Dragi Frati si Surori:
Buna ziua folks! It's President Lee (but not Rex E.) How has your week
been? Elder Rosenvall and I had a good week. We're still doing well together. We
get along very well and love chatting about random things or things that we have
in common. He's a great missionary. He's an example to me of humility and
striving to be and stay effective. It's tough in Bacau to stay effective. It's a
great test of patience, and diligence. Every new day is like Heavenly Father
saying, "What are you two going to do with My time today? Keep trying!". And so,
we keep trying. We had zone leader exchanges Wednesday this past week, and that
really helped! Elder Bruner and Elder Eaton came from Iasi for the day. By the
way, Elder Bruner was the last branch president here for 6 transfers before I
came to replace him, so he knows how everything is here. I was with him for our
exchange. We had a good day. We visited members including Alin, Andreea, Daniel,
and Fratele Istoc. The members are doing well. We had a great lesson with
Fratele Istoc about hope and the Atonement. He usually has problems with health
and depression issues, but he loved to visit with us and really felt the spirit.
As a result, he came to church yesterday! He usually has come only once a month
or less in the recent past. Hopefully he'll get coming back again. He seems
noticeably happier! Elder Bruner and I had good chats about Bacau, and what we
can keep trying to do to be more effective, and to not let Bacau conquer us!
Elder Eaton and Rosenvall had a good exchange of their own--they found an
inactive member and also found a new investigator and taught him and his family
a lesson.
Unfortunately, we also had to remove a member's name from the church. Gabi
is his name. He was found by the others on exchange. Unfortunately, he decided
that he does not want anything more to do with the church, and has lost his
faith in God and in the gospel. We met him at the church and he said he is tired
of injustice in his life--working so hard but never really getting anything good
in return. He was decided on his desire to remove his name. We tried to see if
we could do anything to help and even bore our testimonies to him to try to
dissuade him! But, in the end, we complied with his request. We filled out some
paperwork and need to fax it to the office (except right now, our fax machine
doesn't want to work!) It's a bummer to do things like that. All I can say is
that I am so grateful for the blessings the Gospel has brought into my life. I
could never deny my testimony.
Everything else is going fine, as usual. We had a fun p-day! We went to
the countryside (about 20 minutes outside of Bacau) to Daniel's parents' house.
They live in a bloc in Bacau, but they also have a beautiful little cottage in
the countryside with gardens and trees. Daniel's dad showed us his old
motorcycles. We took plenty of pictures. We played some chess and Settler's
there, then came back to Bacau and had some pizza together. Oh, Elder Rosenvall
taught me how to play chess! I've never learned how to play until now. It's
pretty fun, I'm just terrible at it. So, I have recently learned how to juggle
and how to play chess! Let's see, the mission is doing well. There are 24
baptismal dates for this next coming month across the whole mission. Transfers
are on May 9th. We will have interviews with President Hill on Sunday the 6th. I
think he'll come to church here too. I don't know yet what will happen to me at
transfers. We'll find out in less than a week probably. I have only 2 more
transfers, plus a week or two. Life is coming back all too soon!
It's nice to hear from home. I'm glad all is well. Mom, good luck with
your kids (at school and at Primary) and the testing and everything you have to
do. It's nice that your Primary class seems to be well-behaved and enjoying your
lessons. I hope Chris and Jamie and everyone else is doing fine. I am glad to
hear that all the missionaries from the ward are loving their missions!
Hopefully Elder Holden will get used to the change with his new transfer in
Georgia. Missions are really tough sometimes when you have to get used to a new
companion or area. Sometimes you don't like your companion (at first, or maybe
just not at all for the whole 6 weeks). It really tests you! It seems so
impossible to carry on sometimes. That's when you need to pray to Heavenly
Father as if He was your closest friend, because He is. He does bless and help
you through hard times. I know that. I have experienced it on my mission. You
grow very much when you succeed in coping with new, difficult things and then
keep going. My mission has taught me a lot of things, but it has especially
taught me how to depend on Heavenly Father when it sometimes seems that you
can't go to anyone else for relief. Anyways, We'll talk next week, and we'll see
what happens at transfers. Mom and dad, I should be able to do Skype Mother's
Day call, but it may be on Saturday or Monday (because the 13th is a Sunday).
Maybe we will go to Daniel's house and use his computer. I'm not sure yet. We'll
see. Have a great week. Love the Gospel.
Love, President Lee
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