Sunday, February 14, 2010

20 YEARS IN ROMANIA



This week, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the dedication of Romania. Elder Russell M. Nelson came to this spot in this beautiful park in the middle of Bucharest on February 9, 1990, just six weeks after the fall of Communism. By a little lake is a hill built from stones and it is a special place because of this history. Tuesday was a beautiful morning, about 10 degrees, after 7" of new snow fell the night before. There were about 40 of us there, missionaries and Romanians, some of which witnessed the original dedication. As our feet became numb, we experienced a moving event. We sang, and then one by one, Romanian members read their assigned text of the dedicatory prayer, in Romanian.
As missionaries, we love this place because on the first day of our mission, we were brought here by President and Sora Lundberg and told about the dedication. When missionaries end their mission, they are again brought here, this time to reflect and report on the great experience the mission has been.


We were the first to arrive so we snapped these pictures of the virgin snow. You can barely see the rock out-cropping.


It was a Winter-wonderland.


The District President, Presidentele Doru conducted the meeting.


I snapped this pic of Elder Frandsen. His mom will love it!



Elder Bailey set up this picture. He is a great Elder, going home in 2 weeks!


Sora Radu is a lovely Romanian and one of our favorite friends.

Denny and President Doru are "joined at the hip"! Elder Dummar is more serious!


Afterwards, Joshua Lundberg (10) and Denny (63) threw a few snowballs. Denny started it, as you can see!



On Saturday, we had another celebration. There was a program and then a party, as only Romanians can party!
Left to right: Traian (the director of the program and a musical genius), Sora Turner, Traian's assistant and the Mission office secretary, the Van Ormans, office couple, the Dummars, Outreach couple, the Lineruds, Humanitarian couple. As you can see, we're great friends.


Missionaries! As you can see, we're also great friends!


"Holy Cow" is about all you can say about the loud Romanian music!


Romanians can dance and dance. Here, Presidentele Doru "cuts the rug".


We ate ourselves silly. Here, Elder Ferrin shows off the desserts.

6 comments:

  1. Looks like a party! The program celebrating 20 years of the church in Romania sounds cool. But I still miss you!

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  2. Yeah! There's my son. Thanks for a picture Sora Linerud! It looks like a very cold and authentic celebration!

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  3. That must have been quite the party! How fun!!! It's Suzette commenting under Jon's name.

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  4. The missionaries are so lucky to have you two! I'll bet you are making the mission a VERY fun place to be. We continue to miss you here, but look forward to your posts and all the photos. I thought you already knew how to party, but you may come home with even more tricks up your sleeve! Can hardly wait ;-)

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  5. They say Romanian parties can get out of control—looks like they were right!

    Looks like you guys are loving Romania and "loving the people." I bet they love you more!

    Love, JB

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  6. hi! i have to say thank you for your nice words that you think i am, to be honest i am not really a Genius i am a normal Person, i really enjoy to do music with you all, to share my gift from our Father!! and the way the director of the program was Sister Turner not me!!!
    with all my love to you, Traian

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