It's been nine months... time for a BABY
Okay! So this week I don't have a ton of time to email so here are the highlights:
-I went on exchanges with Sora Falkenberg. She's super great. Someone remind me next week to talk about how Sora Falkenberg and I ALMOST GOT KICKED OFF OF OUR SLEEPER TRAIN AT MIDNIGHT ON THE WAY TO BUCURESTI. What an adventure that was!
-We had zone conference in Timisoara. It's a beautiful city. We took a sleeper train that got like 90 minutes delayed, so we were late to conference. It was fine, then we took a sleeper train back and got into Cluj at 2 in the morning. It was fun.
-I got sick
-On Saturday we found out about transfers. I'm going to Constanta and I'm training! Ahhhhh! Halfway. I'm going to finish training a sister who's been here for six weeks already. crazy.
Constanta is gonna be awesome. I hear our apartment looks out over the sea. Buuuut we have to move this month so I have to talk to a landlord and realtor... should be fun. The branch is Bacau-sized, but the district president is there and he's super cool.
-On Sunday I had to say goodbye to everyone and pack. It was awful.
Anyway so now I'm in Bucuresti until Wednesday for training meetings and then I'm headed to Constanta with my baby! It's weird. My comp, Sora Casteneda is from Mexico but she speaks English really well.
I'm staying with Sora Lee here in Buc because she's training too:) We were in the MTC together and I'm really excited to be with her. It's gonna be so much fun!
Okay I love y'all! I'll send more of an update (with pictures) next week :))))
Sora Lucy Gleason
România/Moldova Mission
July 2016-January 2018
Boring Week, But Rooster Sauce
MARȚI 14 MARTIE
I don't really remember what happened Tuesday. Sorry. English, but other than that, I have no idea. Oh wai,t we made apple pie after English because it was pi day. It was delicious. I also made ciorba.
MIERCURI 15 MARTIE
We went to visit a friend named Susie. She wasn't there. So we went to this Asian food store instead that the elders told us about and I BOUGHT SRIRACHA SAUCE. It's a miracle. Hallelujah praise. I haven't tasted that stuff in eight months. I'm. So. Happy. We had to go to a branch meeting run by the branch mission leader and we were the only missionaries there because everyone else was on exchanges.
JOI 16 MARTIE
We visited Erika. She's good. Then lunch and comp study and then we met with Teo! She teaches us slang words like fart and sweet talk. It's great. We talked to her about prophets and invited her to watch general conference with us and then we ended up talking to her for about two hours. She's the sweetest person I think I've ever met. Then we went to find a less active member but her address was missing an apartment number. Most buildings have a list of names so you can just look and find who you want and call up to them. Her block didn't, but the intercom would display their name if you rang up to them. So we rang up to 27 apartments and hung up real fast until we found her name. And then she wasn't even home! But now we have her full address:)
VINERI 17 MARTIE
District meeting. Weekly planning. Maria!!!! Then games night.
Sora Vann and I were the only people in our district who remembered it was Saint Patrick's Day.
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| Maria |
SÂMBĂTĂ 18 MARTIE
SUPER FUN DAY. So there was a relief society activity in Oradea which is like two hours away which was for all the branches in western Romania and we got permission to go because Maria and her mom were going. It was a ton of fun. We got to see Sora Djahanbani and Sora Gubar and they had no idea we were coming :) That took all day. The elders covered our English class for us.
DUMINICĂ 19 MARTIE
Church! Then lunch. Then I don't really remember. It was a good day.
LUNI 20 MARTIE
Grocery shopping and then to a member's house with all the missionaries for burgers.
**********NEXT WEEK IS TRANSFERS IDK WHEN I'M GONNA EMAIL SORRY**********
Sora Lucy Gleason
România/Moldova Mission
July 2016-January 2018
SALT MINES
MARȚI 7 MARTIE
On Tuesday we had a meeting with a girl from English named Isabela. We went over some of the stuff she had missed in class, and then ended up talking about the church. She said she'd love to learn more and then set up another meeting herself! She's so cute. She's studying Korean (don't ask me why) and she's just adorable. Then we taught English. It was okay.
MIERCURI 8 MARTIE
Interviews with President Ivory! Nothing mindblowing. We met with Teo! She's doing great. It was International Women's Day and we met her at Starbucks and my chocolate frappuccino (don't worry; no coffee) was upgraded a size for free. That was awesome. After Teo we went to see Laurentiu the book man and I GOT MY BOOKS! They're pretty.
Then we went to see Sora Iusan. She lectured us about how gossip is bad and then proceeded to tell us all the gossip there ever was ever. Then we taught her the plan of salvation and she fed us chicken hearts. Oh Romania.
JOI 9 MARTIE
We went to see Erika and Isabela. They're doing great but poor little Isabela is sick right now :( I swear that girl is sick all the time. Then we had Subway for lunch. Then another English lesson. It went great. Then she asked us why we're here in Romania and we started talking about church. She said she doesn't believe in churches because there are too many of them. Sora Vann launched into a restoration lesson. It didn't go well at all. She basically told us that everything we believed was wrong. So that was cool. We still invited her to our activity that night though. But after that lesson Sora Vann and I just needed a break so we found a puzzle in the church and spent twenty mintutes putting it together just to find out it was missing six pieces. LAME. But then we had games night and it was great. Our English student came and had a lot of fun.
VINERI 10 MARTIE
District meeting. 'Twas lame. We weekly planned and then we were gonna do a lot of stuff but everyone canceled on us. We visited Maria. We talked to her about baptism. She wants to get baptized! We just need to reteach all the lessons first and help her and her family feel prepared.
SÂMBĂTĂ 11 MARTIE
English! Ugh. Then Herecleea! She's great but just not interested in the church right now. We had lunch and then Isabela (english) canceled on us. Then a security guy came to the church because we accidentally set off the alarm. That was fun. I had to explain that we were allowed to be there even though our names weren't on the paperwork in Romanian. Go me. Then we were going to go out to dinner with the other sisters and some of our friends but instead we came home and I threw up my lunch. We think it was the tomatoes because other than that, Sora Vann and I ate the same thing. Lame.
DUMINICĂ 12 MARTIE
I translated Relief Society for a member from America. It was fun. I haven't had to translate since Bacau. I think I've gotten better at it. Our appointments all canceled on us. Nothing else noteworthy happened.
LUNI 13 MARTIE
SALT MINES! We went with the other missionaries and Teo to the salt mines today and it was SO COOL.
There's a lake at the bottom of the mine and you could rent paddle boats so duh, of course we did! It reminded everyone of the lake in Harry Potter six :)
ALSO, I completely forgot about this! We hitchhiked home from the salt mines. It was an adventure. Sora vann and Teo and I got in a car with two people and just rode back the 30 minutes into Cluj. Are we crazy? Yes, but it was fun and I got to listen to American music because they had the radio on. Whooooo-hoooooooo missions are an adventure.
(For anyone reading this, this is Lucy's mom posting her letter and yes, I have severely reprimanded her through email so hopefully she won't ever do it agian.)
Sora Lucy Gleason
România/Moldova Mission
July 2016-January 2018
SUSHI: It does exist!
MARȚI 28 FEBRUARIE
Okay so on Tuesday we went grocery shopping because it was the last business day of the month which meant $$$. So we did that and then headed to the other mall that's out in the middle of nowhere to have lunch with a member and the other sisters. It was fun. We had pizza. After that we taught English! Then we went over to Maria and Cristi's house (brother and sister) Maria is 17 and Cristi is 20 or 21. Their family has been investigating the church for 11 years. We played rummy with them and talked a little bit about how they feel about the church, since they basically grew up with it even though they're not members. Cristi isn't really a fan of any Christian church because he thinks that it's unfair that Christ suffered for everyone's sins. That made us sad. But then Maria chimed in and was like, "Well I like the church a lot. I feel the spirit a lot when I'm with you guys and I like it." And that made us super duper happy. Then it got late and we had to go, but Maria's mom gave us six oranges to take home. Did I mention that we bought oranges when we grocery shopped? So all of a sudden we had 13 oranges in our fridge instead of 7. I've been eating an orange a day and we still have a ton.
MIERCURI 1 MARTIE
Wednesday was a really important day in Romania! It's a holiday called Mărțișor, which literally means "little March" and it's a day when guys give girls little trinkets with red and white thread. I explained that horribly. Anyway so we went contacting in the piatas and while we were there we bought ourselves mărțișoare because both Sora Vann and I will only have one Mărțișor in Romania.
It was a ton of fun. Then we had a 30/30 with one of our English students, but as soon as the English 30 minutes were over and it was time to start the gospel 30 minutes, she dipped. So that was lame. We were supposed to meet with Teo after that but she ended up having to work. We had to be home early so we could go to the block office and pay a bill, and then it was dinner time.
JOI 2 MARTIE
We visited Erika but when we got to her house, no one was there. We called, but no answer. But Erika has never bunged us like that before, plus her dog was gone, so we figured she took the dog for a walk and lost track of time. So we sat on her porch for twenty minutes waiting, and then she walks out her front door and apologizes because she accidentally fell asleep with her two-year-old during naptime. So I'm glad we stayed and waited for her! We had a really good visit. Erika loves the church so much, and the only reason she doesn't come is because her husband doesn't like it. So we're working on that. Then our dinner appointment cancelled on us, and this dinner appointment would have fed us a TON of food so we were planning on skipping lunch. But since she cancelled, we had lunch and then weekly planned. I don't remember what else.
VINERI 3 MARTIE
District meeting! It was okay. Then we made English curriculum that's actually good. That evening we met with Teo and set a plan for her to be ready for baptism and it went so well! She came prepared with her questions from the Book of Mormon because every time she doesn't understand something, she marks it and then we talk about it. It's great. She just finished 2 Nephi :))) After Teo, we had games night with the other missionaries and our friends and people actually came this week! We played signs for the whole time and it was so much fun. Teo originally was only going to stay for thirty minutes but ended up staying for the whole time :)
SÂMBĂTĂ 4 MARTIE
We cleaned the church and then had English. Then we went to a Relief Society activity at a cute little bakery. I had rasberry pie but the crust wasn't very good. Romanian pastries/desserts just aren't that great. Then we went to visit a potential named Susie who works at a little piata selling Catholic stuff (like the saint pictures and cross necklaces). We've visited her a few times and she is the sweetest thing! Last time she gave us each a calendar for free, so this time we brought her a Book of Mormon :) She was really happy and then said her daughter met the other sisters last week and was interested in learning more! The other sisters got her number and sent it to Bucuresti (the daughter goes to school there) and it was just really cool that Susie's family randomly got connected to the church at the same time. That night we made ciorba. It was delicious. Shoutout to Elder Cochran for the recipe. Actually shoutout to whichever Romanian lady gave him the recipe. It was yum.
DUMINICĂ 5 MARTIE
Ha. Where to even start.... No one had any investigators at church. That turned out to be a giant blessing because sacrament meeting turned into all the members getting up and talking about each other and calling people out for gossiping and just a lot of not good things. It was crazy. The branch president got up at the end and was just like, yo. this needs to stop NOW. And then during the rest of church everyone acted like nothing happened. After church all the missionaries went over to Sora Constantin's for dinner. It was SO GOOD. And Sora Constantin is the funniest person ever. She's just so happy and giggly and it's great. While everyone was yelling at each other at church, she was just sitting in her chair eating a banana and smiling because she was happy. I love her. Then we went English contacting! Adica we went to the park and gave people cards with info about our English classes. At the end, Sora Vann really wanted to get rid of her last card. A guy rode by on a hoverboard. She held out her card and said, "Poftiți!" which means basically here take this flyer I'm handing you. So he took it and rode maybe another meter or two and then TOTALLY wiped out. He was fine and laughed about it but it was really funny. Then we went block-knocking! It was AWESOME. The second door we knocked on was a guy named Adrian. He started to tell us no, and then he sees our Books of Mormon and gets really excited and asks if he can have one. Apparently he'd been taking the lessons in Italy but when he came to Romania he lost track of the missionaries but he's been looking for a Book of Mormon in Romanian because all he has is Italian. He was so excited and started explaining to us all about Joseph Smith and the restoration and it was SO COOL. Everyone else slammed their door in our face but it was okay, we found the one!
LUNI 6 MARTIE
Today I slept in and it felt real good. Then we cleaned and went to the mall to go grocery shopping and shoe shopping because my boots broke this week. I was able to find a pair of boots in my size (which is a miracle because everywhere is already putting out summer shoes and getting rid of everything else, plus my feet are a humongo size 41 which doesn't even exist in a lot of stores) ANYWAY so this pair of boots was on sale for $25 and it was perfect. I had sushi for lunch. It was okay. Definitely not the best I've ever had by a lonnnnggg shot, but also not the worst. And now here I am emailing.
Sora Lucy Gleason
România/Moldova Mission
July 2016-January 2018
