Monday, June 24, 2013
Dear Family!!!
YAY!!! I actually got the email this time!! Lets see here, church was pretty good. We actually had an investigator there! The thing is though is that he lives 80 km (50 miles) outside of the city and is only in town when he has work. We actually haven't met with him for weeks because he just hasn't called us. But he called us a couple of days ago and said that he was going to come to church. And he did! But he had to leave right after and who knows if we will actually meet with him again. But yeah I just wanted to point out that we actually got an investigator at church! That hasn't happened since my whole time in being in Craiova  (FOREVER . . . FOREVER . . . that wimpy deer!!) . . . but as far as branch members go, we have the branch president and his wife. Gina (who is leaving in a couple of weeks when she is done with college) and then we have the Radulescu family. They are just an older couple (I'd say 50's or 60's) who have been members for quite a while I think. And yeah that's about it as far as members go. 
Yeah next week for sunday school we are going to watch that broadcast that you guys watched. It seems pretty good and it sounds like they are going to have missionaries use more technology and stuff.  YEAH!!!! It's actually a great idea because the internet is being used by lets see . . . EVERYONE!! 
My district is doing pretty good. My companion just got voie from the mission president to have a guitar! So he just bought a guitar today so I'll be able to listen to him play the guitar for the next little while. Elder Ralph and Lex are doing good as well. We talk with each other everyday. Since I'm the district leader I have to call the others at night to see if they made it home safe and everything. So if we don't see each other during the day we at least talk to each other on the phone at night! I'll do exchanges with them sometime in the next couple of weeks. I just got to figure out which day works the best! Speaking of exchanges, the zone leaders are going to be coming this week to have some exchanges with us here! We will see how that goes. 
Oh and something really really cool that happened this week, we were meeting with Gina (the member) because she wants to practice the missionary lessons before she heads out on her own mission. First of all, I guess I should explain to you guys that Gina is a really awesome member . . . but sometimes she has a hard time at life I guess you could say so we usually just try helping her.  Anywho so we meet with her pretty often and so we met with her on saturday. We talked a lot and then she asked if I would give her a blessing. I've given her blessings before whenever she has asked for them but for the past little while she has gone on a "no english / I hate english" type of deal. So usually the blessings I have given have been in English but I gave her one in Romanian instead. It was actually really awesome!! Afterwards I was like "Wow . . . I just did that all in Romanian" ha ha it was pretty cool if I do say so myself!

Party on Wayne! I love you all :) 

Kitty anyone?!

And I also had some more of those fried fish! But these ones didn't taste as good as the first ones I had a while ago. These ones were cold and really REALLY fishy tasting unlike the first ones I had. I think the first ones I had were freshly fried and had some lemon juice on it or something like that. 

Well here are parts of the apartment like you guys wanted! And yes . . . the bed that isn't made is mine! Guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks ;)

Well I finally remembered to take a couple of pictures of me picking some cherries!! :)

Monday, June 10, 2013
Dear Family!!

Hello everyone!! This week has gone pretty well. We found out what is going to happen for next transfer! So I'm going to stay and finish training my companion here in Craiova! We are also getting two new missionaries here in Craiova (it's about freaking time too!!) and I'm going to be the district leader! Now I'm actually going to be the leader of a district that is bigger than just my companion and I. So the other new missionaries who are coming in are Elder Ralph and Elder Lex. Elder Ralph is from my MTC group and Elder Lex is a missionary from Austria . . . or Germany. Something like that! So yeah I'm really really excited!! Yeah I should probably take more pictures . . . I haven't in a while. So I will get going on that! We are done with English for now due to transfers but in a couple weeks we will start them up again.

So this week we have been helping this member pick some cherries from his cherry tree. We have done it a couple of times this past week and we are going over to their house again after pday to help them again. I will have to remember to take some pictures while we pick some cherries!! Oh the other amazing thing that happened yesterday was that we actually got some air conditioning for the apartment!! PARTAY!!! We have been using these crappy little fans to try and blow some air on us after we get home but now we actually have some nice AC!! YAY!!

Well that's about it!! I love you all so so much!! :)

Monday, June 3, 2013
I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH!!!! I'm glad that everyone is doing pretty good. This past week has been Craiova Days. Basically every city has their own "day" and so everyone in the city just gets together and celebrates. It was kinda of cool to see the city full of people doing random things . . . but not so great because nobody really wanted to talk to us! ha ha but what else is new! ha ha It was still a pretty good week. Yeah Gina is a member here in Craiova! She is a student here in Craiova and is done with school in like a month. After she is done she is going to go to Bucharest . . . which means we are going to be losing another member here in Craiova! The numbers here just keep going down!!!! Yeah I love training Hokkanen! Hopefully next transfer I'm still going to be training him. We find out about transfers this next week so we will see if anything happens! Hopefully I just stay here in Craiova and continue training Hokkanen. Yeah translating is super crazy!! I had to translate again this sunday seeing as how it was fast and testimony meeting and half the branch only speaks english. So that was pretty fun. Translating really helps with my language skills. Gosh I can't believe we have a completely different bishopric!! Well I guess it was about time . . . but still!!! When I get home everything is going to be different! 

The flag pole is awesome!!!! Yeah show off that Romanian flag!!! ha ha Even after I get home we will probably have to leave the Romanian flag on there for a while.

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!!!!! :) :)