Hey Everyone!
This last week was definitely an interesting one. It was so busy and full, that we had very little time to actually do missionary work. As a matter of fact, I think I got the worst numbers of my entire mission. I'll go on to talk about all the things that happened, but, needless to say, Elder Patterson and I are anxious to work super hard this week and get the transfer going right.
Monday and Tuesday I was here in Cluj with Elder Smith on exchange until we went down to Buch Tuesday night. I didn't get to do a lot of "my own" missionary work, because we were covering both his investigators and mine. It didn't help that our zones are very far apart. It was good, though, and on Monday night we took a wrong bus and ended up running into Adriana. I don't know if you remember, but she is one the girls that Elder Rigby and I met passing out fliers a few months back. She's the one that pretty much asked me out, lol. Anyway, she was happy to see me and was interested in English. Also, I invited her to an activity we had on Saturday and she and her sister, Alina, came. It was sweet. Oh, haha, and they brought me some sarmole which was way good! We were definitely led to find her. And now she'll be going to the sisters' English class and they can work with her, because we FOR SURE can't.
I was dying in Buch on Wednesday because I had no reason to be there that day. I walked around a little bit with Elder Patterson and went to the boboci meeting and that was pretty cool, because Elder Hardman has made me a grandpa. His boy's name is Elder Herrick and he seems really cool. Then we helped some missionaries get to the gara and catch trains back to their respective cities.
Mission council on Thursday was really good. I really like President Lundberg and the more I learn about him, the more I realize that he is exactly what Romania needs. He changed the whole way we count numbers, which really is just the way PMG teaches. It will change the way we work. Before we counted any discussion in which we taught a Gospel principle as a lesson. But now, we have to start and close with a prayer. So for example, you can never have a lesson street-contacting now. Instead it will more of an investment, collecting phone numbers and potential investigators. We'll see how it all works out. He also said that to go to the gym we have to get his permission. So Saturday night I called him up and talked to him. He said I was "the first brave soul" to ask. After explaining how we schedule it to still have full studies and telling him how much it's helped, he was ok with it. Today I went again and it felt really good. My companion is a big guy and he definitely loves working out, too. He has a lot of ideas that are helping me as well. For example, he has Nike bands that we do some exercises with at night and then before going to bed we do 30 push-ups. We'll see if I can't get more cut.
Elder Patterson is, of course, from Utah. He's about 6 foot maybe a little more, but he weighs a good 30+ pounds more than me and a lot of it is muscle. He has a build kind of like Jake. We get along really well and he is ready to work hard and tear it up this transfer.
We've set some really good goals for this transfer. In mission council, President mentioned how it usually takes 20 investigators to get a baptism and I told you last week that my big goal is to not leave Cluj without a baptism. So we started a countdown. We have 8 investigators now and so we're going to find at least 12 more throughout the transfer. If we get one and then he drops it still counts, because he was an investigator and that's how the statistic was formed. I'm really excited. We are also going to work hard again for weekly member exchanges and taking members to all our lessons with investigators.
The activity we had on Saturday was on becoming more like the Savior. My companion and I had a little presentation with it. We shared Matt. 12:48. Be perfect, easy, right? Then Ether 12:27, how we can become stronger. We shared the example of Peter and I think I rememer the verses right: Matt. 26: 69-75 he denies Christ three times, but then later in Acts 4 and 5 he stands in front of the Sanhedrin and boldly defends the Lord. What made the difference that a man who feared in front of a servant woman became one who defied courageously a full council of those most likely to kill him for what he had to say? It was good, I think, and those two sisters were there and also a man from one of our English classes.
Church was kind of lame, because yet again not a single investigator came to church. It's frustrating, because for almost 3 full transfers we always had at least one person, usually a lot more. But the last three weeks have been 0, 1, and 0. We set a goal, though, to never have that happen again. If none of our investigators come, we'll go on the street and invite people to come in until someone accepts.
Well, I am really excited for this next week and for working really hard. We have an incredible district, and zone, too. Sora Shepard is way cool and in her 3rd transfer she speaks well, but is super timid and reserved(mostly just in Romanian). I feel for her, though, because I still get way nervous everytime I stand up in front of people. I did at the activity.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll be home before Christmas, though exactly when I haven't been told yet. It'll probably be in the middle of a transfer and so maybe I'll be put somewhere different for that if it's easier on the mission. In any case, I think after this transfer I'll become a district leader again and be somewhere for two or two and a half transfers. I would LOVE to train again, but we'll see.
About the film, the Hakes' computer still has problems. I have all the footage, though. I'm not sure you'll get to see it before I go home. I'll check it out again and see if I can do anything.
Well, you all have a great week. I love you!
Elder Ross
