Exciting Week!

Hey everyone!

So I'm now done with another week at the MTC, I think that makes it 5. Yes. It has now been 5 weeks. I can't really keep track anymore so next week you might not get a notice of how long I've been here. It was a fun week, all in all. I got a little sick last week with a cold or something probably and went to the clinic here to see a nurse, who gave me her miracle cure for sore throats: salt. Seriously, she gave me a bag of salt and said to gargle it twice a day. I don't know if it was the salt or the other medicine I took, but I'm better now! :)

I'm glad to know that everyone's doing great at home! Thanks for the pics it looks like girl's camp and the mascot unveiling ceremony went well! Thanks for all of the party hats and the banner and everything too! We had a lot of fun and had a little party before class on Friday when I got the package. I'm excited for Katie getting to teach piano lessons! That's so cool and I'm sure she'll do great (Katie, when you read this read it as "you'll do great" :) )! I'm excited for everyone going to Lake Powell too! It sounds like so much fun just know that I'm working out here so when I get home tube wars are going to get a lot more competitive!

So my companion and I had a funny mishap this week. We were in the TRC teaching a lesson to the volunteer investigators in Romanian (it was our first week in all Romanian, by the way, and I thought it went well) and we wanted to read them a scripture about how prayer blesses families. So both of us pull out our handy (Romanian) lesson plans, and ask them to read from Third Nephi, Chapter 29, Verse 7. Tania (the wife) read the verse, in which I heard at no point the word "roaga" which is the conjugation of the verb to pray that I was hoping to hear. Thinking that I maybe just missed it, I asked them how that relates to their families. Answer: "hmmmm.... nu stiu." (I don't know). Bad sign. I grabbed my English Book of Mormon and opened up to find out that both my companion and I had written down the wrong reference (we were going for 3 Nephi 18:21, which is nowhere near 29:7, so it was really weird until we realized that another reference in our plan was 2 Ne. 29:7, and we wrote it down wrong. Sorry for the tangent). So, instead of reading about how prayer blesses families, we told our investigators to read about how those who deny the revelations of Christ become sons of perdition........... not good. I apologized and asked them to read the correct reference, which I had written in my English lesson plan, and they laughed it off and it was all good (both of them were returned missionaries and I'm sure that's why we got off so easily). Lesson learned: make sure to double check scripture references.

During that same lesson a less funny but also interesting thing that happened was that during our lesson I recited the first vision from memory for them in Romanian. I got stuck on a word (întreceau), and the investigator mouthed the word to me. I don't think that'll happen very many times while I'm in Romania.

Last night we got to hear from Elder Sybrowsky of the Seventy. He talked about missionaries and missionary work and the great impact it has and it really motivated me. I'm serious I woke up this morning to go to the temple and I felt like I had to hold myself back from running everywhere because I wanted to go everywhere and do everything I need to do so fast and get work done! Everyone in my district was super excited to go to Romania after last night (I say that as if we weren't excited already, but we seriously are super excited, not just excited now). I thought it was cool because in the Devotional Elder Sybrowsky played a clip from the April 1978 Priesthood Session of General Conference in which LeGrand Richards said that he loved RMs and missionaries because they are extremely excited about the gospel, and you can't buy excitement like that anywhere from anyone. That excitement can only come from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Anyway, as you can tell it's been a super fun and interesting week! I might be seeing general authorities at random throughout the week as they're training the new mission presidents, which will be great! Vă iubesc (I love you all)!

Cu Dragostea Mea, Elder Michael Abbott

P.S. the elder whose wrist was broken is probably leaving on time now thanks to the super cleanness of the break! (I know, only someone as skilled as me can break a bone that cleanly :D)

P.P.S. Oh, and also, it might have been me playing soccer. I get gym time every day except p-day and Sunday. Phew just made it I have less than a minute left of email time. Pa-Pa!