Great Start for the New Year

Today was a very special day.  We had our members and friends from Feldioara arrive for church on the bus and it was so wonderful to have them come to Brasov.

We had two very special Baptisms today and it was super to all be together from Brasov and Feldioara.  I think we had 50 people at church.  Here are  a few pictures.

This the sweetest gal you have ever seen.

We are so excited to be part of these special peoples lives.

It is a privilege to be able to serve in Romania.  We have made some life long friends.

Here are some snow pictures as well.

We are so lucky to serve with Sora Hosking and Sora Cottam.

Some Christmas Pictures for You

I think I fixed the problem.

This is our beautiful tree in Centru, so awesome.

Our super missionaries and fantastic member.  This is Christmas Eve after doing a little Secret Santa work.

The ground here was a serious skating rink.  We were lucky to get across alive.

We had a great meeting on Christmas Sunday and a wonderful program for everyone.

We had our own New Years party, which was so fun.  We made party hats and played Rook til midnight.

This is a cobble stone street with lights all across.  So beautiful.  This is in Iasi.

That's it for our Christmas pictures.  Next for the real important stuff.

Happy New Year or la multi ani

It is always a very exciting time of year and we have enjoyed Christmas and New Year with our members and missionaries.  We have lots of snow and feel right at home.

I am having technical difficulties with my blog.  I am unable to upload pictures and so until I get some one to show me what I am doing wrong we are without pictures.  Anyone that knows please email me.

We had a great Christmas and stayed busy so as to not get homesick.  We were busy being Santa's helpers Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day we had a lovely dinner with 4 members of our branch and the missionaries.  It was also very exciting to play Rook.  For the first time since we left we had an awesome Rook game with the missionaries, playing 4 handed, 5 handed and 6 handed Rook, while everyone took turns skyping their families.

We are very excited about our work here and the Lord is blessing us so much.  We have many people we are teaching and have plans for baptism.  I sure hope I will have pictures to show soon.  The best help for missionaries are members so be sure to share all your favourite people with them. 

I'm still reading the Romanian Book of Mormon and am in Helaman.  It is getting a little easier and I enjoy it, I am still working on my goal to finish it before I leave.

Hope you have made some exciting New Year goals.  We wish you all a Super New Year.

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.