Hey Everyone!

This week was a really fun one! Like super fun! Not as much of the missionary work, but it was a blast and we definitely worked hard when we could. I'm probably just go through the week chronogically, because that's the way I could explain everything the best and not forget anything.

Last Monday was a pretty normal pday, though we had some cooking to do for Tuesday. We had a couple really good lessons before Family Home Evening. One with Diamanta, which is always good and then a bomb lesson with Adriana. It was so good! We talked a lot about baptism. She bore her testimony on church, reading, everything. I think she was a little surprised with how bold we were, so she doesn't have an actual date yet, but she is definitely ready and will have one in our next lesson. I'm way, way excited for that.

Tuesday was awesome! We started the day off with a lesson with Nicu. He is a stud and is doing really well. Then we went home, finished getting the food ready then headed over to the Wrights, where we had an incredible Thanksgiving dinner! We made some food, so did the other elders, so did the BYU girls, so did the Wrights. It was a feast! My companion made rolls that turned out well and I made a really huge and tasty apple pie. I'm really happy with how it turned out. It was a big hit. There was also turkey and stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, yams, seriously like 5 pies or something. My favorites were the stuffing, Danielle's walnut pie and of course my apple pie. Man, we were there for over 2 hours, then we had to go to english. It was kind of hard to teach, we were so stuffed, lol, but it was good. We taught them food words and about thanksgiving and how we'd eaten so much. Basically made them really jealous and hungry.

Wednesday was a normal day of missionary work. Nothing out of the ordinary there. We left that night for Bucharest where we rolled in at about 6 in the morning. We went to the office elders' place and showered. Then I dropped my companion off at the office to get his visa and went with Elders Wilson, Stinson(from my MTC group) and Campbell(Stinson's boy) to Elder Stroud's place so they could shower. After that we wandered around Buch forever. We had absolutely nothing to do. We thought the visas would be done by noon, but complications kept happenning and it kept getting pushed back. We went to a mall on one side of buch then traveled to one on the other side then went and saw casa poporului, the huge, huge building that Ciaucescu built. Finally, we just sat on a bench and dozed for a while, lol. Finally, we went to the chapel at Mihai Bravu. One of the zone conferences was that day and they had finished already so half the mission was there. It was super good to see so many friends and talk to them. That was awesome. They finished with the visas at like 5. After we'd chilled at Mihai Bravu for a while talking to people, we went to Ruby Tuesday's. I got some cheese sticks and a bacon cheeseburger. It was a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving :).

That night, Elder Hardman and I stayed with Elder Bringhurst. Elder Ribgy was also there(both of them are from my MTC group) and so was Elder Grant, he was in Timisoara with me if you remember. It was a fun night, but there were a total of 8 of us there and I had the floor. And the weirdest part is that of the 8 of us, me and the two from my MTC group were the oldest. We're getting up there in the mission.

Friday was zone conference. It was seriously amazing. Elder Kapishka(don't know how that is spelled), a 70 from Germany, spoke to us. I couldn't really explain through an email the stuff we learned or how much I learned, but I really loved how he focused on people and totally bashed focusing on numbers. Of course we still have numbers but he talked a lot about they become false accomplishments, how a missionary will work super hard and get 300 contacts in a week but he did absolutely nothing to bring someone to the waters of baptism and that is a fake victory. It was sweet. That night there was an activity at Mihai Bravu. We stayed for it because our train didn't leave until after 11. It was good. Elder Bringhurst talked about the history of Thanksgiving and then we made hand turkeys and wrote what we're thankful for. It was a really simple activity and not very many members came unfortuneately but it was good to hear someone from my MTC district speaking in Romanian. We've come a long way.

Saturday we got back into Iasi. It's always nice to be back in my city after being away in Buch. Of course it was my birthday as well. No one remembered for a while, though, not even my companion, lol. In my English class, Diamanta came and she remembered and told me happy birthday and gave me a tie. That was really awesome of her. She really is a great friend. My companion wasn't there when she gave it to me, so he still didn't realize. Really, I'm not saying because he's a bad guy. We had a lot of busy days with little sleep and they blended. I just think it's pretty funny he didn't remember at all. Btw, I got your two packages and one from Grandma J. They were all great to get. Thank you a ton! You guys are wonderful. So then we had sport. Some of the BYU girls were there, but none of them remembered, lol. Then we went to the vila to get our suits and change, and all of the BYU girls were there doing cleaning. Danielle, she wasn't at sport, remembered and told me happy birthday and it was really funny because that's when everyone else realized it was my birthday, including my companion. I ended up having to translate a long time for Elder Wright so after that we just went home, because we needed to have planning meeting. A couple people called me that night to wish me happy birthday, too. It was a good birthday, nothing too exciting but that's ok. Yesterday was good, too. We had some lessons that didn't go how we wanted, but it was alright. And that brings me to today, sitting at internet. Well, I am running late at internet. I need to go now. Sorry I didn't write more. Next week hopefully.

I love you all. You're the best! Have a good one.

--Elder Ross
p.s. you're brilliant S. Alina speaks english really well. I'll get her email. Remind me to give it to you next week.