New Hymnbooks Arrive!

Elder Miles, Joshua, and Elder Campbell show off new hymnbooks!

It felt like Christmas when our new Romanian hymnbooks arrived! They were green, hardbound, thick hymnbooks----the real thing! The missionaries were so excited to see them and to have new hymns available to the members. It's been wonderful to be able to sing so many favorite hymns in Romanian!

To Market, To Market

I was able to accompany Sora McKnight and Sora Poulsen on a Preparation Day trip to the Red
Dragon. Red Dragon is a huge market place where you can get all sorts of good things and good prices. Some of the things sold there include ties, scarves, hats, socks, outer wear, make-up, toys, blankets, etc. The place is huge and after a while you feel like you have seen enough, but it is worth the trip. One of the things the missionaries like to go there for is peanut butter, which is a rare food to find here in Romania.


Joshua enjoys new mask from Red Dragon!



I knew this was a Kodak moment when I saw these three dogs sleeping in front of this building. It is very common to see stray dogs in Romania as well as what I like to call "building dogs." Many buildings have dogs that just belong to nobody, but sleep on the sidewalk in front of their building. The mission office has one that is always there, but this building had three!!!

Mission Council---October 16, 2008

We always love having the missionaries over to the Mission Home for Mission Council. They are such a fine group of people and there is always a great spirit here when they meet. The missionaries involved in this meeting include the zone leaders, two sister missionaries, the assistants, the office couple, President Lundberg, and me. We begin with a breakfast of Musli and fruit, then have meetings until about 3:30-4 pm. We do stop at noon for lunch, where everyone enjoys the time to visit. The mission leaders not only "council" at this meeting, but they receive information and motivation that they take back to the missionaries with whom they work.

We had the opportunity of having Elder (doctor) and Sister Collingridge with us for this mission council. They gave a great presentation on staying healthy and happy. We enjoyed having them here and learning from their expertise.

Elder Campbell, Elder Roundy, Elder Letham, Elder Bringhurst, and Elder Miles
Elder Gardner uses volunteer, Elder Miles, to help with his demonstration.

Elder Ward and Elder Davis take note of information President Lundberg gives them.

Sora Lovell, Elder Cantlon, Elder Patterson, Elder Hardman, Elder Miles, and Sora Jensen

Missionaries stretch during meeting break!

Called to Serve!!!

Alexandru Miron, Ana Maria Miron, and President Lundberg

Ana Maria Miron, a Romanian member of the church from Brasov, has been called to serve a full-time mission in the Switzerland Zurich Mission. She had a hard time getting her visa to America so that she could go to the MTC, but a little miracle happened and she finally got it! Ana and Alexandra stayed with us the night of October 18, after Ana had an interview and was set apart by President Lundberg. We took Ana the following morning to the airport and then dropped "Alecu" off at the train station to head back to Brasov. They are both great girls and great members of the church. Ana will be a fantastic missionary!

Friends come to town! October 15

President Lundberg, Sora Lundberg, Tiffani, Baby Gracyn, and Carol

My good friend, Tiffani Shipley, daughter, Gracyn, and mom, Carol Tayler came to Romania for a week. Tiffani has been involved with Bridge of Love, our Romanian Foundation, for many years. The threesome spent their time in Barlad, visiting with Tiff's "Romanian daughter," Lili. They were able to come to the mission home their last day in Romania for a visit and dinner. It was great to see them again.

Elder and Sister Collingridge were staying with us for a few days then. Elder Collingridge is the mental health doctor for the church who is living in Germany. They had come to do a presentation with our missionaries at mission counsel. They arrived the night that Tiffani and Carol were here, and we all enjoyed dinner together!

Joshua goes to camp! October 15-17

Joshua gets a souvenir flute from camp!

Elder Richey and Elder Bailey arrive at train station for transfer day the same time that Joshua's class lines up to get on the train for camp!

Lots of excited children anticipate three days at Predeal.

Joshua tells his dad good-bye as Joshua prepares to board the train for camp.

Joshua had a fun experience going with his school to a resort in the mountains of Preadeal. It is about three hours away from Bucharest, and Joshua's mom was quite worried about the whole thing. I was hesitant to let him venture out with people I didn't know, to a place I didn't know, for three long days. However, Joshua was very excited about the adventure and the school encouraged all children to attend. So, with many prayers on Joshua's behalf, we let him go. He did have a great time (woke up the first night and watched Spiderman on the tv at 2 am) and came home safe and sound!

Where should we park?

One day we needed to run into a building to get some official papers and found there were no places on the busy street in Bucharest to park. So, we decided to do what everybody else was doing---just pull up on the sidewalk and park the car. This city was made before their were so many cars and there just isn't adequate space for them to drive or park!

Transfer Days! October 14 & 15, 2008

Transfer weeks seem to come around so quickly. There is always so much emotion and excitement in the mission that week. We say good-bye to wonderful missionaries, we welcome a new group of wonderful missionaries, and we watch the excitement (for the most part) as many new companionships are formed. It's a fun and busy week!

Three great missionaries went home this transfer. They are Elder Jepsen (Utah), Elder Sukow (Germany), and Elder Flanary (Utah.) We will miss them and wish them the best!

After having breakfast with our departing missionaries, President Lundberg and I went with the assistants to the airport to greet our four new sister missionaries. They are a fun and talented group, eager to do missionary work. We were thrilled to receive Sora Richards, Sora Howard, Sora Jones, and Sora Smith.