Week 84

Dear Family,

It is so good to hear from you! Each week seems to go by so quickly. I thought back to my time in the MTC, the other day, and I remembered thinking that two years would never come. Its kinda like a dream, in the sense that you see only the things directly in front of you, but the sides are all blurred and unfocused. Oct. 28 is still in that blurred area lol. 

This week has been a bit of a weird one. Sora S goes home on Wednesday. She was in the group just below me in the MTC and I have been around her more than any other sister. I am so grateful that I wasn't around my MTC soras when they went home, because seeing Sora leave Bacau was so incredibly difficult. I have gone through more trials with her than any of my sisters. I am so grateful to have been able to serve around her and have a great understanding of who she is! I can't wait to see her and a certain "fish" when I get back ;)!!!

Life is good. Its very tiring, but its good. Elder M and I will be staying together for another transfer! I am so happy to hear this cause he has helped me so much this last transfer. He is so calm, especially during stressful situations, which is A+ in my book. We tried to set up with 2 people this week, but both of them fell through. We are still pretty hopeful for the two of them.

Take lots of pictures of C's homecoming for me! I am about to send you so many pictures and videos that you wont know what to do with them all :) 

Love you all,

Elder Ormsby

We took Big Blue for a ride in Bacau.  I wonder when the office elders will realize it is missing... 

Gasp!  It's Big Red, Big Blue's arch nemesis! 

We played "Who Am I" in English Class. 

We taught M how to say "I Love You"....He might think it means "rock on!"  Close enough! 

You probably can't see it, but that little blur on the middle of the hand is a spider.  We are so proud of Sora S! 

I ate a lot of food for this challenge. 

The Soras have a friend in the bakery business so we like to stop by to say hello. 

Super good pretzels for 30 cents! 

If a crane makes a nest in the village, then the whole village has good luck.

Week 83

Dear Family,

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!

Life is going really good! I have had a little bit of a change in attitude over the last week. I had been worrying a lot (the list goes on and on), and then I realized that it was getting me so stressed out! I can't work at a good pace when I am that stressed, nor can I give my best. So now its just one thing at a time. If I cant change it, I'm not going to worry about it right now. Later!

That is so cool that you were able to go to Utah for Fathers Day. Fathers Day in Romania was quite a long time ago, and I totally forgot there was a different one, until we got onto lds.org and they were all centered on Fathers. Good to hear Grandpa Ormsby is doing better. He was the center of many prayers. Will you ask the Grandparents (both sides) if they want to get a manger scene set? I will need to tell the Brasov missionaries in the next little while so I can find out when they are going out that way. 

I will keep the Bs in my prayers.

That's about it Family! I hope you have a great week, and Ill talk to you real soon!

Elder Ormsby

Week 82

Dear Family,

Sorry I wasn't able to send you an email on either Monday or Tuesday. Monday we were in Zone Conference and then off to the piatas and Tuesday we were travelling pretty much all day. The Zone Conference was one of the best conferences I have ever been to on my mission. There was such a good feeling about the entire thing, and we all learned a lot. One of the coolest things was during Presidents final remarks. He gave all of us a blessing. Not one at a time, but as a collective group. He blessed us with many things, but one of them being that we would have an acceptance for the new mission president. This is something that I have been so worried about. When we received a new branch president in the MTC, it was one of the hardest things for me. When something is not broken, I usually don't see the point in trying to fix it. So having to move from on BP to a new one was incredibly especially because we all loved and respected President G. We all love and respect President Hill, and having something new was not something that I was looking forward to. However, I now am trying to NOT worry. Positive thoughts. I want to be able to meet him with a clean slate, not with any prejudged decisions. 

It was so weird to think that this was the end of President and Sora Hill's mission. It is also the end of Sora S's and her group's mission. When she got up to bear her dying testimony, my heart started to beat so fast because I thought I was up next! Its a good thing I wasn't with my soras when they bore their testimonies, because I feel like I would have had a harder time remembering that it wasn't going to be me with them. #missionlife

Lol, from the last comment you will have seen the # thing. I think it is so funny, even though I don't (nor probably will ever) use twitter. 

Things have taken a great turn in the last couple days. We returned to Iasi from Chis and immediately got on the next maxi to Bacau. I wasn't too happy cause I hadn't eaten all day and we had been traveling for 4 hours already, but we got on and it was a good thing we did. We listened, for two hours, while a little girl coughed and coughed and coughed. The sisters asked her mom (they were sitting right next to them) if she would like for her daughter to receive a blessing from two people who had the power of God. She said yes and we were able to give a blessing to the little girl. At first she was really shy and didn't want to take her hair covering off (still not sure why), but after the blessing she was a little happier,and even gave a slight smile to the sisters as she left with her mom.  We then got in a taxi, and the guy was legitimately interested in who we were and why we are here. He loved to push himself to grow and had learned English, a bit of French and Italian. He had also visited Jerusalem. I talked to him a little bit about the Book of Mormon and that is when Sora Stapley remembered that she had forgotten her BOM on the maxi. Normally she would have left it on there and hoped that someone would pick it up and read it (it happens so much more than you would think), but this one had all her letters! She went back and on the way it started to POUR!!! Ill send you a video, but it was like when I was in the office and it rain! The taxi driver didn't want them to get wet, so he told them to wait, got out in the rain and brought out an umbrella and then ran with them to the maxi. When she picked up the book and ran back to the car, the driver told Sora Staplely "Wow, that must have been a really important book for you to want to go back." "This is an important book!!!!" We are going to meet with him, hopefully tomorrow, and tell him why it is an important book. We then had one of our English students bring two friends. For the spiritual thought, we sang a song. We were only going to sing one verse, but they asked to sing more, so we sang all three verses of De tine am nevoie. It was so cool! Life is still hard, duh, but it merits being a missionary. 

My companion is Sir Snuffleupagus today. His allergies are killing him. I am so glad that I no longer have itchy eyes, those were the worst.  Poor M.

That's about it! I will send you some pics and videos in a bit, but i love you and hope you are all well.

Elder Ormsby

Week 81

Dear Family,

The weeks are just flying by! Lol, why didn't you put up my last email? Maybe ill send you a replacement so we have every week haha. Life is pretty much the same. The weather feels just like home. Hot, then cold, then hot, then rainy. I am just waiting for snow and it'll be identical (except the humidity, that stuff is the worst!). The BP thing is going pretty good. Its very draining, so I am tired pretty much all the time. Maybe some R&R in Chisinau would do me some good. We are heading up there on Sunday and hopefully coming home on Tuesday (travel Sunday, zone conference Monday, pday Tuesday). Itll be Elder M's first time in a different country in 9 months, so he is in for a treat. I love Basarabia (republic of Moldova). There is just a special feeling in the air. Excitement at being in a different country.

We have been seeing a lot of "drills." Other than that, there is no difference in Bacau. 

Fun fact: Romanians melt like the Wicked Witch of the West in the rain. Yup. Ive never seen it, but once it starts to rain, there is nobody on the streets...literally not a single soul. 

Welding would be really fun and free just makes it all the better!

Saying goodbye to the Soras was interesting. I kept feeling like I was supposed to leave with them. I entered the MTC with them, I should be leaving with them too...right? It was kinda funny (and I hope they read this), but they barely even said goodbye! I called them and had about 3 minutes each...buggers.

I pray everyday that you will find a good house that will fit your needs and the needs of the kids. Don't worry, the Lord works on His time.

I love you all. Make sure you are going to the temple LOTS!!!!! I cant wait to go back, its such a blessing to have so many, so close.

Elder Ormsby

basket ball with the district

Elder M looks like a brown-haired version of Elder O

Did P-day wear them out?  Playing basketball against the sisters, I wonder who won?

He did say he was much more tired lately.

Week 80

( note from Mom:  I typed his letter and as usual left it in Drafts for Elder O's dad to finish and send it.  But I was in Utah and forgot that -duh- everyone else was home and didn't know to finish and send.  Whoops.  I woke up that morning to this heart-wrenching letter...)

Dear Family,

Hello, my name is Elder Ormsby. I am a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and I live in Romania. Remember me?

Lots has happened this week, and a lot of it I cant tell you! Being a Branch President is such a strange thing. I hear about all the problems members have, and then I am expected for fix them. Most of the time, it is a very difficult thing they are asking. 

We did have a pretty funny thing happen on Sunday. We sang The Day Dawn is Breaking, with our magical piano playing away. The only problem, is that the song goes from 3/4 with a tempo around 112 to 9/8 with a tempo of 52. The piano didnt know the difference so the chorus was so fast!!!! I was dying!

Well...seeing how I dont have an email from you...with questions to answer...I guess Ill just call it quits...

​I love you...

Elder Ormsby​

​P.S. Dont worry, I just had a lot of fun making this email drip with pity! Lol