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)

 (

(the rest sent from Elder Ormsby)

 Kicking up heels with Sora P

so tired on a P-day ride home.

Quick note and pictures

So Elder W is being ET'ed out of the office. An elder decided to go home so because we are in a 3 some, Elder W is the one to go. This means I might spend another transfer in the office. I think I will request it. There are a lot of things to learn and a whole lot more to figure out, having only one transfer to train the new guy would be both stressing and next to impossible. The Lord knows, and all will be well.

Vârstnicul Ormsby

 Elder Ormsby and Elder W

 Elder H

 Peles Castle

 Peles Castle

 Peles Castle

From Wikipedia:  The first three design plans submitted for Peleș were copies of other palaces in Western Europe, and King Carol I rejected them all as lacking originality and being too costly. German architect Johannes Schultz (1876–1883) won the project by presenting a more original plan, something that appealed to the King's taste: a grand palatial alpine villa combining different features of classic European styles, mostly following Italian elegance and German aesthetics along Renaissance lines. Works were also lead by architect Carol Benesch.^[1] Later additions were made between 1893 and 1914 by the Czech architect Karel Liman, who designed the towers, including the main central tower, which is 66 metres (217 ft) in height. The Sipot Villa, which served as Liman's headquarters during the construction, was built later on. Liman would supervise the building of the nearby Pelişor Chateau (1889–1903, the future residence of King Ferdinand I and Queen Marie of Romania), as well as of King Ferdinand's villa in the Royal Sheepfold Meadow.

The cost of the work on the castle undertaken between 1875 and 1914 was estimated to be 16,000,000 Romanian lei in gold (approx. US$ 120 million today). Between three and four hundred men worked on the construction. Queen Elisabeth of the Romanians, during the construction phase, wrote in her journal:

Italians were masons, Romanians were building terraces, the Gypsies were coolies. Albanians and Greeks worked in stone, Germans and Hungarians were carpenters. Turks were burning brick. Engineers were Polish and the stone carvers were Czech. The Frenchmen were drawing, the Englishmen were measuring, and so was then when you could see hundreds of national costumes and fourteen languages in which they spoke, sang, cursed and quarreled in all dialects and tones, a joyful mix of men, horses, cart oxen and domestic buffaloes.

Elder W looking pretty tired.

Week 27

Well you are all awesome. Sorry, this one will be really short. I got ET'ed to Buc to be an office elder, so I will be driving in the most dangerous city in Europe...that one was for you, Mom :) I will get lots of stuff to you later. I am with all of my MTC district here in Buc and my favorite person in the mission is also here. Along with meeting new missionaries and sending off old ones I will have a great time here. I will be here for at least 6 months. Lots of busy work and almost no missionary tracting. But I feel as if this will be a great new addition to my mission. Also, I received another letter from Uncle N and Aunt E again (go them!!!) I love the stationery that they use, possibly the greatest, especially for a missionary. I also received my first letter from my favorite relative...about time haha. Well enough mystery! I will sign off for now!

Elder Ormsby

Week 26

(MOM):  Please send pictures!  We want to see the castle you visited last week.

(ELDER ORMSBY):  Here are some pictures of my life here in Romania. 

(MOM):  Only one picture of a mannequin in jail?  Did something happen to your camera?

(ELDER ORMSBY):  No, the rest are really uhhhh grotesque and I decided to save them for later.

(MOM):  What about non-gross pictures of you and castles or just you?  You promised pics and only sent one.  Did we miss something?

Note from Mom:  No more emails after that until next week.  Hopefully Elder Ormsby will send some pictures  next Monday.  He doesn't seem to comprehend that we would greatly enjoy pictures of him more than, um......, this.  At least we know he still has his sense of humor.