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