Constanta/Galati Water 💦Filters/part I ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

January 2021

We had the wonderful adventure of delivering water 💦filters to the missionaries all over Romania 🇷🇴! It took us a little over a week with approximately 32 hours of driving. It was so incredible seeing glimpses of the whole country and it was fun and a great getaway during the beautiful month of January!

The highlight, of course, was meeting all the new missionaries that have come in over the last few months and visiting with our sweet old ones!

We started the week off by giving talks in Sacrament Meeting; our topic was on the sacredness of the Sacrament. Billy did a great job.  We were asked the day before (which we need to try to help the Branch President schedule the talks a little earlier than the night before 😂😂😉), so it didn't give us a lot of preparation time but I believe both talks turned out well.  The best was that after we were finished it was weird cuz usually we have a whole week to pray, study, pray, ponder, pray, be nervous, pray, study, start over, etc.; but this time it was like we just stopped everything else for the evening (did the above routine) and wrote our talks in a more condensed amount of time! I'm not sure which way I like better? There didn't seem to be a relief moment of, "Oh phew; that's over" after our talks were over, but there also wasn't a whole week of worrying about it either!

"On the night before His Crucifixion, Jesus Christ met with His Apostles and instituted the sacrament. After His Resurrection, He instituted the sacrament among the Nephites. Today the sacrament is an ordinance in which Church members partake of bread and water, symbolizing Jesus Christ’s body and blood, in remembrance of His atoning sacrifice. Through this ordinance, Church members also renew the covenants they made with God when they were baptized." https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/sacrament?lang=eng

Elders Lamb/Horsley came down from Oradea to get some Visa work done so I picked them up at the train station and took them to the church with me! I needed to pick up all the supplies for our big Water💦Filter trip and Elders Perrigo and Horsley loaded them all into my car! Elder Firth was making sure Elder Lamb had all the necessary paperwork done. 

I just had to insert these traffic pictures! There will sometimes be 8 cars turning ~ 4 going south and 4 going north - it is hilarious.  You just scooch right in from whatever lane you started in (out of the 4) and get in the row of cars going south as the other cars trying to turn the opposite of you, going north, wedge in between the cars facing south! It is funny ~ this intersection reminds me a bit of Cambodia; only on scooters not in cars!

This was our driving schedule; we played most of the visits by ear as we never knew the exact time that we would meet with everyone and we had to also adjust to some of their lessons and/or meetings. We took the missionaries out to lunch or dinner; depending on the time we arrived in each city (those that we visited on Sunday just got a 'goodie' bag since we couldn't take them out to eat 😇)! It's crazy to think about, but almost all of the missionaries that were here when we first arrived have all served and have gone back home and then when Covid hit we didn't get any new missionaries for months.   

 ~ CONSTANTA ~

Our first stop was CONSTANTA (southeastern part of Romania): this is a seaside city that is on the shores of the Black Sea; the country’s largest sea port (3rd largest in Europe).

Elders Miller/McAllister are serving here and loving it! We took Soras Wilcock/Sabir with us as we have a friend in Constanta that we wanted them to meet and get to know. Unfortunately, the girl's mother had to go to the hospital for a test so we were unable to meet together on this trip. The Elders here in Constanta have the biggest and nicest apartment (we might just have to do an apartment exchange come this summer 😂😂😉)!

Constanta is located about 99 miles north of Bulgaria. It is an ancient metropolis with many tourist attractions and resorts. Constanta was founded as a colony almost 2600 years ago; it is Romania's oldest continuously inhabited city. 

Our next stop was to GALATI (another port town). Elders Parker and Barry are serving here; the church is small here and Elder Parker is the Branch President. The Elders apartment overlooks the Danube River and they can see the island on the other side. The city is the 8th largest in Romania.  There are many historical buildings and churches all over the city.

Galați is located in eastern Romania and is the capital city of Galați County (in the historical region of Western Moldavia).  It's a port town on the Danube River and has been the only port for the most part of Moldavia's existence.  Although the first official historical attestation dates from 1445, Galați developed most certainly long before, starting as a fishing village on the Danube and, in 1913, becoming the third city in the country according to population numbers, after Bucharest and Iași. Jews first settled there at the end of 16th but there are only about 250 Jews still living there. 

Galați had an extraordinary development even if, before 1821, it was burnt to the ground, 3 times, by the Russians, the Otomans and the Greeks. In fact, the development of Galați began after 1830 and, during the Porto-Franco period (1837 - 1883), it became famous, being better known outside the country than within its frontiers, so that important figures of that period, like Alexandru Ioan Cuza and Costache Negri, who were preparing the union of the Romanian principalities, seriously considered Galați for the new capital of the Romanian Principality because of its well-developed commerce and economy. http://www.en.ugal.ro/cercetare/galati/about-galati