Week 101

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for working so hard to make sure that I have a bed! It will be nice to have some place to call my own, without wondering if there are any bed bugs, cockroaches or other insects ;)

I would appreciate it if you kept a copy of those talks.

We are going to leave tomorrow morning to Deva (my old stomping grounds) and then down to Craiova until Thursday. We are actually meeting with the less actives who live to far away from the branches to be visited by missionaries. I am so excited, because it will be a great opportunity for  Elder C to grow a lot in a very short time. I really hope all the members meet up with us. We don't have phone numbers for everyone, so it will be a knock-and-pray couple of days. We are hoping to have sacrament in Deva on Wednesday, which will be such a great opportunity for all those members.

To tell you the truth, I had a pretty rough day this week. It was an accumulation of many things throughout the week, but Satan really hit hard on Saturday and Sunday. We had set up a lesson with J, just outside of where he worked. We talked about the Restoration and had a fantastic lesson! He even said the closing prayer and it truly was one of the best, most sincere prayers I have ever heard. Just as we finished up, a man walked up who seemed to know our investigator. He said hello to J, and seemed to know him. After they said a few remarks, I asked how his (the new man) day was going (in Romanian). He opened his mouth and began the down hill sermon straight from the devil. Honestly, I have never been more depressed, more disgusted or more angry than I was in those ten minutes (if it was even that long). He asked why we were there, then told us that no one wanted us here, that no one cared and that no one can be helped, because no one wants to be helped. He tried to say some other things before I told him that what he was saying was inappropriate and he needed to stop. We tried to talk to him about his life and faith, just to find out where he was coming from, but to no avail. To this day I still have no idea what his motives were. It just went on for a bit longer, until I couldn't listen any more and we left. I have been berated, yelled at, mocked and questioned, but i have never walked away with so much anger. Usually I am able to laugh about it, or brush it off, but not this time. After such a good lesson, you would think that we would be very upbeat, but it really killed me. It was hard. My comp really helped me out of the rut as we went throughout the rest of our day.  The positive to this story is the sermon I had afterwards. The next morning, as I was attempting to figure out exactly why I was still upset, a light blinked on. I realized that God will always win. I knew that before, but in that time I really knew it. God will always win. Every single time. Satan is fighting a losing battle, and he knows it. He wants us to be miserable, but he knows he will eventually lose. As I thought about all the things the sad man had said, I realized that I was so upset because I knew what he had said was so incorrect. Everything he said was meant to push us away from meeting with J. Satan had come into our path at such a critical time in our day, the time where we had just had our "spiritual boost" from a great lesson and he almost made us give up. I, however, have God, who has given me an arsenal against the adversary, my companion being one of them. As we were walking away, we walked up to J, who was working a little ways away. Elder C said "Hey Jude, do me a favor and don't listen to anything that guy says." I'm not sure why, but I feel as if that one sentence made the difference between us meeting with J. We have another lesson with J. We know he will be baptized and we know he will be a key player in God's army. God always wins and its up to us to decide which team we fight.

I love you all. I will see you soon!

Elder Ormsby

Week 97

Dear Family,

First of all,  I have to apologize for not writing you  last week. I was packing and planning on writing you Tuesday just before we left, but the power was out at the church. I was pretty frustrated with that, but that's life sometimes. I have moved into my old area of North Bucuresti. We are in a "special assignment" which really means that we are regular missionaries that "might" do some different things. Right now we are working with the new senior couple, the Ss, and are helping them with a few projects. We are going to redesign the Youth Centers, which are located under the chapels in Panduri and Mihai Bravu. Other than that, there isn't a lot that has happened. We all went to District Conference on Sunday. They broadcasted the session to a bunch of other cities (including Bacau and Ploiesti). Apparently I am pretty tall compared to Romanians because I received calls from Bacau and Ploiesti with members tell me they saw the back of my head during the intermediate hymn haha! It was a really good session, full of amazing talks. One of my favorite talks was by G, a member in Panduri who has limited use of her legs. She talked about staying faithful during trials. Last year, she stood up without the aid of her crutches. I don't remember exactly what she said, except it was close to "I don't need to be strong when my faith is strong." The Spirit was so strong as she bore testimony. Then a young lady played the violin. She was amazing! She played "I Know that My Redeemer Lives." She was born in Romania, but adopted at a young age. I loved it, and I felt a confirmation that, "Yes, I Know that My Redeemer Lives." As the conference continued I kept thinking that President Ivory would randomly call on me to give a talk, so I thought about what I might say. He didn't ask me to talk, but in an after meeting he did ask me to bear testimony about the trials of members and my gratitude for them. I was really grateful for that moment because I had two special people in that meeting. G and M. I met them last year when I was here in Buc. We were preparing to rent one of their apartments and they were some of the most amazing people ever. Very prepared. They were baptized after I left thanks to the efforts of the Baker Family. I had the chance to talk with them after the main meeting and I shared my joy that they had been baptized. When I bore testimony and gratitude for the members, I was able to share how the joy of them being baptized give me more hope for the future. President came up to me afterwards and thanked me for my testimony. He told me to meet with them as many times as I could each week. They are super amazing. Its good to be in Buc, even if it is too big.

Thats all I have for you this week.

Oh wait!!!

I have a new comp.

His name is Elder C.

He is from Boise!

He went to CHS.

And he is super legit!

See you soon!

Elder Ormsby

Week 94

Dear Family,

Sorry I wasn't able to write you yesterday. We went to a place called Red Lake. It is such a beautiful place and I wish the camera could actually capture the real deal. After being on the lake, we decided to hike to the top of a mountain. We basically ran straight up the first part and then hiked the rest at a more reasonable pace. We made a three hour hike in about an hour. It was pretty amazing, being able to see everything around you. We met some visitors from Austria, Hungary and New York while we were there. They were trying to order something when Elder C turned around and asked if they wanted any help. "Oh look, its our Mormon friends!" Lol, they had seen Sora R's name tag and had also been to the musical in New York...hopefully  we set a good example :).

We had a really good activity on Saturday to close the end of Summer. We had hamburgers, potato salad, baked beans and watermelon. I don't think you can get any more "summer" than that! We had two nonmembers show up, including the mother of one of the members. I was really proud of the members as they made this member's mother feel like she was home. This is something that I don't usually see here in Bacau, so it was very refreshing.

I gave a surprise talk this week. I was banking on another member coming, but he was a no show. I only had two minutes to prepare the talk, but I think it went fine. When you serve in Deva and have to come up with a talk every other week (sometimes every week), you get pretty good at preparing a talk really quick. I first talked about forgiving others, seeing as how none of us are perfect. I then talked about less actives. Pres. Ivory really wants us to work with everyone, to balance out our days. Speaking of the less actives, I asked the members to think of someone who has lost their way. We are all brothers and sisters, a family, and we need to watch out for each other. I could see each of the members thinking of someone who wasn't with us at that meeting. I also talked about the saying that we have in the family, "No empty seats," meaning no empty seats in heaven. 

I will send you some pictures of Red Lake. Could you send me some pics of the house and neighborhood?

Love you all!

Elder Ormsby