Bucharest Architecture

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! 

One Down, One to Go!

Christmas Calendar!

Dinner w/Sylvester

Family Skype

One Month Post MTC - The District!







MTC History: From Sister Bynum’s Blog - Funny line of the week . . .

Elder Brown and Elder Bonner have an investigator (Fratele V.) who just asked these ridiculous questions so this is what happened after one of their lessons . . .

Me: How did your lesson go?!?!

Elder Brown: He asked if we had plural marriage. When I said no, not anymore, he got really disappointed . . .
Me: *I just laugh*
Elder Brown: *While semi laughing* - Then he starts asking us this question and I'm in my dictionary trying to figure out what in world the word is . . . It was Dinosaur . . . then he went to the computer and pulls-up this picture of Hristos (Christ) holding a dinosaur . . . *the picture where Christ is holding a sheep, but it was replaced with a dinosaur*-  I didn't know how to react . . .  The plus side, I now know the word for dinosaur!

 

Barclay's English Breakfast!

Me with all my Root Beer!

Craciun Fericit!

Craciun Fericit (Merry Christmas)!

Hey guys! I hope everyone’s having a good Christmas week.

It’s been an interesting week.  Last Tuesday we were invited to sing and the US Embassy for the employees; only because one of our members works at the Embassy. There were about twenty missionaries and we sang and then were served a free lunch.  It was a sweet experience to hang-out with Americans and eat some good food again. 

Here in Romania they don’t have root beer, which everyone knows is a big problem for me.  At the embassy they import a ton of stuff for the employees, including root beer.  Elder Barclay and I bought a 24 pack from the embassy and spent about 72 lei ($22) on it; a little expensive for root beer but we don’t get it very often so we had to stock up!

The Embassy invited us back for Easter and I’m coming with a wallet full of money!

We were block knocking on our way to the mission office this week and we usually start from the top of the block and work our way down to the bottom floor.  After two floors we were talking to this lady, who is about 25’ish, and she argued with us about our beliefs while flirting at the same time.  After ten minutes her dad comes and starts freaking-out at us, telling us we didn’t have permission to be here or to be talking with his daughter!  We explained who we were and that we did have permission but the guy was going crazy.  We decided to leave, walking down the stairs and got to the bottom floor, but before we walked out we knocked the last door in the building.  Sylvester, a guy in his 50's, walked out and started talking to us.  He let us in, and I had the weirdest two hours of my life!  The guy started by telling us that material goods don’t matter and that it’s all about family and love.  He repairs shoes and I guess the missionaries went to him to get shoes fixed seven years ago.  They left a Book of Mormon with him but that was it.  He held up two books in front of us, one being the Bible and the other was the Book of Mormon, and told us "these are the only two books that matter!"  I guess he has read the BOM four times through.  So, after that he went around the house showing us all the personal belongings he has – The stuff that doesn’t matter!  He was so excited to show us his two TVs, his car and his sewing machine.  Sylvester even had Elder Barclay count his daily earnings, which was about 80 US dollars.  He got out his camera and took our pictures, then took video of us speaking Romanian.  The guy was so cool and funny, but nuts at the same time!  Well, he ended up asking us to come to dinner on the 26th to eat with him. I'm kinda nervous and excited to go there but it would be nice to have an investigator though! 

We also have Gypsy carolers in our block every day.  They come right to the door and start singing but we don’t open the door because they're begging for money.  Kind of sad but when we do open the door we just give them a Book of Mormon and candy if there are kids. 

This week has been really cold and really foggy.  Not much has gone on though other than I went to church this week at Panduri for a Christmas party.  It was my first sacrament meeting in Romanian and it was nuts!  I tried to translate everything in my head and understand what was going on, but really only caught about half of it.  I would say that about 20% of the congregation has some type of mental illness.  Sad, but at least someone is coming to church! 

Any way hope all is well and have a good Christmas!

Love, Elder Brown

P.S.  Barclay's English Breakfast Recipe: Toast, baked beans, big sausages, cheese, two eggs, mushrooms, half tomato and more cheese!  Haha - It's nuts but good!