Constanta Branch

Yesterday we went on our first outing alone. We took a taxi to one of the malls they have here in Bucharest. It was much larger than our malls in Utah and had tons of stores. We ate lunch at a Kentucky Fried Chicken and it was really good, although a bit spicier than back home. We also saw McDonalds and Pizza Hut. The pizza is good but the crust is very thin. We found another store called "Brico" that was similar to Home Depot. The materials they stocked were a little different but the freshly cut wood smelled so good.

This morning (Sunday) we left at 6:00am with the Critchlows (who are here with the U.S. Embassy) to go the Constanta Branch Conference. It was about a 3 hour ride each way. We enjoyed meeting our new branch. The branch president served a mission in England and speaks excellent English. It was so fun to meet them and we look forward to spending the next 1 1/2 years with them. We had 50 people in attendance which is great.




This is the building that has been rented to be used as the church. The 1st and 2nd floors are used by the branch for meetings and we will be living on the 3rd floor. The Elders have been living here for several years. We will be one of the first couples to serve in Constanta. The Critchlows drove us to Constanta in their pick-up truck, so we were able to get all of our large suitcases up there and put them in the apartment. We drove back to Bucharest after the meeting since we have to apply for visas Tuesday and Wednesday. We will take a maxi-taxi back to Constanta Wednesday evening. Our apartment is going to take a lot of work to clean up and make it work.

This week is transfer week - so the President has to interview all of the missionaries going home and we will also be receiving a new group of missionaries from the MTC. It will be very busy for the next 3 days.