AmEmbassy - Bucharest APO AE 092213-1315 October 12, 1994 Elbert Eugene Peck, Editor Sunstone Magazine 331 Rio Grande St., Suite 206 Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1136 In your note of June 8 you said you were sending me the proofs of my Letter From China article. Four months later, the proofs have not arrived. I'm writing just in case the mails have miscarried -- or, perhaps, they were sent to another address (we move a lot). I also have not heard about the acceptability of the Letter from Romania re-write. Only additional points which might now be added to the Romania letter is a false and meretricious article which appeared in a Ploesti newspaper about a month ago. As a mission presidency we prepared a detailed response in the form of an aide memoire to have on hand in the event of follow-up inquiries. Indeed, we soon had an interview with a writer for the local equivalent of Time magazine which came out quite unbiased, with a photo showing President Morrey standing in front of a wall-sized map of Romania with tabs showing dozens of members scattered in villages all across the country: quite an impressive demonstration of our growth during the past two years. This has been followed-up with a couple of other interviews with missionaries encountered on the streets, and an interview with a local TV channel (which, while we have not yet seen the final version, we believe will be quite favorable). Further negative development, a mission office elder got an anonymous phone call yesterday threatening violence if all missionaries are not out of the country in two days. Embassy Security Officer says it is probably just a crank call, but that we should alert missionaries to take precautions -- which we've done. A further note re the McConkie book on the Holy Ghost which you sent me. After reading, I sent it on to Professor Harold Bloom of Yale (who you'll remember has praised Joseph Smith as being perhaps America's most under-recognized original thinker and influencer of American history), who wrote back with profuse thanks, saying how impressed he'd been with the sesquicentennial observations of the death of Joseph Smith, whom, he said, resided with Thoreau and Sandberg in his personal pantheon of great Americans. Do let me know a) about the missing proofs; and b) what you think of my revised Letter From Romania. Sincerely, D. B. Timmins LETTER FROM ROMANIA Historical Background Rumania is a fascinating, if off the track part of the world. Known to the ancient world as Dacia, it a land of rich farm lands divided by the Carpathian Alps -- a somewhat lower, if still impressive and beautiful extension of the great Alps of Switzerland and Austria. Bordered by the Black Sea to the East, Rumania has some lovely coastal resorts. After flowing through the Black Forest of Germany where it has its rise, passing through Vienna, Budapest, and Belgrade, then raging through the historically important Iron Gates on the Serbian border into Romania, the beautiful Danube flows tranquilly south, east, north again, then east once more to spill into the Black Sea through the great delta which is one of the great bird refuges of the world. The Romans, rulers of Greece (which then included most of what is now peninsular Turkey) and Syria (of which Judea was but a province), found increasing problems with incursions of Scythians, Slavs, and Goths from the other side of the Carpathians, and decided to settle veterans from their Legions on the great plains of Wallachia. These troops, who soon married Dacian women, provided a ready frontier force to hold back the barbarians for several hundred years. Eventually, however, both the Turks and the Slavs proved more invincible than the descendants of the Roman war veterans and Romania (as it came to be known) found itself surrounded by Bulgars to the south, Slavs to the east, Serbs to the west, and Hungarians to the north. Under these influences the language the Romans left to the Romanians evolved somewhat differently than that of the other Romance languages -- French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. Not only did the definite article change to "ul", rather than the "le" of French or "el" of Spanish, it moved from the Roman pre-position before the noun to a posterior position, and a substantial number of Slavic and Turkic loan words entered the language as well. For a variety of reasons, most decisive of which was its Black Sea Coast, where Christianity first arrived from Constantinople, Rumania, despite its historical and linguistic connections with Rome, adopted the Orthodox brand of Christianity. Indeed until a hundred years ago, Rumania, like most other East European countries, used the Cyrillic alphabet and Old Slavonic language -- and for religious purposes still adheres to the Julian Calendar. Those interested in the interminably long history of conquests and reconquests, including the intriguing story of Vlad Tepes (the historic Dracula), and why Romania, of all the countries of Eastern Europe, unwisely chose to ally itself with Germany during both World Wars, are referred to the encyclopedia, or a standard history. Be it enough to say that at the time the Second World War broke out, Bucharest was known as the Paris of Eastern Europe -- a city of wide boulevards bounded by beautiful shade trees, lovely villas, and numerous parks filled with flowering shrubs and plants. And French was the second language of the cultured and educated. Following the War, because the Soviets had so much confidence in the iron control of Rumania's faithful communist rulers, Rumania was accorded much more internal freedom of action than any of the other Iron Curtain countries. Which is not to say that life was particularly good in Rumania during the days of the Cold War. Some older parents I visited a few weeks ago recounted the story of how they had tried to rear their children in the Orthodox Christian tradition, only to find that their teachers each day required them to recite in school a catechism saying "there is no God. there is no God". When the children, eventually asked, as children will, "Why do we pray to God at home, only to be told in school there is no God". The parents replied, "Someday you'll understand." During the brutally suppressed uprisings in Hungary, East Germany, and Czechoslovakia, Rumania remained obedient and quiescent. But interestingly, as Moscow's control began to weaken in 1989 (the reasons for which remain to be fully explained by historians), Romania was the first East European country to rise up. Leader Ceaucescu was publically executed together with his wife; and TV viewers will recall seeing students waiving the red, yellow, and blue Rumanian flag with a large hole in the center where the hammer and scythe had been cut out. One of the sad remnants of Ceausecu's rule today is the large Unirii quarter which was cleared of its historic housing and in process of a megalomaniacal reconstruction project at the time of communism's overthrow. This entire section of town is virtually derelict five years later. Wide avenues remain deserted and millions of dollars worth of not badly architected housing blocks remain windowless and deteriorating as rain beats the interiors. The uncompleted Presidential Palace is said to be larger than the Pentagon. Religion in Contemporary Romania After years of strict discouragement of religious practice, Rumanian churches are again full. But having watched their church leaders accommodate themselves to the dictates of politics, many Rumanians were prepared for the first time in many centuries for new approaches to religion. English is today the second language of choice for Rumanians. And young people wear T shirts blazoned with American university logos, play western rock and roll on their Walkmen, and seem to admire and imitate everything American. It is thus not to be wondered at that American religions are burgeoning in Rumania. There are Baptist missionaries, Adventist missionaries, JW missionaries -- and Mormon missionaries. LDS Church in Romania The history of the post-Cold War arrival of the LDS Church in Hungary remains to be written. And it won't be attempted here. But work in post-Cold War Eastern Europe began when Dennis Neuenschwander was called as President of the Austria Vienna East Mission in 1987. Under the direction of Elders Russell M. Nelson and Hans B. Ringger, and working out of Vienna, President Neuenschwander undertook the steps necessary to obtain recognition of the Church and the introduction of missionary work in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Greece -- and later, Egypt, Turkey, and Cyprus. Shortly thereafter, James L. Wilde was called as President of the Hungary, Budapest Mission. In 1992 President Wilder sent the first two missionaries were sent from the Budapest mission to open work in Ploesti, Romania. The first missionaries were instructed to search for a suitable Branch President. They found him in Brother Mihail Blegeanu, who presided over the Ploesti Branch until its division in April 1984. President Blegeanu was among the handful called to visit Salt Lake City in March 1994 to do voice overs for the temple ceremony in Romanian. (And hereby hangs an anecdote, told perhaps out of chronological order. When President Blegeanu and the other five members who'd been chosen for worthiness, pronunciation, and voice resonance, came to the American Embassy to apply for nonimmigrant visas to visit Salt Lake City, out of honesty and naivety, they wrote on their visa application forms under "Purpose of Visit", "Do translations and perform temple work". The word "work" sets off alarms in the mind of any nonimmigrant visa officer since working in the United States is prohibited for all but legal immigrants. And when it was found that none of the group was proficient in English, it was evident that they were not qualified translators. All six visas were denied. Fortunately, there was a member of the Church working at the Embassy who was able to explain to the satisfaction of the Consul General the nature of "temple work" and clarify that the group would be doing "voice overs" in Romanian of the English language temple ceremony -- not "translations". With some delay the visas were granted. Brother Blegeanu returned to Romania so enthusiastic about temple work and genealogy, that he has recently been called to be coordinator of temple preparation seminars, genealogy, and organizer of the first temple excursion to Freiburg, Germany -- to whose temple district Romania is assigned. The field in Romania was white, already to harvest. Among the early converts were not only Brother Blegeanu, but a number of well educated professionals of exceptional competence -- engineers, university professors, publicists, and one of the most highly qualified medical specialists in the country. The first three converts in Bucharest were Camelia Ionescu, Doina Biolaru, and Octavian Vasilescu. While some translation work had been done at Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City, the local Saints found that the Romance language had so changed under the influence of forty-five years of Slavic ascendancy that the Salt Lake translations sounded archaic to contemporary Romanian ears. Cami set herself to retranslating the twenty or twenty-five hymns in our stapled together hymnal, whose Salt Lake cadences just didn't always accommodate the rhythm of the music. As with many traditional LDS hymns in Spanish translation, some came out more elegantly poetic than the originals. Other than the abbreviated hymnal, our only scriptures are an abridgement of the Book of Mormon consisting of I and II Nephi, parts of Mosiah, Alma, and Helaman; III and IV Nephi, part of Mormon and part of Moroni. We have no D&C or Pearl of Great Price. No Sunday School, MIA, Relief Society, or Priesthood manuals are available. And we are hobbling along with locally translated extracts from the Priesthood Leadership Handbook as the only guidance for Branch and Quorum Presidents. Octavian Vasilescu, who after serving as Branch President in Bucharest, was called to the New Mission Presidency soon after the arrival of President John Morrey, a former Stake President from Washington State. President Vasilescu heads a Mission Translations Committee which was established with the approval of the Area Presidency. The Committee has been carefully reviewing the Salt Lake version of the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants for both grammar and idiomatic consistency. At present, it is unclear whether the local committee is merely to signal inadequacies for further revision in Salt Lake, or whether it is to put forward its own recommendations for alterations. Ambiguous Legal Situation of LDS Church The LDS Church does not yet exist as a recognized religion under the laws of Romania. Its operations, properties, and programs function at present under the direction of the Board of the Liahona Association, a humanitarian and cultural organization whose roster consists of local members of the Church. The Church owns a single modest property in which one branch meets. Another two branches in Bucharest meet in tandem in the business offices of the city metro administration. And a fifth meets in the auditorium of a technical high school. In Ploesti, the two branches meet in tandem in the cultural center of the local branch of the national labor union. During a recent visit from European Area President Dennis Neuenschwander, local leadership was instructed to look for four large villas located convenient to metro stops in the major residential areas of Bucharest, which might be acquired under long term lease for modification into centers for Church use. It is intended that two or more large main floor rooms be joined to provide chapel facilities for 150 or so, with bedrooms being used to provide six or eight classrooms, including office space for the presidencies of the two or three branches expected to meet in each facility. Missionaries have been instructed to start small local dependent branches wherever they can find enough converts in a neighborhood to meet in one or another member's homes. Acquisition of permanent facilities is to await determination of where future membership of the Church will be located. There are a fair number of members who joined the Church while living or working abroad. As these have returned to Romania, they have taken up residence in small towns scattered across the country. As members of the Mission Presidency travel, they make it a point to plan their trips so as to visit as many of these members as possible enroute. The new Mission President's first priority was to search for local priesthood leadership so he could divide the branches a) to make it more convenient for members to reach church; b) and, looking to the future, to give leadership opportunities to as many as possible; and c) to get enough additional missionaries to begin work in the half dozen other large cities in Rumania. The target is to have a branch in each of the seven sectors of Bucharest, to have an additional branch in Ploesti, and to commence work in at least one other city by mid 1995. To date, there are five branches in Bucharest (all but one with local leadership), and two in Ploesti, both under local leadership. The Mission anticipates that it will have 150 missionaries by year end. Decision is now in process as to which city will be opened next. The new instructions to concentrate on neighborhood groups may modify these plans somewhat. Draft Religious Liberty Law As in many countries emerging from the shadow of totalitarian government, Romania is seeking world approval through adoption of civil rights legislation, not least among which is a draft law assuring religious liberty. By more than chance, a BYU law professor has had a leading role in working with a group of European legalists in advising various Eastern European countries regarding such legislation. He was personally asked by the President of Romania to call together a group to advise on such legislation. When the group met recently in Bucharest, it was surprised to find that the draft it had been given to consider (and regarding which its comments had been prepared), had been replaced by a new draft with several material changes which it had not previously seen. And here arises a problem for the LDS (and other) churches. The Romanian bureaucracy still consists to a considerable degree of the pre-revolutionary communist nomenclatura which pretty well ran things under communism according to their own lights, without regard to law or other peoples' opinions of convenience. While judgments differ, some considering that the old timers have changed only their caps, not their thinking, and others that however well-intentioned, the old timers may be, they just don't know how to go about implementing a life-style with which they are totally unacquainted, the fact remains that there seems to be a lot of foot dragging and policy-reversal regarding genuine change, both social and economic. The current draft of the religious liberty law, while repeating all the expected platitudes about freedom to follow the religion of one's preference, provides few of the rights of property ownership, choice of leadership, or proselyting freedom necessary for effective operation of the Mormon Church in Romania. Big current debate is whether the LDS Church should seek immediate recognition as a religious body, in order to be included in the bill submitted to the Romanian Parliament. Or wait till the new law is enacted, thereafter seeking bureaucratic approval as a church from the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Argument for waiting is that to seek approval now would subject the Church to untold interrogation in Parliamentary hearings, which could amount to harassment. Arguments for proceeding at once are a) if we're included in the law as enacted, it would take an act of Parliament to disincorporate us, whereas, as the draft legislation stands, the Church could later be disincorporated and its rights forfeited by bureaucratic determination, without so much as a court hearing. Seeking recognition under present law would at least give us two bites at the apple. And if we succeed, would imbed our recognition in the religious liberty law as enacted, requiring parliamentary action to disincorporate.. In considering this decision, however, leadership must take into account the fact that the prelates of the Orthodox Church see themselves under assault from all the outside religions which have apparently invaded their territory since the Revolution of 1989. They have been exerting pressure on the Minister of Religious Affairs and using word-of-mouth and national television to attack both the LDS and other non-Orthodox churches. Missionaries have noted a distinct falling off in baptisms since this campaign started. As a result, the LDS Church is, at present, pursuing a "low profile" policy. Those who think we'd be better to wait, are concerned that by raising our profile now, the Orthodox Church could, as noted, use Parliamentary hearings to line up Orthodox members of Parliament to ask all sorts of difficult questions, frightening off support for the Religious Liberty Law and perhaps leaving things worse than at present. Those favoring an early effort at recognition recall that in Spain, even after passage of the Religious Liberty Law, many local authorities, operating as they always had in the past, continued to harass non-Catholic churches (until the LDS Church was clever enough to send missionaries from Latin American countries, taking advantage of the fact that all Spanish local authorities knew they shouldn't make trouble for nationals of any of Spain's daughter countries because of the policy of Hispanidad ). Since there is no equivalent of Hispanidad available as a shield for the LDS Church in Romania, there is something to be said for the "two bites at the apple" approach, which, with success at the first bite, would entrench our legal position in initial legislation at a time when Romania is seeking the approval of world opinion -- while barring such luck, we'd be legally no worse off than at present and could always come back seeking administrative approval under the new law. What makes decision especially difficult are the bureacracy's policy reversals and spontaneous redrafting of the law without letting those who've been asked to offer comments to even know that's going on. In the meantime, calls on senior Ministry officials have brought to light the fact that the Minister is under considerable pressure from the Orthodox prelature carefully to minimize any rights extended to other than what is still the National Church (whose ministers and other expenses are paid as civil servants from the national budget). Some of the Minister's associates seem to think that we should raise our profile at an early date, putting some iron in the Minister's spine, or we'll be run over and be left with a meaningless law. Problems of LDS Church Operations in Romania In the meantime, not being a legal church, our problems are many. Marriage LDS Church leadership has no authority to perform marriages. People experiencing a newly reacquired freedom to have a religious marriage ceremony, are often reluctant to go to the town hall for a dismal civil ceremony, diminished in the eyes of many by its long association with communist domination. LDS leaders have at present no alternative but to remind members that in many quite civilized countries, e.g. France, it is required to have a civil ceremony preceding the religious one. So members are counselled to be married by the mayor, then hold a nice reception with the bride in her gown and the groom nicely turned out, to greet (and feed) family members and friends. It has been helpful to let members know that this happens in other countries; and that even where the LDS Church is well established, as in the U.S. there are not infrequently family members on one side or the other without temple recommends whose first chance to greet and congratulate the bride and groom is at the Reception. The couple is then counseled to prepare for a trip to Freiburg at the earliest possible date to have their civil wedding solemnized in the Temple. Funerals We also have problems with funerals. The near relatives of most LDS families are interred in either a Catholic or Orthodox cemetery and the family often holds rights to a burial plot therein -- not to mention having a natural desire to be buried near other members of one's family. Under Romanian law, only Catholic or Orthodox priests are entitled to perform religious ceremonies in such terrain. Of course, where it is a matter of a civil cemetery, the problem does not arise. While we have not yet had any LDS funerals, the matter was raised during a recent Priesthood Leadership meeting and Branch Presidents were counselled that memorial services could be held in a members home, or in an LDS meeting place at a date near the funeral (since all such locations are presently schools or business offices such services could obviously not always be held on the day of the interment) without the casket, but with appropriate hymns and talks. Insufficient Classroom Numbers As in many other countries with small wards or branches (See Letter from Mexico, Sunstone, date ?? ) there are usually too few children of a given age to enable the Primary President or Sunday School Superintendent to organize classes for every appropriate age group. And, as any Primary or Sunday School Teacher will recognize, while one can get by with fifteen to seventeen years olds in a class, you just can't hold the interest of classes mixing three year olds with six year olds, or eight year olds with twelve year olds. Yet it is essential that every child have an opportunity of learning the Gospel during his or her most impressionable years. This often means classes of only one or two students, leaving the problem of not always having enough teachers (or classroom space) to accommodate the problem. In Mexico it was suggested that two wards meeting at the same time hold joint Primaries and Junior Sunday Schools to enlarge classes and economize on teachers. In Romania, where branches must meet in tandem, rather than holding overlapping meetings in different parts of the wardhouse, this is not an option. Indeed, at present we have no solution. Meeting Places Too Small to Permit Branches of a Size to Permit Adequate Programs Those who may have read my Letter from Mexico will recall the problems for priesthood leadership caused by an overly ambitious program to multiply stakes by forced division of wards as soon as the minimum number of 300 members was reached. Because of the large number of children in Mexican families, this often meant having to staff new wards from among only eight or ten Melchizedek Priesthood members -- not all fully active. The problem is intensified in Romania where few current meeting places will accommodate more than fifty or sixty people. Branches must thus be divided hastily so as not to exceed this critical number. This naturally means having to staff the new branches from a minimal number of priesthood holders, none of whom have been in the Church for more than two years -- and most of them much less. In a recent meeting of fifty-five, only eight were adult males -- and, not counting missionaries, only four were members of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Missionaries supplement as counselors in most Branch Presidencies. It is hoped (and intended) that locating large villas which can be modified to seat up to a hundred and fifty will help relieve this problem. But there will still not be enough teachers to staff every class or enough children to justify classes appropriate to their age. Music We also have problems with music. As noted, we only have a score of songs. And the brethren are reluctant to allow us to introduce traditional local hymns which do not carry a Restoration message. So there is much repetition, Worse, few people read music, and, congregational singing not being part of the Orthodox tradition, fewer have any experience at singing. Result: Perhaps only eight or ten out of a congregation of fifty droning in monotone. To complicate matters, there're perhaps only one or two local members in the entire mission who can lead music. The missionary sisters are lifesavers. Fortunately, we have a former Tab Choir member working at the American Embassy, and are working towards holding training sessions for representatives from each Branch, as well as towards devoting the first ten minutes of each Sunday School to serious song practice for our new members -- despite the fact that Church didn't do us any favors by eliminating choir practice as part of the Sunday School agenda. Part of the benefit of being a Mission, not a Stake, is that the Mission President has authority to apply programs more flexibly than a Stake President and we're going to steal ten minutes of instruction time for song practice. Home Teaching Members recognize the importance of Home Teaching and how essential the program is in keeping a lay Branch President in touch with scattered members. But they also carry the baggage of the Ceausecu "block party leader" in the back of their head. Not a few thus feel uncomfortable calling officiously on co-members of the Church. And, given the large spread of Bucharest, and the fact that few members have private transportation, most find it difficult to budget their time to visit more than two or three families a month. Yet shortage of priesthood inevitably means each Melchizedek priesthood member must be assigned seven or eight names. Of course, this problem is not unknown in other areas of the Church. Again, taking advantage of mission flexibility, Home Teachers are encouraged to do their Home Teaching in shifts: three families this month, three the next; the first three the third month -- and so on. Not perfect, and probably anathema to any records conscious Wasatch Front Bishop, but better to visit three families every other month than no families every month. Special Church Observances In the Downtown Washington, D.C. Ward where we lived before coming to Romania, we had perhaps the most culturally diverse Church experience I can remember -- and I've spent my entire adult life in the Foreign Service living in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and Latin America. Perhaps forty per cent of the Ward was Black (including many African Blacks), a third Hispanic, and the rest Anglo (most on special call from the Stake President). Had a convert from Islam who, blessing his first sacrament as a Priest, prostrated himself with forehead to the floor, while saying the sacrament prayer. Obviously he'd not been given prior instruction, and this was equally obviously his notion of high reverence. In the same Ward, our Black Priesthood Quorum President, giving a lesson on the Exodus from Egypt, had the entire Quorum sing "Go Down Moses". A rich experience. Attending Fast Meeting Service with friends in Delaware, heard a Black sister "rap" her testimony. Beautiful voice, beautiful rhyming, beautiful spiritual experience. Later asked a General Authority friend about these experiences and was told, "As long as the custom a convert brings to the Church isn't in direct conflict with Gospel Principles, we don't intend to interfere in any way. We want to encourage people to feel comfortable in their new church home." This was good advice for coming to Romania. Orthodox tradition follows the Julian calendar, which often puts Easter in a different month than Western tradition. As a Presidency, we took up with the Area Presidency in Frankfurt the question of the date on which Easter was to be observed by the LDS Church in Romania. We were told that it would be perfectly appropriate to follow the tradition with which local membership is comfortable, there being no doctrinal conflict involved. The LDS Church in Romania therefore celebrates Easter according to the Julian calendar. On Easter, it is moreover customary for Romanian Priests to announce during Sunday Service "He is risen", upon which members of the congregation reply, "He is risen indeed". Last Easter, some of our new convert members approached President Morrey to ask whether they could follow this custom during our LDS Easter Service. That Christ is the risen Lord being the essential message of the Restoration, and seeing nothing contrary to Gospel principle or teaching in this, President Morrey said indeed, this could be part of emerging LDS Church tradition in Romania. The Mission Presidency has devised a provisional LDS Church calendar trying to include important local and churchwide traditions. February 9 is Romanian Independence Day, and the Sunday nearest this date is to be commemorated with Church-related patriotic talks much as American Independence Day would be commemorated in an LDS Ward in the United States. In March, Romanian sisters for the first time held a fete commemorating the Organization of the Relief Society. This was a lovely affair, well-prepared and well-executed. It will be an annual event. As noted, Easter will be celebrated much as in any American LDS Ward, but according to the Julian date (this year in April). May 15th will be Aaronic Priesthood Restoration Day, as everywhere in the Church. Special talks were given in Sacrament Meeting by a Deacon, a Teach, a Priest, and the Branch President. The preceding Saturday, Aaronic Priesthood boys met in the Bucharest Park on the spot where Apostle Russell Nelson gave the prayer dedicating the land of Romania for the preaching of the Gospel. This was our equivalent of Utah A.P. youths visiting the Martin Harris grave. It is expected it will become an annual event. Second Sunday in June was Melchizedek Priesthood Restoration Sunday, with appropriate songs and a talk by the Elder's Quorum President and B.P. This year we had special programs in each Branch commemorating the death of the Prophet Joseph Smith, it being the sesquicentennial of the martyrdom. We decided to commemorate July 24 only after considerable reflection. It was decided that this was such an important event in Church History that it shouldn't be overlooked despite Wasatch Front associations. Hasn't yet been decided what format the program will take. There certainly won't be any sunrise breakfasts with the S.U.P. or handcart parades with Primary children in sunbonnets. August, September, and October hold no special Church or Romanian national holidays. Branch Activities Committees are being encouraged to schedule a Branch picnic, dinner, or athletic event for one or another of these months. December 1 is Romanian National Day. And, of course, December 25 is the traditional Christmas. It is truly rewarding to be in a country where the Church is just getting underway, and successfully. Relationships between local members are exceptional. So far none of the petty jealousies have arisen between member cliques which often plague longer-established mission branches. Members entertain each other at home like family members. And Home Teachers -- perhaps because they haven't had time to become slackers -- do their visiting faithfully. And there is none of the bickering over petty doctrinal mysteries as in virtually any HP group in the U.S. 'Fraid there'd be few readers for Sunstone in Rumania. We have no translations of Relief Society or Priesthood lesson manuals, so most careful notes are taken at leadership training sessions. The Book of Mormon exists only in abridged form. AS noted, the Hymnal consists of a couple of dozen translations in a stapled paperback version. The Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price are unknown. President Morrey has just prepared and distributed an abbreviated first version of the Priesthood Handbook of Instructions. But the smiles of joy and acceptance on the faces of some of these new members remind the writer of the old German and Scandinavian converts of his childhood. And, already starting to take over from the missionaries, new members are doing a valiant job of teaching some classes. Some Concluding Impressions What is truly astonishing is that the investigator class in Ploesti a couple of Sundays ago, when the author visited it, consisted of twenty seriously-interested individuals brought by members and missionaries. And the number of monthly baptisms in this five branch mission exceeds the total number baptized during the author's entire mission served in one of the well-established missions of Western Europe some years ago. What is equally astonishing in this land where almost every convert comes from the Orthodox tradition in which there has been virtually no participation in the service by the congregation, how much there is for members to learn about priesthood responsibility. In most established parts of the Church, it is customary to devote a priesthood meeting a year to reviewing ordinances, so that new members know how to bless their children, ordain, consecrate oil, and bless the sick. In Aaronic Priesthood classes, young men are instructed how to prepare, bless, and pass the sacrament. With the rapid increase of the Church in Romania, this must be done on a much more frequent basis. In a recent Leadership Conference, it was learned that deacons in many branches were wandering up and down the aisles passing the sacrament, and the priests didn't know whether to stand, sit, or kneel with each other during the blessing. Somehow it had never occurred to anyone that such elementary matters of instruction had never been given along the way as part of the missionary lessons nor in the quorums after ordination (it is easy to forget how much church practice and procedure is picked up by osmosis by those growing up in the Church). At the Leadership Session of our last Mission Conference, Elder Neuenschwander took time to instruct deacons and priests at some length how to prepare the sacrament table, break bread, pre-plan how the sacrament was to be passed, and to alert priests to observe carefully during the passing to make sure everyone had received the bread or water before standing as a signal for the deacons to return to the sacrament table. Among a dozen and a half Branch Presidents, Counselors, and Elders Quorum Presidents, several of whom had been to the temple, it was found that only two had ever consecrated oil or given a priesthood blessing of healing. At our last Branch President's meeting, each B.P. and Counselor was afforded the opportunity to consecrate oil and practice anointing and blessing so that they could pass on such instruction in an early priesthood meeting in their branch. It has become clear to the author, in ways he had never previously imagined, how the Great Apostasy occurred in an era when Area Presidents had no access to telephones, faxes, or airlines, the number of new converts to Christianity was explosive -- and there was perhaps even greater religious and cultural diversity than at present to contaminate the simple Christian teachings of the Apostles owing to the world's having no Hollywood or Motown to promote cultural uniformity.