Beautiful day in March

It is a beautiful day, March 2, people are starting to wear their martisors. Sorry we are still not skilled in navigation of this blog, but nonetheless. We travelled to Orhei to meet with a nice young lady, Maria, going to the temple for the first time. We travelled there to teach her and got to take a few pictures while waiting.By the way, a marvellous person with amazing strength. She has been a member only 1.5 months and faces immense challenges for a girl of 18; her mom has a bone cancer. Orhei is about an hours drive north of Chisinau, on probably the best road in Moldova, 4 lane highway. It is a city of 32,000, that prior to WW2 had 2/3 of its population being Jewish. WW2 and Hitler took care of that, only a tiny remnant remains. The city was also destroyed during the Russian offensive in 1944, so it has seen hardship. Pic #1 is of Vasile Lupu, a Voivode of Moldavia in the 1600s. He has numerous streets named after him thru out Moldova, including the largest in Orhei. The next 2 are of an Orthodox church downtown, quite a pretty building. I should mention here how devout some of the older women are; each time they pass a church, they stop, bow their heads and cross themselves. They truly show respect. Pic 4 is of our Church in Orhei, very humble, 1st floor only. Elders Evans and Brownell were there, they manage alone in a city with little direction; they were preparing for English classes that evening. # 5 is a very large shrine in Orhei, in a churchyard and #6 is of another quite beautiful church on the way out of town. Things to mention about this place, nice sidewalks which are unusual and horrible potholes everywhere on the streets. It has a nice feel to the town; we will go back and continue to meet Maria, the name she prefers is Mariana. We continue to be impressed by people here, how they cope in adversity. This city has seen  its share.