Adunare in the Hungary/România Mission

This week was topped off with a branch picnic in the forest.  The main ingredient in a Romanian picnic is mici (meech).  Brent says it tastes like meatloaf.  Also we brought some of our soy sauce marinated curcan (turkey).  Bread, a salad, water and some treats are all you need.  We were pleasantly surprised to note the neat appearance of the forest this summer.  The Romanians seem to be making a great effort to beautify the outdoors near Arad.  Those branch members attending were: Jany, Ana, Carmella, Lily, Cornel, Ghiti, Marianna, Marianela, Denisa, Costi ( the cook ), Lidia, the missionaries Elder Olmstead and Elder Atkinson and Elder and Sister Andersen.  We enjoyed the day.  

This week we make another trip to Nadlac where our branch sister lives.  She lives in a little house without running water and little electricity.  She loves to have the missionaries come to see her.  She rides her bike to the bus which takes her to the train and then into Arad when she comes to church on Sunday.  This part of Romania is very much in the "Kirtland" era.  More building construction this week. The forms are being removed.  We survived the 24-hour pour.  It wasn't even that loud.  They finished the pour about 4 in the morning.  The rebar sticking out of the top of the pad will be formed and concreted.  The wire framework will be extended all the way to the top of the building floor by floor.  This is building method is so interesting.  We said goodbye to our Sisters.  They will be replaced by Elders in preparation for the end of our mission in September.  Our Arad branch still n...

2 August - We actually received our flight plans to return to America.  We have loved our assignment in Romania, but we are very happy to be arriving at the time when we can go home.  The building where we is live is supposedly the first in a group of about 8 or 9 identical buildings. There has been talk about a new building since we arrived in April 2017, but it is just beginning to happen.   With the background we have in building construction, we thought it would be interesting to watch, but it has turned out to be way different than we expected.   They excavated a 9-foot hole ( that was crazy because it exposed lots of concrete and pipes that had to be taken care of ) and then they filled that hole back in a little at a time only with different materials that looked like coarse sand.  Then they ran a compactor over it.  On top of that, they built a three-foot-high maze of varying sizes of rebar and tied it all together.  Each...

 July 27, 1972, was the day we became a team!  We have been through the loss of employment, raised 5 children, built homes, moved to a new town, made new friends, lost some of our parents, been on family vacations including horse camp, had weddings bringing wonderful new sons and daughters to our family, gained  20  WONDERFUL grandchildren and much much more. It has been a wonderful life.  Looking back we feel so very blessed. Our children, their spouses, and their families are people proud to call our family! They are all so GOOD.  In Romania for our 46th anniversary, this week was celebrated with a trip to Timisoara.  We ran into the Timi Elders at the mall, so we took them to lunch with us.  If we were at home we would probably celebrate with our kids who could join us.  We have been looking for a good Taco since our arrival here and we had noticed that the Pizza Hut in the mall that had tacos on the menu.  So we chose that for our...

Another week, more walking in the forest.  It has been interesting to observe the many wildflowers blooming along the roadways.  This time we found some pretty little wild  swe et peas. Our sweet sister Krista passed through the veil into the spirit world on Tuesday.  She died in her sleep at home.  The missionaries have visited her in her home for more than a year, bringing her the sacrament when the Elders were here.  She loved visiting with the missionaries and often cried when she spoke about the church.  She loved the temple and the gospel.  We are sad to have her leave us, but happy that she is in a better place, free from the pain and sickness she was suffering.  Saturday we made a trip to Oradea for Brent to help with a branch financial audit.  As part of the District Presidency, he will visit 2 branches to perform the church semi-annual audit.  It went well and he was done in an ...

We visited one of our members, Simona, this week.  She has two darling children.  The sisters are helping the oldest, a little boy, learn some English.  They enjoy the time they spend with this family.  This week we went along because Simona wanted to feed us some Sarmale, a Romanian dish usually saved for special occasions.  Sarmale are little rolls of ground pork mixed with rice and rolled in boiled cabbage leaves.  Once the rolls are made, they are placed in a pot and cooked for several hours.  The sarmale she fed us was very good.  Once you get them on your plate, they are often eaten with something like sour cream spread on the top.   She said her mother-in-law made them. Romanian meals are accompanied with a basket of bread, which is used to sop up the juices on your plate.  This week was a good week for getting pictures of gypsies.  We were able to take a few drive by photos. It was ...