July August

July August blog

On a walk to a Japanese restaurant

Same walk as above 1 metro stop from our apartment

OK; another restaurant visit, this time a Japanese restaurant.  If you ever go to one don't eat the peanut; they are pretty old.  The next pic - the Japanese have the most luxurious toilets.  The toilets will not wash the dishes or do the ironing.

An American restaurant; may I recommend you try peanut butter on your burger?  In the proper proportion it is great.

A lot has happened in the intervening month and a half (assuming I get this online in a reasonable amount of time).  We recently had three weeks in a row with lessons scheduled in our home or some other commitment at least 5 of the 7 nights of the week (in addition to our regular "day jobs" in the office.  A few of the commitments dropped but we felt the weeks were very successful and fulfilling.  We had new member lessons with recent converts; they have had some visa problems and are currently out of the country; hopefully they’ll return soon.  We were invited over to our proprietor’s house for dinner; it was enjoyable and we left him with a Book of Mormon and had a subsequent gospel discussion of sorts.  It doesn’t seem like anything will come of it but we shall see.  We had the last few discussions with a prospective member followed by her baptism (she is on fire having also just come from a single adult conference).  We invited a friend of Krisy’s to dinner at a restaurant (they ended up paying); Krisy met her at the grocery store through a short conversation with her young daughter.  We hope to continue the relationship and introduce them to the gospel.  We had another of Krisy’s friends over to dinner; she works with Krisy making air travel arrangements for the missionaries and we hope the professional relationship blossoms into a friendship and an introduction to the gospel.  We are also working with a rugby player (member) and his girlfriend (non-member) from Australia but they currently are also out of the country with visa problems. We have also had a Filipino member with her non-member husband over for lessons.  Educated young families are the lifeblood of the church here; we need many more.

Our wonderful Mission President, Krisy and me at a bookstore in "old town" Bucuresti 

Some friends for life and beyond

It's his birthday

At the baptism of Simona

RS - PH working on Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching

Relief Society Presidency

Krisy and I also went to Chisinau for a few days to check out missionary apartments and meet with our financial representatives there (each country requires that a local “pay” agency reviews and supervises our financial situation).  Both countries are well behind Western Europe in their finances and everything involves soooo much bureaucracy.  The trip was pleasant; the best part, as always, was working with the missionaries. 

Fruit in Chisinau, Moldova

Orthodox Church in Chisinau

We’ve both been busy with our callings [teaching Sunday School (I teach Gospel Doctrine with spells by Krisy when she is not substituting in the youth class) and counselors in our respective RS/EQ orgs).  We recently had the RS/EQ presidencies over to the house to set up Home and Visiting Teaching. 

Krisy at the Mission Office

We just came back from a short trip with 4 of our daughters (a sister trip; unfortunately one could not make it) to some of our favorite places in Romania (Sinai, Brasov, Sighisoara and Sibiu; check these cities out on the internet) and Italy (Rome, Amalfi coast and Pozzuoli); we ended up in Venice visiting Krisy’s sister (she has a “condo” there right in the middle of the old city).  Of course being with our daughters and seeing Krisy’s sister were the highlights of the trip.  But closely behind were our experiences in the town of Pozzuoli near Naples, Italy.  It was there, almost 40 years ago, that we were “tracted” by the missionaries, studied with them for several months and later baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  They say “you can’t go back”; I can say it’s probably true in most cases but when we went back we found the town even more beautiful.  We went to our old apartment building; it was in great shape.  Krisy and the girls went to the door of the building (to get in one must have a key or be “rung” in by one of the residents) and saw some people coming out of the building.  She told them we used to live there and explained where our apartment was.  They got the biggest grins on their faces and told us they lived down below us then and still lived in the same apartment.  It was then that I recognized the same smiling eyes I remembered back 40 years before.  We asked if our old neighbor still lived there, knowing that she must be in her 80’s by now; she did!  We went up to see her; it was a great reunion for all of us and great experience for our daughters for they could see that we were “cool” at least for a few years of our lives.  It was great to hear that there was a chapel of the church nearby and a number of Italian people on the street recognized our badges (even though they were in Romanian) and greeted us.  The hospitality of the southern Italian people was also a great experience and reminder of our few years there.  Here are just a few examples of why we love Southern Italy.  One woman about our age stopped to ask us if we needed directions (we were trying to get out of the port to go to our old apartment); she said “follow me children” and took us about 10 minutes out of her way to our old neighborhood.  Later, a man heard us talking about a restaurant (our favorite one had closed down); he told us of one and then said “I’ll show you”.  He called the owner, took us there (15 minutes in the opposite direction he was traveling) and set us up with everything.

The sister trip (minus 1)

downtown old Pozzuoli

We were responsible for a branch activity yesterday (8 Aug) to promote the Home and Visiting Teaching program and assignments.  It went well; see the pics.

Our wonderful Branch President