Hey Great Family and Friends!!
This week was good, though there were not a ton of exciting things. As you pointed out, Mom, it is still August and that takes its toll, but I'm just grateful we're still able to meet with most of our investigators, though they are coming and going. Outside of just the missionary work, I actually do feel really good. I don't say this in any way to brag and pump myself up, but I have a feeling of great growth and, I don't know, acceptance maybe, of course despite my many weaknesses and shortcomings. When I stop and think about my mission, I definitely have not been the perfect missionary, I haven't baptized tons of people, but I really have worked hard and I feel peace when I reflect like that. Of course I still have 4 months left and I will continue to work hard and to learn and to progress. I'm not quite perfect yet, lol.
Haha, thanks, Mom, for the trunky questions. [I had to ask him a few post-mission questions but hesitated for fear of encouraging trunkiness.] But I'm already trunky. I just use it to my advantage and push myself more. Yeah, I would love to live with J in Heritage Halls. Thanks for helping me to set that up. Off and on throughout my mission I've thought about working at the MTC and just now when you asked me that question, I stopped and prayed for a minute. And yeah, I think it would be a really good thing. I don't know exactly how applying works, but I don't think they have many teachers right now. Yeah, I would like you to try applying for me. Thanks!
So we spent a decent of time this week working on the street board, but unfortunately it's not quite done yet. We met with Doamna Mocean and her son was there, too. He listened to most of the lesson, but then left for a smoke. She's doing well, but not as well, because of her son being home. She needs to remember to read and pray everyday. We remind her everytime, I'm sure she'll get it. I mean she has before, in spurts, but actually really solidly doing those things hasn't quite come yet.
We met with Paul as well and that was a sweet lesson. I was actually with Elder Fromm, because we had an exchange and he must have just been so excited that he fell sleep for about 30 minutes, HAHA. Paul had a lot of great questions, sincere ones, and he promised to read the Book of Mormon every day. He said he'll be coming and going for the next two weeks, but that he'll take the Book of Mormon with him and he'll call us when he is home long enough for us to meet. Usually, that's sketchy and investigators never call you, but I believe Paul. He's way sincere. Oh, and super ripped. He had his shirt off when we first got there, lol.
On Saturday, we had a really cool lesson in the blocs. We knocked into this young mother named Ioana and she had a little girl(about 18 months old), Maria, who was sooo funny. At random times in the lesson she just busted out into hysterical laughing and it was super cute. Ioana was really cool and interested in our message and so we'll go back tomorrow or Wednesday. It was a really fun lesson and it was also a really rare lesson, because it's probably the third time I've had a family listen to me and be interested.
Sora Gorzo from Bucharest was here for a few days and also came to church. She is known for always hosting the missionaries and feeding them and she even managed to do it in Cluj. She invited Elder Patterson and I over to her brother's house and she fed us a pretty dang good meal. It was really cool to talk to her and see how she's doing.
Sora Gorzo came with Jeff Dickemore, a former missionary that served in Cluj. He's a way cool guy and I had a lot of fun talking to him. His interest in studies is a lot like mine. He has one more year left of International Studies and he likes languages, too. He learned French and wants to learn Arabic. He actually teaches Beginning French at BYU right now. It was sweet to talk to him about his plans and to share my own. He said that I could pick Spanish up and be fluent in a year, because it's a much simpler language and there are so many people to practice with. Also, he's maintained his Romanian really well and actually translates for General Conference. So I talked to him a little bit about ways to keep up the language.
This week coming up is the last one in the transfer and it's kind of crazy, because it's a big one for me. I'll probably go to my next area to "die" there. I really hope it's a good one, and that I'm district leader, and that I have sisters, too. Haha, those are my desires, but it will be whatever the Lord wants.
Church was amazing this week. There were 60 people there! It is the high since I've been here. And if we managed that in August, maybe it will get even better and keep growing and before you know it, we have a capela! We had 5 investigators there, the Militaru's and Ionut, which was cool, because I haven't seen that kid in like 3 months. The Militaru's are doing well, we had a sweet lesson with them last week. I was praying in my nightly prayer before I went to bed and the idea came to me(nightly prayers are one of my best times for revelation) to teach them about studies and to give them all study journals and colored pencils. So we did and committed them to do a topic study by this week. We're going there tonight with Francisc, Monica and Razvan Kiss for an FHE and one of the children will do the spiritual thought on their topic study. The Kiss' have the activity and Sora Militaru is doing the prajitura. So we will have a member present lesson, a really good one, in which we mostly watch and enjoy, haha. Our plan is actually to come up with a reason to leave early and to leave the Kiss' with the Militaru's so they can bond better, especially with the Militaru dad. It will be sweet.
I think that is most of my update. Next week, I should be telling you all about transfers. I hope you have an amazing one! I love you!!!
--Elder Ross
