May 21, 2020
NOW ~ CURRENT ~ DURING THE COVID19 ~
Bucharest Zone Conference ~ a "Zoom" Zone Conference!
Because of the coronavirus this is how we had our "Zoom" 😂Conference this month! It isn't quite the same but just as great! We have a wonderful group of Missionary's and Bill and I have officially met and gotten to know each of these amazing companionship!
We began our meeting with the Elders and Sora's sharing pictures and telling us about the baptisms that took place last Saturday! It was so fun seeing all of the smiling faces at the baptisms. In the bottom left corner you can see Elders Reese and Parish; they baptized Chelmus in a little make shift font that is situated behind them (with Elder and Sora Vogelsberg, the Senior couple in Timisoara, West Zone). Elder Parish and Chelmus could barely fit in the font and because of the beautiful, but massive, amount of hair Chelmus had, Elder Parish immersed him all the way down to the very bottom of the font making sure every whit of him was covered! They said it was pretty funny and everyone got little (big) splashes from the wave of water! Baptisms are the best!
There is so much reverence yet much excitement at the Baptisms. It is such a celebration for people to feel the love of the Savior and following His perfect example! There is such a feeling of joy throughout the whole process as the Elder's and Sora's express their happiness and love for these amazing new friends.
We had so many great lessons as the Missionary's shared all their presentations with us ~ I can't express enough the maturity of these young men and women. Many of them have not even reached their 6 month mark of being out on their mission and yet they are the leaders here and mini-adults who are wise, spiritual and so mature! Even though they are young (anywhere from 18 to 21 years old), they have personally financed their mission for this experience because they know the importance of sharing the Gospel with everyone.
All of the Missionary's in Mexico were sent home to their native countries because of the Pandemic ~ our grandson, Kobe, was one of these great warriors! After arriving home all of these Missionaries had to decide if they wanted to wait the pandemic out and then when areas finally opened up they would be sent to a new location in the States or they could defer their mission for a year and then go back out to Mexico. Kobe decided to defer his mission, go to BYU for a year and then back to his mission in Mexico. Our Missionaries here are a constant reminder of our Amazing Kobes and all the good work he did in Mexico! He had many experiences (getting mugged, appendix removal, etc.) and many baptisms in the short 6 months he was out and we look forward to many more (great) experiences when he goes out and serves full time again!
Because of the coronavirus and now using technology everyday they are reaching far and wide finding those that are searching for the truth. Where technology is concerned Billy was way ahead of the game as he was inspired to start his Romanian Website, Youtube and Facebook page way back in Utah before the word CoronaVirus was ever heard of. He is a genius for listening to and following the Holy Ghost and the promptings 💙😇💙. I do love that guy and I am continually amazed at his creativity! You probably don't know this but Billy has come up with so many brilliant ideas and creations but didn't pursue them; a year or two later they would all be on the market selling like hotcakes ~ we are fine with this as who knows what we would be like if we were billionaires 😉!
Great questions to find out where people are on their spiritual journey!
The Elders and Sora's invited members of our Branch to come to our meeting and act like people who are investigating the Church. We broke out in 4 different sessions for about 20 minutes then as a group we listened as the "investigators" shared comments about how the missionary's taught them and any areas of improvement. They all had great ideas and it was fun getting insight into Romania culture that will help with missionary work. We are grateful for these sweet friends and their willingness to help us become better teachers!
More instructions from everyone! It was a full day but very informative and fun.
Our beautiful closing song was sung by the very talented: Sora's Weaver, Bauco and Guest! It was wonderful and a perfect ending to a perfect day!
"Ours is this great and glorious task; let us work unceasingly, with hand, heart and mind; truly the object is worthy of our best endeavors"
(I don't know who I am quoting but I got the quote off of the Webster dictionary looking up the word endeavors 😄).
Hurrah for Isreal!
