Dinner Party!

We were recently invited to a farewell dinner party for President and Sora Lundberg who will be going home to Utah on June 28 after serving 3 years here.  We don't know why we were on the guest list but we were thrilled to be asked.  The hostess is a great sister who was in the first group of three people to be baptized in Romania 20 years ago.  Her name is Doina Biolaru.  She and her daughter, Dana, who also joined the Church a few years later while in France, have been stalwart members here.  Doina is one of the translators for the Church.  She helped translate the Doctrine and Covenants into Romanian, worked on the hymnal and is now translating the songs from the Children's Songbook. The dinner party was lovely with a very eclectic group of guests.  Some were non members and English, French and Romanian were the languages being spoken. The menu was authentic Romanian food and everything was delicious.  Her home looks out toward the Palace that Ceausescu was building when he was killed.  It was called the "People's Palace."  Now it is where the Romanian Parliament meets.

Last March there was a commemoration on the 20th anniversary of the first baptism in Romania.  Doina had prepared a narrative and pictorial history for the event which was in Romanian.  Because she wanted to send a CD of the program to some of the past mission presidents and missionaries,she had also translated it into English. Because of her accent, she asked me to come and read the English script for the CD.  It was an interesting experience for me and the story is wonderful.  We were reminded again that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass."  (Alma 37:6)