First Week In Romania

Hello, hello, hello! Thank you for the e-mails. I really appreciate them! Please continue that practice :)

Hopefully I remember to respond to everything. Ready, set, go!

So far Romania seems like an awesome place to be. Turns out talking to people in a language that isn't your own is extremely scary, which is why I've only done it like once. I am grateful for the patience of my companion. All the members refer to me as boboaca. I'm not sure if that's how it's spelled, but it means duckling. So I can't understand a ton of what they're saying, but I know whenever they talk about me because I'll hear boboaca.  Well, at least I'm being noticed. Ha ha.

Tuesday afternoon I arrived in Bucherest after way too much time of being on a plane (three planes actually). Our mission president and his wife met us after baggage claim. They are so nice! We had to take care of some stuff (visas, quick medical visit where they just checked my blood pressure really). I had my first soarma! That was magically delicious. We had interviews with the President and Sora Hill. After all of that, we went to the mission home where we had dinner.

I feel like my story telling skills are lacking, but I'm not sure how much time I have left. Maybe I'll just throw in some more caps and exclamation points.

AFTER DINNER I MANAGED NOT TO DIE ON THE METRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, that's definitely more exciting. Sora Stewart and I went with a couple of sisters to their apartment. So we got on the metro and walked a ways. Oh by the way, there are a lot of dogs here. Stray dogs. Not to pet and cuddle with dogs. Most of the ones I've seen so far seem nice and are really pretty. There's not as many in Timisoara, but I definitely saw a bunch in Bucherest. There's a story behind it, but I don't know exactly what it is. You should look it up.

I was pretty much dead by the time we got to the apartment.  Sleeping on airplanes is really hard... There were a bunch of sisters there that night because of transfers. Pretty much, a good chunk of the mission has to travel to Bucharest to switch and go to their appointed places. So I got an air mattress on the kitchen floor. I didn't mind. I was pretty much out the moment I laid down.

In the morning, we headed to a park, which is where that picture was taken with me and the mission president. We sang some hymns and President Hill read the dedication of the Romania mission. There was a guy there who stopped to listen to us as we sang. He then sang a couple of hymns for us. It was really cool. Oh, that's actually when we went to get visa stuff... Days just sort of run together.

After that, we got paired up with our new companions. Mine is Sora Heim who is also from Washington. We headed to the train station after that, but we still had plenty of time before our train left, so we went to a baptism. That was cool. I rode in my first taxi ever. So many adventures already happening! We almost missed our train because we left it left an hour later than it did. We got back 15 minutes before it was meant to leave. Oops. It was a sleeper train. Another first! I was so grateful for that. I think I'm getting over the jet lag now. I hope... I've never had to fight so hard in my life to keep my eyes open!

The next morning, we arrived in Timisoara. I haven't taken a ton of pictures yet as mostly I was concerned with not losing my companion and such. My goal is to take more though. There's some really awesome cathedrals here! So pretty! You'll have to see those next week. We use buses a lot to get around. We haven't been able to teach people yet as our phone was misplaced and we couldn't contact anyone. Turns out the phone was left in the mission office. They sent it to us and we'll be getting it today. We have been doing some contacting for an English class we'll be starting on Saturday. Apparently a good portion of our investigators come from that. We've also been doing some service things. We cleaned the church, visited one of the members who is sick, and gave the branch president's wife a little Romanian lesson. So the branch president and his wife are missionaries so they're learning the language too. That kind of makes me feel better that I'm not learning it alone.

In case you were wondering, Mom, the water filter is attached to the faucet, so don't worry. No intestinal bugs will be coming home with me :)

I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father, and I know that I don't have to go through hard things alone. With him we can do all things that are required of us. He will give us the strength we need if we turn to Him. I was reading in 3 Nephi this morning. After the sign of Christ's death, but before His actual appearance, the voice of Christ is heard. In chapter 9, He asks if they will come unto Him and repent so that He may heal them. In chapter 10, He says something to the effect of "how often would I gather thee like a hen gathers her chickens, but ye would not." He then goes on to say that we need to follow Him, repent, and he will gather us. I really liked these two chapters, and realized that Christ invites us to come to Him all the time. He wants to heal us. He wants to bless us, but we've got to do our part. We have to trust Him, rely on Him, repent, and do the best that we can. But sometimes, despite His invitation, we don't turn to Him. We try to make it on our own or think that we can't come to Him for whatever reason. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us. That knowledge gives me strength. They know our concerns, desires, and struggles. They will help us in all things. Let us turn to them more often!

I'm sure I forgot something. If I did, write me again! Oh, I'm really sorry to hear about Chinchin. Josh and Heather, I love you both and I hope you are doing okay. Also, congratulations with the job and graduation!

Love you all!