BIG!

The pic is of all of us missionaries and with George and Andrei at Easter in front of the church with our candles.

Hello everyone,

How are you? I'm doing great. Right now everything just seems so big to me. Bucaresti is HUGE!!! It is divided by the state into 6 sectors and by the church into two halves. So I am serving on the western half in the Panduri branch, and I live in Sector 1 which just happens to be the prettiest part of all of Buc. Lucky me. But it is gorgeous. I wish that there were huge parks all over the place like this at home. One of them even has giant push pins all over the grass! Eventually I'll get a picture of that and send it to you, but it made me laugh. All of the buildings are big, there are tons of people, and it is great. The branch is more developed here to the point where the missionaries don't have to be in any leadership positions, or lead the leaders. It's nice.

This is the first branch since my very first area where I haven't had to play the piano or lead the music in church! It is so awesome when you have members that are able and willing to fulfill their callings. It is a bigger branch than what I'm used to...there are tons of people on the branch list, but yesterday about 35 people probably came, and we knew a lot of them were out of town.

Oh, and you'll probably start hearing stories about some people that are known through-out the mission as "crazies" that just happen to be in this branch. Like Bogdon Tudor. During Sacrament Meeting he'll play tic-tac-toe with God...and he wins. Don't really know how that works, but ok.

And on Saturday we had a branch picnic/barbeque which was so fun and really good food. Bogdon came up to me and wanted to know if I had been a hand model because I had beautiful hands. Nope, that's not on my resume. Well, that confused him a bit, and wanted to know if I had been a picture model then...no...well then I had to be a princess...or a top model...or in the movies. Well, after all of those choices were exhausted, he decided to make sure that I had seen the movies and started a conversation about the different types of movies to make sure that I had seen them. I had, and that made him feel better. Now, realize that this whole conversation happened probably 3 times on Saturday because he just comes back anD says the same things he had said before. But yesterday at church he had no remembrance of it, or at least he didn't mention my beautiful hands lol!

We have a lot of great members. It might take a while to get to know them, but it will be fun non-the-less. I haven't gotten lost yet, because Sora Hupp knows her way pretty good around here so far. I am a little in over my head trying to figure out all of the metro lines, the busses and bus stations, and getting my bearings. But I still have 5 weeks to be able to figure it out better. Sora Hupp is awesome...she is in her 2nd transfer and is doing great with trying to learn the language. She is from Missouri and served here in Buc last transfer with Sora Slaeman (who is from my MTC group). She is so much fun and has tons of energy for the work, and we are just having a blast so far, and I don't think that will change really.

We have a lot of potential investigators and people that want to know more, but I don't really know them that well yet. I can tell you about 2 people. Cornel got baptized 2 Sundays ago and was confirmed yesterday. He is a great guy. All he is looking for is peace, and it is so fun to talk to him about the gospel, the Atonement, the plan of God for us, the prophet, and all of these things that we have in our religion and he just gets so happy. With almost every principle he says "yes, that's it! That is what gives me peace." Or "all I want to have is peace and be happy, and this is what will get me there." And he's right. Any time we learn truth and apply it in our lives, we will have peace and joy. Any time we live in accord with God's plan and we know that we are doing His will, we will have a greater desire to continue doing this and we will know that there is peace in this life and in the life to come.

The other person is Adrian who is investigating whether that is what he chooses to call it or not. He is very fixed on just knowing what "our point of view" is, not what a book says. We're having a hard time figuring out how we can help him A) feel the spirit, and B) accept truth for truth's sake instead of learning reason for reason's sake. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's what he does. But he is a great guy, and we always have such good discussions with him. hahaha....he gets mad at me all the time for popping my knuckles and my elbows, and I feel a little bad but not really, just because I don't even realize that I'm doing it half of the time until his gets mad - "Stop doing that to yourself!" he says. So after a lesson we were walking with him to the bus stop (we go in the same direction for a while to get home) and I did it again without knowing it and he just got so frustrated and said "can't you just stop that?" and I said "well, it's hard cuz I'm so used to it, and I don't even know when I'm doing it" and he said "but you're ruining your body." Then I got the brilliant idea... "Ok, I'll quit popping my knuckles and you'll quit smoking." and after a long discussion of how that also ruins his body and why do I care - well why does he care about my knuckles - and so on, he agreed that we would have an honesty system and tell each other when we meet how we did. Thus far (since last night) I have only popped my knuckles 4 times. That is quite a difference. I hope he will have the same success (he smokes 2-3 packs a day when he's working...yuck!) But slowly he is starting to listen more, and that is good. We each do that. Slowly we start listening, or starting to think that maybe something matters, and then we realize eventually that that something is the Spirit of God guiding us surely along the path to eternal life - now if only we would just follow it. And that is where we find joy.

Another interesting conversation with Adrian was about God's plan, and I told him that I was excited to live with God again and to have a perfect body and to have eternity in a perfect world. He was incredulous. "No, you should be happy and excited now for this moment and for today. You should have goals here and now that you're working for. And you are perfect because of what you are doing now. You shouldn't wait for things to be perfect, you should be happy and just make them perfect now." I am happy now. I do have goals for now and later in this life. But the majority of what I am doing now I am doing because I have a goal to live with my Heavenly Father again, and I can do that only if I live in a way that will allow me to have that happiness later. I know that God wants us to be happy now. And we find that happiness as we live in a way that will allow us to have a hope for the eternal perspective of things. No matter how much I enjoy today, I wouldn't be truly happy if I didn't know that today would matter later, and it does matter. That is all part of God's plan, and part of our joy as we experience life.

I was just thinking this past week with the year anniversary of Grandpa Coy's journey to a part of home, about some of my memories with him. One thing that I am pretty sure happened every single time we were together was that we went to a restaurant and he took a picture of all of us at the table with his film camera. Heh, I never really knew why he did that every time, but it is something now that makes me smile. But I know that he is still smiling where he is with Grandma, and they are working hard to prepare for the great and marvelous day when we will all be reunited in a world of perfection and happiness, which is built one day at a time here, starting now. I love this truth.

Well, I need to go and do everything else that needs to get done today, but I love you all so so very much. Shaley, you looked beautiful in your prom pictures! Jenna, don't forget to tell me about your first date ;} Tamara, good luck on your recital coming up, I know that you'll do great! and can you please tell Brother Larsen that I said Hi! thanks. Mom, I'm glad that you did good on the organ, I know that you will. (I had an amazing thought the other day. After I get home it would be so fun to try and write an organ duet for us! I've never done that, but that doesn't stop anything!) And daddy, I hope that you're business trips and everything are going well, and that you're still getting enough rest.

Oh, tell Austin congrats for me, and the same with Ross and Mimi - I'm so excited for them!!! Pretty much, just tell everyone that I say hi and that I love them. I do love you all so so very much. Romania sends her greetings to you all, and I'll write more next week! Love always, --Sora Karina

ps. just a funny thing, I think that this internet place is the only place in Romania where macs exist, and it's really weird having that type of "high-tech" at the tip of my fingers - I almost don't remember how to use a mac! haha.
Tell Cherisse Congrats on her test! and tell Ally that I say hi.