Life in Romania

5-26-2014

Sorry you guys had a little bit of a rougher week. That’s cool that you

were able to spend some time with Scott and Liz, they’re great. Tell him

I’m still just livin the dream.

This week was a little slower than others. Nothing too big happened and

the people we had lessons for bailed on us. Just the way it is. We do

have a promising lesson this Tuesday which would be tomorrow! It’s

going to be with a less active member with 3 of his friends so if it

goes through then it will be great and we might be getting a few new

investigators. I’ll let you know

 what happens. I know I said that last week but I really do think

these people really want to meet with us so it should be great :)

So just a little recap on this week. It has been sooo, sooo hot!! I am

dying in church clothes! ha I thought I would be used to it by now but

nope, I’m not. haha It has also been raining every once in a while which

makes it really humid too. I always seem to have a beverage in my

hand. This week we continued to do a lot of English because we really

want a good turn out. Usually it’s a lot bigger near summer because

less people are in school and people have more free time. Instead of

parks we hit a lot of streets and different parts of Bucuresti.

Also on Friday after district meeting we had this 15 year old boy walk

into the church. Elder Poulsen and I attempted to walk up and talk to

him and then he just started talking about all the things he knows

about our church. It was so random and incredible. haha He talked

about the whole first vision and all of the doctrines in our church.

Then he blew my mind when he started talking to us about the Urim and

Thummim and baptism for the dead! haha This kid was 15! It was

actually really impressive and he didn’t really let us speak, he just

wanted to tell us everything he knows. After he was done we invited

him to come to our sports night and got his number so that we can

contact his parents. He also wanted a Book of Mormon so we talked

about that and gave him one of those. It was something that completely

took me by surprise and was unexpected but it was cool. I have noticed

that a lot of kids are more open and say that our church is not as bad

as everyone says it is. haha Maybe there is a big generation of a lot

of youth joining the church in Romania.

On Saturday we had a different experience as well. In the morning we

help out with a youth activity that was at the church. It was all the

youth in our district so it covered a big part of Romania. About 20

youth. It was mostly about the for strength principles and things like

that. It was really straight forward but really good and everyone was

really into it and learned from it. The Youth program here is small

but awesome and they are really strong members. I look up to them

because most of their family and friends abandon them and make fun of

them for being members. After that we played board games with all of

them and soccer.

Then the same day after the activity we went and did service at the

Church farm!!! Instead of a Bishops Warehouse, Romania has a farm here

for members who need help with food and things like that. I have never

been there before but its about a 45 minute drive outside of

Bucuresti. We went there and it was really hard work. There were a lot

of plants and weeds but we hacked at the dirt for a few hours and made

some rows to plant some vegetables. We planted some tomatoes and

peppers. I got blisters all over my hands. The best part was that we

found a few lost puppies out in the fields and played with them. ha

I’ll send some pictures of that.

Church was great on Sunday. We had to translate and also we taught the

Gospel Essentials class for the second hour. It was really good and

there were a lot of investigators there so we had a lot of really good

discussions. We talked about enduring to the end.

I’m loving it out here and having such a good time. If feels so good

and rewarding to serve the Lord 24/7. It’s a once in a life time

opportunity and it makes me so grateful for my Savior and His Gospel.

I couldn't do it without Him. Have a great week and I love you all!!!

oh and an old man called me a witch this week. haha I told him I wasn’t

Elder Mayans

Romania up-date

5-26-2014

Sorry you guys had a little bit of a rougher week. That’s cool that you

were able to spend some time with Scott and Liz, they’re great. Tell him

I’m still just livin the dream.

This week was a little slower than others. Nothing too big happened and

the people we had lessons for bailed on us. Just the way it is. We do

have a promising lesson this Tuesday which would be tomorrow! It’s

going to be with a less active member with 3 of his friends so if it

goes through then it will be great and we might be getting a few new

investigators. I’ll let you know

 what happens. I know I said that last week but I really do think

these people really want to meet with us so it should be great :)

So just a little recap on this week. It has been sooo, sooo hot!! I am

dying in church clothes! ha I thought I would be used to it by now but

nope, I’m not. haha It has also been raining every once in a while which

makes it really humid too. I always seem to have a beverage in my

hand. This week we continued to do a lot of English because we really

want a good turn out. Usually it’s a lot bigger near summer because

less people are in school and people have more free time. Instead of

parks we hit a lot of streets and different parts of Bucuresti.

Also on Friday after district meeting we had this 15 year old boy walk

into the church. Elder Poulsen and I attempted to walk up and talk to

him and then he just started talking about all the things he knows

about our church. It was so random and incredible. haha He talked

about the whole first vision and all of the doctrines in our church.

Then he blew my mind when he started talking to us about the Urim and

Thummim and baptism for the dead! haha This kid was 15! It was

actually really impressive and he didn’t really let us speak, he just

wanted to tell us everything he knows. After he was done we invited

him to come to our sports night and got his number so that we can

contact his parents. He also wanted a Book of Mormon so we talked

about that and gave him one of those. It was something that completely

took me by surprise and was unexpected but it was cool. I have noticed

that a lot of kids are more open and say that our church is not as bad

as everyone says it is. haha Maybe there is a big generation of a lot

of youth joining the church in Romania.

On Saturday we had a different experience as well. In the morning we

help out with a youth activity that was at the church. It was all the

youth in our district so it covered a big part of Romania. About 20

youth. It was mostly about the for strength principles and things like

that. It was really straight forward but really good and everyone was

really into it and learned from it. The Youth program here is small

but awesome and they are really strong members. I look up to them

because most of their family and friends abandon them and make fun of

them for being members. After that we played board games with all of

them and soccer.

Then the same day after the activity we went and did service at the

Church farm!!! Instead of a Bishops Warehouse, Romania has a farm here

for members who need help with food and things like that. I have never

been there before but its about a 45 minute drive outside of

Bucuresti. We went there and it was really hard work. There were a lot

of plants and weeds but we hacked at the dirt for a few hours and made

some rows to plant some vegetables. We planted some tomatoes and

peppers. I got blisters all over my hands. The best part was that we

found a few lost puppies out in the fields and played with them. ha

I’ll send some pictures of that.

Church was great on Sunday. We had to translate and also we taught the

Gospel Essentials class for the second hour. It was really good and

there were a lot of investigators there so we had a lot of really good

discussions. We talked about enduring to the end.

I’m loving it out here and having such a good time. If feels so good

and rewarding to serve the Lord 24/7. It’s a once in a life time

opportunity and it makes me so grateful for my Savior and His Gospel.

I couldn't do it without Him. Have a great week and I love you all!!!

oh and an old man called me a witch this week. haha I told him I wasn’t

Elder Mayans

Romania and a Turkish Festival

5-19-2014

Hello everyone!!!!! First off I want to give a shout out to my

family!!!! Sickest family ever and it was great to see them over skype

this week. You guys look great. My mom got all ready at 7 in the

morning just for here son. That’s dedication!! Love you guys.. And yeah

sorry I didn’t email you on Monday, I was on the computer a lot those

three days because my companion skyped home on Sunday so I just

decided to email a lot of people who I haven't been able to respond to

in a long time. But I’m still alive and I had another busy week. So it

was, as you know, transfer week this week so I got my new companion on

Wednesday. His name is Elder Poulsen and he’s super sick!!!! I served

around him a lot in Galati so I already know him pretty well but we

love each other and it should be a really successful transfer which I’m

really looking forward to!!!

We had a mission leadership council meeting on Thursday which was good

but really, really long. It was from 9 in the morning till 4! Yeah it

was hard to sit through but we got a lot of good important things

covered and a good plan for this transfer. This was actually President

and Sora Hills last MLC (Mission Leadership Council) so they got a little emotional and talked

about how great and important the things that we are doing out here

are.

Other than that we have been going to the Park Hedestrau and

contacting the whole world for English. Towards the end of last week

it started to get really hot so there have been thousands of people at

the park. It’s been fun and English contacting can always be really fun

if you have fun with it and be bold. Yesterday we were at the park and

there were so many people there that it was impossible to hand out

cards to all the people walking by so I walked right into the middle

of hundreds of people and started yelling.. Free English classes for

anyone!!!! It’s free!! No Price!!! We're Americans!!! And things like

that. I must have given out over 300 cards. It was so awesome! haha

Also there was a Turkish festival at the park for the past 3 days and

it has been really interesting to see the Turkish culture. They have

these huge markets everywhere and everyone is trying to sell you

something... one guy slapped a Turkish hat on Elder Poulsens head and

said HEY give me 15 Lei!! haha Hey it worked because he bought it.

haha We were actually able to contact a few people from Turkey and

they said they have heard of us!!! I was really surprised! They were

really nice and introduced us to all these traditional Turkish Peace

Makers!!! They were all dressed up in their traditional Turkish

dancing outfits and didn’t know English or Romanian. haha just Turkish.

They started talking to us and we were just like yeah I have no idea

what your saying. haha

Sunday was great and we had a great sacrament meeting. I had to

translate with the microphone in the back so I wasn’t able to get much

out of the speakers but it was still great. Translating is fun but

crazy because your mind is going a million miles per hour. And it

doesn’t help when they mumble or talk too fast. haha it’s definitely an

experience.

Well that’s about all the crazy things that have happened this week. I

have called all of our investigators and nobody wants to meet so I

guess we are back down to step one again. Hopefully we can find some

new people through english or just contacting on the street!! Love you

all and thanks for everything!! The Church is so true it’s not even

funny!! I love the Lord and I love being a missionary. I learn

something new everyday!!

Have a great week!!

Much love,

Elder Mayans

Short but sweet

5-5-2014

Hey guys. I’m going to keep this short because I will tell you

everything when we skype!! And this keyboard is broken so it takes a

long time.

So first off I still don’t know when I will be skyping you still :( it

could be any time. I will call sometime this week to let you know.

But I will try as hard as I can to do it on Saturday like you said.

So this week wasn't as good as last week but it still was good. The

only problem is that all the people that we are having sick lessons

with aren’t answering their phones or aren’t willing to meet again. I don’t

get it! ha anyways the main things that I did this week was going on

an exchange in Alexandria which is a tiny, tiny city about and hour and

a half outside of Bucuresti. I was with Elder Heyrand who is going

home in a week so it was cool to be with him one last time. He’s a

really cool, smart guy and I learned a lot from him throughout my

mission. That city is so small but we mostly just went to lunch to

celebrate my year mark and then contacted people around the city and

at the park.

The weather has been great here so there has been a lot of things

going on outside. We are doing a lot of family history contacting and

stuff like that. So the weather has been good until yesterday then we had a

huge storm!!! It rained so hard and there was really intense

lightening. All the streets were flooded and it was really chaotic.

And of course I didn’t have an umbrella so I was drenched. ha

On Sunday we went to Sora Gorzos house for dinner. She is a member who

LOVES the missionaries and loves it when we come over. I’ll send some

pictures. I also taught her how to say. "Whats up dogg?" ha

Well I’ll talk to all of you this week!! Love you all and thanks for everything!