Dancing Along

Hey hey hey! How are you? I'm doing just wonderful.

The weather this week was a lot nicer - we didn't melt as much, and it got into a wonderful pattern of raining at night and being cooler during the day. So that was lovely. And we had a pretty fun week.

Sora Gogu has been trying to get me to bake her an American cake for this entire transfer, but I'm not good at making cakes. But I finally gave in and told her that I would try, but that I wasn't promising anything. So I made a cake - it turned out really sweet, but the important thing is that it turned out! She ate each piece with a half a can of whipped cream practically because it helped it not taste so sweet. But meh, I'm not complaining, and neither is she.

Also, this week I've been trying to teach her how to play chess. It's really funny because she keeps getting the pieces mixed up with what moves they can do and such, and the other day she got frustrated because the pawn couldn't kill by going straight forward, nor could it move backward and said "well, what can he do?" I explained for the umpteenth time what a pawn can do and she said in frustration "well, he is not a profitable servant - useless!" I laughed a little and I said "Oh, come on. He can still kill the King if you put him in the right spot." "Yeah, and what spot is that so that I can kill you?" Oh, it was a fun game. But I think that we're taking a break from the game for a little bit lol.

Also, we went block knocking with Camelia (a girl in our branch who is always begging for us to take her to do missionary work) and we went into a block and either no one was home, or no one was listening. But when it was suggested that we leave the block, we all said, "no, we are here for something, there has to be someone here that needs us." On the next floor down, the second door that we knocked, we found Sora Georgescu. She is less active because she doesn't have the health or the strength to come to church, and none of us knew that she lived there, but she hasn't been visited in at least 2 months and really needed a visit and some uplifting words.

So we shared a message with her about faith and hope, and how Jesus promises us that if we will have faith in him, he will give us the power that we need to do whatever is needful. And then through that promise, it tells us that we can hope for miracles to happen in our lives, and that faith actually gives us the ability to open our eyes, recognize the hand of God in all that we do, and that alone becomes a miracle. (Moroni 7). And even though we didn't find any new people to teach, (in fact everyone in that block rejected us) God knew the need of one of his daughters, and helped us to know where to go to fill the needs in His work at that time. And for that I am very grateful.

Another fun thing that happened this week is the Heinrich family invited Sora Gogu and I over for dinner. They are an American family that came out here for 3 months for the husband's work...but they really liked it, so they stayed for a year instead. They are leaving to go back to America in 3 weeks. But their daughters (Eva 5, Audry 3, charlotte 1) really wanted us to come over for dinner, and it was so cute to be with those little girls. After dinner we shared a spiritual message with them about how we can have a stronger relationship with our Heavenly Father through prayer and by taking the sacrament. One fun thing was that the dad asked his girls, "Do you know how old you need to be in order to be a sister missionary?" and Audry said "Um, 6?" And the dad was about to say "no, 21" but I interrupted and said "Audry, you are exactly right, in fact you don't need to be six to be a sister missionary, you can be a missionary right now." Her eyes got so big and she said "really?" Of course. Anyone can set an example, come closer to Christ, and invite those around them to come and do it, too. That's what a missionary is. We then of course clarified and said "but if you want to wear a tag like I'm wearing, then you need to be at least 21 years old." She looked a little serious and said "that's a long time. I'm glad that I don't need to wait until then to actually be a missionary, I'm just waiting for the tag!" Oh my goodness, how right she is. It was so cute.

Random Romanian saying inserted in the middle of the email today: "Sa dansezi cum iti canta" (sah dansayz coom uts cuntah) it means to dance how it is sung to you. Basically, if someone says jump, you say "how high?" But I loved it because of the way that Irina explained it to me..."When they say 'trah la la' you move like this and like that and when they say 'trah loo loo' then you need to change your moves or else it's bad news." I laughed a lot with that one. And of course Irina and Sora Gogu laughed at me because of how funny I thought it was...Oh well, at least we were all laughing.....

As for our investigators, Ionela is doing good. She's praying and just waiting for an answer. Danuta believes in what we're saying to her, but she doesn't understand how that leads to her getting baptized, and Andreea and Sonia are willing but are currently out of town. But things are moving forward and they will progress. We are trying to help our investigators have the faith to take the step to be baptized. There is always a lot to anticipate when you can see how they are prepared because we know what to look for, and we know where they came from and where they will be going. But they don't see it. It is hard to see something like that in yourself, and when we know that it can happen we just do everything that we can to help them see through our eyes what they can have and who they can be. And of course, seeing how God knows where we came from since the beginning and and knows where we can be in the ending, His vision is even larger, and He is doing all that He can to help us all have an eye single to His glory.

He will continue to give us strength in His work to go forward and to help His children see how they can return to Him, and even to be like Him. It is a wonderful work, and it is moving forward. And it will always move forward so long as we trust in our God.

This is a little something that Adrian said: "We have ton's of challenges in our life but as long as we still have something to hold on to, it's alright and we can actually smile. I remember when some times I was traveling through the country and hitchhiking with my brother and sometimes we had to walk in the middle of the night for 3-4 hrs, and we didn't have money or food (cause' we were heading home so all our money was gone :D ), but we were happy. It was dark, ok, but we kept singing something so in that way we were bringing light around us. We were supporting each other if something bad happened (like once Radu had a problem with his knee) just by joking a lot and not being sad with the situation that we were in. Because we knew that tomorrow we will be home, in our beds resting and probably two days later, back on the roads. It's the same with God: no matter how hard is it, no matter how dark is it we still have our father to laugh with us, to take care of us, to bring light in our way and in the end we have the hope of being with Him in the Celestial World... to be home..."

It is so true. God is on our side. He wants so badly for us to return to be home with Him in His Kingdom. And it is through His restored church, through His priesthood and baptism and keeping the commandments and prayer and most importantly through our own personal desire and dedication to get there, that it is made possible. The Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to have a possibility, and then through Him we receive the strength we need to put our dedication into practice, and we will make it. I know that God prepares a way for us to do all that is needed. He performs miracles in our lives if only we would open our eyes to see them. And then we are able to recieve a comfort that He is still by our side just like He promised, and we can move forward in the confidence of our spirit, the loving guidance of our Lord, and in the hope that we will make it - just as He promised as long as we keep our promises to Him.

This truly is the source of our joy, and this joy is eternal. All is well here, I hope that all is well there. Keep smiling, keep going forward, for we are moving on to the victory of eternal life and the glory of our God. I love you all so so very much, and I will have more to say next week.

Keep your chin up, shoulders back, back straight, and have fun. Love always, --Sora Karina