Zone Conference, churros, and 5 months left

So this week was eclipsed by Zone Conference and MLC!

We had two days of conferences and at both there was a seventy there, a member of the area presidency, Elder K. He gave a talk in conference this one time a few years back, the one about wearing actual shoes and not flip flops, and got stung by a scorpion. Yeah that guy. He was awesome. You should watch his talk.

I loved his accent because it made everything he said sound cooler. I got a lot out of those meetings, even though they were really long. One of my favorite things was a story that illustrated a wonderful point that I've thought of before but just the way it was presented was so wonderful and memorable.

President I talked about one of his close friends who, for his son's birthday, took him to Disneyland. Basically, this guy spoiled his kid rotten. He got the fastest of fast passes, got him whatever he wanted, held nothing back, just wanted to give his kid the best birthday possible.

At one point later in the day, they wanted to get a snack, so they went and got the kid a churro. The kid was eating the churro and at one point the dad asked if he could have a bite. The kid freaked out, saying how it was his churro and that if his dad wanted one he should get one for himself.

What I got from this was that a) if I was his dad, we'd be out of there immediately and no more fun things for the kid for a while, and b) this is an amazing example of life. God gave us literally everything, took us to Disneyland, gave us the gold fast pass, gave it all to us. The least we can do is give him a bite of the churro.

For most people back home this could easily be related to tithing, service, or a bunch of stuff, but for me it hit me that giving him a bite of the churro is devoting my time for these two years. The mission really is a tithe of the first 20 years of my life. The question is will it be a full tithe? I will do all I can to make it be so by the end of my mission.

Another great quote from the conference was when Elder K was talking about the progress that we've made as a mission recently, and he said how happy we should be, that we've done really good lately, then he said "And you should be happy. But for goodness' sake, do NOT be satisfied!" Then he went on to just really encourage us to continue to make progress and keep it going.

Then we came back to Ploiesti and we're now trying to put into practice the things we learned at Zone Conference and MLC!

So those were the highlights of the week! Love you all!

Have a great week!

 

-Elder DeGraw

Another week of things and stuff!

Had some lessons, which were pretty cool! We got to the nitty gritty with Vasile and he prayed in a lesson! He hasn't done that yet so we were pretty happy. So we're still working with him. He just always has great questions so our lessons are usually pretty cool. It also helps me and my testimony because he just brings up logical questions on the doctrine because he genuinely wants to understand, and we always have an answer! Guys, the church is true let me tell you what.

Also Costin finally started talking haha! He's really cool but he's been very quiet until now. Ok so he's still really quiet, but we found out that if we want him to talk, we just have to give him a chance to make fun of his sister (recent convert of a few weeks, wants to go on a mission now too!)! Haha they are such siblings. They hate each other so much, but it's all from a point of love and they really do love each other. It's so funny to see.

Haha right after she gets baptized, one of the first things she does is bring her brother to the missionaries! I love it! I don't think in my life I've met someone more prepared to receive the gospel than she was. She's even had friendships broken because of her conversion (one person even said she now has satan inside of her!!), and it hasn't phased her!

We just need to find more people like her! I feel like once her brother comes out of his shell, he'll be the same way. And he's cracking!!

Also I got a coat today! It should work well. Haha it took me so long to decide on one because I hate not doing things right the first time haha. But it's a good one and it wasn't too much!

 

Funny story #1 of the week:

So President I wanted us to find like the highest point in the city and have a prayer there as a district? So eventually we found a pretty high block, got on the roof, and were saying a prayer. About halfway through the prayer, this lady comes out and starts yelling at us that we're on the roof haha. We were literally just standing up there praying, minding our own business haha.

Haha I've realized lately that one of my struggles is when I feel like people are being ridiculous for no reason, I have a really hard time being nice to the person/ conceding. Things like that had happened a couple of times before then, and I had just had enough. So I just walked away and stood in front of the elevator and held my breath and counted for a while while the other people dealt with the lady. Haha she literally was yelling at us, very angrily. I had had enough of that. But anyway, that was the result of our prayer attempt haha!

 

Funny story #2 of the week:

So we were walking to the church for something, when all of a sudden, Elder B flips out out of nowhere. He said it felt like there was some sort of really sharp rock in his shoe. He could barely walk on it without it hurting. But he took his shoe off, and found nothing in his shoe. No rock, no unwanted intrusion of any kind. So he realized it had to be in his shoe. We got to the church, and he was able to take his shoe and his sock off, and discovered the problem. A staple! There was a random stray staple in his sock, and it stabbed him in the foot! It actually got pretty deep!

 

So, yeah. Much love, stay sweet, don't do drugs, read your scriptures.

Love you all have a great week!!

 

-Elder DeGraw

Same stuff, different week

So same old same old! It's just another missionary week!

Haha because me and Elder B are staying together, for transfer day we were actually able to get some stuff done on that day, which was nice.

Our two investigators, Vasile and Costin, are still super cool. We had some pretty legit lessons with them which was cool. Vasile is really sincere, and really good about asking questions, so our lessons with him are great. For example, we talked about the Plan of Salvation, and after we explained the first part, he said, "Well, if we all lived with God before, why would we have chosen to come down here? Wouldn't it be easier if we just stayed up there?"

Most people don't ask those kinds of questions here, sadly. Many people here are just really closed off and so it's usually pretty hard to get to those points with them. That's why it's so cool to have an investigator like that.

Another cool point of the week was that there was a less active member in the branch who recently had a baby, and so the Branch president gave a baby blessing and the missionaries participated, and it was really cool because the woman realized how important the church is going to be in the life of her new baby; she got up and bore a very short testimony on it and said how much she wants to raise her baby right, how she hopes he will be a missionary someday. It was really special. I've never seen a baby blessing out here so it was really cool to see that.

We also had a little Halloween activity, not as big as I would have liked it to have been, partially because the BP really doesn't like Halloween so he wanted to support it as little as possible haha, but all things considered it was really fun.

Me and Elder B are doing well together. We also found out from President Ivory that we are going to have a couple of Christmas concerts next transfer, and so me and Elder Brundage are now working to get the one here in Ploiesti all planned out and stuff. So we're really excited.

Well, Love you all!

Stay safe, read your scriptures, don't do drugs.

Till next week!

-Elder DeGraw

Sticking around in Ploiesti

So yup me and Elder B are staying another one together! We're pretty excited. This last transfer was pretty good all around, but we're going to try to make this next one like the best one ever. 

We're going to try to do as much music contacting as we can stand. They're planning this interfaith concert for around Christmas, and we're pretty dang confident that me and Elder B will be a part of, so we're going to start getting some stuff ready for that too.

Last week we had exchanges with the Brasov Elders, which was super fun. I was on a train a lot this transfer. Probably like a whole day total. But it was fun and really cool to work with some really good Elders.

Here in Ploiesti things are going pretty normally. Alexandra, the recent convert, is still doing awesome. So awesome in fact, that she's been talking about possibly going on a mission, and referred her brother to us and we taught him last night! So that was pretty cool!

So yeah! I'm getting really excited for next transfer. We're going to have a blast! It's going to be a really good one!

Sorry I keep getting more sucky in my letters!

But I love y'all!!

Să fiți cuminți!

-Elder DeGraw

Happy Day

Woot! So last week was really cool. On saturday, there was a baptism in the branch! The sisters' investigator, who has been meeting with them for like 2 weeks, just got baptized! She's really cool, she was so happy to get baptized and it was really cool. I haven't seen a baptism out here in a branch that I've been in for more than a year so it was really cool! She's super cool, and is already and will continue to be a great member.

This last week I also got to go on an exchange with Elder C, which was awesome. It was just like the good old days haha. We became really good friends so it was great to catch up and just go back to what it was back then for a little while. I was serving with him 6 month ago, which coincidentally is how much time I now have left...

Lets see... other than the baptism, the exchanges... oh! I had a migraine this week... So that was fun. We had district meeting in the morning and then we had to go home because I was incapacitated haha. So that happened.

Then church was a little interesting, both in good and bad ways. So the confirmation of the investigator was awesome, plus Elder G, one of my past companions, who's from Ploiesti, was here basically giving his homecoming talk because he ends his mission next week and will be going to Italy with his mom for a few months before coming back. Also President I was there and gave a talk in sacrament meeting. So those things were cool.

But then in Elders' Quorum, there was this one member, who's usually so normal, who started going off about reincarnation and a whole bunch of stuff and I was so confused because he's like a super normal, active member, and has been for a while. But maybe I've just not seen him like that before.

But anyway.

Oh and last night I taught a guitar lesson! That was the second lesson we've done. Her mother is interested in the church and the sisters' investigator, and I've been teaching her a little bit on the guitar. So that's been kind of fun. So yup!!

We also had a really good lesson with our investigator and he's got some potential and we're really excited for him.

Have a great week everybody!!

-Elder DeGraw

(Pictures: the first time we filled the font up, and Botez pics)

More stuffs

So hey y'all.

Well, this week, we went to Bucuresti for Zone Leader Conference, and then to Pitesti for exchanges. ZLC was cool, but it was really weird because only us and the Bucuresti ZLs were there, the rest of the ZLs called in through skype, and that led to some problems, plus giving presentations was really weird when we all were sitting down so the skypers could see us.

So I hope they just do it all in person next time. But it was cool and we got a lot of good instruction and a really good meal of food imported from Italy. So that was nice.

Then we met up with one of Elder B's good friends, a member from Buc, and had a little lesson with him. After that we went to Pitesti to have exchanges! I didn't really know either of the Elders in Pitesti, as they're both quite a bit younger in the mission than me, but after spending a little time with them, I really like both of them. So it was a pretty fun exchange.

Then we came back and just got back in the groove! English class was pretty fun, we played like a "game show" where we would write 2 sentences up on the board and they would have to tell us which one was correct. It was pretty fun.

Yesterday we also had a lesson with Vasile, who is the brother of Alex, one of my favorite people on this planet, and is just like him with the main difference being that he doesn't speak English. I seriously have met so many cool people in Ploiesti!

One thing I love about Romania is that there are so many cool people. Like, it may just be the fact that I'm a missionary, but I have had so many opportunities to meet and get to know super cool people. Vasile is one of them. Such a stud.

Then yesterday church was pretty cool because afterwards we had to wait for people for some reason, so I just got to hang out with the kids! One of them taught me Romanian rock paper scissors, which, believe it or not, is the exact same as English rock paper scissors, but in Romanian. I taught another one a little on the piano. Haha they are these two little girls in the branch that remind me so much of Katie and Sophie. Have I mentioned how many people out here remind me of my family? Because there are a lot.

Anyway, one of my favorite little funny stories I have now:

So after our lesson with Vasile, we're just waiting at the bus stop and we notice a group of people, all about late teens/early 20s. At one point they all very obviously come and sit/stand next to us. They keep saying things like "Wait dude you know english," "Come on get the courage!" "Do it!" etc. And we know the whole time what they're saying of course. But they assume that we don't know Romanian.

At one point, they came over and looked at my companion's tag "sneakily" and wrote his name down. Finally, Elder B just goes up to them and says "Hey! What are you guys doing with my name?!" In Romanian obviously. They were all so freaking surprised when they realized that we speak Romanian! They were flustered for a little bit, and then they just started explaining themselves a little bit.

At one point one of them, talking to one of the girls was just like "what's up with you?" "Oh nothing, I just fell in love is all." Then they asked her with who, and she points at me and goes "With him, obviously!" So that was kind of cool haha. And the guys were like "Don't tell them where you live, they'll break in!" So it was kind of a cool interaction haha. The guys were just total bros and the girls (who were not unattractive so it was kind of sad) were just in love with us haha.

So that was a thing.

All in all, a pretty good week!

One more time, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JACOB!!! Big shoutout I know I didn't mention it last week, but I didn't forget! Don't get too big before I get home!

I hope everybody has a great week!!

Love,

Elder DeGraw

 

 

From the left: Ilie, Elder B, Alex, Me, Vasile. Alex and Ilie just moved because they got good jobs out of the country and so we're really sad but happy for them. These three are some of the coolest guys I know.