Our agenda this past Saturday and Sunday

I kept forgetting what the different Romanian words meant.  We finally wrote in our own language so that we could figure out when we would be serving dinners.  On Sat. the Elders were excited to buy pizza at Dominos, a new restaurant from America that just opened.  On Sunday we brought food for the branch members that we made.  

Saturday was really busy.  We not only had English and Self Reliance class with the Craciuns but took the Elders shopping for the ingredients to make a chicken, spinach lasagna that they were excited to make for Sunday dinner.  We were also planting flowers along the West side of the church property.  It will be so beautiful in a few weeks.  In the mean time I'm not going to depend on rain for their success.  It's suppose to be a warm week with no rain predicted for over a week.  I have my bucket for watering by hand.

Sat. at five was the Romanian rebroadcast of the Women's Conference from the previous week.  We had 30 minutes for our Pizza then we had Sat. morning Conference from 7-9 pm.

We had three investigators and several branch members.  

But for now lets go back to the first of the week.  Monday Mihi wanted all the missionaries to help him in his garden.  He is the older gentleman with half a foot that bikes around and is always in need of service.  When we woke up to rain the other missionaries found other things to do.  We decided to see if we could find Mihi to tell him another day would work better for everyone.  He must have decided that himself because we never did find him at Liars bridge.  We did get some interesting pictures however.

View from the street that goes under Liars bridge which used to be a river of sewage.

Monday night is Family Home Evening with the Browns for those who don't have a family.  We weren't sure of the turn out but were pleased that three members came and the Elders who didn't have other commitments.  One member, Alex we are hoping to help prepare for a mission.  The members don't know the Book of Mormon very well so we feel like we are doing what we did in Uganda, helping them learn to read, understand and love the Book of Mormon..

Wed. drove the three hours to Cluj for Zone conference again.  It works well to go there as it would be 6 hours to Aradia, the other town in the zone.  Cluj is the middle town.  

 We weren't checking books or have any other assignment which gave us a chance this time to learn and be inspired by the conference speakers.  Our featured speaker was a business man from SLC, Bro. Walter Plums (far left).  He and his wife were helping refugees in Iraq.  What hair raising experiences.  He was also mission president a few years ago in upstate New York.

Zone activity was walking up to a stranger and have a meaningful conversation with the goal of getting their phone number.  These missionaries did well.  They've had a lot of practice.  I learn every time we are together.

 Mihi at his garden.  We finally were able to connect up with him on a beautiful Thursday afternoon.  Heavy coat time is over.  It was such a lovely day with a warm breeze.  Love it. There are no out buildings at the public garden but Mihi has put one together to store his tools and seeds in.

 Mihi needs a cain to get around.  He lost part of his foot in an industrial accident many years ago.  It would probably only cost twenty American dollars to have the whole area plowed but to Mihi that is really expensive.  He limps along swinging a big hoe turning over the ground.  Here he got Rand to dig an area for him.






Teaching me what he wanted me to do with the onion starts was a little comical.  I remove the weeds in my garden and he didn't want me to do that.  Not speaking any english and our limited Romanian it got a little strained till I finally got what he wanted me to do.

 Rand more than doubled the area Mihi has to plant.  We're all committed to go again this week.  There weren't many onions left to plant so not sure what he'll have us doing.  He got the missionaries in trouble last month helping him dig seedling trees at the park to move to his property.  Mihai claims they are just cutting them down so why can't he have them.  Hmm   

 Thursday we had a cooking class and I taught the Sister's how to make Arick's Italian lasagna for Sunday dinner.  We made one lasagna for our lunch.

With spring now in full bloom we are needing to weed.  The edge of the property was turning into an eye sore so we dug weeds leveled several sections with rocks to keep the soil in place so we can plant flowers on this steep drive down to a basement garage.

 Ready for the flowers.  Hope we can find what we want Sat. morning.

Thursday and Friday we were here without the junior missionaries who stayed behind to do splits with missionaries from Cluj and Aradia.   Feeling like we needed a break we went to a restaurant called, El Gringo.  I actually ordered a burrito.  First one I've seen here.  It was pretty good except the beans were on the cold side.

There sign even has a saguaro cactus in the design.

Now we're ready to plant with some fun bulbs and a pretty smelling plant I never heard of.   One of our English students came  while I was planting and we laughed about the different plant names and how similar their names are.

 This cherry tree is just starting to flower.  It grows in the back yard over the sunken patio.  It is going to be almost impossible to pick anything as it has grown way to high.

Sat. between the Relief Society Conference and the Sat. morning conference we had Dominos pizza from the new restaurant just opened.  We had a good turn out for a Sat. night.  Our session ended at 9pm due to the 10 hour time difference.

 So the english speakers watched conference in the Branch President's office on our laptop.  The members watched the Romanian translated in the chapel.  You can see the Craciuns through the open door.  Priesthood session started Sunday at noon followed by the Sat. session.  Rand and I were worried members would show up at 10 forgetting it was General Conference so we came early to welcome and invite to return later.  We had four but only one stayed.  

 We had several investigators who joined us for the sessions and some stayed for our lasagna dinner provided by the missionaries.  We do a lot of eating at the church these days.  The girl on the far left is Emma.  She is from Brashov and knew the YA we knew in Iasi.  She just came to visit before taking a job in Spain.  She will be gone 6 months.

 We had to move outside to take advantage of the wonderful spring weather.

The Elders made a chicken spinach lasagna.  They are quite the cooks.  I need to get their recipe.

Mihi was at the church almost as long as we were.  He was one that came for church at 10.   The last session was over again at 9pm.

These large blossoms are all over town.  Haven't found anyone I can ask what they are but we're all so glad we don't need our winter coats any longer. 

 We were told there are still wells in Romania but mostly in people's back yards.  We went to buy honey from a neighbor who sells from her home and there we spotted one right in her back yard.

We still have one more session of conference to watch.  We didn't want to stay up till 1pm to catch the last session.  We're so fortunate we can watch it at any time.  Check it out at: 

 http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/news-media-resources-186th-annual-general-conference.            

There were many wonderful speakers.  It's hard to chose just one favorite but I think my favorite was hearing Pres. Monson announce the new temples that will be built.  We're thinking the members of the church in the country of Equador  along with our grandson Bradley who is serving there as a missionary are celebrating.  We also cheer for another temple in Africa.