Day 6

sunday... my favorite day! the elders called us last night, interrupting our table topics bonding session (yes mom they are being well used... thank you!). anyways they asked us to be at church at 9:30 instead of 10, so we set our alarm clock to 8, and snoozed till about 8:50, and got out of here in no time... life is good when you embrace the fact that even if you tried to doll up, it would all melt off your face in the humidity.. so it's okay if you look like a fool every now and again huh?

okay so the iasi branch is great! we brought three investigators of our own today. well, they were these three stray dogs that followed us all the way there from the scala girl's apartment.. needless to say, the visitors welcomed sign did not apply to them.

we walk up the the villa, it is a three story building where the church rents the second floor - there is a factory underneath and an apartment above it - and there were three elders waiting on the balcony for us... i guess transfers were this past week so of the four elders, two were new to iasi - one this is his first area period - and one new sister. the other sister will die here and leave the day after we do...

the church building is actually really nice. the branch president's name is president popovic.. he's been the branch president for over ten years and you can tell he loves the church.. so cute.. he comes all alone, his wife - if they are still married, no one really knows - we think is in italy, and his one daughter used to be active, but now she is "lost and crazy"? anyways, he has such a wonderful vision of the church in iasi and mentioned more than once his dream of having a full room of saints... a room! just one... we are so so lucky, you guys... anyways his testimony was motivating... we had an elder sit by us and translate...

there were enough priesthood that none of the elders had to help with anything, which was good, but it was weird... they wouldn't let any of us girls touch the sacrament trays.. i am pretty sure it has to do with their orthodox background and the attitudes they have about women? i am curious.. but it was really apparent, maybe i'll tell you later if you want to know more..

sunday school was great.. they had 2 classes, gospel principles and gospel doctrine.. we went to the later, but it wasn't about the book of mormon... sora stoica was teaching from a marriage and family relations manual. she gave us english participant's books to follow along, and they look like they are only used outside of the us? i am totally guessing because they had pictures of every other ethnicity possible... anyways, she gave them to us to take home and read if we promised to bring them back... that wasn't the best ides though - you'll find out why in a second...

so today's lesson was about family prayer, scripture study, and home evening... it was wonderful and it made me miss my family a lot... but then i looked around the room and realized that all of the romanians came alone... other than sora stoica bringing her
two kids with her, every other member came in alone... no spouse cuddle up to, no kids to carry out in the hall.. it made me sad and really grateful for my family, when they would throw in comments about how hard it was to even talk to their family about religion, let alone pray together with them - another small, simple thing that doesn't mean a whole lot till you see others with out it...

there were 4 members, 2 investigators, 2 sister missionaries, and 9 byu girls in relief society... as you can see we are a big part of the branch... mary has already been dubbed the piano player, and we are all now apart of the ward choir!! yay! and we are meeting with popovic on thursday for other callings... not everyone will get one because they are trying to ween the branch off of the byu girls, so we will see

again the lesson was about families... i think that they focus an extra amount on the family here because of romanian history... for decades they were under communist rule that emphasized that the sole purpose of marriage is to produce children and send them off to the state - ceausescu was trying to raise a large army, and through propaganda and other things, promoted the every man for them selves idea where people were more numbers than persons and family members were people you shared a house with... anyways since the revolution was just in the early nineties, a lot of the ideologies are still believed and even practiced.. this puts a real strain on the churches attitude of family and adds to the already high amounts of orphans...

okay, so that is why they talked so much about families and that is why i have been very nostalgic today thinking about the lovely family i left behind..

hmm, o so we left church and immediately it started to pour.. we thought it would pass quickly, but it got worse the closer we got to home... so what did we have to use? nope not umbrellas, but our church manuals sora stoica let us borrow... well i had mine in my purse and was using my hood to protect my head, but it still got drenched... so sorry sister stoica! anyways that explains the picture... fun stuff! i loved it... i think the other girls are starting to embrace the rain as well... woop woop

okay, it is almost midnight and i have written a novel.... so shout out to mom! hey mommy, i bet you are the only one that actually read this entire thing... thank you. i love your profile picture in the japanese bath robe looking thing... it's NICE! love you to the moon and back!

i am off to read some books..

cu mult drag,

p.s. so yesterday after i used the internet at the cafe, i went to pay and the hip, wanna-be western man showing off his english skills told me mine was free.. after questioning him, he repeated that it was free... it was a bit weird, but i was fine with that, until i started to walk away and he gave me a really nasty look and elisa was like, aren't you going to pay him. i told her he said mine was free and she started laughing way hard... he was trying to say three... three lei... whoops, sorry mr. suave man, maybe i'll make it up to him by bringing him some more hair gel the next time i go :)

o and also, note to self: today i learned that trying to make ice cream from a packet does not work, especially if the instructions are in romanian and you just try and follow the little
picture things... ugh, we need to get out of the apartment asap, good things we are taking a sleeper train to brasov tomorrow night to visit dracula! more to come tomorrow

ok bye for real this time

love you all! thanks for everything!