Romanians...honestly

6-16-2014

First off Mom that’s so cool to hear about your experience with Ednas

granddaughters and also her neighbor!!!! You’ll have to tell me how it

goes!!!

I don’t have a lot of stories to tell for this week. It still was a

really good week but we also had a lot of busy work to do because we

had Zone Conference here in Bucuresti and since we are the Zone Leaders in this city we had a lot of things we had to do. We still had a lot of fun with it though and had some good experiences.

Sooooo, let’s start on Tuesday.

Tuesday we had a lot of things to do... so Elder Pouslen and I were in

charge of getting the food for Zone Conference on Wednesday. This was

the last Zone Conference that we would have with President Hill before

he goes home so of course we had to go all out. We ordered food for

about 60 people at a place called Passion which was on the edge of

Bucuresti. The President from our branch told us that he likes that

place a lot so we decided to try it out. It was amazing!!!!! Everyone

was so happy and it was by far the best meal we have had at Zone

Conference! haha President Hills a great guy so it feels good to make

him happy. haha Also at Zone Conference about 6 missionaries gave

their good bye testimonies because they go home next week. It’s always

cool to see other missionaries talk about how much they have changed

on their mission and how fast it went by. It seams like most of them

at that moment truly realize what they have been doing the past few

years and that they are actually going home.

On Thursday I went on an exchange with Elder Daland. We went to Sora

Gorzos house again to do some service for her. She told us that she

would call other missionaries but she doesn’t like them as much as us.

haha I love how she’s so straight forward. If people don’t like someone,

they will tell you who they don’t like. haha So yeah we were there for

a pretty good amount of time. We mostly beat her rugs outside on the

rug racks... They were so disgusting!!!!! So much hair and dirt!!!

After that she fed us some food. The meal was I would say ok but my

stomach didn’t agree so I had the runs for the next three days. I’ll be

straight farward with you just like the Romanians are with me. haha

yeah maybe its a good thing that we don’t have very many food

appointments.

Friday was filled with district meeting and sports night with the

branch. At district meeting we talked a little bit with the branch

President and we came up with a few new ideas to have the members involved in missionary work more. We are going to give them some old names from our area book to some of the members and they are going to try to contact and visit them. Elder Poulsen and I a little later had to

write up some reports for President Hill on every ones status in the zone and what would be good for next transfer.

Saturday we had a really good English class. We have a lot of fun moms

in our class that make it much more alive instead of it always being

quiet and awkward. Romanian are such funny people and we get to

experience a lot of it when we teach English because most of them open

up. Then we had a lesson with a guy named Marian. We haven’t been able

to meet up with him in over 5 weeks but he finally answered his phone

so we got to meet. We talked to him a little bit about what’s been

going on and if he was able to ever read the Book of Mormon. He

clearly said no and that he is not very interested. So we told him

that if he has any questions or wants to know more in the future to

call us. But yeah we dropped him. It’s ok, it happens.

Sunday!!! Really good Sacrament Meeting!!!! I had to translate for

Sacrament and then teach the Sunday school class. There were a lot of

people in Sunday school class so I was a little nervous. We had a lot

of solid investigators in it too. It turned out to be really good. We

talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy and a lot of the

investigators participated and had a lot of questions. Good stuff!! We

even had this one lady we never saw before raise her hand and say that

she is very happy she came to this church today and I would like to be

a member of this church if I can in the future! All of the

missionaries faces in the room were in shock. haha it was awesome and

it was funny because President and Sora Hill were in the room but had no

idea what was going on because they don’t understand Romanian. haha

That’s the week!!! I love you all and hope your getting ready for

summer!!!!! It going to start getting really hot here so I got to get

ready. haha I miss you and you’re in my prayers!

Love, Elder Mayans

Epic Week

6-9-2014

Ok so here it goes! Crazy epic week this week and I have a lot to say.

I’ll try not to write too much but we will see how it goes!

SOOOOOOOO.....

On Tuesday of last week we had to do some less active work. We had

three less active members that we needed to visit but we never get all

the information on exactly where they live so it is always an

adventure and we ask a lot of people for directions. We searched forever

and couldn't find anyone! It was really frustrating. After a few hours

we were super tired so we decided to take a little break and sat on a

park bench. While we were there this random guy walked up to us and in

perfect English said, who are you guys and what are you doing here? We

were like well that is a great question. So, we told him how we are

missionaries for our church and we talk and teach people in Romania

more about our church. Then he basically said, yeah that’s great and I’ve

seen you guys for the past 15 years and I always wondered who you

were. He also said that he has been having a tough time lately and he

could use some help from the man upstairs! It was amazing!! We were so

happy and got his number. He’s probably around 25 and super nice. He

also almost started screaming when I told him I was from California!

haha He was very jealous. ha We are super excited about him and we

think we are going to at least have a few lessons with him. Right

after that we went to English class which also went well. After class

I talked to one of our students about our church and he took a Book of

Mormon and said he would read it! At the end of the day on Tuesday I

was really happy and I haven't had that much success in one day in a

long time!

Wednesday we had an exchange with the APs. I was with Elder Lex from

Austria. He’s great. We got invited to lunch from a member in our

branch. His name is Brother Lee, he’s from korea and his whole family

is living here in Romania for three years due to English. They are the

people we mostly translate for every Sunday. Anyway he took us to

Pizza Hut and it was soo good because he bought so much food and kept

saying, I think we need another salad, I think we need another pizza..

Its ok?? haha It was hilarious!  He doesn’t speak English very well but

we mostly talked about Korea, his family, way and ping pong! haha He

said in broken English that I am number one ping pong player in my

section of Korea! ha So I have a match set up to play him this next

week, I’m nervous but we will see how it goes. haha JK I’m going to get

destroyed by a professional Korean ping pong player. haha Then the

rest of the exchange we just did some contacting in the south part of

Bucuresti.

On Thursday we got on a train and headed up to Pitesti for another

exchange. Yup two exchanges in a row. Unfortunately because the train

times were a little messed up we didn’t get very much time up there but

with the time that we had we went to their district meeting and did

some contacting around the city. It’s a little weird in Pitesti right

now because all of their investigators that they have right now live

in a city about 45 minutes outside of Pitesti.

Friday, we had district meeting which took a very long time and wasn’t

very good. The district is good but everyone kinda does whatever they

want and we are not very united. The sisters most of the time have

crazy ideas that always conflict with everyone so since Elder Poulsen

and I are so close we usually just do are own things. That night we

had Friday sports night which was really good!! We had the most amount

of members show up and also we had a few investigators. It was a

blast. We just played soccer and then had a little spiritual thought

afterwards.

Saturday.. I don’t remember.

Sunday- was really different. In the morning we went to Brother Dobre

house and picked him up for church. Brother Dobre is a really old man

in a wheel chair. We are going to be wheeling him to church every week

from now on. It’s a pretty good walk too, about 30 minutes. He’s really

funny because it’s hard to understand him and he always tells you where

you need to go and what you’re doing wrong. Romanian streets and

sidewalks are a piece of junk here so it makes it really difficult with

a wheelchair. Then we had Sacrament Meeting which went well and then

Poulsen and I went with a few members to a little village outside of

Bucuresti (about 45 minutes) and had another Sacrament Meeting out

there with a few members and some of their friends who aren’t members!

It was amazing and were were in a tiny house in a village having

church service. Epic moment! Then they fed us some delicious foods.

soup, mystery meat, and some greasy potatoes. Incredible!!! Once we

got back to Bucuresti we went to another dinner appointment. I

probably got fed the most this week. We went to Sora Gorzos house

again, that old lady member that I sent a picture with about a month

ago. She’s still doing great and we are actually going to do some

service with her this week and clean her house.

Today for P day, because it was so hot, we went bowling at the Mall

and then went to McDonalds.... again. It’s cup season here in Romania. A

free coca cola cup with every purchase of a meal. 6 weeks, 6 cups...

gotta collect them all. ha

Love you all and hope you have a great week!!! As you can tell I am

still very busy and getting a lot of things done. We also have Zone

Conference coming up again this week on Wednesday so we have a lot of

planning to do. The Church is so true and I love being a missionary!

Nothing like it.

Love you!

Elder Mayans

Romania

6-2-2014

Hello my Beautiful family!!!!!!!

I don’t have an absolutely amazing email to write this week because I

don’t have much too say but everything is perfect and I couldn’t ask for

anything better. So for the most part I’ll just quickly recap on a few

things that went on. Oh it also sounds like all of you are great and a

lot of things are going on. I love all of your emails.

So first off we were able to have a lesson this week with someone. It

was a little interesting but good and it’s a good story. These three

guys came to church a few weeks ago out of nowhere and stayed the

whole time. We talked to them for a little bit and figured out that

one of them is a member but is inactive and nobody has ever seen him

before. They seemed really nice so we got their number and they were

willing to meet so we said we would call them. Then for the next few

weeks we tried calling but the number didn’t work so we just thought

they gave us a fake number. Then last week I decided to call one last

time before giving up on them and for some reason they answered and

were like why haven’t you called us?! ha We were like yeah we tried. ha

Anyways, so we went over to their apartment on Wednesday to have a

lesson. Their block was really far away on the other side of Bucuresti

but was super nice. It turned out that this member, Dan, brought two

of his friends and his girlfriend over so that they could listen to us

and become Mormons. ha Long story short, they were not interested at

all except for one of his friends who actually payed attention and

took a Book of Mormon. Everyone else was kinda joking around and doing

whatever they wanted. So we talked to them for a while and then gave

them a restoration lesson. After we finished, Dan was like ok now tell

my friend here about the word of wisdom, and my girlfriend here about

the law of chastity. Elder Poulsen and I looked at each other and were

lie ok... It was kinda weird but hopefully his one friend wants to

know more so we can meet with him privately.

Then that night we got on a maxi-taxi to Alexandria again to go on

another exchange. So Thursday we were there with a few Elders. I’m

pretty sure I’ve told you about Alexandria before but its a really small

city with about 2 streets. There are not too much to many people that live

there but the missionaries have been finding a lot of success

recently.

Friday and Saturday we had a lot of just busy work to do because they

tried to scam us on our apartment bill so we had to do a bunch of

stuff for that. Plus, it started to rain a lot this weekend so nobody

has been outside. Saturday night we had someone from the Area seventy

come and talk to us and the members about family history and more

things we can do with that.

Sunday we had church which was really good. I think Sundays are my

favorite because you get to see all the members in action. The members

are great here and it motivates me to work harder when I see them

because church is struggling here and they need more members so bad. I

had to translate again which was hard as always but I enjoy it. Also

there was a couple that came to visit from America. He served here

about 11 years ago and it was cool to talk to him and his wife. They

were crazy and you could see that he was really excited to be back

visiting his mission.

Sorry, it’s not the most interesting week. I’m doing great and miss all

of you guys so much. Have a great week and all talk to you next

week!!!!! The Church is true!

Elder Mayans

Mom.. hey I don’t know if you have sent my package but if you haven't

can you put something in there that will help me not be so tired. Its

been a lot worse than just being tired from being out all day. I’m like

literally trying not to fall asleep sometimes. haha If you could do

that that would be great. love you!!! best mommy ever

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!