Spring and such

April 8. It is a beautiful spring morning and we are just about to set out for București, at least a 7 hour drive in our Opel. There is a missionary prep course that we will take part in , also one of our young sisters is involved. We have been very busy this week trying to develop some English courses for our young missionaries to help them as they teach English, and maybe to help us if we start teaching as well. We have also done some work with the Billiongraves project, figuring out which devices work and which do not. The trees here are all blooming with lots of flowers, and leaves are starting to come. More importantly, people are beginning to smile which is a sure sign of spring. We learned this week that the poverty level is under $1 a day, wow. sometimes it is hard to smile. Last night the Pathways program finished their first semester and we taught an Institute class. As it was the inaugural class of this type in Moldova, President Ivory was here as well as the Mills, a couple from Utah who are in Germany archiving the history of the Church in Moldova. So our entire class was filmed for Church Archives. With the mission president and filming, talk about pressure in a lesson. It actually went very well, as usual with the wonderful participation we have. So as we are about to travel, just a couple of pictures today.

This is just outside our apartment, and it seemed so symbolic. It felt like it represented our Church here in Moldova, a beautiful blooming living organism in a often bleak landscape. It was an amazing sight. 

We ate after Pathways and Institute last night. From left to right, Eugene Culciu, Cris Bezede, Inesa Bezede, Sevghi Savran and Sora Edwards. Inesa is the lady who also tutors me in Romanian. Cris is already planning a fishing trip in 2017. Dont know how he found out I fish.

Other side of the table from the far end, Sergiu Covali, Mariana Covali, and Sister and Elder Cooley. President Covali is the 2nd councillor in the mission presidency. Their children-3- are almost as bright as our grandkids. Anyway, a very nice group of people. 2 were missing, Doina and Ruslan Stepanenco, who got called away for work.