Leonard's Visit, Projects, To Romania twice, Projects

Elder and Sister Leonard arrived from Germany on the 18th of April and we had until the 23rd to show them some of the projects and a few beauties of Moldova.

Sister and Brother Leonard are on the left with various members of the staff of the school in Cimislia.  We are gathered in the kitchen looking at the new equipment.

 Leonards visited Cimislia, met Mihai and Constantine at the Society of the Disabled, visited Bulboaca and Piatra/Jeloboca which are all projects we have in one stage or another.  Also, with the help of Doina Stepanenco we visited the monastary at Orehi Vechi, the oldest here in Moldova.



Doina, Susan and John Leonard on the cliff outside of the monastary.

 They also attended Church with us in Balti, meeting the new Branch President there, Boris Reshetco.

President Boris Reshecto

We had a wonderful visit and both of us went to the airport the morning of the 23rd, the Leonards going to Germany and us to Romania for a mission conference and a few days of working with Elder and Sister Wolsey.
The morning of the 23rd was filled with mis and partical communications but we eventually connected with the Wolsey's, the Elders and Lidia Constantinescu, the Romanian author which we had met earlier in the year.

Elder Biggs, Peter, Sister McGovern, Priest, Lidia, Elder Barney, Elder McGovern inside this beautifully decorated Chapel

That Monday we visited her church, met her priest, visited the local cemetary and mayor's office and then were invited to lunch at Lidia's beautiful old home which once belonged to her grandparents.

Elder McGovern, Peter, Sister McGovern, Lidia Constantinescu, Elder Biggs, Vicky Wolsey and Elder Barney

 It was in this home where she experienced World War II and is it now where she writes her children's books.  We had a wonderful day and delicious food.









Tues the 24th Wolseys took up to visit Motivation Romania and meet with Christian who head that organization.  This is the organization through which wheelchairs for Romania are mainly distributed.  We gained a lot of insite and this visit gave us some goals to shoot for in Moldova.

Christan at Camp Varatic

workshop in Motavation Romania

End to a great day of visiting Motavation Romania and the park with Elder Randy and Sister Vicky Wolsey of Canada.

The following 4 days where spent in a Senior's Conference for the Romania/Moldova mission.  We were joined by the Kitchen's from Moldova and 8 other couples which working Romania, many of whom we had not met before.

Top right is one of our missionaries here FROM Flower Mound, Texas, Elder McBride!  Bottom left are the Howells who have since gone home to Scotland, the middle you can see Sister and Elder McFadden, the Howells and Sister Hill and ofcourse, President Hill.

We did have to say good-bye to the Howell's as they were leaving the following Monday for their new home in Scotland.  We are missing them and it is been one of our great pleasures of this mission as we have come to know them just a little!  You can tell they are struggling as they 'hold back the tears'!

Dinner out just before attending a concert.

 The conference was well planned and one of our favorite parts was being able to meet or talk with 2 or the districts presidents from Romania.  Much insite was gained from our visits with them. 
We did a little touring to include the site of the dedication of the country of Romania for preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a village where some of the oldest homes and mills had been moved.  Some of those homes and mills were built..

Living room of one of the underground homes built in the 1700s



part of the mill



another section of themill

Instructions for the mill

This house may have been built several hundred years ago but this red thing seems out of place!

Elder David and Sister Rosie McFadden

One of our greatest treasure here was becoming reaquointed with David McFadden, whom I knew as a teen and who knew and worked with my parents almost 50 years ago!  It was wonderful to get to know him again and to meet his wife. 
We returned to Moldova for just 4 days before packing the car and heading for Isai in Romania.  We met the Wolseys there on the 2nd of May, had dinner, leaving the following morning early after picking up 6 missionaries and 3 branch member and headed to Varatic and the camp there. 

Arriving about 9am we met the employees of Motivation Romania which included Christian and we all began to work! 

We stripped, sealed and painted 7 of the 8 building of this camp in preparation for the wheelchair campers soon to arrive.  It is at this camp both children and adult learn to handle their wheelchairs.  EVERYONE worked so hard that 6 1/2 of the buildings were stripped, 6 of them were sealed and painting had begun on three of them.  Meals were prepared there and that night they had a campfire for all.  The following day all was finished by 2pm.  It was a beautiful site and a great experience.

All of us worked very hard for two days, just over half were employees of Motivation Romania and the rest were missionaries and LDS Church members.

Before we left Varatic we visited their monastry which houses 700 nuns.  It was a beautiful facility.  After we dropped off the missionaries and branch members, we said goodbye to the Wolsey's and headed back to Chisinau, arriving about 10pm. 

Monastry at Varatic

Currently we have 6 projects in various stages of completion and are working on a vision project, a wheelchair project, a computer project and getting an additional sewing machine for the Society of the Disabled.  Stay tune for the deliverly of the 124 pairs of shoes which takes place tomorrow!

From Germany and beyond

Arriving early into Germany allowed us to tour the old part of Mainz to include the Gutenberg Museum and St. Martin's Cathedral.  The Gutenberg Museum of printing is one of the oldest museums of printing in the world, founded in 1900, 500 years after Gutenberg's birth.  We could have spent days going into and through each of their exhibits, but no pictures allowed...
The Cathedral was VERY large and beautiful and these are only a few of the photos.  The sheer enormaity of the building itself was overwhelming.  I hope you can see this in just the one hall way, on the only hallway!

Elder Steve and Sister Sherry LaBoon were with us as we toured that day.

Our days in Germany were sunny and beautiful.  Each evening we joined all the humanitarian couples in Eastern Europe for a nice meal at  German, Mexican, and Chinese restaurants.  Food was great, company better!  Each morning a breakfast was prepared for us in the chapel near to the Temple hostel which we stayed in. We were able to attend the Temple while there and the Temple president took his time to speak with us before our session.  He had a wonderful sense of humor and of peace about him.  Albania, Cape Verde, Croatia/N.Bosnia, Czech Republic, Macedonia Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Servia/S. Bosnia and Slovakia each had a couple serving there and attending the well planned and executed conference.





At one of our breakfasts you can see Sister Erickson (Croatia/N.Bosnia) in the back,
with the Wolseys, ElderStiles(Slovakia), and the Brodericks in front



Sister Willis (Albania)played for us dispite a foot injury, and you see Wolseys (Romania),
Elder Willis andSister Broderick as we prepare for the day of learning.  The name plates
made for eachone enclose Tobblers Chocolate Bars!  The rest of the conference was
more delicious than those bars!




 

Pages (Czech Republic) are on the far right with Elder and Sister Junckers
(Macedonia) beside the Brodericks (Cape Verde)

Saturday was spent visiting the Braunfels Castle.  This was particulary meaningful as one of the members of this family founded New Braunfels in Texas and we actually saw a portrait of him!  We have a wonderful visit there and then shopped at downtown Friedrichsdorf in the afternoon.



 We were sad to leave our many new friends and were so in awe of all that they have done and are doing in their various countries.  Three of the couples are preparing to return home as their mission will soon be completed.

As we landed in Moldova everyone on the plane clapped, for the joy of landing safely.  We learned later that is normal here so we will join the clapping next trip.  I have always said a prayer of thanks but the clapping is an added show of appreciation!

Monday we met with Dr. Lupan to begin the new vision project which will take place in September 2012.  We were impressed with Dr. Lupan and are looking forward to working with her to make this successful.

We also learned that our neighbor is moving back to Seria.  He is muslim, an ENT Doctor and will be returning there to help settle the country and find a wife who believes in God as he does.  He thanked us for our belief in God and all that we do here.  We hope this friendship will continue.  He just left this past week and we have enclosed our parting picture of him.  We only wish we had learned more of one another.  He has been a gracias and kind neighbor. 



Last meeting with our friend



We are now working with Doina Stepanenco on at least two projects.  The first is connected to a hopeful second with a boarding school in Balboaca which in in the southern part of Moldova.  We have approval for Contantine, who runs the making of shoes in the Society of the Disabled, to make 122 pairs of shoes for these children.  They range from 5 to 16 years and about 1/2 of them are orphans while the others live in smaller villages and go home on weekends and during the summer.

We also hope to put running water and toliets in the school here as well as blackboards in their classrooms.  There are a few possible problems but we are working one it.  Below are a few pictures of the school and her children.

 Top left is the director of the Bulboaca school Eugenia Buruian by one of the current blackboards. The following two pictures are taken in a girls dorm room and include Elder McGovern and Doina Stepanenco and below that 3 of the girls in their room.  You see the girls playing flutes but I wish you could have heard and the see Elder McGovern and Doina visiting the area where we hope the bathrooms will be in the school.  There is so much needed here yet they have a husband and wife who are co-directors and are slowly getting it done. There was an upbeat attitude throughout the school.

We are finishing up two projects, one at the medical clinic in Balauresti and the gas line at the Society of the Disabled.  We had a small hold up because of  the contract but you see happy faces here as it is finally available for signing and work can begin...  As I write this the work is complete and we are simply waiting for the gas company to do it's part.



Senik, our translator, Mihai, Elder McGovern and Matei Ceban.  We hope the next photo during the winter or spring will be without coats as there will be heat!

Ray was able to teach our Family Home Evening group on April 2 and did a GREAT job!  We have begun Romanian tutoring and Elena is fantastic.  We visited Buluresti and and dinner with Elizabeta and Leon who are the host family for the Curt and Susan Adams.  We had bors cufasole si varaz, scrob cu carne, monatiga cu brinza de oaie, fruit compot and corn bread which is an Easter tradition.

We had our 46th anniversary on Ethan's 4th birthday!  They do not get any cuter than Ethan McGovern!  We loved Skyping with most of our family on Easter while they were at Joe and Ginger's home!  They all looked great, we only wished for more individual time with them!
General conference was  a great joy to us and Easter was even more joyful just because of the reason for the season.  It is still the Easter celebration here, as it occurs a bit later than ours this year and lasts much longer!  We will get little work done this week...
We visited the far north of this country to see an ongoing sewer project there for a TB hospital.  We were happy to see the project finally underway and especially happy to become aquainted with the director of that hospital Tatiana.  It is amazing to see strength and tenderness uniquely combined in people like her.  We look forward to our next visit.

This is also part of the new septic system for this children's TB center.  The director
Tatiana is in the pantsuit.

This is for the sewer system but please look at the depth of the top soil of this country!
At least 6 feet!

We are still trying to get a water project approved for Piatra/Zeloboc and want to begin a new one for Truseni which is near to Chisinau.  Not many things are smooth and easy here but they are well worth it!

On Saturday, March 31st we attended the baptism of Jane.  It was and is truly a blessing in my life to know Jane and watch the Holy Ghost teach first of God existing and then the truth of the Book of Mormon, the Gospel of Christ and the truthfulness of Christ's Church.  Jane and her family will be moving to Philadelphia the end of this month and we hope to see them when we return to the states.

Marcela, Jane, Elders Jiles and Peterson

Tomorrow, the 18th of April, Elder John and Sister Susan Leonard arrive from Germany to be with us for a few days.  We are anxious to have their imput and help to move things in the direction which the Lord desires.









We have our Moldovan green card and SPRING is here!

Elder McGovern and I are both offical here now, we have our Green Card good through May 2013!

On the 3rd and 4th we have a visit from the Howells and Wahlquists coming here from Romania to do various types of teaching. 

back: Elder and Sora Howell and Elder and Sora Kitchen
front: Elder and Sora McGovern and Sora and Elder Wahlquist
March 2012 in front of Balti church

All of us, to include the Kitchens, visited the Balti group on Sunday and had a wonderful experience!  The Howells are from England and teaching was/is their profession.  It was a treat to watch them work!

Elder Howell teaching how to teach with Elder Garlic translating

We have also joined with the Kitchens to hire a great tutor, Elena Mironiuc, to teach us Romania with lessons twice a week.  It is going well so far as Elena is an excellant teacher.
On March 7th we attended the theatre and it was a wonderful experience.  I wish I knew how to put the music with the dancing...but..I don't!

We also have approval for the clinic in Balauresti where Susan Adams and her husband Curt as working with the Peace Corp.  They will get running water and toliet in the medical clinic!

Susan Adams, a member of our branch, is seen here with the Doctor on the right and the two nurses on the left.  They are all very dedicated individuals.

Currently the water is brought in buckets from the well down the street and put in each basin.  When the water is dirty it is taken back down the stairs and thrown in the street in front of the clinic.  The nearest toliet is almost a block down the street at the mayor's office.

While visiting this city we were able to tour a bakery!  Yes, it was great!

The evening of March we took the Maxi Taxi down to the theatre with Elder and Sora Kitchen and     .  In a beautiful theatre built in the 1980's by Gorbachof we enjoyed many traditional dances of several countries.

  Wish I were able to put music to it but it was lively!!!  We really enjoyed the entire evening. 

On Friday the 16 of March the Kitchens went with  us to visit English classes in Cimislia.  Here a group of 8th graders had prepared "The Three Little Kittens" poem which they purrrrformed purrrfectly!  We had fun! and there are 3 great English teachers here!



As we finished the day the children said good-bye and we snapped a picture with Elena, Oxala, Viorica, Sora McGovern, Elder McGovern, Rodica, Sora Kitchen and Elder Kitchen

The following day the new equipment for the school kitchen arrived!



You can see the equipment before and today they are actually eating food prepared on the new equipment!

We are searching for a place that our branch could have a regular opportunity to give service and I hope we have found it at the school for the mentally handicapped which we visited earlier in the year. Anatol, the director, works diligently for his students.  We may have also found a Helping Hands project at the same school!  We are still working on that.
Elder McGovern just pushed the button to submit our first large water project in the cities of Piatra and Jeloboc.


Tomorrow at 5am we leave for Frankfurt, Germany to attend a humanitarian conference and the Temple of course.  We are so excited and will update when we return!

Wanting Spring but not waiting

This is what we woke up to on March 2nd following several days of temperatures which melted most of the

 snow!  It snow until about 2pm.  We are hoping that we will not have much more snow! 

 We have made several trips up to Balti and Orhei which are 2 hours/1 hour from Chisinau.  Some of our time has been spent for water projects or service projects of various types and some of our time has been spent with the Branch and the Group of the Church there, as we are providing shadow leadership for those congregations.

We have the opportunity to pass through many of the small villages.  It is always a pleasure!

We also had a wonderful zone conference.  I did not get many pictures of that but this one is a keeper!  Sisters Bennett and Komar have their Russian hats!  Sister Komar, born in Russia, was adopted along with her sister and her home is now in Washington State.



This past Tuesday we went to the villiage of Balauresti, which is near the Romanian border and is about 2 hours from Chisinau.  There we met with Susan Adams, a Peace Corp volunteeer and also the employees of the village clinic.  (Susan and her husband Curt have been working over a year in this village and they are also members of our branch in Chisinau.)  The village clinic is on the second floor of a building and they have no running water.  The water is brought in by bucket and leaves the building in the same way, ending up on the street in front of the clinic.  Their nearest toliet is at the mayor's office a half a block down the street.  We are working with the Peace Corp to get them running water and a toliet.

 

Susan Adams, a Peace Corp volunteer is with the Dr. and two nurses which work at the Medical Center in theVillage of Baluaresti. Below is one of four wash basins used at the clinic.

Followng our visit to the clinic Susan took us on a tour of the local bakery...now that was worth the drive!

The following day we again visited the Society of the Disabled because the plans were ready for them to begin installing the gas line. 

Ray McGovern, Senik Sargsyan our translator, Mihai Marginean above
Senik and Matvei Ceban (contractor), Matvei  and Constantine

As you can see it was really cold in Mihai's office.  We fine tuned the pricing and agreed to get started on the line, which will take about 3 weeks.  We then discussed several aspects of the wheelchair program which we have for the disabled and also the possibility of helping with Constantine's shoe factory, which is on the second floor of the build.  And yes, it is also unheated!

Planning new projects, following up old ones and surviving the snow!

It seems forever since I posted but a little illness and alot of snow usurpes time. 

After just a small snow storm every twig was covered, I could not stop taking picutres!

Then we had more snow and everyone who know Ray knows how much he loves snow and the cold!  He was not sure we would get the opal out.

As you can see we have had our share of snow and it is now snowing again which may cancel our trip to a village 1 hour from the city.  However we have things to keep us busy here.

The missionaries, to include the Kitchens, hosted a grand waffle party for the classes of English on Friday Feb. 10. 

Missionaries hosted a waffle/game night for the students of the English classes

They ate waffles (which are a novelty here) prepared by the Kitchens, played spoons and a game on the WII.  They had over 50 participants and everyone and had a great time and went away full!

We have been hosting a missionary breakfast each Monday for our district.

Our district
Elders Nilsson, Peterson, James, Jones, Jones, Sisters Schuld and Hickman, Elder and Sister Kitchen
Elders Hill, Finch and Jiles

 Last week they planned MacGriddles for breakfast.  Everyone enjoyed and we took a group pictures as transfers were happening on Tuesday. 


Around the table are the back of Elder James, Sister Schuld, Elders Johns and Jiles on McGriddle day, which Elder James prepared and cooked the batter!

The shoes!

As you notice everyone takes off shoes when going into someone home here.  Keeps floors much cleaner!

Senik with Ray in the village of Singera preparing to walk a steep hill to get to our first wheelchair recipient.

Yesterday we went with Senik, who is one of our translators, to visit several wheelchair recipients. 

Galina and Sister McGovern

I met this wonderful 85 year old woman, Galina, who worked 35 years as a doctor.  She walked everywhere for her appointments, some were over 5 kilo. away! During the winters her patients would rub her hands after she arrive until they were warm and she could attend to them. Now her hip is broken and she can not move her lower body.  Before she received her wheelchair she could only move by pulling with her arms in an army crawl.   She has a wonderful smile, bright blue eyes, 3 children, 4 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.  She is an wonderful example of the Moldovan people!

We have received approval on two projects.  The first is a gas line which will allow the Society of the Disabled to have heat in their buildings.  The Church had put boilers for heating 6 years prior but because of legal problems they have had no gas to operate them, hence they would in the cold during the winters.  Anyhow, the problems have been resolved and they are drawing up the plans now for the gas line from the street to the boilers. 

The second is for an upgrade of a school kitchen at the Mihai Eminescu school in the village of Cimislia.  We are hoping to work with the mayor of that city and possibly others to put in new ovens, as they have no working ovens, new stove top with 6 burners, are they are functioning with two burners now, and a double sink.  Hopefully more can be done but that remains to be seen.  We truly enjoy working with Viorica Ghenciu, the director of that school.  She works very hard for the school.

We also have a few water projects and a school for the deaf which we are hoping to help but we need to find some partners to work with us. 

It appears we are going today despite the snow!