Week 38 – Craiova, Romania

So there is this picture of Messi after he lost the world cup and there was a caption underneath it saying “nothing can console me”. I felt like that a little bit about leaving Moldova. I truly fell in love with the people and city. I am super sad to leave it. It made me think about all my other transfers and I realize that all my transfers have been very hard for me to leave. I just want to work hard in every city, and I think Craiova has so much potential.

Acum, there are three of us Elders here in this city and that’s it. I am finding that being in a trio is hard, because now we are really intimidating. Two Americans was bad enough, but now we have two Americans and a Canadian! I think that we will have fun though, and also try to build the kingdom here as best as we can. Although, it might be harder than we think. At church we had five people, including us…However! That means that there are lots of areas to improve in! We will work our tails off and I think that it starts with being obedient.

I am learning what it means to be obedient and then going out and doing. I will say that I have been very good at mornings and nights. (Waking up, exercising, studies (all three) and then being ready to go), but the whole going out and talking to people has been low. We need to change that.

I am also learning what it means to be a normal person and a missionary at the same time. I was in the mall watching our food while the others went into a store (I could see them so it was okay). I thought about what to do and a thought came up that I don’t think was my own, and it was to pull out the Book of Mormon and start reading. There was this guard guy sitting on the same bench but sitting on the other side facing away from me. I then came across a word that I had never seen in my entire life. I got stumped good. So I tapped him on the shoulder and asked him what it meant. I didn’t learn the deffinition because I didn’t really understand him, but that wasn’t the point. He then opened up and asked me who I was and what I was doing here. Those are the best questions in the whole wide world for missionaries here. I love them. So I shared everything I possibly could in a matter of 2 minutes. He had to go back to his store, and my companions came back, but I still walked in and gave him our English card and asked him to come. He seemed really excited to get one, and smiled at me the entire time. I was pretty happy about that. Even if nothing came out of it, we were still able to share who we are. I thought that was cool.

This city is pretty cool and they are doing a ton of road work here which involves streets meant only for walking, and it is all nice stone now, and it looks good! I am excited to see what might happen here. I wish I had more to tell you but I am just grateful that I get to be serving here, and there really is a ton of potential here. I love you all very much, and I am incredibly jealous of those moutnain biking pictures. I miss it very much. I also love my bike, but I think oliver looks better with it than me though ;).