One week to go at MTC!

Hi everyone!

So the craziest thing to think about, is that I only have one more preparation day left here at the MTC before I leave, and we should be getting our travel plans any day now. AHHHH!!! I can't wait! I'm so excited!

I got a package from Don, Penny, Rachell and Nicole...thank you so much! I loved the cards and the pictures of the 1st pres. it came in handy for a progressing investigator lesson where we were telling her about the prophet, so it was perfect!

Oh, and i found out that usually in Romania we watch re-runs of previous conferences if they can't get the current one, and the liahona comes only 4 times a year. So if you could plan on sending me the Conference issue ensign, that would be amazing.

Shaley, I'm so excited that you finally got your braces off!!! I'll appologize now for your late b-day present...I'm getting to Romania on April 1st, and it will take a while for me to be able to send anything. But I will be thinking of you, and if I email, I'll say happy birthday.

There is a new elder in our Branch, one of the 3 going to Romania, and he hasn't gotten a letter since he's been here! I asked if he would like a letter from anyone and he said yes, so anyone can write to him. He just wants encouragement and something to think about. His name is Elder Sanchez and he is amazing. his mailbox is MTC 149 and it's ROM-BUC 0511. Everything else is the same as mine. It can be sent on dearelder.com. He is leaving the MTC the same day as me, March 30th.

Sunday we get to be a part of the broadcast for the Draper Temple Dedication! That will be super nice.

This past Tuesday Devotional Elder Perry was here and talked to us about our companions. I loved it. One thing in particular that stuck with me is that he said to look for the eternal experiences. What we are doing in life is not just about the here and now, but about the eternities and everything that will come in the life to come. As we look ahead and keep in perspective what really matters, we will be able to find joy in our trials, joy in our suffering, and we will be able to work to become what our full potential defines: we are sons and daughters of God. So look for the eternal opportunities and experience what is eternal.

Margaret Liffereth from the primary gen. pres. spoke to the Relief Society on Sunday, and she talked about how as we grow spiritually, we come to find the power that we have in the spirit. If we have the Spirit, that doesn't mean that we know everything that that means. It is a life-long process to learn how to communicate with and through the Spirit, and it is a relationship of feeling and growing and learning. It is so cool to learn how you individually feel that Spirit and how to tap into the power that we each personally have with that.

Ok, funny...Every night when i write in my journal I sign my name at the end of the entry, and a couple nights ago I signed it without thinking and then when I looked at it, I realized I signed my entry in my journal as my companion's nam, Sora kiriyama! It was so funny...that is companion unity right there! We joked that we are as the Romanian's say: friends of the belt buckle (prieteni de la catarama) which basically means "tight" (lol).

And on Sunday, we all put on purple face masks, which looked hilarious, so we took pictures.

And teaching to the volunteers in the TRC this week was hilarious, (This is all role playing, as you know, with people who are really members of our church, who speak Romanian so we can practice teaching in our new language) because we were teaching about the Word of Wisdom, and when we aksed what they knew about it they said 'oh that weird thing where you can't drink or smoke or have any fun, because that's how you have fun" (mind this is all in Romanian) and so we explained that it was a revelation from God through the Prophet, and that you can actually have more fun dancing with out alcohol...I don't think they believed that part, but they did say that they would try to live it. Then it turned into a conversation in Romanian about how it was too much money wasted and we could just all drink it together right then (us included) I tried not to die laughing, and so i ended it by saying that we would call them to morrow and check up on them to see how they were doing. "ok, fine, we'll do it" and it was a riot. So much fun to be able to express what you want to say, and then so amazingly frustrating when you know what you want to say, and what they need to hear, but you don't know how to say it. But the spirit helps you where you lack.

Today in the temple, which was amazing, I was thinking a lot about diligence. The Spirit taught me some neat things between what the English scriptures say, and what the literal translation of the Romanian scriptures say, that add new light to things. For instance, instead of "laboring with all diligence" the Romanian scriptures translate to "desire to do all they are commanded from the very bottom of their souls" and they mean the same thing -diligence- but one describes HOW we should be diligent. We should be diligent from the very bottom of our souls, because that is what we desire to do. We desire to give our all in everything that we have - school, sports, relationships, callings, service, and anything else that is here in life for us to experience. It is through diligently giving our all that we are able to find the fulness of joy that is there to find in any work. It was awesome.

I can't really remember much else from this week to talk about, but I love you all so very much...don't forget to send anything else priority so that I can get it and i'll probably send a small package home sometime with things that are just cluttering up my suitcases.

But I love you all so so so much, and I'll write again next week!

Love always, --Sora Karina