Week 50

Family!

Ok here is the low down. Four days ago I was prepared to start this email with "Well, looks like I am returning to the office." I hate to say it, but it was such a sad couple of days. The week before I had written President telling him that I am so glad to be out of the office and how hard it was for me. So when he told me that I would be returning to the office for a month I wasn't a very happy camper, but I was prepared to do the best that I could. He then talked to me yesterday with a new plan. Instead of returning to the office, I will have mini missionary from Iasi. A native companion. I'm a little nervous, but think about how this will help my language! It will be so cool! I will still be here in the Aviatiei district in Bucuresti, and we will be full time pros missionaries again! 

Sad news on a temporal level. We were supposed to go to the World Qualifying match between Romania and Greece. The tickets were bought, enough for all of Mihai Bravu and the office elders (including me). I felt really bad, however, that the sisters in our district would be left out. I called President, got permission for them to come and then tried to buy tickets for them and my new comp (i wasn't the one who bought them initially so I wasn't in charge of how many were purchased). SOLD OUT! Except for the 400-600 Ron VIP Tickets. Cant afford that on a missionary budget. Oh well, us missionaries in the Aviatiei district need to find something fun to do.

I am so glad that your Thesis defense went well! That is so good to hear! I am glad that Dad was able to go and support you during your thesis. I laughed a bit when you said that the committee said that they had never seen that before. I have kept you in my prayers with that. When do you find out the results?

So this makes me a little bit upset. The propriatar and his family were taken from us rather abruptly. One of the other missionaries in Bucuresti came up to us as I was talking to a member and basically said "I have sat with them for three Sundays, they are my investigators, your bad". Granted this investigator lives in a different part of the city and we go to the group instead of the chapel, but we were teaching him because of the relationship we had formed while getting that apartment (we gave it to the sisters). It took me the rest of the day to calm down. They were such a cool family and we really like them. I really hope this missionary is ready to work for them.

 Elder P is fine haha. He will do a great job in the office.

Secondborn hasn't written me about Sadies much less a meth head. Give him a little nudge, would ya?

(Mom's note:  we found out about a meth bust two doors down, someone was using meth in a car when busted.  Then last night, someone high on drugs approached Secondborn, asking for a drink.  This is really unusual for our neighborhood.)

Glad to hear that work hasn't been too crazy for ya. "No news IS good news".

I cant believe that Grandpa and Grandma would do that! I was getting ready to write a lot of letters (I am so bad at writing in the field), so I will definitely write them and tell them thank you. That is such a blessing.

Haha! Why would you let Mom watch the Saratov Approach? We were talking about that movie the other day and it sounds really good. Reviews? Did you like it?

I love you all and I am so grateful for the support that you have given for me. Keep me in your prayers, cause you know that you all are in mine.

Love 

Elder Ormsby

(The following pics from Sora Polatis' blog.  Where's Elder Ormsby?  He is there if you look hard enough.)

Week 49

Dear Family,

Oh my goodness, let me tell you how good it is to be back out in the field once more. This last week reminded me of every memory as an office elder. With the new transfer we had to bring in new missionaries and bring in missionaries for visas. My companion and myself went to the Gara at 8 to pick up 36 missionaries who needed to retrieve their visas. One problem was that the train from Cluj, which had 3 missionaries who needed visas (one of which couldn't get their abonament without it). The pressure starts to build!!! My companion promptly ditched me and went to hang out with the other missionaries haha! Its alright I had 33 companions left (the other three were sisters). 

We went through the retrieval process without too much hassle, only to wait on the last three. With only 15 minutes before closing they finally made it to the visa office. I can honestly say that I was sweating a bit. It would have been such a bummer if they had come all the way from Oradea and Cluj only to not receive their visas. After all that madness the new sisters showed up with the office elders. They were all hungry and we had 2 hours before their stuff opened so we went to Pizza Hut. One of those sisters was so out of it. She did not care what she ate,or if she ate, but she was sure a whole lot happier after she had a full stomach. 

We went back to the visa office only to find a huge line! I have never seen so many people at the visa office. As we were standing in line a man starts talking to us. He knew a little bit about who we were and about Joseph Smith. We talked for a second and then kinda broke it off. When the doors opened. Everyone surged forward trying to get in the line first. Usually we have a short line because our line only covers religious visas, business and students. The only problem for that day was the fact that they were all students. The students who are in Romania need to renew their visas before the new semester and that day happened to be the day when a lot of them went to the office. We were there for a good 3 hours. This turned out to be a great thing. That guy I previously talked about came up to us again and asked us about our free English course. He had heard about them and wanted to know if he could go, even if he wasn't a member. We gave him the info and talked a bit more about why he was in Romania. He walks away, only to come back 30 minutes later. So finally I pick up on the fact that the Lord wants me to talk to this guy (lasa-ma I've been in the office). I started to talk about who we are and why we were in Romania. Two of those new sisters were sitting next to me and so I asked them why they know the gospel is important and why they had chosen to come on a mission. They did such a good job. The guy was super patient. He is from Armenia or Albania, I couldn't tell which one, and knew how hard it was to learn Romanian. So the sisters bore testimony, doing a great job, and we were able to place a Book of Mormon. We are going to call him this week so we can talk to him more about the church.

 

Unfortunately that man with the Book of Mormon from 1977 isn't turning out so hot. He keeps telling us that he will call us when he has time to meet up. 

Good news! We had found an apartment that was small, but the Proprietar (landlord, I think that's the word) is super cool. We had to give up the apartment to the new Aviatiei Sisters, but we are going to meet up with the proprietar this week! He and his wife have come to church the last 2 weeks and have a copy of the Book of Mormon. They are so nice. They told the sisters that they could have anything that they wanted. They took us all to IKEA (ya we have that here...mmm meatballs) and they let the sisters buy whatever they wanted. They tried to get them to buy nicer more expensive stuff. Sora S was totally overwhelmed. She would pick out a nice looking chair and a desk and the propriatar would say "oh no, this one is much nicer, get this one." The problem was that the stuff was way more expensive. Remember, this guy is PAYING for ALL of this stuff OUT OF POCKET! You really don't get this kind of thing in Romania. He really loves the missionaries. When we found the apartment, he told our realtor (a member) that he really wanted us to live there because we were "faithful people". When I told him that we might not move in, and that the sisters might move in, he looked like I had told him that I kick puppies. Not angry, but so sad. He said something on the lines of "but I want you, I want you faithful people". I had to explain that the sisters were just like us, name tags and everything. He perked right up and was so happy. I can definitely see this man and his wife getting baptized. They are so prepared. We will have to work on a few things, but we will see where it goes.

Mom, I will pray for you to do well on your defense.

B is going to be Sister B!!! That is so cool, send me pictures and an update when she gets it!

I had no idea that P's dad died. He was so nice to me at C's homecoming. That is really sad. Its true though. Sometimes you feel that nothing should go wrong if you are doing all that you should. This is not actually what happens. I feel like the Lord is then ready to trust you with trials. You have made all the sacrifices so far to do what is right. You have learned so much from all those trials. He knows exactly how far you can go, and what you need from him.

I am so happy to hear that S has my email, I was about to write a letter. Actually I am still going to write a letter, and a few others beside that.

Wait! When did T get married? Why did I not receive any pictures on his new wife? Oh my goodness, there are so many things that are happening outside of my little sphere haha. Mission life is so funny.

Sorry to hear about work, dad. I have been praying for you and mom to have guidance when it comes to the family. I will continue to keep you all in my prayers.

I love you all. I cant wait to talk to you in December (which is NEXT TRANSFER). Keep up on your family prayer and study, it makes all the difference.

Love,

Elder Ormsby

Week 48

So I was going to stay and extra transfer, which means I wouldn't have left the office till January. President and I had a talk, however, and after a few questions he decided that it would be better for me to leave the office a transfer early. I just wasn't a happy camper in there. The first day that I got out was the best/worst. I was sad to leave the office, but so happy to leave. I am starting up the Aviatiei district in North Buc as the District Leader. I was/am with Elder E, but he will be leaving for Iasi and I will be with Elder P until October 31, then Elder P will become the new office elder and I wont have a companion...I'm thinking about getting a solo tag, like in the MTC. President said a virtual companion would do haha.

The first few days were rough, trying to get back in the missionary mood. But I have loved it so much! It feels good to be talking to people, even if they reject you. Those first few times trying to stop people and having the finger wiggle or being straight up ignored, LOVE IT! Seriously. I am so happy to be out. We still live with the office elders, and I am training them this transfer, so we will see what happens next. We went out chalk contacting with the Panduri sisters, my first time, and it was so strange to be talking to people I didn't have to once again. Eventually I met this really cool couple who knew quite a bit about the LDS church and what we stood for. They told us it was a beautiful religion and they had high respect from it. Due to my gresit I didn't get their number, but they have a card. Hopefully we can run into them again.

We were on the metro and had our CLM (Cartea lui Mormon) out where people could see them (President made a big push for all the missionaries to do this). We were speaking in English and a guy across the metro says "they speak in English, but carry a Romanian book...why?" I turned and said "Cause we speak Romanian...sort of." haha his friends ribbed him a bit before I asked him where he was from and why he was in Buc. We didn't get to anything about religion, but it was cool to see that people really do see us. Sometimes it seems like they go out of their way to ignore us. 

Finally, we were out last night trying to place a few CLMs. We knocked into this guy and he showed us a copy of the Book of Mormon that he received in 1977. It has sat on his shelf for a long time. We gave him a new one and then he surprised us by telling us some of the things that he knows about us. He has a ton of respect for the way that the church does things. He loves how service oriented we are. He is going to come to church this Sunday and we are going to try and meet up with him beforehand.

The beach house sounds great! I am super jealous seeing all the fun stuff that you did. It would be really fun to go to the beach with the whole B family.

Love you all,

Elder Ormsby

P.S. I am so happy, 10/10 easily!

Week 47

Hey family!

I agree, this conference was fantastic!! I really loved the talks that were given by Elder Christofferson and Elder Holland. Elder Christofferson gave a really good talk about how we need to treat  women, how they are important to society in every aspect. Elder Holland gave a great talk about stress. Being a missionary has been one of the most stressing things I have ever done, especially being in the office. My other favorite talk was by Elder Ulisses Soares about patience. He asked "How do you feel when someone messes up? When something doesnt go your way?" He went on to describe a few different scenarios  and how we handle them, how we react to that change or stress. This General Conference was an all around really good conference. I cant wait to be able to read them again and highlight. One of the missionaries described General Conference as the Super Bowl for missionaries. 

We have been preparing for the new missionaries who will be coming into Romania in a few weeks. It will be much nicer this time because there are only going to be three, the only problem is that there will be 30 some odd missionaries coming back into Bucuresti to receive their visas. Now that is going to be crazy. Hopefully they will actually go and get it, we have had a few times where they "forgot" to go and then later had to come down. That creates a little bit of a mess for the office, as well as for the missionary.

So funny story. A few weeks ago we forgot to pick someone up at the airport. The only reason this is funny is because it happened a few weeks ago. We accidentally forgot the Kyiv Temple President at the airport. He flew in to Bucuresti to talk at the District Conference and we were asked to pick him up. So this was also the week that we were in an accident, so the week wasnt going all that great, but we had just finished a bearable day. The next morning I was watching Elder M do his gymnast work-out while also talking to Elder L (we live with the assistants), when I had the worst feeling. We had forgotten the temple president. So we tried to call the hotel where he was supposed to be staying. The lady on the other end said that no one had come in the night before by his last name. SO we hopped in the car and sped off to the hotel. We found out that the hotel we called was under the same company, but was in a different area. So we were on our way there hoping that "Taken"-the romanian version wasnt playing out in front of us. Turns out he was there, fine and dandy with his wife. President wasnt too happy that we forgot him, but it was a lesson learned I guess haha.

You will have to give me a play by play of you defending your thesis. It will be so good to have it done! I know that we all have been praying for you to be successful in your schooling. You've prepared yourself, so you will do great. 

I never did go to the  coast with you all. You will need to send me a lot of pictures so that I can see what it looks like. You will have so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa there. They will really enjoy the time with the family. Will you tell them that a letter should be getting to them soon, as well as say hello from the P's. They are in charge of the water projects in Eastern Europe. They remembered Grandma and Grandpa and told me I need to say hello.

It has been really cold here. Everyone is saying that this winter will be the coldest winter in 100 years. Dont put that fact on the mission-moms blog, or you will scare a lot of moms haha. Considering that 2 years ago was the coldest in 57 years and people died, this could be an intense year. 2 years ago, President put a limit on how long you could be outside. Not like contacting outside would have been very successful in that kind of weather. Sounds like good weather for a caciula though.

Sorry about the video, I wasnt in the best of moods and I really wanted to watch conference. I didnt know/understand that they were sending this video to you, until they asked me for your email. Oh well, you saw the awkward Elder Ormsby at his best!

Love you,

Elder Ormsby

(from the senior missionaries' blog)

 (from Elder Ormsby -  visit to Peles Castle)

(the next three are from the senior missionaries' blog)

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(the rest sent from Elder Ormsby)

 Kicking up heels with Sora P

so tired on a P-day ride home.