Mr. President has arrived

So yeah we have a new mission president and he's pretty cool. I've heard a little bit about what he is going to change up and for the most part it's awesome and I'm really excited. He's really trying to get a focus on focusing more on quality than quantity.

Haha there are a lot of people out here who are the numbers-numbers-numbers people. And even I sometimes have a hard time seeing where my actual energy is going, like walking around for hours with nothing coming out of it. So he's got some really good suggestions and new procedures that will really help. I don't know everything yet but we're having zone conference this week so I'll find out for sure this week!

The new president and his wife and all but one of his kids came to our branch last night and we had a little devotional to introduce them and the branch and stuff and it was pretty cool!

For the 4th of July We had an American style barbeque with cheeseburgers and smores and it was great. We basically had a great 4th of July party. It was great.

We finally had a lesson again! Kind of. The guy who plays the guitar with the deformed hand. It was more of just talking about how we've been, etc.

I really suck at remembering things that happen so sorry for the short email.

That's about it.

Loves ya.

-Elder DeGraw

 

The new mission president is super cool!

First off, I'm so freaking jealous that you guys were all in Lake Powell! That's twice now that I've not been there and you all have been. Lake Powell is seriously like my favorite place on earth. Many of my fondest family memories come from our times there. I'm so happy that I'll get to go next year though! I hope you all treasure those great family times together because one day you'll be in my position where you can't go and you have to see everybody else make memories without you. I can't wait for next year Lake Powell!

So this past week we had our Zone Conference with President I and he's really cool and I'm super happy about the direction he's wanting to take the mission in. He presented a new key indicator which we just call the "Balance/ 555," which is super cool. Basically, it just means that the idea is to have balance in our focus. As in, if we get an investigator lesson, we should also try to get an active member lesson and a less-active member lesson. If we have 2 in one category, we should try to bring the others up to 2 as well.

The 555 thing came from another mission where the idea was to have 5 of each. Here, that's basically impossible. But the idea of balance is what we're focusing on, and that's totally possible. President I is really trying to get the mission as a whole to focus on people instead of numbers. Before, we kept track of our hours finding and potential investigators received, which are good things to keep track of ideally, but many people took that as to just walk around for hours without really doing anything, or to take down numbers of crazy people or gypsies or just write down apartment numbers of people that weren't even really interested. Basically it just kind of stressed people out a lot and made many people just try to get as many hours outside as possible, which could lead them to neglect the members or other worthwhile activities in favor of getting hours to look good to president.

I liked the idea when President H introduced it, but lately it's just kind of proven to help only mostly superficially. But this new 555 thing really is going to help. Me and Elder D are already planning to do a lot and I'm really excited. This new direction just frees up our time to not have to worry about just contacting all day; instead we're supposed to spend our time having lessons, which historically has either not really happened, or people would meet with crazy people all the time just to put down that they had lessons. But man I just really like this idea.

I'll let you know what happens there!

Romania's great. A while ago I saw a guy using a buzz saw to cut a piece of tile in half. He was wearing flip-flops. His foot was right next to the saw. I just love Romania's IDGAF vibe. I'm pretty sure that's why they also build and insulate all their buildings with styrofoam:

 

Haha but no really things are going pretty well still. I'm just really excited for how the missions going and I really think things are going to start picking up!

 

Love all of you!

 

-Elder DeGraw

 

P.S. There was a Lunar Eclipse that I just happened to see and got a crappy picture of:

I have a new mission president!

Haha so yesterday we got a very ominous text from our zone leaders: "Forward this for the information of your districts: President Ivory has arrived in Bucuresti and now presides over the mission."

Haha we read that and were kind of weirded out! We have a new mission president! It's going to be so weird to not have President H. But I'm excited. He should be really good for the mission. From what I've heard he's just very motivated and excited and hard working, which will be great. He's coming to Constanta next sunday to meet some of the members and to have a devotional/testimony meeting, so we'll be among the first missionaries to meet him! Haha no pressure or anything haha.

This last week we went english contacting and tried to meet with some less actives, but had an interesting experience, where we went to the area that the sister whom we were trying to find lived in, and we were walking around, trying to find her block, which can be rather difficult out here sometimes, and we finally reached her apartment, and I got a feeling that we should leave! So we left and we got a call a few minutes later from President C that he needed some help at the church, so we did that.

My weird feeling probably had something to do with the fact that there was a group of punky looking teenagers completely blocking the entrance. But either way, we plan on trying to meet with her tomorrow, as well as go down a list of members that the BP wants us to work with.

Haha honestly there's not too much for me to report today! Things have been going pretty well, but as always, not too much has been happening. Me and Elder D didn't go to transfers because we're staying together, so last week felt pretty long and drawn out. But our new district is freaking awesome I can say that! The new boboaca is really cool and so is Elder M, as always. And Elder V is having so much more fun this transfer. We've had some really good district contacting sessions already!

So yeah that's about it!

 

Love you all! Sorry it was so short today, hopefully more happens this week!

 

-Elder DeGraw

Flash Floods! Also Transfer Information! And I decided what I want to do with my life! Kind of!

Guess what I'm doing?!?!

Nothing.

I'm staying with Elder D for another transfer! So for me nothing's changing. Although one of my favorite people from my MTC group, Elder M, will be coming in with Elder V. And one of the sisters in my current district will be training! So we're going to have a really good district next transfer!

Anyway the weather this week has been crazy! Every other day has been raining, we even had some flash floods! So we weren't able to get as much done as we wanted to but since me and Elder D won't be going to transfers we're going to try to make this next week our best one together so far! As in, we're going to go hard contacting, do whatever we can to get some people to teach, and meet with some less actives. President C gave us some names of less-actives to meet with so we'll start trying to meet with some of them! I'm actually really excited for this next transfer. I'm going to try to make this my best transfer so far!

It's getting really weird out here. We get a new mission president at the end of next week. I feel like it's going to be such a shift in the feel of the mission. President H is amazing, he's kind of like a fun, loving grandfather figure. From things I've heard and seen, President I will feel more like a cool boss. So we'll see how it turns out. Haha I'm excited and I feel like I'm about to see some motion and motivation starting within me.

I'm going to try to make this next transfer the one that makes me the best haha. If that makes any sense. Haha I just feel like getting a new mission president can be a great opportunity for me to just start from scratch and just be known to him as the best of all! Haha idk we'll see.

 

Anyway as you can probably guess, nothing much happened this week. Hopefully this week things will pick up.

 

Love you all!! Have a great week, everybody!

 

-Elder DeGraw