WEEK 26

ONE MORE YEAR

It's been warmer this week. Friday it was 0 (celsius. so 32) so that was good.

MARTI 10 IANUARIE
So we went to go visit a member named Erika. She has a two year old daughter who's absolutely adorable! And she speaks Hungarian and Romanian. That's pretty common in Cluj since it's so close to the Hungarian border. I actually saw a street sign the other day that said Budapest was only 400 km away. Crazy. Anyway, so after that we went to KFC for lunch and heard this old lady speaking English with an American accent. So we asked her where she was from. She got kind of annoyed and then found out we were  Mormons and got even more annoyed. The guy she was eating lunch with was actually her English student and then he found out we taught free English classes and exchanged numbers. The old American lady was really unhappy. We stole her English student. Whoops. Then we had English class. It was a lot better here than in Bacau. I don't hate teaching English anymore! Then we stayed after for a little while Felicia (recent convert) cut the branch president's hair. It was interesting.

MIERCURI 11 IANUARIE
We went block knocking! We have these tablet things that hold three videos so we use them when we block knock and show videos to people. Well, mine died and Sora Vann didn't have her and we didn't have anything else except a Book of Mormon. So we were like, well, we could just offer people a free book. So we did, and this one lady let us teach her the whole restoration on her doorstep and she accepted a Book of Mormon. She wouldn't give us her number though. When we got home, my video flyer was at 100% battery. So obviously that lady really needed the Book of Mormon. Then we visited Sora Sumurducan. She's awesome and I really like her. 

JOI 12 IANUARIE
We went to the mall to do language study and ended up talking to a guy named Jonathan who went to Mormon church while he was in the US Military to get out of cleaning duties on Sundays. He approached us and said we were the first Mormons he'd seen in Romania. He's atheist but he also said if he had to pick a church, it would be the Mormons because we're the most interesting. So that was a cool conversation. Then he said he had an Irish friend who'd be interested in talking to the Mormons but then he started laughing and said "there's no way that guy would ever stop drinking. I mean, he's Irish!" and he just lost it laughing. He also told me that God won't let me die on my mission because duh, I'm a servant of God. So it was cool that an Atheist guy said that. Even though it was sarcastic. Then we got bunged three times in a row. But we met a cool guy named Rares! He approached us and tried to get us to sign up for a credit card but we ended up talking about English classes instead. He came to English on Saturday and then asked if our church was open to all people. We said of course! and invited him to come. AND HE CAME! He loved it and the elders are meeting with him this week and we're all really excited about him. He's going to be something special. Good day.

VINERI 13 IANUARIE
FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH! Another weird district meeting. Then games night with some investigators. We played some weird game of Elder Wagner's called Munchkin or something.  I don't remember much else from Friday.

SAMBATA 14 IANUARIE
English class! We got there early and ordered a pizza. It was great. Then English... and Rares came! but I already talked about that. After English, the branch president's son was getting baptized so we helped Sora Iepure (the branch president's wife) make sandwiches. She's pregnant and was really frazzled about the baptism, but it was so great. Then we came home and our landlord delivered a new dresser because the other one is super broken. So we had to rearrange furniture. Then we realized our panini grill was broken. Sad day.

DUMINICA 15 IANUARIE
Holy crap this was such a crazy day. So church was fine. But then after church we were supposed to go to a member's house for lunch with all the elders. But this member is a guy so we're not allowed to go over there alone. But the elders had to help the branch president with tithing after church. But our ride all the way out to  nowhere where the member lived was leaving after church. So we got there an hour early and then had to wander around in the cold IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE while we waited for the elders. But they took FOREVER. we were supposed to be there at 1:30 but didn't get there until 4 and I felt so bad. The elders picked us up at Profi and then drove us to his house with Sora Vann riding in the trunk. Except we got really lost. But the food was good and the member was really happy to have us there. He's just lonely. Also we played darts and Elder Paterson missed the dartboard but hit the wall. He's interesting. Then on the way home we were out of gas and it's a 45 minute drive. Literally the gas thing was beeping and the arrow was under the empty line. Elder Paterson has slight road rage. It was an interesting day. That lunch appointment took OUR ENTIRE DAY. 

LUNI 16 IANUARIE
So today is Sora Vann's halfway mark! And I officially have ONE YEAR LEFT on my mission! So we were going to celebrate by getting our nails done. But..... apparently we needed an appointment. We're gonna do it next week instead. Then lunch with a member named Alex and the elders. The elders talked Alex into going paint-balling with us in two weeks (if we hang out with the elders we need to have a member there so they really wanted her to come so we could come too) and then she also said she'd pay so in two weeks i'm going paint-balling. I'm gonna die. 

That was really the whole week! Love y'all!!

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