06/06/06 --- No, not the end of the world, but definitely A BIG SURPRISE!

"What!" he said, "you didn't buy this for me??"
"No!," I had nothing to do with it! Your missionaries all chipped in a little bit and bought it for your birthday!"
"You're nuts!" said President Ashby looking at each of the Office Elders and Assistants. "I can't believe it---you're nuts!"

Well, believe it. He was speechless. At first he thought I bought the birthday surprise and didn't put it past me to be crazy enough to buy him his very own gypsy wagon. But when he found out all 120 missionaries chipped in, bought it, and wanted him to have the best birthday in his life, he was beyond surprise. He didn't know what to say.

Ever since coming to Romania John has stopped and looked at these unusual wagons. He kept saying he was going to figure out how to get one home someday. Well, his missionaries made it a Top Secret job, called it "Mission Possible - Red Wagon", and under our very noses bought and delivered it to our back yard where they quickly assembled all the pieces and had it waiting for him after our Zone Conference interviews in Bucharest. Every missionary signed the Romanian flag and wished him a Super Happy Birthday!
Elders Andrus, Bartholomew, Facer, Irion and Fraham put the wagon together in only 45 minutes on the night before his birthday. Tuesday morning, June 6th, the elders came over really early to "make him breakfast" as a birthday surprise. They handed him a plate of eggs and told him they wanted him to eat on our little patio. He went outside and got the shock of his life!
Now, the rest of the story......after the big surprise, the office elders and Assistants hurried home to clean up and dress for the day but to their dismay discovered they had locked themselves out of their apartment! We were leaving on zone tour and they needed to hurry. After four hours of everything they could think of they finally went on top of the Bloc (apartment building) and with a rope lowered Elder Fraham down to one of their open windows! Elder Fraham kicked open the window, flew through a nest of hornets and made it in the apartment!
You may be asking yourself if this is an approved missionary activity.....NO! NO! and NO! Thank goodness nothing happened to them and, yes, we had to go over missionary approved activities with them!

Well, to say the least, it was a fun day and very humbling for us to think that all of the missionaries, without taking anything away from their work, would organize and plan such an extravagent birthday. We tried to get them to let us pay for the wagon but they absolutely wouldn't. They claim it wasn't very expensive with 120 missionaries chipping in.

What a day! One we will never forget!