5 March 2018 - Week 48

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 Bucherest.  It is the most snow we have had all winter. 

Our car is the blue one in the middle.

On Thursday we ventured out to see if we could walk in the forest.  The roads were covered with snow.  In our desire to not become a patient in the local hospitals due to a fall or something.. we opted out, but we came upon the coolest thing.  A sleigh drawn by two horses.  Jamie got out of the car and got some pictures. 

We finished our drive and wondered if we could find the sleigh again.   We drove to the little museum to see if they might be there.  Sure enough, there they were.  

Brent walked over to the driver and asked if we could ride.  He said, "It's too cold, you won't like to ride today."  But Brent persuaded him and he agreed.  It was our lucky day!  The ride was a bit chilly, but it was fun to see the driver and the horses work together.  The driver told Brent that the horses were two stallions from a breeding farm down the road a bit.  Our ride lasted about 2 miles.  Here's a video of part of the ride.

Here we are after the ride.  You can see the museum in the background.  We talked a nice fellow who was pulling his daughter around on a sled, into taking the photo for us.

Monday we did an errand with Sora Mogos.  We were downtown Arad where many of the businesses are located inside the block.  It is pretty hard for me to tell what the businesses are like.  It is always a surprise to me how we go through an old weather-worn gate or door or through a tunnel or alley and end up in a very modern looking, well-established business.  

This is also a fun thing.  When we went out in one of the snowstorms for some groceries,  we saw this license plate and just had to take a photo.

The AR is for Arad, then random numbers and finally the BYU.  Pretty cool.

Friday the sisters finally returned from Bucharest.  Sora Sterrett had been gone since Sunday night.  She did not take any clothes or overnight things with her.  It was a long week for her.  We were happy to welcome Sora Nemelka to Arad.

The worst part about the day was that their apartment owner wanted them to be moved out by 3 o'clock.  They arrived at 11 so we were a bit rushed.  Thankfully the landlady had done some of their packing for them.  We just had to move everything through the slush and snow.  That was only part of the problem.  They were moving to the Elders apartment since they are gone and not being replaced.  It is much closer to transportation like bus stops and tram via stops.  

We just worked together and got it done.

Until next week, La revedere!