Augustin in His Shiny Leather Suit

The Boys (Elders) from Cluj



La Multi Ani – Happy Birthday!

Well, today isn’t actually P-Day.  President moved it to Thursday so we can chat with you on Thanksgiving.  I thought I would just send this to let you know I’m alive and well and might not get back to you today; I will on Thursday. 

I felt pretty sick early this week so we took it pretty easy on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I had a sore throat and Manning was coughing pretty rough as well.  We met with Augustin on Wednesday and Friday.  The Friday lesson went real well; Wednesday we taught the Plan of Salvation.  Augustin got really off-track, talking about aliens and all kinds of stuff, but it was alright.  He thought we were nuts for not watching TV and phoning our families as missionaries.  He was so concerned about it that he offered me money, thinking I didn’t have enough to call you guys – Haha!  He is a funny dude.  The end of the week went a little better...

Here is my birthday breakdown ‘cause mom wants to know! 

We were on exchanges with some Elders in our zone, so I woke up and make a huge ol' stack of pancakes for us.  Our hot water went out so I didn’t get to shower . . . We went to lunch at the Lactobar.  It’s a retro-burger place that’s pretty bomb.  I had bruschetta and a fat cheeseburger - Thanks Grandma Flo!  We later taught Augustin which went real well. He called and said "before we talk about the church, I need to speak to you alone."  I didn’t know what to expect, but he just hooked me up for my birthday!  He got me a men’s smell good kit.  Some cologne, shampoo and deodorant.  He is dope.  The lesson went real well and he made it to church on Sunday as well.  We then worked on zone finances and had choir practice.  It was a good day!

Love you guys!
Keeg

Happy Birthday Mom!

I hope you all had a good week and celebrated Moms Birthday!  I wish I could've been there but I won’t miss it next year!

I’m going to start with the conference we had this week.  Our entire zone went to Bucuresti this week for a combined three zone conference.  We had a guest speaker, Elder Patrick Kearon of the Seventy.  He is a cool guy from England.  A convert to the church, he had some good input on missionary work from an investigator point of view.  It took him two years of receiving lessons before accepting baptism.  Pretty cool guy!   His quotes: "you utterly bursted my bubble,” "I love the joy of your ringtone,"  "that was cracking" and "rubbish" multiple times.  We met with him first as zones, then the next day as mission leaders where he wasn’t as much fun, but said some good stuff.  We flew back Friday night to Oradea. 

As for our boy Augustin?  He is good!  We had a two hour (way too long) lesson with him on Saturday and talked about authority and the importance of baptism.  He had all kinds of questions and was super stoked when he found out that we have a living Prophet and Apostles.  With all his questions it took us forever to get through the lesson.  By the end he said "I wanna be Mormon" and accepted baptism.  We haven’t set a date for him yet, but I’m sure that will follow soon.  He just wants to be more prepared before picking a day.  We meet with him again on Wednesday.

Not much else is going on right now.  We don’t have plans for my birthday yet, but will probably go out to dinner and stuff.  There is a place here that serves really good red velvet cake, so that is pretty much what I’m stoked for most.

GO UTES, GO BOLTS!

Love you guys!
Keeg

We Had a Decent Week!

Glad to say we’re actually teaching someone right now.  The guy just turned-up out of nowhere and he is pretty sweet!  The Sisters met him and gave me his number.  I called him that day and we talked and he said that after the call he prayed for a sign to know if we were legit or not.  Well not even an hour later, we were walking and I said to Manning "hey lets go this way and see if anyone wants some English cards."  The first guy I talked to looked at me weird and says "are you Mr. Brown from the phone?"  I said, uh, maybe?   Haha – Turns-out it was the same guy and he accepted that as his sign from God.  We had a pretty cool first lesson and he seems to be perfect as of now.  I’ll keep y'alls updated.  Augustin is his name so please send prayers his way. 

We are doing a weekly game night and this week we had the treats.  I decided to pull the old Craig Morrison trick and mix some dog treats into the situation.  I got a bowl of regular mixed snacks and trail mix and tossed in a few dog treats.  Before you know it, I have two Romanian gals eating them and they didn't even notice!  I lost it laughing!  Haha - Then a Sister missionary ate one and realized.  Luckily nobody got mad and I had a pretty good laugh.  But, I’m waiting for it to come back and ‘bite’ me. 

Dad asked me to let you know about the ZL administrative side of things.  Other than doing zone finances, refunding everyone on planet earth and working out missionary's accounting errors, it’s not that bad.  We collect numbers from the four District Leaders in the zone (easier said than done) and then report them to Presidents Assistants.  We also have a Sunday night conference call with President Ivory where we report all the people that are being worked with in the zone and go over numbers and stuff.  This week we had to do everyone’s travel plans to get down to Bucuresti for a mission conference.  Getting everyone trains to-and-fro, it’s been a little hectic lately.  I’m ready to be a District Leader again, or better yet just a normal missionary - Haha! 

Love and miss you ‘ya! 

Day of the Dead

Grave Lights

Transfer Nine!

I’ll be staying here in Oradea for another transfer which sounds pretty good to me!  We went to Bucuresti to drop off the Italian and pick up my new companion.  Baielli will be finishing his mission in Ploiesti of all places. My new guy is Elder Manning, from Fruit Heights.  He is my age and went to Davis.  We don’t know each other or any of the same people.  He’s a pretty chill kid and I think it will go well. 

We are still working on finding peeps . . . I feel like that’s been my standard email for a while.  We did visit another less active member this week.  He’s a 22 year old kid and his 14 year old sister.  Apparently the oldest brother was the first to be baptized and then left for Hungary.  Since then, the other two have struggled to make it to church.  It was really awkward at first and probably the weirdest start to a lesson I have ever had, but we basically got the point across and I changed the subject to school and things to do here in Oradea.  We talked about soccer and stuff and that opened them up a little bit.  It’s been a while since I've been the Senior Comp, so I kind of forgot how it feels to carry the conversations. 

We tried to carve pumpkins for Halloween but it turns-out that you can’t find pumpkins in Romania, so we just hung out with some English students, played games and ate crap food!  It was alright; the 31st didn’t feel like Halloween at all.  On the first of November we went to the cemetery in Oradea for their "day of the dead" which was pretty cool. The place is freaking giant and almost every grave was lit up with candles and stuff!  It was incredible how many people showed up. 

Anyway, I love and miss you guys! Talk to you soon! 

Keeg