Happy Valentines Day!

Hello everyone! How are you? I'm doing just grand.

In the first place, Fericit sa fie ziua indragostitilor! Or happy Valentine’s Day! Or if I translate it literally, happy to be the day of those in love! Ha, I love Romanian. And although it is an American holiday, they still use this day as a good pull for getting more business; "find the perfect gift" and whatever. But it's not nearly as big a deal here as it is at home. I had 2 lovely valentines - they're called my companions. lol.

Anyways, this week was super busy. We found out on Monday that we were going to Bucuresti again on Wednesday for our Zone Conference which was super exciting that we were going, but we had just gotten back, it seemed like, so it was kinda exhausting to travel some more. Especially since it snowed - again - and the busses weren't running, so we had to take a train (which is probably safer anyways, but it adds 2 hours on the travel time). Needless to say, we were all really tired for zone conference, but it was a really good one, and I learned a lot. It was fun.

We came back to a city partially flooded from the snow and ice beginning to melt and not really having any place to go. Now it is raining quite steadily and walking is more like jumping from dry patch to the part of the ground that doesn't have a lake on it. It’s fun. I would go puddle jumping, but walking outside gets you wet enough.

We also had English sign-ups, cuz we're starting our program again this week, which should be fun; the "new and improved" program that our assistants have been preparing for the past 2 transfers. It should be good.

And we had a branch activity where they all came and got dirty cleaning out the back courtyard of the church so that we can eventually have a lovely garden back there with fruits, veggies, and flowers. The idea is to eventually have a source of food owned by the church for the families that don't have the means to purchase their own food. Neat stuff. We had all types of junk back there that I didn't even realize - poles and wooden beams and broken windows and old doors, complete with an old toilet and a dead rat. It was fun.

We are also trying really hard to institute visiting teaching and home teaching more in this branch, because it hadn't really been done at all before, and the members really don't know what they're doing. But some of them are at least very willing to try and do what they've been asked to do, which is good. Like Aurora Boboc. She has been inactive for the past while; I hadn't seen her come to church since I've been in Constanta for the past 5 months until she came 2 weeks ago. As sister missionaries we have some companions for visiting teaching and Sora Boboc is one of them. She was sooooo nervous to teach Sora Nitica who is the relief society president (who knows the scriptures so well, and Sora Boboc said that she doesn't know the scriptures like that, and what could Sora Nitica possibly learn from her? ) and so on, but she was excited to try, and she did so good. It was so neat to see her sitting there saying "I don't really know you, but I was called to come and be your friend, and I don't know what I can teach you, but I hope that I can be here for you when you don't have anyone else here...and I tried to prepare a short message that the first Presidency put out for the sisters of the church to hear, and I want to tell you that I know what they tell us to do will bless our lives...." and she just kept going. It was amazing the love that she put into her studies in order to prepare for that lesson.

She also teaches with us Sora Beere who is from England and is currently trying to learn Romanian, so really the lesson is me translating for the two of them instead of teaching. And Sora Boboc just taught simply the principles and the blessings and then testified how she had seen it in her life, and it was really neat.

This church is not filled with any perfect people, but it certainly helps us learn how to perfect ourselves so that we can become greater tools in the Lord's hand to the blessing of His children and all those around us. That is the main principle between home and visiting teaching, and it is something exciting to see how the members here are starting to learn about that.

This week Ion had a slight break-through. He finally said that he would pray to know what he wants! Yes! He doesn't know if he wants eternal life because he doesn't really know what it will be like, especially since his earthly family is broken, so why would he want them for eternity? and so on and so forth, but now he is trying to figure out what the celestial kingdom would hold for him, and he's praying to know if he wants it, so we are excited for that. And Vatuta talked to her husband again, but he still doesn't like the idea of her getting baptized, so now we are in an effort to strengthen her faith that God can change his heart. She believes it's possible, and is now going to be praying that he will receive that change and allow her to get baptized. The wait will be hard, but it will also be worth it.

Well, I don't have much time to write anything else, but I love you all so so very much, and I want you to know that God loves you, too. He is our Father and everything He does is for our benefit. I know that He sent His son to be the Way that we can return to Him. Through the suffering of Jesus Christ, He knows us perfectly, so He can help us perfectly, and through our imperfections He loves us perfectly. I know that through this love can we find the strength to get through any challenge that comes our way, and we can trust that God will not give us anything above our capacity - as long as we rely on Him and His strength we can do anything. He did not send us here on earth to fail, but to succeed and win. He awaits each of us in every moment with open arms, and I know that as we turn to Him, He will be our strength and support.

I love you all so much, and I hope that you have an amazing week!

Love always, --
Sora Karina

memorial

Hello dear family and friends,

How are you? Suffering from snow as well? Apparently with us being in the middle of another blizzard, this is the most snow Romania has gotten (country wide) since 1938. Lucky us. It is making some of the work a bit more difficult, but no worries, it will continue on.

There really isn't much to report on with Vatuta or Ion yet, they are both still sitting where we've been at for the past little while, and we are praying for a break through where some progression can occur. They are both progressing individually in their own ways through studying the words of God and praying and growing in their desire to act, but there are obstacles that we are still beating our heads against - soon they will hopefully be overcome with much prayer, fasting, and diligence.

Our week was focused mainly on the memorial that we had for Elder Davis and Elder Burrows on Thursday. It was a beautiful service. Elder Lyon called me - he's an Elder who served with Elder Davis in the MTC and he and I have performed many musical numbers together, including the one you have the tape of from the MTC, and we've performed since then in the field - and he asked me if I would accompany him on a song for the memorial. It was beautiful. Well, that could be a bit biased.

He told me that he wanted to sing an arrangement of "Be Still My Soul" that was done by the BYU Men's Chorus who changed the text and is called "I Love the Lord" and it is a beautiful text. But he didn't have the sheet music for it and asked if I could just play it by ear. Ummm....not really my forte, but ok. That ended up not working anyways. He told me the keys that it was in (for those of you who care and understand what I'm saying, the first vs. was one step below the original music in the hymnal, the second vs was a step below that, and then the third vs was in the regular key, so it went from E flat to D flat to F - yeah, none of those keys are related) So then he asked "could you just transpose the music like that and then make it pretty?"

I don't think he realized that what he was asking me was to write a completely new piece. So that's what I did. I had less than 24 hours before we left to go to Bucuresti, and I somehow needed to write this song. I tell you that I did it and it was only possible with the help of all the angels in the heavenly chorus. And they were present. They helped us in the writing, practicing, and performance of it, and it turned out really well. I was so blessed to be able to witness that miracle.

At the memorial we started with the hymn "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" and wow, I have never thought of that song in such an eternal perspective before. President Lundberg spoke to us about the plan of salvation and the blessing we have as missionaries and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to share this great message with the world, and how we will do that mainly by living it. He also spoke about how the windows of heaven will be opened to us in this mission as never before. In the dedicatory prayer, Romania was blessed to be a beacon to all the nations, and how this event - however tragic - did that like nothing else could. People who didn't know where Romania was now know and those who before would never have listened or opened their doors are now opening them and eager to listen to our message.

Sora Lundberg talked about how the year 1989 would hold great things for Romania, for that is when the communist regime would fall and the revolution would open the doors to the restored gospel to this land. In January 1989 and in December of 1989, Elder Davis and Elder Burrows were born into families where they would be raised with the knowledge of that gospel so that they would one day play a major role in that knowledge being shared with the children of God in Romania.

Elder Kopieshka, our area president of the 70 over Europe came and talked about the love and plan of God, how everything is done for the benefit of His children, including the life, ministry and mission of His firstborn son who came to the world only to die so that we could all live again.

The closing song was a musical number "Consider the Lilies" with Sora Kimball on the piano and Sora Jones on the flute. It was also very beautiful.



Oh, and I forgot to tell you, that in the morning we all got together and for 3 hours before the memorial we went out as an entire mission and flooded the streets of Bucuresti to talk to people about the gospel. It was cool. They organized us into groups and had us go to different areas of the city to proselyte and to work in remembrance and honor of our friends.

Elder Barclay and Elder Worthlin were soap boxing and they were stopped by the police because apparently you need permission from a local priest to be able to proselyte like that - yeah, like we're ever going to get that permission haha. But after it was settled that they wouldn't do that anymore, Elder Worthlin wouldn't let the police officers leave until he testified to them about the plan of salvation and invited them to learn more. Neither of them were interested, but they sure left a lot faster after they got out of Elder Worthlin's grip. It was a great morning.

So now we are back in Constanta, enduring the snow and ridiculous winds.

This is a picture of me and my "mission sisters". We were all trained by the same wonderful trainer

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This is our MTC group, reunited at the memorial service.

Funny story, on our way out this morning to come to internet in order to write to you, we made it nicely out our apartment door, down to the main level entrance, we unlocked that and locked it up nicely, only to find that we were locked inside our courtyard because the gate wouldn't unlock.....so we called our landlord to see what he could do about it, he came, couldn't figure it out, left, and came back with a big hammer to break off the bolt lock that was on the gate a little down the way. It was pretty funny. But he also said that he'll fix the lock when it gets warmer. For one of many reasons, pray that it will get warmer and soon!

Well, I will leave you with a Romanian tongue twister: stii ca stiu si stiu ca stii si mai stiu ca stiuca-i peste. (prounounced: shtee cuh shteew she shteew cuh shtee she maee shteew cuh shteewcuhee peshtay) which means: you know that I know and I know that you know and I still know that pike is fish. Say that 5 times fast in Romanian - I can! haha.

Here I am standing in the middle of a frozen lake!

Well, I love you all so very much, I hope that you are safe and warm, and I am trying to do the same - don't worry, I am succeeding. Keep going forward in the love of the Lord, in the confidence that He is aware of us each individually and He truly is doing all that He can to ensure our joy and well being. May we each work side by side with Him in that same work - for the salvation of all His children- and have joy in the glory of our God. I love you again, and I'll talk to you next week!

Always --Sora Karina

The greatest cause

Dear family, friends, and all of you whom I love,

Hey! How are you? I'm doing pretty great. I'll start the email off with the sad stuff so that I can end on the better end, but for those of you who haven't heard, two of the greatest missionaries that ever lived or that were a part of this great work passed away this past weekend. Elder Davis and Elder Burrows were serving in Timisoara and had a gas leak in their apartment when they were away for Zone Conference. When they came back they didn't notice the difference because the apartment was already filled with the CO2, and you can read the rest of the report from the news. You can find it on the internet in Deseret News if you're looking, along with Sora Lundberg's blog if you want to read that.

But we are all really feeling the loss of those two amazing Elders. They were good friends to all they served with, and always had their shoulder to the wheel with their whole heart into the work of the Lord. I will miss them both. We don't always understand, but we have faith that this truly is the Lord's work, and somehow all of this works together for our good and the good of the Kingdom of God. I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is a tangible thing, and that it is personal - He reaches out to each and every one of our hearts when we suffer, and He will not hesitate to succor us now.

The families, from what I hear, are doing well and are living in the faith that they will once again be reunited with their sons at the day of joy. I know that their faith will be rewarded. I want to tell you that the Lord never asks more of us than we are capable of doing, and He never asks us expecting us to do it alone. He is always there eager to help us, push us, comfort us, encourage us, guide us, and rejoice with us when we succeed. He also sorrows with us when we sorrow.

This is the essence of the Atonement of Jesus Christ - that God sent His only Begotten Son to suffer and die in His work knowing that it would be hard, but that it would be worth it for all of us to be able to return to Him in joy and safety. But not only that, also the worth is found in the availability of the love and understanding that readily comes from the One who suffered exactly what we suffer, and He did this so that he could know how to comfort us and heal us in our afflictions. I have felt this cleansing and healing love engulf me many times, and especially in these past few days. Nothing will ever be able to describe the feelings, or the hurt, but neither will words ever be able to describe the hope and joy and relief that comes, and will always come, from the Spirit that conveys to us the ever-presence of our Savior and Redeemer, our Lord and our God.

On their own time-table and according to our individual faith, two things will always come: comfort and compensation. I know that God lives and that through Christ all men who will believe will be made alive, never again to die. How grateful I am for the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us the ability to understand more fully the perfect plan of our loving Heavenly Father. We will continue to go on in so great a cause. It is the only cause that is worth the suffering, hardships, and work/effort. And I wouldn't want to be doing anything different.

But now I will tell you a little about how the work is going. Ion is doing better - willing to believe, just scared to do so, and we are SO close to getting a date with Vatuta. At church, President Alin (the branch president) came up to her and said "so, I hear that you're getting baptized?" and she said "Yes, but I don't know when yet, because my husband just won't listen." But she's trying really hard, and I know that the Lord will bless her and help her husband understand. Hopefully this next week that news will be available to give.

Lately it's been extremely cold; cold enough that the lake froze over. Yes, the lake, not the Black Sea, although I have seen pictures of that happening about 4 years ago. But now there are ice chunks in the sea. The lake is frozen over, so we went and stood on it, and Sora Owen made a snow angel on it - it was fun.

It is starting to warm up today though - it rained all day yesterday which means the snow is melting and becoming huge ice patches. This is slightly annoying. My back has been bugging me a little because of it, but it is fine.

Funny story time: we were at Ion's house, and he was showing us something on the computer, and after he needed to close out of the screen and went to hit the "escape button" but instead of saying "escape" he said "esc" which made me and my companions laugh. He said "what, what's so funny" and we said "Oh, nothing, you just said esc. We usually say escape, but from now on, I think I will say esc when I need to hit that button." we had a good chuckle over that one.

The other one was that we were block knocking and I went to knock on the door cuz the door bell didn't work, and I tapped on it once and the door started opening cuz it wasn't latched shut very well. So I grabbed the door handle to pull it shut, but it didn't and started opening again, so I pulled it shut again, harder that time, but it still didn't work. By the time I went to pull it shut the third time, there was resistance because the owner of the door was behind it pulling it open to see what was going on. I apologized, saying "sorry, I tried to knock on the door and it opened, but anyways we're here because we know that we have a living prophet on the earth," and he just looked at me funny and slowly closed the door and locked it so it wouldn't open again. My companions gave me a hard time for "breaking in" and said I should have just finished it by entering. Ha! I laughed.

Oh, and one story that I forgot to tell you about transfers. We were on our way back from Bucuresti to Constanta on the bus, and we were just talking and talking like we do for 3 hours until we had the pit stop that they take about 45km. outside of the town. So we got off and relaxed, breathed the freezing air and got back on the bus. The driver came back to count everyone, and then just to check asked, "are we missing anyone? cuz we wouldn't want to leave anyone" and someone responded "meh, it doesn't matter, there should be another bus coming this way in a few hours" and we all laughed (remember this is all in Romanian) and so someone else added "yes, and if you're going to leave anyone, leave the English people" and I laughed and responded to him in Romanian "sure, you can leave us if you want to" Which made him get way taken aback because we understood and spoke Romanian - guess he wasn't counting on that one, and the whole back of the bus just started roaring with laughter as he tried to save himself by saying "oh, well you understand Romanian, so that's ok, most don't. But you're just sitting there going 'takakakakakakakakakakakakak' " and I said "well, we like to talk what can we say" and the man sitting next to the one who wanted to leave us said "ai voie" which means "yes, you're allowed to talk" and we were just cracking up. Good times.

As for everything else, how are you? I hope that all is well back home and that you are having fun in all of your endeavors. Don't worry about me - we are safe and working hard.

Mom, we have a CO2 detector in our apartment and though we'll probably be checking it more frequently, all is well and safe. The Lord has called us to this work, and He will help us accomplish it, regardless the challenges that we face. I love you all so so very much. Have a great week! And please keep the families of Davis, Burrows, and Lundberg in your prayers. Thanks! Always, --Sora Karina