January 14, 2013

So last friday I found out that I will be staying here in Constanta!!! YAY!!!! Elder Knapp is leaving me to head to a city called Craiova. My new companion is going to be Elder Ealy, which was Elder Knapp's MTC companion.  I'm really going to miss Elder Knapp. He is a really funny and awesome guy. And he makes me lunch everyday so now I'm going to have to start making my own lunches! Which sucks because Elder Knapp has some good cooking skills so he makes like real food. And now I'm going to be stuck with frozen pizzas, ramen, and sandwiches (reminds me a lot like college).

The two baptisms we had were AMAZING!!! I will be sure to send some pictures later. But yeah it was seriously SOOOO good!!! The Spirit was SOOOO strong. It was just a super awesome day. I don't remember if I told you, but the father in law baptized Alex (our investigator) and Elder Knapp baptized Elena (the sisters' investigator). It was the first person that Elder Knapp has baptized. And afterwards we were talking and we realized that Elder Knapp's first baptism was in his native language of Romanian! Because Elder Knapp was born here in Romania and then was adopted when he was a baby. But yeah so now for his whole life he is able to say that the first time he baptized someone was in Romanian and in his native language of where he was born. Kinda cool huh!!

Oh and since I am staying in Constanta, I'm pretty sure that I am going to be talking in sacrament meeting on Sunday. I mean I haven't been asked yet but I'm pretty sure I will. So I will have to keep you updated and see what happens. It would probably be good for me to speak in church. It would give me extra practice in Romanian (and I need it!!)

January 8, 2013

Well hello again!!! Things have been pretty crazy since I have talked with you last!! First of all was New Years which was a BLAST!!! On New Years Eve we went and saw the Hobbit!! It was such a good movie!!!!! You guys all have to go see it!!! Then after we watched the Hobbit we went and hung out at the church for a little bit. Then later that night we went over to a block that was right on the shore of the black sea and went into an apartment and had a little party with some of the members in the branch. We had lots of food and even did some karaoke!! That was really fun! Then midnight came around and we all went out of the apartment on onto the roof of the block and saw the entire city just filled with fireworks!!! And since we were on the roof of a block we could see throughout the whole city!!! Definitely the coolest firework show that I have ever seen!! And it's not like back home where the city puts on a firework show. Everybody here just buys fireworks (which apparently are illegal here but since EVERYBODY buys them the cops don't really do anything about it) and then once midnight came around everyone just started lighting them up!! It was cool because there were some people down on the street right next to the block that we were on and when they lit up their fireworks the fireworks shot up in the air and exploded like 10 feet away from where we were standing. It was AMAZING!!! I was going to try taking pictures of it but the pictures wouldn't have been that good . . . plus I didn't want to run back inside and get my camera and miss all the fireworks!! But yeah that's basically how my New Years went!!

Well it turns out that on this Saturday we have 2 baptisms!! One of the people getting baptized is one of the Sisters investigators. Her name is Elena. She is super awesome and she is going to be an amazing addition to this branch!! She is 19 years old or something like that. Yeah she is super cool. Then the other baptisms is one of our investigators. Well he is kind of an investigator. His name is Alex and he is 8 years old and his parents just recently got married in the temple. So since he hadn't been baptized yet they asked us if we could teach him the lessons so that he could have the missionary lessons before he decided to get baptized. So we have been teaching him. But yeah we are having 2 baptisms this week!! I'm pretty excited for that!! Baptisms don't really happen a whole lot here in Romania. Our Branch President was telling us that a couple years ago they had 6 baptisms or so in Constanta but then in the next year they had only about 2 or 3. And that's throughout the whole year. So It's pretty cool that we are starting out the year with 2 baptisms right at the start! 

Oh and this friday we find out about who is serving where next transfer! I can't believe that another transfer is coming up! I'm pretty sure that Elder Knapp isn't going to be my companion so we will just see what happens!! Oh and some other news that I found out, since the MTC times are being cut into a third, they are going to be making some changes about when transfers are happening. We don't know the details for sure, but some people have been saying that we are going to be having a transfer that is only 3 weeks long so that the missionaries that come in from the MTC don't come in halfway through a transfer. I'll have to keep you guys updated on what happens!

January 6, 2013

So - I have had a difficult time trying to update Josh's Blog!! Nonetheless, I got some help with Kenna Barney and she let me know that I was trying to add information with the wrong email address.  So... Christmas and New Years has come and gone and Elder Barney is doing well.  Here are some of his comments we have received lately from him.  Also, I will add some pictures he has sent to us!!

ENJOY!!

December letters:

I get a chance to speak Romanian everyday, but I don't really say a whole lot because I don't really know a whole lot. It's still very difficult to talk to people. But then I just think that 6 months ago I didn't know how to say anything in Romanian and it makes me feel better about what I have learned. I have actually learned quite a lot, but I mean learning a language takes a lot more time than I thought it would. Plus I think I just need time to be able to develop what I have learned and make it better and also to learn more words and stuff.

It is super freaking cold here!!! So it is -4 degrees celsius so google tells me that is 24 degrees fahrenheit!! And that isn't including the fact that it is freaking windy out here in Constanta. So it feels a whole lot colder than that. Basically I'm freezing out here in Romania!! Not to mention that we actually got snow here in Constanta now. There was snow in Buch but till now it has just been raining here in Constanta but now there is snow on the ground. In fact, I fell on the ice today. And it is only the first day with snow and ice on the ground!! I'm probably going to be slipping quite a few times here. Hopefully I don't seriously injure myself!!! 

Bowling!

Christmas Time!

Elder Barney's new favorite Food!!

FISH!!!