Mom -- No I don't need a raincoat! Promise! I don't need anything! And I could give you direct addresses but by the time the mail gets there I could be transferred, etc. You just never know so it's better if you just send it to the mission home and I get mail about once every half-transfer. Which isn't bad at all. Have you gotten a letter from me yet??? Also what is the recipe you use for the banana bread you always made for me... It's unsurpassible...
Anyways things are going great here in Oradea but the fact is that missionary work in Romania is just hard. But it's fun, it's a blessing to be a part of this work. The people are open and willing to talk about God and doctrine but even when they love the things we teach and often even believe them, they often lack the will to make changes and are sometimes scared to commit to things. But we're working with amazing people. I love Romanian people in general. They are so funny?? I don't know. For example, we always see this one elderly man walking all over and every time he sees us he grabs my hand and holds it the whole time he's talking to us (the elderly people always hold my hand) but he kept trying to take off my CTR as though I wouldn't notice and finally when he saw it was futile he just wished us a good day and left.
Last night I had a loaf of banana bread and nobody was answering or able to meet so we just decided to stop by a past investigators apartment. A young man, Raul, lives their with his grandma. She was the only one home when we went and we just wanted to drop it off and leave but she pulled us in and told us how beautiful we were and how she needs to stop trusting the american boys. She took the foil off the banana bread and filled it with a cake she had made and then gave it back to us.
A couple days ago we were at the park and an old man just sat down next to Elder Casangiu and I and first asked us about our ethnicity, proceeded to tell us how he enjoyed communism, and then asked us if we prefer blondes or brunettes. He also held my hand. People are much better here about relaxing in the parks and walking. I wish America would catch on. Those are just a few examples of the people. There are many others but we'll save them for next time.
We are always invited to branch activities here and usually we only go if we have investigators. Saturday, we were to invited to a little excursion the branch had planned out to the countryside. It was only like an hour and a half bus ride away but such a huge change from the city. Incredibly thick, green forests and rolling hills with fields and fields and haystacks and little villages and whatnot. We first went into a huge cave (with a guide) and had a blast. Coolest cave I've been in yet and definitely the closest I've ever been to bats (within a foot). After we found a little spot by some haystacks and the members cooked mici which is like super flavorful sausage/hamburger. Really good. Especially since I hadn't had meat for a while. We just relaxed and interacted and thankfully two of the members brought non-member children and I was able to speak with the bus driver for a while who was an incredibly nice man. His name is Florin and he is Romanian Orthodox and loves to drive. He drives crazy fast and it can get intense but as we were discussing about the Holy Ghost he let me know that he relies on the Holy Ghost in every day while he drives on the chaotic roads here. So I wasn't as worried... But he was very nice. It's just fun to talk with people. Especially in a new language. It's somewhat of an out-of-body experience being in a country like Romania and speaking this language and with a totally different people. It's often confusing. But very rewarding.
On Thursday we made a member visit to an awesome brother in the branch, Fratele Dejeu. He is a gypsy man and loves the members of the branch here. He isn't able to get to church a lot because it is financially necessary for him to work Sundays as it is for many here. But he comes whenever he doesn't work and he was able to be at the excursion with us. Elder Barney asked him about the rest of the family and he told us something like they're in the kitchen (bucaturie?) and I thought that word meant bakery (brutarie) and so I stopped him and was like, "You have a kitchen?!" (I was ecstatic) and he looked at me strange and said, "yes, this apartment is three rooms and the room at the end is a kitchen." I realized really quickly that either he had a bakery out the third floor of his apartment or he meant kitchen. I tried really hard not to laugh because my companion looked so confused. Anyways, awesome man, awesome visit. At the excursion I explained to Fratele Dejeu why I had asked such a strange question and he just slapped my back and laughed saying how he'd be excited too about a bakery. But for the most part I can get by with the Romanian I know.
We recently picked up some other past investigators. They're two brothers, Emil and Ghabi. Emil at one point had a baptismal date but the commitment scared him. They are two of the nicest, funniest guys ever. We just stopped by one night and they invited us in and made us eat and drink and just chatted. So we came back this week with banana bread and shared a thought on talents and Emil pulled a little keyboard out of nowhere and expected me to do something because he new I had made music before my mission... But I hate those situations and luckily he wanted to show me the things he'd learned by ear so he did. He's actually very talented and he has no Idea that he is. He picked up some complicated classical melodies just from listening to a cd. But I'm elated to be able to work with them now.
Anyways, I'm doing great. It's really hot but pretty soon it will be really cold so I'm just enjoying it. If I could ask one thing it would be to get to know the missionaries and trust them with a referral. Also, if you could pray for Sora Tutor, she has some serious health problems that I don't know can be solved. The tutors are a very poor, very humble, very beautiful family. I get emotional just writing about them because of their circumstances. We stopped by yesterday and weren't very familiar with them but Brother Tutor loves the missionaries and we ducked inside to their little "house" and had a wonderful visit with them. They were once very active members and still have great love and feelings for the branch and gospel but for certain reasons don't make it to church. They were so nice the whole time I was there and I'm sure sora Tutor was in pain the whole time we were there but I never would've known except that she can't really move. They just have great love, especially for missionaries. I know they know Fratele Miles, one of the teachers at the MTC. They talked well of him. I said, "Oh you know him? The one with the biggest smile?" and they nodded and laughed.
But yes I'm going fantastic. I miss you all and love you all.
Love,
Elder Taylor
No comments:
Post a Comment