Week 45 – București, România

We have had a really good week, or at least I have been thinking so. Things would have been much better if the weather wasn’t so flippsy. We had a beautiful day on Monday, and then Tuesday it dropped twenty degrees and rained. Then it slowly got back up to a nice day today. What a weird week, in the terms of the weather. We still had a handful of lesson with some good people, but nothing really solid. We have been teaching a man named Robi. We have been teaching him his recent convert lessons. It has been really nice to be able to teach him. He is also a really cool guy. He is actually Syrian, and he reads his Book of Mormon in Arabic. It is super weird, and really really cool. We have been meeting with him pretty frequently. We also have some non members we are working with, but nothing is really happening with them.

There is this really cool guy by the name of Claudiu. He has been asking all the right questions, and I believe that he will be baptized someday. That someday may just take some time. I hope for the best for him. Then we had some kind of lame lessons too. We look for teaching opportunities all the time, but it is slow. We kind of have a new attitude as well. We need to keep contacting, but we are starting to plan way more activities that are fun and uplifting. It is a new thing from President Ivory and I think it will work really well here.

Hmmm…what else happened this week. We did try something new that is effective. It is called slacklining. It is tight rope walking in between two trees, and you are only off the ground a few feet. Anyway, we went out and were doing it for a while in Herastrau. It was working and we were coming up with ideas by the minute on how we could improve it. Then all of a sudden, guess who showed up? The big blue bullies known as BGS. Big Giant Stinkers. (they were probably just doing there job). Anyway, they come up (on their bikes…ugh…biker dudes…) and tell us that we don’t have permission for this here. We are like “Are you kidding me?” They then go through a huge rant about how we will uproot the trees…Wait…Did he just say that we will uproot the trees? No this was their exact excuse for telling us to stop. “Look, these trees are really old and you will uproot them if you keep doing it.” (Keep in mind that we had been doing it for an hour already. We explained that it doesn’t hurt the trees in any way shape or form. Then he told us that it was still not allowed. We told them that they have hammocks tied around trees just over in a little section of the park. They told us “No, we don’t have hammocks in our park.” What!!! We had just laid in them. That kind of through us over the top, then they threatened to call the cops. So we told them to call them! I would have loved to hear the conversation. “Hey this is BGS in Herastrau, yeah we got four young men here who are trying to up root two trees by tying a thin cord between them and walking on it. We need S.W.A.T. ASAP!”…”What do you mean you don’t have time for that?”… something like that ;). It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. We still packed up and left, but we went to a different park, and the cops walked by us, and didn’t even say a single word. Ugh…BGS. That was kind of a fun story. I don’t know what it is with me being on my mission, but I get kicked out of parks a lot here. Also learned that drawing on the ground is illegal…oops.

Some big news is that the branch here in Panduri got a new Branch President. That doesn’t happen very often here in Romania. Mainly because normally they don’t have a member who could fill that role. It was really cool to be a part of that, and frankly I was just so thrilled to sustain him. I really felt like I was sustaining him too. It was a really neat experience. We just kind of keep going with the work here. We are trying to find new people to teach, but we depend on some activities for new people. We will see how our activities go, and we can work from there. (We can still contact too, but that may only go so far. The Lord will provide a way!).

Other than that we just keep going! It has bee really fun to see the growth in the area, and I hope and pray that I can leave this place better than I came into it. Even if it is just to have a better attitude. We will get things done and it will be awesome. The End…well not really, because there are no ends!

I am super pumped for General Conference! It is basically the Super Bowl for missionaries. Best part, no commercial breaks! I am really excited to hear from the leaders of our church. What a breath of fresh air it is to hear them tell us about the good tidings of great joy, and then warn us too. It’s good to have both. I encourage you guys to watch all the sessions. I have learned more and more how absolutely valuable they are. They are inspired for our day, and for our future. We all know that the church is always one step ahead of Satan, so take head and apply action now!

I read Half of Alma this week and Half of Helaman. I focused on the war chapters, and there is some excellent advice in there. Basically, never stop preparing for the enemy. Moroni never stopped preparing for war. When the Lamanites came upon them with their shields and breastplates, and helmets. I like to picture it and think about what their first reaction was when they turned the corner and saw Moroni’s fortifications. “Oh man, we are so going to conquer them. Check us out, we got armor here, here, and here. Nothing can…(turns corner)…Oh shoot.” I would have loved to see it. I also love the connections I could make with the teachings of Alma and then how they were applied in the war chapters when it was a life against death thing. It was amazing to me to see that connection. There are a lot of hidden golden things in those chapters. I would encourage you all to read them. They are full of helpful advice.