We slept in (again) and had a scrumptious breakfast then started our journey down to Bacau. I wish I would have taken more pics here with these adorable Elders but since we had only ever met them through WhatsApp video I was more interested in visiting with them and forgot to take pics (makes you realize how interesting they are)!
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| Elder Gatherum is from Boise, ID and has been serving since December 2018. Elder Parker is from Nashville, TN and arrived the same time as us, January 2020😀! |
These are our 2 wonderful missionaries in Bacau: Elder Gatherum and Elder Parker! Their little Branch consists of about 10 people. It is so vital to have missionaries in these little towns because there are not enough members to run a Branch. That is one of our biggest concerns with the pandemic ~ even though we are getting new missionaries into Romania, by January we will have gone from 50 missionaries down to only 25! We are hoping and praying that our borders will open and we will continue getting new missionaries here in Romania 💙😇💙!
The next morning we woke up to a cascade of rain ~ this is Bill's very favorite kind of weather and mine, too (although, it is only my favorite when I am in Thailand or Cambodia where the rain is warm 😏)! We did the apartment inspection and this apartment (although always spotless) has always had a disaster of problems inside. Fortunately, the landlord has fixed 97% of the problems from the last inspection with only a few that still need fixing (see above)! The entrance leaves much to be desired as well 😉! The Elders never complain and love being here!
We went to a darling Italian Restaurant where we enjoyed lasagne, pizza and buscetta bread (my favorite). It began raining again (as in pouring down sheets of rapidly falling buckets of water) and so we stayed a bit longer and visited. It is so fun to get to know these missionaries as they have already had so many amazing and spiritual experiences in the short time that they have been out serving. It was getting a bit late and we still needed to travel to Brasov so we all ran to the car and took the Elders home. I'm just glad we got a picture of them (in the 'Walking' Book of Mormon) before it started raining!
We went to Brasov that evening but the rain, traffic and being pulled over by the police delayed our arrival (Bill passed a truck just as the dotted line turned solid - no ticket, just a warning but they did take Bill's Utah license??? We were told he could pick it up at the American Embassy in 4-6 weeks - kind of strange). We rescheduled lunch and inspections with the missionaries for tomorrow afternoon. 
We arrived just as they were finishing their District meeting! It is so nice being able to have District meetings face to face. Just being able to socialize, even if it's in a meeting, is so great especially after being confined to their apartment with no contact with others except through Zoom.
Brasov and Sinaia (a town and mountain resort close to Brasov) are my favorite towns in Romania. Brasov is so cute and has a big square plaza where different activities are held. It has quaint shops and food of every kind. It is charming and picturesque.
The Sora's apartment looked great with only a few concerns and the picture of the broken handle is from the Elder's apartment and they've glued it back together 😉! I must admit that there was probably a little more 'visiting' than 'inspecting' on our trip but we can honestly say the Missionaries all did a fantastic job with cleaning their apartments and having them orderly where the spirit can dwell 👼!
Leaving the beautiful town of Brasov! "If" we were ever transferred this is where we would love to go 💕😉💕!
Sora Smith is from Woodbury, Minnesota; serving since Nov 2019, Sora Pearse is from Melbourne, Australia; serving since May 2019, Elder Church is from Parowan, UT; serving since Nov 2018 and Elder Lee is from Ogden, UT; serving since Aug 2019!
We almost didn't get into this restaurant because of our large number; usually they never let more than 4 people sit at any table together during the pandemic and never inside (but I guess since it was raining and we bumped into the manager he made an exception for us)!
Here are a few cute pics of the Saturday Activity they held in Brasov with the RS and primary kids ~ so sweet 💙😇💙!
