?Hunting season

Nov 6 2016. It is fall, cool weather, leaves are falling and almost all on the ground and a young mans heart turns to deer hunting. Well, I am not a young man, but my heart did turn a little to deer hunting this week. I did not dwell on it excessively, but it was there. When one has a yearly tradition, it hurts a little to not be involved. I guess we are hunting like Jeremiah, in a much more useful eternal way. But some of us are still natural men and getting over our worldliness. Ahh. We are developing a tradition, that when ever we drive to Bălți, we drive in driving rain, there and back. We are trying to overcome this weakness, but it is still there. We pick our roads carefully. This week I gave a cortisone shot to a lady there, a poor member previously mentioned, then gave her a blanket Deb had made. It was truly touching, as she rubbed it against here face again and again, thanking us profusely in Russian, then giving a kiss I was to give to Deb. We also got a huge bag of unshelled walnuts out of the visit. Such sincere people. We made apple crisp for the members there this week, they are available at about 35 cents a kilo. And amazing taste. What are we to do but bake? For the young adults, we made apple bread, pear bread, apple cookies, they must have been good, we did get a small taste. I had a chance this week to go with 2 missionaries and meet with a group of 24 Orthodox priests and theology students, and talk about our church for about 2 hours. The elders gave 2-3 discussions, we answered questions, and gave out books. It was all quite civil, one was a little aggressive, but his colleagues kept him in check. After , they wanted pictures with us, an American, a Romanian- Elder Tita, and a Canuck. Not just an American sect. We did egg dropping at FHE, and also a bunch of games. Deb keeps the activities coming and the young adults keep coming. We had about 40 this week. We though we had tons of cookies, close to 150 between the 2 senior couples,-what a joke. There is never any left.  We still are not sure why everyone here is so thin, though we are doing our best to remedy the situation. One of our highlights this week, Adriana Josan is back in Moldova. she was in Germany trying to make some money. She is very dear to us and was over to supper yesterday with her younger brother, Chiril. An amazing lady raising a younger brother. Okay, a few random pics again.

We have been trying to decide what kind of Car Brendan needs in a year or so. There are just so many nice Ladas, that we are starting to think of shipping one home. This one is better than most, no tape or string.

People preparing their eggs for the drop- from the 3rd storey, Elder Hubbard in the foreground

Elder Sanchez busy

From right, Vitally, Elder Rybiskyy and Chiril at the end.

These were all trying to chew gum to blow the biggest bubble. None had done it except Elder Griffith, shown later. From L, Deb, Elder Vashchenko, Mihai, elder Griffith, Elder Rybiskyy, Nicolae, Tolio, Taylor Shipen, and Chiril Josan, who almost choked on his gum.

This was bouncing a balloon off your head the longest. Sora Lee in the foreground

Same, with Elder Savage on the L

A video of the drop

Elder Griffith won, see Chirils amazed look

More preparation.
A fun night , people here will try anything and really get into activity. Funniest activity, the hula hoop. So we continue on, learning more about ourselves and this country. We have the run off election in a week that will probably determine this countrys direction in the next few years.