Christmas Eve-Christmas Day, Dec. 24-25 2008

Christmas Eve was a busy day for us. Fred and Argentine went to set up a contract for wheelchair seat cushions. Our partner is a company called Benetate. This company is run by a disabled Russian woman. Her name is Liubovi. She has a wonderful attitude about being of service to those who are disabled. She employs many of them in the manufacturing of the seat cushions for the wheelchairs. She also provides all of the uniforms for the local police and military. I needed to buy food so I could help with the Christmas Eve party at the Telford's home. We could not get all of it done together, so I told Fred that I could find my way to Downtown Chisinau taking the trolley, and that I could get home again by myself. I did just that!! I took the #7 trolley to Stephen Chel mare ST. and walked to the piaza. There I bought some of the items that I needed. Then I walked to #1 ( a grocery store) and bought the remaining items that I needed. The problem is that I bought to much to carry home by myself, but I was able to get home anyway. I won't buy that much by myself again!!!!!! Where is the car when you need it. I don't think I will ever take the car for granted again. I also thought it would be easy to find the food that I needed, will its not. Its not even packaged the same. It's either written in Romanian or Russian and I can't read either one. I do allot of laughing at myself for feeling like I am about 2 years old, and trying to learn everything all over again. We had a fun evening at the Telford's with all the missionaries, and young single adults. Many of these young people had no other place to go for Christmas. We ate lots of good food, sang Christmas songs, and watched the Nativity Story. Christmas morning we went back to the Telford's to exchange gifts with the missionaries and eat breakfast. All the missionaries then made their calls to family,us included and it was good to skype family and see children and grandchildren. We love this time of year when we have time to reflect on those things that are most important to us all. How grateful we are to a loving Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ for the gift of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ on the Earth. We are grateful for the birth of Christ, and his atoning sacrifice that he made for each of us. We are thankful that families can be together forever!!! We are grateful that we can serve in this beautiful country, and bring the love of Christ to those in need. May you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Moving Day Monday, Dec. 22

Moving here in Moldova is Fun!! You have to find either a Taxi or Maxi Taxi that can hold all of your belongings. We brought 6 suitcases plus 2 carry-on's with us, so finding a vehicle big enough was hard. Thanks to Argentine we were able to move all of our belongings in 1 trip. We are glad to be settled in our new home. We have hot running water, lights, Internet, a warm place to sleep, what more could you ask for!!!! WE live in what is called a block. When the Russians occupied this country they built these 10 story or more buildings out of cement. (So they look like a block!) When they left this country they told the people they could own them or rent them. Most wanted to own, but they didn't set up any kind of homeowners association for the building, so no one takes care of the outside, or no one owns the outside. If you live on the top floor of the building and the roof leaks you fix the roof, but only the part you live under, etc..., very interesting way to do business. Our apartment is very nice on the inside, but the outside looks like an abandoned building. The garbage dumpster is at our front door, and if the stray dogs and cats get in it, it looks like we live in an abandoned building setting in the garbage pile. When is snows it covers it all up and looks quite nice. We are getting use to our surroundings, and it's starting to feel like this is home.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,Dec. 18,19,20,21

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we spent with Elder and Sister Jacobs in their apartment, which was soon to be our apartment going over files, and projects that were finished or closed, along with projects that are still open and in progress. We have allot to learn, but the work is exciting and we are eager to get started. On Friday we also met with Victor Corovali who is the Director of Counterpart International for Moldova. He is a representative of the State Department and provides funding for shipments of clothing and medical supplies from the U.S. to Moldova. This organization has done some amazing things in providing and organizing relief to this country. Our contacts here in Moldova have high integrity and for that we are most grateful. Friday night was Sister Telford's birthday so we went to dinner at a very nice restaurant called the grill. (Jacobs, Telfords, Hinsons, Brother Diamond, and the Lungu's). They had a wonderful jazz band that played all night, food was good, and we had great company. We are so grateful to have some English speaking friends here. We have also met Brother Diamond who is working here at the US Embassy. Argentine Lungu is our interpreter. What a wonderful young man he is. We would be absolutely lost without him right now. He speaks Romania, Russian, English, French, and understands German. When any of us Americans get lost, or need to speak to our Land Lords, Etc. we call Argentine!!! We have grown to love him and his family. Sunday we said goodbye to the Jacobs, and wished them well. We also went to church at the Chisinau Branch for the first time. There were about 50 members in attendance, and we tried to met them all. Meeting are interesting because about half of the members are Russian speaking and the other half are Romanian speaking, and then their are the few of us English speaking. There is allot of translating going on. The meeting might start in Russian and end in Romanian. Relief Society was a mixture. The teacher was Romanian speaking, but the comments went from Russian to Romanian to English. You would have to be here to believe it!!! The spirit is strong, it doesn't matter what language you speak, and we felt loved and accepted. The members really have to have strong testimonies. Many young people are the only members of their families, and never miss seminary, institute, or any of their meetings. It takes great courage to be a member in this country because the church is not well known and there is allot of prejudice. We looked forward to getting to know the members here better.

Wednesday Dec. 17

Wednesday morning we traveled to Milestii Mici for a wheelchair presentation ceremony. The church provided 250 wheelchairs for the Moldova Society of the Disabled. This organization is one of the partner groups that LDS Charities works with here in Moldova. Mihail Marginean is the president of The Society of the Disabled. ( He is our key interface and the way we are able to stay in Moldova). It was touching to see parents waiting for wheelchairs for their disabled children. There was also an elderly lady who was on crutches that was hardly able to walk that was helped into a new wheelchair. It was an extremely cold day, and the ceremony was held outside, but there was a feeling of warmth and gratitude to see so many of the Lord's children helped on this day. After the ceremony we took a bumpy 1 1/2 hour ride to a little village called Ermoclia. We met with Lidia Jubea who is the NGO we have partnered with for this water project. This village has 4,500 men, women, and children living there. They have no running water, and get there water from contaminated surface water that they dip with buckets and carry to their homes. This project will bless so many lives. We are currently having some difficulties with the Mayor. We believe that our NGO president, Lidia Jubea can resolve the funding issues, and we hope to be back on track in the next 30 days. I have posted pictures of the wheelchair ceremony along with our NGO (Lidia Jubea) in the Ermoclia water project.

Monday Dec 15 and Tuesday Dec 16

Monday morning was find warm clothing day. We were so cold until we could get warm coats, hats, gloves, and boots that are water proof and fur lined. Elder and Sister Jacobs had our week planned so we could get all the training needed before they left on Sunday. Tuesday we went to inspect a new roof for a community center. The church provided the materials, and the NGO (non government organization) provided the labor to install the roof. This community center will be used by the disabled in the small village of Milestii Mici. These little villages have no running water in there homes. We are hoping that we can do another project here, and restore the facilities in the basement of this building. That is to replace and redo the plumbing so they can have showers and running water in this building. If this happens then the village can come here for warm showers and running water! What a blessing that would be. It is wonderful to see the humanitarian work in progress. I have posted 2 pictures of the community center. Also a picture of Sister Telford on the left, me, Sister Jacobs on the right standing in front of the community center.

Our Temporary Apartment in Moldova

Fred and I left the MTC on Dec 12, at 8:30 am. We flew to New York, had a 3 hour lay over, flew to Paris, which was a 7 1/2 hour flight. We had a 3 hour lay over in Paris, then flew to Bucharest, and arrived there at 2:30 pm on Dec 13. We were meet by the office Elders and the CES couple that are also serving here in Chisinau, Moldova. They were attending Zone Conference, and we were so grateful to have their company. We went to the Mission Home and met with President Lundberg and his wife. They were so kind, warm,and gracious, and made us feel right at home. We ate dinner, and then they took the Telford's (CES couple) and us to the train station to catch the train to Chisinau. We say this is the Harry Porter train, but I think it's something else. (Ask me when we get home!) What an experience!! We had to go through tw0 boarder crossings, and then the tracks in Romania and Moldova are different, so they have to lift up the cars and change the wheels when they enter Moldova. It was a 700 mile (12 1/2 ) hour train ride. We arrived in Chisinau at 8:30 am Dec. 14. We were met by Elder and Sister Jacobs, and we were glad to see them. We were so tired all we could do was go to our temporary apartment and crash for about 5 hours. The Jacobs (the couple we replaced) took pity on us and had us over for dinner that night, and then we went home thinking we could sleep, but the time change tricked us, and we had a sleepless night. It took us about 7 days to get use to the difference in time. We are 8 hours ahead of Houston time. These are some pictures of our temporary Apt.

A busy Sunday and Monday at the MTC

Sunday night we listen to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and as we were walking back to our room we took pictures in front of the lights at the MTC. The next picture is of Elder and Sister Godfrey. He was a missionary in Houston from 1960-1962. He frequently eat in the Hinson home. He also coached Fred in Derringer league baseball. (The missionaries would set up teams, and then they would play each other.) Elder Godfrey's team won state. It was wonderful for Fred and Elder Godfrey to have a reunion in the MTC. The Godfrey's will be serving in South Africa as Humanitarian missionaries. There are no coincidences in the Church! Today (Monday) we had a wonderful day spent at Welfare Square, and also the Humanitarian center. You just can't imagine all the world wide projects the church is involved in. Very inspiring! We had a nice lunch at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, and were fortunate to be able to hear Elder Glenn Rudd speak. He was one of the key church leaders that helped formulate the church welfare system as it is today. Its has been an inspiring day!

Senior Missionary Class December 2008

We just took an MTC group photo of our Senior missionary class. We have grown to love many of these people.

1st Week at MTC

We met Monday morning with all the other Senior Couples, and what an exceptional group of people we will be serving with. We are all going to different parts of the world. Out of our group there will be someone serving on every continent. We received our schedules for the week, wow are we busy. Breakfast at 7:00 am, we start training meetings from 8:00-12:00. Lunch at 12:00, meetings start again from 1:30-4:30, Dinner at 5:00, and then we start Language training from 6:00-8:00. We are certainly ready for lights out way before 10:30. This week is all teach my gospel classes at an accelerated pace. We are learning so much, and the teachers here are wonderful. They bring such a good spirit into the presentations, and make us get out of our comfort zone. We have taught two discussions to people they bring in that act as investigators or less active families. The spirit is so strong here, and everyday we have confirmation that this is where we are suppose to be. We have made good friends with so many here, and hope to stay in contact as we all leave to serve.

Departure for the MTC

The day of our departure Nov. 29, 2008 was here. Our family gathered together in our home for lots of hugs and kisses. Uncle Tim was asked to give Fred and I a blessing of comfort and councel, and are greatful for his willingness to do this. We then loaded up Tim and Wendy's Expedition with all of our bags (3 suitcases apiece) and headed to the airport, never looking back! That was a hard thing to do but we knew the Lord has something wonderful waiting for us in our new assignment. The flight to Salt Lake was uneventful and smooth, and we arrived at the MTC at 6:20 pm the evening. They greeted us with open arms and were so helpful in getting us settled. We got unpacked and prepared to start our spiritual feast the next morning with Sacrament meeting at 8:00 am sharp. (That's early!) Hugs and Kisses to all the family.