14 Aug 2010   (Nathan)

Subject: cool week!

Hey mom!

So let's see what happened this week... We started off by going to church last Sunday at the Mihai Bravu branch here in Bucuresti which was pretty cool. (Since that's my old area.) But we've been doing alot of errands and office stuff lately while we get ready for the transfer that's coming up. The transfer is coming up on this Tuesday. So there's alot to do with getting everybody's travel plans ready and stuff. Like I said, President told me that I would be AP for another transfer, and then my last transfer I'll be back in the field! Ready to thrust my sickle with my might! Woo! Monday night was really cool though. We went and had family home evening at the senior couple's house that works in the office with us. What we did was we took 2 of the recent converts from Mihai Bravu branch, Traian and Cristina (Traian is a recent convert for about 11 months and Cristina is the one that Elder Boynton and I baptized last transfer) and had a lesson with them about temple work and the Plan of salvation. We read D&C 137 -138 together during the FHE and discussed and answered lots of questions. It was so cool. Just seeing how much Cristina has progressed in the gospel makes you just wanna run up and hug her, but you can't cuz you're a missionary...DANGET! We talked about the temple because we're getting ready for the big temple dedication in Kiev on August 29th. I'm way excited because I'll be in a city where there will be a satellite broadcast! YES! And I'll be able to sit in the chapel (which becomes a branch of the temple during the ceremony) with my recent convert! Everything we do aims towards the temple, and being able to see her progress from being super skeptical about being baptized to not being able to wait to go to the temple is the most rewarding experience ever. SO AWESOME! Her boyfriend will be passing the sacrament for the first time cuz he just got the Priesthood a week or so ago. So she's gonna go up to Brasov for the weekend where he attends church :) After that, on Tuesday we went and head up to Bacău (Another one of my old cities!) for an exchange with the Elders up there! It was alot of fun. It's sad to see how much that city is struggling. In 2003 there used to be 80 active members, and now there's only about 5 or 6... Ever since Romania joined the EU in 2003 everybody left. Branches with 150 people shrank down to 40 - 50 people, and the pay is HORRIBLE here... So EVERYONE HAS to go work out of the country if they want to even THINK of surviving... Everyone here has half families. Half families in the sense of half the family being gone in a different country trying to earn enough money for them to live. But I had fun in Bacău. It was nice getting to visit Georgeta, the old lady we baptized when we were there last summer :) After we came back to Bucuresti, and there was alot of work for us to do here... We had to meet with President and talk about where all the missionaries will be transferred and all that good stuff. Then, on Friday we had Mission Council with all the Zone Leaders, President and his wife, and the assistants. It was way good. We discussed alot of things. It was nice getting to have an open discussion on what we can do to try and improve and not get complacent with our work. Sora Lundberg made some Lasagna and it was wayyyy good. It's always nice getting to eat over at their place because she always makes American food and it makes you feel like you're back home. Well, other than that we went to a park this morning to do some workouts for about and hour or so and it was a lot of fun. We jogged around the whole lake, threw some pigskin around, took a cold shower, at some tomatoes, salami, mozzarella balls, and eggs for breakfast and then head on over to the office for email! Can you try and remember to send me Nana and Papa and Grandma and Grandpa's mailing addresses? I've asked for them a few times and you keep forgetting to give them to me! I want to send them something!

BTW, what temple did you and dad get married in? I need to know for something! hehe.

Love you all so much!

Keep kicking life in the pants and havin a good time!

Choose the Right!

Vârstnicul Smith