O Zi Buna

Elder Phelps is doing well in Sibiu, Romania.  O Zi Buna means "Have a good day," I think. . . 
Here are my questions to him this week:

What will/do you do as a district leader? What do you do as the counselor in the Branch presidency? Do you tract in Sibiu or set up in the park like you did in Oradea? Do you do service like you did at Caritas? Where is your current companion from? How was the conference with Elder (Dr. ) Kent Richards? I used to work with him---nice guy.

Me looking out the tower window

Things are good. Our time here is spent mostly focusing on the few
investigators that we have even though they aren't really progressing.
We try to teach them as much as we can. Just trying to hold on to the people we have now. As a district leader, I plan and conduct a district meeting every week, report our goals and numbers each week, and make sure everyone is home and safe every night. That's basically
it, sometimes present things at zone training meetings. As a counselor, I do all the finances for the branch (well I'm the branch clerk as well) and we sit on the stand in sacrament meeting. Speak sometimes. I'm speaking again in 2 weeks. And along with that, we usually have to bless and pass the sacrament almost every week. We haven't really looked into setting up a table here, maybe we will though. We don't do service either. We need to find something like that.

The conference was good. Long train ride (6 hours each way). It was
an hour and a half leadership meeting then right after that it was a
FOUR HOUR main session. No breaks. Holy cow it was long. He
presented a ton of stuff. Mostly from the scriptures. That's what I
liked about him, he always taught from the scriptures. But the story
back to Sibiu was funny. We didn't have time to take the last bus
back on Thursday, so we planned to take the 10 am train. We stayed
the night in Bucharest and got all ready to go. We stayed across the
city from the gara and where the sisters stayed. So, one of the
office elders came and picked us up and took us to the station, but
the other office elder (he's new in the office and to driving in
Romania) took a wrong turn and got to the sisters' apartment at 10
am..... So we missed that train and went to lunch, then got on the
3:30 train back to Sibiu. We had luggage for 3 people and some
supplies and books of mormon. So much stuff. Everyone was getting
mad at us for having too much stuff on the train. But they were all
off by the time we got to Brasov. So we finally got to sit down for
the last 3 or 4 hours of the ride. We got into Sibiu, and had to take
almost 3 taxis because of all the bags. We first went to the sisters'
apartment and lugged all their bags up 4 floors of stairs and went
home after that. It was an expensive taxi ride, since he had to wait
while we helped them. Oh well.

My new companion is in his 15th transfer. So he's almost done. He is
from Layton, and graduated from Northridge High School. He's cool and
we're getting along just fine so far.

All in all, things are good, we are still searching for some success,
and we planned to have some this transfer, so it should be good.
We'll be going to Cluj-Napoca again on Thursday, for our zone training
meeting. Should be fun. My district is awesome. One of the sisters
is fresh from the MTC and she's super hyped about missionary work and
full of faith. Which is good. And her companion is cool too, she's
been in Sibiu before and they brought her back because both sisters
left last transfer. So I'm not the only one who knows the city and
things.

O Zi Buna,

Elder Phelps

Wedding on the Bridge of Lies, viewed from the tower between Piata
mare and piata mica

Elder Phelps, aka. New District Leader and First Talk Given in Romanian

Austin didn't send any new photos this week, but here's the latest!

Things are good this week. We didn't teach very many lessons. Just
one. We had a lesson with our investigator and the senior couple from
Brasov. It was good, she's heard all the lessons, knows it's true,
but doesn't want to be baptized yet. It's kinda frustrating. That's
just how it is I guess.

We are going to Bucharest again on Wednesday for a Mission Conference
on Thursday. Elder Kent Richards is coming to talk to us. He's a
counselor in the Area Presidency. So also, transfers are going to
happen at that time. The next transfer is only 4 weeks because of the
changed MTC schedule. So I'll be in Sibiu for 4 more weeks. My current 

companion is headed to Ploiesti to be a new zone leader. I will be the
district leader in Sibiu.   My new companion is the same age in the mission as
my first companion. And also we are getting 2 new sisters, one who was here

before, and a new missionary from the MTC. So it should be fun.

Cool thing of the week. I gave my first talk in sacrament meeting
yesterday. I took about 15 minutes about prophets. it wasn't as bad
as I thought it would be. Way easier than my farewell talk, but there
were only 10 people at sacrament meeting that day, so that's probably
why. But it was good. I'm getting more and more confident in my
language ability. Finally. Takes forever to learn another language.
But it's coming along nicely.

A Visit to Hunedoara Castle

We have a zone conference in Bucharest next week, and Elder Kent F. Richards is going to be speaking to us.  You probably know him, he was director of Surgery at LDS Hospital or something like that.  Should be cool, we are leaving on Tuesday to go down for that. And yes, there is a mission area in Brasov.  We have a senior couple there, 2 sisters, and 2 Elders. 


Hunedoara Castle

Our castle visit was pretty cool.  We got on the bus in Sibiu at 5:30 in the morning and rode for about 3 hours to Deva, where we met the rest of the missionaries in our Zone from Cluj and Deva.  We rode another bus for about 20 minutes out to Hunedoara where the castle is. It is way cool, I'll get some pictures sent of it.  We hungout there for awhile, ate some pizza for lunch then we headed back to Deva and played cards and ping pong at the church for a bit.  Then some of us went to the old fortress on top of a mountain in the middle of Deva. It's pretty small, but it has an awesome view of Deva.  And it's mostly destroyed, apparently an ammunition explosion blew up most of it like a bazillion years ago.  It's mostly ruins now, but it was still cool.  We rode this tram car thing to the top instead of hiking. We went back to the church, then caught the bus back to Sibiu.  It was a super long day, but it was fun.  Hunedoara is way pretty.  Google Seach "Deva Sign on the mountain" they have a sign like the
Hollywood sign on the mountain, but it says Deva.


The Fortress (Cetate in Romanian) at Deva

If you want to look up the real Hotel Transylvania, it exists. It's in a town called Sighişoara.  A few hours north-east of Sibiu.  I haven't been there, but I want to, and my companion was there last transfer, and said it was awesome.  Check it out. http://www.hoteltransilvaniasighisoara.com/ro/.

It was kind of a weird week, since we changed p-day and such.  So we
didn't teach very many lessons, only 2 I  think, but it was good.  We
are back on track for this week. That's about everything exciting that
happened.

Keep Calm and Visit Romania

Picture I took in downtown of a sticker on a pole and the walking
part of downtown in the background

Not much more to report for this week.  We have been busy teaching
some lessons this week.  Pretty good week.  But we still haven't heard
from the guy that was supposed to be baptized.  Hopefully we can get
in touch with him this week to touch base and get a date set for him.
We have another investigator, who we are helping to quit smoking.  He
has a date set, and we are working with him towards that.  Other than
that we have one more.  She is  the sister of a member here, and we
have been working with her.  She isn't progressing all that quickly,
but we are just doing a little at a time.  The senior couple from
Brasov come to Sibiu and we have lessons with them and her once a
week.  We are getting closer to a date with her, and she has expresed
that she wants to be baptized so that's exciting.

We have just been busy teaching, going to the gym, ice baths in our
bathroom.  Also, we are eating pretty healthy.  We bought a ton of
vegetables and fruit and we do smoothies, because Elder McBride has a
blender, so those are good.  We are going to Huneodoara on Wednesday,
and Deva, to see some castles, so that should be fun.  Not much
besides that,

I know it's not a lot, but my mind is blank.  We didn't really do
anything super exciting this week.  I'll report on the castles and
stuff next week.


Podul Minciunilor.  The Bridge of Lies.  In Piata Mica. One of the
oldest cast iron bridges in Europe



2nd Week in Sibiu

Elder Phelps was a man of few words this week. . .

First of all, the baptism didn't happen. The investigator called us 3
days before and said he was going to Bucharest to be with his sick
father (who is 100 years old) and we haven't heard from him since. So
we are assuming that his father passed away and he is still there
taking care of his family business. We know he's going to be
baptized, we are just waiting to hear from him. He's gonna be baptized
though, we're not worried about it at all.

It's snowed the last 2 days here, and it's been freezing cold. But
it's warming up today so we'll see what happens.

The people of Romania are very set on their ways. It's hard, but it
makes the few people that want to listen and do listen mean that
much more. So it's still awesome.

The language is coming along really well. I understand basically
everything. And I can say probably 75 percent of what I want. I just
need to learn more vocabulary and stuff. But as far as the grammar
goes, I am pretty confident in it. I just need to keep practicing at
this point.

Below is photo Austin took of the Large Square "Piata Mare." There is a live webcam http://www.sibiu.ro/LiveOK/cam1.html if you're interested.


The Big square, where the ice skating rink is, you can see it off to the left.

Welcome to Sibiu, Elder Phelps!

Sibiu.  It is super cool.  It has tons of medieval buildings and
cobblestone streets.  Very pretty.  And it's all pretty close
together, so we don't have to buy a pass for the bus.  We just walk
everywhere.  The church is in a house here too, pretty big one at
that.  But it's been pretty good.  My bed here isn't as soft as it was
in Oradea, so I've been trying to adjust to that.  Our apartment is on
the 5th floor of a small apartment building. it's like a loft. We
talke the elevator, then have to walk up another flight of stairs.  It
has a bathroom, 2 bedrooms and a big living/study room/kitchen.  Also
it has those windows on the diagonal slants of the roof, so we get a
ton of light and it's a good view of the city.  And we have a
dishwasher! that's a luxury.  But it's a modern apartment.  One of the
light fixtures is busted, a lightbulb just exploded out of it in a
shower of fireworks one time and tripped both breakers. So we had to
go flip the one outside.  Hopefully an electrician is gonna come get
that fixed soon.  The landlord said he'd get it taken care of, but
until now, it doesn't work... haha.  Electricity in this country is
just sketchy.
Anyways.  My new companion is cool.  We get along well.  He's from the
Dallas, Texas area.  And he loves football.  He's going to try to walk
on at BYU when he gets home in December.  So, to help him get ready,
he has permission from our mission president to go to the gym.  So we start
our studies at 7:30, then go to the gym after that for an hour.  We've
been twice so far and we are super sore.  So we've been taking ice
baths in our big tub at our apartment, since the water coming out of
the tap is basically ice anyways.  It kinda forces me to workout and
excercise, so that's good.
As far as church business goes, I came into an area that is much more
alive than my last one.  We have a baptism on Saturday, it will be
my companion's first.  The guy is like 64, and is so cool.  He loves
the Church and is like the perfect investigator.  He agrees with
everything and was already following most of the commandments and
stuff.  We have a lesson with him today about tithing and fasting.
Also, we have 2 other baptismal dates in the city, so hopefully those
will go through as well.  Also, I got called as the second counsleor
in the branch presidency.  So that's interesting.  The only Priesthood
in the branch are us and the branch president basically.  All the rest
are inactive.  It's mostly women who are active.  But they are super
good at coming to lessons with us and doing missionary work and stuff
like that.  So we are looking at some really good things happening
here.  Another great thing about Sibiu is the Gogosi.  It's like a
better version of a scone, with vanilla pudding, chocolate, or jam
inside, they have tons of fillings, and they are super good.
That's basically it, I'm not gonna be able to send pictures this week,
we are at an internet cafe that has computers with no USB plugs.  So
we're going to a different place next week and I'll send some.

20th Birthday and 6 Months Out!

Me burning a tie for my 6 month mark

Can you believe that Austin has been out for 6 months?  Wow, me either!  Time has flown by a lot quicker than I thought it would.  He celebrated his 20th birthday (and first birthday in the mission field) on Monday.  Crazy.  Here is his latest:

"It's my birthday! But din păcate (unfortunately) we aren't really doing anything fun. I'm getting a hair cut later, but that's about it.

But, on to the important stuff. The transfer board came out, I'm leaving Oradea tomorrow night. And.... I'm going to Sibiu! in the mountains! I've heard it's the most beautiful city in the country. My new companion served here in Oradea for 2 transfers, so we are already good friends, it's gonna be great. I was talking to him on the phone the other day, and he said I'll most likely be the 2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency, and the branch clerk. So we'll see how that works out. I'm super excited.

This past week, we had 2 lessons. One was with a member. It was cool. It was actually our first lesson of the entire transfer. The other lesson was with one of our English students. The same one we went to see play the cello at the Baptist concert thing. So that was cool. And her and her mom came to church. It was a pretty dead transfer overall, but we had some good things at the end. And, they tell me that they have 2 people with baptismal dates in Sibiu so I'll probably see my first baptism there (SEE not PERFORM) big difference. But it's still cool, because this country barely breaks 100 baptisms per year. Anyways, our lesson went well, we learned a lot about Baptists, and she liked church and wants to come again and learn more. Hopefully my current companion can get moving forward with her after I leave. Also, my current will be training a new missionary this coming transfer in Oradea. He will only be in his 5th transfer, and that's pretty rare that a missionary trains a new person from the MTC that early. It's gonna be crazy to come home and talk to my friends who did more baptisms than I taught lessons. Super different culture.

Not much else to say. I'm just packing up, getting ready to head to Bucharest tomorrow night, then on to Sibiu on Wednesday. It's gonna be awesome, talk to you all next week!"

I think he is really excited! Stay tuned. . .

Me and the Branch President