I'm . . . Expecting?

Hello all,

I haven't received the package yet, it's probably sitting in the office collecting dust. I'll be able to pick it up this Wednesday, though, because:

Dun dun dun duuuuuuun!

We've got transfers!

I'll tell you what's going on with that in a minute.

Vlad is just looking for a way to make a quick buck, so I mentioned that I sing and he perked up and was like, "Oh, let's put you on Romania's got talent or something, I'll be your manager." And every English class he reminds me about the "deal" we made. It's pretty funny.

Our church is held in a villa. The only cities that have actual church chapels are two in Bucharest, and one in Brasov. Everywhere else, villas. But they're nice and church-y inside, so that's cool. I don't have any pictures on me.. though... but I think there actually are some online. I dunno. It's not like I can check, haha.

 

This week... what happened this week...

Everything's going by so fast, I don't even know anymore. Um...

So Tuesday we were at Sora Mitin's again, and she seemed to be doing a lot worse. We read to her, and her daughter was gone so she asked us to heat her up some soup. So remember: the word for microwave and stove are the same. She asks us to use the "cuptor" to heat the soup from the fridge, so Sora Merkley starts it up on the stove. Sora Mitin says, "I don't hear the cuptor. Are you heating up the soup?"

"Yes."

"Well, it's been there long enough. Take it off, I don't want it hot."

"But it's still cold."

"What? I didn't even hear the cuptor."

Oh, she wanted us to use the microwave. We didn't even realize they had a microwave. She starts laughing, saying, "you were heating up the whole soup? I just wanted a bowl in the microwave!"

It was funny.

Later that day we met with Tibi the taxi driver after a few days of having to reschedule. We thought we were going to sit down for a lesson, but next thing we know Sora Momo, I, and Elders Montoya and Morby are in his taxi driving to meet his daughter. Okay, we can work with this, talking to both of them. So we meet her outside of their block, say hi, and it's back in the taxi. He drives us back to the church, and that was our "lesson."  Next time, we're hoping to mention prayer or the Book of Mormon or something.  But hey, at least it was a step forward.

Wednesday we went with Elder Bliss and Morby to Familia Popescu, two members from the branch. They like to host all the missionaries, so we went and ate SO MUCH FOOD. That's what "hosting" means. You sit in their house and they bring out all this food and watch you eat. Closely. So when you're done, they can give you more. Ciorba, bread, potatoes, more bread, chicken AND pork chops, clatite. And as always, suc. There's always suc.   Lesson learned: eat slow, then you don't get force fed as much. It's a good tactic.  But I'll admit, if I were a male and grew to be as old as he is, I'd love to have Brother Popescu's hair.

Then we went to Sora Hunt's house (the couple missionary) for visiting teaching with another member of the branch, Sora Gabi. I can't remember what the lesson was supposed to be about, though, because the conversation got off topic as per usual talking with Romanians. But hey, it keeps life interesting.

Thursday I taught seminary again. It turned out to be a good lesson, and a lot easier to teach about Jacob than about Isaiah.

On our way back from teaching seminary, we passed by these two women and a small boy, and the small boy was sticking a cracker through a fence feeding it to a dog. The women were watching, saying "How cute!" until the dog takes a bite and the kid puts the same cracker in his mouth and his mother goes, "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" It was so funny.

Friday, adica, VALENTINES DAY, was so much fun. We went about business as usual, and Sora Merkley and I prepared a nice dinner for the six of us to have between us teaching Kid's English at 5 and Institute at 7. We made beef Stroganoff (however you spell that) and veggies and cheese bread... it was a legit meal. And turned out really good, all of us sitting together eating and talking about awkward date moments. The best part was when we gave all the elders Homemade Valentine Cards with stupid sayings inside and signed "From sisters who love you!  With little pop-out stick figures of me and Sora Momo  Yeah, we're only the best sisters ever. It's too bad this transfer is over. Those elders are gonna miss us.

Saturday we get to the church at 11 to see what was happening for transfers, because that's when transfer boards are supposed to come out, but they came out early and Montorby (the nickname we've given Elders Montoya and Morby) were already there.

So here's the news:

I'm staying in Timi! AND I'm going to be training a new missionary! Which means I'll probably stay here for two more transfers to train her, maybe, you never know.  
 

Timisoara

 Sora Merkley is going to Buch to second half train another sister, Sora Johnson. So we're sad we're splitting ways, but now we both have babies to take care of!  Which is why I say I'm expecting. Have I told you about the lingo yet? I don't know if I have.

Apparently in this mission, if you train someone you become their parent. So I'm having a daughter. If you second half train someone, you're their step-parent.

There's more.

The district leader is the father of whoever is being trained by a sister. And since elder Montoya is the next DL, he is my husband and my trainee's father. And the oldest sister in the district is always the mom if an elder is training.  Sora Gerhartz is my mom and Elder Conover is my dad. Elder French is Sora Gerhartz's son, so he is my brother. I have more siblings, too, just can't keep track of them all.  And this isn't just me. This is mission-wide. We're all serious about this lingo. It's kind of crazy, because then you get missionaries who are brother/sister marrying each other, and uncles step-dadding their nephew's son, and so on.  Missionaries are weird.

So yeah. With all of that, I'm going to be a mom. Lol.

Elder Bliss is also leaving, and we'll be getting Elder Ormsby who is in like his 11th transfer or something.

Anyway, then we had our final English class, so our class played Bananagrams. Vlad was getting frustrated with losing, so he said, "Let's play it in Romanian and then see who loses."  So we play in Romanian, and know who wins?  Elder Hunt, who knows the language the least out of all of us.  Hahaha, that was funny.  And then we watched Emperor's New Groove as a final English activity. I love that movie.

Sunday Tibi the taxi driver came to church! He lives outside of town, so he didn't have time to change into formals, but he was there for the sacrament and everything, AND he still wants to meet! So that was awesome!  And he was there for when we sang our song. It turned out really great, especially considering Elder Montoya and Sora Merkley don't really read music, we went ahead with four parts anyway and it turned out really good. At least, I think. So I'm hoping my boboaca (missionary lingo for trainee, it means "duckling" lol) sings or something. If not, we can learn her just like Momo and Monty.

Tibi the Taxi Driver, Elders Morby and Montoya, Sora Merkley and Me

Then Sora Merkley had to say goodbye to everyone. It's weird, I've never stayed behind while someone else had to leave before. It's sad, but that's what we do on these missions. Get to know people really well and then go somewhere else.

We also went to see Sora Mitin again, because Sora is leaving. It was a surprise to see her sitting up on her bed. I've never seen her sitting up before. Then she says, "Watch, I can stand now," and Elder Stinson helps her up. She was standing! It used to be an accomplishment for her to lift her an inch off her pillow. She says for Elder Stinson to let her go, her legs are wobbling all over the place so he keeps a hold of her. Then she throws her arms in the air saying "Look what I can do!"  Then we help her back down again, haha.  So then we start joking with her about "going to the disco-tech". She likes to joke about that a lot, "When are we going to go? I only go at 2 in the morning."  She got a call from her sister when we were leaving, and we hear her say, "The boys and girls came over to see me. The boys gave me the sacrament and the girls are going to take me to the disco."  She is so funny, I love that lady.

So this Tuesday evening we'll be boarding a train to Buch, spend the day there on Wednesday, and we'll be back in time to... okay this may or may not happen, but we've been thinking of doing an "initiation" to welcome the new sister in the mission. I'll have to see how she'd react when I meet her, to see if, us chanting "Errybody in Timi gettin' baptized" would scare her or not.   We'll see.

She's on the plane right now, probably thinking about who her first companion will be.

Actually, probably not.

Anyway, I hope you all at home have a good week, and I'll write back after I've had my baby!

Lol.

Sora Smith