Super Special

We had a day that you only dream about.  We had four baptisms and none of them were in the same family.

One of our recent converts baptized his wife, after receiving the priesthood that morning.  That was super special.  Elder Heninger baptized this fine young man who is so excited about the gospel.  Our branch president baptized this young adult and the little sweetie was baptized by her Dad.  This baptismal day completed two full families in the gospel.  Very special !

We had fun taking lots of pictures.

We have lots of love for this great young man.

A great day to remember !!

Seniors Conference and this and that...

We had a wonderful  Senior Missionary Conference and this is only part of our group.  We all met in Brasov and gathered for Instruction, Uplift, and Outings together.  It was amazing to be around so many talented and gifted Seniors who have a vast amount of experience in the church.

We visited a fortified church in the area which was founded by the Saxons in 1211 and today is a Lutheran church.

This man sitting down spoke German and Romanian, he explained the history to us.  One of our Seniors Elder Schwartz translate for us-he speaks German and Russian.

Of course a highlight is listening to the men sing Ye Elders of Israel.  Wonderful !!

This is the black church, a great landmark in the city.  It was closed for Easter so we couldn't go in.

Our Humanitarian Missionaries had organized a wheelchair distribution at the same time to help the disabled.  Our church is so amazing by all the aid it gives out to the world.  What a privilege to belong to this church.   It was emotional being there for this event.

And what a wonderful way to end the weekend-- with the baptism of some very special people.

It was an action packed weekend, but what Fun!!

The very next week we had a Fantastic visit from Brian and Sandy Heninger and Laurel and Courtny Brown.

What a grand time we had.  We attended a Philharmonic Concert in Bucharest in one of the top three concert halls in the world.

They spoiled us and we loved every minute of it.  What a special treat.

It was a little hard to say goodbye.

And just for your viewing pleasure, I'll end with two interesting pictures of women.

The first is a traditional Romanian grandma.

The second is a non-traditional Romanian grandma 

having fun at one of the narrowest streets in Europe.

We love you and miss you all.

A Sweet Day

Nothing feels better than when the bus pulls up to church in Brasov filled with members from Feldioara and Rotbav.  It means great things are happening.

We had a very special experience teaching this man.  He does not read.  He has worked with animals all his life and is a humble gentle man.  We were not sure how he would receive a testimony of the Book of Mormon not being able to read it.  After the first two lessons the Elders choose to show him the restoration video.  This was marvelous and he could really relate to Joseph growing up on a farm and all the animals.  Then he began getting excited and calling out Adevarat (True, it's true) and then, recognizing God and Jesus he mentioned their names and finally at the end he had tears running down his cheeks and saying Duhul Sfant (Holy Ghost) and pointing from his head to his feet.  He had received a spiritual conversion and it was amazing to witness it visually.  He changed from that time on and continued to prepare for baptism.

 Sweet !!

Super Sweet !!

The bonus at the end was Elder Heninger bringing his homemade banana bread.  

Very Sweet  !!

It was an amazing day and one I will always remember.  The Spirit teaches, testifies and does the converting.  Missionaries are just the tool.  

On the Road

Since all the missionaries write letters to the President each week and he shares some of experiences they have, it was a special surprise to read this experience from President Hill's letter from an Elder serving in our city with us.


The Power of a Senior Couple   “I think the coolest experience was with one of our new investigators. The past 6 months he has said that he will not take lessons with the missionaries, but we know that he has a great respect for the senior couple.  We called them and set up a meeting. The investigator has been coming to church with his member wife for a past couple of months, but his parents are Jehovah’s Witnesses, so he has been very hesitant to listen to us. My companion, the senior couple and I met with the man and I translated. He agreed to have more lessons and even committed to baptism when he finds out the truth of our message. It is really exciting. The Spirit was SO STRONG in that lesson and the senior couple gave great testimony. I felt like I was conducting music in the lesson. We followed the senior missionary as to when to ask him questions, when to invite his wife to bear testimony and when to have the senior couple speak. It was really a cool experience. I know that a year ago, even if I spoke the language as well as I do now, I wouldn't have been able to follow the Spirit like that. Not even close.”

We work with amazing missionaries !!

We had a YW activity in our branch where we stuffed these little soft toys for children at the children's hospital.  It was a fun activity and these bright colors are just what they like.

The pattern for these are on the humanitarian website, it is a great project.

I wanted to get a picture of this traffic sign.  If you can pronounce all these you are doing better than me.  Almost all our intersections are traffic circles which Elder Heninger is getting very good at.  They can be a challenge at times.  You may end up entirely going a different direction than you wanted.   

It's why we see a lot of these on the road....

and sometimes these...

..

Good luck as you travel down the road of life.  Don't forget your map.  Our map is the scriptures and we don't go very many places without them.  It doesn't matter what mode of transportation your using, just don't forget your map!!

Dream Come True

We had an amazing Sunday last week.  All our friends came into church on the bus from Feldioara and Rotbav and we had 65 people at church in Brasov.  It was a dream come true.  After 3 hours of church we had our baptism.

These are some very special people.

With our amazing missionaries !!

Did you know people can change?

People who have either never gone to church or only twice a year can change and go every Sunday.  It is wonderful.  

People who were sad and burdened down can now smile and live with faith.

And no one has changed more than Dan and I.  We may look the same but after working and loving and serving the people of Romania all day everyday, we are profoundly different.

Here is picture of our district just before transfers and lots of change.  It seems life is full of change, we have to change even our very natures.  The one constant thing is CHANGE.  

Good luck to you......on your road to change.