Hello how is it going? Well I'm not dead yet the heat won't set in until later on in the summer. Alright first about my companion and new area. Elder Olmstead is from Chandler, Arizona he is very sarcastic and a lot of fun to be around I will include a picture of him in this email as well. He still doesn't know what he wants to do when he goes back home and he is 20 years old. Ruse is about 4 hours away from the nearest city with missionaries in it and about 6 hours away from the mission home. So if you have sent anything I probably will not get it until July or August because nobody ever comes up here. Also I didn't get to pick up mail on transfer day so I don't have any mail that might have been waiting in the mission home for me as well. Ruse is right next to the Danu rive the second biggest in Europe and right over the rive are amazing sunsets and Romania. Because of the river we get some pretty good storms her and the humidity is always above 60 % and the temperature will reach 115 degrees Fahrenheit. Also there is a little bit of a investagator pool so we don't have to start from scratch. Also Elder Olmstead has served in Ruse before just not in this area so he knows the city just not the investagators which helps. Well that is all I have on the city so here is some more on the week.
Monday:
After Emailing you guys we just took it nice and easy. We did some shopping and watched some movies and then at night we cleaned our apartment.
Tuesday:
Lets just say that the AP's and mission president planned traveling and I had to go all the way to Sofia and then from there to Ruse. It was about ten hours on the bus but I wasn't alone the entire time so that was good. Got into Ruse around 7:30 and unpacked, had dinner, and did a little bit of missionary work.
Wednesday:
My firts reall day in Ruse and I was stuck in the church all day. First thing we had in the morning was district meeting and then we went out to this restruant that was supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread according to every missionary whom had served in Ruse before. And I was not impressed also the amazing cake they had was too sweet for me and yea lets just say I am the odd ball of the mission I guess for not liking it. After lunch we did some shopping so I would have food for the week and then we had a dropped lesson which was followed by sitting in the church for four hours while people registered for english. After which we went home for dinner and bed.
Thursday:
Instead of studing in the morning like normal today we decided to go and work in the morning and study in the afternoon to avoid the worst of the heat. Well it worked and didn't work because we did avoid something just not the heat we avoided a giant storm that ended as soon as we were finished. After our studies we had a meeting that fell through and so we attended seminary and then had a meeting with this really nice guy in his home. His name is Miroslav and He has been reading from the Book of Mormon. He still uses a prayer book but other than that he is really cool and I have high hopes for him. After the meeting with him we went home and went to bed.
Friday:
Was task tastic. We had to after our morning studies go and register in the city and then buy some stuff for the apartment. After this it was time for lunch and another meeting that fell through. After the meeting we weekly planned, had language study, and dinner. We then had half lesson where we just found out he is a guy that missionaries have served before and he has helped us before but he isn't interested at all in our church. We then had a another meeting fall through and then went home to bed.
Saturday:
First thing in the morning after studies was english. We have two hours of it here just like in Pleven and it was fun. I taught first level for the first hour with Elder Olmstead and first level for the second hour with Elder Karajov (a mini missionary from sofia.) English was a lot of fun like always. After english we had cleaning and for lunch we got chicken dumplings from a chineas resturant and I fell in love! Anyway after cleaning we went surveying for a while and then had a dropped meeting and then went and met with Miroslav again with a member named Mitko. Mitko is about 18 and he was baptized a year ago and he follows us around like a little puppy and does missionary work with us. It is really fun and it is good language practice. After the meeting we went home to bed and to my dismay I couldn't find my camara. I looked every where for it and still couldn't find it so I said a prayer and just hoped it wasn't stolen.
Sunday:
First thing in the morning was church. Church was great for a couple reasons. First Miroslav came to church and he brought my camera with him. Aparantly it had fallen out of my bag when we were teaching him saturday. Also another of our investagators came to church as well and after church she met with us and she had been reading a little out of the book of mormon and she commited to pray about it and come back to church again the next week. After church and the meeting with Stefi (the investagator who is a girl and about 19 years old) we sang a little with the members and then had lunch. After lunch we were surveing for 5 hours strait. That was long and we got to see the city a lot. It also made me wonder how much a missionary walks in this mission on average per day and I wish I had a peddometer to figure it out. After five hours of surveying we came home for dinner and bed.
That was my week and thank you all for the letters of support. Oh also I measured my self this morning on the scale and I weigh 198.6 pounds! I broke Two Hundred. I belive that is the first time I have been under two hundred since eighth grade as well. So to commemorate this I am sending some before and after pictures. The pictures are from the MTC and from last night (I am skin and bones,) My new Companion Elder Olmstead, and a picture of the Danu.
Love,
Elder Austin James Ewell
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