Casa Poporului

Elder Allphin (Photo Bomb)



Casa Poporului - People’s Palace

Hey guys . . . I’m alive! 

Sorry for not emailing you yesterday.  We had a big Zone Conference and that took up all my time.  P-Day was today and we had some fun. 

We visited Casa Poporului which is known in English as the People’s Palace.  Romania was under a pretty tough communist regime during most of the 20th century and in the late 80's there was a guy named Nicolae Ceausescu.  He was pretty rough on the people and ended up being executed along with his wife!  Well he took all this cash from the people and built an insane palace in the middle of Bucuresti. It’s the second largest building in the world behind the Pentagon.  We took a tour and I have some pictures (attached).  

As I mentioned, yesterday was the big Zone Conference and it was insane.  I was in charge of the agenda and I think it changed about four times before the conference; President kept adding and taking out stuff.  We were flying by the seat of our pants and it was pretty insane.  President flew in some of his good friends from Utah and they spoke.  Brother Burbage shared a pretty cool message for success.  He is President Ivory's concrete contractor and a pretty successful dude.  When people ask him "what do I need to do to be successful" - he responds - "what do you do, when you don’t have anything to do?" 

President Ivory, furthered the message with: D&C 58: 27 Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness.  It was a good meeting and I learned some good things. 

I’m now serving with a cool kid from Alpine Utah named Jantzen Allphin.  He played for the Lone Peak basketball team and has four state championship rings as well as a national championship.  But he is the most humble kid I have met and it will be fun to be with him.

Romania is warming-up and the weather is killer.  I’m stoked for summer and warm weather!  Time is going to fly when we get to summer so don’t stress Mom, I’m doing well and having a good time. 

Love you guys . . . hope all is well!

 

Michael (Chisinau) & Elder Harper

Din nou in Bucuresti – Again in Bucharest!

Sorry I missed you guys last week. Life has been a little nuts! 

Well transfers happened since I last emailed and I've been moved!  I left the land of Moldova and am back in Bucuresti, serving as AP with Elder Daland again, which isn’t super common to serve with someone who you have already been with, but its good.  We live with two other Elders and the only other Elder Brown in the mission, so it gets a little confusing. 

Living in Bucuresti is a little different than I remember.  It’s nuts how much prettier it is than Moldova.  Some missionaries would argue with me about that, but it’s pretty stellar here. 

It was fun serving with Elder Harper and at the same time really tough.  We went all day long (100 mph) and never really stopped.  I was at the best point as a missionary as far as doing what’s good and it was fun to be with him.  It had only been like 5 days since I left and I hear that the fool cut his hand while doing the dishes and had to get stiches – haha, but he's excited to be ending his mission in Moldova. 

The coolest person I met there was Michael Zgarburi (pictured).  He's the architecture student that will be in the states this summer, doing work and travel.  His looks remind me of Chance Hutchinson a little bit and he is pretty funny.  He's always telling us "'ya know, I’m not really a spiritual guy and I already have my own path" and we just laugh and tell him that we are going teach him anyway.  He's been a real homeboy though and took about four hours out of his day to take us on a Chisinau tour, taught us a lot about the bombings of the early 40's and how that changed the architectural design of the city.  He had all kinds of photos and info for us and he spoke most of it in English which was pretty sweet.  I’m still emailing him and will probably meet up with him before I go home at some point if that option is made possible to me. 

I miss you guys and am looking forward to Mother’s Day here in a few weeks! 

Love y'alls!
Keeg

 

Elder & Sora Flanders Easter Breakfast

Moldova Elders - Easter

"We Wish A Happy Easter" DVD

PB and Banana Sandwiches





Paste Fericit - Happy Easter!

Everyone was asking about conference and if I was able to watch it. They prepare the talks far in advance and give it to a few native Romanians to translate, then the talks are then given back to some returned missionaries in Utah and they can then read the talks as the general authorities are speaking. The missionaries have horrible accents and sometimes you can’t understand but we are able to watch conference live or it can be rebroadcasted for us to watch here. 

This week we had MLC and I was asked to give a presentation on integrity.  I've finally been to enough of these things that I don’t get too nervous presenting in front of people, which is nice . . . Or, maybe I have just stopped caring what people think – Haha!  We had to get up at 3.30 a.m. for an hour flight and returned home around 11:00 p.m.!  It was a long day and we were wrecked. 

While in Bucuresti, I took the opportunity to buy some goods.  This new store just opened in north Buc that has some American goods.  It’s incredible . . . after a year search for root beer, I bought 8 cans (all they had in stock) and a jar of Skippy extra crunchy peanut butter.  I then had to check my luggage to get it back to Moldova, but it was worth it!  I've been eating stellar peanut butter and banana sandwiches all week long! 

I thought Moldova would start heating up but this week we had some snow!  It didn’t stick, but it was pretty mentally abusive – Haha!   We just want to go outside and not be cold anymore.  It was great weather though in Bucuresti so we soaked it up. 

Transfer boards come out this week and I have no idea again what to expect.  This may have been the fastest week of the mission and the transfer flew as well.  Not sure what I’m going to do with myself. 

We have been delivering these super cool Easter cards (pictured with elder harper) to a bunch of people here in Chisinau.  They have a DVD inside with a bunch of church videos related to Easter and we deliver them to people who order via the internet.  They are free, so we will deliver a ton.  We made a delivery this week to two chicks . . . We started talking about Easter and how in the village, Easter is much better and celebrated more.  Harper mentioned: "I would love to spend Easter in the village!"  About three hours later we get a text that says "hey this is Mariana!  You mentioned that you were wanting to spend Easter in the village, well behold (they say that in Romanian) I wanna invite you!  If you really wanna go?"  This whole Easter video thing might end up backfiring if we only get young girls to order the video! 

From what I heard you guys had a good Easter and week.  The weather there looks great so live it up for me!  I’m excited to skype you guys this next transfer and maybe get to hear Lucy's voice – Haha! 

Va iubesc (I love you)
Keeg