Blessings in Sibiu!

These two happy faces belong to Elder Castro (the junior companion) and Elder Haddock. They are our two elders working in Sibiu. Last week they had an Outreach Activity with the Hanson's from Ploiesti and over 50 people attended. Two weeks ago they had 29 people attend church there. This may not sound like much to you but last December this Branch was scheduled to be closed because no one in that Branch was coming to church. These two elders took the challenge from their mission president to put everything they had into turning this city around. They didn't take "no" for an answer and hit the streets running! The Branch members are coming back to church and last week these elders had 14 investigators attending with them. It proves that when you work with "full purpose of heart" the Lord can perform miracles through you!

I thought you might like to see what the "baptismal font" looks like in many of our small branches. This one is set up in the back yard of the vila in Sibiu. A couple of weeks ago Elder Castro baptized a woman in this font in bitter cold weather. It was lightly snowing. Elder Castro comes from the Naval Academy in Anapolis and he told us it was the coldest water he had ever set foot in. He didn't think he would be able to breathe until he got out. The woman got in and she too was cold. He said he baptized her and then found out from Elder Haddock that her foot had come out and he would have to perform the ceremony again. He said he was praying hard for this woman to not get too cold and courageously they both re-did the baptism. Elder Castro said that when the woman stood up in the water she smiled and said the water was not cold. She was not shivering and had a big smile on her face. Elder Castro couldn't believe it and then said he realized that the Lord had answered his prayers. He decided that next time he would also pray that he wouldn't feel the cold! This photo with Elder Castro and Elder Linsenmeyer (one of our Assistants) putting their hands on the water, is to show you that the water in the "font" is frozen solid.

Not only is it frozen on the top of the water but it is frozen all the way to the bottom! This, after only a couple of weeks of sitting out. Now they have to wait until the weather warms up before they can take the font down. (Maybe they'll have another baptism by then!) This is a little miracle from Sibiu but I must tell you that all of our elders are working hard in their different cities and the Lord is blessing all of us with great success. There's nothing like being a missionary!