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 💙😇💙!