I almost threw up this week

Hey everybody! Still going strong in Cluj!

Haha so this week has been a lot of the usual, namely contacting. A lot. We did have a lesson though! It was really short because she was sick so we wanted to not take up too much of her time. But it was one of the better lessons I've had out here! She actually listened to what we had to say! She didn't step on our toes or cut us off once! It was like a miracle! Haha I'm just realizing typing this how sad that sounds. Haha but seriously it was great!

We had that, and we also went to a lesson with the sisters with a less active member. It's a really sad story because she still truly believes in the church and the Book of Mormon, but she feels wronged by a member and feels like she deserves an apology. She also does live kind of far away from the church, so that contributes to the less-activeness, but still it's mostly the offended part. We had a really interesting lesson and we talked a bit about how people aren't perfect and that we can't expect others to always make the right choices, but that we can control our reactions. It made me think about how much other peoples' opinions can influence our lives. A woman in the branch made a rude comment about her online, and she allowed that single actionm to fester inside her and give her reason to not come to church. She still loves the doctrines of the church, and the Book of Mormon, and she loves having missionaries over and talking about things, but this single action has, in her own words, turned her "apostate".

It's such a sad thing. The sisters are going to start meeting with her frequently to hopefully help her out of this funk. She's also moving closer in town, and therefore closer to church, so hopefully that will bring her back. It's just so sad seeing people who still have a testimony of the truth of the Gospel willfully not coming to church because of petty reasons, because of grudges or simply because of something another person said about them. For sure, that member should not have said what she said about her. But that should not stop her from being able to receive the blessings of the sacrament and the family of the church.

I have a strong testimony that church can become a second family. There are many reasons to come to church, obviously the first one is to take the sacrament, but there are also the blessings of learning the doctrines of the church, interacting with other members who share the same beliefs, forming lasting friendships, and serving others. So many people can't look past the fact that it's a "church" to see that it is also a family.

I would be lying if I said I've always liked going to church. Haha 3 hours of meetings/classes can be kind of boring! We all know it, we've all been there. But it's only by going there that we can feel the blessings of renewing our baptismal covenants by partaking the sacrament. And there is one of the best places that we can recieve revelation and answers to prayers. I've also had people at church say mean things about me and seen other members be seemingly hypocritical in their professed belief to follow Christ and then seen how they treat me or others. But I also know that this church is true, even though the members are imperfect.

So there's my soapbox for the week. Don't go inactive for dumb reasons haha.

ANYWAY, yeah I bet you're wondering about the title. Umm. Yeah. Has anybody heard of Piftie? Probably not. But for good reason. The best explanation of what it is, is pig-face gelatin. Yeah. It's not a super common food, but people do eat it out here. And I can now say I've had it!

Haha so the other Elders' neighbor made some for them, and they invited us over to try it! Don't worry, we have video. It's on the Google drive. I almost threw up the first time. Haha the first spoonfull that Elder Cobabe dished me up was probably about the same amount that everybody else had combined... haha I couldn't get it down. But then I went back and got a normal sized bite. I still had to force it down, but I got it down. It was gross. Yeah. Haha just watch the video. It's hilarious.

What else. Oh we started english classes this week! We've had a really good turnout! We've had around 60 people show up each time! Mine and Elder Crane's class, the advanced class, had a max of 4 however. But the classes have been really good! So we're really happy about that. But yeah other than that just a lot more contacting!

Today for P-day, we're going to the Turda salt mines! Guess what! That's where they filmed the fight scene between Bane and Batman in The Dark Knight Rises! Yeah! It's pretty cool. It's going to be fun! Well, hope you all have a great week!

-Elder DeGraw