Bite My Tongue

What is the most important thing to remember as a missionary? I haven't figured it out yet. Though I think remembering Christ and His atonement are huge things - Remembering we aren't perfect and everyone needs to improve somewhere is vital to keeping yourself focused and happy. Sometimes stuff happens. We just need to move forward, learning from our experiences, so we can be better people, better missionaries, better representatives of Jesus Christ. Most of the time I don't feel like a I'm a very good missionary or person. I try not to dwell on all I do wrong, or I'll just become those things I regret. If we recognize those faults and use the help of our savior Jesus Christ, we can overcome all things. I'm not nearly as good a missionary as I would like to be, but I'm learning and trying. I think that's all Heavenly Father and Christ wants from any of us.

Parcul Central Timisoara

I did have some personal success with this during the week. I'm learning to bite my tongue a little more, something I've been working on for a very long time. I'm glad I started when I did, because I might not have been able to when it was necessary. We were talking with families in a park and I went up to a mother and started talking to her. She asked if I spoke better in English, because she couldn't understand me. Ok... I'm suppose to be speaking Romanian but if you want me to... I started talking to her in English. Yet, even in English, I had to say everything like five times! Why? Because she doesn't understand English. My broken Romania or her broken English, both of us trying to communicate in a second language. Do I tell her that I can't understand her though?... no. "Well, we are not interested. We are Orthodox." That's alright because I wasn't talking about religion, I was talking about teaching your family. Anyway, I probably shouldn't keep writing about this. It was not very Christlike what I wished I could say to this lady. I didn't say what I was thinking, even though I really really wanted to. Yay for me.

Canalul Bega
http://www.flickr.com/photos/antonius_plaian/

Look at me, learning all sorts of stuff on my mission. Then, this father came over and tried to quickly get his family to leave while we were talking to his wife. He tried very hard not to look at us. Avoid eye contact with us because you will turn to stone! Apparently, he knows all about "the Mormons," and no doubt, it's all true. It hit me deep. He wouldn't even listen. It's because we said Jesus, isn't it? It happens all the time, but I was in a bad mood from the lady before. I held my tongue though! Yay me! again.

Fires, Football, and Birthdays

We are coming closer and closer to the Christmas season! We are listening to more and more Christmas music, and of course we hear all these people talking about making sarmale. It's what they do here. As Americans, we talk about preparing foods for Thanksgiving and Christmas: Turkey, ham, cookies, and such. Here in Romania, it's sarmale (cabbage rolls,) salata de boeuf and cozonac (sweet breads). We made some sarmale, well, I just ate it like in the story of the little red hen. The Elders and a family made it. Sora Hosking and I had to do our shopping since we had a lesson during our Pday and could not help. I'm horrible, I know. But, it was delicious all the same.

The mother also made Sora Hosking and I earrings. How nice is that? They are so great. I love the earrings, too.

I've witnessed some interesting fires while I've been here. One was a car in flames. Literally, the entire car, not just a wimpy flame, but the entire thing!  We saw it in passing on the bus. I totally would have got off to take a picture but we were going to the gara to catch a train. The most recent, I suspect arson, was a bar or something located in a boat on the Bega. (river in Romania) We were going to the church and we saw the smoke. I had to check it out. The tiny little firetruck went right by us. It was funny because all these people were pulling over and getting out of their cars to watch. They were standing right next to the fire. I know that wouldn't happen in the US. Ah, the differences between cultures. Seriously though, the firetruck was so small.

We went to Arad to play football for Thanksgiving. I know I look like I'm having a great time in the photo, but don't be fooled. I would have rather played soccer or stayed in Timisoara. Traveling all the way to Arad for just a football game is just a little silly in my mind. I tried to be a good sport and have a good time. I could have done better. I can't help it... I just kept getting bored. There was too much stopping.  I was in my Vibram's. There were broken bricks and huge rocks on the field, so I was afraid when I was running backward and guarding someone.  Maybe I wasn't in the mood. There might be a time when I will be in the mood, but really...... I just wanted to play soccer the entire time.

Wednesday was Sora Hosking's birthday and I made her chocolate chip pancakes. That's what she asked for. I would have done more but it's hard to make a surprise for someone who is with you 24/7. So, that's what you get, boring chocolate chip pancakes, but they were pretty good and I had a fun time trying to get the eggs open, the package not the shell. There was egg everywhere because I stabbed one of them with the knife and the other was crushed when I tried to get the top carton off. They were shrink wrapped together and I couldn't get it off to save my life.  Friday was Elder Speth's birthday, he's also our Branch President. We made him a cake. The frosting wasn't the best though. I don't know if it's possible to make nice fluffy frosting but it would have made the cake so much better. Elder Lund and Elder Farrow made a cake for Sister Hosking. We sang Happy Birthday to them at Institute and they blew out their candles.

Jelly Fish and Pig Appendix

I've been collecting photos the food we get at people's houses. I expect we will get more interesting traditional Romanian food as we approach Christmas and December.

Sweets. Both of these had fig fillings, I think. I like the rolled pastry.

The food is pretty much normal in my opinion. I have had some weird things though. I had to eat raw egg white only because the lady didn't finish frying the egg. I tried so hard not to eat it, too, by scraping it off onto the plate and pretending like I ate all I could  (There was just a little bit of food left on the plate. It looked like a dead jelly fish you would see on the beach.) I scraped it as thin as I could over a piece of bread when she told me to eat it. Ew.

 Also, there was this cold goulash-looking kind of stuff.  I'm not sure if the meat was meat, though. I could see it being some internal organ. It was cut in strips and was kind of cylindrical. I'm just going to say it was pig appendix. That way, I feel cooler.



Schwarma

But, for the most part, I like all the food people give me and everyone is so hospitable. They always feed you or give you something to drink. It's so nice. They even make sure you look healthy by giving you large portion sizes. So nice. I love it!

But, I got yelled at once for eating my bread alone, nothing with it. I don't know if that was just the lady, or if it's a custom. No one else has gotten mad at me yet. I'm sorry, I have an inexplicable need to eat each part of my food separate. I can't help it. It's just who I am!

This is the hot chocolate we get sometimes. It's thick, almost like a melted chocolate bar. That's probably how they make it.