A great week

May 14. Well we came home to a beautiful rainbow tonight, it was a good summation of our week, which was busy and eventful. When last we wrote, we were just waiting to skype Brendan, first talk with him in almost 5 months. It was very pleasant to see him and talk to him. The boy has certainly made us proud, working hard, growing up and doing the Lords work in New Mexico. My word, he even rides a bike, a thought that was anathema to him 6 months ago. So we were glad to see and talk to him. What did we do this week? We fed missionaries, helped with discussions, went to a village with elders to deliver a Book of Mormon, went to Bălți for a double baptism, and had a baptism here as well. It was just a spiritual feast, as well as some events too sacred to write of. Oh, and sister Edwards said she would rather dye than be old, so she has a new hair color this week, and looks great. So I will try to explain thru pictures again what happened. We have also had lots of thunderstorms as well, one night of very heavy rain. We also taught a couple of institute classes, the one in Orhei was in a flower shop again, we just love it there.

On Wednesday we had the chance to go to Miloștii Mici, a village south of Chișinău, with Elder Paterson and Allphin to deliver a Book of Mormon to a nice guy called Petru. As we got in his yard , he had a huge garden, well, chickens, dogs, rabbits and multiple trees. He was just going to have us sit down, but I said, actually in Romanian, Can I please see your garden? His face lit up, seeing a fellow gardener and we had a marvelous tour. Here grape vines are all over the entrance.

He had flowers, plum and apple trees, had over a hundred tomatoes (roșii), every type of vegetable you could think of and multiple grape vines and types. It was just so interesting to see and visit. 

We had some fruit compot, a drink from a bottle with fruit in the bottom of the bottle. We made sure it was not wine and then had some delicious juice. Petru was a real gentleman.  Once we were friends, he made sure it was me to explain the Book of Mormon to him. I did have to speak English, his request. He also invited us back, and we are sure to go. More on this later.

 A side note, we have begun to see these enormous snails all over. They are pretty, but exquisitely slimy.

This was from Bălți on Thursday. We went thru Orhei, and picked up Mariana, and went up to the baptisms. In the picture are from left, Elder Morgan, Olga, Roma, and Elder Kohler. It was a wonderful service, all in Russian of course. It was a spiritual feast for us. We had met Roma previously, but not Olga. They are both Young Adults and we will have much association with them. We love Bălți and the members there, the missionaries are superb. I just loved the background of this picture.

This may be the treat of my mission. I had the opportunity to baptize Adriana Josan, a fantastic young woman 19 years old. We helped a little in teaching and she asked me to do her baptism. So I was able to conduct the service and then do the baptism, all in Romanian this day . This is a lady who is raising her 8 year old brother,  gets some support from a sister in Germany, goes to school and works. Her father was killed 2 years ago. She has inner strength most of us only dream of. What a blessing to be involved with her, we were so blessed to meet and help with this day. 

Sister Nicol, Adriana, and Sister Brinkman. They were all great . Adrianas baptism was in place of our regular home evening of Friday night, so we had lots of visitors. Need I say that much food was consumed?

This may be one of my favorite pictures to date. Elder Allphin is teaching Petru from our Book of Mormon, Elder Paterson just had his tie bitten by a puppy. He was looking down for protection. Petru is a genuine farmer, has a little plot of land of 1.5 hectares that he makes a living from. What a nice guy he is.
So we have had a very good week, and feel good about all that has happened. There are still many challenges, but we feel good about what is happening here and are glad to be here helping. 

Easter for the Dead

May 8, 2016. Well, at home in Canada, it is Mother's day, but here in Moldova it is Easter for the Dead; Mothers Day and womens day are the same and occur on March 8. So us foreigners find this day rather odd, as people go to the cemeteries and take food, have a picnic near the gravesite, get some food blessed and then leave said food for the deceased. The cemeteries were packed; as we went to Church today, by what is called Circul, there were hundreds of people waiting for buses and many, many buses waiting to take them to the Lazar Cemetri, the one with about 250.000 graves on the NW part of the city. There is really nothing comparable  in North America that we do; many people just shudder at the thought of entering the grave site. They are very comfortable with the thought here. So an interesting day. We have skyped with about half the family, Maren in about an hour, and Brendan at 1 am our time. Now that will be a treat. 2 elders were here skyping and they enjoyed peace for about an hour. So what happened this week? We began Institute class in Bălți, it was a lot of fun and very successful. It takes us about 2 hours to drive there, we teach in English and the class responds in Russian, with one of the elders translating. It was very spiritual for us and we will be going every 2 weeks. We have also taught a few discussions this week with the sister missionaries- very nice and spiritual. FHE for the YSA this week was a photo scavenger hunt which we prepared with small pics of various places. They divided into groups of 6 , 4 groups and had a lot of fun. We spent one afternoon at our learning center, and learned Tuesday of the huge fire at home in Fort McMurray, wow, even here people are asking about it, truly world news. Very sad to see and watch news highlights of . We also had much business to attend to this week, lessons, English and learning Romanian, trying to assist in whatever way we could. We had tried to organize a trip to Kiev to the temple, we found out this week that it just would not work, too few were able to go, so that felt like a bit of a failure for a while. Amazing things on the streets, for 3-4 days it appeared like snow as one type of tree seed was everywhere. Today cotton from poplars was flying. We also had a meal with the Stepanencos, a wonderful spaghetti dish, Ruslan is some kind of cook. So an interesting week, with much more planned this week. Now not as many pictures, only a few.

This hot air balloon flew over our apartment this morning, only the second one we have seen here. A very pretty sight, advertising Moldovan grapes. The vines in the country are all growing like mad.

A famous Moldovan poet, Grigore Vieru, magnificent statue in the cemetery over his grave. This was one of the stops on our photo scavenger hunt. The young adults had to take selfies at every stop, 16 in all.

One of my favorite photos. Notice anything amiss? Watch that first step.

Okay this was our treat of the week. We were at the Church Saturday when this couple wandered up, asking when services were on Sunday, in perfect English. They are Serg and Audrey Luchianou, he was originally from Moldova, and moved to Canada about 15 years ago. She is a native Albertan. He joined the Church in Canada and they married. They live in Bonny Doon in Edmonton, and know Beth and Russell very well, in fact , have had dinner with them. What a small world. They had heard of a Canadian couple on Moldova, on a mission, who were somewhat afraid of the country- yes , that would be us. We had a very nice visit, fellow Canadians, far away from home. Wow, any more Canadians here and we may be translated. Sorry, non members, Mormon lingo. Serg was Russian speaking when here. 

Easter, Paște and such #2

May 1 continued. This will mainly be pictures, we as missionaries all went over to the Cooleys for lunch/dinner. There were 29 of us in a one bedroom apartment, we dont know where she got all the dishes and cutlery. The elders from Bălți and Orhei travelled down as well, so it was a loud get together. There were also 2 guys who are LDS there, one at the embassy, one at OSCE, a European organization to help Moldova. Kevin and Joshua, both ex RMs who spoke Russian. So it was a nice group. The city was quiet, nicest day we have ever driven, not one honking horn or crazed driver. We actually had food left over, the first for us as usually missionaries eat everything in sight. What do we do with leftovers? We have 2 guys that eat out of our trash, so we put food up for them to get that is not in the garbage. Hard to see, I tell you.

So the cathedral park had a few Easter decorations, just like us , with eggs and rabbits etc. Not sure what they had to do with Easter, but they were out. One tradition here is Easter bread and red dyed eggs.

Only rabbits we have seen here, except for  the ones in the meat department.

Another gaudy eggs, not in a spiritual sense.

A picture of the Moldovan parliament, with a few protestors out in front with their tents. They are always urging the people to wake up. Last Sunday was a protest, so the authorities shut down the buses and mini buses, so no one could get there. 

 A beautiful flag, being blown about by many political forces.

Dinner pictures. From the left, with full faces only described, Elder Jerome, our Canadian from Raymond, ( Hurray) then Elder Allphin, and Elder Savage from Bălți. Next elder from the side, Elder Kohler, has parents in Germany as a mission president.

Elder Boud, in front, new elder in Orhei, then Sister Nicol and Sister Brinkman, by the way, height difference in sisters of about a foot

From left, Sister Kitchen, Sister Draper, Elder Boud, and Elder Broberg from Orhei ( our favorite)

On right side, from right to left, Elder Sparhawk, Elder Lundquist, Elder Morgan from Bălți, and at the end, Elder Kramer , also from Bălți.

Left side of table, from left, Elder Findlay, Elder Bekker, and the 2 guys, Joshua and Kevin, visiting Americans

Far end from left, Elder Brown, Elder Paterson,  Elder Jerome and Elder Allphin

Big arch on the park, trying to get a good picture of the flag.
So we had a good group for dinner.There was not a lot of use contacting people today, with the holiday.  

Easter, Paște and food #1

May 1 2016  It is Easter Sunday here, a little late from the Easter we know and love, but still Easter and a celebration of the Savior and His resurrection. This is a big deal here. About half the city has left for villages to visit with family, and those who were left went to evening Easter services late into the night. Easter here is Paște, hence the title. We were meeting with Pres. Covali this week, discussing some of our responsibilities and he told us about half of the members would be gone today- he underestimated. Next Sunday is Easter for the dead- families go to the cemeteries, have a lunch or dinner. They also take food for the deceased family, get this blessed by their priest- for a price- and then leave food for the dead. Odd to us, a strong tradition to them. We will go to the cemetery the day after just to see. We have noticed that much preparation has taken place in the cemeteries to prepare the family plots for Easter for the dead. So church today was quiet, and the service was cut to Sacrament meeting only- after there were only about 10 members besides the missionaries. What else happened this week? We spent a lot of service labelling and loading/unloading supplies from the Dutch charity for the poor of Moldova. We finally finished on Friday, after 4 solid mornings of this work. It was good to do some physical work. We got 2 new green missionaries this week, Sister Nicol from Layton , Utah, to be with Sister Brinkman. But best of all, Elder Jerome, a fellow Canuck from Raymond, to train with Elder Brown. That was the best part, Elder Brown likes to tease Canada, now he gets to train a Canadian, or rather , we get to train him. It will be fun, trust me. So it was good. We also have been asked to register youth for 2 programs this summer in Hungary, FSY for 14-18, like our EFY, and a Young Single Adult conference the next week in August for 18-30 year olds. So we have begun, travelling to Bălți yesterday to start registering. A nice 2 hour drive- the country side is gorgeous now, all green with crops starting up. We will travel there every other week to teach, alternating with Orhei. We were there last Tuesday, teaching in a flower shop. Very nice. One sister could not get off work, so we went to her. We really get to meet some of the nicest people you could ever meet here, such a pleasure for us. We had a baptism on Saturday, Artiome, a nice Russian speaking  young man- there will be pics. He is just a gem, so pleasant. I was able to speak at the service, in English, the Russian is rather weak or non existent. All week it felt like we were running. Good example- Friday, we left the apartment at 8 am, getting home after 9 pm. Lots to do. I do miss dirt, but will find someones garden when we have some time. I will split this week as there are a few pictures, I am afraid.

This is Artiome, a fine young man. He has become good friends with Nina, who loves everyone, but especially herself in a picture.

Sevghi, on the left, is just waiting on a mission call. She speaks English, Romanian, Russian and Spanish. Wow. On the right is Marina, getting baptized in a month.

The young lady with the glasses is Valeria, just recently baptized, as well as a few others. What did I say about Nina?

On the way to Bălți, we saw several guys cutting hay with a scythe, and then loading it onto wagons. We could not tell if this guy was waving or blocking his face. Nice wagon, but a slow way to do hay.

We think our good friend, Lee McClung, needs a scythe or 2 as he does lawn work, the horse would be a nice touch too.

We dont know the type of bush, but they looked like pink feathers from the road.

The flowers are actually very delicate and white. This will be interesting to follow. Some people were stopping and getting big bunches of these. By the way, bees like them too.

This large tree is everywhere, along roads, in parks , and is beautiful. As you can see, large white flowers everywhere, with large attractive leaves. I had not seen a tree like this before, or at least had not recognized it , do not know the type.

More of the same.

Statue of Stefan cel Mare și Sfănt. He is by far, the most famous Moldovan , with every town having streets, statues, etc. Nice touch, the crow,eh? You will see another crow in 2 pics.

He won 56 of 58 battles in the late 1400s, and saved these countries from the Ottoman empire.

The aforementioned crow.

One more of those trees in Stefan cel Mare park.
I will continue next post. We had heard this place was beautiful in the spring, it all was true. Only problem we see, the grass is rarely mowed, and then with scythes, sickles and the occasional push mower. We have seen one ride on, a rather poor excuse of a mower. Lots of grass is over 30 cm tall.

Service and such

April 25 2016  We just got home at the end of a very busy day. We began with going to the J Cooleys apartment as they were leaving today. We carried baggage into our old blue Opel, and they managed to squeeze 6 suitcases into the back of it, almost had to leave Sister Cooley behind. We have accumulated a lot of stuff-junk and we will have to dejunk, one of Debs favorite tasks. Then we went to the Church, we had unloaded a semi of charity donations from an organization in Holland, we had to take them all out, label and sort. About 400 boxes, + pillows, blankets, etc. A very generous people there, it will all be going to villages in the next 2 days. There was a considerable ammount of medical supplies as well. I got to be the expert labeller there. We worked about 3 hours, then went to lunch, then Deb and I returned to the Church building to teach a couple of classes. I will explain a bit more on this donation later. Family home evening at the church on Friday was a big success, over 30 people. We like to think it was the Edwards charm, but had more to do with banana splits. Anyway, we had a lot of fun. We have had a lot of rain, and the grass is green, rarely is it cut. Oh my, could I use a lawnmower around here. I talked to a man in the cemetery Saturday who was clipping the grass on his wifes grave with scissors. He certainly took excellent care. We have a new elder, Elder Brodskyy, born in the Ukraine, moved to Italy at age 5, USA at age 13, and now here, fluent in 7 languages. He came in on Wednesday a day late. He came on Turkish airways, we were looking for a flight from București, that was late, so we missed each other in a very small airport for 2 hours. Poor guy. I consoled his sorrows with fresh banana chocolate chip muffins and all was quickly forgiven. Quite an elder.

Our Friday night group, a few missionaries mixed in, but a very lively group.

We played a get to know you game. People sat across from one another, had 1.5 minutes to know names and ask 3 questions about the person. We then had a competition to see which team could remember best, with a prize.

Some knew each other, most did not, so it was  a good time, Elder Brodskyy is 2nd from the right. 

Something new, trying a short video. 

We had 3 teams, Elder Bekker in the middle was awe struck by the beauty of Sister Edwards. He has moved to Bălți this week, we will really miss him.

Okay, this is the group that helped us unload the trailer. It was parked south of the city as it was too big to come in. We unloaded 5  small truck loads of boxes and took them to the Church. From left, Elder Brown, Sparhawk, Bekker, Lundquist , with elder Paterson in the front.

Lots of medical equipment as well, you can see some older lifts here

Okay, now for the interesting part. We are unloading this trailer, near dusk, when a police car comes roaring up, lights flashing, sirens going. The police get out, and one is holding a machine gun, with his finger on the trigger. The other asks what we are doing and what is in the boxes. Ruslan, the member and guy in charge of it all, tells them and asks what they think they are doing , acting like we are criminals. They did leave, but they are truly unlike any police force we see at home. Nice touch, a machine gun.

The missionaries do a lot of good here, all behind the scenes. Today we had 5 again working very hard. A good group, dedicated to serve people in Moldova
Well, we have sent a couple home , the Cooleys, and we will greatly miss them. Our work load is sure to increase, but more importantly, their companionship will be missed, they did a great volunteer work here.