Hey Beautiful People!!
I am doing super well and am getting adjusted to my new area. I definitely miss Moldova A LOT, though, and often think of the people there. It was cool to be able to leave with a miracle.
Tuesday night was when we left from Chisinau to Bucuresti, but that afternoon I started getting a headache. It got worse and worse until I was feeling pretty sick and I had no idea how I was going to make it through that trip. Thanks to the prayers of some special people, I got the impression that I should ask for a blessing from the other missionaries. The second I thought of that I felt really good and for a moment, I thought, ok I guess I don't need the blessing now. Haha. Even though the pain came back, I really felt that the blessing would make everything better. Up to this point I had been laying in bed, groaning and crying to my Heavenly Father... I really felt horrible. But the elders laid their hands on me, first anointing me and then sealing it and giving me a blessing. The Spirit came into that room and I was moved so that a few tears escaped from my eyes and rolled down my cheeks. After that, I felt great and though I could still sense the headache back there somewhere, it was almost completely gone and I had no problems the entire trip(even though I only slept about 2-3 hours). It was a miracle. And the Holy Priesthood is real.
I am serving in Sector 1 right now. My companion is Elder McKinley and he is a champ. He's a good, hard-working missionary and we get along well. We have a few investigators as I've been told, but I've only had the chance to have a lesson with one of them. Iulian is about 40 and he is a former Jew(converted from Orthodoxism and then back, I think). Anyway, he got the Book of Mormon about two weeks ago and he already finished it. He's a cool guy, doesn't know a lot of the Gospel yet, but he could be a great member if he continues to let the Spirit shape him. We also have Daniela and Ela, two girls from English. They're in their late 20's, but they have been coming to church and to activities and hopefully they get baptized soon. I haven't had a lesson yet with them, hopefully soon.
Transfer meeting wasn't as exciting as it was looking to be. Either that or it just didn't affect me as much...To answer Dad's question, Bucharest is divided into 4 branches. And in each branch there are about 4-6 elders and then a companionship of sisters for two branches(they are very busy because of that). In our district there are 6 elders, though two of them are the office elders. The other two missionaries actually live with us right now, because they got white-washed in to this sector which hasn't had that extra companionship for a long time. They are hoping to find an apartment soon. They being Elder Divis(in my district my 1st time in Buch and then 2 transfers in Cluj) and Elder Jeffrey(from my MTC group). The sisters are in our district as well, Sora Poulsen and her boboaca, Sora Kimball. They're pretty cool.
For Thanksgiving, we actually went to an American family that is in our branch. The Le Barges are here, because he works for the Embassy, State Department, something like that. They fed us a great meal, all the normal, fantastic foods that you expect with Thanksgiving dinner. I definitely enjoyed myself. I also had fun playing with Brandon, their little boy, he's about 7 or 8.
Hmm, I don't think I will need to pull out more money, I mean I'd rather not if I don't need to. But it's good to know what I can pull out if for some reason I am short. We'll see what happens.
Today is the National Day of Romania. We went out this morning and saw a big parade. It was cool, because a lot of members went, too, and some investigators. It was mostly military and afterwards we were allowed to climb on and in some of the tanks and jeeps. I'll show you pictures when I get home, I think you can wait that long.
Oh! I got the package, thanks a ton! It turns out there is a really good tailor here and it's also really cheap. I listened to the CD and I liked it a lot. Tell J that and that I shared it with the others in my apartment. And tell him HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I can't believe J is 19! It doesn't seem that long ago when I turned 19, I actually remember it like it was yesterday. I hope you had a great one, J.
Well, I don't know what else to write. I'm going to look up what flights cost to Moldova. I hope you all have a good week and I'll talk to you more next week.
I love you! --Elder Ross
