Branch President's Pigs

Foxes in the Hen House . . .

 



Chickens and Pigs

Well, just a quick update . . . I don’t have too much for you this week but I’m still living in Arad. I guess President has been in Moldova and hasn’t been back to Bucuresti to sign our apartment agreement yet. So in the meantime, we've been chillin' in Arad trying to keep busy. 

Pretty crazy thought, but according to the MTC's date they issued me, I’m going home a year from today - September 29th, 2015.  So for mom, and those of you who are counting down, we have 365 more to go!  For me, its nuts!  I can’t believe I've been in a foreign country and learning this language for so freaking long and still don’t feel like I've figured it out yet.  I will probably freak out again on October 16^th, considering it’s the actual year day. 

We didn’t have a baptism in Arad this week like we wanted. Turns out she had some last minute doubts and doesn’t want to be judged by members for being a little bit "lower class."  It’s a big problem here because people are so racist against Gypsies!  If you have darker skin, you are automatically disrespected.  Amazes me how relaxed they are while discriminating.  Hopefully she feels more comfortable and gets baptized in the future.

We also visited our Branch President and took some photos with his animals.  

I got pretty sick this week, but with the help of Lipton Fruit Tea, Tylenol Cold and Flu, and some serious sleeping, I was over it in about two days. 

Nothing too crazy going on lately. Sorry you guys don’t receive sick stories too often, but I will work on getting into some trouble or something. 

Love you guys and Go Bolts!

Heeyyoo!

Hey guys, 

Today was a long day as we are trying to get out of Arad and move to Oradea. We got a ride up to Oradea today to look at some apartments and I got pretty car sick; the roads aren’t amazing!  We are going to have an amazing apartment.  Seriously, it might be the best one in the mission!  I will send photos as soon as I can, but we won’t be moving in until Saturday at the earliest so we’ll have another week in Arad. 

We were able to leave Arad yesterday to visit a family of seven.  The father died last year and they haven’t received visits from the branch for over three years!  They were so happy that we made it out to visit and we brought the District President and his family from Oradea with us. They were all pretty emotional and it went pretty well.  Arad is sick and I’m kinda sad I’m leaving so soon! 

I don’t have too many stories this week.  Everyone in the district is getting sick so I’m just trying to stay healthy.  I woke up with a runny nose today. Football is looking good at home!  I will be looking to hear more stories for you guys. 

Kill it!
Keeg

Culture Festival

Oradea





Just a Little Bit of Transylvania!

Well here is your weekly update from Romania!

We’re moving after just six weeks in Arad.  President is moving Elder Baielli and myself to Oradea. It’s a little larger city just about two hours north of Arad.  President thought putting the Zone Leaders there would be better for us.  Also, the city of Cluj will be part of our zone as well.  We’re going to be apartment hunting this week and trying to get all that junk figured out. I’m pretty excited to be there! 

We had a Cultural Event, Zone Conference and District Conference over the weekend in Oradea.  For the Cultural Event we had about 75 in attendance and around 100 for District Conference!  It was pretty sick! We sat down to start the Zone Conference and President looked at us and asked "who is conducting?" We respond "uh, no clue."  Then he put me on the spot to conduct - Just shows you how unorganized everything is! 

Nothing too crazy from this week.  It’s been eleven months tomorrow since I left home!  Pretty insane to think a year from now I will be getting ready to come home. 

Go Bolts! 

Elder Brown

Flying back to Arad

Food Service?  This isn't Delta!

Hey guys!

Well I had a little bit of time to breath this week and it was pretty nice!  We were able to do what we wanted and meet with some people that we haven’t been able to meet with.  The pictures from Lucy's birthday look fun, and I’m glad to hear the Utes handled there game with ease.  

We made a visit to a member that had a stroke right before I arrived here in Arad.  It’s sad because she was such a great member and she may remain in this condition for a year.  Her entire left side is paralyzed as of right now but she can feel when you touch her hand and foot.  She has a very small support system and it meant a lot for her that we came and visited.  I feel horrible that it took me a month to get there. Mom knows how hard it is to be in a hospital bed for that long and I felt for this member. She cried when we left and was very thankful that we were able to come. 

A man named Bene from Togo Africa just arrived here in Romania as a volunteer to work with children in schools and stuff.  He got referred to us when he expressed interest to learn English.  Only speaking his native language and French, it has been a challenge.  We invited him and his friends to come play soccer with us and he brought two other Africans and another volunteer from Turkey.  It was crazy to play soccer with them and probably the most African/South American mission experience I will have here on my mission. They were freaking amazing at soccer and played barefoot on a crummy field that looked like the sandlot. It was amazing, but I don’t have photos.

We also went paintballing with our entire zone on P-Day and it was freaking fun. I’m covered in welts, but it was sick. 

Hope everyone has a good week and that the Bolts get a win tonight! 

 

ZL Business Trip

Does He Know What's Coming?

Ciao Ciao!

Heyyyo!  Well hope everyone is loving their first week of REAL FOOTBALL!  I will be asking for good reports over the next few months so be prepared.

We’ve seen huge improvement with investigators, from one progressing investigator at the start of the month to eight by the end!  In fact, a Baptism is scheduled September 13^th.  Plus, President Ivory notices our zone’s progress! 

It’s been a fairly insane week for us, full of: carrying old men up and down 5 flights of stairs; attempting to milk a goat; making homemade doughnuts with a Romanian private investigator; taking an overnight 11 hour train to Bucuresti in seats instead of a sleeping train (we missed our train); and to top it all off, we flew home from Bucuresti.

The animal situation occurred when we visited our Branch President who invited us over to see his new piglets. We ended up playing with all of his lovely creatures and I had the opportunity to chase down a chicken and catch it.

The elderly man is the father of one of our Sister members. He is super mentally ill and too old to even get himself out of bed. Elder Baielli and I had to sit him in a chair and carry him down the stairs. We then took him to the hospital for a few tests, brought him home and back up the stairs. At one point he opened the taxi door when we were traveling at about 80 kilometers per hour . . . amazing!   She was very appreciative and it was good. We are also teaching her husband who is an alcoholic and could probably use all the help he could get at this point . . . very nice guy, but when he’s drunk . . .  

On Sunday night, we left to go to Bucuresti but missed our first train so had to take another one.  The second train was from 10:00 PM to 7:00 AM the next day (Monday).  The problem was that we had to sit; we didn’t get sleeping tickets with a bed.  They were sold out so I didn’t sleep at all that night.  Then we have a six hour meeting right after we arrive in town, so we didn’t even shower. After the meeting we had just enough time to go to the mission office and pick up everyone’s mail, then they put us on the plane back to Arad.  I was searched and got an extreme pat down going through security.  Then my bag got searched because someone’s package had shampoo in it!  I’m surprised the airport security let me get on the plane. Meanwhile, my comp is taking video of my pat down session and the other security lady goes over to him and is mad for filming and makes him delete it!  When we got back to Arad, it was 10:00 PM and we couldn’t sleep in our beds because Gabi Oanta had our apartment deep cleaned and we weren’t allowed to go in . . . so I slept on the other Elders couch.  It’s been a rough few days, but tonight I get to sleep in my own bed. 

Elder Baielli has been really stressed the last few days because we are always doing something and or on the phone.  I've noticed that when he is stressed, I've been laughing.  I’m loving all the chaos and how unpredictable being a Zone Leader can be.

Here’s some photos and I love you guys! 

Keeg