We Opened Alexandria!

These are our two Assistants, Elders Irion and Andrus. As of yesterday, June 28th, we released Elder Irion and sent him along with Elder Shawver to open the city of Alexandria. They are not even in their own apartment yet and today they had their first "discussion" or I should say "meeting" and 120 people showed up! There was a combination of people who could hear and also people who could "sign" for those who are deaf! This was really exciting and we can't wait to see how the gospel will grow there. 

Couples meet in Sighisoara, Romania

This gives you a little taste of the beautiful, old city of Sighisoara. During the week of June 19th we took our ten senior couples and went there for a couples conference. It was awesome! The city is old and very beautiful. We stayed in a 300 year old, refurbished Inn where we met in the mornings for meetings and then spent the afternoons sight-seeing. We visited a factory where people made stoneware dishes to send all over the world. It was very interesting. The old buildings and churches are unlike any buildings the group of us have ever been around before. These couples are amazing. We have begun an Outreach program for YSA throughout the country and our couples are organizing it and making it happen in the cities they are serving in. We are also working very hard on our Branch training and spent time giving each other ideas and counsel. The couples in our mission are so valuable and do so much to help the church grow here. We just wish we had a couple for every city and every Branch in the country. We love them and appreciate their service so very much.
 

Fruits are in season!

Romania has wonderful fruits and vegetables. John can't help but stop and indulge himself as we travel throughout the country. This cute little lady had wonderful pruduce to sell and a sweet personality to go with it! 

Ashby Grandkids Visit Romania!

Hannah Hiner, Cobi and Zoey Sutherland arrived in Bucharest on Tuesday, June 27th to visit with their grandparents for a whole mission transfer! This was all made possible because three incoming missionaries kindly agreed to be their "Dads" for the long plane trip over here. Elders Valentine, Selck, and Canfield took good care of them and brought them safely to us. The kids couldn't believe how long the trip was. I think they have a new appreciation of how far away we are now. Since arriving they have been caught up in transfer week and all the meetings associated with it. They love the missionaries and are excited to be around them.
However, the heat and the humidity have been a bit of a shock. Our temperature today was 104 degrees with about 100% humidity. Hannah asked me why her skin felt to wet all the time.
The five of us are on the little hill in Cismigiu Park visiting the spot where Elder Russel M. Nelson dedicated the land of Romania for the preaching of the gospel in 1990.

There are many big old trees here and the kids had a great time climbing them and chasing the pigeons. It's so fun to have the enthusiasm of children around us again! We feel very blessed to have this opportunity to have a few of our kids sharing our mission with us this summer.
Airplane buddies!

Transilvania Zone

We started our Zone Conference on June 5th in Bucharest and, after John's birthday surprise hit the road for our other zones. These photos are the Transilvania zone which include the cities of Orades and Cluj-Napoca. The sisters in the zone are (back row-left) me, Sora Rasmussen, Sora King, Sora Lund, Sora Hanks and Sora Lords. Wonderful missionaries!

This is the whole Transilvania zone. At the conferences we shared a short birthday video with the missionaries and they were able to enjoy a little bit of President Ashby's birthday surprise. We try to make birthdays special and when a missionary has a birthday we make them tell us their most embarrassing moment and their favorite-ever birthday. Needless to say, my husband had to share this one!

 

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!

Let's Check this out!

As you can imagine, all the missionaries wanted to check out the gypsy wagon. Sisters Westwood, Huff, Durfee and Brandstatter get a kick out of imagining President Ashby driving his wagon down the streets somewhere in Utah

Elder's Irion and Andrus found a lost Romanian license plate while driving home one day and brought it to us, insisting our wagon needed its own plate! In Romania many wagons do have license plates. Wagons are as legal on the road as automobiles are.


Elder Curtis and Elder Bigler told us to be sure and keep this holey blanket. All we need is some hay and we're ready to go!