1st Week in Galati

My last week on the Black Sea...reminiscent of our Coy family reunions



Hello everyone! So to start of, the way you say the city I am now serving in is Gahlots, it is not galatee...although we make fun of it like that. But what we usually say is "it's gahlots of fun!" hahahahaha.

Anyways, I'm doing great, how are all of you? I arrived at my apartment here, and to our amazing joy, we found the cockroaches that we were expecting - yup, we have cockroaches. Not too many, and they're not too big, but they are still present and accounted for. Don't worry, we have a sword that protects us that we use to kill them and keep ourselves safe. I'm not joking. If I can get my camera to work on this computer, I will send you a picture, because it is my new way of life. Or I guess I could use a shoe, but that's just not as exciting, and then our sword would just collect dust, and that probably would make it not as shiny and pretty.

So I am here with Sora Hardy, and we are already having a blast. She is from Utah and reminds me a lot of Cherisse - just some of her mannerisms are so similar, and it makes me smile very often. I haven't yet pointed it out to her, but that's mainly because I know that as soon as I do, I won't stop pointing it out, and I'd rather just have fun without her thinking that she's my sister, even though that wouldn't be a bad thing at all. It just is one of my silent pleasures that I get to serve with her. The funny thing is that she's about as short as Cherisse, too, so the resemblance is enough to laugh at inside.

Church was good, the Elders had one investigator there, we had one potential investigator there (we're meeting with her later this week) and we had 5 members and 6 missionaries. We have a lot of space that can be used to hold people that can come closer to Christ, which is exciting. And it's great –

I don't remember if I told you or not, but we have a mission goal for this year - 200 baptisms. We had 90 something this past year, so we're doubling it. Plus this year it will be in honor of the 20th year anniversary of Romania being dedicated to the work of the Lord (that anniversary is tomorrow) and in honor of our 2 Elders that gave their lives to this work. We are all fasting, working, praying, and loving our goal for bringing 200 children of God to a knowledge of the truth that He has restored to us on this earth. For the past 2 months so far we have 15. It's exciting. The neat thing is that we're not just trying to get 200 people to join the church so that we can have more people and say, "Oh, we had 40 people come to church instead of 5," although that would be a great thing to say - that's not the point. The point is that we know something, and we know that it is true, and our desire is that everyone can come to a knowledge of that so that they can find everlasting, salvation and everlasting happiness. Eternal happiness can not come without knowledge and a life lived in accordance with that knowledge. I know that God lives, that He loves us, and that He has restored His priesthood power to the earth so that each and every person who would believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, to the point of action can get baptized in His name, by His power and authority, so that they can inherit His joy. I know that through that power, families can be eternal, and we can be cleansed from sin and healed from heartache. The plan of God is so perfect and amazing. I love it.

So cool story, last week the ambassador of Romania went to the US last week with his wife, after receiving an invitation from Sister Burrows (the mother of one of the Elders who recently died) I believe, and He went and they had dinner with them, went to BYU, U of U, Temple Square, and other things, and enjoyed his stay so much and felt the Spirit of what we are trying to do, he is now back and wants to work with the leaders of the church to make family history an available resource to the Romanian people. Before hand, it was near impossible to do family history here, because you have to search the primarea (government building) for the records and certificates, and it costs money to search and is near impossible to find anyways, and it is just hard for the people to get involved in that. But now he wants to start working to fixing that and make the records more accessible. It will probably take a little bit, but hey, it's a start, and that's cool.

I wanted to explain the Ziua Femeilor because I learned more about it. The red and white actually is a symbol for the difference between purity and evil - good and bad, and it gives the person more strength to find the beauties and goodness of life. They call the little trinkets "the sign of spring" and it's supposed to be an invitation to the new year of growth and goodness. So last week was just the beginning of the signs of spring, and the "celebration" that has been all this past week of gift-giving and well-wishing- for the "new year" ends with today as a celebration for women. Fun times.

Oh, and my old email will be done in its use the end of this month. My new email, to repeat it, is karina.coy@myldsmail.net so that should work.

And the vorba (saying) for today cracked me up when I heard it: the meaning is "well, that's pointless" and it's said "frectie la un picior de lemn" and the literal translation is "massage a wooden leg". HAHAHA! I laughed so hard I could hardly write it down when I heard them say that. So instead of massaging a wooden leg, go and make yourself useful. haha.

Well, I love you so much, I hope that you are all safe, healthy and well, and I will talk to you more next week.

Always, --Sora Karina

This is me stabbing a cockroach with our sword. Fun times!