Hey everybody,
Sounds eventful at home. I have some comments that I want to make on your emails.
Ed, when I was in the MTC I never stressed about the language either. I think mostly because I knew that it was something that needed to happen for me to be a missionary in Romania, so I just had faith that if I studied with the time that I was given I would learn it. Maybe you can tell that to your district. People in our family do have a special gift with languages though, which is why every person in our family who went on a mission has spoken a foreign language. My companion asks me language questions all the time and today she said, "How do you know all these things?" and I just said I can remember really well when I hear things, but I don't speak perfectly. At this point I have been trying to open up my vocabulary to a whole new range of communication and I can sypathize a lot more with my companion, because I can't say the things that I really want to say. I learn something new every day. (And I have a six-pack too, because I do like a hundred sit ups and a hundred crunches every morning).
There are no cities in this mission that use bikes as normal trasportation, although it seems like it would be a good idea in some places. There is usually pretty good public transportation, so we get passes and use them. Here in Bucharest I have an 'abonament' so that I can use any bus, tramvai, or metrou.
One of the members that was at the temple dedication told us about her experience when we were teaching her daughter at her house. She said that the group of romanians was in a side room so that they didn't get to shake President Monson's hand or anything, so they were really sad, but as he was walking away one of the members yelled "I love you! Romania!" And he turned and went over to where they were. She said that he hugged them and blessed them, and he told them that he would visit Romania. I thought it was cool. I've never heard of a modern prophet stopping and giving people blessings like that before, but I guess that is what should be normal for a servant of Christ.
PMG stands for Preach My Gospel, Mom. We called it PEG in the MTC because we had it in Romanian.
If Ed denies having had shingles, maybe he didn't have them and maybe you were thinking of me. I had shingles twice.
It's easy to forgive the people here for the crazy things that they do, because the real blame is the corrupt teachings of the Orthodox church. One time this lady grabbed my arm when we were getting in a MaxiTaxi (a van thing) and my companion had already gotten on so I needed to hurry before it took off. The lady held on tight to my arm and told me to leave my church and go to the 'true' church which was orthodoxy. I ripped my arm out of her hand and yelled "Never!" (niciodata) and ran and jumped in the MaxiTaxi. It was awesome, my companion was super pleased. Some people go crazy and start yelling things at you, mostly old ladies because they are the only ones who are actually active in the orthodox church, the best response (besides just walking away, I guess) is to just start saying things to them in English then they get bewildered and stop. Luckily I've never encountered a old lady who was devout orthodox who also spoke English.
I have an evil thing that I have done to every one of my companions. I open bags of treats and eat one or two and then leave the bag there open, and so far every one of my companions has been the type of person that finishes off the bag. So I do it for entertainment, and I think that each of my companions has gained weight, except for Sora Hupp because we were on our feet all day long every day, so she actually lost weight.
You have to entertain yourself somehow.
My companion was really upset after church yesterday because none of our investigators showed up. I don't remember what it was like for me at the beginning, but you can't just stop or anything. I felt really bad for my companion. I ended up teaching most of the lessons myself because she was sad, but after a couple of lessons she felt a lot better. That's the great thing about missionary work, you get energized from actually doing it. Whenever we feel really tired we just go contacting and then we get energy back, even when people don't listen to us.
Next time I'll bring my miracle journal to email and tell you one of the stories.
Love,
Sora Jay
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
Posts
