:(

I'm leaving Constanta!! I haven't stayed in a city for more than 2 transfers since my first city. This means I will also have served in 6 cities! The city I'm going to now is called Ploiești. It's got a big branch and is one of the few branches in Romania that actually has a dedicated chapel! So I'll have an actual church again! So that will be nice.

I'll also be the district leader again, and my new companion is going into his second transfer, so I'll be finishing up his training. I'm really sad to be leaving Constanta. I love the branch here so much. I've met so many cool people here. This was easily one of my favorite branches. I hope I can come back here some day.

But yeah that's the main thing to report!

We had a lesson with Gabi again this week, and he's officially progressing! We watched a Mormon message subtitled in romanian, "mountains to move." He really liked it. 

The transfer board was really interesting this time, because there were 13 new elders coming in, as well as last transfer there were quite a few, so this next transfer just about everyone is training. Also the new AP is a Russian-speaking Moldovan elder, which has never happened before. Oh and Elder H is in the office now! Which really was a surprise because we all thought he was going to be the AP! But yeah.

So that's about what's been happening!

Oh also yesterday President I called me and basically gave me the biggest "no pressure!" moment of my mission. He just called and was like hey so Ploiesti is a really cool branch, one with some of the most potential so do a lot of work and I'm expecting big things from you no pressure!

It seems kind of like his strategy is to make everyone think that their job is the most important job there is, because I've heard he's said that to some other people as well. It's working for me though because I'm freaking ready to go! I'm determined to go be the best thing ever haha.

Also the other day I stumbled on to a litter of adorable street puppies!

Anyway yeah that's about it! 

Love you all have a great week!

 

-Elder DeGraw

A week of things and stuff

So this last week had some great things and some not so great things. We had a lesson with our new investigator, the 15 year-old from English class, and he accepted a soft baptismal date, and then he came to the pioneer day activity, which went really well!

We had presentations on pioneers in Romania, and had a barbecue. It was super fun. We actually had three investigators show up to the activity! I spent most of the evening with Gabi, the 15 year-old, and just becoming better friends with him. Also multiple members from the branch came and talked with him, and one even got his number because he does something with youth in Constanta and he wanted his help. So it was awesome!

And unfortunately for us but fortunately for them, just about all of the active branch has gone to Germany on a trip to the temple, so we'll try to get a few less-active visits in in the coming weeks. I've been in kind of a slump the past couple of days, but I'm hoping that transfers will bring a new light and direction for me.

Sorry again for the crappy email. I feel like I'm just going to keep getting worse at that haha but yeah. Love you all! You're in my prayers!

 

Love,

Elder DeGraw

Things actually happened this week!

This last week went really well! Yes we went out and had a contacting activity with Branch Pres. C and one other member came and we went down to a popular area with a table and some supplies and went street-boarding and it was great!

We as a district got a few potentials out of it, and we talked to a lot of people! I love street-boarding and I love that it's so easy to do it in Constanta; you don't need any permission if it's a public place. For some reason, I always just feel like I could keep on going and going for hours with street-boarding. It's more of an official method to contact, so maybe that's why, but I always just feel more open and capable in situations like that. So hopefully we can keep doing that on a regular basis.

I just love the Branch President here so freaking much. It's so great to have a BP that knows what he's doing can I just say that. He's just one of those lifelong friends and someone that I'll remember forever. He's an RM, who served in England where the church functions very well, and he has been a member since the 90's, so he's experienced in the church. He is literally the hope and future of the church in Romania. He is what it looks like. Haha he's just really awesome. He's a perfect example of all of the good things about Romania put into someone without any of the bad things about Romania haha. But anyway it was a really good and well-done activity, and we should be doing it again sometime soon hopefully. 

We're also really excited for our pioneer day activity. We've built it up pretty well, and many members have told us that they will come, we've planned out the program and it's all getting ready, so we've got some high hopes! 

And today for P-Day we went out with some English students and had a barbecue with them, and they showed us this bee farm, or part of it anyway, and had a really great time with them. And then at the end they asked us some questions about the church which we answered, and then it came up naturally to invite them to the pioneer activity and they said that they'd like to come. And then they also brought someone else who is going to start coming to English class. So it was a really cool and fun experience! 

Earlier this week we also had a lesson with a different English student, a 15 year-old who has been coming to classes for a while now, we had a 30/30 with him. He's a really cool kid and he was pretty open to the church. We gave him a Book of Mormon and talked a little bit about the restoration. We plan on following up tomorrow and setting up with him at English to meet up again. So basically things happened this week! We're still rolling along well! Me and Elder D have had a few scuffles lately but I guess that's to be expected after living together for this long. But all things considered still doing pretty well.

 

So yeah! That's about it!

These are bees.

I'm starting a new thing called male-veils. I think it's going to "bee" a hit.

I thought this was pretty cool

 

Love you all!

 

-Elder DeGraw