Friday, April 26, 2013

April 26, 2013
Okay so this past  tuesday we were going to go help Olympian with his farming again. So we traveled out to where he was and he was like "oh we can't do any work today because it's "Saint George Day". So instead of working and doing service, he took us out of the city to the countryside to a little city called Pielesti. So I just took a bunch of pictures of our travels and such! 

Map from Craiova to Pielesti




Elder ... Tractor!


Elder Davis and Elder Myler
 with an awesome little puppy


Puppies like Tortilla Chips!


 Goats anyone?
Three goats and three elders!


Long and winding road!

Welcome to Romania!


Monday, April 22, 2013

April 22, 2013
Well hello everybody!! A couple of days this week we have been in Buch for a zone conference which was really good!! So since we have been in Buch we haven't really taught much. We had one lesson on Sunday after church but that is about it. So we find out about transfers this week! Gosh I can't believe how much time has already passed. I feel like this transfer has gone faster than last transfer . . . and last transfer was shortened by 2 weeks! I'm glad you liked the pics! I have a couple more that I will send later in the week. or maybe after this email if I have time. That's an awesome story about the postman!! Geez doesn't he realize that I'm only on a mission once!! I need all the packages I can get!! ha ha I'm really excited to get this package!!! I'm really glad you guys all love me and support me!! It really means a lot to me. Yeah I've been super happy serving with Elder Davis. But I'm pretty sure that he is going to be out of Craiova next transfer. In fact, I'm pretty sure that next transfer I'm going to be training. I guess we will find out later this week but I just have a hunch that I'm going to be training. So we will see!! 
I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!!!!  YOU ARE ALWAYS IN MY PRAYERS!!!!! 

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

April 17, 2013
We had an opportunity to help out someone do some service! This romanian had some stuff that needed to be planted so us missionaries helped him out with it! It was pretty fun! Sorry there aren't any pictures of me. I was the one who was taking all the pictures and forgot to have someone take some pictures of me!! 


April 17, 2013
So here are some pics for you! We were out and about and we came across this nifty place that had a bunch of green plants everywhere. So we took a couple of pictures :)



Monday, April 15, 2013

Monday, April 15, 2013

Yeah I bought a T-shirt that has some suspenders on it! (easter picture below)  And if I don't like the suspenders then I can just button them off and have a nice gray shirt. I can't believe that Mothers day is right around the corner!!! WAAHOO!!!! I can't wait to skype with you guys again! I'm probably going to be staying in Craiova for a little while. Elder Davis has already been here for like 3 transfers so I'm thinking he is going to leave this next transfer. So I will probably be staying for a couple. Elder Knapp is actually a zone leader in a city called Ploiest. In fact, we have a zone training meeting and our zone is meeting up with Elder Knapp's zone so I'm going to see him this week! 
Well when I read, I usually read in English because when I read in Romanian I focus too much on trying to understand meaning of words than trying to hear what the Spirit is trying to tell me. So if it's personal study then I read in English! Hopefully someday I will be able to read in Romanian and not worry about words so that I can just focus on the Spirit. Cause without the Spirit, reading scriptures is just a long book of nothingness!!
So there was a pretty cool story that happened. So whenever we want to go to the church we have to walk past this Orthodox church. So after we had church on sunday, we were walking back to our apartment and walked past a couple of guys who were standing outside this Orthodox church. So they started talking to us for a second and one of the guys basically started saying that the orthodox church is the only true church and our church is a sect that is not true. Then he noticed the Book of Mormon in my hand and asked what it was. So I said it was the Book of Mormon and then he told me that I should just go throw the book into a fire and burn it because it "isn't a true book". Yeah that got my blood pumping a little bit. So I just told him that the Book of Mormon is true and testified about it. Then the guy just tried telling us that we need to buy a bible that is "the only true book". So we just basically left him, but it felt good to just stand up for what we believe in!! And during the whole thing, we somehow got to walk into their orthodox church and talk to a priest for a couple of minutes!! The priest was actually pretty nice to us!! Just that one guy decided to just ridicule us for quite a while......
Well that seems to be it for me!!! Trust in God!! I love you all SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :)

Monday, April 15, 2013
Easter package!



Elder Barney in Craiova

Monday, April 8, 2013

Monday, April 8, 2013

Well guess what!! I got the Easter package!!! The zone leaders came to Craiova for some exchanges and they had the package for me!!! So thanks for the package :) I've been giving a lot of my candy and stuff to my companion and the other elders so they all say thank you!! With all that candy, there is just no way I could eat it all by myself!!! ha ha :)

So our branch has the Branch President and his wife. They are both americans living here because the husband works for Ford and they are going to be heading back to the states at the end of this year. Then there is a small Romanian family that lives here but in the next couple of months they are going to be moving out of Craiova and are heading to Utah to live there. Then there are bout 2 or 3 other members who come to church. And then us missionaries! So really our branch is pretty small, but in the next couple of months it is going to be REALLY small ha ha so pray for us to find some people to fill in the gaps!! So for conference, Saturday night at 7 us missionaries gathered together at the Branch President's apartment and got to watch the Saturday morning of conference. Then on Sunday night we did the same thing. So really all that I have seen is the two morning sessions. So during my extra internet time during the next couple of weeks I will just have to watch all the rest of the sessions.

Yeah it's crazy how many missionaries are serving in the world right now. Lots and Lots of missionaries!! It's kinda fun to be a part of it!! And don't sweat that we didn't record me opening my mission call. I still have a pretty good memory of how it all went down! Don't think I will be forgetting that in a while! English classes are going good. Elder Davis and I are teaching the Advance class so basically we just teach in English. My Romanian is still coming. Basically I know I'm getting better and better at the language, but at the same time I realize how much I mess up and how much I still need to work on. As always, it's kind of frustrating. But hey that's life! It's really cool though be able to understand people and such. I'm definitely carrying a little book around to learn more words. And it's kind of hard to write you on an email because they use a couple of letters that we don't use. Like they have an "a" that has a little dish on the top of it and it makes a different sound than a regular "a". Plus, Maybe I will just wait until I get home so that you guys can just hear me say stuff! Or I can say a couple of things when I skype you guys in a month! 

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Thursday, April 4
Happy Easter from Craiova!

Happy Easter 2013


Elder Davis

Elder Barney
No fire! Testing just in case!

April 1, 2013

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!!! Easter was kind of fun!! Over here in Romania though, the Orthodox church doesn't celebrate Easter until like May . . . so nobody else really celebrated Easter except for us missionaries! And the Branch President here because he and his wife are from the US. The Branch President works here for Ford so they have been living here for the past little while. Speaking of the Branch, all in all there were about 12 people at church (including us 4 missionaries). So this is definitely a lot smaller than the other branches I have been in. It's fun though!! I didn't think I would like small branches at all but I actually like them a lot!
I'm glad you like the pictures! I have a couple more that I took that I need to send you. I'll probably send it once I am done with this email. So we "tried" having english class last Saturday . . . but then on all the posters that the missionaries put around the city last transfer says that classes start on Tuesday. So nobody showed up to class on Saturday! But we are hoping that we will have some students there on tuesday! So here in Craiova we basically walk everywhere, except for on P-day where we need to go across town to a store called Kaufland to go shopping. But that's basically about it! We walk around everywhere. And all in all, there are about 100 missionaries total in the whole mission here. Including Romania and Moldova.