Ploiesti friends came and I didn't even take pictures.

Heyoo. So this week we had Zone Conference! It was big and crazy. President I invited another one of his British friends, this time he was an MP! David Rutley's his name. He was a missionary in the mission where President I's dad was mission president. He was really cool. 

My favorite part was when he got up to speak.  The first thing he did was talk about how cocky President I is!! We were all laughing so hard because he was just roasting our mission president in front of like 2 whole zones!! It was the coolest/funniest thing ever! And clearly this is all infinitely better because he's got a British accent. 

But the best part was when he was talking about how "them Ivories" always have the wildest ideas and ambitions, and the most frustrating thing is that they do always succeed!! Haha it was just so funny to see somebody who knew President I as a teenager talking about him/throwing down on him. But it was really good and he was really inspiring. This zone conference was a lot more intense for various reasons but all in all it was really good. 

Oh, favorite thing of the week! Two people from Ploiesti came on Sunday!! Andrei the recent RM and Alexandra the recent convert came! Andrei was asked by the district president to come and speak on some things and Alexandra just came to say hi! It was so great to see them again. They are seriously some of my best friends I've met in Romania. So that was easily one of the highlights of my week.

Also, other best freaking highlight of my week, I GOT THE CHRISTMAS PACKAGE!!! You guys are really good at packing!! There literally was not one inch of unused space in that thing. Thank you so much!! I'm gonna get so fat haha. 

Guys don't let me get fat when I get home. I need to get a gym membership and go like everyday and limit my fast food and crap when I get home. I'm also going to go on walks sometimes. Yeah :) It'll be so good.

Well that's all I can do today. Love you all!!! Have a great week!

-Elder DeGraw

Hey hey I got a new suit

Be Straightforward

So not much has happened this week. This is proving to be one of my most patience-testing areas haha. There's a lot of potential here, but there are also lots of struggles. Without needing to get into too much detail, we have to deal with a lot of crap at church haha. 

Member problems, blasphemy, the like. I think a main reason why it's as big of a problem here as it is is that for who knows how long, two things have been happening: missionaries neglecting the recent convert lessons, leading to members not to fully understanding the basic doctrines; and missionaries letting themselves get walked all over. 

Right now I've kind of had to take the position of "bad guy" and deal with these types of member problems. My policy is basically that if there is a problem that needs to be resolved, I will at least discuss it with the person involved. 

Many missionaries seem to take a much more cautious approach fearing that people will get offended or something, but the problem with that is that doing that leads to the problems mentioned before. So I just carefully and respectfully talk it over with the respective person and so far they've all been like "oh wow I didn't know it was a problem. I'll try to keep that under control." And it's turned out well pretty much every time. 

This is one of those things I've learned from my mission; to address problems head on. It's the same with companions. If you have an issue with your companion and you don't address it, not only will it keep happening and you'll have to keep dealing with it without a right to whine, if it's a bigger deal problem, it will continue to affect your companion's other future companions too! 

I've realized that pretty much whenever you encounter an issue that needs to be resolved, if you take a quick step back and weigh all the concerns and why it's a problem, and do it making sure it's coming from love and a viewpoint of just sincerely wanting to help, it will turn out well.

Be bold! It works. Haha I love how my mission has taught me to just not take anybody's crap.

Yeah. We're going to Buc this week for Zone conference! I should hopefully get my package! Here's hoping!

Yeah I don't really have that much to say sorry I suck at that now.

Have a great week!!

-Elder DeGraw

There's hope for Galati!

So this last week was pretty cool. Last sunday we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the church's entrance into the country after the revolution. 

It was pretty cool. Elder Nelson of the twelve, the one who dedicated Romania, actually sent us a short message for the members. So that was cool. 

And we made the members a cake and had a little party after church. It was really cool and we got several less-actives and investigators to come and everybody was getting along and people were happy and loving and it was just so great. This branch has kind of a problem with gossip and members not getting along so that was really nice to see everybody happy.

There was also this super cool part member family that came! The parents are members, their son (14 yrs old) is not, and the grandmother is not. They are so cool. They haven't been to church in a long time, although they got baptized about 15 years ago. The sisters are meeting with them and very hopeful about it. I got to talk with the father and the son quite a bit at the party and they are so cool!! The son sings and plays guitar a little, and is just a really good person. 

Me and Elder S actually just today sat in on a lesson with the sisters and the whole family and I invited him to go to the EFY that they're having in Germany, and I think they're really going to consider it. They're just so cool and I'm really hopeful for them.

Those were the main points of the week, sorry for the short email but I don't have too much time.

Love you all, have a happy Valentines day haha!

-Elder DeGraw

Still kickin!

Hey all! 

So I'm getting in the groove of things in Galati. I'll say that this branch/city has quite a bit of "character" haha. But it's fun. There are some great people here. This past week we have done a lot of English contacting and visited some less actives and an investigator.

Okay I'll be pretty honest. This branch has a lot of problems. They are great people and have great intentions, but there are still lots of things that go wrong. 

The branch president is as active as he can be with his work schedule, which is less than amazing. But he tries his best. There used to be a missionary BP here for a very long time, and when the mission presidents changed, the old Mission president gave the decision to the District president whether or not to keep missionaries as the BP or to have this guy do it, and they put this guy in. Like I said he's a great guy, he's just really busy, so now all four of us missionaries do most of the branch president stuff. 

But we're doing our best to build up the branch here as much as we can. I really want to help this branch. I want to work as well as I can with the members here to help them understand and grow. 

We were discussing it the other day and came up with a sort of district mission statement for the transfer: 

"Our goal is to help investigators become members of the church, to help less-active members become active members, and to help active members become Proactive members."

We feel like it's a good mantra for the transfer. We especially want to help the active members become more firmly rooted in a solid understanding of the gospel. There is so much potential here, we just need to help excavate it. And that's what I hope to begin here.

Well, hope you all have a great week!!!

-Elder DeGraw
​

Well, here I am...

So Galati is pretty fun! My new companion is awesome. His mom is Romanian and so he knew a little bit of Romanian before he came out so his language is pretty dang good for his mission age. He's in his third transfer, so he's just fresh out of training, so I'm his first real change of viewpoint in his mission. He's a great person and a good hard worker and he's doing very well. 

We're really wanting to get a really good English turnout this transfer, so we're working hard towards that. We got some great English posters and we're going to put them up all over, and we're going to do tons of English contacting this week. I really want to help this branch too. I'm really happy so far and am really excited for the rest of the transfer to see what we can do. 

The branch here is quite a bit smaller than Ploiesti, and the members have a few more problems of many sorts haha. The 4 of us elders combined are basically the branch president haha. But the branch has some great members with lots of potential. I want to work as well as I can with the members here to help them understand and grow. 

We were discussing it the other day and came up with a sort of district mission statement for the transfer: "Our goal is to help investigators become members of the church, to help less-active members become active members, and to help active members become Proactive members." 

We feel like it's a good mantra for the transfer. We especially want to help the active members become more firmly rooted in a solid understanding of the gospel. There is so much potential here, we just need to help excavate it. And that's what I hope to begin here.

Well. Hope everybody's doing well! Have such a great week!!!

Love,

Elder DeGraw

It's gonna be Galaţi of fun!!! But I will miss Ploiesti.

Heyoo!! We got the transfer board! Some weird things going on this transfer! But anyway, about me! I will be heading to the lovely city of Galaţi (Galats). I'm going to be serving with Elder S2, who is going into his 3rd transfer. Elder S1 was actually in his district last transfer and so knows him pretty well and has a very high opinion of him. So I'm really excited for that.

As far as the branch goes, it's a lot smaller and less well functioning than Ploiesti so that will be a little different but bring it on! And I will be the DL there. Also in the district will be Elder M, who I served around in Constanta and the MTC, and Elder L, who was in my district in Cluj!! So It should be a great transfer.

Sad news though they don't have a good mall! So right when the sales start too :( So I'll probably be getting my suit and shoes this week while I can still get them on sale. So just to let you know about that!

Yesterday I had to say goodbye to all the members and it was so hard!! I've been here for 6 months and I've become great friends with everybody and it was so sad. Haha there was also one of the kids that heard I was leaving and was like "I'm going in your suitcase and you're taking me with you!" and then a couple other ones were like "me too!"

Haha and actually just a few minutes ago an english student came to the church to say goodbye to me and the other people that are leaving and said how sad she was that we are all leaving and how much she liked learning from us. I've been sad leaving branches before but this was something else. I loved this branch so much and I've made so many good friends and lifelong connections here. When I come back to Romania I will be coming here to visit.

This week I also taught 2 guitar lessons! So that was really cool. I've taught a few guitar lessons before but just to this one girl who was the sisters' investigator who kind of fell in love with me and it was creepy so it's been a while since I've done it.  These ones were great it was like a 10 year old girl who is very well behaved and learned really well, and the other one was the brother of a recent convert who me and Elder B taught before but we haven't taught him for a while but we had a guitar lesson and then an actual lesson and I told him that if he gets baptized and I'm still in the country I'm going to do my best to be there for it. I love that kid, man.

So yeah. I'm really going to miss Ploiesti! But Galaţi will be great.

 

Some of the great families I will miss.

 

Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder DeGraw