7 May 2018 - Week 57

A trip north of Arad to the village of Horia happened at the beginning of this week.  We went to see Sora Muscan, one of our members.  She has a nice home and wonderful grapevine covered outside space.  We had to go out to the back and visit the variety of chickens, ducks, and turkeys who live there. 

We are not farmer enough to know what type of grain this is growing in a large field where we walk in the woods, but the big grain field reminds us of home.  

I was trying to get a photo of this field when Brent decided to smell the flowers.  

Photo bomb!

On Wednesday and Thursday this week we flew to Chisinau, Moldova for a senior conference with all the senior couples and President and Sora Hettinger.

The view from our plane as we landed in Moldova.

 Elder and Sora Godfrey planned a great couple of days for us.  We really enjoyed spending time with the other seniors on the chartered bus.  We had a great driver who delivered us to several Moldova tourist attractions. 

Our first stop was a monastery in a cave.  We parked the bus at the bottom of a hill and hiked up a dirt road to reach the entrance.  The women were required to cover their heads to enter. 

A cemetery we passed as we hiked up the hill covered with brightly colored crosses and markers.

Cute little lizard came out to say hello to us.

The cave monastery had really steep steps that went down inside the mountain.  We broke out our phone flashlights to help us get down safely. All the ladies put on their scarves before going inside.   One monk lives in the cave in a little niche in the rock.

The nave is decorated elaborately just as other orthodox churches. 

Sora Hettinger at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the monastery.

Sora Hettinger and Sora Leavitt

This is the monk who lived in the cave.  The bucket in the foreground is catching the water dripping from the ceiling of the cave. 

We left the cave and walked further up the hill to see the monastery.

The front steps leading into the chapel with the shop in the background. 

Our next stop was the Turkish bath excavation.  These steam baths with an elaborate underground heat system are ruins from the 15th century.

Next, we traveled to the Curchi monastery. 

Our bus driver was able to take us right up to the front gate of the complex.  You can see gray van in the foreground. 

Brent took these beautiful photos of two of the buildings.

There was a marriage happening in this red church.  We were able to tiptoe in and listen.  I really liked that they put crowns on their heads.  Hmmm could it be that they believe in kingdoms and glories of God.

We traveled to our hotel from here for a bit of rest and clean up before having dinner at the cutest restaurant.  Creme de la Creme.  

We sat at a big table.  Our dinners were all the same.  They had been preordered and were quickly delivered to us.  I took this panorama of everyone.  We are just missing me and Elder Leavitt just to my right. 

Our dinner came with some luscious eclairs from the in-store bakery. The cute box you see in the lower right corner tied with pink and yellow ribbons was a gift from the Godfreys.  They had one for each couple.  Pretty cool wooden boxes with the mission logo stamped on them. 

Close up of the meal we were served. It grilled vegetables, chicken, and rice. Very good.

We walked through the park and to our hotel.  Sister Biehn and I spent some time in the business center at the hotel, looking at her family on FamilySearch.  We were trying to solve a couple of problems.  

The next morning we went to the hill where Moldova was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel.  We shared testimonies and impressions of our work in the mission and talked about what the future may hold. 

Next, we went to a fascinating Moldova museum. In this picture, you see one of the many beautiful rooms.  Sister Godfrey and Sister Hettinger are in the foreground. Notice the beautiful parquet floor of the room.  Most of the rooms had wooden floors with lots of different designs in them. 

Here is another of the beautiful display rooms. Notice the parquet floor.

Here is one of my favorite displays.  A Jewish Torah scroll.  So neat.

There is so much in this blog post I am going to make it a work in progress and move on to catch up other weeks.  I will try to get more of the photos posted on my photography page that is linked in the blog header.