Well, let's start out with our most interesting contact from this week, which happened when we went out to get our daily tip top. This will take some explaining. So when I first arrived in my current apartment it was a disaster. As in, I walked in and there was a more trash than floor. So after casting out all of the trash devils in a literal sense, battling the encrusted month-old-food monsters, eradicating the colony of dust bunnies, making sketchy mafia-style deals with the actual mafia of spiders to relocate their headquarters, I was left with a large trove of treasures that was buried beneath the rubble. Treasures, meaning: coins. Lots of coins. $20 worth of coins. And that's a lot for Romanian money. I didn't know what to do with it all, so I just left it in a jar for a while. Later, upon discovering a place called tip top located directly beneath my apartment that sells strudels for 1 leu apiece, I knew what I had to do. I formed all my change into little piles of 1 leu each and every day on our way outside, I get myself a tip top. I started this 2 months ago and I still haven't finished off my hoard yet. So now that we're caught up to this week, my companion and I were busy deciding which tip top to eat, and this lady comes up behind us and goes, hey I know you guys. We get this not that often, but often enough that we have a pretty much set response for when that happens. So we start talking to the lady and telling her that we've never actually met her before but some of our colleagues might have. She insists that it was definitely us, so we just accept that and move on. She told us that we set up with her to do family history work but we never ended up doing it. We seized the opportunity and set up with her again to do family history work for this thursday. Missionaried.
Just Romanian Things
We had a fantastic moment this week. While walking out of our apartment to go to the metro, we go past the most interesting area probably to ever exist. It's a huge jumble of just normal people living in the area, people selling (probably stolen) cigarettes, which they let you know they do by approaching you and telling you as quickly and as quietly and as repetitiously as possible (tigari tigari tigari tigari tigari tigarrrrrrri), people selling really old books, people selling really new books, store owners, shoppers at the piata downstairs, zipper fixer dudes, you name it. We've pretty much seen it all. We thought. When we walked out of our apartment one day, and as we approached the street corner, there was a guy standing there who doesn't normally stand there. We know everyone in the area, so this was unusual. As we got closer, he seemed to recognize us and then started to wave at us. Well, it actually wasn't a wave, which we soon found out. His wave seemed to displace itself from his hand to his arm to his shoulder, through the torso to the hips, to its final resting place at the legs. This continued as we passed, morphing into various other dance moves, which were most definitely directed at us. All of this took place without a single word or sound. Imagine the most amazingly awkward dance you can and double it, then put it in a strange guy wearing a coat in summer and have it danced at you. That was what it was. The thing is though, my companion and I both walked past without a second thought. Only after we passed Silent Dancer did we realize the strangeness of the activity. I discovered that I've become calloused to the wonderful exoticism that is Romania. Now my goal is to realize and cherish the beautifully uncoreographed performance that is Romania.
Sorry I forgot my camera this week, so no pictures sorry. Hope you guys have a great week! At first I wrote great idea on accident, so I decided that would be good to add too. Hope you guys have great ideas too!
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
August 11, 2014
Well, here's the story of the week:
We had transfers this week, and so as a result, we had the new batch of boboci (new guys) come in. This time there happened to be 14, which is a TON for our mission. To help you understand how many that is, the layout of how our mission is situated right now is that there are 20 trainers and 20 trainees, 4 russian-speaking elders, 12 zone leaders, and 4 elders in the office. That's a total of 60 and there are only 70 elders in the mission. 10 people are just "normal" missionaries. I'm not training, that's important to know, not really, but you probably want to know based on where my story is going. Anyway, for all the new trainers, our mission president holds a trainers' meeting and then announces who will be with who, and then sends them on their way. So I happened to be at the after of the trainers' meeting and so I got to witness the formation of alliances. It was epic. To fully understand this, you have to realize that our new mission president was a football coach. So after the meeting, we're all gathered together, waiting impatiently. He gets up on a chair so that his voice would carry or something. He then starts to talk about how great all the trainers are and how great the new missionaries' experiences will be. He introduces the area in which the first boboc will serve and then announces his trainer. We all erupted in cheering. It was great. President continued to do this and it got more and more intense every time until it got to the point where he nicknamed a missionary Jumpin' Jarmin and we exploded in chants of Jump! jump! jump! jump! That was pretty much the highlight of the whole day. Afterward, president said "I really didn't expect that, but I guess it went well." It was great because now the new missionaries know that we're stoked that they're here and that they're going to have the time of their lives. That's all I got for this week, but here's the pictures:
oh and the senior couples here made a facebook page with pictures so you can look at that it's called like friends and family of the romania/moldova mission or something like that
We had transfers this week, and so as a result, we had the new batch of boboci (new guys) come in. This time there happened to be 14, which is a TON for our mission. To help you understand how many that is, the layout of how our mission is situated right now is that there are 20 trainers and 20 trainees, 4 russian-speaking elders, 12 zone leaders, and 4 elders in the office. That's a total of 60 and there are only 70 elders in the mission. 10 people are just "normal" missionaries. I'm not training, that's important to know, not really, but you probably want to know based on where my story is going. Anyway, for all the new trainers, our mission president holds a trainers' meeting and then announces who will be with who, and then sends them on their way. So I happened to be at the after of the trainers' meeting and so I got to witness the formation of alliances. It was epic. To fully understand this, you have to realize that our new mission president was a football coach. So after the meeting, we're all gathered together, waiting impatiently. He gets up on a chair so that his voice would carry or something. He then starts to talk about how great all the trainers are and how great the new missionaries' experiences will be. He introduces the area in which the first boboc will serve and then announces his trainer. We all erupted in cheering. It was great. President continued to do this and it got more and more intense every time until it got to the point where he nicknamed a missionary Jumpin' Jarmin and we exploded in chants of Jump! jump! jump! jump! That was pretty much the highlight of the whole day. Afterward, president said "I really didn't expect that, but I guess it went well." It was great because now the new missionaries know that we're stoked that they're here and that they're going to have the time of their lives. That's all I got for this week, but here's the pictures:
oh and the senior couples here made a facebook page with pictures so you can look at that it's called like friends and family of the romania/moldova mission or something like that
August 4, 2014
Well to start off, we now do this thing where we do a conference call with our mission president every sunday, so now I feel like Dad all the time.
This week we start a new transfer. Number 10! Double digits!
This keyboard I'm using is sticky, so I'm fed up with it.
Just Romanian Things
We've been trying to meet with some less active members, and we were able to meet with some this week. We found this guy who hasn't been to church in years, and he totally was receptive and willing to have us over. Turns out, he's a really faithful member and has a really strong testimony. He just lives in Italy some of the time for work and he goes to church there. But what about the time he's NOT there? Well, that's the tragedy. He hates gossip. (barfa, remember?) Anyway, there was a rumor like 10 years ago spread about him and now he hates the members here in Romania. He'll go to church in Italy no problem, but here, no way. He says it's the communist mentality. It's really sad, especially because that's the common thread we've seen among most less active members. They all just leave the church because of gossip or the members. They still think the church is true, they just can't show their face in the church because of the other members. On a happier note though, he used to own a pizza place and he's going to teach me how to make pizza. So that'll be awesome.
Two Truths and a Lie
Last week the lie was the bird one. A guy in our English class has a super cool dog who he trained to pick up trash and throw it away. We were all thoroughly impressed. The cat one was also true. I like taking my showers with the window open because it doesn't steam up the bathroom so much and the nice cool air with the warm water feels great. Well, our window opens up to the inside of the bloc, where it's just a hole with everyone else's windows. I open the window and there's just a cat sitting on one of the window ledges just staring at me. Yep. So for this week:
Pictures
This week we start a new transfer. Number 10! Double digits!
This keyboard I'm using is sticky, so I'm fed up with it.
Just Romanian Things
We've been trying to meet with some less active members, and we were able to meet with some this week. We found this guy who hasn't been to church in years, and he totally was receptive and willing to have us over. Turns out, he's a really faithful member and has a really strong testimony. He just lives in Italy some of the time for work and he goes to church there. But what about the time he's NOT there? Well, that's the tragedy. He hates gossip. (barfa, remember?) Anyway, there was a rumor like 10 years ago spread about him and now he hates the members here in Romania. He'll go to church in Italy no problem, but here, no way. He says it's the communist mentality. It's really sad, especially because that's the common thread we've seen among most less active members. They all just leave the church because of gossip or the members. They still think the church is true, they just can't show their face in the church because of the other members. On a happier note though, he used to own a pizza place and he's going to teach me how to make pizza. So that'll be awesome.
Two Truths and a Lie
Last week the lie was the bird one. A guy in our English class has a super cool dog who he trained to pick up trash and throw it away. We were all thoroughly impressed. The cat one was also true. I like taking my showers with the window open because it doesn't steam up the bathroom so much and the nice cool air with the warm water feels great. Well, our window opens up to the inside of the bloc, where it's just a hole with everyone else's windows. I open the window and there's just a cat sitting on one of the window ledges just staring at me. Yep. So for this week:
- I managed to get some 80's film into my 80's camera
- I drank 5 L of water in one day
- I went to the top of the tallest building in Romania
Pictures
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
July 28, 2014
Well, this week we did some fun stuff. We started holding an activity after English class on Tuesdays. We hosted the first one and we played this kind of series of group mini-games to get everyone to interact and to participate. It went really well! Some favorite mini games were: spelling words with bodies and traveling across the room without touching the floor with them help of chairs and tables. We publicized it well beforehand, and tried to get as many people to come as possible. The previous weeks, we had been working on trying to make contact with less actives and get them to come back to church. We tried contacting almost everyone on the list, with no success. Not one person met with us. But then, on that English day, one of the less actives that we didn't talk to or try to contact just showed up. And brought his friend. And they both had a great time at the activity and now the less active is preparing for the priesthood and his friend is interested in the gospel. Super sweet little story of how the Lord works in mysterious ways.
Just Romanian Things
Here's an analogy I thought up this week of Romania, hope if helps you guys understand how the people are here: Romania is like a traditional country population that speaks in Bible and got teleported into a post-apocalyptic city where the only things that survived the nuclear attack or whatever were the huge cement buildings. And that's Romania.
Two Truths and a Lie
These are all animal related, so have fun
Just Romanian Things
Here's an analogy I thought up this week of Romania, hope if helps you guys understand how the people are here: Romania is like a traditional country population that speaks in Bible and got teleported into a post-apocalyptic city where the only things that survived the nuclear attack or whatever were the huge cement buildings. And that's Romania.
Two Truths and a Lie
These are all animal related, so have fun
- A pigeon flew into our apartment
- A cat watched me take a shower
- I saw a dog pick up a bottle and throw it away
Monday, July 21, 2014
July 21, 2014
I offered to give piano lessons to a member here who really wants to learn piano. He's a super cool member who's 26 years old and translates for the church. He knows like 5 or 6 languages and is working on another 2. His parents are Hungarian but now they all live in Romania. For some reason there's a lot of beef here between Hungarians and Romanians, which is really dumb because their feud is based on a land grab that happened a long time ago and they can't get over it. Tibi (the member I'm teaching piano to) says that their cultures are really similar and they should just get over it and appreciate each other. Good policy. The reason he wants to learn piano is because he wants to write a history of jazz in Romania, and he's done a ton of research on it, but now he believes that in order to write a convincing compilation of everything about Romanian jazz, he has to learn how to play jazz. Really cool but daunting endeavor. After our piano lesson, we got to talking about space because I love space and also he has a monstrous bookshelf of space books. Don't know where I was going with that tangent. Okay well, onward. So my companion found out that I offered to teach piano lessons to Tibi, so then he went and offered it to everyone in the beginner English class, without asking me of course. So I got roped into doing 3 other sets of piano lessons. I don't even teach piano! I only offered to teach piano to Tibi because he specifically asked me. Anyway, we'll see what happens.
Just Romanian Things
So this week in church, the speaker before the rest hymn ended really early and I wasn't expecting it, and the conductor said we would sing a sacrament hymn on accident. So I was surprised as I made my way up to the organ to play the rest hymn. The director was messing around with the book as I started to play the prelude to There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today. Then, she looked over at me and reached over to put a book on the organ or something and I thought she was telling me to stop, so I did, then I realized that's not what she was doing, so I kept going. For some reason after all this confusion, I forgot that Sunshine is played in G major, and not D major. So I played the intro in D major before realizing my horrible error and hiccupping hardcore near the end of the intro. And of course, the intro is the only time people actually pay attention to the organ, so that's great. Needless to say, I biffed hard on the song. It wasn't that I couldn't play it, I just thought it was in a different key. The past couple weeks after I played piano, one member would come up to me and tell me I was wonderful and that I was a pianist and how great it was and all that jazz. Well this week he comes up to me and goes you're no longer good, man. You're varza. Varza is the romanian word for cabbage. I was called cabbage. It's actually used colloquially to me lame or bad or something like that. It's funny though, because they love cabbage here. So shouldn't cabbage be a great thing? I mean, in a culture where if something isn't wrapped in cabbage, it's got cabbage inside, wouldn't cabbage be a compliment? Just Romanian things.
Sorry, I don't have chef to do two truths and a lie this time. The lie last time was the dogs though. Also, I forgot my card reader so pictures will have to wait till next week. Sorry for being cabbage guys.
Just Romanian Things
So this week in church, the speaker before the rest hymn ended really early and I wasn't expecting it, and the conductor said we would sing a sacrament hymn on accident. So I was surprised as I made my way up to the organ to play the rest hymn. The director was messing around with the book as I started to play the prelude to There Is Sunshine In My Soul Today. Then, she looked over at me and reached over to put a book on the organ or something and I thought she was telling me to stop, so I did, then I realized that's not what she was doing, so I kept going. For some reason after all this confusion, I forgot that Sunshine is played in G major, and not D major. So I played the intro in D major before realizing my horrible error and hiccupping hardcore near the end of the intro. And of course, the intro is the only time people actually pay attention to the organ, so that's great. Needless to say, I biffed hard on the song. It wasn't that I couldn't play it, I just thought it was in a different key. The past couple weeks after I played piano, one member would come up to me and tell me I was wonderful and that I was a pianist and how great it was and all that jazz. Well this week he comes up to me and goes you're no longer good, man. You're varza. Varza is the romanian word for cabbage. I was called cabbage. It's actually used colloquially to me lame or bad or something like that. It's funny though, because they love cabbage here. So shouldn't cabbage be a great thing? I mean, in a culture where if something isn't wrapped in cabbage, it's got cabbage inside, wouldn't cabbage be a compliment? Just Romanian things.
Sorry, I don't have chef to do two truths and a lie this time. The lie last time was the dogs though. Also, I forgot my card reader so pictures will have to wait till next week. Sorry for being cabbage guys.
Monday, July 14, 2014
July 14, 2014
so this week we did some pretty neat stuff. We met with a really cool member and his son, who isn't a member. He fed us some man food and we talked about engineering stuff for a while. He was telling us about the rich history of Romanian engineering, where they would take other people's ideas and make their own versions of them. For coming straight out of communism, that was apparently a pretty big deal. However, all the huge German companies already established just ate up all the little Romanian startups so that's why there are no Romanian companies at all now. He got talking about Nikola Tesla as well and how he's the smartest guy to ever live and that he has all these inventions that aren't accredited to him because he never demanded them to be, so I guess he was a pretty modest guy as well. But this member is really cool, he's a precision engineer or something like that, so he (used to) make and design really delicate and precise instruments, like dental tools and stuff like that. He also did some programming of some kind, but I don't remember what. However, the economy is so bad here that he can't get a job. Super sad.
Anyway, I set up with a different member this week to teach him piano twice a week, so that should be fun.
Culture Tip
This is a missionary culture tip. So here in our branch there is an old lady who loves the missionaries. A lot. So much that she's known as the grandma to the missionaries. She always pups us every time we see her and she invites us over to eat at her house all the time. And then makes us pay for it. I found out though that she would probably be dead if she didn't do that. Her retirement pay whatever that's called is super tiny and there's no way she'd have enough money to live without feeding the missionaries. So it's a kind of strange form of service, but service nonetheless.
Two Truths and a Lie
The lie last week was the calves one. That didn't happen sadly. Okay, so this week, which of these didn't happen?
Pictures
Anyway, I set up with a different member this week to teach him piano twice a week, so that should be fun.
Culture Tip
This is a missionary culture tip. So here in our branch there is an old lady who loves the missionaries. A lot. So much that she's known as the grandma to the missionaries. She always pups us every time we see her and she invites us over to eat at her house all the time. And then makes us pay for it. I found out though that she would probably be dead if she didn't do that. Her retirement pay whatever that's called is super tiny and there's no way she'd have enough money to live without feeding the missionaries. So it's a kind of strange form of service, but service nonetheless.
Two Truths and a Lie
The lie last week was the calves one. That didn't happen sadly. Okay, so this week, which of these didn't happen?
- I saw a guy in a cage
- I found a hidden trove of johnny's garlic spread in our cupboard
- A woman got on the metro with 12 lap dogs
Pictures
Monday, July 7, 2014
July 7, 2014
As of yesterday, I'm now the branch organist. Yep, we have an organ. It was actually super fun playing the organ last week! Hopefully I can pull it off again next week.
In other news, the zone leaders from Chisinau came down and stayed with us for the two day mission leadership council and it was great to see them again. One of them looks exactly like David (see pics) which I think is hilarious. Another hilarious coincidence if you could call it that is that our new mission president looks exactly like my friend Bradley from college, except about 30 years older. The resemblance is uncanny. Speaking of our new mission president, he wants us to spend more time visiting members and less actives, so that will be totally different than our old approach. He also wants us to spend more time doing activities with the youth and stuff like that as well, so I'm super stoked about that. Because you know I love activities. We brainstormed a bit with the Chisinau elders about what kinds of stuff would be good and stuff that they've done that's worked as well, and we've got a good little list going. So if you guys have any ideas for some sweet activities that you think would get investigators, less actives, and members all in one place, let me know!
Two Truths and a Lie
The lie was the bike one. However, someone in my district did actually do that last week...
Pictures
In other news, the zone leaders from Chisinau came down and stayed with us for the two day mission leadership council and it was great to see them again. One of them looks exactly like David (see pics) which I think is hilarious. Another hilarious coincidence if you could call it that is that our new mission president looks exactly like my friend Bradley from college, except about 30 years older. The resemblance is uncanny. Speaking of our new mission president, he wants us to spend more time visiting members and less actives, so that will be totally different than our old approach. He also wants us to spend more time doing activities with the youth and stuff like that as well, so I'm super stoked about that. Because you know I love activities. We brainstormed a bit with the Chisinau elders about what kinds of stuff would be good and stuff that they've done that's worked as well, and we've got a good little list going. So if you guys have any ideas for some sweet activities that you think would get investigators, less actives, and members all in one place, let me know!
Two Truths and a Lie
The lie was the bike one. However, someone in my district did actually do that last week...
- Some guy I was talking to on the street admired and measured my calves
- I had an incredibly amazing hand-tossed fire-baked pizza from a little tiny shop in the middle of town
- We found a less active member in the park while waiting for a investigator who never showed up
Pictures
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