Hello Family of Mine,
Wallachia, so you know, is one of the three territorial segments of Romania (along with Transylvania and Moldova), which includes Buchurest and Ploiesti.
Anyway, for some reason I have been really super tired this week. The frustrating thing is that we have not been having an extreme amount of success, either, despite the work we have been putting in. We're just going to have to keep plugging and leave it up to the Lord to lead us to people that will be a tad more receptive. We have a couple of potential investigators that could turn out to be really good yet, but it is still to early to see.
As far as the package goes, I love the peanut butter, which will probably last at least 6 months. I also loved the tootsie rolls, the bacon bits, the microwave cakes and those s'more snack bars. I don't know about all the tootsie pops and sour candies; you're going to make me fat even on my two meal a day schedule. :-) As for the package itself, no, it didn't look like it had been rummaged through. For Christmas, I have heard that there are many, many Romanian traditions, but I have heard very little about what they actually are. Perhaps, I will just have to keep you updated as they come up. I have heard, for one thing, that all the really good Romanian dishes are served and that missionaries are often invited over to dinner during such times, so in that respect, I can hardly wait. As for treats that you might be able to send to Jenn, I know she really likes chocolate covered raisins, anything raspberry, and m&ms, I think. What a deal with Belle! Sounds like quite the harrowing experience with the lice and the shingles and what not, I am glad to hear that she recovered quickly enough to enjoy her birthday party and her time with Grandma. By the way, be sure to tell her that she is the best Grandma in the world and thanks for her continued, undeserved-but-much-appreciated generosity. Oh, and tell Courter to keep up the good work in school.
I just loved listening to your tapes. How fun it was to listen to your voices and what you had to say. I wish I could respond more directly to all the things that you said, but a lot of them slip my mind at the moment. Tell dad that I am somewhat in accord with his Book of Mormon observations and that I think 2 Nephi 4 is perhaps Nephi's expression of regret for his sometimes volatile temper. I think that Jacob is very much like that, often being very forceful in his speech in a way that is sometimes questionable, perhaps. Anyway, I prefer the style of Ammon, who converted King Lamoni through his service and obedience.
This last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with a missionary who came down from Brashov, whose name is Elder Coats. It was fun because he is 6 transfers out, but I, in my second transfer, was in charge and had to lead the way around because he didn't know the town at all. It was fun to see that I could speak just about as well as him, though he could understand a bit better than me sometimes. It was funny that he had a really hard time with talking fast, which resulted in a lot of impatient Romanians either slamming the door or walking away before we even had a chance to introduce ourselves. I am grateful for Elder Miller, whose impatience with my originally slow approaches forced me to quickly learn how to talk quick so people can hear what we are presenting before they reject us.
Thursday, we had the really neat opportunity of meeting with the mayor of Ploiesti. We had scheduled a meeting with him about two weeks ago to ask in what way, besides teaching free English courses, which are a lot of fun by the way (we are teaching the advanced class), that we can serve the city. So, on Thursday, we got an audience with him. When we went in, just the two of us, we found ourselves in a boardroom with the mayor sitting at the head of a large table surrounded by nine other people. They talked among themselves a bit, then the mayor addressed us. He asked us who we are, what we do, what church we are from, how long it has been in Romania, if it is state sponsored, etc... He told us that our request to serve the city is noble and he will be glad to work with us and our members. Then he surprised us by asking us how Ploiesti compared to cities in America, and what he could do to improve it. I wish that we had been better prepared for such a question, as there are a number of things that we could now name, but at the time, it was hard to think of what to say. We ended up saying that the trash in the streets is something that could certainly been improved. Elder Miller suggested reminded people that by putting trash in the garbage cans, the city could better use the money such as to either lower taxes, or school costs, etc... He seemed to like the idea, or at least liked us enough to pretend that he liked the idea. At the end, he got up and walked around the table to shake our hands. He was quite an agreeable man, and I think we made a really good impression on behalf of the church in the city.
That same day, I also finished reading the Book of Mormon out loud in Romanian. Now I have started on the Doctrine and Covenant and plan to finish it in 5 weeks, after which I will start on reading the New Testament, which will be tough as it is in an older King James style Romanian.
Last night, as we were getting on the bus I had my first run-in with pickpockets. Elder Miller was in front of me, and was about to get on when a couple of kids dodged in front of him and stopped on the stairs talking to the driver and blocking the door. Then, two men and a women came behind us, preventing us from going to one of the other bus doors. As we waited to board, I heard the sound of a zipper to my right. When I turned, I caught one of the men, in his mid-20s, unzipping Elder Miller's bag and starting to reach inside. I quickly zipped it back up and was about to alert Elder Miller, when I heard my bag being unzipped by the other guy. I quickly turned around, thwapped his hand away and zipped it back up. (Elder Miller is still clueless this whole time) I gave the would-be culprits a look of incredulity at their low behavior, which they responded to by giving me hand in the cookie jar sheepish grins. About that time, we finally got up and I ushered us to the back of the bus to take seats where they couldn't get behind us. As I explained what had happened to Elder Miller, pointed to the criminals who got on the bus after us, they started acting really weird. They started waving, giving me thumbs ups and actually seeming proud of their actions. As they got off, one of them gave me another thumbs up and told me "Bravo" and gave me a big grin. It was quite an interesting experience. Anyway, we keep all of our money in our breast pockets, so it was never really a big threat. All they would have found were some vocab cards in my bag and some dog food that Elder Miller carries around to keep the strays away.
Well, I have to get going. I hope things will continue to go well with you. Always remember that,
I love you,
Walker (Elder Frahm)
