Balabanesti Ceremony

We just finished the closing ceremony for the Balabanesti School. This school currently has 80 children between the ages of two and seven. They have 4 classrooms with about 20 children in each room. LDS Charities donated 16 tables and 80 chairs. The Mayor's Office replaced several windows and doors at the school. The Mayor also initiated a project to provide running water in the school. The school staff and community had to clean, paint, and repair the facility. It was wonderful to partner with this community in bringing this school back into working condition.

Our Mission Transportation

The mission finally provided us with transportation. Just kidding!!! As we were driving up to one of our project ceremonies, a man was hitching up his horse getting ready for his daily chores. He was kind enough to let us take pictures in his wagon. Getting in and out was quite an experience. I think I will like my car much better when I get home!!!

Albania Humanitarian Conference

We arrived next in Tirana, Albania for our Humanitarian Conference. This small country is noted because of its love for Americans. They are extremely friendly. We saw George Bush Café and George Bush Boulevard. These people think more of our past presidents than most Americans do. It goes back to when Albania was struggling to become its own nation. It seems that the United States was the first country to recognize them as sovereign. Our humanitarian conference was 3 days in a nice hotel in downtown Tirana. The country is dry compared to Moldova. They don’t have big grocery stores. They have many small convenience stores that they use. Albania is a poor country by European standards and is like Moldova in that regard. We met with 5 humanitarian couples who serve in Albania, Serbia, Romania, Croatia and Slovakia. We all made presentations about our countries and what projects we were working on. The Area Welfare Manager, John Mulligan was there along with our Area Welfare Specialists, Elder and Sister Durrance. We were able to tour the local area and visited a rest home for some very needy old men and women. We also were taken to a school where “Roma” children are taught. These people are the gypsies of Europe. They are severely discriminated against. Their children cannot go to the regular schools and for the most part, all the adult men are unemployed. It is truly a terrible situation. The local missionary couple, Elder and Sister Snow do a wonderful job there.
Elder Causse’ from the Area Presidency was also there and we got to visit with him again. We were asked by the local Young Single Adults to make our Space presentation once again at a Fireside at a local meeting house. It was packed, with many investigators. The presentation went very well and Elder Causse’ made some concluding remarks. He was very complimentary to Rodna and me.

YSA Conference in France

On August 24th, Rodna and I flew to Geneva, Switzerland. We then traveled by auto to LaMoura, France for the YSA conference being held there. We got in about 2:00am and made our presentation at 9:30am that morning to about 300 young people. The resort was situated near the French Alps at a local ski resort. The area was green and beautiful. But not as beautiful as the French young people. They were happy, energetic, positive and very friendly to us. Our presentation on Space and the creation went very well. We made many friends there. Elder Causs'e of the Area Presidency was with us. He spoke to the youth the next day.

Berlin YSA Conference

Fred and I had the opportunity to go to the Berlin YSA Conference. Fred was asked to give his Space presentation, and do two workshops. The Conference was held at a beautiful location about 1 hour out of Berlin. During the conference we were able to tour Berlin and see many historical buildings and sites.