Someone Actually Called Back from a Pass Along Card!

Today, July 11, is the one year mark of Austin's mission!!  Crazy how time flies.  Here is his update from Monday, July 8, 2013

So, how are things with you? Howdy all, Things are good here, as usual.

Someone took a picture of the San Diego Temple and posted in on their business window. How funny.

1) What did you find out from the Town Hall about passing out cards? Haven't gone to the town hall, other things on our plate.
2)You burned a tie at 6 months, what do you do at year, burn a shirt? I might burn a shirt, we'll see. But yeah, that's what you burn on a year.
3) What do you do for fun on p-day? P-day, we just usually go to the mall, and look at things we can't afford to buy. sometimes we play basketball. Just walk around and take pictures. nothing too exciting.
4) Do you ever get invited to eat at a member's home? we don't get invited very often. We have an appointment this week though, a lady invited us at church yesterday, but up till now, probably less than 5 times eating at member's houses in my mission.

Other than that, the week was hot, we did some contacting, but nothing really from it. Funny story from yesterday though, we were trying to get home after church ( I do the finances for the branch and we were trying to get to the bank, we had never been there before), we got on the wrong tramvai. This guy asked us who we were and we told him and gave him a Book of Mormon pass along card. Then we got off the tram not 3 minutes later to catch the right one. He actually called us today, and we're gonna meet with him either tomorrow or Wednesday, so that's awesome.

The other highlight was, one night we decided to go out contacting along the river. We ended up talking to these two old guys fishing. I asked them how it was going, and they said just alright. He had a couple like 5 inch long fish in his sack. They were using corn, straight from the cob.and catching carp with it. I'm not much one for carp. but they eat it all the time here in Romania. They asked us where we were from and stuff like that. One guy actually didn't have an arm. he was fishing one armed, and he spoke Russian. Lots of those people here, they were all forced to study Russian during communist times.

But, hopefully we'll get some lessons this week with this guy who called us, and we also have another kind of investigator who is out of town, so we are trying to touch base with him as well.

Me on the tracks near the train station

Another Encounter with the Law. . .

So. . .After having surgery on my collar bone for plate and screw placement, now we are finally up to date with the blog, and here is yesterday's news:

My questions to Austin:

1) Are you surviving the heat? It has been a scorcher here---today it's 105
2) What is the coolest site in Timisoara that you've seen so far?
3) Tell me about any lessons you or Elder R. taught this week.

Well, bionic collar bone I guess.
To answer the questions though. As for the heat, it cooled down, it didn't break 80 degrees this week, but its gonna head back up to the high 80s this coming week. So buckle up again after a relaxing. Coolest sight in Timisoara.... The entire city is just old style architecture, the locals tell me that it's all from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. So just the architecture in general is pretty cool. But, we did go inside the Orthodox Cathedral the other day. The one where the revolution started back in 1989. It looked just like the other ones I've been in, bu it's just a more famous, and big one. And as for the last question, we had a lesson scheduled this week, but he called us an hour before and cancelled. And we were at zone conference for 2 days, so we were out of the city. So no lessons this week.

We had an experience this week with the police (again). We were handing out English cards in Centru, actually, we weren't even doing that, we were just sitting on a wall. The cop came up and told me we need to have permission to hand stuff out. I told him we were just resting and we were gonna start walking around again in a few minutes. He said OK fine, but you can't hand stuff out here. We just said OK and kept about our business sitting on the wall. Then, our two new missionaries, got into a discussion with a Pentacostal guy. Elder G. and I were watching from afar. It was getting about that time to leave, so we went over to tell them, and that's when the cops came again. we weren't even handing out anything, just talking to this guy. They wrote up Elder G. and gave him a warning. So, we are gonna go to the town hall and see if it really is illegal. So that's the funny story of the week.

As I said, we were at zone conference in Arad on Thursday and Friday of last week. We stayed in a hotel and had the meeting on Friday, about all day. it was good, the emphasis was making our English classes effective finding tools, and using the Book of Mormon more in our contacting.

We got to have a little fun on Saturday. One of my old friends, Vlad, from Oradea, came down to play laser tag and soccer with us. The reason was, we have a young member here who is thinking about going to EFY in Germany, but he's not gonna know anyone, so he was saying he wasn't gonna go. So, Elder H. (branch president), organized a day for his chaperone (Vlad, from Oradea) to come down, and we all played soccer, got lunch and played laser tag. It was fun, we got to all get together, and I got to hangout with Vlad, haven't seen him since my 3rd transfer. we are super good friends. But anyways, he's going with the people from Romania to Germany as a chaperone at EFY. So that was Saturday.

We watched the Work of Salvation Broadcast at church on Sunday, you should watch that if you haven't super good stuff about missionary work. My wrists hurt. That's all till next week.

Grateful for American Healthcare and Air Conditioning!

Update from June 23, 2013
1) How is your new companion? My new companion is great. We get along awesome so far. We are like the same, we hate the same foods, like the same foods, like the same music, hate the same music. So it's good. I'll tell you a funny story about him further down.

2) Do you like being a trainer? Being a trainer is pretty cool. It's made me realize how much I've actually learned out here, and how freaking fast time flies. I was in the MTC almost a year ago, and my new comp just barely got here. Weird. He speaks the language pretty well because he has a background with some Spanish, so he understands the grammar and stuff. But he still needs a lot of help. he's pretty fearless though and doesn't mind me correcting his Romanian.
3) Anything new with Florin...is he making any progress? We haven't heard from Florin at all. Which is unfortunate. He was supposed to go to EFY in Germany, but backed out because his mom changed her mind. Still trying to touch base with him though.

This week was, man, HOT. Holy cow. we hit 98 degrees with 56% humidity. I'm on two showers a day, and sometimes a head dunk in cold water at lunch time. We just sweat and sweat. I miss the cold. And snow. I'll take the cold over the hot any day of the week. We only taught one lesson this week, and it was just this crazy old guy who has been investigating the church for like 10 years. We went to his house and he tried to feed us fish, but we can't eat the fish here because it will make us sick, so that was kinda awkward. We just ate the mountains of rice and potatoes he gave us. haha. The fish was actually from Vietnam, and from a good grocery store. So we called the mission president's wife about it, and she said that she would never eat fish from Vietnam, but it would probably be safe. We ended up not eating it. This week, we had a few meetings with other missionaries in our zone. They actually did our zone training meeting here in Timisoara this time, instead of in Arad where they usually do it. So that was good we didn't have to get up super early to catch trains and stuff. and other than that, we've been contacting when the sun goes behind buildings and there's some shade.

So, cool story about my companion. Him and one of the elders from his MTC group, who is also serving here did some contacting together the other day. We were in Centru, and sitting on this wall. There were these 2 girls sitting across the way from us and one of them waved an Elder R. He then proceeds to semi-yell "ce faceti voi" like how are you? to them. They say good, and he's just standing there, petrified. Elder Green (the other elder training here) and I told them to go talk to them. So after standing there a minute, looking quite confused, they went over. We watched our "sons" from afar for about an hour as we handed out English cards. Turns out they were 2 Pentecostal girls. We actually ran into them again today, too funny. The 2 new missionaries carried on a (probably a bit broken) conversation for over an hour. We were proud of them.

So we went to a Romanian Hospital this week as well. We went with the branch president to give a member there a blessing. It was super hot in the room, the place doesn't have a/c. Man I tell you what, healthcare is not like in America that's for sure. We gave her the blessing, my comp did the annointing and I sealed and gave the blessing. She was super thankful, and actually made it to church on Sunday as well.

We were contacting and took a break for a bit one of the days, we went and bought a loaf of bread for 2 lei, and ended up feeding the entire thing to the pigeons. We caught a few as well, that was fun. That's about it for the week.

Feeding the pigeons

Oh yeah, I made root beer with that stuff you sent me, it tasted a little funny. Come to find out, it's root beer concentrate, not extract, so you have to make it different. That's what i get for not reading the directions I suppose. I'm gonna try again this week sometime.

We have zone conference this week in Arad, so that should be fun. Zone conferences are always interesting, sometimes long, but interesting and I try to learn from them too.

Thanks for the package once again. I only have the cake left. Ate everything else already. The only reason I still have the cake is because we didn't have any eggs. It'll be gone this week i'm sure

Be safe, happy, and faithful,
love,
Elder Phelps


Cool Sunset on the river

It's Hot in Romania Also!

So---I broke my clavicle which has slowed my update of the blog.
Here is the update from June 18, 2013:

Me and my new companion, Elder Reed

Broken clavicle eh? I heard a statistic once that the clavicle is the bone in your body that is easiest to break. Interesting, I've had a ton of friends break theirs. Say hello to that sling again, blow off the dust and get comfortable in it I suppose.

This week was kind of slow. We had to go down to Bucharest for transfers. I got a new companion fresh from the MTC. His name is Elder Reed, from Idaho, we get along great so far. We are super similar in tons of ways. But anyways. I have a funny story for the week. We were in the huge mall in Bucharest, and I was looking for a side bag to buy. I go in this store, find the one I like, and buy it. I proceed to walk out of the store, and a few paces outside the door, this girl comes up behind me, and snatches the bag out of my hands. I turned to her and she told me that I stole the bag. I said no, I have the receipt right here. I showed it to her, and she didn't think it was good enough or something like that. I then said, "let's go talk to the guy at the desk who sold it to me" we walk in the store, not 5 steps, she holds up the bag and the receipt to the guy at the counter, and he just gives her the nod. She then turned around, pushed the bag back into my hands, and said sorry (in English) and we left. I was accused of being a thief. Who would have guessed.

Also, I got the package you sent. we were walking into the mission office Wednesday, and the post lady came and handed us the mail for the office. My package slip was in there. So I went to the post office in Bucharest and picked it up. Thanks for the memory card. The hi chews are almost gone and it's only been 3 days....... Appreciate it.

We got back Friday morning, after a long, very hot train ride. The train was basically sold out, so we had 6 people with a billion and a half suitcases in one cabin (i'll attach a picture). It was a long night. But we got in on Friday, got settled in, I taught institute and we called it a night. We were supposed to have a lesson Saturday, but he didn't show up. Sunday was HOT. all the new missionaries bore their testimonies, they speak better than I did right after the MTC. It's supposed to be over 90 every day this week, with humidity. Pray for some thunderstorms. I need the rain back to cool this place down. till next week.

Tower of Suitcases in our cabin on the train

Becoming a Trainer

I asked Austin a few questions this week and here are his answers:

Any more news about the guy investigating and a baptism date? Let us know his name so we can remember him in our prayers.The guy's name is Florin. He has been an investigator for a long time. We had a lesson with him this week, but no baptismal date.

How about the transfer board? Are you staying in Timisoara then?The transfer board says, I'll be staying in Timisoara training a new missionary fresh from the MTC. Should be fun. We leave for Bucharest Tuesday night. There are 11 new elders coming, and 5 people from my MTC group are training. We are going to have 3 companionships in this city, all training. 2 new elders and a new sister out here, it will be fun.

What is your apartment like there? (would love to see a photo)Our apartment here is alright. It's pretty big though. I haven't taken any pictures, but it's alright. Our hot water is kinda iffy. Sometimes the cold water doesn't work in the shower (go figure) haha. It's alright though. We live really close to the middle of the city and a post office, so that's good.

What is the place where you have church like and how many members usually come? We have church in a buildng that's rented, just like the other cities. we usually have a bout 14 people there.

It's really starting to heat up here. Like getting hot. It's either pouring rain, or super hot and humid. It was 80 with humidity today, but it's gonna start raining again. We had a couple lessons this week. One was with homeless guy (well, we're pretty sure he was homeless), he just followed the sisters into the church and told us all he needed to repent. Kind of weird, but we sat him down and talked about repentence for a bit, gave him a Book of Mormon, and sent him on his way. We think he was on drugs when he came, but he seemed nice. Yup it's pouring right now. Man the weather has been peculiar the last couple weeks. Mother nature can't make up her mind. anywhho. Our other lesson was with Florin, he's a cool kid, but has a hard time keeping his commitments.

That's all that's new for this week We had dinner with the senior couple here last night. They left for the temple in Germany this morning, 13 hours on a bus. Dang. I'll pass on that one. Too long. They get to stay there all week, and we leave Tuesday, so between Wednesday and Friday, there won't be any missionaries here in the city. Romanian is still going forward with me. I can understand everything, and since I've been translating a lot, I've been learning more as well.

That's all for the week, love you all.

Testimony Meeting in 3 Languages

We finally got in contact with that kid we had the date for, too late for him to be baptized, that was supposed to be on Saturday. But we should be meeting with him sometime in the next few days. Other than that, not really anything new. We had a few member visits with the branch president. He takes us with him to translate. We were at a member's house and they fed us sarmale. I usually don't like the sarmale, but this one was different. instead of wrapping the rice and meat in pickled cabbage, they used grape leaves. Let me tell you that it is a night and day difference between the two. I have a hard time stomaching the cabbage stuff, but the stuff with grape leaves actually tastes alright.

We had a lesson this week. But it was with this 70 year old guy who has been investigating the church for like 10 years. His story is nuts, and we are pretty sure he's a little nuts as well. He had his records removed from the Baptist church because he didn't believe what someone told him there. And now, he just calls missionaries all over Romania all the time. But we went over to his house. He was super nice, had a lot of snacks and soda. We showed him how to work the tablet and camera that his kids gave him, and after that we had a little Gospel discussion. We probably won't go over there again, he's super nit picky about every little thing, and his main thing was why we don't use wine and unleavened bread for the sacrament. Some people and their ideas I suppose.

Church on Sunday was cool. We have a few members here that go to Italy to work and then come back to Romania for a bit. They brought a few of thier friends from Italy, who are also members. And it was fast and testimony meeting, so they both got up and the member translated from Italian into Romanian during sacrament meeting. And, during priesthood, something similar happened when they said stuff, but after it was translated into Romanian, I translated it into English for our branch president. We had 3 languages in our meetings on Sunday. How was it in just English for you? haha. I could actually understand some of the Italian too. Crazy learning another language.

That's about it for the week. we find out about transfers this week on friday, I'll probably stay, my comp is probably leaving though.

 

Rainy in Romania Too!

Not much new to report. we had a good week all planned out, then nobody answered their phones at all! Kind of frustrating. We also had a lesson set up, but when we got there, they cancelled on us right as we were standing on the door step.

The weather this week was pretty crazy. It just dumped rain on us yesterday. So much water so fast it was nuts.

me at the bus stop in the pouring rain.

I had to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday too. It went well. I was actually scheduled to speak last week, but like I said, someone else took too much time. I spoke about love and service, and the importance of doing both at the same time. And I'm the finances guy out here in Timisoara as well, so I am still doing the same things every Sunday as I was in Sibiu.
We have, or had, a baptismal date with this 16 year old kid, but we haven't been able to talk to him all week, so he's supposed to get baptized on saturday, but it's probably not gonna happen. Everyone was just avoiding the calls this week. And we were busy with finalizing the contract for the new apartment as well. The sisters are going to move in tomorrow or the next day hopefully though. It's a super nice apartment that is actually 2 stories tall! Haha but it was in the church bugdet.

Oh, and I did an exchange with our zone leaders out in Arad. It poured rain on us out there too. But it was fun. I was with another elder, he's the red head in the picture. They had a baptism in arad last week, but they don't have a font. So we had to pack up the one here and take it to the train station with them. We just walked through the streets and on the tram and into the gara.

Carrying the font from Timisoara to Arad

Kinda short for the week. We are going over to the senior couples house today for dinner, so that should be good.