Sorry for the lack of blog activity in the last two weeks. It took that long for our usually-speedy computer technicians to figure out how to fix things...and things still aren't perfect, but the good news is this week you get two-for-one. Enjoy!
Shane and his first companion, Elder Clonts
Hey there everyone! Ce mai faceti? Happy Valentines Day to all you Americans! It's great to hear that Eli's doing better and that the surgery was a success. Sounds like it has painfull after affects though....I remember the times I got strep throat, and I think having a soar throat is one of the worst pains. I hope he recovers quickly! Ok dad, I'm gonna answer you before I forget haha. I've gotten ice cream once last transfer, and it was really good! It's pretty much like American ice cream, only it's sold in smaller quantities, and it's pretty expensive. At least compared to the rest of the food. I think cooking is one of the things I've actually enjoyed the most out here. I've cooked more on my mission so far than I have most of my life haha! And it really makes me appreciate the fact that you do it every single day for us all mom! I've learned how to make one of the traditional Romanian dishes called ardei in pluti, which means stuffed peppers. It's kind of like sarmale where you have a seasoned pork and rice mixture, only instead of wrapping it in pickled cabbage you stuff bell peppers with it and make a soup with a tomato broth. Usually I don't really like peppers that much, but this is sooo good!! I've also made pizza, schnitzel, spaggetti (really good spaggetti, I learned from Elder Clonts how to make this really good ragu sauce), and Elder Vogelsberg made up this soup that was really good, so yeah I've been cooking a lot. By the time I get home I'll be able to make everybody a bunch of Romanian food! Which is really really good. I love the food here!
So yeah, when we went down to Bucharest it was just for transfers. Zone conference is next week. And I don't really know what the difference between an express train and a locale train is, Dad...I'm gessing that the express goes a lot farther and the locale you have to switch lines somewhere along the way. If that's the case, it was express. It was pretty cool riding the train, we were able to get first class tickets too which was nice! Oh and thanks for the Mad Lib letters haha they were hilarious! It was fun trying to guess who had said which words. I'm pretty sure that assassins and cyborg dragons was from Jared....and the avunculesque TV was from Allyson haha.
So this week's been pretty crazy. The weather's been pretty ridiculous, it got pretty cold again, and a couple days ago there were really strong winds, like we get sometimes in the spring or fall in Durham, which is pretty unusual for Cluj from what I've heard. Its supposed to start warming up again this week though. As far as missionary work goes, we've had some ups and downs. We've had a couple lessons with Gyongyhi, our investigator with a baptismal date. Her progress is kind of slow and our lessons are long, but she has a really strong desire to follow God's path and to be baptized which is great! She hasn't been to church yet, but she promised us she would come next Sunday. We've met with a couple other investigators that were on our list from the Elders before us but that we had never met before. There's Nelu, who is the husband of a member, and then Luis who is from Cameroon and going to school here. He had told the old Elders that he wants to be baptized if he finds everything to be true!
Then Saturday came along, and that was probably the most eventful day of the week. It started out ok, and just got worse and worse. Our first lesson didn't go at all the way we wanted it to, and then we had two other lessons planned that fell through. For one of these lessons, which was with Luis, we went all the way out to an area of the city we'd never been too and was close to the city limits. When we arrived at the correct address, no one was home, and the neighbor told us that the police had came a couple days ago, and that he didn't think that Luis lived there anymore! And we couldn't get a hold of Luis. Then in the same block, some random lady started argueing with us about how the Book of Mormon isn't better than the Bible, and how we worship Mormon and all this stuff that is completely wrong. Oh yeah, and this was the super super windy day too, and I hate wind. At this point Elder Vogelsberg was really frustrated and annoyed. Though strangely enough, I really wasn't that phased by any of it...I was just kind of watching my companion steadily get more and more upset and wondering what the heck was going on around me haha. So after the lady left we just sat down on some stairs outside a block and both said a prayer, then got up, and looked around for a block to knock. Elder Vogelsberg saw an orange one, and orange is his favorite color so we went in there. We got in, said another prayer, and started knocking on some doors.
At first no luck, pretty much normal block knocking with a lot of doors slammed in your face, a couple people who tell you to come back later, and some brochures handed out. Until we knocked on Ciprian's door. He opened the door, and said that he had heard about Mormons because he has colleagues who work in Salt Lake City but didn't really know much about us or the Book of Mormon. He said he's always interested in studying different religions, and is looking for the right one to join. So he lets us in and we start talking a little and after a couple of minutes we hear his wife saying something in another room. She comes in to where we were sitting, and just becomes imediately really excited! She told us how there are so many different churches, so many different paths, and she doesn't know which one is the right one, and she really wants to follow God and be on the right path. Then she said how sorry she was because she had to go to work, and she was like "I wish that I didn't have work today, I shouldn't even really go right now, this is so much more important, but I have to go to work, I have to make money to live! Is there any chance you could come back tommorrow??" Needless to say, we said YES!! So then we had a lesson with the husband Ciprian and it went really well, the opening prayer made him cry, and the Spirit was strong the whole time. We didn't even have to ask him to read the BoM and pray about it, after he read the promise at the end of the introduction he was just like "yeah, I'll do that. I'll read this and ask God if it's true" GOLDEN!!!!
So then the next day we had a second lesson with them that went really well. It was with Ciprian, his wife Viorica and their 16 year old son Razvan. At first it was the Viorica pretty much chewing out her son for smoking and drinking and telling him how he should be like us (really awkward), but eventually things settled down and we had a good lesson. Ciprian explained the story of Joseph Smith perfectly to his family, and Razvan was answering most of the questions we would ask, and Viorica made the whole family promise that they would come to church on Sunday, and they're coming to English class on Tuesday! So they are our miracle family right now, and both me and Elder Vogelsberg feel like they're just ripe and prepared to accept the gospel into their lives. I'm so excited to see that family progress!!
So that's been my week. Pretty crazy, and this next week we've got our work cut out for us. We've got so many investigators we're finding it hard to fit them all in! It's absolutely crazy. Cluj is a miracle city! Also, Salvatore was in the hospital the past week because his asthma got really bad, but he's out now, doing much better, and if all goes according to plan within the next few weeks they will be living separately, and Aurelia will get baptized! So far this has been an awesome transfer, and I hope it continues to be that way!
So thanks all for your letters, I really enjoyed yours Allyson, it was good to hear from my amazing big sister! I hope you all have a wonderfull Valentines, give Heather a Valentine's Day call for me mom, if you've got the
time. : ) I love you all so much! Enjoy the pictures, I promise I'll have more new ones next week. Sorry if some of them are repeats, I couldn't remember exactly which ones I sent before. The one in the theatre was from the week of transfers on Tuesday we went to this Chinese New Year celebration in Cluj (there's a member in the branch who is from Texas, but is Vietnamese). That was super awesome! and then there's a picture of me and Elder Clonts at the gara, and.... the big Catholic church in Centru, and a snow covered street full of Villas! Enjoy!
Love, Elder Myers
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