The Journeys of the Edwards Serving in Moldova: July 2017

Thursday, 13 July 2017

People we love and going home-2

July 13 2017 So we arose very early to leave Moldova, arriving at the airport at 520 am, for a 7 am flight. Early, we thought. But our flight is not posted,so we ask, where do we check in? Answer, your flight to Bucuresti is cancelled. Oh, no. But the fine lady said, we can get you on the 540 Tarom flight, but we will have to hurry. And hurry we did. She checked us on, we had to check bags, then pay for bags, ( we had to pay 300 euros, just the amount we happened to have on hand), then run thru security, then run to catch a transport bus. We had Nina there to say good bye ( she is incredible) so we hugged as we ran. We got on the plane at 545, and then off we flew. The rest of the day was fine, with no glitches and minimal waiting. We arrived in Calgary and met with family at 330, most of whom were waiting for us at the airport. After Chinese food, a drive to Medicine Hat of 3 hours, a release by our stake president , Pres. Salmon, we were home at 1045pm having been up about 28 hours. We were tired, but being home seemed very surreal to us. We loved being with family, but missed our famiy in Moldova.
What did we learn? Serving the Lord on a mission is very tough, but the rewards were incredible. We both loved working, serving and being with young people. We, to our surprise, were told we were fun, that we were real, that we were not afraid to roll up our sleeves and work. We like this. We were compared to a mother hen, gathering her chicks under her wings and protecting them. We also like this. We know we have to go back to Moldova one day, hopefully sooner than later. As one remembers all the time, the memories are mostly of the good things. We love this country, with all its glitches and corruption. We love this people, with their intense emotions. We love our friends, who are our family. May this country prosper one day. There is a way, but it is not the way of man, it is the way of God.
So again I finish this post with mostly people, because in the end, a mission is about people.

Cris and Inesa Bezede, with Almira, this family is very dear to us.

Could not remember if I had a picture of how to carry flowers, upside down if a giver, right side up if a recipient. A little hard to keep the water in

Familia Covali

Marina Vinoradova, whose nickname should be Bubbles

Elders Purcell and Forsyth

Corina Diacenco and Alexandru Tita

Sayng good bye to Mihai

Keri Ralls and her sister Cinnamon

Now a few of our favorite sisters- first Sister Brianna Dusenberry

Siste Victoria Langenstein- my favorite Texan-ever

Sister Emma Idiart- far and away Debs favorite sister ever

Iulia Iuhimciuc- mission papers are in!

Sister Jordan Nemelka

One last photobomb- yes she is still our daughter, can you not tell by the tongue roll? PS, she is my favorite Moldovan , but there are many close behind. How does an old man and a young woman become good friends ? Thru the Church.

Leaving home, our time is done.

When we arrived home , the Moldovan flag was flying in our yard.
So this will be it with pictures from Moldova. I have enjoyed sharing them, and puttingthem down for our use. I will make no commercial use of these pictures and ramblings. Know that I love this country and especially I love this people. Our marriage turned 40 on this mission and survived. We have things to do and thnk of now. Thanks for being a part of this. There may yet be a future post, time will tell. Lynn R Edwards

People we love and going home-1

July 13 2017- I write this blog about 24 hours after arriving home in Canada. We left Moldova with heavy hearts early on July 12, leaving many people that we love. We had a lunch after church on July 9, having both branches meet with us and Sister Godfrey made a lunch for everyone, I made a few cookies. It was truly enjoyable to us to meet with and love everyone. Frankly, we were surprised how much some people will miss us. We knew we had made attachments, but they ended up much stronger than we ever thought. We found especially it was hard to say goodbye to the young people, and we had a lot of hugging going on. We had a few dinners the last few days as well, meeting those we truly love. We had a dinner with the Bezedes, who we love dearly and Inesa taught me much of the Romanian I did learn. We met with the Stepanencos, who we dearly love and are good friends with. We had an Institute get together, and Nina made a short video of many people saying goodbye to us. It was heart wrenching, and we had a lot of tears. What did we learn? We learned that when you serve, you develop a lasting love for those whom you serve. It takes effort and time, but the rewards are so great for all involved . We love these people, and so these last two posts will be of some more of those we love immensely. Some of the expressions of love surprised us, but we rejoiced in it all. So there are a lot of pictures of people, for the memories for us to have. I will say a little more on my last post. But this is about people, which should be the case for all of us. For we learned in Moldova that God loves all of His children, everywhere. He does expect us to do something about this as well, to let them know of His love. As we do this, we get a small taste of that eternal love. We did have a final interview with President and Sister Hettinger, our new mission president. That seemed to be the theme for us, that and work. Those things we can do. So thanks for the memories, Moldova.

Deb and Mariana in their primary class

Eric , a very nice young man we got to know well, he is now 15.

Evgenie Canskii, a fine young man, who is fluent in 4 languages and just began a journalism job

Elder Olmstead and Morgan. We knew Elder Morgan most of our mission, we just love him and his off the wall sense of humor.

Who else, Mariana and Nina, our daughters.

Add Mihai in the mix

2 views of our farewell lunch. This lunch , like so many, was mostly observed by us. I had many getting a final medical opinion from me that afternoon.

The Ceban family

From left, Vitalie ARgint and Chiril Busila

Kira, a wonderful young girl who we got to know well in our last month

Stricklan family plus Elder Forsyth

Elders Rybyskyy and Vashchenko, both from the Ukraine

Victor Piuligen

Tatiana

From L, Elders Savage, Huntsman and Winder
Oh, there are so many we love in Moldova!

Sunday, 9 July 2017

Getting ready for home

July 9 2017 This is the second post of today, I have been trying to accumulate all the pictures of the last few days. This is truly hard, saying goodbye to dear friends and people who are like family to us. so if you hate pictures, look no further, but these are those we love. There are also a few Moldova pics, because this country is seriously beautiful. If Moldova can overcome the Russian influence, especially from within, and get a chance to prosper, it would be a great tourist place In maybe my final soapbox, I read an article this week, where President Dodon, said the Orthodox church is Moldova, and changes to freedom of religion were needed to protect the Orthodoxy. Dangerous words to those who love freedom and dangerously close to that of his crony ,Putin, who is no friend of freedom. I smell Russian influence, and it is not good for Moldova, especially for religious freedom. I hope and pray Moldovans can see the inherent evil in this leadership and not elect a government with a power-hungry, corrupt leader. There, that is a Canadian viewpoint. Enough of that.

I showed one of these before, but it is a rototiller used as transportation

2 different forms of transportation

A last view of our church and our beloved Opel

Deb and the sisters made these blankets and donated them to a lady for charity

Ecaterina Gasnaș and her daughter Ana, Catia is the business person for the Church here. We became very good friends and had a mutual respect for each other.