It's Winter in Pitesti

Welcome Elder Jensen, as Senior Companion, to the Pitesti Branch

 

Missionary work in Pitesti has been slow. Pretty much in all of Romania you are lucky to get one or two referrals a month from members. So, not really do we rely on those member referrals. We have to find most of our own people to teach. We have a handful of investigators and recent converts that we teach often, so that does take up a lot of our time. Then we usually have just two hours or so to find people to talk to each day. The Branch is full of mostly older men, we have only five sisters. Which two of them are under age 20, but older that young women age. No kids for a primary, and no young men age either. We have about 15-20 people to Church every Sunday. So, there is still a lot of work to do here in Romania!

Pitesti "The City of the Tulip's Symphony"

Pitesti is a city in southern Romania, situated on the bank of the Arges river. It has about 300,000 people. It's 100 km from Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Its name comes from a verb that in romanian means "to hide", because it's "hidden" between hills. It is also called "Tulip's Town" because there are all kinds of tulips planted and they all blossom in spring.  The city's municipality organizes every year "The Tulip's Symphony", an event were the beauty of flowers is complemented with music.

Familia mea de Timişoara, România!

I loved serving in Timisoara, it is difficult to say goodbye to those I've grown to love!

The Soimos Fortress at Lipova

Soimos Fortress (Cetatea Soimos) 20 miles east of Arad. Today, just east of Lipova, we visited the open stone ruins of Soimos Fortress, once guard keeper of the trading route between Transylvania and Crisana. Dating from the 13th century, the fortress was later abandoned around the year 1790. Vestiges of the Renaissance stonework can still be admired today. It was quite a hike up to the ruins, but breathtaking!

Armies of Helaman Mission Video's from Romania

See if you can find Elder Jensen on the You Tube Video's below posted by Pres. and Sister Lundberg from the Bucharest Romania Mission. The two large busloads of missionaries are headed to Zone Conference and are practicing their song on the way. The first video you can see Zach standing tall, as usual, in the very back of the group, the picture is kind of fuzzy, but they sound incredible! The second video shows Zach with his group on the second busload. You can spot him on the right hand side toward the back section, nearest the window. They really do sound amazing, and would make any mother proud!                  

2nd Group Sisters in Zion & Armies of Helaman

2nd Bus - Sisters in Zion & Armies of Helaman.wmv

Christmas Lights Up the Square in Timisoara

Things are Black and Red in the Mission Field

I'm not sure if this group of missionaries color-coordinated their outfits or what!

However, they seemed dressed for a Kodak moment! Elder Schafer, Elder Sanchez,

Elder Schwartz, Sora Holman, Elder Jensen, Elder Herman, and Sora Humphries,
mingle at a Zone Conference in Bucharest.

Cathedral's and Palace's Light Up the Night



The Reformist Church in Timisoara is the Church where the
Revolution of Romaniafirst started. The Pastor got his
Congregation to unite with him to fight the Communists.

Casa Poporului (The People's House) The Communist Leader
Ceausescu built it as a palace for himself. It is the World's second
largest building according to square footage.

Orthodox Church in Timisoara, I don't know if it has a cool story behind it or not.

All I know is that the bus stop we get off is right in front of it and there are always

 beggars out in front of the Church gate that always bug me for money.

Church in Timisoara not too far from where we live.

It's always lit up at night and becomes a landmark we look for.

Feeding the Birds before they Feed on You!

Temple Work and Genealogy

Temple work is so cool. I talked a little bit about Family History Work and temples in sunday School yesterday. It was for our recent Converts and Investigators class. Sora Jusechi asked me to talk for a bit, she's the teacher. So, I had everyone start filling out Pedigree Charts and Family Group Sheets. A lot of them really liked it. I was thinging last night and this morning, that I'm going to start a Genealogy Class for the members here in Timisoara. Like a couple of times a month or something. I think they will all like that.



Kiev Ukraine Temple is the Temple for the Bucharest Romania Mission



Teaching and Preaching on Timisoara's Piatia Unirii and Piata Traian (Union Square and Train Square)