Something to Talk About!

Monday - Just a normal day again

Tuesday - Peles was fun the second time through. We did the tour in English this time so I understood a little bit more about the castle. It is the first European castle to have a central vacuum system plus both air conditioning and a furnace. Pretty much the most modern castle ever!  It was built for the king at that time and he loved to read books and collect weapons. He died in 1914. 

Wednesday - So we were walking around and this guy approached us about what religion we are and after a little bit of talking, we set up to meet with him that day. That never happens by the way!  He is Romanian, but lives in Spain and speaks Spanish really well (he kept speaking in Spanish to us cause he forgot Romanian).  The lesson went really well.  He has family in Canada, Spain, Italy, Romania and UTAH!  The ones in Utah are LDS and he knows a little about the church already. He said he wants to go to the temple one day and hopes he can do it in Utah.  We ended up talking about soccer and he mentioned that where he lives in Madrid is a blocked off community and he lives just a few houses from Cristiano Ronaldo!  So I know this guy is rich and cool!  He said he has autographed crap from the real Madrid soccer team and he wanted to give us stuff!  He had us skype his wife in Spain and I talked to her in English.  He fed us a ton of food and took selfies with us!  Anyway, he is in Romania till the 10th of July, then he goes back home to Spain.  He told me to hook him up with missionaries (Blair hopefully) and a church there.  He is coming with us to church this Sunday but then leaves next Thursday.

Thursday - Went to the Branch President’s house for lunch and his wife fed us some Romanian food.  I’m still trying to get used to it, but it was good.  Ciorba is a Romanian soup that is fairly thin.  Lots of vegetables and she makes it with meatballs, which were really good!  It was fun to have Elder Kennedy there eating Romanian food.  He seemed to like it as well. Sister Musat is super funny and has a son on a mission in London. He comes home in November.

Friday - Happy fourth of July ya'll!  We were planning on doing a BBQ with the missionaries, then the members caught wind and pretty much threw a party for us.  It was sick!   We had like 400 burgers and music.  Kids were playing soccer and we had a blast!  I ate three burgers and it felt like home!  They played Romanian music the entire time and I tried to get some country into the mix, but they didn’t like it too much.  Needless to say, I wasn’t very pushy considering my lack of love for country music. 

Saturday - They're having a music festival in the big park by our house.  It was pretty loud, but fun that people had stuff to do.  We walked through the park contacting during sound checks throughout the day. The bands were English speaking but I've never heard of any of them.  Pretty nuts!  President Ivory made big changes in the mission, which include us no longer reporting the number of hours we contact during a week.  He also wants us to put a bigger importance on less active and active members.  We are also expected to set up activities more often. 

Sunday - We gave two blessings. The one for the sisters was the first time Elder Kennedy gave a blessing and he did great!  The second was for a member that has back problems.  She is surprisingly young (30s) to be having back problems.  It’s really hard to give blessings in Romanian, but it went well. 

Hope you guys had a good week!  Love and miss you.

Elder Brown!