This afternoon we went for a walk in the neighborhood.         My directions have been completely turned around                  but today our South facing window is starting to feel             right.  For the last two weeks North was South                         and South was North.

Yes the flowers I brought from Iasi are doing well in the in the South window 

(not North)  

And we are told that this field to the North of us 

sometimes will have sheep grazing.  Can't wait 

to see that.  The reason Romania doesn't have 

much lamb we are told is that Turkey (the country

not the bird)  wants all they can get and do get 

most of it.

Rand hadn't been to the Piazza so on P-day we had some fun.  

Ran into the Sister missionaries and a friend.  She let me take a picture of her shoes.

Not sure what kind of fashion statement they make but she said they were comfortable.

We wondered how old the stones were in this multi designed cobblestoned walkway

Met up with a member who lives in this 600 year old residence.  A German who came to Romania and made a name for himself.  Forgot his name.  

It now houses 13 apartments.  

It will be nice in the summer when the plants are leafed out 

we're thinking 

Maryana, an English student invited us to her home.  Originally we thought it was to hear the missionary discussions.  In the end she through a party for us to experience their greek orthodox traditions.  We ate dinner at the man table with her son who speaks fluent English.  His wife, baby and Maryana ate int he kitchen with the women.

We sometimes don't catch the names of the people.  Here is Maryana with her mother and husband who is reading the Book of Mormon.  The sister missionaries were so anxious to have a religious discussion with them but guess that can wait.

What kind of Greek orthodox tradition did she present for us you may be asking?  It was the anniversary of her father's death 6 years ago.  A Priest was there to lead the guests of that faith through prayers and other things where they all crossed themselves in unison.  We just stood reverently.  Not knowing what this all meant, we found out from her son that whenever his mother wants to have a party she honors her dead father.  It was sweet but strange to us. We were honored to be given one of the beautiful loaves of bread to take home.  The son's attitude was to humor his mother who asked us right at the front what we thought of Hillary Clinton.  The family is aristocracy in Romania and have all the beliefs of Europeans that think the government is there to take care of you.  We don't talk politics but it was hard not to tell them that we were Americans and believed in the American way.  What that was to them was interesting but neither of us gained a convert nor did we aim to.

This month will be the third anniversary of my dear father's passing.
I guess in our own way we do similar things to reverence his memory.

Sister Trebas has a beautiful voice and has purchased a guitar.  She was asked to sing Amazing Grace at the end.  She did it in English, then she sang in Romanian "I am a Child of God".  That brought tears to our eyes.  The priest is the one with the hat on the right.  Rand gave him a "Proclamation on the Family".  He didn't speak English so not sure what he thought but he took it.

Wednesday did not go well for me.  Guess I sat by the wrong people or something but I had a bought with the flue that left me in bed for the next three days.  

By Sat. I felt better and attended the English sign up at the church.  

Pictured below is the Beginning class with 26 new students.  Medium English had only about 6 and Advanced 1.  They tell us that the students that have been attending will return so again Rand and I will take the new students.  Our Mission President has asked us to add a new dimension to our teaching.  Since this will be our third time with the same material it is just the challenge we need.

Our church is in the old section of Sibiu as opposed to where we live in the new section.  This is a pool of water where we go to the right to get to the church. 

Same fountain from a distance.  Love the building behind.  Many ornate buildings with not nearly so many ugly communist block buildings in Sibiu.
Went with the Sisters to get lunch.  It really helped me get my bearings for that area.  Now I found I can even walk to the fabric store.  This was a great find.

Sisters always have a good idea.  After English sign up they put together a bulletin board.  They meant to get pictures of branch activities but it was some holiday and everything was closed.  Romanians love to have holidays and we can't keep track of them all.

Young single adult activity with games.

 Refreshments by Sora Brown to celebrate Valentines which the Romanians also celebrate.

We had a craft to make Sister Trebas happy.  The men weren't sure they wanted to do it but finally got into making a valentine card. It was fun checking out each other's best efforts.  Even Elder Brown made me a valentine card as well as me making him.  Kind of fun for everyone.

No one can love perfectly.  However, when we do our best to show love as unto Christ, we may fall but we can get up.  The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that the successful ones keep trying to get it right.  When their loving kindness is unsuccessful they keep dealing with the issues and with God's help they can learn to love as he loved.

Happy Valentines from Romania!