General Conference

General Conference is a major event in Romania. Everyone has to come to the church to watch it and with the time differences, it makes for a long day. On Saturday, the members arrived at the church at 5pm to watch the Women's Conference and then at 7pm we watched the Saturday morning session of conference. On Sunday, the members arrived at noon and watched conference sessions until 9pm that night. We had a small break in the middle for sandwiches. Transportation is so difficult for our branch. Most have to ride a bus to the church and stay until it leaves at night. The members are so grateful that the sessions are translated so quickly so they can enjoy it right away. It was a wonderful conference.

Our Feldioara group had 4 baptisms this month. Sora Ralls and Berrara have been working so hard teaching these investigators. They are fabulous missionaries. Feldioara is growing so fast. Unfortunately, we were in Moldova during the baptismal service and were not able to attend.

The branch members came to the baptism to support the new members. Many of the members participate with the missionaries in teaching the lessons. The members make such a difference in missionary work.

We were invited to Sibiu for their branch activity. On the way, we noticed the fields of yellow blossoms. We found out that they are fields of canola plants. They harvest the seeds to make canola cooking oil.

The branch activity was to clean the church and then have a barbecue. This little girl's name is Diana and she is 4 yrs old. She thought it was great that we had the same name. She helped wash all the toys in the nursery.

 Many of the members came and they worked very hard. They washed windows, floors, walls and the church looked great when they were finished. They had fun working together.

It rained all day so they had to grill the meat in the garage with the door open. The whole church filled with smoke. So much for the clean building.

While waiting for the meat to cook, they all pulled out their scriptures and took turns reading from Isaiah in the Book of Mormon. They had a great discussion and seemed to understand it. It was way above our heads but they all seemed to enjoy it. They love the scriptures.

Finally, dinner was served and it was delicious. There was a potato-vegetable salad with grilled pork and mici (a type of sausage very popular here).

The Romanians love the storks but occasionally, the storks cause problems by building their nests on top of their chimneys. We thought about Pres. Kimball's story years ago in England about "Storks in the Chimney".

We have been so blessed to have our grandchildren writing us letters while we have been on our mission. We love their pictures and stories. It has helped us feel closer to them. We miss them so much.