21 Aug 2010 (Nathan)

Hey mom! Happy P-Day all the way over here in Bucuresti! We're actually not going to be able to go. We just get to attend the satellite transmission here in one of the chapels in Bucuresti. For some reason I can't remember the dedication of the Nauvoo temple at all... I don't know why but It's not stored there in my brain at all. There ARE going to be some members from Romania and Moldova who will be participating live at the dedication though. Right now we're looking at about 30 people from both countries to go up for the dedication, which is pretty good considering how poor these people are. It's going to take them about 17 hours in a bus to get up to Kyev. Yeah, I realized that the dedication is gonna take place on Aaron's birthday, that stuck out to me. That's crazy that the temple had to be approved again and again and again. Satan really doesn't want temple work to move forward in our area I guess... Wow, that's crazy that there is going to be a chapel in Anthem as well. Sounds like a lot of things are growing back home. I noticed in last week's email that you said that you thought Dan might have gone up frontage road??? What the heck!? That thing is finished now???

So nana and papa DID end up going to Montana even though they were sick? What troopers. Hopefully everything goes well with their travels. That's cool that Richard's daughter wanted a patriarchal blessing and that all is going well with them. Is Richard still active in the church? That stinks that everyone is getting sick at Dad's work. What do you mean "crud" sickness? Is it some sort of flu or something??

As far as I heard, I heard that Georgeta hadn't been coming to church because of her feet, (and the fact that she's like 85) but she came to church last weekend and I was super glad to hear it :) The missionaries up there in Bacau told me that all the other old ladies in the Branch fellowshipped her. Traian and Cristina and Ivan are still doing well. She went to go see her boyfriend Ivan go pass the sacrament for the first time up there in Brasov. But she'll be gone again to see him this weekend too. Bummer! I still haven't been able to see her AT CHURCH since her confirmation! Cuz we're always at different branches. But that makes me glad that we HAVE multiple branches to attend and that the church is growing here :) The transfer took place on Wednesday. So I've got a new companion now and I'm still in the office. But the next transfer will be September 29th. Once that day comes around I will be a free man to go out and do missionary work to my heart's desire! WOO! No, I don't know where I will be going yet. I won't find out for another  5 1/2 weeks or so. But i WOULD like to go back to Arad if that's possible. I love/miss that place so much... Chisinau would be another cool place to go to again as well!

Well let me think here about what happened this week. Like I said, we had transfers, so that took up a BIG part of our week. Mainly because we have to do all the planning and stuff like that for it... We're getting ready for another training meeting tomorrow as well. It's going to last 4 days. The brethren put together this new training program and it's going into effect in all the missions now. It includes interviews only half as often as we've been doing them. We will have quarterly interviews (which are only aloud to be 10 min long now opposed to 30 min - 1 hr as it was before), quarterly zone conferences, 4 day long leadership training meetings every transfer, and zone leader council every month. So there's alot of new changes. We'll see what happens. Hopefully we can learn to be even BETTER missionaries from all this. Today we went to the park for our P-Day and had alot of fun. We ate some Domino's Pizza again, tossed around the pigskin, and I taught my companion and one of the office elders how to drive a stick today. It was funny seeing them stall the car so many times. hehehe. Well, not too much goin on over here! Oh yeah! BYU finally received my PVCC transcripts! So I'm super pumped about that. Now all they need is a $35 application fee and my Ecclesiastical endorsement which Pres Lundberg already signed! Woohoo!

Love you guys tonnnnns!

Have an awesome rest of the weekend and go kick some booty! Give the names of your friends to the missionaries as referrals!

And then go help them teach some lessons! They need the help!

Love,

Elder Smith