Medpark.SIBIU

This week was wild.. seriously!

So I dunno what was up, but we played soccer last Saturday and the next week I was extraordinarily sore and it was weird. But then the next day it went away. But I had this gnarly gut pain happening. I don't know how to explain but it was a damper on the beginning of the week for sure.

So I was just planning on playing it off. Then everybody started telling me it was not chill so I called Sora Ivory and she got all serious and told me to go to the hospital.

There is actually a really nice international hospital here, so I went. I thought my appendix blew up so I had to explain all this stuff in Romanian. Praise to Latin words for being super close in english too.

Anways, everything turned out cool. 

I got an Ultrasound and stuff, which was really odd. But then I guess there was just something up with my kidney and gall bladder or something. I don't really know but I feel good.  They gave me some medicine.

I planned on not emailing about this, but I guess people already did and so you'd probably find out either way...

I am good now. I promise.

FOR NOW HAAHAAAA! But really, I am good

We were at the mall eating lunch this week since the guys from Orhei were here for Visa stuff. Then these deaf dudes started communicating with us. They just typed stuff on an iphone and we replied. We gave them a book of Mormon and a pamphlet. Then a little later they waved us down saying they had questions. So I went over and we communicated through writing on all the random pieces of paper we could find. It was probably the sickest lesson ever. These dudes were really cool and had genuine questions. At first we wondered if they were just trying to punk us on our Romanian, but then it ended up really cool and they accepted the message and we got their info so hopefully the people staying in Chisinau can meet with them again. 

Super epic! 

We also had dinner - all the missionaries, at this one members house. She is sooo sick. Literally a one room apartment. Like it's just one room. The kitchen, bedroom, closet all in one room. She hooked us up with SOO much food. So much Sarmale and crepes etc. It was so sick. I loved it. I'll send a picture of the sarmale/room

The member is in the back laughin at me taking a picture haha, she is legit.

Anyways,

I have to go soon. I am getting transferred to Sibiu. I love Moldova. Love Chisinau. Love these people and the members especially. But, missionary life haha.

Sibiu is a German settled city, so it has awesome architecture which is basically the style of the city.  

I got a cool call from the AP's last night. They asked how I felt about it, and I said I was stoked, bummed to leave, but excited to do work there. They were stoked and told me that President said I would've stayed - but there is a lot of good potential in Sibiu, and they needed me, etc. So that was awesome.

 My new comp - I haven't really talked to him. He's a more quiet dude, but I heard he is incredibly nice and a good missionary. So it'll be a good time either way. I'll probably lose some weight since it has been way too easy to eat whatever you want here in Moldova as we still get the same amount of money and things are cheaper here. 

I am hyped because I hear Sibiu is amazingly beautiful

I am still bummed to leave Chisinau. Such a sick place with AMAZING people. And the members here are most amazing. But maybe I won't have to be Clerk anymore so that is solid. 

I had an awesome time saying goodbye to the Cociu family (recent convert I talk about often). They are seriously incredible.  I had a cool meeting with them and it was rough saying goodbye, but when we did Anatol told me about how he realized many of his weaknesses when he joined the church and took the gospel serious. He said he asked for a lot but then explained how we also need to give all we can, then we are bound to receive. When we do our part, and ask... the Lord is bound in blessing us, and he wants to. When asking God for help, we also need to be doing all we can to do what is right and to put our part in. It was so awesome. Not explainable with words, especially through email.

I will miss my little Cociu homies Maxim and Laurentiu 

But I'll see them again someday :)

Life is awesome. 

Love you all. 

- Elder Boydstun 

Twenty one below zero celsius

Hey

This week was not warm. 

And it's that cold that just is bitter and feels like it is squeezing your soul. (soul to squeeze - if you get this reference, you are cool)

We made it a good time though. 

The Coldest day was -20 C and we tried to go to the middle of town to this wall that you can basically draw on and whatever you want. Some people put up some really weird stuff. There was a thing written on it about how the system is collaborating together with the anti-Christians, masons and terrorists to come upon the Christians and make them have no voice..  and then ended it by saying DOWN TO SATAN. Like it was a cool idea but basically the dude was mentally ill for sure, just the way he wrote it was crazy!

Yeah so this wall has spray painted stuff on it all the time. Then this security dude comes over and looks at us and tells us we can't do it. haha what the heck man! I was struggling to get this stencil stuck to the thing and as soon as I get it ready he shoots me down.  

The stencil was basically just a logo of captain Moroni blowing his trumpet that I drew and suntmormon.ro above it in a circle. It is legit! oh well, maybe we can get it another time.

We met up with a cool member couple that has a son in Utah and stuff. They are legit and we gave 'em brownies and they were stoked about it. They showed us pictures of them at the temple dedication in Ukraine. It is weird sometimes to think how close I am to Ukraine.. it was awesome though! oh and I had a typical weird experience of helping a fallen drunk woman get up and figure out how to get home. I swear this happens too much. 

But I also hear that Moldova has the most alcohol consumption per capita in Europe, so I guess I should kinda expect it, haha.

We played soccer with some members and friends at an indoor gym place by the church on Saturday. It was so awesome. There is this guy Bro. Tukafkin (I don't know how to spell his Russian name) and he is like 65 and shows up fully decked out with indoor shoes, a jersey, shorts and tall socks. Then he just kills it. He is the man! 

We also played with our friend we call Cool Alex, he is the coolest guy ever haha. Seriously just a good person and awesome, He brought his friend Mani. He is a music artist/rapper here in Chisinau. He is way cool too and Alex showed us some of his music. And it is awesome, super positive and tells really cool stories 

Music is awesome in Romanian. Some of it is awful and just lame repetitive electronic stuff, but some is soooo gooood!

Well yeah, pretty much that's mostly all I can think of right now!

This week was cool, for real. Like it was freezing

But it was awesome too. 

God works in mysterious ways, but when you follow him he will never forsake you!

Do something nice for someone you love this week. then listen to your favorite song and drive/walk/bike/fly/hike/dream of somewhere beautiful!

WE are the Architects of our own fate

Love you all

Elder Cole Boydstun

Sushi boat

From January 5, 2015

It is snowing again. At least it isn't -17c like it was a few nights ago, haha.

This week was pretty solid.

I've been reading a ton in Romanian recently and it makes everything awesome in stories. Like jokes I would maybe just smile at in English are funny again just because it's in another language.

We had to stay at the church one day for a few hours, so Elder Daland and I made up this awesome game. Basically just mini soccer in a bigger room of the church, but we play it with a hacky sack. It is super epic. Games like this are way cool when you are like 12 or a missionary. 

We drew a bulls-eye on a white board and kicked the hacky sack at it. 

I can honestly say my hand eye coordinartion, vertical, and English spelling have suffered since I started my mish, but my foot coordination is getting way better. It is sick

We celebrated Elder Hammer's birthday this week. Went to some japanese place, it was random but super good. Daland and I ordered this large amount of sushi and it came out on a wooden boat. It was so legit and pretty good food too.

We had a cool meeting this week and a senior couple here talked for a second about some epic stuff that is going to be happening here in Chisinau in the next few months. It has never happened anywhere else in Europe I guess, but President Ivory is the man and is doin it! So that is cool. I don't know if I can really say much more yet, but it'll be huge.

We went out with this YSA member Sevghi to visit a family she grew up with. It was in a village just outside of Chisinau. We showed up and the lady was super nice and we talked for a little bit and shared our message and stuff and she had been to church once and missionaries visited her before, so we talked about that. Then she asked if we wanted to try her homemade all-natural apple juice. Of course I said yes. then she asked if we wanted to eat a little bit. So I couldn't reject her now...I said sure and then she continued to bring out sooo much food she had made for us. haha. and it was some pretty wild stuff. This chicken dish that was a chicken breast and a wing, they were cooked and were in this broth looking stuff. Then she dished it out for us and it ends up it was cold and the broth was in like gelatin form. Pretty sketch but I didn't have to eat the heart, she gave it to my comp. It ended up pretty good, just cold.. so that was odd. She brought out placinta, these pastries of different varieties, cabbage, cherries, squash. Then she brought out some duck with some noodles. That was actually really good. She wouldn't let us stop eating. Just brought homemade horse-radish and told us if we wanted to become more manly we had to eat it. AM IMBATRANIT! All of the food she made us was natural and from the land they have, so that was awesome. The apple juice was the best i've ever had. 

She talked to me a lot about the fact that I must come back to moldova and buy land because it is the most fertile ever, then we can team up together and make a shop where she makes food and I sell it. That was awesome, haha.

Getting outside of the city was nice too, it's good to see rolling hills and not so many buildings.

This crazy artist dude named Tudor came to church and brought this sculpture he made of a church or something. He was trying to explain it to this senior couple who speaks little Romanian. So I come in and start translating just like what the heck is this guy talking about hahaha. He said it was a tower of knowledge and it contained all wisdom in knowing that it isn't too early or too late. It was literally a church carved out of some plaster that you can hold in your hand. It was crazy how serious he was about it though. 

He brought a painting to church a few months ago and like stopped everything in  the sacrament meeting and tried to tie in his abstract but actually pretty good paiting into the meeting. He did pretty good for just pulling it out of nowhere. Tudor, man... haha

It was a pretty solid week. I did a lot of branch clerk stuff too, so I guess that was a good time haha. not really but I make it fun. President Covali is the coolest dude ever though. He speaks 4 languages. Crazy.

We are going to play soccer this week with a bunch of guys from the branch, some Russian dudes who are ridiculously good and like 65 years old. So it'll be a good week.

Set goals this week if you haven't already. Pray and really ask for wisdom and other gifts of the spirit. Ponder it, and then commit yourself! 

It's hard to see the perspective in the middle of the trial, but when you overcome it and look back at the progress made, it's always worth it.

The Lord wants to help us more than we think, let him.

love,

Elder Boydstun

Christmas. Craciun. and snow

From December 29, 2014

This week was awesome. 

Beginning of the week..

We had our Christmas card idea thing that we did at our activity last week, and it turned out super solid. We got 4 referrals in a day from a member.. of people from his family. Super epic...first referrals I've ever got on my mission. 

So that is for sure something awesome. 

English started, my companion and I are just like floating around helping people teach since there are sufficient missionaries to teach the classes. 

We tried to print out more of those Christmas cards and the dude took 1.5 hours to print 5 pieces of paper. Super ridiculous, haha. These guys literally are just random dudes who buy a color printer, put it in a random flea market store and charge people to print stuff. And do a really mediocre job. 

I listened to this cool guy talk about life though. Dan Clark. He talked at BYU, and it was really cool. It made me want to do awesome things and not be ordinary. Soooo, unless you want to be average, go check it out.. it might inspire you.

The next day, I had an exchange with Elder Daland. He is sick and from California. It was extra cool. 

That morning, we went with the humanitarian senior couple and delivered the boots that were made custom for a bunch of people.

We delivered them at this random building, a bunch of ladies came that were slightly crippled (Polio) and some that were mute/deaf. 

It was really cool, we gave them boots and a book of Mormon wrapped up. I felt like santa

The place ended up being this semi-sketchy manufacturing place for life jackets with a bunch of these women in a room sewing and using sign language they made up. It was crazy and a cool experience. 

We delivered one of the referalls/Christmas cards and it was awesome. We kept it simple, powerful and short and I loved it.

Anatol, the dude who gave it to us, is one of the most legit and spiritual dudes I have ever met in my life. An example of how I want to see life and God. He is the man.

The next day,

Christmas! Way cool. I got some incredible socks and ties and a warm vest, cozy pillows, some cool little toys and so much candy it's unreal. I made some cookies and then went to go catch a bus out to a senior couples place to eat. 

The bus was super slow and old and it took us almost 1.5 hours to get there haha. Probably because right as we walked out of our place, the one we needed passed. The next time the same bus came, the guy just drove through the bus stop and didn't even stop. 

We ate a bunch of good food there, and we also watched "The Book Thief". A way cool movie.

Movies are great.

Skyping the fam was super legit. They are still awesome, and probably cooler than they were before. I love you all. Keep being awesome. I think we got most out that we wanted. So I'll keep this part brief.

The next day, we went and played soccer/football on some random turf field. We got kicked out, then played at a big field up on top of a hill. It was super muddy.

We had movie night with the branch (2 movies in two days. Both approved. (Solid). We watched Home Alone. One of the greatest Christmas movies ever. I can't even count how many times I have watched it throughout my childhood.

Zone conference was legit. 

We had a good time and I learned a lot of good stuff. President Ivory is the man and is for sure developing into a great Mission President, gaining respect and we are all growing together.

I learned some cool stuff. Like the fact we don't/can't just arrive at perfection. It sn't just a destination..

You cannot be afraid to fail.

And you will never succeed in any relationship if you only think of yourself. 

I hope this New Year starts off incredible and stays that way. I hope you can look back on 2014 and see the progress you have made and then think of the ways you can keep moving forward and progress more.

I am grateful for all you. My family, my friends.

You all have done so many great things for me and I hope you know I love you. 

It snowed today, and I bought a russian fur hat. It is the warmest thing I have ever put on my little dome. 

It's cool here because Russian Christmas is next week...double celebration

LA MULTI ANI!. happy new year 

craciun fericit!

va iubesc

Craciun Fericit

From December 22, 2014

It's almost Christmas..

I started my mission basically on Easter. 

Time is going by fast... 

This week was solid, lots of frustration and long days of trying to figure out how to do some epic missionary work.

We literally spent days figuring out the trash editing programs on the branch computers so we could make some Christmas card designs and get He is the Gift looping and on a disc..

Anyways, we ground it out  through many failed attempts - running to different stores trying to explain the complex appliances we needed in Romanian... "uh we need something that makes this go into something like this.. I don't know how to say it, but we need it." Then end up finding out that it is pretty much the same word in English, just with a romanian accent haha... awesome

BUT we came up with the idea  to make these Christmas cards to give out at the Christmas activity we had. They looked legit. (Used a little magic to get photoshop) We had a member explain/invite our offer to fill out a card, we deliver it with the video and a Christ centered message. We had 40 people raise their hand wanting one. We've got 4 back so far. So I am stoked. That is super legit, I have never been able to receive a referral from a member so far until now. 

innovation. $$$$$

At the activity, I was a shepherd and I wore a basket on my head because I had no other costume choice, haha. It was awesome though, everyone was stoked to be there and had a good time. 

On Tuesday I had to do a bunch of stuff since I am the Branch Clerk now. So I ran all across town paying bills. It was not awesome. But we got into a part of town and were looking for this specific bank, had no clue where it was... then just tried one. After waiting for an hour or so.. and a girl walking in with a big fluffy grey cat tucked into her bag... and some weird sketchy corruption going on in front of me.. I get to the counter and she tells me I can't pay this here.... 

That sucked...

Went the closest market and got some food then tried to find a bench. Found it, ended up being a bench right next to a random grave site just next to the road and a complex of small apartments and a business. Moldova... 

That day was ridiculous, hahaha

Sunday, we took a projector, speakers and a white sheet into the main park right in the middle of the city. I lifted/held Elder Bateman by one foot as he hung up some hemp twine between some trees and we strung out the sheet. This park has a row of benches in the most trafficked spot with plugs so we used those and set up the projector/speakers and the laptop we borrowed. Then played He is the Gift for a few hours and talked to people and had them watch it with us. It was so sick I loved it and was so happy our idea came out even better than expected. 

So yeah, Life is good. Christmas is great. The gospel is true and the Light of Christ is incredible. 

Share it with someone. Tell 'em you love them, give them your time and go drive through a beautiful canyon for me. 

I hope you all remember the awesome spirit of Christmas and think of some great ways to start your year. 

He really is the gift. We, as individuals, can discover and accept the gift. 

It's worth it, I promise. 

Craciun Fericit!