Elder Johnson

March 5. We have an almost empty house, after a full weekend and a full week. We had a treat this week as we had a visit from Elder Paul Johnson of the Seventy, who is a counsellor in the European presidency. He came to Moldova and visited with us in a zone conference, in a leadership training, in a senior missionary presentation and then today in a district conference. He is a wonderful kind man who was truly interested in the Church in Moldova and more particularly in Moldova people. The fun part, I found we both served in the Norway mission as young men, he from 1973-75 and me from 1974-76. Our paths never crossed, he went home 7 months after I arrived, and he was east and I was west. We knew similar people, and were both wise enough to not snakke Norsk. It was very enjoyable. We have had a lot of General Authority visits here, what a blessing. We were disappointed this week as we were not allowed by the Orthodox Church to help with the homeless at a soup kitchen. It was not just being Mormon, they do not cooperate with any other church here. A shame, the help was needed and we were a bit angry at first. I had especially looked forward to helping medically, so I did apologize to those people and explained why we could not come. This country needs all to cooperate. We were able to help the Dutch NGO with food hampers again, one man had had only potatoes for 2 weeks. We have also been able to volunteer at a school with some class help. It is Martisor time here, the beginning of spring. This wednesday is Woman's Day, and also Mette's birthday, Little did she know she was a national holiday. We also took our YSA bowling again, we had 49 bowlers and had to do 2 shifts as 2 lanes were out of commission. The pics are very random again.

Typical old Russian bloc where we deliver

A warm welcome to the bloc, this is typical

This older lady is on our street rain or shine selling a few items. She has some cloudy liquid in bottles and we are afraid to find out what was in them

Hundreds of Martisors for sale

Larger Martisors, all handmade

Saw this car, looked like a license plate for me, yes?

A beautiful shrine on the way to Balti, Just down the road is a dynamite placinte place. We bought 4 hot apple placintes for 16 lei, or 80 cents.

A few bowling pictures, Chiril Busila in the foreground

Here is us and Elder Johnson, what a very nice man and leader he is.

So we are hoping for a bit quieter week, we have more apartments to check and much to do. It will be nice to continue to try to help in this country.