Happy Thanksgiving!

Snow in Pitesti, Romania

Well, this transfer is pretty much over! Transfer day is this Wednesday, and I'm heading into number nine! In less than a month I hit my year mark of being in the country. It's really weird going into winter now. I keep having all the memories of my last weeks in the MTC and my first weeks in Romania, and it's kind of hard not to get a little homesick for both Cluj-Napoca and Durham. 


The mission just changed the way we find out about transfers, now the Zone Leaders will call us the Saturday before transfer week and tell us where we're all going, that way we have time to say good bye to members and investigators. I think that's how they do it in Adam's mission as well. So the day before yesterday I got a call from Elder Johnson and found out that our district is staying the same. No one is getting transferred out! I'm both excited and a little wary. This past transfer has been really challenging for me dealing with everything in the district and trying to understand my companion and fellow district members so that we can all be on the same track. I'm glad that I'm everyone is staying because I feel like I've made a lot of progress, getting to know everyone better, and I feel like we as a district have made improvement. Going on exchanges with Elder Martin and Elder Staheli really helped a lot. It gave me a chance to get some one on one time with them and talk to them about how they feel about things, and a lot of light has been shed for me on the whole situation.

This week didn't have too much going on....We're teacing English to a member who needs to learn it for a job he's applying for in January. He has a pretty hard living situation. He's a taxi driver and lives a good 40 minute maxi taxi ride outside of Pitesti and barely makes enough to provide for his family. His work hours are not the greatest, and he hardly has any time to be with his family or to come to church. He's a good man with a big heart and a lot of faith. 


The biggest highlight we had this week was the only lesson we had with an investigator. Her name is E--- and she's a friend of one of the other Elders' investigators, V---. We had the lesson at V---'s house, and it went sooooo well! The Spirit was really strong. Before we started, E--- offered to say the opening prayer, saying she had a prayer she had written before that she wanted to recite. We tried explaining to her that it would be better if she prayed using her own words, not something pre-prepared but she insisted and I didn't feel like pushing it would be a good thing. So she started reciting her prayer/poem, and after a while she took a long pause, and when she started back up again the prayer had a different feel to it. The Spirit was there instantly and I was pretty sure that she was now praying from her heart. When she finished she told something just happened that had never happened to her before. She had recited that very same poem many many times before and had never forgotten a word; but for some reason this time halfway through she completely forgot the words. She said it was as if she had been reading it off a piece of paper, and then the paper just cut off and there were no more words so she had decided to continue using her own words.


She started crying as she told this to us and we proceeded to teach her about the Holy Ghost and how it can place thoughts and feelings into our hearts and minds. For the rest of the lesson the Spirit was there so strong, and she was really receptive. She committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if it is true, and after we read in 1 Neph about Lehi's vision and explained to her what it meant,  we asked her if she found the Book of Mormon to be true would she be baptized. She said no, but that actually made me feel relieved. She said that she's always felt like she's been on God's path, that he's been there holding her hand and so she doesn't feel like she needs to join any church. We then explained that the Book of Mormon was written for us specifically in these days, and that even if she sees no reason to be baptized now, reading from the Book of Mormon and praying to know of it's truthfulness will only enrich the spirituality she already has in her life. She agreed to reading it, and to continue meeting with us. I feel confident that if she reads and prays with an open and sincere heart, then she will come to understand the importance of the Restoration and will see a need to be baptized by one holding God's authority. That was a huge spiritual boost for me and I'm excited to meet with her again! 

I have a feeling this next transfer will go by pretty fast, what with Christmas and New Years just around the corner. I also now know almost 99% positive that I will be here in Pitesti for at least 3 transfers, because this is Elder Ekin's 4th transfer here, and missionaries rarely stay in one area for more than that so once he leaves, I will have to be here to get a new companion because they won't want to whitewash my area. We'll see! 

Icy Pond in Pitesti, Romania

Well, that's pretty much all for now. This week's gotten pretty cold. It was -4 C Sunday morning and lightly snowing on our way to church. There is a pond in one of the parks here that is already freezing over! I've attached some pictures of it for you to see. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! (No. Romanian's don't celebrate Thanksgiving :(  ) Say hi to everyone for me! Oh and about the whole Skype stuff, there's a member here who has a computer with a camera, so as long as we can get internet access at the church, we'll be able to Skype on Christmas!! 

Love, Elder Myers