Elder Lybbert in Romania: Exchanges, Zone Conference, and General Conference

Bună Ziua!!

Well, this was a busy week. Exchanges, Zone Conference, and General Conference filled it right up, and it seemed especially short with having a late P-day last week.

Regarding transfers, the most likely situation is that I will stay with Elder B here for the next transfer to continue training, but that is not set in stone. Sometimes new missionaries get a new companion for their second transfer to finish training; it does happen. However, I am really hoping to stay with Elder B. We have learned a lot this transfer and love working together. It wouldn't make sense for us to be separated in my opinion. Sora N's trainer is going home next week, however, so she will have someone new, and we know for sure that our district will be different. Transfers are exciting. We will get to view the transfer board on the mission's google drive on Friday, so the speculations are starting to circulate. It's pretty fun. It will be next week on Oct 15-16.

I have a nice grey sweater, a fantastic European winter coat, and a cheap toque to keep me warm for now. I plan on getting some gloves soon as well. The weather was pretty cold until about two days ago, but it is fairly nice now. It's a little cool, but sunny, and it smells like fall. However, many people have been telling us that the coldest winter in 100 years is coming this year. That won't be too fun, especially with the humidity here. But unless I end up in Brașov in the mountains, it shouldn't get as cold as it would be in Calgary, I don't think.

Exchanges this week were really fun. Elder M and I got along really well, even if our contacting wasn't as successful. I got kicked out of a bloc for the first time! It's hard when the weather is bad, since there aren't too many options for contacting. But this is still a good city to be in. Constanța is not considered one of the hard cities for this mission; it is actually a very good place in my opinion. A big reason for that is because the members here are so wonderful. The branch isn't really big, but we have some incredible people, and beautiful families. And I am having great experiences here. In fact, I got to participate in the newly baptized convert's confirmation on Sunday. That was really amazing.

Another good thing about exchanges was that Elder M and I successfully made lunch without a recipe! Neither of us really know how to cook, but we took a chance and it turned out great. The suspense made it even more fun. We had no idea if it would turn out good at all. We fried up some cubed chicken and added lots of bell pepper and onion, then put in soy sauce, apple vinegar, lemon juice, and honey. Salt and peppered and mixed up with some rice made a delicious lunch. Cooking seems a lot more doable and fun to me now. I don't want to end up eating the same thing every day at any point in my mission. Right now, I am learning tons of different ways to make pasta dishes with Elder B. He knows what he is doing when it comes to pasta.

Zone Conference was lots of fun. Even though our bus broke down on the way to Bucharest on Thursday night. We were waiting in the bus for almost two and a half hours before we got on another bus to take us the rest of the way! It made for a late night. Zone conference was very instructive, and I was glad to see Elder C again. I really want to see the rest of my MTC district, but I will have to wait a little while for that. One of the best parts of Zone conference was lunch. I haven't been able to stuff myself with American-style food since the MTC. There was pork sandwiches and potato salad and chocolate cake, and I ate a lot. It was basically my only meal of the day, since we spent so much time traveling before and after.

I really enjoyed general conference as well. Us missionaries watched both morning sessions in English live at 7:00 in the evening. We also watched the Saturday morning session a second time in Romanian with the branch on Sunday morning. And, we had two of our potential investigators come! Both of them are English students. Unfortunately, neither of them could stay for our sacrament meeting afterward, which was too bad since that was when we had the confirmation and a short testimony meeting.

Elder B and me are really stoked for this last week of the transfer. We had a very productive weekly planning, and are feeling inspired by general conference. We are going to do a lot of finding, and trying some new ideas. And if the weather permits, the yoyo will be coming out. It's definitely worth a shot to attract people to talk to us.

Also, I saw my first European Robin this morning. We have some other birds around our apartment, but I have no clue what they are. There is a bird with a black head, wings, and tail, and gray body that I see all the time. It's about the size of a crow. Have any idea what it could be?

(Note from his mom: I looked up the bird for Gilbert, and it is probably a Hooded Crow.)

I love you all, and am so glad to hear from you.

La revedere! Pa!

Elder Lybbert

He also sent a few pictures: