12 March 2018 - Week 49

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 fill out the "My Family" booklet. Gleaning the low hanging fruit of the information members may already have about their ancestors, but need help to get it into the Family Tree and reserve the ordinances. We were excited to see some of the missionaries who have served in Arad but are now in other areas.

The office couple, Elder and Sister DeSpain, picked us up at the airport.

It was a really rainy day in Bucharest. Here we are at the Panduri chapel in Bucharest.

We are also happy to be able to spend a little time with a few of the other Senior missionaries. We went to dinner together before we flew back to Arad arriving back to our apartment shortly after midnight. It was a big, but wonderful day. And the President liked our presentation.

Leavitts, DeSpains, Shurtleffs, Us - President and Sora Hettinger arrived later.

Brent ordered a steak. It was very good. The most interesting thing was a dish of different salts. We really liked the black lava salt. I had it on my salmon. Yum.

March 1 begins a celebration called Martisor in Romania. It is a celebration of females where the little red and white cords and a small trinket are given to women and girls. Sweet Sister Castaneda gave this to Jamie.

Following some rest and discussion about how our presentation went, we headed to Oradea for West Zone Conference on Thursday. West Zone is our zone so some of the missionaries have heard part of our presentation as we beta tested on them. We drove to the two hours to Oradea bringing the Arad sisters with us. Following the conference, we walked the short distance across the Oradea Centru to the American Grill for a yummy American hamburger and some fries. We returned to the church just in time for our interviews with the President. He was complimentary about our presentation. No change suggestions were given. We arrived back in Arad about 10 pm.

The Arad Sisters performed a special musical number.

Saturday we drove to Oradea again for our District Conference. We arrived for an early afternoon District Presidency meeting. Elder Massimo DeFeo was the visiting authority. Brent really appreciated the opportunity to speak with a General Authority in such an intimate setting. A priesthood meeting and adult evening meeting were also held. We went to the Ramada Hotel for the night. We had to be back to the conference at 10 am on Sunday.