Welcome To Arad!

Shane just moved to Arad, near the border of Hungary

Hey everyone!!! I just got done reading some amazingly wonderful emails sent from Heather! I'm glad to hear that she got the package without any problems.


Holy smokes, so the past few days have been crazy! Yes, being whitewashed means getting transferred into a new area with a companion who also has never served in the area. That's what happened to me and Elder Simmons last year when we got emergency transferred into Brasov. You get home and spend pretty much the rest of that day reading a letter that the previous companionship left you with information about the area, investigators, members they were working with, etc; going through the area book, and trying to get to know the city. 


The Arad district is just us -- the zone leaders -- and a companionship of sister missionaries. Right now it's Sora Henry (who was in Brasov my last transfer there) and Sora Schulb who is in her 3rd transfer. That means that I am a zone leader AND a district leader......yay!!! Just when I thought I was done planning district meetings for every week....I'm looking forward to it though. My companion, Elder Nilsson is sooo awesome! We actually both have served with Elder Simmons, which is pretty cool. He's one transfer ahead of me, but this is his sixth transfer as a zone leader, so he's been showing me the ropes.


Our zone is pretty small, it's Arad, Oradea and Timisoara which makes a total of six companionships: two in Arad, two in Oradea and three in Timisoara. Timisoara used to have two companionships but they're adding one this transfer and guess who it is? Elder Cox!!! I haven't seen him since I left Brasov, so i'm really excited to see him again. 


As for Arad, yeah it pretty much is as far west as you can go without crossing the border into Hungary. The whole region of Ardeal and Transylvania (which is pretty much everything west from the Carpathian Mountains to the border) used to belong to Hungary up until WWII or something like that, so there are a lot of people here who are Hungarian. I LOVE being in the western part of the country! It reminds me of being in Cluj. The people are a lot warmer and more open, slower paced and their accent and cadence has a musical quality to it that I absolutely love.


In other parts of the country like Bacau and the cities around Bucuresti the culture is a lot more harsh. Their accent is a lot harsher, and everything's faster paced. Here in the West people say "ciao" alllllll the time, whereas in Pitesti you would say "buna ziua" or "buna" or "salut" for hello, and "pa" or just "la revedere" for goodbye. Here, everyone just says "ciao" for everything. The city itself is gorgeous! All of the architecture is really old, and there are hardly any blocks until you get more towards the outer parts of the city. The Centru area is beautiful. I'll be sure to send you some pictures next week. 

As for the branch, oh my gosh! It's awesome! Yesterday almost the entire sacrament meeting room was completely filled up, and all with members! There were probably around 40 people at church! And it has a good mix of families, young single adults, single adults, and older couples. On Thursday we had correlation with the sisters and the branch mission leader, Edi (Eddy) and he's super cool! He's in his early 30's, just got married, and takes his calling very seriously. The branch itself seems like it's well organized, which is soooooooooooooooo refreshing.


Right now we have a couple investigators, N--- and C---. N--- is a former investigator who's been coming to church on and off a for a few years and C--- is the husband of a member. We still have to meet C---, but we ended up running into Nicolae outside the church after English class on Saturday. He's a really nice guy and we're meeting up with him on Tuesday. Other than that, the elders who were here before did a TON of member work which we will be continuing. 


The sister missionaries came up with a program that involves making member visits and during the visits having the members assess their understanding and teaching effectiveness on all the missionary lessons. Then in later return appointments re-teaching them the doctrine they were weaker on. The whole idea is to strengthen the members' knowledge of the gospel doctrine and their testimonies and then encourage them to more actively participate in missionary work. The program is genius and encompasses everything that Preach My Gospel teaches about working through members. 

So, needless to say, I am extremely excited for this transfer! I feel so incredibly blessed being sent here with Elder Nilsson. I feel like my time in Pitesti gave me the experience necessary for me to carry out my calling here. I'm looking foward to working with the missionaries in my zone, to learn from them and to share the fire that being in Pitesti gave me with everyone. Elder Martin is the branch president in Timisoara, so it will be fun seeing him again too. 

Thanks for looking up college stuff mom, I know how much of a pain that can be. It sounds like college expenses are getting pretty bad. That's crazy that tuitions are so high that the Junior Colleges are getting hard to get in to! It's sounding like BYU might be my best bet after all............we'll see. I hope you all have a wonderful week, and tell Eli I wish him luck in the school play. That sounds so fun!! 


Oh yeah, one more thing I forgot to mention. There's a member here, Fratele Moldovan that we visited Friday who teaches guitar at a University here and he also does repairs on instruments and just about any kind of music equipment, and has a band that he plays with every week. He's so cool! Today we're going to spend some of p-day over there jammin' on his guitars! I'll tell you all how it goes. I love you!

Elder Myers

Quote of the Week:

"Be nice to yourself. It's hard to be happy when someone's mean to you all the time."

Happy St. Patty's

Shane with Branch Members in Pitesti, Romania

Hey everyone!! Thanks for all the fun stories and pictures! Don't worry about not being able to write something super profound or insightful. It's fun and refreshing to hear about the normal day-to-day stuff that still goes on back home. The picture of Ember drawing in that big green bowl thing made me laugh. And the stories dad shared about the guys trying to scam him made me laugh too. They reminded me of some similar experiences I've had out here....at the time they made me really frustrated and sad but looking back I just get a good laugh at them.

Before I go on I have a couple favors to ask. First of all, I've realized that if I want to sign up for any winter semesters of college, I probably only have a few months to do that. I was wondering If you could look up stuff on colleges for me. I've been thinking about going to BYU or somewhere in California and I want switch my major to songwriting or composition, something in that domain. Would you mind looking up BYU's music program and the possibility of my getting accepted there and maybe just look around and see what other options I would have in California for getting into a good music program? I've also thought of going out of state, but I figured anything besides BYU would be reallllly expensive. And a second thing, I sent a package to Heather almost a month ago, it had a scarf and a letter to her and I haven't heard back from her yet so I'm wondering If it even ever got to her? 

So about the baptisms and journal stuff. Getting the journal to D--- will be a little tricky because the place he lives right now doesn't have a postal address. What you could do is just send it to the mission office and then they can get it up to Pitesti. And actually it would be easiest probably to do that for D---and A---. Speaking of which, A--- was the one who was baptized the day before yesterday. His dad, the branch president, baptized him and then confirmed him yesterday at church. The baptismal ceremony was incredible! A--- had me and Elder Laherty give the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost, and then President Bâldea's welcoming talk was the most powerful talk I've heard him give. And that's saying something. Remember, President Bâldea used to be really high up in the Pentacostal church, being in charge of over hundreds of congregations throughout Romania, and he has an incredible gift for public speaking. The talk he gave Saturday though was the most heartfelt sermon I've heard him give. That day was probably one of the most joyful and fulfilling experiences of his life, seeing his oldest son being baptized into the Church. The service was packed too! there were almost no empty seats in the sacrament room, and over half of the people were friends and family of members.

Sunday church services were really well attended too. The head count was 35! That's the highest I've seen it yet! Of course that did include the senior couple missionaries who were up to do some training with the branch leaders and a member of the district presidency who was speaking that day in sacrament meeting but still, there were a lot of people at church! 

         

So I remember one of you asked about transfers. Well, transfer day isn't until next Wednesday, but I got a call from the assistants Saturday and they told me I will be transfered out early to serve as zone leader in Arad. I will be taking a train to Buc on Wednesday morning where I will meet my new companion, Elder Nilsson, and then Wednesday night we will take a sleeper train over to Arad. We're getting white-washed in, which usually means a stressful first couple of weeks trying to figure everything out, but I'm really excited to be going back to the Western part of Romania, and to be serving with Elder Nilsson! He is in the group above me and was zone leader in the MTC, so I already know him a little, and he's an awesome missionary!

          

I'm really sad to be leaving Pitești, though. This place has become my home, and the branch my family. I never realized how close I had gotten to some of the members and investigators here until I found out I was leaving. Sunday President Bâldea had me say a few words at sacrament meeting before the talks and after church I took pictures and exchanged addresses with everyone. Although it's going to be hard leaving this city, I know that I have to move on and there is more work for me to do in other parts of this amazing country. It really is an amazing country with wonderful people. Romania may be poor and may have a lot of problems as a country, but however cliche it sounds, the saying is 100% true that wherever you find the worst of the worst, you find the best of the best. Romania is a perfect example of that. 

Well I'm running low on time, but I hope you have an awesome week every one, and next Monday I'll tell you all about Arad!! I love you all!

Elder Myers

Salut!

Hey everyone! I'm sorry to hear about Terry Wyatt. I had forgotten he had been diagnosed with cancer, and it came as a little bit of a shock to me. I'm glad that everything went smoothly though with the funeral. Surprisingly enough, death has been something I've come to understand better since being a missionary. Not because I've experienced a lot of it out here, but because my understanding of the Gospel itself has increased so much. I was glad to here that Terry didn't have any fear or regret, but felt ready. That means that he has fulfilled is purpose here and God has a greater and better calling for him across the veil. I hope his family is doing well. Last week in President's weekly email he said that they had just lost a close family friend in the past week and he spent some time in the letter reflecting on how short life is and how important it is that we live up to our potential every day.


 I'm jealous of your music binging mom and dad! I thought it was cool that dad has taken to the Foo Fighters. Their music has always struck a chord with me that no other band has. Outside of their hard rock energy-crazy stuff their music carries profound meanings and messages. I just want to thank you, mom and dad for giving me the freedom to make my own choices in the music I listened to throughout high school, even though probably a lot of it wasn't the most Spirit-conducive kind of music. It really helped me broaden my horizons and see how God works in all people, regardless of their faith or ethnicity. Just like that quote you sent mom from Howard W. Hunter's talk. While it is true that Satan uses almost every human thing imaginable to work against God, the same is also true for Heavenly Father. The Light of Christ is in everyone and I know that even through all the darkness and confusion, there is always a sliver of the Light of the Gospel that shines through everything, you just have to look for it. I have been able to find it in all different kinds of music, and I feel like even the party-hardy-drug-abusing-immoral rock stars of today realize deep down inside that the inspiration they receive and the talents they have are a gift from a higher power. There is a sweetness to music when it express truths or yearning for truth that will touch anyone; no matter what kind of lifestyle they have.

Moving on, A--- had his interview on Saturday and passed!! He will be getting baptized at 6:00 on Saturday, March 17!! Also, this upcoming Sunday D--- should be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood; he just needs to have an interview with President Bâldea. As for everything else, the work is going really well in general. We just need to find new investigators! Once A---and then D--- get baptized, we will have a bunch of recent converts to teach, but hardly any investigators! We're hoping to start teaching their families though. A--- wife reads the Book of Mormon with him and every night they have family prayer. D---'s been saying that his wife is open to coming to church. He actually said that he would have us over sometime this week so we can meet her! Oh yeah, also last Thursday C--- baptized his mom V---!!!! It was a beautiful service, and afterwards there was a big "masă" (table or meal) for Ziua Femeilor, Women's Day! There were a lot of people there and the Spirit was so strong!!

This week has gone by pretty fast, and we're over halfway through the transfer! I'm pretty sure that this will be my last transfer here in Pitești. President doesn't keep people in the same area for more than 4 transfers.


 Man, all that hiking in Bidwell Park and on Table Mountain sounds sooo nice! That's cool that you've been talking to Heather a lot lately. I sent her a package 3 or 4 weeks ago with a letter in it.....hopefully it will get to her soon. I loved the quotes she had! The second one made me think of the scriptures that talk about how small children are alive in Christ, and how we all need to be the same way. Humble, meek and submissive to God's will and full of Christ's life-giving light. I'll be sure to look up that talk. I should be able to find it on lds.org. We have an hour everyweek outside of email time to get on the church sites and look up talks or watch the Mormon Messages and stuff. Thanks for the wonderful emais, I love you all and hope you have a more stress-free week!

Elder Myers

Marțișor Fericit!

Hey all! Marțișor is on March 8, and is the European version of Mother's Day, only it's a holiday for women in general. And this week the branch will be celebrating it by holding a baptism for V---, C---'s mom! C--- is the one who was baptized last transfer by the other elders. The day before yesterday was D---'s baptism!!!! It was a beautiful service, and D--- had such a happy, peaceful spirit emanating from him. I'll attach a couple pictures. If it looks like I'm stressed and worn out in the picture, that's because I was haha. That whole day was full of a bunch of drama including one of M---'s friends almost punching me because I was kicking him out of the church, to me forgetting my bag full of baptismal clothes at my apartment. Long story. But, the baptism itself went flawlessly and the Holy Ghost was strong. The next day at church D--- was confirmed, and also M---, one of the other elders' investigators who got baptised last transfer but couldn't make it to church the next day showed up and he was confirmed as well. 

As for our investigators, A--- is progressing really well, so is D---. We tried giving him a baptismal date, but he said he didn't feel ready. He said he sees himself getting baptized in May or June, April at the earliest. We told him that we want to establish a goal with him and he agreed to think and pray about a goal. Both him and A--- were at the baptism, as well as Elder Bateman's aunt, uncle, cousins and sisters. On Sunday, the chapel was the fullest I've seen it yet, and over half the people attending were non members! The testimonies that were shared were strong and powerful. 

So as to my secret to writing so much-- first of all, yes, sometimes it is hard to think of things to write, but there's always something new that happens, or something to share from what I learned in the past week. Missionary work is never boring, and if it ever gets boring, that means your doing something wrong. Also, President Hill has allowed us to have a maximum of 75-90 minutes for email, so that helps a lot. But even still, right now I'm running a little short on time because my email to President Hill was longer than usual. 

I'm not going to lie, it's a little refreshing to hear about the problems that have been coming up in the ward at home -- I guess there are challenges wherever you are. I'm glad to hear that Erik's doing good. I've been thinking about writing him lately. I feel kind of bad for not having written him a single time on my mission. I also haven't written Eli in a while...Sorry guys! And Kayla's due in April!! That's so exiting! Man, posting up weekly photos of her pregnant belly is totally something she would do, haha! I'm glad to here that everything is going well back home. It has been warming up a bit here, and almost all the snow is melted! Spring is starting!! Well that's it from me for now, Happy birthday Dad!! I love you all!

Elder Myers