Family of mine

Hello Family,

First off, thanks Mom for the wonderful Easter card. I got it last week sometime, and it was a really pleasant surprise!! I really enjoyed getting some physical mail. It is always a lot of fun! Great Grandma Gurr also sent me a letter that was a lot of fun to receive. As for the phone call next week, I am not quite sure what we are going to do. Our new apartment with the APs doesn't have a phone line, and I think it would be really expensive to talk on cell phones. So, we will have to e-mail you sometime in the middle of the week to tell you what the deal is. I may just end up calling you from the mission office, as we make many calls to other countries from here on a regular basis.

With the travel concerns that you have, if you really want you can talk to Laura Hoppe, who is the coordinator for church travel in the area. Her information is as follows: 1-800-537-3537 x25127 / 801-240-5127 hoppelg@ldschurch.org.

As for the passport application, I think I did get it from the post office. My release date will be May 30, because that is when the transfer falls here. What usually happens is, you come in to the country on Tuesday or Wednesday, and then meet me at the mission office on the Wednesday morning of the 30th. Transfer meeting is that afternoon at 3:00. After that, we leave. I cannot be officially released except by my Stake President. Those are some general details. Of course, that is still a LONG ways away, and we can worry about that in about a year.

That is super great that Heather is going to BYU. I imagine she is very excited indeed. I got an e-mail from Sara this last week, by the way, which was a rather fun surprise. What was an even greater surprise was that her e-mail was entirely in Romanian! Good Romanian, too!! It is kind of neat to hear that her fiance went on a mission to Hungary, like Ned, and his twin brother went on a mission to Romania. Maybe he's been taking some time teaching her how to speak Romanian ;) It is also fun to hear that Celeste is going to be up in the Boston area for school. Elder Bart, by the way, is from Springfield, Mass. It is kind of nice to have a companion who is from the same side of the country as I.

As for Bridian and her contemplations on going to South. Of course, I whole-heartedly support the idea. Especially is Mr. Herbst is still the principal. He was really amazing! I felt that at South, the teachers were, for the most part, really good. I felt that I had all the opportunities that I could want. We had top notch academic programs, which she would be benefiting from in the Env. Science program. We had an incredible journalism program, if she wants to do that. We had some really good sports teams, an outstanding vocational program, and (most relevant to her) there was a lot of money and effort invested in the Env. Science Magnet. They got to take many really cool field trips and to learn all about Env. Protection and how to make Florida a better place. And on top of all that, I also had a really good group of friends and a fun time being involved in various clubs, etc... It's her decision, of course, but I, as you said, loved it!

Okay, on my side of the world, things continue to go fairly smoothly, keeping me busy but satisfied with my efforts. This last week, we helped out a lot with the organization of humanitarian efforts to aid those who have recently been flooded on the banks of the Danube river. The church contributed $50,000 towards the purchase of more than 3,000 hygiene kits (comprised of toiletry necessities, first aid supplies, and blankets) and food kits (with all sorts of non-perishable food items), which were all shipped over to the church, filling it to capacity. Many members and missionaries then spent a couple of days, from morning to evening, organizing and sorting these kits to prepare them to be taken over to the villages. Then, yesterday, three large teams of missionaries, including President and Sister Ashby (but not including us because we had to run the office) and a few members, took all of the goods in two large trucks down to the village and distributed them to those who had lost their houses. It was a lot of work, a lot of red-tape to get all the money (Romania has a law that you can only pull out about $5000 cash a day), and a lot of time (including us sleeping in the chapel Thursday night to "guard" the goods) invested in the project, but it was definitely worth it!!

In other news, we finished moving in with the Assistants to the President, and will finally be able to begin bloc knocking this week in our new proselyting area in Sector 2. I am very excited both to live with the APs, who are really amazing missionaries and people, and to get out to teach the gospel. We also found a mici (pronounced "meech") stand across the street from our new apartment that is just amazing. Mici are like hamburger meat grilled in the form of a hotdog, and they are just absolutely delicious!! *drooling*

Other than all that, the week has been a pretty normal office week. We are starting to prepare the papers for the visas that we need to get for the new missionaries coming in this next transfer. I am pretty much in charge of this process, so it should be fun having a large group to do my first time. Not only do we have 9 new missionaries coming in, including two older single sister missionaries, we also need to renew the visas for 11 additional missionaries. AND Elder Nelson is coming in that same week. It'll be a lot of fun. I anticipate much driving around (which I really love, by the way!!).

Well, we have much to do today, so I will get going.

I love you very much. Thanks for your continual support, and I can't wait to talk to you.

Much love,
Elder Walker

PS -- Make sure to still write me next Saturday, even though we will talk on Sunday. :)

PPS -- Jenn is doing wonderfully. And she's growing her hair out a bit. And she's having cool cultural experiences. It reminds me of the contrasting lack of real cultural pride in Romania. It's kind of sad. :( On the other hand, they do have very good traditional foods! :)