Good Day Everyone!
Ok, no one says that in English, "good day", but everyone sure says it over here. It was great to get a lot of emails this week. I definitely have a huge base of support from you guys and it always keeps me up. It's not to be to be when I have such an amazing family, and also great friends.
My week was pretty good. We didn't have great numbers but we met with a lot of our investigators and also lots of members. Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet with Adriana throughout the whole week. That was really a bummer because she is the closest one to baptism and we are super close to challenging her. Like probably the next lesson. Of course we will listen to the Spirit, otherwise I would say, for sure we are challenging her. But we are meeting with her tonight so I'm pretty excited. We had a great lesson with Alina this week. We took Tanta, a member from Galati, with us and she was awesome. She clicked with Alina right away and they were calling each other friends after like 5 minutes. She is really close to baptism, too, I think. She loves the Book of Mormon and feels the Spirit when she reads it. She thinks it a sin to change religions and she doesn't like going to church, because she thinks it is boring. Beyond those two things, she is ready. She is praying about baptism a lot now and we talk about it everytime. We've become pretty good friends with her, too. She came to church this Sunday! She came because I was speaking and she wanted to support me. It was awesome to see her there. It's the first time for as long as I've been here that she's come.
Man, we also met with Gianina for the first time. It was pretty awesome, actually. She asked what she has to do to be baptized. I told she needs a testimony of Jesus Christ and a testimony of the Book of Mormon and then she can be baptized. We talked a lot about prayer and getting an answer so she's been working on that. We're definitely praying hard for her. We're meeting with her again on Wednesday and I think we'll do a lesson on the plan of salvation, focusing on the role of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm really excited, she's an awesome lady. We also met with Cristi and his wife, Nicoleta, this last week. Their problem has been the Word of Wisdom, but he told us on Wednesday that he's had it with smoking and that he is quitting for sure. They are a really solid couple and we are praying a lot for them, too. I guess we pray pretty hard for all of our investigators. They're all at different points with very different obstacles, but many of them are close. We have a transfer goal to have 2 baptisms and 5 baptismal dates. Those 5 being Adriana, Alina, Gianina, Cristi and Nicoleta. For the baptisms, Adriana and one other. We haven't decided yet. We're focusing hard on all 5, so we'll see. It's a super awesome outlook we have going on and miracles are going to happen, because this transfer goes right up to Christmas. It ends on the 26th, I think, so we are focusing on giving the Savior a gift. Man, I'm excited!
We have a pretty sweet week coming up. Well, today is P-day, so that's nice. A lot of it will be spent making some food for tomorrow, because that is when we are having Thanksgiving dinner. Our assignment is apple pie, rolls(i definitely can't make them like you, Mom!), and vegetables still to be decided. It will be with us, the other elders, the Wrights, the 5 BYU girls, and their professor and her son. So 13 total, a pretty good crowd. It will be great.
Wednesday night, my companion and I go down to Buch and Thursday morning he finally gets his visa. Then we'll meet up with the other elders(they're there because of mission council) and do exchanges there in Buch visiting all the members they know, because I've never served there and otherwise would have nothing to do. So Thanksiving day will be pretty good. I think we're going to go have dinner at Ruby Tuesday's. Friday we have zone conference. It will be half of the mission that day and the other half will have had it Thursday. Sometime in these two days I get a cell phone, too. Woo-hoo! Saturday morning(my birthday!) we get back, have english classes like normal and sport, have some lessons, do the missionary thing. I don't really know if my birthday will be anything special at all. Probably not, but that's ok. It's on a saturday, that's a fun day. I'll probably get packages from you guys when I'm in Buch, so that will be really good. That will make for a great birthday and just knowing you guys are thinking of me. So that's my week coming up.
Oh, yeah, so I spoke in church yesterday. I talked how we are converted by feeling the Spirit and these things usually come through prayer, reading the scriptures and coming to church. I thought it went really well and I spoke freely, without having everything written out. Definitely a lot better than the last time, which was back in my 3rd transfer, and now I'm in my 7th. Right after me, Danielle spoke and I translated for her. Her talk was absolutely amazing and I really liked it. The problem was that it was too good, she speaks very ...elegantly, I guess is the word. Translating was ridiculously hard and I didn't do very well. At least she was very appreciative of it, even I didn't do too hot. It was my first time translating for a speaker in sacrament and it was a hard one to start with, lol. But really her talk was awesome. I asked her if I could have it, so I'm going take some time and translate it and I will learn a lot by doing that and hopefully next time I translate a lot better. It was a good experience. I translated for her in Relief Society as well. That went better. Hard topic, kind of, all about delegating, but it went well and it's always pretty funny to be in Relief Society as the only guy. Lol, they are absolutely horrible singers. It's funny because they are way off and I'm like holding it together sometimes and I'm the only guy with all those women. I'm definitely not a great singer, though. I've lost a lot on my mission, I think, probably because the standard, the norm has dropped so much.
Yeah, it's getting pretty cold here in Iasi, but I'm handling it pretty well. I got a sweet coat with a furry hood. It's pretty hardcore. I'll probably need to send you a picture of it sometime. Yeah, I could use gloves and something for my ears, too. Not earmuffs, though, I don't like how they sit in my hair and mess it up, lol. P offered to send me these things and I said yeah, but I don't know if that ever happened. Check with him.
The last couple weeks we've played soccer for sport and it is super fun. This last week we had so many people that we had to make three teams and have one sit out while the other two played. It's really to nice to be able to do that and get some physical exercise. I definitely miss working out and being able to stay in shape. Like, I'm still in decent shape, but it's not the same and I've definitely lost muscle. It's impossible to keep it up as a missionary. Hopefully, we can keep doing sport for a while, but as it gets colder we probably will have to cancel it.
Yeah, I have a lot of fun cooking, but it really is so much more fun to make desserts than anything else. We use American cups and teaspoons, etc. We get a cookbook from the mission when we come into the country and it has a lot of good recipes. Most of what I make is just from that. Maybe I'll stretch myself oneday and actually make something besides dessert.
I haven't forgotten W needs a thumbs up picture. Hmm, I'm not exactly sure all what goes on here around Christmas. I know that it is three days long, the 25th to the 27th, and we got to watch lots of movies between Christmas and New Year's. It will be a really fun time, I'm sure and I can't wait. I'm sure it will be here before I know it, though.
Well, I should bounce. You guys are great and as J says, keep dominating life. Have an amazing week and I'll make sure mine is as well. I love you!
--Elder Ross
