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