Romanian Stew

 

April 15, 2013

Hey Family!!! I love you all.

 This week was good and interesting, a lot of good experiences.

First and foremost 3 days this past week was in the 80's and 90's plus humidity!!! It was a small treat of how "great" summer will be haha. It was so hot!! But one good thing is that all of the trees are officially blooming and blooming fast!!! We were driving on this one road in the morning and you could see little green sprouts and then only several hours later when we drove by again there was a lot more! haha it’s nice.

So this week is transfers and President already ruined the suprise haha, he emailed me and said that we'll be staying one more and that’s all. So I'm excited with that. I sure love President and I think he really likes me too.

So one of our cool experiences this week was with a lady named Rina. If you can remember the email how we taught about 8 adults at once and how some of them were just pumped and on the edge of their seats, well one of them was Rina and had lost contact with her til this week. We called her and she finally answered and invited us over. She told us that she's been reading the BOM and really likes it. She is set to be baptized. Then at the end she told us she wants this feeling for her whole family!!! It was soo cool. She owns her own little bakery and said she made some gluten free desserts!!! I told her I'll need to try it out haha. Then on saturday right before the baptism when we ran over to Rina's real fast and invited her and her cousin Moises to come and they both did! and loved the baptism!! Said she felt soo good.

A couple sad experiences too....Elcy... ha we had a great first lesson with her and put her on date. She's the girl who said  she got chill bumps listening to us speak and that she knows it s true. Well we got a text from her saying thanks for helping her realize how much she needs God and that she's just going to start going back to the catholic church "her family's church"....it was so sad!!! And then last week remember how we found 4 teenagers and taught them and they loved it and put them on date...they like Elcy are catholics but haven't been in years and they texted us and told us they decided to go back because they now know how much they need God.... so we've been doing less-active work for the catholics this week...! haha

We were tracting and went to go check up on a potential and I smelled some brauts being cooked and started craving them. I thought I'd stop by the store before going home to buy some for my dinner. But a couple drunk hispanics were having a small bbq and invited us and they were cooking brauts and they gave us some!!! It was a blessing because I hadn't had brauts since the last time we had them as a family! haha so it was a tender mercy. The drunks were really nice and invited us to come back when they weren't drunk to talk about our church and God (we went back another day and they were drunk again...might be difficult! ha)

 We got a referral for this 13 year old kid so we went to check him out. His aunt is a member in the Fredricksburg zone and is concerned for this kid. Haha, she has good reason! He’s 13 and is in a lot of trouble with the law, used drugs etc etc but is ready to change! He's on house arrest so he's always home hahah! It’s perfect for us to see him whenever!!  We taught him the word of wisdom and he's like "yeah that makes since, last week I did some 'purple kush' and my head is all messed up still..." me and elder wilson were like whats purple kush, I guess its a type of weed? hmmmm poor guy. But he said he'll stop. He is also on date to be baptized may 18!! haha

The other day during lunch an fbi investigator knocked on the door and I answered and he whipped out his badge and said that he's conducting an investigation for our neighbors upstairs and then asked some questions but then I told him I have only been here for 5 weeks. He was really nice! Just at first I was like great this guy is here for us! haha jk. It was cool though. Kinda scary how much weird stuff is going on the that apartment complex haha.

One thing this week that was very frustrating was a less active member!!! ahhhh!!!! We were trying to get him back to church and read the BOM but he will not.. he is so twisted its way sad. First he was making a big deal how the church is racist separating the english from the spanish, then we explained how they do that so people can hear and learn in their own tongue. Just kept complaining and murmuring etc etc...says becasue he's 72 years old he knows everything and that us youngins can’t teach him, and he said "in fact I'll read the BOM just to teach you guys!" I was like what is wrong with this guy haha, then he said how the church isn’t true because they are hypocrites and that the leaders aren't perfect! We tried so hard to stay calm and just talk but he wasn't letting us. hahah poor elder wilson was sick so he was on meds and started saying some stuff!  But afterwards felt bad for how he treated him but blamed the meds haha.

This week at our zone conference we watched a video/talk called 'His grace is sufficient' by Brad Wilcox. You should all read it because it will change you, it is really good. I really learned a lot and it kind of changed my perspective.

 Now on to the cool part! So we got a call from a hispanic member but she goes to the english ward telling us she has a romanian referral for us. She has been taking them to the temple visitor center and they love it and that they said they are ready to go to church. The only problem is that they don’t speak english but that spanish is super close to romanian and they can understand it! So we went over to this member’s house and they were there. We were talking in spanish, and she was replying in romanian. Even though we or her weren't understanding 100% we could understand most of it. Then at the temple VC one of the missionaries felt prompted to ask this couple if they spoke romanian and she asked and they said that they served their missions in romania. So we called them and set up and appointment for tomorrow so that they can translate so they can understand better. So all in all it’s just one big miracle story. I hope it all made sense, it would be better to explain in voice ha.

Also dad at church yesterday I saw Paul and his family I guess moved here 7 months ago. Which is cool. He recognized my name and he asked if you are my dad. I told them I remember going to their big house. They were surprised I remembered. ha. He said he was going to email you too so heads up ha.

I'm glad everything is going good. Michael looked good in his tux hahah! I didn’t realize Charley worked 100 hrs a week! That’s a lot. Yeah we've been emailing. Also I did get a letter from zach d. He is a good guy! ha. Everything here is really good. No complaints I started doing a new way to study/use the scriptures haha my comp calls it "killing the BOM" I learned it from Elder Bednar awhile ago and then I remembered it again yesterday in an answer to something I fasted for. So I cut out verses and glue them to index cards and then organize them into topics. It’s so I can review them and not forget all these great scriptures I learn. It makes my studies more hands on and I can learn better, so I'm still working on it. hah don't make fun of me, :)

Then on saturday we had the baptism of Nancy and Roberto. Brenda hasn't made up her mind. She wants to marry her novio but he's not sure so we are working on it! The baptism was really good! I really felt the spirit very strong. It was good because they choose members to baptize them so they are already part and friends with a lot of people!!!

Well I love you all soo much. Today we are going to the cherry festival!!! I'll take some pics unless they all fell off...then we will just explore. Should be fun!

Con amor,

Elder Andrew Lifferth

 PS those buildings are Arlington, and then Nancy and Roberto and Carlos and Bro Smith who baptized them!!! :)