Buna ziua everybody!
So quite a bit has happened this last week. The Romanian district ahead of us departed on Monday and they're all now officially laboring in Romania. It's crazy, I'm not that far away although it can often seem that way. Romanian is still coming along although I have stopped studying the language so hard and started studying scripture more to familiarize myself better with the Bible and Book of Mormon. Along with Fratele Jepsen and Irion, we have a teacher that just kind of fills in when needed and his name is Fratele Miles. He is incredibly full of energy. I've never heard anyone speak english that fast. He has incredible insights about the gospel and is a great friend to our district.
The district is doing well although I've had some interesting problems to confront this week. Luckily for me I am under the direction of a phenomenal branch presidency and two great zone leaders.
I'm taking a lot of pictures and ordered prints for several this morning so in the next letter home I'll throw those in and it'll be up to my family to scan them and let everybody see! Our teachers teach in 100% Romanian and I'm doing great at understanding, it's just speaking it that is going to take years and years. I've been learning a little here and there about Romania and the People. There are little villages (if even that is appropriate) on outskirts of towns where shepherds in fur coats guide their sheep with crooks with castles and horse-drawn carts in the background. And in the larger cities like Constanță and București they're pretty much up to date. Their government is still suffering from corruption and it will take a long time for Romania to rebuild.
As a district leader I'm learning a lot about including everyone and loving everyone. In most settings we can pick and choose who we want to associate with and how so but in my position I need to be including everyone, paying attention to each individual, and meeting their needs. It takes effort but it is incredibly rewarding.
Fun fact: I shook President Brown's hand the other day. He's always running around the most random places and even though he appears to be in a rush, he'll stop, shake your hand, ask you about your mission and district and just be incredibly sweet. He's the MTC presdient by the way. Last night we had a devotional from a couple -- elder and sister sonne. They both gave wonderful messages but the best was Elder sonne is a musical guy and his wife made him sing for us. He has that beautiful old man voice. Some of you will understand what I'm talking about. And then he requested we sing called to serve MTC style which is hard to explain other than it's incredible. Maybe It's on youtube somewhere. But I can't remember what YouTube is really...
How's Marcellus?? He was a good friend to me. Even though he was a horrible example in regards to healthy living.
The other day I was in line to get a salad... I'm not ashamed. And two people ahead of me stood Brother Grossen! He told me he'd be here on the 18th and so I wasn't surprised but rather elated. If anyone knows the Grossens they know they are always smiling and Brother Grossen has always made me feel great about myself. He's a wonderful guy. I run into friends all the time. Elder Matthews, Swarts, DeVisser, and I live in the same building as Elder Eve (Birch) and Elder Eggbert. I am very lucky!
Would somebody please get me the addresses of Garret Robison (Togo), Geoffrey Davis (Chile), David Price (Germany), and Bryson Winebrenner (Probably in Utah). That'd be greatly appreciated. Sorry I have no incentives for you
I am beginning to miss music. Everybody here whistles and sings and bangs on things and we're all going a little crazy. I can't wait to get into a church or even a cathedral or even a home in Romania and just play some piano. Hopefully I'll be able to build a drumset while I'm there. Just Kidding.
I've learned how to sign about ten things thanks to Elder Nelsen. One thing that is awesome is if a deaf elder ever baptized someone of gave them a blessing, they would sign it.
The MTC can get rough, you can get worried about the most insignificant things and it'll put you in a bad mood. But once you figure it out, it's usually something simple and you get over it. So far this week has been fantastic, although I miss the other district already.
Yes the gym is reopened I know you were all curious. They refinished the floor and we've been playing basketball everyday. All though my shot was horrible I probably had twenty rebounds yesterday with about fifteen of those going back up for points. I do not boast in my own strength though... just in my height.
Having a companion can be difficult but my companion's great because if i'm doing something unnecessary he'll remind me where I need to be and I return the favor. We get along pretty well, but to do so we have to forget a lot of our differences. It's necessary. Sacrifice is necessary.
Teaching is going pretty well in that we are learning a lot. Even if we get dropped by our investigators we'll look back on this as the greatest learning experience here at the MTC. It requires a lot of preparation, a lot of patience, and a lot of spirit. I am learning that many of the thoughts, words, and scriptures that come to mind are not my own. And I love it.
We clean buildings every friday and we have a BYU student who oversees our work. He keeps us posted on the outside world. I hear Harry Potter was fantastic although I figured it would be. He doesn't know anything about politics or sports though so neither do we. Which is great.
Crystal I hope EFY is fantastic, stay away from the boys, they are not fantastic.
Mom and Dad, yes I love the dear Elders, please keep those up.
These craver's cookies are amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing.
I love mail, I love questions, I love this work and that I can be a part of it and I love you all.
Love,
Elder Taylor
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