Jay Family Missionaries

Buna ziua toata lumea,

 

So, I've been transferred here to Bucharest, the big city.  There is a fully functioning branch and it is great to bring investigators to.  I still had to give a talk in church this week.  It was actually a lot more pressure than my last talk because here there were people who knew Romanian really well and the gospel really well, plus like six other missionaries besides my companion.  I knew that I made some pretty horrible grammatical mistakes as I was making them, but at least my talk was something that I had written, instead of taken from a manual or the internet like the other talks.  I talked about gratitude, and told people that if they were grateful for the gospel they would be memeber-missionaries.

I live in Sector 3 in Bucharest, in an area called Dudest (spelled with an s-cedille), we are checking out other apartments though because we are going to move; not to a different area but to a different apartment because one of the toilets in our apartment doesn't work and we don't have air conditioning.  I think it's kind of silly that they are bothering to make us change this apartment when it's a billion times nicer than the apartment in Galati was.

 

One of my last days in Galati was the first time that I have ever been 'pup'-ed by a young guy: that's when they kiss you on each side of your face.  Usually you can catch them before they do it, or else you are standing far enough away that it is clear that you are opposed to such interaction, but he had just stood up from a bench to shake my hand and then he kissed me.  I guess some people are just grateful when you give them a copy of the Book of Mormon, as they should be.

I guess there was a time when a random guy off the street that we gave a pliant to kissed me too.  He wasn't even drunk either.

Anyway, usually guys just kiss our hands or shake our hands depending on how polite they are trying to be, and how much experience they have had with Americans.

 

I have had a lot of people ask if I could take them back to America with me.  One gypsy guy was really persistent about getting married and going back to America.  The elders were there with us so it wasn't like a bad situation, but I guess now I can say I have been proposed to.

 

Well, I'm the senior companion now.  Sora Wilson is from Australia and this is her second transfer.  She actually knows Romanian pretty good for it being only her second transfer.  The people here in Buchurest talk really fast though so I think she gets lost in some of the conversations and gets a little sad sometimes.  I think she still is hurt sometimes when people reject us.  She is really good for working together as a companionship though.  I let her keep the phone and use the keys to the apartment because I am the one who came into the area new, and it kind of bugged me that my companion in my second transfer took the keys and the phone and kind of figured I was useless when she came into my area.  I just let her hand me the phone when she doen't understand or know what to say.

 

I'm in a super sketchy internet place right now that has all of the lights turned off.

 

They have raised the standards here in Romania this transfer.  We are not allowed to have a lesson without a member present until we have tried calling at least three members to see if they could come.  Hopefully involving them in the work, or at least making them aware of it, will increase the growth here.  We are going to be having special training meetings for all of the Zone and District leaders for the next nine months because we are starting the new missionary program.  So, eventually I will get to find out what it's all about.

 

President Lundberg has planned a trip for all of the missionaries to go to a palace for a couple of days so that we can be more united.  Everybody was shocked that we are actually going to stop everything and go on a little unity reatreat, to a sweet palace.  The trip will be in September sometime.

 

This weekend we will get to see the Kiev Ukraine Temple dedication at the church on Sunday.  It's wierd to tell people to not come to church, and to tell our investigators that church is cancelled for this week.  It's something that's really surprising to them because the Orthodox church never does anything like that, and it is actually open on weekdays too.

 

People here in Buchurest are a lot more willing to listen to us and give us their information, and actually put effort into learning by coming to the church to meet with us, instead of us hunting them down at their houses.  People are a lot smarter too, I think.  Most people are aware that our church is the 'Mormon' church by hearing the whole name even before we show them the Book of Mormon.  There was a time this week though that we were in the middle of having a lesson with a lady and her mom came in and said "These are the Mormons.  I don't allow Mormons in my house."  The lady actually defended us and said that we hadn't taught her anything that was wrong, but the mom kicked us out anyway.  Not until after I had persuaded her to say the closing prayer though (the mom).  Maybe she won't think we're such evil people anymore.

 

Tell Ed to watch the Mountain of the Lord for his next movie night, it's the best one.

 

Love,

Sora Jay

 

P.S. Pete said something about France kicking out all of the gypsies and sending them back to Romania.  The gypsies aren't actually Romanian though, they have their own gypsy language and everything.  So, maybe their just kicking out the Romanians, which may mean that some of our members will come back.

I've heard that the European Union made a deal with Romania and that if they don't finish a highway that goes from Buch to somewhere like Timisoara by the end of the year they will be kicked out of the European Union.  Some missionaries really want them to not finish because then all of the members that have left to work or to live in other countries will come back and the branches will be a lot bigger.

Tons of people leave to work in other countries, so it's sad when they join the church here and just disappear and all we can do is hope that they are active in the other country that they went to.

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