Back in the Office

This week we have been very busy in the office. We returned Sunday evening to Frankfurt from Romania, went to a fireside, and came home and unpacked. We like to be home before Monday morning because when we travel somewhere the work in the office just piles up. It usually requires 2-3 days of long hours to work our way through everything and get issues addressed or better (if we can) resolved. The Lord has blessed us, and we are learning and able to deal with issues quicker and better now. Many problems we can now fix on our own (That’s a good feeling). The picture below if of the Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna Austria.

This is the Schoenbrunn Palace which was a summer palace for the Hapsburg family. Marie Antoinette ( queen of France when the revolution began) was part of this family. As a child growing up she spent a lot of time in this palace in Vienna. Vienna is a beautiful and interesting city. A great place to celebrate your anniversary.
The above picture is the Parliment building which is on the Pest side of the Danube River. The picture was taken from the Buda side of the river. The picture below shows the Pest side from the Castle on the top of a mountain on the Buda side of the riber. The hilly part of the city is in Buda and the flat part of the city is in Pest. The river divides the two parts of the city. The two cities became one in about 1850-70, hence the name Budapest.

As I was reviewing past blogs I noticed that the blog we sent from Hungary is not on the blog but somewhere out in cyberspace. I won’t go back and rewrite it, but I thought I would quickly include pictures of the Schoenbrunn palace in Vienna, and a picture or 2 of the Hungarian parliamentary building on the Danube River in Budapest. I’m certain you have seen pictures of both so they are familiar to you. However to see them in person is just awesome (how do you like the contemporary lingo?).

Back to the office, we have had several requests from mission presidents or Area Authorities for a copy of our project books pertaining to their area or country. These books are pictorial and written record of what the church has done in humanitarian services in their country. Although the church has been doing humanitarian projects in these various countries for years the books were first started about 18-20 years ago. The book we sent to Romania will be given to the American Embassy in Budapest. The embassy staff would like to show visiting dignitaries what some of the American organizations have done to serve the Romanian people. The first book I did took over an hour to do; now I’ve got the process done to about 30 min. or less and I’ve improved the quality. How to do this has also been part of the learning curve. We notice that as we go through the day we constantly have little thoughts or ideas that help us accomplish what we are trying to do better and quicker . To us these are tender mercies of the Lord and we are grateful for them, we are trying to become more sensitive to these little flashes of inspiration and respond quicker and more often. In the past we responded slower, and I’m afraid many we didn’t even recognize at all.

Yesterday afternoon we took some personal time and went to the city Of Mainz to the Gutenberg Museum. Johannes Gutenberg is credited with discovering movable type and the printing press, which permitted the bible to then be reproduced in mass. Prior to his press (in about 1474) the Bible was only reproduced by monks writing everything by hand. It was fascinating (incidentally the Koreans and the Chinese started using movable type around 800 and 1300 respectively). They had 3 of the estimated 180 original Bibles in a display case, and other books that were printed about the same time. I found it interesting that the basic printing press was quite similar to the press used to print the Book of Mormon in 1829. The museum then exhibited the progression of printing up until about the 1960 – 70”s. The museum had so much material that it covered a good 3 floors (no kids I did not read everything, but I tried). Here are some facts that I bet you did not know: The 1^st weekly newspaper was started in 1620 in Frankfurt, the 1^st daily newspaper was started in Leipzig in 1650 We were in the museum until about closing. As we left the museum we wondered around through the city of Mainz which was built where the Main and the Rhein rivers converge into 1 great river. Mainz is a very old city and was occupied by the Romans and there are several Roman ruins in the town. The city is beautiful and survived the war quite well.

This building was built in 1420. The original Catholic cathedral was begun about 1000 years ago while Mainz was a very important city of commerce. The cathedral is a beautiful building, and like the Koln cathedral is now constantly under restoration in one area or another.

We have begun preparations for an Area Humanitarian Conference in the spring for our 10 couples in Eastern Europe. In January a new couple will open up the country of Montenegro for humanitarian work, which will be the 2^nd country open up for humanitarian work within the last 6 months. But we’ll write about that another time. We love you all and prayer for you continually.

Thought for the day garnered from somebody’s wall, “ Aspire to inspire before you expire.”

Love,

Oma und Opa

Our Trip to Bucharesti, Romania

Here is the Palace of the former communist dictator. Both He and his wife were executed when the government was overthrown in 1989.

We Arrived at the Airport about 5:15pm on Oct 12th. We were picked up by Elder Randy and Sister Vicky Wolsey. We went immediately to the home of Mission president for dinner. President Hill and his wife were from the Salt Lake area. President Hill and John had served in the central German Mission at about the same time. They had also Grown up in Bountiful attending the same High school The two of them had a great time exchanging stories. President Hill told us story that I would like to remember. while serving in the mission home during his missionary service in Germany, a women and her husband came into the mission home seeking a blessing. The president was gone so the women asked if he and his companion could give her a blessing. she was gravely ill. The doctors felt she would not live long. She had serious heart problems. This women had such faith. She knew that she could be healed. She had 8 children she was the only member of the church she needed to raise her children. So the two missionaries went into the other room an prayed for help. President Hill gave the blessing trying to say only what the Lord would have him say. He did not remember what he said but at the conclusion of the blessing. This woman was healed. The color had come back into her face and the warmth had returned to her limbs. Years later the President and wife and son were in Frankfurt at the temple were he desire to spend the night in the hostel. It was full but they suggested they go to a ladies home close by where they could spend the night. A bed and breakfast. It was the home of this woman he had given the blessing to so many years Ago. I thought this a great story

Thursday morning we were up early and on the road at 6:45am.
We traveled up into the mountains to the city of Brasov for a wheelchair distribution ceremony. The missionaries were there to help and we saw Elder Newey again we had his help in Moldova at the NRT project. The organization Motivation Romania was distributing the wheel chairs. What a great job. Each chair was fitted properly to each recipient and they began the training process to teach each of the recipients how to use the chairs on stairs and ramps.We loved visiting with the recepients. This young women became disabled because of a fall. This man was given a live Polio vaccine and contracted the disease. He was my favorite because he looks like Brian and he acted like him. They could be brothers. He had a family. He played Basketball and danced with a team. He was employed as well.
Here is a 26 year old learning to use her wheel chair.


We had lunch at McDonalds and then back to Bucharest to meet Cristian Ispas who is the head of Motivation Romania. We had a tour of his facilities where some wheelchairs are modified for special needs and then a tour of several of the homes for children who have severe disabilities. This man does great work.
Then on Friday we were off at 7:00 for a 3.5 hour drive to the town of Braila to meet with Lina the head of Associatia Speranta. She had an autistic child and could find no help for him. so she studied out the problem and began her own school and organization for these children. The school is in an old building with only two rooms and a small kitchen and bath room. In the spring the couple in Romania had arranged to turn the yard into a great play ground for the children. It was great.What a loving person she was and what a great need she was filling for the city. There are at a least 150 children with autism in this city. We saw pictures of the opening ceremony and was told that the minister of the department of health was going to model a new facility after hers. We meet some of. The children and were impressed with the progress that was reported to us. It was great to see such caring people.
We then drove to the Leper Colony out of Tichlesti The colony was established the 1920. There were 180 residents but now there are only 21. Mainly elderly persons whose lepercy is no longer but they are laving with the scars both physical and emotional. In Romania the people will not allow these idividuals back into society. The colony is located in a beautiful. Remote area. The housing is poor and they are in great need of a better water systm. This was the focus of the visit after greeting the residents. We met an 82 year old lady who was left at the colony by her family at the age of 18
She said she followed the doctors instructions and reports that Jesus cured her of her Lepercy and her broken heart. She has an amazing attitude. She is loving and very productive. She crochets doilies and embroiders. She gave me a beautiful Dollie she had made. It was wonderful to meet her. I have a picture to share another time. We returned to Bucharest in the evening and had dinner with the Wolsey's. They are wonderful people.

Then on Saturday we drove to Slobozia to meet another great lady who has spent her days caring for the disabled children of Romania. She has about 300 children she looks after. She took us to a number of places so we could see some of the needs. We saw a mother who had just brought a new born baby home to a tiny one room home. The house was falling apart and only one room remains. Her husband is legally blind and they have a 2 year old as well. Noreen is working to get the family to come into the shelter for the winter or she feels the baby will sure die.


We saw a home constructed out of homemade bricks of mud, straw and cow dung. It was amazing. People who are really trying to help themselves.
Then we traveled to Constanta. A seaport city on the black sea. It was rather late in the afternoon when we got there so we did not get to do all that was planned for here.
We had dinner at Marco Polo restaurant and got back to Bucharest after 10 pm. We were tired.


This morning we attended the District Conference at the Panduri chapel.
Half way through the conference Dad was asked to speak on the Humanitarian work we do. He did a wonderful job. Here are the Wolseys with us in front of the Chapel.
It was wonderful to feel the spirit of these great people.To see the missionary work go forward and the gospel being spread. What a blessing it is to serve the lord in this capacity.
We love all of you. We have so enjoyed your emails And seeing you via Skype.
We are flying home and will be landing soon. We love each of you very much.
Love
Oma and Opa

Helping in Moldova

Dear All, 3 Oct., 2011

We’re sorry that we have not written for a while, we have either been out of town and internet access is difficult, or we have had trouble with our internet connection.

While we spent the first part of September in Hungary, we spent the last part in Moldova. Moldova is a small country nestled between Rumania and the Ukraine. We were in the capitol of Chisinau and the 2^nd largest city Balti. To see the effect of almost 50 years of Communism rule on the people of Moldova was very interesting to say the least. Their whole system is based on dishonesty and distrust. There is little robbery, but stealing is as common as sneezing. Stealing is only bad if you get caught, and if you can get away with it, then they think it is a good thing. This makes it very hard for members of the church who are trying to be honest because their whole system takes advantage of their honesty. The people all know that the government from the lowest to the highest level is dishonest, but they accept it because that is just the way things are. Employees cheat their bosses and the bosses aren’t honest with the employees. For example, one young sister is trying to earn and save enough money to go on a mission, but it is very hard because her employers only gives her 10-15% of her salary. The rest they keep and tell her that the company had some losses so they can’t pay her the full salary. If she complains they tell her if she doesn’t like it to quit. They know she won’t because the unemployment rate is so high that getting another job will be very difficult.

We were in Moldova to cover for the humanitarian couple that returned home about a week before a Neonatal Resuscitation Training team came in to conduct 3 two day courses. The team consisted of a nurse trainer from the Univ. of Utah hospital, and administrator also from SLC, a nurse who is head of the nursing dept. at the national university in Jordan, and a neonatologist from Minneapolis. All came for 1-2 weeks donating their time to administer the course and bring about $25,000 worth of equipment which they used to teach the course and then left in the country for the local doctors to use in teaching others. The church pays for the equipment and their expenses while there, but that is all, so the church can afford to conduct many such courses throughout the world. In the 18 years that we have been keeping track of the donated humanitarian services in Moldova the church has donated over $2.7 million. Those who are receiving the training are very grateful especially when the can use that training to save the life of a new born baby. For us it was wonderful to be a part of that service, to share and to give. We took care of the local arrangement responsibilities and saw that all went smoothly. We provided for lunch and 2 snacks breaks each day. Susan’s relief society service made our jobs a snap, very busy each day, but we knew how to handle every situation. When we got back to the office our everyday responsibilities had just piled up and we had a mountain of work to do, which took a good week of 12 hour days for 5 days. This last week we reviewed and authorized almost $200,000 in humanitarian projects.

This week we also picked up our German driver’s licenses which are good for life, and we were permitted to also keep our WY. License. Normally stateside licenses have to be given to the German Government while living in Germany. Then when you return to the states you can get back your stateside license back if you render your German license back to the government. We were able to keep ours because Susan’s license gives her permission to operate a motorcycle (you didn’t know I was married to a biker chick), and mine allows me to drive up to a 11 ton truck (no I don’t have a tattoo).

Sunday night 1 week later and I’m going to include some pictures and post this blog.

Picture 1 is a statue of King Stephen who founded the Balkan empire, which at one time included 17 countries which included Hungary, Rumania Moldova, Czech etc.

Picture 2 is a picture of one of the classes learning to intubate a newborn, Dr. Rob Payne is the instructor

Picture 3 is a picture of some of the missionaries, the NRT team, and us

Picture 4 is a Picture of a beautiful fountain found in the middle of Chisinau the capital of Moldova