Hey Everyone!
This last week has been really good and a lot of things have happened. Still not a ton of success with the missionary work, but I think things might progress soon. Lol, probably as I am leaving, but that's ok. Transfer calls are next Monday and since I've already been here for 4 transfers, it's almost certain I'm leaving. I have mixed feelings about it, but I am ready to move on, to get a change of scene.
Thanks, Mom, for what you wrote from President Hinckley and that's exactly how I've felt this last week. Sure I've still seen lots of sad things, but I've also opened my eyes to the many, many good things; in the world, in people and of course, in my life. Maybe I was a little down last week, but it really did make me super grateful for what an amazing life I've been given. This week I am doing really well. I just feel on top of the world. Even though not a lot has changed, maybe my outlook has, and Elder Jepsen and I continue to work hard and there's nothing else we can do, but wait with faith for the blessings and miracles of the Lord. We really do live in an amazing time and even Romania with its rough history is a great place to be.
Let's see, where to start with. Well, Tuesday, I guess. It was a pretty crazy day. It started off with a pretty poor lesson with Sora R, an inactive that hates the other members. Not poor on our part, lol. The night before, the other elders had taken G, a really cool member who's about 27, with them to visit Sora R. And I don't know all the details, but Sora R tore into her and was ruthless and made her cry. So Elder Jepsen and I went into this discussion already pretty mad, but we heard her end of the story. It was pretty ridiculous and we talked to her a lot about forgiveness. This lady always complains that members never visit, but it's because every time they do, she tears into them. It's a joke.We tried tons of different angles. I asked if she wants to be with her kids forever. Of course she said yeah.(btw, they are older and live in America. One lives in Portland, actually) I said, well if you want to be with them you need to keep all the commandments and that involves going to church. We even offered to get her in a taxi and sit on each side of her at church so she wouldn't have to associate with the other members. She is a really stubborn lady, as you can tell, lol. She refused to believe that G was trying to help her and insisted that she only came because the missionaries made her. Then I ticked her off pretty bad with my prayer at the end, lol. I just asked that she be blessed to understand that G had only come out of love and for us all to better be able to forgive those that have offended us. I guess she didn't want to hear that, but I wasn't praying to her. So we left after having made no progress and we're not going to work with her again, at least for a long time.
Later, we had some pretty crazy exchanges. Elder Grant and I each had our own English class, while Elder Woodhouse and Elder Jepsen went to a lesson at the same time. They went, because right after that, after classes ended, Elder Grant and I left to have a lesson with Sora Gheorge. Man, she is the coolest lady ever. She fed us a way good meal and then we had a good review of the Restoration of the Gospel. During this time, Elder Jepsen came back to the church and left with Andy, remember he's not a member, while Elder Woodhouse was with the sisters! This was the only way it worked to cover all the lessons(Elder Woodhouse and Elder Jepsen forgot about English when they set them up) and English. It was way fun, though, and it was my first time ever being senior and since Grant is a boboc (greenie), it was all on me. But it went really well, I understood everything and was able to speak really well.
Actually, our exchanges went for 36 hours(well, Elder Woodhouse wasn't with the sisters, lol, but with Elder Jepsen), so the whole next day I was with Elder Grant. I wasn't able to set up with very many people, so we bloc-knocked for like 3 hours, had lunch and then street contacted for a good while until we had a lesson with Andy. That went well, talked about his Book of Mormon reading. We're reading along with him, two chapters a day, and so we talked about what we'd read so far.
Then our last lesson was the one I was the most scared about. It was with Gabriella and I was mostly scared, because it meant I would have to small talk for like 1/2 an hour. But actually her son, from Germany, was there, too. We talked a little bit while we ate, while Gabriella worked on the dessert, but there was no pressure, because we're all guys and we mostly focused on our food, haha. The lesson actually went really well. I mostly(with Elder Grant's help, of course) taught her son, because she already knows everything. We talked about the plan of salvation. Elder Jepsen and I had started a drawing of it with her and I went over it with him and then finished it. He had some questons, but I answered them pretty well. I was kinda nervous, but when I would look up, Gabriella would be beaming at me. Then at one point she said, doesn't he speak so well, he just got here in March and listen to him. That pretty much made my whole week. It was an awesome lesson.
We started up Outreach again, the game night every week for youth. It was cancelled for a little bit, because no one was coming, but tons of things worked out all at once and tons of people came. It was super fun! We had ping pong, card games, board games and then a movie, Miracle actually, a classic. One big help was that Cami, a young member girl, just got back from Italy and she brought a bunch of people with her to the activity. Hopefully, all of the activities will be better from now on. It will make a big difference in the work.
Sunday was pretty sweet. It was branch conference and Elder Facer, a senior missionary from the office, spoke. He said some weird stuff, like to show your faith you need to have a quiver full of children, aka 12 kids! But it was a good talk. Elder Garrett was there, too. It was cool to see him.
Well, that was a pretty huge update on the week. Hope you like it! Thanks for all of your emails. They were great, as always. S, what the flip is WEB?? lol. Well, good luck with it. And thanks for your email, it was way good. Dad, you're making me jealous with all your talk of the temple! That is definitely one thing I will not take for granted when I get home. That is a really good goal, to go once a week. I'm sure you'll be blessed for making that a reality. Thanks for the reminder, Dad, I actually have been reading my patriarchal blessing a lot. It's been a huge strength for me.
Yeah, Mom, the temperature has been a lot better. It has been raining every once in a while and that keeps things cool. And yeah, I think the branch will pick up again soon, too. I think school starts for them about the middle of September. I forgot to mention it, but President Munteanu gave a talk on Sunday on how the members need to step it up. It was really intense and really good. Hopefully, that pumps the members a little. Thanks for your support and also for the I Know.
Have a great week, all you wonderful people. I love you!!
--Elder Ross
P.S. A german dad and his daughter are sitting in front of me right now. I want to learn german super bad, it sounds so cool! at this point I hardly understand anything...
