Monday, June 24, 2013

Jacob in Romania 6-24-2013


Hello!!!                                                6-24-13


How is everyone doing? I love your emails they are very funny and make me laugh. So last week was my first official week in Romania. And let me tell you it is very interesting. Ha-ha I have to start getting use to Romania because it’s a very different mission. I mean of course we are sharing the Gospel with people but the success rate is very low, as you already know. 

One of the main things we do on a daily basis is contacting. For at least a few hours a day we just go around and talk to people about the church. I would say most people just laugh or think we are a joke but every once in a while we have a pretty good conversation. Its very fun and getting to know different people is always fun. Actually I believe it was last Wednesday we went contacting and it was awesome. I don’t really know what to expect but my trainer Elder Rasmussen told me it was one of the best contacting he has ever done in his mission. We got about eight people in a row that showed some interest and actually talked to us. It seems like everyone here has their own set of beliefs. Sometimes it’s difficult to share a message with them. We ended up passing out two copies of the Book of Mormon and we also got a few phone numbers. That doesn’t sound like very much but it is. Our Zone has a goal of giving out 100 copies of the book of Mormon for the next six weeks. So as you cant probably see it pretty hard to give out copies. I love contacting though. I’m getting a little better with the language. One way to learn faster is but writing out what I would want to say for a contact. They I study those words out. I figured that is one of the most important things I need to learn how to do at this point because that’s the majority of what we do. 

Another thing we do is English contacting. The mission does English classes (taught by us) every Tuesday and Saturday. My first time going to that will be tomorrow so we will see how it goes, but I love English contacting. We basically just go around and pass out flyers about the class. I have a lot of fun with it because I will sometimes start talking to someone in English and they will just start at me and then ill explain it in Romanian. Ha-ha Or if they know a little then I just explain to them in English that they can learn more. And it’s free so when ever people hear the word "free" they get really excited. 

Lets see so this week we had 1 official lesson. His name is Marian and knew Elder Rasmussen from when he served in Galati a few months ago. He’s 18 and a really smart guy. In the lesson he actually brought his girlfriend which was good too. He really likes to get off on tangents and has so many questions about different things so we really tried to focus on staying on topic. Anyways the lesson went so good and the spirit was so strong. We talked mostly about the book of Mormon and Faith. After the lesson he basically said that he likes us but that everyone believes in the Same God so what’s the point. It was really frustrating because I know he had to have felt the spirit and he just doesn't want to do anything about it. 

Another experience we had was on Friday we were English contacting and we started to talk to this black man from Kenya. He is a refugee and there are not too many black people in Romania so we had to talk to him. He actually only spoke English but was the happiest, funniest guy I have met. We got his number and set up an appointment with him for the next day. So to make it short, he’s what people call a weefy. Which is basically some who says they are coming to an appointment but then never shows up. ha-ha So on the Teaching record we put down that Abram (his name) is a very nice guy, very weefy but apologetic. Haha he always says in so sorry I didn’t make it I was eating. Ha-ha He has wasted a little bit of our time so I called him yesterday and told him that whenever he wants to meet with us, just call us. He said he would definitely do so. Ha-ha 

That’s about it. Today I got my nice European hair cut. I had way too much hair on my head so I just took a few pounds off. It’s so hot here and the tailor shop is never open so I am still wearing long sleeve shirts. Where’s Pete the Greek when you need him. Ha-ha anyways the mission life is great. I love it here in Galati. Its so beautiful and being a missionary is so fun. People just stare at me but if I catch them staring then ill just walk up to them and start talking about the Church of Jesus Christ. Ha-ha I love you all and thanks for the birthday wishes. I expect everyone to send me presents. Ha-ha no doesn’t do that. Love you all and the Church is true. Share it with the people you know, even if it’s only for a minute. Even if they are not interested they will respect you more for doing it. Miss you all and have a good week. 

Elder Mayans

question and answers

Nad yes I will. My apartment looks really crappy because the blocks are really ugly but the apartment is not too bad. Church was decent. It’s been really hard because the branch has had some drama. There have been some rumors that have been going around so we had to fix a few things. Other than that it’s going good.

Sorry I didn’t answer a lot of your questions. So the mission home is in Bucharest and that is about a 4-hour train ride so no we are not close. And no I have not received tias package. I forgot to tell you that at the moment it is pouring rain and there is a lightening storm. So it will be interesting walking home ha-ha 

One more thing, last week we had to go to iaşi which is a 5 hour train ride for zone meeting. Iasi is an amazing city and has a lot of history. I got an awesome picture but I don’t have it right now so you will get that next week. We also went to a mall there and it was the BIGGEST and nicest mall I have ever been it. It was so weird and I didn’t feel like I was in Romania

 Yesterday we went to the river and it was crazy because there were so many people there. Now we know where everyone goes on Sunday nights. 

Love you pops!!! Have a good week and good luck with work. Dude there is a huge storm right now it is crazy.


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