Cold in Romania

It has been an unusually cold winter in Romania.  Temperatures are about 20 degrees colder than usual with lots of snow.  Anya is in a city called Iasi (pronounced Yosh) in the northern part of Romania near the Moldova border.  The weather there hasn't been as severe as some parts of the country but still very cold.  She and her companion have been working well together and have had some success finding new investigators, last Sunday there were six attending church.
Anya says her Romanian language skills are getting better but it is a tough language to master.  She also has been able to use her Russian language a few times.
She says the food is good although they had some pizza that had no sauce and had shrip, tuna and corn as toppings.  Luckly there was a salad served with it.

I will try and figure out how to enter Anya's e-mails into the blog in the future.

This was taken as Anna arrived in Romania.  She is with President and Sora Hill.

On the Way to Romania

Anna is on her way to Romania.  She had a three hour layover in Seattle and we talked to her for about 2.5 hours on the phone.  Her excitement level was off the charts and is very ready to serve.  She has grown very much from her experience at MTC and her Romanian language sounded great to our untrained ears.  The next leg of her flight is to Paris where she has a two hour layover and then on to Bucharest.  We checked the weather in Romania and the five day forcast is almost the same as ours here in Washington.

Latest Pictures from MTC 12-27-11

We received some more pictures from Anna at MTC.

Christmas e-mail

We received an e-mail from Anna today, she can't call us today since she is still in MTC.  She loves it at MTC and says the spirit is very strong and is happy she had the opportunity to spent Christmas there.  Elder Bedenar came and spoke to the missionaries today, she said it was a very uplifting and spiritual experience.

 She will be able to call us on the way to Romania on Jan. 2nd.  She will have a three hour layover in Seattle on her way and will phone us then.  It is tempting to go to the airport and see her but we will resist.  We all believe it is important to be obedient so a phone call will do.  She is very excited about getting to Romania.

Letter received 11-19-11

Anna reports that things are going great at MTC and she loves it there.  She says that the spirit is very strong and she can tell she is getting help learning Romanian.  The language is tough and she has two 3 hour classes a day in Romanian.
Her district is only three missionaries, Sora's Komar and Sam and one Elder.  Thay will depart for Romania on Jan 4, 2012.  They will get there in time to "enjoy" most of the winter.  The climate the is alot like the Northeastern U.S. cold winters and hot summers.  There are four pretty distinct seasons with highs in the 80-95 degree range in the summer.
The mission will consist of all of Romania and the country of Moldova which is on the Northeast border.  The mission has 18 branches and only around 2000 members, as Anna says the is a lot of work to do.

Pictures from MTC

                                   Name Tag                                                    

                       Sors's Komar and Sam                                             

                                                     Romania
                                                    

Sora Komar

Practicing
                                                                                                      

Companions

Learning Romanian

Studying hard

Mission District