Hearty Howdy from Pitesti

Hello Family,

So, this is my new e-mail address at which I can be reached. They have required all missionaries to switch over to this service for the obvious Internet security reasons, etc...

No, the package hasn't yet arrived, but it is really not a very big deal. I will probably get it just shortly after Christmas. As for the weather, yes it is pretty cold, but not extremely much. I actually found a coat in our apartment that I have been wearing. Then, when I wore it to Zone Conference, I discovered that it used to belong to Elder Jackson, who is an awesome Elder that is now in the office permanently due to knee problems. He was key in baptising many of the current active members in the branch, and so it is fun to tell the members that the coat I wear was Elder Jackson's that he said I could have. They love thinking about him, and it gives me an inherent esteem-by-association in their eyes I think.

Anyway, Zone Conference this week was really good. On Tuesday, we had a fun, relaxation day in which we played board games for a couple of hours, sang carols, acted out skits, had a murder-mystery dinner, gave white elephant gifts, held a tie exchange, and culminated with a viewing of the anniversary Mr. Kreuggar's Christmas DVD starring Jimmy Stewart and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. I have never felt so exhausted before on my mission! :) Then, on Wednesday, we had a normal Zone Conference complete with talks and instruction from other missionaries and from President Ashby. The theme of the conference was Testifying of Christ using the Book of Mormon, which is a fantastic theme, and we also focused a lot on developing Christlike attributes in order to imbue them in others. It was a super good conference.

Friday, we had one of the members here in Pitesti, Aleks, who is French and doesn't speak Romanian, but does speak English, invite us over to his house for a BBQ lunch. I am not sure if I have ever seen so much meat at one table. There were three plates of chicken, two plates of pork steaks and a full slab of ribs, plus ice cream for dessert. Elder Goodell, the football player cowboy from Herriman, UT (by the copper mine somewhere) was in hog heaven. It was quite a pleasant holiday meal.

As for the phone call, I will be calling you, on the land line at Grandpa's house, at 8 or 8:30 AM your time, if that is all right. I know it is a tad early, but it'll be good to wake up early and have the day ahead of you anyhow. *wink* Although, I suppose it is Christmas, so everybody will be us at the crack of dawn anyhow, eh? In the case that I somehow can't get through, then you can call me at the following number: ************* I don't know what the process is for calling Romania, but that is the number. Most likely you won't even need to use it.

Anyway, we had something really neat happen this last week. We had a lady call up the church on Saturday and say that she wants to be baptised. We have a goal to baptise somebody before the year's end, but it was looking like that would never happen, as all of our investigators were either dropping out or progressing too gradually to reach that point by the year's end. We have been praying, however, to find somebody, and sure enough, this lady calls up. She and her husband then came to church on Sunday, and they said they both want to be baptised. Apparently they were meeting with the missionaries 8 years ago, recently started reading again from the Book of Mormon, and decided that they really believed in it. They will hopefully be baptised on Saturday the 24th.

I gave a good talk on Sunday.

Love you all,
Elder Walker