Bucharest, Romania

Greetings from Romania. Don't you love this picture? I imagine all the tellers inside having Dracula teeth and wearing black capes. The castle, Bran, where the story of Dracula is set is about 50 miles north of here and that area of the country is really called Transylvania.

This is a country still lagging behind other European countries, but at least beginning to join the race. These four days have been most interesting being in the big city of Bucharest with its traffic, pollution, square Communist-era buildings yet nestled on a tiny island of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a district conference where the Holy Ghost was strongly present. District Conference is like Stake Conference for us. Wonderful members, many of them the young people I worked with when I did the Young Single Adult Conference last May. They were all very glad to greet me again. They have a marvelous light in their eyes.

Garth and Sheila and I arrived Friday midday. Joyce and Steve, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law and an assistant to the president Elder who drives the city picked us up. We went to the mission home and met the president and let Garth and Sheila renew their memories of the world they were in for three years when they were mission presidents here. They had built the home that is the mission home now and President and Sister Lundberg were most gracious in greeting us and letting us look around. Then on to the mission office where we met wonderful missionaries and looked at the city from another view.

That night we trained Steve and Joyce and a couple that had come down from Moldova on how to run the Young Adult Centers that are being developed. Saturday morning we attended a Young Adult Council meeting with the young people who are serving in the leadership of the district, the mission president, the senior couples, and our wonderul Elder Wondra. Remember, Rolf and Gretchen, when we did Jedermann in the law school not long after we moved to Provo? I reminded Elder Wondra of that experience. He remembered it very well.

Sunday after conference Joyce and Steve had Elder Wondra come here for dinner because we had a fireside that night. They live close to the Church. So we spent a wonderful three hours visiting with Elder Wondra. He is a remarkable man with a merry heart. He tells wonderful stories of joining the Church as a young adult, marrying in the temple, and raising a family in the Church. His wife is third generation member from Germany. He is from Austria. He remembers the Anschluss in 1938 when Hitler took over Austria. He remembers seeing Hitler. Someone gave him a little flag to wave. His parents saw that the Nazis were not good and moved to Czechoslovakia for about 10 years until the war was well overand the Russians took over there. To escape that they moved back to Austria where when he was a college student two missionaries knocked on Elder Wondra's door.

He talks about going to Salt Lake City for the first time years later. A friend drove him around and showed him Elder Maxwell's house, then President Kimball's house. The house next door to President Kimball was for sale. Elder Wondra thought he might buy it. But he remembered that the Prophet had said that people ought to remain in their own countries and build up the Church there. He said he went home to Austria and lived feeling perfectly safe right near where the Russians threatened danger because he knew he was following the Prophet. He said he realized he would rather be threatened by the Russians and follow the Prophet than live next door to the Prophet and NOT follow him.

So today we'll fly home to Frankfurt and prepare for the next trip to Copenhagen and Oslo day after tomorrow.

I've had occasion this weekend to think about the time Gretchen went with me and the EMBAs to China and we visited a factory that was filled with 15-18 year-old young women making Sony Walkmans. Gretchen saw that difficult life and said she wouldn't do it. The Chinese woman who was leading the group said, "It is this or the rice paddies, which would you prefer?" Gretchen and I had several conversations about what it means to be raised in a country where you are privileged to have opportunity, many choices. Where you can decide what you'd like to do and even change your mind. The scriptures tell us that where much is given, much is required. Our wonderful family has been given so much, so many choices, so many opportunities. Be sure to choose well. Choose to work hard to be smart, happy, obedient. Remember, as long as you choose to keep the promises you've made to Heavenly Father, all the other choices will work out. Zach, Olle, Sadie, Leif, you have all made a promise when you were baptized, that you would be a worthy, obedient child of God. McKay, your choice to make that promise is coming so very soon. Lucy, Elsa, Liesel, your promises will be offered before we know it. Your mommies and daddys have made other promises in the temple. So have I. Let's all promise to keep those promises.

Some quick observations:
-Spring is coming to Romania
-Tiny green shoots on bushes hold great promise
-Stray dogs are everywhere in the streets. Big ones.
-I think the dogs are neurotic from not getting a good night's sleep. Always some dog is barking.
-Tall buildings have a ground floor, then a first, second, third floor up. So Steve and Joyce live on the 7th floor, but in the tiny elevator you push 6 because they live on the 6th floor above the ground floor
-The Gospel makes people light from inside and very beautiful
-The Gospel is true

This building is called the People's Palace. It was built by Ciaoucescu, a wicked despot who caused many problems in Romania after the Iron Curtain came down. The people hate this place because of how they remember he was so awful to them. The Gospel of Jesus Christ will make all the difference.

Love you all,

Kaye