On Thursday June 25, 2009 Elder Hinson and I were able to take the YSA’s from Chisinau Branch to Balti for a service project. We have been working with the Pensioners (retired individuals) organization to bring humanitarian aid to these individuals. The Pensioners live on about 50 dollars a month that they receive from the Moldovan government ( social security). The Mayor’s office allocated their organization 28 hectares of land (about 67 acres). Each spring they distribute plots of land among the elderly to farm. They depend on their crops to provide food to eat throughout the year. They also sell their excess produce for extra income. Our project was to bring a new Roto-Tiller and hygiene kits to the pensioners. We were so excited when this project was approved and thought it would be a good opportunity for our YSA’s to serve. We first had to go and buy all the hygiene kit supplies. What a job!!!! Without a car I wondered how we were going to accomplish this. There is a very special lady in our branch, and she is a great shopper and speaks 3 languages. Hripsime agreed to help me purchase all the supplies at the Piata (out door market). Her daughter Hasmic and Sora Telford also wanted to get in on the fun, and so we had a wonderful ladies day out shopping!!! By the time we had 100 towels, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, and shampoo we could not carry it all so we got a taxi to take us back to the church where we stored it until the YSA’s could put it together at their service project. On Thursday we loaded up the maxi taxi and headed to Balti for the ceremony. We drove out into the pensioner’s fields where they were anxiously waiting for us. They were so grateful for the Roto-Tiller which will make farm work so much easier. They were also so happy to receive the hygiene kits. One woman showed us her arms where the weeds and bushes had scratched them, and was grateful for the soap to be able to clean her arms. (These people can’t afford to purchase these items). We don’t appreciate so many simple things that we have. The young people (YSA’s) that went felt a wonderful spirit at this ceremony. 2 of the young people that went are investigators and were very touched by the acts of service provided for these elderly people. We finished the day with a great lunch at Andy’s pizza.
