La Mult Ani!

Craciun Fericit and La Mult Ani!  (Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year)

Man these weeks go by so quick!  I feel like I have nothing to say from week to week so I’ll tell you what happened over Christmas.

We stayed at the office Elders apartment for Christmas Eve just to be with people, which was nice. We woke up and went to the mission office to meet the rest of our district.  Elder Phelps (Viewmont high 11') made banana pancakes, eggs and bacon for us.  We had maple syrup which comes seldom here. They don’t sell it in stores, nor do they sell maple flavoring!  We then had a gift exchange within the district and opened our presents from home.  At noon, we went to President Hill’s house for lunch and games. They cooked us all kinds of good food!  We played Settlers of Catan and watched the first Hobbit movie in preparation for the second one (in theaters) the day after Christmas.  Christmas was a good day and we had way too much food and chocolate! 

The day after Christmas, I mentioned we went to see the Hobbit 2.  By the way we have the coolest Mission President!  He allows us two movies over the holidays and included Hobbit 2 and Enders Game on the list.  We saw Hobbit 2 in Imax 3D which was sweet!  That night, Elder Barclay and I went to Sylvester’s house to eat dinner.  Sylvester is the guy we contacted last week.  He tried serving us whisky and wine; we had to ask for water, followed by sarmale, pork, beef and chicken.  We stayed there for about three hours and talked. Funny thing about Romanians is that they can talk for hours and you never get a word in! 

I skyped with family this week. Most of you know that because you were the ones skyping, and it was pretty fun. We didn’t have a limit on how long we can skype, so we talked for about 3.5 hours on Saturday morning (MDT). Mom did so well and didn’t cry until the very end when we had to say goodbye. While skyping, I commented to my nephew Damon that his hair was getting long and that I liked it.  About two hours later, I heard that he went and grabbed some scissors from a drawer in his house and snipped off a piece of hair right from the front.  Hahaha, I was laughing so hard and miss those little boys and girl!  It was fun to hear about what is going on back home.  Dad filled me in on all the sports and I just read that the CHARGERS ARE THE WILDCARD TEAM!  I can’t believe that they beat both the Broncos and the Chiefs this year!  It was good to see Devan is still doing what he loves . . . working out!  Plus it was nice to know that NOW mom is healthy.  I don’t like it when people keep things from me! ;) 

Earlier this week, Elder Barclay and I went to get a haircut.  We walked into this tiny little shop on the side of the road. The lady was in such a rush and butchered my hair!  I was mad and came home, grabbed Elder Barclay’s trimmers and tried to fix it myself.  I did fix a few things, but ended up giving myself a bald spot or two!  Let’s just say I’m going somewhere quality next time I get a haircut.

Today for p-day we went to a park and played some sport. In the mission, you don’t pluralize sport.  Anyway, we played in the shadows of Casa Poporului (people’s palace) which is the heaviest building on earth and the second largest building in Bucharest.  I don’t know too much about it yet, other than it is huge and sweet looking!  We plan on going there and touring a little bit in the next transfer if I stay here in Aviatiei. 

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and now has a Happy New Year!  It’s now 2014 and I come home in 2015! 

Miss and love you!