Week 7: A little out of order but still here. "The ultimate secret to life is: PRAY TO GOD"

To: Kelly Taylor , crystal.noel@mac.com, steve@6taylors.com

Well another week has flown by and it is just about time to be leaving to Romania.  I'm definitely ready to leave although not fully prepared.  But they don't expect us to be.  Much of the learning takes place right in the thick of it.  I'm really enjoying the MTC.  It is incomprehensible how much learning goes on in such a short period of time.  The best part is being able to watch yourself grow.  You don't have to look back ten years and say wow I've learned so much, You can look at your notes from last week and say wow, I have learned sooooooo much.  They've changed the curriculum quite a bit, even since I first arrived.  My district was in the middle of the change and so we've been using a lot of the new curriculum and a little of the old.  I love how they do things here though, I can't imagine going into the field without the experience that I've gained here, however small that may be. 
 
I'm not sure if I already mentioned this but we got a new district that was just five sisters.  That hasn't happened before as far as my teachers know and for the moment I'm acting as their district leader.  The district is doing great.  It's been nice to have such friendly and supportive Elders and Sisters with me as I've been here. 
 
One thing I've been thinking about a lot lately and offering a lot of is prayer.  One of my teachers, Fratele Miles, was in a coaching study with Elder Peterson and I one day (coaching study is just the teacher giving you some guidance or ideas for you study) and he said, "Do you Elders wanna know what the ultimate secret to life is? You might want to sit up for this..."  He simply said, "Pray to God." That's what the scriptures tell us to do over and over in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and I'm sure in other scripture.  It is how we repent, receive answers, help, guidance, strength, give thanks, and express literally anything to God.  It is a way to talk to God.  Knowing what I do now I would be lonely without prayer.  It is readily accessible at anytime and can help with anything.  My prayers are much more sincere now and it's helped tremendously.  I learn a lot when I pray.  One characteristic of the way I pray is gratitude.  I give thanks and usually I end up realizing there's too much and I need to eat or go to bed or get ready for the day etc.  But it's the best.  My advice, pray.
 
I'm excited to be involved in a new culture.  Romania has so many interesting things to offer.  I find it sad that the younger generation cares about english and the American culture.  English is great and useful and all and America has history but there is nothing as rich or fascinating to me as the cultures of Europe and most anywhere else on the globe.  I love the language.  It's not a language that can be used too much once I return but I know that I will be able to use it once I return whether that be for translating, teaching, or just speaking with random Romanians I may find someday.  In case you were wondering there are very few native missionaries from Romania serving in Romania. If they choose to serve they are often called to England, learn English and see a country in better circumstances and then they return to Romania and use the language and insight to help improve their homeland.  There are a couple natives serving there though.  One of our teachers who shows up every once in a while is a native although she has lived here for about eight years.  She's awesome though.  She talks so fast I want to cry but she told me, "Oh don't worry they [Romanians] speak faster." So I'm not worried. The advice I've received is smile and when you realize they're complaining about something nod your head like you can empathize and when they laugh, laugh.  Etc.  Most of the returned-missionaries have said don't even worry about the language, it will just come from be immersed in it.  I'm not worried really, I'm very excited. 
 
We had a Fireside on Sunday night from one of the Administrative brethren here at the MTC. He focused his message on missionary success and gave a fantastic talk.  Many missionaries worry about baptisms.  They want to have them.  He spoke on how that part of missionary work is a gift from God.  We may do all we can and still not have those baptisms but that doesn't make us unsuccessful.  People have their agency and even God respects that.  I just thought that was really interesting.  For me, I would love to baptize but if I don't and I just get to interact with the Romanians and share my beliefs and passions and the Gospel and serve people and show them that they can change for better, for more happiness, for me that's all I want. I had a friend serving in Germany write me the other day and after he joked with me for about a page he said, "Isn't it crazy how we're just doing the same work Jesus did?" It is and it's awesome.  I'm glad I can be a part of it.
 
So I got brownies yesterday, a lot of them...
There aren't that many left. And I feel somewhat sick. 
My weight is representative of politicians and weathermen/women -- inconsistent.
 
Thank you everyone for all of the letters and goodies and support, it means a lot to me. Again please ask me questions so I know what to write!
 
Hey Marcellus.
 
Please pray for Dylan (Elder Swarts). He had an MRI today to see if he either needs a surgery along with a four-week recovery or a surgery with like a four-month recovery. 
 
Another quick thought.  I watched this video on LDS.org with some scientist talking about his beliefs in God and the universe and he quoted Sir Arthur Eddington who said, "The more we learn about the Universe, the less it looks like a great Maching and the more it looks like a Great Thought [A great thought of God]." Just a thought.
 
I'm happy! always tired but happy.  Hope everyone is well.  I love you all!
 
Love,
Elder Taylor

Week 9: Juices here in Romania are usually carbonated.

So I'm here in Oradea, Romania.  It's been crazy, I'm still kind of in a dream but it's fun.

 So the MTC concluded with just infield training, nothing too different from the usual but it was fun.  Then Monday we were at the Salt Lake Airport too early and I didn't know really how much my bags weighed yet.  This was one of the most tense moments of my life... I was also wearing my giant trench coat all day so I was like five hundred degrees and receiving quite a few concerned looks.  My first bag was 61 pounds and I just started laughing when I saw that but luckily the second bag was under so I moved things around and put all the heavy books in a pillow case and made it.  I was super blessed this whole day when It came to luggage.  For some reason they didn't charge us for having two checked bags.  For some reason Lufthansa, the second airline we used, weighed everyone's carry-on except for the missionaries and didn't care that my personal item was larger than most carry-ons.  Somehow I made it through security in Utah and Germany with a substantial amount of liquids and razors in my carry-on... and I mean substantial. Anyways so I saw Steve Lund in the SLC airport which was awesome.  The worst part was the flight from Chicago to Germany because it was over seven hours and the guy on my right just blasted his techno music and drank the whole time while the guy on my left watched crazy movies and drank the whole time.  Neither spoke English nor Romanian and so the only contact I had was when I reached down to grab my pillow to try and sleep and I accidentally grabbed the guy-to-my-left's foot.... He just laughed and looked at me like I was crazy and I just said sorry and worried severely about the reputation of LDS missionaries. 

Anyways we landed safely in Germany and began the foreign adventures there.  Two other elders from my MTC district and I met a black man named Shadrac.  He was on his way to Tunisia to work with refugees and after about an hour of getting to know him and spent an hour or so getting to know the gospel.  He doesn't believe in God and he wants nothing to do with religion but I had an english copy of the Book of Mormon that I couldn't give away much longer and after discussing his beliefs for a while he took it with him to read on the plane.  It was definitely the hardest teaching I've had to do yet.... But awesome to get to know someone so different. 

Even more interesting was the two hour flight from Germany to Romania.  I sat next to an old couple who didn't speak a lick of English.  They were talking to each other quietly and I spent the first twenty minutes trying to convince myself that it was Romanian.  Then I began to speak with them and we talked the whole way to Romania! Gigi and Neascu from Brasov.  They were so cute and very nice (and patient).  Our teachers told us at the MTC how much Romanians love to see pictures of your family so I turned to one in my little photo album and she snatched it from me and proceeded to look through all my photos and ask me about each person.  Then she pulled out a stack of pictures they had from visiting their daughter in Canada.  They were an awesome couple and really curious as to why I was coming to Romania for two years without going home at all.  I had Gigi read a little verse out of Mosiah and then gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon.  They were trying to pay me and asking me how much it cost and when I finally understood I just handed it over.  I thought they were saying they didn't want it.  Anyways they gladly accepted it.  It was fun to actually get to know them and break those foreign ties and then share a little gospel with them.  I wish I'd had more time to answer their questions but I told them find the missionaries in Brasov! or go to mormonii.ro.  I think the best part is when Gigi started talking about how much he hated Communism and told me the whole story about Ceasescau and reenacted the execution.  It was intense. Actually the best part is when we stood up at the end of the flight and I realized they were both like at my belly-button. 

Anyways, Bucuresti is crazy.  Romania in General.  It's like a combination of what I've seen in South America and what I've seen in Europe.  A lot of advancement and progress and a lot of sad, unorganized, dirty chaos.  The driving here is insane.  Worse than Guatemala or Honduras.  I know that's hard to believe but it's true.  Maybe it's just the assistants driving.  But I may be driving one day.  It's an exciting prospect constantly worrying about your life.... just kidding.  So that day we got our health checked off by a doctor and then I spent the night with the office elders there in Bucuresti.  The next day we all went to Chismigiu park where the country was dedicated for missionary work and read that prayer and contacted a little.  Then we ate at the mission home and I got paired up with the awesome Elder Barney and we went to the train station! There I met up with some of the previous district and met a few of the others serving in Romania.  We contacted for a bit and then took the 13 hour train ride to Oradea.  We got a tiny little sleeper car but I slept amazing. 

When we got to Oradea we unpacked and went outside.  First we went and did a member visit with a Sora Torge and Anda.  We were fed some delicious sarmale.  The juices here in Romania are usually carbonated but they are so amazing... Anyways and then we contacted a little and met with the Geambasu family (another member family) who are awesome and they speak english really well.  Their two year old, Ammon, was humming the tunes to several hymns while we were there. I could never have done that that young.  He just handed me toys the whole time.  Anyways.  That night I met the Branch President who is hard to understand.  He seems uptight but Romanians are really different in the way they express emotion.  And I don't speak Romanian.  So they can be very difficult for me to understand but he was nice.  The next day we contacted and visited a less active member Sora Gotha.  She talks so crazy fast but she was very nice with me and patient with my Romanian.  Sometimes I have to fight to be able to say anything in a lesson.  My companion had a companion before me and he got used to not letting him talk as much because of the crazy things he would say so now I need to prove to him I can say meaningful things, no matter how broken my Romanglish is.  We have a progressing investigator as well Named Rulunca.  We taught her saturday the restoration (she's heard it before but forgot most).  She's read into Mosiah which is fantastic.  We had a fantastic lesson and then at the end she prayed in front of us (a beautiful prayer) and she had never done that before.  Hopefully we'll get her to church soon. 

Everyone here is super excited that I play the piano because nobody here does!  They just have a little keyboard that I played on on Sunday but it was fun to be able to have some affiliation with my old pal music again.  I bore my testimony to the Branch and met them all, they're all crazy nice and very strong.  There are only about twenty active out of over 100 baptized... There's a lot to be done.  We don't baptize for numbers and still we have a lot of trouble with inactivity here.  The biggest problem was when the EU came along, tons left Oradea for better jobs and such and that's where most the members went. But there are less (in) actives all over Romania.  And then that night we visited Bela, an awesome member who is hungarian and served in Hungary but resides in Oradea.  We're gonna try to contact his brother and reactivate him.

Romania is so awesome.  There are so many interesting quirks. Incredible architecture.  It's beautiful and hundreds of years old.  There's a lot of smoking and drinking, a lot of homeless and insane, but they're all great to talk to and get to know.  We talk with all sorts of different people and they think we're weird and crazy but it's so interesting and often fun.  Yesterday I just sat down with this kid on a bench and talked about God and being judged by those in your congregation, something that causes a lot of inactivity.  He was an Orthodox but not really religious.  Awesome conversation though.  Anyways I need to go.  I'm doing great, I love you all!

Love,
Elder Taylorw

Letter from the Mission President... He has arrived.

Dear Brother and Sister Taylor,
 
Tuesday afternoon we were very pleased to greet Elder Taylor at the Bucharest airport.  He seemed very excited to be in Romania at last after a long flight.  On Wednesday morning we visited the beautiful Cismigiu Gardens in the downtown area of the city.  On this spot on February 9th, 1990, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated Romania for preaching the Gospel.  We stood with our arriving missionaries, read that profound dedicatory prayer and then asked the missionaries to think how their missions might help fulfill the promises contained in Elder Nelson's words. 
 
That afternoon we assigned Elder Taylor to serve with Elder Barney, an experienced and outstanding missionary, in the city of Oradea. 
Thank you very much for sending us such a well-prepared and dedicated missionary.  Sister Hill and I are so happy to have him with us. Attached are two photos you might enjoy.
 
Gratefully,
 
President and Sister Ned C. Hill
Romania Bucharest Mission