Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family back home.  This tree has got to be the largest tree I have ever seen.  It is in the main Piata down town in Centru. 

These pictures were taken before the snow came.  We have snow now and it is very icy to walk around town.

I thought this was cute.  This little girl is feeding the pigeons right from her hand.

We sure have alot of pigeons!!

 

 We traveled to Sibiu where we had an activity on love and charity and then a small Christmas program from the sciptures with carols.  It was really fun.

Then we travelled to Bucharest for the zone Christmas Party.  It was wonderful

We had a wonderful musical number from this quartet.  The dinner was super from Elder and Sora McFabulous.

 And we had the traditional scarf and tie exchange.

Driving home looked like a picture from a magazine.

It was very beautiful. 

We hope you feel the love of our Savior at this time.  As missionaries we rejoice in the birth of Jesus Christ everyday and I love the scipture in Matthew 1:21 which states "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins."  What a wonderful blessing.  We pray you will all enjoy this speicial time of year with your loved ones and rejoice in the birth Jesus Christ our Savior.

Zone Conference

We had a wonderful zone conference with Area Authority Stephen Kerr and his wife and Pres. Hill and his wife.  Elder Kerr is from Scotland and speaks with a very heavy accent.  I had to listen carefully to understand everything he said.  He has a strong spirit and we were all thrilled to learn from him.  We were able to go for dinner with them all in Bucharest and then we stayed over night at the mission home because it was late.

His wife is a convert and she shared her conversion story which was so inspiring and motivating for the missionaries.  She felt the spirit of the missionaries long before they ever taught her.  She kept running into them everywhere she went.  They have three sons and a daughter, their sons have served missions in Russia, Norway and right now their last son serves in New Zealand.  A very mission minded family. 

It is fun for the missionaries to get together and see each other and receive strength and support.  It was a great two days.

Food Glorious Food

I wanted to share some of the exciting food here in Romania.   One of the first things I fell in love with was the Covrig or Pretzel.  You get them with salt, or poppy seeds or filled with chocolate or cherry, they are fantastic!!

 

 

The next thing Elder Heninger must have is a chocolata Placinta.  It's like fried bread with warm chocolate spread over it.  Romanians also spread sweet cheese, or salty cheese on them.  They are good with mashed potatoes and onions.  They are just plain good.

 

 

Here we have a few missionaries enjoying their Placinta's

We live where they make the best bread in the world.

Check out this baby, this loaf of bread weighs 2.2 kgs. that is almost 5 lbs.  It's huge.  It is called cartof because it is made with potatoes.

They have amazing breads here !!

 

Something Elder Heninger and I both love is Swarma .  It is very similar to swarma at home with chicken and french fries and cabbage and pickles.

Soooo good !

We eat alot of pork here.

 

Christmas is a big time for roasting a pig.

 

They don't use alot of lettuce so this is what we got when we ordered a salad to share.

 

 

 

Elder Heninger had an American Hot Dog.  The first one in 2 years.

 

 

And of course we have Pizza for almost any occasion.

 

 

 

 

 Their deserts are out of this world. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well I hope I have given you a taste of Romania today.  It's delicious !!

 

Absolutely Perfect Day

We had a very special day on Sunday.  A bus arrived outside the church and 15 of our friends from Feldioara walked into church.  They looked so beautiful and this was the first time they had been able to come into the city of Brasov for church in 8 years. They had a warm reunion with many members of the branch, several people they introduced to the gospel years ago.  My pictures are from a few days before and on Sunday.

And then we had our baptism service.  The members of the branch stayed for the baptism as well.

It was absolutely beautiful.

Elder Heninger baptised this little sweetie.  He also spoke the words in Romanian which made it so special for her.  The sisters did all the teaching for our sweetie.  Their pictures are from a few days before.

 

These are our two amazing missionaries Sora Lund and Sora Cottam.  Sora Lund is brand new and has learned her language wonderfully.  Sora Cottam's love sunk deep into the hearts of all our new friends.



Elder Bruner and Elder Swensen had a great day as well.  Elder Bruner baptised and confirmed while Elder Swensen spoke at the baptism and did an excellent job for a brand new missionary.

 

We also just had our Senior Conference which was very nice.

We had discussions and outings and wonderful music.

This is our Mission President and his wife at Prejmer a fortified church just outside Brasov.

I love it when the men sing and so we had them sing "Ye Elders of Israel" It was fantastic

We had a beautiful meal in a restaurant in Centru -downtown Brasov.

 We visited a professional Artisan who makes ceramics in classic Romania figures.

This is the nativity set that many Seniors purchased.  I did not purchase one as they are very heavy and very fragile.

His work is amazing.

And we had a special visit from Tevia from Fiddler on the Roof.  Our mission president has an amazing singing voice and we thoroughly enjoying him sing "If I were a Rich Man".

 

We had a special testimony meeting and it was a great uplift for all Senior Couples.
We have been greatly blessed by the Lord as the work moves forward in Romania.  We are so privileged to be here and contribute in whatever way we can.  Great things are happening and it is very exciting.

Two Amazing Finds

We have had some exciting things going on and I'm going to use this excuse why I haven't blogged in a while.  Elder Heninger and Elder Bruner went out to the country to look for some members of the branch and found something very exciting.  There was three individual families living side by side all related to each other.  These families moved to the country 9 years ago because they found work and left Brasov.  For 9 years they have been with out transportation to return to the city and lived and worked in their village.  They are members who have missed the association of the church and missed the sacrament for 9 yrs.  When the Elders met them and introduced themselves, the Mother and Grandmother of the family had tears running down her face.  She spoke of how she was one of the first members in Brasov in 1997 and how she had gone to the temple in 2000.  She was faithful and had kept the commandments all these years.  Her two sons lived in the other homes with there families and we met them and visited and spoke about getting permission to hold Sacrament meeting their in their home the next Sunday.

For our first Sacrament meeting we had 18 people, 6 missionaries and 12 family members.  It was incredible as individually people shared their testimonies and feelings of how they have struggled and built homes and raised their family and longed to have the church in their lives.  It was a special experience, I will never forget.

Since our first church service we have had another and are beginning to teach one son-in-law who has a baptism date and another young daughter who is 9 years old.  We are hoping that things will work out so that a "group" of the church can be organized for them to have their own meetings every Sunday.  A group is smaller than a branch but is fully organized to enjoy sacrament meeting.  The sisters are teaching the girls and the Elders the men and it has been wonderful for all.  This has been a very special experience and I feel priveleged to be in attendance when someone who has been taught to pray by the missionaries offers his very first prayer.  I love this family and look forward to many more visits to Feldioara.

On the back side of this little village is the ruins of a fortress built by the Teutonic knights in the 13th century. It stands on the top of a round hill with a path that circles the hill and enters the fortress on the west side. As you walk the path up to the entrance you can visualize knights riding their horses up and into the fortress while looking over the little village of Feldioara. Built by the Teutonic knights in 1211 to 1225 and stormed by the Saxons in the 1500's and later taken by the Hungarian King 1650. It had seen many battles and is amzing to walk around such a legacy of history. It stands alone with no park gate or any one to give any concern. It was inhabitted until the mid 1800s when an earth quake brought down the walls and it now stand in ruins.

I have added some pictures of our amazing missionaries for your added enjoyment.

 

 

 

We are greatful for the amazing find and know that it happened because the Lord answered the prayers of these wonderful people.  We know he answers ours and yours when we pray in faith.  We love you and hope this finds you all well and strong in the faith.