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!