Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Transfers and Close Calls

Hey Beautiful People!

This week was super busy and insane. We only got 5 lessons the whole week and it was all because we were so busy with tons of stuff: English fliers and sign-ups, zone conference and getting transfer calls.

So, big news first....I'm staying in Cluj!! I'm super excited. I'm going to be with Elder Patterson. He was with us in the MTC, he's one group behind me. Ok, now I have to tell you guys a secret. All this last transfer, the AP's and most everyone else said that either Elder Bringhurst and I are going to be assistant. At the beginning of the transfer, when I had an exchange with Elder Rigby, he went through all the people that I thought could be AP and told me why they wouldn't be, because they're forgetful or don't speak Romanian well enough, etc. Then he promised me that either Elder Bringhurst and I will be assistant. I was in the better position being senior, but it definitely was not something I wanted. I really wanted to keep doing normal missionary work and having investigators. Well, it so happened that neither of us are, Elder Bringhurst is going to Brasov to be a senior zone leader there. But the scary thing is that Elder Jepsen told me that when they finished the transfer board for the 1st time, I was placed as AP!! Later, they had the impression that they were trying to force it so that Elder Jepsen could get out(he wanted to super badly), but it just wasn't right and so our assistants remain Elder Jepsen and Rigby. Whew, close one...

Ok, I saw J's video and it was way good. Thanks a ton, J! I'm super stoked for being at college together and maybe even spending the summer together, making the big bucks. Really, I'm psyched to hear that! Do you think you will work at all when you're at college? I'm pretty sure I will need to, so maybe you'll keep an eye open for me when you're over there. Anyway, thanks a ton for the video! It was awesome.

So, in our district, Elder Smith went from junior to senior, district leader and trainer! He is a way big stud, though, so it will be great. Sora Runyan will be with Sora Shepard. It's kind of weird right now, because Elder Smith and I are the only missionaries in Cluj right now(and the Hakes). Elder Divis left this morning to go to Oradea (so he's still in my zone) and Elder Bringhurst took off to Brasov as well. We found out transfers Saturday morning so that everyone could pack and travel quickly.

In Oradea, Elder Roundy and Elder Manzione and got white-washed out and Elder Wilde is getting white-washed in with a boboc. Oh, and Elder Roundy is a zone leader now in Buch, Sec. 5. Elder Eyre is now district leader in Arad and Elder Divis is taking his place. Sora Peterson is leaving Oradea and Sora Poulsen is coming.

Man, I can't believe it. I'm going into my 13th transfer, very possibly my last one as zone leader and also my MTC sisters are going home in 2 days! I'm quickly becoming very aged in this mission. I have less than 5 months now. President Lundberg sure sounded like he will be sending us (or most of us from my group) home before Christmas.

Speaking of President, he is a really great guy! I like him a lot. He seems to really know what he wants to do. He has a lot of faith in us and expects a lot from us. I'm really excited to go to mission council and to see what kind of direction and ideas he will bring out. His wife is great, too. She gave a great presentation on their history with Romania. She started a foundation here called Bridge of Love, helping out orphans to find homes. Their son, Joshua, is 9 and he is ADHD, no joke. During the conference he did well, but after he went nuts and he never stopped moving and jumping around and having pretend fights with missionaries. He is a kid that would definitely require a lot of patience.

Our English sign-ups were ok, we got about 75 signed up. Yeah, we usually do that many fliers or moer. We got them all out, but it took up a lot of our week. 75 people signed-up isn't a lot, but it should be good. I'm really pumped for really trying to use English to get great investigators and baptisms. I'll be teaching beginners Tuesday at 7pm and Saturday at 11am. It'll be good. For example, in one of my classes there is a family of two parents and three kids and they were asking questions about the Church at sign-ups and also about the Book of Mormon. Let's see if I can't baptize a family this transfer. I've decided, by the way, that I'm not leaving Cluj after 4 transfers without a baptism. I'll get at least one, who knows if more. Doamna Mocean is doing great and so I'll start with her. She was our only investigator at church yesterday, but she is keeping her commitments and she feels the Spirit in every lesson. She's a very sweet lady.

Well, I better go so I can put the pictures up. I hope you all have an amazing week. I'm going to have one here! I love you

-- Elder Ross

p.s. it will be ok with music rules for me to have a CD. I can't wait to hear it! Btw, when did you send my journal? I haven't gotten it yet and I filled up my old one about 10 days ago and am getting behind. If I don't get it at mission council, I'll probably just buy one to use for a while. Thanks!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

English fliers, a wedding and a baptism

Hey Everyone!

We had a great week here in Cluj Napoca, though we had a lot of things to do and that kept us from doing our normal missionary work. Those things include passing out English fliers, participating in Cosmin and Lavinia's wedding, and having a baptism. I'll go into those later.

But before I forget I wanted to respond to some of Dad's email. First of all, it sounds like the trek was really incredible and everyone learned a lot. I wish I could have been there, especially for the "stick pull". I'm pretty sure I would have whooped J. That is really, REALLY cool about the DeHuts. I'm so glad to hear that they are doing well and that Brother DeHut is getting his patriarchal blessing. I've definitely gained an even greater desire on my mission to be a diligent home teacher. I can't wait to get that assignment and go to work loving and helping my families.

Yeah, I do need my debit card and as soon as possible. I just looked at the one I have now and it expires at the end of this month. So, if you could send the new one, that'd probably be helpful. :) Yes, Mom, I saw the pictures from the reunion and my "proxy." Was that the best you guys could do? Haha, no it was great and I'm glad that you guys remembered me. I'm really going to love going to family reunions when I get back, especially after being gone all this time. And yeah, I love the family updates. A lot of times I don't comment, because I don't have a ton of time at internet. But it's great to hear what everyone is up to.

Ok, so this week wasn't the best for Elder Bringhurst and I as far as our investigators go. We met with as many as we could, but the forementioned events as well as an exchange we had with Elders Eyre and Despain from Oradea, we were really busy. And then Sunday was the worst....not a single investigator(of mine and Elder Bringhurst's. The others each had an investigator there) came to church. That was kind of rough. It's the first time it's happened since I've been in Cluj. We did our part, unfortunately they, for some reason, decided not to come. When I called Doamna Mocean, though, she said that she was thinking about us and she knew that she should have gone and she regretted not going. Maybe everything will work out and a lot of people will come next week, the last one of the transfer. Needless to say, we don't have a baptismal date right now.

About Daniel,(he went out to the countryside on Sunday) he is about 30. Not really sure, though. He is doing pretty well with his commitments, except for coming to church, obviously. He is really sincere and feels the Spirit strongly. Yeah, he is married and that is one of his problems, I think, if I can say that. Because his wife isn't too religious and he is scared of her. We always meet when she's not home. We'll see what happens.

Nothing exciting for most of the week. I had a good exchange with the boboc, Elder Despain. He is a cool guy and he's working hard to be a great missionary. We've started handing out fliers, but Elder Bringhurst and I have had hardly no time. We've gotten out maybe 100 and we have 3300 total for our companionship. That's what we'll be doing all day tomorrow, until we catch the train to Arad for zone conference.

The wedding was so great! Cosmin and Lavinia were so happy and they make such a sweet couple. Yeah, they're both members. Last night, they left for Germany where they'll be for a week. They'll be back next Sunday, though, so if I'm transferred I'll get to see them. So the ceremonies started at Cosmin's house(for us, some people started at Lavinia's) at 8am. After everyone had gathered and gotten ready, we hopped in cars and went to Lavinia's where he picked her up. There was a lot of music, they got a lot of pictures taken there and there were desserts and soda as well. After a little bit, we all went to a big park where the actual ceremony took place. This was at 10am. It's ridiculous how short the actual wedding is. They signed up for that time, 10, then waited while 3 or 4 other couples got hitched. The officiator said a few things, asked them for their "I do" and then they signed the paper. The end. After that, there was a cool service at the church(12pm), with talks focusing on the eternal nature of their marriage. Us missionaries and Bianca, Simona and Ilie(from Buch) sang a song on that topic. It went really well and Cosmin was tearing up as well as a few people in the audience. After that was the restaurant, the festivities there from 2pm until 10pm. We stayed until 4 and then left to have a lesson and get out the very few fliers we've gotten rid of. The pictures show the festivities better than I can explain. I'll try to remember to send them all next week.

Raluca's baptism was great. It was right after the 3 hour block. Sora Condurachi and Mihai Iepure both gave great talks. Calin performed the baptism. It was all really smooth and the Spirit was strong. So later that night, Elder Bringhurst and I had volunteered to take down the the font and to clean up. But when I looked at the tool I needed to unscrew the bars, I saw that it was super corroded. After a lot of hard work we were able to get maybe two screws out. I was kind of overwhelmed. I had no idea how to do it and it didn't seem possible. But the thought came to me to pray and as I prayed the words came to me. I prayed for strength to be able to get it done. Right after that we started going to work and even though a lot of the screws were really hard, we were able to disassemble the entire thing, do all the clean up and put it away. I know that there is no possible way we could have done that without the Lord's help. It was a cool miracle.

Well, I think I'll go now. I hope you all have a great week. I love you!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

A Better Week!


Hey Great People!

Yeah, this week was a lot better than last week, just because we had lots of great chances to work hard and to find some people that are interested. Also, this last week we had some fun things with Elder Smith's birthday, my companion's and my 18-month mark and the 4th of July. God bless America!

The big highlight of the week is gaining a sweet investigator. His name is Daniel and we went to him last Monday. We actually first found him two weeks before that but we weren't able to meet again until last week. Anyway, he blew us away with his openness to the Spirit and his willingness to do what it takes to draw closer to God. Daniel told us how he wants to work with us, haha. He said he'll read about 20 pages from the Book of Mormon in between visits(plus any chapter we might assign to him) and that he wants to meet at least once a week, preferably twice a week. He also said that soon he'll be in concediu(meaning he has like a month off from work) in which he'll still be at home and then he wants to meet 3 times a week if possible! No complaints from us. We went again Friday night and we took Mihai with us. We had such a good lesson on the Plan of Salvation. He is super smart and remembers stuff really well. He was impressed, too, that he can be with his wife in heaven. As many people believe, he thought everyone would just be single angels in heaven. Mihai was talking to us afterwards and he said he was really impressed with Daniel and thought that he was really open and smart. Mihai said he'd be happy to come again and just listen, haha. We're going back with him on Tuesday and we definitely won't let Mihai just listen. Unfortunately, Daniel wasn't aware that he could bring his little girl to church and he was stuck baby-sitting. Well, at least now he knows and he should be there next week.

We had an exchange with the elders here in Cluj. My companion set up a sweet day with Elder Smith in which they had 4 lessons scattered throughout the day, a pretty sweet set-up. I went to Elder Divis' area and we had one lesson at 7pm....so we bloc-knocked for probably 5 hours and had virtually no success for almost all of it. At the very end we got one lesson, but in the end the guy was firm in his belief that no of the churches are true, it doesn't matter if you are part of one, you just need to read from the Bible and live it. The lesson they had set-up was a really cool new investigator, though. His name is Gabi and he was really excited when we gave him the Book of Mormon. He said he that by this next Sunday coming(a week and a half from when we met with him) he would be done with reading it, 100%! Pretty impressive. He said he couldn't make it to church this Sunday, but that he'll be there this next Sunday coming up. A way solid guy.

So I didn't end up burning my pants. They were still good enough and I couldn't imagine buying another pair. So Elder Bringhurst burned one leg of his pants and I burned the other. It was a pretty good compromise, because he was 5 pairs of pants(he has 2-pant suits) and some of them are pretty nasty actually. I'll send pictures sometimes.

I started putting subtitles in the rest of our missionary movie, but unfortunately, viruses started taking over the Hakes' computer again. They lost their connection to the internet and so Calin took it to his house to work on it. Because of that I wasn't able to finish and to send it. We have it backed on a CD, so it's just a matter of when. It will get done eventually.

For the 4th of July we had a big lunch at the Hakes'. We had barbecued chicken, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes and best of all, a cherry pie. I was a great meal and a good way to celebrate our great nation.

Sunday was pretty good, though only 4 investigators came to church: Alex and 3 of the Militaru's(the mom, Gabi and Maria. Cristi was on some kind of trip). The worst was when at the end of sacrament meeting(there were some great testimonies given) President Condurachi stood up and proceeded to give an anti-"every missionary a member" talk. I could believe it! He said that all the members need to do is to pray, come to church and activities and not worry when others don't come. And then the Lord will bless the missionaries to have success knocking on people's doors. I can't think of anything more the exact opposite of Elder David A. Bednar's talk, Ask in Faith. Apparently, during FHE he also said that God created demons and that resurrected people can put their bodies aside, both clearly false. We are going off with the Hakes this week and we'll translate for them as they talk to him.

The 28-year old girl, Valentina, went to the countryside again on Sunday. She's still really cool and open, it just hasn't become a priority yet. We also didn't really have a chance to meet with her, because she had things come up. I believe that they were legitimate but we haven't been able to give her to the sisters yet because of that.

This next week should be a good one. We are really striving to get a baptismal date and also to get a lot of investigators at church. It should be a good one. We have an exchange with the other elders in Oradea and I'll be with the boboc, Elder Despain. Man, I can still remember like
yesterday when I was the boboc going with the zone leaders! This Sunday Raluca will get baptized which will be sweet, especially that her boys will get to grow in the Church. Also, Cosmin and Lavinia are getting married this week. So I'll tell you all about the ceremonies and traditions next week. I'm excited for them.

Well, all of you have a great week. I love you tons!

Elder Ross

Sunday, July 6, 2008

18-month Mark

Hey Everyone!

That's pretty exciting that you guys get to be at a family reunion. I'm sure it will be a blast for you. Life here in Cluj isn't too exciting right now to be honest. This last week was kind of a low, a lot of things not working out and not too many people coming to church. One of the new investigators we were working with went home for summer vacation and isn't back until October. A lot of things are going to slow down pretty quickly in that Cluj's population is cut in half as all the students go home.

Church wasn't super great, mostly because there were so few investigators. Last week our district had 13 investigators and this week we had 2! Of our 7, only Alex was there yesterday. I have no idea where Ionut and the Militaru's were and Doamna Mocean said she wouldn't be able to make it this week.

The week of missionary work wasn't that great, either. We didn't have a ton of lessons and stuff just went a lot slower it seemed. We did have to spend big chunks of two days making the English fliers that we'll be giving out in a couple of weeks and that hurt us. My best day was actually Saturday when I was in Oradea on exchange with Elder Manzione. We worked pretty hard, had 6 lessons and actually found this guy that is a former investigator that wants to learn more and to come to church. He's a young father and he has a bling house. Hopefully everything goes well with him.

Elder Bringhurst and I did find one really cool new investigator this week. It was sweet because it was at the end of the night and we just finished with a lesson and it was like 8:20. We totally could have gone home and that would have been normal. But I said, hey let's try one more scara(part of a bloc with about 10 apartments). On the very 1st door we knocked, this really cool girl, 28 years old, let us in and we had a way quality lesson with her. She's really open and really wanted to read the Book of Mormon so we went back the next night and gave her one and had another good lesson, talking about prayer and how she can get an answer from God. This week we'll go over with the sisters and then they will start working with her. Needless to say she is actually super attractive. I really hope she continues to progress. She could be golden.

Well, the week is over and a new week has started. It really is a new beginning of sorts, especially with a new mission president. The office elders told me that President Lundberg is a really cool guy and that they are excited for what is following. We're going to work hard and try to make this a great week.

Raluca's baptism is on the 14th of July. I have no idea who will baptize her. Probably one of the members. That is always the best anyway. As district leader, Elder Divis will do the baptismal interview.

Well, too be honest, I don't have much to write. It was a really boring week. No great updates at all. Thanks for those way funny stories about J and his phone. That made me laugh. I hope you all have a great time at the reunion. I will try to send the rest of the missionary video. I'm not sure we'll have time, because today is Elder Smith's birthday and we're all kind of doing what he wants. I think we might have some time to get over to the Hakes' and send it, though. We'll see.

I love you guys. Have an amazing week! I love you!

Elder Ross