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