A PEEK INSIDE A WEEK IN ROMANIA

Pickleball

Badmitton

One thing we have found serving in Romania is that no two days are alike and many times we haven't a clue where the Lord will lead us the next day or next hour.  However, some things are consistent.  Our activities and family home evening nights with the Young Single Adults are happening!  And we love the young people and their growing testimonies.  On Tuesday evening we always have a spiritual lesson and then activities.  They have had fun playing badmitton, PICKLEBALL, dyeing Easter eggs, ping pong, celebrating birthdays and watching movies each Friday night. 

Remember the little stuffed animals that the Humanitarian Project put out for us to make and send to countries like Romania for hospitals and orphanages?  YES, our YSA's are making and stuffing them as a service project and they love it.  And we are so grateful to have access to a sewing machine.  These animals have been a good source with our Public Affairs as we took some to the Minister of Health  to get his approval and asked him where they were most needed.  He was very receptive and said he would find the very best place for them and we could deliver them as a group. 

On Saturdays the YSA have Institute and we provide them with dinner.  We usually cook for 18-20 and Elder Mc is well loved for his McFabulous food.  Many around here call him Elder McFabulous.  He goes all out in making such things as carmel corn, white chocolate popcorn, cookies, cakes and carmel apples and other goodies for FHE and othere activities.

We even got to put on a reception for one of our members complete with food, decorations and decorated wedding cake.  All this is quite a challenge with using  public transportation or walking with our cart to obtain product.  The local watermelon are soooo good and yet so heavy to carry home.

We recently spent two days in Brasov with another senior couple checking out interesting sites to see and experience as we are planning our Senior Conference for October.  We got our grand tour of Castle Braun which is widely known as Dracula's Castle.  It is a delightful Castle that you can self guide through thus exploring a variety of "secret" places.  It is know as Dracula's Castle because of the Irish writer, Bram Stoker, who wrote the novels using the character he created as Dracula in the setting of Braun Castle using Transylvania  area of Romania. 

We visited Rasnov Fortress (1600's), just fascinating, Prejmar Fortified  Church (1700's), and rode the tram to the top of the mountain for a spectacular view of the city.  The city in the 1500's was surrounded by walls and citadels; one of the entry gates called Catherine's Gate is said to have been the inspiration for Disney's famous logo castle.  You will see the similarities.  Rope street is the narrowest street in Europe; 1.3 M wide and 83 M long.  We found at the end of a long day a nice restaurant in city plaza and enjoyed a refreshing glass of homemade lemonade before eating dinner.

Amongst all the activities, we also have been meeting with presidents and rectors of universities to offer them no cost lectures from some of our "associates"  (church members) who live here.  These include Pres. Hill; former Dean of Marriott School of Business (BYU); Tom Holst, Director of Chevron for Europe, Gary Spooner, Ford Motor in Country Director and two Embassy executives.
They have been very pleased that we would make the offer and we have agreements out to several of them for the school year 2012-2013.

Our association with the Secretary of State continues on a very positive track.  We delivered the promised burrito to his office clearing all the security.  On his way to the airport leaving for the United States, he called to thank us and said it was the best burrito he had ever eaten.  He will be meeting with the Minister of the Interior this week to set up a meeting for us to discuss the digitizing by the church of Romanian birth and death records.  We have been fasting and praying for this to come about as it has been shut down at lower levels of government by influential "un named" churches.   We have felt the hand of the Lord in moving us in all of these directions. 

We feel your love and support and you as you can see from the pic, our frig looks about the same as it does at home--Thank You McFadde grandchildren for the pictures.  And a giant THANK YOU for all the CARE packages that surprized and delighted us.  It takes a long time for them to get here, but we really REALLY appreciate them.

Va iubim si ladevedere,
Elder and Sora McFadden

Opening doors in Bucharesti

Elder and Sora McFadden with Jeffery Franks

Remember the big rock you threw into the water and watched the ripples go out and around the splash?  We have been experiencing a tremendous ripple effect in our Public Affairs over the past three weeks set off by Elder McFadden inviting Jeffery Franks, the International Monetary Fund Director for Romania, over for dinner.  He was finishing up his  stay here in Romania and agreed to help us all he could until he went back home in Washinton, D. C.  We arranged a fireside here in our building (the night pic of church is our view from our apt.)  which was well attended and his talk was outstanding.  The members are so thrilled to know that he is L D S  and so admired by the Romanian people for his work here with the IMF.  He works closely with the Pres. and Cabinet and asked the Secretary of State if he would meet with us. He agreed so we called him and set up a meeting that went extremely well.  He was very impressed with all the Humanitarian Projects that have been accomplished here in Romania by our NGO.  (We are not recognized as a church until we reach 20,000 members; we are at 2400 thus the Non Government Organization "tag")  And...that we wanted to know what more we could do for the people of Romania.  In all this he was astounded that we came not to ask for anything but how we could help.  Then Elder McFadden suggested we help by digitizing all the birth and death records usind Roanian workers who would be paid for their work and a back-up copy would be stored in vaults in Salt Lake City.  He was not aware that that this is the only Europeon country that hasn't had this microfilming done.  The church has been trying to get this done but hasn't been able to get to the right government officials to get approval.  Mr. Arafat said the Minister of Interior would be the person and that if we would get him the paperwork he would hand  carry it to him as this should be done.  WOULD WE????  Of course we jumped on that one and delivered the paperwork agreeing that there would also be one of Elder McFadden's burritos in the mix!  Other meetings were set up with our Humanitarian Couple and a special invitation to a Gala in August that would be televised recognizing our  Humitarian efforts.  Our goal for Public Affairs is to "bring the church our of obscurity" here in Romania and the Lord is opening doors for us and the ripples are rolling.  We also landed Franks a lecture  at the University of Pitesti which resulted in news coverage including us "associates" who were with him.  We were treated to a news conference and a wonderful dinner at the historic Vila Florica afterward.  The Pres. of the Univ and the Rector along with our District Pres. were there as well.  Results were a positive front page article in the newspaper  the next day on the missionaries.  YES!  The first one to be published.  Ripples...today we delivered the BURRITO  and then met with the Chamber of Commerce. Recieved a call from him while he was on his way to the airport sayng it was the best burrito ever!    Chevron's Director of oil for Europe is also LDS and has been helpful to introduce us to other media entities.    We know each day we are led and directed by our Father in Heaven who wants the gospel spread to "every nation, kindred,......"  The missionaries here are fantastic individuals and we interact with them a great deal.

We got to participate in the "Let's Do It Romania" a giant clean-up day which let us put on our yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" T-shirts and gather up garbage for many hours.  We had such a mountain for them to haul away.  What a day!

The Muzeul National al Satului was outstanding and you see us "out standing" by a typical Romanian haystack as well as other pics of houses, fences, windmills and wells.  Such a rich heritage and wonderful people.    Another beautiful palace to be explored tomorrow.

Once again we express our love to you, our dedication to the work here and mostly for our cherished testimonies and membership in the church.  It is our Heavenly Father's Kingdom here on earth and we are so grateful to be a part of it all as he guides us and teaches us each day. 

We are well and needless to say missing you all!  However as we reached our happy halfway mark we celebrated by purchasing some of the most heavenly selection of chocolates  from an exquisite pasterie.  So many choices and sooooo good.  We are also grateful for chocolate!

Ladeverdere si va iubim,

Elder and Sora McFadden  AKA  Dave and Rosie!

Landing in Bucharest close to Easter was quite a treat as it is celebrated for weeks with decorations, traditional eggs, spring flowers and vendor stands from all parts of the country.  As we ventured out about the city familarizing ourselves with the Metro (underground sub), bus systems and Tranvai tracks, we found that this is a city of great architectual beauty both old and modern and massive parks full of beautiful flowers, trees, grass and water.  Our eyes and senses have had a feast of spring flowers not only in the parks but often on street corner stands abundant with flowers of all types.

We are also ticking off cultural places of interest as time will allow.  This past week we had a Senior Missionary Conference here ( conveniently across the street in OUR branch building), and as a last event we went to the very beautiful Athenual Concert Hall where two of our vocally talented elders performed in concert singing LDS church  hymns.  Also featured was a famous cellist and violinist. The Romanians were smiling and clapping and really loving the Elders numbers. Outstanding!  So was the food Elder McFadden prepared for one dinner and a lunch for  this group.  Our kitchen is a very busy place. 

We live on a busy street with the the normal sounds of sirens, road rage honking wars, and traffic noise.  With the windows open the other day we heard a familiar clippety-clop, clippety clop sound.  Sure enough as we looked down onto the street below there was a gypsy cart and horse traveling down Panduri Strata!   Only in Romania!

Back to Easter.   Our FHE  with  Young Single Adults (YSA) was a lesson on the resurrection tying it into eggs ending with a silk tie egg dying activity. They had so much fun.  Although they were wonderfully beautiful, nothing can compare with the age-old tradition of painted Easter Eggs in  Romania and Moldova.  No where in the world does this art reach the fine craftsmanship as in Bukovina, Romania.  The craft operates with symbols of nature, folk textures and a full repertory of sacred signs.  The symbolic register of the Bukovina eggs encompasses 291 signs.  The eggs are first emptied, then plugged.  The pattern is then intricately drawn in wax, immerged in dye and then the wax is removed by heating.  Some are decorated with glass beads driven into a wax layer with a tiny stick.  Most of the artisans are women and after seeing many eggs on stands and in museums we have come to recognize the most famous designers from Bukovina.

Very red and bright purple died hair is so popular among many Romanian  women----finally got my pic with one so you could see.

"Taste of Buc"  pictures include the "People's Palace" which is quite an impressive structure and the Triumphant Arch from France  standing guard one of the round abouts.  Couldn't resist taking a pic of the Kokopelli women's apparel store!  What a standout! 
 We spend a great deal of time "across the street" in our church.  Many YSA activities and meetings with elders, investigators and members.  The Elders here in our zone are outstanding and sit around our table at home often.  This weekend we had District Conference with an area authority from England.  Very good meetings and well attended. 

Our prayers are being answered in so many ways as we made contact with Jeffery Franks who is the International Monetary Fund Director for Romania and Tom Holt who is Chevron's European Oil Director.  We had them both here for dinner today and they are willing to provide names of government officials and ministry officials that we can perhaps meet with in a Public Affairs Meeting that we will organize.  Both are LDS and fine men with much recognition in this country. 

Can't wait to "share" again as there is so much happening here...we are grateful for this opportunity to serve and inspired by the help of our Heavenly Father who we know wants this great work to move forward in this country.

Know that we think of you often and send our love to you.

Va iubim si ladevedere
Elder and Sora McFadden

Hello from Bucharest. After getting affairs tied up and belongings packed and cleaning done, we helped the Walquists move into our apt in Arad and we loaded up "big blue" the office van and took off for yet another adventure. We had a long drive to Sibiu as we were stopped along the way for over an hour due to an accident on the road. What a beautiful drive, everything is spring greening up and the Carparthian Mountains were magnificent with the rivers and lakes along the way. Many villages where the people were busy planting crops and gardens. It seems that every house has a grape arbor and garden and animals. We get such a kick out of seeing the gypsy wagons with the ponies always having red tassels on their halters as they prance along the roads pulling the wagon and it's contents and drivers. There is a freeway between Poieste and Buch that has two lanes both ways and the gypsy wagons were even traveling on that in a few places.

We arrived at the church parking lot which is across from our apt. Soooo glad to get out of that van and have arrived safely, yes, Elder Mc drove right to it with the now expert navigator, Sora Mc. This is a beautiful two story church building that we can see everytime we look out our windows. We love it. The Elders came and helped us move in and our apt is very nice. We feel like we are starting a new mission as everything is so new and different and we have no idea how to get around on the metro and bus systems yet. It may take a day or two, but we have many challenges before us.

Elder Mc went to priesthood session of conf. with the elders which is broadcast in the other church building way across the city. The sisters are coming to pick me up and will go with me to join them for more sessions as they come to Romania. We got to view the first two sessions on our computer last night.

We send our love and hope all is well with you and your families.

Tu iubim,

Elder and Sora McFadden