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| Kennedy and the Soras |
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| Moldova Zone |
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| Piata |
Elder Keegan Karsten Brown
Monday, January 26, 2015
MOLDOVA (USSR?)
Welcome to the wonderful world of Moldova. This place is insane!
I have only been here a few days, but it is already insane! I have entered into a new world of crazy and it’s filled with Russian speakers. People actually speak Russian here more than Romanian so that should be fun.
The trip down was intense. Fourteen hours to Bucuresti, spent the day there and left for Chisinau that night. It was another fourteen hour train ride, but this time we had to pass through customs. About 400 people came to the door of our sleeper and asked us for our info - "Why are you here? Who are you? What’s your purpose? Where are you coming from?" They interrogated us hard! Elder Daland told me that we got through easy that time! I barely got any sleep since most of this occurred at 3:00 a.m.
Elder Daland is from Southern California. He’s just one transfer behind me and we actually met in the MTC. He plays water-polo and has been in Moldova for 8 months! Haha – It’s a crazy place to spend that much time!
Our apartment is nice but could use a few improvements. I’ve already started to fix a few things and clean and even got a little crazy and tested out the ol' fire extinguisher! Haha - those things are messy . . . It’s not nearly as nice as my last place, but will work out great.
I seriously feel like I’m in Russia! It’s a little bit colder. People are a lot bigger and they all speak Russian. We have two branches here, one Romanian and the other Russian. The Russian speaking elders here are pretty nuts too! One of them is actually from Russia. His name is Elder Streleski and he is huge! He we was raised in a small city were they have military forces and is a Russian tank driver and also boxes for fun. Pretty intimidating, huh? I don’t have a picture with him, but once I get the courage to ask . . . I’ll send one.
The members are cool too! Tons of young people which is different. I’m not used to that at all and it’s weird. I have already been asked to teach priesthood next week.
The Romanian accent here is incredibly different. I can barely understand people at all. It sounds so dirty and messy and is gonna take a while to get adjusted. But after saying a prayer at an activity, someone commented to another person "hey, could you here his Russian accent?" That was pretty surprising to hear.
Long email, but one last thing for fun. They sell milk in bags instead of cartons; like bags of chips! This will be nuts!
Love you
Keeg
I have only been here a few days, but it is already insane! I have entered into a new world of crazy and it’s filled with Russian speakers. People actually speak Russian here more than Romanian so that should be fun.
The trip down was intense. Fourteen hours to Bucuresti, spent the day there and left for Chisinau that night. It was another fourteen hour train ride, but this time we had to pass through customs. About 400 people came to the door of our sleeper and asked us for our info - "Why are you here? Who are you? What’s your purpose? Where are you coming from?" They interrogated us hard! Elder Daland told me that we got through easy that time! I barely got any sleep since most of this occurred at 3:00 a.m.
Elder Daland is from Southern California. He’s just one transfer behind me and we actually met in the MTC. He plays water-polo and has been in Moldova for 8 months! Haha – It’s a crazy place to spend that much time!
Our apartment is nice but could use a few improvements. I’ve already started to fix a few things and clean and even got a little crazy and tested out the ol' fire extinguisher! Haha - those things are messy . . . It’s not nearly as nice as my last place, but will work out great.
I seriously feel like I’m in Russia! It’s a little bit colder. People are a lot bigger and they all speak Russian. We have two branches here, one Romanian and the other Russian. The Russian speaking elders here are pretty nuts too! One of them is actually from Russia. His name is Elder Streleski and he is huge! He we was raised in a small city were they have military forces and is a Russian tank driver and also boxes for fun. Pretty intimidating, huh? I don’t have a picture with him, but once I get the courage to ask . . . I’ll send one.
The members are cool too! Tons of young people which is different. I’m not used to that at all and it’s weird. I have already been asked to teach priesthood next week.
The Romanian accent here is incredibly different. I can barely understand people at all. It sounds so dirty and messy and is gonna take a while to get adjusted. But after saying a prayer at an activity, someone commented to another person "hey, could you here his Russian accent?" That was pretty surprising to hear.
Long email, but one last thing for fun. They sell milk in bags instead of cartons; like bags of chips! This will be nuts!
Love you
Keeg
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
в Россию? (To Russia?)
Transfers are out and I’m leaving Oradea! Gotta say that I’m pretty sad because the
members here are dope and the city is by far the prettiest I've served
in. I'll be moving the furthest of
any other missionary this week, going from Oradea to Bucuresti and then to Chisinau,
Moldova! It’ll be a total of 30 hours on
trains and two whole days! I’ll be
serving with an Elder Daland from Southern California and I’m a Zone Leader
still. I guess, my Hungarian will be thrown out and I’ll start learning Russian! I’m not stoked to learn the new alphabet at
all, but lucky that half the people speak Romanian. They recently split the branch from being together
to a Romanian and Russian branch, which will make it better. We leave tonight and will spend the day in Buch
tomorrow, then take another sleeper train to Chisinau.
This week was pretty good though. We really just did normal stuff but had fun doing it. We went to Cluj yesterday to play around and see a new place. It’s a beautiful city with tons of universities and churches.
I’m excited for change but really wanted to stay in Oradea. It will be good though and I’ll get to meet tons of new investigators and missionaries.
Things Romanians say: Today we were running for a tramvai and missed it. A man walked up and said "you ran for nothing!" I replied, "ya its ok though." He said, "it happens sometimes, with tramvais... busses... cars... and women! You run after them, sometimes miss them, but another will come in 15 minutes!" Worldwide truths I suppose.
Love and miss you guys!
Keeg
This week was pretty good though. We really just did normal stuff but had fun doing it. We went to Cluj yesterday to play around and see a new place. It’s a beautiful city with tons of universities and churches.
I’m excited for change but really wanted to stay in Oradea. It will be good though and I’ll get to meet tons of new investigators and missionaries.
Things Romanians say: Today we were running for a tramvai and missed it. A man walked up and said "you ran for nothing!" I replied, "ya its ok though." He said, "it happens sometimes, with tramvais... busses... cars... and women! You run after them, sometimes miss them, but another will come in 15 minutes!" Worldwide truths I suppose.
Love and miss you guys!
Keeg
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Fun Week in Oradea!
Tuesday morning we woke-up at 3:30 a.m. to get to the airport and fly to Bucuresti
for our monthly leadership meeting; it went pretty well. The mission moved into a new office in Buc and
its incredible! The place doesn’t even have chairs yet, but you bet your butt
they had the two 70” televisions up and running with Apple TV - Haha! We were back home the same day by 6:00 p.m.
and I think I slept for 13 hours! I was
so dead that I didn’t even hear my alarm the next day.
We had the boys from Timisoara come for an exchange which was fun. I got to see Elder Anderson from the MTC again.
Something cool happened in Arad this week. There was a less active woman that I taught and she was pretty cool, but just lacked something. She was the only member in her family and just struggled getting to church alone. I heard that her husband reluctantly accepted a blessing during his fight of cancer and knew by the next morning that he needed to be a member of this church. He was taught all the lessons and was baptized this week! What and incredible experience knowing that people who I taught, and became friends with, are now changing their lives.
Transfers come out this next week and I can honestly say, I have no idea what will be going on. I’m not nervous, but I don’t know what to expect. I will keep you all posted.
Sorry, no pics this week, forgot my card reader.
Go Running Utes Basketball!
Love ‘ya
Keeg
We had the boys from Timisoara come for an exchange which was fun. I got to see Elder Anderson from the MTC again.
Something cool happened in Arad this week. There was a less active woman that I taught and she was pretty cool, but just lacked something. She was the only member in her family and just struggled getting to church alone. I heard that her husband reluctantly accepted a blessing during his fight of cancer and knew by the next morning that he needed to be a member of this church. He was taught all the lessons and was baptized this week! What and incredible experience knowing that people who I taught, and became friends with, are now changing their lives.
Transfers come out this next week and I can honestly say, I have no idea what will be going on. I’m not nervous, but I don’t know what to expect. I will keep you all posted.
Sorry, no pics this week, forgot my card reader.
Go Running Utes Basketball!
Love ‘ya
Keeg
Monday, January 5, 2015
We made it to 2015! Pretty crazy that I’ve spent an entire year in this insane country!
Our New Year’s celebration wasn’t as crazy as last year’s for sure, but we had a good time. President wanted us in the apartment by 9:00 PM so that’s what we did. We just chilled, watched fireworks from our balcony and played Settlers all night long.
We finally got snow as well. It’s been freezing all week long, but snow didn’t fall and stick until the last few days; haven’t had too much time to play in it yet.
I’m stoked for the new year and the sun to come back out. I will be able to speak this language, get work done, and have some fun too! Before we all know it (except for mom), I’ll be home and turning 21. Life’s quick!
Not much to say from this week. This place was a ghost town! School is out and so all the college kids went back home. Nothing has been open either and we were the only people on the streets. I’m having fun and I love you guys!
Keeg - Happy New Year!
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