All right, so I haven't written anything in awhile..... but my life has been VERY busy since coming home from Romania. Wedding plans and getting my classroom ready for another year have kept me occupied. Our announcements came hopefully today and then we can start sending them out. This morning, I went to the Grand America Hotel and volunteered with Special Olympics. They're doing a fundraiser and charging people $1000 to repel off the top of the hotel. I got to meet Bob Harmon and the mayor of Salt Lake City. While there, I met a girl who married one of my neighbors. One of those priests when I was a beehive so I didn't really know him and I'm sure he won't remember me, but I love the whole random-Utah connections thing. Life is good

Home Tomorrow!

Well right now it's 11 pm thursday night and I'm hoping I've got everything ready to go for tomorrow. I've got really mixed emotions about leaving Romania. I'm so excited to go home but I'm also really going to miss it here.

What I'm looking forward to at home:
TYLER
spending time with our families
a piano
a car
my own bed

What I'm going to miss:
little stores on every corner
walking everywhere
markets
not having to drive
speaking Romanian
Ana, Florina, Timi, Felicia, Claudia, David, Silvia, Loredana, Ana, Laurenciu, Sora Gorzo, Sora Krista, Sora Mogos, Amalia, Andra, Eni, Simona, Pres. Herghiligiu, Daniela, Gizzy and Iulian, the Balans, Alecu, Johny, Fratele Petrescu, Sora Lidia, Catalina, Raluca, the other Simona, Vali, Gabi, Fratele Simionescu, Diana, and Alexandra.

But I'm going home and even though I'm going to miss all these wonderful people, I will be OK.

Starting the Trek Back Home....

So yesterday was REALLY exciting. I bought my first undercover train ticket. A lady came up to me and offered to sell me a first class train ticket to Brasov for only 50 RON. I told her it sounded illegal and I wasn't interested. But she went up with me to the ticket counter window and asked the lady if I could buy a ticket from her. The lady said yes so I bought it. Turns out, her late husband's a veteran and so she gets so many free train tickets every month and she sells them. So, very illegal but I got a good deal. Plus while on the train, we talked a little about the church and she gave me her address so the sisters can bring her a Book of Mormon. So maybe it was meant to be?

When I got to Brasov, I got to the senior couples' apartment but wasn't sure which number to ring to be let in so I looked in my planner for their address and I had written down the WRONG address. So I called the jessees in Arad and told them my problem. They tried to call the Van Noy's but couldn't get ahold of them. But I eventually found their right address in another planner so I rung their apt. and noone was there. By then it was around 8 at night so I thought "they'll be home soon, I'll just take a walk around and then they'll be home when I come back." My walk was nice, I saw a member I wasn't expecting to see and we had a good talk. I just love centru here in Brasov. I got back around 9:30, rung the VanNoy's apt. AGAIN and nobody answered. So I started ringing other apt's, thinking maybe the Van Noys had turned off their intercom. People were SOO mean. They would get on and say really snippy things- of which I'm trying to forget so I'm not going to write them. After 4 such conversations, someone FINALLY let me in. I went to the van noy's door and OF COURSE noone was there. So I called the jessees AGAIN and just as I hung up the phone, the VanNoy's stepped out of the elevator (by then it was around 10pm). I was so glad to see them. Heavenly Father hears our prayers!!

Branch Picnic

Saturday was the branch picnic in Arad and I'm so glad that I was lucky enough to still be here for it. They had about 70 people there, including lots of investigators and inactives. My favorite thing to do was to stand on the sidelines and watch these wonderful people working together and having fun together. There were people there I thought would NEVER participate in another church activity again. MIRACLES HAPPEN!!! These truly are the lords MOST CHOSEN saints and it breaks my heart to think of leaving them again. Here is me with Amalia- she was baptized about a month ago and she is also a special education teacher.

Alexandra came to our english classes two years ago, we started teaching her and a year later she was baptized. She is the most molly mormon girl in this branch.

THE MINCH!!!

Here's Johnny. He and his son Edi were quite the punks before they joined the church (there's pictures of them passed out drunk on their walls) By the way Tyler- Edi still remembers me- he just didn't see us that day. But now, he is at the door every sunday morning about a half hour before church starts to greet people. I love seeing him!
Here's some typical Sora Lidia/Sora Bingham relationship pictures. She teases me by trying to make me do stuff I don't want to do and thinks it's great. But I LOVE her for it. And at least they didn't make me eat it.

I think her face is this picture is just classic.

Me and Sora Lidia with the minch!!!! The thought that it was almost forced down my throat makes me gag
Gabi is the awesomest eternal investigator EVER. He's got some secret job doing something special for the government and nobody really knows exactly what it is. Because of that, he travels alot and can't come to church every week. But he's really strong he can take down ANY elder in 3 seconds, cooks excellently and is the nicest person ever.
Me with 2 of my most favorite women in Romania. Sora Mogos and Sora Krista. Sora Mogos has the jerk husband and continues to come to church despite strong opposition from him. Both of them were sealed to their husbands in the temple and now their husbands are inactive. It's so sad, but they are both so strong and continue to be so faithful and so happy. They are some of my greatest examples.
Sora Lidia was taking lots of pictures of me so of course she had to take one of her DOG. She's obsessed with this dog. It even had a foot operation- something unheard of for an animal in Romania.

With Fratele Bunatean and Sora Lidia's husband. I always forget his name si I just call him "the husband" (even when I'm saying hi to him).

Branch Picnic #3

Fratele Mogos, the nicest jerk in Romania (seriously). You can't see it but here he's got four chocolate bars and I've got one. Typical.











Diana from Deva is the cute little girl in the red. She's in some of my previous posts. I love her new haircut. The girl behind her is Simona, she has the most amazing voice!! and she sings in english without an accent- there's talent for you. I love hearing her sing to the guitar- it's one of my favorite things









This is an adorable little investigator boy from Deva. He comes to church, all the activities, etc by himself without his parents! Talk about chosen. I've got a really good "going to the bathroom story" about him I could use as blackmail someday. HAHAHA










These two little girls were so worried about this kitten. They found it and kept trying to feed it salami, oh the poor thing.