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

WEEK 28

This is Going to Be Short

Tuesday
Nothing interesting. Wait, yeah. We got filmed at English class by the documentary people. It was fun. We played charades with occupations because we were teaching about jobs. It was actually really cool, then we were gonna go see fireworks because it was a holiday, but we were tired and hungry so we just had dinner instead. 

Wednesday
We met with Sora Iepure and her two sons. They're the branch president's family. They're great, then that night we watched a broadcast for all missionaries everywhere at the church with the elders and then Elder Cochran made dinner for us all. It was yum. The broadcast was cool but most of the changes that happened are things we've already been doing, at least about the schedule. However, since the broadcast stream was horrible, we didn't get home until laaaate. Whoops.

Thursday
We had lunch with Carla who's a member from the states. I love her. She's so great. Later we met with Maria and Cristi. Their family has been investigating the church for ten years. 

Friday
District meeting--which was basically just two of our elders yelling that we all needed to get along while the rest of us were like, wait I thought things were finally good.  Why are you yelling at us? Basically it was just really stupid. Then games night. I'm bad at card games but we had some cool friends there. 

Saturday
English! We had one student.  We met with Teo and she helped me translate my talk into Romanian. 

Sunday
Church! My talk went OK. Maybe next week I'll remember to bring it to emails and send a copy home. Then we went park contacting! 

We wrote in Romanian what brings you happiness? on the sidewalk and then had people write their answers. 

It was super cool and we got to talk to a lot of people. We were there for two hours. It was actually pretty warm on Sunday though, so we didn't freeze.

Monday
We went PAINT-BALLING with the elders and our friend Cristi! 

 It was so much fun. I only got shot three times and they were all in the head--the helmet actually, but I got some paint in my hair and it's grossssss. 

Then Sora Vann and I went out for burgers. Normally burgers here aren't great, but we found this place called burger house and they were SO GOOD and cheap. And good music. Then we went to the mall to buy hairspray and then here to email. Good day. 

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

WEEK 27

Up. Sandwich. Down.

MARTI 17 IANUARIE (Tuesday)
Okay so first thing Tuesday morning we had interviews with President Ivory via the internet! My interview went really well. Lots of good takeaways and he also said to prep myself to have younger companions... yikes. That sounds terrifying. But after interviews we were visiting a member who lives way out in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully there was a Mcdonalds on the way to the middle of nowhere so we stopped and grabbed lunch. When we got to the middle of nowhere (we took a bus) we found a bunch of pigs digging through the dumpster and they were so cute, but also kinda smelly! 

Then our lesson with a member named Sora Kiss. She's Romanian, but her name isn't. In Romanian it would be spelled Chiș and it's pronounced keesh. But she is super great. Then we had to rush to the church to prepare for English class. Then we taught English. Then Sora Vann and I were both feeling kinda mehhh so we laid on the floor in the church for a good ten minutes. Then we went home and I laid on the floor there and took a nap before dinner. Sora Vann took a picture of me.

MIERCURI 18 IANUARIE (Wednesday)
We did language study at a cute bookstore and then had lunch at KFC (I ate so much fast food this week it's ridiculous. Nu mai pot. (which means:  I can't anymore.) Then we went to go see the book binding man! He leather-binds any book you want, so most missionaries get books bound by him. I put in my copy of Jesus the Christ and my Romanian triple (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price), so in a few weeks I'll send pictures. They're gonna be GORGEOUS. 

This is Sora Vann's

We also block knocked on Wednesday. A lady was coming out of her apartment building as we were trying to get in and she was asking us "Who are you here to see what number what's their name blah blah blah" and like... we were just there to knock on doors, so we kinda pretended we didn't speak Romanian and didn't understand her questions. She just walked away rolling her eyes and let us in haha. Then we went home and packed because we were flying to Bucuresti for exchanges! We took the bus to the airport around 5:30. Our plane left at 7. 

It's only a 45 minute flight AND YOU GET A FREE SANDWICH. Basically it's just take off, get your sandwich, and then land. Such a short flight.

 Then we caught a cab to the STL's apartment in Buc. They're so great :) Sora Falkenberg and Sora Stanley. 

JOI 19 IANUARIE (Thursday)
I did my exchange with Sora Stanley. So we got on the tram to go visit someone and Sora Stanley wasn't paying attention soooo we missed our stop and rode the whole route back to the station we started at. But she thought maybe we just took the wrong tram so we took a different one... nope. First tram was right. So after forever we finally got to the member's house over an hour late. But it was a ton of fun. Sora Stanley is great. Also, it's FREEZING in Buc right now. The snow is knee deep. I thought I was going to die. After the member visit, we went to a restaurant in Centru called Car' Cu Bere. It's traditional Romanian food and it's so good! You can get a traditional 4 course meal for only 23 lei (that's like 5 dollars). Super good. We language-studied in a bookstore and then our other lesson cancelled on us so we went block knocking! I really love block knocking. Even though we had zero success that day, it's always a good time. THEN WE ALMOST MISSED OUR FLIGHT HOME. It took us almost 40 minutes to get a cab. Normally it should take about 5. We got to our gate and 30 seconds later, it started boarding. Then it was just up, sandwich, down, and we took a bus home.

VINERI 20 IANUARIE (Friday)
We had soooo much stuff set up for Frida,y but everyone fell through. So in the morning we had district meeting. Elder Wagner asked us to bring three medium oranges and our blender. So we did and he made us smoothies. Props to Elder Wagner. But it was the most chaotic district meeting ever.  We ended up having to have a talking stick that we passed around so the elders wouldn't yell at each other. Elder Wagner compared it to the conch shell in Lord of the Flies, but they all killed each other in Lord of the Flies.... and we were pretty close to that too. So the ZLs are getting followed around this week by a journalism student. She's making a documentary about Mormon missionaries and she's coming to district meeting on Friday, so this coming week we're literally going to have a meeting on how to have a good meeting before we get filmed. Ha. Should be great. The District: Europe is coming at y'all... be prepared. Anyway, so after that disaster we did some stuff I don't really remember what but then we had GAMES NIGHT! We ended up playing spoons and Elder Cochran CHEATED AND IT WAS AWFUL.  No, but I should have won but he saw my cards and then grabbed MY SPOON AND THEN WE FOUGHT OVER IT AND MY FINGER BLED INTERNALLY.  Then we visited a member who is just super great. She was lecturing us on how important it is to always have a temple recommend even if you can't afford to go to the temple and that's awesome, especially in Romania. then we went home.

SAMBATA 21 IANUARIE (Saturday)
We taught English and after English the ZLs had a lesson with Rares--the guy we found at the mall. He's AWESOME. He is going to go far. Elder Cochran and I dueted on the piano and Sora Vann learned how to play chess. Then we had a lesson with Teo! It went really well. She's not reading the Book of Mormon right now and she said she's frustrated because she's not getting an answer when she prays about the church... and we were just like well Teo you have to read the book! It was just a good lesson. 

DUMINICA 22 IANUARIE (Sunday)
Church was good. I played the piano in relief society again. scaryyy. I almost had to play in sacrament meeting because our pianist wasn't there and Elder Wagner was late...but thankfully he showed up! Then after church we weekly planned and took an afternoon off because Sora Vann is sick right now and when she gets sick it triggers her asthma so she needed to take it easy. 

LUNI 23 IANUARIE (Monday)
WE GOT OUR NAILS DONE! The manicurist made both of our cuticles bleed. She was awful. But the color is pretty! Then grocery shopping, and now emailing. It's been a good day. We only had to run to catch a bus twice. 


Also this week I learned PROSTI! It is basically a Romanian mood/tense that's most commonly used for swearing.... however it's just a different arrangement of the grammar so you can turn any sentence into prosti. I promise I'm not swearing, but now I understand when people swear at me. It's great fun. I found frozen pate last week and it made me think of my mom. Pate is a big thing here. I've never eaten it though.

I started the Book of Mormon on January first and right now I'm on page 350. It was a new copy of just the soft bound English ones and I've been marking every time it talks about people being highly favored or blessed or strengthened by the Lord etc. and it's super cool. I'm reading about the sons of Helaman right now.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

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

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