Holding up the Light... and Teaching in the Candlelight!

Hola Mi Familia!!!!

Glad that Pops got home safely, and that mom is on another adventure in Nevada. Man, we are so blessed that you can do things like that... there are so many people that I meet every day that couldn't even imagine going to Mexico and spending a week to just have fun... There are also people that I meet that go to Greece and random countries to enjoy the weekend because the tickets are dirt cheap... but that is besides the point! I feel blessed to be in the situation that I am in, and am confident that God is mindful of each one of His children. He wants all of us to experience joy. 

Elder Jacobson and Elder Ditto... Dream team!!!

Today I want to share with you my situation in Bucuresti, and the ways that I experienced joy!

Bucuresti

Elder Jacobson came in ready to make a difference here in capitol of Romania. I was super excited to learn and work with him and together accomplish more than we ever thought we could. This excitement showed in every second of this week together. We were focused, disciplined, and led by the spirit. Bucharest, being the largest city in Romania, has the most members. We have two chapels where two separate branches meet. Between these two branches, there are about ten sets of missionaries to assist in the building of the Kingdom of God. We had District Conference this Sunday, and President Hettinger shared with us his vision of Bucharest, that was established with his counselors. The vision is to have a stake here in Bucharest. As he said, this day is not far, but it is not close. This made me excited! Romania is in a very special time, and I feel it a privilege to serve in Bucharest in a crucial time. 

THREE generations. Elder Ditto (Son of Elder Giron), Elder Krieger (Son of Elder Ditto), Elder Ward (Son of Elder Krieger (who is the son of Elder Ditto)

Elder Jacobson and I felt it would be appropriate to hold some meetings with our other district leader to unite together and discuss how we can help realize this vision. We also had a Bucharest leadership meeting as well as a zone leader mission wide meeting to establish expectations and brainstorm ways to bring many to the fold! I love being organized and man this made me feel so prepared to just go out and work, knowing that we are all working for the same thing and that we have a game plan. This was the working "smart" part of the week.

We also worked. Hard. When two missionaries decide to work hard and "be all in," the two missionaries will get a long, and will accomplish great things. This is something that I have seen true in my mission. I feel blessed to serve with Elder Jacobson, who is a focused, dedicated, and humble missionary. We are just the perfect team! Elder Jacobson has come with some really creative ideas to improve our zone (like balloon contacting as a zone HUGE success), and is always ready to teach or be taught. Yep, this is gonna be a good transfer. 

Oh ya, so hard. Well, anytime that we were not in a meeting, we were visiting members, contacting, and teaching! Remember how I mentioned the poverty here in Romania? Well, we met a father the other day. His name is Viorel, and we told him that we have a message about Jesus Christ. His response was something like this... "I have seven kids and I want you to meet them and you can teach us all about Jesus."... WOAH! That doesn't happen very often... especially the whole seven kids thing. Well, we went over to their house, well it was actually more like a "coliba" (hut),  and knocked on the tin panels that acted as a big guard fence. No one answered. Right when were were about to turn away after scouting the dark, gypsy little club house-fort thing, a man came out and kindly let us in. He led us into the hut, and I couldn't believe my eyes... SEVEN KIDS.... SITTING ON A COUCH... BEHAVED.... We walked in and all of their cute little eyes were fixed on these two tall, American boys.

We quickly learned all of their names and got to know them. I remember entering the home and feeling the spirit, something that is kind of rare, especially in their circumstances. I don't know if it was their humility, or just dang good parenting, but the love of God was present in that room. We taught the family under candlelight, because they don't have electricity. As we got to Joseph Smith, we shined Elder Jacobson's flash light on the picture of the First Vision. 

First Vision

The Spirit was abundant as I recited The First Vision and together bore testimony of this miraculous experience. The children were attentive as we taught in simple words, relating the gospel to things that they could understand. Simply put, it was a miracle lesson and this family, in their humble circumstances, were ready to hear the gospel. 

Truly, the gospel is to be taught to everyone! We are all God's children!

As we walked out of the lesson, I turned to Elder Jacobson and said, "Man! I could be a missionary every second of the day!"... That's when it hit... I am! How thankful I am to experience the joy that comes from serving our fellowmen.  I know that as we do this, the heavens smile and we are serving God, who blesses us because we are holding up His light.

3 Nephi 18:24 Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed.

It is a special thing to shine the light of Christ with those in Romania... for this I will be forever grateful!

We shined our light as we put on a Halloween party for our friends and members here in Bucharest as well... it was LIT! WE had soooo many people come. What really warmed my heart was seeing so many children laughing and playing together, and then trick or treating!!! I have never been a huge fan of Halloween, mainly because we were all forced to put in the majority of our candy into the giant puke bowl, but showing others how to celebrate isn't too shabby!!

Halloween Party

Bogdan and Elder Ditto

Some Romanians enjoying Halloween

Sweet little Ionela Constantin

Fratele Lupan

Robert and I... craziness

The Leavitt family... the masterminds behind this party!

Love these kids!

Elder Cowser and me... notice anything spooky?

Some happy kids trick or treating

Alright, I am out!

I love you all, and have a killer week!!!!

Love,

Alex

JOY in Romania... and some Dancing!

Hello everyone!!! 

Well, today I parted ways with Elder Bontempo and said "hello" to Elder Jacobson. Elder Bontempo and I were together for three transfers- 4.5 months! I was just thinking how long that is... but crazy to think how fast time went by. Elder Bontempo got the assignment to open up a new companionship in Timisoara, I am really pumped for him. Man, we did a lot together and I learned a heap from him and as we served together. I can truly call Elder Bontempo one of my brothers! 

Helped this little old baba wack her carpet... she had the technique down!

=Elder Bonditto

To be honest, I don't really know what to write about this week.  I have literally ten minutes to write and the only thing that is coming to mind is the activities that we had in Bucharest this week. Our branch planned a combined activity with the other branch to celebrate fall -"Daruriile Toamnei" or Gifts of Fall. I haven't really been to too many branch parties on my mission, but I will be honest I was not expecting too much! 

George and I... love this guy!

As I walked in to the chapel, the music was blasting, balloons everywhere, and a huge table full of food (Romanian treats to be exact). 

Blury pic but this party was LIT!

Musical Chairs

I felt like I was fourteen again going to a stake dance! That afternoon not a single person didn't smile... we all had a ball dancing, eating, talking, making and developing friendships, and me trying to learn the Romanian traditional dance... the members got a kick outta my high kicks and crazy foot movements.-I was just glad that I got a tad bit of mom's dancing genes! 

Elder Giron is headed to Timisoara!

We also had an incredible institute evening afterword's... we had many investigators come to both the branch activity and the institute evening. For institute we talked about the power of The Book of Mormon and then had a raw vegetarian cook-off. I had several friends come up to me and say how cool it is that our church does these kinds of things. One even said that he is so impressed with this church because people don't fear God- everyone is smiling, laughing, and dancing in the church. In Orthodox culture, you don't laugh or even smile when you are in a church. Common practice is to go and listen to the priest sing his songs and kiss the statues of Jesus on the cross.  Many people, especially to the younger generation, this appears very intimidating and weird. 

I was thinking about the contrast between Orthodoxy and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints... Both religions give great respect to Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Ghost, but there is a great difference in how we do this. What comes to mind is the simple fact that God is our loving Heavenly Father... President Nelson once said that we are here to have JOY. Joy is obtained by keeping the commandments that the Lord has given us, and by doing so, we are promised this great blessing. We are to go through LIFE with JOY, not with sadness. That is why God sent us His son, and if we follow His example, we will have this JOY. 

Headed to Institute and found a sweet sculpture!

A giant mound of varza... cabbage

The ever growing sticker collection

How grateful I am that the restored church of Jesus Christ allows us to experience this joy as we work together with our brothers and sisters to help each other in times of need, to mourn with those that mourn, and stand as witnesses that Jesus is the Christ! And sometimes you just gotta dance!

I know that Christ lives, that he is my Savior. What a blessing it is to be on His errand doing His work!

See ya next week, have fun in Mexico ma and pa!

Love,

Alex

A Sora Gorzo Sunday lunch... classic!

Elder Jacobson and Elder Ditto

The Mihai Bravu District Summer 2017

Miracle on Bd. Tineretului Nr. 5

Shalom!!

I have fifteen minutes to write a weeks worth of information... so here it goes. 

A beautiful Sunday evening spent proselyting

Fall is in the air!

Well, to start, today was one of the most successful weeks in terms of finding and teaching, and also one of the weeks where you look back and just think, DANG. The Lord was with us at every step of the way!! Of course, he is there whether we notice or not, but God truly did bless us with experiences this week where your jaw kind of just drops and you can't help but say a prayer of gratitude right next to a giant communist block because He just used you to bring the light of Christ to one of His precious children. 

Ciorba de perisoare... our first ciorba ever made. Took this giant pot to a members house to try it with him. We got a lotta weird looks!

The finished product

I'll share two awesome examples from this week.

Tuesday was looking to be a very empty one, in terms of appointments. We weren't too sure what to do. We felt like the best thing to do with our time was to go and look for a less-active in the branch. I had felt strongly about one who I had seen on the member list many times, as we had just created a google map with all of the member's addresses on there. We prayerfully decided to go to that one. 

The problem was that we only had a portion of the address and searching for an exact block in Bucharest without an exact address is practically impossible. As we exited the metro station, I said a prayer in my heart, asking God to help us find the block without issues. We then asked a man if he knew where Bd. Tineretului Nr. 5 was, and he pointed to the direction of it, but told us good luck finding which number is 5. We got to the desired area and decided to turn into the labyrinth of blocks where we saw a worker lady who cleans the floors outside, and we asked her if she knew an, "Avram Mircea." She said that in fact she did and that he lived in this very block! She let us in the block (another very big blessing) and told us to go to the 9th floor and to the door on the right. We thanked her and got into the communistic elevator. We knocked on the door to the right and a man opened the door...

"Cunoasteti pe Avram Mircea?" was our question. He responded, "Eu sunt!"

God had led us to Avram Mircea... without any issues. He guided our paths as we put our faith in him! 

Then Avram Mircea told us that it was a miracle that we even caught him because he is rarely home and was just about to leave! MIRACLE STREET!!!! 

Soseaua Mihai Bravu

We ended up having a great little lesson with Avram Mircea and learned a little bit more about his situation. His mother has Alzheimer's and he is caring for her 24/7. It was evident in his face that he was truly grateful for the visit, and that he was uplifted by the spirit. All three of us left Bloc 5 with a little more light. I knew that God needed us to visit Avram Mircea and he provided us a way to share with him His love.

That's when we said a gratitude prayer and went into the park where we met three people who were thirsting for the gospel. Wow. That was probably one of the coolest mornings of my whole life. 

A little corner store with a dacia parked in front... classic

A sweet Romanian military truck passing by as we wait for our tram... for like 30 min

Pday Sports Morning with all the missionaries in Buch!

Well, it has been eighteen minutes and I need to go, but these stories are ingrained in my heart and my journal, so you'll just have to ask me in ten months. 

I know that God is our LOVING Heavenly Father and that he cares about each one of us, and that he answers our prayers, and helps guide His children to truth for those who are seeking. 

A tree with bricks and cement... hum??

Just waiting for a tram

Made a friend a while back who turned out to be a tram driver. He pulled us in to the cockpit for our ride to the church!

Ping Pong with Atanasis

Life is good. God is good. I love the missionary life.

Have a rockin week!!!

Love,

Elder Ditto

The Verdeata Family... they are a hoot!

Elder Bontempo taking a photo break.

He guides our Paths, We Need to Choose our Paths.

Hey all!!!

Iubesc Romania!

First of all, I apologize for not writing last week. I wanted so badly to write one, as writing these letters really help me clear my thoughts and make me feel more connected to home. However, I had to make a sacrifice due to the time we arrived home from... HIKING. Yep. That's why I wasn't able to write. When Elder Giron and his companion offered to take us a long to a place where I have truly wanted to go since the day I googled Romania... TRANSYLVANIA. If you want to get real technical, it was a couple kilometers south of Sinaia in a little mountain village called Busteni. We headed out bright and early to summit a peak in the Bucegi Mountains, to see Crucea Eroiler. I could talk all day about this, but much more wonderful things happened this week. Hiking is one of my most favorite things on earth, because everything denotes that there is a God. Being in nature is one of the ways where I feel the peaceful presence of the man upstairs. Just look at the pictures and you'll understand why.

The Ditto pose has made it to Busteni

Another world on the top of a canyon thing

Can you find the gondola?

Can you find the mountain goat?

Craziest rock formation... PTPD

Elder Bontempo

Good 'ol Cliff provided me the energy. Thanks ma!

Gotta do a jump.

The trail markers are symbols here in Romania.

Heroes Cross - Google it!

I'm on top of the world hey!

Can you spot the cross?

Nap in the misty mountains

Romanians love their crosses..

Sfinxul

Shnikies!!!

So dang beautiful

STEEP switchbacks all the way up

STOKED to be in the mountains!

Strange how this happened... they thought I wanted a picture with them!

The bro and I enjoying the view

The hiking squad

The small mountain village from below... Whewww nelly! A long way down!

Behold Mother Nature!

Yes there are bears!

The end of an incredible Pday

Where to start... two weeks ago was General Conference. I had the opportunity to watch one session in English, and the rest in Romania. I really enjoyed watching it in this beautiful language, but there is something special about listening to the voice of the speaker and the feelings that they portray! It is a blessing that we know English. I am thankful that English is my native language, but there is also something really special about connecting with another culture in their own language. I was talking on the phone to Fratele Petrescu, the old cute little man in Arad. I always talked with him in English, mainly because I didn't know much Romanian while I was there. This time was different and I felt a new connection with him as we spoke his language. Really interesting how that works! I am thankful that Christ is the Savior of the WHOLE world. His church is for each person in every culture. These special cultural differences define us, yet the principles of the gospel remain the same, and bless everyone who chooses to follow. 

We have been able to help the Radulescu's get an apartment in Bucharest ready for their daughter. She treated us to a homemade lunch!

A traditional Romanian meal

Elder Giron... my good friend

City Hall

So all in all, it was such a treat to listen with my Romanian friends to the words of the leaders of the church. Even though there weren't too many members who came to the church to watch, it was such a special feeling to be joined with them, listening to the voice of the Lord through His servants. 

This conference was a very special one, as I felt a greater love and connection to the apostles of the Lord. God's chosen servants do not just give us great words of council and love, but they live these words. They follow the words that the prophet Thomas S. Monson gives to us. This really hit home and made me reflect my own commitment to follow the prophet. I have sadly not read the Book of Mormon every single day in the past fifty years... but I have committed to start NOW. I know that the promises of reading and studying the Book of Mormon are true. I feel the power to resist temptation, to stay true to the faith and receive peace in times of difficulty. How blessed we are to receive guidance from our Heavenly Father through modern day revelation, to help us navigate through this increasingly sketchy world. We need this guidance now more than ever!

Artsy Shot

The horse police dudes

Elder Bontempo and I have felt that we can be more bold as we deliver this glad message that the IS a prophet in our days, and that Heavenly Father still speaks to us today, that miracles still happen and that Jesus Christ has created a path for us to follow. We have found much success doing this, and as a bi-product, the Lord has just given us so many wonderful opportunities to bear testimony and to help many. Yesterday the Lord put three people into our path to help. As I wrote in my journal, it was just so evident that God is our Heavenly Father, and whether you are an old Romanian lady, an American lady that lives in Romania, or a homeless man, God's arms are always reached out, and a lot of the times it is through us. How aware are we of those around us? How often do we judge because of someones external appearance or circumstance?

Discovering more of Bucharest

Homemade Granola... THANKS MOM!!!

Our community service this week - Just painting a wall with our awesome vests.

Delicious lunch we made using some of the things in my suitcase present - marinated some meat to make a Philly cheese-steak sandwich, added some of the special Sweet Golden Mustard BBQ sauce, Mountain Bar for dessert with a cup of hot cocoa!!

To close, I will share the story of my new friend Robert, who was the homeless man that I judged last night. We had been block knocking near Piata Romana as a zone, each companionship took their own block and we invited many to come unto Christ. That was where we found Jessica, a nice American lady, who we touched with the spirit. In the end, she did not want to learn more, but that is okay because the spirit was present and that is an experience that she will never forget. As we exited the block, we saw the sisters, and a random homeless man was following them. I immediately started to judge him, and started to walk away. Elder Bontempo is a man who is no respecter of persons. It doesn't even matter if they aren't the least bit interested- he will always take a little time for them. This is something that I am not too good at and something that I am trying to learn from him.

So we eventually walk away and the homeless man somehow finds us and the assistants. I tried to have a little more patience, but could still feel myself judging. That was when this homeless dude's friend came and told him that they just want to tell you about Joseph Smith, he was a grumpy guy, and walked away. I had a prompting to ask him, right before he left, what he knew about Joseph Smith. Somehow that conversation led into his life. And how unhappy he was. He had been a good man, educated for sure, and had a job. He told me he wanted a family and a job- he wanted to find HAPPINESS. When I asked him how he fell to this state, he started to tear up. I shared the Book of Mormon with him and explained how reading, and applying the teaching of the Book of Mormon in my life has helped me find happiness, that it is through following the teaching of Jesus Christ- the path he has set for us- that we can find this happiness. I shared with him Ether 12:27. 

I felt a love for him that HE can come back to the fold, that hope is not lost for him. I don't know what will come out of this, but he wanted to learn more about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I am praying that he will come to our church tomorrow at 18:30 to meet and learn more. 

My wonderful family and friends, we are blessed to have been taught the gospel. We are blessed to understand our true identity as children of a loving Heavenly Father. We are blessed when we keep the commandments of God. We are blessed when we honor Mom and Dad. This life is the time for our labors, and we have GREAT potential. Whatever our circumstances are now, it is never too late to "look up," and let the Redeemer carry our load. I know that He lives, and that His church has been restored back onto the earth. 

I love you guys!

Elder Ditto

Hai Dinamo!

Exchanges with Elder Bird

We love Sora Radulescu