Square Galaxy » Romania

Transylvania is so misunderstood

Jacob — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 05:00:02 +0000

I spent about a year of my life in a region of Romania known as Transylvania. It is actually quite a romantic, European country and mountain range, nothing like the creepy vampire spooks that are too often portrayed. Take for example, this Transylvanian castle which I visited. Castle Bran doesn’t have any bats or ghosts, although it might have a romantic well (and a secret passageway).

Castle Bran in Transylvania

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Don’t ring that bell

Jacob — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:04:29 +0000

Bell in Romanian Fortress

On my LDS mission in Romania, I visited a little fortress on top of a hill in a small town. In the fortress is this bell which has had several uses.

A few hundred years ago, the bell was rang to warn of attack. During the world wars, it rang for an air raid attack. Now it is used for more general emergencies such as a fire in the town.

When wandering through the fortress, there was a sign next to the bell indicating that it was only to be rung in emergencies, but other than that, there was nothing stopping me from pulling the cord and ringing the bell.

But I think the bell should be rung for other types of attacks and emergencies too. Perhaps it should ring for the economy, or perhaps it should ring to warn of attacks on the traditional family.

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Tickets to Romanian castles

Jacob — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 16:41:10 +0000

Entrance Tickets

As I was digging through some of my old stuff, I came across these two entrance tickets to a couple of castles in Romania.

The green ticket on the left is for Peleş Castle, built between 1873 and 1883. The blue ticket on the right is for nearby smaller Pelişor Castle, built between 1899 to 1903. I visted these castles while on my church mission in Romania.

In comparison to many other castles, these were quite new, and I might find the word mansion more fitting for these buildings.

It is hard to see the price on these tickets, but the green one seems to say 60,000 lei, which would have been worth around 2 dollars at the time.

Now that I’ve blogged about these, I can throw them away and have just a little less clutter around.

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Rainy missionary day in Cluj

Jacob — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:55:59 +0000

I thought I would continue with posting various photos from my LDS mission in Romania. This picture was taken on an especially rainy day in Cluj-Napoca, from a window near my apartment.

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Cluj-Napoca as a missionary

Jacob — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:52:07 +0000

Here is another mission photo. I was with James Nickerson in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, as missionaries, and he took this picture of me. We were contacting people in an apartment building, and thought the view was pretty good.

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Me on a mission in Romania

Jacob — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:31:38 +0000

I thought I would share this picture of me as a missionary in Romania. This picture was taken in a little town called Campia Turzu in Transylvania.

From Mission

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Light Stones Blog

Jacob — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 07:11:31 +0000

I served a mission for the LDS Church in Romania. Recently I found out that the wife of the current mission president of Romania has a blog. Her blog is called Grandma Chubby’s Stuff, and it is very good at keeping news and information about the Church and missionary work in Romania.

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On hand holding and kissing

Jacob — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 07:47:28 +0000

On one of the mailing lists I subscribe to, there was this question that went out:

Subject: ONLY FOR GUYS TO ANSWER…

Hey I was just wondering what yall thought about Whom should make the
first move the guy or the gurl on matters such as: holding hands or
kissing, for the first time?

And if a gurl were to make the first move how would you feel
about/like that?

When I was in Romania for my LDS mission, handholding wasn’t such a big deal. It would be normal to hold hands with friends. You would see girls walk down the street hand in hand all the time. They were not homosexual, just friends. It wouldn’t be unusual for me to walk down the street arm in arm with my missionary companion. Of course, my personal preference was against doing that, but it wouldn’t have been socially unacceptable if I had done so.

I mention that to illustrate the point that every society has different norms for physical contact. Each individual also has their own personal preferences. In deciding when is is appropriate to make a move physically in a relationship, it is important to remember the social norms and personal preferences in doing so.

Now the norm in our modern American society has been changing over the years I think. It used to be that the social norm was more that the man in the relationship would be the one to make the moves. However, with traditional gender roles have been fading and there are fewer reasons to assume that it is the male’s role in the relationship to make advances. Tradition, of course, opposes modern trends in advancements, and thus will remind us of the traditional male role. The societal norm, conclusionally, is that either gender is free to make relationship advancements, but with more emphasis placed on the male’s role because of tradition.

The freedom of the societal norm gives great flexibility to the personal preferences of an individual who is dating. Let me discuss though, a particular trend that I’ve seen. Girls want to be understood and loved, while guys want to provide. If a girl has a problem, she wants someone to understand how she feels about the problem. If a guy has a problem, he wants it to be fixed. Not that dating is a problem, but in a relationship, girls often tend to focus more on emotional understanding and love, and guys tend to think more about showing affection through actions. Individual dating preferences often will follow these trends. Girls want to feel like they are a great catch. They will tend not to make the moves because they prefer that the man in the relationship proves his affection for her by overcoming any nerves or awkwardness in making advances. Guys must consider carefully his feelings for a girl before he makes any moves and conquers and fears he may have of doing so. In this way, physical affection will represent the emotional affection between the couple and the kissing and handholding will become more enjoyable.

It is also worthy to note the importance of keeping relationships in this balance. Physical affection should be initiated only when there is an equivalent level of emotional affection. It should also remain in balance with the commitment of the relationship. When these three aspects of a relationship (physical affection, emotional affection, and commitment) are in balance, then the relationship will be more enjoyable and profitable for the involved individuals. When a relationship is developing, the couple should plan a variety of activities to do together so that the three aspects of a relationship grow in balance.

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Proselyting for the Elect

Jacob — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 05:29:58 +0000

In my two year missionary experience in Romania, there was a missionary theme or technique we had called Proselyting for the elect. In general, it said that if we were trying to find the elect of God, we should be bold in challenging them to do the things they needed to gain a testimony such as read the Book of Mormon or attend church. The idea was that the elect would use these challenges to gain a testimony and become strong members in the church.

There was once a sarcastic comment made more than once that said that we should board ourselves up in the chapel and wait, because the elect would tear down the doors to hear the gospel. Of course that was ridiculous to think that way.

I’ve heard a similar comment from some girls, who say that they shouldn’t have to dress up or put forth effort to look pretty, because that is not who they really are, and if someone were to love them, then he would love them for who they really are.

So girls, if you are going out to socialize with those from the opposite gender, don’t metaphorically board yourselves up the the chapel. Look nice, be nice. You don’t need to be someone else, just be yourself and be your best.

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Chocolate

Jacob — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 07:01:08 +0000

When I was in Romania, I found this very good chocolate called Heidi Chocolate. It was the best milk chocolate that could be purchased for about 50 cents for 100 grams. It was good to eat along side pretzels, crackers, nuts, or just by itself. I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed looking forward to eating it. It was sweet, it was good, it was delightful. It made me happy.

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