Hey Mom and Dad!
Everything's definitely calmed down since the fire. It still stinks a bit on the first couple floors, but ours was cleaned really well and it's all back to normal. Either that or I'm used to it.. They said that a computer wasn't plugged in all the way and it started the fire, I don't know if that was proven or if that's all speculation but I'll take whatever they say if it means I don't look like a terrorist.
My week's been really really long. Another transfer week has passed and I can finally sit back and try to breathe easy. With the holiday season just barely behind us there was just a lot of unnecessary stress. Trying to set up health appointments was a nightmare because everyone was responding with, ah- email us after the new year when we make our schedule, and we're like - You don't understand! just put our names on a sticky note for the 7th of January! And then trying to set up a meeting to notarize our documents wasn't happening at all. We would try to contact different offices and we'd get an automated response telling us to call back on the 7th or 8th.
Just a bunch of stuff like that was going down and we were stressed out of our minds, but at the last minute this week everything just kinda fell into place and it actually worked out beautiful. At the immigration office on Wednesday I was able to get all ten people registered. I decided though that the immigration office is probably one of my least favorite places in the entire world. Haha, the night before we went there, I seriously had nightmares about the place. People just start becoming animal like after standing in line for seven hours in a stuffy, dirty room with angry workers. I think I unconsciously became racist to four different demographics in there, just so many people pushing me out of line and yelling at me for registering so many people at a time when they don't want us in the country in the first place. It was rough, I can't tell you how angry I got in there.
But it's over!!
Whew.
On Saturday we kinda spent the day regaining control over our apartment. After so many late nights and early mornings it had gotten pretty messy without time to take care of our dishes or laundry, you can imagine. So we stocked up on cleaner and light bulbs and got our place looking spiffy again!
Yesterday we went to Mihai Bravu for church, it was so great to have a meeting in Romanian again. I think that being in the office AND having our services in English has really taken a toll on my Romanian. I'm kinda ready to get out of here and get back to talking to people everyday. After Church I went bloc knocking with Elder B, Elder B, and the Sisters. It felt SO good to get out again, although I hate how bad I am at it after being here for 9 months- I have so little experience on that side of missionary work after spending so much time here. But we went to a bloc that the sisters were trying to find a less active member at and started knocking from floor nine. This building was HUge and the corridors were probably a good 200 meters long. Like usual, most of the responses were either a silent eye in the peephole or an "I'm not interested." But as we were about go down from the 8th floor a 4ft tall lady in her 80s peeked her head out from the very end of the hall and whispered "who are you guys??" holding her broom as a weapon. Naturally, she was orthodox to the core and wanted to die that way. But she was the sweetest, most hilarious old lady I've ever met. We talked to her for about half an hour and we were all just busting up laughing the entire time. Every once in a while we wouldn't understand an expression she used or a joke she made and she would be like " what did I do wrong, why aren't you laughing??" Then we would say something and she would double over (we thought she was dying several times) Then she would roll back up and we'd realize she was just in the process of crackin' up. But she apparently was the most beautiful woman in the entire world But we weren't allowed to tell anybody about it because she didn't want any young men breaking into her house to steal her pictures. Man, I can't even explain it properly- but just talking to a person like that every once in a while just makes ya happy. Then we talked to one guy and I asked if we could share a message with him and he answers with no. But he leaves the door open and we kinda awkwardly ask; " well, is there anything we can help you with??" and he, looking pretty defeated, pulls down his bottom lip and says "I've lost all my teeth, can you give me teeth??"
Couldn't really help him there..
That's crazy how cold it's gotten back home! As much as I'm longing for the snow I'm not jealous of the cold at all..
What do kids do for fun?? Is that a general question or what do they do in the snow? I haven't really seen them play in the snow yet so I can't tell you that.. But normally I don't see a whole lot of kids playing outside. There are play grounds around and there are always kids there, but for the most part they stay inside. There aren't exactly front lawns to chill on for the most part. I think video games are a lot bigger of a deal here too and I think the kids spend a lot of time on the computer or tv. Don't ask me why every single person in this country is so dang skinny ;)
I love you guys!
Elder Collison
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