Hey All!
Today was the day for transfer calls! My companion is transferring out and I am staying for another transfer. I wonder who my new companion will be. Anyway since I am staying for at least six weeks, you can send mail if you want to my specific address. I got a letter at my apartment from L. this last week, it was very exciting to get. So, tomorrow I go to Bucharest on a night train, get there Wednesday morning, have transfer meeting, get my new companion and catch another night train and am back working on Thursday. It's gonna be wild! I'm excited.
To address some questions, the service we went to was Orthodox. It was pretty different but way fun to see. Definitely an insight into the culture here. You remember how many people here are Orthodox, like 88% or something. On Easter we had dinner with the Shaws and another American couple(they're older). They know each other from work. Brother Shaw runs pig farms over here in Romania. Pretty crazy huh? They've been here about a year, I think, and will be here a couple more.
Lol, no, I didn't teach the Shaws about the egg fights, but I told my companion about them. Lol, that's pretty funny about the raw eggs, Mom.
[Thanks to the paternal side of the family, the kids have egg fights on Easter morning. Two kids each hold a hard-boiled egg and count to three, then hit the other egg on its end. The one with the whole egg wins. Here is the note I included in Ross' letter: We forgot to tell you about our Easter egg fights. I hard-boiled over three dozen eggs and put them in the frig until we could dye them Friday night. That night, after the dying was done and the kids were asleep, I was putting them back in the frig. I couldn't figure out what happened to 10 of them. On Easter morning, J and W were doing an egg fight when J was covered with a raw egg! When I had told S what cartons to grab out of the frig for dying, I wasn't clear enough and she grabbed a carton of raw eggs. In order to continue with egg fights, we had to break the bottom of the eggs to check if they were cooked or not. ]
I can't really think of anything else I would need, thanks for sending me those things and tell K thanks if that's how it gets here. I guess if you could find one (I'm always trying to add to my morning workout.), a pull-up bar would be really awesome, one that goes in door frames and such. If not, that's fine.
Ok, we are working with a few people right now. The most prominent being Andy, a Romanian that speaks English as well as I do. He has been taught everything like 3 times, comes to church, Outreach, FHE, everything and absolutely knows the Church is true. But he's 17 and his mom won't let him be baptized. We are going to visit her soon and we'll see how that goes.
Then we have Maria, we found her bloc-knocking and she came to church twice, then missed the last two weeks. She has set up with us three times where we showed up and then she wasn't home. It's frustrating because she is really open to the message, just doesn't really the importance of it yet. But we've had a few good lessons with her and hopefully get a bunch more. We want to give her a baptismal date.
We've started working with the family Radovan. A younger couple with a small child(a rare find here) and we've had 3 lessons with them. They are open but very busy. I really hope they progress. One more older couple we've been teaching are the Besois. They(mostly the wife) listen carefully, but they haven't been doing any reading so they can't progress much until they do that. Anyway, that's kind of the rundown. It's been hard to have a lot of lessons because this last week we've been handing out English fliers(classes start soon) like crazy. Each companionship had 8000 to pass out.
Well, I've had a super good transfer with Elder Selck and I've learned a lot from him. It's too bad he's leaving but at the same time I am very excited to have a new companion to learn from as well, but in a different way. Every missionary teaches and acts way differently. The rest of my district here in Timisoara is the same. Only Elder Selck is transferred.
Dad - Thanks for all your support and encouragement, especially with the language. It's coming along. With the new transfer, I want to set a goal to only speak Romanian, all the time. It will be hard, but I think after a few days it will become easier and I'll start to think in Romanian too. I'll tell you how it's going next week. Have a good birthday, Dad! I love you.
Mom - Sounds like you are very busy, as usual. Oh, yeah, my comp had made pies before but I did it, too, even made the crust. They tasted very good, as did the brownies we handed out. You've taught me well, Mom! I love you!
J - Man, bro, that's pretty rough about the rash and swelling. Must look pretty wild. How long have you had it? I hope you get better soon. [J developed some sort of allergic hives Sunday pm. We don't know what caused it but its getting better.] That's really cool about making videos, for fun and for high school TV. What are they about? Congrats on officially getting your eagle certificate! When is your court going to be? love ya, man.
S - That is super cool you got a pen pal. [From her cousin who is serving a mission in Hong Kong.] Does she live in Hong Kong then, or mainland? Sounds like you are very busy with plays. I'm sure you are a super good actress. Did you have some parts in some of J's videos? Keep up the awesome outlook on life and have fun doing all the stuff you do.
E - I heard you got to go to a baseball game. Did you like it a lot? Were there some good plays? Lol, I never liked watching baseball but I'm sure you had lots of fun, especially with Dad and W. Keep an eye on them!
A - Hey cutie, I heard you are doing well. Don't forget to listen to Mom and I'm sure life will be much happier. Have a good week, A, I love you.
W - Hey buddy. How did you like the baseball game with E and Dad? Did you cheer really loud? Lol, have an awesome day, little champion and work hard in school. Oh, and always be nice to all your friends!
Well, everyone, have an awesome week! And tell that punk P to write me. He hasn't done it yet. And we'll see who's more muscular when we meet again. I'll have to wrestle him, lol. And probably J, too. Ciao. I love you all!
--Elder L
