Craciun Fericit

Hello Family,

Well, I suppose there is not really all that much left to talk to you about after our phone call. I suppose, however, that for posterity and the other people reading this, I can summarize the happenings of the past week or so. Last Monday, after writing to you, we took a trip to the countryside to try our hand at hunting some wild turkey -- ie finding a large one in the bird pen behind some guy's house and chasing it down so we could kill it. Sure enough, we found the house, we caught the turkey, and we had got to feel the thrill of the kill -- almost. There were four of us (Elder Baker - the corn farmer; Elder Nicholson - the surfer; Elder Kozlenko - the Russian raised in the suburbs; and me - I'm just me) and none of us had any idea how to kill a turkey. So, the man living there gave Elder Nicholson an ax and had Elder Baker hold the body while he held the head with the neck stretched over a log. Elder Nicholson balked twice before finally getting up the hutspa (hutspa - n. of Yiddish origin meaning courage, daring, etc.. to be pronounced only with adequate saliva gurgling in your throat) to drop the ax. Unfortunately for all involved -- except the country-man's wife who just laughed hysterically at our incompetence -- his would-be coup de grace was more of a coup de disgrace as he failed to cut through the turkey's neckbone. The turkey, as expected, became quite irritated at the attempt and did its best to wrestle itself from Elder Baker's grasp while the country man pushed aside the shell-shocked American with the ax and gave the bird a couple quick chops to the nape. Elder Baker finally dropped the fully-decapitated fowl and jumped back as Elder Kozlenko and I filmed its final flailings and the country-folks' good-hearted railings at the stupid Americans (and Russian) who must barely know how to live. Certainly an interesting P-day!

The next day, Tuesday, Elder Baker and I cut off the fat, pulled out some innards, packed in some veggies, and baked ourselves a beautiful holiday bird for the branch Christmas activity. It was quite a fun experience, and the meat was some of the best turkey I've ever had.

Thursday and Friday we had Zone Conference in Brasov, a beautiful city. The first day we played games and sang songs and ate some really good Christmas stuffs. We also got to watch the Pixar movie Cars, which was a bunch of fun. The second day was a normal Zone conference, complete with presentations from two Zone Leaders and President and Sora Ashby. They spoke on Sacrifice, Christmas spirit, the Nativity of Christ, and the Second Coming.

In other news, Elder Kozlenko is a lot of fun to be companions with! He is really cool and already pretty much knows the missionary ropes. The big obstacle right now, however, is the language barrier. He is pretty proficient in English by now, but he knows almost no Romanian. His Romanian really took a hit when he had to wait out his visa in Russia for six weeks away from anybody who knows a lick of Romanian. So, we have started having a solid 1.5 hrs of language study every day to get him up to speed. Today, we also began to label things around the apartment and to make the rule that we can only say those words in Romanian. President told me that there is a missionary coming in March that has been assigned to serve in Moldova, speaking Russian. Thus, since Elder Kozlenko is the only Russian speaker in the mission, there is a decent chance that he will be training that Elder. That means that he needs to have some dang good missionary skills and a good base in Romanian. I pray that the Lord will help me to train him well.

Well, I thank you all for your gifts and love and support.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Love muchly,
Elder Frahm