Cooleys Called To Serve

THE HOLIDAYS ENDING 2014

WOW, what could be more exciting for the Christmas holidays than to have the unique experience of being here in Moldova. WHY? you ask is it so different well I will tell you. FIRST off we had the opportunity to celebrate Christmas on the 25th with 26 wonderful Missionaries.

Our Nativity at the Chisinau Branch Christmas Party

We had lunch with the Missionaries at Elder and Sora Flanders home.

They all love to have their picture taken!

I think Elder Feil over did it!

Another unique tradition in Moldova is that in addition to December 25th we also have Christmas on the 7th of January. This is the Orthodox Christmas. OH, and if you think that is different we also have two NEW YEARS EVE'S. Needless to say we didn't have a lot of missionary activity during these two weeks. The city was sleeping for a few days before and after each holiday. We enjoyed it though because there wasn't much traffic on those days. New Years Eve is celebrated here much more than in the states. We had fireworks, M80's or something very loud going off all through the night. That is why missionaries are suppose to be in by 9:00pm.

Lee and I had some very heartfelt experiences with Elder and Sister Kneib the humanitarian couple here in Moldova. They invited us to participate in some Christmas activities with people they have done projects with. The Arts School director, Eina Bulat, here in Chisinau, had worked with the Kneib's at her previous school. She was in dire need of help so she called the couple who she knew would help her. The Art School was going to be shut down because the kitchen was regarded as unhealthy for the children. The main problem was they had 400 students and the refrigerators didn't work. The LDS church not only came to the, but they supplied not ONE, not TWO, not THREE but FOUR large refrigerators for the school. Enia showed some of her gratitude with an invitation to a Christmas Program by the school.

Another Christmas program that we attended was a Kindergarten where myself and five of the Sora missionaries helped Julia Gorgos (a member of our ward)who asked us if we could help make costumes for her grandson's class. She didn't mention was just how many we would be making.

Just had to add this last video because this young man was awesome, He definitely captured the HEARTS of the audience.

We also had the opportunity to participate in the delivering of some shoes made by Constantin our

cobbler. He has been working with the Knieb's. The church pays him to make shoes for the disabled, the poor, and needy. Mehai the director of the handicapped here in Moldova, decides who will receive the shoes.

Mehai is the director of the handicapped in Moldova and is also the one who takes charge of all the wheel chairs that the LDS church donates here. The chairs number in the thousands. They say there are about 80,000 handicapped people in Moldova.

They get the size for the shoes by drawing an outline of each foot and then Constantin makes some great looking and comfortable leather shoes for them.

Constantin and the Kneib's signing the papers.

This is a picture of the shoes he has made. You can give him a picture and pick out the material and he can make you the shoes you want. I will have him do me a pair of boots before I return home. They will be a ONE OF A KIND.