This may be our new view for the next few months.  Snow fell Thanksgiving night.  It has turned a little colder and we're bundling up more than ever.  We keep hoping our Arizona blood is thickening up.

Views from the church's 3rd floor window of the first snow.

We're living on the fourth floor.

Some areas of this neighborhood have gypsies living in it and looks 3rd world.

Not the best place for the church.

Their children can be pests and are not allowed in the church because we are told

they are taught to steal.  So sad.

Rand's new look/hat and red nose.

Julie keeps finding more cute hats.  This one

has a matching scarf that really helps keep off the cold.

Rand and I each teach an English class and we had to share the chapel.

Turns out the baptismal font in the back corner is portable.

We took it down so we would be more separation between our classes.

This is the poster we use in our classes.  The students all have

a mini poster they can study from between classes.

Our class is very basic and some of our students

decided to move up to intermediate.

Elder Brown and I each had about 25 students the first class.

The ideal is 6-8.  When we have smaller classes we

get to know the students better.  Better so we

can find ways to introduce the gospel 

to them.  These big classes are

not really what we want.

I snuck our my camera for this shot of our first class.

The kids in the back are facing left where Rand is teaching in the 

little offshoot room where the baptismal font was.

There was this older couple in class named Mikal and Sylvia.  I didn't get a

very good shot of them but they were so cute and trying so hard.  

I hope they come back.

Sat. was the second class.  On Tue. we had asked that half of them come for the 

second hour next time.  So Sat. we only had about 10-12 the first hour.

The second hour it was really raining and no one came.

It will be interesting to see who shows up this coming Tue.

Thanksgiving preparations

Beginning on Wed. the sister missionaries and two of the 

BYU girls came to the church kitchen to make pies.

We made pumpkin pie from Butternut squash.

They also made banana cream, apple and a chocolate

Again the spices come in tiny packages.

Not one bit practical

Hunted till we found a green bean casserole recipe from scratch.

No cream of "anything" soup here.

The only thing we didn't find was the dried onions for the top.

Rand is straining off the canned beans.  Next 

time we'll use frozen.

Crock pot stuffing.  We had to look hard to find sage.

We were so happy when we found it.  We even

found condensed milk.  It comes in 

a bottle.  Who would have

been looking for that?

We had to make our own bread crumbs.  

Bread here is so delicious.  Not sure

why but the bread crumbs took

3 days to dry.  Glad we

started early.

Sister Cutler making roles.

One batch turned out OK.

The other not so OK.

Scary as they had

never made

roles or pies before.

But their mashed potatoes were the best.

Sister Lidia from the branch agreed to do the relish plate

Her platters are works of art.

Sister Stoyka brought an apple dessert.  We hope she'll teach

us how to make it.  Her husband often comes with

her but is not a member.

We got our serving table all set up and the Branch President showed up 

with plastic serving bowls.  He wanted us to dish it all

up and put it on the tables family style.  

A little frustrating but we made it work.

While the members and guests were waiting we had a feather at each place setting for

them to write what they were thankful for and put on our turkey poster.

We have done that at home and it is a real treasure.

BYU girls and our thankfulness turkey

Our only picture of the 24 lb 8 oz turkey we cooked in the tiny oven.  

We finally found a pan it would fit in.  

The oven temperature was very erratic and we were worried. 

We wanted the turkey done correctly so we set our timer to run down

stairs every 20 minutes all day to up or lower the temperature.  

So happy when the turkey finally reached 90 degrees

just a couple hours before dinner time.

Answer to our prayer.  

Yes, I've lost 10 pounds since our arrival her 7 weeks ago.

Two long tables set up in the Relief Society room.  

We planned for 40 and

almost got that many with four investigators.

Our thankful Turkey

Some in English and some in Romanian

Friday we had to recover.  Later in the day we went shopping for a

linen closet we can keep towels and sheets in. 

A good relaxer to figure out how to

put it together.

The intermediate Saturday class 

taught by Sora Cutler and Lunt.

Sora Lunt had some health issues and we were worried they wouldn't get back

from the doctor in time to teach.  

They made it and Sister Lunt is recovering.

We need the missionaries to come to our class the last 10 minutes and give a spiritual thought

and prayer in Romanian.  With two teachers down that wouldn't have happened.

My Favorite Quote this week from our last General Conference was given by Elder

Vern P Stanfill in his talk Choose Light.

When we consider thoughtfully, why would we listen to the faceless, cynical voices of those in the great and spacious buildings of our time and ignore the pleas of those who genuinely love us? These ever-present naysayers prefer to tear down rather than elevate and to ridicule rather than uplift. Their mocking words can burrow into our lives, often through split-second bursts of electronic distortions carefully and deliberately composed to destroy our faith. Is it wise to place our eternal well-being in the hands of strangers? Is it wise to claim enlightenment from those who have no light to give or who may have private agendas hidden from us? These anonymous individuals, if presented to us honestly, would never be given a moment of our time, but because they exploit social media, hidden from scrutiny, they receive undeserved credibility.

Our choice to heed those who mock sacred things will distance us from the saving and life-giving light of the Savior. John recorded: “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”  Remember, those who truly love us can help us build our faith.

Hope that you have a great week and the beginning of the Christmas season.