WEEK 19

Slowest week of my Liiiiiiiife

It snowed here today. There are lights on the streets everywhere and huge Christmas trees. They have parades and dress up like bears and goats to scare away evil spirits or something. 

The trio is cool; New comps are cool. Sister Letinu is leaving on December 6th for Domincan Republic, so pretty soon. I remember zero Spanish and she speaks it fluently haha. 

Sister Letinu from Romania on the Left and Sister Yost from Hawaii on the Right

MARTI 22 NOIEMBRIE
So Tuesday morning at 11am my new companions got to the train station. Sora Yost is going home in February and Sora Letinu is Romanian and she's leaving to the Dominican Republic MTC on December 6th. I actually know Bacau better than I thought because we only got lost once. Not much happened on Tuesday.

Wednesday
We went grocery shopping. I got packages from my mom. Thanks for the Cheetos and poptarts like, for real, I was so happy. We had a lesson with a less active and his nonmember fiance and son. They showed us America's got talent videos for like an hour and we didn't know how to tell them to not do that so, oops. Not a super busy day.

Thanksgiving

I  made green bean casserole and lemon bars instead of studying. Then we visited Dan at his work. Then Thanksgiving lunch. It was pretty good. All the normal Thanksgiving food. We ate a ton and then went to visit Margo. She fed us another dinner and I thought we were going to explode. 

Friday
District meeting. Took a cab to one of our member's houses and the cab driver thought I was Moldovan and was really surprised that I was a Californian who'd only been in Romania for three months. Another boring useless day. We didn't do anything this week and it was kinda awful.

Saturday
We had our English class sign up day. 60 people signed up. I have no idea where they're all gonna sit because we only have forty five chairs. We ordered pizza because we were at the church from 10-2 and the pizza guy signed up for English and said he'd bring us a pizza to every class. Two hours later he snuck in the door and put a pizza on a chair and disappeared. It was the highlight of my week. 

Sunday
Our district president (the equivalent of a stake president in the states) was here on Sunday. It was good. We visited Kinga. She thinks a temple recommend is a visa to get to America. Uh, Nope. 

Monday
Had KFC. Sora Letinu went to the dentist. Not much happened.

I still love the Graffiti here.

Fun facts:
"I Want to Break Free" by Queen is on the radio ALL THE TIME here and I love it.
Sora Kitchen apparently bought fabric softener not actual detergent the last time we bought some so for the past few weeks my clothes have been really soft but not very clean.

Have a great week!


Sora Lucy Gleason
România/Moldova Mission
July 2016-January 2018

WEEK 18

Trio Trio Trio Whaaaaaat?

WELL, first of all before I do my weekly recap I know y'all all wanna hear about TRANSFERS! I'm staying in Bacau for another six weeks (I  pretty much already knew that), but I'm going to have two companions. Trio! One of my companions will be Sora Yost who just got done training my MTC companion. And the other will be... Sora Letinu! She's from Romania and she's serving here while she waits for her visa to go to the Dominican Republic (I think.)

ANYWAY.
MARTI 15 NOIEMBRIE (Tuesday)
So Tuesday morning we had apartment inspections! We passed with flying colors. That took up most of our morning, so afterward we just made tacos and had lunch. Sora Kitchen makes the tortillas and oh my goodness, they're so good. I forgot to get her recipe though and NOW SHE'S GONE AND I'M SAD but that's not about Tuesday. After lunch we weekly planned and then went to English early to meet with Tereza. She brought us pumpkin bread and it was awesome. Then Gabriela came to English early as well and sat in on our discussion about the plan of salvation! They're both Catholic. They talk a lot so we only got through half of it. Then it was English. I still hate English. Vlad came after and we had a member lesson with him. He brought cookies. 

MIERCURI 16 NOIEMBRIE (Wednesday)
Super full day because Sora Kitchen was saying goodbye to everyone. We had lunch with Andreea and then visited our friend Ella (she's 18) in the hospital. Romanian hospitals are so sketchy. They're like 85 degrees inside and there's no check in desk. You can just walk right in and up to the rooms. Nothing smells like antibacterial/antiseptic/clean stuff. It smells like rotting flesh. Patients provide their own food and everyone's IV looks infected and bloody. I never wanna go back. Then we visited the Balaseis. She gave us cake. Sora Kitchen tried to tell them my name is Gleason like Jackie Gleason (they cannot ever remember my name) and they were like who's Jackie Gleason? So she tried to explain that he acted with Lucille Ball. They didn't know who she was either. The conversation ended with Sora Balasei yelling "I LOVE YOU LUCY. TV SHOW. I LOVE YOU LUCY" in Fratele Balasei's ear because he's almost deaf. She yelled "I LOVE YOU LUCY" about a hundred times. I felt really loved. Also some random guy later that night started yelling (in English) that Trump is a traiter and he's with the Jews and should be burned, and also he was born in Pakistan. What?

JOI 17 NOIEMBRIE (Thursday)
We drove to a little town about 45 minutes away called Roman. We met with Dan and Nicolai to teach the restoration but they just asked us to take them to America. We said no.  FHE was a goodbye party for Sora Kitchen. The food was awesome and it was really fun. Also I heard that Trump refused his salary. Is this true? Why does the president even get paid? Who makes the president pay for stuff...?

VINERI 18 NOIEMBRIE (Friday) 
District meeting! The AP skyped in and made us do roleplays in Romanian. Ha. I was like, uhhhhh, whyyyyy do I have to do this? Then afterward he said that my Romanian was really good and he was really impressed and also I have a good accent. Score for me. We met with Bianca and she had made Sora Kitchen a goodbye cake. It was so cute. Visited Fratele Iancu who lives in the country. He's nice but eccentric. We ordered pizza for dinner that night and then after the pizza guy left he texted us a winky face. Ha. Probably won't be ordering from Luca's anymore..... It was a good day.

SAMBATA 19 NOIEMBRIE
Transfer boards came out! And then we taught English. We went and did an escape room with Andreea and Vlad and then had a mini goodbye party for Sora Kitchen.  It was really fun.

DUMINICA 20 NOIEMBRIE
I didn't write in my journal so I don't really remember. Uhhhh, yeah nothing. Wait. Church and then we came home and Sora Kitchen packed. I rearranged the furniture. We both cried. I miss her. We saw Dragos. He says hi.

LUNI 21 NOIEMBRIE
Sad sad sad day. We did a bunch of laundry and cleaned the apartment and had lunch with Andreea and met with Dragos and then took Sora Kitchen to the gara (train station) and she got on the train and now she's gone and I'm SO SAD.

 My new companions get here tomorrow so I'm staying with the senior couple tonight. They gave me cookies.


pa! va iubesc!

Threw this photo in even though it's old just to make you all jealous!

Sora Lucy Gleason
România/Moldova Mission
July 2016-January 2018

WEEK 17

I told a border agent I never wanted to go back to America...

MARTI 8 NOIEMBRIE (Tuesday)
So I just realized that I HATE when missionaries put stuff in their emails in their mission language without translating it, so Marti means Tuesday. Sorry about that. On Tuesday I really don't remember what I did because all I wrote in my journal was that Sora Kitchen and I had a fight about zacusca (Romanian food). Also we taught English and one of our students got offended because we were teaching sayings in English and one of them was "Elvis had left the building" and he didn't know who Elvis was, and then when we explained "you live under a rock" we used the example that if you don't know who Elvis is, you live under a rock. Not the best idea. Our student was mad. Oh well, guess Elvis isn't the king in Romania.

MIERCURI 9 NOIEMBRIE (Wednesday)
Today we traveled for EXCHANGES! We left Bacau at 9am with our senior couple to Iasi where they had to do apartment inspections. We went and grabbed lunch at KFC and then caught a maxitaxi to Chisinau, Moldova! The maxitaxi wasn't even a legit maxitaxi, it was just some creepy guy with a minivan full of old people and us. I'm pretty sure we helped him smuggle drugs across the border because he kept hiding this purple bag from the border agents. But it was fun! Donald Trump is our president. We got a text from one of our members that said "Donald Duck beat Hitler Clinton!". It was funny. It rained the whole way to Chisinau. We got there around 5 and met up with two of the sisters there and then went to dinner with three of their investigators. I GOT SUSHI. AND IT WAS AWESOME. AND IT ONLY COST LIKE FOUR AMERICAN DOLLARS. I thought I'd have to go a year and a half without sushi. It was the best day ever.

JOI 10 NOIEMBRIE (Thursday)
I did my exchange with Sora Nicol, who was actually at SUU at the same time I was! What a small world. She played volleyball there. In the morning we went block knocking. People in Moldova speak mostly Russian, and when they do speak Romanian they have a gnarly accent. So I understood absolutely nothing all day. And I had to take the bus for the first time in my whole mission and it was stressful and crowded. We went to lunch with the elders and one of their investigators. What's an elder???? I've been in a city with only sisters for like three months now. Elders are so alien to me. I had a burger. Then we went to the church to do something, I don't remember what. And I saw SORA LEE!!!! Oh man I missed her so much. But we both confessed that we don't actually read each others emails, we just look at the pictures, so she probably won't even see this ha. But if you're actually reading, hi Sora Lee! After that we went street contacting with the Russian elders. Chisinau is so much bigger than Bacau. I was just like "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh" the whole time. That night Sora Kitchen and I caught a maxitaxi to Iasi, but when we got there, there weren't any maxitaxis to Bacau. So we stayed the night at the Iasi sisters' apartment. I love them! Sora Rich and Sora Langenstein. They're awesome.
OH YEAH. I ALMOST GOT KICKED OUT OF ROMANIA. At the Romanian border the border agents were asking me about the election and I told them I was never going back to America and they were like.... where are you gonna go then??? and I was like uhhhhhhh I'm kidding haha please let me back in your country. They laughed it off thoug,h so it was allll good.

VINERI 11 NOIEMBRIE (Friday) 
Happy 11/11. Friday morning we caught a maxi back to Bacau. Actually first we bought donuts and almost missed our taxi and then the driver was like "you're not allowed to eat in here" so we had to sit with warm donuts on our lap for two hours and it was miserable. I was so hungry. But then we got back and had district meeting. We visited Vlad at work and then had dinner with Andreea. Then we came home and crashed because we were exhausted from traveling. 

SAMBATA 12 NOIEMBRIE (Saturday)
First thing we went to see Sora Dragomir at 11.

 She fed us. We had ciorba (soup--oh my gosh it's to die for) beans and sausage, and pickled watermelon which was actually AMAZING. Seriously, it was so good. Then we went to teach English and it was pretty cool. We had a new student named Gabriela who was SUPER cute and wants to meet with us :))) We're really excited. After English we went to the mall for late lunch because we had an appointment there later anyway. The mall on Saturday afternoon is SO CROWDED AND I HATE IT. Our appointment bunged us so we just went contacting in the mall. Does anyone remember that vine with the screaming toy chicken things at Walmart? WELL I FOUND ONE OF THOSE CHICKENS IN A STORE. And scared Sora Kitchen with it. And an old Romanian lady started laughing at us and said we were acting like children but that it was really cute. She was so nice but in a hurry so we couldn't talk, but it was funny. After that we went to see Vlad at work again. We visit him a lot so all the kids that hang out at his store know us and some of them are in love with us so we each got a rose from a ten year old and it was adorable. Then as a joke I got behind the counter except then Vlad actually made me do stuff. He was like "push this button and give him two lei now hand him this box" and that's the story of how I sold a guy cigarettes on my mission. Whoops. 

DUMINICA 13 NOIEMBRIE (Sunday)
I didn't write in my journal on Sunday so let's see if I remember everything. I went to church. It was good. After church we went to the senior couple's house to grab some stuff and we saw this ADORABLE litter of puppies so of course we played with them and it was so much fun. 

Then we went with our senior couple to go visit a member named Kinga who lives in a village about 45 minutes away. She's so cool. 

After that we came back to Bacau and it was snowing SO HARD. Thankfully nothing stuck but wow, I still hate winter. We visited Alin and then saw Dragos. He says hi. Then we had dinner with the Alemans. They made mac and cheese and it was great. Nothing like our mac and cheese disaster. Then we came home and that was basically it.

LUNI 14 NOIEMBRIE (Monday)
Today we went grocery shopping and then had lunch with Andreea and then went in an orthodox church and then came to email. Dragos came with us and that's why this is so late. It was a really good week :)

Sora Kitchen goes home next week and it's transfers and I'll be in Bucuresti probably for like a day so I don't know if/when I'll email next week sooooooo if you don't hear from me it's ok, I'm not dead.

Good luck with President Trump!

Also, who won the world series?

Sora Lucy Gleason
România/Moldova Mission
July 2016-January 2018

WEEK 16

There was literally a hole in the baptismal font....

MARTI 1 NOIEMBRIE
First of all I can't really believe it's November already. I feel like I just barely left, but here I am at almost four months... crazy. On Tuesday I finally got my visa! It's adorable. I'm actually smiling in my picture and it's so cute. Now I'm legal to stay here for two more years! Then we went to go see Vlad at work. He works behind the piata (like a farmer's market) so while we were walking through that to get to him, Sora Kitchen bought a bunch of beeswax candles and a giant wooden fork. She's leaving in two weeks and her suitcases are overweight. I don't know why she keeps buying stuff. We also bought zacusca from a really sweet old lady and she ended up giving us like six squashes for free. We don't know what to do with them. Then we found out that Bacau actually didn't have a baptismal font hidden in the basement, and we had a baptismal date like five days away. So we freaked out a little. But they said they were sending a font up. Then we had a lesson and I swear this lady switches back and forth from Italian to Romanian and talks so dang fast because I understood NOTHING. Then we taught English. I still really hate teaching English.

Cool Grafiti

MIERCURI 2 NOIEMBRIE
Rough day. Crazy former investigator somehow got our number again and called us and harassed us. We had to wait all day at the church for the delivery people to get there with the font. They never showed up. We didn't do anything else.

My Winter Coat

JOI 3 NOIEMBRIE
We had to wait for the delivery people again. We met with a few members. We ordered a pizza and it got to the church at the same time as the font delivery people. Awkward. Then family home evening! The members wanted to watch Surf's Up so we watched Surf's Up. It feels really weird to watch movies as missionaries. I don't enjoy it but a) we have to go to FHE and b) the members just wanna watch movies. Then we went to the gara (train station) to pick up Margo! She was baptized in Bucuresti a year ago. Sora Kitchen taught her, actually. She just moved to Bacau and we're SO excited to have her!! She's so great. 

VINERI 4 NOIEMBRIE
One of the pieces of the font didn't get delivered and we had to fix it. There was a hole. Oh joy. 

Elder Aleman doesn't understand that Margo (new member) speaks English so he said some really rude things in front of her about her. I ate a mango.

SAMBATA 5 NOIEMBRIE
Printed programs for Dragos' baptism. Wrote my talk for the baptism. Fixed the hole in the font. Taught English.
Dragos got baptized! 

It was so great. I cried. Sister Kitchen cried. Two of our investigators came and said it was really cool.  As soon as he got out of the water he smiled and said "I am a Mormon!" It was awesome. He bore his testimony and it was SO GOOD. 

On a lighter note--totally unrelated,  Vlad spilled juice on his pants and it looked like he peed himself. It was a great day.

DUMINICA 6 NOIEMBRIE
Fasting is great and all but I get so dang cranky when I don't eat. But it was a good day. Dragos bore his testimony again. The whole meeting was awesome. After church Dragos wanted to come street contacting with us. He kept telling us the best way to do it but then he got scared and didn't talk to anyone. It was kinda funny. Sora Kitchen and I went home and planned, and then we went over to the Alemans for dinner. Dragos came too. We had weird rice casserole. It was good though. Then we came home. Good day.

LUNI 7 NOIEMBRIE
We mailed some stuff (sorry, the only people getting letters this week are my parents and Mikey), payed bills, had lunch, cleaned, and then came to email. The Alemans were using the computers at the church.....

AND THAT WAS MY WEEK.

Sora Lucy Gleason
România/Moldova Mission
July 2016-January 2018