My little bro is going to freakin' Uganda! I can't believe we get to represent the Collison family in the two coolest missions in the entire world! That is crazy...
Emma was baptized and Isaac was ordained a teacher, insane!
I pulled a lot of money out of the bank this week, but no worries! I had to spend a ton on bills, transportation for my district, and apartment repairs. It looks bad now but it'll all be reimbursed...
I had so much going on this week, but I was so tired every evening I didn't make a single journal entry or recording and everything's been hectic and semi hazy. Several weeks ago a water bill wasn't paid on time and the elders here paid it. A week later a guy came over and turned the water off, offering to forget about the whole thing if they paid him 100 RON, and then referring them to the office again. They went and the people there said the bill was never paid, there was no record of it at all. (We're still trying to get the original receipt from our office so we can fight that.) But for the time being they had to pay it again, and the people there said legally they had to turn the water back on five days from now, but it would probably be longer unless we could slip them some cash. They refused, and I came on the fifth day- to the most uncomfortable apartment I've ever been to. Super messy (understandable because they hadn't been able to wash their dishes, their clothes, or flush.) It's on the ground floor, which I didn't think it would make that big of a difference, but there is absolutely no airflow and it's the most humid place I've ever been, there was mold everywhere and there was water condensing on every wall.
To keep a long story short, it's better now. We decided we weren't going to put up with this anymore so we went down to the office complaining and they're like, wait- you didn't go down to the main office to tell them you want your water turned back on?? That's apparently not what they said the first time. But basically we started the 5 day waiting period again today, after going to the main office and filling out some paper work. So annoying.. I was about ready to freak out this morning, totally done with a bureaucratic system running solely off bribes.
But this week. We cleaned the apartment as well as we could, fought the mold with something called savo (no idea if we have it in the states but it eats the stuff right up) I got the air conditioner working. The remote's been lost for years and the missionaries have always complained about this being the really hot apartment with no ac.. but I took the front cover off and found the manual override button and figured out how to adjust the setting without a teledevice. Then we got permission to get a dehumidifier. Between that, the fan, and the ac, our apartment is quickly becoming one of the nicers.
Anyways- sorry that's really boring, but that's been my week pretty much.. haha
My district is super cool. We're one of the smallest districts here with just 1 set of both elders and sisters. We're all buds already. Everybody's willing to work hard and try to have a good time while doing it.
I love my companion. I've already served around him when I was in the office, but I feel like we've both grown up even more since then and we're having some fun. He's really good at keeping the conversation going and making everybody feel important.
The branch here is awesome! It's a tad bit bigger than Galati, but we have like- 6 kids here!
I'll try and upload some pics this week, I'm at an internet café right now but I'll upload them when I can get to the branch computer and let it sit there for a couple hours cause it take forever.
Love you guys so much!
I'm loving it here in Bacau and for as scared/disappointed as I was to come here, I think this is going to be a really good time- I'm already a big fan.
Love
Elder Collison
