A MISSIONARY CHRISTMAS

They say that a mission is a great place to spend Christmas. That statement took a while to sink in but once we realized that our grandchildren really were not on their way to Romania to pay a surprise visit, we began to enjoy the season. Bucharest is a beautiful place in the winter, if you look at the big picture. We were "blessed" with a beautiful snow storm which provided the ambiance.

This is a view of the center of the city. In the summer this is a green park and in the winter, it's a wonderland, complete with ice skating. In the distance is the "Palace of Parliament" built by the Communist leader, Ceausescu in 1984. It is the world's second-largest building (after the US Pentagon).

Mr. and Mrs. Claus

One of our NGO's invited us to a fundraiser Christmas concert in a beautiful Catholic church. We invited along all the senior couples serving in Bucharest to add to the donation. We started with dinner then walked 1 mile in the snow to get there. Then we walked back!

It was all worth it!

Our Christmas spirit spiked in an unexpected way.

Since including a short video clip in this blog of a little boy with a lamb on the Metro, I have been asked many questions. Yes, he was begging. You can pet his lamb for a price or just give him money. His mother was on the same train and she kept an eye on him. When someone gave him food or money, he would deliver it to his mom. As missionaries, we are told not to give money to beggars. This would make every missionary a target. In Romania, there are many poor people and many beggars and some of the poor stand on the sidewalk in the snow and try to sell carrots or radishes or flowers or cranberries. Sometimes, we buy just to buy. Our name tags have a special designation under our name: "Reprezentanta Umanitara" and it bothers us that we have to look away when a truly needy person asks us for a favor. We don't feel very "humanitarian"!

About a week before Christmas, my faithful Visiting Teacher in Spokane emailed me a quote from this month's message. She said it reminded her of us on our humanitarian mission. Thank you Lori, for this thoughtful gesture. It changed our mood, our purpose, our Christmas, our Mission.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

"Disciples of Christ throughout all ages of the world have been distinguished by their compassion . . . In the end, the number of prayers we say may contribute to our happiness, but the number of prayers we answer may be of even greater importance.

Let us open our eyes and see the heavy heart, notice the loneliness and despair; let us feel the silent prayers of others around us, and let us be an instrument in the hands of the Lord to answer those prayers."

So, on Christmas Eve day, we left our apartment with baggies that contained 2 oranges, some chocolate dipped pretzels, and walnuts. We also cashed in a larger bill for some smaller ones. We boarded a bus and started looking for people to cheer. To some we gave the food and to others we gave 3-5 Ron (a buck or 2). We gave nothing to beggars (to be perfectly obedient to mission rules!). Our goal was to bring smiles to faces of the downtrodden. It was the best Christmas Eve we've ever had. I had my camera ready for some but mostly, taking a picture would have ruined the moment. Enjoy the two pictures below.

The smile....she just couldn't believe Denny just walked up and handed her money! A whole $4!

This woman had a shopping cart full of Tripe (stomach of sheep). Her smile was our thanks!

We have so many stories from that day that will be in our Christmas memories forever.

It is true...A mission is a great place to spend Christmas!

Finally, Christmas Day ended with the missionaries calling home. Twice a year (Christmas and Mother's Day) missionaries are allowed a phone call home. Every room in our little apartment was occupied. As I watched the drama unfold, I was reminded how very special this phone call was and I learned something that disturbed me. Parents in the States look forward to the sound of their son's or daughter's voice. Missionaries, not so much! At the end of the hour, they acted unaffected. What's with that?

A Mission Holiday Tradition...making a mess in the senior couple's apartment

We love our missionaries and to show our love, we invited them over for some old fashion sugar cookie decorating and gingerbread house creating. (Notice how I'm switching verbs and nouns in a sentence...It's what happens when you learn a foreign language!) They had fun and we enjoyed the centerpiece for a few days until Christmas morning when they couldn't wait to destroy it and eat it.

PRIMARY SINGING TIME and how a simple FLIP camera saved the day

Today in Primary, I found myself as the one and only adult who showed up to teach four lively boys. My Romanian language skills are lacking for the moment and I wondered how I would keep their attention for two hours. I considered my options: stand on my head while teaching OR share my disco dance moves OR use modern technology in the form of a video camera to keep them entertained. After the video "choir practice", it was downhill from there!
It was a rough two hours but then I thought about other Senior Missionaries in developing countries who struggled today with similar circumstances. This is what we do and somehow we get by and love it, (when two hours finally end).

MINUNATA DIMINEATA

www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/58336/Romanian-members-bring-ancient-prophets-to-life-in-fireside.html"

(If you click on the link above, and the planets align, you somehow will go to "facebook" (don't ask why) then to the Church News site. It's all a mystery to me but it's the only way I know to do it!)

This week, in the Church News, we were thrilled to see coverage of the production, "Minunata Dimineata" in which we played very important parts. Denny was in charge of gracefully opening and closing the Book of Mormon "door" and I was in charge of the lights. It really was a wonderful event and the missionaries have had much success as a result. As always, when people stop to really listen to the message of the gospel, truth is recognized and miracles happen. There are 80 missionaries in the Bucharest Romania Mission and about 22 million people who live in Romania, a country roughly the size of Oregon. As we travel around this big city every day, people strain to read our name-tags and then they watch us. We ask some for directions or help in pronouncing a word and they are very helpful and curious. They ask what we're doing here and then most of them thank us for our humanitarian efforts and wish us good luck. After our conversation, we give them a "Pass-along Card" and explain how they can learn more. We have found most of the Romanian people are gracious and wonderful. As is in any big city, there are grumpy ones and some that look at us with disgust. We smile more broadly at those! Somehow, our little army of missionaries will attempt to reach everyone. If you think this is an impossibility, you don't know our missionaries!

Below are some pictures from the production "Minunata Diminata".

This is Bro. Florine who played the part of "Nephi". He is currently awaiting his mission call.

The cast

WE'RE FREEZING OUR BUTTONS OFF!

I just could not wait for P-Day to share the fun we're having in a typical Romanian winter. We're out in this every day but today we decided to make a video to get our minds off the misery. We needed to ship some signed documents back to our financial planner, Joel White. He sent us a pre-paid UPS folder and all we had to do was find UPS! Sounds simple? Watch the video!

I recommend this to anyone suffering in winter weather. Just park your car in the garage and use public transportation, run errands and film it. You could add more fun to the outing by taking along small children and shopping along the way. We feel sorry for snow-birds in Arizona. What a boring life! Don't forget your sense of humor.

HOLY SMOKES, UPS

RANDOM ROMANIA