Hey family! And everyone!
This past week was amazing! I don't remember if I told you last time or not, but we had a lesson with Amalia last week about the law of chastity because she's not living it, and she said she doesn't think it's a sin or that she's doing anything wrong. Um, not ok...breaking the law of chastity is a big deal and we were kinda at a loss of what to do. So we prayed about it a lot last week, and we had another lesson with her this week. We told her why it's such a big deal and why we need to repent of things like that, and she did admit at the end that it was a sin and that she needs to change it. She didn't quite know how, so we talked about that for a bit and found out that contrary to our beliefs, she doesn't live with her boyfriend, she just needs to break up with him. Or marry him, but when I suggested that she shook her head hard and said “No, he annoys me too much. I wouldn't be surprised if Sora Thompson prayed for my eyes to be opened about him, because it's been getting worse and worse.” Ha ha, I wouldn't be surprised either...I love Sora Thompson. So Sora Poulsen and I are now working with her to get baptized on June 20! I'm so excited for her.
We also have 2 new investigators that are really cool and one of them, Nicoletta, is already doing intensive topical studies in the Book of Mormon. Granted it's all about revelation and how to receive it, she's a bit pre-occupied with that, but I am positive that if it's her desire she will receive the answer to her prayers. God is merciful in that way, loves us very much and always answers our prayers when we truly desire it, in His way, for our benefit. So neat.
Anyways, Thursday was Zone Conference in Timisoara which is a city about 1 ½ hour train ride away from Arad and it's really pretty there. Elder Kopishka, a member of the quorum of the 70 is one of our area authorities, and he came and did a mission tour, so zone conference was 7 hours of listening to a general authority with a few things in between. It was really neat. A few things he talked about was how one of the things we constantly need to overcome in this life is fear. And one of the most assured ways of doing that is by realizing who you are. For us, we are called representatives of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. BAM! Fear gone. For you, you are members of the one and true church of Jesus Christ, and have covenanted with Him to take His name upon you and He promises that as you are obedient, He will always be with you. Yeah. And for everyone in the world, if they could realize that they are a choice child of God with divine potential and that God loves them, what could be better to distill the fears of the world than that? Jesus Christ has overcome the world, and we need not fear if we allow Him to be our Master. Keeping the commandments of God is a proactive way for us to show our faith and our love for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Feeling the Spirit is a natural consequence of that obedience and love.
Now I want to talk about miracles. Miracles are a natural outcome of extreme faith and complete obedience. We are not responsible for the miracle, only for the work that is required. When we do what is needed, God will take care of the rest and we will witness the miracle, for “I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise” and we can have faith that if we “ask [we] shall receive, for whosever seeketh findeth, and whosever asketh receiveth.” It is a beautiful promise and a true principle. Elder Kopishka told us a story about a man who had a messenger appear to him and told him that he needed to go and push against the big boulder that was in his front yard for his work every day. So the man woke up in the morning, went out and pushed hard until the night, and went to bed. The boulder hadn't budged, but he woke up the next morning and did the same thing. Over a season the boulder hadn't moved an inch but the man was faithful. One night he went to bed discouraged and frustrated. The messenger came to him again and asked why he was so discouraged. The man said that he had been doing all that had been asked of him, but there was no result and hadn't moved the rock. The messanger, whom the man now recognized as Jesus Christ told him, “I didn't ask you to move the boulder, just to push against it. And there are results. Your arms are stronger than they were, your back is stronger than it was, your legs are stronger than they were, and you have proven faithful and are now prepared for an even greater work that has been waiting for you.” Then there is the principle for how the Lord moves mountains. When we want a mountain to be moved, we need a pick axe and a shovel, and enough life to finish it. Our faith is that the Lord will help us have the strength to do what is required and give us the length of life we need to do it. Not as easy as “faith moves mountains” sounds, but I know that it is true. Faith requires action, and there is never a time when we exercise that faith that the Lord will leave us alone.
One last thing from that, We each need to go through what are called the years of endurance. Usually they are teen years, but it can be at any time of life. And it is the time needed to gain a testimony. It is during that time that we (those who have a developed testimony) help others to the door of conversion, we help them endure the hardships when they don't know and when we wish we could do more for them. But we can not push them there or just tell them where it is, we can only ask them to walk with us the path that goes where we know they need to go.
Ok, enough deep stuff for now.
The week ended with a baptism. Bogdan had planned for his baptism to be next week, but changed it last minute to this past Saturday on the 23, and it was a wonderful service. He asked me to speak – ah! So I gave a talk in Romanian on Baptism, and it went ok I guess. It was hard, and I hope that they understood what I said, but the Spririt was strong throughout the whole meeting. After I went to congratulate him, and he shook my hand hard and thanked me for everything. I wished that Sora Thompson could have been there, but the fact is I didn't do much – I just showed him the way and he did the rest. I wish I could have hugged him, but Elder Smith did it, so that will have to be good enough. He was confirmed a member and received the Holy Ghost yesterday, looking snazy in a suit and tie, and he just smiled through the whole thing. It was neat to experience.
Now we have another busy week ahead of us, and I'm excited to get to work some more! I miss you all and love you all so so so very much. I hope that all is going well at home and that your missionary work and school and lives and fun are all in place and rolling forward with great joy. Keep it up, rely on the Lord, and know that I love you so so so so so so so much!!!
Always and forever, --Sora Karina
ps. I hope that Brianne's wedding went great and that Cherisse got back to school safe. If you can, I want to see pics of Bri's wedding! Thanks and love you!
pps. din nou - Sora Thompson – Sora Poulsen is way different than you, but we're having fun. She's not quite as gung-ho as you are, still a hard worker but a bit more relaxed and not as energetic about it. So she thinks that I'm a control freak so I'm trying to work on being softer about everything – not to take away the energy, but to say things lighter with not as much definite “this is what should happen” type thing so as to not be so “controling.” But we're working hard, laughing, and doing the best we can with everything. I'm glad to hear that you're having fun on the phone with Eric – I hope that it continues to be fun, and have a stinkin' good cruise. Relax, and be ok with it lol! Love you and ttyl!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
1st transfer period
Hello everyone!!!
So this past week was spent mostly in Bucuresti for transfer meeting. We left Sunday night and Sora Thompson had a bunch of get ready and go home stuff to do and left early Wednesday morning. I am really going to miss her. But on Wednesday I got my new companion, Sora Poulsen! She is great and we are already having lots of fun together working hard.
Funny story, they don't really have elevators here, but they have what they call lifts which can fit 2 people almost comfortably for a normal size one, and a bigger one fits 4 people if you squish. Well we were visiting a member in Bucuresti and we decided to take the lift (we being myself, Sora Poulsen, Elder Castro and Elder Bigu) and it was packed tight but we only needed to get to floor 4. Well, about 2 seconds of going up and it stopped and moved at snails pace. We were still going up until it decided to stop in the dead center between floors one and two. Great.
We were staring at a cement wall and couldn't do anything about it. Luckily the member knew that we had arrived at her bloc and after 10 minutes of us not arriving at her door came to look for us and found us stuck in the lift! We were in there for about 20 minutes until she somehow got it going again. We were laughing pretty hard about it.
So now we are back in Arad where they don't even use lifts and you walk up and down stairs a lot, but it's good.
It's starting to get super hot. There is no inbetween time - when it is spring it's nice and then all of a sudden the next day it is boiling and you didn't know that you could sweat so much! So I'm trying to learn how to like the feeling of being sweaty, and it is going to take a while, but I have 4 months of it ahead, so might as well get happy about it now, right?
Our lessons with our investigators are going pretty well, and we found a new investigator Nicoletta. She is amazing. She comes to our English classes that we teach, and is really interested in the Gospel and she came to church yesterday and had lots of really good questions about revelation and how she can know what is truth or not and such. She already did a topical search on it in the Book of Mormon, like wow. So hopefully our lessons with her will go well.
And we have a baptism this Saturday with Bogdan! He is such a great kid, I have loved teaching him. So hopefully all goes well to the end and he is able to have a great experience with this. It is always a miracle to be able to take the first step that leads you to the Kingdom of God, and to know that you are placing yourself on the pathway to eternal happiness. That is what he will be doing. He has made many changes in his life, and it is worth it because of the smile that he has more and more and the knowledge that he knows that God wants him to do this, and that this is true. Everyone can have that chance. First they need an invitation to learn and to change, and then they need to want to change, to want to know, and then they can act upon the knowledge that they receive from God through the Holy Ghost. It is an amazing process, simple, and is meant for all of God's children, not just a few. Everyone should have this chance. So the work is going well here.
Family, I love you so so so so so so much. I love telling the members here stories about my sisters back home, and they all wish that they could meet you! That would be super fun, watching them try to speak English and failing miserably. That's ok. I know that I sound awful to them in Romanian a lot.
Funny story for my sisters who will find this to be the funniest thing ever - I did anyways. We were talking to people on the street advertising for our English classes, and we found this guy who knew a little English, and was talking to us only in English. We asked if he could come and he said this: "I will like to come, but it is hard when I have no family close to help, and I have no one here to sit my babies so to come with promise." Yes, he said "sit my babies." I was smiling for the rest of the night from that one. But I'm sure that I've said a couple things out of order like that too, so I can't judge, but I did laugh after we walked down the street away from him. But he was nice. I hope he can come sometime.
But I think that that is all for now. I will have lots more to write next monday. I love you and I hope that all is well. Never forget that God loves you, and we are the happiest when we live the Gospel. When we obey God's commandments, He blesses us without fail. He can't not bless us because He promises blessings for each and every thing He asks us to do. I know that the Lord keeps His promises. I have seen it again and again out here, and I know that He is just waiting for us to come to Him so that He can help us be happy.
Shaley, don't forget that you need to ask Josh to meet with the missionaries - I promise it's not that scary, and I pray for you and him every night. Love you!! And good luck on all your finals!
Jenna, Even though you're really busy, don't forget to give yourself time to just sit and draw and have fun the way that YOU like to have fun. It would be great if you could draw me something that I could hang up in my appartment - they don't really have anything except white walls and it drives me crazy. But be happy and I love you so much! Also, good luck with your finals, you'll be great!
Tamara, good luck on your last v-ball game. Have fun and smile lots. I know you'll do awesome. And have fun at your violin concert, too. Music is wonderful, and keep practicing. I love you very very much!
Cherisse, Keep working hard to the end of school, and enjoy all that you can. Tell Alley that I say hi, and know that I love you lots and lots. Have fun getting more wedding stuff ready, and send me pictures of you in the dress and everything if you can. Love you!!!
Mom and Dad, I love you very very very much, and I love hearing from you when ever you have time. It's ok if you don't have time, I have to write in my planner the time to come here to the internet cafe and write to you, but I love you and hope that all is going really well for you.
I will write more happy thoughts next week, until then give Brianne the BIGEST hug from me and tell her I love her THIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSS much or something around there lol! Tell the ward I say hi. I'll be sending them a letter when I get the time to finish it.
Lots of love and hugs all around!
Sora Karina
So this past week was spent mostly in Bucuresti for transfer meeting. We left Sunday night and Sora Thompson had a bunch of get ready and go home stuff to do and left early Wednesday morning. I am really going to miss her. But on Wednesday I got my new companion, Sora Poulsen! She is great and we are already having lots of fun together working hard.
Funny story, they don't really have elevators here, but they have what they call lifts which can fit 2 people almost comfortably for a normal size one, and a bigger one fits 4 people if you squish. Well we were visiting a member in Bucuresti and we decided to take the lift (we being myself, Sora Poulsen, Elder Castro and Elder Bigu) and it was packed tight but we only needed to get to floor 4. Well, about 2 seconds of going up and it stopped and moved at snails pace. We were still going up until it decided to stop in the dead center between floors one and two. Great.
We were staring at a cement wall and couldn't do anything about it. Luckily the member knew that we had arrived at her bloc and after 10 minutes of us not arriving at her door came to look for us and found us stuck in the lift! We were in there for about 20 minutes until she somehow got it going again. We were laughing pretty hard about it.
So now we are back in Arad where they don't even use lifts and you walk up and down stairs a lot, but it's good.
It's starting to get super hot. There is no inbetween time - when it is spring it's nice and then all of a sudden the next day it is boiling and you didn't know that you could sweat so much! So I'm trying to learn how to like the feeling of being sweaty, and it is going to take a while, but I have 4 months of it ahead, so might as well get happy about it now, right?
Our lessons with our investigators are going pretty well, and we found a new investigator Nicoletta. She is amazing. She comes to our English classes that we teach, and is really interested in the Gospel and she came to church yesterday and had lots of really good questions about revelation and how she can know what is truth or not and such. She already did a topical search on it in the Book of Mormon, like wow. So hopefully our lessons with her will go well.
And we have a baptism this Saturday with Bogdan! He is such a great kid, I have loved teaching him. So hopefully all goes well to the end and he is able to have a great experience with this. It is always a miracle to be able to take the first step that leads you to the Kingdom of God, and to know that you are placing yourself on the pathway to eternal happiness. That is what he will be doing. He has made many changes in his life, and it is worth it because of the smile that he has more and more and the knowledge that he knows that God wants him to do this, and that this is true. Everyone can have that chance. First they need an invitation to learn and to change, and then they need to want to change, to want to know, and then they can act upon the knowledge that they receive from God through the Holy Ghost. It is an amazing process, simple, and is meant for all of God's children, not just a few. Everyone should have this chance. So the work is going well here.
Family, I love you so so so so so so much. I love telling the members here stories about my sisters back home, and they all wish that they could meet you! That would be super fun, watching them try to speak English and failing miserably. That's ok. I know that I sound awful to them in Romanian a lot.
Funny story for my sisters who will find this to be the funniest thing ever - I did anyways. We were talking to people on the street advertising for our English classes, and we found this guy who knew a little English, and was talking to us only in English. We asked if he could come and he said this: "I will like to come, but it is hard when I have no family close to help, and I have no one here to sit my babies so to come with promise." Yes, he said "sit my babies." I was smiling for the rest of the night from that one. But I'm sure that I've said a couple things out of order like that too, so I can't judge, but I did laugh after we walked down the street away from him. But he was nice. I hope he can come sometime.
But I think that that is all for now. I will have lots more to write next monday. I love you and I hope that all is well. Never forget that God loves you, and we are the happiest when we live the Gospel. When we obey God's commandments, He blesses us without fail. He can't not bless us because He promises blessings for each and every thing He asks us to do. I know that the Lord keeps His promises. I have seen it again and again out here, and I know that He is just waiting for us to come to Him so that He can help us be happy.
Shaley, don't forget that you need to ask Josh to meet with the missionaries - I promise it's not that scary, and I pray for you and him every night. Love you!! And good luck on all your finals!
Jenna, Even though you're really busy, don't forget to give yourself time to just sit and draw and have fun the way that YOU like to have fun. It would be great if you could draw me something that I could hang up in my appartment - they don't really have anything except white walls and it drives me crazy. But be happy and I love you so much! Also, good luck with your finals, you'll be great!
Tamara, good luck on your last v-ball game. Have fun and smile lots. I know you'll do awesome. And have fun at your violin concert, too. Music is wonderful, and keep practicing. I love you very very much!
Cherisse, Keep working hard to the end of school, and enjoy all that you can. Tell Alley that I say hi, and know that I love you lots and lots. Have fun getting more wedding stuff ready, and send me pictures of you in the dress and everything if you can. Love you!!!
Mom and Dad, I love you very very very much, and I love hearing from you when ever you have time. It's ok if you don't have time, I have to write in my planner the time to come here to the internet cafe and write to you, but I love you and hope that all is going really well for you.
I will write more happy thoughts next week, until then give Brianne the BIGEST hug from me and tell her I love her THIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSS much or something around there lol! Tell the ward I say hi. I'll be sending them a letter when I get the time to finish it.
Lots of love and hugs all around!
Sora Karina
Monday, May 11, 2009
Another Amazing Week!
This week was amazing. I am just going to go down the list of what all happened and add details where they are needed.
Monday we went to a monestary which was really pretty, and we met Ani to go shopping for her wedding dress and such for Thursday. We were able to find a dress, shoes, a suit, and nice outfit for her 2 boys for relatively cheap at 2nd hand stores. It was so fun, and then we went to the church to watch some conference talks with her and practiced what to do with her make-up and nails.
Sunday was fast sunday and we had fasted that Lica would be able to quite smoking all the way, and to not worry about the 5 that he got down to last week. So we called him Monday to ask his size for the suit, and he asked, "Can I get baptized on Saturday with Ani?" and apparently since we started our fast on Saturday he hasn't smoked at all and he wants to get baptized!!! So we said we would talk with him and see if he was ready which we did on Tuesday.
We had a great lesson with Amalia, had a good english class, had a fun lesson with Florina (One of my favorite members here) and went to visit Lica. We taught him the remainder of the lessons that we needed to teach him, and went over the interview questions to make sure he understood everything. To every part we said, "do you understand? are you willing to live this?" and every reply was "Yes, I do, I will do anything, I just want to get baptized!!" so we called President Lundberg and said "Hey President, I have a question. Is it ok if on Saturday we have 2 baptisms instead of one, and if we baptize a family?" Of course he was thrilled and said if he doesn't smoke or drink coffee for the rest of the week, then it would be fine. Yay!
Wednesday we spent the morning at the Jessees' cooking the food for the reception the next day that we were putting together for the wedding, and had 5 lessons that were really really good.
Thursday was the wedding and it was so neat. The actual ceremony is really funny. You go to the Primarie and wait in the hall for your turn with about 10-15 other people who are waiting to get married with their friends with them. When it's your turn you hear the wedding march playing, and you are ushered in quickly and the couple goes up to the desk where the government official is there and she says why we're there, asks them if they want to marry each other, has them sign the papers, kiss the bride and after a quick 5 minute happening including pictures, the wedding march is turned on again, and you are ushered out. That's it.
So we went accross the street into the park and took a bunch of wedding pictures with them and it was super fun. (I'll be sending pictures next week I hope) and then we had the reception that night. Gabi Oanta's sister majored in cake making so she made the cake and it was gorgeous. When Ani saw it she just started crying because she would have never dreamed that she would have anything like this in her life because of their poor state that she's lived in for 10 years. They were expecting to just get married in jeans some day and go home with a marriage certificate, but they looked so good all dressed up, and we had a dancing party and everything. So much fun.
Friday we got a new investigator who is trying to find a way to get a job and move out away from her husband who has been beating her for the past 10 years, and she loved the feeling of the Spirit. She is so sweet. After that we had another lesson with Alexandra and then our district meeting and then Ani and Lica had their baptismal interviews which went super good.
Saturday was the baptism and it was gorgeous. They were beaming and were so happy to be doing it together. It was such a blessing, especially for Sora Thompson who is leaving and got to be there to see the blessing of her labors. It was a really good program, even though Ani is scared of water and it took all the courage she had to step into the basin (our portable baptismal font) and then she didn't go under the whole way the first time and had to do it again! But she did so good.
And even though Lica had never worn a tie before in his life before his wedding, the Elders taught him how to tie it and he's loving it having worn it three times now (wedding, baptism, and church yesterday.) Church was really good. Ani and Lica were confirmed and received the Holy Ghost, and our choir sang "I know that my Redeemer Lives" and they did pretty good. A lot of them came up to me after and made me promise to keep choir going after Sora Thompson leaves, which I am of course going to do.
After church we went over to the Jessees for a delicious dinner to celebrate Mother's day, and I got to talk to my Mom and family!!! It was so fun talking to you and I'm sooo glad to hear that you are all doing so good. I love talking to the people here who have no hope and being able to show them a picture of you saying that the gospel gives you hope, and joy, and my family is an example of living it. It's so wonderful. When we live the gospel, the Lord blesses us. He has to, and he wants to, but we need to be willing to live in the way that he has asked us to first. It is so worth it. Seeing these people's lives change for the better is one of the greatest blessings I could recieve. I love you all so so so so so much, and I am so happy to hear that all is well. Keep smiling and putting the armor of God on every day - it makes life happier! Talk to you next weekAlways, --Sora Karina
Monday we went to a monestary which was really pretty, and we met Ani to go shopping for her wedding dress and such for Thursday. We were able to find a dress, shoes, a suit, and nice outfit for her 2 boys for relatively cheap at 2nd hand stores. It was so fun, and then we went to the church to watch some conference talks with her and practiced what to do with her make-up and nails.
Sunday was fast sunday and we had fasted that Lica would be able to quite smoking all the way, and to not worry about the 5 that he got down to last week. So we called him Monday to ask his size for the suit, and he asked, "Can I get baptized on Saturday with Ani?" and apparently since we started our fast on Saturday he hasn't smoked at all and he wants to get baptized!!! So we said we would talk with him and see if he was ready which we did on Tuesday.
We had a great lesson with Amalia, had a good english class, had a fun lesson with Florina (One of my favorite members here) and went to visit Lica. We taught him the remainder of the lessons that we needed to teach him, and went over the interview questions to make sure he understood everything. To every part we said, "do you understand? are you willing to live this?" and every reply was "Yes, I do, I will do anything, I just want to get baptized!!" so we called President Lundberg and said "Hey President, I have a question. Is it ok if on Saturday we have 2 baptisms instead of one, and if we baptize a family?" Of course he was thrilled and said if he doesn't smoke or drink coffee for the rest of the week, then it would be fine. Yay!
Wednesday we spent the morning at the Jessees' cooking the food for the reception the next day that we were putting together for the wedding, and had 5 lessons that were really really good.
Thursday was the wedding and it was so neat. The actual ceremony is really funny. You go to the Primarie and wait in the hall for your turn with about 10-15 other people who are waiting to get married with their friends with them. When it's your turn you hear the wedding march playing, and you are ushered in quickly and the couple goes up to the desk where the government official is there and she says why we're there, asks them if they want to marry each other, has them sign the papers, kiss the bride and after a quick 5 minute happening including pictures, the wedding march is turned on again, and you are ushered out. That's it.
So we went accross the street into the park and took a bunch of wedding pictures with them and it was super fun. (I'll be sending pictures next week I hope) and then we had the reception that night. Gabi Oanta's sister majored in cake making so she made the cake and it was gorgeous. When Ani saw it she just started crying because she would have never dreamed that she would have anything like this in her life because of their poor state that she's lived in for 10 years. They were expecting to just get married in jeans some day and go home with a marriage certificate, but they looked so good all dressed up, and we had a dancing party and everything. So much fun.
Friday we got a new investigator who is trying to find a way to get a job and move out away from her husband who has been beating her for the past 10 years, and she loved the feeling of the Spirit. She is so sweet. After that we had another lesson with Alexandra and then our district meeting and then Ani and Lica had their baptismal interviews which went super good.
Saturday was the baptism and it was gorgeous. They were beaming and were so happy to be doing it together. It was such a blessing, especially for Sora Thompson who is leaving and got to be there to see the blessing of her labors. It was a really good program, even though Ani is scared of water and it took all the courage she had to step into the basin (our portable baptismal font) and then she didn't go under the whole way the first time and had to do it again! But she did so good.
And even though Lica had never worn a tie before in his life before his wedding, the Elders taught him how to tie it and he's loving it having worn it three times now (wedding, baptism, and church yesterday.) Church was really good. Ani and Lica were confirmed and received the Holy Ghost, and our choir sang "I know that my Redeemer Lives" and they did pretty good. A lot of them came up to me after and made me promise to keep choir going after Sora Thompson leaves, which I am of course going to do.
After church we went over to the Jessees for a delicious dinner to celebrate Mother's day, and I got to talk to my Mom and family!!! It was so fun talking to you and I'm sooo glad to hear that you are all doing so good. I love talking to the people here who have no hope and being able to show them a picture of you saying that the gospel gives you hope, and joy, and my family is an example of living it. It's so wonderful. When we live the gospel, the Lord blesses us. He has to, and he wants to, but we need to be willing to live in the way that he has asked us to first. It is so worth it. Seeing these people's lives change for the better is one of the greatest blessings I could recieve. I love you all so so so so so much, and I am so happy to hear that all is well. Keep smiling and putting the armor of God on every day - it makes life happier! Talk to you next weekAlways, --Sora Karina
Monday, May 4, 2009
Miracles and More
May 4, 2009
Dear home and family and everyone,
I have had an amazing week, and that makes for a lot to write! Ok, least exciting to most exciting.
We are doing a service project for this school for kids with mental handicaps, and though we're not allowed to work with the kids, we are doing some fun fix-er-up type stuff for them. Last week we spent 4 hours working on their garden (which is the saddest piece of dry, weed infested soil I think I've ever seen) and we didn't have any of the right tools or anything. And there was a frog or toad buried in the dirt! I was digging up some of the dirt with a shovel to get the roots of the weeds out, and lo and behold a frog jumps out of the dirt which completely surprised me since it was kinda camouflaged and I didn't expect a living thing besides the weeds to be in that patch of land. And so four of us did that while the other 2 Elders worked on scraping off the paint and rust on the front fence and re-painting it. We didn't even come close to finishing it in those four hours, so we'll be working on it for the next few weeks.
This past week was Zone Conference which means that I had my first mission interview with President Lundberg. It was fun talking to him and being accountable for the things I've learned so far and the work that I'm doing. Our zone consists of my city (Arad), Deva, Oradia and Timisoara, and we combined conference with the Cluj-Napoca zone as well. It was fun seeing all the people. The sister that got delayed at the MTC from my group is now in Romania, and she's in Cluj, so I got to see her and that was super fun.
In Zone Conference I got to bear my “baby testimony” which is what they call it when you're brand new in the mission, and my companion got to bear her “dying testimony” since in 1 ½ weeks she'll be gone, or in other words is going home. (If you think that the church has a culture and language of it's own, mission language is way more confusing.)
My companion and I also performed the musical number for conference and we learned a lot and it was really fun. Yesterday at church 2 former sister missionaries that have been home since February came and visited, and one of them was my great-grandma. (so my trainer is my mom, her trainer is my grandma, and the trainer of my companions trainer is my great-grandma who is Sister Griffeth, and she came to Romania to visit.) It was fun to talk to them about their missions and about what I am doing now at the beginning compared to what my companion is finishing, and yeah. Good times. ...So that is all the not-as-interesting stuff.
Now I want to tell you about miracle day. The night before miracle day was Tuesday night and we went to go teach Ani (who as I believe I mentioned before we got enough money for them to get married and she wants to be baptized). When we went there we found out that she just found out that there was one more thing that had to happen before the Primarie approved their wedding. Her soon to be husband, Lica, had been married before and was divorced forever ago, and she had to got to the archive record building and get the papers of divorcement and turn it in to the Primarie by 5 pm the next day. (Getting married is so difficult when your government is corrupt.) So she was worried about it, but we decided to set her baptismal date in faith that all would be well, and we set it for this Saturday the 9th of May. Ok. So the next day (Wednesday = miracle day) we were doing lessons and interviews at the church, and of course we forgot our phone, which annoyed us at first (because it was kinda an important day to have our phone with us) but we kept going and in the middle of our interview with the Assistants, Ani came into the church and said that she couldn't get the paper. They said it would take them about 1-2 weeks to find the paper of divorcement and so they wouldn't be able to get married on the 7th and so they would then have to get more money and re-take the analysis that had been the speed-bump before and it was crazy. She said that she was disappointed, but that if the Lord didn't want her to get married right now then it won't work out, but if He did than something would happen. My companion's reaction was “Of course He wants you to get married and start living the law of chastity which is one of the biggest commandments, as soon as you can! And we need to do something if something is going to happen!”
We were determined that there HAD to be something that we could do. We finished up with our interviews and such, and then tried to put our thinking caps on. And the answer came: Call Gabi Oanta. Gabi Oanta is the most mysterious man I think I have ever met in my life. He's pretty much an eternal investigator of our church, who wants to get baptized and acts like a member, but can't get baptized for reasons only known to him (we suspect it is work related, but we don't even know what he does for a living.) All we know is that he will do anything for the missionaries, and has the most random yet important connections of anyone I've ever heard of.
So we called up Gabi and he said he would do what he could, just go home and he would call us in a little bit. Ok. We started praying and were ready to leave the house as soon as Gabi said “GO!” He called and then we went to the Archives place where Gabi found the “head-honcho” lady who didn't think it was possible to find, but she would try any ways. We gave her the information and she couldn't find it because all the info we had was wrong except for his name. We didn't even have the correct year that he had been divorced. (Sora Thompson and I were praying sooo hard!) But through Gabi in his snazzy suit and his great connections and business mind, and of course with the help of the Lord, she kept looking. And in 45 minutes, not the week they said it would have taken, the paper was found. Yay!
But there were still more stops to go to. We went to the Primarie to turn in the paper and to make sure that everything was in place and there was a little bump because she doesn't want to take his name, she wants him to take her name. Weird, but ok. So we got that figured out, and by the 3rd stop I didn't even know what we were doing, just that Gabi knew what we were doing and that the Lord was hearing our prayers and so I just kept following it. Finally Gabi walked out of a room and said “It's done, I'm done, we're done.” And in the time frame of 1 ½ hours, just one hour before the Primarie wouldn't have accepted anything else and canceled their approval on the wedding, everything was settled and final! After thanking Gabi profusely for his help and being completely relieved and saying many prayers of gratitude in our hearts, we called Ani.
Sora Thompson talked to her and said “Ani, on the 7th of May 2009 you will be married to Mircea Bonici at 1:30 at the Primarie in Arad. Are you ready for this?” She said Yes! And after an excited scream started to bawl on the phone. It was amazing. Now time for perspective (because the miracle isn't over). At the beginning of the transfer, Sora Thompson and I wanted to have some things happen in the work, and so we decided that we would do all we could do to get these things happening. One thing we decided to do was to pray in every prayer for three things: 1. for Ani and Lica to be married before the end of the transfer. 2. for Lica to quit smoking and 3. for Bogdon to quit smoking. We also had a special fast for these three things the weekend before all of this happened.
Since we had given Lica the commitment to quit smoking he started smoking double, but on Tuesday (night before miracle day) we asked him and he had only smoked 5 cigarettes! Apparently since our fast, it's been hurting his chest each time he smokes, so he had been smoking less and less! And Bogdon had started out with smoking 3 packs a day and had got down to 1-3 cigarettes per day and after the fast the desire to smoke left him. He went on a picnic with his friends who were smoking, and put a cigarette in his mouth, but couldn't light it. “I don't want this” he thought, and he hasn't smoked since in the past week!
And now with Ani and Lica being married, it took work, but the Lord performed miracles. And the neat thing is that the Lord allows us to be tried so that we can increase in our faith. The Lord knew that we wanted these things to happen (not for our benefit, but because we love these people and know their lives will be blessed through them) and that we would do anything to help them to happen. Which is what happened on Wednesday, our day of miracles. Something got in the way of what needed to happen for these people's lives to be blessed, and we did all that we possibly could in faith, and trusted the Lord that He would do the rest, and it happened. Now we are for sure having a wedding on this Thursday, and Ani is going to get baptized on this Saturday. I love it! The Lord's hand is in our lives and it can be seen at any time when we are striving to keep His commandments and do what He asks us to do. The blessings that come from it are amazing. So that is my story for this week, and it's amazing.
I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is through the Atonement and our own actions and choices to follow and live according to the Gospel that brings about the most powerful and amazing changes in our lives. It truly is amazing to me, and I am so grateful. But I love you all so very much! Don't get discouraged in life's little trials, but look for the joy. I promise it is there somewhere. I am doing great, and I hope that you all are doing great as well. Give hugs to everyone for me, and I love you lots! Talk to you next week!
Always, --Sora Karina
Dear home and family and everyone,
I have had an amazing week, and that makes for a lot to write! Ok, least exciting to most exciting.
We are doing a service project for this school for kids with mental handicaps, and though we're not allowed to work with the kids, we are doing some fun fix-er-up type stuff for them. Last week we spent 4 hours working on their garden (which is the saddest piece of dry, weed infested soil I think I've ever seen) and we didn't have any of the right tools or anything. And there was a frog or toad buried in the dirt! I was digging up some of the dirt with a shovel to get the roots of the weeds out, and lo and behold a frog jumps out of the dirt which completely surprised me since it was kinda camouflaged and I didn't expect a living thing besides the weeds to be in that patch of land. And so four of us did that while the other 2 Elders worked on scraping off the paint and rust on the front fence and re-painting it. We didn't even come close to finishing it in those four hours, so we'll be working on it for the next few weeks.
This past week was Zone Conference which means that I had my first mission interview with President Lundberg. It was fun talking to him and being accountable for the things I've learned so far and the work that I'm doing. Our zone consists of my city (Arad), Deva, Oradia and Timisoara, and we combined conference with the Cluj-Napoca zone as well. It was fun seeing all the people. The sister that got delayed at the MTC from my group is now in Romania, and she's in Cluj, so I got to see her and that was super fun.
In Zone Conference I got to bear my “baby testimony” which is what they call it when you're brand new in the mission, and my companion got to bear her “dying testimony” since in 1 ½ weeks she'll be gone, or in other words is going home. (If you think that the church has a culture and language of it's own, mission language is way more confusing.)
My companion and I also performed the musical number for conference and we learned a lot and it was really fun. Yesterday at church 2 former sister missionaries that have been home since February came and visited, and one of them was my great-grandma. (so my trainer is my mom, her trainer is my grandma, and the trainer of my companions trainer is my great-grandma who is Sister Griffeth, and she came to Romania to visit.) It was fun to talk to them about their missions and about what I am doing now at the beginning compared to what my companion is finishing, and yeah. Good times. ...So that is all the not-as-interesting stuff.
Now I want to tell you about miracle day. The night before miracle day was Tuesday night and we went to go teach Ani (who as I believe I mentioned before we got enough money for them to get married and she wants to be baptized). When we went there we found out that she just found out that there was one more thing that had to happen before the Primarie approved their wedding. Her soon to be husband, Lica, had been married before and was divorced forever ago, and she had to got to the archive record building and get the papers of divorcement and turn it in to the Primarie by 5 pm the next day. (Getting married is so difficult when your government is corrupt.) So she was worried about it, but we decided to set her baptismal date in faith that all would be well, and we set it for this Saturday the 9th of May. Ok. So the next day (Wednesday = miracle day) we were doing lessons and interviews at the church, and of course we forgot our phone, which annoyed us at first (because it was kinda an important day to have our phone with us) but we kept going and in the middle of our interview with the Assistants, Ani came into the church and said that she couldn't get the paper. They said it would take them about 1-2 weeks to find the paper of divorcement and so they wouldn't be able to get married on the 7th and so they would then have to get more money and re-take the analysis that had been the speed-bump before and it was crazy. She said that she was disappointed, but that if the Lord didn't want her to get married right now then it won't work out, but if He did than something would happen. My companion's reaction was “Of course He wants you to get married and start living the law of chastity which is one of the biggest commandments, as soon as you can! And we need to do something if something is going to happen!”
We were determined that there HAD to be something that we could do. We finished up with our interviews and such, and then tried to put our thinking caps on. And the answer came: Call Gabi Oanta. Gabi Oanta is the most mysterious man I think I have ever met in my life. He's pretty much an eternal investigator of our church, who wants to get baptized and acts like a member, but can't get baptized for reasons only known to him (we suspect it is work related, but we don't even know what he does for a living.) All we know is that he will do anything for the missionaries, and has the most random yet important connections of anyone I've ever heard of.
So we called up Gabi and he said he would do what he could, just go home and he would call us in a little bit. Ok. We started praying and were ready to leave the house as soon as Gabi said “GO!” He called and then we went to the Archives place where Gabi found the “head-honcho” lady who didn't think it was possible to find, but she would try any ways. We gave her the information and she couldn't find it because all the info we had was wrong except for his name. We didn't even have the correct year that he had been divorced. (Sora Thompson and I were praying sooo hard!) But through Gabi in his snazzy suit and his great connections and business mind, and of course with the help of the Lord, she kept looking. And in 45 minutes, not the week they said it would have taken, the paper was found. Yay!
But there were still more stops to go to. We went to the Primarie to turn in the paper and to make sure that everything was in place and there was a little bump because she doesn't want to take his name, she wants him to take her name. Weird, but ok. So we got that figured out, and by the 3rd stop I didn't even know what we were doing, just that Gabi knew what we were doing and that the Lord was hearing our prayers and so I just kept following it. Finally Gabi walked out of a room and said “It's done, I'm done, we're done.” And in the time frame of 1 ½ hours, just one hour before the Primarie wouldn't have accepted anything else and canceled their approval on the wedding, everything was settled and final! After thanking Gabi profusely for his help and being completely relieved and saying many prayers of gratitude in our hearts, we called Ani.
Sora Thompson talked to her and said “Ani, on the 7th of May 2009 you will be married to Mircea Bonici at 1:30 at the Primarie in Arad. Are you ready for this?” She said Yes! And after an excited scream started to bawl on the phone. It was amazing. Now time for perspective (because the miracle isn't over). At the beginning of the transfer, Sora Thompson and I wanted to have some things happen in the work, and so we decided that we would do all we could do to get these things happening. One thing we decided to do was to pray in every prayer for three things: 1. for Ani and Lica to be married before the end of the transfer. 2. for Lica to quit smoking and 3. for Bogdon to quit smoking. We also had a special fast for these three things the weekend before all of this happened.
Since we had given Lica the commitment to quit smoking he started smoking double, but on Tuesday (night before miracle day) we asked him and he had only smoked 5 cigarettes! Apparently since our fast, it's been hurting his chest each time he smokes, so he had been smoking less and less! And Bogdon had started out with smoking 3 packs a day and had got down to 1-3 cigarettes per day and after the fast the desire to smoke left him. He went on a picnic with his friends who were smoking, and put a cigarette in his mouth, but couldn't light it. “I don't want this” he thought, and he hasn't smoked since in the past week!
And now with Ani and Lica being married, it took work, but the Lord performed miracles. And the neat thing is that the Lord allows us to be tried so that we can increase in our faith. The Lord knew that we wanted these things to happen (not for our benefit, but because we love these people and know their lives will be blessed through them) and that we would do anything to help them to happen. Which is what happened on Wednesday, our day of miracles. Something got in the way of what needed to happen for these people's lives to be blessed, and we did all that we possibly could in faith, and trusted the Lord that He would do the rest, and it happened. Now we are for sure having a wedding on this Thursday, and Ani is going to get baptized on this Saturday. I love it! The Lord's hand is in our lives and it can be seen at any time when we are striving to keep His commandments and do what He asks us to do. The blessings that come from it are amazing. So that is my story for this week, and it's amazing.
I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is through the Atonement and our own actions and choices to follow and live according to the Gospel that brings about the most powerful and amazing changes in our lives. It truly is amazing to me, and I am so grateful. But I love you all so very much! Don't get discouraged in life's little trials, but look for the joy. I promise it is there somewhere. I am doing great, and I hope that you all are doing great as well. Give hugs to everyone for me, and I love you lots! Talk to you next week!
Always, --Sora Karina
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