Transfer to the Sea

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