Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Surprise going away party

The surprise was so secret even Elder Heninger didn't know, he came late.

Amazing and delicious

The words on the paper behind us said"We love you and we will miss you"  It was so special.

Goodbye's are always hard when you probably will never see each other again.  One sweet member said-goodbye I'll see you in heaven.

Our friends in Sibiu

We have come to love so many wonderful people.

We won't have trouble saying good bye to the bad roads and crazy drivers, but we will sure miss this great Mission President. A large pot hole blew the tire on President Hills car. Elders to the rescue.

I can't possibly post pictures of all my new friends,  but we are so happy about all our experiences.

By the way I finished reading my Romanian Book of Mormon.  It was a good job done.  It helped me in understanding when others spoke in church and around.  I'm happy I did it.

We are looking forward to an evening with the Mission President and his wife and sharing our final thoughts with them.  What a privilege to be the Lord's servants for two years here in Romania.  Of course we will never be the same.  The gospel is true and God lives and watches over all His children.      We are very thankful for divine protection, safety,  our experiences and knowledge of the truth.  We look forward to seeing friends and family and connecting again.

Germany

We had an amazing experience, we went to Germany with one of our good friends and Branch President of one of our branches here in Romania.

  We spent 6 days in Frankfurt and we had an amazing experience.  We have never spent a whole week at the temple before.  The spirit of the temple is strong and we all felt strengthened and lifted.

 Germany is so beautiful.  I loved it so much.  I'm so thrilled I got to see another country in Europe beside Romania.  In planning our trip we thought about driving, taking the train which most people do and flying.  Since the train ride was over 30 hours long one way and wasn't much cheaper than flying we decided to fly.  It was a very good decision--besides being so fast the rains came and it rained and rained and flooded the Danube river and the trains could not get through.  We would never have made it if we were on the train.  Several people coming to the temple from Austria had to cancel their trip because of the floods.

Our experience was extraordinary !!     He is faithful and loves the church and has been a member for 3 years.  The joy was visible on his countenance, the way he smiled, and looked and stood.  He was so grateful for this experience.

It was a thrill to spend all week in the temple with him.  I've never done this before.  Truly one of the highlights of our mission.  I could tell it was a little difficult for him to speak English for a whole week and not be able to speak his own language but he did fantastic.

I have come up with the top 10 list for you.  Hope you like it.

10.  Cooking all our own breakfast, lunch and everyday in the kitchen at temple housing.(Thankfully we went out for dinner in the evening).  It was challenging to buy food that you would want to eat all week and then prepare it.  My German is not good at all.

9.  Going 200 km./hour in the Taxi from Frankfurt to the airport.  When I asked him about the speed he said "there is no speed limit, it is the Freedom of Germany"  Dan was in his glory, he loved every minute of it.  Especially seeing all the nice German cars.

8.  Eating really good Chinese food.  Never did get a Bratwurst.

7.  No Dogs!! and hardly anyone smokes there.  Meeting other wonderful people at the temple from around Europe.  The beauty of Germany.  So very pretty.

6.  Doing 4 Endowment Sessions in one day.  Never done that before. I was exhausted but it was a good exhausted.

5.  Doing Initiatory work- did 10 names.  Beautiful Spirit !!

4.  Dan spent two hours with the Temple President when our friend went through on the first day.  Pres. Berkhahn  was a mission President in Calgary in 1994-1997.  It's a small world.  He speaks excellent English, he is German.

3.  We did sealings and it was so special.   We asked if we could do all the sealings in English, they said Yes.  But they were all in German, oh well, we read the prayers in English from a card they gave us.  It was so nice.

2.  Baptisms-Dan performed 150 baptisms alone.  I did 30 and our friend did 30 and there were others helping.

1.  The great joy of being in the temple with this great man. The joy, love and amazement we all felt.

The week flew by and it was time to go home.  Sadly we packed our bags.  Our weather was sunny and beautiful the whole week while most of the country was suffering with rains and flooding.  We were so blessed.

We waited as our taxi came for the ride of our lives.  Little did we know how fast you can actually get to an airport.

Then we hopped on the plane for a sweet ride home.  

                                         We got our practice  flying  and we are all set for July 5th, we remembered how!!

Can't wait til we see you all,

Love,

Heningers

Road Trip to Oradea

We were really glad we were leaving on a road trip to Oradea because this is what was going on outside our bedroom window.

My grandsons would be in heaven.  There was every kind of digging machine and truck you can imagine.

When they shut the water off Elder Heninger said great "where are we going for lunch".  Can't make lunch if you can't do the dishes.  So off we went.........and our trip began.

We were going to Oradea for some District Training and to speak in church.  Here are a few shots of the trip along the way.
We see so many sheep grazing this time of year, and the new ones are so cute.

We see many vender's selling traditional goods.

I always want to stop and look but Elder Heninger not so much.

These were some gigantic gypsy homes but they were vacant.

The poppies were so beautiful in the fields growing wild.  They reminded me of my Dad's petite point pictures.

The buildings are so interesting with amazing architecture.

This is the residence of the Greek Catholic Bishop 

Our meetings went well and we felt good about coming..........  Now it is time for the long trip home.

At least we were riding in more style than these guys.

 The scenery was awesome!!

We certainly have a beautiful world God created.  Sometimes certain places remind me of Alberta.  We are in our last transfer now, in missionary language which means we only have 6 weeks left.  We have many mixed emotions.  We will work hard to finish strong.  It has been a special experience.

We love spring !

This first picture is of Elder Heninger outside the bathroom at the gas station in Feldioara.  Someone must always guard because the bathroom door does not lock (classic).  He looks like a sharp missionary.

With spring brings a few opportunities to do service.  We helped our new members get a field ready for planting onions.

It was amazing to watch as they cultivated this field.  This is a lot of hard work.  

This new born colt was only 1 day old

Then we began a small road trip.  We were asked to come to Deva to do a fireside.  It was so nice to be there with the members and support them.  We had 2 hours free so we took the ride up the mountain to see the fortress that was being restored.

This was kinda like a cable car to the top.

We had a beautiful view of the city.

This is right at the top where they are restoring it.

Deva is the city where Romania has a big gymnastics facility.  Many Olympic athletes are from here.

It is where Nadia Comaneci trained when she won her gold medal perfect 10

Travelling through the countryside was wonderful and green and so pretty.  The sheep were everywhere with their shepherds.

We saw so many flocks, which is always a thrill.

Then we were off to Timisoara where we stayed with another senior couple and did our fireside and spoke in church.  It is such a beautiful city.

This is the beautiful Centru or center of town.

Our wonderful Senior missionaries.

We drove to Cluj so Elder Heninger could do some temple recommend interviews.  We were able to visit the Salt mine near Cluj which was very cool.

It is so big in there, they have a Ferris wheel and you can row boats around deep underground.

We were tired when we got home, but we travelled much more comfortably than this poor guy travelling in a small trailer pulled by a very small car.

Happy trails to you until we meet again.