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.