Sat, 4 Sep 2010 (Nathan)

Hey Momma!

Wow what a fantabulous week! We started it off the right way and ended it the right way! We all got to attend the temple dedication from Kiev and watched it live here in Bucuresti. It was so cool! The members were all so excited and happy to get to see the prophet. He was quite the jokester during this last temple dedication. He stinkin loves Eastern Europeans. A group of about 30 Romanians and like 15 Moldovans went up to Kyev for the actual temple dedication and cultural event. They were a little disappointed because they were all put into this little room, segregated from the rest of the people. A lot of the members were even complaining saying that it would've been better for them to have saved the money and just watched it like this back in Romania. The district (stake) president went up there with them too and didn't know what to do because it was very disappointing. He prayed real quick asking that the Romanian members would have something happen in order to have a wonderful experience there. Not too much later, the prophet came in the temple after the cornerstone laying, and when he did, President Doru (The district president) called after Thomas S. Monson saying, "Hey! Mr Prophet! Come here! We came all the way from Romania and want to see you!" When he said that, Thomas S. Monson came over and said hi and gave every member from Romania a big hug. There were many tears shed, and they all had a wonderful experience at the temple! :)

President Doru is actually the man in the pictures from the church news article, the one with him, his wife, and his kids. He's way awesome.

Family home evening was also an interesting experience on monday night. Cristina came over as usual and so did the office elders with an investigator. This new investigator is quite the character...haha. We talked a lot about the tree of life because that is what he last read in his prior lesson. He related the fruit from the tree of life with cocaine... it was...interesting?

Then on Tuesday we were able to have an exchange out in Arad. Yeah i'm a sneaky one.. I always schedule an exchange out there because I love that city so much. I got to serve with Elder Martineau again when i was there. We are seriously like best buds. I love that kid to death. We had some crazy cool experiences though. For instance, the whole new training thing is working SO well. We went walking through the park and had an awesome bench lesson with this super successful but humble guy. His name was Mircea. Like I said, we listened, talked, and asked questions that came from heaven and it worked perfectly. We did the same thing with another cool Hungarian lady that we met in the villas. We met with some Less Actives members that I love to bits, and they promised that they would come to church :) I'm going to call them and make sure they go! hehe.

We held a Zone Leader Council yesterday too. I thought it went pretty well and that all the Zone Leaders in the mission were able to get something out of our discussions and presentations.

Right now my companion and I are fasting for the Zone Leaders to all come home tonight with a baptismal date. There's a total of 6 companionships of zone leaders. We figured if they set good examples for their zones by coming home with a baptismal date tonight, the mission will pick up and hop on the bandwagon. Sister Wang wrote me too. She thanked me for the Russian dolls and said they're way cool. She said if y'all are up in the Prescott area to come and visit her, she said she would enjoy it.

Well, as for BYU, I'm just waiting for them to get my EE now. I'm not sure if my acceptance/unacceptance letter will get sent home to you guys or not or what's up with that. I guess we'll just wait??

Well I love you all to bits. Have an awesome week. The gospel is true and Romania is cool.

Keep cheering us on! We need lots and lots of help!

Love you,

Elder Smith