Dear family and everyone who is awesome and reading this,
Hello! how are you? I am doing pretty good. I can not believe that this transfer is ending on Wednesday...it feels like it's only been about 2 weeks or maybe 3 at the most, but it's been 6!
And I am leaving Sibiu ~sad~ I am not excited to leave, because I don't feel like I've done enough here, but I am very excited to go to Constanta with Sora Kiriyama. She was one of my companions in the MTC and so I get to be with her again which will be cool, and I'm leaving Sora Staley behind to continue the work in Sibiu with a Boboaca! ha,ha. She's training and scared, but she'll be amazing and I'm excited for her. And going to Constanta will be new and interesting because I've been in the west and in the middle of the country, and now I'm going to the east on the south side, next to the sea! That's right, Constanta is the city that goes right up to the Black Sea, so that will be really, really cold in the snowy times of the winter, but that's ok. I'm excited to see how this goes.
This past week we have been learning a lot! One of the things that we decided we needed to learn how to apply better is how to ask questions and help the investigator participate more in the lesson so the Spirit can work in them more. And when we did it, the outcome was amazing and Lenuta became a new investigator. She is so cool, and wants to be baptized...we are giving her a date today so that she can better prepare for it. Another miracle from this week is that our relief society president came to church today, and she did her calling! ...Two things that haven't happened this entire transfer. So that was really exciting...and 2 women stayed for Relief Society outside of us and the president. So it almost felt like it was for real, and it was uplifting and the spirit was strong. That was definitely something to be grateful for.
Also, I should give you an update on Mariana, the cool lady that we found last week. We started the stop-smoking program with her, and she's doing pretty good with it. She didn't smoke at all for 2 days, and then smoked 2 halves of a cigarette the next, and then as far as we know she's still doing pretty good and not smoking at all or only one. (she started out having smoked an avg of 15-20 cigarettes each day) But her husband isn't helping her and is smoking more than ever. But any time he goes to light one up, she yells at him to get out of the house. "If I'm going to quit, and I am going to quit, then you are going to help me and you get out of this house to do whatever you want!" It's so funny. They are an amazing family, and I have been praying that after she quits smoking, if not before, that her whole family will become investigators. But we'll see. She is an amazing woman though, I love her.
But anyways, everything is going great, thank you so much for your prayers...I know that it is helping our investigators have more strength in their faith and it is amazing to see. I wish you could see the outcome of your faith, but instead I am the one blessed to see it. Thank you for everything, and I love you lots and lots and lots!
Oh, and Happy birthday Grandma Curtis!!!!!!! Have a great day!
Always, --Sora Karina
Monday, October 26, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Dear family,
This past week was a blast, and I'm going to tell you only a few of the miracles that made it so fun because unfortunately, I don't have time to write all of them, that and I figure that I need to save some things to share with you when I get home. But man, this week was just full of cool things that the Lord made possible for us.
So we decided that we were not being passionate about our goals and that we were just setting goals that were realistic according to what we have already here in Sibiu, and we decided that was really stupid. Just like that quote from Zone Conference said, we need to get emotionally involved in our goals, and then go forth and do all you can to fulfill those goals. So we are officially done setting realistic goals, and instead we are going to set what we want and allow the Lord to work miracles, because nothing is impossible for Him to do.
We witnessed this in this past week when we found 11 people who were willing to listen to our message and have a desire to continue to learn. We have already seen to a small amount the effect these things will have as we went to work with this attitude starting Friday, and I am so excited to continue to go forth and see what the Lord has in store, not just seeing if we can meet midway goals.
This week was really fun to the extent of literally running up the stairs of a bloc one night (we started at the bottom that night to find the first person who would let us in because we had 20 minutes to have a lesson, and someone did let us in - they didn't become new investigators, but the lady said she knew that God sent us to her so that she could feed us (she fed us deep fried pig fat with apples...yummy?) and take care of us because she doesn't have any kids and she was taught to always accept and take care of the servants of the Lord, and she was just sooo happy to serve us. Even though she and her husband weren't willing to listen to the message of the fullness of the Restored Gospel, I saw it as a tender mercy from the Lord and an answer to our prayers to be let in and still make the bus(which we did) and also that woman's prayers to be a service to the Lord's servants. It was so cool.
Another night we had planned to go and find a former investigator for whom we only have an address and so we went off, but you have to cross the street at a certain point or follow the curve of the road, and we didn't cross the street which took us all the way down to a point where if we would have climbed the stairs to our left of the cross walk we would have been right back where we started. Because of this, I kind of teased Sora Staley, talking about how we were walking around in circles and it was silly, but neither of us felt bad about doing it. So we kept walking in the general direction of the former investigators, and then Sora Staley got the thought that we should vila knock right there in the middle of the street. To me it just looked like she was pacing in front of a vila until she said, "maybe we should knock this vila" ...ok, but it didn't have a door bell on the fence. So we went in and knocked on the first vila (inside this fence is a group of 4 vilas) but the first lady didn't want to listen.
We started walking out, but again Sora Staley got the thought that we weren't done. Then we noticed a lady hanging up her laundry in the cold and we went to talk to her. She said she didn't have time right then, but set up a time for us to come back. We asked if we could have her phone number. She said yes, but had to go inside to get it. She invited us in out of the cold, and then we gave her a pliant (pamphlet) to read and she asked what it was about...20 seconds into the explanation she said, "Oh, I have 10 minutes, sit down and we'll talk."
So we sat down with her and talked. It was so cool. She opened up a ton and started crying saying that she knows God loves her but doesn't know why because she smokes and sins and doesn't go to church. Also because she feels like everyone else know all the prayers and what to do, and she doesn't. She felt it would be shameful for her to go in to a church not knowing how to "properly" do everything. She wanted to know how we could have such conviction about our message. We told her it was through prayer, and taught her how to pray. She had a hard time believing that God would answer her prayers until the end.
In the middle of this, her 21 year old daughter came in and loved what we were saying. Towards the end they both said that they would pray about our message and if God really does want them to have a Prophet on earth, and if He loves them.
Mariana (the mom) told Adina (the daughter) "you know, I didn't even want to talk to these girls, and then something happened and I thought, well, why not, so I let them in and now they're telling me they can help me stop smoking and that I can pray to God to know about Him" and her daughter smiled and said "you need it mom, do what they say" and they were just so grateful and awesome. It was definitely a miracle to prove that the Lord does know where His children are, and that He will lead us to them if we are doing all we can to heed the promptings of the Spirit.
-It just brings you so much joy to share that truth. And the neatest thing is that it is not just me and Sora Staley that have been having successes like this. About 3 weeks ago, Elder Tilbey found 12 new investigators because of a guy they talked to on the street, and he told the Elders that he goes to a Bible study class every week, and Elder Tilbey said "oh, that would be fun, can we come too?" the guy said that would be fine, so they went, it turned into a discussion about the Restoration, and Elder Tilbey and his boboc companion (boboc = brand spankin new in the field) taught them all there and 12 of them set up again to meet. The following week, Elder Harvey and Elder Shwartz called a number from someone they met on the street, but it was a wrong number (happens very often) but they decided to invite the person on the other line to learn about their message. Set up, met with the family, got 8 new investigators from that family with 5 people in that group that set up baptismal dates.
This week, as in the week in which Sora Staley and I found 11 new investigators, the Elders in my district found 4 new investigators, there were probably lots of others with high numbers, but no one beat Elder McBride and Elder Brian who found 18 new investigators. They found a family who referred them to another family who referred them to another family and all three families are now learning about the restored gospel and how they can have their families for eternity. So cool!!! A side note that makes it better, Elder McBride completes his service as a missionary in 1 1/2 weeks, so that's just crazy, and he is just sprinting to the end.
The work of the Lord is going forth and we are having a blast doing it. The only thing that is kinda yucky right now is that it turned cold REALLY fast, and it is freezing. There is apparently a cold front over all of Europe and the highs in Romania are around 8-12 degrees Celcius. I don't know what that equals in farenheit, I just know that I have to wear around 4-5 layers when I go out so I don't freeze.
Funny story. The first day it got cold it was 14 degrees Celcius here in Sibiu, but all I saw out the window is that it was sprinkling lightly, so I didn't put much on under my coat and I had a light scarf and my umbrela. Well, we went out, it was soooooo cold, and it started POURING rain (in Romanian they say "raining buckets" instead of cats and dogs) and it was, my umbrella broke in the middle of it, and me and Sora Staley were numb from just above the knees down plus our ears, hands, nose, and we were sopping wet. So we went to the church after lunch to get warm, and the heaters were broken there, so we turned on and lit the four burners on the gas stove and huddled around the stove for warmth...and realizing the fact that our clothes were soaked through, we started holding up different articles of clothing over the stove to dry...our coats, scarves, socks/nylons, shoes, and I finally took off my skirt and held it up to dry after wringing it out over the sink because it was dripping wet from mid-thigh down. It was so funny...I took pictures. Anyways, it was a fun day, and we were still wet for a lot of it, but that's ok. I learned and wore a lot of clothing for the rest of the week. I have been comfortable for the majority of it. lol!
Anyways, I think that's about it for this week, and I know that that is really long, but I hope you enjoyed it. I sure did! And I hope that everything is going well back home, that you are having fun getting ready for Halloween. They don't really celebrate it here, so we already have Christmas decorations in the stores because they are lacking both Halloween and Thanksgiving, and it's weird to see Christmas being put out in October. But that's ok.
Anyways, I love you all to pieces, and I'll ttyl!
Love you!!!!!!!!!
Always, --Sora Karina
ps. I hope that you have a great week, Shaley and Jenna and Tam good luck in your meets and other things, Cherisse and Alley, keep having fun.
Grandma Coy I love you and hope you are well.
Grandma and Grandpa Curtis, I love you lots and lots, and everyone else too!!!
This past week was a blast, and I'm going to tell you only a few of the miracles that made it so fun because unfortunately, I don't have time to write all of them, that and I figure that I need to save some things to share with you when I get home. But man, this week was just full of cool things that the Lord made possible for us.
So we decided that we were not being passionate about our goals and that we were just setting goals that were realistic according to what we have already here in Sibiu, and we decided that was really stupid. Just like that quote from Zone Conference said, we need to get emotionally involved in our goals, and then go forth and do all you can to fulfill those goals. So we are officially done setting realistic goals, and instead we are going to set what we want and allow the Lord to work miracles, because nothing is impossible for Him to do.
We witnessed this in this past week when we found 11 people who were willing to listen to our message and have a desire to continue to learn. We have already seen to a small amount the effect these things will have as we went to work with this attitude starting Friday, and I am so excited to continue to go forth and see what the Lord has in store, not just seeing if we can meet midway goals.
This week was really fun to the extent of literally running up the stairs of a bloc one night (we started at the bottom that night to find the first person who would let us in because we had 20 minutes to have a lesson, and someone did let us in - they didn't become new investigators, but the lady said she knew that God sent us to her so that she could feed us (she fed us deep fried pig fat with apples...yummy?) and take care of us because she doesn't have any kids and she was taught to always accept and take care of the servants of the Lord, and she was just sooo happy to serve us. Even though she and her husband weren't willing to listen to the message of the fullness of the Restored Gospel, I saw it as a tender mercy from the Lord and an answer to our prayers to be let in and still make the bus(which we did) and also that woman's prayers to be a service to the Lord's servants. It was so cool.
Another night we had planned to go and find a former investigator for whom we only have an address and so we went off, but you have to cross the street at a certain point or follow the curve of the road, and we didn't cross the street which took us all the way down to a point where if we would have climbed the stairs to our left of the cross walk we would have been right back where we started. Because of this, I kind of teased Sora Staley, talking about how we were walking around in circles and it was silly, but neither of us felt bad about doing it. So we kept walking in the general direction of the former investigators, and then Sora Staley got the thought that we should vila knock right there in the middle of the street. To me it just looked like she was pacing in front of a vila until she said, "maybe we should knock this vila" ...ok, but it didn't have a door bell on the fence. So we went in and knocked on the first vila (inside this fence is a group of 4 vilas) but the first lady didn't want to listen.
We started walking out, but again Sora Staley got the thought that we weren't done. Then we noticed a lady hanging up her laundry in the cold and we went to talk to her. She said she didn't have time right then, but set up a time for us to come back. We asked if we could have her phone number. She said yes, but had to go inside to get it. She invited us in out of the cold, and then we gave her a pliant (pamphlet) to read and she asked what it was about...20 seconds into the explanation she said, "Oh, I have 10 minutes, sit down and we'll talk."
So we sat down with her and talked. It was so cool. She opened up a ton and started crying saying that she knows God loves her but doesn't know why because she smokes and sins and doesn't go to church. Also because she feels like everyone else know all the prayers and what to do, and she doesn't. She felt it would be shameful for her to go in to a church not knowing how to "properly" do everything. She wanted to know how we could have such conviction about our message. We told her it was through prayer, and taught her how to pray. She had a hard time believing that God would answer her prayers until the end.
In the middle of this, her 21 year old daughter came in and loved what we were saying. Towards the end they both said that they would pray about our message and if God really does want them to have a Prophet on earth, and if He loves them.
Mariana (the mom) told Adina (the daughter) "you know, I didn't even want to talk to these girls, and then something happened and I thought, well, why not, so I let them in and now they're telling me they can help me stop smoking and that I can pray to God to know about Him" and her daughter smiled and said "you need it mom, do what they say" and they were just so grateful and awesome. It was definitely a miracle to prove that the Lord does know where His children are, and that He will lead us to them if we are doing all we can to heed the promptings of the Spirit.
-It just brings you so much joy to share that truth. And the neatest thing is that it is not just me and Sora Staley that have been having successes like this. About 3 weeks ago, Elder Tilbey found 12 new investigators because of a guy they talked to on the street, and he told the Elders that he goes to a Bible study class every week, and Elder Tilbey said "oh, that would be fun, can we come too?" the guy said that would be fine, so they went, it turned into a discussion about the Restoration, and Elder Tilbey and his boboc companion (boboc = brand spankin new in the field) taught them all there and 12 of them set up again to meet. The following week, Elder Harvey and Elder Shwartz called a number from someone they met on the street, but it was a wrong number (happens very often) but they decided to invite the person on the other line to learn about their message. Set up, met with the family, got 8 new investigators from that family with 5 people in that group that set up baptismal dates.
This week, as in the week in which Sora Staley and I found 11 new investigators, the Elders in my district found 4 new investigators, there were probably lots of others with high numbers, but no one beat Elder McBride and Elder Brian who found 18 new investigators. They found a family who referred them to another family who referred them to another family and all three families are now learning about the restored gospel and how they can have their families for eternity. So cool!!! A side note that makes it better, Elder McBride completes his service as a missionary in 1 1/2 weeks, so that's just crazy, and he is just sprinting to the end.
The work of the Lord is going forth and we are having a blast doing it. The only thing that is kinda yucky right now is that it turned cold REALLY fast, and it is freezing. There is apparently a cold front over all of Europe and the highs in Romania are around 8-12 degrees Celcius. I don't know what that equals in farenheit, I just know that I have to wear around 4-5 layers when I go out so I don't freeze.
Funny story. The first day it got cold it was 14 degrees Celcius here in Sibiu, but all I saw out the window is that it was sprinkling lightly, so I didn't put much on under my coat and I had a light scarf and my umbrela. Well, we went out, it was soooooo cold, and it started POURING rain (in Romanian they say "raining buckets" instead of cats and dogs) and it was, my umbrella broke in the middle of it, and me and Sora Staley were numb from just above the knees down plus our ears, hands, nose, and we were sopping wet. So we went to the church after lunch to get warm, and the heaters were broken there, so we turned on and lit the four burners on the gas stove and huddled around the stove for warmth...and realizing the fact that our clothes were soaked through, we started holding up different articles of clothing over the stove to dry...our coats, scarves, socks/nylons, shoes, and I finally took off my skirt and held it up to dry after wringing it out over the sink because it was dripping wet from mid-thigh down. It was so funny...I took pictures. Anyways, it was a fun day, and we were still wet for a lot of it, but that's ok. I learned and wore a lot of clothing for the rest of the week. I have been comfortable for the majority of it. lol!
Anyways, I think that's about it for this week, and I know that that is really long, but I hope you enjoyed it. I sure did! And I hope that everything is going well back home, that you are having fun getting ready for Halloween. They don't really celebrate it here, so we already have Christmas decorations in the stores because they are lacking both Halloween and Thanksgiving, and it's weird to see Christmas being put out in October. But that's ok.
Anyways, I love you all to pieces, and I'll ttyl!
Love you!!!!!!!!!
Always, --Sora Karina
ps. I hope that you have a great week, Shaley and Jenna and Tam good luck in your meets and other things, Cherisse and Alley, keep having fun.
Grandma Coy I love you and hope you are well.
Grandma and Grandpa Curtis, I love you lots and lots, and everyone else too!!!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
garbage cans are blessings
My dearest family and friends and wonderful people,
How are you all doing? I am doing great...I am working hard even though it's starting to get cold, and it looks like it's going to be a freezing winter, but right now it's just a decently cold fall...and the colors are so pretty! it's fun.
I don't really know if there is any new news to tell, most of it is all the same. This week was better than last week, as far as effectiveness and work goes. Well, pretty much everything...
there wasn't anything worse about it. But each week is getting better, and that is very exciting. I know that we are doing exactly what we have been asked to do, and because of that, we will find those who are ready to do what they need to in order to receive a witness from the Holy Ghost about the truth of the Restored Gospel. It is hard, but there are many blessings that occur from it. It takes faith sometimes to see the little miracles, but when you look, the love and gratitude you feel is more than can be expressed.
This week we had interviews and zone conference, and it was fun. We went up to Cluj-napoca for zone conference which from us is about a 4 hour drive in a maxi-taxi which is like a mix between a van and a bus, and really is not comfortable at all. But that's ok. Cluj is big, and from what I saw of it, it's pretty. They have a singing fountain that has 12 different songs that it will play according to how the water is coming out - the taxi driver kinda gave us a mini tour as we passed the main city center area, and that was cool. But I learned a lot about the work that we are doing here and how important it is to give EVERYTHING you have to the Lord to do it. It is amazing how much you can give to Heavenly Father, and still He is able to give us more than we gave, and we just can never make it up. But we keep trying because we love Him, and so He keeps blessing us because He loves us and it's an amazing cycle.
Central to this cycle is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, without which we would be lost and there would be no point in trying, no point in giving or receiving because it would only be for this short time here on earth. But everything is eternal, and that is a blessing that I am trying to understand even more. Even the time we spend with our friends or family, or the time we spend learning something, it happens in a temporal sense, but the effect of everything we do is eternal and we will reap the eternal reward, not the temporal one, in the life for which we are preparing right now. That is why it is important to use the Atonement every day, and to not give up regardless of what has happened, or what is going on now. The Atonement applies to everything on a personal level, and there are no exceptions...the only thing that stops the Atonement from working is if we don't want to do our part, and how sad is that to not be able to reap the eternal blessings of our Heavenly Father's eternal love for us because we simply would not try.
I know that he loves us, and I know that it is possible for each and every one of us to attain the perfection talked about in the scriptures. Jesus Christ did not say "the power of faith could move mountains, but you're not ever going to receive that type of faith" or "if only you could be perfect like me and your Father in Heaven are, but too bad you'll just have to settle for whatever is second best." No. He told us the power of faith because He expects us to work for that, and he knows that we can attain that kind of faith by relying on Him. When we try to go forward, He is immediately there walking with us and helping us to get where He knows we should be. Even if we can't pay back what we've missed, the Prophet's counsel is clear: "go forward, start today." make the choice to give everything to Him, including your trust and your fears, and the Atonement will give you strength sufficient to overcome and take one more step towards him. And that step is worth it.
It is so amazing to see the love that the Lord has for us on a specific and individual level, and it is so sad to see the people who believe that He died for everyone, but don't think that they can have a personal relationship with him. I know that we can. I know that he wants us to, and I know that I want to. How amazing is it to have a testimony and KNOW that God loves you, and that He has done all he possibly could to give us the way to be with Him again. It just gives me even more motivation to do all that I can. And we are promised in the scriptures that "I will go before your face, I will be on your right hand and on your left, my spirit will be in your heart, and mine angels round about you to bear you up" for "victory is of the Lord". I know that this is true and it is possible and as we look to Him, He will help us in everything.
Anyways, on a completely different note, we have this really old woman neighbor who is obsessed with where we put our garbage can, when we put our garbage in our can, when we roll our garbage can out, when we roll it back into the parking lot, and if we really know which one is our garbage can. Oh, she also asked me if I know how to lock the door to the complex. She knocked on our door this morning three times to make sure we know about the garbage schedule and told us how to lock the door (just in case) and told us to open our windows during the day because apparently it is a new building and fresh air is good for the walls??? That's ok. They also say that eating ice cream on a cold day will give you a cold, and sitting directly on cement effects your ability to have children, especially if it's windy. She really has taken upon herself to regulate the garbage cans of the block. Is everyone putting their own garbage in their own cans?? Today she asked me to please write our apartment number on our can. One time I set the garbage out by the front door to take when we left the apartment. She knocked on the door and informed us that the garbage can't be there. I told her I was just about to take it out. She's really cute...just kinda bored and I think a little lonely. I should suggest knitting to her or something. I love it so much, we definitely are not lacking smiles every day.
But anyways, I am so glad that you had a good birthday mommy!!! I'm hoping to send something in the mail soon. Oh! And I got your package finally!!! And thank you so much, it was awesome. The food is being much enjoyed by all of us (the missionaries) Tamara's pictures are so fun - they will become the best p-day ever! and you were inspired about the pens that I needed...I know it's silly, but you gave me the kind that I needed/wanted/like. It was perfect. And I loved the pictures! And I got your package too, Rachel, thanks a million, I loved it! ...especially the stuff for smores, the scarf, the candy, that's pretty much all of it. Yeah, it was a good late birthday celebration.
And while I'm on that topic, the office told us to forward this: The office elders have asked us to pass along some information that should help you receive mail and packages from home more quickly (a good thing as Christmas time is approaching). We are recommending that all mail and packages sent to missionaries serving in Romania and Moldova be addressed as follows:
[Name of missionary]
Sos. Pipera Nr. 41, Et. 7 (Posta 41)
Bucharest, Romania 014254
The name of the missionary should NOT include “Elder” or “Sister.” Also, DON’T include the name of the mission or anything like that in the address. Please pass this information along to families and others that want to send you things by mail.
But I love you lots and lots and lots, and Shaley and Jenna, you look GORGEOUS in your homecoming dresses, I loved it! And Shaley, congrats on winning homecoming queen! I knew you would! But it sounded like a lot of fun. Keep enjoying your sports, the three of you, and tell Cherisse and Allen that I love them - the whole star trek guy thing made me laugh for about 20 minutes with my district, and your house looks so cute! I love you lots, and ttyl!
Always, --Sora Karina
How are you all doing? I am doing great...I am working hard even though it's starting to get cold, and it looks like it's going to be a freezing winter, but right now it's just a decently cold fall...and the colors are so pretty! it's fun.
I don't really know if there is any new news to tell, most of it is all the same. This week was better than last week, as far as effectiveness and work goes. Well, pretty much everything...
there wasn't anything worse about it. But each week is getting better, and that is very exciting. I know that we are doing exactly what we have been asked to do, and because of that, we will find those who are ready to do what they need to in order to receive a witness from the Holy Ghost about the truth of the Restored Gospel. It is hard, but there are many blessings that occur from it. It takes faith sometimes to see the little miracles, but when you look, the love and gratitude you feel is more than can be expressed.
This week we had interviews and zone conference, and it was fun. We went up to Cluj-napoca for zone conference which from us is about a 4 hour drive in a maxi-taxi which is like a mix between a van and a bus, and really is not comfortable at all. But that's ok. Cluj is big, and from what I saw of it, it's pretty. They have a singing fountain that has 12 different songs that it will play according to how the water is coming out - the taxi driver kinda gave us a mini tour as we passed the main city center area, and that was cool. But I learned a lot about the work that we are doing here and how important it is to give EVERYTHING you have to the Lord to do it. It is amazing how much you can give to Heavenly Father, and still He is able to give us more than we gave, and we just can never make it up. But we keep trying because we love Him, and so He keeps blessing us because He loves us and it's an amazing cycle.
Central to this cycle is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, without which we would be lost and there would be no point in trying, no point in giving or receiving because it would only be for this short time here on earth. But everything is eternal, and that is a blessing that I am trying to understand even more. Even the time we spend with our friends or family, or the time we spend learning something, it happens in a temporal sense, but the effect of everything we do is eternal and we will reap the eternal reward, not the temporal one, in the life for which we are preparing right now. That is why it is important to use the Atonement every day, and to not give up regardless of what has happened, or what is going on now. The Atonement applies to everything on a personal level, and there are no exceptions...the only thing that stops the Atonement from working is if we don't want to do our part, and how sad is that to not be able to reap the eternal blessings of our Heavenly Father's eternal love for us because we simply would not try.
I know that he loves us, and I know that it is possible for each and every one of us to attain the perfection talked about in the scriptures. Jesus Christ did not say "the power of faith could move mountains, but you're not ever going to receive that type of faith" or "if only you could be perfect like me and your Father in Heaven are, but too bad you'll just have to settle for whatever is second best." No. He told us the power of faith because He expects us to work for that, and he knows that we can attain that kind of faith by relying on Him. When we try to go forward, He is immediately there walking with us and helping us to get where He knows we should be. Even if we can't pay back what we've missed, the Prophet's counsel is clear: "go forward, start today." make the choice to give everything to Him, including your trust and your fears, and the Atonement will give you strength sufficient to overcome and take one more step towards him. And that step is worth it.
It is so amazing to see the love that the Lord has for us on a specific and individual level, and it is so sad to see the people who believe that He died for everyone, but don't think that they can have a personal relationship with him. I know that we can. I know that he wants us to, and I know that I want to. How amazing is it to have a testimony and KNOW that God loves you, and that He has done all he possibly could to give us the way to be with Him again. It just gives me even more motivation to do all that I can. And we are promised in the scriptures that "I will go before your face, I will be on your right hand and on your left, my spirit will be in your heart, and mine angels round about you to bear you up" for "victory is of the Lord". I know that this is true and it is possible and as we look to Him, He will help us in everything.
Anyways, on a completely different note, we have this really old woman neighbor who is obsessed with where we put our garbage can, when we put our garbage in our can, when we roll our garbage can out, when we roll it back into the parking lot, and if we really know which one is our garbage can. Oh, she also asked me if I know how to lock the door to the complex. She knocked on our door this morning three times to make sure we know about the garbage schedule and told us how to lock the door (just in case) and told us to open our windows during the day because apparently it is a new building and fresh air is good for the walls??? That's ok. They also say that eating ice cream on a cold day will give you a cold, and sitting directly on cement effects your ability to have children, especially if it's windy. She really has taken upon herself to regulate the garbage cans of the block. Is everyone putting their own garbage in their own cans?? Today she asked me to please write our apartment number on our can. One time I set the garbage out by the front door to take when we left the apartment. She knocked on the door and informed us that the garbage can't be there. I told her I was just about to take it out. She's really cute...just kinda bored and I think a little lonely. I should suggest knitting to her or something. I love it so much, we definitely are not lacking smiles every day.
But anyways, I am so glad that you had a good birthday mommy!!! I'm hoping to send something in the mail soon. Oh! And I got your package finally!!! And thank you so much, it was awesome. The food is being much enjoyed by all of us (the missionaries) Tamara's pictures are so fun - they will become the best p-day ever! and you were inspired about the pens that I needed...I know it's silly, but you gave me the kind that I needed/wanted/like. It was perfect. And I loved the pictures! And I got your package too, Rachel, thanks a million, I loved it! ...especially the stuff for smores, the scarf, the candy, that's pretty much all of it. Yeah, it was a good late birthday celebration.
And while I'm on that topic, the office told us to forward this: The office elders have asked us to pass along some information that should help you receive mail and packages from home more quickly (a good thing as Christmas time is approaching). We are recommending that all mail and packages sent to missionaries serving in Romania and Moldova be addressed as follows:
[Name of missionary]
Sos. Pipera Nr. 41, Et. 7 (Posta 41)
Bucharest, Romania 014254
The name of the missionary should NOT include “Elder” or “Sister.” Also, DON’T include the name of the mission or anything like that in the address. Please pass this information along to families and others that want to send you things by mail.
But I love you lots and lots and lots, and Shaley and Jenna, you look GORGEOUS in your homecoming dresses, I loved it! And Shaley, congrats on winning homecoming queen! I knew you would! But it sounded like a lot of fun. Keep enjoying your sports, the three of you, and tell Cherisse and Allen that I love them - the whole star trek guy thing made me laugh for about 20 minutes with my district, and your house looks so cute! I love you lots, and ttyl!
Always, --Sora Karina
Monday, October 5, 2009
tender mercies
This is my companion, Sora Staley and I - she is amazing I love her so much. She's acutally taller than I am, but it was cold on the top of the "mountain" which is like a hill to us, but it took a good hike, and it was so pretty.
The one of the baptism is Casia with her dad who baptized her and her mom...the dad is the branch president here. we have about 8-15 members who come to church depending on the week, and the leadership is shaky, but it's getting better. Ps. I love this family they are so amazing.
Hi family and all the people I love so much! How are you? I'm doing great.
This week was good, but everything that happened was only possible because of things Heavenly Father did. And He made sure that we knew it was only possible through Him. We actually had 17 lessons set up for this past week (not all from contacts, but still a decent amount) we had 8 lessons total, but only 4 of them were from the original 17 and only 3 of the 4 were non-members. It was amazing.
Some other amazing miracles - we had planned to take the bus to the church, and we have a copy of the schedule, but when we got to the stop, the bus didn't come. With the bus it takes 10 minutes to get to the church, without it, it takes usually 45 minutes to walk. We had 20 minutes to get to church on time once we realized that the bus wasn't coming and the next bus wouldn't get there for 25 more minutes, so we started walking as fast as we could. We got to the church exactly in 20 minutes. I know it's good to be early, and we were sad that we couldn't be, but it was amazing that we took the same amount of paces as usual, but with 25 minutes less time than it has alway taken before, and it was definitely something to be grateful for. One of the many tender mercies from the Lord.
Another tender mercy is that we found 3 new investigators this week, and they are all really amazing people, really willing to learn, understanding what we say, and the Spirit has been so strong lately. I am blown away at the way that the Lord can put His hand in our actions and change everything - someone who looks annoyed when we first talk to them leaves after telling us to call them in 2 days so that we can meet. After a day full of bungs and nothing working out, everything falling through. But just because we won't go home early, the Lord places someone in our path, or leads us to a block where the door is open so that we can go and find someone who was just about to leave to go somewhere and now all of a sudden they want to talk. Or with Maria, we were talking to her at her door, and you could tell that she didn't know why she was letting us in, but she did and was confused by it that she tried to give it purpose by giving us a mini tour around her house and showing us things. Then we taught her the restoration, and she was excited for us to come back (we're going there tonight) and it truly is by small and simple things that we can see the miracles in the larger scope of God's eternal perspective in this work. It was really fun.
So that was my week. Everything is going really well. A crazy person story...we talked to a lady at a bus stop, and after trying to testify, we ended up just listening to her talk about how it's a sin to wear makeup, its a sin to use product in your hair, it's a sin to wear pants (which she was wearing and used her pants as an example of that sin) and said that she wishes she could be muslim because they are the ones who please God. We tried saying that we are all God's children and He is pleased with us when we keep His commandments and such, but she would not listen, saying "no no, I'm a sinner...see these pants? and you are sinners too. Please don't get mad, but I have to tell you you are sinning. Just look at your face. That stuff on it is not pleasing to God." We finally just looked at each other, left, and laughed the whole way home. Later that night Sora Staley washed her face and came up to me and said "look sora! I'm not sinning anymore!" and we laughed some more.
Another funny story, Elder Bernier (an elder from my MTC group that i'm serving with right now in Sibiu) his mom googled his name and she found my blog because of it! Funny.
But other than that we are working hard, we are having fun - we actually had one sister stay for Relief Society this past sunday, so that's progress right there! The Lord is helping us in this work, and it is His work, and I am so happy that I can be a part of it here in Romania.
Well, I love you all so so very very much, and I'll write next week! Love always, --Sora Karina
ps. Assistants acum sunt Elder Anderson si Elder Collier - te iubesc mult si ai o zi buna!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
