Sunday, October 1, 2006

Sunday morning I didn’t need to take a shower, because I’d taken one the night before, so I just got up at like 8:30 and somehow got ready really super fast. So, since I was ready by like 9:10, I left with Jessica at 9:20 because she has to go early to practice piano. It was really good because then I got to practice conducting too. However, despite all the practice, I still did a crappy conducting job! For some reason, things just slip my mind sometimes. Don’t understand why. The Sunday meetings were actually kind of nerve racking this Sunday. It was fast and testimony meeting, and since there are so few people in the branch, I was extra nervous about there not being anyone to get up and bear their testimony. The time ended up passing, but I’m not sure how. Also, I was really hungry, so all during church I could not get my mind off of all different kinds of food. Sunday School and Relief Society weren’t quiiite as nerve racking as Sacrament, but they’re always a struggle because of the language barrier and I really have a hard time paying attention a lot of the time. After we got home I went straight for the kitchen. I’d been wanting a frozen snickers bar the whole fast and finally got one. Then I took a nice little uncomfortable nap on the lopsided couch and didn’t get up til I had to cook chicken for our Sunday dinner stir fry. The rest of the girls came over at 4 and we ate and had our meeting. Our meeting was really important this time. After it was done I’d felt like I’d just had either a really good conversation or a good cry. We started talking about habits of our group (because Holly says that now is when our group will start to form permanent habits) and got into a discussion about all the different things that have been a problem in our group lately. We were all really honest and there were so many good things said and I felt like it really helped. By the end I understood the rest more and I felt like they understood me more. Not too long after we ended the meeting, Conference started, and I was in the perfect mood for it. I took a lot of notes and got as much out of it as I think was possible for me – it was great. Also, they talked about our Iasi branch! They actually talked about this kid named Vasile who is one of the kids who are always out on the streets next to the Villa. I don’t know him, but Holly does. She said he used to come and be really active and have a testimony and was reading the Book of Mormon and everything, but then something happened and his parents didn’t like the church and he got into the wrong crowd and the person who owns the Villa wouldn’t let the street kids come to church anymore and also that he took it really hard when that group of Americans left. She says now he doesn’t want anything to do with the church and won’t even look at her when she walks by. It’s so sad. We all really want to do something to help them, but we don’t know what. After the first session, I called my parents, who were watching conference at home for the first time instead of at Grandma’s house. Sad. I was really excited to tell them that they’d talked about our branch in Conference. The second session of conference was pretty good too although part of the time I was distracted by trying to upload pictures on the computer at the same time. Bad idea. After conference I just went to bed. It was late. We watch conference live, so it’s from 7-9pm our time and 11 – 1am.