Alright so a week has gone by and I'm still doing great. My Companion is awesome. Elder Barney is from Lehi, Utah except his family now lives in Idaho.. We get along really well, both as friends and as missionaries. We work a lot with the other missionaries in the district as well. Elder Eckersley and Elder Bennett both from Draper/Sandy and then Elder Casangiu the mini-missionary from Bucuresti.
We're working with a fantastic branch, especially for its size. They know how things are supposed to work and they work hard. We meet with members several times a week to teach them how to use Preach My Gospel and to see if they have any referals----Go refer somebody to the missionaries right now-------Also go read the talk from President Hinckley in like 1999 called Find the Lambs, Feed the Sheep or something like that. It's mind-blowing. Anyways so we meet with the members a lot and they love us. On thursday we were on exchanges so I was with Elder Eckersley and Elder Bennett and we went and visited an older sister, Sister Stoian. She was baptized in like 2005 and was previously a member of the Romanian Orthodox church. She was so nice. In her tiny little apartment the light bulb had burned out but was too high up for her to change and so she was just going to wait until somebody showed up who could. It had been like a week and it's pretty dark without it. No matter how many times we ask or offer, she refuses help or service. But since we were there we changed the bulb and she just loved us. I showed her a picture of the family and she proceeded to do the same things all older Romanian women seem to do, looking at my whole album and asking me who everyone is and telling me how beautiful everyone is. She told us she's our "Grandmama" while we're here in Romania so I'm set.
On Saturday we met with the Branch President, President Isupescu. He lives a little bit out of the city and every time he has to go to the church, he rides his bike really, really far. And it's either really hot or really cold here. I don't know how he does it. Anyway he is the nicest, most humble and loving man. We're just two young american boys and he let us into his home gave us tons of food, forced us to eat it pretty much, and then listened super intently as we taught him about preach my gospel. I can honestly say I've never felt like someone was listening to me as well as this man. Even when it took me forever to speak. He's so enthusiastic about the gospel and missionary work it's awesome. He asked tons of questions and we definitely overstayed but it was great. And then he hopped on his bike and rode off to the church to clean while we took a maxi taxi and a tramvai and walked a while to get to our place.
I've been making a lot of Banana bread lately because Romanians don't really know what it is and a lot of them think it's amazing. Bela is a member in the ward, a returned missionary and he insists that only the american boys can make it. The other day after a member visit he asked me to make it for him and his "date" the next night. He speaks really broken english and he told us that they'd had it once before and when she ate it she said, "This is good" and then he said, "ok." I guess there was more emotion involved but those were his words so I made it for him and we're going to make it for the members when we go visit with him. We're working with his little brother who has gone inactive and it's hard because he would rather watch tv than read in the Book of Mormon.
Our one investigator, Raluca, is very bright. She reads like crazy. Her tiny apartment is full of books and she's probably only in her early twenties. She is reading into Alma now and when we teach her she asks very thoughtful, developed questions (usually really hard to answer) but she accepts our answers. For the moment though she won't come to church but hopefully we'll be able to get her there next week or at the least the next week.
Last night Elder Eckersley was sick and so my companion, Elder Barney stayed with him while I went out with Elder Bennett and Elder Casangiu. We had a member visit and then we thought we were going to meet with a new investigator but he decided he was too busy so we contacted the entire park. It was easily the most contacting I've done so far. We're usually making our way all over to appointments and whatever but nothing had really worked out so we split up in the park and did work. I love to contact families. There are promises in Preach My Gospel about the benefits of doing so and I trust them. Elder Casangiu is great because he speaks Romanian fluent and he's very charismatic. Sometimes his energy is unbearable but those he contacts are always in a pleasant mood after he leaves. Elder Bennett is just working with me to overcome the nerves and learn the language and try to share our testimonies.
Random stuff:
I did buy some shoes mom so no worries. Things are pretty cheap here if you keep converting the prices but if you do that then you run out of money super fast. They have the best food in the world here. I just eat whatever people give me and it tastes so good. Chocolate here is really good too.... So I'm happy. There are tailors everywhere here and they're cheap. Fashion is a big deal here, very different than the U.S.
There's this "homeless" guy Elder Barney and I always run into. He's got a huge head of hair and a huge beard that appear from afar to be a lion's mane. Further more this guy, when he's walking, is walking with great purpose. He's practically jogging. We're convinced that secretly he is very rich because Elder Barney has seen him walking into a bank and I have seen him pulling money out of an ATM. But I can promise you he hasn't showered in many, many days. The first day I was here he walked past us and made an offensive gesture. Some days he does that, others he's really nice. It's very confusing. Yesterday I got on a tramvai right next to him and first he told me to go to the back of the tramvai because I drink a lot and he doesn't like that. Then he asked me if I'd like his seat. Then when I left he nodded politely and muttered goodbye.
Romanians stare at us and I love it. Especially older people. They stare at the name tag and try to be sneaky about it but are incredibly obvious. Yesterday I was waiting for a tramvai and this old man would keep turning to try and read it but I'd look at him and he'd quickly turn around and pretend to be intently reading a poster. Usually I just say Good Day or another greeting and then they look even more confused. But they are ultimately a really friendly people. Sometimes you have to pry a little bit to get them to trust you. That sentence doesn't really make sense but whatever.
They younger generation stare and give us dirty looks, especially the males. They'll stare, smirk, make gestures and/or use prostii but as soon as you approach them or ask them what they said they're all ears and sometimes a little scared. So are all the dogs here. They'll bark at you and snarl as long as there is a gate in between you and them but as soon as that gate opens they just stand there or wander off.
Pigeons are everywhere and they're somewhat holy because the word for pigeon and dove in Romanian is porumbel. So it's possible that the Holy Ghost descended in the form of a pigeon...
I'm having a great time and I'd love to hear from how everything is back there. But Romania is awesome and I love these people.
Love,
Elder Taylor
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