During the last few months of 1994, Elder Craig Russon was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ploiesti, Romania. One day in early November, he and his companion met Vasile Stefanescu.
Brother Stefanescu remembers, “I was on the street with my little girl and I was looking for someone to stay with her because I had to go to work that day. And I was very depressed. Then God sent missionaries my way. I remember that. I will never forget it.
They talked to me about God and recommended a book: the Book of Mormon. They told me that things in my life could change, and I could be happy if I studied the book and prayed to find the truth. Days and weeks passed, they visited me often and we prayed together, they also brought me a Bible and so I began to study and make a connection between the two books.”
Elder Russon’s missionary journals relate the story this way:
“Nov 9 - We found brother Stefanescu home and set up a 1st [discussion]. He is in a hard situation. His wife left him, and he has a 3-year-old daughter to take care of.”
“Nov 11 - After lunch we visited Domnul Stefanescu and had a good 1st discussion. He understands and felt the Spirit. He's been reading and seems like he could become a great member.”
“Nov 14 - We then taught Bro Stefanescu the first part of the 2nd discussion. He's living in a real hard situation.”
“Nov 16 - We taught Domnul Stefanescu the 2nd half of the 2nd discussion. He excitedly accepted to prepare for baptism on Dec 10th.”
“Nov 23 - Today we had another big day. Elder Barton and I taught Domnul Stefanescu a 3rd. That went well. He's clearly getting happier and happier as we share with him the gospel.”
“Nov 26 - We taught Domnul Stefanescu a 4th. It went well. He's such a humble man. I pray that he can raise his daughter right. It's hard to be single with a 4-year-old in the house and have a job.”
“Nov 29 - We visited with Domnul Stefanescu. I felt bad that we didn't get over there with a member. He seems happier and happier as he understands more and more about the gospel.”
“Nov 30 - We taught a 5th [discussion] at Stefanescu's home, and it went well. He's been anxiously ready to learn the 5th discussion. He'll have a hard trial with tithing, but he's chosen to do it. He knows it's the Lord's will for him. He's got a lot of faith.”
“Dec 5 - We visited Domnul Stefanescu this morning. He's doing better and better in his baptism prep.”
“Dec 16 -We had a good visit with Bro Stefanescu this morning. He seems really excited to receive the Aaronic Priesthood, and to be baptized. He said that he thought that this Christmas will be unhappy with just him and his daughter but now he feels it will be better with him, his daughter and God. Wow, he's a great man. It feels good for him to be baptized tomorrow.”
“Dec 17 - Bro Stefanescu was baptized by me and confirmed by Elder Maddox. I love these people a lot. I've seen this group grow a lot, almost nearing branch size and am sure lucky to be a part of it. The work is great.”
“Dec 19 - This morning we went to Bro Stefanescu's. We read about Priesthood Authority from Gospel Principles. He loves to learn about the Priesthood. He sure can't wait to receive it.”
“Dec 20 - I spent the morning saying bye to Bro Stefanescu. He's a great man and I hate saying bye to friends like him. We sang and prayed. It feels empty leaving.”
Elder Russon returned home to Riverton, Utah on Christmas Eve 1994.
Exactly 30 years after finding Brother Stefanescu on the street in Ploiesti, now Bishop Craig Russon and his wife Tiffany arrived at the Rome Temple to act as witnesses for Vasile and Liliana Stefanescu as they were sealed for time and eternity.
From Bishop Russon’s journal:
“November 7, 2024, Today Tiffany and I were in the Rome Temple acting as witnesses for Lilana and Vasilie Stefanescu as they were sealed.
I've felt so overwhelmed and grateful that the Lord allowed me to be a tool in his hands to help introduce the gospel to this family and to see them make covenants and have their family become a forever family. It was a truly amazing moment to be with these friends from long ago, to reconnect with him at the House of the Lord. Tiffany and I took time to be alone sitting by the Christus statue in the visitor center. I just broke down and wept in gratitude for the miracles that I have witnessed 30 years later after my mission in Romania.”
What follows is the story of the series of miracles that occurred to make that incredible reunion happen.
Revisiting Romania
Tiffany Russon's sister Crystal and her husband Eric Lovinger were serving in the Romanian Bucharest mission office, Bishop Russon was eager to visit and when he and his wife made the trip in the April of 2024, visiting the Ploiesti Branch was high on the list. There he reconnected with Ana Maria Simone (whom he taught and baptized with her husband; their son Radu, who later became the Branch president) and Vasilie Stefanescu.
The former missionary said, “It was amazing to see an actual church building! Thirty years ago, we had Sunday meetings in our missionary apartment. It was really incredible to reconnect with these members that I had taught and baptized and to see that the gospel was still a priority in their lives.”
After returning home to Idaho, he and Brother Stefanescu kept in touch. Bishop Russon says, “he would tell me that his dream was to come to Salt Lake to go to the temple. I would say that he should defenitely go to the temple, but that there were a lot of temples closer than Utah for him. But even to the suggestion of attending a temple closer to Romania, his answer was always that he didn’t think he and his wife were well enough or could afford to go.”
The Frandsen’s in Ploiesti
In 2023, Elder Michael Frandsen and his wife Dawn were called to serve as Member, Leader Support Missionaries in Romania.
Elder Frandsen explains, “When we arrived, we were assigned to work with the branch in Ploiesti, we really given very much specific instruction except to ‘support the branch,’ but one thing we wanted to do was try to put together a trip to the temple. There were several older women in the branch who really wanted to go but could not travel on their own. We talked to a few of the leaders about it and everyone said it was a good idea but would be too complicated and very expensive. Still, we knew that a temple trip would be very much in line with the direction of ‘strengthening the branch’ so we just thought and prayed about how we could make it happen.”
One year after they arrived, the Frandsen’s were asked to accompany the youth group from Romania as they made their annual trip to the temple. Sister Frandsen said, “It was a really great trip, but it sort of felt like part of why we were going was so that we could see what the accommodations were like and would know the practicalities and logistics of what we would need to plan for a branch trip, but we still didn’t know how we would make the trip with the branch work.”
During the July trip in Rome, the Frandsen’s went with the youth to the baptistry every day. One of those afternoons, Andy and Diana Law from Nampa Idaho were visiting Rome with their granddaughter and stopped at the temple to see if they could do some work in the baptistry. They were added to the Romania’s youth group.
Sister Law and Sister Frandsen were assigned to act as witnesses at the font and through some whispered conversations Sister Law asked a lot of questions. Were these most of the youth from Romania?—yes, many. Were Romanian’s able to come to the temple often?—no, not many because of the expense and the time involved. Were there people who wanted to go but couldn’t because of the expense?--yes.
Brother Law and Elder Frandsen were having similar conversations.
Sister Law explained, “We were just so impressed with the youth from Romania. The Spirit was so strong. It was my husband’s idea. He wanted to help others come to the temple and this seemed like a great opportunity to do that.”
Brother Law added, “We decided to share some of our travel money. I really wanted to help people who had to make such financial sacrifices to go to the temple.”
And so, Brother Law went back into the dressing room, found Elder Frandsen and gave him their money, saying, “Please use this to help the members of your branch be able to come.”
“For us,” says Elder Frandsen, “the generous gift from the Law’s confirmed that the temple trip for women in the Ploiesti branch was going to happen.”
But the Law’s were not the only ones to offer quiet financial help.
“Several weeks later,” adds Sister Frandsen, “I told the story of the Law’s spontaneous generosity and our planned temple trip in an email that we send home to our family and friends. I was just so amazed by what Andy and Diana had done, that I wanted to share it. Over the next few days, I would wake up in the morning to texts and emails from some of my dear friends at home who also wanted to send money to help those sweet Romanian sisters get to the temple.”
“One friend’s email said, ‘Nothing touches my heart like hearing about elderly women wanting to get to the temple. I Venmoed you $.’ The sentiment from everyone who sent money was the same. These women just wanted to help those women get to the temple. What was amazing was that it ended up being almost a one-to-one ratio—one American sister sponsoring a trip for a Romanian sister that they would never even know.”
Inviting the Stefanescu's
In September, the Frandsen’s were looking through the branch list and wondered who else should be invited, Elder Frandsen explains, “We had given an open invitation to everyone, but we felt pretty strongly that we should specifically invite the Stefanescu's, so I texted him and asked if he would like to go. At first, he said he could not because of his wife’s health and the expense and then about a week later, I got another text from him saying that he and Lilian had prayed about it and knew that they needed to go to be sealed. We were thrilled to add them to the list!”
Sister Frandsen added, “We also asked other branches if there were any who wanted to join our group. Sister Carmen Parnau, who is the District Relief Society President came with us. She was an absolute lifesaver to have along. And there were other women who came with us, grateful for a group to travel with. One sister from another small branch was really wanting to go to the temple and had prayed asking Heavenly Father to help her figure out a way to go before the end of the year, two days later she got a call from Sister Parnau asking if she would like to join the group. Her answer was an ecstatic yes! She said, ‘I have never had a prayer answered so decisively and so quickly!’”
And so, the details of the trip began to take shape. Plane tickets were purchased. Members were asked to pay a specific amount, some could, some could not. “We never told them that there was money donated for them to go,” explained Elder Frandsen. “It is so important for members to be self-reliant and provide as much as they can for themselves; that is what the Savior has always taught, and we knew we needed to approach the funding for this trip like that. A few people had most of the money, but no one had enough to cover the total price of their plane ticket and ground transportation. We were so grateful for all the donations that we received. The financial sacrifices for those going were real.”
“November 5, 2024, Today Tiffany and I arrived in Rome. We met Elder and Sister Frandsen, the couple missionaries serving in Ploiesti, Romania, who organized the trip for several older Romanian sisters, plus Brother and Sister Stefanescu. I prayed daily and have fasted that Vasilie and Lilana would both be well enough to make the trip. I am so grateful they did.
It was just a few months ago during Sacrament meeting that I shared with the ward about reconnecting with Bro. Stefanescu and his righteous desire to be sealed to his sweetheart but that their difficult health and the expense would make it unlikely that they could travel to a temple. I testified that sometimes our righteous desires are not met in this life but in the Lord's due time those desires would all be recognized whether in this life or the life to come.
Later that very afternoon, I was in my office at the church and received a message from Brother Stefanescu that he and Liliana were going to be attending the Rome Temple in November for their sealing—could we join them? I could not believe it! I wept as I read his message. Could it really be true? But yes, it was true, and we are all here now.”
As bishop of the North Field 7th ward in Pleasant Grove Utah, the list of things that Craig and Tiffany suddenly had to do to get ready to go to Rome seemed huge.
“I had made sure to get ahead of Tithing Declarations and other interview I needed to do as well as blocking out time to be away from work. Tiffany also had just started teaching again and also had to get things covered so we could be gone. But we knew it would be worth it.”
Everyone participating in the trip had frustrations that cropped up in the planning process.
Sister Frandsen explains it this way, “It seemed like day after day, there was something that happened to cause a technical difficulty. Some were really big, like the original flights being canceled just a few days before we were supposed to leave, so we had to rebook everything; and some were smaller like people having things come up that made it so they were not sure if they would be able to come. At one point I thought, how are we ever going to pull this off?! But then I remembered that story of when Lucy Mack Smith was with the Saints on the barge that was frozen into place in the canal so that they could not travel, and she told everyone that the Lord wanted them to be able to travel, so they prayed and then the ice cracked. The ice was cracked for us several times in the planning process and on the trip as well.”
Multiple Successes
In addition to the Stefanescu’s sealing, the small group of Romanian saints did a great deal of temple work for their ancestors in those few days.
Ortansa Diaconescu was one member of the branch who went on the trip. Sister Diaconescu was baptized in 2020 when she was 81. All she had wanted since then was to go to the temple and be sealed to her deceased husband and son.
Gaby Petcu, the Branch President in Ploiesti, laughs when he says, “Yes, the minute the trip was even proposed, she was telling me that there would be a trip, and she was going to go! She was really, really excited.”
It was on November 6, 2024, at age 85, that Sister Diaconescu received her endowments.
The next day, tears streamed down her face as she watched her friend Mihaela Hanu be baptized for her mother and Elder Nielson and Elder Frandsen perform the baptisms for her husband, son, and father. “Momma knows, momma knows.” She repeated over and over as she watched. Then after the confirmations were completed, she said pointing first to herself and then heavenward, “Now I am a member of the Church here and they are members of the Church there!”
The next day was a busy one for Ortansa. As she completed the temple work for her mother, the two senior missionary elders did the necessary work for her husband and son and then on that lovely fall evening in Rome, she was sealed to her husband and then, they to their son; her family was finally an eternal one.
At 75, Sister Maria Matei was also grateful for another chance to go to the temple, “I am happy that even now in 2024 I was able to reach the Temple in Rome. I'm happy that others on the trip helped me do the work for my ancestors.”
Sister Marioara Banița, expressed it this way, “I thank God for the help He gave me to get to the Temple. I wanted this so badly; I wanted to do temple work for my ancestors. Even though I didn't know them all personally, I know that we can be together because of the temple. I felt like I was in the arms of Heavenly Father while we were there. The Holy Ghost has guided me, and I know that He will always guide me as long as I live the gospel of Jesus Christ.'
A Final Thought from Bishop Russon:
“Wed, November 6, 2024, As a bishop, one of my favorite things is to interview someone who wants to make more covenants to grow closer in commitment and covenant to our Heavenly Father. Today I saw the desire for this newfound closeness in the Stefanescu's at the Rome Temple. I can see it in everyone here from Romania. I've been thinking about it all day. It really is such a miracle that this trip has happened for the members of the Ploiesti branch. All these people who want to be at the temple so much. I am so grateful to have been part of this amazing event.”
