WEEK 32

fryd chikin an biskits

MARTI 21 FEBRUARIE
SUCH A GREAT DAY, OH MY GOODNESS!  I don't remember at all what we did in the morning, but before English we met with Teo and talked with her about her Book of Mormon reading. She had some questions and we had some answers. We talked a lot about how and when answers come from God, and just because we have to wait for them doesn't mean they won't come. We talked about God's love for everyone, seriously though, like if you're reading this right now, God loves you. We also talked about how the world is moving far away from God, which is sad because that's where true happiness is. (Teo said all that. She's so golden.) And then we popped the question. And Teo set a date to be baptized! We're really excited. She's such an amazing person and we love her so much. Then English. We had a butt ton of people. Our room was so full. I still hate English. Then we had dinner at the other sisters' apartment. Pasta with pesto. It was yum.

MIERCURI 22 FEBRUARIE
Wednesday! We updated our area book and found one of our less active member's teaching record. I think I've talked about Sora Sumurducan before. Well, we found her record. We've been trying to visit her again for the past three weeks but she was dodging our calls. So we decided we needed to just go see her. Especially after reading her record... she just needs a lot of love! But that didn't happen until the evening. So morning we found her record and then went to CORRELATION MEETING! This was the first time ever because we finally have a branch mission leader! It was GREAT. 
Then we visited Sora Kiss and had a good visit with her and her kids. Then we came home and made dinner because it's the end of the month and the mission office still hasn't refunded our bills so we are broke as a joke and can't eat out. Anyway, so we made fried chicken and biscuits and gravy and it was sooo good. Then Sora Vann thought I was crazy because I was like, yo, we need to take our leftovers to Sora Sumurducan RIGHT NOW. She was like noooo I want it for breakfast tomorrow! But the thought wouldn't leave me so we ended up taking Sora Sumurducan our very American leftovers. And she was so happy! She said that we always call while she is at work and then she forgets to call back and that she misses us. She's really sad though because she said the missionaries who taught her went home and forgot about her. So I've made it my goal to love the heck out of her for the rest of her life because she just feels abandoned. It was so sad :(

JOI 23 FEBRUARIE
Thursday we had to go shoe shopping because Sora Vann's shoes broke completely and it's been raining, so her feet were just constantly soaked. That took the morning. Then lunch, and then we went to visit the Iepure family but they weren't home. So we contacted for a little bit and then headed to our next appointment out in the middle of nowhere. It was fun. Her 18 month old son kept giving me straws and he didn't give Sora Vann any and she was jealous :) Then dinner. 

VINERI 24  FEBRUARIE
District meeting! It was okay. Then lunch. Then I don't remember. Then we met with Teo again for Thai food because she caught up to Sora Vann in the Book of Mormon so we celebrated. I got pad thai and you get to choose how spicy you want it and I said cel mai spicy (that means the most) but I think he thought I wasn't serious because it wasn't spicy de loc. Still delicious though. Then games night! No one came. So that stunk. We just went contacting instead. Slow day. 

SAMBATA 25 FEBRUARIE
Cleaned the church. Taught English! I forgot I had told a student I would explain the continuous tenses this time, but of course he remembered. So I completely, on the spot, taught all the simple and continuous tenses and the context in which they're used completely out of my butt without preparation at all, but it went really well. I still hate English. Then we weekly planned because we forgot to on Thursday. I don't remember what else. 

DUMINICA 26 FEBRUARIE
Sunday! Church was good. We went district contacting in the park. No one would talk to me. But then we went block-knocking and we got three numbers! We knocked into a family that already had a Book of Mormon from six years ago! We got their number and an invitation back :) I love block-knocking.

LUNI 27 FEBRUARIE
Today we cleaned our apartment. I thought the paint on our cabinets had just worn away so you could see the wood poking through the grain in some places but nope it was just dirt. Ew. So I spent an hour scrubbing our cabinets with a toothbrush because who knows when the last time was that they were clean. Now they're white again :) Then we went to the mall because I needed to buy a lighter jacket for spring because it's getting hot here and by hot I mean 50 degrees. Then lunch; then emailing. We're grocery shopping tomorrow because that's when we get more money, so yay, only have to be poor for 12 more hours.

Have a great week everyone!

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

WEEK 31

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

MARTI 14 FEBRUARIE
First we went to the gara (train station) to pick up Sora Falkenberg and Sora Simmons at 7 in the morning. It was cold. 

No photos this week so this is a stock shot from the internet.

Then we went grocery shopping. Daniela was in town and Sora Vann wanted to see her so we went to lunch with her. We went block-knocking. We realized after the first 20 doors that block-knocking on Valentine's Day wasn't the best idea... I had completely forgotten it was even Valentine's Day. 

MIERCURI 15 FEBRUARIE
I don't remember much of what we did on Wednesday. No one was free to meet with us so it was just a day of unsuccessful contacting. 

JOI 16 FEBRUARIE
We went to see Erika! We split our visit and spent 30 minutes talking to Erika and then 30 minutes playing with Isabela and speaking in English (she's two) because Erika wants her to learn English. She watches English cartoons and sings English songs. It's so cute. Then KFC! Then we met with Herecleea. It was a good meeting except at one point we were talking about different grading systems and I asked Herecleea what the average grade was here and she totally doesn't know what that means.... It wasn't a language barrier thing, she speaks perfect English and I translated it into Romanian after she didn't get it.... she's just 17 and doesn't know what an average is.  After that we did language study at the bookstore and I was reading the Bible in Romanian and I just could not keep my eyes open... So I grabbed a copy of the Romanian constitution off one of the shelves and read that instead. It was awesome. I miss legal stuff #mocktrial4ever.  Then we met with Teo! She's doing great. But we've decided that we're going to pick our meeting places from now on instead of her... because this time she picked an awesome little cafe that doubled as a hookah bar. Oh Teo.

Again, no photos, but this is a cafe in Cluj online that fit the bill.

VINERI 17 FEBRUARIE
District meeting. eh. Then Sora Bian! The new sisters wanted to come with us so the whole thing was awkward because they both just talked the whole time and didn't leave Sora Vann or I any room to say anything. I love them, but I don't like sharing my city. Also during language study in the bookstore, guess what song I heard? Soul Man by The Blues Brothers. So random, but it made my day.

SAMBATA 18 FEBRUARIE
We cleaned the church. The new soras walked all over Sora Vann's freshly mopped floor because they just couldn't wait ten minutes to take the trash out. I'm trying to be like Jesus but bro it's hard. We met with Maria Militaru and her mom and brother. They're great. Her mom gave us sarmale and supa to take home :)) also a lot of fruit because I mentioned that I was craving fruit lately. She's the sweetest lady. 

DUMINICA 19 FEBRUARIE
Church was fine. We got stuck in branch council for 90 minutes. It would have been fine minus the  calls to repentance. Then! Oh boy. I'm trying to be like Jesus. A certain member invited us over for dinner, but the last time we went we got stuck there for four hours and his food made me sick and he makes uncomfy remarks to the sister missionaries so Sora Vann and I didn't want to go. And the elders and other sisters kind of guilted us about it a little and made me at least feel like I was a bad missionary for telling him we had other plans, which we did! Ahhhh. This is going to be a rough transfer. 

LUNI 20 FEBRUARIE
Today we waited around all day to help the sisters move because it was supposed to happen in the morning but it didn't. I'm so frustrated. Is it really that hard to think about how your lack of planning affects other people?? Okay, I'm trying to be like Jesus. They're lovely people, but their actions are frustrating.

Have a great week!

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

WEEK 30

Every single day this week we had an appointment with the elders?????

Our District and Gorgeous Teo

MARTI 7 FEBRUARIE
So on Tuesday we went to the airport because the mother of one of Sora Vann's recent converts was flying into Cluj and Sora Vann wanted to go see her. She got baptized in Switzerland a few months ago and she is SO SWEET. Then we went to Panemar and grabbed lunch. I had a salad. Fun fact: I don't hate olives anymore. Random. We taught English and we only have two students right now so that's horrible. Especially because they're old. Not that there's anything wrong with old people. They're just not the most relatable students. After that we made ciorba  (a general Romanian word describing sour soups consisting of various vegetables and meat)  with the elders and had ciorba night. It was delicious.

MIERCURI 8 FEBRUARIE
We went to go see Erika and her daughter Isabela in the morning. Erika told us that there was a tornado in Louisiana. Is that true? Then we went to Pizza Hut with the elders and Robert, their awesome investigator, for Elder Wagner's birthday. He's only 19. That's crazy. Anyway so Robert speaks perfect English. I mean I thought he was American the first time I met him. So all six missionaries ordered their food in Romanian. And then Robert, the only Romanian at the table, ordered in English. It was funny. Then we went block-knocking! And we had SUCH a great experience. After MUCH rejection, we found a mom and her teenage daughter who invited us in and we were able to share the entire restoration and give them a Book of Mormon! And Cristina, the mom, invited us back another time when her husband would be home too. So that was a super great night :) Then we went to go see the Iepure family! Sora Iepure's baby is due in June and she's starting to show and it's adorable. They have two crazyyyy sons already and are really hoping for a daughter now. They fed us supa (Súpa comes from the ancient Latin word suppa which literally means "bread soaked in brothand mamaliga.  (Mămăligă is a porridge made out of yellow maize flour, traditional in Romania, Moldova, and Western Ukraine)    'Twas yum.

JOI 9 FEBRUARIE
We weekly planned and then all of our appointments for the day cancelled on us. Which turned out to be a good thing because the sisters from Arad were coming up Thursday night to stay with us for zone conference on Friday, so we were actually able to let them into our house when they got there early. It was Sora Roberts and Sora Purtschert staying with us and they're a ton of fun. That night we had a dinner appointment with a member and all the elders and she fed us so much food! I ended up putting half of my chicken on Elder Paterson's plate haha. He was a trooper though and finished it for me. Sora Constantin is so fun. She has the cutest laugh ever and is just such a happy person. It was a fun appointment.

VINERI 10 FEBRUARIE
We went to the airport early Friday morning because Sora Vann's convert Daniela was flying into Cluj to see her mom! Sora Vann was so excited to see her. But who else did we see at the airport at 7:30 in the morning? OUR MISSION PRESIDENT WHO WAS FLYING IN FOR ZONE CONFERENCE. Technically, I don't think we were breaking any rules by being out early to see a recent convert, but we were still grateful that he didn't notice/recognize us. Whoops. 

Then it was zone conference all day which was great. The  people that present are the ZLs and STLs and the Ivorys. It's more like a giant interactive group discussion, but I did have to get up and go through the sequencing chart with an elder from my mtc group and an elder one transfer behind me. The sequencing chart is basically just a bunch of lines from pmg in Romanian that we're supposed to memorize so we can keep the doctrine of the lesson in the right order. It's not a memorized discussion, more like a memorized outline in case we get lost.
After zone conference we went bowling (all six Cluj missionaries) with Alex (a member) and the missionaries from Oradea (two elders and two sisters) because it was Elder Wagner (Cluj) and Elder Boud (Oradea) 's birthday! I'm still horrible at bowling. 

SAMBATA 11 FEBRUARIE
Transfer boards came out! I'm staying in Cluj with Sora Vann for another six weeks. Elder Oak is staying here and he's going to get Elder Broberg. Cochran and Paterson got transferred to the Arizona mission adica ( that is to say, in other words ...)  they went home. And Elder Wagner is going to Bacau because there's elders there now. And we're getting another companionship of sisters! Sora Falkenberg and Sora Simmons. It's gonna be fun. So then we taught English. Then lunch with Carla. We ended up talking to her for three hours about life and such. I really like her. I'm glad we're building a friendship with her. Then we went over to Teo's house to make spring rolls with her and two of the elders. The elders were late. Also Teo has the biggest dog I've ever seen. It's a Romanian Mioritic Shepherd Dog or something and it's HUGE. 

Also Elder Oak was the only Asian one at our dinner and he was also the only one who could not for the life of him roll a spring roll. 

DUMINICA 12 FEBRUARIE
SO MANY PEOPLE AT CHURCH! It was branch conference and President Ivory was there so everyyyyyone came. It was really good though. Teo and Herecleea were both there! Teo got to meet the Ivorys and she thinks they're the best. Robert came and he spoke Italian with Sora Ivory. It was cool. That afternoon we went to see Sora Iusan. She reminds me so much of my Grandma Sherry and it made me really homesick. She's hilarious. And she gave us sarmale! (Traditional Romanian Cabbage Rolls are made with sour cabbage stuffed with pork and beef and little bit of bacon) I freaking love sarmale. After Sora Iusan we went to the gara (train station) to say goodbye to the elders. It was actually pretty sad. I'm gonna miss them all a lot. Then home.

LUNI 13 FEBRUARIE
Oh my goodness today was RIDICULOUS. So the new sisters are moving into the old elders apartment and we went over there today to clean it up a little bit and it was the MOST DISGUSTING LIVING QUARTERS I'VE EVER SEEN EVER. It was disgusting. They didn't have a vacuum and their broom was broken and it looked like nothing had been dusted in months. There were cobwebs everywhere and the fridge was moldy. I thought I was going to puke. So we spent three hours today deep cleaning their apartment so when the new soras get here tomorrow they won't cry. It was awful. 

So that was my week! Love y'all. Write me letters.

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

WEEK 29

Food, Food, Food

MARTI 31 IANUARIE
Tuesday was a weird day that I don't really remember much about. We got hot chocolate at some point. Taught English. The elders were ridiculous. That's basically it.

MIERCURI 1 FEBRUARIE
We went to visit Erika and her daughter Isabela. They're great, and Erika gave us some pesto her husband brought back from Italy. So it's store-bought Italian pesto, but still probably better than what y'all have in America :))) On our way back to the bus stop, I said hi to an old lady. Usually when you do that they just glare at you but this old lady actually wanted to talk! Which was great, until she told us she was a Jehovah's Witness and pulled out her Bible and started telling us why our religion was wrong. Not cool. We don't do that to you :((((( But I started talking with her about the plan of salvation and it was a good conversation. Until she started telling us everything we believed was wrong. Then we just walked away. And went to KFC 😊 After KFC we had language study and then we went to go see Laurentiu the book man again to submit more books the elders brought up from the mission office. My books aren't done yet, but soon! Then block-knocking. 

I used to love block-knocking, but it's been hard lately because it feels like EVERY door just gets slammed in our faces. But on Wednesday a super cool family let us in! We were able to talk about Joseph Smith with them and exchange numbers. They were cool. 

JOI 2 FEBRUARIE
Weekly planning! Then SaladBox for lunch. Is that a thing in the states? It's fast food salad type stuff. Super yum. Then we studied at a bookstore in the mall and ran into Rares! He's going to America this summer to work and he's going to Wisconsin! I think he said he was going to a city that starts with an R and possibly sounds like rockstar but I'm not sure. So that's cool because my family just moved to Wisconsin. His friends complimented our English and we were like.... we're from America.... and they didn't believe us. Apparently we look Romanian. We went block-knocking again on Thursday and a Jehovah's Witness answered the door and even HE thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses.... I swear we get asked a hundred times a day if we're them. No. We're not. 

VINERI 3 FEBRUARIE
District meeting wasn't horrible! Our elders talked in British accents the whole time and we brought food and we had to leave twenty minutes early so it was actually not horrible. We went to go visit Felicia! She made us pasta and had the news on in the background the whole time. There are huge protests going on in Romania right now because of some government thing. Go google it if you really care. It was a good visit with Felicia though. Then we headed to the church for games night. It was okay. Only two friends came but it was still good. The elders have a friend named Robert who's nineteen or twenty and he speaks PERFECT English with a PERFECT American accent. Seriously at first I thought the kid was from the US. We had an appointment in centru after games night and Robert lives that way so he walked with us and he's a super cool guy. So then we met Sora Handabut (she's a member) in a bakery in centru and watched the protesters go by. People bring their kids to protests here. It's a whole family affair. It's weird. That was day 3 of nationwide protests. We still got home okay though. The buses weren't stopped on Friday.

SAMBATA 4 FEBRUARIE
ENGLISH! I don't like it. The elders were ridiculous again. But it's fine, we worked it out. Sora Vann and I went to a steak place for lunch. It was so good.

My side of onion rings was as big as my head. It could have been a meal on its own. We splurged a little on that lunch but it's fiiiiine. It was yummy. Then we language studied and then we met with Teo! She didn't want to meet in centru because of the protests so we ended up in a bar.... but it's fine I got Sprite and Teo got lemonade and Sora Vann got hot cocoa.... totally fine. We had a good meeting with Teo and then we had to get home, BUT the protesters had stopped the buses. So we had to walk an hour home BUT we still got home on time! 

And I found a license plate on the sidewalk. So now I own a Romanian license plate. 

DUMINICA 5 FEBRUARIE
Church was OK. Kind of an ehhh week. We had a member ask us how missionary work was going and we said it was going well and then she snapped on us and said well if it's going well why isn't anyone here? don't you do anything?
Not a whole lot else happened yesterday because I wasn't feeling very good so we came home and I napped all day. My head hurt so bad but I'm fine now. It was weird. 

LUNI 6 FEBRUARIE
Groceries! I watched part of Oct 2012 Conference. We watched a movie about the building of the Salt Lake temple. and now I'm emailing. 

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