open arms

This is a picture of Sora Kiriyama and myself with an American family that was in our branch. They have left to go home, but their kids were all so cute! I forgot how much I love little kids. The little girl in the pink dress is Olivia. She really reminded me of my sister, Tamara.

Here is a picture of the fall colors near Simiu. They were so beautiful!

Hey everybody! How are you all doing? I'm doing great.

This week was a good week. We are seeing progress, even if the progress isn't going as fast as I want it. But when we are doing all that we can to help the people, God helps us to move forward in His work. We are hoping to give Ivanka a baptismal date today, and hopefully at the end of the week if the opportunity shows itself to be a good one. He's progressing slower on his own pace, but it's been neat to see the progression he has made in a short time to the extent of just being happier. (When we found him, he was a generally depressed person.) But reading the Book of Mormon changes lives. It's neat.

I really enjoyed zone conference, it was good to learn more about how we need to focus on these people individually, which we have been trying to apply this week, and it's been going well. Elder Shute from the 70 and his wife came and taught us about how the Savior focuses on each one, and how as his servants, that is what he asks us to do, too. You help each person to feel the individual love of God for them. You help the each person understand what he or she can do to have a happier life through the gospel and atonement of Jesus christ. You help each individual come to Christ through the waters of baptism. Here in Romania, where the effects of communism are so great, they are used to having tunnel vision for the masses where they as an individual don't matter. So when you tell them that God loves them, they say "of course, he loves everyone" and you try to help them understand that he loves them individually. It's hard sometimes, but it is something that brings about great miracles when they understand.

I know that God loves each of us individually and that Christ knows us individually, and His arms are open to each of us personally if we would only turn to him and allow him to heal us. He promises us that he will heal all those who will come (3 Nephi 17). It is a promise that I know that He keeps.

Anyways, the weather is slowly getting colder and colder, but it's ok. It will also get randomly warm like today where I'm not wearing 50 layers, but am ok with just a jacket. But when it is cold outside, we're still doing ok, still working, and people are still listening to us. It's so fun to have someone actually listen to what we are testifying about, and even neater when they are willing to put what we say into practice in their own life to find out for themselves if it is true. And it is true.

All is well, things are good, I don't have too many exciting stories this week and I'm sorry, but next week will be better. It helps when you're actually in your city for the whole week. Being gone for 2 days really does kill alot. But it's good!

Anyways, I love you all so so very much! And I hope that all is going well.

ttyl! --Sora Karina

ps. Brother Kemp, I hear that you are under the weather. Ok, well maybe that's an understatement. But I hope that you are doing ok for what you can. I want you to know that the atonement of Jesus Christ is something very special to me. Through it, I know that my Savior knows me and my pains and my questions, my doubts and my fears. It also means that there is always someone there looking forward to the time when it will all be better. God has a vision for us, and it is the vision of a loving Heavenly Father who wants only our happiness and exaltation. He understands that we find that happiness as we are able to overcome the trials and hardships of life with faith in His Son. He is there helping you along and as we strive to live faithfully so that we can receive the promises, those promises of joy and glory will come to pass. I know that you are doing great, and I know that Christ is there with you every step of the way. He has to be, not only out of His love for you, but also because of the many prayers, mine included, that are uttered daily from the hearts of those who love you. I hope that you are able to have a great day and find something to smile about. I find that even when nothing is going for you, a smile will always help. Have a smile, and tell your family that I say Hi and I love you all!

ps. sora thompson, pot sa am adresa ta? Am realizat ca nu am si ar fi mai bine sa-ti scriu in loc de email. si ma bucur ca esti fericita, asa trebuie sa fie! Te iubesc!!!

Happy Halloween!

Dear all you who live not in Romania, Happy halloween!!!

I am now in Constanta and I live 5 minutes away from the Black Sea...it's really cold. The wind is definitely killer, and it is still "warm" for this season as far as people tell me. Great. But it will be great. And yes, I am with Sora Kiriyama which is so fun because we were together in the MTC and now we get to remember the good times and create even more good times. It's been a blast already.

She and I are about on the same page on the language, just with different vocab cuz you learn different things in different situations and I've spent my whole mission thus far on the west, and she's only been in the East (Chisinau in Moldova, Bucuresti, and here in Constanta). This is her third transfer in Constanta so she knows her way pretty well, although we joke about how she has a defect when it comes to directions...it's fun though.

The branch here is cool. We meet in a big vila, and we as sisters actually live in the apartment on the 3rd floor of the vila where we meet for church...it's conveniant. so This branch has a bunch of Americans here...they all work for this big construction company and have been working on a project for the past year. But they're almost done so they leave in 2 weeks. Sad.

I didn't realize how much I missed kids until I taught primary yesterday to the family and it was so cute. They have 6 kids. There's another family with 2 boys, a couple that's pregnant, and a family with a 19 year old girl. So fun. And one of the girls, Olivia, looks EXACTLY like Tamara. Not kidding. I'll show you a pic sometime, but she even acts like Tam in different ways...like running and sliding accross the floor on her shoes and when she stops, bobs her head a little before running again in the opposite direction. I showed them family pictures of Tamara and they all thought I had been exaggerating about the similarities until they saw the pics. The only real difference is that Olivia is 5. But they are a cute family.

We had a huge halloween party with the branch...about 25-30 people were there which is a huge turn out, and I felt like I was in the states again with a functional activity and kids running everywhere. But it was fun. We told scary stories, played musical chairs, watched Thriller, had a pie eating contest, ate food, and played lots of other games. I didn't win the pie eating contest, but that's ok. It's not even pie, since pie doesn't exist in this country. It was sweet crackers with chocolate pudding and whipped cream on top with some gummy worms put in with it. Messy, but fun. Anyways, it was a good night, and the members dressed up real good, too.

Church was good...not as many people come to church as to the activities, but the Spirit was super strong for the fast and testimony meeting. It was so cute to hear a child's testimony again "I love my family and I know they love me too, and I know the book of mormon is true because Joseph Smith translated it, and I know that families can be forever because of the temple, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." So simple and it was just adorable. I haven't heard a testimony like that in a while. But everything that she said is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and it is a book full of amazing truths. I know that families can be eternal, and it is amazing to see a family work and work to do that together and see the hand of the Lord in their life. It changes everything, and it is worth everything that is required.

Anyways, our branch president is amazing, and I'm really excited to work in this branch. Our new investigator that we found this week is Ivanka and we knocked on her door and she opened it, gave us a huge smile and invited us in. Usually people do that without knowing what we want and so I'm weary about it to the point of trying to explain what my purpose is there so they don't get mad that you're in their house which happens sometimes. But she insisted and invited us to sit down to talk and appologized that she was in her pajamas. But we went into a lesson as if she was expecting it. At the end Sora Kiriyama asked her if she would pray to know if the message is true and she said she already knows it's true. So Sora Kiriyama asked if she would pray for a confirmation to know if it really is, and she said "the confirmation is that you came here. I've had elders come here 2 years ago and 1 year ago, and now you're here. God sent you here, and God led me to open the door even though I was already in bed not feeling well. But now I feel fine, and it's because God did it." So I of course asked her, "well, if you know it's true, will follow Christ's example and be baptized?" and she thought and said, "well, I've already been baptized once, but I'll read the book first and then I'll tell you." She leaves at the end of this month to go to Italy until January. I don't like time limits, but the Lord created time, so He can work with it.

I'm in Bucuresti right now because Zone Conference is tomorrow and a general authority (70) is going to be here with us. I don't know who, but you'll hear about it next monday. I'm excited.

So to answer my sister's questions, Jenna, I am definitely happy, no need to worry. Shaley, I didn't forget about Halloween, though we were lacking in the snow that I'm used to, and Tamara, I would love to have a tape of your violin music for my tape player. I haven't read that book, but it sounds like a good one. A book I remember reading in school (can't remember if it was 6th or 7th grade) was the book "The Giver" and it's still one of my favorites.

But your halloween sounds like it was so much fun...spooky and full of fun stories. Your costumes all look amazing, I loved it! And Jenna, your moaning ghosts and stuff you decorated in the bathroom made me laugh really hard. I wish I could have seen it. And Cherisse, it sounds like you put on quite the party. And 4 out of 31 less actives coming is a really good number. I would have been beaming if 4 of our less actives came to an activity, and we did have 3 with 3 non members that came to the activity on Saturday. One of them came to church, and she's a sweet lady. We're hoping to teach her soon! But I'm sorry Allen is sick...tell him I say to get better!

Oh, and tell the Stotts I say hi, and tell Brother Lee, and everyone else that I say hello and I love them all. Have fun in the snow, and I love you lots and lots!

ttyl Always, --Sora Karina

Oh, and I forgot to write earlier, Lenuta, our investigator from Sebiu that i mentioned last week about giving her a baptismal date, she's getting baptized on the 14th of November if things keep going well with her, and she's amazing so I'm not worried. Sora Staley promised to send me pictures. Anyways, I love you all so so much--Sora Karina
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Transfer to the Sea

Dear family and everyone who is awesome and reading this,

Hello! how are you? I am doing pretty good. I can not believe that this transfer is ending on Wednesday...it feels like it's only been about 2 weeks or maybe 3 at the most, but it's been 6!

And I am leaving Sibiu ~sad~ I am not excited to leave, because I don't feel like I've done enough here, but I am very excited to go to Constanta with Sora Kiriyama. She was one of my companions in the MTC and so I get to be with her again which will be cool, and I'm leaving Sora Staley behind to continue the work in Sibiu with a Boboaca! ha,ha. She's training and scared, but she'll be amazing and I'm excited for her. And going to Constanta will be new and interesting because I've been in the west and in the middle of the country, and now I'm going to the east on the south side, next to the sea! That's right, Constanta is the city that goes right up to the Black Sea, so that will be really, really cold in the snowy times of the winter, but that's ok. I'm excited to see how this goes.

This past week we have been learning a lot! One of the things that we decided we needed to learn how to apply better is how to ask questions and help the investigator participate more in the lesson so the Spirit can work in them more. And when we did it, the outcome was amazing and Lenuta became a new investigator. She is so cool, and wants to be baptized...we are giving her a date today so that she can better prepare for it. Another miracle from this week is that our relief society president came to church today, and she did her calling! ...Two things that haven't happened this entire transfer. So that was really exciting...and 2 women stayed for Relief Society outside of us and the president. So it almost felt like it was for real, and it was uplifting and the spirit was strong. That was definitely something to be grateful for.

Also, I should give you an update on Mariana, the cool lady that we found last week. We started the stop-smoking program with her, and she's doing pretty good with it. She didn't smoke at all for 2 days, and then smoked 2 halves of a cigarette the next, and then as far as we know she's still doing pretty good and not smoking at all or only one. (she started out having smoked an avg of 15-20 cigarettes each day) But her husband isn't helping her and is smoking more than ever. But any time he goes to light one up, she yells at him to get out of the house. "If I'm going to quit, and I am going to quit, then you are going to help me and you get out of this house to do whatever you want!" It's so funny. They are an amazing family, and I have been praying that after she quits smoking, if not before, that her whole family will become investigators. But we'll see. She is an amazing woman though, I love her.

But anyways, everything is going great, thank you so much for your prayers...I know that it is helping our investigators have more strength in their faith and it is amazing to see. I wish you could see the outcome of your faith, but instead I am the one blessed to see it. Thank you for everything, and I love you lots and lots and lots!

Oh, and Happy birthday Grandma Curtis!!!!!!! Have a great day!

Always, --Sora Karina

Dear family,

This past week was a blast, and I'm going to tell you only a few of the miracles that made it so fun because unfortunately, I don't have time to write all of them, that and I figure that I need to save some things to share with you when I get home. But man, this week was just full of cool things that the Lord made possible for us.

So we decided that we were not being passionate about our goals and that we were just setting goals that were realistic according to what we have already here in Sibiu, and we decided that was really stupid. Just like that quote from Zone Conference said, we need to get emotionally involved in our goals, and then go forth and do all you can to fulfill those goals. So we are officially done setting realistic goals, and instead we are going to set what we want and allow the Lord to work miracles, because nothing is impossible for Him to do.

We witnessed this in this past week when we found 11 people who were willing to listen to our message and have a desire to continue to learn. We have already seen to a small amount the effect these things will have as we went to work with this attitude starting Friday, and I am so excited to continue to go forth and see what the Lord has in store, not just seeing if we can meet midway goals.

This week was really fun to the extent of literally running up the stairs of a bloc one night (we started at the bottom that night to find the first person who would let us in because we had 20 minutes to have a lesson, and someone did let us in - they didn't become new investigators, but the lady said she knew that God sent us to her so that she could feed us (she fed us deep fried pig fat with apples...yummy?) and take care of us because she doesn't have any kids and she was taught to always accept and take care of the servants of the Lord, and she was just sooo happy to serve us. Even though she and her husband weren't willing to listen to the message of the fullness of the Restored Gospel, I saw it as a tender mercy from the Lord and an answer to our prayers to be let in and still make the bus(which we did) and also that woman's prayers to be a service to the Lord's servants. It was so cool.

Another night we had planned to go and find a former investigator for whom we only have an address and so we went off, but you have to cross the street at a certain point or follow the curve of the road, and we didn't cross the street which took us all the way down to a point where if we would have climbed the stairs to our left of the cross walk we would have been right back where we started. Because of this, I kind of teased Sora Staley, talking about how we were walking around in circles and it was silly, but neither of us felt bad about doing it. So we kept walking in the general direction of the former investigators, and then Sora Staley got the thought that we should vila knock right there in the middle of the street. To me it just looked like she was pacing in front of a vila until she said, "maybe we should knock this vila" ...ok, but it didn't have a door bell on the fence. So we went in and knocked on the first vila (inside this fence is a group of 4 vilas) but the first lady didn't want to listen.

We started walking out, but again Sora Staley got the thought that we weren't done. Then we noticed a lady hanging up her laundry in the cold and we went to talk to her. She said she didn't have time right then, but set up a time for us to come back. We asked if we could have her phone number. She said yes, but had to go inside to get it. She invited us in out of the cold, and then we gave her a pliant (pamphlet) to read and she asked what it was about...20 seconds into the explanation she said, "Oh, I have 10 minutes, sit down and we'll talk."

So we sat down with her and talked. It was so cool. She opened up a ton and started crying saying that she knows God loves her but doesn't know why because she smokes and sins and doesn't go to church. Also because she feels like everyone else know all the prayers and what to do, and she doesn't. She felt it would be shameful for her to go in to a church not knowing how to "properly" do everything. She wanted to know how we could have such conviction about our message. We told her it was through prayer, and taught her how to pray. She had a hard time believing that God would answer her prayers until the end.

In the middle of this, her 21 year old daughter came in and loved what we were saying. Towards the end they both said that they would pray about our message and if God really does want them to have a Prophet on earth, and if He loves them.

Mariana (the mom) told Adina (the daughter) "you know, I didn't even want to talk to these girls, and then something happened and I thought, well, why not, so I let them in and now they're telling me they can help me stop smoking and that I can pray to God to know about Him" and her daughter smiled and said "you need it mom, do what they say" and they were just so grateful and awesome. It was definitely a miracle to prove that the Lord does know where His children are, and that He will lead us to them if we are doing all we can to heed the promptings of the Spirit.

-It just brings you so much joy to share that truth. And the neatest thing is that it is not just me and Sora Staley that have been having successes like this. About 3 weeks ago, Elder Tilbey found 12 new investigators because of a guy they talked to on the street, and he told the Elders that he goes to a Bible study class every week, and Elder Tilbey said "oh, that would be fun, can we come too?" the guy said that would be fine, so they went, it turned into a discussion about the Restoration, and Elder Tilbey and his boboc companion (boboc = brand spankin new in the field) taught them all there and 12 of them set up again to meet. The following week, Elder Harvey and Elder Shwartz called a number from someone they met on the street, but it was a wrong number (happens very often) but they decided to invite the person on the other line to learn about their message. Set up, met with the family, got 8 new investigators from that family with 5 people in that group that set up baptismal dates.

This week, as in the week in which Sora Staley and I found 11 new investigators, the Elders in my district found 4 new investigators, there were probably lots of others with high numbers, but no one beat Elder McBride and Elder Brian who found 18 new investigators. They found a family who referred them to another family who referred them to another family and all three families are now learning about the restored gospel and how they can have their families for eternity. So cool!!! A side note that makes it better, Elder McBride completes his service as a missionary in 1 1/2 weeks, so that's just crazy, and he is just sprinting to the end.

The work of the Lord is going forth and we are having a blast doing it. The only thing that is kinda yucky right now is that it turned cold REALLY fast, and it is freezing. There is apparently a cold front over all of Europe and the highs in Romania are around 8-12 degrees Celcius. I don't know what that equals in farenheit, I just know that I have to wear around 4-5 layers when I go out so I don't freeze.

Funny story. The first day it got cold it was 14 degrees Celcius here in Sibiu, but all I saw out the window is that it was sprinkling lightly, so I didn't put much on under my coat and I had a light scarf and my umbrela. Well, we went out, it was soooooo cold, and it started POURING rain (in Romanian they say "raining buckets" instead of cats and dogs) and it was, my umbrella broke in the middle of it, and me and Sora Staley were numb from just above the knees down plus our ears, hands, nose, and we were sopping wet. So we went to the church after lunch to get warm, and the heaters were broken there, so we turned on and lit the four burners on the gas stove and huddled around the stove for warmth...and realizing the fact that our clothes were soaked through, we started holding up different articles of clothing over the stove to dry...our coats, scarves, socks/nylons, shoes, and I finally took off my skirt and held it up to dry after wringing it out over the sink because it was dripping wet from mid-thigh down. It was so funny...I took pictures. Anyways, it was a fun day, and we were still wet for a lot of it, but that's ok. I learned and wore a lot of clothing for the rest of the week. I have been comfortable for the majority of it. lol!

Anyways, I think that's about it for this week, and I know that that is really long, but I hope you enjoyed it. I sure did! And I hope that everything is going well back home, that you are having fun getting ready for Halloween. They don't really celebrate it here, so we already have Christmas decorations in the stores because they are lacking both Halloween and Thanksgiving, and it's weird to see Christmas being put out in October. But that's ok.

Anyways, I love you all to pieces, and I'll ttyl!

Love you!!!!!!!!!

Always, --Sora Karina

ps. I hope that you have a great week, Shaley and Jenna and Tam good luck in your meets and other things, Cherisse and Alley, keep having fun.
Grandma Coy I love you and hope you are well.
Grandma and Grandpa Curtis, I love you lots and lots, and everyone else too!!!

garbage cans are blessings

My dearest family and friends and wonderful people,

How are you all doing? I am doing great...I am working hard even though it's starting to get cold, and it looks like it's going to be a freezing winter, but right now it's just a decently cold fall...and the colors are so pretty! it's fun.

I don't really know if there is any new news to tell, most of it is all the same. This week was better than last week, as far as effectiveness and work goes. Well, pretty much everything...
there wasn't anything worse about it. But each week is getting better, and that is very exciting. I know that we are doing exactly what we have been asked to do, and because of that, we will find those who are ready to do what they need to in order to receive a witness from the Holy Ghost about the truth of the Restored Gospel. It is hard, but there are many blessings that occur from it. It takes faith sometimes to see the little miracles, but when you look, the love and gratitude you feel is more than can be expressed.

This week we had interviews and zone conference, and it was fun. We went up to Cluj-napoca for zone conference which from us is about a 4 hour drive in a maxi-taxi which is like a mix between a van and a bus, and really is not comfortable at all. But that's ok. Cluj is big, and from what I saw of it, it's pretty. They have a singing fountain that has 12 different songs that it will play according to how the water is coming out - the taxi driver kinda gave us a mini tour as we passed the main city center area, and that was cool. But I learned a lot about the work that we are doing here and how important it is to give EVERYTHING you have to the Lord to do it. It is amazing how much you can give to Heavenly Father, and still He is able to give us more than we gave, and we just can never make it up. But we keep trying because we love Him, and so He keeps blessing us because He loves us and it's an amazing cycle.

Central to this cycle is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, without which we would be lost and there would be no point in trying, no point in giving or receiving because it would only be for this short time here on earth. But everything is eternal, and that is a blessing that I am trying to understand even more. Even the time we spend with our friends or family, or the time we spend learning something, it happens in a temporal sense, but the effect of everything we do is eternal and we will reap the eternal reward, not the temporal one, in the life for which we are preparing right now. That is why it is important to use the Atonement every day, and to not give up regardless of what has happened, or what is going on now. The Atonement applies to everything on a personal level, and there are no exceptions...the only thing that stops the Atonement from working is if we don't want to do our part, and how sad is that to not be able to reap the eternal blessings of our Heavenly Father's eternal love for us because we simply would not try.

I know that he loves us, and I know that it is possible for each and every one of us to attain the perfection talked about in the scriptures. Jesus Christ did not say "the power of faith could move mountains, but you're not ever going to receive that type of faith" or "if only you could be perfect like me and your Father in Heaven are, but too bad you'll just have to settle for whatever is second best." No. He told us the power of faith because He expects us to work for that, and he knows that we can attain that kind of faith by relying on Him. When we try to go forward, He is immediately there walking with us and helping us to get where He knows we should be. Even if we can't pay back what we've missed, the Prophet's counsel is clear: "go forward, start today." make the choice to give everything to Him, including your trust and your fears, and the Atonement will give you strength sufficient to overcome and take one more step towards him. And that step is worth it.

It is so amazing to see the love that the Lord has for us on a specific and individual level, and it is so sad to see the people who believe that He died for everyone, but don't think that they can have a personal relationship with him. I know that we can. I know that he wants us to, and I know that I want to. How amazing is it to have a testimony and KNOW that God loves you, and that He has done all he possibly could to give us the way to be with Him again. It just gives me even more motivation to do all that I can. And we are promised in the scriptures that "I will go before your face, I will be on your right hand and on your left, my spirit will be in your heart, and mine angels round about you to bear you up" for "victory is of the Lord". I know that this is true and it is possible and as we look to Him, He will help us in everything.

Anyways, on a completely different note, we have this really old woman neighbor who is obsessed with where we put our garbage can, when we put our garbage in our can, when we roll our garbage can out, when we roll it back into the parking lot, and if we really know which one is our garbage can. Oh, she also asked me if I know how to lock the door to the complex. She knocked on our door this morning three times to make sure we know about the garbage schedule and told us how to lock the door (just in case) and told us to open our windows during the day because apparently it is a new building and fresh air is good for the walls??? That's ok. They also say that eating ice cream on a cold day will give you a cold, and sitting directly on cement effects your ability to have children, especially if it's windy. She really has taken upon herself to regulate the garbage cans of the block. Is everyone putting their own garbage in their own cans?? Today she asked me to please write our apartment number on our can. One time I set the garbage out by the front door to take when we left the apartment. She knocked on the door and informed us that the garbage can't be there. I told her I was just about to take it out. She's really cute...just kinda bored and I think a little lonely. I should suggest knitting to her or something. I love it so much, we definitely are not lacking smiles every day.

But anyways, I am so glad that you had a good birthday mommy!!! I'm hoping to send something in the mail soon. Oh! And I got your package finally!!! And thank you so much, it was awesome. The food is being much enjoyed by all of us (the missionaries) Tamara's pictures are so fun - they will become the best p-day ever! and you were inspired about the pens that I needed...I know it's silly, but you gave me the kind that I needed/wanted/like. It was perfect. And I loved the pictures! And I got your package too, Rachel, thanks a million, I loved it! ...especially the stuff for smores, the scarf, the candy, that's pretty much all of it. Yeah, it was a good late birthday celebration.

And while I'm on that topic, the office told us to forward this: The office elders have asked us to pass along some information that should help you receive mail and packages from home more quickly (a good thing as Christmas time is approaching). We are recommending that all mail and packages sent to missionaries serving in Romania and Moldova be addressed as follows:

[Name of missionary]
Sos. Pipera Nr. 41, Et. 7 (Posta 41)
Bucharest, Romania 014254

The name of the missionary should NOT include “Elder” or “Sister.” Also, DON’T include the name of the mission or anything like that in the address. Please pass this information along to families and others that want to send you things by mail.

But I love you lots and lots and lots, and Shaley and Jenna, you look GORGEOUS in your homecoming dresses, I loved it! And Shaley, congrats on winning homecoming queen! I knew you would! But it sounded like a lot of fun. Keep enjoying your sports, the three of you, and tell Cherisse and Allen that I love them - the whole star trek guy thing made me laugh for about 20 minutes with my district, and your house looks so cute! I love you lots, and ttyl!

Always, --Sora Karina

tender mercies

This is my companion, Sora Staley and I - she is amazing I love her so much. She's acutally taller than I am, but it was cold on the top of the "mountain" which is like a hill to us, but it took a good hike, and it was so pretty.

The one of the baptism is Casia with her dad who baptized her and her mom...the dad is the branch president here. we have about 8-15 members who come to church depending on the week, and the leadership is shaky, but it's getting better. Ps. I love this family they are so amazing.

Hi family and all the people I love so much! How are you? I'm doing great.

This week was good, but everything that happened was only possible because of things Heavenly Father did. And He made sure that we knew it was only possible through Him. We actually had 17 lessons set up for this past week (not all from contacts, but still a decent amount) we had 8 lessons total, but only 4 of them were from the original 17 and only 3 of the 4 were non-members. It was amazing.

Some other amazing miracles - we had planned to take the bus to the church, and we have a copy of the schedule, but when we got to the stop, the bus didn't come. With the bus it takes 10 minutes to get to the church, without it, it takes usually 45 minutes to walk. We had 20 minutes to get to church on time once we realized that the bus wasn't coming and the next bus wouldn't get there for 25 more minutes, so we started walking as fast as we could. We got to the church exactly in 20 minutes. I know it's good to be early, and we were sad that we couldn't be, but it was amazing that we took the same amount of paces as usual, but with 25 minutes less time than it has alway taken before, and it was definitely something to be grateful for. One of the many tender mercies from the Lord.

Another tender mercy is that we found 3 new investigators this week, and they are all really amazing people, really willing to learn, understanding what we say, and the Spirit has been so strong lately. I am blown away at the way that the Lord can put His hand in our actions and change everything - someone who looks annoyed when we first talk to them leaves after telling us to call them in 2 days so that we can meet. After a day full of bungs and nothing working out, everything falling through. But just because we won't go home early, the Lord places someone in our path, or leads us to a block where the door is open so that we can go and find someone who was just about to leave to go somewhere and now all of a sudden they want to talk. Or with Maria, we were talking to her at her door, and you could tell that she didn't know why she was letting us in, but she did and was confused by it that she tried to give it purpose by giving us a mini tour around her house and showing us things. Then we taught her the restoration, and she was excited for us to come back (we're going there tonight) and it truly is by small and simple things that we can see the miracles in the larger scope of God's eternal perspective in this work. It was really fun.

So that was my week. Everything is going really well. A crazy person story...we talked to a lady at a bus stop, and after trying to testify, we ended up just listening to her talk about how it's a sin to wear makeup, its a sin to use product in your hair, it's a sin to wear pants (which she was wearing and used her pants as an example of that sin) and said that she wishes she could be muslim because they are the ones who please God. We tried saying that we are all God's children and He is pleased with us when we keep His commandments and such, but she would not listen, saying "no no, I'm a sinner...see these pants? and you are sinners too. Please don't get mad, but I have to tell you you are sinning. Just look at your face. That stuff on it is not pleasing to God." We finally just looked at each other, left, and laughed the whole way home. Later that night Sora Staley washed her face and came up to me and said "look sora! I'm not sinning anymore!" and we laughed some more.

Another funny story, Elder Bernier (an elder from my MTC group that i'm serving with right now in Sibiu) his mom googled his name and she found my blog because of it! Funny.

But other than that we are working hard, we are having fun - we actually had one sister stay for Relief Society this past sunday, so that's progress right there! The Lord is helping us in this work, and it is His work, and I am so happy that I can be a part of it here in Romania.

Well, I love you all so so very very much, and I'll write next week! Love always, --Sora Karina

ps. Assistants acum sunt Elder Anderson si Elder Collier - te iubesc mult si ai o zi buna!!!

working hard in Sibiu

Dearest family and everyone,

Hello! How are you? I'm doing well...Sibiu is still gorgeous and we are working hard.

This week was a week full of lessons - though it wasn't with other people, but I sure learned a lot. Even though it was a hard week, it was a good one. I learned tons from our lessons with Casia - she's the 8 1/2 yr old that got baptized on Saturday and the service went great. There were small amounts of people there, but it was good - Sora Staley and I had 2 investigators there and the Elders had one of their investigators that came, and the Spirit was soooo strong.

And teaching her this past week to make sure she was ready was amazing. We would teach her a lesson and the things that she comprehended amazed me. We taught her the Plan of Salvation with a semne (puzzle), and after we went through the whole thing her mom suggested that Casia put the semne together herself to see if she understood. So we mixed it up, and she cleared her throat and began to teach us what we had just taught her starting at the Premortal life and all the way to where we want to be with God in the Celestial Kingdom. She had all the information right and it was stated so simply as if it were fact - she has great faith. It just proves that the gospel of Jesus Christ is simple enough in it's truth that even a child can understand and believe. It was wonderful.

As for everything else, we had a couple of lessons with our other investigators, and they are doing well...not quite understanding everything enough to come to church or commit to baptism, but they are keeping their commitments and we had good lessons there. We found a lot of good potential investigators this week, but all of the lessons that we had set up fell through unfortunately, but we are still trying to find in the situations in which we find ourselves and are begining to understand what more we can do in order to do all that we can do for the Lord to help us with this work.

One thing I learned this week is how pride really does become a stumbling block to the road of happiness in your living. I have been studying a lot about faith, and how pride is what gets in the way of our faith. Ultimately, it gets in the way of us being able to have a good relationship with our Heavenly Father. This was a good week for me to get back in line with the expectations of the Lord and to remember why I wanted to be here, why I am doing what I am doing. It is because I love the Lord, and I have a desire to love His children enough to share with them the knowledge that I have about their salvation. In short anyways, that's what it is.

This branch is really disfunctional and Sundays are more of a day of stress than a day of rest for us missionaries - Relief Society consisted of me and my companion because no one is used to staying for all 3 hours - including the RS president, and we were joined by Serban who is 13 and is in the young mens program, who didn't want to be in Priesthood, and so he came up with us and we had a lesson on Christ-like attributes. It was good, but the whole thing is crazy. But hopefully it will get better each week.

Other than that, I don't have too much to say. I got jenna's letter and I loved it! Thanks love. I will be getting my package probably at this zone conference which is on October 10th. Which reminds me, Mom, can you please call Brianne for me to tell her I wish her a happy birthday on Thursday? That would be awesome. Tell her I love her! And no I don't get to see the RS broadcast, but it sounded good by the notes you sent me. I'll be able to read it in the Liahona that I will get of the conference session in a couple of months. And thanks for taping conference for me again - this time I'm not even going to be able to listen to it in Romanian unless we get the dvd's from the headquarters in germany soon after. But it will be good. Take good notes for me ;}

Anyways, I hope that you are having a good week, I am excited to tell you more things that I learn about the Lord's hand in His work next week, and until then, smile lots! I love you all so so so much!

Love Always, --Sora Karina

Jenna and Shaley and Tamara - congrats on your matches/meets. It sounds like you are doing great! And I love hearing about it. I love you three soooo much. And of course tell Cherisse and Allen that I love them too :D ttyl