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