2-3-14

Happy February! This week has been a fun one. It really flew by and I don't remember much of what happened, but we had some good moments ;) It's still snowing here, and the way they clear the roads isn't exactly the greatest system, but it helps us find service projects EvErywhere.. So what happens is that this city isn't exactly built for cars. At least, it started out that way. When everyone was forced to move into the cities 40 years ago they didn't really have that problem because no one really had cars. So they built blocks that held thousands of people, and crammed millions into very tight living quarters without any kinda parking system. It worked back then, but now almost every family has a car with no where to put it. Most of the main roads here have an entire lane or two full of parked cars, and it's legal! You can really just stop in the middle of the road, throw on your hazards and everyone will just start driving around you on the tramvai tracks without missing a beat.

Anyways, that's just one of those things that almost seems natural now, but then the snow came and I saw the flaw. When the snow plows moved all the snow, they had to dump it at the bumper of all the cars. In some of the nicer parts of the city, they have dump trucks come in and move it away somewhere, but most the time you just have to dig yourself out of (and throw it on your neighbor's car) through a good 3-5ft of snow.

So a couple days this week, Elder B, Elder K and I walked around the city all bundled up looking for people trying to find their cars underneath the snow. People were so desperate that they actually accepted an act of service every once in a while. That's something I haven't really seen for about a year now..

I'm still healthy here! crazy enough.. I keep waiting for the day I get sick like everyone else around me but it hasn't happened yet. I think living in a household full of kids, cycling through sicknesses without a rest has tricked my immune system into becoming rock solid now that I only have to share the air with two other guys. Either that or the constant 2nd hand tobacco smoke burns it out of me. One or the other ;)

I did hurt my bad thumb though. I was juggling and an elder playfully tried smashing a ball to the ground but smashed my thumb to the ground instead. No biggie, I think it'll be fine in a couple days but it's really swollen right now and I can't really use it yet.. Just lettin' you know so you can prepare to be a digit donor just in case.

Today we're planning on going to Casa Poporului. For real this time! We'll see if it actually happens. I've really been wanting to go even if it's just to say I've been inside. There was just so much sucked out of the Romanians so that this disgustingly huge palace could be built and I imagine it's got the same pained feel as a cemetery for that reason. Ya know?

SO. Now I'm writing just having come back from Casa Poporului. Pretty impressive building.. Geez. It was just too nice. We actually got lucky and got the english tour so we got to meet a lot of foreigners (no americans..) So I got to hear all the specs in a retainable language ;) Millions of square meters of marble and WaY too many chandeliers. Like, almost every room had crystal chandeliers lining the entire outer edge of the ceiling with a 2-5 ton crystal and gold centerpiece. I'll upload some pictures to your drive in a bit, either tonight or tomorrow.
It was really sad, just knowing that people really died of starvation for so many years for this and now it's basically just a museum with the government using about 1% of it.. It was a really cool experience and my mind is still blown. The entire time Elder K and I were just discussing what we would use each room for after we become multi billionaires and purchase the building. I decided it would be kinda cool to have a Rollerblading room next to my imax theater, and I figured it'd be nice to have the occasional picnic in my second ball room.

Security is really tight in there. Metal detectors and everything. So after I already paid for it and was into the second room of security I realized I had my switchblade on me (no worries, it's legal here..). I couldn't just walk out of the building because they would've spazzed (no idea if that's even a real word, I can't find the spelling) and I probably wouldn't have gotten back in. And I didn't want to walk through the detector with a knife very obviously concealed on my body. So I pulled a guard aside and tried to explain that I had a knife on me in a manner as nonthreatening as I could muster. He nodded, took it away and gave me a slip and we didn't have a problem. But it kind freaked me out there for a bit! I was sure it would come off as a threat in Romanian and I would have six guards with tasers on me the next second.

My fur hat is holding up great! I can't tell you how comfortable and warm it is. I don't like cats, ok? But it's like I have a big fat soft cat hugging my head in the most enjoyable sense. Mine is a wild fox that they kinda hunted specially for me. I sent my order in a while ago and the lady had her killer get me one with me in mind ;)

I love you guys a lot!
I hope you have a great week. Have fun with school!

Love,
Elder Collison

1-27-14

Frumoșilor!
My Mama and Poppa!

It's been an exciting couple of days over here in Romania. We finally got the snow I've been praying for! And I'm already asking for a recall... It started Friday night and it's been dumping about a foot a day since, and it's drifting really bad. There are so many cars that you could just walk right into because the snow's piled up so high, covering everything. I'm seeing snow plows going by all the time, but the roads are so bad they have to leave about six inches on the road so they don't wreck their plows. So I spent pretty much all day yesterday shoveling and pushing cars out of the snow. I had to get on the roads a couple times too and I got really stuck several times driving on the unplowed back roads. I was with Elder B, Elder K, and the Sisters- leaving Sora G's house. We had gotten in there because we had some speed behind us, but even then we had to lift the car to park it (I'll send you the video) and getting out was a nightmare. We kept trying all the tricks in the book and nothing was working. We were stuck for an hour and I swear, I was pushing with all my might for almost that whole time, just trying to give it an extra horsepower or two ;) I woke up feeling like a broken man this morning. We finally got back to the office, where I then left in my car with my companions. We made it all the way home until we tried to park and the car just couldn't make it. We tried to back out and it went nowhere. So after a half hour of pushing we finally got it back out, we parked at the office again and just walked home. I was SO frozen. My clothes had frozen and melted so many times that I was just soaked to the core. But I curled up under my comforter and slept SO good.

Today I'm going to head out with Elders B and K with some shovels and we're going to find some people trying to dig their ways out of the snow.

More breaking news: I got my fur hat! The assistants came back from Moldova after buying it for me while on exchange. I was kinda skeptical because I wanted it to be perfect and they didn't really know what I wanted, but man- this thing is great! I'm already in love with it. Her name is Jasmine. It's fox fur with a black leather base, and aside from sexy- this thing is WARM! I'll send you some pictures as soon as I get my hands on the rest of the pics from my district.

Aside from this not a whole lot has gone on this week.. Just the same ol same ol!

Anyways, I love you guys so much! I'll try to get you those pictures later on, but I'm going to reply to my sibs right now ;)

Love ya!

Elder Collison

1-13-14

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

1-6-14

Hey Mom and Dad! 

Last week was kind of a game changer for me, a lot of moments where I had to slow down and think about what I'm doing here and what I could be doing better. Must be all this new years resolution stuff. 

The biggest thing was probably the office fire. I don't want to make it sound like it was a big deal cause it really wasn't, but it brings back the memories of President Coakley's "no coincidences." There were a lot of variables that put the odds on our side and it's easy to say "dang we got lucky!" but I know that's not the case. It's scary to think about what could've happened. There were no smoke alarms going off, we didn't smell or see anything, nobody new we were up there. If we hadn't heard the guard yelling for help into his phone through the window, we probably would've stuck around a lot longer and it might've been harder to get out when we finally realized what was happening. I'm grateful we're being watched over and we all made it out without a scratch. 

It was pretty funny though, the news stories made some pretty dramatic twists to reality. 

"There was an office building incinerated on Pipera Friday, there were three survivors."

"After the inferno, three were saved in the last minute."

and stuff like that.. we got a pretty big laugh out of it. 

haha, K. I don't want to go on too long about this, but I'll give you a clip of my journal entry just in case you want some details. 

At about 10:30 the assistants left and we were just wrapping up the plans so we could get to sleep. I had my earbuds in, but Elder B heard some shouting so he looked out the window to see flames billowing out of the third story.  We hadn’t really noticed the smoke because it’s always so foggy over Bucuresti, it usually looks the same on the seventh story at night. Elder B jumps around and yells “there’s a fire on the side of the building!” I rip my ear buds out and say “there’s a flag??” My first thought was seriously that there was some kind of riot or something. At this point we all kinda look at each other for a moment, then we jump up and grab our bags and jackets and run for the door.  We really had no idea what to do. I ran for the stairs, Elder P ran for the elevator and Elder B ran for the emergency evacuation guide. I got a video of us running out of the office in case we died on the way down, then we took the stairs deciding that it was probably our safest bet. As soon as we got out onto the stairs we could smell it and feel it, but as we started descending the smoke got thick FAST. We couldn’t see or breathe by the time we reached the third floor, but we continued sprinting towards the exit. We made it out safely with nothing more than a cough. When we ran out of the building the guard hustled over to us to make sure we were ok. He was still on the phone with 112, and it was his frantic voice explaining the situation that we had heard through our window seven stories up. We were the only ones in the building when it happened so we just had to testify that we were the last ones out and no one was missing and we were good to go. But we stuck around for an hour and watched it burn. We’re all thoroughly impressed with the sector one fire brigade, they got there plenty fast and they had hoses all over that thing for and an hour before the fire finally started to calm down. At the climax of the action we counted 11 fire truck and probably just as many police cars. We had left our phone upstairs so we ran to the sisters apartment so we could use theirs to start telling people we were ok. They didn’t answer so we ran to the assistants house and woke them up. We called President Hill and got everything all figured out, then we ran back to the fire. Someone there caught wind that we had been in the building and all the sudden we had 6 cameras in our faces and bunch of microphones everywhere as we recounted our story. They took a quick little blip of that for their news story, and my face is totally cut out cause I didn’t say anything, but I can say I made the news! We went back home and got a couple hours of sleep. It was hard cause we were so wound up, and we woke up pretty early the next day to get to the office. To our surprise they let us in, and I’m actually typing this out on my own computer right now. The fire totally damaged the third floor and it looks like they’re just starting to check things out down there, I’m hoping that they checked to see if this building is still structurally sound, but being cement I’m pretty sure we’re safe. 

Today (I'm writing out a little draft on Sunday cause I'll be kicked out of the office early tomorrow for the professional cleaning crew to come in and try to get the smoke smell out.) We had our church service at Aviatiei, and I guess I should fill you in on what's happening next transfer; I'm staying in the office with Elder P and Elder B. My entire district is actually staying the same which I'm happy about cause they're all pretty sick. I'm not assigned to Aviatiei anymore and in fact, I don't really have a branch..? Aviatiei has become a missionary and senior couple group with a faithful Romanian group leader that comes every week, it kinda died.. So the office Elders were told they could go to any branch in Bucuresti they wanted to, so we're just going to bounce around depending on the mood. 

ANyways. Today after church I went to Sora Gorzo's house for lunch. She's the sweetest old lady, and she actually reminds me a lot of Grandma Brant. After that I basically spent the rest of the day contacting with Elder R (one of my good friends out here, an AP that I've been working with for the last couple transfers) We were both just sick of sitting in the office doing busy work and we knew we needed to get out and do something. So we put our office load on our companions and went out with the sisters to talk to people. We were trying to do some survey contacting, which actually turned out to be pretty effective. I was feeling weird about it at first because to me it almost sounded like a way to lie your way into a gospel conversation, but I tried it out and realized that if you do it with the right intentions and the questions you ask are truly to learn about personal beliefs and the general culture of Romania, then it's a worthy practice and I actually got some really cool conversations out of it. We talked to one crazy paint huffer who was saying some really mean stuff but we got a good laugh out of it. For some reason she really wanted to talk to me, and whenever Rodenburg would add something she would whip around and do a gollum "shut up!" in English. She would ask where I'm from and I'd say the states, and she'd answer with "lies! You speak romanian!" She asked why I was here in Romania and I was like "To talk with and help people, ya know?" and shes's like "lies! You're here to steal!" This might be mean, but it gets to the point when you can just laugh at those people and shake it off without a problem when they cuss you out, cause their brains are all cooked out and there's not a whole lot left to worry about. If there's one thing I'll learn here it's that the word of wisdom might be a good idea ;)

Love you so much! Thank you for emailing me.

Elder Collison

12-30-13

Hey Mom and Dad! Holy smokes it sounds like you've had busy week. 

I got to skype my family!

I'm 19 years old! 

My big sister is Married!!!

Dang it's all over my head

I had a lot of highs and lows this week. It was so good seeing you guys and enjoying the Christmas feel again, but I'm kinda ready for this holiday season to be over so I can forget about home and get to work again, know what I mean? I feel like a part of me stayed home when we closed that skype and I'm just now finally getting back into the swing of things. But with that aside, it was AMAzing being able to talk to you guys and seeing how much everyone's grown and that I haven't been forgotten. I can't believe Aubrey Carey is a Carey.. that's so weird to me..

I thought about her all Friday, but it wasn't sad for me like I expected- if change is going to happen, that's the kinda change I want ;)

My Birthday was pretty good! I went to the Hobbit 2 with my district, then we went out for ice cream and pizza. I was bored to death that evening because everyone else had to leave for different appointments and my companions wanted to spend the evening on the computers. So I just juggled for a long time. 

Last night I got fed! By a non-american! haha

I was out contacting with the assistants and Elder Brown and Elder Barclay. I was getting kinda cold cause I had ditched my coat at the office, not really thinking ahead. As we passed the house of one of Barclay's investigators, a couple in there 50's, and he suggested that we ring in and see if they minded company so that we could meet them. We were all kinda curious because of the stories we had heard so we all agreed. Man- these people were crazy in the most entertaining sense. Just very abstract views and a really lighthearted outlook on life. they were SO goofy, we had a bunch of fun there. 

We spent two hours at their house, just listening to their stories, viewing all their scars, admiring all their possessions including his "money making machine" (He's a cobbler so his heavy duty sewing machine is where the dough comes from) It was a lot of fun, but we only meant to stay 10 minutes and every time we stood up they're like "please don't leave yet, sit back down!"

Then the fed us basically all their food. I felt so bad because we had just eaten and we definitely weren't expecting a meal. They kept saying "next time you come for food you should call us first!" and we're like "we didn't come for food we just wanted to meet you for a moment!" But they kept insisting and we at a bunch of the best saramale I've ever had. Then they brought out a dish called piftie.. Basically you take all the meat off a pig, then we boil what's left with garlic and waaaay too much salt and.. eat it. it's basically a thin layer of poor quality meat with about two inches of what looks like translucent white jello on top. We all slurped it down with as straight of faces as we could muster and woke up this morning a little queasy.. but we were able to share a little spiritual thought and I think I can say I had a lesson..? anyways, it was sick ;D

i'm gonna dash now, we're going to go play some soccer at the park izvor. Love you guys so much, thank you so much for that skype call again! 

Good luck with your rejuvenation and stuff!

Elder Collison

12-23-13

Hello my family!! 

I have a bunch of stories from this week, but I think I'm going to keep you waiting until Wednesday, I want to have a story or two to bring to the table ;) 

It's the week of Christmas! I can't believe it! I'll give you the run down of my plans. 

We're going to do a bunch of Caroling up until Christmas. I'm really loving it- I've been going with Elder Barclay and Elder Brown a lot to go caroling with the sisters. My companions refuse so we go on exchanges. (did I tell you I just got another companion? There was a large group of missionaries that left halfway through the transfer so it unevened the number of elders. Now we have elder Brady in the office with us to give us an extra hand) So we're going to do a bunch of that. On Wednesday we're going to come to the office early in our pajamas and open Christmas presents under our beautiful tree. After that we'll be going to the Hills house. We were invited over for lunch and some downtime shenanigans. It sounds like we're going to spend the afternoon there watching the first hobbit (because some members of my district hasn't seen it yet and President Hill is the biggest fan) and we're going to play some board games and stuff. After that I'll just dash back to the office and have a quick little chat WITH MY LOVELY FAMILY-AHHHH! I'm so excited guys ;)

On Thursday we're going to see the second Hobbit at 11ish, then after that is kinda unplanned. I'll make sure we do something crazy though ;) I'm so ready to be 19! not that it really changes anything, but I've been the little runt of college and this mission life for too long! haha, kidding- but it will be nice.. 

I've actually gotta go soon.. I might be able to email more sometime tomorrow..? we're going out as a district right now and then I gave someone permission to use my computer to skype their family tonight. 

Usually I would feel bad but I'm talking to you guys in three days!! will you tell all my siblings I'm sorry for not being able to reply?? sorry! I'll probably be able to get on tomorrow sometime, so if you have any questions or anything or just want to email me more you can!! haha 

Love you lots,

Talk to you soon!

Elder Collison

12/16/13

Hey Mom and Dad and Emma!!

This week hasn't been all too eventful. My highlight was probably our little Christmas concert we threw Saturday night, we had a bunch of fun with that. It was kinda thrown together last minute, but someone came up with a program and a good compilation of songs and all the missionaries in Buc gathered together both Friday night and Saturday morning to practice. I heard some of the senior couples in the audience took a good amount of pictures so I'll try to get my hands on those and send them your way. Honestly, it wasn't a whole lot different from a primary presentation- it was just like the "after we had grown a foot or two" edition. Some people had little clips to read and songs to introduce, and president Hill at one point sang "if I were a rich man". Boy he was he animated! Behind his fake beard and cane I had a hard time remembering it was him. He was dancing and jumping around and yelling. SO funny, I loved it. We're going to give the same presentation at some other Christmas party and at the American Embassy on Thursday. We got a gig at the American Embassy! We're going to go up on stage and sing for all the workers while they're on their lunch break, I'm pretty stoked! 

We don't have any snow yet! It's actually been pretty comfortable here. Remember how we were so concerned about the weather here? Bah. It snowed once, a month ago, and it's just been frost since. It's about as cold as Michigan gets though, not too awful ;) 

This week I had the chance to go on an exchange with Elder Brown in my district. He just got here 2 weeks ago. I got to be his first exchangee. It was really good to get out and talk to people again after lying contactingly dormant for so long. It was exactly the same as it was 3 months ago- 

"Good after noon sir, we're missiona-" 

"NO." 

"Hello madam, can we explain this book to y--" 

"NO." 

But just to try, made me feel like a missionary again.
We ate some English breakfast, which is very quickly becoming my favorite meal. Just picture this; You have four pieces of toast on a plate, then you put on by layers;

Carnati (sausages..? but they're not sausages, they taste totally different)

mushrooms and onions fried up together

Fried eggs

tomatoes

and baked beans

Dang it's good! 

Love you guys bunches! And Emma; I'm so stinkin' proud of you for stickin' with the piano! I always get super nervous when I perform too, but I always feel so good after words and I like being able to share my talents with people. ;) 

Love you!! 

Elder Collison