WEEK 38

The Email to end all Emails

Okay so I'm going to try to do a quick catch up of everything that I've missed, which might mean that this email is going to be suuuuuper long because I haven't done a group email in three weeks. Whoops.
SO.

THE WEEK I TOOK THREE SLEEPER TRAINS

MARTI 21 MARTIE
On Tuesday we went to go see Erika so I could say goodbye to them because I was like 100 percent sure that I was leaving Cluj. It was a good visit. Isabella was in such a good mood and we got some cute pictures. 

 Then we spent the night at the other sisters' apartment because we were doing exchanges with them on Wednesday.

MIERCURI 22 MARTIE
Exchanges! I went with Sora Falkenberg. We visited a less active and then had lunch with Teo and the other sisters. Then we all went to ice cream and did language study together. Then Sora Falkenberg and I went to one of their friend's houses to teach her English. It went OK. Nothing special. Then we switched back companions and Sora Vann and I went home to eat dinner and sleep a little bit before we had to get on a sleeper train at 1 in the morning to go to zone conference in Timisoara. I hate sleeper trains.

JOI 23 MARTIE
Zone conference! Our train was over an our late so we were over an hour late to zone conference. I also caught Sora Simmons' head cold so I was nottttt feeling well. Zone conference was okay. Nothing special--until the end, when President Ivory pulls me aside and tells me that he's sending me to Constanta and I'm going to finish training a new missionary because her first trainer is going home. I was like um what? Okay. If you say so. He told me not to tell anyone yet.... Sora Vann knew within an hour. I'm not good at secrets. I also got a packakge from my mom :) thanks for the cheetos. Then it was off to the train station to catch another sleeper train. We got into Cluj at 2 in the morning and took a cab home and basically just died. I was so tired. Sleepers suck.

VINERI 24 MARTIE
Friday we went to see Laurentiu, the book man and I got two of my books back and put in my English scriptures so those should be done soon :) Then we went out for ice cream with Carla and her family and the other sisters and then rushed to the church for games night. I was still not feeling good at all and it kind of hurt to breathe. Basically to make a long story short, I couldn't breathe, which made me all panicky, which sent me into a panic attack, which made me not breathe more. So Sora Vann called Sora Ivory and they made me go to the hospital. But by the time we actually went to the hospital I was fine. Romanian hospitals are gross, but this one wasn't too bad. Don't worry; I'm seriously fine. 

SAMBATA 25 MARTIE
We taught English. Transfer boards came out. I already knew where I was going. Sora Vann and Sora Simmons are staying together. I'm sad. I wanted to stay in Cluj. Eh. Then we went to a member's house for lunch. It was okay. Then I packed for several hours and then we went to the mall for dinner with Maria and Cristi.  It was just really sad. Maria is really sad that I'm leaving. ughhhhhhhh!

Don't we look sad?

DUMINICA 26 MARTIE
We forgot it was Daylight Savings Time so we had to take a cab to church. We were ten minutes late whoops. So church was ehhh. Basically I just said bye to everyone.

I was supposed to take a sleeper train with just Sora Falkenberg on Sunday night but then we find out that Sora Roberts is coming down to Cluj from Arad and then taking a train with us down to Buch. Anyway, so Sora Roberts is there now. We went to lunch at a members house. Then home to finish packing. Then off to the train station. Maria and Cristi and Robert came.


It was sad. So sad. Anyway so the three of us go to get on the train and the train guy is like hold up this ticket is for TOMORROW night. uh. So when the office went to switch our tickets to include Sora Roberts, they picked the wrong day. Sora Falkenberg still had our old ticket for just the two of us that had been refunded so the two of us used that to get on the train because we needed to be in Buch on Monday. The guy yelled at us a lot. He knew our ticket was refunded. So as the train is pulling away, Sora Vann and Sora Roberts give us money through the train window (because we had like no cash) so we could pay the guy for our ticket. Anyway we paid the dude and then things were fine. But that was stressful.

THE WEEK I BECAME A MOTHER

Sister Castaneda

LUNI 27 MARTIE
We got to Buch and then to the mission office. Not a very exciting day. I was with Sora Lee and my new comp, Sora Castaneda all day. We went to lunch and hung out with the dying missionaries and then emailed blah blah it was boring.

MARTI 28 MARTIE
Training meetings all day. That was about it. The food was good. 

MIERCURI 29 MARTIE
Run at 630 in the morning, ugh, then more training meetings. Then a train to Constanta. We went to kfc for dinner because there was zero food at the apartment. It's the ghetto-ist apartment I've ever seen. Thank goodness we're moving soon.

JOI 30 MARTIE
We went grocery shopping and met with our realtor and new landlord to sign apartment contracts. We're moving on May first. Hallelujah. Nothing else really happened on Thursday.

VINERI 31 MARTIE
We had a conference call with all the sisters in the mission about a sisters conference that's coming up. It's going to be on my birthday. I'm not excited. I get to spend my only birthday as a missionary sitting in a conference room in Bucharest NOT doing missionary work. How freaking lame. Then district meeting. I miss Elder Oak and Elder Broberg.... the new elders are cool but like... idk. there's a very different vibe. We went to visit a less active.  We had games night. It was lame. Three people came. I miss Cluj.

SAMBATA 1 APRILIE
We did, I don't really remember until 3, and then we went to the church to watch the women's session of conference. It was good. Then we had dinner and then we watched the Saturday morning session of conference with the elders. It was also good. 

DUMINICA 2 APRILIE
Shout out to my parents for being married for 24 years. Y'all are old. So for sacrament meeting we just watched the women's session of conference in Romanian. It was weird. Then lunch. Then contacting in the park. People here are mean. Seriously NO ONE would talk to us AT ALL. It was laaaaame. So we just sat on a bench and limba studied. Then we went over to an American member's house to watch the Sunday morning session of conference. She made us pasta. It was yum.

THE WEEK THAT LITERALLY NOTHING SPECIAL HAPPENED

LUNI 3 APRILIE
Boring PDay. Except we went to the beach with the elders and a member and played Frisbee. I made ciorba. We finished contract stuff. Whooooooo.

MARTI 4 APRILIE
We went to the church because the Winders (senior couple) were randomly in Constanta for a day and we had to give them our apartment contracts to take back to the office in Buch. Then we did language study with Kate (American member). She's trying to learn Romanian. Ha. It's a really freaking hard language. We went to visit a really old member. She's like a million but really sweet. Then English. Our class is medium, but they're really all closer to the advanced level. Nothing in our curriculum is helpful for them. So we're making a new curriculum. Fun. No one came for advanced so we played ping pong.

MIERCURI 5 APRILIE
We did limba study at a donut shop. They have good donuts and good music. Contacting. A crazy lady grabbed Sora Castaneda and I literally had to drag her away. That was fun. We went less active finding. Zero success. Then branch scripture study. 

JOI 6 APRILIE
We went to go see a member named Sora Rosu. She has Alzeimers (I have no idea how to spell that) and she asked us the same questions fifty times but she's REALLY sweet. I like her. Then we had limba and comp study at Starbucks. Cool thing about SBucks in Romania: they specify on the menu what has coffee in it and what doesn't. So that's nice. Then more less active finding. More zero success. Then dinner with the Constantinescu family :) They're awesome and the food was yum. 

VINERI 7 APRILIE
District meeting. Then lunch at KFC. Then we weekly planned and did some stuff for our old landlord to move. Then games night. NO ONE showed up. So we just played baseball with a stuffed fabric ball and a ping pong paddle for an hour and then we gave up and realized that no one would be that late so we all went home. Lame.

SAMBATA 8 APRILIE
Our landlord came over. She's like a scary librarian. The elders who used to live in our apartment seriously screwed things up. Ugh. Then English. It sucked less this time. Then lunch and language study and then we went to see Mercy :) She's a member from Nigeria and I LOVE HER. She is SO SWEET. Just being around her made me happy. She made us Nigerian food and it was  the best thing I've eaten in a long time. #whywasnticalledtoafrica? Then we met with a deaf guy named Bogdan who supposedly wasn't creepy the last time the sisters met with him but this time he was totally creepy. That was Saturday.

DUMINCA 9 APRILIE
Church. I was asked to translate RS for our American member. Translating is usually a piece of cake but the teacher was talking SO FREAKING FAST I DON'T KNOW HOW SHE DIDN'T PASS OUT so I couldn't do it. So a member (who speaks perfect English) did it instead. We met with two members after and then went home for lunch. Then we went to visit our only investigator Zenaida.  She ranted for 40 minutes about how our church can't be true because our members all dress like concubines and the pastor likes to look at their butts. So. Um. Yeah idk where to go from there. She also said she had a vision just like Joseph Smith except God told her that every church is true. Idk.  So then we tried to go visit someone else but she wasn't home so we did some language study in the park and then headed home.

LUNI 10 APRILIE
It's like 12 noon here so I haven't done anything today. 

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