Buna Dimineata!!!

Pitesti, Romania Oct. 2011

Hey everyone! 
Well, I guess Dad must have a pretty heavy workload tonight, I'm still waiting on an email from him, but no worries. I really really appreciated what you said in your letter, Mom. These past couple weeks have been really challenging for me, and as always you've helped me to remember that my feet are supposed to be below me, on the ground, and that sometimes you just have to put one of them right in front of the other rather than trying to invent a new way of walking. 
I completely agree with what Sara said. This year has gone by really fast, but in some ways it has gone very slowly. Because I've spent so much time walking around and contacting people on the streets, in the blocks, and at people's houses I've had a lot of time to think. Sometimes that's a good thing, sometimes that's a really bad thing. I always tend to overthink things whenever I'm faced with challenges, and that usually only makes it worse.


Something that being on a mission has helped me to do though is to make decisions quickly and confidently. For example, when you see someone on the street and the Spirit tells you to talk to them, you don't have time to sit and think about what the best thing to say to them would be. You just have to walk up to them, open your mouth, start talking, and hope you don't end up looking like a fool. More often than not, when this happens they end up rejecting me before I get two words out, but every once in a while someone listens. Sadly, even then most of the time when that happens the people still reject me and my message, but I guess what is important is that I was acting as a vessel for the Holy Ghost. It's really hard not to be apprehensive about talking to people and knocking on people's doors when most of the time you receive very, very rude responses; but, I know that this is what I'm called to do, and I know that I'm never left alone. 


Nevertheless, I think one of my main goals is to come back home with the same hope for Romania that I came in with, and to not become cynical. I hate cynicism, and yet I've found myself developing that kind of an attitude about missionary work in this country from time to time. 

Park near Shane's current apartment in Pitesti, Romania 

A really cool experience that happened to Elder Ekins and I the other day while we were out searching for an in-active member and contacting along the way. We were walking through a small neighborhood park when a family of a mom, dad, and a little daughter who couldn't have been much older than 3 walked past us. The parents passed us, but the little girl stopped in the middle of the path and just stared at me and Elder Cox for at least a whole minute. The parents tried to get her to come to them but she would just whip her head right back to us and stared me square in the eyes. I tried saying hi to her, and she would let out a little smile here and there until her parents finally took her by the arm and pulled her towards them. We went after them and told them that we have a message to share about how families can be eternal, and they just told us no thank you, but as we walked away the little girl would turn back every once in a while and give us a huge smile.


I had some similar experiences in Brasov when I was serving with Elder Cox. One time we were contacting in a big park and a man was walking his little daughter who was around the same age as the other girl I just talked about. We were about ten feet away from them when the little girl saw us, got this huge grin on her face and came running straight toward us with her arms stretched out. I probably could have held out my arms and she would have fully embraced me, but her dad caught up to her and kept walking past us. She too kept looking back at us with a radiant smile. 

Then there was another time when we were on the bus, and a little toddler aged girl was with her dad sitting right behind us. She would turn around and touch our heads, to get us to turn around and look at her. We would play "peek-a-boo" like this and every time we turned around she just busted into giggles. On top of these three experiences there have been so many times when we are walking past families with babies or small kids, or contacting them and the kids will just stare at us, or give us shy little smiles. They must see something their parents don't. They completely recognize us as servants of the Lord and radiate an unconditional love towards us that is one of the most precious and touching things I have seen on my mission. If only they could communicate to their parents the importance and joy of the message we have to share.

Well my time is pretty much up. I'm sorry I don't have much more to say....tonight the zone leaders are coming down for exchanges! Hopefully with six missionaries in the city for a whole day we will be able to get things picking up a little more. I've attached a few fotos that I've taken around Pitesti. There's a gorgeous park here that is pretty much just a big forest. 


I love you all, and hope you have a wonderful week! Oh yeah, I remembered one more thing I would like with the package, if it's possible. CHRISTMAS MUSIC!!!!!!! I'm so excited for Christmas! 


Elder Myers