Wet in Timisoara

Today's blog is going to be full of what we lovingly call “Mormonisms.”  Those things that will mean more to those of us who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.  Much of our week is filled with serving in a Pastoral capacity as we serve our little congregation here in Romania. We were surprised after our Sunday services this week when we were asked to stay after for what was a surprise for both us and the missionary couple we are replacing.  They have been serving here for 18 months. They are just an amazing couple and the people here dearly love them. Anyway, the following photos capture the fun time we had as the congregation said thanks and welcome in their own special way.  A wonderful meal complete with many delicious Romanian dishes, spiced up with some real americanized desserts.  The desserts here are not typically as sweet as we are used to in the U.S., but these would make Sarah Lee ask for the recipe. The first picture shows some of the members of our little congregation and the second picture is of all of the wonderful missionaries we serve with.

 These young people are incredible.  They left their homes and traveled half way around the world just to serve people they don't even know.  They serve by teaching free english classes twice a week.  They teach a beginners, intermediate, and an advanced class.  They do an amazing job and the service is so valuable.  English is still the language of business world wide.  Speaking english gives the speaker an advantage in their quest to improve themselves economically.  The classes are very popular and some classes have been as large as 70 persons.  I am continually impressed with the dedication and stamina of these young missionaries. They also volunteer for organizations like the Red Cross, and how they love to see those missionaries, because they know they are going to get some real hardworking and dedicated young people who know the definition of hard work.  And all of this in addition to their rigorous schedules as missionaries teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Well enough of my bragging about our great young missionaries.  We love serving with such fun, funny, dedicated, and spiritual young adults.

The missionaries are not allowed to call home except twice a year.  Christmas and Mothers day.  Well, last Sunday was mothers day and we sat as they all called home, actually they all skyped with their families. We sat and visited with the other senior missionary couple for hours as we waited for them all to get a chance to communicate with their families.  We only had four computers so they had to take turns.  It was so fun for us because we have had children who have served missions and we remember how excited we were to visit on those two special days.

Before I close for the night I thought I would share three fun pictures. 

First:  A picture of Ginny and two missionaries on one of our rainy spring days.  It has been raining continuously for three days and nights and the temperatures have been in the 50s and low 60s. Not exactly Tucson this time of year. I kinda feel like Noah must have felt.

Second:  We went to the Timisoara temple a couple of days ago.  Yes you heard me correctly the Timisoara temple.  Well actually it is a picture of the San Diego Mormon Temple in the window of a bridal shop here in Timisoara.  All the missionaries just have to have their pictures taken in front of the store. I don't  know if the owners  know what the picture depicts but we are told its been here for a long time so it must get advertising results. Not significant just fun.

Finally:  A fun picture of Ginny and I with the first person to be baptized in this city.  She has been a member of our church since 1996.  That shows you how young the church is here.  She is so fun, full of life, and faithful. We had a wonderful time visiting with her. 

Well goodnight for now, we have a big day planned tomorrow and will be up at 5:30 am and don't plan to return until about 8pm. This missionary stuff is not for the faint of heart.
la revedere (goodbye) and noapte buna (good night).  Now you know just about as much Romanian as I do.

Finding Our Way

Our dear family and friends,

We have had a great week.  We went to the town of Oradea which is about 75 miles away for a district training session.  It was our first good look at the countryside. It is very flat and all agriculture.  Im not sure what all they grow but the fields go on forever and since it is spring and so rainy all is lush and green. The photo is typical of the countryside if you can imagine that as far as the eye can see in any direction.  Quite beautiful.

The people here continue to amaze me with their kindness and generosity.  We visited a wonderful  sister yesterday.  She made this incredible dinner of chicken breasts that were breaded with spices that would make colonel sanders want to reevaluate.  There was also a delicious rice dish with mushrooms.  Lucky for me she made a lot and I was there with two young sister missionaries and Ginny.  So she kept suggesting that I eat more so what could I say I DID. She is known to be a good cook and she sure proved it to us. She lives on the fifth floor and the building had no elevator.  She has to climb those stairs several times a day. Makes us grateful for our puny 47 stairs to our third floor apartment.   This sweet sister has a small balcony full of beautiful flowers of all kinds, she gave Ginny the lovely orchid in the picture below.  We hesitated to take it but she insisted.  We will see how long it lasts in our incapable hands.  Very, very, very thoughtful though..

I  thought I would include a few pictures of our everyday life.  First a picture of Ginny with the sister missionaries.  They live close to us and on the same road so we get to walk home with them sometimes from the church.  This is the most scenic spot on our walk home.  We often just walk to church.  I am guessing the round trip from home to church is about one and a half miles, maybe two, but pleasant and a real easy walk.  The walking and the stairs help keep us in shape.  Only very tall apartments here have elevators and the elderly really have a struggle. They have minimal provisions for the disabled here.

Next our clothes dryer.  This is the way almost everyone dries their clothes.  It means you have to do laundry often or you overwhelm the capabilities of the dryer.  We often think of Brandons laundromat and those huge 50 pound machines he has.

And last but not least another domestic goddess picture.  I insisted Ginny take this picture for posterity.  It will forever prove that I do indeed know what to do with the clothing that comes off our drying rack.  Its a hoot if you want to know the truth. 

Well its late and we have many new adventures planned for tomorrow so we  will turn on the heater (can you imagine) and get some rest.  
Post you later.  
Elder Alston

Adventures

April 21st, 2014

Dear family and friends,


We are here!  We arrived in Bucharest on Tuesday the 15th.  It was so good to finally be in Romania after the first 5 days in the MTC in Provo, the weekend in Salt Lake, and flying out on Monday the 14th. We figured out we were awake for 30 hours getting over here.  We then spent 3 days in the mission home with President and Sora Hill in Bucharest.  The Hills and the senior missionary office couple did a great job showing us around Bucharist and letting us know what to expect.

Then off to the train station for a real adventure!  An overnight sleeper car across Romania to our area.  This was a ten hour train ride.  It stopped at every town to let people off and on all night.  Our compartment had bunk beds in it.  They were short!  Poor Lanoy did try to sleep all folded up.  Our luggage took up the rest of the space so we were kind of wedged in there.  We did eventually arrive in Timisoara, and were greeted by a wonderful group of welcoming missionaries!  -Ginny

To begin with we realize that there are many who will view our blog who are not of our faith.   As we write we will not be trying to explain all the vocabulary that will undoubtedly be unfamiliar to you.  I hope you enjoy the story and can either look past these phrases or if you are curious as to what they mean you can ask one of our staff members in the dental office or one of our children or grandchildren what we meant.  Though most of our dental staff are not members of our church they know enough to get you to  the person that can help clear things up.  We will lovingly refer to these things as a "Mormonism."

It is spring here and it is beautiful.  It has rained everyday we have been in the country, mostly slow gentle rain but we did get caught in a rain/hail storm. By the time we got home we were soaked.  So far we have no car and are still living in a hotel.  We signed a lease on an apartment today and hope to  be able to move in in a couple of days.  The church is about a mile away and the Centru, city center which is pictured below, is about a mile and a half.  We spend a lot of time at both places so we typically walk three to six miles a day.  We were walking several miles a week in preparation for what we knew would be a lot of walking and we are so glad we were prepared.  The walking is really quite enjoyable and as you can see from the picture the scenery is quite beautiful.

Many have voiced their concern for our safety because of our proximity  to Ukraine.  Though there are some concerns for the church members in Moldova, the Eastern boarder of our mission, we have been assigned to serve on the far Western border.  We are only about 50 miles from the Hungarian border and quite far from the border with Ukraine.  So don't worry we feel quite safe.  Some of the people here are fearful that Russia will try to take the country again.  They have been free from communism for 21 years now and most do not want to return to the way it was before the revolution.

Romania and Moldova are among the poorest nations in all Europe and as such face many of the perils of poverty stricken areas around the world.  Though I would not categorize them as third world they are definitely a second or maybe second and a half world country.  It really makes you appreciate what we have in the united states.

Before I close for tonight I thought I would share with you a few observations and experiences we have had in the short time we have been here.  First the culture.  As you can imagine there is so much to get used to.  They kiss on the cheeks when they see you first on the left and then on the right.  The first time it happened to me it was from a man.  Interesting cultural experience.  This is generally done only after they feel they know you well enough to greet you in this fashion. The men will kiss a woman's hand as a greeting.  The people especially women really dress up when they go to the Centru or out in the evening.  They wear these huge high heels and walk on old cobble stone streets, I honestly don't know how they do it.  Though food is plentiful and you can get almost anything you want in the grocery store, the poor still struggle and there seem to be many who struggle. I recently enjoyed a meal of cabbage, mashed potatoes with gravy, and chicken parts including liver, kidney, heart, stomach (I think) and other unidentifiable parts. 

The people are wonderful.  They are gracious, helpful, and have been  very kind to us.  It is so fun to try to speak the few phrases we have learned in Romanian.  They will get a huge smile on their face and you  know you just slaughtered it. Eventually we get our point across and we are on our way to our next adventure, and there seems to be one after another.  We are looking for ways to be of service to these amazing people. And we pray the Lord will guide us in the way we should go. We are working hard and leaving the rest to him.  Our guiding scripture is Proverbs 3:5-6 which says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto your thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths." Our prayer and confidence is that He will do just that.

Noapte Buna (good night)

Lanoy

PS

The other picture below is of Elder and Sister Hunt and Ginny and I.  The four of us totally overwhelmed this tiny elevator and we were stuck for 45 minutes.  This was the best picture we could get of the four of us. The emergency bell did not work but we were eventually rescued and all is well.

1st day

April 7th, 2014

Our first day at the MTC.  We had a wonderful day.  Senior couples are treated great here.  We were registered and shown to our room.  Its a very nice new room with even a sitting area.  Quite different from what we expected.  There are some 1800 missionaries here but somehow everything runs so smoothly.  We had mostly orientation today, but begin early tomorrow morning with the Preach My Gospel training.  We loved meeting all of the other seniors, and found we had much in common with most all of them.  There were 180 senior's, and only 5 couples were going out of the country.  It's going to be a fun week, and we're really enjoying the comforts of the U.S. while we can.

My observations were very simple.  First, I am married to the prettiest companion of all.  I really feel sorry for all those other less fortunate senior elders.  Second, we ate lunch with all the young missionaries.  they all seemed to be having a great time, talking and laughing ,
the place was so noisy  it was just fun to watch. I couldn't help but wonder why that was the case here and not elsewhere.  When I returned to my room that question was still on  my mind when I observed we have no television in our room.  It dawned on me that the reason for all the interaction among the young people was because they had no electronic devices at all. No phones, iPads, computers, television etc.  I was reminded of how it used to be when we all had to talk to each other and how much fun it is to just sit and visit.  Guess I am really older than I feel.  Great day, Spiritual day, Fun to be alive day.  Te iubesc.