tall green trees, conference, Busteni

From August 19, 2015

The past week was really epic.

We had a solid time meeting up with Marian and his wife Monica. Marian is awesome. We had an incredible lesson with him last week. President Ivory invited us over to the K. Nelson's place (office senior couple) along with Marian and his wife Monica.  Elder Everton and I set up with them to go out and meet President and then go over to dinner with him, and we would be there ASAP after english class. So we did, there was also another local couple there from the Panduri branch (Simona and Romulus, Simona just got baptized my first transfer here). It was incredible. President was talking with us and we decided we would prep to share on Temples and eternal perspective, especially with families. It was pretty intense and went in a lot of different directions than first expected. Like President brought up Baptisms for the Dead, and it affected M a lot. She asked some awesome questions about her father that she previously thought he was lost spiritually because he’s dead.. Marian was pretty solid against it for a bit, and he and R were getting pretty riled up.  Then everyone just started to chill out and a few people bore amazing testimony. It was powerful. And I talked about Dad and his example to me and the difference our family has had since he was baptized and we were sealed in the temple. It really got to me, man!  It really showed the power of sincere testimony.  It brought the peace and spirit of God. It was incredible.

We visited Sora Gorzo twice this week and got super fatted up by a bunch of incredible Romanian grub. 

It was cool. But like I was working out pretty hard and this week I just let lose and went hard munching everything...but super worth it.

We had an amazing mission conference up in the wilderness of Busteni. The bus ride was pretty hectic, but so incredibly worth it. 

We did a cool little hike up to this waterfall. Half way we posted up at this big bend and listened to some well-prepared musical numbers and some wisdom spoken by some awesome missionaries. During the music I was just in awe of looking around at all the beautiful tall green trees and the incredible sound of soft rain. I was in my element and I was soaking it all in. 

The waterfall wasn't like super huge or anything but still beautiful. These mountains are so amazing it kills me to leave them unexplored. 

We then got dressed up and went to this super cool castle and explored it. It was awesome because they had this Salvador Dali exhibit up and I was loving it. Then we ate dinner in the basement restaurant and.. oh my!

President and Sora Ivory went all out for us and I am so so grateful. It was incredible and everyone was so happy. It was crazy to see so many people at the same place. I saw some good friends. I finally saw Elders Dronyk and Weis.. I haven't seen them in forever! 

The conference itself was super sick.  I learned so much and Sora Ivory threw it down with some knowledge  coming from DC 88:14,34-35,67-68 then kicked it over to 93:36-37. I loved it! 

My new comp is the man. Elder S. He's from N Carolina and is hilarious. He has had a pretty crazy life with losing his mom, and being raised by his brother at 12 years old. His bro was 22, freshly married, just got baptized and sacrificed a lot to raise him. We talked about a bunch of stuff last night it was great just to break the barrier and get to know each other a little bit already. He has a good will to work and teach, also has a nice balance of being himself, working hard and laughin, so we are going to do good solid work.

We are about to dive into the scriptures together as a mission and I am pretty stoked on that. It'll be really good for me to read the BoM again in Romanian and for the mission to learn some more of the good word of God. It will be amazing for all to be reading it together as a mission and with our families who accepted the challenge. You ALL should read!

Life is awesome. Thanks to all for being friends and family.

- Elder Boydstun

capn crunch son. DUNKLEY

From August 10, 2015

So. the week.

It was a little bit slower I guess, but still radical.

It's been pretty hot, and advanced students for english are busy or gone. One friend is moving to the Netherlands. That sounds pretty cool.

There is this cool family that moved here. They work for the embassy. I might have mentioned them last week. But I figured.. there has to be a commissary at the embassy right? it's like the air force base back home.. and that was the only place you could get G-shock watches for cheap and Popeyes Chicken.

So I called him, with an actual question about this American dude named Ron we met.. but it ended up that he bought some CAPN CRUNCH WITH CUNCH BERRIES for me. You already know I ate 3 bowls of it the first night. 

Absolutely divine. and they finally changed the back of the box for the first time in like 5 years, I swear!

We had a cool chance to meet up with another OG member, Manuescu. The dude is real nice and lives in a cool part of the center of the city. He has a 100 year old house that was taken away from his wife's family during communism, but they won it back now. 

He's super big, makes great homemade juice, and talks a lot. But he talks about cool stuff so it was awesome. He was very friendly. He has a huge library and said all the books are his best friends.  I asked him if he would write his testimony on how the restored gospel has changed his life. Pres Ivory mentioned we do this, and it was really cool. He was stoked on it and willing so I will go swoop that up and probably talk about some more wisdom later this week.

We had a cool lesson with M. Explaining God's plan of salvation and the importance to understand our potential, our divine nature, and where we go after this life. Well it was about all of it, but he is super read in the bible and when I used the bible to explain some stuff he never heard before he was kinda defensive at first. But then testimony came in really strong. So it was like "Hey man, this stuff is true. I know it. God loves you way too much to limit you. Pray about it yourself, and you'll find the answers. It's true, go and get it."  It was the most powerful part of the lesson. The power of testimony, man.

Then he was cool and really stoked about life. He says he wants to get baptized on the 26th of September, but he will probably do so earlier than that. Which is cool. He is a true seeker of Christ and really just wants to follow His will. It's another start for him to come closer to God and keep being awesome.

My son, D...came back. He is awesome.The kid I trained back in the day... made it back. oh and he is staying in Bucharest right across the street from me :) woooo it's so so sick. He's the man and I'm stoked. 

Crazy how fast time just keeps flying by. It's already going too fast. but I am giving myself a good re-commitment weekly as we plan. 

Planning is so important I feel. when you plan then you can do all you can and exercise you faith instead of just wandering lost and hoping someway, somehow you'll find your way and everything will come to pass because "you should receive blessings". 

Maybe true but they will be 1000000000x more real and better when you keep going and being aware.

Life is great. It's hot. I need to clean my apartment and buy some grub so I don't die this week.

God is good. 

va multumesc,

- elder boydstun

Be where you are when you're there.

From August 3, 2015

Just want you all to know...

This week... we got kissed. We were down in Piata Sudului putting up english posters. This random girl jumped in front of me and says "ce faci!? de unde esti? cati ani ai?" I answered.. then this other lady comes up to us talking about how she went to Germany and met the church and really enjoyed it and wanted to come here. While trying to talk to this woman about the good word of God, this young female straight up kissed us.. on the cheeks, so not as epic and more missionary appropriate. But like whoa! That was crazy. We just brushed it off like it happens all the time and continued talking to the lady. Then the girl pinched my booty on her way away, hahaha. What the heck! I could barely hold in laughing, but the woman interested in the good word was super chill and it didn't phase her...super weird

Anyway, we still got the ladies number and that was a real cool experience. Thought I'd start out with a real attention grabber. 

Europe!

This week was awesome. We went pretty hard and had a lot of fun meeting some cool Bucuresteni. 

Saturday we were walking to the church and there were a bunch of cops outside. So we are all "dang man they are gonna bust us.” because cops don’t always like missionaries. Then these guys walk in the gate of the church.. so then we're wondering what we (members) really did. An old member guy walks out the church and meets them, so we totally avoid the awkward confrontation with gaborii.. but to our surprise as we walk in we get a whiff of an awful stench of wet gnarly dankness, we look to our left.. astonished... we notice about half a meter of water sitting inside the church at the bottom of the stairs by the door to the exit. I was annihilated the night before and did not realize that it rained hardcore. And the church was landscaped wonderfully so all the water from the huge field next to it goes right up against it to some small drains (much sarcasm). For real there was a lot of water, and English class started in t-minus 30 minutes. So we take some photos, call some people.. some corrupt worker guys came with a huge truck with a pump, asked some really hard questions and then left because we didn't pay them straight up right there. haha

We thought we'd spend the whole night bucketing it out, but luckily there was a small pump we got going hard and got it all out before church the next day. So all we had to do was some extreme mopping and moving some tables out of this super soaked closet under the stairs.

It was great. The senior couples were stoked that we helped and offered to feed us an incredible dinner the next night :) yay! 

We met up with Marian this week and it was awesome. He is the coolest, nicest dude ever. He asked really good questions as we had him read some radical scriptures this week. He's really searching to follow Christ, and now has a desire to understand the Book of Mormon along with the Bible and the importance of the restoration, and the joy it brings to us. He had questions about baptism and it was hard for me because he is so sincere and his faith is real. He was baptized a baby in the Orthodox church and then said that was dumb and it wasn't really his choice, so he got baptized again at 18... now he is asking if he needs to get baptized again, because he doesn't want to just keep doing it as he chose to be a true follower of Christ at that point and has done so. Now he just wants to keep following him and loves that we invite him to come to Christ instead of just "to us".

But it was hard for me to answer, because   know that doing so with faith and a change of heart is the most important part, but I know the authority has to be there as well... 

He loves that we invite him to Christ, not just to "come follow us". We are stoked for him.We are going to work on a baptismal date for him this upcoming week. He's the man. He is eager and truly trying to follow Christ. Which is awesome and will be a huge example for many.

The Comp and I are great. We’re trying to get ripped these last two weeks of the transfer. And we work super hard as missionaries. it's going to be awesome. The kid I trained back in Arad is coming back out on the Mission WEDNESDAY! I am so so so stoked! He's the man and I am glad he is coming back. it's going to be awesome because he comes to stay in Bucuresti. We will literally be neighbors, it's the best. 

Life is good. bought some new pants to replace my old diesel jeans i've had for 4 years. ripped the crotch. sorry :)

We met up with these Members back from '92.. basically right as the missionaries came out here. It was cool to hear their conversion story. 

Back then the BoM was only translated in selections, with tons of language mistakes and stuff. They talk about how it was all the spirit. They came to church, and it was just a small room in a school.. They left thinking what are we doing here? Told the missionaries they didn't want to meet anymore. The missionaries were understanding and just gave them a scripture and asked them to pray together. Since then they could never deny the spirit and their faith of the restored gospel. It was awesome. Through all their hardcore trials they stick to it.

Last thing,

I've been praying for a while that my desire to have awesome studies would come back deep again and when I do have studies that I will be shown/given wisdom so I can better understand Christ's gospel and help other people around me, no matter how. 

I had a cool small conversation with a real good friend, Elder Chase Minor (Italy)... he helped me come back to myself and ask questions and seek to understand. 

I read in 2 nephi 28.. especially verses 26-30. and listened to "An Educated Conscience".. then it came to me.

When we pray, do we take it as a chance to council with God? I mean.. Do we take the time to allow the Lord to counsel with us? We ask, we thank, we plead etc. but do we listen? Do we give ourselves the chance to receive what he wants to give us? 

And once we listen we have to commit ourselves to these "personal commandments" he gives us. 

I've forgotten this at times, and I'm so stoked I've come back to remembering. There is a real difference when you commit.

As I've always said.. Trust God.. you'll be where you need to be. Where He needs you to be. You'll be who you need to become. You will notice a difference

I love it. God is good!

Be where you are when you are there! Be present. Live life or it's going to be gone before you realize it.

LOVE 

- Elder Boydstun

misto

From July 28, 2015

Hey

This week has been really epic.

Marian is this cool dude we met last week and he is super hyped on following Christ and making positive changes to his life. So we instantly became BROS. and he is way wise with the bible and throws it down. it's awesome. He came to church and made friends with a ton of cool people.

We adventured this week out to the national soccer arena and it was sick. We found a cool park with random cannon things in it. 

We went on exchange out to Craiova, south west Romania. We woke up at 4am to catch a train at like 5 something. it's a two man city so we just slayed it with english contacting and went to the sickest park ever. This place had a zoo in the park. Unreal

But for real, it was blazing hot. Pants and tight collars don't go well in Romanian summer man! 

On our way back.. the train times were awful so we had to get one at like 5pm, it was 30 mins late and our wagon was filled with little kids and no A/C. I passed out for like an hour, woke up super sweaty and just stoked cause this place is insane.

The best part comes next... 

Like 30 minutes later, the train overheats and breaks down in the middle of butt-crack nowhere. Serious, a huge field of corn on one side, and dirt on the other. We just thought it was another random pointless stop that these romanian trains make, but no.. this bad boy was busted for like 2 hours. So we got outside and sat on the tracks getting roasted by the sun. It was super refreshing to get out of the train outside to the fresh air. so much cooler outside.

But yeah.. we were supposed to get home at 7:30 and got home at 10:30.

ROMANIA MAN, HECK YEAH! 

We met a cool guy from California though. We just randomly hear this super american accent laugh at something we said then ask where we are from, we just turn around mind-blown and talk to this guy for a while. 

The next 3 days E. Everton and I are going hard on this 3 day smoothie detox, and it's gnarly already. going to be phenomenal after though.

Life is good. God is Good! Gotta go explore a museum and then deliever some flowers to a cool old lady!

LOVE.

- Elder Boydstun

caldura in iulie

From July 20, 2015

My friends,

What's up?

This week has been really solid in terms of missionary work.

It's incredibly hot though so that is a drag, but summer in Romania.. so it makes up for it with awesomeness. 

Also the fact that I bought a blender. Best purchase of my life probably. I just throw down smoothies daily. 

Also the fan in my apartment is busted so it's hot just like a volcano everywhere. 

Nothing like being incredibly hot outside then getting on a bus and having sweaty humans, smelly old dudes and no air flow. Usually the buses have the windows opened, but if it's filled with old traditional Romanians they get way to caught up on the mythical "Curent" and that if there is more than one window open we are for sure getting deathly ill. So then you're just pray traffic isn't bad and rejoice in the outside air and temperature drop of like 10 degrees.  

Or trying to get to a metro entrance and get the phenomenal gust of wind. 

We had a cool meeting with Pres. Ivory, Iachimov and Nadiman this week. The APs, STLs, and we (ZLs) taught them the Restoration and they critiqued us and helped us out. There's a big push for getting  a lot better at teaching the Restoration. Then we had MLC with all ZLs and STLs, which was sick to see all the homies, but the meeting itself was incredible. President was dropping jokes. One of his friends came out and presented and was awesome. These guys… are so filled with knowledge. 

Pretty solid turning point for me in my mish. Teaching wise. It's so much more interesting. I love applying it to people, having awesome conversations and either way helping someone improve their life, even if it's just having a different and postiive view of God.

Anyways, we met a sick dude named Marian after english who is super interested in meetin up with us so we are stoked. 

Our english class is incredible. We are teaching the advanced students. I was prepared to talk about traveling and super heros or something like that as things usually go... then these guys introduce themselves; a psychologist, a phyicist, an engineer etc.. then they are trying to talk about astronomy and their hobbies and were "Sharing ideas" and stuff. It was incredible!

So yeah, life is good. Love God, drink smoothies and appreciate the sunshine!

LOVE YOU

- Elder Boydstun

esti roman?

From July 13, 2015

yo yo yo!

So, this past week has been awesome. Didn't get a chance to email last week to say anything, but it was a good week too. Did some awesome exploring around some really cool parts of Buch. Went into this parking garage filled with graffiti and met some cool guy. 

​We went out to the Brunaru family outside of Buch a little bit. Had some of the best ardei umpluti ever made. oh my..

Elder Lybbert packed up and left to Calgary, eh?  And it was a good time we had that last week. Picked up Elder Everton and we are homies. It's awesome. We work hard and then basically a laugh fest all day.

Things have been so killer. Mihai Bravu is cool, more Romanian vibe than Panduri. Fratele Brunaru was there to speak and refers to me as Micutule now (little one), it's dope.  The new area is incredible. The branch is really cool, more open and seems more Romanian. Ya know, no pews, different characters in the branch and not so high class. Panduri is awesome, just intimidating to some in a sense, but I am glad I made the friends I did there. My new comp is incredible. We are BROS. He's from Idaho. Nobody took our place in Panduri 'cause we pretty much lost a companionship in Bucuresti. We are down missionaries in general throughout the mish. Work is going well. Members are cool and i've had some cool experiences. 

We went to Sora Gorzo's place on Sunday. She fed us and is the coolest grandma ever. She's super tight with missionaries and randomly throws in stuff she's learned like "what's up dog?" and stuff. it's awesome. I'll send a pic

I've been trying to be as Romanian as possible recently and it rocks. Just picking up on all the little things Romanians do when they speak and such. I've been asked if I'm Romanian like 5 times recently and it makes me soo stoked. Greatest compliment man, I promise!  

This is how we do with NO Native companions. 

Had a cool meeting with this guy who got his papers stolen in Italy and moved back to Romania. He had an intense dream of Christ opening his door and asking "You're still here?".  Then he moved back here to Romania, got helped out hardcore by a cool member and missionaries found him a job. He's sure that he went there to find the gospel and had to come back to do some work here. He's awesome and it's cool to see small miracles and stuff that happen all the time. God works in mysterious ways but it always goes according to plan. 

Life is good. God is good. 

love you all

- Elder Boydstun

Craziness. changing apartments.

From July 6, 2015

Whats Up?

This week has been awesome in Bucharest. 
I'm getting moved to the Mihai Bravu Branch. I'm getting Elder Everton.  We were in the same district in Sibiu. It's going to be cool.  I am stoked!  I'm a little bummed to leave Panduri because it's incredible, but I'll still be around. Still ZL We are basically replacing a companionship because an elder went home and one is going to Arad.  There won't be a companionship to replace me in Panduri since Elder L is going home, too. 

I am going to get in shape with Elder E and do good work. It'll be way fun. We are pretty tight already.

There are tons of missionaries leaving right now, like 15 or something. A decent sized group coming in though, it'll be awesome. 

America is pretty legit! I forgot what it's really like back there. 

Sorry if my email is short today. We have a crazy next few days changing apartments. saying bye. etc. 

Love

-Elder Boydstun 

Love peace and MICI grease

From June 29, 2015

I have been bad at journal writing this week so my memories on all the small ridiculous things isn't the best right now.

But I have a few stories.

We did a bunch of service this week helping Pres Iachimov (in dist presidency now) move a ton of old boxes of stuff in the attic of the church. Seriously so much stuff haha. Like one dude probably needed a book and they somehow received 3 boxes full of em and just put them up there. 

Super solid that we live like right across the street from the church though. 

Metro travel is tedious at times.

We were on our way home one night and I thought we for sure left our keys at the church. I had thought Elder Lyb had em, so I was all bummed and we went back to the church and ended up doing some organizing and decorating, typical corkboard stuff you see at churches w/ activities etc. Then Iachimov asked us to move some real gnarly furniture in this super sketch van and drive it out to his new home with him. Fratele Fotea came and he is so so sick. Used to be a "hip hopper" and is super into rap. He's hilarious too, energy to the MAX. 

Anyways, lets say I was in the sketchiest neighborhood of Bucuresti at like 9pm with these guys. and nobody messed with us.

haha it was like the outside part of Ferentari. supposedly dangerous. But it is sick to say i went there, at night, like a man.

We had zone training this week. lit the place on fire. E Brown and I did some incredible improv in front of the whole zone with E Brundage as a presentation on being present in the moment. It was sick

Also presented some FIRE about involving the Lord more in planning/goal setting and stuff. I was all nervous a day before and trying to figure out what we were going to say, then it all came into place and we were just throwin ideas between us and the crowd. Most everyone said they really enjoyed it, so I was happy. President Ivory basically gave us no direction on what was going down and left it up to us so we just organized it and threw it down. It went incredible. 

Meet the Mormons showing was awesome too. Nicusor is this cool less-active guy that we've been befriending pretty hardcore. He's way cool and jams violin at a nice restaurant for a job, also sets up sound systems for events. So we went through him and got him all types of involved. We joked around about some ridiculous conspiracy theories he brought up about the churches looking like space ships and how Ioan saw this in revelation. It was a good time, he loved the film. It was a quality showing, not too many people but those who came enjoyed it big time. He came to church. He was stoked. Life is beautiful out here in Buc. 

Elders in the office got super sick. E Allphin got some gnarly worm inside him. 5 incher, Change your water filters, my friends. Everyone's good now though 

We celebrated the 4th of July today, it was awesome. BBQ'd hardcore with all the Bucharest missionaries and played a bunch of sports, volleyball, soccer, frisbee, etc. We did some improve and ate some watermelon. It was awesome. Nothin like playing in the sun. and not wearing pants for a while, haha.

Cool senior couples that are real still and great examples, almost parents but mostly friends that work along with you are great in the mission.  Think about it before you're too old, man! Recounting my day in my prayers. like a report, repenting daily and striving to be better and expressing needed help. helps ya stay on your toes to be more awesome daily. 

Recounting my day in my prayers. Like a report, repenting daily and striving to be better and expressing needed help. Helps ya stay on your toes to be more awesome daily. Try it...

Life is fun. 

Enjoy life, your other options kinda suck! 

(stole that from my old man)

LOVE

- Elder Boydstun

"Every man dies, but not every man truly lives" — William Wallace

From June 22, 2015

Hey sorry, today has been insane so I am gonna be a bit short.

Interviews with President Ivory this week were incredible. The man is so cool. We had a good conversation and he shared some solid ideas with me. It's great when you open up with him and he starts treating you like a friend. 

We found these sick Toastmaster groups out here in Bucharest. Basically they are international groups of public speaking and leadership. Like just a group of interesting people teaching and learning together. It's going to be incredible.

I had an exchange with Elder Cernat (Johnny from Sibiu). He is my Romanian bro out here and we are really tight. We did all types of Romanian, went to a big sketchy flea market thing, made some Ciorba and prepared for these two incredible Baptisms that went on in Panduri this week. 

The flea market is the Piata de Vechituri and everyone just sells random stuff. Especially gypsies with tables full of jewelry. 

Mugurel is so solid. He's been taught for a while, quit smoking and is a happy dude. He reminds me of Ace Venture but really chill, haha.

Simona was the other baptism. She is the girlfriend of a member and is stoked on temple marriage. I don't really know her much but she seemed really happy and her boyfriend is a cool guy! 

I had another exchange with AP, Elder Br. It was dope. We talked about paradigms and cool doctrine and it was incredible. We got bunged and a referral didn't answer. But we made the day awesome anyways. 

My BROOO from Camaroon came to church. He looked so fresh in a pink shirt and slacks. His dreads were pulled back and all!   

We have Zone training this week and lots of stuff to focus on. Lots of planning and correlating, it's going to be great. I am excited.  

Anyways, sorry this email isn't so epic. We have to plan some really great stuff for this week so I have to go look up some deep stuff so I can prepare to lift minds and make zone training amazing.  I want the spirit to be palpable. 

I love you all.

"Of all sad words of mouth or pen, the saddest are these: it might have been."

- John Greenleaf Whittier

- Elder Boydstun

Pic salata de boeuf

From June 15, 2015

YO

Things are stepping up for my boy Elder L and me.

We had a cool lesson with a member couple. After a year he just got made 1st counselor in the Branch presidency. He is pretty high up in the Police force or something here and has a really nice place. They fed us a 3 course meal and had some amazing conversation.

There is this video being made by this cool film crew for our english classes to better advertise - Cerc and Timu or something like that. They are hilarious and critique our accents real nice. So yeah, we got filmmed in Romanian and English. Things are real weird when you have a camera in front of you but are acting like you aren't looking at it, haha. I wore a really psychadelic tie that day too so it's going to be incredible when it comes out  across the mission. Sorry everyone...

We set this rule for ourselves, with this new international thing. We talk to lots of people but, everytime we see international looking we make sure we open our mouths. It was blazing hot and I didn't see these dudes, but Elder Lybbert did. Ends up they are cool and from Cameroon. They want to play soccer with us and they are homies with the dope less-active guy we have been meeting with. One of them only spoke french. Told him "my name is.." and that's as far as my french goes. Said goodbye I guess haha. 

Went to this traditional restaurant called Caru' cu Bere. when we first got there it was packed with these loud asian tourists but after they left it was so sick. Live classical music and solid traditional food. 

Things are so good though right now. We are meeting some new people. I became homies with this dope Tongan guy playing rugby out here. He was a missionary in Tonga and doesn't speak english really well, but we are broooooss. He was talking about how he just balls super hard and can go harder/faster/stronger than his team mates and how its from the blessings of God and keepin himself healthy. Raising the bar, he said. His name is Poe. 

Today was incredible. I woke up at 4:30 to send out this e-mail to the zone.. then we caught a 7am train with some guys in the district out to Sinaia and hiked some Transylvanian peaks. It was soo incredible. We got rained on, got lost a little and got up to this peak by this small ski resort. There was just a bunch of old dudes hangin out and some random dogs living it up out there. There was this cabin restaurant that we posted up at. A guy was going hard grilling all types of meat and stuff, so we grubbed. E Brundage jammed some guitar and we had an incredible time. Nothin like going from concrete, taxis, and blocs to green groves of trees and mountains only after an hour train ride. There were these epic downhill mountain biking trails and some really gnarly guys going mach 10 down.

There was also this incredible discovery on the way.. an abandoned bobsled course. We adventured  up it.

So I guess you could say I was in a piece of paradise today. 

Life is incredible.
​

God is good. Be faithful. Attack your day.   

Lives remaining: zero   

Love, Elder Boydstun

         

 

French dudes, trajectory

From June 8, 2015

fam and friends,

Things are goin. Meeting lots of foreign people.

A French guy on the metro invited us to this international frisbee club thing here in Buch. So we're going to go play and make a ton of friends.

Also there are some sick guys from Ausralia that play rugby out here. We have to go to one of their games! They are all huge and cool. Three of them are members. 

A cool guy from Camaroon named J… that was like a refugee and has been here for 3 years. He is so sick. Dreads, rasta shirt and all. The guy is such a BRO! He is a member too and is going to introduce us to some other sick Africans and play some fotbollllllll! 

We did a lot of exploring this week. This place is huge.. trams to metros to busses walking and exloring all the huge colorful parks. All these international schools.

Went into a Cismigiu (cool park) and Elder L went hard yo-yo'ing and I just talked to people. It was good stuff. 

And we annihilated the city with posters for our english class. some random old dude came up to us super mad that we were American and just throwin out jabs like "all of your stuff is imported" and that nobody can be fluent by the end of our 4 week english course. What the heck, man I'm just trying to help people! He continues with "you guys just get rejected all the time" hahaha it was the best random argument ever.

I am still grillin, Elder Johnson has this electric grill so I am still on my game. 

We had a meeting with Zone Leaders and Pres. Ivory. Talked about some real amazing stuff. Talked about eternal priniciples and habits that when you apply them, you increase your trajectory incrementally and reach an awesome life. It's good stuff.

Learn, apply

teach, and serve!

Church was cool. Some guy from France was visiting so I translated stuff for him. There is a seperate English sunday school and it is crazy. All kinds of languages being tossed around. Romanians, a Korean family, some french guys. 

It was awesome.

Also a new Branch Presidency was made, the old District President is now the BP and some guy opposed him and it was the first time I've ever seen that!

This week will be grand. Meeting new people to introduce to the gospel and havin fun doing it.

So Life is great. Sun is shinin, the weather is sweet... yeah.

Love you,

Elder Boydstun

Here's a grand photo some guy passed out at the park after playing sports with some Romanians.

city slicker

From June 1, 2015

Transfer week.. bunch of madness.

We got out of Sibiu on Tuesday and got into Buc that night. I'll FOREVER love Sibiu.. I'm gonna miss it so much. But this place man, I guess I'm just a city kid now.

No more slow speakin Sibieni, these people speak mach 12 and it's full of character. Bucharest, the big city is incredible. It's insane.. so busy and fast but endless possibilities. The new apartment is dumpy but not too bad. The bed is smaller and less comfy.. but it's still all good. The old guys left it kinda messy cause a missionary across the mission went home for health and there was some emergency transfer. So it was kinda just left, but we are workin on it.

My new comp is Elder Lybbert. Canadian from the rockies..well, Calgary. He is awesome and a yo-yo wizard. He is a ZL pro and is teachin me the ropes of this ZL stuff. It is cool. I like being able to inspire and help people. We have some solid plans and goals we just set off to the zone, so it's going to be incredible. We are trying to get everyone really stoked. We've also been planning out some gnarly games we are going to get the whole zone in on so everyone is havin fun while being awesome missionaries and spreadin da love!  This place (Bucaresti/Panduri) is nice and we have so many tools and organization.. so different for me, haha. I was in awe for like 2 days.

This weekend was district conference here in Bucuresti. A few other cities came down as well. Alexandria, Ploiesti. It was nuuuuts…a grand day! It was so nostalgic seeing an actual church chapel that is clean and organized and I didn't have to lead any meetings and there were litterally 210 people there for the conference. Usually there's about 70 here in Panduri but this conference just went all out. Elder Rena from Spain came and he was so cool. Kinda looked like a cartoon character and was sick. They have these headsets they pass out to all the international people (those who speak english basically) and there is someone translating from Romanian to English most every meeting. This one was nutso though cause Elder Rena is up there going1200 miles an hour speakin Spanish (sorry bros in S. America, just not a fan of the language... :) compared to romanian at least) and a lady is translating to Romanian and the translator dude is a boss and translating his 3rd language (spanish) into his 2nd (English). It was cool.

And there are these dudes from Nigeria that go to school in Constanta, by the sea, and they came and are super fresh and I made some cool friends. Shedrack is the man, I sat by him and talked to em. 

We had Meet the Mormons premire, it was really epic too. Lots of cool stuff. It was legit, like 300 people came. Lots of cool people and a lady straight up told Elder Cernat (Johnny from Sibiu that we ordained an elder and is serving a mini-mission and now turned in his full time papers, too) she wanted to join our church. It was sick!! I had to separate the sisters from some creepy dude though, so I tried to be friends with him... but a little bit of a bummer I didn't get to meet someone way cool.

Check this out though, after the film there was a CAR SHOW outside the mall place. Ohh my, reminded me of home town childhood life. Old american cars and cool funk being played from a bus in front, a raffle to win an 80s corvette, and an impala on bags barely off the ground. It was incredlble. I was just losing my mind about it. good stuff..... 

We are going to play some volleyball today so that'll be incredible. I've been playing b ball with people out here already. I put work on Elder Laititi on transfer day, how it used to be back in Sibiu my first transfer there, haha. But Elder Allphin is a baller! The kid was on the Lone Peak national team so he just rains on everyone, it's amazing. 

Drawing on powers of heaven is incredible. We're applying it again, so it's going to be amazing. Elder L feels super strong he needs to find someone still since he is in his last transfer (another kill for me, crazy I know). 

It's so real I luv it :)

Life is good. I've been reading more good books recently. Thanks mom for "The Blueprint of Christ's Church" it is good stuff.

Summer is here. Time to get gnarly and do something amazing with our lives.

My fondest farewell to Elder Perry. He was a giant of a man, wasn't he?

LOVE,

Elder Boydstun

adio sibiu. forza zu!

This weekend was pretty miraculous

The weather is getting waaarm and it's been so solid. 

Zoo; conference; concert; transfer...

We had a cool time. We got some friends and went out to the zoo. It is a pretty cool zoo. The lions were going wild and I gave some baboons popcorn. Those things are straight up freaks! But the little baby baboon there was awesome. 

The hugest concert in all of Romania was in Sibiu this week. The stage was enormous and pretty much every star of Romanian music was there. It's called Forza ZU, and they hold it once a year. All of centru, piata mare, was filled. Probably 10k people there no joke haha.  A cool member kid from Ploiesti was here so we went with him for just a little bit. I went to go rain dance english cards to everyone in the crowd. It was epic haha. Romanians love music. There was this one group of like Romanian bon jovi/aerosmith, it was hilarious cause everyone just went insane. 

We did some hard preperation for branch conference. ya know... cleaning and trying to mow the lawn... but lame european electric mowers ruin the day, and busted extention cords. But we did have a miraculous turn out. (and I made some soooollllidd chili that everyone was stoked on after all the meetings and stuff.) We set this goal to get 23 people at church outside of us 6 missionaries, it was a pretty solid goal. My brother Gray sent me a book for my b-day called Drawing on the Powers of Heaven. It talks about setting goals and accomplishing righteous desires, I totally followed it and used faith hardcore this last week to accomplish a goal of getting 23 people (outside of missionaries) at sacrament meeting. We average 15-16 with missionaries. So that's double and some. I set the direct, distinct goal. Set the plans/resolves of how to accomplish it. I set out the help we needed from the Lord, and the commitments to be worthy to receive it...being obedient and praying distinctly for the goal to come to pass. Help being to soften hearts and prepare teachers/speakers etc. It worked!!!! We had 23 people exactly when sacrament started, including an investigator, two english students I invited, and 2 random Americans working in Romania and a member from Ploiesti and one from Cluj. It was craaaazzy when I realized it. Also, By the end of sacrament we had 36-38 people there. That's almost triple our average!! yayyayglh;oawtgaio;erh!!!!

God is good! He made it happen!

Sooo epic. I was losing it, I was just so hyped. Because that left them all hearing some solid messages. I got to speak, and I tried to call everyone to Jesus. It was the best. For real, this is THE path. DO IT. You're only going to get eternal happiness, no biggie. It just makes me happy to see other people get stoked and start learning a lot of really awesome stuff. It's all about the love! 

Elder Smith (Sr) came and it was awesome. We are pretty tight. He is such a solid friend. He has helped me so much on my mission. I just want to get as much wisdom from the guy as possible. He has the whitest hair ever, he has to be a wise guy.

And... I got released as BP... It is time for my comp Pres. (Elder) Kennedy to take over. Anyways, Elder Kennedy is the new BP. He is gonna kill it and do good work. He's going to grow a lot too, haha.  e randul tau amiculeeeee! 

This place was the BEST and most insane thing that has ever happened to me. I love it so much, ahh. I'm going to miss it and these people... all friends!

oh yeah,

PS.. I am getting transferred to Bucuresti. I am out to the big city.  I will be with Elder Lybertt, he is from Canada and I'll be in the Panduri branch.. I hear he is awesome, so I am stoked. It's going to be insane going from tripping out and planning Sundays to go well and asking people to speak etc.. to a branch of like 70 people and stuff. 

I am going to be a zone leader or whatever now.  Basically I just want people to get stoked on life and have fun working hard this summer, making friends and teaching em about the sickest message/life ever. I guess I am also in district with the office elders and APs, which will be sick since there are some serious homies there! I'm in this new International district.. so I guess I work with a lot of people from outside of Romania that live there now. Like these Malaysians that came up to Sibiu with President Ivory. 

Buc life is about to get crazy! Summer will be epic. I'm going to miss friends that go back home this transfer... it was real. 

Life is good. God is real and he wants you to be saved. 

Get some spiritual healing this week and turn outward. It is the best.

va iubesc pe toti

iubesc Sibiu

iubesc Romania

- Elder Boydstun

Road Trippin

From May 18, 2015

It was so awesome to talk (Skype) to you guys. You all make me happy. 

I have been learning a lot. Lots of balance between justice and mercy. Leading by example and trying to lovingly push people to improve.  

This week was so sick.

The rain at the beginning was a bummer.

But I got to skype the FAM. Soooo coool man. They're so awesome. I was stoked to see em and talk. And hear all their crazy pronunciations of Romanian cities and what not. Incredible :)

I love you guys!

I guess I'll share some stories.

There's this member Gogu. Typical Romanian in believing in this mystical disease thing called "Curent". There are many rules to avoiding this perilous illness. One is by stuffing your ears with cotton. But most importantly, you must never have two or more windows open at the same time. One is fine, but as soon as that second one opens.. you are doomed. You are pretty much required to freak out and tell everyone why you are running around complaining and shutting windows. The airflow causes many problems like headaches, jaw aches, spinal problems etc.

But check this out. This dude comes in wearing pieces of WOOL taped on his back and on his shirt. Like literally slabs of lamb skins. I ask him why he has so much raw wool on his back and he blames Curent. 

The best is when you just say okay and accept the weirdness, then he starts trying to explain himself really hardcore as if I thought he was insane. Incredible.

The APs came up to stay with us. It was the bomb. I watched the craziest lightening storm take over the city from my window waiting for them to get in. Chilling with Elder Brown was awesome. We were in the same district back in my Arad days. Elder Brown is hilarious and from Bountiful/Centerville, went to Viewmont and we have a lot of mutual friends. He is a good friend. Also, Elder Allphin. He is from Lone Peak area and played on their national championchip b-ball team. He's the man.  

We had a dope mini-exchange and it revived me back to my adventure and meet cool people style of missionary work days.

We met this cool dude doing photography and shooting a sick video for a wedding in Piata Mare. He built his own mini helicopter for a go-pro with a balancing system and everything. He showed us it all and was so hyped. I was stoked. Sibiu IS incredible! 

We then proceeded to go on a road trip on the way up to Oradea for Zone conference. We were able to drive with them through some AWESOME moutains on the way from Sibiu to Oradea stopping in a little mountain village called Campeni. It was fun. 

We cruised  through some amazing mountains and canyons. This place is so beautiful, I just want to adventure the hills and crazy villages scattered amongst them. Sibiu - Campeni - Oradea.

The construction at the end of the drive was soo lame though, we were all done and just wanted to get there. It was funny. My tongue ended up being destroyed at the end of the drive from eating so many sunflower seeds. 

Zone Conf was legit. I needed it big time. Anyways, President was being awesome and dropping wisdom. We had some cool talks about being an Agent or an Object.. How we are free to choose liberty, freedom etc. or captivity and unhappiness. Are we acting or being acted upon? I am just stoked, it was exactly what I needed to hear. Just whether or not we are acting or being acted upon. It was awesome.  Things are so solid right now! 

President got us a personal driver to bring us back to Sibiu so I could make it to the Skype session we had for all the BP's in the west with a guy from the Area leadership in Europe (German dude). It was so cool. There was this part about how many times in small numbers we may think "there is just nobody else, that's why I am in this position" but we have to remember that God knows his work...  and there is purpose in why YOU are there right now! So it was cool and uplifting to realize.

They had these talks and just went all in talking about being there for individuals and not just doing work to say you got it done.. I guess Elder Bednar was at this seminar for Mish Presidents and had a personal talk with President's son Ellis. It was such a sick story. 

This Germany guy let us give feedback and ask a question. It was cool to get some legit guidance like that.

I have been more diligently using the "success formula" of our mission. Vision - Goals - Plans - Work

I sometimes have had a hard time with this when my goals don't end up working out like I planned. Like when the work I have tried hard to do here has changed to be a bit different than how I originally thought it would have worked out. And I feel like this discourages many missionaries - the results don't always come as we think. It's not as easy as it may seem, and I've worked even harder to include the Lord more. I've got my vision, my goals (righteous desires) and then I have my plans (resolves of what I can do in my power) and then I have the help I need from the Lord, and my commitments of what I am going to do to be worthy to recieve his help. This way we don't rely so much on ourselves - especially in this work. And you can revise the goals and such as you go forward. AND things are happening!  I feel really good about what we've accomplished here in Sibiu - with more to do. Transfer boards come out this Saturday so it's going to be crazy. I am pretty nervous to see what happens to this place and if I am going to leave. 

Another cool principle I will leave you all to think about is the toothbrush principle.

What do you do when you have nothing to do? What do you think about when you brush your teeth? 

God answers prayers. Involve him in what you do, you'll be happier. JUR FRATE CREDE-MA!

Check out the new "Mormon Message" on lds.org, you will like it. It's awesome.

Spiritual healing is gained by turning outwards!

va pup pa pa

- Elder Boydstun

black pigs and more sisters

From May 4, 2015

This week has been wild.

Lots of rain kinda destroyed my plans but we got some good stuff done and talked to a lot of cool people. 

There is this cool adventurer dude in our English class that has a The North Face sticker on his folder and talks about coconut oil and swimming. He is cool and asks me hardcore gospel questions before he leaves. It is awesome

The older ladies in our English class make teaching awesome. They just teach me new Romanian stuff while I teach 'em English. Sometimes I throw down some tongue twisters and they try so hard hahaha, it is great.

Din pacate, we didn't get to visit Mihai's garden, but he came to church and participated in my on the spot sunday school lesson. It's always cool when the sunday school teacher just asks if you are teaching today, you reply with aren't you? Then he just walks away. Thanks E!

I am not that good at Old Bible Romanian.

It goes well though. I just try to make people think. 

The other set of elders here in Sibiu got emergency transferred out and replaced with another set of sisters. The sisters were in a bad situation in their other area - being followed, etc. The elders here had an investigator on track for baptism and we have other male investigators we are working with and are the only branch with a missionary BP and the branch is mostly unmarried men! I was worried about everything with a lot more men to work with and then have 4 sisters and being down two elders. But President replied and said I should always tell him what I am thinking and that I need to put the Craciun family (old BP) to work. I just called him as the branch mission leader actually. So that was cool. And just that the Lord is in charge of this work not him or me. That was cool too.  And something I do know. Said that things will come together as they should.  

The sisters are great sisters and will do solid work. So I'm going to let it happen and go forward and let God do his thing! 

I am studying priesthood now and it is awesome, a little confusing but really cool and helping me understand how to be a righteous leader. And how to fully obtain the priesthood. A common misconception is that as soon as we get ordained we are just ready to go and it's all done and in ink. But really we still have to work to recieve the fullness promised by the father. We read about it in DC 84 & 121

My studies have been awesome. Like to the point where I sometimes have to just sit back or lay down and gather my thoughts. I get almost overwhelmed by it, it is so awesome. D&C 93:36-37 have been some of my favorites. I might have written about them before.. But it applies so much to repentance and coming unto Christ. He wants us to understand! We just have to fight for it and he will make us like him!

Anyways,

Today we went to the church to help out Roger.. the old english dude who lives in the boonies and holds a cool little group in a sat called Loman. Ya, so we got a ton of chairs from the basement of the church (super sketchy) and gathered them into his trailer. Then piled ourselves into the backseat of his car because some RANDOM other English dude named Christ came along. Like really, just some random one-armed dude staying with him in the middle of Romania came along.. Then we cruised out to his place. We made him PB&J sandwiches, he had never had one before. And we played with his dog. Ran along these cool hills and I trekked into some forest trying to find a creek.. Failed but happened to find ourselves on this old ladies property after climbing under a fence chasing the dog.. she was incredibly nice though and started up a great little convo while raking nothing on her big grassly plot of land. This lady looked like she was at least 80 but had a sick satellite TV set up. 

And getting back to Rogers palce I chased a huge black pig up the hill over the other side of the fence to these old farm boys.

it was hilarious man. Romania rules.

I have to go. But I hope your week rules! 

Love you all.

- Elder Boydstun

barbeques and frisbee

From April 27, 2015

This week has been really awesome.

The weather is buna and everyone is happy. Occasional rain storms in the evening or morning. This city is great man. It almost feels like California. 

English started a week early so that is awesome. We usually get there a bit early so we can set stuff up and I usually challenge Eugen (member..) to a chess match. 

Met a cool dude that wanted to know a lot more about Joseph Smith and also got invited to this Rotary Club party anniversary concert thing that we are going to tonight. I am stoked haha.

We barbequed about 3 times this week. It was awesome. just throw down a BBQ for lunch then we invite some Friends/investigators to go play ultimate frisbee in the park and it is way fun. Life is the best when you are out just making friends and loving these people. Then we just drop the hammer on some awesome spiritual thoughts at the end of the activities we do or at the end of English Class. I love it. Sometimes it ends up really awkward, like a lady saying.. "So what do you guys say about repentance or sins? I study it and I just don't know.. Like what if I don't think I have ever sinned?" then all the other older ladies in the class just go "oooohhhhhhhh myyy" and it was ridiculous and we just try to chill everyone out and teach. It is incredible hahaha

I also had the chance to mow and trim the lawn at the church this week. I am really actually happy about it. Keeping the place looking nice and staying out in the nice sunshine and cool breeze. There are some awesome cherry trees and apple trees in the back of the church, and they are blooming and looking real beautiful. 

We had some awesome lessons this week. Really getting people to dive into the scriptures. Get stoked on the gospel and just gaining wisdom and stuff. It is the coolest. And the best part.. it starts with us, so more of a reason to go hard figuring out the mysteries of God. 

The Craciun family here is the coolest and we had a sick convo with them for a while. Gettin to know them and introduce ourselves.

I was thinking my Romanian was sucking but after talking to them for a few hours I was feeling pretty good about it again. I love Romanian man. it is cool!

Anyways,

my memory is really bad right now, so I hope this email covers all the awesome stuff that happened. I guess when we were playing frisbee there was this wedding going down by the park and they were playing this cool Reggae music so I felt like I was somewhere tropical. it was the bomb! 

Oh, we met up with the old BP and his wife. They are so cool. They actually like studying hard and figuring stuff out. So I am stoked, finally someone to converse with about some deep interesting stuff. And we visited another member we are working with.  I had a cool district meeting with the missionaries where I talked about D&C 93: 36-37 in correlation with the change of heart made in Mosiah 5. Cool stuff. Then 2 Peter 1: 4-9

I wish you could understand what it is like here. But I don't think anybody could without experiencing it. I mean, you can say that about any mission.. but this one really IS different! haha. It hasn't really been stagnant at all like it might seem. Ups and downs, crazy stuff, drama, almost baptisms, people coming back. Things are going in the right direction here now. Lots of great potential being realized and praying hard to know what to do.We are trying to make a theme and calendar. Kinda like the thing they did for stake conference back home. Getting a theme and something to remind us throughout the week, etc.  And trust me, lots of praying!

We have been making some cool new friends (investigators) and members are getting more stoked. We just want to make this place happy, uplifting spiritually, organized, interesting, inspirational and fuuuunnn! 

This week will be awesome. 

I love Sibiu.

va iubesc. stati cu minti

- Elder Boydstun

Sibiu round 3. Loman

From April 20, 2015

This week has been great really. 

A new transfer starts. I am staying in Sibiu, I am glad.

I got a new companion, Elder Kennedy. He is a cool dude. Lots of laughs, so that is sooo solid. It's crucial to stay laughing out here! He was in a smaaaall city named Alexandria and was basically running the branch there. So word on the street is that he is going to replace me here.. dun dun dun

I am for sure more committed to leave it all out here in Sibiu and love these people to the max. I love this city and I have learned a lot here. Ups and downs have left me in a greater state than I was when I started here. I am nervous for what might happen next transfer and that I will leave Sibiu, so I am going to do more solid work and love these people more than ever!

Saying goodbye to Elder Reed was a bummer, but good. He is such a solid friend. He taught me a lot of good stuff. keeping your sense of humor is so crucial out here I swear! Grateful for people like him, especially out here in the mission. I learned a lot from that guy. We had a goood time together and got some good work done. 

Planning on keeping that rolling. We have some solid plans for this place. 

Sora Huffaker came into Sibiu, she was here for 6 or 7 months before and came back for her last transfer. She has a lot of knowledge of the branch which is a good help. It was a little rough trying to step up and fill a position without knowing anything that is/was going on here.

But we are all stoked on life and to be in Sibiu.  

I have noticed sometimes how lightly some people take stuff and the effect it has on others, especially their families. Many people take so much of the gospel light anymore. Whether it is scripture study, serving/loving others, or prayer, etc.

We sit here and prophesy about all these incredible things and a perfect Savior, but many times we are slow to remember to have respect and keep even the simplest commandments. Or we prophesy about a boy who labored over the word of God and sincerely prayed with a question and faith to receive an answer.. but yet we don't think that we deserve responses, or think that we can't ask questions! And especially that we too don't need to labor over the scriptures. There are so many truths and mysteries that we look past.  I have kinda had to speak with a little sharpness recently. I just wonder why people take the basics of the gospel so light sometimes and don't care about laboring over the word of God and prayer etc.  We all need to work on it. It is the bomb. Missionaries especially should be realizing that!

I love when I become as a child and totally submit to the Lord. He is the best one to guide our lives. So many people think they have to have boring, dry, and even mundane lives if they let the Lord live them. But it is totally not that way. He wants us to be STOKED on LIFE and he makes it the best. I have started really diving harder into the scriptures and praying hard for wisdom/intelligence.. so worth it. I love the scriptures. They rule. 

Anyways,

We went to go do some service for this dude Mihai this week. oh man he is so sick. We show up and the sisters are already there just goin to work. then we see this old wrinkley dude from a distance.. getting closer we realize.. The guy is straight up only wearing black underwear and boots hahahahaha. Still just workin hard and tilling some land with a shovel. I was dying. He is hardcore man.

I also had to put a baby mole rat creature out of it's misery because it's face got chopped off...

TODAY 

We went to this little village, Loman in the mountainous hills near Sebes. It was so amazing. We had to bus to Sebes and get a ride to Loman then piled into this guys car to go up to his home ontop of one of the hills. He is a member from England and has been here doing service in Romania for like 20 years. He is the coolest dude and tells awesome stories and is just trying to do good for these people. He holds church up at his place with a small group of people. We hungout with him and BBQ'ed a little then played with his Lab puppy and ran around the hills and looked over incredible valleys dotted with cottages and shepherds. I was in love. So amazing to get back in nature and just be away for a little bit. out of the city and noise. Fresh air and tall pine trees. 

YA,

D&C 93: 36-37  ...Intelligence is the glory of God. Receiving through... laboring to know God, studying his word, and prayer! - These are the things that put away the temptations of the "evil one". Thus we have a true change of heart, thus we turn to Christ and are turned away by the thought of sin as the people of King Benjamin in Mosiah 5. it is good stuff. Live it.  

The gospel is incredible. The restoration is so real. Coolest part, is that it is still happening. Like Elder Ballard said in Priesthood session, we need to raise the bar!  Hey, we are all serving him! 

God needs you. 

Love

- Elder Boydstun

Hristos a inviat. Adevarat a inviat

From April 13, 2015

So. Romanian Easter. 

This week, my comp was SICK. Woke up Tuesday with fever, chills, and basically was couch ridden with bathroom trips every 10 minutes. It was epic. 

I got a lot of reading in and thinking time. We made it a decent time. I had fun at least. I just kept Elder Reed laughing as much as possible, he fired it back. So it was solid. He wasn't, if you pick up what I'm putting down there.

We live on the top floor of our building and the windows in our apartment are like on the slanty ceiling/wall that goes right out to the roof. So I went out on the roof on a little flat part and chilled in the sun a bunch, The weather here is sooo nice. 

Winter was loooooong and cold. I forgot what it was like to go out without a jacket and hearing people running around/laughing. Seeing colors on the trees etc. The city is alive now and it is incredible. 

The mountains still have little frosty tips and we can see them from our place. It is nice. I miss hiking though! Hope we can get out there somehow someday.

I also taught myself how to make ciorba too. It is gooooooood stuff.

So we had a cool Easter Activity on Saturday. 

Mowed the grass at the church and set it up. Then we played some games and fired up the grill. Charcoal here is so hard to get going, haha. But this awesome member Marius moved back from Germany/France and is the coolest dude ever. He straight up found some wood and just built a fire on top of the charcoal and then let it get going. We went hard bbq'ing some mici and made a huge pot of Ciorba. Then we feasted. It was the bomb. Everyone was stoked, the weather was perfect and the food was good and Romanian. 

The church has a sick new video out for Easter too, so we had a cool spiritual section watching that and talking about the Life, Atonement, and Ressurection of the Savior.

The plan of happiness man, how can you not get STOKED about it? 

We went to the Orthodox Celebration for Easter at the big cathedral in Centru. Everyone was gathered around the church, everybody brings a candle. The Priest dudes in their robes all go in the church where there is a flame going, they bring out some lit candles and everyone lights it and passes their flame to everyone so the crowd slowly lights up from the center of the crowd by the front of the church. It is really pretty cool. 

Sunday was awesome too. Just had sacrament meeting so people could go spend time with their families for Easter. Then spent some time hanging out with Eugen, he just talked about pokemon and stuff forever. It was pretty cool though. He was happy, so we were happy.

Here in Romania, we harvest in a lot of different ways. So many people think that missionary work is all investigators and contacting and baptisms. It's a big part, and we always work towards it. But especially here I have a bigger focus on members and how the branch is operating. Now there is a new found spirit and excitement in the branch. It always starts with the missionaries and how their attitude works. PLUS there has to be something solid for people to come into, or else the foundation will wash away again and they will just be another name on the list that nobody knows anything about. So, it's not always just all about how many baptisms, the work goes forward in a lot of other ways.  

Today is incredible, weather is 10/10. I missed the sunshine. Centru here is so beautiful and everyone is just running around havin a blast. It is the bomb. 

My new comp is Elder Kennedy. He's just a little younger than me in the mission. I hear the kid is hilarious so I am stoked for it. We are going to do solid work. Sibiu is the bomb right now.

Life is gooooood! The weather is awesome. We go down to Bucuresti tomorrow morning and will be back Wednesday.  Elder Reed is going home. I will miss him but it's always fun when they are going home.  They are wise and productive and that usually makes it a good time.  

Spring is incredible. Nothing like it in Romania. The city is back to life and everyone is out in the city. Families all over etc. 

- Elder Boydstun

pe bune

From April 6, 2015

Cool week!

This week was pretty solid. It is crazy I have already passed my year mark now.. goes by soo fast but I am stoked I still have more time to live here and do the work out here. 

I feel like my character has improved for sure and I am striving to go all in. This next transfer will be a good one with whatever happens. This past one has been so awesome with Elder Reed. He's a good friend and we have had a great time and have done some good things. 

We went out to a small city outside of Sibiu, Talmaciu. To visit a member and his parents. It was really cool. We hung out with his dad and he talked about the rules of snooker, which are incredibly confusing. I guess he is retired from being a nuclear physicist and just smokes and chills watching snooker. Also takes care of a vineyard in his backyard. I swear if you live La tara or even have a little bit of a yard here, you have a cool garden and chickens for sure. I learned some crazy words playing scrabble in Romanian. I need to step my game up on my Romanian recently. 

We made Mici and some salad. It was a good time.

Conference was incredible. I need to watch again and study my notes, but I really liked Elder Causee's talk, the french guy. Elder Holland always delivers and really prophesies which I love, because it really makes me feel like I am hearing the word of God. 

We watched it in English on a SmartTV that we got the branch from Bucuresti because our other TV was huge and old, and also in Romanian over this broadcast system that was a huge pain... running back and forth trying to get things to set it up and hook it up to the TV and ended up not working, but we could listen/watch in english at the same time which was great. There are some members across the country that translate for the church as a living, so they do the translating and it came over the broadcast. If you go on lds.org and the conference page, you can change the language to Romanian... Check it out and let me know what you think! haha

Our district has 2 possible baptisms set here in Sibiu.  They haven't had a baptism here in over 4 years.  As BP I have extended callings to some members and they are really stepping up and feel the trust we are placing in them, which is cool. Trying to get the members to take more responsibility and it's going well. The church is growing and it is legit. But most importantly more and more people are coming to be converted to Christ and truly seeking him and understanding his fullness through the restored gospel.

The weather is major drag right now all rainy. But I planted some grass seed in the front little yard thing at the church. Can't wait to see those bad boys pop up and start making the place look great. BP life man. I can make some pretty cool decisions, haha. We planted flowers at the church and cleaned it up real nice. Nobody wants to come to a dusty old looking villa. 


So we are chilling and about to start conference and the old BP and his wife walk in. I'm just like, oh hey BRO how was GERMANY!!!!?? We shared some laughs and had a little convo. So this is going to be an incredible help to the branch. For real, it's going to be great. 

Last time I saw him, the only time I saw him, he said he was leaving the next day so... now I've got some help.

I haven't celebrated Easter yet since this part of the world is all Orthodox. We are going to be partying it up at a cool activity this weekend. Painting eggs and all that greatness. Plus teaching more about Christ. Easter is supposed to be really huge here so I am stoked!

Elder Lex (my old comp in Moldova who went home) and his family came to Sibiu to visit. It was sooooooo incredible. He is super Austrian and I love it so much. We just toured around the city for a bit and got some good food. It was a great time. He wore Lederhosen and everything haha so sick!!! I wore them too, I'll send a photo probably. I look GOOD man. haha They are comfy too.

Conference was really incredible by the way. If you didn't watch, read, or listen. Re-evaluate yourself and go feast on the good word of God! I promise you'll find an answer you really need. Tons of hits on marriage and family. I was stoked on President Monson talking about the Temple. I totally miss that place and just seeing them. If you have the chance, go and take advantage of the spirit felt there. It is true peace and joy.

Sometimes being here I miss when I was able to relax on Sunday a little and have someone share a bunch of great lessons and spiritual meat. But in return I have understood the importance of study and reading, gathering knowledge and searching for truth. "seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by faith."

Go get it. Search and find it. Learn something knew and recognize it everyday this week. make it a habit.

God is love. 

- Elder Boydstun