WEEK 10

Earthquakes are fun Actually!

MARȚI 20 SEPTEMBRIE

On Tuesday it was raining. We went to lunch with Andreea (our favorite member in Bacau)!  Then she helped us with my visa stuff. We had to change Romanian Lei into Euro and then back into Lei to prove it was the right amount of money... kind of weird. Then our senior couple gave us calamari that they bought thinking it was onion rings. 'Twas an interesting day. Also, we got happy meals.

MIERCURI 21 SEPTEMBRIE

On Wednesday we went adventure contacting--which basically means we got lost in Bacau and no one wanted to talk to us. We had an appointment with a less active member but it fell through so our senior couple bought us more happy meals and Sora Kitchen wouldn't stop singing that song that's like "DO YOU REMEMBER THE 21ST NIGHT OF SEPTEMBER?"

JOI 22 SEPTEMBRIE

We had to go with Sora Aleman (senior missionary) to help her get a haircut. It was.... interesting. Then we had lunch with Andreea again. She's a translator for the church and she's helping to translate conference and is really stressed about it. It sounds like the coolest job ever though. For branch FHE, we had KAROKE NIGHT! It was so much fun, and Dragos came. Our branch president was so funny when it was his turn. Definitely a night to remember. AND THEN! A MIRACLE! Dragos called us when we got home and I set up an appointment for the next day in Romanian all by myself. It was great. And I found a laser pointer and a remote controlled car in our apartment. 

VINERI 23 SEPTEMBRIE

Friday! We had district meeting at our apartment and we made the Alemans squid and squash and a bomb salad a la me with spinach and pomegranate seeds and almonds and feta cheese and it was great. We worked on our area book and called a ton of former investigators. Our fridge broke but we fixed it. We went contacting in the park but then it started to rain and Romanians are like cats: they HATE rain. So then we just came home and did area book again.

SAMBATA 24 SEPTEMBRIE

On Friday night at 2 am there was an EARTHQUAKE! I'm from CA but I've never felt an earthquake before. It woke me up and I thought Sora Kitchen was just kicking my bed and I was really annoyed. But nope, earthquake. Two of our members called us to make sure we were okay which was really nice.

Yes, you have to document it--even at 2am!

Sora Kitchen was scared to go back to bed though so she got in my bed and then five minutes later starts laughing and says "if there's another earthquake and we die, they'll find us in the same bed and that would be weird" and gets back in her bed. Maybe you had to be there, but it was really funny. The next notable thing that day was English class. Dragos came! and Elder Aleman (senior elder) had the spiritual thought. He meant to share Mormon 9:7-9 and instead he read Moroni 9:7-9--in Romanian.... one is about prophets. the other is about cannibalism and murder and other fun things. Thankfully we stopped him before it got too bad. Then we went to McDonald's again. I'm gonna get so fat here. Actually I'm losing weight but I eat horribly... being young is great :) Anyway so then we went to visit a member who's in the hospital but he doesn't want anyone to know he's sick so I'm withholding the name. Then we had a lesson with Dragos.

Winter Boots and Turtlenecks!

DUMINICA 25 SEPTEMBRIE

So we had two investigators at church! Dragos and Cris. And Sora Kitchen and I both had to speak in sacrament. I talked about the atonement. In Romanian. It was okay. After that, we went to visit our member in the hospital again. I read him my talk and then we talked about patience. At one point, an old man in pajamas with a covrig (pretzel) in one hand and a catheter bag in the other walked past us and said (in Romanian) "You should take these beautiful girls to a coffee shop or a bakery, not a bench in a hospita,l" and then smiled creepily and walked over to the window. It was hilarious. We had another lesson with Dragos and it went really well! He talked about the church with a boy he lives with at his student housing and the other guy threw his cigarettes away because of it.

LUNI 26 SEPTEMBRIE

Today we went shopping (for winter clothes and  groceries) and then basically did nothing else because it's P-Day. I love Romania and anyone in a different mission should just be sad because it's not Romania. 

Love y'all! Have a great week!

Sora Lucy Gleason

România/Moldova Mission

July 2016-January 2018

WEEK 9

Well would you look at that--

It's a picture that has both me and President Uchtdorf in it.... I also got to shake his hand..... He said that Stockton is a beautiful city and that my smile was beautiful. Are you jealous? You should be :)   For my nonmormon friends on here: Dieter F. Uchtdorf is a member of the First Presidency of our church and is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the coolest ever; look him up!

On Tuesday we met with a girl named Ella who's a potential investigator. She speaks English and swears a lot but is super cool. She's a senior in high school. we also taught English class on Tuesday. I don't like teaching English class because  I'm like.... no that's not right that's not what the verb infinitive is, that's spelled wrong, etc., but I don't speak enough Romanian to teach it myself. 

Wednesday I don't really remember.

Thursday we had a meeting with our branch president. He's going through the temple in October and is SO excited about it. He's spending three days there and is gonna do hecka family names and it's so cool. We also had FHE and we just watched Tarzan and ate cookies because that's what the members wanted... so kinda coo,l actually.

Friday we had district meeting and then went on a wild goose chase to find an HDMI cord. They don't exist here--at least not the kind we needed.  We met with Cris, an investigator who only really meets with us because his self-help book said he needs to widen his circle of friends, but it was fun. He just graduated from nursing school and decided he wants to be a computer programmer so he's starting school over. The senior couple made us lunch on Friday and it was HAMBURGER HELPER. ARE YOU SERIOUS?

Dragos is doing okay and so's Bianca. Both are kinda stuck because he's only sixteen and his family situation is complicated; and Bianca wants to finish the whole Book of Mormon before she's baptized and is only about 100 pages in (it's like 660 pages in Romanian).  We do street contacting mostly because everyone lives in apartment buildings. It's raining here today :)

Saturday I was a little sick so the first thing we did was English class at noon. It was cool because one of our students brought us food, then we cleaned the church and our appointment fell through; so I practiced piano at the church. It was district conference and Dragos came! It was a super weird district conf. (stake conf. except we don't have a stake), but it was still good. Then we did language study and had dinner and planned and that was it.

Sunday we had more district conf. and no one came except like 2 people. Still good though. Then we had lunch and did language study, then we met with Claudia and Alexandra (new investigators) at the park. Claudia is golden and Alexandra... isn't. We'll see how that goes. They're both nurses who speak perfect English. The only investigator we have who doesn't speak perfect English is Dragos but he still understands it perfectly. It's hard to learn the language when NO ONE SPEAKS IT--EVER.

Then today is Monday. We paid our bills and went to a bookstore and did laundry (there's a washer in our apartment. It's great. We just have to hang everything to dry).  Today for lunch I had a Covrigul Haiducesc. It's basically a stuffed soft pretzel with cream cheese and ham and onions. It's the best one on the menu, in my opinion.  There's hecka snickers bars here, and in Moldova you can get snickers with hazelnuts. Sora Kitchen has a giant box of them and they're so good. 

My trainer is the coolest. She listens to old Train and can quote Arthur and loves Cool Runnings and it's the best. she reminds me of my real mom and it's awesome.

Now we're emailing. 

Happy Monday.

Sora Lucy Gleason

România/Moldova Mission

July 2016-January 2018

WEEK 8

This was a way better week. 

Yes, I shook President Uchtdorf's hand and he said he's been to Stockton before..... I was like bro you must be confused, but it was really cool. He says hi by the way. He literally said to tell my family hello from him, and thanks for supporting your missionary. So that's way cool. We had to take a sleeper train to Bucharest and that was an adventure. Really fun actually, and then mission conf. and we went to Brasov IN TRANSYLVANIA! which is (so I've heard), the only pretty city in Romania. It really is super pretty.

Peles Castle in Sanaia

With Kitchen--my mission mom!

The courtyard inside the castle

What else?......... well-- covrig is delicious (google it.)  oh and also: We got to have dinner at one of our investigator's houses (Bianca, she's 18 and adorable) and Romanian food is delicious and they had GREEN PEACHES! They were better than our peaches.... produce here is way better and her uncle did the European cheek kiss thing when we were leaving. kinda weird, but cool. 

We went to the mall today. 'Twas fun. The branch is super great. I'm happier today. Sorry I was so sick and crazy last week.

There were 20 people at church which is GREAT. Our speakers were an old missionary from 5 years ago and his wife who came back to visit, and Andreea, who's a translator for the church, so she gets to read conference talks early to translate them! She talked about Uchtdorf's visit and it was really cool. Our investigators are all doing great.  The senior couple is really nice and they drive us around.

Sora Lucy Gleason

România/Moldova Mission

July 2016-January 2018

WEEK 7

UGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH
This week was crazy and I might explode!

Here's where Bacau is!

I'm  sick and had a fever of 100.4 on my second day in Bacau. So that's fun. 
So I'll answer all the questions in this letter:

Is the branch large in Bacau?

No, we have like 15 members.

How is the food? 
Food is normal because we cook it ourselves.

How are the people with whom you are serving?  
It's just me and Kitchen and a senior couple in Bacau and it's cool.

Where is Sis Kitchen from? 
Centerville, Utah. She's nice but she's going home as soon as she's done training me.

Are you over your jet-lag yet?
Yes.

Did any of your district get sent to the same area as you?  

No.

How many missionaries are serving in Bacau? 
See above.

Did anyone get sent to Moldova? 
Yeah, like three people.

How far is Bacau from Bucharest? 
5 hours by train.

How did you get from Bucharest to Bacau? 
Train.

How is your  apartment?  
So nice, looks like a crackhouse on the outside but the inside is really nice.

It's huge actually, and yeah, it's just us. There's a washing machine in our kitchen which is nice. 

Church is 2 hours long.  My feet are fine.  I've taken pictures, but I don't know how to send them yet.

Romania is really dirty and everyone smokes. There's trash everywhere and so far the whole country reminds me of San Francisco. I'm sure I'll learn to love it.  We have mission conference on Wednesday and Thursday and since I'm in the east of the country no temple dedication for me. Our branch is tiny (like 12 people including us and the old missionaries) and it's so windy here. 

We went grocery shopping today and that's about it. I'm in the branch president's office to do my email.

This is probably going to be my last group email because it's really stressful to try to respond to everyone and also write a long group email so hi everyone, bye everyone, i hope you're having fun in America.

Sora Lucy Gleason

România/Moldova Mission

July 2016-January 2018

WEEK 6

Radio Silence

Still no word from Lucy, but we have proof of life, lol.

And her trainer's name--Kitchen.

Bless whoever sent them to us.