Happy Easter from the East to the West.

Romania does not celebrate Easter till the first Sunday in May which is the Orthodox day for Easter.

Our week started out cold but clear and quite beautiful.  

Our Front yard has so many spring flowers that I remember from Utah where we lived over 30 years ago.  Phoenix has daffodils whose bulbs don't cook in the summer.  But everything else lasts for only one season there.

Our front entry banister is not white.  We got a late spring snow on Thursday.  We woke up to many flowers bent down to the ground with the weight and many more trees looked like they had white blossoms.  At least for a few hours.

We had just bought a few more flowers to go in the church planters but decided not to plant them till it warmed up and dried out a little.

By evening the snow had melted and the flowers survived beautifully.

Opening a 30 pack of eggs often reveals items you'd never find at home.  I've scrubbed and scrubbed on what looked like manure on an egg.  I guess they let such things go because you simply can't get it off.  We think it is cooked on or something.  But to find a brown feather, that was a first.

English classes started this week instead of next.  We did not have sign ups and the word may not have gotten out to all our past students who were expecting classes to start next week.  Tue we only had 6 in our beginning class and the other classes were equally small.  We loved it having such a small class.  Each student got much more individual attention.  (no picture)  Sat. was the second class and turned out to be a beautiful day.  Our numbers were down even more. It will be interesting to see if we get our usual turnout this coming Tuesday.  We'll take whatever we get however.

Thursday was a ward activity.  At home we have two puzzles of the United States that we have competitions with to see who can put them together the fastest.  Here we found two puzzles of Europe and the ladies challenged the gentlemen to a contest.  

 We won, as you can see.  It was a good way to learn a little about European geography.

Refreshments were doughnuts.  The Sisters had fun learning how to cut out and cook.  The elders had fun eating and creating odd shapes, at least for a doughnut.

Surprised to find this grave yard so close to our home in Selembar.  Selembar (pronounced She lem bar) is mostly new homes.  The head stones were gigantic compared to those at home unless you pay a lot of money.  Sat. many family members were planting and weeding their family's "spot".  

Last week's hair style isn't as severe.  Back to my usual look.

Went with the Sisters to visit this 81 year old gentleman in their neighborhood.  His wife died about 5 years ago and he is so lonely.  We showed him the Easter initiative film.  He said he felt such peace with us there.  We didn't understand a lot of the hour conversation but it was a sweet visit and the sisters translated a little for us.  We love making a difference in people's lives.

At the base of the bill that contained the original mote for the city was a beautiful spring tree.  Sat. was clear, bright and so cold but fun to try and capture the beauty.

The Craciuns are our experiment.  This was our third week of the twelve week Self Reliance class.  Because they speak English well we are priming them to be able to teach the class after the material is available in Romanian some time this summer.  They both have a business and say they are really learning some great things to help their businesses grow.

Sunday we had a District visitor for Relief Society.  I didn't think to get a picture at church with  Monica Kiss and the Relief Society sisters: one Relief Society President and three missionary sisters.  Here we are dropping her off at the bus for her ride back to Cluj.  Monica has been a member for 16 years.  She was introduced to the church in English class.  She has three children and says next time she comes she will bring them.  I told her to give us enough time to prepare a Primary for them. 

This Easter we want to share this video with you 

https://www.mormon.org/easter?cid=HP_SU_3-13-2016_dMIS_fSPC_xLIDyL1-A_.  

Let us all find new Life through Jesus Christ.   - Hallelujah.