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.
No comments:
Post a Comment