Re: Natal em Guarabira

P.S.

I like to read the silly things that the grandkids do.

On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 3:30 PM, Thomas Jay <thomas.jay@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Querida familia

Feliz Natal! It was good to talk to some of you on Christmas Day. I don´t know if you guys knew, but we our family is pretty swell. I like it. But poor Tim had to get engaged, I found a scripture after the phone call that I applied to the situation, Alma 62:37 I think. Its about when Teancum died, but in place of Teancum put Tim, in place of Moroni and Lehi put Elder Jay, In place of dead put engaged, and in place of country put bachlerhood or something.

It felt like we didn´t have Christmas here. It wasn´t different than any other time of the year. They didn´t even have the commercialist side, and Santa Claus doesn't give presents to poor people. On Christmas eve we stopped by a bunch of members houses for 5 or 10 minutes and some of them gave us chocolates and then we ate dinner and went home, and Christmas day was just a regular day except we couldn´t buy food because all the stores were closed.

I haven´t gotten the package yet, but my companion and I recieved a present from God. 2 weeks ago we found a paper in the dish armário that had the name Lucilene and an address. We went to the house and found a girl named Lucilene who had never talked with missionaries before, and she was baptized yesterday. Her mom loves us and always gives us food and snacks, but she needs to get married before she can get baptized. It was a pretty good present though.

I already talked to you guys two days ago so I don´t have too much to write, I was hoping that it would snow here on Christmas, but it didn't, so there is nothing more interesting to write.

Love,
Elder T Jay






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Natal em Guarabira

Querida familia

Feliz Natal! It was good to talk to some of you on Christmas Day. I don´t know if you guys knew, but we our family is pretty swell. I like it. But poor Tim had to get engaged, I found a scripture after the phone call that I applied to the situation, Alma 62:37 I think. Its about when Teancum died, but in place of Teancum put Tim, in place of Moroni and Lehi put Elder Jay, In place of dead put engaged, and in place of country put bachlerhood or something.

It felt like we didn´t have Christmas here. It wasn´t different than any other time of the year. They didn´t even have the commercialist side, and Santa Claus doesn't give presents to poor people. On Christmas eve we stopped by a bunch of members houses for 5 or 10 minutes and some of them gave us chocolates and then we ate dinner and went home, and Christmas day was just a regular day except we couldn´t buy food because all the stores were closed.

I haven´t gotten the package yet, but my companion and I recieved a present from God. 2 weeks ago we found a paper in the dish armário that had the name Lucilene and an address. We went to the house and found a girl named Lucilene who had never talked with missionaries before, and she was baptized yesterday. Her mom loves us and always gives us food and snacks, but she needs to get married before she can get baptized. It was a pretty good present though.

I already talked to you guys two days ago so I don´t have too much to write, I was hoping that it would snow here on Christmas, but it didn't, so there is nothing more interesting to write.

Love,
Elder T Jay





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A Romanian Christmas

Hey Everybody,

It was nice to talk to you guys on the phone.  It makes me remember that you are real people.  You guys are all really happy too.  Nobody is happy in Romania the way that you guys are happy.  Except for maybe the branch presidents here.

We had a branch Christmas party on Thursday, and they dressed us up in the traditional dress of the Oltenia region of Romania.  I was going to send you some pictures, but this computer is a little more difficult than I expected so we'll see if I can get it to work.  I also have pictures from Targoviste which is the place where the communist leader, Ciaocescu, was executed.

So, for Christmas Eve we did what all the Romanians do, we made sarmale (which is meatbally stuff wrapped up in pickled cabbage and boiled for a couple of hours).  During the boiling we played board games and watched church movies.  We invited and investigator to it as well and he really liked the movies.  When the sarmalele were done he said that they weren't very good, so we just told him they were the American version.
I found out that I'm allergic to basil; I kept sneezing and stuff after we got it out to put it into the sarmale.

Before we did that we went around handing out special Christmas-time church invitations.  We handed out all of ours and a lot of the elders' invitations.  We met with all of our investigators earlier in the week because we figured they would be with their families on Christmas.  When we were handing out the invitations we said 'Merry Christmas' in English to everyone.  They all knew what that meant and some people were really pleased when they heard us say it with a good accent.  Usually young people said 'thank you' or 'the same to you'.

Christmas in Utah is definitely different from Christmas in Romania.  Normally you would expect 'the Christmas Spirit' to get everyone to be nice to each other and happy, but in Romania Christmas seems more like a competition and a really prideful thing because it's so commercial.  People are only nice to people they know, and I have heard more people arguing and fighting than I ever have in Romania.  Some people came caroling in our bloc and a lot of our neighbors started yelling at them and telling them to go away.  We gave them a Book of Mormon and some oranges.  They actually sang pretty well.

We visited one investigator a little bit too late because she was way too preoccupied with Christmas preparations to actually sit down and discuss with us.  Her daughters were getting ready to go to a party and they were all dressed up nice.  I taught the girls the word 'frumpy' in English to describe what me and Sora Ausen looked like.

It really just feels like we didn't have Christmas even though we had lots of parties with the mission the ward and our district.  It didn't even snow.  Today it is snowing though.

On new years the people usually shoot fireworks from their windows at people on the street, so we aren't allowed to be out roaming that evening.

Love,
Sora Jay

P.S. I will be in Bucharest on Thursday for Zone Training so I will probably get my package then.



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Re: Call

I will be in the Church at 8 Brazil time. The number there is 83-3271-1288.

On Sat, Dec 25, 2010 at 5:22 PM, Thomas Jay <thomas.jay@myldsmail.net> wrote:
Querida Familia,

I didn´t send and email this week because they didn´t have any power in the city during P-day.  I will call today at 3 or 4 Utah time, or maybe 5.  7 or 8 here in Brazil.

Tchao e Feliz Natal!

Elder T Jay



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Call

Querida Familia,

I didn´t send and email this week because they didn´t have any power in the city during P-day.  I will call today at 3 or 4 Utah time, or maybe 5.  7 or 8 here in Brazil.

Tchao e Feliz Natal!

Elder T Jay



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RE: Romania: 20 Dec 2010

Did anyone get a long letter from Tom?  If so, could you please forward it to everyone else?  Or parts of it?  I received two one-liners from him, replying to some short ones that I sent to our missionaries, but that's all.



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Romania: 20 Dec 2010

Hello again faithful readers,
 
This week has been pretty eventful, but not a lot of missionary stuff.  Sora Fraser and I had to work everything out with our apartment and investigators because the sisters have been taken out of that part of Mihai Bravu since two left and only one came in this transfer and we didn't have enough.  Usually we would find some member girl to be a mini-missionary, but I don't think they would do that over Christmas.
So, we had to prepare everything with our investigators and leave instructions about the apartment and everything so that the elders wouldn't be lost.  I was the one who opened that apartment and when I told the proprietar that boys would be moving in she told me to make sure that they didn't destroy anything.  I told her I would pass on the message.
 
We had some sweet lessons with our investigators.  A lot of them are people that were previous investigators that we decided to try again.  Their previous missionaries hadn't been able to get them to progress but when we talked to them we just gave them smaller commitments and they did them.  One of the investigators Mihaela, seemed almost scared about what we would say to her because I think that the previous sisters were kind of jerks to her at their last lesson where they dropped her.  Sora Fraser and I were just really nice to her and tried to figure out what her real issues were.  We definitely figured them out (family) and we got her to keep her commitments by just starting somewhere more simple.  We totally had to adjust our usual techniques to fit her.
And then we left.
We had a couple other really cool investigators too, and we just have to leave them behind.  We made them promise that they would meet with the elders though.
 
So, we settled everything in our previous area and then got transferred.  Ploiesti is about half and hour (or one hour depending on on which train you get) away from  Bucharest so it wasn't a big trip.  We came back for Wednesday night for a Kindergarten presentation at the church, by nonmembers so we got a lot of their numbers and stuff, then went back Thursday morning for the mission Christmas party.  All of the sisters wanted to go caroling, but I felt kind of sick so I asked President if I could stay there with the rest of the elders, and he said I could.  So we played apples to apples.  The party didn't end until about nine, so we had to go to the train station to get a train back to Ploiesti when it was pretty late, and then the train wasn't supposed to leave until 10:30pm.  We bought our tickets and went to the line where the train was supposed to be and there was a train there even though our train wasn't supposed to leave for about half an hour.  We figured it was our train and got inside.  We were only in there for a minute or so when the train started moving.
We talked about it for a minute and decided that it definitely wasn't our train and decided that we had to get off before it took us too far away from the station to catch our actual train.  So we jumped off the train.  The train was probably going around 17mph, so the district leader went to the door and opened it and jumped, his companion (a greenie) jumped pretty quickly after him but my companion, Sora Ausen, was a little worried she kept saying "I don't know if I can do it!"  She suddenly did, and she told me afterward that it was because she could see that there was a conjunction of the tracks up ahead so that I would have landed on the train tracks if I was dumb enough to jump out right there.  She didn't jump quite early enough for me to have been able to jump before the tracks came up so I didn't jump.  Right after Sora Ausen jumped out this guy leaned out the window and started yelling at us saying stuff like, "What's the matter with you guys!  Are you crazy!"  There was no way that I could jump because there were tracks there so I just waited, but the train stopped relatively soon and I walked down the steps.  Then I ran back to the rest of my district and we found our way back to the train station (we were still in the city so we took the metrou back) so that we could get our real train to Ploiesti.  We made it back safely at about half past midnight.
 
So I didn't actually get to jump out of the train.  The three that did have bruises and stuff though, so I guess it's better that way.  But, getting a few bruises isn't as bad as being stranded in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of gypsies in the middle of the night, so I don't think we were that crazy for jumping.  It wasn't my idea though.  The district leader said we could blame it on him and praise ourselves for following leadership.
 
This is my phone number in this city: 0753.058.802.  It's a cell phone.  I'll let you guys call me at the time that Jerm suggested which will be 7:00am for me and Friday night for you guys.  My phone can't make out-of-coutry calls and we don't have any landlines (unless I can figure something out at the church, I guess) so you guys will have to call me so that we can talk.
If you really want to change the time to call you you'll have to actually call to tell me about it, I guess, because I won't be at internet again until next week.  But whenever you guys can is good.  My companion is getting her phonecall between 3 and 4 so that's the only time that wouldn't work.
 
Well, I look forward to talking to you guys.
 
Love,
Sora Jay



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Não sei

Querida familia,

Glad to hear that everything is good. Things have gotten a lot better here as well. I can understand almost everything that people say now and I can carry on conversations without the help of my companion. The only problem is that the people laugh at me because of my accent. Probably because its so cool.

My companion and I are working a lot with the members. There were some fights shortly before I arrived, it´s so dumb when members fight, but brazilians can´t help but talk crap behind peoples backs. The best way to unify and strengthen a ward or branch is to get them involved in missionary work, so we started a class called the School of the Missionaries, where we will teach the members how to be missionaries, how to invite people to church, give a Book of Mormon, give a talk in church, teach a class, etc.  Members always make excuses why they can´t do things so I am making a list of the excuses and finding scriptures, stories, and quotes from prophets to beat the excuses. Almost all the members have someone that lives with them or a family member that lives close to them that aren´t members and we are focusing on teaching those people.

We baptized 3 people yesterday, here in Brazil there are alot of people that are ready to listen. We just need to teach by the spirit and help them keep commitments, and get married, because no one is married.

Tchao, and have a good Christmas

Elder Tom



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Romania 13 Dec 2010

Hey everybody,

How's it going.  Those pictures of Tom and Ed are really cool.  I printed off the picture that Ed sent a while ago with him holding the machete and I show it to the other elders in my district.  I think I will print off the one of Tom and the parrot to show to them as well.

Transfers will be this week, so I am leaving Bucharest.  I will be in Ploiesti (ploy-esht, maybe you can pronounce it correctly).  This week has been nice.  We called every single former investigator and person in the phone, and have called a lot of people in the potential investigators section of the area book because Sora Fraser got pretty sick for a while.  We found some really cool and nice people, and we got two baptismal dates set up this week.

We met with a guy that came to English one time, Liviu.  He came to actually talk to the missionaries, I think.  He is going through a divorce and he feels good at the church.  We met with him and our intention was just to help him get comfort from the gospel, but we ended up inviting him to get baptized.  That was the best way I could think of to help him.
We were talking with a member during church, and we had spoken to one of her work colleages on the street.  She told us that we should meet with her and work with her but that we shouldn't invite her to get baptized.  We just didn't respond.  Baptizing people is our job.  I can't remember who said it but they said, "a missionary who doesn't invite their investigator to be baptized by the second lesson is a failure."

Well, I guess I might not ever know what happens to the people that we are working with right now because I'll be in a different city.  I'll be there for Christmas, so I probably won't get any mail until next transfers.

Well, I guess I'm the only one that's in a time zone that's a few hours off, so I'll start the discussion on Christmas phonecalls.  So, you guys can call me at probably any time on Saturday the 25th.  I can't look at sites online and figure out the time differences so you guys will have to take care of it (just tell Jerm to look it up really quickly and find a time that isn't ridiculously early or late for either of us).  The only thing after that would be for me to make sure that my new companion is getting her call at a different time.

I think my mission is a lot different from Tom's and Ed's missions, and it makes my kind of jealous.  But Rodney's and Pete's and Jesh's and Colin's missions were probably like mine.  At the end of one week last transfer after working really hard all week and having very little success, we were standing outside of a bloc trying to get someone to let us in and it was raining and cold and we were really tired on Sunday night.  Just standing out there trying to knock a few last blocs, and I just got a really good, comforting feeling.  At the point where I was feeling frustrated, after exerting all of my efforts and not really seeing it come through to anything, I just had that really good feeling, and knew that what I was doing was good and that that was all that was asked of me.

Happy Monday

Love,
Sora Jay



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Re: Romania 6 Dec 2010

Hey Ariel,

I love the picture of you ringing the door bell! Those parade pictures were cool too. ..... no comment on the Thanksgiving one....JK. :) I didn't realize there was more than one Arc de Triumph. I only knew about the one in France. I guess there is one in Barcelona. I finally found the Romanian on Wikipedia. It's pretty cool. I pasted this here if you're interested.

Wikipedia:

Arcul de Triumf is a triumphal arch located in the northern part of Bucharest, on the Kiseleff Road.

The first, wooden, triumphal arch was built hurriedly, after Romania gained its independence (1878), so that the victorious troops could march under it. Another temporary arch was built on the same site, in 1922, after World War I, which was demolished in 1935 to make way for the current triumphal arch, which was inaugurated in September 1936.

The current arch has a height of 27 meters and was built after the plans of the architect Petre Antonescu. It has as foundation a 25 x 11.50 meters rectangle. The sculptures with which the facades are decorated were created by famous Romanian sculptors such as Ion Jalea and Dimitrie Paciurea.

Dezembro 6

Querida Familia

This week was really good. On Saturday a family that we were teaching got married and then we baptized them right after. It was cool to have the Baptism at night and there were lots of people there to watch and support them. The missionaries found them a year ago and this was the fourth time that they tried to get married. They finally did it. A month ago the husband didn´t want to get baptized, but after the baptism he told me it was marvalous.

I like my new companion a lot. His name is Elder Siqueira, he is from São Paulo, and he is the second biggest brazilian I have seen so far. Best of all He likes to work. Now our goal is 40 lessons a week.

Yesterday we had lunch at the base of the Military Police. One of the Recent converts here is the seceretary to the head honcho there. We got a ride in one of the Police trucks from the church to the base, and then from the base back to our apartment, and we set up appointments to teach some of the other officers. The food was pretty good, and we are friends with the police now so we can do whatever we want.

The branch here is improving as well. It has gone from 70 people on Sunday to probably 100 yesterday. We are focusing on teaching the families of members because the majority of members have brothers or sisters or parents that aren´t members. Missionaries are always afraid to talk to them even though they are best way to find people.








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