Every step of the way

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? I'm doing great. This week was a good one with lots of things to do and lots of people to talk to like always.

Our investigators are doing pretty good. Christina is one of our investigators that we want to have a baptismal date for, but Satan keeps getting in the way and we haven't been able to meet with her for 2 weeks! Grrr....but while she was gone and away we talked on the phone a lot and she read the book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon - wow - her favorite part was Abinidi's story and how God protected him until he finished his message. She said "It just shows that God helps us to do what we need to whenever we're doing what's right." Exactly. We finally extended the invitation for her to commit to baptism, and she wants to but needs to talk to her mom first (she's old enough but obviously doesn't want to do it behind her parent's back) so she said that she would pray about the date, ask Heavenly Father for help to talk to her mom, and we are planning on talking to her today or tomorrow depending on her schedule and setting up the baptismal calendar. We are excited.

As for everything else, the work is going well, I am having fun every day, and we are going out and talking to people with the expectation of success. Even though sometimes it is hard to go out every day thinking, "I will succeed," we are working on having that daily attitude and mindset, and we are gradually doing better with that. It's good.

We got a new investigator this week names Viorica. She is 60 and has had a hard life but is so cute. We had a good discussion with her, and her and her son came to church yesterday. :D When we were talking to her she kept talking about how she prays to God, she goes to church, but she just doesn't know if it is enough or not. She wants to know if it is enough and do everything that she needs to, in order to please God. So we told her that our message would help her to see what God requires of us, and that we can help her do "enough" and even more, and that when she does that, she will be truly happy. I know that that is true. When we try our best to do what God has asked us, He will help us along the way and at the end we will find true joy and all will be well. Obviously this is a process, but Christ has promised us happiness in this life and joy in the next as we rely on Him and engage our selves in this work. And He will be with us every step of the way.

I definitely saw this promise come to pass yesterday when after sacrament meeting I was going to the sunday school class with the youth and Sora Van Noy (senior missionary) told me that there wasn't a teacher for the adult sunday school class and that I was now the teacher. It was supposed to be starting right then, and I didn't even know what the lesson was supposed to be on! This year they are learning about the New Testament, but I didn't have a manual nor can I understand the Bible in Romanian because the language is different (it's an older language just like ours in English, but it's very different in Romanian). So I went up to the front of the class and got it started with a prayer. As Brother Manzatanu was coming up to the front to pray I sat next to Audi (a less active member who is now on her way to being very active and one of my good friends here in Brasov) and she said "You're teaching?" And I told her how I had just found out 2 seconds ago and to please pray for me really hard. I know that she did.

Anyways, I got up and looked behind one of the curtains and found a Gospel Principles manual luckily, opened it up and it was talking a little about Christ's life and so I started the lesson "today we are going to be talking about having faith in Christ and why it is so important in our lives to focus our faith in Him." And I went. I know that God was helping sustain me and the Spirit was speaking the words that I didn't know how to say. It was amazing. My language skills are coming along fine, but that's with daily language study and preparation in every personal and companionship study time...I hadn't had time to prepare for this lesson, but the Spirit carried me and I was able to find the words that I wouldn't have known otherwise and it was a great blessing from the Lord.

I don't really remember a whole lot of the lesson, but a lot of people told me they really enjoyed it, and afterwords Audi told me that she was proud of me. I asked her if I even said half of that stuff correctly, and she smiled and said "no, but we understood, and the Spirit was there." What a great tender mercy of the Lord. It was really exhausting, too, and I didn't have as much energy as I would have liked when my companion and I taught the young women about how the value of divine nature helps us to prepare to go to the temple. It was a fun lesson to teach, and I think that they learned a lot, and again, the Spirit helped us and led us to what to say and how to help these young women grow in their testimonies of the gospel.

I can't really think of anything else amazingly interesting to tell you about the work, except that it is progressing. In the month of July our mission had 12 baptisms! And it was awesome. Each month is getting better and better.

So congrats to Shaley for making the varsity team w00t! And Jenna, congrats for trying and making the best out of it by going for something new. w00t w00t! Really though, I'm proud of both of you and I know that you will both have a blast doing it. I'm excited to hear about your cross country adventures Jenna, and I know that you'll do great! Tamara, I'm happy that you are still having fun with Volley ball, and I know that you are probably once again the life of the team! It's just crazy that it's already volley ball season again - time flies way too fast it seems. But it's all right as long as we enjoy the time that we're given. And please tell the Gatrells congrats for me! That's so exciting that Flint is engaged! To Cherisse and Alley - Welcome to your new home! Even though it will take forever for you to get this welcome statement and you will have been there for a month, your house is not yet broken in until I have welcomed you into it. lol. But really, I hope that all is going well, I miss you and I love you!!! I love all of you so so so much, and I hope that all is going well wherever you are. Please give Sister Koster a big hug specially from me when she gets back, and you can give that big hug from me to anyone who would like it - it's available ;} I love you all and I will talk to you more next week!

Always, --Sora Karina

PS pentru Sora Thompson, sau se poate pot sa incep sa zic Debbie, dar mai este ciudat putin. Oricum, ma bucur foarte mult ca te ai distrat cu Eric la Lake Powell...ai naroc pentru ca mi-e dor de acolo. Dar e ok. Ma rog pentru tine si apartamentul tau, si totul va fi bine sa stii, si sper ca primul septaman de scoala va merge bine fara probleme si ca vei fi fericita acolo. Te iubesc mult, si ai o zi buna! Cu drag, Sora Karinaps pentru Sora Poulson, chiar pot sa zic Alison, dar exact cum este cu Sora Thompson, mai este foarte ciudat! Dar ma bucur ca esti bine si faci bine si ca ai avut un timp bun cu Elder Castro - nu stui prenumele lui, dar nu contiaza prea mult. Ma rog, este bine sa te aud, si multumesc pentru sfatul tau...Colega mea nu are prea mult energie, si este greau din cand in cand pentru mine sa nu fac toate - ea nu ii place cand incerc sa fac toate cu energie deci mai incerc sa fiu linistita chiar atunci cand ea este prea linistita. Dar totul este bine si mai imi place aceasta lucrare foarte mult si mai lucrez in continuare. Dar sper ca ai o septamana plecuta, si mai vorbim! Te iubesc mult, cu drag --Sora Karina