It is Christmas time in Bucuresti; they do it right.  There doesn't seem to be as much commercialism here as we have in the US.  They really decorate the main streets; I've placed a few pics below. They have a few great Christmas fairs (see the pics).  We've been to a few malls; they may not rival the "Mall of America" but many of them put our malls to shame.  I already posted pics of the cars the kids drive in the malls (they don't go very far but they are cool).  Toy stores have people assigned to play with the kids; Lego tables are particularly popular.  One mall had a small roller coaster, ice rink, bumper cars and boats and much more.

We are trying to concentrate on making this a good Christmas for the young missionaries.  Sora Nelson (Krisy) made a full blown Christmas dinner (she and I enjoyed it Christmas Eve) for missionaries who will come to our apartment Christmas day to Skype their parents.  She feels that the dinner is for her pretend children (missionaries) provided in her pretend home (apartment) and kitchen during this "pretend" Christmas (it was over 60 degrees F yesterday); the cooking keeps her from thinking about the real Christmas she'd like to have with her real children in her real home (Manson).  I'm working on breakfast sausage but that will have to wait a bit this year (Romanians are big on sausage; I just haven't had the guts to buy any, yet).

In addition to our normal routine and preparations for the dinner we enjoyed listening to the Christmas service in the Orthodox Church just outside our window.  It sounded like they had a boys' choir.  We also prepared our Sunday School lesson, studied Romanian and then spent quite a bit of time laying out possible scenarios for our daughters' "sister trip" to Europe this coming summer.

We've had a "teaching" dry spell recently; we've been down to one night a week for the past few weeks.  I think some of it is because of the Christmas holidays. The country basically shuts down from between 9 and 19 days depending on the employer.  We have been working hard to prepare for our office move that will occur in a few weeks.  We are moving to a much nicer building that will represent the Church well; our current offices are in a business area with some block apartment buildings (hard to tract); the new offices are in a neighborhood with some very nice houses.  The Church is, of course, footing most of the bill for the move.  Our Mission President will probably foot the rest of it himself.

Our Mission President is incredible; I've not seen many people who can keep up the schedule he maintains.  He is trying to have zone conferences (we have 5 zones in our mission) once a month. One zone is in Bucharest so that isn't too draining but the other 4 are either 4-hour drives or plane flights away.  The Bucharest zone conference involves us; we go, listen, provide support, make lunch happen and usually share our testimony.  The young missionaries are great.

We went to the annual "Doctor's Christmas Concert.  A doctor many years ago noted he had several compatriots in the hospital that were very good with musical instruments so he started this annual free musical concert.  The musicians aren't all doctors; they are professionals.  It was in the coolest theater (see below).  The music was fabulous (very professional, at least to these amateurish ears). They played a lot of classical music and Krisy and I were amazed at how many of them we recognized until we remembered why we recognized them.  Some of them were in the ballroom scene of "The Great Race" and we had heard many of the rest in cartoons.  So much for our culture.  One of our missionaries sang a solo.  Needless to say it was a highlight of the season next to having 15 or so missionaries spend some of the day with us.







Here are some more pics:

carolling missionaries

a beautiful missionary in front of an orthodox church near piati universitate

The Christmas pig at the market; no I'm not talking about me

The Hobbit Dragon coming through to a mall in Bucuresti

The sock maker at a fair

You name it and they'll pickle it

A small part of the fun at one mall.

2 months

We have just passed the two month mark; I still feel like a boot camp.  A new couple just came into the Mission; they are going to Moldova so we won't see them very much and this is their second mission.  They seem very nice; Moldova will be blessed.

The last 2-weeks have been crazy; I thought I knew crazy but I didn't.  The experienced couple in the office had to return to the states for a medical procedure (they just got back Friday; yea!) so it was me trying to fill his and my shoes (let's just say my shoes were mostly ignored).  He is the Finance Clerk. We had a 3-Zone conference during this period; that means we had more than 60 missionaries here.   Most of them wanted money.  I thought that I brought enough money to the zone conference; I was wrong.  I ended up borrowing money from two other senior couples and me.  I got all of the people paid that really needed money and spent the next week (last week) trying to catch up.  Next week I'll be showing the other Elder Nelson (the real finance guru) all of my successes, things I think might be right and things that we're going to need forgiveness for; I think it will take another two weeks to catch up before I can get back to my job (can you believe both office couples are "Nelson's"?).

Last Sunday I spoke in Sacrament meeting (in Romanian).  I had two different sets of missionaries and one native Romanian correct my discourse (it looked like my first edition of one of my master thesis papers except the corrections weren't in red.  This week I taught Priesthood class in Romenglish (a missionary translated my Romanian parts into English and English parts into Romanian); I don't think they'll ask me again for a while.

Krisy's experiences were just as crazy except she didn't get any warning.  Two weeks ago we had a baptism of someone we had fellowshipped (she's the one that corrected my discourse).  Well, Krisy was just sitting in the back listening to the speakers when the conducting member of the Presidency mentioned that she would be the next speaker; it really didn't even register with her until another senior couple sister elbowed her and told her to get up.  She walked up to the podium, looked in amazement at the mission president who was smiling a big old grin and bore her testimony in Romanian.  She thought it was over.  The next week she was asked to speak in sacrament the following week and then at the beginning of the meeting the branch clerk came up to her and told her she'd be speaking now instead.  She grabbed the new convert we fellowshipped and brought her up to the front to translate what she couldn't say in Romanian; the new convert was more nervous than Krisy.  Krisy's remark to her after the meeting was "Welcome to the Church".  At least then Krisy knew that it was over (or so she thought).  The following Sunday the District President (Mission equivalent to a Stake President) grabbed her as she was going to Sunday School and told her he wanted her to teach the youth in Sunday School.  Krisy asked him when he'd like her to start; "Today" was his answer so off she went with no lesson book or clue.  It looks like we will be teaching the class together; the Branch President told us he'd tell us which book he'd like us to use.  "Welcome to the Church in the mission field"; Krisy will most likely be tasked to teach the RS for a Sunday too, in a few weeks.

We are continually impressed with the people (except when they are behind the wheel) and country of Romania.  They are a wonderful, hard working and family oriented people.  I just wish we could get more to listen to the missionaries; sometimes I think they are just too busy.

A reminder from Xander of why we are here

Hand painted eggs from a street market

How the little kids get around in one fancy mall

3-Zone conference; guess who did the table decorations

Sister missionaries correcting elder knelson's Romanian sacrament talk

Presents to Sister knelson as she was visiting some very poor members

a few of our Sunday School class

Transfer day

We've been here 6 weeks today.  The office work is getting harder as both Krisy and I are starting to delve into our own territories rather than just working under the direction of the other office couple. Krisy's most challenging work involves making travel reservations (hotel, cars and flights).  One wrong click of the mouse can mean thousands of dollars of lost church funds.  I wish she felt that way about spending our money (she is saving money on haircuts because she probably won't need one for another 6 months; she used the word "short" to describe her desired cut and, boy, she got it - shorter than mine).  My big worries include vehicles, missionary apartments and phones.  We've had 3 wrecks in the 4 months our mission president has been here, 1 senior and 2 young missionaries (the 2 AP's and 2 office elders are the only young missionaries that drive; the rest walk or take public transportation, which is quite good).  Missionaries can't even ride bikes here because the roads are so crazy.  I feel the Romanians are much more skilled at driving than Americans; everyone acts like they're in the Baja 500 but they are far more reckless.  It's either full throttle or jamming brakes (I haven't driven yet).  I am responsible for contracting, paying for and inspecting well over 50 apartments and none of that is easy in a former Communist country.  Many of the rules they follow are hold-overs from that period so there is a lot of duplication and waste.  Phone rules are crazy, too.

We've had great experiences teaching the gospel in our apartment.  We work with the young missionary companionships.  Right now we are working with a new member from Nigeria who speaks the King's English.  I am going through Temple Preparation seminars with him.  We also have a US Embassy marine taking the discussions along with 2 Romanians (1 speaks English well and we try to keep up with the other in Romanian but working 10 hours a day in the office speaking English puts a damper on that).  We have been fortunate to have almost 4 discussions a week in our home for the past 3 or 4 weeks; it is spiritual and inspiring.

We are finding our way around the city well.  We know how to take the subway, trams (trolleys) and some busses.  I'll post some pics of what we've seen below.  It is a crazy, lovely and full of contrasts (new, old-restored and run-down); I think they are getting a handle on the run-down, more hold-overs from the Communist era.

We love the people, especially the families, members and non-members alike.  The parents are really involved with their children.  I would expect the mothers to be involved but the involvement of the fathers is also truly inspiring.

As for the title; this week was "transfers".  For those of you who have been on missions you know what it's like.  The mission office and home are crazy.  I didn't get to see the home but I can imagine what it was like.  We had two brand new sister missionaries sleeping at out place; they tried out some of our planned sleeping arrangements for the sister visit next summer.  The plan should be good.  By the way, since the date is set (I think) have our daughters started checking prices, etc.  Does Aunt Janey know your planned dates in Venice?  Back to the transfers: we must have had 3 different groups of 25 or more missionaries in our office during the day.  Most wanted money for expenses outside of their funding; all greeted their former companions and friends with laughter, hugs and lots of loud talk. Very little else got done that day.  We went through almost $8000 a few dollars at a time.  Meanwhile our brand new computers were acting up.  It was a wonderful zoo.

That's about it for now; until next time here are the pics I promised:

The old and new Romania; essentially same era one renovated and one beginning renovation

A beautiful Mormon missionary at the start of 3 inches of snow in late October

An old mansion; it is now a government building

Pretty buildings, ugly wiring.  Look at the pole.

No, I am not trick or treating; this is some of Krisy saving me more money shopping

What a great weekend! We had a discussion in our home Friday night; we hope to continue with this man; he speaks only Romanian so it was  a little confusing but we enjoyed it.  Saturday we went with two sister missionaries who taught us the ropes in getting around Bucuresti on the subway.  We feel confident we can do so albeit we'll be slower than the sisters.  Krisy wants me to tell you of our incredible find on our outing; the sisters introduced us to soft warm pretzels stuffed with gooey chocolate.  Today, Sunday, we bore our testimonies in Romanian (I made a few slips into Italian but I think everyone understood).  We also had another lesson in our home; this time it was a Romanian woman; it went well (about 1/2 in English), I think Krisy really got along with this wonderful Romanian; we hope lessons with her will also continue.  There were 3 sister missionaries, this investigator and Krisy working in our small kitchen as Krisy taught them how to make American pancakes (they are familiar with crepes); see the attached picture.  Krisy then took the sisters to her "flower lady" (while I cleaned up their mess); hopefully this meeting will turn into some more lessons in our home.

Sister Missionaries, a Romanian investigator and Krisy all cooking in the kitchen

A US marine came to church today; everyone thought he was a member; the District President (like a stake president in a mission) welcomed him and asked him if he was an elder; come to find out he is an investigator who had a baptismal date but got shipped out to Afghanistan before it happened.  He will be coming to our house tomorrow for a/some lesson(s); this time it will all be in English.

One of the office elders was listening to a testimony of Elder Holland about the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of the Gospel from a previous conference last week in the office; it was powerful.  As I listened I thought "who can refute such an argument, who can doubt such a clear statement, who can think that their own intellect or the intellect of just about anyone else can surpass the intellects of Elders Holland, Scott, Bednar and Nelson, President Monson and others of our leaders including at our Stake level?  Who can think these men are just pretending to be what and who they say they are? Who can doubt the evidence in the Bible that propounds our doctrine unmentioned by the rest of the Christian world such as the pre-existence, the nature of the Godhead, the organization of the priesthood and true church, the opportunity of the dead to learn, understand and embrace the gospel through vicarious work, the plan of salvation and our responsibility as children of our Heavenly Father, indeed, even our relationship to Him and His Son Jesus Christ?  Who can think, after a judicious study of our tenants, that the empty doctrine of many other religions, Christian or otherwise, obfuscated by ceremony, presents anything resembling a cohesive explanation of that plan and that relationship,  There are good and great churches everywhere of every denomination of Christian or other religion.  As I have observed these good churches and learned something of their doctrine I have noticed that their programs are strong and the organization is led by good, charismatic leaders but their doctrine, in my opinion, is weak with little substance.  Many religions are like that of the Pharisees, neglecting the "weightier" matters for the pomp.  Admittedly, some members of our church act in the same manner and many do things out of habit and tradition rather than having a doctrinal basis for their actions.

Yes, we have many people in the church who are weird (I'm probably one of them), many that have actual psychological problems (I might be one of them), some who are bad and, indeed, some who are evil.  Every church has these people.  We may have more than the usual of the weird and problematic but I don't look at this as a bad thing, uncomfortable perhaps, but not bad. As the Savior once said, "you will always have the poor with you".  Many in Jesus' time rushed to him because they thought he would be a geo-political leader that would return Judah to the grandeur of David and Solomon. When they found out that His kingdom was elsewhere they rejected Him and turned away. Some of our "poor" really do have a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and love our Lord. Others, like those in Jesus' time, leave embittered when they find out that the riches they are promised are not of this world.  

What about those people that attack our church?  Have they researched the histories and claims as indepth as they've researched the errors and weaknesses of people belonging to the church about whom the attackers complained?  Have they read the church's counter arguments with the same enthusiasm and desire for truth or are they just trying to justify their prejudices through superficial inquiry?

Do you disagree with some of the doctrine? Do you feel it and some of the commandments are too restrictive? Have you truly tested the doctrine through real prayer and experiment. I love section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants that discusses the Word of Wisdom. It, as it says, is "for a principle with promise, adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all the saints"; most of the commandments are like the Word of Wisdom. To some the Word of Wisdom is just a test or a trial. To others with addictive potential it is truly life saving. To those who glory in the buzz of the cigarette, alcohol or drugs, it is restrictive. To all who obey the law it is liberating from the negative effects of these chemicals. The same is true of all the commandments of the church. Those seeking enablement for their weaknesses consider the doctrine too restrictive. Those wishing to escape the addiction of sin are liberated.

Is the church too demanding of your time and service; does it promote a guilty conscience? I must say those thoughts have crossed my mind, but those thoughts never got in the way of my testimony. The church is demanding with home/visiting teaching, callings, service, meetings, and family requirements (teaching the gospel and strengthening each other), but God looks at us with an eternal perspective, not as weak humans. The demands of the church are more correctly viewed as goals. Progression is the measure, not the timecard. The older I get, the more I realize that the church is an adjunct to the most important organization, the family. Our work is the means by which we keep our family safe and healthy.  We have our immediate family for whom we have the most responsibility, but since we are all children of our Heavenly Father, we do have responsibility for not only our church brothers and sisters but our whole human family including those who have slept and those yet to come.

I believe this to be the true church; the one established by our Heavenly Father with Adam and reestablished and maintained by prophets through the period of the Old Testament.  It is the church our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ reestablished during his 3-year ministry knowing that his work would lead to His atonement and final sacrifice.  It then degenerated into apostasy after the death of the prophets and apostles as it had a number of times during the past several thousand years and has been reestablished again with Prophets and Apostles through the Prophet Joseph Smith who translated the Book of Mormon.

I just spent over an hour typing an update and it disappeared with an incidental touch.

We are here in Romania.  The trip went well; we were almost an hour late getting into Amsterdam from Atlanta so we were lucky the flight from Amsterdam was delayed.  We arrived in Bucharest Saturday, 20 Sep., early afternoon.  We were greeted by our mission office mates and taken to our 5-star hotel. We rested a few hours and then were taken to one of our local branch buildings for a session of district (like stake) conference where we met our mission president and a number of people from our branch and district.  The people of Romania are wonderful.  They are very hard-working and personable.  The Romanian church leaders are very knowledgeable and dedicated.  We even understood much of one of the talks because the leader spoke slowly in an animated fashion.  One of these leaders had been jailed by the communist police for smuggling Bibles into the country over 20 years ago before they were introduced to the gospel.

We started our apartment hunting on Monday; we (and many others) thought the process would be exasperating and long.  We basically found a nice apartment right away.  The owner said he'd give us an answer Tuesday and the answer was yes!  He and his wife are very kind and concerned about being good landlords. We moved in on Wednesday.  It is a good-sized one bedroom apartment with a very small kitchen (that just means I can't help Krisy cook).  It is big enough for a sister trip. The apartment is in a great part of Bucharest, within walking distance of the mission office and a very modern mall. We walk everywhere.

We have spent over 2 weeks in the mission office trying to help the other office couple (they are "Nelsons", too.  These 2 have been manning the office on their own for 3 months so much of our work has been getting them caught up.  Krisy trained a bit but mostly threw away about 1/2 the office, organized, moved furniture; it now looks like a real office and everyone seems a lot happier.  I spent the time cataloging and filing 3 months of financial records.  We are now, as of today, up to date so I can start working on my own projects: cars, phones, computers and buildings; and, there's a lot to do.  Now that we are done with this portion of the work we are excited to get involved with real missionary work.

We spent last weekend at a senior couple's conference; we traveled, listened to conference when we could and worked.  Romania is a beautiful country.  I thought it would be still reeling from many years of communist and dictator rule.  There are still vestiges of it but I was surprised at the progress they've made in the past 20 years since their democratic revolution.  I thought most of it would be filled with communist block apartments in poor condition.  Many of these apartments have been completely renovated with A/C and insulation and look quite nice; many others are in the process of being overhauled.  The country is very clean.  In our conference we journeyed to Transylvania, a very large, high plateau surrounded by mountains.  We visited one of Dracula's castles, other castles as beautiful as anything in Germany, resorts (winter and summer) and other beautiful Middle-Aged towns and cities.  It is a tourist paradise as the prices are much better than anything I know of in western Europe.

Elder (Varstnicul) and Sister (Sora) Nelson at a Romanian castle

A Bucharest LDS Chapel

Dracula's birth castle

Beautiful castle in Sinai

Gutted Soviet block apartment ready for overhaul

To quote Peter Pan...."....here we go!"

We leave for the airport at 5:30AM on Friday morning. Our first stop is Atlanta Georgia, then onto to Amsterdam, Holland and finally we arrive in Bucharest, Romania on Saturday afternoon. So our time at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) is coming to a close.

It is difficult to describe how incredible this experience has been to those of you who are not familiar with the MTC. Imagine thousands of people, 18 year old young men, 19 year old young women and senior couples of all ages being instructed to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ in all languages to take this message to the world. The same message is taught in all languages because the same principles for happiness in this life and the world to come apply to all of His children everywhere. Each week hundreds of missionaries finish their training and fly out to their destinations and hundreds of new missionaries arrive to begin their training. Some stay here for a week or two and others remain her for a few months to become more proficient in more difficult languages. There are 13 other MTC’s throughout the world; in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, England, Ghana, Guatemala, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines and Spain with a global count of over 80,000 missionaries serving fulltime missions from 18 months to two years. Ken and I will be serving in Bucharest for 23 months.

It has been such a choice experience for Ken and me to study and worship here and just be counted among the good people whose only desire is to serve others and share what we know about our Father in Heaven who loves us and the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

We have been too well fed here so I hope I have a hard time adjusting to the food in Romania so I can fit back into half of my skirts!  I have never before been so spiritually “well-fed”. You know how sometimes you’re just so thankful for your family or so excited about an event that your heart “swells” inside you – so much so that it brings tears to your eyes or goose bumps. This feelings seems to wash over you time after time during the day as you feel the spirit present.

This past week we have learned how accomplish many tasks required in a mission office, for example newsletters, travel arrangements, transferring missionaries, mail merging, excel spread sheets, etc. Ken learned about mission finances, maintaining and assigning automobiles, cell phone distribution, housing contracts for missionary apartments and record keeping for current visas and passports. There is so much more learn about serving in a mission office than one would initially imagine ….. and while doing all that, we must keep a positive attitude … anyone who has ever worked with either of us knows that will be a modern day miracle (no sarcasm from me or growling from Ken). It’s funny, when we left home we thought our greatest challenge was going to be learning Romanian….we haven’t even thought about the language acquisition because our time has been so filled with so many other important assignments.

We, of course, feel nervous about our departure tomorrow, but even more than nervous we feel excited and thrilled that we have this opportunity for such a valuable experience. We feel very happy to be doing this together and we believe the Lord qualifies who he calls.

"COME ON EVERYBODY....HERE WE GO!"

Thank you wonderful children for your support.

Might as well call it "Shaving Cream"

It is really amazing the people you meet in the Missionary Training Center!!!! We were speaking with another couple who are here training for their mission in Japan, Glenn and Melody Rowe. Elder Nelson happened to notice that their last name seemed familiar. So he asked if they had any relatives that had ever lived in Virginia (Duh....what are the chances of that?) Elder Rowe replied that his brother Mark was from there. We discovered that it was the very same Mark Rowe who we had been friends with and served in the church with about 24 years ago. Elder Rowe contacted Mark and told him he was training in the MTC with the Nelsons and asked if he remembered us. I guess response was something like...how could I forget Ken Nelson.  He than forwarded this old picture which was taken at Mark's birthday celebration all those years ago. Yes, this is Ken Nelson decorated as Mark Rowe's birthday cake. Your past always seems to catch up with you!!! Yes, the candles are really lit and I now wonder if shaving cream is flammable. Ken's response to seeing this was, "you can't prove that's me." What do you think?

Avoid Dark Alleys - Go for Polka Dots.

At last night's devotional we heard from Elder Sitati and his wife. He is General Authority in the church who was born in Kenya and was the International Director of Public Affairs for the Church in Africa. His message to us was to always remember that we are representing Jesus Christ on our mission and as we honor our covenants we will leave spiritual footprints. People will be happy to see us, they will feel peace and comfort in our presence and will want to be like us. It will awaken a desire within them to come to know what we have. Sister Sitati told us about her grandmother's warning when she was leaving her farm in Kenya to attend school in Nairobi to avoid dark alleys. We all will encounter many dark alleys in life - avoid them and stay in the light.




As a missionary we are advised to dress conservatively so as not to draw too much attention away from our message. Well, I decided that polka dots was going to be my mission fashion theme after finding a black umbrella with multi colored dots - my form of rebellion.... I was surprised when I went into the store of the Missionary Training Center and found these skirts ..... I guess I'm not quite as rebellious as I hoped to be!

Last night at 11:30 the fire alarms went off in our building. By the time Elder Nelson got his clothes on including shoes and socks (shoes tied, of course) I'm sure I would have been charcoal if there really had been a fire. We were a pretty funny looking group of old missionaries standing out on the sidewalk for half an hour. I think only about half of us made it out because the rest of them didn't hear it because they either had their earplugs in or their hearing aides out!

Today at lunch we sat across from an 82 year old couple from Hawaii who were being trained to serve as Member Leadership Support Missionaries in the Salt Lake City area. He told us about his experience at Pearl Harbor when he was a young boy. We asked him what he thought his focus would be for his mission and he said reactivating members of the church. He told us about how he knew this family that hadn't been going to church for awhile and the parents didn't seem interested but they let their son become involved in the scouting program. This boys father later became the Mission President in Hawaii. This old gentle missionary said the best way to reach a family is to genuinely love their children,

Tonight at dinner (now mind you this cafeteria can seat over 1000 people) at a long table next to us two of the young girls who are also in missionary training started to sing a beautiful hymn about the Savior. Some young men nearby joined them in perfect harmony and then more joined in. Within a few seconds everyone around them stopped talking and there was this beautiful peaceful feeling throughout the room. Special things like this seem to happen all the time here. It is such an amazing privilege to be here.

First official day at MTC (FODAM) (wow Ken....I mean, wow Elder Nelson!)

ROMANIA/MOLDOVA MISSION 

We have arrived at the Missionary Training Center and will be here until September 19th. We are settled into our room right on the campus and haven't made too many foolish mistakes....yet. 

On Sunday night we attended a devotional with over 6,000 missionaries in attendance. When we sang songs dedicated to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to all ends of the world it was VERY moving. We feel privileged to be among them. 

Today we formally checked in with the group of Senior Missionaries who begin training with us for the next week. As we introduced ourselves it was exciting to hear that, just in our small group, we are traveling to the Dominican Republic, Utah (numerous locations), New Zealand, Philippines, Chile, Georgia, Germany, Central America, New Mexico, Japan, Toronto (Canada), Argentina, Marshall Islands (South Pacific), Slovakia, Kansas, Thailand, Zambia, Oregon, England, California, and Massachusetts to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. How amazing is it that the pure and simple truth of the gospel can be taught in all of these languages. We have always felt gratitude for the parents of the two missionaries who travelled to Naples, Italy to find us for sacrificing their sons for the two years they served their missions. Now we feel that same gratitude to my own children and grandchildren for sacrificing the next two years with us so we can travel to Romania and share our love and the message of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

There are a number of nurses going to some of the above locations in our group. There was some funny (sage) advice given to them this afternoon. In one particular mission area when a young missionary would call the nurse and tell her they weren't feeling well today and wanted to stay in bed the nurse would respond with, "that sounds fine. I hope you feel better soon. I will be over to your apartment in about a half an hour to give you an enema." They responded with "Okay". Because most young missionaries do not know what an enema is, it took them a few minutes to look it up. Within a half hour the nurse's phone would ring again and the missionaries seemed to recover miraculously and were ready to get up and out. The nurse would reply that she was so glad to hear they were feeling better.

We were also counseled today that we would be the eyes and ears of the mission and that we should relax, smile and do good. This is good advice. We were also told that we shall be watched over, that the Spirit would be with us, that we would be attended to by angels - as would our children and grandchildren. Blessing would be unfolded in regard to those things that deeply concerned us and as we look after the Lord's children, He will look after ours.

Unfortunately the food is fabulous (waist bands are feeling tighter) and I have located the ice cream in the cafeteria. I may even have some for breakfast. Until later....hugs and kisses from me and "right arm, farm out, out of Sprite, and in the groove" from Ken (Elder Nelson)

Saying goodbyes.....Looking forward.

This has been a summer filled with travel, visiting children, having children visit us as we share hugs and say goodbye. It is difficult to describe all the emotions we are experiencing - rather a balancing act between faith and fear. I found it almost therapeutic to finally start packing our suitcases so we would begin looking forward to the opportunity awaiting us instead of reflecting on what we are leaving behind. Surprisingly one of my two suitcases wasn't quite to it's maximum weight allowance so I enjoyed one last shopping spree before enduring one final root canal.

On Friday morning we will be set apart as full time missionaries by President Hunsaker. We will fly from Wenatchee to Seattle, then to Salt Lake City. We will spend the weekend with our children who live in Provo, bless our 10th grandchild on Sunday, and enter the Missionary Training Center on Monday where we will spend the next 10 days in classes focused on Preach My Gospel, the Romanian Language, and Church Office Procedures.

On Friday, September 19th we will depart for Atlanta, Georgia, then onto Amsterdam, Holland, and on Saturday we will arrive in Bucharest, Romania. At this point I know we have a reservation at the Ramada North in Bucharest and the next day we will visit the Mission Office and then began our search for our apartment. I understand we will be negotiating in Romanian with our prospective landlord. Yikes...I know bani means money and "nu scump" means not cheap....no problem!

Less than 3 months

Krisy and I are working feverishly with the language.  She is also putting in a 40+ hour work week at school and it's the panic period; I am responsible for the house and all mission preparations.  I work with a coach, tutor or volunteer 3 times a week and she works twice a week.  Romanian seems to be a little more random than Spanish so both of us are having a little trouble trying to understand why they do what they do with the grammar.  We've had our second round of immunizations and will finish all but our flu shots by the end of the month with our 3rd round.  I think all of the preventative maintenance that needs to be done by service providers around the house is complete except for last minute things with one car. We still need to do some preservation around the house.  We've had some great times with our local children (Erik and his family, Carey and her family and Rachael and Chris) and Karley and the kids (hopefully Al will join us in a few weeks) during their visits.  We are also looking forward to our big circle trip to California, Utah and Montana in a few weeks to see our "foreign" kids (Karley, Al and the kids will be watching the place) with some additional visits from the family here.  We will have over 36 hours in the car to study our Romanian; I have a feeling it'll be like the TV commercial (36 hours in the car with nothing to do but speak and listen to Romanian).  We've heard from the present Mission President and his wife (we, unfortunately, will miss meeting them), the incoming Mission President and his wife (we are excited to meet them) and a missionary service couple; they are all excited about their work in Romania.  Our English teaching class is winding down here; we are having a party with the class later in the month and inviting the 4 local missionaries in to meet the class members; we've tried to incorporate missionary material into the teaching.  We have grown to love the Hispanic people in the classes and will surely miss them.  We hope to be able to make similar relationships with the people of Romania.

closer, getting closer

Yes; you are right.  Our mission is still over 4 months away but those months will be filled with so much that the mission, itself, seems right around the corner; besides, we just received the flight information to Romania. The March and April calendars were zoos and the forthcoming months will be just as crowded.  We have May to get the house as ready as possible (inspect and service the heater, pump the septic, paint, etc.) and to get us ready [shots, language (preps to continue through September), etc.].  Karley and kids come in late May; hopefully Al will be able to join us sometime during their stay. Rachael is coming sometime during the fray; again, hopefully, Chris will join us for a few days (he will be busy with summer sports).  Ken will do whatever he can with the clan around; Krisy will be working through late June.  July we travel to see the kids that won't be coming to the house and bring Marci home for a bit. Carey and family will be coming sometime during the month and maybe even more.  Late July/early August is the beach house trip.  Todd and family return with us through mid-August.  Last minute preparations are slated for late August (I hope we won't have many but that never happens).  We are off to the Salt Lake area and Provo in early September (10 days at the MTC) and then fly out for Romania 19 September.
The language is coming along; both of us are having trouble letting our Italian and Spanish pronunciation habits crowd out what we know should be the proper Romanian pronunciation.  We each meet with both our coach and tutor once a week for a total of two hours and try to practice with each other (Krisy is much better than me with her practice).

The country and the language

We are trying to accomplish all of the tasks required of us in the missionary packet; there are many.  We feel a little like the ant in the song "Hi Hopes" by Frank Sinatra and hope we can take down "another rubber tree plant" as we attempt to complete each of our tasks.  The language learning itself seems daunting as we will have to do much of the learning independently before our mission due to Krisy's work and Krisy and my evening schedules. Fortunately, the languages spoken in both Romania and Moldova are very similar and are Latin-based (Romance) languages so our knowledge of Spanish and Italian will help us.  Moldova speaks a form of Romanian; like going to the deep South or New England from the West coast in the US.  There are so many other things to do including all of the financial plans and preparing our house for the onslaught of kids and grand-kids that will descend on it throughout the two years we are gone.  We hope it will be a busy and inviting home for them.  We are studying what we can find of the culture(s), history, economics, food and religions of the country to better prepare ourselves to serve the Lord and people there.

The Call

It is Monday, 7 April.  Last Saturday our Bishop sent us a text to tell us that, according to what he could see through his access to the church computer system, our missionary assignment was made over a week ago (it had only been 3 weeks since we talked to the Stake President and we thought we wouldn't find out for at least another week or two).  That got us to thinking, wondering and worrying through the rest of the weekend (it was conference weekend so our ears were perked to hear anything missionary).  Well, our call came today and I am waiting like a good boy for Krisy to come home from work to eat lunch before we open it together.
We are going to the Romania/Moldova Mission; both of us are assigned as "office specialists" whatever they do (I think we'll just do whatever the Mission President tells us to do).  We are to report on 8 September.

Waiting for the call.....

On March 23rd our Stake President pressed "send" and our completed application to serve a twenty-three month mission was on its way to church headquarters. We indicated that we would go anywhere and learn any language and would be available in September. Ken and I have ALWAYS known we would serve a mission together because, as converts to the church, we didn't have the opportunity to serve as young single adults. Our mission has always "loomed" somewhere out there in our future....then, when our Stake President called Ken a week and a half later with a couple of questions from church headquarters.....suddenly our mission became FRONT and CENTER. We are both nervous and excited. I can only describe the feeling as a kid in bed on Christmas Eve trying really hard to go to sleep so the morning will come. I have so much respect for my four children who have served missions previously in Toronto, Canada (Spanish speaking), El Salvador, Paraguay and Peru. They exhibited so much faith going on their own - and I get to go with my best friend! We should have our mission call between the next two to four weeks.

We Are Going On A Mission