Hey cuties

It's been a fun week and we finally got to meet our new mission president this past week so that was super cool. He is AWESOME. He's known for his crazy long interviews because he loves missionaries and he also loves to talk. I love it. He's also crazy smart and spiritual so he gave me some really cool advice for my mission. Sister Kumferman was sick so we weren't really able to meet her. Zone conference in general was just sweet.

But before we had zone conference we had an opportunity to help with a funeral on tuesday (woo). The first time we did a funeral a super old guy had died and he just died of old age so it wasn't super sad but this last funeral we did a funeral for a lady who died of bronchitis and it was just super sad. All of her kids (in their 30-40s) were just crying and it was just hard to see. It makes me super grateful to know the Plan of Salvation and to know that death isn't the end.

There are a few traditions that people have for funerals here in Moldova and I thought I'd just give you an idea of how they are:

-First they take the body and put it inside the house of the relatives and they sleep in the same house as the body

-Early in the morning they take the body outside of the block and everyone gathers around while an orthodox priest does this fire/ash ritual while singing

-None of the close relatives are allowed to shake hands

-You can't put your hands in pockets or it's rude

-They give all of the guests a gift basket with bread, matches, and little candies. They also give you a towel to carry on your shoulder. 

-Then other than that it's pretty similar where they bury the body

-They also hold a giant feast at the end where everyone comes together and drinks tons of vodka, wine and (if you're a missionary) non-alchoholic mojito soda. They also serve some classic moldovan food, one of my favorites is called бабка and it literally means grandma but it's like a spaghetti chocolate cake haha

-At this last feast there was a guy named Ivan and at first he was super normal and just asked all the usual questions like "why are you guys here" and "are you Jdubs or something" but the more the feast went on and the more shots he took the conversations started to turn into stuff like "all mexicans in america are bandits" and "in the next four years some crazy stuff is going to happen to the US." Now you all know that if something happens my boy Vanya knew it all along.

So we got into Chisinau thursday and we stayed until friday night and it was a blast being with all of my buddies in Chisinau again. It was my last time seeing Elder Griffeth and Solov'iov so that was kinda sad. But I loved zone conference and we learned some really great stuff. This new mission is going to be rad.

Other than that we've just been meeting with tons of people and doing the Missionary thing. 

Another fun thing I've realized while being here is how afraid people are of сквозняк. It literally translates to a draft of wind. So basically if there are 2 windows open in a house or a car everyone freaks out because they are 100000% sure that they will get sick. So these people would rather sit in their sweat than to roll the windows down because they don't want to get sick. It's pretty funny and it triggers my companion a lot hahah. I seriously love the people here.

So after my interview with President Kumferman there was a main point that I wanted to take away from what he said and this was what I got out of it:

We strive to be like our Heavenly Father by trying to be like Jesus Christ. We do this by developing "spiritual reflexes." We do as the Savior would in any circumstance. If we strive to do this then everything in our lives will work out the way it's meant to be.

The idea of spiritual reflexes is really cool to me because we can literally improve ourselves to the point where we want to do the right thing in ANY circumstance. It can take years and years and it all comes through the little decisions every day. If we are doing the little things right then we can develop those spiritual habits and step by step we find ourselves closer to God.

Well I love you all and I'm super grateful for every single one of you

-Старейшина Уайтинг

p.s С днём рождения мой самый лучший друг, Ной! Ты большой мальчик тепер. туалетные бандиты на вечность.