The THIRD week of June!

Oh yes, just thought you might like to see how Romanians love color! There is nothing boring about the homes in this country!

Today is Sunday and President Ashby went to Constanta with his Assistants. After interviewing several worthy men he called Alin Constantinescu as the new Branch President. President Gradinaru had been the president there for eight years and it was time to release him. He did a wonderful job and now the reins are turned over to President Constantinescu. During our time in Romania we have changed all the branch presidents except two. Many of them had served many years and it was time to make the changes.

Church is always interesting here. Today we had this investigator attend sacrament meeting in his traditional clothing. It was so fun to see him there. Just before the meeting started a member walked around the chapel with a tray of chocolates and gave everyone a treat. I found out later it was his birthday and he wanted to share it with all of us. La multi ani!

The Last Zone Council

At the end of each Transfer week we hold our zone council with all the zone leaders. At each council meeting we always invite two of our sister missionaries to participate and be involved in the leadership details of the mission. They often add very valuable insight to the mission business we deal with. Sora Harrison and Sora Garff were our guest sisters this week.

At lunch we serve them a wonderful lunch of lasagne, salad, rolls, vegetable and ice cream. (I think the lunch is a big reason they all show up....just kidding!)

This is the group of great zone leaders serving at this time: (not in order) Elders Sinson, Davis, Sumbot, Castro, Flanary, Ward, Armstrong, Miles, Rigdon, Grant, Loveland and Bringhurst. Also included are our Assistants, Elders Jepson and Rigby, President and Sora Ashby and Sora Harrison and Garff.

The Second week of June!

Transfer week!

"I'm ready!" exclaims Elder Woodhouse. Yep, it's time now....another great group of missionaries leave us and graduate back to their homes and a new life.

Elder Matthew Haddock, Elder Jordan Haddock (no relation!), Sora Kimberly Andersen and Elder Christopher Woodhouse go to Cismigiu Park for the last time.

President and Sora Ashby are a little emotional as they contemplate this being the last time they will take the home-bound missionaries to the park for their final farewell.

Elder Jordan Haddock looks over the "feast" and farewell dinner for our out-bound missionaries! "The best meal I've had in a month," he says.
Our farewell fireside was a fun evening.
The next day we met our three new Elders at Cismigiu Park. Elders Despain, Sandberg and Porter. They were a little tired but excited to be here and ready to go to work!
"Hey, Sora Ashby! Don't forget us!" yell Elder Ward and Elder Smith as they pose for a photo after dropping off a new boboc!

The first week of June!

The beginning of the month started out with President Ashby having the honor of setting apart two new missionaries. Elder Antonio Szauter went to Scotland and his brother, Catalin Szauter went to England.These two young men are from Romania but had no family and were raised in an orphanage. Because of his extensive charity work here, Brother Steve Worsley found these boys and, after getting to know them, he and his family sponsored them for the last two years so the boys could attend school in America. This great family taught these young men the gospel and both brothers decided to go on a mission at the same time. Before leaving they came back to Romania to get their Visa's and be set apart for their missions.

On the same day Sister Cristina Petrisor returned from her mission to England and President Ashby had the privilege of releasing this sweet sister. She was tearful but at the same time joyful to see her family!

Cristina her sister Gabi, their father and President Ashby.

June 6th was President Ashby's ??th birthday! Office Elders Rose and McKinlay surprised us with a wonderful chicken dinner and apple pie to celebrate! Sora Hirghiligiu and Sora Nelson chipped in and helped with the final touches.
Our "resident artist", Assistant Elder Rigby, drew a beautiful likeness of President and Sora Ashby to commorate the birthday.
"Ummmm, my favorite.....Apple pie! The best birthday cake ever!" exclaimed President Ashby.
Our dear friend, Sorin Stanciu, also celebrated with us. The birthdays that occur during our missions are ones neither we, or our missionaries, will ever forget.

Oh yes, and not to be forgotten, the movers came this week and we spent several days messing up the house, packing, throwing away junk and just getting ready to have them haul our stuff away!
THE WAGON....of course we packed it! It has turned out to be a big hassel because of custom laws but we are doing our best to get it home! It left on a boat and if the USA doesn't reject it, the gypsy wagon will be in Utah by August!

Our LAST Zone Conference Tour

These photos show all of our missionaries in their zones and the places we held zone conference during the last couple weeks of May 2008. The conferences were wonderful and the spirit was very strong. For our parent's sake, I am showing every conference and every missionary! See if you can find yours! Cluj-Napoca Branch building was the location of our first zone conference stop. This is the Transilvania Zone.

Tradition has it their that Assistants and President always wear the same Zone Conference tie. Elders Jepson and Rigby show off this Transfers tie.

Brother and Sister Mihai Iepure are expecting their first baby in July. These two are a strength to the Cluj Branch.

On our way to Arad for the second zone conference we stopped in Oradea and had a wonderful visit with Branch President Florin and Isabela Gembasu. Both are returned missionaries and are dedicated to building and supporting their branch. After arriving in Arad we held our Occidentala Zone Conference in the Arad Vila.

Sora McKnight, Petersen, Ashby, Jessee, Taylor and Harrison pose for one of our elders.

No, this is not a nuclear power plant! These are the towers they heat all the water in before they pipe it to the cities for thousands of homes. The government controls the hot water available to people.

President Fotea and his wife, Claudia, are the Branch President in Deva. (Our next stop on this zone conference route. We stopped to visit the branch and drop off supplies.)
It's fun to look at the church cemetaries and check out all the unique headstones. We finally arrive in Sibiu. It's a hot day so after interviews, we take the Sibiu elders advice, go to Centru and buy us each a 1 Ron ice cream cone....cheap and good!
Heading towards Brasov we go through Fagaras and can't help but take a moment to look at the beautiful old castle there.
The Brasov Zone....a great group of missionaries! This conference was held in the Brasov chapel.

Our special musical number was done by Elder Haddock, on the piano and voice, and Elder Harwood on the guitar. They sang a special farewell song to us and then did their own rendition of "We Are The Army of Helaman"....very talented!

That evening, after zone conference, our "past" Elder Banu :( took the Hanson's and I to a little house in a nearby village to visit a man known all over the country for his amazing sculptings.
His home alone was very entertaining but then we found......
a (very) Romanian Nativity set! We were so thrilled as many of the missionaries have looked for nativity sets here and they are just not to be found. Of course we each ordered a set from him and this treasure will long remind us of our time in Romania.

As we travel we stop in different cities to do interviews with the missionaries and deliver mail and supplies. On our way to Iasi we stopped in Bacau and while President Ashby was doing his interviews the elders challenged me to a game of ping-pong.....I did pretty well, considering!

After a day long drive our next stop was Iasi. Much to our surprise, the zone leaders chose this little gazebo in the middle of a lake for our conference. The Iasi zone is our biggest zone now and despite our best efforts we have not been able to rent a larger vila to house the branch and our missionaries. It was a rainy day but that too was a blessing as there were no people on or around the lake. It was very peaceful and quiet and a wonderful setting for our conference.



Quiet and peaceful. A beautiful place to feel the spirit.

The Rom-Est Zone missionaries. (Also includes our missionaries serving in Moldova)

Elder Stinson and Elder Toomey make me laugh as they try to pull off a stern look for the camera....so not like these two!
After leaving Iasi we drove to Galati to do interviews and speak in the Galati branch. This photo is of the Danube river. It is huge and we watched big oil tankers go down the river past our hotel.

Galati Branch President Prada, with his wife.
The Galati Branch
Evening on the Danube river
This tower overlooks the Danube.
Back to Bucharest! Zone Conference for the Sud-Est Zone.
Sora Poulsen, Lovell, Ashby, Kiss and Montague pose for Elder"Paparatzi"!
Next day in the mission home for interviews and cookies! Elder Johnson definitely had his share!
Elder Zemp teaching himself to play piano.
The cookie-brigade munch in the "garden" (a very tiny garden I might add!)

The Nord-Vest zone at the Mihai Bravu chapel.
Elder Platt learns how to make cookies. My zone conference talk was on the Word of Wisdom and missionaries eating correctly. I asked them all if they had their orange (or other fruit) for breakfast and if not they had to eat some before the cookies!

Elders Grant and Hale leave the mission home full (of cookies) spirit, and ready to work!