Blood, Blood, Blood, Your Oranges

Elders Dahl, Stark, Bowen, Landon

Hey everyone!! This was one of those awesome weeks for us here in Cluj-Napoca!

We were able to have many lessons with people and when we didn't have lessons, we had great finding activities and that led to finding more and more friends. Probably the best part of this week was that we had a lesson with a great guy named Alexandru. We met him while walking on the street and doing contacting by the way towards the church. We stopped him and he expressed how he loved singing at church so we invited him to church. Unfortunately, he was out of town but we eventually set up a lesson with him and it was super awesome! We were teaching the Restoration and that led to a super spiritual discussion with him. He discussed how he got on the path towards God and everything he was sharing was something that related to our lives and we shared our experiences with the Gospel blessing us and helping us know of God's love for us. That brought the Spirit so strongly and he was loving everything we were saying. Elder Stark and I testified a lot of the blessings of the Book of Mormon and he accepted to read. And then we discussed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how this is the true path towards God and Elder Stark, without preparation, invited Alexandru to be baptized and he said yes!! With enthusiasm, he said he will read the Book of Mormon and if he finds that it is his path, he will get on the path as soon as possible! The Spirit was so strong and I am super happy that we had that opportunity to teach him. We also have been continuing to work with Gabriel and he is getting more and more into the Gospel. We had a lesson and he essentially taught us the Plan of Salvation and he has a super strong testimony of President Nelson and he is becoming more and more happy because of all this. And because of this, we have scheduled to teach him at his house with his mom and grandmother, which is something he has been refusing. It's a process, but it's going really well! This next week is looking to be really good!

West Zone trainers and trainees headed to Bucharest for training

We also had a really great experience with a returning member named Emil. We visited him at his house and we were teaching him and I felt prompted for each of us to share our favorite verses from the Book of Mormon. So we each shared great stories and verses and then at the end, we invited him to share that verse or story on his Facebook. He was surprised, but he said he would try it out to see what happens. I don't know how well it went for him, but it's something different and he was willing to try. And lately he has been coming to church way more and I think that's because he feels way more love from the missionaries and the members and he feels like he is important for the branch. I think that's the next step for every other returning member to come back into the fold of God.

We are going to have times where we will fall short of our goals and things will not go as we planned them. We may be saddened, but we should not become discouraged. We must follow the example of Alma, who said: "O Lord, my heart is exceedingly sorrowful; wilt thou comfort my soul in Christ. O Lord, wilt thou grant unto me that I may have strength, that I may suffer with patience these afflictions which shall come upon me" (Alma 31:31). I know that as we put Christ into the center of our lives, we will be blessed and be able to accomplish the things which the Lord has commanded. I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!! Spor!

Va iubesc,

Elder Bowen