Salut!

Elder Ekins, Elder Myers, Branch Mission Leader,Marius
Pitesti, Romania

Hey everyone!! Man, sounds like you all had a pretty exciting Thanksgiving! Carissa gets called to Brazil, and Dad gets his appendix taken out! Way to take it like a champ, dad. Surgery one day, turkey dinner the next. That's how we do it in the Myers family! Thanks for the new excerpt from your book mom, it's coming along really well! Oh yeah, I have to apologize for sending Heather the lyrics to my song before I sent them to you...... oops! I translated it for her and I had intended to send them to you the same week but I forgot to copy down the lyrics in English before I mailed the letter to Heather. And the card...I still have to send that too. I'm actually going to see if I can fit the video in an email so you can get it sooner. And yes, I will remember to start having more pictures taken of me. I never think to get pictures of me on my camera to send back to you. I guess it makes sense that you would want to see ME on MY mission.


Oh yeah and guess what, this week I started writing another song in Romanian! Like the first one, the idea for it just kind of popped in my head one day. I was thinking about the most recent convert here in Pitesti who was baptised the weekend before I got transfered here and the incredible changes he went through and miracles he experienced. When Elder Ekins and Elder James taught him he was a former investigator who was an extreme alcoholic.  Within two weeks of meeting with the missionaries he had stopped drinking and smoking, got baptized, recieved the Aaronic priesthood, and just gave his first talk yesterday in church! It was phenominal, he spoke as if he had been a member of the church and living the gospel for years! He comes to church every Sunday and we meet with him once a week to teach him the recent convert lessons and his understanding of the gospel is just so inceredible. He is without a doubt a future leader of the church here in Pitesti. It was his conversion story that inspired the song I'm writing right now.


So this has been a pretty good week, we had a second lesson with E---  on Friday. It wasn't as spiritually powerful as the first one we had, we actually didn't get much teaching in because she talked so much but it was good to here more from her. It gave us an opportunity to learn more about her beliefs, and she shared some incredible spiritual experiences she's had in her life. I've found that it's just as important to get to know the person as it is to teach them because if you don't know what kind of a person you are and what kind of beliefs you have, you won't really be able to know how the gospel will help them and how to teach according to their needs. From this last discussion we had with her I feel like we were able to get a good feeling for what direction we need to focus the next lesson. 

Also yesterday at church an inactive sister came to sacrament meeting and brought her non member hustband! Sora R---- had come to church the past couple weeks but since then she hadn't been in years I think. I was able to talk to her and her husband and she said that she's been going through some really hard times and whenever that happens she always feels a need to get closer to God, so she decided to start coming back to church.  The husband told me that he'd been to church here before and it left a really good impression on him so now he feels like it will be a big help to him and his wife. What a miracle!! It is so incredible to say the way the Lord works in people's lives. It's always been hard for me to see people who have convenented with their Heavenly Father by being baptized into His Church and then fall away, but I've been seeing more and more examples of how powereful the healing effect of Christ's atonement can have on people. It gives me hope for those people who have let go of the ''iron rod'' and started their way towards the ''great and spacious building'' that is the pride of the world. God knows His children perfectly and knows how to help them best.

Sunrise from  Shane's apartment,
Pitesti, Romania

One last thing that happened this weekend. A senior couple from Ploiesti (a city near Bucuresti), actually the Marcov's who were in Bacau when I served their came up for the weekend to meet with the branch president, attend sacrament meeting and see how the branch is doing in terms of function and organization. Of course, I had to do all the translating for them as he met with President Georgescu (the branch president of Pitesti) and asked him questions about the branch organization, its strengths and weaknesses, and things to improve on. It was really interesting to learn more about how the Church is organized. I don't know if I ever said this but I never expected to learn how the run a branch/ward while on my mission!! I feel like a big part of my mission experience has been church leadership training.

That's about it for now. Just so you know I got your first package on transfer day! Thank you so much for the seasonings, Christmas music, etc.,and tell Nana that the chocolate she sent was absolutely delicious! I love you all and look forward to hearing from you next week!

Love, Elder Myers