My Six Weeks in Bucharest are Over and a Pink Floyd Concert

Me with a member who just left to go to BYU-I, and Sora Gorzo (far right).  We eat at her house on Sundays.

Austin has been in Romania for a year now--and has been on his mission for 14 months--crazy how time flies!  Here are my questions to him this week:

1) How was your week? 2) Are you staying Bucharest and do you have the same companion or a new one? 3) What was the best thing about last week? 4) Any new investigators or lessons taught?  Well, here it is September already! Last year at this time you were getting really anxious to get out of the MTC and get to Romania---now you've been in the country for almost a year! Do you feel like a native yet haha? Sounds like you speak like a native.

He responded:

Time sure is flying. My six weeks in Bucharest are over! just as we found a new apartment, we are both leaving. I'm going up to Cluj-Napoca, and Elder A. is going to Galati. I'm going to be with one of my good friends in the mission, Elder V. I'm not sure if I told you about him already, but he should be in the group six weeks behind me, but he went home while we were in the MTC, and now he's back out in his 4th transfer. So I'm excited to be with him, we'll get along great. And I don't speak like a native at all. I still mess up all the time. Being fluent and being native are two very different levels. And, I still feel very American. We stick out like sore thumbs here. Everyone knows... haha.

Our week was pretty slow again. It heated up a little and then rained, so it's been more humid than normal. Last week we ate out a few more times than usual, we've been packing and cleaning our apartment to move out and we got lazy. So one time we went out to Ikea and ate there, then the other time, we got a little expensive and had a burger at the Hard Rock. Best burger I've had in over a year. But, like I said, a little spendy, so it'll be awhile before I go back there. We had an investigator at church, he just kind of showed up, so that was cool. He's a nice guy, but he is one of the "eternal" investigators. He's heard every lesson from tons of missionaries, and just doesn't want to move forward.

Patriarch's Palace (Patriarch of the Orthodox Church

It was funny, you know Roger Waters? Lead singer of Pink Floyd? Well he did a show here a few days ago, we didn't go (Obviously, i'm not an apostate missionary), but we walked by, and there were a ton of people there. He did it at a huge like intersection in front of the People's Palace, they just blocked off the roads and built a stage. But we heard him sing "Another Brick in the Wall." So that was cool. We saw him for a split second over the fence too. But that was it, we had to get home after that. I didn't know Pink Floyd had such a big fan base here.

That was about it for the week. I played the piano again. My last time in the branch here. We're leaving to Cluj on Wednesday. I'm actually travelling with Elder Covey, my MTC companion. He's going to be district leader up in Cluj, so that'll be good. So i just realized, my driver's license is gonna expire before I get home, is there anyway I could renew it in case I need to drive here in the mission? I think I have to be there in person, but maybe not. Also, I found out that we can get authentic handmade nativity sets here. There is a man who makes them out of clay, dressed in authentic Romanian attire. He's close to Brasov, so if you would be interested, I could arrange to get one. They cost 100 US dollars, and he prefers it in american dollars. Let me know what you think.

That's about it for today. Next email will be from Cluj-Napoca!