Elder Austin Phelps: Thanksgiving was Just a Busy Day

This last week was transfers week, the busiest of the entire transfers. It's 5 weeks of planning and preparation crammed into 2 days. We didn't sleep much either, we had to stay up late, and get up early. I was pretty exhausted by the end.

We've been working on the mission picture slideshow too, we just submitted that to Pres. Hill for approval. About 1000 pictures to sort through and put music to. It was a big job, but we finally finished it.

Thanksgiving was just a busy day. We were supposed to eat with everyone at around 2, but we had to pick someone up at the train station. So we missed the meal with everyone, but we went back about an hour later, and there was still tons of food, so we got to eat. They got a huge turkey from the embassy, which was probably the best turkey I've ever had. Mashed potatoes, beans and carrots, everything. Real pumpkin pie for dessert with Oreo salad. That's basically Oreos, cream, and vanilla pudding all mixed together. And we got to take leftovers home, so it was good.

As for the game. It was a World Cup Qualifier between Greece and Romania. Played in a 2 game series. Whoever scores the most goals qualifies, and whoever loses, doesn't go to the World Cup. Our game was the second leg in the series. Romania had played Greece about a week earlier in Athens, where they lost 3-1. Then Greece came here and tied Romania 1-1. So, in total goals, Greece scored 4, and Romania scored 2. Therefore, Greece qualified for the World Cup, and will go to Brazil next year. And Romania missed qualifying. It's the closest they've come in many years though. It was so loud in that stadium. 53,000 people were in attendance. the whole stadium was waving Romanian flags except for the corner of Greece fans. Their stadium is brand new, and has a retractable roof on it. Pretty modern. It was crazy! People were lighting flares, smoke bombs, and throwing some sort of explosives on the field. The announcer actually came on and said that they would stop the game if people kept doing it. They kept doing it, and the game went on.

My companion and I went on a tour of the Arcul de Triumf (Triumph Arch, just like the one in Paris) yesterday. It was pretty cool. They opened it up for National Romanian Day, December 1st. It's like our 4th of July.