MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM PITESTI!!!!!!!

Hey all! So I know that we'll be talking in just a few hours, but I've got this time to say something, I might as well right? Everyone else in the district talked to their families last night, so I'm the last one. Sounds like your Christmas morning was really nice! Mine was pretty good, the other elders spent the night at our apartment, and President Hill gave us permission to sleep in till 8:00! So we got up, made a Christmas breakfast of pancakes and German pancakes, opened presents, and then went to church.


Church was only an hour, and then the rest of the day was spent relaxing. Most of it was spent at the church where everyone was skyping with their families. We have a wireless connection there and Ani, one of the members here has a laptop she let us use. Actually, that's what I will be doing today. President Hill also gave us permission to watch a movie for Christmas, and so we're watching ours today at the end of our p-day and then after that I'll get on skype to talk to you guys!!! So I'll be on probably at like 6:00-6:30 tonight (my time). 


By the way, thank you tons for the peppermint bark, and the scarf that Ally made me is sooo awesome!!! I love it! It's incredibly thick, soft and warm. Perfect for a cold, humid Romanian winter. Well, I don't want to say too much, we gotta have stuff to talk about tonight! But, we also had a zone Christmas party on Friday that was really fun. I was able to see Sora Bedebone, Elder Simmons, Elder Johnson, and some other missionaries from my MTC group and people that I've served around. The Marcovs were there, they are the senior couple that were in Bacau when I served there. They've now been moved to Ploiesti which is really close to Pitesti and Bucuresti. 

Not much to say in the way of investigators. Everyone's busy until after the holidays pretty much. This is the last full week of the transfer! On Saturday we will find out who stays and who goes. Elder Martin and Elder Ekins will probably be leaving, since they've both been here for 4 transfers. That's 6 months! I would send you pictures with this email, but the library where we usually go for internet is closed today and the internet cafe we are at right now doesn't have very good computers. I'm not sure how good the virus protection is on them, if they even have any and I don't want to risk getting any viruses in any of my stuff. I'll send you lots of pictures next week for sure!! 

I love you all and can't wait to see you all tonight!

Love, Elder Myers

Vine Moș Crăciun!

That means "here comes Santa Claus!" My favorite holiday of the year is less than a week away! This Christmas is going to be a pretty exciting one for the Pitești branch. We're moving buildings this week and will be holding our Christmas service there this Sunday! That means that this week us missionaries will probably be helping with the move. Yay for service opportunities!!!!!!! Outside of teaching English it is sooooooo rare that we have opportunities to do any kind of volunteer service. People here just won't accept your help. You can't even help an old babă carry her groceries to the bus stop. It's kind of sad, I think it's one of the side-effects that communism and stems from a general lack of trust in people. In Romania most of the time of someone offers you their help it's because they want you to pay them afterwards. 

Anyways, wow what an intense week! I was shocked to here about Richard. I'm gald that you all think that 25 stitches and a broken eyebrow isn't too bad! I guess now that I think of it 3 guys against one, they definitely could have done a lot more damage if they had wanted too. I'm glad that he's recovering well. I'm sure Richard put up a good fight, he's not someone to give in. 


I've started reading the Bible from start to finish and I'm almost through the five books of Moses and reading about the way God dealt with the children of Israel seemed brutal and heartless at times but I've been coming to understand this truth -- God is love. Anything that God does is a manifestation of His love, even if that means consuming some of His own covenanted people with fire from heaven. What we have to remember is the scripture in Hebrews (I think, I can't remember exactly where it is) where Paul teaches us how God chastises those that He loves so that they can be humble, because without humility we can't come closer to God. 


And also the scripture in 1 Nephi, when Nephi is commanded by the Holy Ghost to kill Laban, but he hesitates, not wanting to take another man's life, and God reveals to him through the Holy Ghost that it is better for one man to perish, than for an entire nation to dwindle in unbelief. God truly is loving and merciful. Only those who don't open their eyes to an eternal perspective perceive God as an unfair and cruel being. 

In other news, there's not much to report of this week. We were able to visit with Dorin, and he's feeling much better. Georgetta, a lady from English class who stays for all the spiritual thoughts and took a Book of Mormon home and started reading it came to church yesterday! It seemed like she really liked it. When we see her on Tuesday we will try to set up a time when we can have a discussion with her. 


On Wednesday night, we switched companions for an exchange, me with Elder Staheli, and Elder Ekins with Elder Martin, and then on Thursday I ended up getting a fever which climbed up to 103 by the end of the day. I had Marius come over since he lives close to Elder Staheli's apartment and that's where we were staying and had him and Elder Staheli give me a blessing. Then until this morning I was pretty much bed ridden most of the time. By Friday my fever went down to around 100-101 and a couple times my temperature actually went down to normal, but would then climb back up the next day. By Sunday I was feeling well enough to go to church, but then spent the rest of the day inside. And now today I'm feeling much better. I wasn't the only one who was sick either. Everyone except for Elder Staheli got sick. None of them got as bad as I was though thankfully. Marius was concerned about me being sick, and called on the phone several times over the weekend to check on me. He's an extremely loving man with one of the biggest hearts I've ever seen. 

So that's pretty much it. Thanks for the words of wisdom given from the missionaries you ran into. That's something that I try to keep in mind as much as I can. And here's the deal with the Skyping. The church building has wireless internet, we just don't know the password. Right now we're working on getting that. So the plan is I will be on Skype Monday evening, probably anywhere between 6:00-8:00pm which is 8:00-10:00am for you guys I'm pretty sure. If anything changes then I'll just call you and let you know on like Christmas Eve or Day. I can't wait!!! On Friday we have our Zone Christmas party in București and I'm super stoked for that too!! Sadly it hasn't snowed yet, but there's still time! Hope you all have a beautiful week, have fun with Nana and Papa Graham, and Heather too. Send my love to everyone around you. I love you!

Love, Elder Myers

two weeks

TILL CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!! So I guess my beloved family is too pooped from the Christmas party at Grandpa Gary and Grandma Linea's to email me this week. :P I'm just kidding, no worries! Hey just so you all know, President Hill emailed us all about Christmas phone calls, and he said that we can call/Skype pretty much any day right around Christmas since Christmas day is on a Sunday and in Romania, practically EVERYTHING shuts down on Sunday. And holidays. So, I was thinking it would probably be easier if we did it on Monday. Let me know next week and we'll get the details figured out. I'm excited to see you all! Just so you know, there's also a possibility that I will only be able to call on the phone. Pitesti doesn't have very many internet service providers, and I don't know how late they'll be open. We might be able to use a member's computer though. Well, grandma Linea sent me an email with a bunch of photos from the Christmas party, it looked like a lot of fun! Next year I'll be back there with everyone! That's a pretty fun thought. 

Well, what all happened this week? A lot, it seems like. We found out that the church will be moving buildings before Christmas. The new building is much bigger and in a better location, right on a main street that has a lot of traffic going by, it should be publicity for us. We're pretty much halfway through the transfer right now, and things are starting to pick up more for me and Elder Ekins. On Saturday we had an appointment scheduled with a less active family and we got their a good 30-40 minutes early. The weather wasn't too great, it was cold, cloudy and hardly anyone was outside, but we decided to take a circuit around the neighborhood to see if we could find anyone to talk to.


When we first got to the members block I noticed a guy sitting on a bench in front of the front door, and got the slightest feeling that it might be a good idea to talk to him but he was talking with a friend and I didn't want to bother him. So, we make our way around the neighborhood, gave out some pass along cards, but nothing too exciting. When we came back around to the member's block the guy was still sitting there and this time he was alone so we decided to go up and talk to him. We sat down on the benches by him and just struck up a conversation. His name is Cristian (kree - stee - on, Romanian equivilant of Christian), he's 30 years old, a really nice, polite and respectful person, and works at a kindergarden for kids with disabilities. Turns out that about 3 years ago missionaries had knocked on his door and givien him a brochure!! We talked with him for about 15 minutes and just got to know him a little better. After a few minutes three other guys, buddies of his came up and joined in the conversation. One them told us that he has a Book of Mormon, and they were all really nice, joking around with us, and at the least mildly interested in finding out more about what we believe in. 


But Cristian told us that he was really interested in learning more, and wanted a Book of Mormon. We gave him a brochure about the Restoration told him that if he had time the next day we coud give him a copy of the Book of Mormon and talk about it some more. He more than willingly agreed and the next day we had a lesson with him about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. It was a really good lesson. He told us that he had never understood why there were so many different churches and religions and he always wanted to find an answer. He agreed that there should really only be one, if there's only one God. He said he was really excited to start reading the Book of Mormon and try praying about it. He said he had never really tried praying just with his own words, he's always recited the Orthodox prayers, but he said he would start trying. Not only that, he PROMISED that he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. In Romanian culture, making a promise is a really big deal. If someone makes a promise then they really mean it. To them promising is in a lot of cases a bad thing because it is such a huge dishonor and pretty much one of the most rude and hurtful things you can do if you break your promise. The only downside is that he's going to be gone with his wife in Spain for two weeks, but he said that he would call us right when he gets back.

We also had a lesson with one of our English students, Iustin (Justin) about the restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that he's very interested in learning more about it. He's married and has a son in 8th grade, and he and his son came to Family Night on Saturday. It seemed like they enjoyed it! Iustin is a kind of quiet, but really nice and very respectful. He was brought up in the Baptist, but doesn't really consider himself "Baptist" and is interested in learning about other religions. We are really hoping that we will be able to start sharing the gospel more with him, and with his family! 

On a more said note, we found out that, Dorin, the recent convert we've been meeting with, was in the hospital yesterday. We had a lesson scheduled with him for last evening, but his phone was off, and when we went to his apartment, no one answered. Finally later that night we were able to get a hold of his wife and she said that at 4:00 in the morning something went wrong with his heart. He takes high blood pressure medicine, and he had forgotten to take his pill and went into cardiac arrest or something like that. His wife had to call an ambulence and he was rushed to the emergency room. He seems to be doing ok now. We tried visiting him this morning but his wife said he was at some clinic for the morning. We'll probably go later this evening. 

That's pretty much it, we haven't been able to meet with Cristina, she busies all our phone calls and we can't set up a time to go visit her. I don't know, she probably saw some anti-church stuff or someone told her crazy things about us. That happens a lot. Tomorrow we're going to stop by E----'s work place and see if we can smooth things over. Other than that, things just keep movin on! 


Before I go I just want to say thank you for all those who have been sending me emails and letters, and I'm sorry that I haven't been writing back very much...It's hard to find time to write letters, but I'll get them out, no worries! Have a great week everyone!
Love, Elder Myers

La Mulți Ani România!

La Multi Ani celebration, Pitesti, Romania

That means happy birthday Romania! This week on the 1st of December was Romania's "national day," the equivilant of the 4th of July for US. It was awesome!! In București they put on a huge parade, but we weren't sure if anything was going to happen in Pitesti. Well, at around 4:30 Elder Ekins and I were passing out flyers for English classes when we saw a band setting up in front of the City Hall. We stopped for a couple minutes to check it out, and this man in a suit approached us inviting us inside the City Hall. They were holding some sort of art exposition and a free buffet so naturally, we said yes! We walked aournd a few minutes, the art was all mostly political anti-war type stuff, not bad, and then the Mayor gets up and gives a speech and toasts every one in the hall! After the toast we approached him, told him about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration, and he invited us to come teach his family!!!! ................Ok that part isn't true, but we really did meet the mayor! He asked us where we were from, how we learned Romanian, etc. It was pretty cool!

Romanian Folk Music, Pitesti, Romania

So then after that there was a big parade of a marching band and the Pitești military and law enforcement. After that the mayor gave a speech and there was a fireworks show and a Musică Populară (Romanian folk music) band started playing. Now, Romanian folk music is a very very unique genre. If you go on You Tube and type in musica populara you should be able to find some pretty easily, and you will recognize it right off the bat. Romanians absolutely love the stuff. They go crazy over it! A huge dance circle started up in front of the stage, and even the mayor was dancing with everybody!! So that was pretty cool. 

Other news, well E----- has pretty much dropped....kind of a ridiculous story. So the lady that introduced her to us,  V-----, is a landlady, and missionaries used to live in one of her apartments. She started investigating the church, and eventually wanted to be baptized. Well, the missionaries ended up moving out of her apartment because it wasn't that great and they needed a better one, but once they moved out V---- decided she wasn't going to get  baptized. Ever since then she's tried bribing the missionaries to get them to rent one of her apartments again.


Now, the other elders, Elder Martin and Elder Staheli have been planning to move out of their apartment and V---- has been wanting them to take hers, but they didn't want it. Sunday morning we got a call from V----telling us that she didn't think it was right that Elder Martin and Elder Staheli won't take her apartment and so we won't be able to meet with E---- anymore. I asked her if she had talked to E---- about this, she said she had and that she agreed completely. I have my doubts as to how much E--- actually knows about the situation so we're going to try giving her a call and seeing what she says. Probably one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen happen with an investigator. We both had a feeling that something like this would happen when V---- first referred E---- to us, but we just decided to try it out anyways. And still, it's not totally over, but I don't really see much good coming out of it. Honestly, the whole thing just makes me laugh that V---- is that desperate to rent out her apartment that she would find us an investigator. That's definitely a first! 

Earlier this week we had exchanges with the zone leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday. Elder Ekins went to Buc with Elder Pettit, and Elder Johnsen stayed with me in Pitesti. We ended up having a really cool lesson with this lady in her 30's named M---- who was referred to us by the office. She was contacted by sister missionaries Buc during the summer and decided that now she wants to find out more about the church. She's had a pretty rough life and is in an even more rough situation now. She's a heavy smoker, drinker, has gotten involved in drugs, and is taking medication for bipolor disorder, and she wants more than anything to clean up her life. She was so incredibly open and just thirsting for the truth. She asked what she would have to do to get baptized, and we told her that she would have to quit her addictive habits, with which we could help her. She told us she wants our help, and she wants to come to church. She was also interested in what kind of activities our church does, service projects, etc. She's a really nice, sincere lady, I just hope that she will be able to overcome all of her problems. Anything's possible through Christ's atonement, but we're approaching this one with caution. This branch is so small that it can't really support someone who is not mentally stable. 

Those are some of the main highlights, there are more things I would love to tell you about but I don't have a ton of time....We haven't been able to get in contact with Sora R---- or her husband yet, and they didn't come to church so were still working on that, hoping that it wasn't just a fleeting idea on their part.

Shane in his apartment, Pitesti, Romania

I'm glad to here that Dad's feeling better, back at the racquetball! I miss playing that. And Heather's going to come down and visit! Jealous!! Say hi to her for me! Oh yeah, so you asked about the whole song writing stuff, well both these two times the first few lyrics have come to me in Romanian and then for the rest I have to make myself conceptualize it in Romanian as much as I can, otherwise the lyrics and the way the writing sounds has a distinct "english speaker" sound to it. It's incredible how much culture is infused with language and music. It's been really fun trying to capture the Romanian culture in these songs. Then for the music, in Bacau there was a guitar at the church I could dink around on here and there, but here we only have an electric piano so pretty much while I write the lyrics I have to imagine the melody and music in my head and then when I have time try to plunk it out on the piano. It's pretty hard trying to get the exact feeling and tones that I have in my head out and it doesn't always sound exactly how I wanted it to, but it's turning pretty good I think. I imagine it's pretty similar for you mom when you're painting and you have in your mind a certain way you want the painting to look and you can never get it exactly that way on the canvas. It's been fun though, and a good outlet for me. 

Ani, Elder Myers, Elder Ekins
at La Multi Ani celebration in Pitesti, Romania

 

Well that's it for now! I love you all and hope you have a beautiful week!! I've attached some more photos. The first one is me next to the little fake Christmas tree I bought for like 30 ron (that's about 10 dollars) and the others are from the parade. The girl in the photo is Ani, she's a member of a year, and such an awesome person! She helps us a ton with missionary work. I love you all!!

Love, Elder Myers