I'm going to Craiova!

So hey we just got transfer boards and I found out I'm going to Craiova, as implied in the title of this email! It's a bit smaller than Bucharest, physically as well as missionary-wise. It'll be a 4 man district. So this will be the first time in my mission where I don't serve in literally the biggest district possible haha, including the MTC. 

 

My new companion will be Elder H.  He's a very hard-working missionary, a very nice guy, and I'm super excited to serve with him. We're going to get some work done! Haha my district is going to be super fun. It'll be us two, as well as Elder M, who was in my MTC group, who will be senior companion to Elder H, who is one group younger than us, and both of them are hilarious and good workers. We're going to be a great district. I'm super excited. 

 

This past transfer my companion has had a lot of stuff he's had to do, so we haven't gotten to work as much as I would have wanted to. But Elder H is known as one of the more diligent missionaries out here. It'll be really good for me and I'm excited to get back to work haha.

This will be the first time since getting here that I'll be in a district with all new people! And probably the weirdest news this transfer, is that Elder L, who has been my district leader since I got here, and who is one of those who I know I'll still be friends with/keep in touch with long after the mission, just got called to be a branch president in the city of Bacau! He's both excited and really nervous, as could be expected. But I totally saw it coming haha. He'll be a great branch president.

So many people from my MTC group have changed cities, and like half of us are senior companions with the group under us, which is weird to me haha. We're movin up! Pretty soon it'll be our group that'll be all the zone leaders, BPs, and APs! It's ridiculous to me how fast this mission is going. I'm already 1/4 done with it... That's both weird and scary.

 

Other than transfers, I'm doing great! And just a heads up, so dad knows, I plan on getting a coat and boots in the coming weeks so you'll see some money come out of my account. I don't plan on spending more than around 300 & something Lei for the coat, or more than like 150 Lei for boots. But in case my tastes/desires change, the max that I've seen a coat was like 500 Lei, and shoes the max I've seen that I'd even consider buying were like 300 Lei. So those are the prices you could expect to see come out of my account. A missionary did leave a nice trenchcoat-like coat & scarf in our apartment, so I do have that already. But I need one that will also work out of missionary clothes and in missionary clothes. So that's what I'm going to get soon. 

I got everything you said you sent, so don't worry! 

I'm super sad to hear about John Kimball. He was a great guy. Give his family my condolences. He will be greatly missed.

Also, one last thing in case anybody is having ideas about sending me stuff for Christmas... Tell them to just not. Haha well I mean if they really want to, I won't stop them, but the money is not being put to as good of a use as it could be. For how much it takes to buy something, and send it all out here, I could get a nice suit, nice clothes, and more. Seriously with what the last package cost to get out here I could have. So if they REALLY feel like spending money on me, tell them to just put it in my account and I can get three times as much with it haha. I love getting letters and packages from you guys, they make my whole transfer, I just don't want you wasting all your money on me! So unless it's something that I can only get at home, just have them put the money in my account and tell me what to get haha. I know you guys love me:) 

 

Just my recommendation. I say this also because President told us to tell our families that if they wanted to send us Christmas packages they need to be here before thanksgiving anyway. So I thought I'd just tell you that instead so you don't have to worry about it! So yeah!
 

Love you all! Talk to you soon!

-Elder DeGraw