Rough week

Hello!!!!!!                                             9-30-2013

So this week has been absolutely insane!!! Literally everything has

changed. So, I don’t really know the best way of

saying this but here it goes. So my companion has been

home since Saturday. And when I say home I mean he went back to

America! Earlier this week something snapped in his brain and he just

wanted to leave. From what I got out of it, he had some personal

issues he never cleared up but also he just wanted to go home.

President is really nice and understanding and for most situations

he would let you clear up any issues all out here. But obviously there was more than that. So yeah crazy stuff. Honestly I knew that there was something up because all transfer something just didn't feel right. I couldn't figure it out but I guess I know now.

I now have a new companion. His name is Elder Whitehead and he is

sick (meaning awesome). I’m super excited to be with him and it should be a lot of fun.

Elder Mayans

addendum

 So we had district conference last week and then we

went back on Monday. Then because of the situation with my companion we

had to go right back down to Bucuresti on Thursday morning. Down

there, I mostly was with the assistants and my new companion. I just

spent a lot of time in the mission office and also helping Elder

Whitehead pack. Oh, also, the assistants and President and Sora Hill

went on a plane to Arad for zone conference and I drove them to the

airport!!! haha. It was so weird!!!! It was flipped around and I was

the one saying good-bye to President. It felt weird but it was

cool to spend some time with them.

So my new companion is awesome!!! He’s been on the mission for a little

less than a year. He is really tall….about 6'5 and he is from

Colorado. He likes a lot of the same stuff as I do and he is really

funny. I’m looking forward to everything and it should be much easier.

So this week we are going to Moldova for Zone conference!!!!!!!! I’m so

excited. Actually we are leaving tomorrow!!!! I am giving another

presentation. haha they keep picking me!! I have done something every

single conference! ha It’s ok though, it helps me learn more about

different things. Love you guys. Thanks for everything. Sorry this

week was kinda lame. I’ll talk to you next week. Love you all.

Elder Mayans

Jacob Mayans this week.

9-23-13

Hello again!!! 

This week was amazing. It was a very hard week but I feel like I have done so much. So, we had our first English classes on Tuesday and Saturday. A little less people showed up compared to last transfer but it’s ok. On Tuesday, instead of teaching something I asked everyone what they would want to do and learn in the next 7 classes. I thought that would be a good idea because I don’t want to teach them things they already know and it involves them more. They had a bunch of great ideas like learning double negatives, conversation, how to use the words there, their, they're. etc. and stuff like that. So,then on Saturday I taught them about double negatives. It was really hard to do because Romanian is opposite of English grammar so everything that is negative is a double negative in Romanian. They understood a lot of it though and they say I teach well, so I guess I'm doing ok. Also, this week we went on an exchange with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Ward and we got so many things done on the exchange it was awesome. We got a few numbers from people as well as contacted a few others and talked to them about the Book of Mormon. It's been a challenge to work with Elder Anderson but everything is going ok. Yesterday, we had district conference which is basically all the members in Romania except for the northern cities. It was funny because there was about 100 members there and about 60 missionaries. Ha-ha The actual district conference was great. We had a few members from the mission district speak, as well as President Hill and the Kiev Ukraine Temple President. A lot of it was based on the importance of members doing their part. They were very straight forward but the spirit was there and I felt like it really motivated the members, and the missionaries, the importance of sharing the gospel. Unfortunately, going to the conference was absolutely miserable. Galati is the farthest city that goes to this conference and since it started at 10 In the morning in Bucuresti, we had to get on a tram at 4:30 in the morning. We got there around 9:30 and then we left on a train back to Galati at 6 and got back at 11. Also, I have had a sore throat and congestion for the past 3 days so that didn’t make it easier. I am now back and safe in Galati and doing great.

 Our apartment got a new door lock for the front door without us knowing so we got locked out of our house. Ha-ha for the past few days we have been calling random people to have them open the door. It was a big hassle but we finally found the guy today who has our key so we have one now. Ha-ha it was just a little typical thing that would happen in Romania.

 Other than that, that’s about it for this week. We did some service at a few of the members houses and we are planning on going to the orphanage again this week. I love serving the Lord out here and looking for more ways in which I can help spread the gospel. It is going extremely slow but all is well. This week we are also going to try something new. Instead of just contacting we are going to do a survey where we ask them simple questions like... What does the family mean to you? What makes you happy? And do you believe in God? Stuff like that where it’s a harmless way to talk to people and we can continue to give a good image of the church to the people. Also, Romanians love taking surveys and talking about family so hopefully we will have some success. I am so happy and grateful to be on a mission. Thank you for all the prayers and support. I love you guys and for all that you have done.

Elder Mayans

Jacob in Romania 9-16-2013

Hello!!!                                             9-16-2103

Hello again. Another week has passed by and things are going great.

This week has been filled with a lot of English contacting and Book of

Mormon contacting. It has been really slow lately because it has been

raining off and on over the week and nobody is out. Also, school

started up this week so most people were out of town before school

started. We have been doing most of our contacting as a district and

just trying to get the word out as much a possible.

Also, I mentioned last week that I was going up to Iasi for Zone

Training meeting. It went very well and our Zone leaders are a lot

better this transfer. We made a lot of great goals to help us work

hard this transfer. On top of that, President is changing the "Key

Indicators" so that we will now record the number of Book of Mormons we passed out and also our prosilyting hours. This mission is really hard in terms of numbers because most weeks, everything is a zero. S0, now nobody will have all zeros anymore and It will help us see how much we are doing.

On top of all the things we have been doing this transfer is a lot of

meetings. We have had  to travel somewhere once every week this transfer. We have District Conference next week and then Zone conference in Moldova the following week, and then watching General Conference which we don't know where we are going yet. It’s going to be hard trying to organize ourselves when we are doing so many different things but it should be fun.

So about Edward. Edward is doing great but it has slowed down a little

bit because it’s a lot harder to contact him. This last Sunday was

pouring rain so only about 10 people showed up to church. Edward showed up for the last hour. That was great to see and after church I talked to him and told him that we would really like to teach him a little bit

more about our church because he come to church all the time and seems to enjoy being there. So I asked if we could meet with him and he said

that school is really in the way now and he will try to come to

english classes. So, I’m hoping that maybe we will be able to have a

little lesson with him after english this week. I think he needs it

all laid out on the table and if it goes well we might even extend a

baptismal commitment.

Speaking of church, church has been crazy lately!! It is really hard

with all new leaders but we manage. I am now officially the branch

clerk and take care of most of the paper work. This transfer has

tested me a lot on my Romanian because a lot of the members have

questions and you have to say something back to them. haha Also, Elder

Poulsen who is the new Branch President has only been out for a little

less than a year so the language is still hard. But we are trying the

best we can and I would say it’s going pretty well.

I love being a missionary. I am so happy out here and I love my Savior

so much. I love being a member of this Church and the happiness it

gives me. I would be so confused and lost in the world if I didn't

have the guidance and direction it gives me. I love you all so much. I

miss you and hope all is well.

P.S- On a side note I haven't been mentioning anything funny or

interesting about Romania, soooo...

-Everyone loves to ride around town on roller blades.

-There was a bush on fire last week at night and nobody was around

it... we put it out but it was really weird because it was right next

to a bunch of bushes and trees.. that could have been bad.

-This drunk man on the street walked up to me and started talking to

me. I couldn't understand most of things he was saying but he tried to

trade ties with me and steal my pen.. haha

- There have been a lot of concerts going on in the streets because

everyone is partying before schools starts up again.

Another installment in the Life of a Romanian Missionary

Hello my beautiful Family!!!

Before I start on what I did this past week I want to write back to everything that you guys have been telling me.. Well, I guess that’sjust mom. But anyways it sounds like it was a really busy week with the summer ending and school starting. I can’t believe Sarah is now going to Travis Ranch! Still remember when I went there and it doesn't feel like that long ago. And it was Sarah’s Birthday!!!

SARAHS SPECIAL BIRTHDAY PARAGRAPH!!!!

SARAH!!! I can’t believe you are 11 years old!! That is crazy. When I come you will be almost be 13 and probably taller than me! I hope you had a great birthday and got all the things you wanted. And if you didn’t there is always Christmas. I heard you went to Sea World and also had ribs and potatoes! Good choice. I want to know that you are the best sister ever. I love you so much and I miss you. Sorry I didn’t send you a birthday present. I tried but it is really hard to send things. I hope you have fun going to Travis ranch and being a big Junior High Student! Love you, bye

As for this week it has been filled with some crazy stuff. President wrote me this week and said that he put me with a young missionary because he thinks I can handle it and says I will learn a lot from struggling. Ha-ha President Hill is amazing and I feel like he is trying to help me as much as possible but I thought it was funny that he said I would struggle for sure this transfer. Elder Anderson came in last Wednesday night so we have been with each other for about 5 days. The first few days, no matter what, always take a little getting use to. Elder Anderson is a funny guy from somewhere in Utah. He’s really energetic and loves to stay busy. This week I have gotten the vibe that he is still in a back home state of mind and isn't always focused on what is important. It makes it a little hard sometimes but I really am excited to work with him and learn from each other. We have also been making great food together. 

So this week Anderson and I have done a lot of walking around the streets to show him the city while talking to people/giving out English cards. English classes start on the 17 so we need to get as many as we can out there as possible. Last night we went to a park a little outside of where we usually are on the main roads to pass out some English cards. I passed out a card to this one guy with his daughter and then all of the sudden 7 gypsy kids started running up to me and asking for money or what ever I was giving out. They were super annoying so I gave one of them one which was a huge mistake. Then they all wanted one so we started to walk away. Most of them didn’t follow us out but a few of them kept crying, screaming, begging and punching us for about a quarter of a mile. I had enough of them so I told them all to leave and stop following us. It worked and it actually surprised me that I could get mad at someone while speaking Romanian. Through all of it, Elder Anderson just stood there and did nothing. Ha-ha Yeah, that was a little out of the ordinary thing that happened. 

On Sunday, church ran fairly smoothly. It was the first Sunday with a new branch President (Elder Poulsen) and new missionaries so we tried to function everything as best as we could. One of our members, Fratele Dumitrescu, told us in Priesthood that he saw Jesus Christ outside his window. We still aren't to sure about a few of the members but when he said that, Poulsen and I looked at each other and where like what?  I also gave another talk during Sacrament meeting. I spoke on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and on the blessings that come from using the Atonement in our lives. It was a pretty straightforward talk but I felt like I did a good job. I have really seen my language skills improve from first transfer. 

So this next week we are going up to Iasi for zone training meeting again. I have to give another presentation about contacting with the Book of Mormon/different approaches. It should be good and we will also be making new goals that we can strive to accomplish this transfer. Edward and Bianca went to the Black Sea for about 5 days so we will see if we can meet up with them some more when they get back. We have stayed in contact with them and I am feeling good about their progression. 

Well, I love you all. Thank you for all that you do. I can never stop saying that I love to be a missionary. It’s a lot of fun and I feel like I am getting closer and closer to my Heavenly Father every single day. Have a great week and stay safe. 

Elder Mayans

P.S.- There is a pretty big riot over here right now. In Russia they are doing a lot of strip mining which basically means that they are destroying mountains and because the Romanian government doesn’t really care, they are planning on going into Romania and doing the same thing. A lot of people are protesting and it gets crazy at times. I’ll send some pictures. 

Family

Mom- yes I got the package and it is wonderful!!!!! 

Sarah- Happy Birthday again!!! Ha-ha

Dad- I haven't heard from you in a while. How’s work going? And Louie? 

  So in Romanian a very common way a word ends is with "lui" which is pronounced "louie" so when people speak it sounds they are always talking about a guy named Louie! Ha-ha 

Chester- Love you boy. Hang in there!

Another awesome week in Romania!!!

Hey family!!!!                                    9-2-2013

It was just another great week out here in Romania. It’s starting to cool down a little and turning into fall so I'm loving it. First off, this week was transfers week and as a result I'm staying in Galati. I am getting a new companion. His name is Elder Anderson and get this, he was in my district in the MTC! So it’s just going to be 2 pretty new elders in Galati. I’m really excited and we are going to learn a lot from each other. Since we are still pretty young, we are going to have to learn because there is no senior companion. I talked to him on the phone the other day and he sounds a little worried. Ha-ha He’s a super chill guy and I'm not worried about us at all. As for the rest of my district, Elder Ward is going to Iaşi and Elder Cunningham is going to Bucharest. Elder Ward will now be my Zone Leader so I I'm looking forward to that.

So a few things happened this week. First off, we had our last English class on Saturday. Everyone decided they wanted to watch Hotel Transylvania in English with Romanian subtitles. That movie is so funny and everyone in the class got a kick out of it. Unlike last transfer with only one English student, it was a lot harder to say goodbye to them because it was a really good class and they all liked us. I feel like we really helped them understand who we are and what we represent. Hopefully some of them will come back in the near future and want to learn more.

Also this week we visited the Prada Family. They served us dinner ( Ardei îm Pluţi), which is basically stuffed peppers filled with meat and other things. They were super good. The Prada's are pretty funny people. They are old Romanians who just sit in their house all day. Brother Prada is obsessed with reading all the Ensigns so he is always quoting things from different prophets. They are really down to earth and we had a good conversation with them. 

This week for FHE We had two members show up. We ended up just eating ice-cream and talking. 

As for missionary work, Edward and Bianca are still improving. They went to church yesterday, which makes that 2 weeks in a row. They are one of the reasons I am super excited to stay so that I can still stay in contact with them. I really feel like they will be baptized in the near future. They are still pretty young so we will have to contact their parents and see if it will be ok. 

 Also this week we met a guy on the street named George. He is Australian so he always speaks English. I wouldn't say he’s an investigator because our first encounter with him was him making fun of us. Ha-ha But we actually met up with him a few days ago and talked a lot about the gospel. His whole family is atheist and he has never really looked into any type of religion so he was surprised about a lot of the things we told him. If nothing comes out of it, at least we set him straight about what we believe. He thinks we are cool guys so hopefully he sees that we are normal people and what we are saying is true. Also George is always inviting us to hang out with girls or go out and get a beer. We have told him many times but it is just not clicking with him that we don’t do that stuff. Ha-ha 

Like I said before it felt like a good week. I feel like we did less contacting and had more success. It’s slow but there is progress. I love serving in Galati and doing all that I can to help the people here. There is no other place I’d rather be. I love this Gospel with all my heart and I am so grateful for the knowledge I have of my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ. 

Sorry I am sending this letter so late. We just had the biggest branch BBQ party show up. It was great. I will post pictures.

Love you all. 

Elder Mayans

The Life and Times of Elder Mayans

Hello Hello Hello!!!                                    8-26-2013

Sorry I’m writing so late today. We ended up wanting to get a few things done so I haven't been able to e-mail. So this week has been filled with a few more interesting things that have happened. First off, I went down to Bucuresti on Wednesday to do some more visa work, which isn’t the funnest thing to do because there is so much traveling but we made the best of it and talked to a few people on the way. I spent the night there, which was the worst night of my life because the apartment I stayed in was the nastiest apartment I have ever been in. I woke up in the morning and have bug bites all over my body. So yeah we went back Thursday night but instead of taking the train back, the assistants wanted to have an exchange with us so we ended up driving up with them. It sounded like a good plan but unfortunately it didn't end up so well. Directions in Romania are a lot harder than I thought so we ended up getting lost on the way. Also, the assistants weren't able to leave until later. So we finally started to see some road signs for Galati and then as we approached the city, we realized that we were on the other side of the river!!! We ended up having to sit in the car and wait until the fairy crossed the river so we could cross. It was definitely an adventure but I don’t want to do it again because it killed me for the next day. I’ll post some pictures from that.

We went to Sora Ionela's house on Friday for some service. She had us help her make some shelves and paint some stuff. At one point, we had her neighbors yelling at us saying that we making to much noise. Then Sora Ionela started yelling at him and told him to mind his own business. Ha-ha Romanians are crazy. There's no one like them. 

Then on Saturday we had English, which I was really looking forward too. It went great and after we taught a little about charity and service. There are a few people who go to different churches but they really enjoy our message and really like us. Edward and Bianca, who I mentioned last week, told us that they wanted to come to church this week. We told them of course we would love to have them. They came an hour late so they went to Sunday school and Sacrament meeting. They were a little confused about a few things but we explained everything so they would understand. At the end of all the meetings, Bianca said, "I like this church". It was really cool so see them enjoy it even though they are still pretty young. Bianca is 13 and Edward is 17. That was definitely the highlight of the week and we will continue to help them out. There is a good chance that I will be transferred in a few weeks but hopefully I can do as much as I can to help Bianca and Edward out. 

Mom since you mentioned that you went to the zoo, I actually went to the zoo in Galati. One of the members in our branch is one of the managers of the zoo so he took us to see it. The zoo doesn't open for another year but some of the animals are there.

That’s about tit for this week. I can’t say it enough how much I love being a missionary. A lot of times it seems easier to just do something else and not work as hard but there is no other feeling than serving others and helping people come unto Christ. I love the people in this country and even though they all come from different backgrounds, they can all benefit from our message and the Church of Jesus Christ. 

It sounds like it was a fun week for you guys too. The beach pictures looks amazing!! Ha-ha 

And Jared's farewell looked like fun. Of course it ended up being a Just Dance party at our house. Ha-ha He will be a great missionary I'm really excited for him. Love you all. 

Elder Mayans

Jacobs Romanian adventure 8-19-2013

8-19-2013

Hello again, I know I say this a ton but the weeks feel shorter and shorter. It is crazy to me that there is only 2 weeks left in my second transfer. I forgot to mention in my last e-mail that I got a little food poisoning, not exactly sure what from but I wasn't feeling good last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. On top of that the summer heat is finally starting to hit more and more so now its super hot. Most of our work is outside so we make the best of it and try to keep cool. This past week I have had some pretty cool things happen. It all started Tuesday morning when we called Andrea, that one girl I mentioned who got in the motorcycle accident, to see if we could meet up with her and teach her a lesson or a spiritual thought or anything. Anyways she never responded to us so later that afternoon Elder Cunningham and I went to McDonald for lunch, which unlike America is a pretty big deal. Usually if you were going to go on a nice date here you go would go to McDonald's because one, its expensive, and two, there are only certain things on the menu like a Big Mac or wraps. It’s really weird. Ha-ha so we were sitting there eating our meal and a worker comes up to us and asks us if we wanted refills on our drinks. We both looked at her super confused and asked what she said again. I’m laughing while I'm writing this because it sounds ridiculous but there is not one place in Romania that would ever give you refills, so we were freaking out. Ha-ha While we were waiting for our drinks, Andrea called us. Elder Cunningham and I both looked up into the air just like in the movie the best two years. Ha-ha it ended up not being as good as we thought it would because she said her boyfriend is apparently jealous and doesn’t want her to talk to us. We though that was kinda weird because he knows us and knows we are good people but that just how some Romanians are. It’s a bummer but we will try to continue to stay in touch with them. 

That evening we had English class, which went absolutely great. I think those classes are one of the most effective things we do. We had a few new students this week and the older ones are consistently coming. I am teaching the Advanced English class this transfer so it’s really nice because more people participate and actually talk. After we took a 5-minute break, we invited everyone to stay if they wanted to hear a spiritual thought. To our surprise, almost every student stayed which was awesome. We planned on actually giving the first lesson of the restoration and talk about the Book Of Mormon so that’s what we did. I haven't had a lot of experiences with teaching lessons yet because we haven't had anyone to teach but I was really excited. We taught in English, which was also a different experience because when I think of teaching and talking about the gospel, I'm always trying to say it in Romanian. It was really nice to be able to speak in English and have people understand me. We taught about a 20-minute lesson and it went well! The spirit was very strong and I felt like we taught it in a way where people were able to understand it. At the end of the lesson, we invited everyone to take and read the introduction and first few pages of the book of Mormon. We had 3 people take copies so we are hoping that they will read so we can talk about it next week with them. Also, one of our students came up to us and was like, I didn't really understand everything that you were saying so we plan to meet with her later this week to teach her. 

On Thursday we had a very slow day because it was Sfânta Maria Holiday. It was a very big deal because she is one of the bigger saints in the Orthodox Church so everyone was celebrating. There was a huge concert down be the river. We passed it on the way back to our apartments and it was insane. There were so many people there and everyone is just going crazy. It is especially hard to do missionary work on those days because everyone is like why aren't you celebrating or they will tell us to party with them. Ha-ha we ended up watching a big firework show on the river that night which was really cool. The very next day I went on an exchange with Elder Ward. It was a very unproductive exchange because we had no success. When there are Holidays here it goes on for two days so nobody was out and all the people we talked to told us to go away. I still learned a lot from Elder Ward. I have a lot of fun with him and he knows what he’s doing. We were talking the other night about BYU Idaho for a little bit because he went there a few years ago. He’s 22 so he’s a little older, but we figured out we lived in the same exact house up in Rexburg! It was so random and I know some of the people he knew up there. Small world.

Now, unfortunately some horrible things also happened this week. So I believe I have mentioned Ozana before. She’s the 13 year old girl who is super mature. She meets up with the elders to talk a lot because she feels comfortable with us and is going through a lot of problems right now. We told her a few weeks ago that she needs to tell her parents that she is meeting with us because we could get in a lot of trouble if they don’t know. Usually we wouldn't keep meeting with someone if all we were doing is talking but it always turns into a religious conversation about God and how He can help her and fix all the things that are going on in her life. Anyways on Saturday we were talking to her about Prophets and Apostles and Joseph Smith. In summary it was basically how without Joseph Smith, we would never have been able to get the Book of Mormon and the Gospel would not be restored. She then told us that the first time she opened the Book of Mormon, it was the happiest moment in her life. We were so happy that she was able to see the difference and recognize the spirit. She left that evening and we started freaking out. We ran to the white board like a bunch of crazy people and started making a list of things we can do to help her. For example- fasting, praying for her, being more obedient, stuff like that. We were all super pumped and then we heard a loud knock at the church door. We went down stairs and it was Ozana and her mother standing there. As soon as we opened the door her mother just started screaming as us saying that we have no permission to talk to her daughter or her family. She said that we are horrible people and that what we are doing is a horrible thing and that we are going to Hell. It was really harsh and it hit Elder Cunningham pretty hard because he’s a little sensitive. It is such a bummer because who knows what will happen in the future. Maybe because of this, Ozana will never come back. Even worse, that family will now have a bad image of the church and will tell everyone she knows about it. Just like I mentioned last week, it’s hard to stand up for what’s right. And all we're doing is teaching about Jesus Christ. It reminds me of all the many hardships the Saints went through when the church was being established. They were spit upon and mocked and  persecuted but then never gave up because they knew of the truth. They knew that no matter what God was with them and would protect them. Even though this week was crazy I am grateful for the experiences I have every day because I know that God is proud and will help us through it. I would not be able to do anything out here if I did not have a strong testimony of my Savior. It would be impossible to stand up for something that I didn't know for myself was true. I love being a missionary and telling people what I know. I love telling people that I am only 19 and I'm not a perfect teacher because it puts me on their level and makes them understand that I'm not perfect but this message is important enough to be shared. 

Yesterday on Sunday we went to the children’s orphanage. It was so much fun and all the kids were really happy that we were there. We brought them juice and some balls to play with. We all played soccer with them in our church clothes. It was really sad to see them all but if felt good to do some service and make them happy. I don’t have any pictures of them because the orphanage doesn’t allow us to take any pictures. We are planning on going back next week and playing with them again. 

I love you all. The Church is true. Thanks again for all your support. 

Elder Mayans