Yay, Happiness!

Hello everyone! How are you? I'm doing so wonderful.

I have a lot to tell you about this week - well, maybe it only seems like a lot, but we'll see how long this one ends up being. So I'll save the best for last and start with the fact that I am officially staying in Bucuresti, and Sora Hupp is leaving to go to Galati which will be super fun for her.

My new companion is Sora Gogu who is from the Republic of Moldova and she knows very little English. So I get to have fun speaking this amazing language all day every day with someone who can correct me as much as they want! I'm excited. It will be a way fun transfer I think.

With random news, there was a huge protest this past week in Piata Victorie, or the Square of Victoria which is about 10 minutes away from my house. There were hellicopters and crazy stuff, and about 40,000 people stuffed somehow in the streets of the square. Nothing too big happened, and it was just a lot of people being mad about a reduction in retirement funds and...it's not that important.

So this week was also Mission Counsel and Sora Hupp was invited to participate in that, and so I got to go on an exchange with Sora Turner who is a senior sister that works in the office, and we had lots of fun. We went park contacting in Herestrau park and we met this guy named Cezar who wanted to talk to us and we were glad to for the 15 minutes that we had time to before we had to go to meet up with Sora Hupp at President Lundberg's home. When that time came, he didn't want to stop talking, and so he decided to "lead us" there. At least that's how he said it and said "I'll lead you, I'll lead you" when really he was just following because he didn't even know where we were going. Neither did I because Sora Turner took us a way that I had never been before to get to the mission home, so we were both following her. Anyways, he could not stay on one topic. It was the most scattered "lesson" or discussion that I had ever been in, and as soon as we would start testifying about whatever we had just been trying to explain he would interrupt us and say "It doesn't matter because I don't believe in religion, I just want to go over the sounds of the English language so that i can speak better..." and blah blah blah. I don't know why he wanted to talk to us so much if he wasn't even going to listen. But that's what he did.

He followed us to the mission home where we were invited in by President and Sora Lundberg, and it just so happened that all the missionaries had just left so my companion wasn't even there, but we talked a while together which was good, but by then Sora Hupp and I were supposed to be in a lesson in 5 minutes on the other side of the city, and we weren't even together yet! So I excused myself and Sora Turner and once again Cezar said "I'll lead you" but this time I led by walking as fast as I could (which has made past companions have to run in order to keep up with me) so that I could get to the metro station where I was meeting Sora Hupp. We finally got together and ran as fast as we could to the metro, went to Unirii and grabbed a taxi. We were lucky and just happened to pick the best taxi driver ever so that when I told him "we need to be there fast, in fact, we need to be there now" he said "you got it" and he was going as fast as ever, honking at the other cars to get out of his way...it was funny. So we got to our lesson only 1/2 hour late instead of the hour and fifteen minutes that it would have normally taken with the buses and walking and such. It was good.

And so we arrived to the chapel where Adrian was just laying on the grass on a nice day reading the Book of Mormon and patiently awaiting us. Also, that day I hadn't been able to eat anything because of the exchange and travel and such (and we knew that would happen a few days previous) so he was extremely nice and made a meal for me and Sora Hupp - and for him, and we all sat and ate at the church as we discussed the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and prepared him for his baptism....we'll get to that in a minute.

So there is this really cool girl from English class named Andreea who looks like she should be 17 or 18 but is only 14, but she loves learning about the scriptures and the things that we have to say. She doesn't show much emotion, just sits there with her curly hair and glasses and analyzes every thing that we say, and then when we ask her if she has any questions she says either yes or no, if yes we answer and she nods her head in accord and if she says no she tells us she understands and teaches back what we just said in a 2-3 statement summary. She's cute though, and super fun. Her parents aren't interrested, is what she tells us, but she also says that they don't care about her interraction with us or whatever, so hopefully they won't get in the way of her being able to progress and more fully come unto Christ. Happy thing.

Sora Hupp and I went to Fratele Dobre's house this week - he's a member that is paralized on his right side and so is usually in a wheel chair and such. We went to go visit his wife who hasn't come to church in 2 years. We talked to her about the Temple, and Fr. Dobre had no reservation in saying in front of her "I'm sorry that she doesn't live worthy and come to church. I've been to the Temple but I've been without her and it's pointless doing that. I want her to come to the Temple with me." I asked her what she thought and she said that she knows she isn't worthy now to go to the Temple, but one day that would be nice. I told her that one day will never come unless she starts preparing now for that one day in eternity. I told her that she could go to the Temple in August when they have the dedication of the Kiev Temple if she starts now. She seemed slightly interested, and when the time came for her to say what she would do I told her "the blessings of being a member of the church of Jesus Christ are manifest to us as we do what we can to go to church and to come closer to God. Will you start doing this and come to church on Sunday?" "................ok." w00t!

Fr. Dobre still had some doubts and said that she had said that to many people before and she still might not come, but I said to him with her sitting there, "but she just promised me that she would come, so I know that it will happen." Oh the faith that you sometimes show in people that you only met about an hour previous. But she did come to church and was well received and she loved it. I was so happy for them. This will help them to go forward to be sealed for eternity as a family so that they will be able to continue their service for each other in a perfect world. How joyful will that be? I can't even describe it.

Also on Sunday a lady walked in to ask if she would be able to join in our Sunday services. Of course she could. She didn't seem convinced, but I assured her that we were more than happy that she would join us, and that there would be no problems caused by her presence. Her name is Irina, and at the end of Relief Society before we closed, the new presidency asked for the visitors to introduce themselves, and when Irina stood up she told us that she is a street child (was abandoned on the streets and raised herself like that, and still has no home) but that she is not here to ask for anything. All she wanted was a few hours of peace on Sunday, but every church that she had been to before had thrown her out or talked bad about her, and she was never received. So she hadn't been to church in 7 years.

Some time ago she was walking out of the store having bought bread and someone gave her a pamphlet for this church, and as she said it, it was just her luck that she got on the 226 bus that led her here. When she saw the church at the stop, she decided she would stop in to see if the people would receive her. I am so happy to say that she was well received. She said that she loved the lesson in Sunday School where we talked about the life of Christ and how He was made fun of, rejected, and left alone. "I have felt that way too in my life. But now I think about it, and I think that His sufferings are more than what I suffered, and He can help me." She stayed for the baptism, and we will hopefully be able to meet with her and talk to her more about how she can receive help at the hands of Christ this week. It was wonderful.

Ok, now I know that you are all wanting to know how the baptism went. It went wonderfully. That is really the best expression that I can come up with outside of amazing, perfect, great, and so on, but that's how it was. The week preparing for it was good - we continued to teach Adrian the things that had not yet been fully discussed or resolved and he told us "You know how I am with you teaching me? I'm like a spounge, I just want to drink it all up - tell me more, c'mon!" Hehe, it's been fun.

Saturday we had our English class, and the spiritual thought was on Faith and Baptism. Sora Hupp and I were in charge of it, so we talked about what faith was, and how faith always leads to action. We can't say that we believe and then just sit and do nothing, thanking God as we go along. We need to activate our faith in our heart and in our action - in all that we do so that it can be of worth to us. Then we invited Adrian to come up and tell the students about his decision to be baptized and why he did it and how he felt. He said some very nice things that I think helped prepare two of those students who were listening to accept a baptismal date later that day.

After lunch was the interview for the baptism, where he completely blew away Elder Oberhansly, who apparently hadn't completely believed us whenever we talked about the way Adrian spoke, learned, and comprehended the teachings of the Gospel. He must have thought that we were exaggerating because after the interview he said "Wow. He is more than prepared." God knew that, and helped him to be ready to receive this wonderful change in his life so that he would be able to come closer to Him, plus the help of the miracles that God performed in His amazing love and power. Then Elder Dummar took him back to the font to show him what would happen, and to practice the prayer. Elder Dummar is amazing, and memorized the prayer in Romanian... which, though it's not a hard thing to do, it would be difficult when you already have it engrained in your mind in both English and Spanish where the accents are completely opposite. But he did great.

The past couple of days it has been rainy and gloomy looking outside, but Sunday we woke up to a beautiful clear day with pretty clouds that God used for decoration in the sky that day. We got to the church and Adrian said that he was nervous and knew it would be a nice day, but wasn't expecting something too amazing.

Side note: Sora Hupp and I had a surprise for him for the baptismal program. He chose the speakers and everything, but he knew that there would be something in the middle that he didn't know about. He didn't worry too much over it because he didn't think that we would be able to do anything extremely special. Little did he know what we were capable of. He and Elder Dummar were dressed in white sitting in the front and I spoke on baptism - about how God only wants us to be able to come back to Him because each of us is precious, and how He knows how we can best do this. So He asks us to do some things that will help us, like baptism and prayer, and keeping His commandments and doing all those things that sometimes require a sacrifice. But it is how we become truly happy in the end.

Elder Gunter talked about the gift of the Holy Ghost and how it becomes our source of power as followers of Jesus Christ after we make the covenant with God to be that follower. Then came the surprise and Sora Hupp sang a solo for a special musical number and I played the piano for her. She is shy and not one to like spotlight at all, so she was nervous, but she sang beautifully and everything went perfect. The Spirit was so strong, and Adrian was very surprised. Elder Dummare said everything word perfect for the actual ordinance, and when Adrian came up out of the water he had the biggest smile on his face. I was so happy to know that he was that happy.

This is the point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the point of God's plan for us and for the life that Jesus Christ lived - for the life that we live: to find true happiness that will last through out eternity. I know that Adrian has found that - along with the other 5 people that were baptized this week across the country, with the people that are learning and growing because they are choosing to make those changes in their life. I too, have found that happiness, and that is why I'm here - to share it with everyone. This is what God asks of us: to learn of Him, come unto Him, and then help others to come, too. And it is so wonderful when people come.

Elder Bernier and Elder Harvey gave a presentation about the restoration of the Gospel while we waited for them to change, and then Adrian bore a sweet sweet testimony about the joy of coming closer to God and about the help that comes when you choose to step on that path. Like I said, it was quite amazing. I know that the hosts of heaven rejoice just as we can rejoice when the kingdom of God is built in our hearts and lives so that it can grow on this earth to prepare us for the wonderful things that are still to come in mortality and beyond into eternity. I would hope and pray that all of you would try to build that foundation of Christ in your life so that you, too, can taste of the joy that I promise will come as you strive to align your feet straight ahead on His path. Try it. Test it. The difference is worth it.

Well, I only have one thing left to tell you which is the fun saying that I learned this week - it's the saying that you would say if you got upset and don't want to deal anymore with whatever it is that you are dealing with. It's like saying "I don't want to do this anymore" and you say "imi iau jucariile si plec" (umm yow joocahreelay she pleck) which literally means "I take my toys and I'm leaving!" I thought it was funny.

But anyways, I love you all so so much. Shaley, congrats on your graduation! Tamara, hope all of your playing (piano and violin) went well, Jenna, I did love your email - it was that little piece of randomness that I needed for the day. Cherisse, I'm glad that you were able to have fun visiting home. Mommy and Daddy, you're just amazing as always.

Hey, and if you are able to, I don't know if you can before anything happens, but with Jane Francis, I would love it if you could tell her for me thanks for everything, and that always I am wearing the whole armour of God. She would tell us to do so every day after seminary as we would walk out to go to school. Thank you so much. But I love you lots and lots and we're happy as always!

Always --Sora Karina