Our sweet 12 weeks baby

We went to the doctor Monday evening and it was great! Last time we went there it was a month ago and our baby was 9,5 mm and I was impressed to see how "big" it is now and that we were able to see it moving around. So now our baby is 43,6 mm . At first it was sleeping and I asked our doctor if our baby is moving even if I can't feel anything right now and she said it does and to make us feel even happier she woke up the baby and our little angel started to move very fast. We were amazed to see those little hands and those little legs moving and to see that everything is ok and the baby is growing up the way it should.
This whole thing makes me the happiest person on Earth! I am so grateful for Fred and all his support and for this opportunity to have a baby growing! It's just wonderful!

Very talented kids from Ukraine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba5nblQeshE

Lifting Burdens

Lifting Burdens

Baby on bord

This is gonna be a very short post because we are both very tired but also we are sooo happy in the same time. Today we went again to the doctor and our baby is developing very well and everything is going well. I'm pregnant in 6 weeks and 6 days. We saw our baby's little heart beating today and that was amazing (121 bpm).
Thank you for all your support and for all your prayers! We are very blessed and we feel loved by our Heavenly Father and by all of you!
We are praying for everything to be ok in the future and we are trying to think about all things in a positive way.

Fun Weekend

Hello everyone!!!
I'm sorry we don't write very often on our blog, but we will try to do that more often. Please excuse my English or my writing skills in case you need to...
First of all I want to let you know that Fred started a new blog where he is sharing his thoughts with everyone who's interested . I think it's great. This is his blog : http://fred-christensen.blogspot.com/ and I invite you to take a look from time to time.
We had a full and interesting weekend. We went to the Cismigiu Park and we rented a boat( Fred says it's called a paddle boat) for an hour and it was so nice. I don't know if you knew about this, but Fred takes me on a date every Saturday and I just love it.
After that we found a funny machine on which was saying "The mouth of truth. Your future is written in your hand" and we just laughed about it, but Fred wanted to try it and so he did . It was fun to "see" Fred's future .

On Sunday we attended an orthodox baptism. One of my friends from high school had her baby's baptism and she invited us . It was something new because neither of us ever attended such an event. It was interesting. One of our teachers was there too and she is catholic , so we talked to her a little bit why in our church we don't baptize children until they are 8. Here are some pictures for those of you who are curious.

In the end I just want to say that I am so grateful for all the things in my life, for having such a wonderful and crazy husband and to have the opportunity to love and to feel loved.

This is a little something my dad has kept in his wallet ever sence I knew him.

From what I understand these are the words of President David O. McKay given in 1965 in President McKay's Hotel Utah apartment to a group of brethren working in the physical facilities part of the Church.

While engaged in explaining to them the importance of the work they were engaged in, he paused and told them the following:

Let me assure you, Brethren, that some day you will have a personal Priesthood interview with the Savior himself. If you are interested, I will tell you the order in which he will ask you to account for your earthly responsibilities.

First, He will request an accountability report about your relationship with your wife. Have you actively been engaged in making her happy and ensuring that her needs have been met as an individual?

Second, He will want an accountability report about each of your children individually. He will not attempt to have this for simply a family stewardship but will request information about your relationship to each and every child.

Third, He will want to know what you personally have done with the talents you were given in the pre-existency.

Fourth, He will want a summary of your activity in your Church assignments. He will not necessarily be interested in what assignments you have had, for in his eyes the home teacher and mission president are probably equals, but he will request a summary of how you have been of service to your fellow men in your Church assignments.

Fifth, He will have no interest in how you earned your living, but if you were honest in all your dealings.

Sixth, He will ask for an accountability on what you have done to contribute in Positive manner to your community, state, country and the world.

Time Waits for Nobody (it's a Queen song, look it up)

Well Howdy everyone.



We certainly have had a fun and eventful past few months. Life is going well. The last three weeks we have been without a computer and so have been pretty much cut off from the world and truth be told, that kinda suits us for the time being. Well now that our computer is working again and we are hitting the day to day parts of life again here is a little update into our lives. So I guess I should do a run through since the wedding. After the wedding we went to Germany and were sealed. We had a wonderful time with my parents, I don't know why but it only shoes have of the pictures on our blog so if you want to see the rest take a look at the following.

http://picasaweb.google.ro/justplainfred/Germany#

or

http://picasaweb.google.ro/justplainfred/WeddingSlideshow#

I did get music onto our blog so that is exciting.

Since Germany we have had an adventure. It took me about another month but I found a great job. We both have callings and are helping the branch and district how we can. Life is good other than the fact that we can't just be together all the time. It is weird getting use to only seeing each other from like 8:30 PM to 9:30 AM. Our Saturdays are always busy. Sunday really has become a day of relaxing resting and contemplation for us.

I hope you all are safe and happy. God bless you all.

Remember, Do your best and the good Lord will do the rest.

Cheers

Fred

What's in a name??

What an adventure I just want everyone to know that There is no longer an Irina Florentina Geambasu it is now Irina Florentina Christensen. WOO HOO!!!! I have the best wife ever and I love her with all that I am. Now for a few details. We first were married civilly at the court house and that was memorable. It took all of about 10 minutes. They had us both say yes then we signed our names in the Romanian Record book (and Irina signed her name Christensen Irina Florentina the last name going first here). Then everyone there (There were around 35 people there in support) gave us flowers. Just about everyone gave us flowers it was so nice. The coolest thing was when we left the courthouse doors. Everyone formed an isle for us out of two lines and held the flowers over our heads. It was like we were heading out of the tunnel for the best game of our lives. Then as we started to descend the steps of the courthouse they all started to sing to us La Multi Ani (la multi ani is a traditional song in which they wish us many good years ahead). That was a neat experience. Later that night we had a reception and that turned out great. We had a lot of help from the branch members here. We started off with a ring exchanging ceremony and that was done by the Mission President. He did it in Romanian and I it was really nice. Then Irina and I danced and everyone was happy and enjoyed it. We had a little meal where we got to eat some Sarmale and it was just relaxed and nice. We danced most of the night.

Well everything is going good. We are headed to the Frieberg temple Wednesday this week and my parents are going to meet us there, we are both excited for that. Life is good, we are happy and we thank you all for your support and friendship. Rock the party, I know we are :)

Just get me to the church on Time

Howdy everyone

This should be a bit of a shorter post, but let's see where my fingers take me. Yesterday May 7th Irina and myself (I'm Fred) were at the office governing marriages here in the area we are in. We put in our documents and set the time for our marriage. We will be married on the 16th of May at 10 A.M. So the civil wedding will be held at the Sector 2 Mayers office. It is right next to Parcul Obor a beautiful little park. We are very excited and things are going well. We will have a reception that night at 5 P.M. at our Chapel on Sos. Mihai Bravu (that's the street the chapel is on). Everyone is invited the catch is it is around the world from most of the people I know, but if you want to come you have are invited lol. President Lunberg (the mission Pres. here) will have a little ring exchanging ceremony and we will then have a little food and a little dancing and rock the party. On Wed. the 20th we will be leaving for Frieberg Germany. Things are looking up and we are very excited. We are hoping to get most everything on video and put it on our blog and that would be awesome. Thanks everyone for your friendship and prayers. God bless y'all. Well I'm out.

Fred

P.S. Thanks again Aunt Annelle and Momma and John for helping get that birth certificate to me, we wouldn't be getting married yet without it.

All's well that Ends well

So Who has heard of a document becoming an apostle? I hadn't that's for sure. There is a type of validation you can get on official documents (such as a Birth Certificate) that makes it recognized internationally it is called an apostilla (at lest I think that's how you say it in English). It just so happens that the Romanian Government Requires this validation for you to be married in the country to a Romanian Citizen (as Irina and I are now planning instead of waiting to get married back in the states) Even though the US and most other countries stopped using this validation like 50 years ago this type of verification is fairly simple to do if you are in person in the state your document was made. If not ugh... I was looking at a month and a half or so and about $150-$200 to get this document to me. After which it would be another half a month before I could get married, which would mean my Passport visa of 90 days would run out and I would have to apply for some temporary residency and pay additional fees for my stay here in Romania only to change my status and pay even more after I get married. (PS I got here fine I love it here and I love this girl I am with. I didn't run into any problems at the airport like my mom thought I would, everything went smoothly) Back to this headache of a document, just to tell them that I am truly a US citizen (exactly the same thing my passport does)

So for the last 2 weeks I have been trying to fill my days with paper work and logistics two things that I am sure all of you know are my specialties (and for those of you who actually don't know me that was sarcastic I hate that kind of stuff) while Irina has been at work during the day. Irina didn't really want me to find a job until after we got married because we will be taking quite a bit of time off to go to the temple in Germany (Frankfurt) and it is difficult to leave a good impression when you get hired and ask for a week or more off. Well yesterday Irina got off work and was really bothered, she just felt uneasy there. It wasn't anything extreme that bothered her she just felt like it wasn't the place for he, and she got tired of the atmosphere. Simple things like that. She was bothered all last night and did a lot of praying and when she came back home (she's been sleeping at a friends house and comes back early to get ready for work) she told me she felt she needed to quit her job. It surprised me a bit but I told her I supported what she felt, I knew she would need some time off to come with me for some of the paper work and stuff before we get married so I thought fine we can get all that stuff done now and be ready for when I get this document. She went in today and talked to her boss and he let her go early today and tomorrow is her last day.

Well when she was at work today I got an email from my mom (about 8 in the morning Utah time) and it said that my mom could get me the birth certificate earlier she said it would take about 4-6 weeks (better than I was afraid of) and I was excited but still a little sad it would take so long. When Irina got home from work we talked about it a little and wondered what we would do for so long without work and all and it was a little unsure what to do. Well at about 10:30 UT time I got another email from my wonderful mother and it said something as follows "Fred I talked to Annelle (one of my aunts that lives in California) and she said she would go and wait in line to get your birth certificate apostilla and she should have it by monday, how do we mail it to you?" Well lo and behold John Chelsey (who was Elder Chelsey and who also is marrying a girl from Bucuresti named Irina) is leaving from Seattle on Wed. to come here to Romania. He is getting here the 30th of April and getting married on the 15th of May. I emailed my mom and my aunt with great praise and gratitude for what they are doing and should have the information and be able to be married around the 15th. THIS IS HUGE!!! Think about it, how many things have to fall in line for this to work out, First My mom pulled through with flying colors on how she could help me get this document. She overnights an original copy of my birth certificate (something that I thought I had the only one of here in Romania) to my aunt who is willing to travel and stand in line to get an apostilla for it who will then have to overnight it to another returned missionary who will be able to bring it with him to Romania the next day. But does it end there??? NO Remember how Irina quit her job? Well she quite in exactly the right time so that we could get all our documents and tests done so we can be married. God really has answered a lot of prayers and granted us some wonderful tender mercies. I am really overwhelmed with gratitude for my maker and for my family right now. I have been blessed greatly. Honestly it is a miracle, nothing short. I thank you all for your prayers and support, I hope this answers some of the questions that you have had about what I am doing and how things are going. God bless you all and remember he does have a plan for things even if we can't see them right now. Until next time.

Fred

I got me one of them Crazy Ideas

Growing up I always loved games. I remember playing Checkers with my Grandpa's before they died. My brother Andy and my dad helped me to learn how to play chess and that was a new thrill and adventure. I never was super good at it but I could hold my own. As a new missionary my trainer, Elder Colton Owens and I sometimes played Chess on P-days or during our hour lunch. We were pretty evenly matched so naturally we kept a tally of who was in the lead. I don't really remember the details that well but I do remember at the beginning of our battle royal chess competition I seemed to beat Colton with relative ease. This lasted for only a few games, where if I lost it seemed only because I made stupid mistakes. Well there came a point where Colton would stop and say, "Elder Christensen, I've got me one of them crazy ideas." He would get a crazy move idea in his head and then he would go for it. INVARIABLY when he would follow this crazy move idea I would get dominated. He would trash my every effort. Well as I went through out my mission I remembered that and I kind of applied it to life in a much more crucial way. I would sit in lessons and get a crazy idea. Something a little bold or something a little off subject to say would pop into my head. I then would stop and pray about it, something simple but just ask the Lord if it helped the situation and if it was appropriate and all that jazz. Well I would try to go off what I felt. So long as the Lord, and my better judgment didn't stop me I would follow that crazy impulse. It worked and I kept following my instinct, or the spirit (as I felt and still fill that it usually was), even after I got home in my day to day life. Well after I got together with Irina and we decided that we wanted to be together we had talked about future plans. It was easy to talk to her about anything and everything (it still is easy to talk to her, she's great). We talked about marriage and about how we felt towards each other in this respect. We both felt our relationship had progressed to the point where we would be wanted to be engaged and married. I however had felt that I wanted to wait until we were together before I officially proposed to her, to do it in person and all that jazz. Well one day I was working in Park City and I got a text from my cousin Jed who also works with me, just giving me some good general council about life and dating. This sparked a line of thought in my head that you just might consider, a crazy idea. I got thinking about Irina and about our future (for it no longer seemed my future, or her future bout a future we would share) and I had a good long conversation with the Lord that day. Finally I was working by myself on putting some stone around a tub and my dad was downstairs working on the main kitchen. I got my answer, just go for it. Another one of those crazy ideas that formed and then was confirmed solidly by the spirit, so I figured I better not hesitate. I called up my gal waking her up (because it was like 1 o'clock in the morning on her end) and in Romanian I stumbled over the words "Am vrut sa-ti cer mana, adica am vrut sa fii tu sotia mea" (I wanted to ask for your hand, in other words I want you to be my wife) I think that is how I said it. I had never asked anyone to marry me before let alone in Romanian, and so I didn't have any sort of charm or wit or class to it I simply asked her to be my wife. I am glad she was half asleep because she said yes and we talked for another 10 minutes or so and I then had to get back to work because my dad was coming up to see how far I had gotten. I know it is kinda weird to ask someone's hand in marriage over the phone, and especially when you had never done more than shaken the girls hand (which isn't even holding hands) but that is my side of the story and ain't embarrassed. I love this girl and that my friends is how I got her in check mate.

My love, Fred

First of all I have to say that I love Fred with all my heart! The way he told our story made me remember all those things and I'm so grateful for him and for the wonderful person that he is. We both believe in the power of prayer and we felt how God answered our prayers and I know we share something special. He is such a brave man and a very sweet guy. He makes me happy and he is everything I've ever wanted and more. I feel so lucky and blessed to have him in my life.
Thank you Fred for all your love ! I love you so much Pisi :P

Our Story (from Fred's point of view)

I have told my parents and they have been the ones mostly spreading around this vicious roomers about me moving across the world and such rif raf like that. Well I come before you to lay your minds at ease. IT IS ALL TRUE!!! I got me a one way ticket to Romania and I leave April 7th. Is that all you may ask... NOPE :) I am also engaged to a wonderful young lady out there that has completely won my heart. Her name is Irina Geambasu (go ahead an guess on the pronunciation) and she is a real doll. We are planning on getting married but a lot of it depends on Visa possibilities. We will be coming here to Utah to be married as far as the plan right now. Now for how I got to meet this girl I am sure you all would just love the story and I definitely don't mind telling it. Irina was what is called a Mini Missionary. That means she as a Member in Romania had a chance to be a full time missionary for 6 weeks with another full time sister missionary. Irina happened to come and serve in the same city and district as me in my second transfer. We became good friends and did get to work a little together because we were teaching the same family (the sisters were teaching the mother and we were teaching the Father and the two teenage boys) On P-days our district of 6 (my companionship, the Sisters companionship and the other Elders) would usually do something fun like go to a museum or an aquarium or castle ruins there in the city. It was a great time of my mission me being a greenie and having that extra power from God blessing the things I did. Being a young man I obviously noticed Irina and sometimes thought to myself "She is the type of girl I could see my self spending the rest of my life with" but being a missionary I was real fast in putting thoughts like that on the back burner. Well after Irina was finished with her mini-mission she went back home to one of the branches in the capitol and that was fun. I almost went the rest of my mission never serving in Buc (the capitol and where like 55% of all the missionaries were at any given time) and not seeing her very much at all. My 4th to last transfer I served in a city called Oradea in which her oldest brother Florin Geambasu is the Branch President. I got along with him pretty well, and I had a great respect for him he truly is dedicated to the gospel. (Side not if I remember right he is one of the main guys who translates the English literature like conference's and stuff into Romanian.) I only served there for 1 transfer (6 weeks) but then was transferred off to guess where, you guessed it the Branch Irina's family lived in. I served there for the last 3 transfers of my mission. I loved the branch. It was great to get to know her other brother and her parents. Come to find out she has 2 more sisters but both of them were in the states. We were great friends and I was glad to know them as friends and to see the example they showed to me. So after my mission I kept in contact with Irina through Facebook and through chatting on Google or Yahoo. We didn't talk often maybe once every 2 months or so, but each time we talked we would stop what we were doing and talk for like 2 or 3 hours. I felt like she was one of my best friends and I could tell her anything and she would still love me and be my friend, and I felt the same about her. We always had an extremely clear communication often talking about our daily lives and our struggles or joys in dating. Invariably when we would have these conversations I would think to myself that same thought 'you could spend your life with a girl like this.' Well I would think that but usually wouldn't want to change this relationship we had from being so open and friendly to something awkward so I would tell myself she was too far away anyways or make some excuse to never discus the idea of us being together. As life goes on and things change her brother went on his mission to Spain and then last year she got accepted to the LDS Collage of Business in Salt Lake and was going to be coming here for school. I was way excited for this but as it panned out her Visa was rejected. The moment kinda trickled away. Shortly after this her parents decide to move to SLC to be closer to her sister that is married and has 3 kids who lives in Bountiful. I was able to visit with her parents sometimes and maintain a good relationship with them, after about 6 months they ended up moving down to Provo and are currently living in Provo. Irina was left at home alone. We still kept sporadic conversations going, giving each other advice and encouragement with our daily struggles, and then one night not too long ago we had a good conversation and I felt it strongly, I needed to go after this girl. I had thought about it much but never really let the idea of me moving to Romania sink in. The next day I decided to fast and see what the Lord wanted. I felt as clearly as I have ever felt anything before that this is what I needed to do, I needed to go after this girl and move to Romania. I emailed her and told what I felt. She was estatic. A week after that she told me how she had recently prayed to God for him to send her someone like me, without even knowing that I was interested in her. I had simply been praying to find someone to love me as much as I loved them. Guess what everyone, I found her, and now I am off to go be with her.