Monday, May 27, 2013
Hello Family!!

I'm really glad to hear that everyone had fun on their trips!! Things are pretty crazy here now that it is just Elder Hokkanen and I. Now we have even less people coming to church than usual! which I didn't think was possible!!! ha ha jk jk actually church was pretty good this week. Elder Hokkanen gave a talk in church. It was actually a pretty decent talk considering that he is only in his first transfer! He speaks really really well in Romanian!!! Then we had Sunday School. Since we have such a small branch we only have 2 hours of church. The regular sacrament meeting and sunday school. And Sora Spooner teaches the sunday school class . . . so since she doesn't know Romanian I have to translate for her. It's actually really really REALLY difficult to translate for other people. Especially when going from English to Romanian. And especially when people just start saying like 5 sentences before letting me translate so that I have to remember everything that they have said and then translate it. It's pretty difficult, but I think it really is helping out my language skills. It's really good practice and it gets my brain going. It's just kinda weird to think that 9 months ago I couldn't say ANYTHING in Romanian and now I'm translating for other people. It's kinda cool to think about! 

MAY 15, 2013

H A P P Y   2 0 TH    B I R T H D A Y    E L D E R   J O S H    B A R N E Y

Love, Mom & Dad, Alex & Hannah, and.... Jesse!

Monday, May 13, 2013
Well Hello family!!!
Well it seems like yesterday that I was talking to you guys . . . Maybe cause it was!!! :) It was so so so great to be able to talk to you all!!! All of you seem to be doing good. Congrats Momma you are going to Hawaii!!! PARTAY!!! I wish I could just take a week and just chill at the beach! But I will have my time soon enough!! ha ha So I forgot my converter thing (again) so I can't send you guys pictures yet. Later this week though I will send some!! 
Thanks for the birthday wishes!! I'm really really excited to be able to open my package!!! It gives me something to look forward to ha ha I'll definitely be sure to share whatever is in there with the other missionaries here. I can't believe that I'm going to be 20 years old!!ha ha that's pretty funny that Joel remembered that whenever I do yard work I gotta do it naked! ha ha That's quite a funny story if I do say so myself! 
I seriously can't believe that Jordan is going to be home in November. That's crazy to think that this is his last time talking with the family before going home! ha ha I don't even remember if you guys were taking pictures when I was getting dropped off at the MTC. I remember taking pictures before hand like at In n out but I don't remember you guys taking any when I was actually getting dropped off. 
Well that's really all I have to write today seeing as how I just talked to you guys not too long ago. I really really miss you all!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! :)

Monday,  May 6
WAAHOO!!!!! I get to see you guys in less than a week!!!!! :) I'm super excited!! I can't believe that the last time I skyped you guys was on Christmas! Okay so I'm thinking that skyping you guys at 5 (8 for you guys) is going to be perfect!! So be ready with Skype all open and stuff at 8 in the morning for you guys! :) Yeah I think we are just going to come to this internet cafe and pay for a computer to use. I got your package!! But I'm saving it for my birthday so that I can at least have SOMETHING to open for my birthday! I have to look forward to my birthday somehow!! ha ha 
Elder Hokkanen is from Finland

Yup I got my new companion!! His name is Elder Hokkanen (good luck pronouncing that one!). He is from Finland!! Jyvaskyla is the name of the city where he is from (you could google it if you want to). Thankfully my companion speaks English so speaking with him isn't a problem. It's pretty awesome though to hear him say stuff in Finnish! He is a pretty cool kid. He doesn't really get all the humor and sarcasm that we use around him but he is still a pretty cool kid. But I think being a trainer has shown me how much stuff I have learned. I mean, my companion is coming from the MTC not really knowing a whole lot of stuff about Romania and stuff. It shows me how much I've learned and how much I have come along in my mission. Which is strange, because I remember you guys dropping me off at the MTC like it was yesterday. Time just keeps going and going! 

So this sunday was Easter here in Romania . . . and since it was Easter we got to go to a Romanian church service at midnight!! That was super awesome to see!! Everyone had these candles and when the ceremony started the priest brought out this fire that is apparently "fire from Jerusalem" . . . I highly doubt that they brought fire all the way from Jerusalem for these church services . . . but it was still pretty awesome!! Everyone had these candles and such. Then the Priests were all outside starting to do some singing/chanting stuff. We didn't really pay attention to what the Priest was doing. We just sort of stood around with our candles and talked to some english students of ours. Then after about an hour and a half we started heading home. Oh and another thing with the candles; apparently it is good luck if you can keep your candle burning from the church all the way back to your house. So we were just walking around town back to our apartment with these candles in our hands. But when my companion and I got back to our apartment we discovered that our door was locked and we didn't have the right key (so much for good luck). So we had to walk all the way to the other missionaries apartment and sleep over at their place. That whole experience was super fun! Then we had to wake up early so that we could make it to church. So we get to church and find that the only people who were at church this week were us 4 missionaries and the branch president. So 5 people at church! That was pretty funny in my opinion! 

SEE YOU ALL SOON!!!!! :) :)