Hello Family,
Well, another year has past, and another week of hard missionary work is behind us. I say hard because, with most of our investigators gone for the holidays, it was rather difficult to keep ourselves busy while the Romanian people was holed up for the season with friends and family -- not exactly excited to receive missionaries. In spite of all that, however, we did find the time to visit just about every member in the branch, twice; and we did, in fact, find a couple of new potential investigators as well.
Our New Years was pretty uneventful, but pleasant. In the morning we went to church, where we were pleased to great three investigators, including Maria, who is progressing well and really loves church. She hadn't promised us she would come because she expected to be gone, but she came anyway, which is really great. We have two older sister members who did a good job of sitting with her, chatting back and forth, and making her feel appreciated and comfortable. She even made comments in Sunday School, which is really a good sign. Whenever we talk to her about baptism, she acknowledges that it would be a good thing, but just isn't 100 percent sure yet. She says she needs to prepare herself some more. I pray that she will strive with the Lord to receive a confirmation. The night prior, the other elders had asked me what they should do to meet there goal of helping one investigator be baptized this transfer, as all their investigator seem to have started to stagnate. I told them to be obedient, and pray, and the Lord would bless them. Sunday, they had a former investigator come to church and ask to be baptized in three weeks -- Not bad! The Lord really is just waiting to bless us. If only we were as ready to receive and recognize miracles as He is to perform them.
After church, not having any members -- active or otherwise -- that we hadn't visited with already this week, we headed over to the other Elders' house where we had a big duck and chicken dinner (the fowl coming pre-killed from the same farm we got the turkey from), played board games of Risk and Monopoly, and watched some movies. At midnight, we went out on the balcony to watch the fireworks, which were pretty darn cool. The only thing that could have made them better would have been if, while we were watching them, the cold water pipe in their kitchen hadn't burst. Yes, it definitely would have been a bit more pleasant of an evening to not have angry neighbors kicking at the door immediately after the finale screaming about us flooding their kitchens. Though, in hind-sight, the excitement of the evening would have been minimal had we not spent the following hour running helter-skelter and barefoot as we soaked up, swept, mopped, and shovelled freezing cold ankle deep water into buckets that we emptied over the balcony (the tub was full of food and dishes), only occasionally spraying unlucky passersby with the 6th story splash. At least it wasn't the middle of winter, huh! In the end, it was definitely a New Year's experience that I hope to keep unique.
Well, I need to get going, but I want you to know that I love and think about you very much. Sounds like you had a pleasant holiday season, and I hope that we all took the time to reflect on the year past and the years future and how we can use them to draw nearer to our Savior. I love this gospel and the joy with which it fills me, which is everlasting. I seek to be better and more appreciative of the great gift that God has given us in the form of His Son. Have a great week, and I will talk to you next week.
Love muchly,
Elder Walker
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