for the spies on both sides. 

Our waiter is Romanian and speaks a bit of English.  He has his hands full trying to wait on all 22 of us.  He got it done though. 

A photo sampling of the food we ordered. 

The soup was very good,  It is a vegetable soup but it is hard to tell because the vegetables are all processed down to tiny pieces.	A typical Romanian salad.  They don't usually put lettuce in their salads.
The bread is usually served in baskets like this.  You are supposed to tear off a hunk when you want to eat some of it.	This is Jamie's dinner.  Roast chicken and rice.  The rice was excellent.
Brent ordered chicken schnitzel and french fries.	Sister Romney who sat across the table from us ordered fried vegetables and chicken.

AND Finally the dessert! Papanasi which is really just a donut, some whipped cream, the donut hole placed on top with some berries, other fruit or flavoring and powdered sugar on top.  Pretty yummy!

We had a wonderful time getting to know each other. 

President and Sora Hettinger and Sora Leavitt. You can't see Bro. Leavitt and the Shurtleffs. 

The DeSpains, Godfreys, and Alemans.

The Romneys

The Browns

The Biehns and us.

 

The soup was very good,  It is a vegetable soup but it is hard to tell because the vegetables are all processed down to tiny pieces.

 

A typical Romanian salad.  They don't usually put lettuce in their salads.

 

The bread is usually served in baskets like this.  You are supposed to tear off a hunk when you want to eat some of it.

 

This is Jamie's dinner.  Roast chicken and rice.  The rice was excellent. 

 

 Brent ordered chicken schnitzel and french fries.

 

Sister Romney who sat across the table from us ordered fried vegetables and chicken.

Then we ventured out in the evening rain to catch our ride back to the mission home for more talking about each of our mission assignments, yummy cookies made by Sora Despain and to our hotel for the night. 

The next day began with meeting at the mission home for a service project.  Sora DeSpain and Sora Leavitt found some polar fleece type fabrics that we fringed and tied knots in the fringe.  We were the first couple to complete our project! (we have lots of previous experience).  Some of the couples had never done this before. We ended up helping 4 other couples finish their blankets.

Brother and Sister Biehn

Brother and Sister Aleman, Brother Godfrey in the back.

Pres and Sora Hettinger, Brother and Sora Leavitt

The Alemans and DeSpains

Polar fleece fuzzies were everywhere when we were finished.  We ended up getting out the vacuum to clean up, including vacuuming the men's pants. 

The service project was followed by a wonderful lunch of pulled pork, chips, coleslaw and cookies and of course more talking. Our drivers picked us up at 3:00 and drove us to the airport for our flights home.  What a GREAT couple of days!!!

Back to work when we arrived home.  The next day we drove with the Elders out to Horia to visit Sora Muscan.  They showed her the "Light the World" video.  Both the Elders and Sisters have been sharing this video at every opportunity.

Elder Gore, Elder Wilstead, and Sora Muscan

Thursday we went to Timisoara for the final fitting for Brent's implant tooth.  It was good.  And we could not believe what we saw in the parking lot of a store we stopped by.  A snow machine.  We were tempted to talk to the owner to see where he goes riding but chickened out.

Friday we drove to Oradea, a two-hour drive to inspect the apartments of the Elders and Sisters.  The stuff they do makes me smile?!?!  On Saturday we received the transfer assignments and found out that our Sora Castandea is leaving us for her assignment in Bucharest.  We will miss her.   

We stopped by the Arad City Christmas market to see what it is about.  Many people talk about the beautiful European Christmas markets.

That's all for this time.  O zi buna!