Visiting Our Dear Friend Gabi ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

Friday 3/19/21

Each of the surrounding cities of Bucharest are so unique and special in their own way.  Urziceni is no different.  It is about an hour from Bucharest and reminds me of any little town that you go through the further you get away from the big cities.  The difference here in Romania is the gorgeous buildings and phenomenal architecture in every single city.  I can only imagine what it was like when all of the buildings were first erected and how magnificent they must have looked.  The picture in the lower right hand corner is the restaurant that we were going to go to but it was closed so we went back to the nice one that we had been to the last time we were here!

This is our beautiful Gabi on her Baptism Day! Gabi's Dad is a member and had asked the missionaries to get in contact with her. She was "Golden"! She reminds me so much of how I felt the spirit so strongly upon walking into the seminary building with Kenna and she was the same way.  She began being taught and she just knew everything she was being taught was correct and rang true. Since she lives so far away and it takes her close to 2 hours to get to church her Dad is a bit worried for her to travel to Bucharest.  He is out of the country working and there is no one to help her get to church.  The next time he is in town we'll try to talk to him and maybe work out an arrangement that, if it's ok, for her to take the bus to Bucharest and then we can pick her up at the train station so she won't have to take a bus, tram then the metro to the church.  We saw her grandfather so maybe he would like to come with her 😉!

Here is our cute group: Gabi, Sora Northrup, Bill, me, Sora Wenstrom and Sora Sabir.  Last time we came for a visit we celebrated Gabi's birthday. Each of the restaurants are very fancy and it feels like we are 'fine dining' even if it's just lunch! The best is the price; all six of us can eat these delicious foods for the same amount it would cost, in the States, to feed just Bill and me.  This will definately be a rude awakening when we return home to America 😕.

Each of us had our own idea of what we would like so it is so wonderful that the menu had such a variety of food! Three of the girls ordered Pizza, one ordered spaghetti, I ordered grilled vegetables and Billy had chicken strips with rice/mushrooms ~ truly delicious 💗😋💗!

Of course, dinner, lunch or breakfast wouldn't be complete without ending with the delicious and very famous dessert in Romania ~ PAPANAS! It's like a soft scrumptious donut deep fried with a hard outside crunch and cream and berries gushing out and over the top with a baby round donut on top.  Every restaurant has their own unique style in making them and we have had some that were not as good as others but for the most part all of the Papanas's are unbelievably succulent!

Bill and I get to have a lot more 'group' date nights (many more than when we are at home) which I love! It's fun to be around all the missionaries and our new members (old members and friends) because Billy's funny side comes out as he teases them all. Never a dull moment!

We had a wonderful time and even though Gabi won't be able to come to church quite as much she has a beautiful testimony and will remain strong through her scriptures studies, prayer and constant contact with all of her new friends (especially since we have so many online activities)!

Sora Northrup has been staying with us for a tiny bit but is now back out doing missionary work with Sora Sabir and Wenstrom! She is feeling 100% better and is back into full swing but I will miss her being my full time companion and hanging with her! Fortunately, she is in our Branch and the Sisters just traded apartments with the Elders (as the Elders had a lot bigger apartment) so they are just around the corner from us! La Revedere 💙😇💙!

Skin Cancer (again) ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

Thursday, 1/28/21

 ~Billy's 2nd Round of Skin Cancer ~

Billy had some spots on his head that we have gotten burned off a number of times in the past.  They just seem to grow back rapidly and the last time we had them checked there seemed to be a lot more concern. We scheduled an appointment and the doctor seemed like they all needed to be removed (three were cancerous and the 4th was a cist on the crown of his head). We scheduled surgery.  This picture is the Monday before surgery where he had to get a ton of blood work done, an EKG, a Covid test and a number of other tests.  Unfortunately, it is never a one shot deal here in Romania - we had to make 4 different appointments for each thing so it was quite the long process!  Warning: GRAPHIC PICTURES AHEAD 😜!

 
They told Billy that he would need to shave his head ~ completely 😮👴😦!  So he went to the local barber and off went his locks of hair! He still looks as handsome as ever but I must say it was a bit of a SHOCKER!

We woke up to a beautiful snowy day with a bit of an overcast ~ since this is Bill's favorite kind of day we knew all would be well!

Still my Cutie Patootie with just a new "short" look for him! They took him away from me and he waited about an hour before they took him from his cubicle for surgery.  In the States we would usually get to be together during that time (at least before covid) so I didn't like not being with him to comfort him before he went in.  I think he was more than ok, but that is just the way it has been so it was just not as comforting for me. 

Surgery took 2 and a half hours then they kept him in the recovery room for another 2 hours.  During his surgery he woke-up TWICE ~ yeah, hard to believe. It doesn't give me much faith in the whole hospital system here in Romania. They look and seem competent but . . . ???  

He was told to keep his bandages on for a full week until our next check up but the big one kept coming off.  It looked pretty gruesome and seemed like they might have used a butcher's knife.  I guess we should be glad that they went deep enough and wide enough to get any and all of the cancer but boy the incision does not look pretty.

We came back for his follow-up and waited for quite awhile. There was some kind of emergency in the dermatology offices that took a bunch of the nurses and a couple doctors to set things right. After a while the patient came out not looking so good but then we were called in. 

They took off all the bandages and cleaned up the area (which hurt quite a bit as they scrubbed on his head and it was still tender from surgery). 

Well, we didn't have any kind of an emergency but it still took 3 nurses to get Bill's head wrap back on his head 😂💙😂💙😂! It was hilarious! The doctor said all went well and he took out the stitches and then the nurse(s) proceeded to bandage his head and do the wrap!

After we were home for a couple days the strangest thing took place. As Bill was looking and then feeling his scars there were a few weird little bumps.  I got out all of my surgical/medical tools and investigated. There were these white dots sticking out of his scar site. I looked closer and sure enough there were about 4 stitches that the doctor missed.  The craziest was after I removed them we looked and they were pieces of string; as in string from a ball of rope string ~ CRAZY 😧! His skin was starting to grow over them (which was causing the bumps) but I was able to get them all out.

Two months later and he is doing great and his hair is slowly growing back. He is going to try to wear his hat a lot more as we know he is prone to skin cancer.  His dad had a hole the size of a silver dollar in his head after he had skin cancer removed on his head so we are hoping we can catch anymore sooner than later! 

A little side note ~ after his EKG results came back they wanted him to go in and have further testing.  He had a sonogram and found some blockage but they need to do an angiogram and possibly put in a stent.  I would much rather come back to the States to have all this done but Bill seems ok with doing it here.  So, if you could offer up some mighty prayers on his behalf I would so appreciate it!  We'll make sure and get him a priesthood blessing before he goes in on the 30th.  I just hope he doesn't wake up during this procedure 😳😳😏. 

Olfa, Nabil and Andreea Haji ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

💖Olfa 💖Andreea 💖Nabil 💖

   

 

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