Adunare in the Hungary/România Mission

Monday this week was our only rest day.  We did our laundry and got ready to fly out again on Tuesday at 3 am.  We have 2 more Zone Conferences this week.  First we will go to Iasi ( pronounced Yash) and then again to Bucharest for the Mihai Pravu Zone Conference.  A fun 3 day trip.  The hotel where we stayed in Iasi was VERY nice.  We think it was bigger than our apartment in Arad.   The drapes were clipped to carriers that slid in a rod attached to the ceiling.  There are usually no ropes to move the carriers, you just grab the drapes and pull them shut.  When we got ready for bed that night we wanted the drapes closed.  When we grabbed the last one, the rod just popped right down and was hanging down on one end.  Yikes!  What to do about this.  Luckily Brent is very handy and he has some experience with drapery rods and such.  We moved the chair from the desk and moved the desk over so he c...

Monday this week began with a trip downtown to do some errands.  This country had lots of what I would call "Narnia wardrobe" adventures.  Between the stores that line the sidewalks, you will see doors or sometimes open walkways that lead to a space that is inside the block.  There are actually stores and offices inside the block.  Sometimes there will be a sign on the sidewalk that advertises for the stores inside. Today we had one of those Narnia closet experiences.  We need to explore more of them.   In the walkway of the "Narnia wardrobe" Really nice, leather couched office inside. Romanians do a lot of waiting.  Many have developed huge patience.  Tuesday we got up at 3 am to prepare to fly to Bucharest for the first of the Zone Conferences for this transfer period.  We have been asked to present an hour about Family History.  President Hettinger wants the missionaries to meet with the branch members to f...

Well, no more Elders means Elder and Sister Andersen have the opportunity to teach Advanced English.  We had one student on Tuesday and two on Saturday.  Tuesday we had a great discussion about where we were born.  Elder Andersen told about his family and his childhood.  Jamie told about deliverying newspapers as a child and about making punch from the water at Hooper Springs.  Our student had questions about the water.  Romanians have two kinds of bottled water because at certain times in the year their water gets contaminated.  The two types of water are called "still" and "minerala".  The minerala water is very similar to "soda water".  Our student told us that when he was coming to America he was frusterated when he ask for water.  They did not understand what he means by "minerala".  All he could find to drink was "still."  Pretty fun!!! We have had some snow since Sunday evening when the Elders and Sisters left for Bu...

Monday morning we received a text from the office telling us the Elders apartment was very messed up.  We had been to the Elders apartment the week before and although it was not spotlessly clean, it was on in the state as represented by the photos we received.   We called them and told them we would be there asap to take a look around and see what the problem is.  The Elders looked at the photos and said the photos were more than a year old.  They also had had a call from the mission office because the apartment owner had complained.  These pictures show the problems we saw.   This moulding has been missing for at least a year. It easy to snag socks and shoes on. This moulding is not secured and randomly slips out of place. Broken handle on closet door. All of the problems are maintenance that has been requested to be fixed, but have not been done.  We did not find any of the problems shown in the photos that we...