Remember the two old hecklers on the Muppet Show......

Well, they're alive and well and serving a mission in Romania!

Elder Patton and Elder Wahlquist



Here they are on a happy outing to McDonalds.

Missionaries enjoying Buc's first snowfall.

Elders Johnsen, Gunter and Cross in the Church parking lot.



Good Gifts

Friends and family have been very generous in supplying us with the basic necessities of life that we can't find here - like chocolate chips and brown sugar.  However, this Christmas season we received some special gifts.

Each missionary received a can of A&W rootbeer for Christmas from President and Sora Hill.  The only missionaries that weren't moved almost to tears were those from outside of America.  We had rootbeer floats using the first can on New Years Eve.  Maybe we'll wait for our anniversary to enjoy the other can.

There is a wonderful American family in our branch that let us pick out something from their food storage shelves.  This is what Brent chose.  Ah, the memories!  If only we could find Spam here.

And here is what I chose.  "Fat Bars" baby!!!!!!

Elder Cross is one of our beloved missionaries.  He is also a fellow Coloradian/Coloradoan/Coloradan.  His mother, who must be a wonderful human being, sent this to me all wrapped in Christmas paper.  This means another batch of chocolate chip cookies.  Thank you, Sister Cross!

And speaking of missionaries.......

We invited our district to a hot cake and bacon breakfast the Monday after Christmas.  We were going to eat and watch a Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert on tv.  Unfortunately, the concert time was incorrect so we missed it.  But they seemed to enjoy the hot cakes and bacon. 

Every six weeks is transfer day and we always try to take a district picture.  This transfer we lost our district leader, Elder Nelson (second from the right on back row). 

NOT A GOOD GIFT!

While we were cleaning out a closet at the church we found this doll.  It is just too amazingly creepy to ignore.  Don't you think she belongs in a "Toy Story" movie?

BTW if you have not received a personal thank you for something you have sent, it has not arrived.

Our Romanian Christmas

We started playing Christmas carols at the beginning of November and the P-day after Thanksgiving we put up our little Christmas tree.  Please take note of the nativity that our grandaughter Clara made. She told us that the reason there is only one wiseman is because the other two took a wrong turn on the way to see baby Jesus. Turns out they weren't so wise after all.  So the one wise man brought all three gifts.

The first week of December we took a trip to the city of Arad with the Howells.  He is a counselor in the mission presidency and we have been asked to help them with leadership training.  It was nice to see another part of Romania.  Because it is a two day drive we spent the first night in Sibiu which is a beautiful city in the mountains.  They had their Christmas decorations up and we took a stroll through their city center (centru).

A choir, wearing traditional costumes, was singing in the town square.

Lights on the cobble stone walkway.

The square was lined with booths selling everything from yummy toasted nuts to lamb skin slippers.

Back in Bucuresti the Christmas decorations finally started showing up. Evidently they don't start decorating until the 1st of December.  The city is full of round abouts and they all have a fantastic decoration of some kind.

We went to a Sector hall to watch one of our YSAs sing in a chorus.  Ioana is the 5th person from the left wearing a choir robe.  The performance was free and began at 5:00pm.  They did a terrific job and the last few carols were in English.  We were some of the youngest people in the room!

Two days before Christmas was the missionary dinner.  We had a wonderful time eating and visiting with the missionaries in the two Buc zones.  Have we mentioned how much we love these people?

Christmas Eve day we spent the morning walking in a park with the senior office couple, the Pattons.  This is the fresh pine bough covered booth where children visit Mos Craciun (Santa Claus).  We're not sure what Romanian fairy tales these  people out front are from.

They decorate their trees a little differently than we do.

The park was lined with fun displays for the children and note the booths in the background.

We don't know quite how to explain this picture.  While we were walking in the park, all of a sudden there were about 15 young men dressed in Mos Craciun outfits running past us to the top of the little hill that is in the middle of the park.  This the very spot where Elder Russel M. Nelson dedicated the land of Romania for missionary work in February 1991, less than 2 months after the fall of the communist regime.  Every missionary is brought to this little hill on their first day in the mission for a short service. 

We spent Christmas Eve at the home of the American family in our branch.  This is Elder Pettit, our zone leader, helping with the reading of the Christmas story.  He is Samuel the Lamanite and yes, those are Jack Sparrow dread locks.

Here we are with the Pattons, President and Sora Hill, their son Joseph and us.

On Christmas morning we went to sacrament meeting with a lovely program of music and the spoken word.  Then all the missionaries in Buc went to an orphanage where we spent time visiting with the children.  Then we sang some Christmas carols to them.

Then the older children sang for us.

It was a fine Christmas!























Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head

When we were planning the Christmas dinner for two zones of missionaries (50), it became clear that stove and oven space was going to be limited.  After taking an unscientific survey of our district we found that their favorite potato dish was funeral potatoes - except for Sora Wilson who is from Australia and had never heard of them.  So I found a recipe for crockpot cheesy potatoes that looked delicious, easy and didn't take up any oven space. Then I discovered that they don't have bags of frozen grated or cubed potatoes here.  But they do have potatoes so how hard can making frozen grated potatoes be?  Off to the piata to pick out 80 spuds (about 45 lbs.) we go.  We spend hours washing, peeling, grating and putting them in our treasured gallon ziplock bags. We put half the bags in our little freezer and the other half in the freezer across the street at the chapel.  Job well done!  But wait, there's more.  When we check them the next day the potatoes have all turned black or brown.  I guess Birds Eye has a flash freeze process we had not considered.   

On to Plan B........

So now we must solve the "spud" problem......what to do, what to do?   Back to the piata we go for 80 more potatoes.  The morning of the party we wash, peel, slice and put them into buckets of cold salty water.  Then 1 1/2 hours before the dinner is to be served, we race home to start boiling and mashing.

We walked into the serving room with our pans of mashed potatoes at exactly 6:00pm.  However, when we got home that night at 11:00pm we found that angels from on high had not come into our kitchen while we were gone.

The Dinner



                       Remains of the Dinner

The missionaries managed to eat almost everything on the table.  After the dinner they were allowed to take home left overs and the rest disappeared.  Thanks to all the Senior Couples in the Buc zones we served an almost traditional Christmas dinner.  Instead of turkeys, we had chickens and pork roasts in place of ham. There was the traditional red jello (thanks Jennifer!) and corn.  Delicious glaced carrots replaced yams. We even had dressing, green bean casserole and gravy.  We love our missionaries and they let the seniors walk away from the kitchen without looking back.  They had that building spotless by the time the night ended.

And because we just couldn't resist..........

Romanian Gothic

Craciun Fericit!















Someone Is Walking on My Sunshine.....or My Shoes are On a Three Year Mission, but I'm Not!

Upon arriving in Bucharest we were taken to the Mission Home where we were given a folder with good information for missionaries to know.  One full page was devoted to ingrown toenails.  I have never had an ingrown toenail in my life and have done lots of walking so I ignored those instructions.  The shoes I brought with me were chosen carefully and I loved them.  However, it became evident rather quickly they were not up to the task.  Within just a few weeks I had my first ever ingrown toenail.  Is this in the category of TMI?  Sorry, but I continue.  We found a Skecher store where there was a beautiful pair of shoes just calling out to me and my painful toe.  After putting them on I danced around and said "this is like walking on sunshine!"  We walk a lot here and about two weeks later my left ankle just collapsed.  It was freaky.  My ankle was on the ground.  Brent had to practically carry me home.  We immediately contacted our own personal orthopedic surgeon (Dr. Marc) who perscribed rest and an ankle brace.  After a few weeks my ankle seemed to be strong again so I put my lovely new shoes back on and went for a walk.  Sad to say the ankle did not cooperate.  So I boxed the shoes up and gave them to Sora Patton, our office missionary and told her to help the shoes find a good home.  Several days later our new mission president's wife, Sora Hill, came limping into a staff meeting complaining that the shoes she brought to Romania were hurting her feet.  Sora Patton happily gave her my shoes and now her feet are happy. And she looks great in them!

 I have gone back over the ingrown toenail instructions and follow them faithfully!

And speaking of Sora Hill......

Here we are helping with breakfast for a zone leaders conference.  I think Elder Wahlquist looks smashing in his apron.  And believe me, it gets lots of use.



Idle Hands are the Devil's Workshop, Busy Hands Make Hats!

When I received a set of hat looms and yarn from good friends and family, I decided that I should relearn how to use them so that I could explain the process to our YSAs.  However, once I got started I couldn't quit.  I was hooked (pardon the pun)!  We also found yarn at several places here in Bucharest.  Now, over 50 hats later, it is time to turn the looms over to whom they were originally intended.

Elder Wahlquist was kind enough to model one for me.  I think he looks very spiffy and his ears are warm.  The Humanitarian Aid missionaries have assured us they will be placed on some little cold heads soon.



Carpet Cleaning Romanian Style

When we decided that our two area rugs needed cleaning we called a carpet cleaning company.  The cost of them coming to our apartment was going to be about the same as buying new rugs so we looked for an alternative plan.  We noticed that there were rugs hanging on the fences and walls at many of the car washes.  I just thought they were selling rugs as well as washing cars.  But then we discovered the Romanian word for carpet and saw that they washed rugs and charged by the milimeter.  So on a beautiful fall day we borrowed the mission van, loaded up our two rugs and went to the car wash.

We were told to come back in two days and pick up our rugs.  The sun was shining, it was warm, what could possibly go wrong?

We woke up the next morning to a cold downpour.  We raced to the car wash and there were our rugs hanging on the fence in the rain.  We decided that we would take them home, turn up the heat and turn on the fan.  What could go wrong?



When we got the rugs home we put them over chairs and tables to help with the circulation.  Within minutes we had water pouring down on the floor.  We used all our towels to soak up the dripping water.  We relaxed and thought "what could go wrong now?" At first I thought the neighbors were cooking cabbage.  There is a traditional dish here that is made with cabbage that has been soaked in brine for weeks.  Then we realized that it was our rugs that had turned sour.  Happily after a week the rugs were dry and a little bit cleaner. But next time we buy new rugs!