Romania, Bucharest Mission: Sept. 2010 - Sept. 2012

Monday, June 25, 2012

Loving Bucharest . . . even with the heat & humidity

Dear Loved Ones,

   Good day! I've had another good week in Bucharest. I have been here for a while now. I'm in my 6th transfer in Bucharest. It has always been fun, even when it has been hot. The weather lately has still been pretty hot and humid. However, there was a little changing up in the sky. It was cloudy and rained for a bit after church. But, soon enough, it all cleared up again. I hope you have all had a nice week. It has been really fun to have Elder Nilsson as my companion. He is from my MTC group. He came from Arad as a zone leader there. He's been a zone leader for the past 7 transfers in Mihai Bravu, Chisinau, and Arad. So he has been here in Buc before, last September to January. He is happy to be back. He is from Sandy, Utah, and went to BYU in Provo for his freshman year. He isn't going home early to start school in the fall (I think all of us going early include Elder Fonnesbeck, me, Elder Nemrow, and maybe Elder Nelson, I can't remember). So Elder Nilsson will finish his misison on September 12th. He's an awesome missionary, and is very sincere and diligent. So, I think it will be good for us to be together here. Also, one of his older brothers is the beat-boxer for the BYU a capella group Vocal Point. It's a pretty good a capella group.

   So, this past week went well. Elder Nilsson got settled back in (when he was here last year, he was in a different area). Before transfers, we had a big Mihai Bravu vs. Panduri football game at the chapel. We lost big-time! It was hot and a lot of misisonaries in Panduri are just huge and athletic. Transfer day was fun. I saw lots of missionaries, and a group of us went to eat Subway for lunch. We had a good time. I always get the Subway Melt sandwich there, with ranch and Chipotle Southwest sauce. On Thursday, we did some service. Together as a district, we helped move some of President Doru's (the district president) relatives out of their bloc because they were moving. It lasted about 2 hours, and we had a good time doing good old-fashioned service. Oh yeah, our whole district is the same except for Elder Nilsson and Sora Moulton. Sora Moulton was born in California, but grew up in Utah. She went to BYU there, and actually has been to Romania before as a BYU student in Iasi working in orphanages. She and Elder Nilsson are both awesome additions to the district here. We had a district meeting on Friday. Elder Fonnesbeck is still the district leader. We talked about how we can be succesful missionaries. Success does not come from the numbers, key indicators, or baptisms. It comes from our own commitment and consecration to missionary work. It comes when we know we have the Spirit with us as much as possible. It comes when we are happy that we are doing all we can to serve the Lord. I have learned that it is not always so easy to do these things! But as I strive to do them, I am so much more happy, and I feel that I am succesful, regardless of baptisms or tons of investigators (sure, those things can be a result of working hard). It was a nice meeting.

    Elder Nilsson and I have done a little bit of park contacting. We haven't found any new promising investigators yet, but we hope to. We also plan on visiting a number of members this week and seeing if we can get any referrals from them, or if we could see if they know anyone that would like to stop smoking. We got a new, updated version of the stop-smoking program at our last zone conference. It would be cool if we ever had the opportunity to use it and help a few people try to stop smoking. I did it with two people in Bacau, but they were never really committed enough to quit. Church was nice on Sunday. We heard talks about courage and agency. We learned about the importance of prophets in Sunday school. When they tell us we need to do something, we need to do it, because when they speak, God speaks. We had a lesson about charity in Elder's Quorum. Flavian and Nicu (two of our RCLA's) came to church and stayed for all 3 hours! During sacrament, we sang (as a branch choir) "Let us Oft Speak Kind Words". It sounded really nice. A member named Fratele Nichifor (the guy who set up Elder Fonnesbeck and Knapp to sing in their concert) played the piano for us. He wrote his own arrangement for it. It sounded nice and a little swingy even. Finally, Elder Nilsson and I had a great lesson with Ana (our RC) the other day. We reviewed some commandments (the Word of Wisdom and Tithing) and talked about obedience. When God commands us to do something, we can always know that He also provides a way to do it. When we do our part, He blesses us. That's about it for my week.

   It's good to hear that everything at home is well. I hope that fire avoids Chris and Liz's house. That's too bad to hear that Wells Fargo is being a little stupid for them. Mom, I hope you're enjoying your break and all your shopping! Maybe you'd like to go shopping here when you guys come. I still want to get some more clothes and another suit. So I guess the house will be nice and blue-er by the time I get back. You guys are just painting it blue again, right? I'll miss having Elder Knapp in my district! It was a great time to be around him for the past while. I bet he's having a great time in Constanta. It's a nice branch there. Well, anyways, I think that's about it for this week. Keep it real and read your scriptures daily! I'm in Acts in the New Testament. I'm enjoying it a lot. See you later! Ciao!

Love, Elder Lee

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