Productive Week

 January 13, 2014

Hey everyone!

We had a really productive week here in Cluj. While everyone else was busy with transfers, we were able to add 12 people to our potential investigators list! We are really starting to feel effective as a companionship. We were able to have a couple lessons this week, and I hope we can be organized enough to fit in a few more than that this week. It's a lot more stressful as a missionary when we actually have people to keep track of and try to set up with.

We have a really great district this transfer too. Since both the sisters are new here, we had to show them how to get around on Thursday, and started to get to know them. Sora D was born in the states, but she is actually Romanian! And, she has family here in Cluj that the sisters have started teaching already! How cool is that! And, she is training a new sister from Alberta! Sora J is from the Cardston-Waterton area. It's a lot of fun having another Canadian around again.

And I did get a bunch of mail, though I didn't get to read it all until last night. The other missionaries left it all at the church, but a certain piece of mail was too big to carry around and Sunday was the first time we went straight home after being at the church. I did get the ward Christmas card, and I loved it!  I also got a couple dearelders from Grandma, and Christmas cards from Grandma Loose, the Williams, and the Hornbergers.

The weather has stayed really nice, and it is forecast to stay like this. Today it is around 5 degrees, and the sun is shining. It's still only snowed twice here the whole winter, and even then there was hardly any. We are having an unusually mild winter this year.

We just started using the Joseph Fielding Smith manuals at church yesterday, and I'm excited to learn more about him. I don't have a copy of my own, but I'll look for that quote next week. (In Romanian of course.) We have what is considered a hard mission here, and many missionaries don't count a baptism, but that has been done before. We are laying a strong groundwork, and in time, the growth will become exponential. Just look at how the work went in other countries, like France.

Our finding is really going well, and maybe that will produce something this transfer. I'm really starting to realize why Preach my Gospel says to talk to people about their families. It really opens people up and gets a great conversation going. On Friday, we knocked on a door to do a short family survey, and the woman seemed a little hesitant and asked if it would take long. We presented our four questions, and ended up staying half an hour talking to her and her husband!

I'm doing well out here. Thanks so much for the love and support!

Cu drag,

Elder Lybbert

Here is a nice picture he sent of a big church in central Cluj: