Week 11 – Bacău, Romania

This week has brought no new stories. I really wish I could tell you some amazing thing that happened here but it has been really tough on me spiritually and mentally. I am really having a hard time with the language.

I guess I have one story, but it is kind of sad. (I actually have a few. 😉 ). I went to eat at KFC in the mall, so I got up in a very busy line and ordered what I wanted. The lady turned around to get it, because everything their is freshly made for you, and she told me something I didn’t understand and then 8 minutes. So I guessed it would be an eight minute wait, but I stood there just looking at her, because I had no idea what to say. Nothing came to my mind and I just felt so stupid. Lots of people looked at me really strange and I kind of just walked away. I might have said Mai tarziu, which means later, but I don’t remember. I left and almost cried at the table. I skipped lunch. Here is the catch. I forgot that it was fast Sunday so I didn’t get lunch and then started a fast. When I finally ate on Sunday I had gone 28 hours without food. I didn’t mean to, but I just felt like an alien and really crappy on the inside.

It has kept snowing and I did purchase a nice coat! I may have said that already. Oh here is a fun story that happened to us. so it got really cold one day and we got a text from our Zone Leaders saying that the new Disney movie Frozen was cleared as okay to watch and that we could go see it as language study!!! So we went and saw Frozen in Romanian on P-Day! It was a very cute movie, and after comparing the Romanian singing with the English, the Romanian version is just so much better singing wise. It is cuter and way more fitting. It was a lot of fun, and a nice break from all the crazy going on. It made me feel normal again. Which has been a problem lately.

Well here is a good story for you. So we have had some really cold days, as in we can’t really contact outside days. The wind is just cutting and icy. My hands actually turned purple once! (no damage, but it was scary). That wasn’t the story, it has been really cold though. Anyway, because of this we have had a little experience at Kaufland, which is our grocery store. We walked in one morning because we needed some toiletries, and there were shelves missing of stuff! They hadn’t received any shipments of any kind! No fresh anything. Bread, meat, eggs, fruit, vegetables…gone. It was scary, and so for four days we accepted not having that stuff. It was crazy and the day they did get a shipment in, it was so busy!

Oh a funny story that kind of ruined my day and made me sad, but I laugh at now is this. We don’t have a drying machine, and so we hang everything out to dry. This is good and bad, because my clothes are always wrinkled. So I decided to iron my Haggar pants (the black ones). So i started and the iron stopped, I looked down and I had melted my pants. now I know to never iron polymer pants! I ruined that pair completely. Oh well. it was funny, and I needed the laugh.

I am going to be honest, this mission is very difficult and is clearly not cut out for everyone, but merely the prepared. I have had a really hard time this last week in my emotions. I have felt sadness, loneliness, and defeat all week. In my five-ish weeks of being here I haven’t taught a single lesson. Not one. It is very frustrating to me to come out here try my best to learn everything new just to have no success.

While I say that, I am grateful that I am having success in other ways. I am growing in my personal life in becoming a better person. I have opportunities to improve and grow in the qualities that I think I need and desire to become the better me I want to be. I am happy that I get this chance to grow and become stronger. I just have to remember that the Lord has put me here for a reason and that it is not a baptizing mission, but a finding one.

I have really been studying the Epistles of the Apostles

and I have found great solace and comfort in reading them. I will keep working my hardest and hope that the Lord will help me in my trails.

– Elder Oldham