Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving and Autumn in Sibiu!

October 13, 2014

Hi everyone!

It's been a good week. We finally have a new investigator, the members are doing well, and English classes are going great.

And S and A are on their honeymoon now! They are so great! But, S left me in charge of the branch, and I still have another week to go. Elder D and I are sharing the load, so it's not too bad. We already helped with a lot as his counselors, but now we have to plan sacrament meeting, and do all the finances, donations, expenses, everything. It's been fun though. We just had Elder C and Elder W speak for sacrament meeting this week, but they ended early and I got up and spoke for a few minutes to finish the meeting. I've grown a lot since the beginning of my mission.

N is doing great. I love working with the members. While I was on an exchange with Elder W, we helped him create a family search account, and put in all the info he had from memory. But then on Friday he came back with more information and we added that too. Doing family history with members is so fun! The sisters gave us the idea. I can't believe no one had done it before us!

And, we finally got to meet with A. He was a church walk-in last transfer, but he lives an hour out of Sibiu, and it is hard for us to get our schedules to match when he is in Sibiu. But we have a good time now on Saturdays when he comes in for German classes. A knows the Bible really well, and checks everything against it, but he is humble and teachable, and accepts when we make a good point. He agrees that a modern prophet fits in with the biblical pattern, but needs to make sure that nothing we believe contradicts the Bible. It's going to be fun working with him.

We also were able to set up a service project this week to sing at an old folks home, and they loved us! We have a pretty good district for music right now, so it is great that we got this opportunity. Old people are great.
 
I really love being district leader. I get to deal directly with the missionaries and serve them more, in all sorts of ways. And I enjoy holding district meetings and planning activities, I feel like I am doing something real. We have a great district, and we feel really united.

Sibiu is great. This is going to be a fun week. Elder D is a really talented missionary, and I am learning great things from him,
 
Happy Thanksgiving!  Here are some things I am thankful for:
 
I am so thankful for the restored gospel! I really can't imagine life without it, yet I interact with people every day who have no idea how amazing it is.

I am thankful for the Romanian culture and language. I love this country!

I am thankful for the amazing missionaries in my district, who support me and help me in all I have to do.

I am thankful for all the members in Sibiu, for their great faith in pioneering the church in Romania.

Elder Lybbert
 
 
 October 20, 2014

Hi Everyone!

It's been a great week!

I feel like Elder D and I were really productive this week, and even if the people we are working with aren't really progressing at all, we are trying our very best.

We had a fun lesson with a less active member and his landlord on Monday night, which was hilarious, since they both insisted on speaking English, and they speak like they are actors in a movie. It was a lot of fun. The landlord took a copy of the Book of Mormon and said he would read it, so that was cool.

English is still going well. We have a beginner class full of kids, and they are a handful at times, but it is a lot of fun, and we never get bored. We play a lot of games, and it is great.

On Friday we had an exchange with the zone leaders from Ploiesti, Elder B and Elder D! I exchanged with Elder B, and that was great. Now I have served with or exchanges with every elder from my MTC group. I'm pretty lucky. It is a 5 hour train for them back to Ploiesti, so they couldn't stay long, but it was good that they came. Elder B and I talked to a construction worker near our apartment who tried to be a little bit combative, but I loved how Elder B handled the situation and we didn't ever get into an argument at all. He is a really talented missionary.

Elder D has been pretty creative with contacting lately too. He has been asking middle-aged or older women for recipes for different Romanian foods, and they are more than happy to help. He will have a whole cookbook of authentic recipes before long. We are going to make Tocanita de Cartofi this week. Romanian food is great.

I really love Romania, the language, and the culture. I really want to try and get better at colloquial Romanian now, since it is so fun to use. It is really fun to talk with one of our investigator's 8-year-old son, and he is a funny crazy kid. This investigator is doing good, we saw him a couple times this week. He accepted a soft baptismal commitment, but still can't seem to find time to read the Book of Mormon if we don't read it with him. He still comes to church though, and we really appreciate that, and do our very best to make the church meetings uplifting for everyone that comes.

We have met with a couple other people as well, but no one seems to be going anywhere. But, someone will turn up soon if we keep talking to this many.

Thanks for reading! I'm doing great! 

Elder Lybbert
 

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