Week 58 – București, România

For the next couple of weeks Elder Oldham chose to hand write his emails.  The following is a typed version of portions of these letters.

Dear Mom, Dad and co…,

This is a weird way for you to hear from me.  To explain, for the month of January I will be writing to you like this. Not to worry about me. I am fine. Meaning, I feel the Spirit in my life!

So…this week has been fun and productive! That’s good news! Well the later half has been better.  We’ve tried to work hard, but New Years (Revellion) is a pretty slow time.  Everyone is either out of town or partying. That makes things really hard. We still had good numbers! In fact, we had a cool experience. One evening we went out to find this man who had been an investigator in 2009. We found his block and knocked on his door. He opened and let us in! We had a wonderful lesson (in English, because they spoke English really well) with his wife and his daughter.  It was so good! We explained the Word of Wisdom to them and answered some of their questions.  We got 3 new investigators out of it! It was a good day.

I don’t have much else for you guys, but a little heartwarmer story. So ever since I’ve been in Bucharest I’ve been teaching, on and off, this guy here who has been an investigator (sort of). He is a gentlemen who has some challenges in his development and speech. I feel like I am the only one who has patience with him. I love the guy! I truly do. Anyway, he came to church (he normally does) and he was talking with an older woman. I didn’t think anything of it. During our Gospel Principles class she said that she was his mother! WHAT?! That was huge! Especially for him. After class she came and talked to me. She told me that she was unhappy that her son chose to come to our church…at first. She explained that she was happy now because she knew that I was good to her son. “I am so grateful that you are a good man, it does my mother’s heart good.” Something like that.  Loving him, and being patient with his, is actually really easy. I can see all the good traits in him and that’s what I choose to focus on. I had a thought about him, and I felt that it was guided, that he, in his mind, was so frustrated because no one was being nice or friendly because of something out of his control. How horrible would that be? The least I can do is see him as he is, a son of God who made the same choice I did, to follow Christ! One day, whether or not he gets baptized (due to his mental health), we will rejoice in the Kingdom of our Father. I feel I am a successful missionary because my heart is here, and tears come to my eyes when I picture that reunion. I must keep going though and find those I need to find.

Love, Varstnicul Nick Oldham

P.S. Keep reading your scriptures!! Vă rog! E cel mai important!