Summer in Timisoara

We have been busy and so its been a longer time than normal since our last report. Below is a pictorial review with a few comments so you can see some of what is going on.  First I realized that we don't have a map of the country and that some might not have a feel of where we are in the country so here is an overview.  We are on the far west border of the country.  Immediately to the east is the border with Hungary and to the south is Serbia.  These countries are only a few miles away from where we are. There is a noticeable Hungarian influence here but very little Serbian influence.

We are fortunate to live in Timisoara which is not only in a beautiful part of the country but is also a, if not the cultural center in the country.  Below are a few pictures of our wonderful city center and one of the many summertime cultural events that take place here on a regular basis this time of year.  There is rarely a week goes by that there is not some kind of event in Centru (city center).

This photo shows the Orthodox Cathedral which stands at one end of centru and the opera house at the other end of centru. The plaza  near the opera house is where they set up for small evening events. They have a large park just out of the picture to the right where the large events take place.  They have a large outdoor amphitheater with seating for several hundred.  It doesn't get dark until 9:30 in the evening so there is always lots of activity in these two places.

There was recently a large folk dance festival here and below are some pictures of the parade that took place through centru before they went to the park for the festival.  It was a three day event.  As you can see the US was represented.  It was a clogging group and most of them were from Utah and most were members of our church.  We were happy to see them and they were really happy to see the young  missionaries.  They spent several hours together and enjoyed each others company very much.

USA

India? and Georgia.  The Georgia  group were the youngest of all the countries represented, great dancers, and were a big hit!

 This was a local group.  There were about fifteen countries represented but these are a few shots I have of the Parade.




Below are some photos of our Pioneer celebration on July 24th.  July is when, as Mormons we  celebrate the migration of the early pioneers from Illinois to the Salt Lake Valley.  July is also when the Romanians celebrate  their pioneer heritage as the earliest members of the church here.  The church has only been in Romania 25 years and all the members of the church here are first generation members so in that sense they are truly pioneers.
We had a great time with some of the early Romanian pioneers, two investigators and the missionaries. The missionaries threw the party for the Romanian members and had a menu that was half western and half traditional Romanian.  So we had rotisserie  chicken, potato wedges, mici (a fairly spicy sausage), cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, bread and some wonderful crepes for desert.  We had some live music and just an all round good time.  It was a great blend of East and West.

Some of the people and a look at the cuisine

Most of the time the Elders are very serious and hard working but every once in a while you find one  just "Fiddling around".  Here is a picture of our one piece band and musical entertainment for the evening.  This elder is a very gifted musician and played all evening long with no music.  Lots of country songs and real knee slapping, catchy tunes.  It was perfect.  He played until his left arm ached so we let him take a short break to eat and then we put him back to work.  It was fun.

The other missionaries could not resist on this one song and they spontaneously broke into some kind of stand alone dancing. It reminded me of a bunch of chickens walking around in the barnyard.  Im still not sure what it was but the members got a real kick out of whatever it was that they were doing and they seemed to really enjoy it. It is so fun being around these wonderful young people all the time.

Speaking of music here is a photo of our  missionaries practicing for a special musical number that they sang in out Sunday Sacrament meeting. They did a wonderful job. I have dubbed them the Timisoara Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Ginny accompanied them and is our Branch musical everything.  I don't know what we would do without her.

To close out this blog I thought you might be interested in this.  We have a  river near centru.  Ginny and I have to cross it every time we go there.  This is a bridge across the river built exclusively out of over 157,000 recycled plastic bottles.  The Guinness organization is evaluating this as they believe this is the world record for such a structure.

Below is a photo I took of a typical weekend activity on the Bega river.  These swan boats and other foot peddled boats are popular recreation for young families and couples.  Just one of the many scenes we are privileged to see along our way each day.

We are healthy and happy and just thank our Heavenly Father everyday for our lives and the opportunity we have to serve him in such a wonderful part of His creation.

The 4th of July

We are having more fun than a missionary should be allowed to have, but please don't spread that around or everybody would want to take our job away.  

We have what are called transfers every six weeks.  It is the time when some missionaries are transferred from one location in Romania/Moldova to another.  Some stay in one place for several transfers and others are moved in one transfer, it all depends on the needs of the mission which is determined by the mission president. It is always an exciting time for the missionaries as they anticipate where their next assignment might be.  Below is a picture of our district ( group of 8) missionaries the day before some were transferred. We always hate to see the transfers go but we are so excited to meet the new missionaries assigned to our district. Two in this group were transferred and another went home after two years of faithful service.  He was an Arizona young man so I am sure he has already been out to eat mexican food, something that is sorely missed here by missionaries from the southwest.

                                Picture with all the missionaries along with our wonderful
                                friend and relief society president.

Same group this time with our entire district.  Absolutely amazing young people.

We celebrated the 4th of July with all the Amereicans we could find in Timisoara. And we even had a Romanian guest who wanted to join us for the evening just to practice her english and see how we celebrated our independence.  We had a great evening cookout in the back yard of the Church. Below are some of the scenes from our celebration.  Oh by the way the guest was totally confused by the english she heard because one of our missionaries is from Australia and another from Texas.  She said she understood the Australian ok but did not do well with Texican. Too many ya alls I think. She was lots of fun.

This is with all the new missionaries after transfers taken at our 4th of July celebration. There are three new missionaries, one is on his last transfer before he goes home and he is also from Arizona, and you guessed it, he says his first stop will be for mexican food.  The other two are brand new, this is their  first assignment.  They are both quite delightful, very accomplished and bright and are doing very well. Notice all the red, white and blue in these photos.

This is one of our family traditions at home, an american flag cake.  We did the best we could with what was available here. A little sloppy looking but you get the picture and the cake was yummy.

The missionaries always love it when Ginny cooks.

Yup! you are seeing it correctly. Bottled hot dogs.  We just could not resist trying these.  I cooked them but when it was time for me to get mine they were all gone, I guess they tasted ok because they went in a hurry.  Of course Elders eat great quantities of almost anything.

We had a church meeting in Oradea, a city about three hours away.  The soras  (sister missionaries) drove with us in our little car and the Elders made arrangements with a maxi taxi (large, crowded, van). The temps are in the low 80’s and today, for example the humidity was 94%, so you can only imagine the various olfactory stimulations available in such a van on the long ride to and from.

Below are some of the scenes we saw along our way and what we found in the beautiful city we visited.

One of the many, many crops grown here is sunflowers.  As we drive along for miles and miles there are sunflower fields as far as the eye can see.  There are also wheat fields and many corn fields.

In every city we have been in there has always been an area near the center of town that has a beautiful plaza, and Oradea is no different.  This is just one of the many beautiful scenes in the city.

The local Elders told us about a great place in Oradea to eat.  It is called the American Grill.  We had lunch there and as you can see our server was more than happy to pose for a photo in front of this small cafe.  They specialized in hamburgers and hot dogs, american style.  The food was surprisingly good, if you are like me and like big, juicy, runny burgers with total disregard for calories or nutrition.

This little equation says it all.  We really had an enjoyable time in this little place.

Know that we are both healthy, happy and excited about our time here in Romania.  It is such a pleasure for us to represent our Savior Jesus Christ and The Church  of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints  in this far off place.