Orhei and Bălți

July 9  It is an early Sunday morning, very early, and I am trying to get a few pictures together of our friends and associates in Orhei and Bălti. We have been travelling to those cities almost weekly as part of our CES assignment and have grown to love the people there. The city of Bălți is very poor and to us , has seemed like a large village. The members and friends we have made there are some of the most sincere people we have ever met. They express emotion openly, they come to learn, they are warm and friendly. The missionaries call it the promised land, and love it. So do we, despite the preponderance of Russian. Diana from Orhei is a dear friend , and we visited with her every two weeks in her flower shop. That is also one of our treasured memories, teaching in a flower shop. Orhei is not a kind city to members or missionaries, and she deals with a lot of difficulties , but stays faithful. We will miss the members, the beautiful drives, and even the incredibly bad roads. Hard to doze off on real bad roads. So this is a more personal group of pictures to us, thats just the way it is.

Diana Gogu in front of her flower shop

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The sign that we have left Orhei

The sunflowers are out , and are beautiful

A church , Orthodoz church, that we passed each week. Very beautiful, but when you get close, the paintings are all peeling. 

Nice old wagon, with a wine barrel

Last group together in Bălți. We missed a few, like Olga and Ana

Nikita and Dima. who are amazing.

Sasha and Daria. Sasha is another one of our daughters.

Anatoli Cosmin, who we watched grow. He did love our cookies.

Another Anatoli and Valia. We were able to serve them in a few ways. She does give juicy kisses.

Nelly, who came out of inactivity.  We love her dearly. She came to Institute on her dinner break

the elders, from left, Kohler, Sargsyan, Volcov and Griffeth. We have watched Elder Griffeth grow into an amazing man, Elder Kohler was amazing the first time we met him in Bălți.

Roma, who became our translator there.

Alina and Doru, both non members

The Alemans, who are amazing people.

Leaving Bălți with tears
So we have closed the door on one of our stories here. Of all we did in this country, this felt like one of the best, travelling and teaching in Bălți and Orhei. It was amazing for us.

National holidays

July 4. Today is American Independence Day, and we will celebrate it at an American restaurant with 4 people today. We will acknowledge how important America is to us, despite their many glitches and some arrogance. We love many people from the country, and most are good, despite President Trump. Hopefully they can maintain their identity through his rule. We did celebrate Canada Day on Friday, one day early. We had a slide  show on Canada, for our activity night, to display the many beauties of our fair land. The second last slide was of Pinto McBean, a national treasure. At least to us. They all thought he was a potato, imagine. Then we played floor hockey and human tic tac toe. We were to have scones or beaver tails, but a day of 38 degree  temperature changed our mind, we had ice cream sundaes. I will show the fruit later and the cost. Okay, it is hitting us right in the teeth that our time is short. We are trying to do much , to see many, and to remember much. I have tears way more than is normal for a man, and we both wonder about early onset dementia. At least, I think I remember talking about it. We love so many here. On Sunday, I was going to talk in our testimony meeting, then Nina, my 5th daughter, stood up and said some very emotional things abut love and us and being like parents to her. I was a serious mess. I did try to talk, very hard to do in Romanian, especially when blubbering, but I was understood. We love these people so much and it is hard to think only a week remains for this adventure. It is very true, that we love those we serve. We had a dinner with a potato bar after church, only about 22 this week, and it was just great to have them all here. Yesterday we took 4 sisters to Orhei Vechi and we will also miss those associations. We have felt very useful here and frankly we will also miss that. One tends to forget the challenges and remember only the great memories. Moldova, we love you! We do have a lot of pics today, Deb has to get in all the horse and wagons she can.

Nothing special here, but a nice picture

How they do hay, most of this was cut by scythe.

3 kg of peaches, cost 24 lei or about $1.30

5.5 kg of raspberries, cost 110 lei or almost $6

There are a few floor hockey pictures,  missionary moms, you may see your child. No injuries were had in the making of this picture.

the start of Human Tic tac toe

Adriana and Chiril Josan, who left for Germany for 2 months. They are like our kids, we love them both dearly. Adriana is one of the most remarkable people I have ever met.

There were some tears.

Our good friend Nic, not a member, but a regular attender of activity nights and dinners

Enough of the horses and carts, already!

A sparkling piece of farm equipment

At Orhei Vechi, putting in money is for luck, in the limestone. Russell, this is for you again. We used a higher amount for increased luck.

From left, Sister Edwards, Dusenberry, Idiart, Langenstein, Nemelka. Scarves are mandatory to enter an Orthodox church

An interesting old shrine

Closest thing to a mountain goat here, an unrestrained domestic goat

Victor and Iulia Ceban, with son Maxim. He is branch president, I was his councillor, and we became good friends. Iulia is Russian.
Well, we are nearing the end of a post, we probably only have 2 more posts, thankfully tears dont smear on a computer. 

Post Birthday

June 28 2017. We are now 2 days post Deb's birthday. She kept it mostly secret, I had hinted to a couple of sister missionaries about it, they put it in their planner and forgot about it. but we had a good day overall anyway. The weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth was kept to a minimum. She did what she wished, doing service by giving toys, books and games to a lady in a village who helps a lot of poor kids with care. What she loves doing most.We had a weekend in Brasov, a beautiful city in Romania, one of our favorites for sure. We left here on a Friday night at 9 pm on a minibus we rented, 18 youth and youong adults and Deb and I. We travelled all night and arrived at Brasov at 6 am. We were the majority, only about 10-12 showed up from Romania. We had to find breakfast, then they had dance instruction from Victor, who travelled from Hungary, then they checked into a hostel, Casa Sforii, then hiked around, then back to the Church for supper [pizza of course] then dance again. I might say that by 930 pm all were tired and temperments got a little raw. Add some strong Eastern European opinions and it was a bit testy for a while. All was solved with some kind words. We went to Church in Brasov, then had a lunch and back on a bus at 230 pm, for a nice long drive. The Young Adults were loud, singing and talking lots. The driver, foolishly, had his bad music on loud, so then stopped and made some very uncalled for comments. That put a damper on things for a while. I had thoughts to express , but restrained myself. They were actually all very good, just loud. He was an interesting man, crossed himself at every church, but displayed no Christian behavior at all. We had to browbeat him to get him to let off someone a stop early. He was dealt with by his company, let us say. So we are in a heat wave, 35+ every day, last Friday we had an outdour activity planned and got a terrible thunderstorm, heavy rain, trees down, etc. So we ended up with Bingo which can be much more competitive than one would think. So what are my thoughts regarding people here? I have observed many young people here with immense challenges. Most have dysfunctional families, either dead parents [ an amazing number have dead parents], divorces, parents living abroad, poverty, etc. Still with this they seek truth and try to embrace it. Many struggle because of the heavy burdens they must bear, like trying to find enough money to buy food, or to deal with parent abuse and alcoholism, and much more. We admire and love them a lot, despite all the glitches that come into their lives. I have often wondered why them, why not me? I was blessed to live in a good country with good parents. That is a dream for most here. It is a challenge to live here, to struggle to live and to still try to follow the Savior. The lady whose picture will be shown, Tatiana, is as good a Christian as I have met. So one of the joys of a mission is meeting so many good people who have touched our lives. We marvel at their goodness. Nina, Mariana, Diana, Alina, Chiril, Alex, Mihai, Adriana, Adrian,Corina, Sasha, Olga, Roma, Anatoli, Nikita, Dima, and the list goes on. We love them all . Might I also mention the Covalis, the Stepanencos, the Cebans, the Bezedes. We will miss them terribly.

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Us in Brașov

The toilet in a nice new restaurant, elegant, no?

Tatiana s children

Deb and Tatiana

Apple orchards for intense apple growing

Next 3 pictures are all dance practice

Biserica Neagra is in the backround

It is close to a smile.

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We would travel back to see Brașov again, it is a beautiful city

The dance, only about 30

The young lady in the middle, Daniela Pascan, organized it. OUr kids are in the back, Nina, Mariana, and Marina.
We are now under 2 weeks left, it is scary. We want to get as much done as we can.