Bloc knocking and other fun stuff

Hello family!

First I'll tell you about how hard the work is right now, but we've had some neat experiences with it. We went bloc knocking and it was really hard. (Blocs are the apartment buildings people live in.) We got kicked out of one bloc (somewhat nicely) and no one wanted to look at us, let alone give us the 2 seconds needed to start testifying. But the last bloc we went to for the night, I rang into it and I was struggling with the language after the lady who answered started asking me questions like who I was and who I was trying to see. She recognized that I was saying things really wrong (which was giving Sora Jones cause to look at me funny while she tried to figure out what I had just tried to say) and she asked me what language I speak, so I answered in Romanian that I speak English but I'm trying to learn Romanian. She responded in close to perfect English saying, "Ok, I'll let you in, but only because you speak Romanian." And opened the door. Holy Cow.

She wasn't interested in our message, but she took a pliant (pamphlet), was really nice and said maybe she'll come to church to see how it is. I hope that she does some day. But after talking to her we prayed to thank Heavenly Father that we got into that bloc, that someone was nice to us, and to ask for the spirit back because with the past 2 blocs, and the most recent getting kicked out of, the spirit of contention was a lot stronger than the spirit of God. So we prayed for that, and from the top of the bloc to the bottom, still no one wanted to listen to our message, but the Spirit was burning stronger and stronger in our hearts with each door, and I know that the Lord blessed us with that. It's like it says in Alma 31:38 - If we go to work and do everything that we need to do, the Lord will not suffer us to have any afflictions save they be swallowed up in the Atonement of Christ. This doesn't mean that we won't have afflictions, or that it won't be hard, but that His Spirit will be with us and help us to not see the sorrow, but to focus on Christ in all that we do. It was a neat experience.

Another neat experience we had was one night we were bloc knocking again, and were at the last door (most of the people hadn't been home) and a lady came into the bloc and started unlocking her apartment next to us. Sora Jones started talking to her, and she invited us in and we were able to teach her the Restoration. The neat thing was that Sora Jones started the lesson by telling her about the Book of Mormon, that we believe that it's scripture, and that we were there to tell her about that book. So we started our lesson, and all through the lesson, she kept asking us "ok, but what about that book?" "Yes, I understand God works through a Prophet, so how does that relate to that book?" And then we got to the Joseph Smith story, and told her that she could know if it was true by reading the Book of Mormon, where she replied by saying that she didn't have one. We told her the one that was on the table was for her to have, and she lit up so bright. "Really!? Oh, thank you so much! I can't wait to read this!" and then went on talking about how she knew that it was going to bless her life and she was so excited. She was just so hungry for the Book of Mormon, and it was a great lesson. We have found that the most effective contacting we do is when we use the Book of Mormon in our contacting. We read them a verse, or introduce it to them as a part of the message that we want to share with them, and it's been hard, but really neat to see how people's hearts are softened (for the most part) when we open up the Book of Mormon to them. Even if they're not willing to accept our message or learn more, they are always willing to listen when we start talking about the Book of Mormon. It's because it's true, and because we as missionaries love it, and we go out to tell people about something we love. It's amazing.

Also, it's been raining almost non-stop, which makes it really hard to work some days, but it's making everything here so green, and we're having fun. On one particular night we were frustrated and going home after a long day without any success, it was raining really hard, and spontaneously Sora Jones and I both started puddle jumping. We were out waiting for our bus to come at 8:45pm, huddling the 2 of us underneath a small umbrella that was starting to break, while standing in the middle of a big puddle that we had just jumped in (after many other puddles on our way to the bus stop) and the umbrella was kind of keeping all of us dry. But the puddle jumping caused everything from my knees down to be soaked. But it was really fun, and we had a good laugh over how ridiculous we were being. It was fun.

On Sunday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on how the Temple blesses our daily lives. It was fun to prepare, and I think that most of it made sense. I probably made some gramatical faux-pas, but oh well. The branch members understood what I was trying to say. But the 3 points that I gave were that the Temple helps us to focus on the Atonement of Christ, understanding that it is only through Him that we can return to the presence of Heavenly Father (and it's in the Temple that we begin to learn how to understand what it means to be in God's presence), the Temple gives us a pattern to help our homes become a heaven on earth, and when we strive to make the Temple a part of our lives (even if we can't go regularly but we are always worthy and keep it as our goal) we will be endowed with power, knowledge, protection, and love from our Heavenly Father.

It was really fun to study and prepare for that talk - and then translating my notes into Romanian for 4-5 hours was another blast. lol But it was good. Also, a lot of people in Romania don't really know how to be parents, so I love using examples of my mom and dad to help them understand that things always need to be done out of love even when a child does something bad, or even if it means to discipline the child instead of sitting and just telling them that they're not allowed to be doing what you are watching them do. It's interesting.

Sora Jones (who is amazing and I love her) and I taught Relief Society and in it I used an example of something that mom does to help us around the house. One of the members from thenceforth started describing mom as "draguta" (said dragutsah) which means "cute" in our sense. So now because my mom is a good mother, she is known to the women in Brasov as the "mother so cute". It made me smile.

The family reunion that you had sounds like so much fun! I'm glad that Jenna didn't get too lost when you went mountain biking, but got found again, and that everyone had fun.

I hope that everything keeps going amazingly for you all. I am doing great. I am loving the work regardless how hard it is sometimes, and every day I go home knowing that this is the truth, and everyone needs to know it. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have about the truth of the gospel. I am so so so thankful for you all, for my family, and I love you all so very much!

I love you always, and I'll write more next week! Always, --Sora Karina

Ps. Mom, can you please send me an email with the story about how Grandma and Grandpa Curtis met, and how Grandma and Grandpa Coy met and how they got married and such? We were talking about it as missionaries, and I realized I don't know those stories, and they would be fun to know. And I want to see pictures of Maudie's wedding if you can. Thanks! Love you!

psps- Sora Thompson - Ce faci? Fac eu foarte bine exact cum ai citit deja, dar, cred ca esti bine deasemenea. Este foarte distractiv ca Eric vine in curand, si familia ta este frumoasa. Familia mea a avut o petrecere impreuna septamana trecuta, si a fost bine sa ascult cum a mers pentru tine. Felicitari pentru scholarsipul tau (nu stiu ce este cuvantul, dar stii ce incerc sa zic). Va fi foarte bine. Si cand incepi scoala din nou? Stiu ca este prea repede, dar sper ca esti pregatita si entusiasmata. Te iubesc foarte mult, si ai o septamana plecuta. Distractia plecuta intotdeauna! Cu dragi, --Sora Karina