Merry Christmas 2020 ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

~ Merry Christmas 2020 ~

From Romania with Love

We hope this year (even with the crazy pandemic) has brought to you the feelings of comfort, joy and good health.  It has been so wonderful to connect with so many friends this year, either by media (which I am not very good at), email or actual person to person contact!  New babies have been born and loved ones have passed on to the other side of the veil, but we are happy to be alive and moving forward even with the roller coaster ride that we are on!

Being on a Mission has been truly wonderful.  The hardest part is missing our family and the special events that are happening with them on the other side of the world.

Mindy and Jakob are still in New York: Jakob changed jobs, Kobe came home from Mexico and deferred his mission until next year (because of the pandemic) and the boys are thriving in-spite of the pandemic. Marcie and Jamis are in Colorado; they bought a home  and moved right around the corner from where they lived before. Having their 5 kids home for school (also because of the pandemic) has been a real challenge but they have endured well. Willie and Grace are in North Carolina: the girls are doing great and have a wonderful backyard where they spend many hours playing. Emma is growing and sailed through her last surgery with flying colors!  Robbie and Kelli added little Scarlett to their family and are living and taking care of our home in Alpine (UT).  Having 3 kids has been an adjustment but baby Scarlett is a happy, calm baby and a joy to their family (this was a tough one to miss but with technology as it is it made it a tiny bit easier not to be there to hold & squeeze her). Kenny and Lindsay are in American Fork (UT) and Kenny still travels back and forth to Cambodia for Moo Moo Farms. Lindsay loves having a place in America to call home, Penny loves getting together with her cousins and they are expecting baby #2 next year!  Timmy and Sarah bought a home in Spanish Fork (UT) and love being homeowners!   Millie is growing in leaps and bounds and got a baby harp from Sarah’s folks this year ~ it is the cutest ever (Sarah plays the harp and will be a great teacher for Millie). They are also expecting baby #2 next year! 

We've had a wonderful year in spite of the circumstances that are surrounding the world.  As missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints  we have had the opportunity to do a variety of things! 

We had only been here, in Romania, less than a week when my Dad passed away, I had to make a trip back to the CO/OK for 10 days.  I got to see all my relatives so that was the best. I also got a throat infection that lasted forever. Back in Romania Billy was holding down the fort and once I got better we hit the pavement at 100 miles a minute! It hasn’t slowed down much but that is good! 

Bill and I have enjoyed serving in Romania and cannot believe how fast this last year has flown by! We have been involved in so many fun and exciting things. We love the country of Romania and we’ve had the opportunity to travel throughout the country.  Our young missionaries are amazing and it is always bittersweet when they have finished their full time service and head back home. Here are a few pictures that highlight some of the things we’ve been involved in! 

YSA Activities

Here in Romania we are still operating under very strict virus guidelines so we have to plan our activities to comply.  Regardless, we have tried our best to keep YSA activities and YSA participation growing.

Each week on Saturday night we have a YSA activity at the Bucharest Mihai Bravu Church.  At the beginning of the year we were only getting maybe 3 or 4 YSAs to the activities on a Saturday night and now we are averaging between 25 -35.  We have been liberal on our definition of a YSA and allow ages 18 - 35 to attend; out of this group we normally average about 10-15 non-member Friends.  

These activities are planned by our District YSA representatives, a young lady and young man, but we offer a lot of guidance and support (and games). 

From our observation, many young adults in Romania have never had the type of social interaction that we are used to with young adults in the USA.  Consequently, having activities is something they enjoy and have never experienced.  The missionaries also attend these Saturday night activities and invite friends that they have met on Facebook.  Since the missionaries can only meet with the friends for lessons online or at the chapel they will invite the friends to come early to the church and have a lesson before the activity. Saturday night activities seem to be a good time for everyone, with their same generation, to meet together, get to know each other and support each other.

Likewise, most of the baptisms that have taken place over the last year are within that 25-35 age range so it has been good for new members to have the social interaction with people their own age.

Some Saturday nights we have a movie.  For the movie Bill has taken some LDS themed movies like “The Saratov Approach”, etc., and added Romanian subtitles.  Then we use the church's big screen projector in the gym to make it like a theatre.  The chairs are all spaced for social distancing and afterwards we have some sort of refreshment.

Other nights we will have games.  During the summer these games were outdoors but when the weather changed we had to move indoors.  We will play regular party games like Missionary Tag, Do You Love Your Neighbor, etc., and then we have a number of physical games like 9 square in the air, giant Jenga, ping pong, root beer pong, pounce, badminton, bow and arrows, and several others.  During the summer when we were outside we also played water balloon volleyball, toss the water balloon, soccer, frisbee and pickleball.

We had a YSA traditional USA Halloween party (and a Primary Halloween party earlier that day).  None of the YSA or Friends had ever celebrated or been to a Halloween party before so it was really fun for them.

Church

Due to the average age of members attending Church in Romania and the average age of Friends that the missionaries are finding on Facebook we pushed for a long time to create a separate group for YSA.  This idea was not accepted for a couple of different reasons but fortunately with the rule limiting indoor meetings to 50 people, the Sacrament meeting at the Mihai Bravu branch was getting close to reaching the limit.   Consequently, it was decided a second Mihai Bravu branch meeting would be held at 1:00 each Sunday.  We attend the 10am Sacrament meeting at Panduri then head over to the 1pm meeting at Mihai Bravu with the missionaries and that is the meeting they invite most of their Friends to. The 1pm meeting works much better for YSA age kids also because they do not have to get up so early.  Many of the YSA have to ride public transportation to get to the chapel and it can take them 1 - 2 hours.  Therefore, to get to the regular 10:00am meeting it means they have to get up at 7:00am or so on a Sunday morning which seems to be an issue.  Of course, we realize church times should not be structured for the convenience of those attending and they should make the sacrifice to attend for the right reasons, but half the kids we get to the 1pm meeting are Friends that are just investigating the Church and are not members or have testimonies yet. We have found making church attendance as easy as we can for them, at this stage in their progression, is best until they develop a testimony on their own.

We spent some years working at BYU with the YSA wards there and even in these wards a large percentage of the members were all returned missionaries and yet there is a noticeable difference in attendance between the meetings that start at 9 or 10am and those that start at 1 or 2pm on Sundays.  In a perfect world it should not be this way, but this is reality.  Bill thinks it is the nature of the YSA beast.

Anyway, the 1pm Sacrament Meeting is not an official  “YSA” meeting, it is just a second meeting for the Mihai Bravu branch due to the virus restrictions but as it turns out the 1pm meeting is the meeting of preference for most YSA and Friends. We imagine when the virus restrictions are over the 1pm meeting will be combined back with the 10am meeting but the branch president will make that call.

The other real benefit to having the 1pm meeting is it has given our new YSA members a chance to gain leadership and service opportunities.   For example, we had a YSA baptized in Sept and he was called as a counselor in the Mihai Bravu branch Sunday School presidency.  As small as the Mihai Bravu branch is, this calling really does not do much because there are no youth classes, no gospel essential classes, etc., there is just the one Sunday School class for everyone so there is not a lot of responsibility for a SS Presidency counselor.   However, this new YSA member was asked to organize the SS for the 1pm meeting. The new member has stepped up and called 4 YSA Sunday School teachers, has made a monthly schedule for teaching, and assigned lessons from the Gospel Essentials manual to the teachers.   We use the Gospel Essentials manual for the 1pm meeting because most that attend are relatively new members and non-member Friends.  Likewise, a new YSA member that was baptized last year and serves in the Mihai Bravu Elders Quorum branch presidency has been called to make sure the sacrament is set up and administered at the 1pm meeting each week.  In addition, a new YSA member that was baptized a couple of months ago and has been ordained to the office of Priest is assigned to make sure we have Aaronic Priesthood holders to pass the sacrament each Sunday. The 1pm meeting is giving these YSA new members the opportunity to serve and learn leadership that they would not have had otherwise.

On a side note, we had a non-member YSA age Friend bare her testimony last week at the 1pm meeting.  As part of her testimony she shared the below analogy. Bill thought you might like to read this, he had it translated from Romanian.  The sarmale she refers to in the analogy is a traditional Romanian food.

"One day, while I was talking to the missionary sisters and trying to find out what is the difference between the Bible and The Book of Mormon and also why there are so many religions, I thought that I could compare The Book of Mormon to the original recipe, the perfect recipe of "sarmale". 

"So, I told sisters, 'I think that God gave his people, in the beginning, a perfect recipe of "sarmale"; but some of the people have forgotten many of the details, ingredients, or the way of preparing sarmale, and others have changed some of the ingredients, thinking that they are better chefs. The perfect recipe from the beginning was the Bible, which has been translated, reinterpreted and/or modified by humans. Consequently, it appeared many religions considered they have made a better recipe for "sarmale". 

God, finding about that, realized that his Church has to be restored and He has to resend to the people, the original recipe of "sarmale", for all people to eat "sarmale" made according to the same recipe and  let everyone know that this is the real, original recipe. 

That is how The Book of Mormon appeared, written on gold plates, by the prophet and historian Mormon and later translated by the prophet Joseph Smith. 

You must try "sarmale" made according to this original recipe so you can compare it to the others that you have tried so far.  Good appetite! ".  

This is from Gabi who is not a member of the Church but who is studying the Book of Mormon.  For us, The Book of Mormon does not take away from the Bible but adds to it the truths that were lost or changed. It will better clarify and add to the "original "recipe from Jesus Christ that was changed throughout the many years of translation.  Gabi's understanding is phenomenal!

Missionary Lessons

With the virus the missionaries do all their "finding" on Facebook and are not allowed to teach anywhere face-to-face except at the chapel or another members home.  Consequently, we have regular meetings at our home with the missionaries and their Friends.  Normally, we invite the Friend to come to dinner and then afterwards have a lesson and games.  It is much more personal to have the lesson in our home then to have the lesson in a classroom at the chapel plus it gives us a chance to meet these Friends which are almost exclusively YSA age due to the Facebook finding techniques.

Re-activation

Bill took the district branch list and printed out all the YSA age members.  With this list he contacted each of the members, active and less-active, either through Facebook or any other contact information for them that we have.  Once we have made contact we try to meet them and just get to know them.  Some are very hesitant for a number of reasons, so in some instances I have even promised that when we meet we just want to get to know them and we will not talk about religion; normally then they will agree to meet. 

With this approach we have had some success with re-activating several YSA.  One particular is a 30 year old girl that has been less-active for the past 5 years.   When Bill first contacted her she said she did not want to have anything to do with the Mormon Church or its members.   We spent 2 or 3 months just talking and getting to know her online until she agreed to let us come meet her.  One thing led to another and now she is teaching the 1pm Sacrament meeting Sunday School class, she is speaking in Sacrament Meeting this coming Sunday and last Sunday she received her Temple Recommend.  Now her brother is going to start taking the missionary lessons and her mother, who is not a member, has asked for a Priesthood Blessing. We are using this same process with adult members also and have some success with re-activation.

Other Efforts 

We work with the Humanitarian Missionaries, Elder and Sora Falslev, on projects whenever we can! These activities are so much fun and help the many families in Romania who have needs that are now being met because of the Falslev's efforts. We are blessed beyond measure to have them here and to have the funds that the Church distributes to countries all over the world to help those in need.

In addition to the above YSA efforts, Bill is serving as the Executive Security/Clerk in the District Presidency and Jamie serves in the RS branch presidency and helps with the primary.    

With the virus restrictions the Mission President has only been able to travel to Romania twice. The Mission Home and office is in Hungary so we have also been helping with a lot of the mission duties here. This includes taking care of the mission vehicles, doing apartment inspections, hosting the missionaries that are going home by having them stay with us, taking them to dinner and participating in their farewell testimony meetings. 

These farewells have been some of the most spiritual meetings that we have had the honor to participate in.  As senior Missionaries we would normally not have this privilege because it is usually done at the Mission Home with the Mission President and his wife but because of travel restrictions we have been able to have the missionaries that are going home, in our home for this occasion.  We zoom with the President and his wife and it is such a remarkable experience for us. We all share our testimonies and the spirit is so strong and it is the most bitter/sweet moments of our mission (we have definitely looked for the silver linings during the pandemic and this truly is the best one).

We also help with transfers and anything else that needs to be done. We love it here, we are tired most days, but are happy that we can find things to keep us busy and provide opportunities to serve.

Every night before we go to bed we evaluate our day; most days end with Bill saying, "I think we did some good today!"  As we celebrate this most sacred time of year, the birth of our Lord and Savior, may we continue to go about doing good and remembering Christ in our lives each and every day as we let His example shine forth from us.  May you have the most blessed Christmas and Happy New Year! We only have 1 year left to accomplish all we need and want to and we pray that this will be enough time to do it!

Te iubim și ți-e dor de tine ~ sărutări pentru tine!

(We love you and miss you ~ kisses to you)!

Elder and Sora Matthews

The Hearts that Keep Giving ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

We had a wonderful service project with the Banca De Haine (meaning Clothes Bank). This is a self-made organization of a group of friends collecting donated items that they sort, organize and give to homeless shelters, orphanages and others in need.

They are not part of an NGO and are not sure that they want to be as this is 100% for those in need.  No one gets paid.  That is why we love helping them!  Their first building they had been using was just 1 big room, another small room and an entry/exit area.

They have found a gorgeous old house that the owners are kind enough to let them use.  The owners are in the process of restoring it but since the restoration has been placed on hold they are allowing these amazing people to use their house.  It is truly an exquisite old manion and is just so stunning.  This home (I'll have to take a picture of the outside) is so large and has 3 stories.  The man took us on a tour and this is the kind of house I would love to live in (although there are way too many stairs so I would insist on an elevator 😉)!

This group of people are so generous and give of their time freely to help others less fortunate than themselves.  The Falslevs found them and we have been invited to help them as much as we can on any Tuesday or Thursday!  Part of our little group got to work in the toy room ~ this was a dream come true (we were in the adult clothes last time and that was quite difficult to sort sizes of pre-teen to XXL)!  The toys were a blast and I felt like we were setting up for a boutique!  I wish I would have taken a before/after picture but I didn't take any pics but Sora Falslev did! It was fun sorting through the toys and imagining making some child, who will be receiving some of these toys for Christmas, so happy.  These service projects are a sweet reminder of the generosity of others.

These are our dear friends, Mark and Ava Falslev.  They are on a Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints just like us but they are Humanitarian Missionaries.  This takes them all over the country of Romania where they have many projects going on that keep them very, very busy! They had the opportunity to go home for their youngest child's wedding; we were so worried that they wouldn't make it back to Romania because of the coronavirus ~ but they did make it back here and we spent a couple hours catching up with them! They are the best and we #givethanks that they are here 💙😇💙! They make these service project possible for us missionaries!

These are just a few of the projects that the church does. Donations from members are used around the world to help people improve their lives. Since 1985 donations have allowed us to provide $2.3 billion worth of assistance to millions of people in over 197 countries and territories. Our name is a reminder that the humanitarian effort of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is made possible primarily through the generous contributions of its members, known as Latter-day Saints. 

In October, Bill and I had the opportunity to sit in on one of the charities (ANAIS) that address domestic violence and victims in Romania.  We could feel the compassion, love and concern for these women, children and sometimes men who are in situations of domestic violence and just don't seem to know how to escape it and get out of the cycle of returning to a similar situation.  The panel is very realistic about understanding that it won't help by just "removing" them from the situation but to educate them, give constant counseling and build up their self-esteem so they can move out of the cycle of abuse and go forward in their lives. The LDS Charities are involved in so many good causes throughout the world and it is exciting to be a part of and get a glimpse of that wonderful organization! Just like Bill and I (and all the missionaries) we are not paid but rather support ourselves for the whole time we are out serving.  This is the same with LDS Charities. Mark and Ava are paying their own rent, food and all that they need to serve here for free and go throughout Romania and find projects.  They use their time, energy and donations that the church receives to help these types of organizations, other NGO's and people in general.  It is a nonprofit organization and 100% goes to help others! We #givethanks to all of you throughout the world that work with charities and are so charitable yourself in helping those in need ~ Charity is truly the pure love of Christ 💙😇💙!

HaPPy HaLLoWeeN #2 out of 3 ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

October 31, 2020

The Funnest (yet most exhausting)

day of our Mission [so far])!

Our day actually started yesterday (Friday) after district meeting. Elder's Ekstrom/Beck/Chandler/Sarkady/Miller and Sora's Pallo/Wilcock helped us set-up the Halloween decorations for the Primary Party which will be at the Pandura Church tomorrow, in the overflow.

Elder's Chandler/Miller, Sora's Matthews/Wilcock/Pallo and Elder Sarkady (in front). Missing Elder's Matthews and Ekstom in this picture. 

Everyone was pitching in and helping! I did keep finding them out in the hallway every now and then but they really did so much work to make it a success!

Before/After

They were so wonderful and helpful and we honestly could not have completed it without their help.  The Mihai Bravu Sora's joined us early Saturday morning to help with touch-ups.  Each and every one of them were phenomenal (the above photo is missing Elder's Ekstrom/Miller)!

We made 4 trips to Jumbo$$$ and had a wonderful time making our overflow as spooky as could be; well worth the trip(s)!

We had 11 stations: 1) Face Painting ~ Pallo. 2) Donut Eating ~ Beck. 3) Pumpkin Pong ~ Miller.  4) Pumpkin Painting ~ Wilcock. 5) "What is it?"~ Chandler/Sarkady & Elmont/Gunn. 6) Crafts ~ Mummies, coloring and pumpkin plates ~ Bauco/Tobler. 7) Cupcake/Cookie decorations ~ Delicious! Sister's Larson/Ferrin. 8) Bowling ~ Elder Ekstrom.  9) Witch's Toss ~ Everyone.  10) Trick or Treat ~ All.  11) Bingo ~ Sora Matthews. 

The kids were so adorable and had such a wonderful time.  They were busy with all the games and treats for 2 solid hours 👻.

We had 4 doors set up for trick or treating!  It was a hoot ~ this is the first time that some of these children have ever gotten to go trick or treating. The missionaries would be behind the doors and pop out and gently scare the kids.  Many of the kids would come back and knock again just for one more scare!

Sora Pallo was face painting and did a wonderful job! All the kids wanted to have a design on their face!  The "Eating the Donut off the String" was a delicious treat and all the activities were a blast!

To say it was a success is an understatement! All the kids had a blast and are looking forward to next year's party 👻🎃👻!

 

HaPPy HaLLoWeeN #1 out of 3 ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

October 31, 2020

I love Halloween! I loved it when I was a child and I loved it when our kids were little. It is such a fun festive holiday and there is just no sadness (maybe a few tummy aches ~ but that is AFTER Halloween)! For me Halloween just wouldn't be the same without seeing these little critters all dressed up and having such fun times with their families!

Here we have Little Miss Millie as beautiful Elsa ~ isn't she the cutest ever! Sarah made her hair and crown; her talents blow. me. away!  This was Millie's first Halloween that she really got to participate in. As she went 'trick or treating' she didn't really need her bucket as she was so excited to gobble up as much as she could at each door,  she barely took any home 😋!

Miss Penny and family are from Tangled (Rapunzel, Mother Gothel and Flynn/Eugene Fitzherbert). Penny was one determined little trick or treater and kept her wig on the whole time! I love their family themed costumes, as well!

Flash, Little Bo Peep and her lost sheep are just darling; Linc is as fast as lightning, Londy got to wear make-up and looks radiantly beautiful and you couldn't find a more cuddly little sheep than Scarlett! Isn't this just the best ages ever!?!

There couldn't be a more lovable "Glinda the Good Witch" than sweet little Emma (and a little pumpkin while waiting for the festivities to begin)!  Isla is adorable as sweet Dorothy with Toto (and George) and Sades applied her own skeleton make-up and did a sensational job!

These little munchkins were so creative with their costumes!  Char went as the cutest little Scarecrow, Atticus went as the frightening Headless Horseman, all that needs to be said about Hazel is, "ooh eeh ooh ah aah ting tang walla walla bing bang" (Witch Doctor),  Miles is an Astronaut ready to command a space flight and little Mary is the best SuperHero of all time!

I love the teenagers at Halloween; they can go as simple or as extravagant as they want because no matter what these 4 go as they will always be the coolest kids on the block and the Apple of My Eye! 

HaPPy HaLLoWeeN EVERYONE 👻🎃👻

HaPPy HaLLoWeeN #3 out of 3 ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

October 31, 2020

Mihai Bravu YSA Halloween Party

Between 3 and 3:30pm, we packed up three cars with missionaries and decorations and headed over to the Mihai Bravu chapel where we set up all the decorations (again) for the YSA Halloween Party!  All the missionaries jumped in and helped again.  Fortunately, the set up was very close to the one we had for the Primary children earlier today so it didn't take as much time or thinking!

We ordered Pizza and started the night playing Bingo!  I explained to the group that we were going to have a traditional Halloween party with all the games and crafts that they did when my children were growing up! It is so interesting to me how most Romanians have not had any experiences like this in their whole lifetime.

They all had a fantastic time and really enjoyed doing the fun and silly games and crafts; it was so sweet watching them really get into making the crafts. New experiences for many.  After the initial explanation and with assistance from the missionaries they had a SPOOK-tacular time!

A couple of the YSA's choose not to come.  Their excuse was that they didn't like Halloween, it was an American holiday and since they don't celebrate Romanian holidays in America why should they celebrate American holidays here.  These excuses were so sad (especially since Halloween started in Ireland and Scotland not the USA).  I feel mostly bad for these kids because it ended up being such a fun night with donut eating, face painting and googly freaky stuff (behind the huge "Whats this?" black tarp); it's sad that they missed out on a really great night of fun, friendship and merriment!

This was the "Mummy Wrap" game and a big hit ~ there were 2 teams and a timer was set.  They had really cheap toilet paper that kept breaking but that was part of the fun and figuring how to make it work and work together! 

I divided them all into eight groups of 4 so they could get to know other people.  This worked out well and was a good time for everyone.  We had 8 stations and they rotated around the room! If they got done with their station they could play Ghost bowling and/or target practice on the Pumpkin Pinata! 

It was so fun watching them make toilet paper roll mummies.  It is such a simple thing but to these kids it was truly a treat.  They painted pumpkins (as a team) and colored pumpkin sheets and painted paper plates to make a pumpkin face.  These are just effortless things to do but for first timers it was a hoot.

Did I mention how much I L🎃VE HaLLoWeeN!?!

Friends, Smoking and Farewell ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

10/26/20

Tuesday ~ I got up early and it was so cool looking out our window; you couldn't see anything because the fog was thick as molasses.  Fortunately, by mid-morning it had cleared up which was good since Billy needed to go to the church and meet a guy who was going to buy one of the mission cars. I wasn't planning on going but then he enticed me with going to JUMBO, so I jumped in the shower and threw on some clothes.

I got a quick call from Sora Teuscher about some bites on her arm ~ I've got matching ones so we're not sure if they are mosquito bites or a little bug in our beds.  It just attacks our arms so it is very strange ~ Bill and I might need to run up to Iasi and check it out 😂😂😏! The 2nd picture is of me without my ponytail ~ somehow I misplaced my one and only stretchy rubber band and since I needed to leave in a hurry to go with Bill to the church (for the car) and to JUMBO (for me), I just grabbed a hat and my make-up bag and off we went. Jumbo is a cross between Toys R Us and The Dollar Tree <but a little more expensive.  They have everything you might want and this was the 3rd time I've gone for Halloween items.  There is only one problem, besides me spending hundreds of dollars, and that is that it is like IKEA but worse.  There is only one entrance and NO short cuts back to the check-out; if you forget even one item it will take 15 minutes to go back and get it - although I usually find that on those trips back through the store I find other things that I had "forgotten" 😏.  This Saturday we will be having 2 Halloween parties ~ one at the Panduri church at 1pm for the Primary aged kids then we'll travel directly over to the Mihai Bravu church to set up for the YSA Halloween party at 6pm.  The last picture of me is me looking sad.  Elder Sarkady and Elder Chandler taught (the couple below) the 'Quit Smoking Program" (the 4th successful one in the last 4 months) and we each gave up something so we can experience a glimpse of how hard it is to give up something we like and to help encourage them that "they can do hard things". 

This is the cute couple, Lucian and Alexandra, who did the Quit smoking program (no longer smoking!); they got married a couple months ago, are taking the English classes and are being taught by the missionaries.  Since they were giving up smoking we all did the program with them for the week; Bill gave up peanut butter, I gave up chocolate and the Elders gave up chocolate but since they seemed to be drinking a lot of energy drinks I suggested they give up those instead.  They said they weren't addicted to them (so I told them it shouldn't be hard at all!). Well, I have been able to stay off chocolate this whole last month but the AP's sent me a video catching Elder Sarkady sneaking an energy drink in his suit jacket.  The picture above was the one I sent to Elder Sarkady with the quote, "Say it isn't so"!  I don't really care and I know they can go without it but somehow it was helping me with my chocolate addiction knowing we were all doing it together 😉!

These are our adorable friends. The top picture starting from the left: Aurel #2 who was baptized Sept 2020 and is the Sunday School President for both the Mihai Bravu 10am meeting and the Mihai Bravu 1pm meeting, then we have our 2 new friends Ionut and Gabi; they are the cutest couple and sweet as can be, next is me, then Aurel #1 who joined the church almost 2 years ago and is brilliant! He has learned the Gospel and teaches our YSA Sunday School class once a month. Next is Sora Pallo and Sora Wilcock (our cute sister missionaries from the Panduri Branch)!

After dinner (and after they had a peek at our family albums) we had a little lesson but first Gabi asked me to share about why and how I joined the church.  I shared my testimony and conversion story 

https://jamie5663.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=1977-10-05T23:47:00-06:00&max-results=1 

and then Bill gave a lesson on the Plan of Salvation (Plan of Happiness) 

lesson https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/true-to-the-faith/plan-of-salvation?lang=eng. 

It was a great lesson; the Sora's had to leave a little bit early but the 2 Aurel's jumped in and helped explain things to Ionut (it is crazy and amazing how these new members are learning the principles of the Gospel so fast and then can turn around and teach others)!  Gabi already knew a lot because of her lessons with the Sora Missionaries.  Ionut had a zillion wonderful questions and Elder Matthews was able to, in simple terms, explain and answer his questions.  It was a fun night and we all had a great time!

Wednesday ~ last night while we were enjoying dinner, Sora Pearse was stranded at the train station; the AP's forgot to pick her 😕😑😟😥😣😬😳. Finally, she was able to get ahold of the other Sora's through messenger (which I don't have that app on my phone but will get it immediately).  Anyhoooo, after an hour she got ahold of Elder's Chandler/Sarkady so they went to the train station to wait with her for the AP's (who are the only young missionaries who have a car). Sora Pearse was a good sport but the AP's are in double trouble 😏.  The next morning we picked up Sora's Pearse, Elmont and Gunn and took them out to lunch at La Mama's and had a wonderful farewell visit with Sora Pearse.  These moments are so bitter/sweet. We then went off to the airport to send beautiful Sora Pearse home to Australia.

These are such hard times for the Sora's as well.  Sora Pearse and Elmont have served together over half their mission and with Sora Pearse living in Australia they might not be able to physically see each other again until we meet in Heaven 😇 (thank goodness for technology).

I always wait until everyone gets through security in case they need something or forgot something. "God be with you, Sora Pearse, until we meet again 💙😇💙"!