The new normal.  Only 21 days till it begins to get lighter every day.  Don't see the sun till after 8 am and it sets around 5 pm.  Lots of fog clouds our view of the Palac and cathedrals.

This pretty pink cyclamen gives the living room a little cheer

Speaking of living room, this is our new furniture we ordered three weeks ago.  It finally came.  We also put up the drape to give definition to the attic room and to remind ourselves to duck if you go beyond this barrier.  Natalie gave us the Christmas tree when we were on our mission in

Uganda.  Easy to transport and easy to install.  Doesn't tip over either.

Since we are talking apartment, this is our kitchen cupboard before this week

This is our new kitchen cupboards.  Yea for more storage space to put things.

We also had this fun shelf installed above the kitchen sink.

Monday afternoon we drove the 130 kilometers to Bacou to take Elder Hellewell to

give this man a baptism interview.  Sora Wyatt and Rotsan were overjoyed 

to have a convert

The Smiths will be leaving in a couple weeks for home.

 We will oversee that branch also once they are gone.

As Relief Society Activity counselor I organized the Iasi Branch sisters

to teach the American sisters to make native Romanian food 

for the Christmas party.

Sister Lidia teaching how to make sarmale

I was watching and trying to write down the recipe so we would have it

to make another time.  I found the sisters here do not have

measuring equipment and are basically dump cooks.

Here we are rolling the meat combination in pickled cabbage and grape leaves.  After we rolled them we tucked in the two sides to seal for steaming.

Sister Lidia with a perfectly rolled grape leaf sarmale

After helping make sarmale at the branch kitchen we went as a group to 

the Stoica home to make Romanian potato salad and apple cake, 

a favorite Romanian Christmas dish.

My first bus ride.

,

The cake was easy, 22 TB of milk, oil, flour & sugar.  Milk and oil level and sugar and flour heaping.  

How easy is that?

Later she added 1 tsp baking soda in lemon juice mixed in with 3 very large eggs.  

I wondered if they were goose eggs they were so big.

Her cake looks so difficult so was interested to see how easy it was to make.

Wow, it was simple.  Just lay pealed and sliced apples on top of the cake batter 

and sprinkle with cinnamon.

The cake rises up between the apples and gives it that difficult to make look.

Such clever cooks.

The potato salad was more like a chicken salad.  Besides chopped chicken breast,

it had cooked then chopped carrots, parsnips and potatoes.  Then she diced pickles and added a quart of canned peas.

The most interesting was watching her make homemade mayonnaise.  Her non member husband stood right next to her taking every dirty dish immediately to the kitchen to wash.  What a team.

Cute shirt one of the students wore to the cooking class

If you want to know if the food turned out and was good?  It was delicious.  In fact Maria told us she would be making another batch for the party and she fed most of it to the hungry people who came to learn how to cook Romanian food.  What a happy bunch.

Sister Genevieve wanted the doughnuts to be fresh so we met again Sat. afternoon before the party.

Another dump cook.  Pretty difficult to follow.  Think I'll do a google search for a good doughnut recipe.  We didn't cut out a doughnut hole.  They were almost round when cooked, all the 

better to add a fun jelly inside.

After the demo the girls took turns cutting out and cooking.

Sister Genevieve gave me an apron to wear.  Afterward, when I gave it back 

she said it was a gift.  Great, I forgot to bring one.

Making trays of food so we can eat family style.  Pres. Pitelon insists that is the way

Relief Society room set up with 40 settings.  We had about 37 attendees

Elder Brown, Lidia and Sora Lunt dishing up the sarmale

Fancy topping on the potato salad dished up so every table of 6 had one.

Elder Brown checking out the reindeer at the mall

Never seen a false ceiling down a piazza before.

Main Christmas Tree on the piazza

Frozen Theme?

Another false ceiling over a block long.

O

Our english classes are going well.  We're averaging about 20 right now.  So happy when the spiritual thought was on the Book of Mormon Saturday and the father who brings his 5 year old son and 13 year old daughter took one.  Hope that they continue to be interested in learning about the church as they attend english classes.  We will be finished with this set of classes next Sat.

Our Spiritual Thought this week comes from Elder Eyring's talk in this past General Conference.     

     The companionship of the Holy Ghost makes what is good more attractive and temptation less compelling. That alone should be enough to make us determined to qualify for the Spirit to be with us always.     Just as the Holy Ghost strengthens us against evil, He also gives us the power to discern truth from falsehood. The truth that matters most is verified only by revelation from God. Our human reason and the use of our physical senses will not be enough. We live in a time when even the wisest will be hard-pressed to distinguish truth from clever deception.  I bear you my testimony that God the Father lives, that the resurrected Jesus Christ leads His Church, that President Thomas S. Monson holds all the keys of the priesthood, and that revelation through the Holy Ghost guides and sustains The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its humble members.