Hey All

 Us and the sisters. Sora Schuld on the right, Sora Remsburg on the left.They bought us some ridiculous ties from a second hand store at the beginning of the transfer.

Hi everyone! Man, that was a little intense reading that story about Mom's car incident/accident thingy. I'm really glad that you didn't get hurt too badly, Mom. I'm not going to lie though, thinking about what happened I have to laugh a little because that sounds exactly like something that I would do! I think you and I react to stress in very similar ways. And of course the men of the family, Erik and dad came to the rescue!

I hope you will be able to heal up enough to go to trek! I remember how much I LOVED trek! Besides going to Philmont and other Scouting hiking trips, trek had one of the biggest impacts on me physically, emotionally, and spiritually. After my first time going I was really disappointed that I would be too old or on my mission by the time the next one came around. I'm really excited for Eli going, he will love it!

This week has gone by pretty fast. From Tuesday night to Thursday morning I was in Timisoara on an exchange with Elder Martin. It was good to be able to spend a day with him since we served together in Pitesti. He's learned and grown significantly serving as branch president there. Of course this transfer he was released and his companion, Elder Schroedter is now the branch president. From everything I've heard from either members or missionaries who served around Elder Martin while he was branch president, he did a lot for that branch.

Thursday day we went with the sisters out to two inactive members who live about 30 minutes outside Arad. We don't get to go out to the countryside very often, so I always relish the chances I get. Romania is a beautiful country, and many parts of it remind me so much of northern California.

A flower bed in front of someone's house I saw while we were knocking doors in this nice neighborhood of vile (houses). There were a lot of snap dragons, or gura leului (the lion's mouth) as the they call it in Romanian, and some lupin-looking purple flowers. I thought mom would enjoy them. 

gura leului (the lion's mouth) as the they call it in Romanian

The flower Shane mentioned being "lupine-like" is actually a delphinium.

It was interesting visiting these members, and learning their motives for not coming to church. I've always found working with less active members to either be really really rewarding, or somewhat depressing. Either you see people re-find their faith and start experiencing the blessings of the fulness of the gospel again, or you witness a lot of bitterness, misunderstanding and unhappiness.

We had a grand total of three people at our beginners English class, but they're all really nice people, and one of them took a copy of the Book of Mormon saying she was very interested to read it. We're still having a hard time finding new investigators, but we're pluggin along, trying to do as much as we can. Zone conference is this week, so we've got a fair amount of prepartion to do for that.

Even today has been kind of crazy. This morning we went to a meeting with Brother Edi, the branch mission leader, Brother Ciprian, the Elders Quorum President, and President Banatean (buh - nuh - tse - ahn) --AKA PEC!! (which is rarely held in this branch) to talk about some of the problems in the branch. It was actually really cool being able to see the priesthood leaders of the branch working together to figure out what things they can do to help strengthen the members of this branch. They all have  good intentions and a lot of drive and desire to serve the members here. Hopefully together we'll be able to see some improvements. It's pretty incredible to think that these men who don't have much experience in church leadership or organization are able to come together and discuss the needs of the branch, and make a plan to help things progress. It's just one more proof to me that this is the Lord's church, and that His hand is in every little detail, and that without the help and guidance of the Holy Ghost, things would not be the same.

So, for the rest of the p-day we plan on going and playing tennis! Also, I had called Alex up to see how he's doing (he's still at his grandparents' in Oradea) and he said that he'll be in Arad for today and tomorrow. I don't know if he's here yet or not, but we're hoping to meet up with him for a little bit at some point.

Thanks for all the updates on everything! I'm also glad that Nana is feeling better. I hope dad and Eli made it alright up to Utah, that's so awesome they get to go to Whitney's wedding! (Sorry mom....). I've attached some more pictures from this last week. I love you all!

Elder Myers