I'm leaving Transylvania!!!

Okay so we've been freaking out lately. Me and Elder Cr are getting whitewashed out!!! Elder Cr is going to Brasov and I'm going to Arad to be the District Leader with Elder Co as my companion! I've met him before a few times and I'm excited to be serving with him. He's a bit like Elder Cr so I know I'll really enjoy next transfer.

The district is going to be super cool as well. We have the ZLs in our district and they are both from the same MTC group and both are super cool and fun guys. One of them was one of my godfathers! And I've never met either of the sisters, but they are both going into their 3rd transfer and I've heard they are both super fun. So even though it'll be hard to compete with this transfer, I'm sure I'm going to love Arad and my new district. Haha this was seriously my favorite transfer ever.

Me and Elder Cr are pretty sad that we are both leaving. Cluj was freaking amazing and me and him both thought we were going to stay another one together so when we looked at the transfer board we kind of freaked out a little bit. We were screaming and jumping around like "I'M OUT!! WAIT YOU'RE OUT TOO!!! AHH!" We were so surprised. And not only are we both out, two other people from our district are leaving. So only two people out of the 6 who were here this transfer will be here next transfer. We were a really close district and got a lot done and had a lot of good things happen so it's really sad that we're all leaving haha.

 

We also had my best session of english classes ever in this transfer. Me and Elder Cr taught the advanced class and only had 2 students, but they were both super cool and participated and we had great classes. One of our students, who's been coming to english classes for a while, said that we were his favorite teachers since he's started coming, because we made the classes fun. The sisters who taught the beginner class had more than 50 people at pretty much every class. The other Elders had like 15-20 people at every class.

Every spiritual thought was just golden and they all went super well and we gave out so many Book of Mormons and a lot of lessons came out of it. The last spiritual thought went super well. We sang God Be With You Til We Meet Again and read the scriptures associated with it. People were crying, one of the older ladies that's come for a while starting singing with us at the end, it was super emotional. Some of the sisters' students bought us all pizza and just gave it to us to eat, as well as some candy bars, everybody was super sad to see us all go, and some of the goodbyes were really hard.

 

Then don't even get me started with saying goodbyes to the members. This branch has so many really cool members and we became good friends with a lot of them and even after just 6 weeks it was pretty hard to say goodbye to them.

The worst one for me was with Fratele Salvatore, a member from Italy, who is the Elders quorum president and we had become good friends because he's awesome. Anyway I was talking with somebody and he came up behind me and gave me a kind of behind the back bro-hug and asked what was happening with the district for transfers. I told him that I was leaving and he was just like "Wait you're leaving?! But you just got here! You can't leave!" It was awful.

Then I was talking with the Branch President who is pretty much one of the coolest guysout here and asked if I was leaving and I told him, and he reacted similarly like "You just got here! I wish you could have stayed longer. But it's okay I know you have treaba..." (meaning like I know you've got stuff to do) Then there were all the little kids in the branch that always reminded me of home and of the cousins and church in America. I'm really going to miss this branch.

 

I hope everyone's doing well back home, and had a happy Least-Applicable-Holiday-for-Missionaries-Ever day!!

I love you all and miss you all but I know I'm where I'm supposed to be and I'm so grateful that I can be out here serving the Lord.

 

 

Have a fantastic week!!

Love,

-Elder DeGraw

It was really cold but now it's getting warm!

Yo! Everything's still doing pretty great here! Other than an awful haircut, this week went pretty well! The weather has been getting warmer so it's been better being outside for longer. We've been doing a bit of guitar contacting lately as a district which has been going really well!

Our English classes have been really awesome lately, specifically the spiritual thoughts. They've all kind of flowed together really well and been very powerful. We've given away a lot of Book of Mormons and the other classes have gotten a few good lessons/investigators out of it.

We've only had 2 students in our advanced class but the classes have been going well and one of our students who has been coming for a long time told us that our classes have been his favorite. So we're pretty happy about that.

Me and Elder C were able to give blessings this week, both to members. I gave a blessing in English to a less active member and one in Romanian for her son, and Elder C gave her daughter a blessing, as well as last night we were called over to an active couple's house to give a blessing of healing. Elder C annointed and I gave the blessing. So in the course of a week I gave my first 2 blessings in Romanian. I wasn't really nervous to give them, but I was a little worried that I would mess up words or something. But I gave the blessing of healing, and messed up actually a lot of words, but the spirit was still there and strong and it was a good blessing regardless. Giving blessings is a very sacred privilege and every time I give a blessing I feel really honored and really rely on God to help me say the right words.

Oh I also got my books leather bound! It was really cheap and they're super good looking. Now whenever I read the Book of Mormon in Romanian I'll do it in style ;)

Haha so lately it's been pretty cold, and snowy. But the last couple of days have been really good weather. It's been in the 40s lately! I've barely even needed to wear a sweater! Honestly today with the sun and the temperature, I'd feel fine in just a shirt! I'm loving it! The sun's also out for more of the day, so the days feel longer too. I can't wait for summer to come! It's already starting to feel like spring! When the days are longer and brighter I just feel better and feel like more is getting done haha.

But yeah still loving Cluj! I hope everyone is doing well, I love you all!

 

-Elder DeGraw

I could have had a baby by now

So this is still my favorite city. Cluj is still rockin hard. This last week we got our best numbers of the transfer and my best for a while. We had 3 other lessons and a member present! We also got a lot of contacting hours and potential investigators.

We had one of those miracle "just one more block" experiences, too! Me and Elder C were going out to go block knocking with the other elders, but we got off at the wrong bus stop, at a place where Elder C and Elder R had gone last transfer and got some good potential. We just decided to do a couple blocks and then go home because it was getting kind of late. So we did two blocks with only one person taking the survey, and we also got yelled at a few times. We also got someone who told us to come back on sunday (she wasn't there when  we came back and the person who was there basically said she wouldn't be interested when she got back). But that was it.

So I was really ready  to go home but we decided to do another block. The area we were in was just a whole bunch of blocks, so you'd think it'd be easy to get into one right? Well it wasn't. Haha we walked around the buildings for like 15 minutes trying to find a front entrance because we kept running into back doors or just not being able to find a door. By this time I'm feeling like something is in store, because I was really wanting to just leave but I was determined to stay. We finally found a front entrance, so we went over to it. In order to get into most of the blocks out here you have to buzz in and have someone open the door if you don't live there. Usually it's not that hard. But this time we buzzed like 4 people before we actually got let in, and those 4 people either yelled at us or told us to go away or just didn't let us in. Then I dialed a random number and they just let us in without even  asking us who we were. We go up the stairs of the block, and right as we get there a guy walks out of a room  and basically says "Hey guys come on in, let's talk!
...
...

That never happens.
...

I was freaking out a little haha. We had a good lesson with him in which he talked most of the time, but he was very open and nice and wants us to come back. Turns out this was a guy that  Elder C and R bumped into last transfer and talked for a little bit, but they forgot to write down his information so Elder C just kind of thought he was lost in the records. But we  were meant to run into him haha.

That was a really faith boosting experience. Honestly this whole transfer has been a great motivation/faith booster. In my personal study the other day I was reading The Infinite Atonement, in which it answered a personal question that I had been pondering/worrying about for a while. I recommend that book to everyone. It's amazing. I have a strong testimony that through study of the scriptures and of the words of apostles and prophets is one of the best ways to recieve answers to prayers. I'm not always the best at having focused studies, but I do know that the days I study the best somehow seem  to turn into the most productive.

Well that's about it. Other than the fact that the  other day marked 9 flipping months of me being a missionary. Our sisters from the MTC are halfway done with their missions...  I'm  kind of weirding out about that. Haha once your MTC sisters go home, you are considered an old missionary.

So I'm halfway to being a Moş. Haha also another analogy that equates well, I think, with the effective ages of missionaries is that every week in the field, starting when you get into the country, equates to a year of life. I'm 34 years old out here. I'm not that young anymore. That bothers me. Haha because that means I'm that much closer to going home which seems impossible and also means that I will have to go back to normal life which means moving on and being an adult and scaryneadsss anda dfhdljkhlajkgkjh;gjkbvsajkgajknfjkhfajk.

Anyway.

I had a great week, and I hope everyone else had/will have a great week!

 

Love

Elder DeGraw

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

Yea!

Cluj is freaking sweet! This district is awesome, too. Everybody is super hard working and super fun. So yeah basically things are still going great here. The branch is very motivated to get enough missionaries for a chapel right now, so we're trying to ride that wave and bring people to church.

We had a meeting after church yesterday about bringing people to institute, and we came up with a plan of meeting weith one of the youth every week (with the institute teacher/branch president's wife) as well as calling lots of people and inviting them. That's basically what amounts to mutual out here, and it's for youth and YSA.

The Cluj branch had some people who would come, but they would be like the only ones and they felt kind of weird being alone with the teacher and some missionaries, so they stopped coming. But there are a lot of people who can/should come, who just don't see the importance of it. And this could be a big step in the right direction of building up the branch. The branch mission plan should also help alot; we're going to start doing a lot of member visits and start a Family Home Evening branch activity once a week.

Cluj is really motivated right now, and it's up to us missionaries to funnel that motivation in the right ways. So haha hopefully we do a good enough job.

Me and my new companion are great! Elder C is a very hard worker, and very good at having fun too. I've come to find out here that you need the right balance of hard work and hard fun out here, otherwise you go insane by either overworking yourself or just goofing off all the time. There is balance in everything, and we need to all find that. Me and him have probably the best balance of that out of any of my previous companionships. Haha I'm loving this transfer!


The weather has actually been really nice lately so I might not need to get a different coat! So that's nice. And we've been able to stay outside for longer periods of time! Haha when the weather warms up a bit and it's lighter outside things are just so much easier!


Haha the other day, it was a little warmer and we went and did some district english contacting, and I don't know what it was, but the time just flew! We walked around and talked to people and handed out english flyers for around 4 hours straight, and it felt like nothing, and we would have kept going if we didn't have to go home. We got out almost all of our english flyers, had many people tell us that they were going to come, and had a lot of really good interaction with a lot of people.


It kind of helped put a spark back into my contacting. I think I had been getting kind of unimpressed with the results (or lack thereof) of my contacting lately, but we got a lot out of this last district session and I'm a lot more back into contacting! Contacting is pretty much all we do in this mission, and a lot of the time it just gets so boring and unresultful that it's really hard to keep going.


We don't see a lot of the success of our efforts out here, so we have to make what we do fun. So that's why things like district contacting, specialty contacting (i.e. guitar, art, chalk, surveys, etc.) are so good, because they switch things up and make it fun! And when you enjoy it, logic follows that you will actually want to do it!


This transfer is really a blessing for me. I've had a few transfers that kind of took the fire out of me and I can feel it coming back. I hear Garret is extending a month! Sounds exciting. I hope everything is going well back home, and I hope you all have a great week!!

-Elder DeGraw

The Cluj is Pretty!

This is going to be a great transfer! Haha Elder C is really cool and a hard worker. Very good at the language, very motivated, haha he's the kind of guy who could get along with anyone. And we have pretty similar personalities, so I have high hopes for this transfer haha.

And the branch!! Holy cow I feel like I'm in America again! I feel like this branch is the strongest one that I've served in. There are a lot of members, they don't have a chapel but the Villa is huge, and there are tons of kids. So the church is kind of loud haha. But I love it.

And the Elders Quorum is large and super fun. They were talking all about how important home teaching is and the branches new mission plan (that's a first for me out here) includes getting better at home teaching. It also involves us meeting with members and involving them more in missionary work.

The branch is very motivated right now. They've been hovering around the level of active tithe payers and members needed to build a chapel for a while, and they really want to get it this year. So that involves reactivation as well as baptisms.

A big problem that they've had is that the missionaries here have been pretty lax lately, so there hasn't really been anything big happen lately. But the missionaries and members are really motivated to get the branch moving forward now. So we're pretty hopeful for this year.

The branch is freaking awesome. Haha we actually have a branch mission plan and mission leader! They're very enthusiastic about the work, which makes me very happy. In places where the members don't really care about it, nothing happens. It's very hard to do missionary work without members. So this will be a great experience.

And the city itself is just straight up gorgeous. Pictures just will not do it justice. It feels so European. Haha and there are hills and lots of villas and it's just really cool. We live right next to a cemetary and so we walk through it a lot and it is really beautiful as well.

This past week has been basically just english contacting, but we will hopefully get some lessons set up at some point. We have resolved to try as much as we can to get this branch rolling again. It deserves it. So that's basically it! I love Cluj!

Haha also heads up Dad you'll probably see some money spent soon. I've heard it might be getting colder, and my coat hasn't been very warm, and up until now it's been one of the mildest winters on record in Romania... so if it gets colder I'm going to get a better coat. Also I'm in need of new pants and some other things.

ALSO Cluj is where a lot of missionaries get books leather bound for really cheap. So I'm getting some of mine done but also some people have sent some to get bound and we might need to spot them. So not too much but more money will be coming out this transfer than last transfer. Just heads up.

Oh also, I met the lady that Dad's been working with! She lives here and goes to the Cluj branch so that's pretty cool!

Anyway have a great week everyone!

I'm going to Cluj!

New years was freaking awesome!! Haha so for New years we were allowed to stay up late to celebrate and stuff, so we had a great time. We ended up eating at McDonalds again, and then we went over to the sisters' apartment and played games in the stairwell, after which we went up on the roof. And then... FIREWORKS. So. Many. Fireworks.

They know how to celebrate New Years here haha. We had the perfect view too. But there were fireworks EVERYWHERE. Like everybody had fireworks, big ones, and they were all going off all at once and it was so cool and loud and awesome! Haha it's hard to explain how cool it was. Like explosions all around us, everybody yelling, things were going crazy. It was so cool! So that was fun.

Then the day after, because all the theaters were closed on the 1st, we went and watched Frozen! In Romanian! And we all understood it! Haha that's still weird to me that we could understand all of that. But it was a really good movie!

We've been doing a bit of hospital contacting lately! Wherein we go into the hospital, usually the childrens' ward during visiting hours, and sing hymns for them! It's really cool, and people are much more receptive to listen to us in this context for some reason. Last time we went we got two numbers, and one is from a family with a husband wife and 3 kids, and they seem freaking legit! The dad took a picture of us and both of them said that they will come to church, and they said it very enthusiastically and excitedly, and said with much pleasure they will come to church. A whole bunch of other people who we talked to there said they'd come to church as well. So I have faith in hospital contacting haha!

Other than that, it's been pretty slow as usual. Although we've gotten some potentials recently, which is super cool.

BUT!

Transfers!

I'm leaving Craiova and I'm going to Cluj! I'm going to be with Elder C! He's one transfer younger than me, and he's got a reputation of being really awesome! I've met him a few times too and I've always thought he was a cool guy. So I'm really excited. And Cluj is one of the biggest branches out here, so it'll be quite a difference from here in Craiova, which has 2 members. Haha my mission so far will have gone from Biggest to Smallest back to one of the biggest again. I'm really excited and me and Elder C are going to work really hard and have a lot of fun! I'm stoked.

So that's basically what's going on! I hope you guys had a great New Years! Things are still going on out here, and I'm still doing my best! It's hard out here but it's the best mission ever!

Love you all!

-Elder DeGraw