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.