January "cold" from Romania

First off, may we say we now know what "cold" means. In Romanian the word is "frig" pronounced freeg and that it is. Okay, that done we will move on to hoping this New Year finds each of you continually working on your goals for the year. We are grateful for a time to renew and recommit.

There are many churches here in Romania----mostly Penecostal and Orthodox. Every village has a beautiful church that stands in a prominent place among the little homes and in the city there are many along the main streets and scattered throughout the blocs. We have been inside several, but most interesting have been the Monestaries we have visited. One was an older one and the other a fairly new one, both are outside the city and have grounds with landscaping; quarters for the nuns and priests and, of course, the central church. On P - Day we set out in our Skoda with one Elder in the "trunk" and 5 of us up front going out of the city and into the countryside over frozen and bumpy roads in a heavily wooded area touched with snow. Thought you may like a peek inside as they are very ornate taking many years to complete the figure painting and gold leafing. Check out the well that is still in use. (The pic with the wheel)They have been very cordial to let us go inside and take pictures as well. On our return trip we saw a very LARGE boar running across in front of us along with 6 others following! Quite a sight and we were glad to be in a car as they are known to charge people. Then a magnificent deer was standing in a clearing beautiful against the stark white landscape. Another adventure, another day in Romania.

It is still foggy and cold, but we are out each day visiting, meetings, YSA activities and doing some real estate work to locate a new "vila" for our branch to meet in. We have located two possible locations that are near Centru and would be easier travel for the saints around Arad. Taking pictures and sending them and info off to Germany and trying to compute in our heads the price per sq. meter as opposed to sq. ft.----asking the right questions about the properties is challenging, however there aren't too many differences in the way they do business other than very little paper work, lots of words! Romanian words! Walking to meet agents, trying to understand their Romanian phone calls----who said we weren't busy?

Elder McFadden went "bloc knocking" with the Elders last night while I gave one of our YSA girls a French Manicure. She was thrilled; it would have taken 3/4 of her monthly income to have it done professionally.

You may have heard the news about the protesting in the streets of Bucharest and all around the country. It seems people are upset with the President and want him to step down. There are Politia in groups with their riot gear on in many areas as we walk through Centru. They haven't become violent here yet, just noisy.

We had our first snow on January 5, not a lot, but it was pretty for a while.( the pic of Elder McFadden was as we were leaving our place to walk to church.) Everyone tells us this has been a mild winter; can't wait for the real thing! J K! We are traveling up to Oredea tomorrow and will most likely encounter more snow......go Skoda!!!!!! Can't even begin to express how many "tender mercies" that have been given to us and our Father in Heaven's watchful care constantly. We so hope the church will continue to grow here. The people are really struggling with the economy and so many can not pay their bills...they could use your prayers. Thanks for your support and love you send our way.

Tu iubesc si levedere

Elder and Sora McFadden