Another Snowy Week !

Hello all!! So, as the title refers, this week has been pretty cold and really snowy. It pretty much snowed for 3 days straight! Such a drastic change from last week, which was sunny and warm (which means it was probably around 45 F haha!) Oh my goodness 70 degree weather sounds so nice!! Its funny though, the cold actually hasn't really been bothering me as much as I thought it would. Part of that reason is all the snow we've been having. I can always handle cold as long as there's snow around to enjoy. Whenever someone finds out I'm from California they're like oh man, it must be warm over there! Hey I wanted to ask a couple things, first I wanted to know if you could send me a bank statement - I can't check my balance here. I want to buy a portable hard drive so I can just put all my pictures from you and my camera on it, and there's also this guy here in Cluj who does handmade leather book binding, how cool is that? He's the only one in the country that does it too. and its super cheep, his most expensive binding is about 70$! And also, where did the name Myers originate from? A lot of people who hear my name ask me if I'm German haha. 

 

So transfers are next Wednesday, Feb 2, and I find out where I'll be going next Monday in the weekly email we get from President Lundberg. Last week he had said that he wants to leave most people where they are, so we'll see what ends up happening! Man that's so awesome to hear about the recent converts, the've already given talks in church? Man, Bishop Bradley's really on it! 

 

So, our lessons with Mihaela continue to go well, we're starting to get her son Denis more involved. Yesterday we had a lesson with them about the 5 steps of the gospel, and Denis understood everything really well! He's been reading a little bit out the book or mormom too and praying as well. There such an awesome little family! Aurelia and Salvatore are still trying to find two apartments, no luck yet, but we keep visiting them and praying for them. Oh yeah, I'll be sure to pass on the message to Salvatore dad! He's actually the only one who's Italian, Aurelia is Romanian which I didn't realize at first, so we teach them in Romanian. It's funny cuz Aurelia will correct Salvatore on his Romanian all the time. And a lot of the time he'll just speak in Italian to Elder Clonts (Elder Clonts lived in Verona, Italy for 2 1/2 years i don't remember if I told you that before).

 

This last week we dug through a bunch of former investiagor teaching records and had some lessons with them, and we've also been getting several lessons with referrals from members. (Mostly from Aurelia and Salvatore) But one of the formers we had a lesson with was pretty cool, she was taught first back in '06 and now she's 22, married to an American, and has a little baby named Jeremiah. She speaks perfect English, and she lived in South Carolina (I think that's where her husband's from) and so she speaks with this heavy southern accent. It's super trippy to hear her talk haha becuase underneath this thick southern American accent she still has a little bit of a Romanian accent, I've never heard anything like it! She's super cool though, and hopefully she will start to progress! 

 

There's this other guy named Ionut (with a t sydilla, so its pronounced yo-noots). He's about 30 years old or so, probably younger, it's hard to tell Romanian's ages for some reason. He's super cool also. He's a really intelligent person and allways has really deep questions for us. He's really interested in the Book of Mormon, and we've been trying to get him to pray about it.

 

Ok well I'm pretty much out of time, I have to write my weekly email to the president. But thank you so much for your awesome e-mails.  I love you all so much, and hope you have a wonder full week!

 

Love, Elder Myers 

Buna Ziua

Hey Everyone !!!                                                    


Thanks for the great emails mom, dad, Eli, Jessie, and Heather too. Man that's ridiculous that she still hasn't gotten anything from me! I've sent out two letters to her in the past 3 or 4 weeks, and I'm sending her a tape today as well. So I got Heather's Christmas package, but still not the one from you haha! Maybe it will come eventually...I'm not too worried about it though. Ok, so first off I knew that Nicho and Ruby were engaged, I actually just got a letter from Nicho telling me that they're planning on having the wedding in September. I wish the best of luck to them. 

So thanks for the companionship advice dad. I totally understand what you mean by the importance of working in unity. And I didn't mean to send the impression that I don't like Elder Clonts, he's a great guy and we get along really well. I will say that there have been a few little personality conflicts, but thanks to companionship inventories we've been able to talk about that, and we've been becoming good friends throughout this transfer. There's two more weeks left in the transfer and I definitely feel like as a companionship we've been making the most out of it. Elder Clonts said that this transfer, this last week in particular has been the most successful he's had in his whole mission (at least as far as numbers go). Our lessons with Mihaela continue to go wonderfully! She's progressing sooo well, it's absolutely a miracle. This past week she's committed to stop smoking, and since last Wed she has not smoked a single cigarette and says she no longer has any desire to smoke! Our last lesson we finished teaching the Plan of Salvation, and she understood everything really well, the Spirit was really strong, and I could just feel her faith and testimony grow! We ended up talking about baptism at the end of the lesson and Elder Clonts shared his baptismal experience, and her boyfriend Dorel shared his experience with being confirmed and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was really amazing and I could tell that it made her so happy to hear those testimonies and got her really excited to be baptized! I'm really hoping that I will stay in Cluj next transfer to continue to see her growth! So she is our most progressing investigator. We have a few more, there's Aurelia, Salvatore's girlfriend. I think I told you about them a while ago, they're Italian, Salvatore's a member, she is not, and they've been living together for a while. They're waiting for Salvatore's divorce to go through so she can get baptized, but recently they've been looking for two apartments so they can separate and she can get baptized! 

So mom when you asked about the everyday stuff like food, how the house is heated, etc., I laughed and couldn't believe that I haven't shared anything like that yet. I think for any normal person those would be the first things to be talked about, but I just go straight to the more spiritual deep stuff haha. So our apartment is water heated by radiators, its funny cuz in every room there's this big metal radiator that looks like it belongs in some huge truck or something haha. The food here's not too different I guess, they pretty much have most of the same cereals and stuff like that. For our meals we'll usually make some chicken schnitzel and fried vegetables with rice, or pasta, or sandwiches, stuff like that. I've actually been picking up a lot of cooking tips and ideas from Elder Clonts, he's a pretty good cook. The branch president's wife here is Polish, and we've eaten there a couple times and she's made really good Polish food, which has been like a lot of potatoes, with some chicken or roast or something like that. Simple, but really good. The bread here is sooo good! It's all made super fresh. The olives are really really good too! (That's more for Dad's benefit). They have these huge Costco-like stores where you can pretty much buy anything from food to clothes. Oh man and Romanians, LOVE their sausage! They have entire aisles filled with nothing but all these different kinds of sausages, it's crazy! I'll have to send you some pictures next week. It's funny what you said about taking pictures dad, cause that's exactly how I feel! Most the time I hold back from taking pictures or feel awkward taking them because I don't want to look like a tourist. I think I'll start taking more though. So yeah, oh yeah Romanians smoke a ton. Everybody smokes haha. And yeah, they also usually wear darker colors, brown, blues, browns, purples, or whites and greys. Lets just say you won't find any Allyson wardrobes in Romania! It's mostly the gypsies that wear crazy colored skirts and scarves and stuff like that.   

Well, so this weeks been good, I've always got tons of stuff that I want to say, but can never find enough time so say it all! I've got a bunch of letters to write, so to everyone who's waiting for one sorry!! It'll get there eventually haha! There's just never enough time in the day. I wake up in the morning, drag myself out of bed, then before I know it it's 10:00 pm and I've still got to write in my journal or do dishes, or write letters, or blah blah blah etc etc etc. I'm sure you remember what it's like dad. At the end of every day I'm beat, and ready to just sleep forever, but then my alarm rings at 6:30 and I do it all over again haha! It's good though, I'm glad to be so busy. I really like that quote you sent me mom, that's exactly what I've been trying to keep my mentality like. Oh yeah, thanks for that email Eli! I hope you have fun Martin Luther King Jr. day with Jancie! You've gotta tell me more about this girl. ;) Well I love you all and hope you enjoy this e-mail. Until next week, la revedere! 

Love, Elder Myers

Photos From Cluj, Romania!!

Shane and the three other Elders in Cluj went ice skating on their P-day.

Hello All,

Man, this week went by fast! I can't believe it's already monday again! First off, thank you so much mom and dad for your support and love and understanding. It means so much to me to hear you both say that about Eli's blessing, and brings peace to my heart. I loved those pictures of Ember, Tristan, and everyone at the Christmas party! Ally's hair is getting long! I'm trying to figure out a way that I can send pictures, but I don't know if there are any USB ports on these computers in the internet cafe I can access......so I guess worst comes to worst I'll burn them onto a cd or something I guess. And as for mail coming to my apartment, It's definitely doe-able, especially with letters, I just don't know if it would be any quicker than sending it to the office. Transfers are on the first Wed of Feb, so if I can give you my address here, and if I stay in Cluj next transfer you can tell people to send letters to the apartment. Here we get mail maybe a couple times per transfer. Pretty much whenever people come up from Bucaresti, like the AP's, or when zone leaders go down there for zone council meetings. 

Teaching has been going really well this week, we've had 15 lessons total! Dad, you talking about interacting with kids in Italy made me think of this family of investigators we've been visiting, they have two little kids, a little girl and boy, probably about 4/5 and 6/7. They are super energetic and super outgoing! Whenever we go over there they just talk there heads off to us, its really cute. The last time we went there, Traian, the boy, asked me if I was understanding anything he was saying, and I was just like, nope. He was dumbfounded by my limited comprehension skills haha! Then Mihaela has a boy, Denis who is 11. He's pretty cool, not super talkative during his lessons, but he and his mom are super close. There's also a bunch of little toddlers and babies in the branch. I don't know why, but it's the cutest thing ever to hear a little kid speaking a foreign language haha! 

Our lessons with Mihaela have been going really well, she's progressing wonderfully! She's told us that she already has a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that this is the true church! This week we started teaching her the Plan of Salvation, and also the Word of Wisdom. She understands everything really well and wants to do all that God asks of her, but she has a smoking problem and drinks coffee every morning. We talked to her about the blessings associated with following the Word of Wisdom, and how Christ is always there to help us through the hard things in life. She has a strong desire to follow Christ, and said that the next time we meet she will make the commitment to stop smoking, so we've been praying for her a lot! Also this last week we found a family while block knocking and have had a couple lessons with them. They're really cool! Their little family consists of grandparents, Vasile and Iugenia, their daughter Roxana, and Roxana's daughter Sara, who is 8 years old. Vasile and Iugenia are both Orthodox, but not super active in the church, and then Roxana, who is Evangelical has been trying to convince them to pocait. (the word means to repent, but to Romanians it means to change your religion. Orthodox and Catholics call people who aren't Orthodox or Catholic Pocait). Iugenia is a really intelligent person and really knows the bible, and in like a few days she had read all the way through 2 Nephi 4, and had been marking up scriptures she liked, and crossreferencing the Bible, Its super awesome! Yesterday Vasile and Iugenia came to church and stayed all three hours, and they want to continue meeting with us, so that's really exciting! 

Friday and Saturday I went on my first split with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Brunner (not my MTC companion) which was really fun! It was really cool getting a chance to serve with someone else for a day and see how different missionaries do things differently. It also helped me think of ways that Elder Clonts and I could improve our companionship, and some different ways we could try teaching or contacting. Oh yeah, and YESTERDAY, I gave my first talk in church! It was like 5-10 minutes long, and all in Romanian! I had forgotten about it until Sunday morning, so I only had about an hour to prepare, but it went really well! A lot of the branch members were impressed at how good my Romanian was for only being here less than a month! That was a pretty cool experience for me, and a little booster for my spirits as far as learning the language goes. I'm still on this track where some days I'll understand things really well, and other days I'll just be totally lost during lessons. But I'm slowly starting to talk more. I think the biggest thing that I need to do to improve more is speak Romanian with my companion more. 

 So I'm going to try to attach some photos right now, I hope it works!!!!! Enjoy! I love you all so much! The pictures should be of some of the churches in Cluj, us ice skating, and the view from my apartment. Hope you all have a great week, and I hope that Ember and Tristan continue to get better. That's sad that they got bronchitis....I remember getting that. Not fun. OH and that's so awesome to hear about Rich and Jodi's friend getting baptized! Wooo!!!! That's so exciting! And that's really too bad to hear about --------. It sounds like Heavenly Fathers really seeing what he's made out of. I think I can relate to how he feels as well. I think most of us have experienced a time in our lives when we feel like we don't really have a testimony, and like God isn't really answering our prayers when in reality, we're either looking to hard, or not hard enough! I hope that he's reading the Book of Mormon and praying every day. Those two things combined with going to church can change people's lives. I'm starting to witness it here in Romania right now! Well give him a big hug from me next chance you get. I miss that family, they're all such awesome people!

Love, Elder Myers

view from Shane's apartment

                                    

Shane looks like a little boy compared to that giant Christmas tree and the statue above him!

                                        

 You can't see Shane, but  he is standing at the top of the steps in front of the left set of doors. That gives us some idea of the size of that building!                                                                                                           

                                      

 Don't know what gives this building it's yellow glow, but what a beautiful photo! Click on the photo to enlarge it and you will see what look like shooting stars in the sky.

                                        

La Multi Ani everyone!

I loved reading your emails mom and dad, it's always so great to hear about how things are going back in good ol' Cali. I just finished reading an amazing email from Heather today as well, she talked a little bit about her visit with you all, sounds like it was a  blast! I loved seeing those pictures of you all with her. It made me think of all the times we would go up there as a family and with the Bradleys. I'm glad that Heather was able to take part in that awesome family tradition! And let her know that she's got a letter on the way, and I will be sending another one in the next week as well. Hopefully it won't take too long to get to her. So Friday I got two Christmas packages, one from the Bradley's and one from the Landerman's, haha! So I still have to wait for the one from you and from Heather. It's a little dissappointing that mail takes so long, but such is life. The time has been flying by here!
 

So what do Romanians do for New Years? haha well there's no laws against fireworks, so they party all night and at midnight everyody I mean EVERYBODY fires off tons of fireworks all at once. I was asleep and got woken up in the middle of the night by tons of explosions, it sounded like a war going on outside! As for the missionaries we weren't allowed to be outside proselyting, so New Years Day we cleaned our apartment, and went to the Lameraux's (the senior couple) apartment with a couple members and we all played some games and ate more food, which was pretty fun! Sounds like you all had a pretty low-key new years too.

 

Man that's crazy to hear about Tanner! My prayers go out to him. What a miracle that he's recovering so quickly, and that he had such a mild reaction to his blood sugar level! And I hope that nobody's gotten too sick with winter colds and whatnot. I had a cold for a couple days last week, and we had to go home early so I could recuperate. But it passed in a couple days, and I'm as good as new now! This week has been pretty good, we've been teaching this lady Mihaela (I can't remember if I told you about her or not). She's been divorced for a while and has an 11 yr old son Denis and they're good friends with a branch member Dorel, yeah the Mr. Bean guy ok yeah I think I did tell you about them haha. Anyways our lessons with her and Denis have been going pretty well. She continues to read the Book of Mormon with her son, and they pray together just about everyday. She's got a strong desire to find the truth. The Spirit is strong in all our lessons, and several times we've talked to her about baptism, and she wants to get baptized if she comes to know that everything is true.

 

There's also this guy named Vasile, he's really cool. When he was around 20 yrs old he came to a point in his life where he needed to find out if God was really there or not, or he thought he had to purpose in living, so he prayed to know if God exists and got a very strong answer. Within the month he was baptized into a Baptist church I think (the church was holding an open baptism function thing where they would just baptize anyone who wanted it lol). Since then he's come to find that manty churches lack all of the truth, and has been searching for the right one to join. Now, aobut 20 yrs later or so from that day, he's been taking lessons from missionaries for a while, and has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, and pretty much aleady knows all the doctrine. He's just waiting for a strong firm conviction to be baptized.

 

Dad remember last week you asking about the Romanians, and how they talk, if they talk with there hands. Haha yeah they do! It actually helps me a lot in understanding them, cuz I tend to talk with my hands a lot too. They also are very energetic talkers I guess you could say. Sometimes we'll be in a lesson and the two Romanians will be talking about something and it looks like they're angry or argueing, when they're just talking normally haha.

 

Well, I'm not really sure what we're going to be doing today, we have to do grocery shopping, but after that we've got nothing really planned haha....However in the evening we have FHE every monday with the Lopresti's, the Italian couple I told you about on Skype. I always love visiting with them! There continues to be snow outside which makes the cold worth it, haha! It does get pretty cold here. Its been down to -6 -8 Celcius in the day time, which is probably like in the low 20's farenheight.

 I love you all so much, and am so grateful for the blessing that my family is to me.

 

Love, Elder Myers