Thanksgiving in Romania = Chicken?

This is me and Sora Kiriyama in front of the run down Casino on the bank of the black Sea.

Her I am in front of the Black Sea on a cement port thing.

Sora Kiriyama and I with the boys on bikes that came to our Thanksgiving activity. (Joey Donner who's name is acutally Ionut is in the gray and striped hoodie, Bogdon is on one knee, Tika (said tseecha) is in the gray hoodie, and Alin is in the blue.) Fun stuff!

Hey family! How are you doing? I'm doing just great. We had some fun times - a lot of contacting which makes for a lot of things to learn...

So this week was hard, but it was good. Ion came to church again, and we are slowly figuring out what is keeping him from accepting a baptismal date. We can tell that he believes in what we're saying except for the occasional question which is normal. And when he participates during Sunday School he says some really good things and has good questions. And when he prays...they are so sincere and amazing. But there is still something there that we just can't catch quite yet that is making him evade our direct questions and commitments. He accepts our commitments when we pry and dig for him to give us a direct answer (which we do) and then he keeps the commitments. I don't know what the problem is, but the Lord will help us to find it so that he can enter into the waters of baptism. We are praying for him to accept a baptismal date, and I am confident that he will soon.

What else happened this week...Oh, we had a thanksgiving activity where the branch wanted us to put on a thanksgiving dinner and a presentation and such. So we tried. Romanian style thanksgiving is interesting...turkey here is rediculously expensive (40 RON/kg = around $13.50/2.2 lbs.), so we had chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, rolls, and home made root beer (they don't have root beer here so you have to make it with root beer extract, sugar, and mineral water) but we had root beer floats and it was really yummy. Not really a thanksgiving food, but all the romanians connect it with anything American, so you just go with it.

It was one of the most successfull activities that I've seen here in Romania though, tons of people came. Around 14 members, and 10 non-members plus the 4 missionaries, and it was awesome. Cool story about that: The night before the activity, Sora Kiriyama and I were out and we decided to sit on a bench real quick for a short break, and while we were talking a group of boys on trick bikes rode past us. Sora Kiriyama recognized one of them from around the town or the skate park where she had seen him riding and just playing around. She and Sora Ostler last transfer had named him Joey Donner from the movie 10 Things I Hate about You (I haven't seen it, so I can't explain why, but they did) So when he passed, she said "Hey, it's Joey Donner." About 30 seconds later, they all came back and one of them asked us what nationality we were from and we told him we were Americans. They started talking to us in English, and the one who asked expressed dissappointment that Sora Kiriyama doesn't know Japanese because he lived there for 5 years and wanted to talk to someone in that language. After talking to us a little bit more, they asked what we were doing in Romania, so we told them that we were missionaries. Since it's a lot easier to talk about the church in Romanian, we automatically switched over to Romanian and they were all shocked, "wow, you speak Romanian, too?" of course we do. So we invited them to the Thanksgiving activity and they said they'd see if they could. And they came!!! It was super cool, and they participated and they loved it.

Now some of them are meeting with the Elders to learn more about what we believe.

It was really fun.

One more funny story which really isn't a story but more of a statement. We were eating chocolate, with the brand name of Kandia, and Sora Kiriyama was reading the back of the wraper and started laughing...in my confusion, I read it and started laughing, and I wanted to share the statement with you cuz it's funny. It is the only thing in English on the wrapper (among Romanian, czech, and Russian) and it states thus: "Since forever the real chocolate was prepared only with pure cocoa butter, undoubtedly the secret of its pleasant melting. Kandia recipe contains only pure cocoa butter for you to enjoy the smooth melting of the true chocolate." HAHAHA! I thought it was funny, because that works in Romanian, but the direct translation into English just doesn't work and it's hilarious...plus the fact that it actually states that on a chocolate bar...enjoy the smooth melting of the true choloate.

Ok. Anyways, we're having fun and doing what we can to laugh. Sora Kiriyama likes to laugh, so we do it a lot ;} Anyways, I'm glad that you had a good Thanksgiving. I love you all so so very much and hope that you have a great week!

Love always, --Sora Karina

ps.

Debbie - sa nu-ti faci grij, e bine. Stiu ca esti ocupata, si te inteleg. Si multumesc pentru pozele electronice...imi plac foarte mult, sunteti draguti pe bune. ai o septamana perfecta, si mai auzim! Te iubesc...Si pe tine Ali, sper ca totul merge bine pentru tine!!!