Thanks-birth-give-day-ing

I haven't gotten the package yet, nothing going between here and Bucharest. We have a Zone Conference this Saturday though so maybe I'll see it then.

We haven't really been able to make it to any of the rehearsals for the Christmas concert because Oradea is three hours away and it takes too much time out of a proselyting day. Missionary work comes first. I have all the music, though so at least I know what's coming up.

Picture taken at the Arad Meeting House before English Class

WEEEEELLLLLL this week was kind of weird. I mean, it's weird thinking about where I was this time last year, here, in Romania. I remember thinking that I'd never get around to my second holiday season. Well, here I am, another trip around the sun.

Well, Friday the Elders came with us to visit Sora Krista. We normally go with the Smiths but this time we hopped on a free bus to a store called REAL which took us pretty much 3/4 of the way out to the hospital and walked the rest of the way. We saw her and talked a bit, I told her about Thanksgiving and that we're all thankful for her and she started to cry. Oops. Well, after we left it was drizzling a bit but we had fun kicking rocks to (at) each other all the way back to REAL to take the bus back. It was a fun way to spend a rainy day.

We also talked with Clara's family about her being baptized. She's the a handicapped girl who has been faithfully coming to church and activities for months. Her family pretty much shot down the request to teach her with them present for them to see how much she understands. They kept saying "She doesn't understand. She's mentally sick, she can't decide for herself. She only comes to your church because it's the closest," and on and on. That made Clara really sad, she really wants to be baptized. And she understands a lot. If she can beat everyone at a game of Uno, she understands enough to choose for herself to be baptized.

Playing Uno for Family Home Evening

Well, it's not all over with Clara. We taught her the restoration lesson, without her family to explain how she "doesn't understand". She understood it perfectly, and asked questions, and made relevant comments. Well, we'll be really working with her and her family to see what we can do.

That evening we got a call from Sora Smith. She knew how we were planning on buying this one particular cake, so she asks, "What time tomorrow are you getting that cake?"

"I dunnno."

"Oh, okay. Well, you want to come over in the morning for a Romanian lesson?"

We saw right through it.

Saturday morning we went to the Smiths for a "Romanian lesson."  Ask me if I even prepared anything :) I considered asking "So, where are the Elders hiding?" but I decided to let them have their fun.  We all sat down and talked for a minute, then this THUD happens, and then the Elders pop in singing "Happy Birthday" with a cake and presents, one of which they blew their cover dropping it on the floor. (As if they even had a cover to begin with). CAN'T SURPRISE A COUPLE OF PRANKSTERS.

Surprise Birthday Party for Me and My Companion

Me and my companion were born one year apart on the same day!

The cake was delicious. Speaking of pranks and cake, we brought some "cake" of our own. It was a little blue colored.... you can guess what happened, it's happened before :)

We've been pulling some Kinder pranks on the Elders. We'll give them a Kinder Egg that we've opened carefully and taken the prize out and replaced it with trash, or a rubber band... or a real egg. We wanted to bake the "cake" into another Kinder Egg but it didn't work. Anyway.

We had 5 lessons on our birthday, so it was a pretty good day. We met with Cristina, Alexandra, Florita, Maria, and our last lesson bunged us so we had time to go out for ice cream with the Elders before the day was over. So yeah, it was a nice birthday.  We didn't manage to get the lanterns, though so we'll have to send those off another day.

After church on Sunday I made everyone pancakes and syrup that I made up the recipe. They were great but it didn't make enough, lol. Oh well. I like the whole eating after church thing.

And... that was about all the exciting stuff. Today we'll be seeing Maria again, she apparently doesn't want to wait to talk to her husband anymore before being baptized. And we've been arranging for the Elders to go to teach her husband. So things are going well.

Today is the first of December, or basically Romania's Fourth of July. Pretty much every store is closed.

Arad City Hall

Well, I'm out of time but things are going great and I'll talk to you more later!

Love, your favorite Romanian missionary