Christmas happened

Hey everybody!

 

So last week was really interesting! It was great to talk to everybody, sorry the skype call was really interesting, haha I'll make sure the next one will be better, more well-planned, haha and all that jazz.

But yeah! So after we skyped home, we came back down to Craiova, and celebrated Christmas down here! We got back on Christmas eve evening, and EVERY SINGLE store was closed. Haha so we weren't able to get any groceries, or anything like that. But we improvised and it went great! I kind of improvised, but we made cinnamon rolls and they turned out really well! Haha we didn't have any yeast, so I used baking powder, and then I accidentally used nutmeg instead of cinnamon because the words are pretty similar and so was the packaging, but I resolved it and they tasted freaking good! I almost burned them too but I pulled them out at just the right time to be perfect!

 

So we all met at the church in the morning and ate those, exchanged our gifts, and had a great old time. Then we went to deliver some cookies and sing for some people. It was really fun! Then we stayed and sang a whole bunch of hymns at the members' house. Then we had Christmas dinner at McDonalds. Great Christmas!
 

Then on Friday we went and watched The Hobbit 2! It was amazing!! Haha it felt so weird to be in a movie theater but there we were! Haha President is so cool.  We had a great christmas week. We get to watch one more movie for the Holidays, so we're going to watch Frozen either tomorrow or the next day! And it's dubbed in Romanian so it'll be really interesting.

 

So yeah that's how the holidays go out here! We get to stay up on New Years Eve and sleep in a bit on New Years day as well. And outside of that we work as much as we can. We should have a lesson today, so we're super excited about that! We've also gone to the hospital a couple times lately to sing for people and brighten up their day

So we just did mission reports the other day, which signifies the end of the transfer and telling President what we would like out of the next transfer. Which means this transfer's almost over! Which is freaking weird. Transfers don't even feel long anymore... Haha this mission is going by so fast!

Hope everybody had a great christmas, and will have a great new years!!

Love you all!

-Elder DeGraw

Foggy visual effect

Hospital in Craiova - We visited to sing carols

McChristmas Dinner

President let us see a movie - Hobbit 2

The coolest guy ever

 

I'm still alive!

Hello, people of Earth! Craiova's still going on! Still going slow, but it's still fun. This week has been pretty bland, as per usual here in Romania, but it's been fun.

Church was interesting this last week, being that the Branch President was gone, leaving the only members being us 4 missionaries, one of the 2 only active members in this branch, and an american who happened to be there on a business trip.

But the "best" part was when me and Elder M taught the Sunday School class. It wasn't awful, but we just probably weren't as prepared as we could have been, and the class is very small and doesn't contribute very much. So the class was really just boring haha. Church is really different here, in Craiova especially, but also just in Romania as a whole. But here, we have 2 members, 2 hours, pretty boring, pretty quiet. Although sometimes, in branch meetings out here, in branches other than this one, things can get pretty heated. I've heard of fistfights breaking out in Priesthood session, people yelling at each other, haha it can get pretty intense.

I've also seen it happen before where people get up on the pulpit asking for money, just preaching straight up lies, or it happened one time where a member of the branch presidency was teaching the investigator class, and told them all that lying wasn't a sin. We had to get on him and tell him to stop. He wasn't allowed to teach the class after that haha.

Anyway, other than that, the coolest thing this week was that we met a cool guy while block-knocking! We set up a lesson!! Haha, it's kind of sad that we're rejoicing over one potential investigator, but it's really that rare out here. Anyway, we knocked on his door, he answered, and we start into our shpeil, and he looked kind of like he was going to tell us that he was busy and not interested, but he just kept standing there, and so we were kind of flustered and didn't know what to say, because usually by that point they turn us away, but he let us keep talking and was actually interested! So we figured out stuff to say, namely that we started talking about the restoration. He was super cool and interested and we took his number down, and I called him yesterday and we have a lesson set up for this week! We're really excited about him.

So yeah! That's about all! One thing about the skyping, I'll either call you guys this week (if possible) or email about when we can skype. We can literally do it whenever, and there's not really a time limit either. We just need to set it up. We were thinking of doing it next tuesday, and I think either way it will need to be relatively early in the morning for you guys, around 8 or something. But I'll try to call you guys this week to set it all up.

Cool! I love you all, remember the reason for the season in Christ!! Have a fantastic week!!

 

-Elder DeGraw



Us havng our fancy drinks at a dinner with the Branch President.

Don't we look classy.

 

Christmas party!

So things are going pretty well! This last week was really busy! On thursday we had our exchange with the zone leaders, which consisted of nothing more than studies, district meeting, lunch, and a train ride to Buc! Haha so it was a pretty interesting exchange. But it was fun.

Then when we got up to Bucuresti, we slept at an apartment where there was no room, like at all. Me and Elder M "slept" on the floor. I put that in quotations because I probably got a maximum of 20 minutes of sleep. It was fun haha.

But then the next day we had our Zone conference/Christmas party, which was super fun. We had like an hour of Zone training meeting, a tie exchange, watched a slideshow with pictures from this year, and had an amazing lunch, then had an hour of Zone Conference, and then listened to testimonies of departing missionaries. And we found out some cool information in Zone Conference! OUR NEW MISSION PRESIDENT'S NAME!!  He's really young too! Like Dad's age or even younger! He will also have their 10 year old son come out here with them if that shows his age more. Haha and I'm also pretty sure that I went to school with one of his daughters. He seems like he'll be really cool. He'll be here in June or July.

We were all kind of worried about who the next mission president will be because this mission has historically gone through cycles of awesome and less-awesome mission presidents, and President H is definitely ridiculously awesome. So we were worried that the next president would be the over-strict and overbearing kind, but we're all kind of thinking now that he'll be really cool.

Other than that, we got the farewell testimonies of some of the coolest missionaries out here. Four of them kind of have huge reputations for being both crazy and amazing and good missionaries. Haha the testimony meeting was like a mix of a comedy hour and a super motivating, spiritual meeting.

After the meeting, we actually got to go and stay the night with those four crazy awesome people. Haha, that was an interesting night. I love those guys.

So then we came back to Craiova, got to the church like 5 minutes before the branch Christmas party started. And there we decorated cookies, ate sarmale, and watched The Christmas Oranges. And that's about our week, other than contacting!

Haha Elder M got a huge package from his family, and he's been goofing around with it. He got this video from his ward with them all wishing him and all the other missionaries from his ward good luck and stuff, and it is hilarious haha. There's so many people that he doesn't know, nor do they know him, haha it's really funny.

We're all getting ready for Christmas down here. Craiova is putting up some really cool Christmas lights, they built an ice skating rink in centru, there are all of these little shacks selling Christmas stuff, it's really cool.

Oh! And so tell me next week when would be best to skype you guys! We can do it pretty much whenever, just let me know when would work best for you guys. For me, it would work best on wednesday, thursday, or friday, in the afternoon/evening here. We can literally do it whenever this month though. And I may or may not be able to call you once outside of that, to set things up better, but I'm not certain. But to coordinate the skype we can go a little outside of the normal regulations to communicate. But I'll figure out exactly what we can and can't do, and we'll find out haha! Oh, also thanks very much Grandpa for the Christmas donation! I really appreciate it!

Well that's it for this week! I love all of you guys! Also, I do have a request; if you feel like sending me a package, I could use some winter socks. Haha I have no idea where to find those.

Anyway, I hope you guys are doing awesome!! I love you all! Please continue to be super fantastimagical!!

Love,

Elder DeGraw

Thanksgiving week was really weird!

Hey people!

So Thanksgiving week was really interesting haha. We brought the sisters from the gara on Wednesday, and showed them all about Craiova, and we've been showing them the city, and all that jazz. And the sisters are freaking awesome! As I said, Sora R was in our MTC group, and she's hilarious! And Sora S is super awesome too! She's two groups below us, and she speaks Romanian really well!

So Thanksgiving!

Well, Thanksgiving was the day after transfers, so things were still a little crazy. But so we were planning on going to the church and having a sort of feast, and watching our Thanksgiving movie. But when the sisters went home after we were showing them around a little bit, they were locked out of their apartment. My old apartment, where this had actually happened to me and Elder H once last trasfer. But so we called the Proprietar like we did last time, but he was out of town! So we called a whole bunch of people to see about getting a locksmith or something, but we couldn't find anyone. So then we just went back and I tried to open it, like I had a lot before, but I put a random key (that still wasn't the fitting key) into the lock, and forced it to open, and got the sisters into their apartment! We were so happy.

So then we finally went to the church, but we were still pretty full from lunch, so Sora S just made some brownies for us. Haha every time I've seen brownies made out here with American brownie mix they've gotten burned! But just barely every time! It's so weird.

But there were also a whole bunch of "just really?" moments on thanksgiving. Like us sitting in the stairwell for like an hour waiting for the Proprietar to call us back. But then we just ate brownies and watched "The Pirates" and relaxed and it was awesome.

And then the next day was Sora S's birthday, so they were going to make a cake. Now keep in mind that this was my old apartment, and we had never had anything like this happen. But so how we had always lighted the oven was to turn the gas on low, and stick the safety lighter down there and turn it on. It was out of fuel so it was just a spark, but it would always catch and be fine. So this is what we directed the sisters to do. But it wasn't working. So they just kept trying, and trying, and then..... BOOM!!! There was a huge fireball that exploded in their faces.

It apparently knocked them both backwards, singed off some of Sora R's arm hair, and burned the curtain a little bit. But let me just stress that they both are completely fine. It was scary but they were laughing about it soon after. But we got kind of chastened by the "Mission Mom" Sora H and so they will definitely just be getting a new lighter and not use a sparker anymore!

But neither of them were hurt so we've learned the lesson.

Other than those fiascos, the week's gone great! With Elder M, we balance each other out really well. He has an easier time talking to people in contacting/social situations a lot, but I speak the language a little better. Other than that, we're equal in pretty much everything. He's the district leader, but even then we still both kind of deal with stuff here.

And he's a great DL, too. Our district meeting last week was awesome, really pumped us all up. And yesterday at church, since I'm supposedly the best at the language in the district (weird), I translated for the Spooners for the Romanians in church... And I shocked myself at how smoothly and fast I could translate their testimonies! I only had to pause to think like once or twice! I translated one time in my third transfer and I did pretty well, but this time I felt like I actually knew Romanian! Haha Then in Sunday school I didn't do as well, but it was still really cool!

We're all like normal missionaries now! Haha I don't really feel like a newbie anymore! It's really weird. But also really cool.

Well this is getting kind of long, so I'll say Mom and Dad, have an awesome time in Hawaii!! You guys deserve it! Love you all! Also can someone send me Nick's email? I don't know if he uses the one I have. I love you all and have an awesome week!!!

Love,
-Elder DeGraw

Waiting for the LandLord to unlock the Sora's apartment

Yup, It's been snowing!