Week 44 (Just did the math) :)

Hi Family and Friends,

To answer your questions:  Yeah, Sora O'Brien is one transfer behind me. Which is AWESOME because it means I get rights to calling the new missionary my son. I HAVE TWO CHILDREN NOW, I'm such a proud mother. Haha, but working with Sora O'Brien is great, we get along well and get a lot of work done. We got our entire portion of English cards passed out and our classes haven't even started. I've never even gotten close before. So it's been pretty awesome.

Arad, Romania

I'm starting to get to know the members better, I mean we've had different turnouts both Sundays so I haven't seen them all that much.

NATHAN'S COMING TO ROMANIA, I CAN FEEL IT IN MY ROMANIAN BONES. One of my mission buddies is going to train him. Called it. I'll be awaiting my Symphony Bar for guessing right.

Gosh dang, hearing about Les Mis makes me want to be in another show ha, ha. That's so awesome, I wish I got a chance to work with Jeremy Showgren (the director) before I left. Oh well, I still have time.

That's funny that Lara and Dave are working at Kneaders together. Kneaders is probably in better hands now than when I was working there where the managers and cooks were all high school or barely into college kids. Like me. 

Liz promised me a Garden of Eden by the time I get back, so let her know that's what I'll be expecting :) She has until January.

Dave is still on with working in the Provo Temple, right? They should move to Romania, we have an apartment open in our bloc that the lady across the hall keeps asking if we'll rent it out. In all seriousness, I hope they find a good place :) (in America......)

So this week was a little stressful and crazy. On Monday we crashed the Elder's barbeque. They were partying without us so we showed up and brought peaches for them. Moral of the story: if you're planning on breaking plans, at least bring a peace offering. I found out Elder Myler is actually from Orem, he went to Timpanogos, graduated 2010. So that was cool.

Tuesday we had Zone Training Meeting, but we didn't have to catch any trains because it was actually in my own city. That was kind of nice. And since the STL's were in Arad, we started the exchange that night and into Wednesday. I was with Sora Tobler, and we did a LOT of walking. (And I still don't remember how to navigate this city...)

But it turns out that we got a surprise visit from an RM who actually never served in Arad, but she was visiting a friend who lived there, a member. Unfortunately, some things fell through with the member, and since the former Sora W doesn't know this city, we had to kind of be her escorts and take care of her while she was here. It kind of made things a little crazy. I was in charge of sleeping arrangements, and remember our across the hall neighbor that wants us to rent her apartment? Well, we did for a night :)

We finish out exchange on Wednesday, and Sora O'Brien and I work together again and get our nose to the grindstone, and we found some amazing people. No investigators yet, but if anything I got a good reaffirmation that Romanians are great people.

But then we hear that our guest, the former Sora W wants to go to Cluj to pick up her books (I don't know if I ever mentioned, there's a famous book binding place in Cluj that all the missionaries get pretty covers on their bibles/BOM's etc). Problem is, the epiphany came and we realized this sister's books are not in Cluj being bound (which takes months). They were in our apartment. Unbound.

Book Bindery in Cluj

The member Sora W was visiting was supposed to get the books to Cluj, but she asked a missionary a transfer ago to do it and it never got done because there was no money to pay for it. Sora O and I knew the books were there waiting to go to Cluj, we didn't know what to do with them and then we realized on Wednesday, these books belong to this RM and she thinks they're in Cluj and that they're bound. We had to break the news to her on Thursday, which was sad because she was really nice. We ended up saying goodbye, and she headed off to Cluj to get the books started, I think she's planning on having a missionary bring them home and she'll pay to get them shipped within America.  The moral of the story is, get your books bound during your mission so you can keep track of them. Poor Sora W, I hope everything works out.

SO, after all that treaba was finished with, we were working hard again on Friday. Elder Baielli was serving an exchange with the elders in Timisoara, so I got a call asking me where I got my ukulele. He ends up buying the same one, and we're starting a Hawaiian uke band in Arad :) After I teach him how to play it, of course...

We had to pick up a couple of things from Kaufland on Saturday, and while we were there, there were these two men who were eyeing us and started to follow us. Even when we maneuvered and hid in a hardware aisle, they appeared and one of them in English says, "Don't be scared!" and I was like what the heck! The guy started laughing, his friend looks confused, and then the guy says "I'm Gabi Oanta."

OH, the famous Gabi. Let me tell you a little about Gabi. I've been hearing all about him since my first transfer. All the missionaries are convinced he's a spy. He works for the government and travels a lot, and if you ask him what he does for a living, he'll give you a card that says he tends flowers. If you get any nosier, he says "I'll tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." Basically, the missionaries call him if they need any help with anything. He apparently found us multiple apartments in and out of Arad. He's fixed a lot of the broken items. Need help finding someone? Call Gabi. Lost in Arad? Call Gabi.  I'm personally not convinced he's a spy, but he's got some sweet connections and he's very nice. I just haven't met him until that time in Kaufland. Although, I don't know his connection with his friend that we saw in k-land, his friend was from America (apparently lived in Orem a few years) and served a mission in England. How did he know Gabi and why was he in Romania? And is he really a spy? Some things we'll never know.

Kaufland Store in Arad

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday, we did service by volunteering at a kid's daycare center. It was a little crazy, the younger kids were actually fine to work with but when the tweens showed up, things got out of hand haha... but we'll be doing that now every Wednesday (at least, if I don't die before too long.)

On Sunday we sang a special number as missionaries, "Veniti la Isus" (Come Unto Jesus). It sounded very nice, we have some good voices in this district.

Sunday evening I was doing the dishes when a little while later I find myself cleaning and organizing the entire apartment. (Cue the "who are you's and what have you done with our daughter's?") If there's anything that's changed on my mission, it's that I keep everything clean and organized now. Mom, I know, it's a shock. When was that ever going to happen? Don't expect me to still be this way when I get home, there's still time. :)

So yeah, that's this eventful week. It was nice, but now I feel uber exhausted. And hot. Gosh, it's like someone poured boiling water over Arad and now we're sizzling like bacon in a frying pan of sweat. Does no one in Romania believe in air conditioning? Curse you, curent!

A photo of the sisters in our mission

The reunion photo of my MTC District taken during transfers

Sora I-Will-Survive Smith

P.S. I lost my camera adapter in the move from Timi to Arad, I mean I know where it is but I need to hunt it out and then actually put it in my purse again so I remember to send photos............. :D