November 12, 2012

We usually try to go contacting during the day. We haven't gone knocking on people's doors because it honestly isn't that effective. But when it gets snowy outside that's going to be the only thing we can do. So for now we just try talking to people in the streets and see who stops to talk to us. We are usually back at the apartment around 8:30 or 9 pm. We usually take the bus to go from place to place, but sometimes we walk. We get to church with the bus because there is a bus stop just around the corner of the church. We have a branch. There isn't enough people to have a whole ward. There is usually about 20 or so people who come to church. I have only taught like 3 real lessons to investigators since I have been here. It's quite hard to get investigators. We usually have pretty good success with the english classes that we teach. We have english classes every tuesday and saturday. This past saturday though I wasn't there because we (Me, Elder Knapp, Elder Eaton and Elder Myler) went with the Branch President outside the city to go take the sacrament to an older sister who cannot come to church much anymore because she is poor and lives far away.  People live in really poor places outside the bigger cities. 

Oh and you can only send mail to the address in Bucharest. I'm sure there is an address for the place that I am living at here in Constanta, but what they want us to do is to send all the mail to one place and then when we have either meetings or exchanges then we get mail. So just send all packages and handwritten letters to the address in Bucharest!! And we either take a maxi taxi (like a small bus), an actual sized bus, or we take a train to get to Bucharest.

Elder Barney & Elder Knapp

Yeah Elder Knapp is an awesome guy!! I'm really sooo blessed to have him as my companion! We have a pretty good balance between working hard and having fun at the same time. It's really awesome being his companion. Especially here in Constanta. Constanta is an awesome place. The Branch here is really strong (even though we are small) and I just love being here! And yes it is getting pretty cold, and yes I did get me one of those russian fur hats. I would send some pictures but again I am at this computer at this video game place and it won't let me upload pictures. I'll send them later! :)

So the first picture is a picture of the McDonald's!!! McDonald's is a pretty nice restaurant here! Like you are one of the cool kids if you work at McDonald's! The other picture is a picture of our dryer!! Yup they don't have dryers here in Romania! Actually my teacher in the MTC said that they do, but nobody buys them because it costs too much. So this is what we get to use! 

Pictures of Josh!  One with his new Russian hat!!  Handsome Missionary!!

p.p.s-Is someone still updating my Facebook? If so say like "I love Romania" or something like that :) 

Everyone,

Until I get Elder Joshua Barney's address in Constanta, Romania you can send letters to the following address:

Elder Joshua Wesley Barney

România/Moldova Mission

Sos. Pipera Nr. 41, Et. 7

Sector 2

014254 Bucharest

Romania

Wed, Oct 24, 2012 6:45 pm

Dear Brother and Sister Barney,

President Hill and I were thrilled yesterday afternoon to meet Elder Barney as he arrived in the Bucuresti airport with his MTC group. He seemed very happy to finally be in the mission field after 12 weeks in the MTC. He was a little tired after his long flights. But we had an enjoyable interview where we learned more about this wonderful young man. It is evident that he comes from a very loving, supportive family. Thank you very much for sending him to us. We were impressed by his maturity, faith and determination to be a great missionary.

After our interviews and some pizza at the office, he began his visa work. Today, after breakfast at the mission home, we visited Cismigiu Park, where Elder Russell M. Nelson dedicated the land of Romania for teaching the gospel. I'm attaching a picture of us there. Then, the new missionaries spent the day waiting for visas but were unfortunately pre-empted by a group of refugees from Syria! Our good office elders will help resolve that problem, and get them long-term visas before the 90 day visitor visa expires. Elder Barney will labor initially with Elder Knapp in Constanta, the only city in our mission on the Black Sea.

Thanks again for sending us such a wonderful young man. We could instantly tell he will be a very good, faithful, hard-working missionary.

Elder Barney and Elder Glines!

Josh grew a red nose! 

Elder Conover and Elder Barney!

October 11, 2012

...and no we haven't gotten our travel plans yet!! I'm so mad too cause I want to know!!!! Hopefully we get them soon (like today!!) Oh guess what!!! I finally got to be a host where I pick up the missionaries!! It was funny because every car that I helped was all sister missionaries! So I didn't help a single elder come into the mtc ha ha I get to be a host missionary next week too so maybe I will help an elder then ha ha :)

Okay so this weekend was awesome because of conference!! It was funny to watch President Monson make the announcement about the missionary age. Everyone was going crazy here in the mtc. It was nuts, which is funny because the announcement doesn't really affect any of us cause we are already on a mission, but it was still crazy! The rest of conference was amazing! My favorite talk was probably the talk by President Monson when he spoke after Jeffrey R Holland (which is my second favorite talk). The talk given by Uchtdorf on Saturday was really good as well. Also if you get the chance, go to lds.org and look up the song "Love one another" by the priesthood choir that sang during the priesthood session. It is so so so good! I just LOVE conference. It was awesome because we have devotionals every tuesday night here in the MTC and this week David A Bednar came and spoke to us!! It was like conference all over again!! It was amazing to see one of the apostles in person. All of them talk with such power and authority . . . which is probably because it's not their words they are saying. It's the Lord's!!

It is so crazy to think that in like a week and a half I will be off to Romania!! And not just there to visit, but to actually live there. Kind of a scary thought especially cause I'm still just learning the language. But I'm actually not that scared. I'm more excited than anything else! It's amazing how much knowledge I have gotten here. I have not only had so much help in learning Romanian, but also I have learned so much about the gospel and about God's purpose for me and for all of us. I'm so happy that we all get to be as a family forever!! I get to be with you all for eternity! It's going to be one fun party up in heaven with everyone :)

Anyways, I love you all so so so much!! Thank you for all the packages, letters, love, and support that you all have for me!! I love you all so so so much!!!! I miss you all!! You are all in my prayers just like I know I'm in yours! Have a wonderful week this week and I will write you next p-day!! :)

October 4, 2012

Okay so this week we get our new Romanian missionaries and it is a pretty crazy situation. There are only two missionaries coming in who are going to Romania. Both of them are foreign missionaries. There is a sister coming from England and an Elder who is from . . . Italy!! Yeah and the Italian Elder only speaks Italian so it's going to be pretty difficult for him to learn Romanian!! I'm way excited though! 

So on Sundays there are movies that play after we have a devotional and usually they are just different talks for us to listen to from past conferences, but sometimes it's an actual movie. The one that was playing last Sunday is called The Testaments: of one fold and one shepherd (or something like that). You should definitely buy this movie!!! It's actually really good! It's about the people in Americas waiting for Jesus to come to the Americas (and of course the movie ends with Jesus coming) but it is actually a pretty good movie! It's got some pretty quotable lines that our district loves to quote. 

I'm excited that I only have a couple of weeks left! I think next week we are going to get our travel plans so that I can know where I'm going to stop for layovers and such as I travel to Romania! The last district who left to Romania had a layover all the way in Amsterdam! I wonder where I will get to end up :) but basically I'm so so so excited for the day where I'm going to be at the airport!! I'm going to get an actual meal!!!! I'm so excited to get a real Diet Coke (not this caffeine free crap that's here in the MTC) . . . also I heard that the church came out and said that caffeine isn't against the Word of Wisdom. Apparently tons and tons of BYU students are trying to get caffeine drinks on campus. I would totally join them in trying to get real drinks!!!! ha ha :)

I'm super excited for General Conference!!! (partially for getting out of class all day Saturday!!!) Plus I just want to hear from the Prophet and Apostles!! It's going to be an amazing conference for sure!!

Romanian is still super hard!! Sometimes it can be really frustrating. Actually the only frustrating thing is that there will be times when I want to say a certain thing like in lessons but I just don't have the vocab in my head to say it. Plus it's hard as far as sentence structure goes. Basically I have to think like Yoda. Like if I wanted to say "I love you" it would be "te iubesc" . . . which literally translates to "you I love". Basically I have to change how I structure my sentences for Romanians to understand me!! That's going to be super hard. But I really love learning new things about the language and the people! I'm super excited to go and live in Romania!! Apparently they had the worst winter last year. It's gonna suck having to live in a place that actually has a winter. But!!! I get to wear one of those awesome Russian fur hats so that kind of makes it better :) In class the other day we practiced talking to random people on like a tram and I have realized that I am gonna need to learn how to start up conversations!! I'm not one to be a small talker and that's basically what I'm going to have to do! It's gonna be fun though! :)

Elder Josh Barney