Transfer #2 ????

Buna Ziua! 

Well this week was interesting!  I’m no longer in Buch.  There has been a little change and I’m in Ploiesti.  On Wednesday night, after Elder Barclay and I came home, we noticed President Hill had called.  When we called him back, he asked to speak with Barclay and sounded pretty serious.  I guess there is a Russian speaking Elder in Moldova that has been in a little bit of . . .   The result was that I go to Ploiesti, one Ploiesti Elder goes to Moldova, and the Russian speaking Elder comes down to be Elder Barclay's companion in Buch.  I packed and left on a train Friday afternoon.  They sent me on the train by myself and the Ploiesti Elders picked me up.  My new companion is Elder Harris from the "DC area."  He has been here for seven months, is 19, and went to BYU for a year before his mission. 

The new apartment is a little bigger, but the place is trashed!  Mom always thought that I was messy but she hasn’t seen these missionaries here yet!  The district here is alright.  For the most part we are all really young.  There are two sisters and four Elders.  Everyone is pretty strict.  When I say strict, I mean like today I went to put on jeans for p-day and they said "we usually wear church attire on p-days."  I’m wearing jeans right now.

Ploiesti is alright so far; haven’t really experienced too much yet, but it’s been kind of cool! What I’ve been told though is that the city isn’t pretty to look at but the branch is awesome! They were right, the branch here is pretty sweet.  Since being here, we've had a few lessons and there is a baptism this Saturday!  The girl hasn’t decided who is doing the baptism yet, but there is a chance that she could choose any of the missionaries which would be sick if one of us could do it.  Either way, it will be sick to see a baptism!

Before I left Buch, we were still doing less active contacting with the car and things were going alright.  Nothing too exciting but it was fun.  We went and visited one crazy member who we think was told to not come back to church.  He invited us into this basement that was super dim.  Only thing lighting the room was a few hanging bulbs.  His place was insane!  I felt like I was in some intense movie!  The guy had paintings everywhere you look and they were actually pretty good!  Before I realized how much money he wanted for them, I almost bought one.  He wanted about 500 euro for it though.  The reason I say that he is crazy, is that he prays to the universe.  When we asked if he wanted to come back to church he told us he had to see if the universe agreed with it.  He stepped aside, started mumbling and looking to the sky, then returned and told us that the universe was okay with the Mormons.

Anyway, I hope all is well at home and I love hearing about everyone and everything.  I think about you all the time and miss you to death.  Sounds like a pretty interesting Super Bowl coming up, but I don’t mind missing this one. 

Love y’all,
Elder Brown