Hey All!
I have had a great week and I'm ready for another one, which will be the last one of the transfers. Next Monday I will be telling you all who is transferred. Really, anything could happen so we will see. I am excited to see what is up.
So by far the highlight of the week was Victor getting baptized yesterday. We did it a little bit after church, because Victor hoped less people would come. Church ends at 2 and the baptism was at 4, and his wish was fulfilled, lol. There were not many members there at all. President Iachimov conducted, my companion gave a talk. It all went well. I had some problems with the baptism, lol. Not really, but at first when we went in the water, we lined up wrong and after a second I realized, wait, I need to be able to raise my right arm. Then I started to say the prayer and I forgot to say his name. At least realized it before he went under and then we would have had to do it again. Which actually might not have been bad, haha. After I baptized him, he was kind of joking with me and he was like, "what, only once? I want to do it more. Are you sure we can't do it again?" I love Victor, he is a super good man.
Let's see...what else happened this week. Oh, yeah! Two weeks ago I got my hair cut and then last week I dyed it! It is now a brown with a reddish tint. I will include a picture. My companion and Elder Divis and Elder Fitzgerald did it, too. Elder Fitzgerald and I did it for each other and we did a pretty good job. His is dark brown. Elder Divis and my companion did it for each other and they kind of got each other's eyebrows a little too good, as the picture will show, lol. In any case, I like it a lot, it's something different to mix things up. What do you think?
Then the very next day we went to President's house for interviews, all of us wondering what he would think of our dyed hair. We know it's not against the rules, but we were just curious what he would think. And...he didn't even notice, lol. I had a good interview with President. I think now he kind of knows who I am. I asked him about when I will be going home, because of school and whatnot and he told me that that will all be up to the new mission president, who is actually Elder Mielke's uncle, Lundberg. It was weird to be in their house, because it was the first time I'd been there since when I very first was in the country, almost exactly one year prior. Definitely called for a moment of reflection.
One nice thing was just after the interview, chilling with Sora Ashby downstairs(the interviews are upstairs) and eating chocolate chip cookies and milk. Man, they were so good! It was just really relaxing to sit in a pretty American home and talk with Sora Ashby about whatever.
On Friday we had a branch activity thrown by us missionaries. It went really well and I was happy how it turned out. It was all on the Savior and His Atonement. We started out by going upstairs and we went through 3 different rooms, each one done differently. I believe the themes were Service, Charity and the Tree of Life(focusing on how it is the Love of God). Then we all went downstairs to the room my companion and I were in charge of. You know the story of the seminary teacher that had one of his students do 10 push-ups for each person in the room to receive a donut, whether they accepted it or not? Well, that's exactly what we did. My companion did about 200 push-ups and he was definitely dead at the end. It was really cool, though. I read a couple verses afterwards and then we watched a clip from the Testaments. To finish off the activity, President Ashby spoke on the Atonement and applying it. It was really good and I think this activity will stick in the minds of the members. I hope.
I think the branch is on the rise, though. On Sunday, all of the classes seemed to run pretty smoothly. Towards the end of sacrament meeting, the branch presidency had a surprise and gave all of the women flowers and broaches, because of Woman's Day(Mar. 1) and Mother's Day(Mar. 8). It was a really good gesture. Also, in priesthood President Iachimov was there(first time since I've been here) and he talked about making the lessons not boring, very needed! They set up a schedule and us missionaries are going to have a chance to teach once a month, which will be really good. It's something we've wanted, to be able to participate more in the branch. They also planned some really cool Elders' Quorum activities that they were all getting excited about. I feel good about the direction this branch is going in.
Thanks a lot for starting to put a package together and for getting the push-up things(I'm pretty sure they do not exist here in Romania). Much appreciated. My neck size is 16 I think, something like that.
To answer your questions, Elder Valentine is one of my zone leaders, along with Elder Suckow. Yeah, he is American, from Florida. He is super crazy and random, but a lot of fun to be around. I like him a lot. My companion, to tell you a little more, is a big sports guy. By far, his favorite is soccer. He lived in England for a year and since then wants to play professional soccer. He's a goalie. He went to BYU for a year before coming out and hopes to play for them when he gets back. He is a super hard worker and sometimes get down on himself when stuff doesn't go right. He is way good guy and it's been a good transfer.
It sounds like everyone back home is doing well. I love hearing from everyone.
We were not able to work with Relu all week long. He didn't answer his phone and he wasn't home when he stopped by. Then randomly, when I was on exchange with Elder Valentine, I ran into him on the tramvai. I talked to him for a minute and he said he had been out of town. So we said we would meet him in the morning(it was Saturday when I saw him) and go to church with him. We went there in the morning and he wasn't there. We called his phone and his wife answered. She said she hadn't seen him since Saturday afternoon. So I have no idea what is up with him. We've dubbed him, the "Mystery Man."
Ok, well, I am going to go now. I hope you all have a great week and I will hear from you next week. I love you!
--Elder Ross
p.s. we don't have DST until the end of the month
