Hello

Hello Family,

I have very little time today. Things are going well here. I am still here in Ploiesti with Elder Miller for my second transfer. That means another six weeks in a branch that I am already used to in a place that I pretty much know, so it will be nice not to have to change everything. I was kind of hoping to get transferred just for the heck of something new and different, but I have really enjoyed remaining with Elder Miller. I'm not sure if I told you, but when Costel was baptised last week, I made a goal not to speak English again until we had another baptism. So, except for the occassional slip up, which I quickly translate into Romanian, it is strictly Romanian for me. This has really helped my language skills to grow and improve rapidly. I have also continued to make all the phone calls, scheduling our days out the night before, and trying to do at least 10 street contacts a day. All these things have led me to really develop my conversational language skills. I have also filled about 20 packs of 100 flip cards with verbs, which I carry around with me daily. I plan, by the end of the next transfer, to know all of these verbs really well and to begin doing something similar with nouns and adjectives. Because Romanian is a really verb-centric language, though, it really helps me to memorize and use verbs. I have also been trying to fulfill President Hinckley's challenge to read 2 chapters a day out of the Book of Mormon so that I will finish it by the end of the year. I have been doing this both in English and Romanian (which I read out loud, so loud that my companion goes in the other room. He thinks it's really good for me, though, so he doesn't mind too much.). REading the Romanian out loud is as much fun as it is instuctive. It is really easy to sound like a preacher in Romanian, it just kind of lends itself to it with the particular cadence of the language. Despite all of these efforts at language study, the other day I still had 2 people, within a couple hours of each other, tell me that I speak "ugly Romanian." To which I smile and say "Thank you, beautifully." Which they say to mean thank you very much. Sometimes, when people say that, I am tempted to ask them to speak English for me and for us to compare our foreign language skills, but I resist the temptation. Plus, that happens less and less frequently of late. Now, it is nice that most people don't even realize that I am new in the country. That is kind of a neat feeling.

Speaking of foreign languages, this last week we have spent a lot of time making and distributing fliers and posters advertising the free English classes we will be holding at the chapel starting in late September. It is one of the easiest marking techniques possible in Romania to simply put the words free and English on a poster and people flock to it. WE hold these English courses twice a week for 8 weeks, and after each class students are invited to remain for a spiritual thought. Currently, 1/3 of the baptisms in the country are by means of the English classes, and it is a really useful skill for Romanians to have, as just about any international business here wants English speakers. I look forward to teaching the English classes as I think it will be a lot of fun; I have always enjoyed teaching.

This last week has been really difficult in the blocs. We have just started our new area a couple of weeks ago, and people just aren't used to us. Many people have no idea who we are, calling us either Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestants, Adventists, or Catholics (one that always puzzled me) as they slam the door on us before we can even speak. All of those, non-Orthodox, denominations are practically bad words for many people here in Romania. Yet, we persevere and we have begun to have a bit more success recently.

Well, I have to go, but please know how much I love and think about you.

:Love,

Walker (Elder Frahm)