On to the news. Good news for the family, Brendan has arrived in New Mexico after many delays, rerouting and much more time than expected. We have heard he is safe and there and we feel blessed that he was able to travel safely. It is a shame he gets to enjoy nice weather before us, but soon here, flowers are starting to push thru the ground. So on Saturday and Sunday we had the afore stated District conference, which was for all Moldova. The previous high was 110 attendance, on Sunday there was 144 and the building was packed. 25 of those there were not members, we also had an Area authority Seventy, Elder Dryden from Leeds, England. He had a translator from the Ukraine who was unbelievable. So in our meeting we had Russian as the predominate language, but also Romanian and English. It was all wonderful, and we met many we have travelled around to see and visit. Truly a wonderful day. The only issue- in a self reliance meeting after the main session, I was introduced as one of the brightest minds in Canada- I did loudly say nyet. I think when they said brightest, they were talking of the reflection off my head- not too many baldies over here. Anyway, progress is being made and it is nice to be a part of it. We have been asked to formulate a plan for Senior couples to teach English and I have begun to get some lectures ready on medical topics- all at our mission presidents request. Things we never expected to do. One of his favorite sayings- there is no comfort in the growing zone and no growing in the comfort zone. Well, we are not comfortable.
Then Monday we were involved- spectators only -in a conference sponsored by the University of Utah Business school. They sent 3 people over for a conference for business people here. A survey had been done and they are trying to foster good business practice and enable people here to begin businesses and kick start this very poor economy. All the leaders from Utah were LDS, all are brilliant and well spoken. As an aside, the main TV stations gave this a few minutes of news, Deb and I were on TV here in Moldova, just our pretty faces. They told these business and government leaders that several things were needed here, open banking with transparent financial statements in English, a marked decrease in the corruption and depotism, a dramatic increase in infrastructure spending and a stable government. They were open, frank and still managed to show optimism for change. It was a breath of fresh air and they promised to help this nation. It is all good and this country needs some help. We have now been here almost 2 months, and are feeling good and busy. There is more to do. Tomorrow we will help with a humanitarian project supplying wheelchairs- should be interesting. Today I am finishing up a talk for Sunday, I am to speak in Romanian. Wow, does that take some work. The lady who is helping me with Romanian, Inesa Bezede, is reviewing my talk, correcting my grammar and syntax and listening as I speak. She is a gem. She and her husband Cris, go to Kiev in 2 days to do some temple work, it is marvelous to see.
I recently came across your blog, and it has almost brought me to tears. You may or may not have heard the stories, but Moldova was closed to missionary work in 2004 for political issues. I was one of the 12 missionaries asked to leave Moldova. Since I was Russian speaking, they had little use for me in Romania, so I was asked to finish my final 3 months in Sacramento, California. It has always been so hard for me being so abruptly removed from Moldova and never having the chance to give a proper goodbye.
ReplyDeleteI spent most of my time serving in Balti. There was even a short time when I served as the "branch president" before we were even large enough to be made into a branch. I remember arriving to church with just 1 active sister (Sister Gavrik) in attendance. There were 5 other less active members. Our mission president warned us that if we didn't start baptizing, he would have to close the area. Luckily, we started finding investigators a couple months later, and within 6 months, we had 6 new members. I think of them so much!
I have been able to keep in touch with many of the youth from the Chisinau branch (not quite youth anymore), but it has been really hard to keep up with the Balti branch since they were older and not as present on social media.
Thank you so much for your blog and for sharing your experiences. I have loved being reminded of the countryside and recognizing some of the buildings you have posted in your photos. I will certainly be following your experiences so I can continue to bring back those fond memories that I had traveling the countrysides looking for people that wanted to hear about Christ.