Storytime with Stella

Numa Numa

2011-08-16T21:06:00.004-04:00

So, this 12-year-old boy in my home ward begged his older sister to ask me if I would translate "Numa Numa" into English for him... thought the rest of you might find it kind of interesting. :)

(Mom, if you don't know what 'Numa, Numa' is... watch this Youtube video.)

I'm not claiming that this is exactly correct, but the best I could do!

Numa Numa by the Romanian pop band O-Zone

[Nonsense sounds @ the beginning until he says 'alo']

Hello, hey, it’s me, an outlaw
And I ask you, my love, receive happiness
Hello, hello, it’s me, Picasso
I gave you a beep (basically that means, I called you) and I’m strong, but know that I’m not asking you for anything.

You want to leave, but you don’t want to take me
Don’t want to take me, don’t want to take me
Your face & your love from the lime tree
I remember your eyes
(repeat 2 times)

I’m calling you to tell you what I feel right now,
Hello, my love, it’s me, happiness
Hello, hello, it’s me again, Picasso
I gave you a beep, and I’m strong, but know that I’m not asking you for anything

Chorus 2x. Then ends with nonsense sounds again.

.....and about the rest of my life/what it's like to be home/etc. etc. I will update another day!! I am working on a post.

Until then, here's a pic of my awesome family:

I cannot say the smallest part of what I feel

2011-07-18T10:46:00.004-04:00

First of all, happy belated birthday to my awesome brother Soren!!! Every time I see pictures of him and Emily I think, "That is my brother. And that is his kid. That is my brother's kid. That is my brother and he has a kid." Haha. I can't wait to see them!

Second, transfer news is in--I'm being transferred to America!!! Ha ha ha. Sorry, but I thought that was funny... :)

Wow, what an AMAZING week Sora H and I had. So, this guy Tibi from our English class shows up to church last Sunday. He already knows English pretty well, but has been bringing his 9-year-old daughter Bianca to English. She's a DOLL, by the way. So, we're like, “Heeey!! Tibi!” He came and participated in sacrament meeting. I spoke. Afterwards he said he didn't like it that much (ouch! ha ha ha) and he had to go, so we set up a time to meet during the week to answer his questions. Well, we also invited an awesome, awesome member, Cosmin, to come to the lesson too. Pure inspiration from the Holy Ghost because the two of them hit it off like two peas in a pod. Well, Tibi's questions were things like "Why do you have another book besides the Bible?" "Why do you use water instead of wine for the sacrament" and so on, so we promised him that if he would really listen, all of his questions would be answered. And we started to teach him about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And the Spirit was SO STRONG. It was honestly one of the best, most AMAZING lessons I've ever had the privilege of participating in. Cosmin was the perfect, perfect member to have present and he just bore powerful testimony.... and the change that came over Tibi in the following 60 minutes was incredible. And you know why? His heart was OPEN. He was willing to listen and then to act, seek, and knock for himself. He got it! He really got it! We invited him to read and pray and he said of course he would.

We met again 2 days later and when I asked him how he felt after reading the Book of Mormon for the first time, he said simply, "It is the truth." By Friday we had taught him the first three lessons and he asked us how he could prepare to be baptized because he knows it's true. So, he will be baptized next Sunday, July 24th.

Heavenly Father is so awesome! Tibi has two daughters--the 9-year-old Bianca and a 15-year-old--and hopefully Sora H and her new companion (Sora M!!!) will be able to teach them as well. But man, he sent us the MOST prepared person ever!!! Tibi was searching for the truth, but he knew not where to find it... and Heavenly Father led him to it. I know that when I got down on my knees the morning of English sign-ups and begged Heavenly Father to send prepared people to our English classes this session, He REALLY listened to my prayers. We found Mihaela and Claudiu and their little family (still doing great! Claudiu was out of town this week, but we were able to meet with Mihaela on her own and she is SO legit and really wants to find the right place for her family to be and worship the Lord) plus this other awesome young couple from English that we just barely started teaching this week too. I would love to stay and see how it all turns out... but the Lord calls us and He releases us and He calls us somewhere else and there are other things He needs me to do in other places. But the work will go forth 'cuz there will always be amazing missionaries dedicated to serving the Lord called to this country and these people that I love so much!

Now... some thoughts. A few weeks ago I was feeling a little down. It was right before zone conference. I was thinking, man, there were so many days on my mission where I could have just worked a little harder. I bet I could've talked to at least 2 more people every day and gosh, why didn't I do this and this and this? And it was wearing a little on me. I thought, ahh! I didn't want to leave my mission with regrets, but now I'm thinking back and there were so many more things I could've done. :(

At zone conference, one of my zone leaders said something that was purely inspired just for me. I don't even remember exactly what it was. We were talking about being missionaries rather than just doing missionary things. He said, at the final judgment the Lord isn't going to ask us for a list of our accomplishments or to check off what good deeds we did in our lives. He is going to ask us who we have become. And all of a sudden, like a lightning bolt, the Holy Spirit of God whispered to me, “Your mission has been like a mini mortality.” When I leave Romania no one is going to ask me how many lessons I taught or how many missionaries I’ve trained or whatever--they are going to look and see who I have BECOME. And you know what? Just like I can’t possibly be perfect in this mortal life, I couldn’t possibly have been perfect on my mission either. But that is the point!! I learned and I grew and all of the times that I made mistakes I picked myself up again and tried to do better. Every single day of this mortal life I need the Atonement of Jesus Christ to cleanse me of my sins and help me to overcome my weaknesses. Christ doesn’t expect me to be perfect in this life. And He doesn’t expect me to have been the perfect missionary either. What *really* matters is that I have tried my *best* and that I have striven every single day to serve my Savior and my Father in Heaven. And that through that process of growth, trial, and repentance... I have BECOME more refined--an instrument in the Lord's hands to do His work.

Like Ammon, I cannot say the smallest part of what I feel (see Alma 26:16).

The last 18 months have been the most amazing, wonderful, difficult, and joyful experience of my entire life. It has been a privilege to serve my Father in Heaven and my Savior Jesus Christ with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength.

Earlier this week I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep. As I lay there, this image came into my mind. I thought of our family sitting in a circle having Star Time [the Harwards’ nightly ritual before family prayer]. I saw Soren playing with Emily, and Mandy smiling next to him. Nat looking up something on his I-phone. Cormac running around being crazy. Hillary trying to comfort Daphne, and Jake teasing me about something--and I actually felt myself roll my eyes ha ha. Mom and Dad just looking on.... it was just a moment. The briefest image, and then it was gone. But after that, I just started to weep. I thought, “This is what I live for.”

This is why my Heavenly Father sent me and all of us here to this Earth! We live, and we suffer, and we laugh, and we cry. And we do it because we love our families and because we love God. And He sends us here to become what He knows we can become--and He knows that this is the ONLY way that we can reach our fullest potential.

This mission has been but a small moment of my mortal life. And this life will be but a small moment in the eternities. But in this life we learn and we grow and all of it is for our happiness and joy! And those wonderful feelings of peace and love can exist here on this Earth and in the life that will come. I know that to be true with all of my heart.

I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the Earth in our day through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know that God is our Father in Heaven. He loves us and He speaks to us--His children. I know that His Son Jesus Christ lives. He is my personal Savior and the Savior of the world. His Atonement gives us the power to be better and to become what God knows we can be. The Atonement and the Plan of Salvation are real. They aren’t just some nice story that we tell people to make them feel better. Their power is REAL. I know because I’ve felt it and I’ve lived it. I know that it is available to anyone who will just come unto Christ and desire to seek and ask for himself. We have living prophets on the Earth today who receive revelation from God. If we will follow them, we will have peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come. The Book of Mormon is true. It is the word of God. It testifies of Christ. Our families are forever!!! Happiness is our privilege now. It is not just something we can hope for in the life after this one. It can be found by living according to the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

How grateful I am to know these truths, and I pray that all of you will come to know them and love them and live them in your own lives.

And these things I say, in the name of the one who I represent, even the Savior Jesus Christ, amen.

of shout-outs, skirts and super-star students

2011-07-11T19:57:00.007-04:00

Sunrise from our balcony this morning at 6 a.m.

Happy belated birthday shout-out to my awesome brother-in-law Jake. You will be forever revered in my mind for teaching me how to drive stick shift and for introducing me to chocolate chocolate chip peanut butter cookie dough ice-cream. (The best of ALL worlds!) And for being married to my favorite sister.

So we had zone conference this week in Arad, where we got to meet President and Sister Hill! Gosh, they are so awesome. It was neat to see President Hill in a different role as my mission president. (He is on the faculty of the BYU Finance Department where I used to be the student secretary, so I already knew him a bit.) And Sora Hill is a HOOT! She is a ball of fun. They will really bring a great energy and excitement to this work. I do miss the Lundbergs! But I know I'll see them again soon. Here's a view from the window of the train from Arad back to Cluj: sunflowers as far as the eye can see!

Getting together with other missionaries is always such a boost! It's so great to remember that you're all in this together (probs you should sing that to the tune of High School Musical!). I also came home from Arad with a gypsy skirt--it is fabulous!

Claudiu and Mihaela (the awesome family from English that we're teaching!) invited us to their house for lunch and a lesson. (Lunch was actually scrumptious!) They live on the outskirts of Cluj in a beautiful little area. They are so great and love the things that we are teaching them... but.... they still haven't made it to church. Gosh dang it! Patience. Patience. Patience. The last two Sundays something came up, and they couldn't make it. :( :( We were so bummed. But this Sunday they will be there, and they will love it. It will take a little bit of time, but they will definitely be members within the next few months.

Ohh!! How could I forget! I've been meaning to write about the M family every week since I arrived in Cluj. Mom, dad, two teenage sons and one teenage daughter. They have been coming to church for FOUR years. But they are not baptized! For a long time the dad was anti and wouldn't allow the others to be baptized, but within the last few months he has been bringing them to church every week and staying for sacrament meeting! They live in the elders' area, so they are teaching them, but Sora M asked me to teach Maria piano.

I LOVE Maria with all my little heart. I can't even tell you how awesome this girl is. She's 12. Super sweet, super intelligent, and just an all-around awesome young lady. Future Stake Relief Society president. We've been going once a week to teach her the piano and she's a little superstar. She can already play "Jesus Once of Humble Birth" (that's her fav).

We went on a heart attacking spree this week. Every time we were in the area of a member and had a few extra minutes, we put hearts all over their door, left a treat, rang the doorbell, and RAN. We did it four or so times without getting caught... so last night we were heart attacking this less-active lady and all of a sudden WOOSH! she opens the door on us!!! I think I jumped 100 feet! It was good 'cuz we got to talk to her for a little bit.

Ok, blah blah blah probably you are bored now, but it was a good week for me and all of these people mean so much to me! :) Heavenly Father really blesses me so much all of the time. This week I was reminded that this is not my mission--it is His mission. How awesome that He let me come here and experience all of these wonderful things.

So I am going to give Him my very, very, VERY best this week!

Happy b-day to the U.S. of A.!!!

2011-07-04T22:46:00.003-04:00

Happy Fourth of July!!! I hope you all are at least remembering that that's what today is and celebrating accordingly. Sora H and I celebrated this morning by eating some good old American flapjacks and singing a nice round of patriotic hymns to start off our companionship study. :)

Unfortunately most of our celebrating today will be done aboard a train to Arad--we're going to a mini zone conference there to meet our new mission president and his wife, President and Sora Hill. Exciting things are going to happen here in Romania and Moldova under their leadership!

As usual, this week was filled with lots of joy and a little bit of heartache, but that's missionary work and life! Remember last week we were super pumped about our fast with Thea? Welll..... ahhhhhh!!! OK, so Thea said she found the perfect opportunity to start a conversation with her mom. It was just them at home and they were doing some stuff in the kitchen and she said she knew it was the right time and then before she could even say anything her mom said, “I want to talk to you about the Church.” Perfect! So they started talking and then out of nowhere her mom said, “You're not allowed to go to church anymore!” Ahh!!! What?!?!? Thea is such a peacemaker and just such an *awesome* girl, and I don't understand what her mom sees is bad about the church! It's not like Thea is going off the deep end or gaining bad friends or what not--she's really living the gospel and it shows because she's just an awesome, straight-A young woman.

So, when we met up with Thea she was telling us and she was soo sad and on the verge of tears and pretty much, it was the saddest thing ever. :( BUT. Like we told her before, God is a God of miracles. But he also tries our faith and every trial that we go through is for our good--so in the end, this is going to help strengthen Thea's faith, and everything will work together for her good. And we will all keep praying to know how to help her mom's heart to soften.

Well, the Lord takes away and then He gives again and in plus. So Thea's got nothing to worry about.

Remember the couple we met at English class last week, the ones who were asking questions about our view of the Bible and said they don't go to a church, but are searching for truth? They showed up to English on Tuesday with their two young daughters, Raluca (age 4) and Clara (age 7). They are the most adorable little girls I've ever met in my life and they drew us pictures and gave us flowers and the 4-year-old invited us to come over! :). As soon as I saw them walk in with the little girls and I just *knew* that this is the family that I've been praying for Heavenly Father to send to us here in Cluj!

So we met with them twice this week and they are progressing so well. They were giving us a ride home after English and Claudiu (the dad) said they are really excited to come to church and maybe they are going to become Latter-day Saints. He has 500,000 questions. (He is like the male version of Diana!) Good news: the restored gospel can answer all of them!

Unfortunately cel rau (“the bad one,” that's how Romanians refer to Satan a lot of times) was working again and they couldn't come to church Sunday morning because they'd promised a relative they'd come for some birthday or something, but then they called at 2:00 and wanted to know if there was an evening service. Dang it! No worries, they will come next week. And then they will get baptized and go to the temple and their little girls will grow up and raise righteous families in the gospel. :) And then we’ll all live happily ever after for eternity...

Hey, Elder Uchtdorf taught me that happily ever after is possible! (See General Young Women's meeting April 2010).

There was a Young Women's activity this week and we had five non-members there and it was super awesome! It was great chance for the girls to get a little spiritual boost and then just to play and have fun together. We cut out hearts and wrote little notes to heart attack the branch president's family.

Do something this week that makes you happy! Of course, you should be doing that every hour of the day. But you know what I mean. Tell the kids you're taking them to get some medicine and take them for ice cream instead. Jump in a swimming pool on a hot day. Call your grandma and tell her you love her. Smile at five strangers on your way to school or work. I don't know--just do something extra and I promise you'll be that little extra happier. :) :)

fasting, curses, and lots of love

2011-06-27T09:42:00.003-04:00

I've got an awesome week to tell y'all about this week!

Romania Bucharest Mission News: The Lundbergs are going home this week!! So ridiculously crazy that that time has already come. The new mission president is named President Hill and he and his wife are arriving on Tuesday. I am a little familiar with President Hill already because he was part of the BYU Finance Department when I was working for them before the mish. Great guy and super awesome that he is coming here to Romania! He is a great leader and I know he will do great things for this mission and the Church in this area of the world. Not gonna lie though, I was SO sad when I realized I wouldn't be doing my departing interview with Pres. L.

Thea (15-year-old whose mom won't give her permission to be baptized): Wednesday night we had a nice heart-to-heart with her about the situation with her mom and botez [baptism]. Thea expressed on her own that she felt like she hadn't talked to her mom recently and had never really had a good conversation with her mom about the whole situation, so she wanted to do that. But she didn't feel she had enough courage! We shared some thoughts about prayer and fasting and then offered to fast with her this Saturday for the courage to talk to her mom, and for her mom's heart to be softened.

We talked to the elders and the other young women in the branch and decided to fast all together. Our zone leaders happened to call the night before and said they'd be willing to fast with us, and then on the conference call later that night they mentioned it to everyone and all the missionaries in our whole zone expressed a desire to fast with us for Thea!

Sunday after church we met together to break the fast. Thea shared some thoughts and gosh, she is just the most rock solid investigator ever. Her testimony is SO strong, and she is going to be such a great example and leader in the Church in Romania. She's so mature and just wonderful. We need 100 more of her here! The Spirit was strong as we closed our fast together, and we all expressed feelings of comfort that the Lord is with Thea and that this step of baptism is getting closer and closer.

We're still waiting to hear how her talk with her mom goes. Update next week.

English miracle: So before this round of English courses started up I was praying and pleading with the Lord to please send a family prepared to accept the message of the gospel to our English courses. Well, not that many people ended up signing up and no sign of a family... so I was a little disappointed.... But then on Saturday after our spiritual thought at English, this man Claudiu came up to us (he and his wife were both there) and he had questions about our view of the Bible. Started talking, and wow.....They are SO COOL. The first thing out of her mouth was, "We're not members of any church, but we study the Bible on our own and we're looking for the truth." Ahhh! When you hear something like that you just want to jump up and down all giddy and say, "You've found it!! You've found it!! Let me teach you!!" So, we talked a little bit about their questions about scripture and gave them a Book of Mormon and they're super excited to read it. We're meeting again on Tuesday after English and I'm super stoked 'cuz they're so legit and were really understanding everything I was teaching them even though we didn't have much time!

Funny scripture study moment: So I've been breaking out a little on this one part of my forehead near my hair line and I was telling Sora H about how weird it was one morning. I added offhandedly, "Probably God is cursing me for being so vain!" And then later when I was studying my scriptures, I started into the Isaiah chapters of the BOM and I read this verse: "Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion" (2 Nephi 13:17). Ha ha ha! So now I'm working on not being so vain...

There is this other kid we're teaching named Marian (25ish) who has a botez date! He's really cool. Wish I had more time to write about him! And then there's this girl Hilda who is awesome! Her mom has been an investigator for 8 years and is kind of crazy... but Hilda (20) is awesome and has been reading the BOM.

Gotta run. Give someone you love a hug and a kiss today and tell them you love them! And tell God you love Him too!

I love the Liahona!

2011-06-20T23:17:00.003-04:00

This week was super productive! It's amazing how much more we can get done when we don't have to spend half of our day riding public transportation.

We were able to meet with Thea (tay-ah), who's probably our most awesome investigator. She's been an investigator for a while now, but she's only 15. She acts like she's 25 though!! When I saw her at church the first Sunday I was here, I asked the member I was sitting next to, "Who's that?" and I thought she was the 20-something American girl that I had heard lives in the branch. Then she said, "Thea," and I was like "What?! that's our 15-year-old investigator?" She's adorable and has a rock solid testimony and really, really wants to get baptized, but her mom said no once and she's afraid to ask again. She comes to church every Sunday and works on her Personal Progress Program and is just a doll. We'll see what develops.

Earlier in the week one of the Young Single Adults in the branch gave us a phone number for Jessica, a friend of hers who is less active. (Jessica is not a Romanian name, but she's black and prefers Jessica?) I called her and she was kind of like, "Oh, yea, I'll call you some time and maybe we can meet." So I was surprised when she actually did call back a few days later and said, "Hey, can we meet tonight?' So we met up, got to know her and her story. And wow, she has had a tough life! Her dad abandoned her mom when she was still in the womb, and then her mom left her to an orphanage and that's where she grew up. And from what I have studied about Romanian orphanages, I know that that must have been an extremely tough way to grow up.

We invited her to come to the baptism Saturday night (an investigator of the elders got baptized) and she said she had to think about it, but maybe. Well, she showed up!! Woo hoo! (Here's a photo of the baptismal font. Some of the meetinghouses in Romania have built-in fonts, but Cluj has a collapsible one.)

Afterwards we sat down and asked her how she felt and she said it just brought back all of the feelings that she felt when she was baptized several years ago. She kept saying, "I'm so confused!" but we talked to her about prayer and listening to the Spirit and she said, "This is the first time in a long, long time that I've felt the Spirit. I've missed this feeling." It was pretty incredible! The Spirit was so strong there in our little lesson, and I just knew she was feeling it and realizing that something is missing in her life.

She kept saying, "This is so crazy, I told Simona I would never come back to the church!" But we just told her, God works miracles. :)

For all of you future missionaries out there: Practice your piano! I'm back to being the sacrament meeting pianist. This is always an adventure here in Romania. Cluj definitely has the worst keyboard ever! The wiring for the pedal has been stripped and is being held together by tape, and unfortunately it's stuck on what may be organ style setting? Adica, it sustains when I don't press it and stops when I do press it. So I felt like I was dancing a jig on Sunday cuz I kept having to tap around everywhere cuz I don't know how to play the organ!! And then I accidentally kicked the pedal all the way to one side and I was trying to feel around and find it again ha ha ha. Good thing most Romanians seem to be mostly tone deaf.

Health wise--good news: my leg seems to be healing all right. Not so good news: my white spots on my throat came back! But I took another antibiotic for a few days and they went away again.

This week I was thinking about how grateful I am for the words of the living prophets. We finally got the new General Conference Liahona and I've just been feasting on it! Have I told you about my Liahona addiction since I came out here? I love, love, love to read the Liahona. In every apartment I go to I end up reading most of the old issues of the Liahona that are lying around. At night, in the morning, at lunch--you can find me curled up with an issue of the Liahona.

What a wonderful blessing it is that we truly have prophets and apostles on the Earth today who receive specific revelation for *our* time. God really knew what He was doing when He decided that should be part of the plan. I think one of the main reasons why I love reading the words of the living prophets is because it just fills me so completely with the Spirit. These are the words of God.

My love for the Liahona started last year when I was in Brasov. I had had an awful, awful, awful day. Maybe I wrote about this already, but maybe not because it was so painful at the time. Everyone I talked to that day yelled at me, told me I was from Satan, etc. etc. And for some reason I just couldn't handle it that day and when we got home that night I burst into tears and just sobbed and sobbed. Poor Sora P didn't know what to do. And I didn't know what to do either because it was the first time I was really questioning my testimony and if I was actually doing the right thing by serving a mission.

I prayed and prayed, but I still didn't feel the comfort I was looking for. Eventually I fell asleep, and the next morning I woke up to the alarm at 6:30. And I thought, "You have a choice. Either you can lay here in bed all day and cry. Or you can get up and keep working and keep hoping anyway." I chose to get up.

I went into the living room and opened the cabinet with the stack of Liahonas and I pulled out a random issue from the middle of the stack. It happened to be the issue that was from Conference when we were celebrating the birth of Joseph Smith. I started from the beginning and spent all morning reading the Liahona--just soaking in the words of the living prophets. Most of the addresses I read tied in the Restoration. Somewhere as I was reading, I remember just getting the strongest, most amazing feeling of peace settle over me. Because I KNEW that I knew that it was true. That Joseph Smith was a prophet. That Christ restored His true Church to the Earth through Him. And that it didn't matter what anyone else said or did--I had received an answer from God through the Spirit, and these men and women whose addresses I was reading were *truly* called of God.

How grateful I am to know that I too am called of God. That is a great privilege and blessing.

Trunky moment of the week: I am dreaming about pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

a little too much blood and guts

2011-06-13T22:35:00.009-04:00

Greetings from Cluj-Napoca (Cluj)! I arrived early Thursday morning on a sleeper train and was happy to pass through the hills and scenery of Transylvania again. We went through Brasov and I saw the capela from the train, which was a sweet memory. :)

Here I'm having breakfast on our balcony after arriving at 4:30 a.m. I look more like I got hit by a train rather than having just got off one.My new companion is Sora H. She's from Colorado Springs, CO and the youngest of 8 children. She has 15 nieces and nephews! (She may have more, but mine are cuter...) She's so cool--works hard, chill, fun, loves everyone--everything I could ask for in a companion for my last awesome transfer! The Lord really blessed me.

Our elders are Elder T and Elder D. Me & Elder T are already good buddies 'cuz we served in Galati together. As he puts it, "Those were darker days." Literally... cuz it was winter back then. And emotionally... cuz it was Galati. Ha ha ha. So yea, we're both finishing our missions this transfer and pumped to be here in Cluj! And Elder D seems way awesome too, so I can't wait to serve more with him.

First off, crazy story: Saturday night we were on our way to a missionary activity that Sora H and I were in charge of, and we were running late. We were just walking (we pretty much walk everywhere! HUGE change from Buc!) and I was holding a cake in my hand and then I reached out to help Sora H with something and all of a sudden I ran into something.

I'm always running into things...so no big deal, right? (Mom! You may want to skip to the next paragraph!) but then I looked down and there is blood all down my leg. And I'm not just talking about a little trickle... I mean there was blood EVERYWHERE. So I'm like ahhhh! We are already late and I'm holding a cake and now I'm all bloody! Well, I plopped myself down on the ground while Sora H called a taxi and then the elders to tell them to find the First Aid Kit at the church asap. Luckily we had napkins with us for the activity, so we put that over the wound and I just concentrated on not passing out.

We made it to the church without getting any blood in the taxi and then assessed the situation... I'd gotten a puncture wound probably about 1 cm wide and I don't know how deep 'cuz I couldn't look. We cleaned it out and wrapped me in some gauze and tape and then went on with the activity. (Success, by the way.) Well, by the end of the activity two hours later I'd completely soaked through the gauze and blood was starting to trickle down my leg again...
Elder T remembered that 2 years ago right before he left on his mission his dad gave him some glue and strip stuff that you can use to try to close up a wound like this (inspiration!). So we went over to their apartment and they tried to fix me up. Elder T's words of comfort: "Don't worry, my dad is a doctor." Ha ha haha. So while he's trying to fix me up and I'm trying to breathe, I can hear Sora H saying "No, no, don't do that!" and Elder D "Wow, that looks so cool!" and then the phone rang and it was Sora M with a referral from Iasi for us. Seriously, tender mercy that she called because then I just talked to her for the next 15 minutes and was completely distracted away from whatever was being done to my leg...Anyway, it's mostly stopped bleeding now and looks like it's closed up--so hopefully it will continue to heal nicely. It looked way better this morning than it did yesterday! Besides for the fact that now my leg is all black and blue surrounding it... but yea... it was crazy!! The elders gave me a nice blessing yesterday which helped me feel a lot better and I'm confident it will be fine and I won't even be able to feel a thing in the next few days. (Not because I'm paralyzed but because it'll be all healed... :-p)

Phew, so that is the most exciting thing going down in Cluj right now! The branch is sweet. It's pretty here. We cleaned and organized our apartment, so I'm happy. And we've got some cool people we're working with!

Gosh, I am just praying my little heart out that Heavenly Father will send us to a family here in Cluj that is ready to receive the gospel. I've always wanted to teach a family and see them be baptized. At the end of last transfer I read about how one purpose of prayer is for us to secure blessings that God is already willing to grant, but is made conditional on our asking for them (Bible Dictionary.) Somewhere along the way I think I stopped praying for baptisms or families because I was too afraid to ask or to get my heart broken one more time or I lost faith or whatever. The reason doesn't really matter. And then I realized, Sora H, you need to repent and do better. Of course Heavenly Father wants a family to find the restored gospel and receive the blessings of eternity! Maybe He's just waiting for you to ask---and then to act.

So that's what I'm doing. It's all about happy families in this life and eternal families in the life to come! That's the pure and simple beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

p.s. I would like to direct your attention to page 80 of the General Conference Liahona. Can you spy my eye behind the third head from the right?!?! :) And btw, the man in the wheelchair is Fratele D, who I wrote about several weeks ago.

of change, persistence, and barely avoided black eyes

2011-06-06T08:29:00.005-04:00

I only have 17 more minutes of internet time, so I will try to type really fast! The big news: I'm being transferred! I'm going to be spending my last six weeks in Cluj-Napoca. It's more in the west of Romania. I went there once a way long time ago for one day for a zone conference. I've heard it's an awesome city, and I am really excited! My companion will be Sora H. She will be in her second transfer. (She was Sora B's MTC companion! And my MTC comp Sora M is coming here to Buc to be with Sora B. Cool, huh?) I met Sora H when she very first came in at the beginning of this transfer, and I'm super stoked for our transfer together. Change is good. Change is always good.
I'm gonna miss Buc though and all my friends here. That's Florina with me in the photo. She is an awesome member who served a mission in Russia and now works a lot with us here in Buc. I'll miss the big city, but I know there is work to be done in Cluj too. I can't even believe this is the last transfer. Where did the time go?!?!?!

Here's a photo of Sora B and me with Amanda, a member whose family is with the American embassy, and Nicoleta, our darling 14-year-old investigator.

I'm so flustered I can't even think of one thing that happened this week. Ha ha. Our investigators are doing well, but no new major progress this week. Oh! Miracle! Remember Diana baby? Well after the end of last transfer she fell off the face of the Earth and stopped coming to all activities and everything and I talked to her a couple of times but she was la tara and busy with exams and stuff. So on Thursday night we were over at Sora A's having a lesson with Nicoleta (love her! I know she will be baptized someday!) and in the middle of our lesson Sora A's phone rings and it's Diana and she says, "Hey, can I come over?" Perfect! So we FINALLY got to see her again. We had a great lesson and she said it really helped her and she promised to come to church ... but then she didn't come. Ahhhh. She's such a flake. But a really awesome, adorably crazy flake!

We have this new investigator named Valerea. She's 27 and looking for more faith. We met her walking through the park 2 weeks ago, and she said she didn't have time then, but would like to meet another time. Well, usually that is code for "I'm actually just not interested, but am too nice to let you down." Well, we set up once and when I called to check she said she "forgot" and usually that is still code for "I'm not actually interested, but still don't know how to say no," but because persistence is a Christlike attribute (or something like that?) we set up again and this time she came and she is SO awesome. Turns out she really didn't have time that one day and she really did forget and had to leave Buc. And since we met the first time, she's kept all of her commitments. We had a way powerful lesson on Joseph Smith and the Restoration, and she is serious about praying and studying and finding out how this message can help her in her life.

Random funny story: Sora B and I were in the metro on the way to a lesson when we saw our district leader and his companion up ahead of us. So we got off the metro and ended up being right behind them, but they were walking out and didn't see us. So right as we exited out the stalls, I grabbed Elder J's bag like I was gonna steal it and he turned around and had the most priceless ANGRY face I have ever seen! I thought he was going to punch me! But then he realized it was me. Good thing me and Elder J go back to February 10, 2010 (i.e. we were in the MTC together) otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have a black eye right now! But wow, I will never ever forget the look on his face as he thought he was getting robbed in the metro. So funny. It reminded me of good times with Sora M.

miracle meeting at the metro, and answered prayers

2011-05-31T09:34:00.003-04:00

I'm tired! It's been a full P-day already. We played volleyball at the church this morning, and I haven't gotten my nap in yet. Usually I like to get internet done at the beginning, so I don't have to be antsy the rest of the day, but it's kind of cool now that I got to save the best for last. :)

Miracle of the week!! At the beginning of the transfer, Sora B and I were at one of the huge metro stops here in Buc passing out English class fliers, and Sora B hands one to this cute girl and she stops and is like, "Hey, how's it going?" Well, no one ever really stops to talk to us just to chat ... so we're a little surprised, and we start talking and after a minute, I ask her, "Wait ... are you a member?" and she's like, "Yea, but I haven't been to church in a long time." So, we get her phone number and I tried calling her a couple of times, but she never answers. So finally this week she answers and she says we can come over on Sunday! And I come to find out that she is the estranged daughter of this other semi-active LDS family we work with. So, we went and had a great visit with her and her boyfriend! Her name is Aura, and she's very Romanian: super nice, but also SUPER blunt. After the getting to know you/showing of family pictures/obligatory things you do when you first meet people, Aura says, "I know you wanna share a message. That's fine. But you know, don't just like talk the whole time 'cuz otherwise I'll stop listening." Ha ha. So we said, good! Cuz we don't like just listening to ourselves talk. She's soooo cool. She's actually a returned missionary! But somewhere along the way got off the path. She recognizes that she needs to get back and improve her relationship with God. God sure does work miracles. There are millions and millions of people in this city and He arranged for us to meet, and He gave Aura that little bit of courage to open her mouth and start back on the path toward Him. We'll see what develops with her and the boyfriend.

Personal revelation: I LOVE study time. I can't imagine being a missionary and not doing your studies! That is just the craziest idea ever. It's my time with me and God and His word. Well, this past month I've been feeling a little down about the situation of everything in Romania. Just like anywhere, there are problems and it stresses me out 'cuz I just want to fix all of them, but I can't! If you focus on it too much, it can get discouraging. So I've really been praying for help to not let everything overwhelm me and to just feel peace.

That brings us to this morning. Remember how I read the whole Book of Mormon in the month of April? Well I started again from the beginning on May 1st. And now it's May 30th and I just barely read 1 Nephi 15 this morning! God always knows what we need though. So, I read about how Nephi had just had this great vision of the future of his own family and nation, and then he says: "And now I, Nephi, was grieved because of the hardness of their hearts, and also, because of the things which I had seen, and knew they must unavoidably come to pass because of the great wickedness of the children of men." Nephi was feeling pretty similarly to the way I've been feeling lately. "And it came to pass that I was overcome because of my afflictions, for I considered that mine afflictions were great above all, because of the destruction of my people, for I had beheld their fall." (1 Nephi 15:4-5). Nephi saw the DESTRUCTION of his ENTIRE PEOPLE! He knew that they weren't gonna make it 'cuz they were gonna be too wicked!

But did he give up?!

No way! Why? Because maybe Nephi couldn't change the outcome for his people as a whole, but what Nephi could change was individual lives. Despite all of the problems that he saw that would come to pass, he didn't lose hope! He just kept doing what he knew the Lord wanted him to do, and his influence was felt for *great* good among many, many people. Maybe it didn't change everything--Laman and Lemuel never listened and never changed their ways--but Nephi's influence sure did help a whole lot of other people. Including me today.

So basically, God just said to me, "Stai linistita (calm down). You just keep trying to do good for the people around you, and that will go a long, long way toward the good of my people as whole. And follow Nephi's example and don't lose hope!"

Alina: Still progressing slowly. Still coming to church. Still one of my favorite people ever.
Nicoleta: Still cute as can be. Grandma not in accord. Gosh dang it!
Alice: 74-year-old investigator who is a HOOT. Finally got her to come to church again! We'll see what develops.

nothing too extraordinary, but it's all good

2011-05-23T09:43:00.003-04:00

So, Sora L, the mission president's wife, started this new exercise program challenge thing with the sisters in the mish. It's been going great so far! We get points for doing stuff like eating veggies and exercising and drinking water and minus points for eating treats and at the end of the transfer the person with the most points gets a prize. Well, I've been trying unsuccessfully for a year and a half--make that twenty-two and a half years--to consistently be healthy, but I'm super excited about this (I love prizes!). After just a week I feel like I have a lot more energy and my skirts fit better. Woo hoo! Btw, all my other health problems have resolved themselves too.

Anyywaayyy.... life is beautiful! Nothing super extraordinary happened this week, but Sora B and I had a lot of great teaching moments and spiritual experiences. Tuesday night we had a wonderful lesson with Alina. I just love her with all my heart. She's got the most humble heart of anyone I've ever met! So, we talked about what it means to have a testimony of the gospel and how she feels her testimony is doing. She says that she doesn't "know" yet if the things she is learning are true, and although she has prayed and asked God, she doesn't feel she's gotten an answer yet. I felt inspired to read a little bit from Alma 32 about how we just have to have the desire to know, and if we'll plant that desire in our hearts and nourish it through continued praying and studying, our faith will grow. And then we can know that it is good and true because it's growing! We asked her to read the entire chapter. On Sunday the Institute teacher told us that Alina came and bore a simple testimony about something she had learned from reading Alma 32. The Spirit is really, really working with her and even though I know she's scared, the Spirit will give her the comfort that she is so desperately looking for.

We also met this great lady named Sofia. We found her in a bloc, and she is also just *so* humble. She's from a village quite a ways from Buc, but is living in Buc taking care of an old lady with Alzheimer's. A few years ago she had started attending a pentecostal church, so she had questions about the need for the Book of Mormon, but we testified our little hearts out and she accepted a copy. When we went back last night, she had done her reading and then some! And she said she *loved* it and really felt good. Gosh, I just love the Book of Mormon. How grateful I am that God gives us more information about Him and His plan for us. So, basically, Sofia is golden. Except she doesn't know how she's going to be able to come to church. She takes care of the old lady all the time and can't leave her alone, cuz she is kind of crazy. So we are praying that God will provide a way! (Pretty sure He will, "for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them" 1 Nefi 3:7.)

The gospel has the power to bring us peace and happiness! The Church is true! God loves us. :)

Random My Life in Romania Moment: Today on the bus on the way over here, there was this little baba (old grandma) in front of me. She was completely bent over and probably 4 feet tall. And I thought, do we have babas like this in America? And I thought and thought and came to the conclusion that no, we don't have tons of little old ladies everywhere that are literally little 'cuz they're so bent over. They have just become a normal part of my everyday life, I guess. Before I left on my mission, our friend Judith, whose family is from Serbia, came over to our house dressed in this Eastern European outfit and acting like an old baba. She was so dead on!

Views of Bucharest, medical oddities, baptism invites, and testimonies

2011-05-16T11:37:00.007-04:00

My family asked me to send some photos of Bucharest, so here they are. The first is Piati Unirii, one of the main piati in the city. The next photo shows what we can see from our apartment on the 3rd floor (actually, in the U.S. it would be the 4th floor). We live in an area with lots of villas, so that's what you can see in the foreground, and then beyond that are some old block buildings, which are all over the place. Bucharest doesn't have anything that could really be considered a skyscraper, so unlike big American cities, its "downtown" doesn't look much different from the rest of the city.

Here's a photo from the end of the last transfer of my district hanging out at Herastrau, a BEAUTIFUL park in Buc.

Well first off--good news! I'm feeling much happier and more positive about life than I was last week, despite having some major health issues. Tuesday I started feeling really gassy and then I started having diarrhea, which didn't stop for 3 days! Yuck. No idea why.

Add to that, Medical Oddity of the Week: My throat had been hurting for a couple of days. Then Wednesday night I randomly decided to look at my throat with a flashlight... and discovered these white spots all over the back of my throat! And my tonsils were all swollen. So I called up the mission president's wife, and after telling me to take ibuprofen (her #1 solution to all medical problems!), she called the Church’s doctor in Germany. He said it sounded like I have "pillars." Basically, I have an infection and my tonsils are creating these little hard calcium deposits all over the back of my throat. It feels kind of like I've been eating seeds and a bunch of them are still stuck to the back of my throat. WEIRD. I've got like 10 little rocks of calcium on the back of my mouth... So I'm taking some heavy antibotics and gargling with mouthwash and they're slowly starting to dissolve. Sora L said one of her granddaughters had had a similar problem, but it was recurring and they eventually just removed her tonsils..... which is an operation I will never, ever have here in Romania, so please pray that it doesn't turn into something like that.

This week we had zone conference. It was my last zone conference, which means that I had to share my departing testimony. Ahhhh. I wasn't expecting that at all and then all of a sudden they're like "departing testimonies" and they list off the order and then they said "Sora H_____" and I was like "what?!?!!" but yea.... that was an emotional experience. I remember sharing my incoming testimony a million and a half years ago. Wow, what a world of wonderful experiences I've had since then. (How didya like that alliteration?)

What else happened this week? Lots of stuff. Alina is doing really well. We had a wonderful, wonderful lesson with her early this week. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ (my most fav lesson ever!) and invited her to be baptized. She politely said, "Deocamadata, nu." [“At the moment, no."] But she recognizes what baptism really means, and that she hasn't made a covenant with God, and that she needs to. But she says that she doesn't want to go against what her parents and priests have taught her and given her. We talked a lot about how they have done nothing wrong for her, except to prepare her to be able to now take this step of literally making a covenant with God. She is still progressing and really honestly praying to find out if this is something that she needs to do in her life. She's going to get there. The Spirit has worked on her SO MUCH and really changed her heart from the first time I met her.

Nicoleta, the 14-year-old orphan that a member brought to church, is doing well too. We also invited her to be baptized, and she also said no, but I don't think she really understands baptism and a lot of other stuff that well yet. So we're taking a step back and just trying to focus on building the most foundational parts of her testimony: I am a child of God. Jesus Christ is my Savior. (She's so cute too.)

Story time! I've been wanting to share this one for a long time, but I kept forgetting! So there is this less-active couple that we've been visiting for a while now. Fratele D used to be a leader in the church, but is now old and sick (I think he had a stroke) and bedridden. He literally laid in bed and did nothing for like 7 years. Well, when I first started going over there with Sora M, all he and Sora D would do was complain about how the branch had forgotten about them and how hard their lives were, etc. etc. Then one Sunday back in March, the elders went over and got Fratele D in his wheelchair and brought him to church. It was the first time he had been out of the house since October! (Except to go to the hospital.)

Then sometime in April, Sora M and I went over one day and Fratele D was like, look what I can do! And then Sora D helped him stand up and, with the use of a cane, he WALKED across the room!!! He had gotten someone to come over and start doing a little bit of therapy with him. It was *incredible*. I couldn't believe he was walking.

The members have started bringing him to church every Sunday, and he and Sora D have been SO much happier. Every time we go over now they are smiling. So cool!!!

Well, the best part of this story is that in testimony meeting the first Sunday this month, right after the branch president said, "The time is now yours to bear your testimonies," Fratele D motioned to another man to wheel him up to the podium. He made the journey up there, and then this other brother helped Fratele D out of his wheelchair. Then without any help, he stood on his own two feet, grasping the ledge for support, and bore a *powerful* testimony of this church and this gospel. It was obviously physically exhausting for him to stand up--he was shaking uncontrollably and sometimes couldn't get the words out of his mouth 'cuz he had to stop and catch his breath--but he knows that the Church of Jesus Christ is God's restored church on the Earth and the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and he wanted everyone to know that he knew! The Spirit bore strong witness to my soul that indeed, the things that he was testifying of were true.

My time is up, so I can't tell you about the time we were over when Fratele D's nurse came to put hemorrhoid cream on him...... but I want you all to know that I know that what we're doing is God's work. He truly is at the helm of this church, leading and guiding us in the work of salvation!

adventures with rain, investigators and crosses

2011-05-09T09:02:00.004-04:00

Buna dimineata! [Good morning!] It's another cold and rainy day here in Bucharest, but we've got plans to go bowling in just a little bit, so I'm pumped about that. :)

Last Monday evening we had a little adventure. It started sprinkling earlier in the day, and continued sprinkling through the rest of the evening. Sora Bennett and I were invited to a family home evening at a member's house with one of our recent converts, and the elders with one of their investigators. We sisters didn't know where we were going, so we agreed to meet the elders at a piata [market] close to the member's house and go together. Well, just as we arrived at the piata, the skies opened and BUCKETS of rain just started coming down! And then it started hailing! Unfortunately none of us had an umbrella, so the elders just said, "Let's go!" and the four of us took off running through the torrential downpour. I could hardly even see in front of me!

Finally, we arrived at the family's front doorstep, absolutely soaked from head to toe, dripping water everywhere. I think they were a little frightened.... but Sora I pulled out towels and a hairdryer and we were able to at least dry up enough to not be afraid of sitting on their couch.

Oh, and did I mention that 10 seconds after we arrived at the block, it stopped raining and the sun came out?!!? It was so crazy. Literally in the 10 minutes when we had to be outside, it rained cats and dogs and hailed and thundered and lightning and then bam, sunshine again. We had played football earlier and I had really wanted to take a shower before we headed over to the member's house, but we didn't have time... so I guess God answered my prayer and let me get a shower in a different kind of way? Haha.

We have this cute girl we're teaching called Nicoleta. She's 14 and such a good girl with a really hard life. She's an orphan who lives with her sick, deaf, and blind grandmother. So basically she takes care of herself plus an aging grandparent! A member has taken Nicoleta under her wing and invited her to come to church. She's come the last few Sundays and really loves how she feels. We had a wonderful lesson with her yesterday about the Plan of Salvation. It was a joy to share with her for the first time a few of the simple truths of the gospel: that we will see our loved ones again! And we will have the opportunity to live with them forever.

And *miracle* Alina showed up to church yesterday as well! When I saw her on Saturday she said she didn't think she was going to come, but then at 9:58 on Sunday morning there she came strolling through the door, and she stayed for all three hours. Gosh, I just love her so much. Slowly, but surely she's gaining that testimony of the restored gospel. She said that Institute on Saturday was all about Joseph Smith and she loved everything that she learned about him. One of the speakers during sacrament meeting talked about how conversion is a process that doesn't usually happen in just one big event, and I know that Alina's heart is beginning to change a little bit more every week.

My life in Romania moment: Most people here are Orthodox, and Orthodox people tend to cross themselves *a lot*. Whenever we are on public transportation and we pass by a church, tons of people start crossing themselves because it helps to remind them of Christ. To me, seeing them do that has just become a normal daily thing and I don't really think about it anymore. Well, the first time I took Sora B on a tramvai and we passed by a church, Sora B was talking to this guy and all of a sudden he starts crossing himself in the middle of the conversation. And he looked at her, like, why aren't you crossing yourself too? and he kind of motioned to her to follow suit... and she didn't know what to do, so all of a sudden I look over and there is my companion crossing herself in the middle of the tramvai!! I was like, ahhhhh Sora B, we don't cross ourselves!!!!! but it was pretty funny.

A pretty sad moment: I put some brownies in the oven yesterday and then shut the door to the bedroom to write in my journal... and promptly forgot all about them. Too bad that is the third time I burned a dessert to a crisp in the last week!

Well, I'm out of time. Do something nice for someone else this week. The Savior lives and He loves us! And we can show our love for Him by serving our neighbors.

It's still true!

2011-05-02T10:31:00.003-04:00

Where did April go? It's a rainy day here in Bucharest (my former roommate Kendra would love it!), but my hair straightener broke last week anyway, so whatever. I'm over it and embracing the frizz! :-p

Where do I even start with this week? It was transfer week. Sora M left me for Iasi and I was so so so sad, but I have a new companion who is awesome too! Her name is Sora B, and she is from Irvine, California. She's 32 (that's not a typo) and was working as a landscape architect before she decided to come on a mission. Her Romanian is almost better than mine and she's only been here a week! The first day we got out of the house to go out proselyting she just hopped on the bus and struck up a conversation with some lady all by herself. She's got fire, and she knows why she's here, and I'm very excited about our transfer together here in Bucuresti. We are definitely going to see miracles because I'm pretty sure she has enough faith for me, her, and all the other missionaries here in Romania.

Before she left, Sora M and I decided to do something nice for our elders at our last district meeting together. So we hurried to the store right before and bought all the makings for french toast. Well, we showed up at the church with 10 minutes to spare and found our district leader and his companion... cooking french toast. And eggs, and bacon, and a full blown gourmet breakfast! We discreetly left our bag of goodies in the corner..... and enjoyed their breakfast instead. :)

Best teaching moment of the week: Tuesday night we picked up the new sisters who had just arrived in Romania, quickly ate dinner, and then headed to the church for a lesson with Alina. She is just as adorable as can be, total saint, comes to all the activities and loves our lessons, but not ready to give up her Orthodox traditions yet. So we were waiting for Alina and then Diana Baby randomly shows up! We had texted her earlier in the day to see if she could come for a lesson, but she didn't respond, so we assumed she couldn't come. But she did! So, we ended up having a giant group lesson with the four of us missionaries plus our two investigators plus a member. (Left to right below: Sora M, member Camelia, new Sora H and my new comp Sora B, me, Alina and Diana.)
We decided to stick to the basics and read from the Book of Mormon together. 3 Nephi 11. There is such a power in reading that chapter! I love to read about the Savior's visit to America and His words to the people there who waited for Him and had total faith that He would come. "I am the light and the life of the world!" That's really what it's all about. We each had a chance to share a little of our testimonies of the Savior Jesus Christ. The Spirit bore witness to me (and to each of us, I hope), that Jesus Christ truly is our Savior. That He lives and that He loves us. And that even though we didn't have the opportunity to listen to Him teach in Jerusalem or in ancient America, we can still hear His voice and know that He lives.

I finished reading the Book of Mormon on Saturday. Our Zone Leaders had challenged us to read the whole thing during the month of April, and I did it! I learned SO many new things and noticed so many overarching themes as I quickly read through. (I never realized how much the BOM talks about covenants! From 1 Nephi to Moroni 10:33, it's all about making and keeping covenants!) And just as every time I have read that wonderful book, the Spirit testified to me again that the Book of Mormon is true. It is the word of God. And reading it and living by its principles will bring us closer to our Savior Jesus Christ than by any other way. I know that to be true!

If you haven't read the BOM, or if you haven't read it for a while, I challenge you to pick it up again. I promise you that President Hinckley's promise in 2005--that the Spirit of the Lord will enter more powerfully into our lives, that we will have a greater desire to live righteously--is still true today.

Christ is risen, and He heals broken hearts

2011-04-26T22:43:00.010-04:00

Hristos a inviat! Adevarat a inviat! (Roughly translated that means: Christ is risen! It's true he is risen!) That's the traditional Romanian greeting for the week or two after Easter. So instead of saying "Good morning!" or whatever, you say "Christ is risen!" and the other person replies, "It's true he is risen!" Pretty cool, huh? I love that this country is so full of faith.

Random my-life-in-Romania moment: Earlier this week Sora M and I were on a crowded bus, and we got smashed into this group of young kids. They were talking about us (of course thinking that we couldn't understand what they were saying), so we're just listening to them and then one of them says, "They're Jesus' Barbies!" and I couldn't hold it in anymore, and I just busted up laughing. And then this old lady who was also smashed into the middle of us starts yelling at the kids and is like, "You're not gonna win anything with these girls! Try again in the next life!" So, at least old Romanian ladies stick up for us.

Transfers are tomorrow! I'm staying in Bucharest, but Sora M is leaving me. Ahhh! I'm so sad. I'm going to miss her so much. She's been such an amazing companion and we've had so much fun together and worked so hard and these last two transfers have been a dream. My new companion will be a boboaca! (aka straight from the MTC). I'm training again! Ahhh! President L is trying to stress me out. I loved Sora H with all my heart, but training is stressful. There are two new sisters coming in, so I don't know which one I'm getting yet. Pray that she's patient and forgiving.

Well, I've got a story for ya'll this week, but it's a sad one, so skip to the bottom if you want. :) We'd been trying all of last week to get a hold of Anca, one of our recent converts. I don't know if I've told you much about her, but she got baptized last fall here in the Panduri Branch and she's super legit. Pretty much completely golden! I actually met her last September when I was here in Bucharest on an exchange with another sister. We had the first lesson together, and then I went back to Brasov and the sisters kept working with her. When I came back to Buc and saw her again, she was a recent convert and wow, she was sooo different! So much happier.

We've been working with her on a weekly basis and have seen how much the Church and the gospel have changed her life and helped her to be happy. She has just soaked it all up like a sponge and loves everything about this gospel. But Anca didn't answer calls for a week and didn't show up to church last Sunday either, so we were super worried about her because that's not normal at all. She always answers the phone or calls us back and comes every single Sunday. We went to her house, but no one was home.

So last Monday night right before 10:30 I tried one more time to call her and she finally answers the phone. I still can't even believe what happened in those next three minutes. It was like she was a completely different person. She was super upset at us and said a lot of really hurtful things and we had no idea what was going on! It was crazy. And then she told us to never talk to her again and that she just needed a six-month break from the church.

And we were like "What?!?!?!" I hung up the phone and Sora M and I were like, "What.... just.... happened.....?" It was so weird and awful. We didn't know what to do except just go to bed and cry and think about it in the morning. We and Anca are really good friends! We've laughed together and cried together and felt the Spirit together and learned from each other. It's been such a joy to see her spiritual journey and to teach someone who really understands the gospel and what it's all about and whose life has really changed as she's accepted the message of the Restoration.

And then to have her totally renounce it all was like a giant kick to the face. Ouch.

The situation still isn't resolved and we're still not quite sure what happened, but we've handed the responsibility off to the branch president and Relief Society president and they're trying to help her. Obviously, it's been at the back of my mind all week and in my prayers. How is Anca doing? Is she still upset? What can we do to help her? When you go on a mission, no one tells you that people are going to break your heart! But they do.

And then Easter weekend came.

I read about Christ's Atonement in Gethsemane, His persecution, and His suffering on the cross. I thought of every moment of pain and agony that my Savior Jesus Christ went through. What does that really mean for *me* and for all of us? Because Christ suffered for us, *everything* that is wrong in life can be made right! Even when bad things happen or people hurt us or our heart breaks for any reason, Christ's Atonement has the power to heal us and to make our hearts whole again. Christ's power truly is healing power.

And sometimes our hearts have to be broken first before we are ready to change them and become the person that our Father in Heaven wants us to be. That's all possible because Jesus took upon himself our sins *and* our sufferings. He knows how to succor us. He knows our weaknesses and He will make them strong if we let Him.

Even when people say hurtful things or turn away from the things that they know to be true, Christ knows how to help us, but He also knows how to help the people who hurt us.

What a wonderful and glorious message that is! I know that it is true. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He is my personal Savior. He is the Savior of the world, but He is wonderfully and amazingly my personal Savior. He lifts me up and carries me whenever I'm down. And how grateful I am for that.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and that you thought about what Christ really means to you. Other than that situation, it was a wonderful week. We went to the midnight mass at the big Orthodox cathedral in Bucharest on Saturday night. Everyone comes with candles and then the priest brings out a giant candle and the light gets passed through the crowd. And then the priest says, "Hristos a inviat!" and the crowd says back, "Adevarat a inviat!" It was really neat and tons of fun to be with everyone there. :) I was so tired though. I haven't stayed up 'til 2am since who knows when!

The missionaries of the Panduri Branch got together for Easter dinner at the home of a family from the American Embassy.

After dinner we had "Peeps Wars," with marshmallow Peeps dueling it out with toothpicks in the microwave. The elders loved it ...

Sorry I took so long telling about the negative experience of the week, but there were a lot of really, really great ones too. So don't think it was all bad!! We had some really great teaching moments this week as we celebrated the resurrection of our Savior.

President L, Random Romanianisms and Priesthood Power

2011-04-18T10:05:00.005-04:00

First of all, shout out to Daphne Claire, my newest niece. Welcome to this world! It's gonna be a little crazy (especially with a big brother like Cormac), but you're gonna love it.

I also wanted to start out with a little spotlight on President L. You've all been hearing about the man for the last year (p.s. I hit my year mark in the country last week!) and I figured I'd give you a little insight into the mystery. Pres is still quite the mystery to me. (And honestly, sometimes he scares me!!!!) But he's also got a huge heart and can be quite the goofball. So two stories that illustrate his personality: One day a few weeks ago Sora M and I are at home doing weekly planning, and the phone rings and we see that it's President L. Now, every time the phone says it's President L I always get scared and my life on the mish flashes before my eyes and I search my soul to figure out what I did wrong! So, I answer and he says, "Hello, Sora H." in his I'm-a-lawyer business voice. And then he says, "I'm calling with your new assignment." And I'm thinking: ahhhh mid-transfer transfer, what's going on? is it cuz our numbers went down a little last week?!?! and then he says, "You're going to be a zone leader." Silence. I'm just thinking, "...what the devil?" and then I hear this little chuckle and "April Fool's!" Ha ha ha. He's such a stinker.

The background is that in March Sora M and I went to Mission Council and one of our ZLs is.... a man of ideas. Crazy ideas. This kid always has some kind of crazy idea cooked up. So they're talking about something and all of a sudden this respective elder raises his hand and says, "I have an idea." And of course everyone chuckles 'cuz he always has an idea. And then he suggests, "What if.... we had a zone of all sisters?!" And he's SUPER pumped about it. President L takes one look at him, rolls his eyes and says, "No." And of course we all busted up, it was so funny. So now we always tease that respective elder about that.

So the day that Pres called, they were at Mission Council for April and we had texted that elder and told him, "Maybe you should suggest that we have a zone of all sisters." So he got Pres to call us and give us a little April Fool's joke.

Okay, so that's President L the jokester.

Then there's President L of quiet intensity. Story two: Last week we get another call from him (repeat the scene of me searching my soul for anything I might have ever done wrong). This time I answer and Pres is like, "I need to jog your memory. Let's go back to March 3rd." And I'm totally freaking out like, "Ahhhh what did I do on March 3rd???" and Pres sounds super serious right? So he's like, "I've been looking at your phone record and I see that you made a call to every single companionship of sisters on that day.... can you shed some light on that?" (We're not allowed to call anyone outside of our district.) So then I remember that it was right before Mission Council and Sora M and I were giving a little presentation on what ZLs can do to help sisters in the mission, and the Assistants to the President had given us permission to call everyone to get their suggestions. So I remind President of that and immediately his tone changes to his little jokester self again, and he says, "Well, that would explain it! Thanks, have a great day!" Meanwhile my heart is still going bump-bump-bump-bump 500 times a minute, and I'm pretty sure I didn't calm down for another 20 minutes... haha

Love the man! He's so great and their family has done so much good for this wonderful country.

We had a great week this week and found some new really legit investigators. There was a fun branch activity on Saturday. We had a picnic, and I think we had 7 investigators there!! Plus our English class. It was so legit. I felt like I was back at an activity at church in America. They did a great job with food, games, fun, hanging out. It was a huge success. Here's a photo of the English class with Sora M and me at the picnic.

Random Romanian moment: In Romanian, when you want to pluralize certain words, you take the root noun and then add an "i" on the end, but the "i" is pretty much silent... it's just kind of like an extra breath. But apparently it's still there. Cuz every time we tell someone where the church is, we say, "It's next to Spitalul [Hospital] Panduri" but we have a hard time saying the silent i thingy, and then they say "Where?!" and we say, "Spitalul Panduri" and they say "Where?" and then we say "Next to the Spitalul Pandur-HUH" and then they know! Even though when they say it it sounds exactly the same without the big "HUH" on the end! Just a funny accent thing.

My life in Romania: Have I mentioned the street dogs? There are stray dogs ALL OVER Bucuresti. It's out of control. Every corner has dogs sleeping in it. Maybe I'll snap a pic sometime this week. Don't worry. I don't touch them. But sometimes they are really, really cute. And other times they are really, really dirty.

We had a lot of spiritual highlights this week, but I have been particularly impressed this week by the power of the priesthood. Our investigator Alina is making really great progress. She is still going really slow... but she's such a saint! We showed up to the activity on Saturday and there she was, helping the members clean the church. We had a great lesson with her and George (a recent convert member of the elders') about gratitude and about expressing our gratitude to God through our personal prayers. And then she closed our lesson with a wonderful, wonderful prayer. When she came to church the next day, George invited her to watch him receive the Aaronic Priesthood. (Btw, we caused *quite* the ruckus when we women showed up for the first 10 minutes of the all-male priesthood meeting!) The branch president ordained George, and the Spirit was strong as he blessed him. I hope that Alina felt the witness of the Spirit confirming to her that the authority George was receiving was in reality the authority of Jesus Christ to act in His name.

I know that this is truly the work of God and that Jesus Christ himself heads His Church. How grateful I am to live on the Earth at a time when His priesthood authority has been restored and can be used to bless the lives of those around us. I saw it at work as well earlier this week when the elders gave Sora M a blessing--she's been having some issues with her health (nothing too serious, she's mostly fine). But I was impressed again by the power of the priesthood and how blessed we are to be able to see its effects in our lives. And how grateful I am for the men in my life (adica my dad and brothers) who live worthily to be able to exercise that authority and have used it to bless me throughout my life.

I love the Book of Mormon and the truths of the restored gospel

2011-04-11T22:41:00.005-04:00

At the beginning of April our Zone Leaders challenged us to read the Book of Mormon cover-to-cover during the month of April. That's 18 pages a day, and we've been sticking to it. And wow, my mind has been opened!! Of course, stopping to ponder and dissect individual verses is great, but reading quickly gives me a whole different perspective and helps me to pull out the major themes of the Book of Mormon. Have I ever said how much I love the Book of Mormon?? Big revelation I had this week: I've always wondered... if the doctrine of the family is so important, how come there are no sermons in the Book of Mormon on the family? Why would that important doctrine be missing? And then as I'm reading this week I realized... oh my gosh!! This whole book is about families!! There may not be any specific sermons on families, but we definitely see family patterns and interactions and parenting advice and sibling rivalry and how to raise the rising generation. It's on like every page! Think about it: Lehi and his family, Alma and Alma the younger, Mormon and Moroni, etc. etc. There is much to learn.

We had a great lesson with Alina on Saturday about Lehi's dream and the Iron Rod. She still hasn't taken a Book of Mormon to study for herself, but she's still coming to Institute and meeting with us. And she came to church yesterday! We weren't expecting that at all. I turned around at the end of Sacrament Meeting and there she was sitting next to Sora M. A recent convert invited her to come because he was being ordained to the priesthood. But actually that didn't end up happening... but Alina did stay for all three hours. At the end of our lesson, after we talked about Lehi's dream, she prayed and just said the most beautiful prayer and asked God to help her to understand why we love this book and the things we believe so much. Someday it's just going to click with her that here is the *fulness* of the gospel.

Louisa and Dragos surprised us this week too! ...With the news that they have gotten jobs working for a cruise ship line. So they're piecing out of Romania!! So sad. We're super bummed, but someday we'll be gone too. They're just such a fun young couple and I know we'll stay in touch. We've been teaching them about the Plan of Salvation and this last time we talked about the Spirit World and about how those who didn't have a chance here on Earth to learn about Christ and His gospel will be taught in the Spirit World. And Louisa said, "See Dragos! That answers your question!" It was a really cool moment. And just even more of a testimony builder to me that the gospel of Jesus Christ really does have the power to answer the questions of our souls.

My companion is an angel. Earlier this week we were making a visit a little ways out of town, so we had to take a maxi taxi. It was around 5:00, so the maxi taxi was full of people heading back home after work or school. All of a sudden Sora M whispers to me, "Christ would give up his seat for that family." And I look up and notice a cute mom holding a tiny baby and the hand of a 3-year-old boy, all three of which are struggling to stay upright in the aisle of the maxi-taxi. So we let them take our seats, even though that meant standing all the way... which always makes me feel a little queasy, but gosh, I didn't even notice their existence until Sora M pointed it out. Earlier that day I had written at the top of my planner, Have I done anything good today? And then at the end of the day, I looked back on that and realized, yes, I did do a little bit of good. I could tell that little family appreciated our small act of kindness.

Do something nice for someone else today! I promise it'll make you feel good and that other person too.

Revelation, and fighting with the power of God

2011-04-04T10:15:00.005-04:00

Woo hoo! Once again I was blessed to be serving in one of only four areas in the entire mission that is able to receive the General Conference transmission. There is just something about listening to our divinely inspired leaders that gives me an extra spiritual pump up. :) I was SO bummed that I missed Elder Holland though. He's my fav. We didn't get to watch the Sunday afternoon session cuz it would have been from 11pm-1am here. I hope my mom sends me the conference issue of the Liahona as soon as it comes out so I can read the talks I missed. I've become addicted to the Liahona. I've read many, many Liahonas that I've found left in the apartments here.

The best thing about General Conference is that the revelation from God just flows and flows. I received all kinds of answers to questions that I've been having about me, missionary work, investigators, etc. How wonderful is it that God loves each of us so much that He's provided ways for us to receive personal revelation? I think that's one of the coolest messages that we share with others: that they can talk directly to God and directly receive guidance and inspiration from Him about their own lives.

Baba E, our fav, came to watch conference last night (that's her at left with Sora M). Dragos and Louisa also got to watch just a little bit, but they had to leave before the session was over and we haven't really talked to them yet about their reaction. And Diana Baby is turning into Diana Frustrating Baby. We're trying to just love her and be patient... If she decides this is something that is really important to her, she'll do it. But right now it's not her #1 priority. It's impossible to meet with her. She finally set up an appointment on Saturday and then she showed up 45 minutes late, so we had a quick 15 minute lesson since we both had other places we needed to be. We had invited the Institute teacher to come, and he did a really nice job of helping her understand that she needs to learn the basic principles of the gospel in order to get the rest. I think she finally got it. But now it's getting her priorities in place.
Iuliana, a super posh friend of Sora Lundberg's who is invstigating the church, also came to the General Conference transmission. As we were leaving, she told me I needed to go to a hairdresser to get my hair done... ha ha ha.

Aside from General Conference, my spiritual high of the week was probably a lesson with some really cute Young Single Adult member girls. They're both engaged to members (miracle!) and just as cute as can be. We decided to talk about the Family Proclamation and what we can do to prepare now to raise a happy and successful family in the future. Neither one of them had ever really read the whole Fam Proc before, so we went through it and just read and discussed. It was wonderful to hear their testimonies and help strengthen their desire to raise righteous families. Having successful eternal families is the reason why we teach this gospel!! One of our investigators named Alina randomly showed up at the church while we were there, so we invited her to come to the lesson too. I think it was wonderful for her to see other girls her age living and loving the principles of the gospel.

Alina (our investigator) is incredible--she's got SUCH a good heart. Listen to how she found the church: she volunteers at the Red Cross and got assigned to be a buddy to this blind girl, Ana. Well, Ana wanted to learn how to play the piano, and somehow Alina found out that we have free piano lessons at the church (we don't really, but Sora M & I both play piano...so we took it on as a little service activity). So then Alina started bringing Ana to learn the piano every Saturday, and while Ana learned the piano, Alina started learning the gospel. :) Then Alina started getting involved in all the activities. She comes to Institute, English, Dance, everything we have.... except slujba [Sunday services] because she's Orthodox and says it's right for her. And she won't take a Book of Mormon. :( But.... she's adorable and comes to EVERYTHING. When we ask her, Why do you come?? She says, "Because I feel so good here! I love the people and how I feel." So we're slowly but surely trying to make a little progress with her too. Someday she's going to realize that those good feelings come from God.

In funny news, I had a couple of scarring experiences this week! One night earlier this week, I was sitting at my desk reading and all of a sudden I feel a little thing on my chest. Then all of a sudden it starts hurting and I'm like owww, so I look down and my chest is becoming totally inflamed and I'm like what the heck is going on?!?!? So I run into the bathroom to look in the mirror, and I can see that I'm starting to get all swollen plus my chest is just like exploding in pain. So I yell "Sora M!!" and she comes running in from the kitchen, takes one look at me and screams. Then I turn my head and look to my left shoulder... and see this GIANT wasp on my jacket, so of course then I'm screaming and ran to the front door to open it up and try to get it out, and then we locked ourselves in the kitchen. After a few minutes we couldn't hear anything.... so we decided to venture out. Meanwhile, I think I'm dying cuz my entire chest is stinging and inflamed and I'm feeling like I can't breathe, so we call Sora Lundberg and she tells me to take some Benadryl and then I was fine (thank goodness Sora M was prepared with Benadryl)... but we didn't know if the wasp had even left the apartment or not. I was scared out of my mind to get into bed, cuz I figured it would be waiting for me in there.... well, then we decided to pray, and I very kindly asked Heavenly Father to please kill the wasp if it was His will... and then we went to bed trusting that we weren't going to get attacked in the middle of the night. Next morning we got up and walked into the kitchen, and were met by the dead body of a wasp! Conquered! By the power of God!

This week I also accidentally STEPPED ON a live thumb-sized cockroach that was running around our apartment... sick sick sick... I'm not sure the neighbors appreciated my blood curdling scream at 6:30 in the morning. (There was a lot of screaming this week...) But I felt it crunch. Between my toes. SICK.

Wow, look at the things I can do now that I've been on a mission: kill cockroaches with my bare toes and will God to kill killer insects! Also, here's a list of foods I now regularly eat (and mostly enjoy) that I never ate before my mission: tomatoes, kiwi, granola cereals, cabbage, and a few other things I can't think of at the moment. However, I'm craving some tasty enchiladas... I asked my mom to send me her recipe, and I think we'll be able to find everything here in Buc except for the green chilis. But we do have chili powder and taco seasoning packets in our apartment.

("It's Raining Men!" just came on the radio at the internet place, and I was remembering the time my Mia Maid class made up a sweet dance to that song... :-D)

The Humble Stick

2011-03-28T10:23:00.004-04:00

Sora M snapped this pic of me on the bus. It looks like I'm being really holy and praying, but really I just fell asleep.

Sora M taught me about this thing. It's called the humble stick. Adica (that's Romanian for "in other words"), whenever anyone says anything that hurts our pride, it's like we're getting hit in the forehead with a humble stick. But we just have to accept it and move on. For instance, Romanians have no shame when it comes to telling you about things that are wrong about you. Phrases such as: "You're nice looking, but your companion is way prettier than you!" or "Please. Just speak in English. Your Romanian is terrible." or (after looking at family pictures) "Wow, you've gotten really fat!" are things we hear on a weekly basis ... but that's just the way they do here. They're super blunt. And most of the time we love it and just laugh!

Well, this week, I'm pretty sure the two of us almost got beaten to death with the humble stick! It started out last Monday with a little district football. Obviously, I'm not so good at sports. But Sora M is a rock star. So she goes for a long pass... trips on a little patch of dirt... and then falls face forward into the ground! I'm not gonna lie--it was kind of hilarious!--but poor Sora M was mortified. (Even now replaying that moment in my head is making me giggle--it was like one second she was standing up and the next she was reaching for the ball, and then *smack* face first into the ground.) Hit me with the humble stick!

Then on Tuesday at district meeting, we find out the branch presidency is upset with the missionaries over some little issue.... more humble stick hittage.

Wednesday, Diana (our one progressing investigator with a baptism date) tells us, "I really appreciate that you brought me here to the church, but ... I really just want to talk to someone older and more experienced in living the gospel than you two." Ouch! Beat me with the humble stick! So that was a little frustrating. She wants to learn everything all at once and she doesn't understand that in order to build a castle, you have to start with a firm foundation. If we don't understand the basic principles upon which the gospel and Christ's church are founded, we will never truly understand everything else that we're trying to learn. And as soon as the wind begins to blow--someone says something we don't agree with or we get offended--our castle is going to crumble to pieces and we'll be gone.

She's still a doll, but she didn't show to church *again*! Gaaahhh! So the baptism is off for this Saturday, but I still have faith that she's going to make it to the font one of these days.

A gem of wisdom I've learned to be true over and over and over again while here in Romania is: Trust God. Things will work out. And if they're not in the Plan, then they won't. Atat. (That's Romanian for "that's it.")

I think we all get hit in the head with the humble stick every now and then, but the good news is that we can learn from those experiences and start rebuilding. And a good smack with the humble stick every now and then is healthy. :)

There were a lot of good moments this week too! Yesterday we had a fabulous lesson with Louisa and Dragos. (Cute young couple, neighbors of some members, started teaching them a while back, but then they were having a crisis, but now we've started back up again.) We taught about the living prophets in preparation for General Conference this coming weekend (I can't wait!!!! When I was little, I used to tell my mom that conference was the most boring thing ever and she told me it was the most wonderful thing ever, and I didn't believe her, but now I know she's right 'cuz she's my mom.) Anyway, I digressed. So we had a bomb lesson with them about living prophets. The idea makes sense to them... but they're not really that sure, so we're super excited for them to come to conference and experience how wonderful it is to hear the word of God through His inspired servants.(BTW, you can watch General Conference live at www.lds.org beginning Saturday 2 April.)

Dang, I feel like I've been Debbie Downer today. But missions (and life) are not just one long uninterrupted string of spiritual highs! Sometimes you get smacked around a little, but in the end... it's all worth it to preach the word. Christ showed us the way, and I'm grateful for His infinite love and really, that's all that matters.

on crazy twisty upside-downsies

2011-03-21T12:47:00.006-04:00

Sometimes missionary work is really interesting. It's like a roller coaster full of ups and downs and occasionally you go upside down and sideways twisty all at once. And at certain points throughout the ride you feel a little sick, but at the end you look back and think, wow that was SO COOL. Let's do it again!

So, first I'll tell you about the crazy upside-down sideways twisty flip and then how it all smoothed out in the end. Remember Cristian, the miracle guy Cristian who showed up at the church last week after district meeting 'cuz he got a pass-along card at the gara [train station]? Well, we set a baptismal date with him Monday night. He seemed to be progressing really well throughout the week--he was doing his reading, understanding all of the lessons, and just seemed to love it all. Seems totally golden. Too good to be true, right?

Right. He "borrowed" a laptop from one of the members and then took off with it and no one's seen or heard from him since... gahhhhhh!!! So frustrating. But it just goes to show that salvation is never easy. And trust the Spirit when it tells you something is too good to be true.

On the good side, we were able to start meeting again with Diana. She got feeling better and came back from la tara [out of town], and when we met again this week we reestablished her baptismal date for April 2nd. She's really excited about it and so are all the members. Everyone keeps asking her, when are you getting baptized?? And she's so excited to tell them, April 2nd! So we're working toward that date and praying like crazy that she'll keep learning and living the gospel.
She's just so adorable. She's 27 and a student, and just the sweetest girl. Every time we meet she talks about how much she wants to be a disciple of Christ, and she says, "I still have so much to learn!" and we tell her, yes Diana, you do, but so do all of us. We're always learning!

Saturday was a really great day. One of the elders' investigators got baptized, so we went to that and Diana came with us. She loved it and said she loved the way that she felt. Then afterwards there was a branch activity and Diana stayed for that too. It was so wonderful to see her interacting with all of the members, and just being one of them. Usually when we bring an investigator to an activity we have to spend the whole time holding our investigator's hand and pushing members to talk with him or her, but Diana is just a little social butterfly. Plus, she was snapping paparazzi photos every five seconds and it was kind of hilarious!

The activity was a fireside to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first baptisms in Romania. The first woman to be baptized (Doina) is still an active member living here in Bucuresti, so she and her daughter put together the program. Besides the fact that it went 2 1/2 hours long, and I hadn't eaten anything yet all day ... it was really wonderful. They did a video presentation and several people spoke and told stories about the beginnings of the church here in Romania.

Throughout the whole presentation, I kept thinking, wow, the church is true! God really cares about all of his children, in every nation. He is mindful of us no matter who we are or where we live.

Also, I had a personal revelation during the fireside. I've been struggling with the decision of whether I should come home in July or August. I've felt for a while that both decisions would be fine with the Lord, and that even though I really, really wanted to stay until the end of August, coming home in July seemed more right. So I've still been thinking, Dang, I don't want to miss out on another six weeks that I could have in this country that I love so much. And even though intellectually I knew that coming home in July was okay, I didn't ever really feel a strong spiritual confirmation that it was the right decision.

And then, as it so often does, in an unexpected moment, the Spirit whispered to my soul, "Sora H, it's okay for you to go home in July. Your Heavenly Father is so pleased with your service here. Look at all of these wonderful people who have served the people here. There will always be missionaries here, bringing the gospel to these people you love so much. They'll be okay, and you'll be okay."

The Lord really does take care of us, especially in the ups and the downs and the crazy twisty upside-downsies.

woooo hooooooo!!!!!

2011-03-14T10:51:00.006-04:00

I *heart* this sis! (Our skirts were a little out of control yesterday.)

Last night Sora M and I were over at the Lundbergs dropping off Sora W, one of the sisters who is going home this week. While there I jokingly asked President, "So Pres, do I need to start packing my bags tonight?" To which he made some comment and then he's like, "Well, I wouldn't pack my bags if I were you." And I'm like, "What does that mean..........?!?!" and then I said, "Are you talking about me...... or us....?" And he said "Us. You're staying." Ahhh!!! Sora M and I were freaking out, but we couldn't tell if he was just messing with us or what. Well, I was going to be ticked if my mission president lied to me. But good news, we opened up the transfer board in our e-mail today and I get to stay another 6 weeks in Buc with Sora M! We're super stoked. (Of course.)

Here's a photo of our awesome district from this transfer. We've had way too much fun together.

It's been a great week (like usual). Tuesday morning we had district meeting at the church and then Sora M and I decided to stay for another hour to finish our studies. (We live more than an hour from the church, so Pres. has given us permission to do that.) Good thing we did 'cuz this awesome guy comes wandering into the church. Who is ever at the church at 11:30 in morning? No one. Except for this one time! So great. [Editor’s note: Because the LDS Church is run entirely by volunteers, the meetinghouses have no staff members—not even a janitor—to keep them open on weekdays; so unless a visitor arrives on Sunday or on a weeknight when there are youth activities, he’s likely to find the doors locked.] Anyway, so this guy comes wandering in and has a little pass-along card in his hand that just has the address of the church on it. And he says some girl gave it to him at the gara [train station] a month ago and "sorry I haven't gotten a chance until now to come and check it out." Oh my goodness. He's so legit. So we have a quick lesson with him then, and then invite him to Family Home Evening the next night. He comes & loves it. We invite him to the baptism on Saturday--he comes & he loves it! And then we had another great lesson. Comes to District Conference on Sunday. Loves it. Another great lesson. And we're meeting again today. This guy is so legit!! His name is Cristian. He gets it, and is really studying and seeking an answer.

Diana has been *super* sick, so she wasn't able to come to church again yesterday. Gah! But she's still doing great and I just love her and am having patience with the Lord's timing for her.

We've got this other investigator who has a baptismal date... but we'll see what develops there. He's still got *a lot* of progress to make. He's in his sixties and kinda stubborn, but wants to change his life to be a better person. We're working towards a goal of March 26th for his baptism, and praying that he'll make the changes that he needs to by then.

Yesterday was District Conference, and it was such a great experience for me. The entire chapel and overflow were *filled* with members of the church. Tons of our investigators came. I almost started crying like 5 times 'cuz I was just lovin' it. It's so good to be reminded that the church is true and that there are people who are living it and carrying it on. Also, Brasov is part of our district, so I got to see all my girls and the members! Catalina and her family are still doing great. Cristina, this less active lady that we started working with when I was there, has completely come back and is now a counselor in the Relief Society Presidency. I was so happy to hear that she's totally back. She's got the cutest little family. Man, seeing the fruits of your labor is so cool. It was definitely a little blessing from my Father in Heaven to be able to see those things.

Funny moment from this week: I started reading the Old Testament a little bit ago. I read a few chapters every day. So I got to the part about Jacob and Esau, but I didn't finish the whole story yet. Then I was telling Sora M about it in companion study and then she started to tell me more about what happens and I'm like, "STOP! You're ruining it for me!!!" And then she laughed at me because the Bible has been around thousands of years and she couldn't believe I would accuse her of ruining the ending of it for me.

Gotta run. Transfer week is always crazy. But I'm SO relieved that I don't have to pack. Wow, it seems like *yesterday* that I got sent to Buc. Time flies when you're having fun.

Snapshots from Bucharest

2011-03-07T21:36:00.006-05:00

Bucharest is situated on the Dambovita, one of the most polluted rivers in Europe. It's definitely not the beautiful blue Danube, but it doesn't look too bad at night.

I hope the weather warms up soon, because my winter boots aren't going to last much longer!

Romania must be the only country on earth where they package crap and sell it in grocery stores!

(Crap is the Romanian word for carp.)

Ninja pic: some guy reading Twilight on the metro. Obviously he is bored out of his mind. We got a good laugh out of that! haha

The Gospel = My Favorite

2011-03-07T21:23:00.006-05:00

Today the senior couple taught Sora M and me how to make wheat bread. Sora D was surprised by my already-great kneading technique. I told her that my mom and dad had taught me a long time ago. :)

Yesterday I had the sudden realization that I'm going to get back to America and I'm not going to remember what my real name is when I introduce myself. Because my last name has a "w" in it, and there is no "w" in Romanian, it's just a whole lot easier to substitute a "v" sound. Also the vowels are different. Yesterday I introduced myself to someone in English, and when I said my last name the right way, I was like, whoa. that sounds soooo weird.

Also, in other news: We've got texting on our phones now! It's pretty cool. We've been able to re-establish contact with a few less active members and former investigators who won't ever answer their phones.... but they'll answer a text! Particularly the young'ins, you know... but I mean, I've been learning Romanian for over a year now. And now, I have to learn Romanian texting language!! It's like a whole different language and it takes me half an hour to figure out what in the world peeps are saying to us. I feel like a boboaca again.

Yesterday I received some revelation. We were visiting a recent convert and talking about the stripling warriors in the Book of Mormon. We were talking about how incredible it was that God protected those young men from death, and about God's power to do miracles. I've talked a lot about miracles and how I know that God has the power to do miracles. But all of a sudden I realized, it's really easy for me to accept that God can do miracles. I know that He parted the Red Sea, He appeared to the boy Joseph Smith, He can heal my companion of a sickness, and He answers the prayers of our investigators. Of course He can do anything! But what is a whole lot harder for me to accept is that God can do miracles in MY life--that God will and does actually work miracles in MY life. Why is it so hard for us to accept that sometimes?

I'm not sure, but what I do know is that I have seen evidences of miracles this week!! Ok, I'm always talking about the miracles I see here in Romania, but at the time it seemed like an epiphany... so, ask yourself, do you believe that God can and does work miracles in YOUR life?

He does. Start looking for them and you'll never stop recognizing them.

Well, Saturday was a great day. We were supposed to meet Diana (aka Diana baby) at 10:00 at the church, but she's a little... scatter-brained?... and didn't wake up on time, so we were pretty disappointed about that. But we really wanted to meet with her, so God provided a way and we were able to rearrange other stuff so that we could reschedule with her later that afternoon. And as it worked out, Florina, this really cute member (so legit—a returned missionary, super posh style, nicest person ever) was able to come to our lesson. We taught Diana the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The 5 pasi (5 steps) lesson is my FAVORITE! Well, we were teaching and discussing what we need to do here in our Earth life in order to be with God again and the Spirit was so strong and then Sora M invited Diana to be baptized and she said yes and we set a date for this Saturday!! And Florina was so perfect and shared her conversion story and about her decision to be baptized. No big deal, right? Haha. We're super pumped!

Unfortunately... Diana didn't show up to church yesterday (ah! devastation!!), which means her baptism won't be happening this Saturday.... but she's so ready and it's gonna happen the week after for sure! She loves the church and the doctrines and the people. And I love her. She's such a little sweetheart. She's got 500 questions, but once we answer them simply from the scriptures and bear our testimonies, she really gets it and she accepts it. She has a great desire to follow Christ. We're praying that as she prays, she recognizes that sweet confirmation from the Spirit that this is the right step for her to make in her life. Oh gosh, cutest moment from our lesson (besides the part where she said she'd get baptized!): when we got into the room to have the lesson, we were just chatting a little bit, finding out how her week was and stuff. Then Diana stops us all and is like, "Is it all right if we say a prayer? 'Cuz I really need God to help me to understand what you're going to teach me today." Ahhh!! I could have died, she's so perfect.

So remember, miracles do happen in our own personal lives. What miracle have you seen today?

What will she say next?

2011-02-28T08:32:00.006-05:00

As seems to be the norm lately, it was a fabulous week. It was Sora M's birthday week, so we just couldn't go wrong! She is now the 4th companion that I've celebrated a birthday with on the mish. Good times. Mostly we celebrated by doing our regular missionary thing and eating some frozen cheese cake when we got home... but it was great!

Well, on Thursday we decided that we'd better spend a little time contacting with our district. The elders have been doing district contacting together once a week since the beginning of the transfer, but we've always had to cancel on them 'cuz something else came up. Anyways... they were pretty sour about it... Last week when we called Elder W (craziest elder ever--always doing the craziest stuff to contact people) and told him we had to bail again, he shouted--in his usually over-the-top energetic, but good-natured way--"Sounds like we have two districts in Panduri!" and hung up on us haha, so we made time this week!! And it ended up being really cool. We made a bunch of hot (fruit) tea and offered church tours outside of the capela. Lots of people came in and we had a few lessons and got some good phone numbers.

Guess what I discovered this week?! I can roll my "R"s now! I think I've been doing it unconsciously for quite a while now, but I suddenly realized yesterday that I had indeed learned how to roll my "R"s. My mom will be so proud of me. :)

Friday night (Sora M's b-day night) we went to visit Mioara, a lady who got baptized last summer. She started bringing her 70-something-year-old mom to church in December, so we've been working with her a bit. She's this cute little old baba but she's fiesty. She's a baptized Adventist, and being that she's super old... she's not real open for change. But she's been reading in the Book of Mormon and comes to church every now and then. Her sister Maria also lives with them (but she's a little cuckoo and almost completely deaf...). Well, we taught about temples 'cuz we're trying to get Mioara excited and planning to go on the next branch temple trip. We brought the issue of the Liahona with all the temple pics and were showing them to her.

Meanwhile her little 2-year-old granddaughter Lorena is just being so adorable, but also rather wild and distracting during the lesson. Then on Sunday, Mioara told us, "You won't believe what happened! You probably thought little Lorena wasn't paying attention at all 'cuz she's only two & was running around the kitchen, but the day after you left, she saw the picture of the temple you left on the table and pointed to it and said, 'Casa, doamne, doamne!'" (The house of the Lord). Sora M’s and my little hearts just melted. It's amazing how much little children do pick up. I can't wait to have kids and teach them the gospel.

Funny member-present-lesson moment of the week: we met with Diana (the investigator with a million questions) and a member, another young single girl named Cami, came with us. We'd prepared Cami beforehand and told her, Please keep it really, really simple cuz Diana has lots of questions and gets really confused. So in the course of the lesson, we get off topic of course, and Diana is asking questions about Mary and Jesus and we're talking about how God is Christ's Father and Mary is His mother, but mostly trying to bring it back to the basics of the Plan of Salvation... and then before we know it, Cami is like, "Well, actually... God does have a wife!" It was one of those moments when my colega and I just freeze. Look at each other. And mouth in horror, "Oh. no! Someone must put a stop to this!" You never know what is going to come out of a member's mouth during a lesson... But then again, everyone’s going to learn sometime that God really does have a wife, so I guess it might as well be now. It’s just not the easiest thing to explain to someone who hasn’t even got the basics.

But: "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass."

Find someone this week that you can talk to about the gospel. I promise God will bless you!

Monsters Inc. status

2011-02-21T08:32:00.004-05:00

Wow, great week! Yesterday was a really stressful day at church, but for a good reason: we had four investigators come to church for the first time! We had zone conference earlier this week and President L encouraged us to do whatever we possibly could to get our investigators to sacrament meeting, so Sora M and I decided we were going to bring all of our investigators "Monsters Inc." style. You know that part in Monsters Inc. where they round the corner and they're all lined up and it's like slow mo/coming like an army... sort of? Look it up on Youtube. (Not that I've been doing that, but you know what I'm saying!)

Okay, so we were envisioning us getting off the bus right in front of the church with all of our investigators and then Monsters Inc.ing it into the church building and into the chapel. Hahaha. It didn't quite happen like that (and we'd planned for 15, not 4) but we were sooooo happy that so many of them came!

We have this one investigator who we affectionately call Diana baby 'cuz the girl is so cute, but she's got 5,000,000,000 questions and talks 500 miles a minute and wants all of the answers right now. So we're always planning that we just gotta cut her off and say, "Diana baby, slow down. You're gonna get your answers, you just gotta be patient." Anyway, so she came and she brought her friend and they stayed for all 3 hours and in Relief Society when they introduced themselves all of the sisters were like, we can't wait for you to be our sisters in the church!! It was really cute. :) She's just got to learn that knowledge doesn't come all at once.

We had a really nice short and sweet lesson with them right after church. Cuz of course Diana was wanting to explode with all her questions again (i.e. "I don't understand why they said it was part of God's plan for Adam to eat the fruit!" and, "But how can a child who's only 7 and dies have finished with his mission on Earth??"), but we just explained how it's going to come over time, don't worry, we're going to teach you everything about the Plan of Salvation, but we have to start at the beginning so that you can understand all the answers. She calmed down. Tonight we're meeting with her over at a member's house, so that'll be really good.

A while back I mentioned that there was a lady that I'd contacted in Bucharest while here on an exchange that ended up getting baptized. Her name's Anca, and she's here in this branch, and I just loooove her. She's SO happy. Wow, the difference from that day I first met her to now is just... light years! She loves the gospel so, so much and has seen so many blessings in her life because of her commitment to live it.

Funny moment: Yesterday we were having a lesson with Irina, a recent convert. She's actually homeless... but yea... She just doesn't want to be bothered with money or a job, so we're working with her on that... but anyway, so she comes in and usually she's really excited to study and talk together, but she just collapses on the couch and we started into our lesson and asked her some question. Oh, and when she goes into her gospel-learning mode, she gets real serious and wants to show respect for the Word so her personality usually kinda disappears. So we get all excited and start in to whatever and then ask her, "How can we recognize the Spirit in our lives?" And she just looks at us with this dead straight face, and is like "Fetelor." (Hey girls.) "Mi-e somn. Mi-e foame. Voi vorbiti, si eu ascult." (I'm tired. I'm hungry. You talk. I'll listen.) Ok, I don't think that really came out funny translated into English, but it was funny in Romanian, I promise. And the way that she said it.

Ok, lame story to end with. Next week I'll let you know how we Monsters Inc.ed it into sacrament meeting with 20 investigators in tow. :)

I'm really happy. This week at zone conference we talked about how happiness is a choice. True happiness comes as a result of our choices. As we choose to follow the commandments and align our will with God's, we become happy. Obedience=happiness. That's a principle that will serve us well on our missions and throughout our entire lives. I know it's true because I've lived it and tried it! I know that as we live the commandments of God, we are filled with the kind of happiness that never ends.

"And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness” (Mosiah 2:41).

If you're not happy, find something in your life that isn't in accord with God's commandments and fix it. I promise you'll be happier.

Happy Love Day!

2011-02-14T08:28:00.003-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day!! And happy one year mark to me this past week. :) I can't believe it's already been a year since I got on the plane to Salt Lake and then Nat dropped me off at the MTC. I was so nervous I couldn't eat and Nat told me I was experiencing that feeling that he gets when he's "about to embark on a journey of too many unknowns." And boy has it been a journey of many unknowns! It's been one incredible year full of experiences, learning, and so much fun. I never expected a mission to be so fun or so hard or so... how do you even describe it? wonderful?

Sora M and I are excited to celebrate our Valentine's Day together. :) We're taking each other to lunch... and then playing American football with the elders, so we'll see how that goes down...
p.s. every moment with Sora M is a joy!

Here we are with Gina and Anca, some investigators found through English classes, and their friend Elena. They are really awesome and love learning, but progress is a little slow and they're both on completely different levels. Anca is still struggling to accept the idea of Jesus Christ as our Savior, but Gina is way beyond that and just gets everything. Love her. Haven't gotten them to church yet, but soon!

Sora M and I had a really awesome week together. However, Monday night was a little rough. We went to visit a less active member (who told us off for not visiting less active members... and we're like, hellloooo! you only come to church once a month, your husband hasn't been to church in so long Sora M thought he wasn't a member, and your daughter only comes every few months. You.are.less.active!) Classic.

But to get there we had to go to a metro stop that was kind of sketchy. It was the end of the line and dark. As we walked up the stairs we walked by a man.... who just reached out and spanked me.
Sora M turns to me and is like, "...what just happened?" and I was like *shock* "uhhh... he spanked me?!" So she turns around and starts to yell at the guy, but then we realize there are like 15 guys all standing at the bottom of the stairs and no one else around, so I was like, "Come on girl, let's get out of here!" so we left...

That actually isn't the first time that (being spanked) has happened to me on my mission. I don't understand why men think they can treat women in that way. Especially in this part of the world. I don't know, maybe I just wasn't exposed to situations like that in the U.S. but we put up with a lot. Being American and wearing a nametag (plus having a beautiful companion) = constant cat calling, guys who just... stare and stare and stare, etc. And occasional completely inappropriate gestures. It's definitely disconcerting, but whatever, we just keep going forward and someday he'll meet God at the judgment bar to answer for his actions.

The Lord watches over us. I've talked to a lot of Romanian women who have been subjected to horrible treatment from fathers/boyfriends/husbands and it just hurts my heart so much.

But we missionaries follow the Spirit and we know how to take care of ourselves! And now that it's over it's just another funny story to add to my many crazy experiences here in Romania!

Anyway... wow, not the most positive, inspiring story for the week. So what else went down this week?

Wednesday was a great day! Doina, a really great member in the branch, invited us over for dinner and invited her downstairs neighbors to come as well. First off, the neighbors are a really cute young couple--Louisa and Dragos. We got to know them and taught them the first lesson. Dragos seems a lot more into it than Louisa, but they came to church on Sunday!! We were so excited. They would be amazing, amazing members. We need young families. Second, Doina made GOOD food.
Generally we try to avoid being fed by members... but everything Doina made was delish. Ending with a cheesecake type dessert with raspberry topping mmmmm--my dad would've loved it. (Last time Sora M and I got fed, she showed me her secret: she keeps a spare plastic baggy in the front of her purse and when we just can't stomach more, we stuff the food in there... I mean, honestly, this one woman told us that what she was feeding us was "flesh" and I wanted to vomit, but luckily Sora M saved the day!)

Friday night we were over at another member's house 'cuz we're teaching her neighbor. Awesome lady named Iliana who is super legit--always does her reading, loves everything we teach. Then her 13-year-old daughter Bianca came over and sat in on the lesson. We taught the Gospel/5 steps, which is my absolute favorite lesson to teach. I just love the basic principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ:
faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. That really is what it's all about. That is what we need to do to be with our Heavenly Father again. Bianca was really into it and at the end she offered the closing prayer!!! We were so proud of her.

Anyway, this is getting boring, but I just want you to know how much I love my Heavenly Father and the opportunity that He's given to all of us to come to this Earth, to grow and to learn and to become better. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and the perfect example that He set for us. It is a privilege and a joy to teach His gospel and to see the light that comes into one's eyes when they begin to live the great plan of happiness. I'm so glad that the Spirit whispered to me that I needed to think about going on a mission. How grateful I am to be here and to be able to show my love for the Lord through this special calling. I love my family and friends! Today, do something to show those you love that you love them. And do something to show your Father in Heaven that you love Him too!

love, love, love

2011-02-07T16:35:00.003-05:00

Oh heeeeyyyy! It's been a pretty bomb week, and I'm just loving my new companion, our new area, our new branch, our new investigators. Where to start? Sora H and I got up at 3:00 Wednesday morning to finish the last bit of packing and get to the gara [train station] to leave with the 5:00 train. Why the assistants put us on the 5:00 train, I'm still not sure.... but whatevs. I got some McDonald's breakfast at the gara (heaven!), said bye to Sora H, and met up with my new colega. Sora M is SO awesome! She's from Orem, Utah, and went to BYU and is just about the most fun, relaxed person you can ever imagine. Plus she works hard and we have already had some really, really powerful teaching moments together. This is her 4th transfer. (p.s. I will hit a year on Thursday! Where is the time going?!?!)

We're serving in the Panduri branch, which is the main branch here in Bucharest. I absolutely loved church on Sunday. I realized it was the first Sunday in five transfers (seven months!) where I haven't had to teach a lesson in Sunday School/Relief Society/Young Women or give a talk or play the piano in sacrament meeting or break up fights in Relief Society, etc. I just went to church and was a 100% normal missionary without any extra responsibilities. It was wonderful not to have to worry about anything and to just focus on worshiping my Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ.

We have some really, really neat investigators we're working with. Last night we went over to a member's house. The mom Gina and 14-year-old son George have been members for about a year and a half, and the 21-year-old daughter Giulia was baptized in December. Now the non-member dad Marian is taking the lessons, and he is getting so close. They didn't show up to church yesterday (bummer!) but Gina told us Marian was all ready to go and came bursting into the room in the morning saying, "Let's go to church!" but Gina was sick and hadn't slept all night, so she didn't want to go... dang it! Well, we were so happy to hear that Marian was the one who wanted to go and was all ready. Too bad he couldn't take that extra step to get himself there by himself, but he had the desire!! Love it. We reviewed the Restoration and talked about the power of prayer. He's praying to know if baptism is what he should be doing. It was so cute, the 14-year-old son was telling him, "Dad!! You gotta get baptized!" He's going to do it, he just needs a little more courage in himself.

What else happened this week? We're having a slight cockroach problem in our apartment... (killed 6 the other night before we went to bed! iiiiccck!) Sora M says that I brought them with me 'cuz they never had a problem last transfer.

We're lost *all* the time. Buc is huge. Sora M had 2 companions here last transfer, and she pretty much just followed them around and never paid attention to where she was going... so basically our #1 contacting approach is "Hey, we're lost! How do we get to...?" and then we can tell them why we're here and why they're going to love our message! We met the cutest lady on the metro yesterday and she went with us all the way to our stop. Turns out she told us the longest way you can ever imagine (we went 15 stops in the wrong direction instead of just 4 the other way...)... but she was really cute and we're meeting with her later this week, so who cares if it took us 2 hours to get to Gina's instead of 30 minutes? :)

Sora M and I have definitely had a lot of awesome adventures together and we haven't even finished a full week together yet. It's going to be a great transfer full of lots of laughter and hard work and miracles.

I am grateful that the Lord is quick to forgive.

Sora M made me sushi... I liked it. Not my fav, but I did eat the whole plate!

Short and sweet

2011-01-31T21:17:00.003-05:00

Surprise!! I'm being transferred to Bucharest. I was 95% sure I was staying for another transfer here in Galati, but President L is better at recognizing the Spirit than me ... so I trust him and I'm going! :) My new companion will be Sora M. I've only met her once really briefly, but I've heard she's lots of fun and super chill. And I'm excited to be in a big city. I love the energy from being surrounded by so many people. I think that's one of the reasons I loved Chisinau so much.

This week finished out all right. I kind of started to feel like I was hitting my head against a wall and not getting anywhere. I'm not sure I can say that I left this area better than I found it, but at least the branch is still functioning! Sweet 70-year-old Rodica is doing well--still coming to church every Sunday, but her progress is going a little slow.

When the problems in the branch happened, I remember having the impression, "This is why you were sent to Galati." I'm grateful and humbled to know that the Lord would use me as an instrument in His hands to help His people in this wonderful city. I can't wait to find out what He has in store for Sora M & me in Bucuresti!

The snow keeps coming, and I'm FREEZING! My hands are so cold I can barely type. Last night on our way home I saw a thing that said it was -16 (Celsius). Brrrr!

Take care of yourself, miss!

2011-01-24T13:53:00.002-05:00

This will have to be short because I spent too much time reading e-mails. (I got a bunch today from non-family!) So... what's been going on this week? It snowed for 3 days straight, and I thought it would never end. At five minutes to 10 yesterday the only people at church were the missionaries, the branch president, and 1 other person, but then everyone started to wander in. (I guess it's not really that different from most Sundays... haha.) The snow was falling hard, but our members and a few investigators still came. :) Today the world is out and about again, and no one seems to care that the streets are covered in a layer of ice, a few inches of packed snow, and lots of slush. It definitely doesn't slow the maxi taxi drivers down!

I've been battling a cough for the last three weeks. I knew it was pretty bad, but I didn't realize how bad until yesterday we were walking into the block as one of the neighbors was walking out and he looks at us and is like, "Which one of you is racit (sick with a cold)?" I said, "Me" and he said, "You've got to take care of yourself, miss!" Apparently he lives in the apartment below us and has been listening to me cough for the last three weeks! Poor guy. He wasn't upset, more concerned for my welfare. I've got some meds I've been taking and I've almost gotten over it.

Health is really important to Romanians ... and boy do they have some crazy ideas for how to remedy any kind of ailment. I've been told about 100 different things I should do to get over my cough faster, but my favorite was from a woman who told me I need to boil some water for tea, and then use these special herbs (she gave me an entire bag full of them!). Then, I must put my feet in a bowl of boiling salt water and stand up very straight while drinking the tea ... yea, that will probably help me forget my cough quick because I'll be too busy tending to the 2nd degree burns on my feet!

We had a cool experience Friday morning. We left the house at 11:00 and headed to our block-knocking area. We had 25 minutes before we were supposed to go to a lesson, so I said, "Sora! We've got 25 minutes to find someone and teach them a lesson." Mind you, the previous morning we'd knocked for 2 hours without a lesson! Well, we knocked on three doors and the first lady who answered took one look at us and said, "Poftiti!" (Roughly translated, Come right on in!)

Wow, the Lord really led us to this woman.

We asked about her family, and she told us she had lost her daughter to cancer 6 months ago and her husband passed away 2 months ago. She doesn't have any other children and lives alone in Galati. As we talked with her, we told her about the Plan of Salvation and assured her that after we die, our spirits still exist. We told her, "Antoineta, you will see your daughter and husband again!" She cried and cried and told us that before we came she wasn't sure because one of her friends had told her that there isn't anything after this life. But as we talked, she felt the gentle comfort of the Holy Spirit testifying to her soul that there does indeed exist a life after this one. It was a short, powerful lesson, but she thanked us and said, "I know that God sent you here to me today." How grateful I was to be an instrument in the Lord's hands to bring that simple message to one of his precious daughters. I know that our spirits are eternal, and we will have the opportunity to live with our families forever. Because Christ died for us, we will all live again.

(That didn't end up being very short, did it? Haha! I am my mother's daughter!)

No catchy little phrase can possibly describe this week

2011-01-18T01:04:00.003-05:00

What a week! I don't even know where to begin. On Friday I was pretty sure that today I was going to be writing that the Galati branch had fallen apart and the missionaries were being pulled out because there were no more active members...! Basically, all of the underlying tension between members that had been bubbling under the surface for the last year all exploded this week. The branch president was ready to quit and take his family with him, our gospel doctrine teacher/R.S. teacher/chorister/only active convert from the year 2010 called to tell me she wasn't coming anymore, several members said they'd rather sit at home and read their scriptures than come to church... nearly everybody had issues.

There was a moment this week when we missionaries were meeting together, trying to figure out what in the world we were going to do to save this branch, when Elder Van in his usual energetic and passionate way takes the branch list in his hands, throws it on the floor, and says "Let's ex' 'em all! And start over!" At which point, I started cracking up and Sora H burst into tears and well... that's a good way to illustrate how we all reacted to the situation.

Once the fire cooled down a little bit, we knelt down, prayed, implored the Lord for help, and got to work fixing the problems. Visits were made, a wonderful Romanian leader from the mission presidency got in his car and made the long drive up to Galati, and in the end... at 10:00 Sunday morning we had the best sacrament meeting I've ever attended on my mission, with full active member attendance and eight nonmembers!

Miracles, miracles, miracles. I KNOW that the Lord hears and answers our prayers. I know that He is concerned in the details of our lives and He knows each one of us individually. He wasn't about to let Satan destroy this small group of Saints.

Sacrament meeting was incredible. Elder Van spoke about sustaining our leaders. Sora Van spoke about brotherly love and not reacting impulsively to situations we don't fully understand. And then President C of the mission presidency gave a fiery sermon about forgiveness and how each one of us is essential to the church of Christ. No matter what we do, no matter who we are, we are NEEDED! The Spirit of the Lord was so powerful.

When President C spoke of forgiveness, he talked about how for his entire life he had hated Americans. He was born in the industrial city Ploiesti in 1944, the same year that the Americans came and bombed the city during WWII. During the bombing, his older brother was killed. For his whole life he abhorred anything associated with America. He became a preacher for the pentecostal church and traveled to many lands, preaching in the congregations established by Romanians. Many years later, in the early 1990s, he was invited by a friend to a picnic where people of different faiths were present. Everyone was drinking coffee and alcohol, with the exception of two Americans. After the picnic, President C asked his friend why those two Americans weren't drinking anything except suc [juice], and his friend said, "Didn't you know? They're Mormons!" President C was impressed, but never thought he'd see any more members of the church again.

A few days later he was walking down the street in his city in Romania when he was stopped by two young American boys. His first reaction was negative, but he soon found out that they were Mormon missionaries and, surprising himself, he agreed to meet with them. This began his 11-month journey of studying and investigating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He said it was extremely hard for him to overcome his anti-American feelings, but God worked a wonder in his heart, and over time, those feelings were healed. He didn't feel that overwhelming hatred towards Americans anymore, despite what had happened to his brother. He realized that this was Christ's church, not just an American church. Eventually, he joined.

After President C finished his talk and sat down, Elder Van asked if he might stand and say something else. With great emotion, he said, "My wife was also born in the year 1944. That year, her uncle, a pilot in the air force, was assigned a mission to drop bombs on the city of Ploiesti." Elder Van almost couldn't continue, he was so choked up. "On his way home from the mission, her uncle's plane collided with another and he too was killed."

I don't think there was a dry eye in the congregation as we realized that it was God's hand that brought these two individuals together--two people who had been born in the same year on opposite sides of the world, in the midst of a war in which they both lost close family members during the same conflict but on different sides. And yet, love and forgiveness transcended any other feelings because the gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect and gives us the power to love and to forgive! Because our Savior died for us, we can be healed. I know that to be true, and I thank God for His endless care over each one of us.

God loves us--every one

2011-01-10T09:27:00.002-05:00

At first I couldn't think of anything interesting to write about, but then I remembered that we almost set our apartment on fire yesterday morning before church! We were making chocolate sauce for clatite (Romanian version of crepes) and were melting the chocolate over the stove. Sora H was trying to hold down the top of the bowl with a towel, which ended up falling down into the burner and caught fire. Her first reaction was to throw the towel... which landed a few inches from my bare feet! Somehow it went out (maybe the cold tile ground did it?) and thank goodness God was watching over that towel, so it missed my feet.

I thought the mission was crazy when they gave us these huge fire extinguishers two weeks ago... but we almost had to use ours!

What else happened this week? Ummm... we talked to a lot people, taught some of them plain and precious parts of the gospel, and prayed a lot. That's pretty much how every week goes.

We had a great lesson with Rodica (the miracle lady who came to church last week) and even got two members there with us. Both member sisters bore powerful testimonies of the peace and power that is in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It was so great!!

We had another great lesson with the P family and bore our testimonies of the blessings that have come to us and our families as a result of our decision to act on the precious truths of the gospel. They've been investigators for several months with the elders, but had kind of been dropped for a little bit, but we picked them back up again. They are so cooooolll! And just a high quality, normal family. We had an amazing lesson, and then the dad, Marius, drops the news that he's leaving to go to Germany for 3 months to work, gaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! I just had to tell myself, God has a plan. God has a plan. Trust Him.

I usually don't take a lot of pictures of investigators, mostly because I think it's weird to pull out my camera at a lesson and be like, hey, so I write home to my parents about you, so can I snap your pic and send it to them? But I did get this really cute one of baby Ali and mom Estera. It was Ali's first birthday.

We'll continue to work with Estera, and pray that they'll really start progressing again when Marius comes back. Why does everyone want to leave this beautiful country?!?! I know the economic conditions here aren't stellar, but they are improving, and moving to another country doesn't equal happiness. A lot of people don't really seem to get that.

I have been feeling a little bit frustrated with the lack of progress that I see in a lot of different things here.... but so it goes. Patience is a virtue! Things will always work out. On the Lord's timing. He's in charge and He knows way better than I do what blessings He has in store for Romania and how it is that we are going to get there. I really do love this country with my whole heart. The people are wonderful. There is beauty all around.

At times throughout my mission, I've had moments where I am just overwhelmed by a feeling of love for Romania and its people. One day I was sitting on a bus in Brasov, just looking out at the city and the mountains in the distance, and I felt this overwhelming sense of... love. I thought, "I love Romania! I love these people!" I knew with complete assurance that my call to serve in this country came directly from God. It will have a much greater effect on my life than just these 18 months. And I realized that for a brief moment, God had allowed me to experience a tiny percentage of the love that He feels for these people.

I know that God loves the people of Romania. I know that God loves the people of every nation, no matter who we are, where we live, or what name we call Him by. He really loves us and will never abandon us.

... and a happy new year!

2011-01-03T09:27:00.004-05:00

Oh goodness, I am exhausted today. I keep yawning. Maybe it's because we did lunch first today and I haven't gotten my weekly P-day nap. (We finally found the Mexican restaurant in Galati--not bad, but no spicyness.) I don't think I've recovered yet from New Year's--I tried to stay awake until midnight, but just couldn't hold on any longer past 11:30, but then was awakened by an incredible amount of noise at midnight. You can't even imagine how many firecrackers and loud booming noises were setting off at midnight and continued for the next hour!! Plus, the first thing we heard at midnight was some drunk man outside our window yelling "La multi ani! La multi ani!" in a very creepy and slurred voice ... We had to stay inside from sundown, so Sora H and I borrowed Monopoly and a 500-piece puzzle from the church to pass the time.

The Vans went to Buc this weekend and brought me the Christmas package my family had sent. I got a new scarf from my brother and a new skirt, along with marshmallows, Reese's cups, and homemade fudge! Also some earmuffs and hand warmers, which are going to save my life because it's been in the teens all week and even lower at night.

This week was hard, as far as getting people to meet with us, but we had a lot of really good experiences anyway.

We saw a miracle yesterday. I think last week I mentioned the older lady Rodica (super classy, widow, probably in her 60s) we've had a few lessons with. She is the Vans' downstairs neighbor. Our lessons have been good, but nothing really spectacular. Well, she unexpectedly showed up to church. (Which, in and of itself is a miracle.) She stayed all three hours. During Relief Society, we have good news minute. (Or rather, good news 20 minutes.) It was her turn last, and she started by saying, "I'm a beginner, but I do have really good news." And then she paused. I wasn't sure what to expect. Then she began to cry. I immediately thought, "Oh no!"

But with tears running down her cheeks and great sincerity in her voice, she said, "I have been looking for peace in my soul. And I have found it." She thanked the sisters in the branch for allowing her to enter into their family, and said that she loved them all. "I want to be here every Sunday."

Wow.

The Spirit touches the soul. Rodica is experiencing the sweet peace that the gospel brings into the lives of those who will accept it. It's incredible how powerful the Spirit is even when we don't recognize its influence in others. It's working! The Spirit is always teaching and testifying. She is wonderful and has a wonderful family, and we are praying that they will continue to have the desire to learn about the gospel and to accept all of the blessings that their Heavenly Father has in store for them.

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that it has the power to fill our souls with peace. It is real! I have felt it many times throughout my life, and especially as I have been here in Romania and Moldova. I have so much to be grateful for this year. 2010 has truly been remarkable--especially because for most of the year I have had the privilege to serve the Lord and be one of His missionaries. How grateful I am!

Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! (Imagine Jimmy Stewart running around in fake snow, yelling)

2010-12-27T11:07:00.003-05:00

53F on Christmas Day! Amazing!

The missionaries and the Galati Branch presented a Nativity play. (I was the narrator.)

Merry Christmas! One thing that I've enjoyed about this Christmas season is that I can say "Happy Christmas!" to every Romanian that I meet, and I don't have to worry about offending anyone. Well, some people still give us the eye because they see the name tags and know we're pocait (non-Orthodox) missionaries, but so it goes. I guess some people will find any excuse to be offended...

The rest of my Christmas evening was nice. We went downstairs to the Van's neighbor Rodica and visited her. She's in her 60s or 70s and lives alone, and is just the classiest Romanian lady I've ever met. We've taught her a couple of lessons and she's come to church. Her son and grandson have been to church and English and activities--we're starting to work with the whole family. They would be awesome members and a huge support for the branch here!

We were also *finally* able to visit Lili yesterday--the branch president's wife's sister--who we've been teaching for a while now. It had been almost a month since we actually had a lesson with her. She wants to get baptized "sometime", but isn't ready yet. She's a sweetheart and she always tells us how much she loves us every time we go over. She will make a great member as well!

Last night we had a really neat experience. We went to visit an investigator in the hospital. Actually, it's her husband who's in the hospital because he has cancer. We taught a powerful lesson on Christ and then sang some Christmas songs for him and other patients. Then, his wife had us go around to all of the rooms in the ward and sing to the patients there.

(Btw, I was literally praying the entire time that I wouldn't have a panic attack & faint, cuz Romanian hospitals are pretty scary. And I was fine! I was definitely grateful.)

I can't imagine how those people must be feeling--so many of them looked like they were in an incredible amount of pain. Not only physically, but emotionally as well. Can you imagine being old and sick and alone in the hospital on Christmas?

It was an incredible privilege to be able to serve them, simply, by singing a song and reminding them of the love that their Savior has for them. The Spirit was powerful. I felt overwhelmed with peace and gratitude for the privilege to stand in the Savior's place and do just a small part of what He himself would have done if He were visiting those patients in the hospital.

The Spirit confirmed to us so powerfully that this is what Christmas is all about--loving and serving and celebrating the birth of our Savior by doing what He would do and being what He would be. Actually, that's what life is all about. How grateful I am for such a privilege!

I can't believe it will be Christmas this week

2010-12-20T13:01:00.003-05:00

This week has been a little crazy, but good.

Sora M and I tried to finish out the week strong, while also taking care of all those things that need to be taken care of before transfers. Then on Thursday we went to Buc (the Vans helped us with all her luggage, and Elder Van put me on strict orders: DON'T LIFT A THING! so I was careful with my back). When we arrived, I headed to the mission home for a quick trainer's meeting and then got to meet my new companion!

Her name is Sora H and she's from Pleasant Grove, UT. This is her first time out of the U.S., the West, and living at home. She is a sweetheart and just happily follows me along and does her best to communicate in Romanian. It's really different having a companion who can't express much! But she's already improving SO much even in the last 5 days and has contributed something to every lesson and visit we've made so far. I'm very grateful for her positive attitude. It must have been her boboaca faith that got 4 investigators to church on Sunday! She really is adorable and after every lesson says, "That was the coolest thing I've ever done!" Love it. :)

Sora H even took it in stride when Sora M called to tell me that her "rash" that she'd had for a couple of weeks had been diagnosed as flea and bed bug bites..... so we had to attack the bed, sheets, blankets, everything! with permetherin. Fortunately I haven't had any, and Sora H hasn't noticed any, so it must just have been Sora M's bed... so despite Sora Lundberg assuring me that all the bugs will be dead on contact with the permetherin and a very thorough vacuuming, I've been sleeping on the couch. Ick. Ick. Ick. Ick.

Good news: WE'RE GOING TO CHISINAU!!!!!!!!!! I kind of freaked out when I found out. :) :) :) We'll be there for Wed & Thurs doing a combined zone/Christmas party! I'm super super super super stoked. But also bummed cuz Tonia moved to Italy to be with her mom, but there are still lots of other cool people there I hope I get to see again!

Well, that's mostly it for "news." How wonderful it is to be celebrating Christmas this week! What a wonderful time of the year to just think about the Savior and the wonderful news of His birth. This Christmas season has been like no other--no presents to worry about, no busyness of the holiday season. I just get to share with people every single day all day long about the Savior and His message to the world. What better way is there to spend Christmas than that?

I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve Him as one of His servants here in Romania. I know that Jesus was born as a babe in Bethlehem. From that humble beginning, He lived a perfect life, showing us the example that we need to live by. He suffered and died to save all mankind, and then rose again. He lives! He lives! I know that He is my personal Savior and Redeemer. He knows each one of us individually. I have personally felt the power of His love and atoning sacrifice. It is the power to heal us and to bring peace to our souls. That is the wonderful news that we are celebrating at this time of year!

The work of salvation is awesome

2010-12-13T09:47:00.002-05:00

Once again, transfer news is in. Ahhhh--my mission is FLYING. It's crazy. But actually this transfer was a short one because the Church no longer flies missionaries the week of Christmas. Anyway, I'm staying in Galati! I already knew that because I just knew that God still has things He expects me to accomplish here. However, the rest of the district is leaving--the elders are being whitewashed and Sora M is going to my beloved Brasov. My new companion is coming straight from the MTC!

It seems like I stepped off the plane into Romania just yesterday (and then was promptly whisked to the beautiful country Moldova ...) but anyway, that's just crazy. I'm already stressed as it is ... and now I've got a boboaca (Romanian for “little duckling”--it's what we say instead of “greenie”) to take care of!! But I'll do whatever President Lundberg & the Lord need me to do. I'm excited to train, and pray that my new companion will forgive me of all my weaknesses.

What else happened this week? We taught a million lessons and met some really cool people. God was really granting us miracles this week. People in the blocks were nice to us! People came to church. Both of those things are huge, huge miracles! There was this one “magic” floor in a scara we knocked on Saturday. Three out of four doors let us in for a lesson. Three out of four!! That is *incredible*. I know that the hand of God literally must have reached out and softened the hearts of every one of those people.

Most of our investigators are doing well, but no one is committing to baptism yet. But there's still lots of time left to have a very white Christmas in Galati! :)

I know lately I've talked a lot about baptisms, but I also know that there is a lot of good to be done other than baptizing people. Trust me, if I thought it all depended on the number of baptisms we get, I would've been on a plane back to America six months ago. And yet, a baptism is truly a joyful event. Think: someone is literally making a covenant with God to devote their life to Him, to keep His commandments, and to take upon themselves the name of Christ. That is a BIG deal. They are becoming a part of Christ's restored church on the Earth. And the blessings that come in return just pour out over those who have the faith and courage to take that step.

But sometimes we don't see the fruits of our labors. And we may never see them in this life. But God has a plan! And that plan will be fulfilled. Everyone will have their chance for salvation. And even if me smiling at some random old lady on the street brings that person one step closer to exaltation, I've helped God accomplish His work, and that makes me happy. Every soul that we have the opportunity to touch is precious. That applies in missionary work as well as in ... the work of life. The work of the kingdom in general. Don't discount *any* effort to do good because you may never know the impact that it has. But what you will know is the impact that it had on *you*.

Being a full-time missionary has already had a tremendous impact on who I am, and there's still a lot more left to enjoy! Thanks to a loving Heavenly Father who granted me this privilege.

How great is my joy

2010-12-06T12:34:00.003-05:00

Good day from Galati! It's been a really wonderful week. Maybe it's because it's the beginning of December and that means Christmas!! There are lights up all over the city, snow on the ground, and love in the air. OK, that last part was a little cheesy but I couldn't think of a 3rd thing to go in my list. :-p I love this time of the year when we get to think about the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. This morning Sora M and I read "The Living Christ" and began working on memorizing it. We were invited to do so by our two senior sisters who came and visited this week to go on exchanges with us. That document, in which twelve modern apostles share their witness of Christ, is probably the most pure, the most true, the most humble testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ that has ever been written. It has power!!

The senior sisters, Sora H & Sora O, are both in their 11th transfer (going home soon), and have had the opportunity to go on exchanges with all the sisters in the mission this transfer. How grateful I was for them!! They are very old and wise and have such a contagious faith in the converting power of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of the work we do. I really felt inspired and uplifted by their examples. I've so missed having a senior companion. I can't tell you how many times I've thought over the last 5 months, I have no idea what I am doing!!! At times it's been overwhelming. But then I remember that the Lord is in charge, and I'm just the instrument in His hands, and if I seek His guidance, He won't ever let me down.

Galati saw SO MANY miracles this week. On Saturday we had an open house to celebrate the newly renovated villa where our church services are held. It's *gorgeous* and looks 500x better than the old drafty falling apart place it used to be. Tons of investigators and nonmembers came, and we found some really great people to teach. It was a huge success! We were SO grateful. Especially because it rained all day long and everyone who knows anything about Romanians knows that Romanians don't like to do *anything* if it's raining! (“Why didn't you come to church yesterday?” “It was raining.”)

Church was full of miracles too! A couple named Traian and Adriana that we're teaching came for the first time today. They are really cool. They've got some strong Pentecostal roots, but really liked slujba [church services]. The husband *really* wants to be baptized... in the river Jordan. So we're still working on helping them get a stronger testimony of the Restoration.

Plus other investigators and random less-active members that showed up. There were 13people in Relief Society!!!! And probably 30 people at Sacrament Meeting, including the Lundbergs who came for the weekend to support the open house. Compared to last week's measly 10, that was awesome!

Fernando's still not coming to church, so he will probably not be getting baptized unless we can get his family involved. :( He's such a good kid though, I know the Lord has got plans for him in his future.

Arabela's doing well, but still not willing to talk to her parents. She's taking baby steps in the right direction. I just love her though. Love + faith can work miracles.

Last week I received a letter from Olea, a sweet 19-year-old girl I was teaching in Chisinau. She was coming to church every week and just loved the gospel and wanted to be baptized, but wanted to wait until she was more sure. I was so sure she was going to get baptized with Sora V after I left, but then I didn't hear anything about her and was told she fell off the face of the Earth. Boo. :(

Well, apparently she resurfaced at sacrament meeting one week and started working with the missionaries again. Anyway, so she wrote and it was the most humbling, sweetest letter I've probably ever received. She bore her testimony to me and said that she had received her answer from heaven that this is Christ's church, that it was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith, and that the Book of Mormon is true. She's scheduled to get baptized next week, and I'm praying for her like crazy that she will finally follow through.

I remember when President Jensen set me apart to be a missionary he blessed me that I would find joy on my mission. Some days when it's hard, I wonder, where is my joy?? And then I hear the pure, humble testimonies of the people in Romania who have accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives, and then I know and feel--this is my joy! The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news in our lives. It is the joy and the peace that every single one of us is seeking and desperately need. How great is our joy to know it, to live it and to share it!

A little bit of adventure keeps life exciting

2010-11-30T09:04:00.002-05:00

It's been a pretty eventful week, except that Thanksgiving wasn't anything special. We basically just did our thing all day and ate ham and mashed potatoes for lunch... (couldn't find any turkey :( )

Monday night we tried to leave to go to Bacau for a zone training meeting, but Elder M bought the wrong train tickets, so we ended up missing our train. And the next one wasn't leaving until the next morning.

Well, we knew President L would kill us if we weren't in Bacau by 9:00 Tuesday morning, so we had to turn to other measures to get ourselves there ... which ended up turning into quite the adventure...

In short, let's just say that we almost got kidnapped by a "taxi driver" named Romeo (who also happened to be a former investigator with a baptismal date...) but were saved by the mercy of an old man who knew "Romeo's" scheme. In the end, we made it to Bacau alive. As for "Romeo," we're not sure what happened to him because the last time we saw him he abandoned "his" car at the side of the road and took off running and he may currently be in prison somewhere?

That was probably the highlight of my week! And a reminder that if the immediate impression I get when meeting someone is: he's a crook and don't get in his car, I should probably follow it. Later in the week we went to Bucuresti for a combined zone conference, but the travel there was standard. :) We spent 4 hours talking to this adorable lady that was sitting by us, but unfortunately she lives too far from Galati for us to be able to go visit or teach her.

In investigator highlights: Fernando is still doing well, but the little punk didn't come to church yesterday, and we're not sure why. Arabela is progressing, but still doesn't have the courage to talk to her parents.

Also, we finally got to meet with this awesome lady named Lili. Her sister is the branch president's wife. Lili's been in Italy for the last several months. We had a pretty good lesson with her last week, but her neighbor was there and would noooottt stooopppp talkkkkiinnngggg for an hour and a half. So obnoxious! Of course I am all for listening skills and believe that investigators should talk way more during lessons than the missionaries, but it's impossible for the Spirit to be present when someone talks non-stop for an hour and a half about who knows what.

But Lili came to church yesterday and we were able to meet this morning (sans obnoxious neighbor). She's decided that she wants to be part of the church, but right now it's more just because she likes how she feels at church and because her sister wants her too. So she says she's waiting until April and until she gets a "sign," so we're working on that with her... and helping her actually get a testimony of the Restoration and Book of Mormon. Today we taught her about having a living prophet in our day. She was really excited about that and really has a sincere desire to find out for herself if these things are true. I love to share with people my experience of being able to be in the Conference Center in Salt Lake City when President Monson was sustained as the prophet for the first time, and how I received an overwhelming confirmation through the Spirit that he is indeed God's living prophet. What a wonderful, wonderful man he is!

Overall, it was a good week with a little adventure ... but that is what keeps life exciting! :)

The news from Galati on the Danube

2010-11-22T09:29:00.003-05:00

This is kind of a lame pic of the Danube--I just ran out there quick this morning and snapped it so I could send it off today. Galati itself is... not very pretty... but ce sa fac? (That's something Romanians say allllll the time. Basically means, "but what can I do about it?")

It's been a much better week. For one, my back has made lots of progress. The senior missionary couple, Elder and Sister Van W, are angels. They got their son, who's a physical therapist, on the webcam to show them some exercises I could do. Plus they drove all over town to find me a hot water bottle, which I could heat up and put on my back. (Anna and I discovered the awesomeness of those in Ireland!!) That helped A LOT. So I'm only slightly crooked now. I discovered that the Van Ws are related to some people in my Cincinnati ward. It's always a small world in the LDS community! They are a really awesome couple and doing so much good for the people here in Galati.

I finally feel like I've got my bearings around the city and know who's who in the branch. That didn't take long because the Galati branch is very small! There are about 8 active members plus a handful of less actives that show up on occasion. They are small in number, but their faith is strong.

We've got some cool investigators we're working with. One is a 21-year-old girl named Arabela who has been investigating the church off and on for two years. She has an amazing testimony of Christ, but has faced a lot of opposition from her family. She planned on being baptized two years ago, but when she told her parents they burned her Book of Mormon and threatened her life. She started meeting with the missionaries again several months ago and plans to be baptized next summer once she graduates from college and is able to move out. But currently she is working up the courage to talk to her parents again. We're praying for a miracle. She's so awesome!

Also, there is this 13-year-old kid named Fernando. He's the nephew of some (less active...) recent converts and really a GOOD kid. The first time I met him I was impressed with the feeling that he has great potential to be a future missionary. He's got a good head on his shoulders, a good heart, and a desire to do what is right to follow Christ. We met with him last night and he asked us if he could be baptized! Getting members to support him is going to be key in making sure that his conversion is lasting. He likes coming to church, but it's a little harder when he doesn't have any adult support.

Oh yea, and remember Amelia, the lady in Brasov that we villa-knocked into with the cute 11-year-old daughter? She had really studied the gospel pliant we left and everything?? She is set to be baptized on Dec 3rd! I may not be in Brasov anymore, but I'm still praying hard for her. :)

If I were in America this week, I'd be celebrating Thanksgiving with my family. Living in Romania has really opened my eyes to how much the Lord has blessed me materially, spiritually, and emotionally throughout my life. And further instilled in me the recognition that I MUST give back.

I am thankful for an education. I am thankful for the ability to read and write. I am thankful that my family has always lived in a house with more than one room, with clean water and proper medical care. I am thankful to have grown up in a large ward that supports me and functions properly. I am thankful that I've had the opportunity to make temple covenants. And most of all, I am thankful for a knowledge of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! It means everything to me.

A few reasons to be grateful

2010-11-15T16:00:00.003-05:00

Here I am at the gara in Brasov with Sora O. She's a sweetheart, but she's leaving the mission at the end of this transfer, which means I'll never get to serve with her :(

So I was lying in bed the other night composing my weekly e-mail to my family. The opening line: This has been the week from hell.

It didn't begin too badly. I got everything tied up in Brasov before I left and felt good about leaving the area.

Wednesday Sora M and I arrived in Galati and find out that the sisters there were in the middle of moving, which means that we still have the old apartment, which hasn't been cleaned yet, plus a new apartment which is a complete disaster because stuff is everywhere. I wasn't so happy about that, but so it goes. I figured I'd go to bed, get up in the morning and spend the next day putting everything into order.

Then Thursday morning I woke up and couldn't move. My back had been hurting a bit on Wednesday, but I didn't think anything of it. Well, whatever I did, it was terrible and I couldn't even get up! I spent most of the day in bed, but we had lessons set up that we had to go to that night. Let me tell you ... having to walk the 45 minutes to those lessons was the most painful experience I have ever had in my entire life.

It's doing a bit better today, but I'm still not able to walk properly (I'm all crippled and look like an 80-year-old baba!) and in a lot of pain. Sora Lundberg told me I have to spend a lot of time lying down, which is really really really frustrating when all I want to do is get out of bed, put stuff in order, and get to work finding people who are ready for the gospel.

Anyway, as I said, I was lying in bed composing this e-mail full of all kinds of random complaints, and then a line from my patriarchal blessing came into my mind: "Always be grateful for the circumstances in which you live and show that gratitude to those around you."

Bam, that was a wake-up call from the Spirit! So then I decided maybe I had better list all of the things I am grateful for:

1. That the sisters did move because the old apartment is nasty! Even though I do have to spend time cleaning it...

2. There is a senior missionary couple in Galati and they are stellar. They're super excited about all kinds of stuff and bring a great energy to missionary work here. Elder V is a talker!

3. We've got some cool investigators we're working with who have great potential to progress, including this 13-year-old cousin of a recent convert named Fernando who I swear is going on a mission some day! He's such a good kid.

4. The Danube runs next to the city of Galati, and it's really beautiful! I love water. Sorry, no pics of it this week but I'll try for next week.

5. Sora M is a sweetheart.

6. Even though we haven't been able to do a lot of finding/block knocking activities because I'm crippled, the other night we were walking from one lesson to the next and I saw this older lady with two 20ish daughters walk into a villa and I knew we had to go talk to them. We knocked, and they let us right in. Miracle!! That was literally the first door I had knocked on in Galati. They liked what we taught, are excited to read the Book of Mormon, and especially the mom said that she is ready to make changes in her life.

7. That although my back is painful, this is just a temporary circumstance and I will be able to enjoy full physical health again soon. I think the Lord wanted to remind me how utterly dependent on Him I am.

Well, there's lots of other stuff, but my time is up. I'm happy to be here in Galati and pray that my back decides soon that it's happy to be here too.

God has not ceased to be a God of miracles

2010-11-08T10:51:00.003-05:00

Transfer news is in! I'm leaving my beloved Brasov and heading to Galati with.... my MTC companion Sora M! I don't know anything about Galati except that it's in the southeastern part of Romania, near the Ukrainian border maybe? [Editor’s note, courtesy of Wikipedia: Galati (pronounced GAL-lots) is located near the Black Sea at the point where Romania, Moldova and Ukraine meet. With a population of nearly 300,000, it’s the largest seaport on the Danube and is home to Romania’s largest iron and steel plant as well as its largest shipyard.] I'm excited for a change and a new adventure, but I will miss Brasov. Here I am in front of the Brasov meetinghouse, one of only four LDS chapels in Romania.

It was a tough week in Brasov this week. Everything was going great--we even set a new baptismal date with our investigator Manuela!--until yesterday when all of our investigators, including both with baptismal dates for this Saturday, decided they didn't want to come to church.... and then we got bunged 4 times in a row. But asa e viata (that's life). Nevertheless, we're moving forward! And Sora P and her new companion will work miracles here before the end of the year.

I was very happy to open up my e-mail from President L this morning and find out that a lady named Anca that I contacted in Bucuresti a few months ago got baptized this weekend!! Remember how I was always complaining that we had to go to Bucuresti a million times? Well, apparently something good did come of it. :) When we were in Bucuresti for the sisters’ training in September I was on exchange with Sora G. The elders were teaching English, but we went afterwards to the spiritual thought to see if we could find anyone who would be interested in a lesson. I sat down in the back row next to this lady Anca, started talking to her, and invited her to have a lesson with us. And she said yes! Woo hoo. And then Sora G and Sora H taught her and she just got baptized! Isn't it incredibly humbling to be an instrument in the Lord's hands??

Remember how I told you after the death of the two elders in January, President and Sora L felt inspired that the Lord would help us to double the number of baptisms in Romania this year? We've had this goal of 200 baptisms in 2010. Our miracle! All year long we've been working toward and praying for this miracle. As of today there have been 113 baptisms in Romania this year.

President L said he'd been praying so hard for so many months to know why we weren't having more success with our miracle. Then during the last transfer, he learned that some elders were having some serious obedience issues, and realized that was the answer to his prayer. I won’t go into the details, but the whole mission was pretty devastated when we found out what had happened. Needless to say, President made some changes and asked all of us to recommit to obeying ALL the rules.

After that, a lot of missionaries were thinking, well, there goes our miracle. And even now, I mean, it's November 8 and we still have 87 baptisms to go in less than two months. That would be absolutely ridiculous to expect that we could still have 200 baptisms before the end of the year.... right?

Well, here's the deal. "And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles." Our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles. He can do ANYTHING. I know He works in miracles. I know God still works miracles in these days. I know He loves His children and that He works according to our faith.

Does it seem reasonable that 87 more people will be baptized in Romania by December 31? No. Does it seem reasonable that God created the Heavens and the Earth and everything that is in them and around them? No. Does it seem reasonable that Christ could atone for the sins and suffering of ALL mankind? No. Does it seem reasonable that God appeared to a 14-year-old boy named Joseph Smith in a grove of trees in 1820? No.

BUT that's the beauty of the gospel and faith! It doesn't have to be reasonable! It doesn't have to make sense to my weak, mortal mind! It's true!!

I know that those things are true because God has testified to my soul through the power of His Holy Spirit that those things did indeed happen. I know that God created the Earth. I know that Christ is the Savior of the World. I know that Joseph Smith was the prophet of the Restoration in these latter days. And I know that that same God will help us to find 87 more people who are ready and willing to accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives.

As a mission we have been praying earnestly to find out whether Heavenly Father still approves of our desire to have this miracle of 200 baptisms. Many of us have felt the sweet, comforting influence that our God is with us. He is aware of our desires. And He will confirm our faith according to His will. I know he loves all of his children!

Lots of rambling about random investigators

2010-11-01T10:49:00.005-04:00

Today is Nov 1! Where have the months gone?

Cool miracle story: On Wednesday afternoon Sora P and I went contacting in a park. It was pretty cold and there weren't many people. Then as we were walking out of the park I got the distinct impression to go and look for a woman named Mirela we met over two months ago. We'd had two really great lessons with her, but then she'd disappeared and we hadn't been able to contact her since.

I told Sora P, "Hey, let's stop by Mirela's and see if maybe we can find her again." So we started walking in the other direction toward her apartment. After a minute, we walked past a woman in a coat walking a dog, but talking on her cell phone. We kept walking, but I got that woosh from the Spirit--you know, those rare promptings that are so direct and strong there's no way you can go against it--a feeling that was very distinctly, "That lady was Mirela!" So we turned around and walked back to her and sure enough it was her. She'd been gone in Buc for a month, but was back and she said of course we could come visit her next week and she was very happy to see us and she'd changed her phone number, so here's my new one.

Yesterday was a miracle day at church. We had four investigators at Sacrament Meeting! I think that's the most I've ever had in Brasov. First we went and picked up Rozica, an older lady we've been teaching for about a month and a half. She really loves us and learning about the gospel. But she's not quite sure about giving up all of her Orthodox traditions yet. This week when we came she was like, "I was thinking about baptism. If Jesus was baptized when he was older, why do we at the Orthodox baptize babies? That doesn't make sense." So we taught her about baptism--how it's a covenant that we make with God, and we need to make that covenant when we're old enough to understand the difference between right and wrong. (Mormons offer baptism only to those who are at least eight years old.) We invited Rozica to prepare to be baptized, and she said yes! We set a date for Nov 13, which will really be a miracle if she can make that date. We're praying a lot that she'll be prepared and gain that strong testimony of the Restoration soon.

Manuela, a woman we met on the street a month ago, also came to church. We had told her that the General Conference broadcast was starting in an hour and invited her to come and hear a living prophet. And she came! However, she seems to think that she was baptized by one of our missionaries several years ago, but her records aren't here and none of the members remember her getting baptized ... so I think we've determined that she was baptized at another church. But nevertheless, she is excited to learn about the restored gospel.

Then there was Adrian. We found him in a villa last week. We were villa knocking in the rain and it was freezing cold and no one would let us in. We did all one side of the street and decided to head back toward the area where we were having a lesson later. Then Sora P said, "Let's try a random one!" So she rang at #23 and Adrian came to the door and let us right in. He's a very sweet 82-year-old man! But he's smart, and he loves to read. He really loved the Book of Mormon and the Joseph Smith story. And then he came to church dressed in a 3 piece suit!

And then Daniela, the non-LDS wife of a member who is gone working somewhere else in Romania showed up. We've been teaching her sporadically, but she came to church all on her own! Usually if she comes it's only when her husband is in town. We're trying to help her start progressing, but she's got a lot on her shoulders trying to take care of 3 crazy kids on her own. (Trust me, they are crazy... which also makes teaching lessons with the Spirit very difficult.)

Elena is a recent convert--seriously the light of my life in Brasov!
She's 77 years old and was baptized the week before I arrived in Brasov. My parents would seriously love her. Every week I'd leave thinking, Mom and Dad have to meet this lady! She used to be an elementary school music teacher and just loves learning. She just soaks up everything we teach her about. Plus she has really cool stories and is just the sweetest lady ever. One week I mentioned that I love mashed potatoes with garlic, and the next week we show up and she'd made mashed potatoes with garlic for us. Love her!!

Anyway, I'm rambling again about boring stuff... sorry. This is our last full week of the transfer. How is that possible?!?! I am thinking I may stay for a fourth transfer in Brasov. But we'll see. I wouldn't mind cuz I've really come to love the branch here, but it's also going to be -20 in the winter...

Fall in Brasov is beautiful. Unfortunately I didn't get any good pictures of the mountains before all the leaves fell, but I did snap this one.

Sweet is the peace the gospel brings

2010-10-25T09:20:00.005-04:00

It's been a very successful week here in Brasov. It's amazing what can happen when we don't have to spend half our week traveling to Buc or taking care of treaba. Treaba (tray-ah-buh) is the Romanian word for "stuff" or "errands." It's what people tell us when they're not actually interested in talking to us. Like, we call them and they say, "Sorry. I can't meet this week. I have.... treaba. Call me next week." Everyone, no matter how busy they actually are, thinks that they are really busy with tons of treaba.

Anyway, we taught 20 lessons this week! Woo hoo! And they were 20 legit lessons, sitting down in people's houses, teaching relevant gospel principles, extending meaningful commitments, and praying together. Pretty much... except for the one which ended in the lady praying to her eqonai (I honestly have no idea how to spell that... icons). But not everyone gets it the first time...

Today (since it's Preparation Day) Sora P and I took Sora Corina with us to the Brasov zoo. On our way out we ran into Denisa, the 11-year-old girl we're teaching along with her mom. They live in a villa right next to the zoo and she was on her way home from school.

There were a couple highlights of the week. Saturday we had a lesson with a lady named Sanda who Sora H & I had contacted in front of the church back in July. She showed up at church a few weeks later, but she lives over an hour away, so we were never able to set up an appointment with her 'til now. It was a simple first lesson, teaching Joseph Smith’s story and the Restoration of the gospel. She was really getting it, and said that she's always believed that we ourselves can strive to become holy--that it's not just the Saints who are holy, but we need to do the best that we can, too. I told her, "Yes! That's exactly it! God wants us to progress, to become holy, to be like Him. That is His work and our purpose."

At the end of the lesson we invited her to pray to know if the things we had taught were true, but she said she didn't have the courage. So we gently encouraged her, reviewed the steps of prayer, and invited her again. She was literally pacing back and forth around the room--this little teeny tiny 50-year-old woman--pondering the idea that she could actually communicate with her God and He would answer. She was SO nervous. "But will he really listen to me and my little prayer?" We assured her, "Yes, He will!"

After several minutes, she calmed down and offered one of the sweetest, most humble and pure prayers I have ever heard. What a privilege to be able to hear the first sincere prayer that that daughter of God offered using her own words.

Immediately after she closed her humble prayer, the room was filled with a warmth and peace. I looked up and she was crying. She said she felt really good and we explained that she was feeling the influence of the Holy Spirit, and it was God's way of communicating back to her.

That was an amazing, amazing moment. Sweet is the peace the Gospel brings.

Other highlights: Amelia (the mom from the fam I told about last week) came to church! She was super nervous too, but she stayed all 3 hours! Also, a less active member we've been working with for months but who hasn't come to church in probably 6 years came on Sunday. We were absolutely shocked and thrilled. There she was walking through the doors Sunday morning--we hadn't even specifically invited her to come or anything. But she came.

God works miracles. I know He does. That is my testimony this week.

teaching and traveling

2010-10-18T09:54:00.002-04:00

Honestly, it wasn't a very exciting week. We had to go to Buc Monday night because Sora P was invited to Mission Council. (Once a month the zone leaders meet with Pres Lundberg. They rotate 2 sisters to meet with them every month.) I was on an exchange with a sister serving in Buc, while her companion also went to Mission Council. Then we came back to Brasov. Wednesday... spent the morning English contacting at various universities in Brasov. Had a great lesson that afternoon with a cute family we're teaching.

I'm losing track of what I've already written about and what I haven't. About two weeks back we were villa knocking in an area that's still in Brasov, but kind of... out on its own a little. It's got more of a country feel. We got to the gate of this villa and rang the doorbell. An adorable 11-year-old girl (Denisa) came out right away and let us right in without any questions. Then she went to get her mom (Amelia) and grandma (Elena), and they sat down ready to listen! That never happens. We had to keep it real short cuz we had to go back into the city to teach English class, but we set up an appointment to come back.

The second time we came back, Amelia prepared a whole meal for us and she brought out the Gospel pliant [leaflet] we had left--and she'd studied it! I mean, she wrote things in the margins and looked up the scriptures in the Bible. It was incredible. She really wants to learn! She tried coming to church, but accidentally went to the Baptist church next door. Ahhh! So frustrating.

So this past week we brought Sora R (mother of Catalina) with us and she & Amelia got along great. It's really hard to teach a lesson with Sora R there.... but it's more important for Amelia to start establishing friendships with branch members. Denisa is really, really smart and just a super on-top-of-it responsible girl. We've got high hopes for them!

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I love teaching it to people who are ready to listen.

Friday was a miracle day. District meeting & lunch took up the morning, then we had 3 lessons established for the evening and another lady we planned to go find in the afternoon. Every single one of our lessons actually went through! And we found the lady--and her husband--and they're both investigators now. Every single one of the key indicator goals we had planned the night before actually happened. It was amazing!! I think that is only the second time in my entire mission that the day's numbers exactly matched our goals haha.

Saturday we had to go Buc again (twice in one week!! ridiculous) cuz it was district conference (like stake conference). The meeting Sunday morning was good. It was neat to be in the large chapel in Buc and to be surrounded by Romanian Saints. Sometimes I forget that there really are a good number of active Latter-day Saints here. They are here! And their testimonies and desire to do good are real. As much as I was grateful for the spiritual upliftment, I'm praying earnestly that we don't have to go to Buc again for the rest of the transfer. It wastes so much time and wears us out.

Joyful news

2010-10-11T10:11:00.003-04:00

Catalina got baptized! Catalina got baptized! Catalina got baptized! If I had a dollar for every time in the last 2 days that I've turned to Sora P and said, "Catalina got baptized!"... I'd have a lot of dollars. It was raining/snowing all day and really really cold and we were running around everywhere making sure the font was filling up, trying to find a place that was open to buy flowers, buying prajitura [cake], practicing the musical number, etc. etc.

I almost had a heart attack when we got to the church and Marius (awesome 20-year-old guy from the branch who is the Branch Mission Leader/2nd Counselor) said he didn't know there were 2 plugs for the font and he only stopped one of them, so the font hardly had any water in it. I looked in and there were 3 inches of water and he said, "It took four hours." Four hours for 3 inches of water, are you kidding me?? I was like, freak! she's not getting baptized 'til tomorrow after church at that rate! But turns out what he meant to say was "It takes four hours" to fill the whole font, and we still had 3+ hours so we were fine.

In the end, everything settled down.

Catalina showed up. That was the most important part. :) The whole family was there, including her dad who isn't a member! He didn't even come to her mom and brother's baptism a year ago, so we were really thrilled that he came. The service went smoothly. Catalina was absolutely shaking when she got into the water because she was so nervous. But she did it!! The moment when someone is baptized is always so powerful. I looked over at her mom and she was crying.

Catalina just looked really at peace with her decision. She bore a really sweet and simple testimony afterwards about the things that she knows to be true. I was so proud of her! Sora P, the Young Women in the branch, and I sang the “rainbow” baptism song, accompanied by one of the young women on the guitar. It was really fun to sing the song in Romanian and it brought back memories of my own baptism.

Catalina was the 100th person to be baptized in Romania this year! Can we have 100 more in the next 3 months? With faith and obedience, I believe we can. I realized that what I can do to help the Buc Mission think of 2010 as the year of miracles instead of the year of tragedies is just try to be as obedient and work as hard as I possibly can. So that's what I'm going to do.

jumping in with two feet

2010-10-04T10:20:00.002-04:00

Where to begin with this week? It's been a week of surprises, starting with transfer news last week. We were glad we didn't have to waste time going to Buc for transfers on Wednesday, but as it turned out, we did have to go on Thursday for a doctor's appointment (Sora P's, not mine). She's doing fine and was able to get a prescription for the medication she needs.

I can hardly remember the rest of the week because then Saturday happened. We went to English, business as usual. On Saturday afternoons they have seminary/institute at the church for the youth.

Catalina came up to me and asked, "Sora H, will you say the opening prayer at my baptism on Saturday?"

I was like, "...........whhhhatttt??!?!"

"Yea, I decided. I'm getting baptized on Saturday."

"Are you serious?"

"Yea."

"Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!"

I could not even believe it. Remember last week I said she was making baby steps toward the water? I guess now she's just taken a running start and will actually be jumping in on Saturday at 3:00.

She finally made the decision on her own time, in her own way. (Remind you of anyone you know? :P Maybe that's why I love the girl so much.) We're still praying like crazy that she continues to have the courage to be baptized and that everything goes through. We had a lesson and reviewed the interview questions, and she is SO ready. She knows it's true. She's already living the gospel. And now she's ready to make sacred covenants with her Father in Heaven.

Catalina's 14. I think there's something really special about the age of 14. Joseph Smith was prepared at the age of 14 to learn what God intended him to do. My Ukrainian companion Sora V was the 4th member of her family to join the Church. She waited until she was 14 and realized that she had a testimony of the doctrine and truthfulness of the Church of Jesus Christ.

Sora V’s older brother had gone to the States to study. He lived with an LDS family and went to church with them every week. When he returned to the Ukraine he was baptized. Soon after, her other brother followed, followed a year later by her mother. In the meantime, Sora V started going to a Catholic church and was actually baptized there. But after 2 years, she realized that although she loved the people at the Catholic church, she knew that she didn't agree with their doctrine. Her feelings were confirmed by a dream. So she called the LDS missionaries and told them she was ready to take the lessons and be baptized.

Obviously we're excited that we're having a baptism, but most of all I'm thrilled for Catalina. Yesterday in between sessions of the General Conference broadcast, we went through the baptismal clothes and found the right size for her. She tried it on and then went all around the church with the biggest smile on her face showing everyone. It was so sweet to see how excited she is for the decision that she's made to follow Jesus Christ.

I love this gospel. I really, really do. I love it with all my heart. I was so grateful for the opportunity to listen to the words of our prophets and apostles this weekend. They truly are the Lord Jesus Christ's servants on the Earth and lead and guide His restored Church.

Transfer news is in. Drum roll, please ...

2010-09-27T10:14:00.003-04:00

Sora P & I are staying in Brasov together! As much as I was hoping for a change of scenery, I had a pretty good feeling that I was staying in Brasov. I felt like there were still things in this city that the Lord expected me to accomplish that I hadn't accomplished yet. But I was surprised to find out we'd be staying together! President L likes to make lots of transfer changes.

Anyway... so we are staying another 6 weeks! In Brasov, "where they won't even take free lemonade." (That was the tag line Sora H and I made up for our transfer here together... on the blazing hot day when we stood in front of the church trying to hand out free lemonade and no one would take it!!!)

Well, if I'm not having an area change or a companion change, I guess that means it's time for an attitude change! I know President L is inspired by the Lord and that He has good things in store for us here. I also know that Heavenly Father loves us, and we love Him.

I can't remember if I’ve mentioned Catalina, our 14-year-old investigator who comes to church every week, but refuses to get baptized. I know I've written about her in some personal letters. Her mom and brother were baptized just a little under a year ago, but she chose not to be at the time. She knows the Church is true. But she really wants baptism to be her own decision, and has no other reason to wait besides that she doesn't feel old enough. Anyway... we just try to be patient and have lots of love and not be frustrated. But come on, girl! You're denying yourself blessings!

Anyway... a little ray of sunshine in the cloud came yesterday. We had a short lesson with her after church and I asked her where she is with baptism, and she said, “Well earlier this week I was sitting on the bus and the thought came to me, I should call Sora H and tell her I want to get baptized on Saturday." But she didn't and she still "isn't ready" but we're praying like crazy that she listens to the Spirit and finds the courage. And she is taking baby steps towards the water! Plus, she promised next time that happens she'd call me...

I really love Catalina. She's a sweet girl, and we get along like two peas in a pod. And as frustrating as it is for us as missionaries to not see her progressing, I know that she will be baptized in the future. It's going to come on her terms, and I'm fine with that. She doesn't need to get baptized for me or for her mom or for anyone in the branch ... she needs to do it for God, Christ, and herself. And she will. And she'll be that much stronger when she does make the decision on her own for the right reasons.

This past week we were in Buc for zone conference. President L took us all to Castle Peles! It’s an elaborate royal estate built in the 1870s, around the time Romania gained independence. It was fun to be with all the missionaries and grow closer together as a mission.

This week Sora P and I also had some... health challenges? A member fed us grapes and the next morning we both woke up with the runs so bad all day that we had to go to the store to buy more toilet paper ha ha ha!

This is the song that never ends. It just goes on and on, my friends . . .

2010-09-21T14:25:00.001-04:00

I feel like I write about the same stuff every week, but with different names. We're teaching a lot of lessons, but struggling to find solid investigators. So it goes. I'm a control freak and I like things to be my way... but I'm learning a lot about just ... letting go. My trainer (wonderful, wonderful Sora L!) told me that she had learned in her mission to just trust that things will work out. And they will work out if it's the Lord's will. He'll make sure it happens. And I remember telling her, but you've got to have faith! You've got to make it happen!

Well, I definitely understand a lot better now. Things will work out—in the Lord's way and in His timing. If it's meant to be... it will happen. So I'm learning to step back from wanting to be in control of everything and just letting God work His miracles and do my best to not mess up His plan. :)

Thursday night we were out trying to find people to teach, but weren't having any success. Sora P said, do we have anyone to call? Let's go home and try to set up appointments with some potentials. So we went home and made calls 'til we didn't have anyone else to call. We started nightly planning, but then I realized we still had 20 minutes of work to do before 9:00. I asked Sora P what she wanted to do, she said, let's go out and contact. I'm like... where are we going to go? It's dark. No one's on the streets. All of our neighbors already know who we are. You're already changed out of your skirt. She's like, give me 30 seconds. I think there's someone we need to find. Let's go to that little playground around the corner.

Well, by the time we leave the house it's 8:50 and I'm like, this is kinda stupid but whatever, at least I'll feel like I've given it my all today. We see 2 women on the street. We talk to them, they tell us to go away.

We're still heading toward the park and it's literally 8:55 and I tell Sora P, we have 2 1/2 minutes to keep walking and find someone, but then we need to turn around and go home so we're in by 9:00. So we're like okay. It's gonna take a miracle. After an entire day of contacting and getting destroyed... do we really have faith that God is going to lead us to someone in the next 2 1/2 minutes who is going to listen to the beautiful message of His gospel? Yes.

Then we approach the little playground Sora P had felt impressed to go to. It's empty except for a 20-somethings couple sitting at a table. We start talking to them and come to find out the boy was bored one summer a couple years back, went to a bookstore, bought a Bible and read it. Then he came to find out for himself that he doesn't agree with Orthodoxy anymore and is looking for something different. Are you serious??!?! That is music to everyone's ears around here. His name's Andrei. He's way, way cool and we're meeting with him again tomorrow. He's getting baptized and going on a mission!

As always, the Lord pulled through for us in the end. I know this is a great and marvelous work that we're all engaged in. The Lord is at the helm. He wants us to succeed.

nevertheless we will go forth

2010-09-13T14:43:00.003-04:00

Well, what to say about this week? It's definitely been ... interesting.

All of the sisters in the entire mission spent Monday-Thursday in Bucuresti. We had a conference together, learning the new lessons on how to be better teachers. We did a lot of role play practicing, which was extremely helpful. I really enjoyed the conference, and it was fun to be with all of the sisters together for those days!

Sora P & I stayed in Bucuresti with Sora G, who is from Moldova, and her mini-missionary companion Sora P, who is from Romania. It was fun 'cuz we had to speak only Romanian even in the apartment together and we went on exchanges each evening. It's always great to be with a different companion and learn things from their unique style of missionary work.

Sora P with the other Sora P, Sora G and me

We came back Thursday night and the rest of the week was ... tough. Everyone told me that missionary work is a roller coaster ride, and they sure are right.

Pretty much Andreea fell off the face of the Earth, and we have no idea what happened. Obviously we're pretty devastated that she won't be baptized on Saturday, but mostly I'm worried about her and hope everything's okay. I talked to her briefly on Thursday night but it was really hard to hear since we were in the maxi taxi on the way back to Brasov--but we set up for the next day.

When we got to her house, no one was home. No one answered the phone for a couple of days and finally on Sunday evening her sister picked up and said Andreea had left for Bucuresti for several weeks. She doesn't have a mobile, so we don't have any way to get into contact with her.

Gahh!!! It's frustrating, but I do trust that it's all in the Lord's hands. If it's right, she'll be baptized sometime when she gets back.

If not, it's better she disappears now before her baptism than a few weeks after. Romania already has enough weefy members.

Nevertheless we will go forth! We know that our God is with us, and He will not forsake us.

We had a cool miracle experience at church on Sunday. A guy named Traian that Sora H and I met on the street last transfer came to church. He lives la tara [outside town] so we haven't been able to go visit him yet, but he came to church! It just so happened that President D, the District President for all of Romania, was visiting and he came into a wonderful, wonderful lesson with Traian.

He had had some serious concerns about prophets & more scripture, but President D bore powerful testimony and was able to explain things in a way we just ... can't. It was wonderful! The Spirit was really strong. I hope he felt it--I know he did. After the opening prayer of our lesson, he was crying. He said he and his family are having some real challenges in their lives right now, but he knows that the Lord will never leave them.

He seemed really touched by what he learned in church and invited us to come out to his house and visit him & his family. I pray that he will read from the BOM and pray with a sincere heart & real intent. And that he'll recognize the answer he receives. When Traian gains a testimony of the Restoration, I know he's going to be a great leader in the church here in Brasov!

We went on a sweet hike for P-day today called Shapte Scari (7 ladders). You hike for a while and then in order to get to a pretty canyon, there are 7 ladders that you have to go up. I was proud of myself that I didn't freak out! One of them was really scary, but I didn't get a picture cuz it was too tight to get the whole thing. Alas, it's preserved in my memory.

Here I am on Ladder 7

The canyon at the top

Trees along the way

The district

What a week!

2010-09-06T10:10:00.003-04:00

(Above: Me and Sora P in gray, rainy Brasov)

Wow, what a week! What a week! Definitely had a ton of ups and downs!

Thursday was my birthday. I opened the package my mom had sent … it was perfect! Two new shirts, a book of piano preludes, organic poptarts haha, Twizzlers (I still have a few left ...), and a funfetti cake!!! Mmmmm.... that was seriously so what I wanted. Did I mention that I gave up chocolate this transfer? Yea, except I decided my birthday was a free for all. But I didn't even go crazy, just had some chocolate frosting and a bar of dark choco and I was happy.

That day was district meeting, so we went out to a restaurant for district lunch and celebrated. They let us light the candles and sing and everything.

So Thursday was great. Had some great lessons that night.

And then Friday happened. Oh, Friday. We got bunged 4 times--including Andreea! We showed up at her house and the gate was locked and we were like what the heck?! So we tried calling, no answer. Obviously we were pretty bummed out and didn't know what to do. Did her family freak out? Did she read something crazy about Mormons on the internet? So then we went block knocking. 50 doors and not so much as one conversation 'til the very end! 50 door slams in a row is pretty tough. Especially after your investigator with a baptismal date bungs you and you have no idea what's going to happen with that.

Then that night we tried Andreea again and her mom picked up the phone and said she was busy and couldn't talk. Ahhh... what's that supposed to mean? Sometimes trying to figure out your investigators is as hard as trying to figure out the boy you're interested in.

Well, we tried calling Saturday morning, no response. Saturday afternoon, no response. Saturday night, no response. (Keep in mind, this is a fix line cuz she doesn’t have a mobile ... so 3 times might be a little stalkerish, but not as bad if it's a fix line, right?) We were SO sad. In order for her to be able to be baptized on the 18th, she had to come to church on Sunday. She still hadn't come to church (was in Greece, slept in, temple dedication, etc.) and we hadn't had the chance yet to tell her that she absolutely had to come on Sunday.

All kinds of other terrible things happened on Saturday and I can honestly say it was probably one of the worst days of my mission. We had talked about the story of Job with an investigator on Friday, and I really felt like him... we'd just had this awesome awesome week, found tons of amazing investigators, set a date with Andreea and everything was SO good. But then this past week all this bad stuff kept happening and I felt lost and abandoned. What else could I do?? Why was the Lord putting us through all these trials? I had finally found the light in this cold & rainy city, but now I felt a big cloud of darkness coming over us again.

But I knew that like Job, the Lord was trying to refine us. "But he knoweth the way that I take; when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold." Job always stayed faithful--and after his trials, the Bible tells us the Lord blessed him twofold.

I had nothing left to do but put my trust in the Lord, completely. I prayed my heart out--asking the Lord to grant us the blessings He had in store for us, and to help us understand what we needed to learn from these experiences. I told Him, I KNOW that you are a God of miracles. Please work a miracle in our lives and in the life of Andreea. Please make the impossible possible and lead Andreea to come to church tomorrow morning.

Sunday morning I woke up and felt a lot better about life after a solid night's rest. Got ready, we studied together, and headed to the chapel.

We waited outside the chapel, praying for a miracle until 9:56, but no one came. Well, I thought, it's going to take a miracle but I really have got to go play the prelude music. Playing the piano always helps to calm me down, and I really enjoy just being able to think about the music. After President H made his announcements, I turned around.

You are not gonna believe this--there was my sweet companion Sora P sitting in the back right next to Andreea! And on the other side of her was another one of our investigators!

As I played "Where Can I Turn for Peace?" I poured out my whole soul in gratitude to the Lord. He answered our prayers! He worked a miracle and Andreea came! And then He doubled those blessings and brought another one of our investigators to church. How grateful I was!

I know the Lord is in charge. And thank goodness cuz the world would certainly be a mess if it were up to me. I know that He is at the helm of this great and marvelous work. And He definitely wants Andreea to get baptized cuz there is nothing else to explain why she finally made it to the church after 2 months of not coming and even though we hadn't talked to her in almost a week!

God is a God of miracles. He loves us. How grateful I am to know that He watches over us and directs this latter-day work.

good things come in threes

2010-08-30T13:26:00.006-04:00

Wow, what a week!! My mom said she hoped it had been an amazing, joyful week for us here in Brasov, and it really has been!

First of all, we taught 20 lessons this week! Woo hoo! It was definitely my amazing companion's faith and diligence that got that miracle accomplished. By yesterday morning we had 17, and 2 set up for the day. We had a couple hours at night to go block knocking and knew we could find a lesson there.

Then our 2 lessons fell through.

We called an investigator and were able to visit her instead, but we still needed two more. So we headed to some blocks. After over an hour of knocking, we weren't having *any* success and had only given away one pliant [leaflet]! It was 8:15 and we were pretty bummed. We'd have to be on the bus at 8:30 to head back home. Well, last door of the scara [stairwell] ... the lady opens up and then sees us and starts shutting the door as soon as she sees we're missionaries. I was not gonna take that! So I said, "We came to bring you this book!!!" and stuck the CLM [Cartea Lui Mormon—Book of Mormon] in between the door and the door jamb as she's shutting the door. Miracles of miracles, somehow that softened her heart and she opened the door back up and was like "oh, who are you?" and we were able to have a good, short and powerful lesson with her about the BOM and she accepted a copy.

Sora P and I were rejoicing for that one last lesson.... but we knew we could find one more even though it was getting late. We started walking toward the bus stop and were talking to everyone we met on the way, praying that the Lord would lead us to someone who would listen. Everyone kept ignoring us/giving us the Romanian finger wag/telling us they already had their religion. Then we noticed two women sitting on a bench a little ways off. I turned to Sora P and said, "What are you thinking?" She said, "Two ladies on the bench." Perfect. So we headed over to them and asked if we could share our message with them. "Sure!"

They were both really nice, seemed interested and gave their addresses for us to come back. What a night! We were so happy. :)

Second thing to be joyful about this week: the Kiev temple dedication was yesterday! It was really great to have the temple experience again. There is such great peace and power that comes from the temple. Having the temple in Ukraine will be such a blessing to the Saints in this area of the world.

Third thing to be joyful about this week: (I saved the best for last)--Andreea committed to be baptized on September 18th!! I love the girl, and I'm so excited for her. I had kinda started to wonder if she was really progressing anywhere since progress with her has been quite slow... but I didn't want to give up on her. We felt lead by the Spirit to have a lesson on the power of the Atonement, and the 5 steps of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Svetlana (the member we brought with us) started talking about being born again and what baptism symbolizes. Andreea was talking about how she believes that Christ is our Savior and that she has a desire to repent and be forgiven of her past mistakes. We told her, Andreea, you can have that peace come into your life through the power of the Atonement. The first step to accepting Christ as your Savior is to be baptized in His name. The Spirit pushed me and I knew it was right and I invited her to be baptized and she said, "Da!" and then I asked her about September 18th and she said, "Da!"

The sweetest, most peaceful feeling came into the room right after she'd accepted the commitment. The Spirit really bore witness to all of us at that moment that Andreea was on the right path. She seemed really excited. :)

Biggest challenge now: get her to church and help her understand that baptism=membership in the church. We didn't have sacrament meeting yesterday b/c of the dedication, so she's gotta come the next 2 Sundays. I have faith that with the Lord's help, she'll be ready. I already see a different light in her countenance--the light of Christ.

Jesus Christ truly is the Savior of the world. He knows us and loves each one of us. He lives! I know He lives! His Atonement is infinite and eternal. He suffered for us--all our sins, all our pains, all our weaknesses--every little thing that we've ever experienced in our lives, He experienced. He understands. I know that it is only through Him and the power of His Atonement that we can be saved and return to live with our Father in Heaven. I know that His Atonement has the power to heal us and to change our lives. I've felt that in my own life. I've seen the changes it brings into the lives of others. Jesus Christ is the light of the world. How grateful I am for a knowledge that my Redeemer lives.

P-day photos: Sora P and me on top of Tampa, and a cute stream we hiked to.

(Extra points if you can spot the naked old Romanian man in the water--haha!)

If you ever thought about going to Romania and drinking the water: don't!

awesome companion + awesome members + awesome investigators = sweet week

2010-08-23T12:05:00.002-04:00

Sora P is the sweetest new companion ever. She's from Colorado and spent 4 years as a Marine (deployed in Japan, Kuwait, Iraq and Qatar). Crazy. She's so awesome!!! Seriously. She's helped me get back a lot of energy and motivation that I really needed. She's always smiling and wanting to work hard. From the time we met up at the Gara [train station] in Bucaresti on Wednesday, we've been having a blast together.

We had a great lesson Thursday night with a family (!!) in a villa Sora H & I knocked into earlier in the week. We gave them a Book of Mormon, and the 20-something daughter Agi came to English sign-ups on Saturday and said she'd read from it. We were so happy to hear that!

On Friday we took Sora R (a branch member who got baptized last year) with us to a lesson we had set up, but the lady didn't answer the door. Boo. Well, we decided God has someone else for us to find, so let's go to the park across the street and see who it is. Sora R was on FIRE! She was so awesome. She just walked right up to everyone and said, “We want to talk about God! Have some time?” Sora R is a former Orthodox/pentecostal/I've-been-to-every-church-in-this-city member, and now that she's found the restored gospel and the LDS Church she just loves it. We ended up having a great first lesson with an older lady, who came to church on Sunday!

The whole contacting experience with Sora R was kind of hilarious. She's very charismatic and energetic and LOVES to talk. Since she's a new member, she sometimes says bits and pieces of false doctrine ... but we're working on that. A few hilarious quotes: "We've got to prepare for the Second Coming! They're saying it's going to be in 2012!" After our lesson: "She doesn't need the missionary lessons. We'll get her baptized and then you can teach her everything she needs to know!"

Another highlight from the week was our lesson with Andreea (the budista). She got back from Greece, so we were finally able to have another lesson with her. I just love her. She is such a sweetheart and really open with us. When I called her to see if she was back, I felt inspired to tell her we wanted to do a church tour with her. We hadn't planned on that at all, but it was one of those moments of pure inspiration where I got the prompting, knew immediately it was right, and invited her.

The lesson at the church ended up being really great and will hopefully help her to feel less apprehensive about coming to church (but she still didn't show up on Sunday--we were SO bummed). It also provided us with the opportunity to watch the movie about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, and it was REALLY powerful. Afterwards, Sora P and I both bore powerful testimonies of the Restoration. The Spirit was really strong, and Andreea opened up about a lot of the struggles she's had in her life. Now I understand that she NEEDS the gospel of Jesus Christ in her life. She needs to understand about the Atonement and feel the power that it has to heal us.

As always, we're praying for miracles. President Lundberg has asked each companionship in the mission to have a baptism this transfer. I'm grateful for the many smaller miracles that God works in our day-to-day life. It can be hard to be rejected time after time after time, but when we find those people who are humble and willing to listen--how great is our joy!

This week my mom told me about the uproar in America over the proposed mosque near Ground Zero and how upset she was that so many people who profess to be Christians could be so intolerant and react so irrationally toward those of another faith. What she described sounds a little bit similar to how the majority of people here react to us missionaries. I would say 85% of the people in this city who see our name tags look away and won't even acknowledge a smile and "hello". I wish more people would take more time to think and study rather than just going along with whatever the majority seems to say... alas. But I still think being a missionary is really cool!!

Lots of things to be grateful for

2010-08-16T11:01:00.004-04:00

Now, for the follow-up to my last post: Were you a little more Christlike this past week? I hope so. I tried to be. Not quite sure how successful I was (since "being more Christlike" isn't exactly measurable....vai de mine), but I did try.

Transfer news!! I'm staying in Brasov. Last night I told Sora H that out of all the sisters in the mission, I wanted Sora P. She's one transfer behind us and a former Marine! And ... the Lord answered my prayer!! How cool is that?! I'm so excited because I know 1) she is not going to allow me to be lazy ever and 2) she is going to work super super super hard and I'm going to love it! I'm hoping her work ethic is as high as Johnny K's.

I think so far, every transfer has really focused on teaching me something different. The biggest lesson I learned from my first transfer was faith! We saw so many miracles that transfer and all that faith I had in the MTC just got confirmed over and over and over again. Second transfer: love & patience. Definitely. This past transfer: humility. Hands down. I learned how little it matters what I can do and how much it matters that we rely on the Lord. Whoa, I just realized those are all Christlike attributes [as identified in Preach My Gospel]. Maybe this will be the transfer of diligence & obedience?? I hope so.

This week was a little crazy. We found out on Monday that Sora H & I were invited to go to Mission Council in Buc, so we spent most of the day on Thursday traveling to Buc. We brought Settlers of Catan on the train with us and persuaded the 3 Romanians in our compartment to play with us. It was really fun (and it helped tremendously that one of them had played before so he could explain all the rules in Romanian to his friends...). It also made conversation afterwards easier, and the inevitable, "Why are you here? What makes your church different?" questions came up. Sora H and I were able to share Joseph Smith's story with them. We were grateful for the opportunity to bear our testimonies.

Mission Council was great--both of us felt like we learned SO much. It helped re-inspire to realize how much President Lundberg really cares about us. And that there are great missionaries in our mission doing their best, and we want so much to be like them.

The train ride back was quite the experience. We were on one train that got stopped for an hour, finally started going again, and then stopped about a half hour later. We were told we'd be sitting for 3 hours!! Then all of a sudden another train pulled in and they said anyone just going to Brasov could get on the other train, which was leaving first. So about half of a HUGE train got off and boarded a smaller train, which was already pretty full. There was nowhere to sit, nowhere to put bags, plus it was about 500 degrees, windows were bolted shut, and I was wearing a long black polyester skirt. Somehow amidst the mob of people, we ran into our Zone Leaders (I guess tall American boys in white shirts and ties do tend to stick out...) and had a fun time standing in the hall of the train for the next 2 hours until we made it to Brasov.

I'm so grateful for my companion, Sora H. She has been amazing as we've struggled together this transfer--learning how to be missionaries and not be dependent on older companions, and growing together in our testimonies of the truthfulness of the work. Plus, she makes awesome popcorn.

I feel some big changes are going to happen to me in the next week.

Here I am at Bran trying on a real fox fur hat. I so wanted it, but decided I could probably use the 400 RON for something else instead...

Let's try to be a little more like Christ this week

2010-08-09T19:57:00.002-04:00

Above: Beautiful Brasov

This week I thought I'd tell a little bit about the LDS Church in Romania and Moldova. Missionaries came to Bucharest about 20 years ago. Now there are little branches and some "groups" (not enough priesthood holders even to be a branch) in about 18 cities across Romania and Moldova. 95% of the work that we do as missionaries is done in cities. We rarely work in smaller villages or the really poor, rural areas of the country. I've been out to a few villages, usually because they are really close and there is a less active member that lives there.

From what I've observed and heard, a lot of the branches across Romania have struggled in retaining converts. Most branch lists are full of less active members. For example, there are 147 people on the branch list in Brasov. Last Sunday there were 18 members at sacrament meeting plus 4 missionaries. Plus President & Sora Lundberg because they randomly showed up. Plus one of our investigators, Catalina. I LOVE to call random less active members from the branch list, tell them we're going to be in their zona (area) on a certain night that week (because we will be if they accept the appointment ... haha) and ask if we can make a 20 minute visit to drop off the current copy of the Liahona. I love working with less active members--I think because for as long as I can remember, that's what my parents were always doing.

A couple weeks ago we found a really awesome less active lady (thru the method described above ... a little bit of smecheria on our part, but ... it works) named Cristina who was baptized when she was in her 20s and then stopped coming a few years later when she married a man who is not LDS. Her kids are adorable! She's really open to our visits, and we are slowly making progress in reminding her about her testimony of the Church. We also found out that her parents had been investigators a few months ago, so we made a visit there this past week and hope to get things progressing with them again.

Also, a lot of members have immigrated to SUA or Canada or leave for months at a time to go work in different countries (Italy, Germany). Parents leaving to go work in a different country is really, really common. It can be a huge blessing for the family, but it creates challenges in helping the Church to grow here.

I pray every day to find a FAMILY who will be a strength to this branch. And a whole bunch of sons who can be future priesthood leaders here!

In Relief Society on Sunday we talked about sacrifice. A couple of the members were talking about the example of the missionaries and how great we were for making the sacrifice to come to their country for 1½ or 2 years and preach the gospel. But I raised my hand and was like, that is NOTHING!! That is nothing compared to what all of you have sacrificed to accept the gospel and become members of Christ's Church! In some cases, you've sacrificed good relationships with your family members. You've sacrificed friends. You gave up your entire whole previous way of life! *That* to me is a huge example--the Saints here are amazing. They've given up so much to become members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are every bit as challenged in establishing Zion here in Romania as the early Saints and pioneers in America were.

Random my-life-in-Romania moment: Yesterday morning I was standing in the kitchen of our apartment. Our window was open and I heard a little voice calling, "Doamna, doamna!" I ignored it because usually doamna is used for a 30+ woman ... but then I realized it was a little gypsy boy standing outside the window with an empty bottle. He asked for water, so Sora Hansen filled it up and handed it back to him through the window. Then he ran away singing a little gypsy boy song.

Speaking of it being common for parents to leave to work in a different country. The branch president's sister (not a member, but very active in her baptista church) moved to Brasov and got an apartment in the block pretty much right next to ours. Then she left her 3 kids--a 15-year-old boy, 14-year-old girl, and 13-year-old girl--and peaced out to Italy. And no one really seems to have any clue for how long. Is that even legal?! I have no idea. The BP and his wife try to take care of them, but they both work ALL the time. So pretty much the three kids hang out and do whatever and when their aunt has time she makes dinner for them.... and everyone seems to think this is okay.

The kids come to church, but are SUPER quiet. The BP's wife asked us to look in on them every now and then, so we've dropped by a few times to make sure everything's fine... yesterday they walked home from church with us, and Sora Hansen and I decided we were going to use our allotted service hours to make the poor kids a meal. So instead of us getting invited to a dinner appointment with investigators, we invited ourselves over to an investigator's place and made them dinner. I have no idea if that's kosher, but we decided it was what Jesus would do. We're not actively teaching them lessons since the whole situation is so complicated, but at the very least, we are trying to do some good in their lives.

I've been thinking a lot lately about just focusing on being more Christlike. A few weeks ago, my dad sent me a copy of a talk he had given in sacrament meeting about being Christ’s friend—that is what instigated it. Then at zone conference we talked about the Christlike attributes chapter in Preach My Gospel. And just on my own ... I've realized that this transfer I've spent a lot of time freaking out about numbers, and problems in the branch, and who knows what else ... and haven't spent a lot of time just trying to be more like Christ and going about doing good in the lives of people here. As I've started studying each of the attributes, the thought that has come to me is that if I will spend more time trying to be like Christ--truly trying to be His representative and doing what He himself would say and do if He were here in Brasov--everything else will fall into place.

So, this week, I invite you to change something in your life that is keeping you from being like Christ. Recognize what it is. Figure out how you can change it. And then do it. I promise you that you will feel closer to our Savior, Jesus Christ, and feel His influence more abundantly in your own life. I know that promise is true because I've felt it this week.

A Minor Flood, and "Riding Dirty"

2010-08-02T08:30:00.004-04:00

We got a little bit of rain last night...

Wow, what a change from last week!! This week was just full of lots of love from the Lord. We were able to find several new investigators. Yaaaayyy! God loves us.

On Wednesday we went to visit Andreea, the "Buddhist" girl I met streetboarding 2 weeks ago. Sora H & I had been trying to think of who would be a good friend for Andreea, since she's an artist, free spirit type... and it just didn't feel right to try and click her with the other girls her age in the branch.

But then both of us were like: Sora Corina!!! Corina is an older lady in the branch who is very eccentric and everyone thinks she's really weird... but she's so awesome!! She wears all white all the time: long white skirt, white shirt, white vest, white scrunchy, white shoes--everything white. And she's definitely what you would call a free spirit. But she's super smart and has a strong testimony (i.e. doctrinally sound).

It was definitely inspiration: when we met in centru, Andreea came up and she said she was listening to jazz on her I-pod and then she & Corina started talking about jazz and going off about all kinds of stuff and it was just perfect. We were so happy!

Lessons with Andreea are really interesting ... she has so many questions and we have to start with very basic stuff. We read from Alma 36 about Alma the Younger's experience with repentance and talked about Jesus Christ as our Savior, and Andreea really liked it. Each time we meet I see her faith in Christ growing, and her desire to learn more increase. Unfortunately she's going to Greece for a couple of weeks, so it may be a while until we can meet again.

After the lesson we left with Corina and were going to meet up with another member, Svetlana, who wanted to go block knocking with us. (What member wants to go block knocking?! She's so cool.) Corina ended up deciding that she wanted to go block knocking too, so we were able to go on splits with members.

It was really awesome! We were both able to have a lesson and get a new investigator. Members are SO key. Ahh. Seriously. I had no idea how much 'til I actually became a missionary.

What else about this week? There was a lot of good stuff which would probably sound really boring. OH. Random, hilarious story. Yesterday morning we left early to go meet up with Andreea before church--we get on the bus like usual and it's like a 5 minute ride. No problems, right? WRONG!

The control--people who check your tickets to make sure you've paid--get on 2 stops from the church. I reach into my bag for my abonament to show it to the guy and realize, shoot. I switched bags this morning because I had to bring the Sunday School manual and a picture book and blahblah a million other things to church today... but I forgot to get my abonament out of my other bag.

So I start trying to explain to the control guy that I really do have an abonament, I just don't have it with me because it's in my other janta at home ... and he is NOT happy. Then his controller friend comes over. "Why don't you have it?" "Why isn't it in your wallet all the time?" etc. etc. He pulls out his little notepad and starts writing me a ticket. Meanwhile, the bus goes dead silent and everyone on it is staring at the stupid American missionary girl try and sweet talk her way out of a 50 lei fine.

Then this sweet 80-year-old man gets up: "I know these girls! In the skirts and nametags! They always have their abonaments!" Oh, he was so sweet, but the controller man got mad at him and made him sit down... meanwhile I'm SO embarrassed. It's ridiculous because the whole bus is watching me get fined for "riding dirty."

Finally we got to the end of the line, and the guy told me he was going to let me off this one time but I had to come back to the bus station after church with my abonament.... so it all worked out fine in the end.

Be prepared and ye shall not fear. The gospel is true. God watches over us and wants us to succeed.

I love to talk about the temple

2010-07-26T12:09:00.003-04:00

On Saturday night Sora H and I were out block knocking when we got a call from the Branch Mission Leader, a 20-year-old amazing kid named Marius. He said, "Heeey, I've got a favor to ask you ... please?" I said, "Sure," and then he said there was no one to speak in church the next day, so could I please prepare a talk for sacrament meeting? I said yes and was glad to discover that the assigned topic was about the temple.

So, we headed home an hour early. While Sora H made Area Book calls, I started preparing my talk. Have I mentioned that I learned it is possible to teach about anything for however long without any notice as long as the Spirit is helping, because on my 2nd or 3rd Sunday in Moldova, the Relief Society president came up to my companion and me 30 seconds before Relief Society was supposed to begin and said, "We don't have a teacher ... would you teach? It's on the law of chastity."

Well, I am very grateful that Marius asked me to speak about the temple. The Kiev temple dedication will be broadcast in the chapel in Brasov, so the members here will have the awesome opportunity to participate. Mostly I was grateful for the opportunity to remember the covenants I made in the temple, and to remember why I am serving a mission: to help people receive their eternal exaltation.

I am grateful for righteous parents and for the knowledge that we will have the opportunity to live together as a family forever. That knowledge brings me great comfort.

This week was interesting. We had zone conference on Friday. Thursday was pretty much eaten up by district meeting in the morning, then a 6-hour train ride to Cluj Napoca, a decent-sized city north of here. I hated feeling like the whole day was going to be wasted, so I told Sora H we were going to contact in the park next to the train station before our train left.

The first few people we approached... it was super awkward with us and our bags and whatnot. We tried our best, but no one was interested in talking to us. Then, we sat on a bench for a minute to rest and put down our bags. I said hi to a lady who passed by even though she was on her phone and she stopped and was like "...do I know you?" I said, "No" and just smiled back at her and she continued on her way.

After trying to talk to a few more people, we headed back to the gara, and I saw the same lady sitting on a bench. This time she wasn't on her phone. So I approached her and just started talking--said no, I don't know you, just saying hi! How are you? How's your day going? She opened up and started talking to us and after a few minutes was like, "Why are you still standing there with your bags and everything?? Sit!" So we sat down next to her and taught her about the Book of Mormon. She accepted a copy and said she would read. She's a neat lady with 2 kids and a crazy name that I'm not sure I can spell.

That night when we got into Cluj, we stayed in a hotel!! (There aren't any sister missionaries in Cluj, so no one we could stay with.) The best part: continental breakfast!! Wooo. There was bacon and all you can drink orange juice and everything. Mmm...

Zone conference was a great joy. I always love being gathered together as missionaries and having the time to be inspired and edified. We talked a lot about making sacrifices for the Lord, and it's been good to think about what I personally can sacrifice for the Lord. Sometimes it's about giving that little extra bit--that bit that is really, really hard to give--that qualifies us to receive the blessings the Lord has in store for us.

We took the train back on Friday night. It was fun to get to know my district better and to have some lively conversations led by Elder J--everything from opinions on video games to opinions on sister missionaries haha. It was a good time. :)

Today our district visited Bran castle--the one where Dracula supposedly lived.
(It was lame.)

Our investigator named Andrea is doing really well--except she was a no show at church yesterday. We were pretty devastated. :( We'll call her today and see what happened. But she is really open, really wants to find the answers to her questions about God and religion. She said she would like her faith in God to grow and she knows that we can help her do that.

Another week of life as a missionary

2010-07-19T10:59:00.003-04:00

Well, I'm not going to lie: this week was a little bit discouraging. I came down with a cold at the end of last week and was feeling blah through the beginning of this week, then Sora H got what I had and was pretty out of it for a couple of days. So it was hard to give 100% every day this week. But nonetheless, we are both feeling a lot better and no longer blowing our noses every 5 seconds, so we are going to go out and work twice as hard this week to make up for the last one!

President Lundberg was here for interviews a few days ago, which was really nice. I always enjoy the chance to talk to him and be reminded of how much he supports and loves us and wants us to succeed. The counsel that he gives truly is inspired from our Father in Heaven.

One thing that President Lundberg suggested we try is villa knocking. So one morning this week we went about a 20 minute bus ride outside of the city to a part of Brasov that has lots of villas. Villas can be interesting to try and get into because they usually have fences around them, so you can't knock on a door and who knows if the doorbell works or whatever. At the first villa we got no response, but at the second villa we met a hilarious older gentleman who invited us in for tea (herbal). We had (well, more like tried hard to have) a lesson with him, his 70-year-old mother, and a business associate who showed up halfway through. They were really nice people, but more interested in hearing what we had to say rather than in seeking something different for their lives. At the very least, I hope our conversation encouraged them to think more about God and the role that He plays in their lives.

Last night we took a member with us to try to go back and visit a man we met in the blocks last week, but he wasn't home. Svetlana is about 30 and served a mission a few years ago in Ukraine, so she said she would love to go block knocking with us instead! So we went into the blocks, and wow--she was amazing!! One lady opened up, and we talked to her for a minute, but she was like "no, no, this life is it and there's nothing else after we die" and then she went to close the door and I'm sure I would have just given up on her, but then Svetlana asked her another question and the lady opened back up. Turns out she had talked to elders years and years ago, and we ended up having a 30 minute lesson, and she invited us back!

We also met a really cool Buddhist girl named Andrea while we were streetboarding this week. She mentioned that her parents are Christian, but not particularly religious, so I asked why she had become a Buddhist. She said that she'd read about different religions and just kind of picked the one she thought was most interesting, "But I'm not really sure." Perfect! She had all kinds of questions about what happens after death, so we met the next day and taught her about the Plan of Salvation, and she seemed to really like it. She said how much she appreciated that we were willing to listen to her and to discuss her questions with her because she hadn't found any one before that was really willing to listen or that could help her find answers to her questions.

Everyone needs the gospel. It's just a matter of helping people see that! Much of what we do is try to help people understand that the message we share will bless their lives, answer their questions, and give them more peace.

Below are some views of Brasov from Tampa, a mountain that overlooks the city. On P-day, we took the 2-minute gondola ride to the top, then hiked the trail down with 3 girls from the branch. At the top I had a nice conversation with a Jewish couple from San Francisco. Proselyting in English is so weird!

Week of Miracles

2010-07-12T13:47:00.003-04:00

So, I'm here in Brasov and it is a beautiful city. It's surrounded by gorgeous green mountains. They are "mountains," but a lot, lot smaller than the mountains in Utah. It rains a lot here. But that also means it's cool. Being here in the summer is the best!! I can still wear my cardigans and long-sleeved shirts, which is nice.

I love Brasov! The work here is definitely different than it was in Chisinau. First of all, this city is full of so many old people!! There have got to be young people somewhere, I just haven't found them yet... But I swear just about everyone you see walking down the street is old. All of our neighbors are old.

Speaking of old neighbors. Thursday morning when we got out of the house to begin working, we got about half way down our street and ran into a little old lady that lives in our scara [stairwell]. She was talking to us for a minute and then looked at Sora H and was like, "Girl, what are you wearing on your feet?!" We both looked down and realized that Sora H was still wearing her bright orange slippers that she wears around the house. It was pretty hilarious. Nice skirt, button-down shirt, blazer ... and orange fuzzy slippers!

Well, our first challenge here in Brasov is finding investigators. The sisters just had a baptism last week and now we don't have any progressing investigators..... so we are working diligently and praying mightily that the Lord will put people in our path for us to teach.

We had two sweet miracles this week. Earlier this week we had planned to go contacting in a park that was a little ways from our house. We got on a bus, but after a while Sora H said, "I don't think this is the right bus because I don't know where we are," so we got off at the next stop. I immediately remembered something I'd read in personal study that morning, "When something goes wrong (a lesson falls through, etc.) look for the elect person nearby that the Lord has prepared for you!" So I told Sora H we had to find the elect person we were supposed to meet. We started walking down the street and talked to pretty much everyone in our path, but no one was interested in talking to us. But we kept walking and kept talking.

Finally we got to a street that Sora H recognized, and she said we needed to cross the street and get on a different bus. Just then, the bus came around the corner. I said a prayer in my heart that if we were supposed to get on that bus, that Heavenly Father would keep it there until we could cross and hop on, but if not, that He would place someone in our path to talk to as we waited. The bus pulled away. All right, I thought, I know there is someone here waiting that we need to talk to! We crossed the street, and there was a brunette woman in her mid-30s who had just gotten off the bus. The Spirit prompted me to talk to her, so of course I had to obey!

I started talking to her, and at first she said she already knew all about Jesus Christ. I told her I was glad that she already had faith in Christ, but "We have something different to add!" and then I testified of the Restoration. We started talking and found out that she had once doubted the existence of God, but then had had some spiritual experiences that helped her to feel the love of God in her life. She eventually was baptized into the Baptist church and talked about how much happier she is now that she has faith in Christ. I asked her if she'd heard of the Book of Mormon and she was interested in learning more--she said she'd heard of the Mormons on Oprah haha. And she couldn't believe that we were here in Romania talking to her! She was a really, really nice woman and gave us her phone number to set up sometime this week, though like everyone else here it came with the phrase, "But I won't promise I'll change!" I was grateful for that little miracle from my Father in Heaven.

I don't know why people are so afraid of change. Actually, I think I just realized why. Because God's plan is all about progression--about growing and changing and becoming better today than you were yesterday. So of course Satan doesn't want people to change, and he works hard to make people afraid of change.

I wish I had more time to tell you about our night last night--can you imagine having three lessons in two hours of block knocking?! Yes. That happened. Ok, I know that probably means nothing to you, but that is a miracle! No way that happened without the help of God. Also, we block-knocked into one of our super cool English students who never stays for the spiritual thoughts... coincidence that we picked a random block in the entire city of Brasov and knocked on her apartment?! And she let us in and we were able to tell her about the Book of Mormon and she wanted to read?? That is not a coincidence!! God loves us. He is aware of us. He knows the details of our lives and is concerned about doing everything he can to help us to be happy.

Goodbye Chisinau, hello . . .

2010-07-05T14:44:00.004-04:00

I love this pic of me with two of my companions--both Sora Vs!

Wow. I've got a lot to tell about this week! First, the big news! I am being transferred (not a surprise since we can only stay 3 months in Moldova), and I'm going to Brasov (brah-shohv)--which I hear is a beautiful city in the mountains of Transylvania!!! I'll let you know if I see Dracula (or Edward, haha). Stupid jokes aside, I'm super excited. I spent the 6 months before my mission praying for God to prepare people in Romania for me to teach--and I'm finally going to that country!

I hear that I am going to feel like my mission is starting all over again. New country, new people, new companion, new everything. Even though it will be a new companion... I already know her! I will be with Sora H, who was in my MTC group. I already know that I love the girl, so I'm stoked! It's a little crazy that we are both in our third transfer, but I am confident we'll have some fun times together and work hard. :) :) President Lundberg assigned me to be senior companion, which I think means that if stuff doesn't work out I'm the one who gets in trouble haha.

Even though I'm really excited for my new assignment, I am going to be so sad to leave Chisinau. I love the people here so much. While sitting in Relief Society yesterday, I just had this overwhelming sense of love for the people here and realizing how much I will miss the people and this country. I told all the branch members to pray that I'll come back--and then I told President Lundberg that I hope their prayers get answered. ;) I'm also sad to leave Sora V---the girl has no inhibitions about anything and won't ever take no for an answer. She has really inspired me, and I've learned a lot from her example.

I don't know if I've written before about the miracle that we are working toward in the Romania Bucurest mission.. At zone conference President Lundberg read a letter that one of his little granddaughters had sent them saying that they were praying for the miracle to happen in Romania. He said, there's lots of prayers at home too for this miracle! And then I realized that I don't think I've really told my family and friends what we are working toward. It would be great if you could remember this in your prayers too.

In January, just before I entered the MTC, two elders in the Buc Mission died of asphyxiation when the pilot light on their gas stove went out while they were asleep. Afterward, President and Sora Lundberg prayerfully considered what this tragedy meant for the Romania mission. They both felt that before great things happen, we often face serious obstacles. But we have to move through our trial of faith--and then the miracle comes. The answer they received from the Lord was that there was a miracle in store for the Romania Bucurest Mission this year--that we could have 200 baptisms in the year 2010. This is more than double the number of baptisms that Romania has seen in recent years. We as a mission have been working so hard to accomplish the miracle. President and Sora Lundberg have reminded us over and over again that it is by our faith that miracles are wrought. Our year-to-date total is 74. Each month President Lundberg challenges us to double the number of baptisms that we had in the same month in the previous year. So far we are on track! I know that God will bless us for our faith and obedience and that our goal can be accomplished with His help.

I am almost finished with my reading of the Book of Mormon. I will be starting over again as soon as I finish because President Lundberg asked to read the BOM again and do the thing with highlighting in 4 colors (one color for prophecies about Christ, another for his actual words, etc.). I've always wanted to do it, so I'm excited that I now I have the push to do it! I am looking forward to focusing so much on Christ and what I learn about Him from the Book of Mormon.

Story from the week: On Saturday Sora V and I had one of the most spiritual lessons I've ever had. We are teaching a woman named Elena, who is the sister of one of the coolest members of the branch. Elena is an adorable 24-year-old blonde girl. She's married, but her husband isn't too excited about meeting with the missionaries, so we are just working with her right now. We had a wonderful lesson about the Plan of Salvation--and she re-explained the whole thing to us, absolutely perfect! After we talked about the Plan, I talked about how the Plan of Salvation is made possible--only through our Savior, Jesus Christ. We talked about the Atonement and everything that Christ did for us, and how it is only through Him that we can return to live with our Father in Heaven again.

Then, my companion felt prompted to talk about her conversion story even though we hadn't planned it (as so often happens during lessons!) After sharing her experience, she asked Elena what she thought she needed to do in order to be able to live with her family forever. Elena responded by saying that she needed to have greater faith in Christ--and that even though she was baptized as a baby in the Christian Orthodox church, she felt that she didn't understand what she was doing when she was baptized and that she would like to be baptized again into the right church. Wow!!! That is what you want your investigators to tell you!! We asked her if she had faith that God would answer her prayers. She said yes. Sora V suggested that we pray together then, and that Elena choose a specific question to ask her Father in Heaven. As Elena prayed, the Spirit was really strong. She asked simply, with faith, to know if she was on the right path and if this church was God's church on the Earth.

After her prayer, we didn't see any visions or receive a visit from an angel ... but the Spirit was there. Elena said she wants to keep studying, but she feels that she's on the right path. And we are so happy that we are able to help her! I will continue praying for her. I know her sister (who has been a member for about 2 years and is planning on a mission) is also praying that she will accept the restored gospel.

The pictures below are from our Preparation Day last week. We went to Orhei Vechi with Oleg and had a blast. Orhei is a city about an hour from Chisinau. It was a little dangerous climbing up the side of this mountain, but it was way fun. It was beautiful there! I loved the chance to do something different. My dad would have been so proud of me. Even though we were on these teeny little ledges, and it dropped a million feet below, I didn't freak out.

I think this cave photo has got to be the coolest district picture ever.

This was so hilarious! I dyed Sora V's hair--despite the fact that I've never dyed my own or seen anyone else do it, ever. She forgot to tell me to wear gloves, so my hands were completely dyed dark brown for like 3 days. I looked like a monkey!

Yay! I'm an auntie!

2010-06-28T09:39:00.004-04:00

I was so excited to learn that Emily Claire arrived this week! Yesterday I was showing my fam pics to a less active person we went to visit and I said maybe I have a niece, I don't know, I'll find out tomorrow. And I was right--I do have a niece! Congrats to Soren and Mandy!

This week was fifty-fifty. It started out pretty low. Mon-Wed we had only had 2 lessons! Everything kept falling through. Wednesday we had planned six lessons into the day, and most of them seemed pretty solid. Then one after another, they all fell through and we were feeling pretty discouraged. That also happened to be the day when President Lundberg came, and we had our interviews with him. I was really grateful for that opportunity. He's so cool. And has so much faith!! He reminded me to always make sure I'm using my time wisely, which was a good reminder. I've found myself a few times this week thinking "ahhh whatever, I'm leaving next week, so why do I care?" but as soon as that thought comes into my mind, I've just been like no!! Don't waste the Lord's time!! This is where I am assigned to work right now, and there are things the Lord wants me to accomplish here before I leave. I don't want to leave this area thinking that there was more that I could have done. Or having regrets about not working hard enough or whatever.

Now I totally understand why we don't find out transfer information until the day before. It's just weird with Moldova because we know we can only stay two transfers and then we're out.

Thursday we had zone conference, which was a huge blessing! It really gave me the spiritual boost I needed to keep working hard with a good attitude through the rest of the week. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon, and especially how using the Book of Mormon can change lives. I made the mistake of telling President Lundberg in my interview that I love talking about the Book of Mormon.... so then I had to give a talk at zone conference. Dad, I told everyone that you always say that the best talks are the ones that tell stories, so I told a few stories. I talked about three of the ways that the Book of Mormon can change our lives: 1) bringing us closer to Christ and witnessing that He is our Savior 2) giving answers to our prayers and 3) bringing an added measure of the Spirit into our lives. So I recounted the story of Christ coming to America--3 Nephi 11--that's kind of the "default" chapter a lot of missionaries tell people to read in the BOM... but when is the last time they've read it?! So I tried to make it come alive a little.

Then I shared an experience that I had a month or two before my mission. I was having some doubts, wondering if I was really doing the right thing going on a mission and if I was really prepared to go. I had been praying one night about some of my doubts. And then I read in the Book of Mormon the last few verses in Alma 42: "And now, my son, I desire that ye should let these things trouble you no more, and only let your sins trouble you, with that trouble which shall bring you down unto repentance...But do you let the justice of God, and his mercy, and his long-suffering have full sway in your heart; and let it bring you down to the dust in humility. And now, O my son, ye are called of God to preach the word unto this people. And now, my son, go thy way, declare the word with truth and soberness, that thou mayest bring souls unto repentance, that the great plan of mercy may have claim upon them. And may God grant unto you even according to my words. Amen."

As I read those verses, I felt like it was my Father in Heaven speaking to me, his daughter. I knew that I had a testimony of the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and of His ability to heal us and cleanse us from our sins. I remembered that I knew what it felt like to repent and to be forgiven and of the sweet peace that that brings into our lives. And I knew that I wanted to bring those same feelings and power into the lives of others. And God had called me to go and preach that to the people in Romania and Moldova!

And then I talked about how much I felt the Spirit coming into my life when I made the commitment to read the Book of Mormon every day for 30 minutes during my sophomore year at BYU. That has made such a difference to me!

The rest of the week went well after zone conference. We had some really good lessons with current investigators. We are currently teaching a girl named Elena, who is the sister of a member of the branch. We started teaching her at the end of last transfer, but it's been hard to get a hold of her because she's been going la tara (to the country?) a lot--her husband's mother is really sick, so they've been going there to visit her in the hospital. She's such a cute girl! We taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation, and she was really understanding it and liked what she heard. We weren't able to finish since she'd come late and English class was starting, but she really wanted to find out about what else was drawn on the paper. :) Unfortunately they went la tara again this weekend, so she wasn't able to come to church. But we'll be teaching her the rest of the Plan sometime this week!

Saturday there was a baptism! A boy named Maxim from Orhei (a city about an hour north of Chisinau) was baptized. This is a great miracle story!! He is 16 and has been coming to church for a year, but his mom would not give permission for him to be baptized. However, over the last month, every time Max had mentioned the church or wanting to be baptized to his mom, she would say "In a year." Then the next time, "In 6 months." Then the next time, "In a couple of months." The elders had a lesson with him last Saturday and they all decided to fast and pray together, then the elders would come with Max to his house on Monday and pray with him and his mom. The elders haven't been able to talk with his mom because she only speaks Russian and they only speak Romanian. Well, they fasted and prayed together. On Monday when the Elders showed up at Max's house, he was waiting for them at the door and said, "Hey, she said I can get baptized!"

We were all so happy to hear that she had given her permission, and that Max was able to be baptized. Orhei is a really small branch, with no priesthood except the elders. (One of the elders is branch president.) So having Maxim as a member is going to be a huge blessing for them!

A random funny story: Earlier this week a companionship of elders in our district had scheduled time to go block knocking. They picked a block knocking area and then prayed about which block to go to. When they got there, they picked a scara [stairwell] and then decided to pick a floor. Both elders were thinking the 3rd floor, so they decided to start there. They walked up the stairs and went to knock on the first door when the door opened right in front of them! They were excited, thinking, wow, this person is so ready they are opening the door before we can even knock! But guess who walked out the door? The other elders! They had already had a lesson and gotten a new investigator from that door. So apparently the Spirit led them to that door first... :)

Good visits

2010-06-21T11:02:00.000-04:00

This week one of our former investigators from last transfer who is pretty much the coolest investigator ever was back in Chisinau! She had been in Chisinau studying, but went back to southern Moldova for the summer. Her name is Catea. The girl is so awesome. She loves the Book of Mormon, knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and loves learning about commandments so that she can keep them! I have great faith that she is going to be baptized in September when she comes back to Chisinau for school again. I didn't know she was going to be back this week, but she called us and was like "When can we meet??" That is always a good sign when your investigators call you to set up. :) It was great to see her again, and see that even though she is living in a city where there isn't a church or missionaries, she is still reading from the Book of Mormon and trying to live the way she knows her Heavenly Father wants her to.

On Saturday night we finally were able to visit Zinovia M. We’ve been trying to get together with her since last month, when my mom met her daughter at a retreat for LDS women in Illinois. She is great. The whole day before we were going to visit her had been really challenging--all of our appointments that we set up fell through, we weren't having any success finding anyone who wanted to talk to us, etc. etc. By the end of the afternoon I felt like I was ready to go home and crawl into bed and pull the covers over me until morning. But don't worry, I didn't. :)

On the maxi-taxi ride to Zinovia's, I was thinking about how our day hadn't gone so well and I wasn't sure I was in the right mood to be going and trying to uplift someone else. So I prayed, and just said simply, "Heavenly Father, I know that Zinovia is one of your daughters. She needs to feel your love. I hope the Spirit will be able to touch her... and I'm afraid I'm not in the right mood right now to help that happen. But please, even if I'm not in the right mood to have the Spirit with me right now, please help Zinovia to have a spiritually uplifting experience." That helped me to remember why I was making this visit.

When we arrived at Zinovia's, we talked about our families, shared pictures, and got to know her a little bit. Then, Sora V and I asked if we could sing. Sora V chose "How Great Thou Art." As we sang, I felt the burden of negativity that I'd been feeling all day lifted. It was amazing how much the hymn brought the Spirit into her home. Plus, Zinovia has a beautiful voice! For our spiritual thought, we talked about why we are grateful to have a knowledge of the Restored Gospel and asked Zinovia about how she became a member of the Church. She seemed to be touched by our visit, and I hope it helped her to feel closer to her Father in Heaven.

I love to ask people for their conversion stories, especially less active members, because I think it helps them to remember how they once felt and why they made the step to become a member in the first place!

On Sunday during Relief Society, the R.S. President said, "Everyone in this room was touched and taught by the missionaries." I looked around me and realized wow!! every single one of these members is here because of a missionary who had faith to do what they knew Heavenly Father wanted them to do. Because the Church hasn't been in Moldvoa for very long (less than 15 years), there aren't any members who were "born into the Church". They're all converts. I mean, of course I knew that before, but it really made it poignant to me when I looked around the room in R.S. at these women that I have gotten to know and love over the past two and half months and realized that every single one of them changed their lives to accept the message of Christ's gospel, and it started with an invitation from a member or a missionary.

This morning the district played ultimate frisbee together. I played! Yay me. :)

I hope God decides to turn down the heat today

2010-06-14T13:31:00.002-04:00

It's been about 100,000 degrees here in Chisinau for the last week. Or at least it's felt like it. And it's only the second week of June... if you don't hear from me next week it's probably because I melted into a puddle somewhere on the streets of Chisinau.

What's happened this week? It's been a week of inviting people to prepare for baptism, or at least making it clear with all of our investigators that we want to help them to be ready to be baptized. This has resulted in a couple of dropped investigators, a few investigators who are praying to know if and when they should be baptized, and one yes with a specific date!

We had a lesson with Olea earlier this week about various things, including baptism. Like so many people here, she was concerned because she had already been baptized as a baby in the Orthodox Church and was afraid it would be a sin to change her religion. We talked about the feelings that she has when she meets with us, what baptism really means, about how she feels about the Book of Mormon, and about prayer. Ultimately, we invited her to pray specifically to know if she should be baptized as a member of Christ's Church.

One thing that is such a comfort to me as a missionary is to know that when I invite someone to receive an answer, I'm not inviting them to receive an answer from me or from the internet or from any other man or woman--I'm inviting them to receive an answer from the ultimate source of truth: God, our Heavenly Father.

On Sunday Olea came to church and afterwards told me that she had been reading about baptism in the Book of Mormon and decided that she wants to be baptized! There are still some challenges for her to overcome, and some things she needs to learn before she's prepared to make that step, but I'm praying with faith that her testimony will continue to grow. I know that this was a blessing from our Heavenly Father because Sora V and I had acted in faith to invite our investigators to prepare for baptism.

Before the mission, I thought returned missionaries who told me to invite everyone to baptized were crazy. And then when I was in the MTC, the thought of inviting someone to be baptized kind of scared me ... and honestly, it still scares me a little. But my companions have been awesome examples of how to teach about baptism and invite without any awkwardness or scaring people off. I know that Heavenly Father wants everyone to be part of His Church, and He will provide a way for those who are ready.

Hmmm... what else happened this week? It's seriously a blur of being really hot and sweaty all the time, mixed with inviting people to be baptized.

Last night Sora V and I went block-knocking and had some amusing encounters. Nobody here has an air conditioner, so it can get really hot in apartments. There was one door that I knocked on, and like always when the door opened, I smiled and said, "Buna seara!" (good evening). As soon as he saw me, the man who opened let out a ahhh!!!, covered his lower half, and slammed the door shut. Sora V and I just about died, we were laughing so hard. The look on the man's face was priceless. You would think that people would think to put on more than their underwear before they answer the door! Then the same man came back and opened the door again (this time with pants on), and we told him we were missionaries... and he slammed the door in my face again! Who takes the time to go find his pants, put them on, come back, and open the door again only to slam it in your face again?! Sometimes people are nuts.

We met another guy a little while later. When he opened, Sora V said hi and asked him what brings him happiness in his life. And he's like, "....not random guests at my door." She's like, "How do you know?" and he's like, "From experience." Haha. He ended up being really nice and talked to us for a while, and he was super interested in English.

Of new companions, crazy lessons and sweet investigators

2010-06-07T09:00:00.004-04:00

I have a new companion! Her name also is Sora V and she is from a city in northern Ukraine. She's had problems with her visa, so she's been going back and forth between the Ukraine and Moldova missions because she's not allowed into Romania. (The mission office thought her visa was for 6 months in Romania, but it was only for 3. So she stayed the 6 months, and then when she was leaving Romania to go into Moldova, the people at the border freaked out and wanted to throw her into a Romanian prison... but Oleg (our driver) worked it out with one of his friends who works at border control plus 500 Euros.... so Sora V's not allowed back into Romania for over a year.)
She is very different from either of my other two companions, but we have a good time together. Today is ziua ei (her day--her birthday). She doesn't like cake, so she requested a potato cake for breakfast. To give you an idea of Sora V's personality: she adores Spongebob. Haha.

Sometimes as a missionary when we have lessons with people... it's a little crazy. I've had some pretty crazy lessons, but probably one of the craziest was earlier this week. It was my last morning with Tonia as my companion. (Btw, I miss that girl so much!! One week with her as my companion was not enough. As you can see, sarmale making last Monday went well.)

Anyway... so we went to have a lesson with this old lady the elders met. She wanted to meet on a street somewhere. We get there and realize it's her "spot" where she sits and tries to sell medicinal herbs.... so we're like ok, whatever, we'll still talk to her. Then her business partner comes over and he only spoke Russian, and he had "studied" a lot about different religions. So he's asking Tonia a million questions in Russian, while I'm trying to teach this lady in Romanian about the Restoration. Meanwhile, they're both trying to sell stuff to people walking past. It was crazy... my favorite part was when we were trying to wrap it up, and I asked the baba (old grandma) if she wanted to pray. So she starts praying, and then stops in the middle of it to make a sale, and then picks up in her prayer right where she left off... haha. She was really cool though, and genuinely wanted to listen, and kept apologizing every time she'd get up in the middle to talk to whoever came over to buy stuff. And God hears every prayer! Even if you are a 70 year old Russian baba who stops in the middle of praying to sell herbs...

What other cool stuff happened this week? Oh! Tonia and I had an interesting lesson last Tuesday night. It was with a woman we met and her husband. They were asking us all kinds of really interesting, good questions. (Things like, what constitutes our souls? Do we believe in a hell? etc.) As we were teaching them, both Tonia and I felt like the Spirit was completely directing us in what to say to those two people. It was probably the most Romanian I have ever spoken, especially because they were asking about things that I have never thought about how to say in Romanian. But the words were just coming, and I could say exactly what I knew they needed to hear. It was a really powerful experience, and a testament to me of the promise that we will be given by the Spirit in the very moment what we need to say. Afterwards, Tonia and I were both just like--whoa. I feel like we said exactly what the Spirit wanted us to say. I don't know what will happen with that couple, but I do know that there were certain things that Heavenly Father wanted them to hear at that moment.

This week we are hoping to set a few baptismal dates with our investigators. Sometimes I think I'm afraid to write about our investigators because it's hard when they disappear or stop progressing or stop keeping commitments or whatever. One of our investigator's is named Olea. She's a really sweet 19-year-old girl, who was brought to church by a member that she used to work with. She loves the Book of Mormon and says that she feels really happy every time she reads and every time she is at the church. She commented in Sunday School yesterday about how every morning now she wakes up and wants to pray because she has so much to be thankful for! And now when she says her prayers, and is able to express the feelings of her heart to a God she knows loves her, she feels God turning toward her. I love to see the happiness and the light that comes into the lives of those who accept Jesus Christ and His gospel. It is a miracle to see that kind of change in someone!

Week of Miracles

2010-05-31T09:39:00.004-04:00

Wow, it has been a great week! I mean, of course, not every moment is peaches and cream, but it's been pretty dang awesome all around. Tonia--Sora V--is amazing. She is a hundred times better missionary than me. She loves sharing the gospel, and people love talking to her. She just radiates the Spirit (probably because she just got baptized and so she's practically still perfect.) Thank you for your prayers. I have really felt them helping us this week.

The first day and a half of our week together I was feeling stressed all the time... like ahhh we gotta call this person and this person and I don't know how to help this investigator, etc. etc. plus I have to teach Sora V the missionary lessons and there is so much to do!! But I calmed down after a day and realized... the work is still going to go forward. If we have the Spirit with us, everything will work together for our good. And it did! And it continues to.

I don't even know where to begin with this week. Sora L left late Tuesday night, and I stayed the night with the senior missionary couple before meeting up with Sora V the next day. My goodbye with Sora L was really short because it was already after 11:00. I miss her!! She taught me everything I know.

Then Wednesday began the adventures of Sora H and Sora V. That night, I had planned to try and go visit this awesome lady named Claudia that Sora L & I had met in the blocks a few weeks ago. She's awesome. Well, I told Sora V, I don't know what part of town it's in, I just know we got on this maxi-taxi and I can find it. It was pretty late--like 8:30 or so and we're on the maxi-taxi on the way and Sora V is like, "You didn't tell me we were going to Chocanau!! That is the most dangerous neighborhood in Chisinau!" She was totally freaking out--I guess that's where all the crime is and girls are not supposed to go there alone... Who knew? Sora L and I have been there a lot since that's our block knocking area... anyway... (don't worry, I won't go there again at night...& I told the elders we have to switch block knocking areas). So we found Claudia, and she had read the Book of Mormon through Mosiah! But she was in the middle of something, so we couldn't stay long. Right as we walked out of her block, it started pouring rain. Even though there had been blue sky and sunshine like 20 minutes before. And we didn't have an umbrella, so we had to run through the rain to get the maxi-taxi and we got totally and completely soaked. Poor Sora V--her first night as a missionary and I take her to the most dangerous neighborhood in Chisinau, and she gets completely drenched in the rain. Good thing she's awesome.

Thursday morning, I wake up to the smell of deliciousness. My sweet companion got up at 5:30 in the morning and made us clatite for breakfast! Clatite are Moldovan pancakes... they are like in between crepes and american pancakes. You fill them with jam and stuff and they are delicious! I knew it was the start to a good week.

We've had a ton of really amazing lessons this week, and seen so many little miracles. I'm so grateful for a knowledge that God lives, that He still works in our day, and that He works through miracles. Miracles still happen! We see miracles happen every day.

It was a miracle that Tonia was able to be free all of this week and be a missionary with me. I know that Heavenly Father knew that we needed to have this experience together. She has already seen blessings in her family and in her life because of her service. And I am learning so much from her and her testimony and the way that she shares the gospel with people. She always shares such a heartfelt, personal testimony with each person we talk to. I love it and admire her so much for her faith. I'm going to miss her so much. A week together is way too short!

It's a miracle every time we have a lesson with someone, and I'm able to communicate in Romanian with them and be understood. Especially when they ask questions about things that I've never tried to explain before. Through the Spirit, Heavenly Father gives me the words to be able to explain. Of course, I can't always express everything I want to, but I know that the Spirit helps me to know what to say. I testify that if we have the Spirit with us, the promise that if we open our mouths, they will be filled is true.

We had a little miracle yesterday at church. A girl who Sora V knows showed up at church. She is the cousin of a member who is on a mission right now, and she has been to church a few times before. Sora V set up a lesson with her for that afternoon. We went to visit her, and she had a picture of the temple and another one of Jesus Christ up on her wall! She said she has never taken lessons from the missionaries, but she loves the church and wanted to know when we were coming back to teach her. She had great questions about the Plan of Salvation and loved everything.

Dang, we have so many cool investigators. Several of them are facing challenges in being able to get baptized, but we are praying fervently for them each day. I know Heavenly Father wants these amazing women in His church and He will help them according to their faith.

Okay, I've been rambling on too long. And today Sora V is teaching me to make sarmale--traditional Moldovan food, stuffed cabbage rolls--and we're making them for all the missionaries in our district. Mom, I will learn to like cabbage!

Birthdays and a new companion

2010-05-24T17:40:00.003-04:00

Today is my mom’s birthday, so la multi ani!!! Here in Moldova when you wish someone happy birthday, you wish them a million other things. They say, "I wish you health and happiness and everything you've ever wanted and a handsome husband and more happiness, etc. etc. etc." I know this because it was Sora L's birthday earlier this week. I attempted to make her breakfast and decorate her study desk, and bought her some flowers--daises are her favorite just like me! Mostly we did missionary work, but we did go out to lunch to celebrate. I hope it was a good day. And it has rained for a week straight, but I prayed for sunshine for Sora L for her birthday and we got like an hour of sunshine in the afternoon. We were excited about that!

Well, it's been another amazing week. I can't believe an entire transfer has gone by. Sora L is leaving me on Tuesday night!!! I'm so sad. She's so cool. She's an awesome "mother," though not quite as cool as my real mother.... I'm so grateful to have had her as my companion.

So, the big scary news from this week is that I am staying in Chisinau (which I already knew because we always stay 2 transfers here and then have to leave cuz we don’t have visas). My new companion will be Sora V, who is from the Ukraine! But because of visa issues she is not allowed to come back into Moldova for another week... but Sora L has to leave to go to her new area... which means I will have a “mini-missionary” with me for a week!! (This is a local member—usually a teenager—who volunteers to serve with the full-time missionaries for a short time.)

Guess who my companion is going to be for the next week?! Tonia!!! My investigator who just got baptized two weeks ago!!!! Haha. Life is going to be a little crazy this week. There's a lot more details to this whole situation, but I am super excited (and kind of freaking out!!) So, I will have a mini-missionary until Sora V is allowed to come back into the country in a week. It's going to be crazy. Tonia is awesome and has a super strong testimony, but she doesn't know the lessons, hasn't ever really taught before, etc. etc. It's going to be quite the experience. But I'm so excited.

Saturday night when we got all this figured out-- that I would be left here in Chisinau with a mini--I realized what a big and scary responsibility I have: 1) to take care of our awesome investigators and 2) help Tonia have an amazing experience this week. I am feeling very overwhelmed. But. That night when I went to say my prayers before bed, I just poured out my heart to the Lord. I told Him--I have no idea how I am going to be able to do this. But I know that you can do it. I need the Spirit with me more this week than I probably have ever needed at any other time in my life. As I was praying and just feeling overwhelmed, one of my favorite scriptures came to mind--the one I put on my missionary plaque--D&C 68:6 came to mind: "Be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you." I felt a sense of peace and assurance that He will be with us. And that everything may not go perfectly, but we'll be all right! I will survive this week. And thank goodness Sora V will be back in the country next week. Please pray for me & Tonia like you have never prayed for me before!

Last P-day all the missionaries played American football. It was my first time playing football, and I was totally a contributing member of the team! It was exciting. I like caught the ball and made runs and tackled people and wow. It was so fun. I thought I was just going to sit and watch but the elders told me I had to play, and I'm glad I did. It was way fun!

Tonia's baptism and other awesomeness

2010-05-18T08:34:00.003-04:00

Hello! It has been an amazing week!! We have seen so many miracles happen this week and met a lot of really, really awesome people. And Tonia got baptized!

We have been teaching Tonia for the past several weeks, but she has been coming to the church since she was 11. She has 2 older siblings and a younger sister, but their dad is against them being baptized, so they each have to wait until they are 18. Her older sister was baptized first and went on a mission. Then her older brother, and now it was finally Tonia's turn. Last week we had a lesson with her and she was telling us about how she's had a testimony since she was 11, but she's had to wait 7 years to be baptized. She is pretty much a member--a really, really active member at that! So our lessons with her usually consisted of her teaching us about the gospel. :)

Tonia's baptism was incredible. The service was really nice. She had asked all of the missionaries to sing "Nearer My God to Thee," and she said it would be "tare" (cool) if Sora L could play the violin. But unfortunately, Sora L doesn't have a violin here. But... Heavenly Father intervened and helped us find a violin for Sora L to play! We went to some random music store and asked if we could rent a violin. The guy said no, but then he said, "Stoplight, right." and we're like... okay? We followed his "directions" and ended up finding this little hole in the wall place, and a very, very nice man who didn't have violins to rent, but who did have a violin and let us borrow it out of the goodness of his heart. He was adorable, and kept saying he just wanted to help us. So Sora L surprised Tonia at the baptism, and she was really touched. The musical number went really well and really helped bring the Spirit.

After we finished singing, it was time for her to be baptized! When she walked into the font, she was shaking she was so excited/nervous. Then Sergiu said the prayer and baptized her. The moment that she came out of the water--wow! The Spirit is always very, very strong the moment that someone is baptized. It is amazing to feel the Spirit confirm that the baptismal ordinance was done correctly, with the proper authority from God. And that this person, this child of God, has made sacred covenants with Him and promised to follow Him. At first, Tonia just kind of stood there shocked a little bit that it had finally happened, and then it was so cute, she squealed and got the biggest smile on her face! She was so happy and just glowing the rest of the day. It was so neat to see her be so excited for this baptism that she had waited for for such a long time! Her example of patience, long-suffering, and faith that this day would come has been an amazing influence on me.

So besides an awesome baptism, why was the rest of this week so amazing? We're not really sure why, but it was. Heavenly Father poured out his blessings on us! Both Sora L and I kept wondering, "What are we doing differently??" because we didn't feel like we were necessarily doing anything differently than other weeks--but we got several solid new investigators this week and taught 26 lessons. Which is almost double of what we've done in any other week! It was incredible. Apparently, Heavenly Father has got a lot of work that he wants done here. There is this awesome lady named Vitalina who showed up at church on Sunday, and we were able to meet with her several times this week. She went to Tonia's baptism and loved it. And she brought her mom and her aunt to the baptism with her, so that she could show them "where I go to church now."

There is also an awesome girl named Catea, who comes to English class and decided after one of the elder's spiritual thoughts that she needs more faith and wants to change things in her life. She is golden. We met with her several times this week, she came to another baptism we had on Friday, and loved it. My favorite quote from her this week, was, "I was reading in the pamphlet that you gave me and it said that I need to keep the commandments. But I don't know exactly what they are. Can you teach me about the commandments, so that I can follow them?" She is amazing!!!

I could go on and on about the awesome people we met this week, but mostly I'm just overwhelmed by the feeling that they need the gospel, they want the gospel. The message is perfect. But it's up to me, the messenger, to deliver the message in a way that will help them to change their lives and accept it. I feel very humbled. I have so many weaknesses and so many things I need to work on, and I don't want to mess it up and lose these awesome people that Heavenly Father has entrusted to us right now. Of course, there is always personal agency, but I know I have a responsibility--I have the calling--to help these wonderful women receive the knowledge that they need for their salvation.

I'm so happy every day. I love what I'm doing. I love that I get to tell people every single day what an amazing blessing the gospel of Christ can be in their lives.

Zone Conference

2010-05-10T12:08:00.010-04:00

Usually we have to fix our own food, so Sora L and I eat a lot of bread and cheese, but one night the Relief Society fixed us a yummy rice dish. It kinda looked like paella, but the spices were different.

On Thursday, we had Zone Conference in Bucharest. To get there on time for the all-day meeting, we had to leave Chisinau at 10 p.m. Wednesday, and travel through the night (in Oleg’s van). Mostly, it was nice to feel "reinvigorated" and meet lots of other missionaries from the mission. Elder Camargo, a member of the Quorum of Seventy from Spain, came and spoke to us. A theme of the conference was faith. This year, President and Sora Lundberg have prayerfully set a goal to have 200 baptisms. That is double the number of baptisms the mission had last year. Their faith is strong. Especially Sora Lundberg--she is probably one of the most faithful people ever! She has some awesome, awesome stories about answers she's received to prayers.

Anyway, so we are working hard to reach that goal of 200 baptisms and have been promised that it is possible, but only according to our faith and diligence. President Lundberg talked about calling on the powers of heaven because that is the only way we will be able to accomplish that goal. In one of his talks Elder Camargo talked about faith and Moses. He talked about how in Exodus, when Moses leads the children of Israel to the Red Sea, he gets there and the Lord commands him to tell the people to go forth. Elder Camargo pointed out that the Lord didn't say, “Hey Moses, don't worry about it, I'll part the seas and you'll be able to walk through on dry ground.” He says, “Go forth!”

Elder Camargo painted a really cool picture of the scene. He told us to picture Moses, with perfect faith, just walking right into the water. As he walked, he was slowly immersed more and more deeply in water. The people walked in right behind him. I could see Moses in the sea first to his ankles, then to his knees, his waist, his arms... and he just kept walking with perfect faith that God would deliver them. It wasn't until after Moses and the people showed their faith, that God provided Moses with the power to part the seas and deliver them through on dry ground. I could see all of these people walking into the water, far enough that their heads were just barely above the surface before the sea. And then, Moses parted the seas before them.

Isn't that the coolest image?? That really touched me. It's the same with us today. We have to keep going forth, with the faith that God will give us the help He has promised. For me, I have to have faith that He will put people in my path to teach and share the message of the gospel with. For all of us, we have to have the faith that the blessings God has promised us will always be fulfilled. We can't stop half-way and wait for Him to show us that He's going to part the seas, we must keep going forth until we're almost completely submerged under the water before He will give us the power to part the seas in our lives. I know that all things are possible through God's power. Whatever it is that you are praying for and hoping for and waiting for, know that God hears that prayer and that He will answer it, in His way and in His time. But he expects us to keep walking into the sea with the faith that He will provide a way.

On Saturday we went to a birthday party at a “parc” outside Chisinau, which is mostly just a big natural area with grass and woods. The party was for Tonia, a girl who is getting baptized next Saturday. She is adorable!
She has been coming to church with her brother and sister for seven years, but her father would not let any of them get baptized until they turned 18. Now she is 18, and she is so excited to finally get baptized!

Last night, we went block knocking. Nothing too exciting happened, except for this one lady that we met... as soon as we knocked, she opened the door like all the way (which never happens, we're lucky if we get 4 inches to stick our head through...). It became apparent after 30 seconds that she was really, really drunk. We talked to her for a minute, and it was really so sad! Sora Larsen told her about how we have a commandment from God called the Word of Wisdom not to drink alcohol and that if we follow it, it will bless our lives. Well, as soon as she heard that, the lady was like, "What?! You mean I can't drink alcohol ever?!" Then she started going off about how she goes to work and she comes home and she's really tired and needs something to make her feel better. It was kind of funny how she was freaking out, but mostly just really sad--we told her that she would be a lot happier and healthier if she stopped drinking so much... but then we walked away 'cuz she was crazy.

Well, we went and finished the rest of the apartments on that floor. It was super dark cuz the light in the hall had burned out. All of a sudden, the lady opens her door again and shouts, "BAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" Both Sora Larsen & I jumped about 50 feet and screamed and ran to the elevator and were pressing the button over and over and over again cuz we were totally freaking out/laughing hysterically. It seemed like it took an eternity to come, but it finally did and we jumped on and slammed the door behind us! It was really funny, but also a reminder that alcohol really can be a force for evil and destroy our lives.

Unfortunately, winemaking is big in Moldova. Here are more pictures of the parc we went to outside Chisinau for Tonia's birthday party. It was near a vineyard.

An Apostle's Testimony of the Book of Mormon

2010-05-03T19:20:00.000-04:00

Challenges

2010-05-03T10:10:00.006-04:00

This week has had its ups and downs as every week in the life of a missionary does, but over all, it's been another great week.

Earlier this week we had a day, which was just... blah. Challenging. Every single one of the lessons we had set up, including some of our solid investigators, "bunged us" (that's mission lingo for they didn't show up). We were definitely feeling frustrated! And it's never a fun feeling when someone doesn't show up. I wish people would realize that it's more rude to set up a lesson and not to show, then just to say, thanks, but I'm not interested! Then we had a lesson set up with a Jehovah's Witness--some of the elders had contacted her, and she was interested in talking, so they gave her to us, and we set up a lesson. Of course, we had our reservations going in on what her motives were for wanting to have a religious discussion with us, but we tried to keep an open mind.

When we showed up, and she was accompanied by another Jehovah's Witness friend, I knew my reservations were probably legit. Well, I shouldn't have been so hasty to judge. They were probably two of the nicest, most sincere people we've talked to here in Chisinau. They were two young girls about our age who have made God an important part of their life. We had a nice discussion, though it was apparent that they didn't have much interest in learning about what we had to offer. One of the main things we discussed was the Book of Mormon. They pointed out a few places where the Book of Mormon contradicts the Bible, and tried to convince us that we are wrong because we believe that it was a necessary part of God's plan for Adam to partake of the fruit… but I never heard either of them say anything about how being a JW has blessed their life. I kept wondering, "What are these girls trying to offer me?” What we have to offer is the fulness of the Gospel of Christ, which brings peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come! We offer a way to be happy, a way to know what God's plan is for each one of us. We could argue for days about little nitpicky differences in interpretations of the Bible and BOM, but how would that help either one of us? It wouldn't. What helps us is having a knowledge of the fulness of the gospel. I was grateful for that lesson at the end of a challenging day because as I was testifying to these girls about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, my testimony was strengthened. I told them very simply that I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that it has brought me great peace and happiness in my life. I know it's true because I have read it, and I have prayed about it, and I have received an answer from God that it is true. And that is our invitation to the world--no one has to believe me, or not believe me. Our invitation is to find out for yourself--to ask God if the Book of Mormon is true. And we promise that if you ask with a sincere heart, He will answer. I can testify of that because I have experienced it.

Another challenging experience that helped me this week was at church yesterday. (This is a photo of our meetinghouse.) Generally, 90% of Sunday School and Relief Society are in Russian, which means I can't understand anything that is going on. Sometimes I don't even know the topic of the lesson. I was super tired in Relief Society, and literally had no clue what the topic of the lesson was, and it was about 90 degrees in the stuffy room. When I was sitting there falling asleep, I thought to myself--why am I even sitting here? This is dumb. What am I getting out of this? I can't understand a word of what is going on. Shouldn't I be out looking for people to teach or doing something else more productive?

Then I remembered the talk that we were going to share with a less active member later that night: "Unselfish Service" by Elder Oaks from a few conferences ago. I remembered that at the end of the talk he talks about our service at church, and the experience of a friend. He talks about how his friend had often wondered why he bothered going to Church sometimes when he “didn't get anything" out of the talks or lessons. And then his friend realized that he needed to change his attitude about church. He started going to church to serve others--to look for those who needed a smile or a kind word. To volunteer for an assignment, or to recognize a need that someone around us has. I remembered that, and thought, "Wow. I am really having the wrong attitude right now." Going to Church shouldn't be about "What can I get out of this today?" It should be about looking for others' needs and doing our best to serve those needs without expecting anything in return.

Even though I didn't understand a word of what happened in Relief Society, I know that it was important for me to be there. So that afterwards I could ask the girl who came for the first time with a friend how she liked it. So that I could smile from across the room at the less active woman who showed up today for the first time in a few weeks. So that I could ask the Relief Society president afterwards if I could help her put away the hymnbooks. I know that as I look for opportunities to serve others as I go to church, that I will be edified. (Sister L and I bought flowers for two RS members who were having birthdays.)

Fun little fact about Moldova: 95% of the people here live in giant apartment buildings called blocks. They were built in the communist era, and everyone still lives in them. (This is the view from a church member's apartment.) Only people who are very, very well off live in houses called villas. Blocks are really sketchy looking on the outside and in the halls, but sometime you are surprised by what it looks like behind the door. We go "block knocking" at least a few times a week--tracting in the blocks. Most people have two doors, so we often don't even get the door opened for us. :) I've quickly learned the Russian word for no: "niet!"

Random funny story: The other day we were walking down the street, and we saw this cute little dog. I wanted to say, "Hello, Mr.!" which in Romanian would be, "Salut, domnule!" but instead, I accidentally said, "Salut, doamne!" Which means, "Hello, Lord (as in God)!" Haha. Oops. Sora L & I laughed about that for a while--and hoped that none of the Moldovans walking nearby heard.

Maxi-taxis and miracles

2010-04-27T15:22:00.003-04:00

It's been another great week--it's definitely had its ups and downs, but it's been good.

Miracle of the week: On Saturday night Sora L (my trainer) and I planned to stalk a less active family. The mom's a member and she has two young girls, and Sora L worked with them a lot when she was in Chisinau last year. Apparently they wouldn't answer their phone all of last transfer, so she decided it was time to "stalk" them. We got on a maxi taxi (see fun fact below), but it turned out to be the wrong one. So we jumped off, and decided to just walk in the general direction we were supposed to go to get to their house. I was really thirsty and had left my water bottle somewhere, so we ducked into a mini-market and bought one real quick. Just as we walked out of the door, I heard Sora L squeal and we literally ran right into the family we were looking for! They were really excited to see Sora L--they didn't know she was back in Chisinau. It really was a miracle! We'd gotten on the wrong maxi-taxi, walked down a street we had never expected to, and ran right into them.

A fun fact about Moldova: there is no metro here in Chisinau, and there are a few trolley buses, but everyone takes maxi-taxis everywhere. Maxi-taxis are these big van type things that just go around everywhere. There are usually seats for probably 15 people, but then there is standing room too. So at busy times of the day, maxi taxis can be packed with 30 people. And sometimes it smells really, really bad. Haha. And sometimes I end up squashed between two very large smelly men, and I try not to die. Oh, and people don't open windows because old people think that wind will make them sick..... But I'm getting used to it! When you want to take a maxi taxi, you stick out your arm like a taxi at any place on the street. And then you get on, and whenever you want to get off you tell the driver and he pulls over to the side of the street and he barely stops and you jump out and he starts driving away again sometimes with the door still open. It's pretty crazy. Safety precautions don't really exist here..... I am always praying that we don't get T-boned by another maxi-taxi since lanes on streets don't really exist either. People just drive wherever they feel like it...

We had another baptism this week in Chisinau! And one of the other sets of missionaries has an investigator with a baptism date for next week, I think another has one on the 8th, and then we have an investigator with a date on the 15th! Chisinau is definitely on fire, and it's because of the members here. They are awesome and really support the missionaries. Especially the youth, they are a great group and really reach out to anyone who comes to church.

Another neat experience: earlier this week we had a lesson set up with one of our investigators, but she canceled right before. Sora L decided to call one of the members she had been thinking about. Sora L had been saying everyday of the last week that she needed to call Natasha and see how she was doing. Well, we called, and before Sora L asked, Natasha asked if we could come over and if we possibly had any time today. We happened to be really close to her house and our lesson was cancelled, so it was perfect. The member is Russian, lived in the U.S. for several years, married a non-member American, and moved here to Moldova because he works for the embassy. They have the *cutest* 2 1/2 year old girl who was jumping around squealing, "I so happy!! I so happy!!" when we arrived. It's so hard not to be able to hold kids! (To avoid any potential abuse accusations, LDS missionaries are not allowed to hug children or hold babies. I think that rule is abusive to the missionaries!)

Natasha had been having a really bad day and just feeling lonely being in a country where she doesn't have any friends and doesn't feel comfortable. And she is rarely able to get out of the house without her daughter along. We weren't really sure what to say, but just listened. Sora L suggested that she receive a blessing. Two of the elders were able to come over then and give her a blessing, and it was a really powerful spiritual moment. I could feel so much the love that Heavenly Father has for Natasha because she's His daughter! And he loves her and wants her to be happy. She said it really helped her a lot. I know it was Heavenly Father who arranged all of the circumstances for us to be able to go over there and strengthen her right at the moment that she needed it, and for the elders to be available right then for the blessing as well. It was really special, and a testimony to me of how concerned our Father in Heaven is about each one of us individually.

Greetings from Romania and . . .

2010-04-19T10:18:00.006-04:00

Our district from the MTC arrived in Bucurest Tuesday afternoon and headed over to the mission office immediately. We had to take care of a few things like filling out papers, getting a "physical" from a doctor for our visa papers, etc. But after a few hours all that was done and Sora M and I met up with our nas (sounds like “nahsh,” means godparents). New missionaries spend their first night in Buc with missionaries serving there. Since there is only one set of sisters right now in Buc, Sora M and I were the lucky ones who got to stay with them while the other sisters spent the night at the mission home. One of the sisters we stayed with was Sora H, who was in the MTC with us for the first few weeks. We were so excited to see her again!

That first night we got dinner, dropped our stuff off at their apartment, and then headed out to work!!! I was so excited to knock on my first door in Romania. Sora S, the senior companion, picked a block, and the four of us split up. I went with Sora S. She said she'd do the first door and the next one was mine. She knocked on the first door and the lady didn't open it at all, so Sora S said, “Well, I'll do the next one too so you can actually hear a door approach.” She knocks on the door, and the lady opens and Sora S tells her we have a message about families. And the lady told us to enter!!! Sora S taught her a 45 minute lesson on the Plan of Salvation, and I understood about half of what was going on... I didn't say hardly a word, but I did bear my testimony about Jesus Christ. The lady was so awesome! She was understanding everything we were talking about and super interested and wanted us to come back. I was amazed.

By the time the lesson was wrapping up, it was time for us to head home. I didn't even get to knock on a door! Afterwards Sora S kept saying, "That lady was epic!" Haha.

I'm so grateful to have had the opportunity to experience that the first night because it really did confirm my faith that there are people who are ready and prepared to hear the gospel, and they want to listen. Whoever said people in Europe won't listen to you is wrong. I'm not naive enough to think that it's always going to be that easy--but I have faith that they are there, and that I just need to find them!

After that night (and a blessedly amazing good night's sleep), we went to the mission president’s home for lunch and found out where we would be going! A note on President and Sister Lundberg: they are awesome. (Can you count how many times I've said awesome in this post already?) I'm so excited to be here working with them.

I was pretty surprised to find out that I was coming to Moldova!!! I've spent the last six months praying for the Lord to bless and prepare people in Romania. I sure hope he understands that I meant to include Moldova as well :)

So now I am in Chisinau (key-she-no), which is the capital of Moldova. It's a pretty big city...but no skyscrapers or anything along those lines. Moldova reminds me of a cross between Spain and Mexico. I think I've had a fairly easy time adjusting to new surroundings because I've spent time in Europe, and everything around me looks like I'm in Europe. It's little things like the street signs and the fence posts that look really similar to Spain. And everyone lives in apartments.

Sora L, who is in her 10th transfer, is training me. She is awesome!! We have had a lot of good laughs already. She is from Missouri, and is a music major at BYU. Pretty much she rocks and is full of energy, and we get along very well. This is her second time serving in Chisinau. We are only allowed to be here for 2 transfers because we don't have visas to live in Moldova, but you can come back once you've been out for a certain amount of time. We are the only two sister missionaries in the country. That is both humbling and exciting. I know that means that I have a great responsibility to find those who we need to work with, but I'm excited to do that. :)

To get to Moldova we have a driver. His name is Oleg. He is awesome but kind of sketchy haha. I had a package of Twizzlers that I opened in the car ride (it was about 5 hours from Buc to the border and another 2 beyond that to Chisinau). The older missionaries were pretty excited to have Twizzlers, and we shared with Oleg who thought they were interesting/tasty. Since it's Oleg's van that we ride in, we are subjected to Oleg's music.... let's just say I fell asleep to Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" and woke up to "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" off an EFY CD that I'm sure other missionaries had given him. The whole ride was very entertaining. Haha.

My first experience in Moldova was going to the bathroom at the gas station right across the border.... it was basically a hole in the ground, and I had to wipe with an old bank receipt Elder B had in his pocket haha. I've attached the picture cuz it was pretty funny. It was a fitting welcome to the poorest country in Europe and warning me what I have gotten myself into!

I love talking to people here. It's so fun. Contacting in Romanian is so much easier than contacting in English--because pretty much all I can say in this language is that I'm a missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ, and that I have an amazing message about how we can have more peace and happiness in this life. So that is what I have to say! And sometimes people are interested. That is so cool.

One thing that we have done a couple of times is "street boarding." We have a permit to set up a table on a street corner every afternoon. We put out copies of the Book of Mormon and talk to people about the Church. I've been praying for more courage, and I know the Lord is blessing me with it already.

In Moldova, most people speak both Romanian and Russian, but some people only speak one or the other. (Or they pretend to only speak whatever language you are not contacting them in... haha) So we have two sets of Romanian missionaries from the Buc mission and two sets of Russian speaking missionaries from the Kiev Ukraine mission. It's neat to have two different missions share the work in this country. Church on Sunday was fun. Not only did I not understand most of the talks in Romanian, I didn't understand a word of Sunday School because it was all in Russian. And Sora L and I taught the last hour of Primary. Only two kids were in attendance, one of whom only speaks Russian, so we couldn't get him to sit still.

First, I will learn Romanian. Then, I will start working on my Russian... Sora L can contact in Russian, but not much beyond that, so it's a fun time sometimes when we start talking to Russian speakers.

Something really amazing happened on Saturday: we had a baptism in our branch! A young man named Vitali was baptized. It was such a humbling and amazing experience to witness that. He was baptized in a font in a small room across from our villa where the church meets. As the Elder who baptized him lowered him into the water, I was struck so much by a confirmation that that is what the Lord wants for people and that He expects me to work hard. He is pleased with the Saints here and how amazing they are. The branch here is fairly strong for a country that is so new to the Church. (LDS missionaries first came in 2001.) There were probably 50 members at Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. I was so excited to be able to be at Vitali's baptism, and so amazed and humbled by the faith of the people here. The Church is young and their numbers are small, but they are strong in faith and their desire to live righteously. The youth here are awesome too. We are working with several young girls who are friends of members and have been coming to Church for a while now. They are amazing!!

It was so humbling to see someone change their life and make the commitment to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized into His church. They have great faith, and I feel so privileged to work among them. It was another confirmation for me that missionary work does work and that the Lord has prepared people here who He wants in His Church.

Random funny story of the week:

The other night Sora L and I spent a few hours “block knocking” [missionary-speak for knocking on doors in an apartment block]. An older man with a big belly wearing kind of a nasty T-shirt opened the door up, and we started talking to him for a little bit, but he wasn't interested. After he closed the door, Sora L was like, "His shorts were short!" and I'm like, "Sora L, I'm pretty sure those weren't shorts.......but I didn't look twice." Haha. I love having random people open their door in their underwear! Another funny thing that happened was on our way home yesterday we passed a trash can that was on fire. I tried to put it out with the little bit of water I had left in my water bottle, but my 8 ounces didn't do much. We're not sure what happened, but hopefully someone came to put it out cuz the trash can was definitely melting all over the place...

My last report from the MTC

2010-04-08T16:29:00.002-04:00

Above: All the Sisters in District 39F going to Romania on Monday!

Good news, we got our flight plans!! Yay! We are flying through New York and Vienna! I am crossing my fingers for a sweet Austria passport stamp :) But we'll see. We are leaving early early Monday morning and will be traveling for about 24 hours. I hope that I can get some sleep, so I'm not a big grump when I arrive in Romania.

I'm still working on getting my Romanian and my Spanish separated into two different areas of the brain--they are still lumped together as just my one "foreign language brain." My brother advised me to try to do as many listening exercises as I can. Unfortunately, they don't really have listening exercises in Romanian... but one thing we can do is listen to old General Conference talks in Romanian, so we have tried to do that. It does help and is really exciting when I can understand what they are talking about.

Well, today is my last P-day in the MTC. We went to the temple this morning, which as usual, was wonderful. It was definitely an emotional experience knowing that it would be my last time to participate in a session for the next 16 months. I have really, really drawn strength and peace each week from going to the temple. The temple is where we need to be. I remember in the talk that President Christensen (of the Columbus Temple) gave at Stake Conference right before I came, he talked about how when we go to the temple, it reminds us of home--our home with our Heavenly Father. That is how I feel when I go there.

I realized on Sunday that I haven't had an Easter at home in several years! It was neat to have it fall on the same day as General Conference. Conference was great!!! I remember when I was a kid I could never understand why on Earth mom and dad would actually go to church on Saturday to listen to boring people speak! Good thing I don't feel that way anymore.

I was really struck by how much this conference focused on families! Having spent the majority of my time studying families and family relationships during my years at BYU, and having a wonderful wonderful family who I am always extremely grateful for, the topic of family is very important to me. I am continually impressed that every single time I hear anyone speak to parents about how to raise their children, I realize that those are things that my parents did with us. My mom and dad are amazing, and I have so much gratitude that Heavenly Father blessed me with such great parents who raised me in righteousness and taught me to love the Lord!

As I listened to so many of these addresses focus on the family, I thought about how much I want to find families to teach in Romania. That was something I thought about before I came into the MTC, and that has continued to come to mind as I've been here. Families really are the fundamental unit of God's plan for us. They are where we learn and grow and are taught the principles we need to know in order to be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father. They are the strength of the Church! I have a great desire to teach families when I am in Romania--because I know that whole families who are converted to the gospel find great good in the Church and that when parents are converted, that has a lasting effect on generations who are taught the gospel in their home. So many conference speakers said things like the greatest missionary work you will do is in your own home and that most gospel teaching should happen within the walls of our homes, and I know that is true. I know Heavenly Father is preparing families in Romania to hear the message of the gospel, and it's up to me to be faithful and worthy to receive the guidance that will lead me to those whom Heavenly Father has prepared.

We had our last Teaching Resource Center experience on Monday. It was really wonderful. Sora M and I decided before that we wanted to sing a hymn--so we decided to sing “I am a Child of God” in Romanian with our investigator. We hadn't ever done anything like that before, but it was a really special moment. After we were done singing, Sora M talked about how singing that song reminds her of the love that Heavenly Father has for each one of us. Our investigator was really touched and shared that his wife is pregnant and that he is looking forward to fatherhood soon and that song now means more to him because of that.

Just in case you haven't figured it out yet, I love being a missionary. I love my mission. I love the gospel. I love Jesus Christ and am grateful for the opportunity that I have had to reflect on His life, His mission, His gospel while here in the MTC and especially this past Easter Sunday. I know that Jesus Christ lives!

Next time I write, I'll be in Romania.... I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

Temple blessings, and new sisters

2010-04-02T20:58:00.001-04:00

Sora M and I got up extra early today to go to the temple. It was definitely a great experience. I thought about something my mom said once--about how the Saints in the early days of the Church needed to finish the Nauvoo Temple so they could receive temple ordinances before they embarked on their long journey to Utah. They really needed to know of the blessings that are promised them as a result of their faithfulness, and to have a knowledge that they could see their loved ones who died along the way again. Then I thought about how I'm about to embark on my own long journey to a foreign land I've never been to before. I won't have the blessing of having a temple there either. How grateful I am for the opportunity to have received the temple ordinances before and to be reminded today of the blessings Heavenly Father promises me if I remain faithful to those covenants.

Yesterday I got the neat experience of being a host for new sister missionaries coming in. The sister I hosted was a sweetheart, and it turned out that she is companions with a girl I knew from my BYU ward and they are living in the room right next to mine! It was fun to see the enthusiasm of the new sisters just coming in. And to remember that it was only 7 weeks ago that I was in the same position!! It seems so crazy that I'm now looked at as the "more experienced, more knowledgeable" sister missionary. I definitely don't feel that way... but it was a lot of fun and helped me remember how much I've learned and grown since that day 7 weeks ago.

I think I mentioned that we got a new district last week of missionaries going to Romania. There are 3 sisters and 6 elders and they are great. Our district decided to play a little trick on the new district. We told them that one of our sisters was actually from Romania. It forced all of us in our district to only speak in Romanian to her--and to get the new district to start using their new phrases to communicate with her. It was fun for a few days, but then we felt really bad lying!! None of them even gave it a second thought, despite a few awkward slip ups (I was the worst at speaking English to her because I'd forget!). You would think with a last name like Humphries they would have caught on a little sooner.... haha, but it was fun. And a good learning experience. :) (I hope.)

Laughing matters at the MTC

2010-03-25T15:41:00.003-04:00

On Saturday Sister R (first on the left in the photo) was given the approval to leave, and on Monday she was outta here on a jet plane to Portland. We are SO happy that she was able to go so soon--they really needed her in Portland and she was definitely ready to be done with the MTC. We were sad to see her go, of course, since it was so fun learning signs and communicating with her. She was truly a sweetheart.

A funny story--we have a little tradition in our room that the night before any sisters leave they get to pick a hymn for us to sing all together, and then it's their turn to pray. Well, Sister R may be deaf but she sure does love the hymns. She picked one called "Ye Simple Souls Who Stray." My mom and dad have probably heard of it, but about 95% of the rest of us hadn’t. So Sister R says, "The words are so beautiful!" And the rest of us said, "....but we don't know how to sing it." And she said, "Eh, it can't be that hard!" And then she proceeds to start signing the words, while the rest of tried to start singing it..... it sounded SO BAD. Of course, I got a total fit of giggles and was cracking up because of how bad it was.... but Sister R was just signing away having no clue how truly terrible we sounded. We struggled through the first verse (and I was literally in tears by the end of it because I was laughing so hard) and then I suggested, "Perhaps we should just say the words to the rest of the song..." So we did that instead. The words really are beautiful... but it's not a good idea to try and sight read a difficult song like that without having heard it ever before!

I forgot to write last week about our first experience teaching in Romanian! We've now had two times at the TRC teaching in Romanian and they have both gone really well! I seriously love this language. And I already have a testimony that Heavenly Father blesses His missionaries abundantly with the gift of tongues if we seek it and work hard to obtain it. Of course we can't communicate everything we want to, but we practice so much in order to be prepared to teach our volunteer investigators. Sister M and I have been working to have better unity as we teach and it's just been amazing! I now have the story of the First Vision memorized in Romanian, but I'm working on saying it with proper inflection and meaning. The First Vision is so powerful. Every time we share it in a lesson, the Spirit is so strong. I always get really excited when I know we're getting to that part of the lesson. :)

What else happened this week? The weeks are really starting to become a blur to me. Umm... we got new sisters again this week! It's a new district also going to Romania. We are so excited to have them here. There are 6 elders and 3 sisters. I haven't gotten to interact with them much except for briefly last night, but it's exciting. We gathered all the sisters in our branch last night to say a prayer together. One of the sisters asked me to pray in Romanian, so I did..... but I'm afraid that it may have overwhelmed the new sisters because they obviously could not understand anything I was saying. We had to assure them that they will learn to pray tomorrow and by next week they will understand most of what I said in my prayer!

A tip if you ever need a really good laugh mixed with some spiritual upliftment: watch Mountain of the Lord, a movie about the construction of the Salt Lake Temple. Sora M and I went to see it last Sunday night. I don't ever remember seeing it before.... but I just giggled through probably 50% of the movie. During the part where the guy is climbing up the mountain and then falls down and gets blown up and you see his body rolling down the hill... I totally lost it! I recognize it was a totally inappropriate place to be laughing, but it was SO funny, especially with like the little 1960s pyrotechnics explosion... anyway... no one else around me seemed to recognize the humor of it... But the next day in class we told Fratele (Brother) M that we'd gone to see Mountain of the Lord and he asked, "Did you think it was hilarious when the guy is on the mountain and then the thing explodes and his body starts rolling down the hill?" And I said, "YES!" so I felt better that someone else thinks that part is really, really hilarious. Anyway.... that was random.

I think that's all for today and I still have 7 minutes of computer time left. It's a miracle! I finally figured out that we can use the computers in the lab by our classroom.... SO much better than the computers in the laundry room. Now I feel happy inside instead of frustrated after opening my e-mail. It's a small miracle.... haha Why it took me 6 weeks to figure this out, I don't know... another random thing it took me 5 weeks to figure out: every morning for breakfast they have hot chocolate and I've never gotten it because it's too hot. Then last week I realized I can fill the cup 75% with hot chocolate and 25% with regular milk and it's perfect. It was a happy morning the day I figured that one out.... lol

I'm doing well. I'm very happy. The Church is true. Being a missionary is awesome.