Messy hair day in the Branch gladiola garden. I propped this red one up so it's beauty would show.

Sora Djahanbani waiting for her train at the Sibiu train station Monday morning.  The ticket has us there a full hour before we needed to be.  We were early and cold at 7am.  Hard to believe it's July and not February in Phoenix.

 The Sisters always have a lot more luggage than the Elders.  Sister DJ will again be companions with Sister Yost in Bucharest.  In fact, they will have another companion and work as a three-some till the new missionaries arrive in the middle of the transfer.

Elder Solberg (younger) needed a ride down from Cluj so his parents, Elder and Sora Solberg brought him here to Sibiu.  He will serve only 4 more weeks before he returns home.  Normally the elders don't need special attention but Elder Solberg (younger) broke his collar bone and couldn't lift his luggage.  Lucky for him his parents were there to give him a hand.  That also meant we had them for another night before they headed back to their last couple weeks serving in Arad.  We will really miss them when they go home.  We don't have much interaction with other senior couples, we're too few and far between.

Now the Elders are complete.  Elder Jerome, from Canada will be Elder Solberg's companion.  Sora Savoie was our companion Monday till her new companion that evening.

Sora Savoie with Sora Chandler on the right teaching a 30/30.  This means that the person wants a personal English experience so will then experience 30 minutes of English and 30 minutes of a missionary lesson.  Many members of the church here in Romania come from those whose first goal was to learn English better and found something more.

We have a lot of hope for our friend Florine.  He was baptized several years ago and seemed to have gotten lost in the system.  He is gaining confidence now in the gospel as he works on building his testimony.  We were able to go with him to make sure he got medication that would not affect him adversely.  He gave a really good talk this past Sunday.  We predict that he will be a pillar in the church one of these days.

Zinnies make such a pretty garden flower.  The roses are now taking a back seat to these lovelies.

I was the other speaker this past Sunday in Sacrament meeting.  My talk was on the commandments.  Several years ago Elder Richard L Evans (well maybe many years ago) gave a talk in which he asked "Do you think the commandments should be rewritten?"  His answer was, "no, they need to be reread".  He said Essentially the gospel is " counsel from a loving Father who says to his children, "you have limitless, everlasting possibilities.  You also have your freedom.  It's up to you how you use it.  This is what you can become if you take my advice -- and this is what will happen if you don't.  The choice is yours." The commandments really do mean what they say.  Just because many people no longer live by them doesn't change their importance.  

Every talk is translated so if I have a 7 minute talk it takes up 15 minutes.             Our next blog will feature our wonderful visit from Jacob and Leslie Findlay.  They were here for 5 days and we really packed in a lot.  We're in recovery mode.