Week 58

Dear Mom,

Haha, no I meant 5pm your time, sorry for the mix up. Would Dad be home by then? IF this doesnt work for you, then you need to email Sora or President Hill so they can call me and we can figure it out.

You will do such a great job as a nursery teacher! Just keep up the good work.

There isnt a whole lot to share this last week. Not a lot happened. We were able to get out and contact more than we have been able to do in the past weeks, which is good. Hopefully we can have a bit of success.

Talk to ya SOON!!!!!

Elder Ormsby

District Christmas Feast

 Romanian and Moldovan money

 Found the shirt and shorts.  Bought the hat.

 Elder A made french toast!

 Sick, so Elder Ormsby bundled up and the comps turned up the heat.

 Caroling with the members.

 More of the district feast.

Week 56

Dear Family, 

Sorry this letter will probably be a little short. This keyboard is not making me the happiest camper right now, but here is the run down of the past week, and then maybe I will aswer some of your email.

So my new comp has had one crazy first week. This last week we were preparing lunch when we find out that our water has been shut off. The previous missionaries hadnt payed the bill in a water (much to the anger of one man who gave me a talking to). We are then forced to vacate our apartment as our propriatara (land lady) sent us a text and told us we have 1 week before she kicks us out. She was also unhappy with the way that missionaries had previously treated her apartment. It was a pretty nice place, but it will be good to find a new one. The only problem is that the previous missionaries (the one who found the original apartment 1 year ago) looked for an entire transfer. It really takes a lot of time out of missionary work looking for an apartment. The next fun thing happened when we were in a park. I was on the phone with the ZL's and all of a sudden a man approached us and asked Elder Anderson a question. I hurried and hung up on the ZL's and asked the man to repeat what he had asked. We then proceed to talk about things that really dont matter as he tried to tear us apart. He told us that we need to read the Bible. I replied that I was, in fact, currently reading the bible and I was in isaiah. He said " No, you need to read the Bible, you dont believe in the Bible and as such, you couldnt be reading it." It was a very long and very pointless conversation. I say that only because he wasnt really interested in learning anything about the church, or about us. Mostly he wanted us to "be free". I felt really sad for him and told him as much. Elder A loved it, however. I asked him how much he understood, and he understood a bit of it. My favorite is still what he said. I think I already told you about this last story, so I wont continue. So now we live with the ZL's (this is fine, they live at the church and their apartment is HUGE) and we will be looking for a new apartment this week. Right now we are in a internet cafe, in MOLDOVA! Yup, we finally fled Romania and went to a new country. Only for a bit though. Yesterday we had our christmas party/conference, which was a lot of fun. I will be sending pics next week. We are going to go and buy a chaciula soon, so you will need a picture or two of that. Shout out to Elder Andersons mom who has tasked me with helping him to write good emails and take lots of pictures. My mom can attest that the second one will be near impossible, but we shall see what happens. 

Loves to all who read this,

Elder Ormsby

(Note from Mom:  No pics this week.  I did pull these off of the senior missionaries blog.  huge thanks to them for thinking to document this activity)

(Elder Ormsby far left)

(these incredible senior missionaries cooked a feast for homesick elders and sisters.  According to their blog the meal was ham, potatoes, rootbeer, and pie.  I'm sure that Elder Ormsby was particularly thankful for the rootbeer and pie.)

(These missionaries are saints!)

Week 46

Wow that is so crazy to think that M...Sora...Seestra...Hermana? B is already in the MTC! It was so cool to see all those people. Glad to know that everyone is still alive haha.

(Concerning pictures Mom sent from another senior missionary blog) I was actually the one to take those photos at the mission home with all those senior couples. We picked up the food for them and were just in time to hear the final testimonies. When you walked in, you could feel the Spirit, almost like a blanket. President Hill bore his testimony as well. He talked about the hard work of the senior  couples and then about the missionaries. He didnt know that me and my companion were there, so what he said about the missionaries was very special for me. He said that the Romania Moldova mission has some of the greatest missionaries he has ever met. Now, if he had said that to a room full of missionaries, some would state that he only said it to boost their spirits. The fact that he said it without knowing that we were there, and with the Spirit in the room, there was confirmation of the love that President Hill has for all the missionaries. It made me want to work harder and to be a better missionary in general. 

(The picture Elder Ormsby took of the senior missionaries.  He thinks so highly of these people.  God bless the senior missionaries - their service is beyond price.)

The statue in Piata Revolutiei is such a strange thing. No one can really say what it is or what it means, but there are some people who say that it represents a "piercing of the conscience". There were a lot of people killed during the Revolutionary war. They wanted to remind the people of the horror of it all. The red stuff, we think, is an "after touch". 

(from the senior missionaries' blog)

I am very jealous that you were able to go to the temple. What a blessing! So cool that the E's were sealed in the temple. It makes you think about the eternal family, how we can be together forever. What a blessing it is to know that. Not even death can pull you away from your family as long as you follow God's plan.

I will be talking to President on Tuesday to find out what the plan will be for the upcoming transfers. I can't think of any other reasonable solution than to stay an extra transfer. 

Elder G is a great missionary. He is very close to being done with his mission (31 days) and he has had some health problems, but is still working!

I havent gotten any of those pictures from Sora L (she took all the pictures, it cost 35 lei per camera), but I will get those to you ASAP.

Love Elder Ormsby

P.S. Will you please ask E to write me.

Week 39

Sounds like you have been visiting Utah a lot this summer, have to say I am a bit jealous. I am surprised Dad didnt try and get you to fish in the rain, thats good stuff right there. Is Secondborn going to be doing basketball as well? I am glad that he is going to be swimming again, I really miss it and I would like to do the masters program when I get back, or maybe just swim laps...nah, I miss the competition of it all. What do you mean about battle wounds? I am sure that Secondborn had a blast at Jackson Hole and its cool that L's ward let him go with them on the youth retreat. B's family is really special. They show a lot of Christ-like attributes. I am sure that it would be a challenge up at girls camp, but if anyone could do it, E would be the one.

The pictures didnt make me homesick, but it did make me want to go to the cabin. Just another thing to add to the list when I get home. Some of the cousins sent up a letter while they were up there, and that was really cool. Lagoon would be another cool place to go! Its going to be a long list, hope you can keep up when I get back. I will have to tell Secondborn to hurry it up on his email so I can hear about this conference. It is so cool that he was called as a ward missionary. It will be so good for him and for all the other youth that have been called upon by the Lord and by Bishop B. It will be a really rough few weeks for him, seeing as how he hasnt swam in forever, but I know he will get through it and then do well. I had heard rumors that there was a new temple video. If there is one thing I miss that is very high on the list is the temple. I never thought I would miss something so much. It was always there and I never used it to the extent that I could have. I wont make that mistake anytime soon. If I only go once a month it had better have been a ridiculously busy month. I will make sure to keep grandpa in my prayers. How is grandma mildred doing? You also havent sent me any info on Sister Hinds, have you found anything out?

Romania is one of the best places on earth. Its crazy and hectic and I will probably never live in a big city with a family, but it is the best. 

What can I say about Romania? It is very much greener than it is in Idaho or Utah.

The people here speak romaneste. I love speaking Romanian, but its pretty hard for me to listen and understand them.

KFC has a garlic sauce that is amazing and should be brought back to the States.

The drivers here are way crazier than anywhere else, but are much better drivers as well.

Police officers will go to intersections that have the lights working just to do something.

When lights aren't working its a mess and no officials are to be seen.

Romanians have the perfect way of thanking people on the road, they blink their hazards a few times to say "thank you" or    "I am sorry for being so dumb".

Ciorba is much better than soupa which is better than soup.

McDonald's is truly in every country on earth, even Moldova has one.

Casa Poporului is a massive building and shows a bit of the power of a dictator.

Everyone is Orthodox or Pocaiti, which means everyone who is not Orthodox.

The senior couples in the office are awesome (as are all the senior missionaries that I have met).

The Bakers work with us everyday.

Elder Baker was a professor at BYU and has given a speech and written many books.

Sora Baker doesn't eat sugar, but will make treats for you. She is also a voice of reason to some of my more "out there" plans.

Sora Oroz is a native and is one of the funniest Romanians I have ever met. One of her favorite things to do is drop a little water on the carpet around you and then say "why did you do that, do you need the bathroom?"

Romanian-Orthodoxism is Romanian culture.

Sora Gorzo, the sweet member who feeds us, loves the missionaries. She also knows every piece of gossip/rumor in the mission field. She charges us 10 lei to eat at her house. Its usually worth it.

I dont really have any pictures from this week, sorry. I will try and do something really exciting/picture worthy this next week. We will be bringing a bunch of missionaries down so that they can get visas so wish me luck and pray for me (more on the prayer side, luck is imaginary).

Love you lots and lots and your all in my prayers.

Elder Ormsby

 (From Google Images:  the Romania Arc de Triomphe)

 (from Google Images Casa Poporului.  Click here to learn about it.)

(Picture and explanation from Elder P's blog:  "A little shrine the guards of our building made out of pictures they cut out of some our pamphlets. It was hilarious the first time I saw it. I looked into the guard room and thought, wow, that doesn't look like an Orthodox picture of the Savior... Then I looked closer and saw that they had taken a few of our proselytizing pamphlets and cut out all of the pictures of Christ to make a little shrine-lookin thing. I barely made it to the elevator before I just cracked up laughing. At least we know they love Christ now. The senior couple in the office, the Bakers, always talk to them about the gospel whenever they get the chance. Missionary work can happen in the most unusual ways!"

Week 37

Dear Family,

I am writing this at the end of the transfer day (almost, its only 5 o'clock). Such a crazy day. Up at 4 am to get the departing missionaries to the airport. 

Last night I had a thought about our purchasing card that we had used before for some DVD players for the missionaries. It didn't work and I had a talk with Elder B, our Financial missionary here at the office, and we decided it would be better to bring money as well as the card, just in case. Well, morning of, as we are walking out I thought "That cards not going to work, better grab a whole lotta cash", but we decided that it would indeed work and just left. We get to the airport to find out that the APs were already there and although the card had worked for the first two missionaries, it wouldn't work for anyone else. Missionary-forehead-smack-shoulda-had-a-V8 deal. So after some frustration our valiant new AP decides to use his personal card to buy everyone's luggage. For reference, each departing missionary gets 2 free bags by the church but only 1 by the airline. We pay for one, as long as it is underweight. By the way, extra bags are expensive! I had no idea before coming to Romania. 

So that's all done, we head home for a glorious 25 minute nap before going to a notary. Part of the process for getting missionaries visas now includes getting insurance (social) before you apply for a visa. We took all of this group and all of last group (20 missionaries) and took them to a notary to say that they had never received a visa before this day. Fun fact, in Romania a Notary is a full time job and requires a 4 year degree. Getting them all there was CRAZY! I was ready to become a MLB pitcher with our phone, the way it kept on ringing. Everyone gets there right as I take a different missionary to go pick up his visa with 2 sisters, one of which was picking up her visa. Picking visas up is such an easier job than applying (unless its not ready). 

We went over to Cismigiu Park to grab my comp and met up with the new missionaries right as they were reading the dedicatory prayer. I love that prayer, it has so many great blessings for the people of Romania. For those of you who read this and have your missions dedicatory prayer on hand, I highly recommend that you read it and think about what has been promised for your area. It may not seem like it is coming to pass for your mission, but one of my parts about the Romanian dedicatory prayer is that of the prophecy of "water springing up in the wilderness". To my understanding/view is that water doesn't explode out of the ground, it can but usually not. Instead it slowly comes, steadily increasing until you have an oasis. Romania will be " a Citadel of light" for the surrounding countries. It will take time, but it will come if we continue to work the area. After we were done there, we went to do some more treaba. Let me tell you, Romanian missionaries have an unlimited amount of treaba to give us on transfer day. At least we always have something to do. 

We eventually made our way over to the mission home where we mooched off of the new missionaries lunch while listening to their "incoming missionary" talk. So strange to think that was over 6 months ago. This new group seems like a bunch of really good missionaries. It will be very cool to see how this mission progresses with a new change of missionaries. That's about it for today, we might go group contacting in a bit over at Parcul Tineretului. We will see if there are any other emergencies for the day.

This is a hello to the R family who apparently read my blog. The above mentioned sister who received her visa today has your last name on her missionary tag. She told me that you keep up on my blog, so I decided a shout-out was definitely necessary.

Elder Ormsby

Yesterday we were able to have a great district meeting at the President's house. The office has its own district. The Aps, President and Sora H, the Bs and us. We meet at the Presidents house every Thursday and start with a simple meal and then have a meeting. Elder P is a great DL and always incorporates all aspects of the teaching guide. We had great conversations about goals and how to set them, plan for them and then accomplish them.

Today we grilled. Ribs, oh so good! Elder P knows how to grill, even with the dinky little thing we have. Ribs and garlic mashed potatoes. Mmmm, then we were able to teach a man, who is in Norway, through Skype. It can be such a blessing to be able to teach someone so far away, but it can also be frustrating not being right there talking face to face. 

Week 12 with pictures!

Another week has come and gone and it is just flying past. Its crazy to think that I have been here for only 3 weeks, but then I realize that its been 3 weeks...wow. 

Anyways, super cool miracle this last week. SO on one of the first days in Romania, we were block knocking in the student housing and had some success with talking to people and we gave out a lot of English cards (we give free English classes on the side of our missionary work). It was getting late, and I was hungry so we decided to go and get a Shwarma/ shoarma/ şormă, almost every where its sold it has a different way of being spelled. Oricum, we went to the better looking place and ordered one. Elder Harrison wasn't hungry so I ordered by my self, slightly afraid that she would say something back, and lo and behold she talks back in perfect English  It was the best English I had heard in Romania (not that impressive, I'd only been there 4 days), and it was the best English that Elder Harrison had heard (super impressive!!!!). So we talked to her, trying to figure out where she had learned to speak English so well. She kind of avoided the question and just moved on to making the food. When she was done we asked her again where she had learned to speak so well, and she told us (sounding slightly embarrassed  that she had taught herself!!! So we were impressed, who wouldn't be, and so we gave here a mormon.ro card and then a card that had a link to a video made by a TV Station in Romania about the church. I actually cant remember what the English word is...emisiune....special...I don't know, Ill ask Elder Harrison later. Oricum, she stopped us short and told us that she was Catholic and that we had to know that before we said anything else. We said that we were only inviting her to watch the video and look at the cite. 

Ok, so we jump to 2 weeks later. We worked really hard on getting the information about the English classes out to everyone and it payed off. Over 70 people show up, which is really good for Timi. So we teach the class, give a spiritual thought at the end and then everyone leaves. We have Family Home Evening that night and 6 new people from the classes stayed for FHE. It was really cool. BUT the coolest part was when D walked in (remember D, she was the one who made my shaorma, the one who speaks really good English  ya that one). Mind is BLOWN, so I go and talk to her for a bit, just thanking her, and the Lord, for coming and asked her how she was. Sora S (probably spelled that one wrong) talked to her for the rest of the evening and its pretty much the coolest story ever. 

So the night that we saw her was the last night of her working there. Her brother had died and she was really angry with God. After we had left, she said that she felt her anger leave and felt that we had been sent by God. It was so cool to hear this, such an amazing experience. She came to church on Sunday and I hear that the Sisters will be teaching her this week. I know that we were placed there for a reason. It is amazing to think that we were in the right place at the right time and were worthy of the Holy Ghost.

So yesterday was my birthday and it was probably the best birthday ever. So I was sick with the same thing I had in the MTC on Saturday, and I really didn't want to be sick on my birthday. We had to stay home Saturday evening cause I just couldn't go anywhere. Sunday was even worse, but I had to go to church, so I sorta fibbed to my companion (shh). We went to church and it was so hard to do anything. All I could think about was how hot it was, how much I hurt and how much my head hurt. But I was determined to make it through. Church ends and Elder Harrison wants to see an investigator who wasn't there and then decides that I need to go home. I didn't put up much of a fuss and as we are walking home he starts talking about how we have nothing to eat for my birthday, how we forgot to buy a cake...But I have been trying really  hard to see the blessings in my life, so I stated that being with a great companion, in a great district  in the amazing city of Timisoara, in Romania, on a Mission was good enough for me. 

So we get to the apartment and before we enter the door, Elder Harrison remembers that he needed to go tell Sora H (Senior couple, awesome people) how to do something. It is now misting, yes misting, and I'm just not all there, but still working to look for blessings decided I could wait a half-hour or so, and as we are heading to their apartment he is contacting everyone we see, which is a good thing, but pushing the line for me. Then he mistakes another building for the H's. So the question that you must be asking yourself is 1) Why is this the best birthday ever and 2) is companion is a terrible human being. Ok, well here's where it goes all good. We go up in the elevator and I see the H's with 4 other people with their hands up making an arch and my first thought is "The H's are doing some meet your neighbor activity" then I realize that it is my district and they had prepared dinner for my birthday. It was really nice because it was completely by surprise and it just made a hard day really nice. They tried so hard to make my favorite meal (Pot roast), but had to settle for a pork roast. It was still really nice, and really really good. I miss the whole Sunday meal from back home. So the whole experience was really nice.

Oricum, thats all for this week, I love you all and pray for you all.

Pa!

(note from Mom:  "Oricum" means "anyway" according to Google Translate)

Birthday pictures from Elder and Sister H's blog:

Birthday cheesecake!  How did they know the Ormsby love of cheesecake? 

Elder H sings!  I hope Elder H and Elder Ormsby do a duet for the branch.

Surprise Birthday dinner with the district.

D (from the story above) and Sora K.  D is writing a story about the missionaries and her school is sending it to Bucharest for a competition.