Ciao!



Fortress at Lipova, Romania

Hey all, I'm writing a little later than usual because we just got back into Arad from a zone p-day trip to this place called Lipova that has a 500 year old fortress! It was awesome! The fortress ruins are situated on top of a huge hill in the mountains overlooking a valley with a large river running through it. It was absolutely gorgeous. Everyone from our zone except for the missionaries in Oradea came, and the two elders in Deva also came, it was super fun.



A--- came along with us too and I had a chance to get to know him better. He's got a pretty interesting life! He went to school and was best friends with Nicolas Cage's son, and has done a lot of traveling. He said he's recorded a couple albums, written a novel, and he said that before he came out to Romania he had tried putting together an orchestra! He's also a really open guy and easy to talk to. He asked a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon, and I explained to him the history of the Book of Mormon and the Joseph Smith's story. He found it all really fascinating and said that he has a friend from LA who is mormon. It was pretty cool and he didn't seem weirded out or awkward at all by the fact that he was spending his day with a bunch of missionaries. On our train ride home back to Arad I thought about talking to Brother Moldovan to see if he's ever offered A--- a Book of Mormon. If not, I'm planning to get one in English, write my testimony in it and give it to him before he leaves. He said He'll probably be in Romania until some time in June.



My exchange in Oradea was really fun. Elder Nilsson actually stayed in Oradea with Elder Newton -- his former companion -- and I brought Elder Newton's companion Elder Sneed back to Arad. Elder Sneed is in his second transfer, and it was really fun working with him for a couple days! He's got an upbeat, positive attitude and loves everything about Romania! At the end of the exchange, I always give the other missionary a commitment - something to work on improving - and I also ask them to give me a commitment for something I can work on. He told me to just smile more and be as positive as I can about every situation! I learned a lot from his example about keeping a positive attitude and always looking for the silver lining in things. Funny enough, that was actually a personal goal I had set the week before - to not get stressed out when things don't work out right, and to keep a more over all positive attitude.

This week we found a new investigator! We haven't been able to meet up with M--- yet, but on Saturday we had a lesson with a man from the English courses! His name is C--- and his 12 year old daughter has been coming to the classes for  a couple years. C--- said that he had wanted to come too, but was always too busy with work until now. He also said that the past few years he's been searching for a church to join. He's born Orthodox but isn't necessarily practicing and knows a lot of people who have joined protestant churches. When his daughter started coming to our English courses she told him that it was held at a church and then he heard what church it was and he was really interested to learn more. Our lesson with him went soooo well and the Holy Ghost was present and strong the whole time. He seems like a really humble man, and he said that he wants to find a church for his family, and that family is the most important thing to him. He took the Book of Mormon, said he would make time to read it and pray about it and come to our church services, and he also said he wants to meet with us as often as possible. He had a lot of really good questions and with each question he posed Elder Nilsson and I were both able to see the ways that he has been prepared by Heavenly Father to receive the gospel. Naturally, we're really excited to meet with him again.

Thank  you for looking up more college info!!!! I looked over the info you sent me about CSU, LA, and I also found some helpful information on the BYU website. I'm still leaning towards BYU at this point, partially because of the financial advantage it has, as well as me having a TON of connections there from my mission, and their music program. I think the only advantage of going to LA or some other southern california school would be living in one of the capitols of the world for music industry and it would give me a lot of networking opportunities. But it would also be a lot more expensive. I looked up cost average for BYU for two semesters that includes averages for housing, books, transportation, meal plans, etc and it was a little over $17,000 for one academic year. Tuition itself was like $4,000-ish for two semesters. Also, Even though the application deadline isn't for a while, I think I'll want to start the application process soon so that I'll never be stressed over deadlines. I also saw that housing for 2013 semesters has already opened up. Some things to think about. Let me know what you think!

Thanks for the pictures, and that's soooo exciting to hear about Carissa and Justin! Wish them luck for me. I'm glad Dad had the oppoturnity to speak at Carissa's farewell, wish I could have been there! I love you all and can't wait to hear back next week! Oh yeah, next week is transfers, so within the next several days we'll find out who's going where. Crazy right? I feel like I just got here! This transfer has flown by!

Love,
Elder Myers



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Hey All

I call it "Blue Steel." I just cut my own hair for the first time last night with some clippers Elder Nilsson has. This is the shortest I've ever had it. I kind of like it. 

Oh my gosh I'm so jealous of your weekend. Happy Birthday Grandpa Gary and Andy!! The pictures were really fun to look at, and the whole area where the cabin is sounds absolutely amazing and wonderful! I'm glad you all had a chance to get away from everything for a weekend. It was fun seeing Amy and Jason's kid too! He's a big little guy! 


So a little update on college stuff, this last Friday we had our quartery interviews with President Hill and I talked to him a little bit about BYU. He was the director of the business program there before he was called as mission president so he knows a lot about the school, and he said that application deadlines should be coming up pretty soon....he may have been thinking about fall semester, but he knows I'm not going home until October. Either way, he gave me permission to go onto the BYU website and look up all the information I need to, so I'm going to spend some of my internet time doing that today. 

Well, this week sure did fly by! On Thursday I did my first zone leader exchange! I was with Elder McCombs in Timisoara. He is the district leader there and Elder Martin's companion. It was really fun being able to work in a different city for a day, and to get to know Elder McCombs. He's a great missionary and doing really well as district leader. He's from Elder Cox's group, so that puts him in his 7th transfer. One thing I love about working with other missionaries is the fact that you can learn a lot from working with other people, and it really motivated me a lot to do even better in my own area with Elder Nilsson. 

We're still busy with member visits, although we weren't able to get in as many this week because of our exchange and interviews with President. Elder Hyatt and Elder Simmons are the assisstants right now, so they stayed at our apartment Friday night. It was really fun seeing both of them again! But yeah, with our missionary work this week, we're still low on investigators....in that we don't have any....but, we got a referral from a member! His name is M---and he's been friends with Fratele S--- who was baptized a little over a year ago and get this, M--- said that he lived in Bacau for a while last year, and that he knew a missionary from there who served in Arad after Bacau. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet him because I was on my exchange with Elder McCombs when Elder Nilsson and Elder Martin met him, but from Elder Nilsson description of this guy, I'm almost positive that Elder Schank and I knew M--- from our English classes when I was in Bacau!! Elder Schank and I are the only people who have served in both Bacau and Arad in the last year. I'm pretty excited to meet him! It always blows my mind how stuff like this happens. God just lines up everything perfectly and leaves you standing with your mouth hanging open thinking, "did that just happen?" 

Other than that we've been doing a lot of former investigator hunting but so far nothing has come out of it. The weather's been pretty crazy too. There have been a lot of rolling thunder and rain storms that will dump buckets of rain for an hour or so and then leave and it will be perfectly sunny and warm. Elder Nilsson and I got caught in one of them a couple days ago as we were out visiting former investigators' homes. Luckily we had umbrellas with us but we still got pretty wet!


Oh yeah and then one last thing and I have to get going. On Sunday Fratele Moldovan (the guitar teacher) brought this guy to church who is the son of a guy that used to play guitar in a band with Fratele Moldovan. The son's name is Alex, he's 21 and both of his parents are Romanians who had moved to LA in 1985, so Alex was born American and grew up in LA and now speaks both romanian and English. Alex has been in Romania since mid March and is staying with Moldovan right now, and he plays the guitar as well, so today right after internet we're going to go over to Fratele Moldovan's and jam for a little while! 

That's all for today, sorry my email's a little shorter. I'll have more to say next week! This Wednesday and Thursday we'll be doing an exchange with the district leader companionship in Oradea so I'll tell you all about that. Thanks again for the emails and all the photos, I love you all!

Love,
Elder Myers

Hristos a inviat!

Elder Nilsson and Elder Myers at Orthodox Easter Mass -- Arad, Romania

Adevarat a inviat! Happy Easter everyone! You should consider yourselves lucky that you're getting an email from me today, because practically everything else in this town is closed today because it's the day after the Orthodox Easter. 

Interior of Orthodox Cathedral in Arad, Romania during Easter Mass

On Saturday night we went to Invierea (The Resurrection) at the big Orthodox cathedral in Centru -- it's their big Easter mass where the priest lights everyone's candles. I have some pictures from it. It's crazy to think that a year ago I was in Bacau with Elder Schank!! I miss him, tell him I say hi on Facebook, haha! 


Thank you tons for all the college information. When I read the discription for BYU's Media Music major, it pretty much described everything I want to do in my life. This is actually something I've been praying about for the past month or so, and I've been feeling increasingly better and better about going to BYU. I feel like it would be the best environment to accomplish everything I want to. You can still look at what other CA schools have to offer, but I'm 80-90% sure that BYU is where I will want to go. As I was reading all the things you have to do just to get into the major, it made me really grateful that I've been writing music.............basically since I was a little kid. I still remember that little song I wrote back from when I took lessons from Sherrel Allen. I don't remember how to play it or how it went, but I do remember being so excited that I got to actually write my own song! I should have a fairly solid portfolio to offer. 


As far as the music auditions go, the only thing that worries me is that I can't read sheet music for guitar very well. Of course I could always just audition for voice, but it does suggest auditioning for as many instruments as you can. I'm just glad I don't have to worry about any of that for another six months! The one thing that has been coming to me from my prayers is the reminder that I am called to put away all personal affairs and give myself up to the work. On the one hand, that seems like a really big sacrifice, but really it's a HUGE blessing. The Lord is basically telling me that all I have to do is put everything I've got into my mission, and everything else will work out in the long run. That's what I've been trying to do. 

This has been another week full of member visits! I love getting to know everyone here, and I don't know why I didn't do more member visits earlier on in my mission. Something that I've been finding through these visits that are concentrated on helping members with their own missionary work, is that a lot of the members here already do a lot! Most of the people we have been visiting will talk about how they already pray to have people put in their path to share the gospel with, and the church always comes up in their workplace or amongst family and friends. The only sad thing is, most of the time they get the same responses that we do. They really have set a high standard and example for me though in doing member missionary work. I remember before my mission I hardly ever talked about the church or the gospel with my friends because I always thought it would be awkward or weird, and I remember whenever the missionaries challenged us to share the gospel with someone we knew I never really wanted to. I feel bad saying that, but I'm happy to say that my attitude has completely changed. 

Our English courses have'nt been very fruitfull so far. Last Tuesday Elder Nilsson and I had two students in the beginners class, and on Saturday no one showed up. The sisters and the Walquists (the senior couple here) had some though. Hopefully the lack of people was mainly due to last week being Easter week. We've been able see M--- a little more though, he came to the branch Easter party and loved it, and promised us that he would come to church this Sunday. He's such an awesome man! He's one of those people who just makes you smile whenever you talk to him, and a lot of his views and beliefs cooincide with the gospel. Today we were going to play tennis with him but when we got to the courts, they were all closed because it was too wet. It's been raining on and off pretty much the whole past week. April showers bring May flowers! Right? I hope so. Oh yeah, and more about the Easter party, we had a pretty good turnout, I think over 40 people, and we stuffed ourselves on Saormale. Yummmmm!! Before the dinner part we had a little devoitional type thing where the Walquists gave short talks about the resurrection, and I played my song ,"Vino Fiul Meu," on the guitar. It all went really well and the members all loved it!

Heather emailed me today and shared with me her posting that she submitted to a journalist company, it was really good!!!!!!!!! Man that is soo cool that she found that job opportunity, I really hope it works out for her. Speaking of writing, have you made any more progress on your book mom? It's fun to hear about all the farming going on back home. Sounds like the "Myers Farm" will actaully be a farm at some point.That's really cool. 


Right now, I'm just feeling really grateful and really blessed that I can be a servant of the Lord for two years. Underneath all the underlying trials and hard days, there is always that joy of being in the service of God that always brings me back up. I hope you all have an awesome week. Thanks for everything that you share with me each Monday!

Love,
Elder Myers

Happy Easter!

Shane and his companion with their Easter eggs

         

Hey all! Sorry about the email mix up last week. I looked back into my sent emails and saw that I had accidentally sent it to Aunt Coralie! oops. I'm sorry you had to skip a week of hearing from me! So, Spring Break for Eli! Sounds like it was a good one too. I loved the pictures of everyone up at Table Mountain. That's definitely one of my favorite places to spend a day. I really liked the picture of the newt you caught. And man, sounds like you had a heck of a time with Aunt Crissy's car. I'm glad that everything got worked out in the end. And it was such a small thing too! That's usually how it is. I'm just glad I wasn't there on that trip, stuff like that always frustrates me pretty easily.

Whitney's getting married on the 26th of May! wow! I remember you telling me that she was engaged but like most things, I  forgot amidst all the stuff that goes whirling around in my head. I know exactly how you feel mom!

Things went pretty well this week, we've been doing a LOT of member visits, and it's been cool getting to know all the members of the branch.  There are some incredible people here! Yesterday we attended branch council before church and it was one of the best organized and well run branch councils I've been too! I was really impressed. The branch leadership here works really well together, and they're constantly pushing themselves to do more and more.

Something that Elder Nilsson and I were talking about recently is how much retention work goes on without us missionaries realizing it. A lot of the times to us it seems like the some of the members don't really care about those who are less active because whenever we talk about less actives we've been working with or want to work with they always say "Oh yeah they'll never come to church, good luck working with them" or something to that effect, but really they say that because members of the branch presidency and other auxiliary leaders try a lot to get into contact with people and check up to see how they are doing, they just get the same respones we do most the time so when we tell them that we need to keep working with them and keep trying, most of the time they really do agree with us, they've just already tried a lot, and keep trying. At least that's how it is in this branch.

They talked about the branch Easter party, and we will be having it on Thursday evening. That means lots of saormale, cracking eggs, and a real good time! I'm excited for it! The only down thing right now is we don't have any solid investigators. We met up with N--- and in that lesson really got down to the root of his needs and problems. He told us that he doesn't necessarily believe that the Bible is the word of God, but that it was just written by men, and when we asked him if he believes in God, he said that he's not even very sure that God exists. So, he's going to take some time to start progressing. 

So for now we're focusing a lot on members. Those who are recent converts, less actives, and those who are strong active members. So far it's been going really good. The whole idea is to build relationships with these members, help strengthen their testimonies and understanding of the doctrine, and prepare them to do more missionary work so that we can start receiving referrals to teach. It's a slower and more enduring process than going out and street contacting and block knocking all day, but it's worth it. President Hill has really been emphasizing a lot on establishing the church here in Romania and Moldova -- meaning strengthening the members of the branches, working with them closely to help bring strong multi-generational families into the church. As of now, palpable results are a little slow to come, but I know that with this type of approach to missionary work, the church will start to grow exponentially. We're just at the beginning stages right now.

As for being a zone leader, so far it's been great! It's a lot of work, and sometimes it's hard not to feel overwhelmed by all of the responsibility that is put on me, but I know I will grow a lot in the upcoming months. It's pretty humbling thinking back to when I was still in the first year of my mission and remembering the older missionaries that were my zone leaders, assistants to the president, and district leaders and how much I looked up to them as these wise seasoned men that had the answer and solutions to almost everything. Now I'm in the same positions those missionaries were in, and I tell you what, I don't feel like a wise seasoned man. I still feel like a little boboc who's trying to figure out what's going on around him.

We haven't done any exchanges yet, but last week we attended Timisoara's district meeting. There I saw Elder Martin, who's serving as the branch president, and Elder Cox, who I trained in my 6th transfer, (with his 1st transfer missionary that he's training)! It was awesome seeing him again, especially now that he's training in almost the exact same transfer that I trained him! In mission lingo you always refer to your trainer as your "dad" and so last week I just met my grandson! His name is Elder Ward and he's from Boston, Mass. He seems like a cool guy and full of boboc fire!

That's about it for this week. Ummm sorry, I was going to send you photos but I just realized that I forgot to bring my camera to internet! Sorry! Next week I promise! Have a beautiful week!

Love,
Elder Myers

Happy April!

Boy, you really had me going there with the whole triplits thing -- for the amount of time it took me to read the next part of the sentence!!! I let out this big gasp when I read the word triplits and then started laughing when I read April fools! Sounds like you all had a really nice weekend! Over hear Easter isn't for another two weeks or so because of the way the whole Orthodox easter thing. Over here the Catholic Palm Sunday was yesterday and next week the Orthodox Passion Week starts. I always found it interesting that the two religions celebrated the same holiday on different weeks. And it's something that they each take a lot of pride in as well.

Since Orthodoxism is the predominant religion here, the LDS Church just holds Easter on the same Sunday as the Orthodox church. I'm excited for it! Over here Easter is a big deal and people go all out. The branch is starting to plan a big Easter dinner where there will be a ton of saormale! And then after Easter Sunday you greet everyone by saying "Hristos a inviat" ("Christ has risen" or "was resurrected"). I think I remember telling you about that last year.


So thanks for looking up all the college stuff Mom. Actually when I had said BYU I was thinking of Provo, not Idaho. I do remember Allyson talking about how competitive the program is there, but I feel like it would be a good challenge for me and would offer more opportunities as far as career options go. Also, pretty much anywhere else that I go in California that has a comparable program would probably be just as competitive.  That's what research is for right?

I also remember in high school my auto shop and welding teacher and our career advisor telling us about vocational schools where you go to a school specialized in training for a specific job. The idea sounded pretty good, it's just a matter of finding something that I would want to do/could do. I realize that hardly anyone has their "ideal job," and that I could probably get pretty good at almost whetever I end up doing. I also realize that I don't have to make a decision now and that whatever decision I do make can be changed down the road. But right now I feel like if I had schooling that would hone and fine tune the natural talents that I have for music I would be able find opportunities or make opportunities to make a living off of it. We'll see.

About this week, it has been busy!! We had Zone Leader Council in Buchurest on Thursday which including travel time took up all of Wednesday night through Friday morning. Around that we've been doing as many member/ less active/ recent convert visits as possible, calling up and trying to visit with investigators and potential investigators, and we also had to help the previous senior couple, the McFaddens, move out and the new senior couple, the Walquists, move in! On Wednesday morning we helped the McFaddens with a service project they did for a friend of theirs named Marcel! He's about their age, a successful engineer, speaks English, has a son living in San Francisco, and is a really cool, nice guy! We helped him plant a lawn in his backyard and it went really well. He plays tennis, and so does Elder Nilsson and he lent us a racket and said that anytime we want to play, we just need to call him up and he'll talk to some guys he knows who runs tennis courts in town and hook us up! We're hoping that he will open up to the gospel. He would make an amazing addition to the branch here!


It's been really great getting to know more of the members here, and there are some wonderful people in the Arad branch! On Saturday evening we had an activity where we had members meet up at the church and us missionaries held a half our lesson on missionary work, and then for the next hour or so we all split up and made visits to members who are less active. Then we all met back at the church and shared each of our experiences. It seemed like over all it was a positive experience for the members, although the branch president said that it would be a better idea if we just set up visits and went on splits with members throughout the week rather than having a Saturday activity for that. We'll see how things will go in the future.

It's kind of weird, I've been noticing how I've become more and more comfortable with being around and meeting people I've never seen before and getting to know them. Over the course of my mission so far it's something Ive come to really enjoy in a large part. I still wouldn't say I'm some super outgoing people person, but working with people is becoming something less awkward and more enjoyable for me.

We don't have much in the way of investigators right now other than N---. however, we have a fairly long list of potential investigators we're trying to contact and with all the member work we're doing we should be getting a fair amount of referrals by the end of the transfer. One thing's for sure, Elder Nilsson and I stay busy. Between all our work in the branch, the district and being responsible for the zone, it's a lot to handle. It has been going well though.


Yesterday and this morning we were able to watch the Saturday Conference Sessions, and it was sooo good!! I love conference and I can't wait to watch the rest of it! Last week we went over to the home of Fratele Moldovan, the guitar teacher, and it was so awesome! In just an hour and a half I learned a ton from him and things started making sense in my head that I always had questions about or never really knew or understood about playing the guitar. He's an incredible player, and not only does he play the guitar, he also makes them, repairs them, and makes and repairs amplifiers and any type of accessory that is assocciated with the two. It definitely was one of my best p-days ever!


Well I'm running short on time. I can't think of anything else, plus this internet cafe smells strongly of cigarette smoke and it's giving me a headache. Have a wonderful week, and I'm glad you were able have Grandpa Gary, Grandma Linea and Aunt Chrissy over! Tell them all hi for me and tell Aunt Crissy thank you for the email she sent.

I love you!


Elder Myers


P.S. I know I promised pictures, but we've been so busy I've forgotten to take any!

Quote of the Week:

"Your life is a canvas. Be sure to paint yourself a lot of colorful days."