Sep 22 2014 by bossman

Week 44 – București, România

Posted in București

I really wish I had some stories to tell you..wait… I always have stories to tell you. Something is always happening here! Unfortunately though, this week has been pretty slow missionary work wise. We have had transfers and meetings all week. They have all been very good meetings though, and holy cow do I feel inspired to get up and do something! My new companion is a good guy! He is very clever and witty, which is funny. I look forward to working with him this transfer.

Bucharest_19_1200Lets see…We haven’t done a ton of crazy things. Although I do have a decent story. So, over the past few weeks we have gone in Herastrau Park here in Bucharest and done chalk contacting, and it has been somewhat successful. We like doing it though so things are good. Anyway, we walk over to our area that we had drawn two weeks in the past. It was still there! Our entire plan of salvation chalk was still there and none of it was erased. It was pretty cool. Anyway, we decided to touch it up a little bit. Right as we started this guard on a bike pulls up and tells me we don’t have permission. (we get crap from these guards a lot, but it is free to draw on chalk on the ground.). I start this little argument. I am not proud of what I said entirely, but at one point he said that he personally didn’t like looking at it. I told him that he could ride his bike over there (points off randomly) and stop looking at it. Then he threatened to call the cops. I told him to go right on ahead. Then this random Romanian guy came up and started talking to the guard in our defense, and this guy basically told him off. It was really cool. Then this old guy called the cops and told them not to come! The cops told this guy that they weren’t going to come for something simple like that anyway. We laughed and kept going. Until the Park Supervisor pulled up and told us we didn’t have permission. We asked why, there hasn’t been a problem in the past, what is the deal now? He told us that because it is religious it will offend people. So now we need to go to the park and rec place to get “voie”. ugh…so frustrating. However, I joked that I when we do get the papers signed or whatever we need, and the guards come and tell us to leave, I am going to pull it out and say “read it and weep.” In English probably ;). Probably not, but I want too!

Other than that, we are just starting up this week, and we are starting to plan really big events/ smaller events that attract people to us, and then they can see that we are cool, and then ask questions, and then we dunk them… well we teach them first ;). The baptism didn’t actually happen this week…the mother is kind of being stubborn towards it and we need her signature, but we talked with president Ivory and we got it all figured out. It will happen I promise!

It is fall here, but it is still hot. We are barely starting to get colder breezes, but it is still really hot. The leaves are changing and that is cool, but in this concrete jungle, there aren’t a ton of trees. Herastrau Park is pretty though. I will buy another memory card and format that one so I can start uploading some pictures. I will just save this other one for when we can look at them. I don’t know. We”ll think of something. Everything will be good.
No St. Cloud? Well that’s okay. I think that may be a good decision. Just keep working hard and the Lord will do the rest right? We are learning more about the enabling part of the Atonement and frankly I would love to just feel it like a giant wave carrying away all my problems. I don’t think that’s how it works. I need to do all that I can before I can get that help, and then I must keep at it. Then the Lord will provide a way, or the strength beyond my own, but still at the end of me working hard. Does that make sense? Things are good. We all need the Atonement.
I am glad things are going good. SOmething that has been coming up in my life I wanted to share with you guys. I have realized something. I haven’t ever really noticed the power I get when I have good scripture studies CONSECUTIVELY. I remembered something from my MTC time about this. When we have a good scripture study we link a chain link in our armor. However, one link will do nothing. You need a lot of links to be able to stop an arrow let alone a sword. So if we stop reading our scriptures then we start losing rings. We must constantly be updating our armor or the armor gets weak. I have noticed the astonishing influence of Satan more and more when I don’t have that study. Even now, if I go without a good study here and there, then I am not focused, or I am focused on the wrong things. My point is, scripture study is better, but scripture study all the time, every day, is best!
Love, Varstnicul Nick Oldham