Karina's Mission

Wonderful Journey

2010-07-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

I have a couple of things to say this week, and we'll be talking a lot more about all of it another time. But I wanted to say that first of all, this was a great week. We worked hard, the weather was mostly helpful, and the work just keeps going forward.

Ionela is praying!!! Yay it makes me so happy. She still doesn't feel like she has received an answer yet, but it is an eternal truth that if we ask in sincerity of heart, the Lord will answer in His own way and His own time. But the answer will be for us in a way that we will not be able to doubt. I told her that, and she got really happy and is trying to find the answer. With that attitude, her heart will change, and it will be a beautiful miracle in her life.

Danuta is doing well, having spiritual experiences and is getting closer to wanting to ask God if it is true. She knows it's true, but she doesn't know if she should get baptized. She said "If God wants me to get baptized here, then I'll do it with all of my heart, but He'll let me know." I asked her if she had asked Him if He wants her to get baptized here. "No." "Well, how can you know what He wants unless you ask Him?" She thought about that and said, Yeah, maybe I should ask Him. But I'll ask Him when I know that I'll be willing to do what He asks. That is wise, but we also need to recognize and always remember that He will help us to accomplish what He asks of us, because He knows that it will bring us happiness.

Andreea and her little sister Sonia are doing good. They want to get baptized - but they want to learn more first and to be prepared for the new life they will live. The Spirit of God testifies to us to help prepare us to live the gospel, and living the gospel helps us to prepare to live for eternity with God. So everything is a preparation, and with each step God strengthens us and helps us to come closer to Him. That is the point. To get close to God. And not just close to Him, or near Him, but to be with Him - and even like Him - so that we can receive the same eternal happiness that He has. And this is possible through and only through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement. And it is wonderful.

I often think to myself, how is it possible for people to change so much? When you think about the natural instinct of people to fight for them, with their way of thinking, and then you think about Jesus Christ, how He lived and how He desires for us to be like Him, it's almost impossible to comprehend. And then I remember. God is our Father. We have the potential to be like Him, to be where He is. And that potential is made possible for us through the infinite sacrifice made by our Savior. And if He was able through the power of God and with His love for us to give His life for each one of us individually, then that sacrifice has a lot of power connected to the eternities. And since He suffered for each of us one by one, then each one of us has the ability to receive some of that power. All that He asks is for us to come to Him, to love Him in both word and deed, and to believe. That belief is something that can move mountains, that can sustain hope for an unknown future, change a heart, or even just give you a reason to smile even when you can't find anything else.

God loves us. Infinitely. Perfectly. And this is something that we can always find joy in. This is something that will always tell us that no matter who we are and what we are, we still have the ability to become who He knows we can be. I am so grateful that we can receive the power of the Atonement in our daily lives - if we would receive it - through the restored and perfect gospel of Jesus Christ. God's love is wonderful and it is so real. Tangible even, in our lives. It is with faith that we can have eyes to see.

Random funny thing: This is a saying from Moldova, not from Romania, but it is still super funny. "i bot la in ghips" (Ee boht lah un gheeps) which litterally means to "put your mouth in a sling" or in other words, shut up. I laughed so hard when Sora Gogu explained to me what it meant...and now we say it randomly just cuz it is really funny to say. There is also the one where you say "iti faci ca o oaie" (uts fach cah oh waeeyay) which is an expression that means that you're acting like an old lady, but the litteral translation is "your making yourself like a sheep." HAHAHA Yup, that one got me laughing to tears.

Now, I do need to say that I love Romania so much. I have loved being able to share my soul with the people, and enjoying the beauties of the earth even amidst all of the poverty and sadness. Happiness was found every step of the way. This is the work of the Lord, and it is not finished. It will go forward until the Father Himself shall say that "the work is done." We still have some time, and I am grateful that each of us are called to this work if we have a desire to give all of our heart, might, mind, and strength. And He sustains us in it. This has truly been a wonderful journey, and it is not over. Neither is this blog, so don't worry. You'll hear from me again - just turn on your computer about once a week and we'll be able to smile together.

I'm sure that there are a lot of other things that I could say, but none of them are coming to my mind right now. So I will end by saying that I know that God lives. He loves us. Jesus Christ is our Savior, and it is through Him that we can return to live with God again. God doesn't change. How He worked in the time of Adam, Noah, and Abraham, He still works that way. I know that the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored by the power of God through Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and helps us to more fully understand what is taught in the Bible so that we can not be led astray by the interpretation of men.

I know that God still works through a prophet, and that prophet today is Thomas S. Monson. I know that God desires for each of us to return to Him, and in accordance to that desire, He has given us the ability to choose, and to find out for ourselves if these things are true. All we have to do is desire to know, and ask Him through prayer. He will answer. I know because He answered me, and I'm not anyone extremely special for Him to answer me and not to answer the rest of you. We are all His children. I know and am so grateful for the knowledge that God created our families so that we can be together forever - even after death - and that this is made possible through the Priesthood Power of God in His holy Temples.

I know that as we are faithful to Him, all things (especially the bad things) will be for our good and will help lead us to our eternal joy. I pray that each of us will be able to continue to work and fight for that joy that God so badly wants to give to us, and of these things I testify in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Don't forget that I love you all so very much, more than I can type. Smile lots! Always, --Sora Karina

Dancing Along

2010-06-28T06:20:00.000-07:00

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

Bond, James Bond

2010-06-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! How are you? I'm doing great. The weather cooled down a little bit this week - it has been raining at night and getting sunny and hot during the day, so that has been nice. This week seemed like a hectic one, even though at the end it didn't really seem like anything got done. But oh well, some fun things happened.

I have to tell you this story because it is the best find ever in the time of doing missionary work...Dad, I know where James Bond lives. He lives on Strada Stefan Cel Mare (The Big Steven Street) in Sector 1 here in Bucuresti. For real, I saw his door. Sora Gogu and I were bloc knocking and we came down the stairs and there was a large closet in front of this door and we were like what the heck is this thing here for? And then we were able to see the front of the door and I was dying, I couldn't believe how the owner of the door had decided to declare that they were Apartment number 7 - or should I say 007? We took pictures and I'm sending them to you, because they are amazing. Anyways, I thought that you would enjoy that.

We had a talent show for all of Bucuresti which was extremely unorganized, but it turned out ok in the end. When I say ok, I mean that a lot of the individual acts didn't go the way they should have (ours included) but that it was still fun and the general public really enjoyed everything so I will go ahead and call it a success.

It was kinda funny because President Doru from the district presidency asked if Elder Lyon and I would do something so we started trying to figure out what we would do for Saturday. On Wednesday I think it was I got a call from some of the missionaries on the East side of Buc and they asked me what they were doing for the thing on Saturday. "What do you mean what are we doing?" "Well, we were told that you are in charge of the number that all of the missionaries in Buc are doing, so what is it?" ......uh, I'll get back to you on that. So then I had the wonderful assignment of trying to figure out what a group of 19 people can do and put together in 3 days.

So Elder Lyon and I changed the song that we were doing and decided that the rest of the missionaries could just make the theatrical part of the song. And luckily we had Adrian to help us out with getting the music and putting it together. We sang a song from the musical "Wicked" called "Dancing through Life." But we didn't sing the whole thing, just a good part of it until it made sense to stop. And it was really funny because if you don't know the song, it talks about how stressing about school is dumb, you should just not care about anything, sluff off whatever you can, be happy, and dance through life so that you can enjoy it. Well, we changed a couple of the words to be about missionary work instead of about school, and it turned out great. We even got President Lundberg into it at the beginning, all the missionaries were sitting and studying their scriptures and such and President Lundberg told them "Like I've said so many times this year, we need to be very very obedient in order for us to achieve the miracle of having 200 baptisms this year, and without strict obedience, we can not obtain this miracle...hold on." And he had to take a phone call and walked away, and Elder Lyon became Mr. Diva and sang his heart out about how we shouldn't stress about rules, but just have fun. And he went and closed the missionaries scriptures and things to try and get them to lighten up - he even loosed his tie and undid the top button *gasp!* hehe. It was great.

Unfortunately the sound people kinda ignored us and so it was really hard to hear Adrian's guitar, and the piano was way out of tune even though they swear that they tuned it two weeks ago, but that's ok. It was fun, and it got a good laugh out of the people that could understand English.

But oh my goodness, there was this little old lady that could just not stop herself from being on the stage. If there was any song played that had some type of a good beat, you bet your boots that she was up there in front of everyone dancing her little heart out with no reservation. And she had to be at least 75 years old, but I would give her 82 if I had to guess. And she just danced all night long - it was so funny. But I love Romania and how any get together can easily become a dance party, and it definitely became a dance party for the last half hour. Good times!

Other than that, we are praying to find new investigators and praying our hearts out that Ionela will pray to know if this is the truth or not. You can not come to a knowledge about spiritual things with out praying and asking God. It just doesn't work. And the reason why it works when we pray is because God loves us so so very much. He wants so much for us to know what He knows, to come to Him so that we can find the eternal happiness that He has. He doesn't want us to be confused, and if He is God, and and God is all-knowing and all-powerful, then why would He not have the knowledge that we are asking for, and the power to give it to us in a way that is personal and powerful to us individually? The answer is that He does, and He is just waiting for us to do our part. He tells us "ask and ye shall receive, seek, and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you." This is an amazing promise, and I know that God keeps His promises.

So I know that if Ionela (or any one of you) will just go to your Father in Heaven who loves you, He will tell you what to do. The time will come, and all will be well, and there will be much rejoicing in heaven and on earth among the children of God.

I love you all so so very much, and I'll talk to you all again next week. Good luck with all of your comings and goings, and don't forget to have fun!

I love you, Always, --Sora Karina

Hot, Hot, Hot!

2010-06-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, how are you? I'm doing great. Drinking a lot of water and getting a work out just by fanning myself because it is HOT!

All this week it has been over 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) Which I know that you all think "oh, that's nice and not too bad"...well not when you're in Colorado or Utah where it's not humid - but here it is pretty ridiculous. And it makes missionary work just a little more difficult. Either people are not on the street because it's too hot outside and so there's no one to talk to, or no one is at home because it's too hot inside and so there is still no one to talk to. It makes you wonder how in a city so huge people can disappear so that no matter what you try to do to find people to talk to it just doesn't work. But that's ok.

We are still having success and we are grateful for that. Just last night we had this problem. We wanted to talk to people on the street, and there was no one on the street. So we tried to go bloc knocking, but no one was answering the inter-coms which meant that either A) everyone was ignoring the really annoying beeping noise that occurs when someone calls into the bloc or B) once again no one was home. So I suggested that we go to the park and see if anyone was there, and Sora Gogu agreed, even though she really really does not like park contacting. I just didn't see what else there was to do, so we went to the park and it was full of people. Sora Gogu expressed her lack of hope by saying "great, now we know where all the people are, and none of them are going to listen to us." Well not when you have that attitude...we have the greatest message on the earth to share and there has to be at least one person in this park that wants to hear the greatest message on earth.

So we started trying to find that one person. I am so grateful for the Spirit and the guidance that it gives us in every day, even in the little things. Just smiling at someone or saying hi to someone that you usually wouldn't give second thought to can result in wonderful things - whether you are actually present to see the results or not. A lot of times when we are contacting people, we don't contact men because it makes things less complicated at times.

But there was a man on a bench that we both felt like we should go and talk to him. He seemed interested so I asked if we could please sit down and share our message quickly with him. He was happy to do so and he listened intently. I don't know how much of it he really understood, but he was excited to read the Book of Mormon and as he put it "to increase my faith." That is exactly what he will be doing. It isn't about changing one's faith, because true faith is in God and in Jesus Christ. Our purpose is to help people build their faith on true principles so that their faith can grow and so that they can come closer to God and Jesus Christ, and this will bring them joy. No other message can do this for people.

And it is so apparent in the lives of the people that we work with in every day how this message really does change their lives when they apply it. Ionela loves what we teach her and she just feasts on it. She doesn't recognize yet that she loves it because it's true, she just loves how she feels. I pointed out to her the other day that the feeling of peace and happiness is the Holy Ghost which testifies of the things that we are doing right to get closer to God. She was a little taken aback by the fact that she had felt the Spirit of God, but was also excited about it. She came to church on Sunday, and I was so excited that she came. It was a good meeting, too.

She was really interested in the topic of genealogy and what we can do to help our grandparents and ancestors. Her grandparents died recently and they were very close to her and she wanted to know exactly what she could do to help them. Adrian was helping me explain it to her about the Temple and how we are able to help them come unto Christ through baptism just as we are able to do so, and she asked why that was even necessary. Adrian said "if you choose to be a part of the true church of Jesus Christ, wouldn't you want them to find the same happiness that you have found, and to have the same opportunities as you have to be closer to God by making sacred covenants with Him?" The answer of course is yes. We have the blessing to know that families are made to last forever and to be eternal. And if families are eternal, then I'm going to want to do all that I can to make sure that that eternity is full of joy in the kingdom of God.

Church was also wonderful with Irina's confirmation. The spirit was so strong and she was just beaming. She is definitely such a great example to me of how regardless of our situation, we can always find joy in the teaching and living the gospel of Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter what we lived before or who we think we are, through the Atonement and sacrifice and love of Jesus Christ, He will help us become who He knows that we can be starting now. If we begin now to come unto Him in the way that He has asked us, He will be by our side through the entire journey helping us overcome our personal stumbling blocks until we are able to find our way onto His path, which is the path that He promised is already prepared for us, so that we can have everlasting joy here in this life as well as in our eternal life with the Father. No, this life is not easy, nor should it be. But He tells us that we need not fear, for He has overcome the world. And if we would just follow Him, we will find peace, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light. This is a beautiful promise for any and all who desire to find a refuge in their days of toil and tears. I know that this plan and this path is for every single one of us, and He calls us to it one by one, personally.

This past week was also the week of Zone Conference. It was fun to be together as a group of missionaries again. You always find so much strength in the friendships that you have with people who are a strength to the soul. I find that every time we get together because we just help each other be happy and we lift each other up in the work that we are doing, and it is wonderful. We talked a lot about the power of the Book of Mormon and how it has the power to change lives. I just want to bear my testimony that that is true. The Book of Mormon truly does have in it the power of God to change lives as we read it and apply it's teachings in our lives. We will feel in our lives a stronger spirit and a deeper resolve to do what is right as we read it daily. It really does have answers to life's questions and it has the word of God. Try it. I can't prove it to you, but I invite you all to read it to find how it can bless your life, and I promise you that it will.

The Bible is also the word of God and is wonderful. The Book of Mormon helps us understand the Bible, and with both of the books put together, no man can make a mistake of what the will of God truly is for us. Read it, and your days will be happier.

Other than that, I feel like I'm in the movie "The Wizard of Oz" every day because here in Romania instead of saying "I'm burning up" when you're really hot, they say "Ma topesc" (muh tohpehsck) which means literally "I'm melting". And sometimes some people really do look like they are melting - especially when the air conditioning in the chapel doesn't work so Sacrament Meeting takes place in a large oven....fun times. But really, life is great, it is wonderful, and it is a gift from God.

I pray that you are all safe and doing well, and that you are also finding joy in your journey back to God. I love you all so so so very much. I know that I can never say that enough, but I hope that you are able to feel that love through my prayers for you and your prayers for me. I feel those prayers every day, and I am so grateful for them.

Thank you for all that you do, so keep doing it. Have fun, do good, be happy, and I'll write more next week.

Love ya! Always, --Sora Karina

God's love is for Everyone

2010-06-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? I'm doing wonderful!
I don't have too much time to write today (sorry) but I'll try to get a lot of the good stuff in.

First of all, yesterday Irina was baptized, and it was wonderful. It was quite stressfull at the beginning because her bags went missing with her towel and everything in it, and we didn't know where it had gone, but luckily Adrian had the baptismal suite with him, so she was still able to have the one that fit her and so on. We didn't have time to try and get the bag situation figured out completely, so we just decided that we would worry about it later and to enjoy the amazing moment that was at hand.

I'm so glad that we did that because the baptism really was amazing. Sora Gogu and I spoke about baptism and the Holy Ghost and what amazing blessings they are to us in our lives, why they're important, and why God wants so badly for us to take those steps in our life so that we can come back to Him. Then President Fotea, the branch president, baptized Irina. She told us afterward that she wasn't expecting the water to be cold. She didn't want to go under in cold water, but then she said, "Nope, I couldn't turn back because I had to become the new Irina that God wants me to be." And she was smiling for the rest of the day. I think that is the best part for me - just seeing how happy she is, and knowing that it is a true, eternal joy that is in her heart that can't be erased as she continues on the path she starts out on with the step of baptism. That joy is real, and that joy is what God wants for each of us, and it is so possible for every single one of us as God's children. No matter where we are, who we are, or who we think we are, we are children of God. And we have the potential to have the joy of our Father in Heaven. He's doing everything that He can to give it to us, and now it's our choice to accept it and do all we can in our life to be able to be in a position to receive it.

This is Irina, looking beautiful before her baptism.

Myself, President Fotea, Irina and Sora Gogu

Adrian, (who was baptised just a week ago and was confirmed on the day of Irina's baptism), with Irina

Myself and Sora Petrisor (my Romanian MTC language teacher) with Adrian after his confirmation.

It was so endearing talking to Irina afterwards about her feelings. Remember that she is still without a home, without a real future in sight, and even though she makes a little money here and there off of what she can, her life is not one of comfort. But as we were on our way to Adrian's home to eat together, she told me; "Sora Karina, I don't know if this is the right way of thinking, but it is the picture that is in my head... Right now, they are having a party in heaven for me. God is looking down and saying, 'Yes! She can come home! That's my daughter, and she can come home now.' And they have the party complete with balloons and confetti, and I could be the most beautiful girl in the world today. I feel like the daughter of an emporer, and I'm a princess today no matter where I'll be sleeping." How right she is. She is the daughter of a Heavenly King, and He truly is rejoicing when each one of us chooses to come back to Him. It was wonderful.

Now for another fun story, on Tuesday someone called us telling us that they had never had a chance to meet with us and wanted to meet and could we please? Of course I said "Yeah, how about on Thursday at this time and this place?" She was perfectly fine with it, and she was talking as if she knew exactly who I was, so I asked her to remind me of her name before I hung up - "Ionela". Ok. I hung up the phone and I looked to Sora Gogu and told her, "I have no idea who that was, but we're meeting with her on Thursday." Alright. ...So we get there on Thursday and found each other through the wonder of cell phones, and she realized that we weren't the same missionaries that had asked her to take their picture a few months ago, which is how she even received a small pamphlet. She thought, "I have nothing going on right now, so I'll call those girls up." Ionela is probably one of the cutest girls I have ever met. She's 23 and has such a great grasp on the concept of what it means to hold high standards. S said she doesn't see the point of church, because if all you're going to do is go to church to kiss the icons and to praise God and forget Him as soon as you leave the doors, then you are better off to just pray in your own way at home, or wherever you are, and just try to be a good person.

She is exactly right. If you are going to church or those reasons, then there is no point in going. But if there could be a church where you actually came closer to God and Jesus Christ and actually learned what their will is, and how to follow it, then wouldn't it be important? She sure thought so. We finished talking to her and set up for a few days later to meet with her. But on the way out she asked us what we were doing every day all day. "This. We talk to people, we teach people, and we try to help people and invite them to learn more about what we believe." So she asked us what we were doing right then. We were on our way to teach Irina a lesson, and she asked if she could come with us to see. Of course!

She came and loved it, and then when I made sure that we could still meet in a few days she said "Yeah, but how about tomorrow?" She is so willing to learn about what God has in store for her. She isn't sure that if she prays that she'll get an answer. So she doesn't pray. But I know that God answers all prayers - in His own way and own time, but He does answer. And since He loves us so much and wants us to come back to Him, of course He will answer a simple question about if something is true or not, and how we can truly return to Him. She'll get there to that knowledge and that joy, and I'm excited to see it happen.

And once again, God continues to work miracles. Even though she had a test that she had to take on Sunday and wasn't going to be able to come to church, or Irina's baptism, somehow things worked out to where she was able to manage to come to the last hour of church and to stay for the baptism. It was great. People say that God works in mysterious ways, and I guess that's true to the extent that we don't always know how He accomplished what He does, but really, it is so obvious what He's working to do. He is working for the salvation and happiness of His children - and He will never stop doing that.

Sora Hupp and me. It was sad to see her go, but she will do great!

Ok, and now something fun. The word "balamuc" (bahlamook). It means nut house or crazy house, and it's a really fun word. And here is a fun expression: "Calul de dar nu se cauta la dinti" (Cahlool day dahr noo say cowtah lah deents) And it means; if you are given a gift, just take it, don't look for the bad parts. If you are given a pink blouse but you don't like pink, you say thank you very much and then decide later if you'll wear it or not. You don't say "I don't like pink." The literal translation is "the gift horse is not looked for in the teeth." This is because when you buy a horse, the first thing you do is check to see if the teeth are good or not. But if you're given a horse as a gift, you won't do that because it's a gift. I don't know if that really makes sense, but that's what it means.

Anyways, I'm going to go now, and I hope that I am leaving with all being well at home. I love you so so very much, and I'll be excited to tell you all about this next week!

Have fun, smile lots, and don't forget I love you! --Sora Karina

Joy in Every Moment

2010-06-08T12:40:00.000-07:00

Me and Sora Gogu, my new companion

Monday, May 31, 2010

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? I really hope that all is well. This week was a really great one.

On Tuesday the Boboci came in (bohboche) or the new missionaries. Boboc is Romanian for "duckling" which is a perfect description of how you feel when you arrive in the country. You don't know anything, you realize exactly how little you know, and all you do is follow whoever is leading at the moment, and that's pretty much how it goes. So we got to take them out for their first night. There are three new sisters (boboace - bohbwachay) And we got them a saorma (shahohrmah) to eat which is a really yummy romanian chicken wrap, to describe it simply, and then we parted ways.

Sora Hupp took one of the boboace with her and Sora Jay (a sister that was with us because her companion went home) to go teach a lesson to one of our recent converts. Sora Hupp was scared to death because Cornel, the person they were teaching, doesn't speak English at all, and Sora Hupp is in her 2nd transfer. Sora Jay is in her 1st transfer, and then they had a boboaca. But they did fine just like I knew that they would. Plus it's experiences like that, that help you realize how much you really know and that you are capable to do more than what you've been getting by with for the past little while.

I took the other 2 boboace with me to go and teach Adrian a lesson. I told Adrian that he needed to speak in Romanian the whole time (because usually we teach him in English) and he did a good job until I translated something back and forth between him and the boboace and he said in English "Sora Karina, if you're going to translate, then I'm not going to speak in Romanian anymore." Both of the boboace said "Awwww, not fair!" and my response was "Yes, he speaks perfectly but he's not allowed to speak in English!" And he called out something from the kitchen where he was at the time, and we went on from there. It was funny, but it went well. We did teach him in Romanian, and he was able to help the sisters with what they were trying to say. They weren't exactly confident with what they wanted to say - until I asked them to testify about the restoration of the church. That is when it seemed that they didn't care about the mistakes that they made... they just wanted so bad to express their feelings about the truth that they know. And that is when the Spirit of God carries what they say - correctly spoken or not - to the hearts of all present. We each three testified, and then I asked Adrian if he would express his testimony to them, too.

I loved the experience of being able to sit there, and to feast on the Spirit that was so tangible, that was so real, bearing testimony of the truths that we were saying, and being able to share in the joy that we have each found from this knowledge and living in accordance to that knowledge. I asked them how they felt about the lesson afterward and they said "Holy cow! We're actually in Romania, teaching in Romanian to a Romanian!" Yeah, that's how it goes. But it was way fun, and they did great.

Wednesday was transfers which is always tiring whether you are traveling or not, but all went well. I was sad to say goodbye to Sora Hupp, but I'm excited to serve with Sora Gogu. She is from the Republic of Moldova and her first language is Russian. She knows Romanian very well though (it's her 2nd or 3rd language, and one of the main languages in parts of her country) and she knows a little English. She can understand most of it if you speak slowly, and she can speak English a little. She is learning though. We speak Romanian together all the time (obviously) except for our one hour during lunch. We speak in English then to help her learn better how to speak. (Except I'm forgetting it a little as you can see! Ha, ha)

But I am enjoying serving with her. She doesn't walk as fast as I do so I'm needing to learn how to walk slower. (lol) Other than that things are going really well. Adrian was confirmed a member of the church yesterday and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was wonderful.

Church was really nice. As we were sitting in Sunday School, some things were said that really made me think. We were talking about the Atonement of Christ, what it is, how He sacrificed everything for us, why it is necessary for our salvation and so on. Then the question was asked, how do we apply the Atonement in our life? The answer was given that we have faith in Him, we repent daily, we are baptized and receive the Holy Ghost through His authority and then renew the covenants made through the sacrament each week and endure to the end. The teacher than said "Yes, and enduring to the end is one of the most important things, and it is hard work isn't it? We have a lot to do because we're not finished and we need to try to work as much as we can to stay on that path." Then I realized how boring that sounds. And not only boring but discouraging. yeah, come to the way of Christ which is the way of truth and light, and then get ready for a bunch of hard work that you need to endure. But it's not like that. I spoke up and said that enduring to the end is hard work, but really all it is, is being able to enjoy to the end the blessings that come from the Atonement and from being on the path of Christ.

I think that so many times we forget what the purpose of the commandments and of church and of all the things that we try so hard to do all the time really is. It is to have joy. The purpose of God giving us the choice to come to this earth - and the reason why we chose to come here - is so that one day we will be able to have the fullness of all that the Father has, a fullness of His joy. And yes, it is hard work, and yes there will still be trials and a bunch of not pleasant things that will happen in life, but with the knowledge and testimony of the gospel and the hope that we are able to have through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we truly can have that joy now, or at least a part of it which helps us to get to the end when we will truly be able to have that fullness.

The gospel is amazing that way. When we keep the commandments, we are happy. When we read the scriptures and strengthen our relationship with our Heavenly Father through prayer, we are happy. When we are doing all we can to be our very best and we are striving to improve our character and serve others we are happy. And it shows in our faces when we do this. Perfect example is Irina. I told you about her last week how she is homeless and how she came to church just to see if she could find a place that would accept her and give her peace. Well, we've been working with her throughout this week and the change that can be seen in her is beautiful.

At the beginning she was shy and slightly ashamed of herself and although she accepted her situation and said that she was happy because there are people who have it worse than her, you could tell that she wasn't happy with who she was, and she was still feeling the guilt of her life pushing down on her. But in just one week the change has been dramatic and wonderful. She is reading the Book of Mormon and is praying to God - knowing that He loves her and that He will help her. She is searching for answers in the scriptures and she gets so excited when she finds them. She knows that she is in a bad situation, but she has a hope for the future and knows that she can pick herself up and start again, and she is trying to do this. She told us that she wants to get baptized and I told her that I was really excited for her, and I wanted to know why she wants this so bad and her answer touched me. "Because through baptism I will make a covenant with God, and I will become His. When I am immersed in the water, the old Irina dies, and when I come up out of the water, I can be clean, and I can truly say that I am a daughter of God. I will be able to be proud to say that Jesus Christ suffered for me, because I will have began to do what He has shown me that I must do, and I will be doing all that I can to thank Him." She got that without us teaching her what baptism is. She knew that because she had read the Bible, still had some questions and while she was reading the Book of Mormon she felt the Spirit testify that those words were a true confirmation of what she wanted to know. She prayed, and her prayers are so precious and sincere, telling God how happy she is that she found the place where He wants her to be and how happy she is knowing that she will be following Him soon by being baptized.

She is getting baptized this next Sunday, and her countenance shows how happy she is with or without a smile on her face. The difference and fullness of the gospel can be seen just by looking at her eyes. This gospel is true, and if ever there is a problem in our lives that needs to be solved, the greatest foundation on which we can build is the love of God found here in the restored church of Jesus Christ. Yes, God loves all of His children no matter where they are and no matter what they are doing. But it is here that they will be able to receive the fullness of the blessings that He wants to give to us because of that love - and that foundation will give us the strength in the time of any problem or trial so that we can move forward and truly enjoy to the end of each day and each moment.

I'm sorry that I don't really have any funny stories to tell you about this week - it was a great week, and yes I did laugh a lot as usual, but if I explained my laughter it would confirm the fact that I'm slightly crazy, and it would just be better to laugh about those things together anyways.

But I hope that you are all having an amazing week and that everything is going well. It is the beginning of the summer - enjoy it! Take care, and smile lots. I love you all so so so very much. I know that I say that each week, but regardless how many "so"s I put in there it just never seems to be sufficient. But I love you lots! tehe. Have a great day.

Always. --Sora Karina

Pictures of Adrian's baptism day

2010-05-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

Adrian sent these pictures of his baptism for you all to enjoy.

Sister Gaby, Sister Karina, Adrian Buzan, Sister Hupp and Elder Dummar

Sister Karina, Adrian Buzan, Sister Hupp, and Elder Dummar

Adrian and Elder Dummar

Sister Karina, Adrian, and Sister Hupp

Adrian and Elder and Sister Van Orman

Sister Karina, Adrian and Sister Hupp

Elder Gunter, Adrian and Elder Dummar

Sister Hupp, Sister Karina, Adrian, and Elder and Sister Dummar

Yay, Happiness!

2010-05-24T07:05:00.001-07:00

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

Yipee!

2010-05-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! This week has been a great one.

So, I think that I'll start out with the funny story first. We were walking through Park Kiselff, and talking to people as they would listen about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Most of them were indifferent, but were polite and took a pliant (flier) or listened for a little bit. Then we stopped to talk to a lady sitting on a bench and she said we could sit with her for a little and share the message. We started talking to her about God's love for her and she just started laughing and laughing. She asked us what else we had for her in our message, and we told her that we have a living prophet on the earth and gshe looked at us for a few seconds without saying anything, trying to comprehend what we said, and then she said, "Are you from the extra-terrestrial group? "Uh, no, actually, we're from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." "Oh, well what's that?" "It is the restored church of Jesus Christ on the earth today that is led by Him through a living prophet." Yeah, I don't think she really comprehended what we were trying to say, but still, I thought it was funny.

After we parted ways with her, Sora Hupp turned to me and said, "Did she say something about extra terrestrials?" And when I explained, she said, "Yeah, I thought that, but that was just too weird to be what she said." And we laughed.

Then we found 2 young girls that were talking and we had a really good discussion with them. It was nice. I know that God loves all of His children and He wants them to go to Him for the answers. He has all of the answers and is willing to give them to us if we would just ask with a desire. Tose girls didn't understand and said that they were looking to see if there was something more about God, but they didn't want to go to Him to find out. Prayer is such a blessing, and it is given to us so that we can have a personal relationship with Him as our Heavenly Father. He doesn't want us to be confused, but rather He wants us to come unto the Light of the World, His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we can enter in at the gate and find true happiness. He is impatient to bless us and is waiting with arms open for us to go to Him, ask Him if He's there, if He loves us, and if there is a way for us to come to Him. I promise that He will show you that way. He has shown it to me, and I've seen it as he has helped many others find their way to Him, and He is not a respecter of persons--He loves each of us and desires each of us to return to His presence in the fullness of joy.

We are blessed with the amazing gift to be able to choose to do this according to our own actions. He will not force anyone to heaven, but He will lead and guide us as we seek and try. It is amazing the power that He will give us according to our weaknesses, so that we can accomplish the righteous desires of our hearts--to fulfill the work and the glory that He has established in the eternities. And nothing can stop this work from progressing. we are a part of it - we are His work and His glory and His joy. Should we not have joy in that fact? I think so, and it is amazing.

Ok, now exciting story time. First of all, I told you how Sora Petrisor (said Petreeshore), who was my teacher in the MTC, is here visiting. Well, her mom hasn't come to church for at least 4 or 5 years... and she came to church on Sunday! It was exciting, and Sora Petrisor was soooo happy. She came up to me and said, "Sora Karina, Sora Karina! That's my mom! Come and meet her!" She is a very nice lady. She probably felt a little overwhelmed at being back in such a long time, but it was a time to rejoice just as Jesus Christ says when the lost sheep is found, or when the prodigal son begins to turn around, we rejoice and bring them back with loving arms.

So then later last night, we had a lesson with Adrian, and it was a good lesson in the park. On the walk back to the metro station I asked him about a conversation that he had with a member after church today that got pretty intense, at least from the last 10 minutes that I heard. Fratele Matei had no problem being bold in telling Adrian that he was always welcome with us at church, but that he would not be showing his belief in God if he didn't get baptized. Adrian already knew this, of course, but it is sometimes different to hear it pounded into your head by a bold Romanian (when a Romanian is bold, they know no bounds). So I asked him what got that conversation started, and he said that he had asked a question about being a member and why it was so important, as long as he is coming, and then he said, "but I don't need to tell you about the rest. You'll just say that he's right and I know that he's right, and it's not like I won't be baptized. ...Actually, I already know when, I just haven't told you." WHAT?! Yeah, he kind of ran away from me and I was in shock. He said, "Don't get mad, don't get mad, but I just want it to be a surprise." Oh, I wasn't mad at all, I was thrilled, but at the same time, very confused, because it's not very often that when someone wants to get baptized that they keep it from the missionaries who are trying to help them get there.

But he had it all planned to talk to Sora Lundberg about the plans for it (she's our mission president's wife) and he was planning on just telling us the day before, like, "Hey guys, what are you doing tomorrow, cuz you should really come to by baptism" or something like that. So I told him that if he didn't want us to know, our mission president at least had to know, so he said that he would call President Lundberg and talk to him about it.

He called me later to let me know that he talked to President Lundberg, and he said in a slow nervous-ish voice, "So, are you sitting down? Because I talked to the President Lundberg, and he said that everything is NEXT WEEK!" And I sat in shock for all of 3 miliseconds before I snapped out of it and said, "Wait, next Sunday, like a week from today?" Yup. Oh my goodness. We are all so excited and happy for him and his excited and happy for him, which of course, is the best part.

There is just something that gives you so much joy when you have the assurance of the Spirit of God that you are doing what is right. And as we have talked about a lot before, when you keep the commandments of God, you are happy, and you get closer to God, which makes you happier, and it makes you want to do more for Him, and then He does more for you, and it's just a huge happiness cycle. That does not eliminate the parts of life that are hard, but it surely does give you the power and hope to get through those parts with the faith that you have in a loving and caring Father who is aware of you and your struggles, and who is anxious to help you get through everything so that you can be even closer to Him. And I find that there are times when I feel like I am as close as I can ever get to Him...but then He answers another prayer, and performs another miracle, and my love and gratitude for Him grows and somehow the eternities are smaller and I am that much closer to my God, my Father in Heaven. It feels wonderful.

So I will be able to tell you about that service next Monday, which will be fun and exciting! We will see if Andrian's mom and brother will come to see and support him. I hope so.

So, after those amazing stories, I have my funny Romanian statement for the day: they have a million different ways to say that someone is crazy, but I think I found my favorite one this week: Are pitci pe crier (ahray peeteech pay creeair) which literally means, "he/she has midgets on their head". Hahahahahahaha. I laughed hard at that one, and I hope that it at least gave you all a smile.

I am so glad that everything went well with Tamara's recital and with the Power's wedding and everything else that had to get done. Mom, you are so amazing for being able to do all of those things!

But I hope that all is going well. Shaley, have fun with graduation this week! And make sure you tackle Cherisse when she gets there this week! And give her big hugs from me! And give Grandma Curtis hugs from me, too!

But have so much fun, all of you, and I will talk to you next week!

Love you to pieces! Sora Karina

Quite the Week

2010-05-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

Hey! How are you?

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers out there - Like Brianne! CONGRATS!!! And I got to say this to my mom, not face to face, but close enough for now. That was so nice to talk to my family. It is always something to have an overflowing amount of joy when you know that those you love so much are doing well.

So, like the title says, this week was quite the week. It was just super busy and very good. I'll start on Wednesday. It was our "63 day" which was the day that I had 63 days left in this country and that Sora Hupp had been in the country for 63 days. (And no, I'm not counting - really and I promise, it was just a random fact that came up, we celebrated and now it's over). But we had fun celebrating it by going out to lunch with Sora Petrisor who is one of our teachers from the MTC who is from Bucuresti and she's here for a few weeks visiting. It is so fun seeing her and talking with her - and actually understanding her! That's probably the biggest thing, because I remember when I was in the MTC and she would speak in Romanian and I would understand maybe a few words - and now I understand her perfectly, and I can respond! I guess I have been doing pretty well in my language progression. But it's fun having her here.

Friday was our Zone Conference, and Elder Camargo from the 70 and his wife were here visiting and it was really fun listening and being taught by them. We talked a lot about how we can help the members here in Romania get more involved in the missionary work - because if we are going to accomplish the work that the Lord has given us to fulfill, we need the help of the members, we can not do it alone. And that's how it is across the whole world - missionaries need help everywhere, and so does the Lord. I know that we are each capable of helping the Lord in this work simply because we are His children and He has called us to stand as a witness of Him. We do this best just by living what we believe and giving our whole heart and soul to it. If what we believe truly matters that much, then we will do all that we can to put our life and the way that we live to be in accord with those beliefs and teachings.

This is how God tells us that we will find the most joy - by believing in Christ and following Him. Another way that we can increase the work is by not being scared to tell others of what we know. We can just state simply what we believe and how we know it - through the Spirit of God, and that same Spirit, the Holy Ghost will bear record to us and those around us that what we say is true. It is a wonderful feeling.

So this weekend we also had District Conference which meant that people from both sides of Bucuresti, Ploiesti, Craiova, Pitesti, and Brasov all came down to Bucuresti to meet together for meetings on Saturday and Sunday. It was sooooo much fun seeing the people from Brasov that I worked with that came - I hadn't seen them since September, so it was quite a blessing to see them all again.

Choir went well - it sounded pretty good considering all the different choirs met just that morning to put it all together - and I was told about 10 minutes before the meeting started that the vocal soloist didn't show up and they didn't have anyone, and would I please do it? Ok. I think it sounded ok, but what mattered was that the Spirit was felt strongly among all those present, and for that I am grateful.

Elder and Sister Camargo spoke to the members at Conference also, and they said lots of great things to help strengthen them in their family living, in their spiritual preparation, and in their testimony. And why do we focus on these things so much? It is because as we strengthen these three things: our family, our spiritual preparation and our testimony, then we are surely on the path that leads back to our Heavenly Father and to eternal joy. I know it because I have seen the difference that it makes in my life and in the lives of those around me, and the difference is worth the effort.

Adrian sang in the choir like he had been practicing and loved it. When Sora Lundberg asked him if church/conference was good he said "yeah, like always!" It was fun.

Also something that is really neat is how Heavenly Father answers your prayers. When you are praying for something, or to know/understand something better and it just seems so out of reach, all of a sudden you find yourself in a setting where a person says something so small and yet that is the "big" answer that you've been looking for. And miracles like that happen every day when we have faith in the One with whom nothing is impossible.

Another one of our investigators is a little girl named Alexandra who is 8 and is the daughter of Cornell who was baptized recently. She is so cute and so fun, but it's so sad because her family life is not stable between her mom and her dad, and she just wants to be a kid but can't. All she needs is to know that she is loved, but she doesn't. She doesn't even believe that God loves her. We are trying to help her realize this just simply by loving her as much as we can (which isn't hard, believe me) and we pray for her always that she will be able to feel the love of God. She loves church and being in that setting, but I don't know if she recognizes why that setting is so precious. She was sitting next to me at the baptism that we had yesterday after the District Conference (it was someone on the other side of Bucuresti, yay!) And she is always a little shy at first to be close to you. But then when she warms up, she really warms up and you just want your love to radiate more and more for her. And I couldn't help thinking how amazingly blessed I am that I have a mother who loves me and who taught me that God loves me, and a father who loves me and taught me how to love God in return.

They taught me this together, and I wish with all of my heart that every child could have this. But that is why we have the Atonement of Christ - because every one is short of some happiness, and everyone is short of perfection. But in and through the infinite atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ we can receive the love and joy of God, even when we're lacking in what we have on this earth, and we can become perfect even when we are lacking in our abilities in this body. Everything that is not fair or is not good was suffered for, so that one day - in a perfect day - it will all be made perfect, ourselves included. And that gives me hope to continue giving and loving and teaching and trying even when it seems hopeless. There is ALWAYS hope in our Savior. And for this I am eternally grateful.

I'm trying to think of something fun to tell you about Romania - oh! There is such a fun song that's kinda like our "10 little monkeys jumping on the bed" song but it's with elephants and a spider web. Ok, really how it is, how to say it, and then what is means:
un elefant, se legenau, pe o panza de paiangen. Si fiind ca ea, nu se rupea, a mai chemat un elefant.
Doi! doi elefanti, se legenau, pe o panza de paiangen. Si fiind ca ea, ne se rupea, au mai chemat un elefant.
Trei! trei elefanti.....si asa mai departe.
(oon ehlehfant, say layghenow, pay oh puhnzah day puhyanjen. she feend cuh yah, noo say roopyah, ah mahee kaymaht oon ehlehfant.
doee! doee ehlehfants, say layghenow, pay oh puhnzah day puhyanjen. she feend cuh yah, noo say roopyah, ah mahee kaymaht oon ehlehfant.
tray! tray ehlehfants...she ashah mahee daypartay.)

One elephant, was rocking, on a web from a spider. And since it, was not breaking, it called yet another elephant.
Two! Two elephants, were rocking, on a web from a spider. And since it, was not breaking, they called yet another elephant.
Three! Three elephants...and so on.
So you just keep adding more elephants by saying patru(pahtroo 4) cinci (cheench 5) sase (shahsay 6) sapte (shahptay 7) opt (ohpt 8) noua (no-oohah 9) and zece (zehchay 10) until you're done singing it basically. It is a cute little song that they use to teach little kids how to count. but it's fun to sing.

Anyways, I need to go, but I want you all to know how much I love you - A LOT! Even if the capital letters can't really describe it enough. I hope that you are all having so much fun, and that all is going well. And even if it's not going as well as you might hope, I pray that you are able to smile and be happy anyways, and it is possible. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is all about happiness and how we can find it through hope and faith no matter what happens. Once again I love you all lots and lots and lots and lots, and I'll be talking to you again next week. Bye!

Love always, --Sora Karina

Happy Day!

2010-05-03T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hey, everyone who is having a happy day out ther, (and all of you who aren't, you should fix that). Everyone should have a happy day, and I hope that you all are. But anyway, how are you? I'm doing great.

It's really windy here in Bucuresti, but that's ok because without the wind it would be really, really hot. And it will get even hotter, but that's all right. This week was a good one - full of wonderful stories, so here you go...

The knuckles/cigarette deal with Adrian is still going great. This week we are both having success in rejecting the "unrighteous" desires, so to speak. And the Lord is working miracles.

This week on Tuesday, Adrian called us to tell us that he was so so so sorry, but he had to work on Sunday, and he would try to get done as fast as he could, but he didn't think he would be able to be to church...maybe to choir practice after church. But he thought church would be out of the question. He called us the next day wanting to know if we thought he should go to church regardless of what his boss said. I told him not to put he job in jeopardy because that's not a good position to be in, but he also wants to keep the Sabbath day holy. I told him he would just have to use his best judgment. "No, help me!" he said. So I asked him what he thought. "Well, I think that I should tell my boss that I'm not ok with working on Sunday because I need to go to church, which I already told him. So, I think that if I respect what God wants, which is to go to church, then He'll help me, and I won't have to work on Sunday." That's exactly right.

This was his plan until Saturday when his boss told him that he HAD to work on Sunday, and in fact he needed to go to Ploiesti, which is a city about an hour outside of Bucuresti, to seal a contract deal or something. He was really sad and said he would still do as much as he could to get back as soon as possible, but the prospects weren't very good. He said that he would fast with us since it's the first Sunday of the month, and he needed help from God to stop smoking.

Sunday morning he texted us telling us that he was on his way to Ploiesti and that he had worked it out with the people in the workshop that he wouldn't have to do as much, which would give him maybe an extra hour. "So pray for me to get back fast." he said. Of course we did this, and about 30 minutes later he called us and asked, "Did you already pray for me?" "Yes", I replied. "Really?" "Yeah, of course, why" "Because I'm already on my way back to Bucuresti! The guy I was supposed to meet in Ploiesti called me to cancel and said that we don't need to have our meeting anymore, and I'm only about 30 minutes ouside of Bucuresti, so I should be there just in time for church to start!" Wow. He thanked me for praying for him, and I told him not to thank me. I had faith that God would do it, and He did. "So thank Heavenly Father, and I'm going to do that right now, too." And he said, "Yeah, I will do that now, too."

Sora Hupp and I were so excited and we prayed with thanks a million times yesterday for all the amazing things that happened.

Adrian got to church right before it started, the Spirit was SO strong, and all of the testimonies that were given were given from the heart, how they should be, and they were all amazing and touching. Classes went well. All three of our recent converts came to church, along with a less active lady that we are working with. The lored is so aware of this work and aware of our desires. It shows so nicely how when we have the desire to do what God asks of us, and when we do all that we can do, even if things get in the way (and Satan does try so hard to put things in the way) God helps us to succeed and accomplish those things that He asks. He has prepared the way, and we will go forward in strenth and joy.

Adrian loved church and stayed for choir practice. Even though he says he's not too confident with his singing, he is excited to sing with us for District Conference next week. (District Conference is the same as Stake Conference, except we don't have any stakes yet. But it will be fun.) And I absolutely love the truth that when you do the Lord's wil with your all, that is when you are truly happy. I see this in my life. When I try to do what the Lord wants - not because He wants it, but because I want to do it, - I am happier than if I would have done something else. Ok, maybe that sentence doesn't make too much sense, but hopefully you understand.

Sora Hupp is still experimenting away with her food - along to pate and rice (sounds yummy, doesn't it? -shaking head cuz I didn't want to try it - lol.) But she's even got me experimenting now. This week we created a meal that was actually quite delicious. Pour out a can of baked beans into the pan on the stove and add a can of hal-drained cut pineappple. Turn the heat on and add pieces of ham, already cooked rice, and just keep mixing it until it is warm. Then add a decent amount of whipped cream (yes, like you would find in a can and put on a pie- put it in there) until it is well mixed. Then you dish it up on the plate and place a healthy amount of grated cheese on top. It is quite delicious, and fills you up really nicely -it kept me going for most of my fast. If you have the daring boldness to try, let me know if you like it. We also thought that if we had them, it would have been good to add green onions or chunks of green bell pepper. Alas, that will have to be tried another day because we didn't have any. But it was fun and yummy - the best combination.

This week on Saturday was institute, or a youth activity program and it was fun. We didn't go to the lesson part, but we showed up in time for the activity (good timing) which was volley ball. We were havingfun doing awful at the game, but that's usually how it goes, and it's still really fun that way. Even though I think of what Shaley would think when I try to set the ball (and I can picture her shaking her head because I have no idea what I'm doing). But that's ok.

Anyways, there is this girl in our branch named Gabi, and she has a physical handicap and has to walk with braces (or chruches or whatever they're called) to balance herslf to walk and such. She is such a sweetheart, but she usually sits to the sid and watches whatever anyone is doing. But not this time... Despite the objections that she couldn't do it, Elder Dummar grabbed a chair and put it in the center of our team's playing sid, and carried her over to the chair. She kept telling him, "no, I can't, I don't know how, I can't do this", but he was determined to show her that she could. We showed her how to hold her hands, and then we would toss the ball to her to start the play. She would hit it and it would bounce behind her. If I was on my guard enough, I was able to play off of her hit. Using the all mighty and powerful team effort, we got it over the net. She was thrilled! And in fact, we were all thrilled and we all had a blast. That, plus the fact that it was a nice summer evening and I got to play with my bare feet in the grass made it pretty much a perfect evening. I loved it.

Oh! I don't remember if I have ever praised the parks here in Romani from any of my other cities (and if I haven';t, then shame on me because I love them.) The parks in Bucuresti are AMAZING!! Cismigiu (said cheeshmeejew) is a nice intimate and beautiful park with a small area with swans swimming and peacocks walking and children playing and all of the good stuff that happens in parks. It's actually known as The Romantic Park of Buc. I thought that was great, but then I went to Herestrau Park (said how it's spelled) and Wow! It is so amazing and its HUGE just like I said that pretty much everything in Buc is hughe, this park is like that. And I will never be able to describe it to you sufficiently, so I don't think I will try. Just know that it's amazing and it is really fun to go there to find people to talk to about the gospel. Good wholesome gospel discussions and a great view. What more could I ask for?

Well, I guess I could ask for a perfect temperature, for all of the mospuitoes to go away and a few other things, but I'm trying not to be too demanding.

The funny Romanianism for today is to explain the use and meaning of what we would say is "Prince Charming." The translation for this in Romanian is "Fat Frumos" (there is supposed to be a symbol above the 'a' in Fat, so it doesn't read fat like big, but read it rather as "fuht froomose" or something.) Frumos means "beautiful" and the context meaning of Fat is "youth" so it means "beautiful youth" until you take the literal translation where Fat means "fetus" in which case you are then adoring the beautiful unborn and still developing child as a soon-to-be-hero and usually "knight in shining armor".

It's funny. The thing that is amazing, though, is that the statement is not a false one whether it is in the leteral or context meanin, for we are all children of a Heavenly King, and as the scripture says, every soul is great in the eyes of God. We each have a potential that He is helping us to fulfill as we concentrate our efforts to be on the path of truth and righteousness. It is quite amazing that He loves all of us and each of us has that divine potential to be perfect and pure, even as He is - and this is possible for us through our Savior Jesus Christ. God's plan is so perfect and it brings me so much joy to know it, to live in accordance to it, and especially to share it with those who maybe don't have this hope, this knowledge, or this joy. Everyone deserves a bit of happiness, and that is the point -for us to be eternally happy with our Gad and all those whom we love. yay.

And now for the really important part - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHERISSE!!!! I'm sorry I didn't tell you last week when it was closer to your birthday, but I didn't forget. On your birthday I san "La Multi Ani" as I danced around my apartment, and we even ate cookies -they were leftover from something else, but still. It was a nice, modest celebration. I hope yours was better planned and just better in every way, and I can't believe thay you're 21! I bet you can't believe that either. But that's ok, I love you lots and lots and lots, and if Alley didn't make it a good day for you, just let me know and I shall lecture him later on it ;) Alley, I love you too, don't worry.

But I think I have exhausted my time and my stories, and probably your time and your eyes from reading all o fthis, but I want you all to know that I love you so, so very muchy. I hope that all is going well, and as I stated at the beginning, that you're all having a happy day. I know that I am. Keep doing great and take care--

I'll "talk" to you again next week. Love you! Always, --Sora Karina

Drum Roll Please...

2010-04-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Hello family and everyone! How are you? I'm doing great.

This week was a good one, lots of fun and such. I bet you're all wondering how I'm doing with not popping my knuckles....drum roll please............I haven't popped them at all since I last wrote to you last week. That gives me a total of 6 full days so far of resisting a subconscious urge that I've had for who knows how many years. At least since high school I think. And Adrian is doing pretty good, too. He went for 5 days without one cigarette, and then yesterday he had two :( But that's actually quite amazing considering he's used to smoking 2 packs a day and he lives with his two brothers and mom and all of them smoke all the time. But when people have a desire to do something, they can overcome amazing obstacles to accomplish that desire - and the gospel of Jesus Christ helps of course. It's actually the best help and support you can have in any trail or conflict. He doesn't quite see that yet so he's still going off brute force, but he'll get there as he continues to read the Book of Mormon. That book has so much power in it because it is true. It helps those who are weary, who are tempted, who are discouraged, lonely, excited, happy, sad, confused, or just like to read. I am confidant that the Spirit will touch his heart as he continues to replace bad habits with good ones.

But it's going well. He felt really bad because yesterday my hands were hurting really bad and I just wanted to pop the knuckles to "release" the tension, but I didn't and confined to just rubbing them to try to help the pain go away, and he noticed and said he felt so bad because it was his fault that they hurt since he smoked. I don't know if it was his fault or not, but I'm ok with him thinking that because it will help him do the things that will make him happier - namely to quit smoking and apply the gospel of Jesus Christ in his life.

But exciting news, he came to the baptism that we had yesterday - and we had a baptism yesterday! It was really nice. Mioara was baptized and she is such a great lady. The spirit was so strong - even though they had to do the ordinance 4 times because she didn't go under all the way. It was hard because she's had 2 operations on her back so she couldn't bend backwards very well cuz it hurt her. But finally Sora Lundberg suggested that she knelt down in the water and then it would be easier cuz she wouldn't have to bend back as far to get under the water. That worked really well. She was so happy that she was getting baptized, it was quite touching. There were some people that said "meh, it's ok… she's hurting so just say that it's good" but we can't do that. There is an order in heaven, and so there must be an order in the actions that we do on earth in order for them to be valid in heaven according to God's will, especially when they are sealed by His priesthood power. I'm not sorry that it took 4 times for her to get it right, because it does matter that much, and the blessing is that we know what needs to be done, as did she, and she did it. It was great.

However, I learned that I've gotten really out of the habit of performing piano in front of people. I played the musical number for the baptism and it was really hard and I can't really explain the reasoning. It was great because the Spirit was there and that was what mattered and what I prayed for, but as a performance it was wretched. Of course everyone else thinks its amazing regardless because they don't know better and I was pleased with the spirit that it brought, but man. I have a LOT of practicing to before I do my senior recital which is coming up faster than I like to admit. Sora Hupp was giving me a hard time the other day saying that I have less weeks than she has months left in her service as a missionary. AHHHH! ~breathe~ ok I'm good. No really, I am good. Because as one of my companions would say, we still have plenty of time to do serious damage to the work of Satan. Which is true. All he wants is for everyone to be miserable and to be more concerned with themselves than with others or with God. But as missionaries we are going about doing good, and sharing the message of joy and peace, the thing that if someone would place in their daily living they would never need to feel miserable on an eternal level again. And so, I am happy, because I know why I am here, and I know the plan of God, and that His plan includes me and all of us so that each and every one of us can be happy and have a joy that will last through the eternities. What's not to love about that?

Ok, so a few funny things about Romania. First, I learned yet another saying which we would equate to grabbing someone's ear to get them away from whatever they can't pull themselves away from, and it says "l-a luat de arip" which means that "they grabbed him by the wing" ha! I loved that one.

Next, here in Bucuresti there is a mall called Akia which all the missionaries LOVE. Why? Because it is the only place in all of Romania that you can find a place where they have free refills for your drink. Yes, that is correct, the only place that is slightly American in the way that they will serve their drinks to you. It's really funny because this concept is so foreign to Romanians that they need to have a sign in the cafeteria that explains how the free refills work. 1. choose a cup or a glass to include in your meal. 2. choose the meal that you would like. 3. pay for your meal and for your drink that you have not yet selected. 4. after you have paid, service yourself with the type of drink you would like. 5. if you are still thirsty, help yourself to another drink with out paying any extra, and with out asking, Service yourself and enjoy your meal! Yeah, that's the gist of the sign, and I about died laughing when I saw that they needed a sign to explain something so simple and that just makes sense. But there you go.

Sora Hupp and I are having fun together. She is little miss experiment. We'll be eating our meal and all of a sudden she says "I wonder" and somehow all of her food gets mixed up in ways that you would never think of and it's in her mouth and her face is one of such concentration as she analyzes every particle of taste to decide if it is a successful experiment or not...so far she has yet to fail and the experiments include mac and cheese with grilled pineaple, mac and cheese wrapped up in lettuce ( I actually tried that one and it was delicious) and slices of orange in her bowl of cheerios, yes with the milk. I don't really understand how that one could be good, but then again, I didn't try it. She said it made the oranges more creamy...? I don't know. But it's fun.

And oh my goodness, we see some of the coolest cloud formations from our apartment. Here is a picture of our view.

Tamara, have so much fun on your talent show! I know that you'll do great! I want to hear all about it, so write me after to tell me how it goes! And wow, the weather back home sounds crazy! Here it's just going back and forth between really hot and windy with sprinkle rain. But it will probably become a consistent really, really unbearable heat here in a few weeks. But that's ok. I like it better than the blizzards in Constanta, so we're all good. But I will leave you for this week,

- For all my friends who just started school, good luck! And have fun. I love you all so so very much, and I'll write again in just a few short 7 days.

Love always --Sora Karina

One more quick story, We were bloc knocking the other night going door to door trying to find someone who would want to listen to us, and as is usual for Romanians after you knock on the door they keep it closed and ask "cine?" (who is it?) and you say that you're missionaries and whatever, usually they either open, or say they don't want to listen and you leave. But the other night a lady did that and after we told her who it was she said "you should probably go because there isn't anyone home." I looked at the door confused for a few seconds said "excuse me?" (aka poftim?) but she didn't reply, and when I explained it to Sora Hupp - if she said what I think she said...- we laughed pretty hard. We went back to the same bloc a few nights later and we considered knocking on that door again since there wasn't anyone home the last time, but decided that wouldn't be a good idea lol!

BIG!

2010-04-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

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.

Another change

2010-04-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

Dear everyone,

How are you? I'm doing so good. The baptism on Saturday was great. Denisa was so excited to the point of fidgety nervousness, and she was so excited that when she was in the bazin (portable font) after Elder Schwartz said the prayer she practically threw herself backwards into the water that Elder Schwartz had to react fast to catch her and then Marian who was acting as one of the witnesses helped pull her up to be stable on her two feet. It was funny, but the service was nice.

This is Denisa with her mom and best friend that came to see her baptism and support her.

We are standing in front of the bazin (portable baptismal font).

Denisa bore the sweetest/cutest testimony afterwards. "My only desire was to join the true church and be baptized so that I could follow Jesus Christ. And I know that this is the true church, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that I am following Him now." It was great. There is nothing like seeing a person accept the light of Christ that they naturally have in them and follow it...it changes lives so that they can truly be a part of a better world. We are in a world of turmoil, but there can still be peace - at least spiritual peace, and this is the peace that truly matters, for it is eternal.

When you know that you are living in line with the will of God, and that you are doing what He knows will make you happy, don't you think that you would be able to find true happiness? I attest that it is there to be found both here in this life and in the eternities to come. I am so grateful for the knowledge that our Heavenly Father wants each of us to have, and is willing to give to us if only we would seek to obtain it. And every time we do, there are great rejoicings in heaven. I am so grateful for the knowledge I have that God lives, just as much in reality as we live and as His Son Jesus Christ lives. They love us, and they are doing everything that they can to ensure our salvation. And who's on the Lord's side trying to do all they can? I hope that we all are, for it truly is the greatest work you could ever do.

Funny story that I forgot to tell you about last week. Two weeks ago on our way out from doing internet, there was a security guard at the door (we go to internet at the library) who came out after us and in his broken English said "why you spy me? And in Romanian I responded by saying that we weren't spies, we're missionaries and he said "I no believe you, I no believe you. You spy, now tell me. A little or more?" None. But he wouldn't believe us, and it was really funny. I haven't seen him for 2 weeks though, so maybe he believes us now? I don't know.

This past week we went to the planetarium and botanical gardens - it was pretty. The center just opened last month and the building is so new and modern looking it doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of Romania. It's also set apart on a hill surrounded by beautiful grounds, so it just looks so separated. But we went in and they have a floor of nothing but fish - like the finding nemo fishes and big fish that look like they could eat a small child, all swimming around in glass containers too small for them. They also have a snake exhibit and Elder VanWagner was upsetting the cobras and getting them to strike towards him behind the glass. He just kept laughing and playing with them saying, "oh yes, this one likes me." We were all laughing.

And then we went to walk around on the grounds and we stopped under a tree to sit on some rocks and talk, and there were 2 dead turtles next to the rocks. It was sad. It looked like they had frozen or something in the night. Elder VanWagner was like "we need to go tell the head biologist that he's got some dead turtles out here and he should do something about that." I'm laughing, but you might just have had to have been there to think it was funny. Actually, you just need to know Elder Van.

But anyways, Funny Romanian moment that I can't explain, but it makes me laugh. During the spring and summer times, so starting right about now, the owners of small shops along the sides of the roads spray water on the cement sidewalk outside of their door and kind of "mop" the sidewalk. It changes nothing except for the color for just a little bit until it dries, but it is part of their opening shop routine, and I don't know why, but it is just so pointless to me.

So now the moment that you've all been waiting for. Duh duh duh Duuuhhhhh! I am getting transferred to Bucharest. It only took me until my second to last transfer to get there, but I'm going. I'm sad to leave Galati, especially since I've only been here for one, but that's ok. Buc (that's short for Bucuresti) will be fun – big - and I'll probably get lost a lot, but fun. I'll tell you all about it once I get there.

The pics are from Easter, a picture of everyone holding up their candles to the words of the priest, and the other is the priest with the "priests in training" all on the stage. I hope you can see it good enough.

I love you all lots and lots, and I hope that all is well at home. A quick shout out and congrats to Alison - I can't believe you're getting married! I'm so happy for you, and If you'll be in Idaho Falls, I'll for sure see you in September. Love you and have so much fun! (For those of you who don't know what that was about, one of my previous companions is getting married in about a month, and I just found out.)

I love you all to pieces, I pray for you always, and I am always grateful for your prayers. Have an amazing day! Always --Sora Karina

surprise: red hair!

2010-04-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

Hello family and all the cool people in the world,

Yes, as the subject line says, hair that once was brown is now red, and not “fire truck” yuck red, but a really nice auburn type glowing red. I think it looks rather nice. Too bad it's not my hair, but my companions. Yes, my hair is still the color it's always been (although I have been finding a few white hairs lately ;} ) My companion wanted to dye her hair red - go for it. But then I realized that I was the one that needed to dye it......uh, I had NO idea what I was doing, but it turned out nice, and now I think that maybe I'll go into being a cosmetologist when I get home....or not. But Cherisse will be proud that I did that and did it successfully. lol! Anyways, Happy April Fools!

And Happy Easter! or in Romanian, Paste Fericit! (said pahshtay faireecheat) This week was a good one. We will be having a baptism this Saturday (so exciting) but it's not Lili. She wants to move hers back but we don't know when. However, Denisa is getting baptized on Saturday and she is so excited, she can't stop calling us to make sure she knows when we're meeting and everything else that's going to happen. It is so neat to see how much she wants this. She even defended it to her friends who are Pentecostal when they told her "all you need is faith and to believe in Christ" and she said "yes, I believe and I have faith, and that's why I want to be baptized and follow Christ in everything that He has done." It was neat.

And surely, Christ has shown us the way and is the perfect example for us. And this week has been a great one to remember that with Easter - of course every week is a good week to remember, but it seems a holiday sets time apart for us to remember. Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He not only taught us the gospel that would save our lives, but He lived that gospel through obedience to God, through loving all those around him, through His baptism all the way to submitting to the suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. And then He received the blessing of the Father and was given the power to overcome all of these things and seal it with His Life, or the Resurrection. He made it possible for all of us to receive this blessing and I am so grateful that I know that He lives, and that through His grace, and our desire, we will all live again.

Also. I was able to watch parts of General Conference at the senior missionary couple's apartment, which was amazing - not all of it, but parts. (Every 6 months, the Prophet and Apostles and other church leaders speak to the whole church and the world via satellite transmission.) And President Monson's talk about the resurrection was so touching. Hearing a prophet of God testify that the plan of salvation is perfect, that it covers all of us, and that through the living Christ we will all live, strengthened my testimony in a way that is not describable. It didn't change any of my knowledge, and he didn't even say anything that was new to me, but the Spirit of God bore witness to my spirit that what he was saying was true, and it pierced my soul.

I couldn't stop thinking of Grandma and Grandpa Coy, and how happy they will be to be resurrected and sealed to us for eternity, about Elder Davis and Elder Burrows who are now serving their mission on the other side of the veil assisting the work of the Lord by our sides, about all the many friends that I have gained and lost for a time. And then I thought of a quote that was promised to Joseph Smith "Your friends at first are friends at last."

(If any of you did not get to see this and you would like to hear a prophet of God, you can go on the internet to: lds.org then select “gospel library” then select “General Conference” Then it will say: “Select a language to start watching” You will probably want to select “English”. Then it will give you choices of which session to see. President Thomas S. Monson was the last speaker in the Sunday AM session. So, after selecting “Sunday AM” it will give pictures of the speakers and the choir below the screen in the order they presented. Just hit the right arrow to scroll over to President Monson and click on his picture with his name below. I hope you will make time to do this! It was amazing!)

I know that joy is found here on the earth through the knowledge and conviction available to us through the Spirit of God. Joy is promised to us to continue beyond the grave and into eternity. This eternity is physical, it is not just a dream or a wish, but it is a reality that will be realized to each one of us, and I am looking forward to that day when the fullness of joy that I have strove to apply in my daily life will be found in my eternity. This is possible for each one of us, and this because of God's everlasting love and Christ's infinite atonement. How wonderful it is to know that God has not left us - His children - without a way to come home.

So for Easter… We went to the midnight mass at the big Orthodox church, which was different than last years in a few ways, - one of which being that I could actually understand a big majority of what the priest was saying. For those of you who don't remember from last year, what happens across the country is the groups of priests go inside the big church to receive the "flame of Christ" which is then held in the priest's hand on a candle or lamp, or however that priest decides to do it. Then in large grandeur they all come out of the church singing their chants and the priest commands all to come and receive the light of Christ, the light of heaven, and he lights the candles of the people near him (everyone has a candle) and then they light the candles of the people close to them and so on until the light has spread to each and every person in the crowd. And the crowd is HUGE just to let you know. It is neat symbolism The light of Christ is inside each of us and can be received as we strengthen our faith on true principles, centered on Jesus Christ, and then act upon them under the direction of the restored priesthood, or authority of God the Father. So then he sings with his choir, and the crowd sings their part a million times.

Translated version - Christ resurrected from the dead, the dead on death stepping. And those from the grave, life, He is giving them. That's it. The part about the stepping, to erase confusion, that's one way that they say "to break" like if you break a law, they say that you step on the law. So there you go.

And then the priest gives everyone his advice for the year about how we can keep the light of Christ alive in us - complete with his words of how they should believe the truth given to them and not seek for more, because the truth they have is all that exists, (which is sad advice because it is not true - light will always add upon light so that our understanding can continue to increase. This is God's plan and His way) but he also says good things like how we should serve one another, search the scriptures, and follow the admonitions of Christ. He ended his speech by admonishing all to not say "hello" or "buna ziua" for 40 days, but to replace it with the greeting "Hristos a inviat" (Christ resurrected) with the response "adevarat a inviat" (truly He resurrected). And so that's what we do now. On the street we remember Christ's resurrection in our greetings with others. That’s neat.

So as for the temporal Easter, The Easter bunny did come to me and Sora Hardy, but he couldn't find any baskets in our apartment, so he just put some treats in one of our cooking pots and mixing bowls - he obviously couldn't find any good hiding places in our apartment either because it was just left on our kitchen table. But it was probably safest there so that the cockroaches wouldn't get them lol. But we had fun.

It was a really good week - I'll try to send pictures next week. Our normal internet place was closed for the Easter holiday, and these computers don't let us put ‘usb’ chords in it or anything. Anyways, I hope that you all had a lovely Easter full of joy.

Oh, before I go, funny Romanian thing for the week - they have some of the weirdest superstitions, and I just found one of them yesterday: If someone brushes a broom on your legs, superstition states that you won't get married. I found it out because Sora Hardy was sweeping and accidentally brushed against my legs when she passed. Andrei, an investigator that was at church with us, freaked out. Sad day for me...but I think I'll be ok. But it was funny. Sora Hardy then teased him to no end trying to touch his legs with the broom - he was pretty good at deflecting it so he's still safe. Anyways, I love you all so so very much, and I'll have more stories for next week. Yay, I love stories.

Always, --Sora Karina

Orphanage in Galati

2010-03-29T05:57:00.000-07:00

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

It is currently raining out here in Galati, but it's better than the blizzards that you're getting back home, haha. Man, I don't miss the spring break blizzards, even though they can be really fun. But I'm enjoying my time here in the rain. It's quite refreshing actually.

This week went pretty well. Our investigators are doing well, still reading the word of the Lord, praying and seeking for the truth, and as we know the true point of all of this is, they are coming closer to Christ.

It is always such an amazing process, and it is one that I continually find needs to be renewed in my life. But that's how it should be I suppose.

We are preparing for Easter this weekend, which is going to be fun, and I'll tell you all about it next week.

As for this week, we went to an orphanage yesterday. It was so precious. It is the first time that I have had the opportunity to go since being here in Romania. The government has changed a lot of laws concerning orphanages, so it's not what you expect from the movie "Annie" or anything, but it's more like a forced commune where kids stay if their parents abandon them, or if their parents don't have enough money/stability to care for them, and they stay there until the state decides what to do with them - either they go to an orphan home where they await adoption (which almost never happens now because the law changed and they can't get adopted outside of Romania), they go to foster care, or they go back to their parents and eventually back to another "orphanage" facility.

The kids that we went to go visit yesterday were all within the ages of 8 and 14 or 15, and there were about 24 of them - they were so cute. We brought them treats and danced with them, and taught them games like "duck, duck, goose!" but I couldn't remember the word for goose, so instead we played "duck duck frog!" (rata, rata, broasca) and they loved it. Sora VanWagner is an artist, so she drew characature sketches of the kids - but she didn't get to finish so we're going back on Tuesday.

When we left some of the kids got tears in their eyes. It's not often that someone cares enough about them to become their friend within 2 hours. It took some of the kids a little time to open up to us - they've been so jaded by the world they couldn't trust that we were doing this for them, we had to be getting something out of it. And then others were just so excited for the relief of monotony that they jumped right in. And they treat each other like family. There are 2 workers there, and though there is no relation between them or the kids - they just work there - the kids call them mom and dad, and they are all brother and sister, even though some of them will only stay for a week, others for a few months. And for the most part, they take care of each other. It was quite a sight to see. They loved us taking pictures of them, and they wanted to take the pictures, so some of the pics I'm sending aren't great quality, but they show you the kids.

It was so much fun to be there and to show them that they are not forgotten - every child is a child of God, and He never forgets His children. It made me think of the song "Consider the Lilies" - consider the sweet tender children, how they suffer on the earth ...He clothes the lilies of the field, He feeds the lambs of His fold, and He will heed those who trust Him and make their hearts as gold". I know that He does this, and that not one of us is ever forgotten, not even the poor, suffering children in a small orphanage in Romania.

It is amazing how God's plan is so perfect that it encompasses all of us - every single one of us is included in His perfect plan of happiness and salvation, and it is truly amazing. I am so grateful that I have learned that. Because when you do, your perspective goes farther - instead of the "now" you think of the "forever" and how there is hope beyond tomorrow, and tomorrow just makes it seem that much better.

Ok, now for a fun Romanianism. When you say that you want to take a nap, you can say one of two things: I want a little sleep (vreau un pic de somn) or you can say what people usually say which is thus: vreau sa trag un pui de somn - I want to catch a chicken of sleep. Yes, they really say that, and it makes me laugh every time.

Other exciting news, I played a piano that actually has 88 keys this week - I haven't done that for about 7 or 8 months. It was weird, but very delightful. The problem is that I wasn't expecting to have such an opportunity, and lately I've been trying to learn how to keep my nails longer - long nails still don't work with piano playing. But it's ok. My technique has been bad for a while regardless how long my nails are lol! Anyways, I'm doing great, I love you all so so very much, and I will talk to you next week!

Have a great time. Love always, --Sora Karina

Spring is Coming!

2010-03-22T08:53:00.001-07:00

Dear everyone who is so amazing,

How are you? I'm doing great. As the title of the email says, SPRING IS COMING! and I am so excited to be done with the cold and the winter. Sometimes the Siberian wind still hits us pretty good, but the sun is out, and pretty soon everything will be in bloom and it will be gorgeous.

This week was a good one, We had zone conference this week which was good, and though we didn't have any baptisms in Galati, there were 4 in the mission which means that we are well on our way to see the miracle take place. We currently have been blessed with 23 baptisms, or ceremonies that signify people coming closer to Christ and changing their lives in a way that will bring them everlasting joy. Yes, the miracle is happening.

This is Sora Hardy (my companion) and me at zone conference, with some Elders acting crazy in the background.

Here is the makeshift piano I played on at zone conference.

Our investigator Lili is doing well, and is already inviting others to know. She rents one of her rooms out to a man named Dumitru, and she invited him to our lesson with her, and then brought him to church. She was really happy that he came. When I asked him how he liked church, he said "it was acceptable. It was a beginning, and I'm still a beginner." It made me laugh, but I think it went well. He participated a lot during the Sunday school classes, which is always a good thing. He has been reading the Book of Mormon with her and then they discuss it together - and they are almost finished after 2 weeks of having it at their home. Hopefully he will accept to be baptized on the same date as Lili, on April 10th. I am confident that the Spirit of the Lord is working in their hearts, and that all will be well as they continue to come closer to their Savior. It's exciting to see.

So now it's time to smile at Romanian traditions, and yes, it's smile. It's not polite to laugh at them, and since it's a tradition and therefore not a living thing, we can't really laugh with it, so instead we just smile no matter how weird it is. I found this one out last night when Sora Hardy was talking on the phone to an investigator named Angela that she worked with in Bucuresti (she's from Galati and was here visiting family). So it is really bad luck here to die without seeing the sun, so if someone dies suddenly with out the sun being a part of the death process, they have this tradition to make up for that. Every 7 years, they dig up the coffin and put the corpse/bones in a bag, and put that bag up in a tree from sunrise to sunset for one day so that they can "see" the sun, and then put it back in the coffin, rebury it, and wait for the next 7 years to do this. Angela's dad died when she was young, and it was unexpected, so they do this for him. Apparently one year the grave-diggers were all drunk and reburied the coffin without the bones in it. A few days later they realized that the bones were still in the tree, so they had to re-dig up the coffin, and rebury it again. Now you can laugh. (A story can be laughed at ;) I was laughing pretty hard.

Anyways, I don't really have much else to write about - sorry it's shorter than usual. But I am doing great, I hope that you are all doing well, and more fun stories will be shared last week.

Grandma, it was great to hear from you, thanks! I love being out here among the Romanian people, teaching them about how God loves them personally and how He has a plan for them - for all of us, and how He made a way possible for us to succeed. He did not send us to this life to fail, but instead gave us the choice to be able to follow the way He laid out for us or not. I know that that way is through the Gospel. or through the teachings and love/example, of Jesus Christ. Only by following Him and applying His infinite atonement in our lives can we find the joy that is available to us. I have been able to witness a portion of this joy being out here among the service of the Romanian people, children of God. It truly is amazing to know that there is a way, and that He, the author of that way, is there helping us with every step as we turn to Him. I know that that is true, and that there is a way for all of us.

I love you all so so very much, and I hope that you know that I pray for all of you every day. And I feel your prayers - thank you for your love. Have a fun week, keep smiling, for there is always much to smile about!

Love you! Always, --Sora Karina

a time like no other

2010-03-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

Dear family and everyone who is just so amazing, and I love all of you,

How are you doing? I'm doing great. This week was amazing and full of miracles. The Elders are teaching this boy named George and on Monday of last week he decided to get baptized - This Saturday, or rather He was baptized 2 days ago. He is amazing, and it was so neat to see the miracles all falling together. He's been looking for the truth since he was 14 years old, and said that the closest thing he'd found was in the Adventist Church, but he still knew it wasn't the whole truth. Then one day he walked into our English classes, came to church, and in the first lesson he prayed "God, I know that it will be hard for my family when I decide to get baptized in this church, so please bless them that they will be ok when that happens." Amazing right? And the Lord did perform a miracle and though his family didn't come or anything, they weren't against it and instead were blessed with indifference. But George said that he's sure that one day they will want to know why he did what they didn't care about, and he will share it with them so that they too can know the truth.

This is the most amazing thing - when you find something so precious, all you want to do is share it with those that you love. Sometimes you need to wait until they are ready to listen, but always you are ready and praying for the opportunity to come so that they can find the joy that you found. This is the miracle of the gospel of Jesus Christ - you find joy, and then you share it with everyone, and they find joy and they share it, and that is how the gospel works, it is built in a way so that we can all share in the joy.

One of our members did that - Even though we only have a few members that come, we do have a branch president (though no counselors) and his wife invited her sister to come to church. She came, and we are teaching her, and she wants to get baptized on the 10th of April, the weekend after Easter. When I asked her to pray to know specifically if these things were true that we were talking about, she said "well, of course they're true. I see how happy you are about it, and I see all the blessings that have come into my sister's life because of it, how could it not be true?" She's right, but I told her that she still needed to receive a confirming witness from the Holy Ghost about the truth, because God wants her to believe it herself, not just because I say so. So she said that she would and then said "But because I know it's true, God is just going to tell me, 'Lili, you're right, it's true'" and I said "good, then you already know what answer to look for, and you'll find it." It was neat.

But the Lord is blessing our entire mission - there were 3 other baptisms this past Saturday aside from George's and it is just so neat to see how people really can change their lives and find joy. The people of Romania have lost so much hope throughout the years, but Christ is our hope - our eternal hope, and He has made it possible for us to have a hope in a better world. We can all find that hope.

Well, it's starting to warm up here, but this past week it snowed again (grrr) I just want it to be spring. And today it practically is - really nice, little wind, and the sun is out. I hope it's not just a trend but that it catches on and continues cuz it's really nice. Oh, and I got the package that was sent forever ago from the Young Women - thanks, it was fun to read all the notes and such. And pixie stix - I haven't had those in forever and they are amazing, along with the other goodies that were in there, it was fun. And Jenna is 16 today!!!!! Happy birthday, or rather, LA MULTI ANI!!! That's crazy, but I hope it's just an amazing day. We'll celebrate out here by playing scatergories and monopoly, k? ok.

In other news, Sora Hardy and I are going to be teaching the temple preparation class to the 3 people from Galati who are going for the first time in April on the Temple trip. I'm excited for that.

And oh my goodness, the cockroaches attacked us. They used to be little, and now they all of a sudden turned fat and really big and ugly and black. We have this spray stuff and we sprayed our whole house and then left for the rest of the day so that we wouldn't inhale the cockroach poison. So now we're finding a lot of them dead on their backs. Eew. But it's ok, the attack of the cockroaches is over I hope. And for those of you who saw the picture of me on the beach, there wasn't anyone around to get mad at me for writing it on the beach, although the Elders made fun of me a little bit for doing it, but it is a family tradition and I thought it would be fun. After the picture was taken, I kicked it out of the sand so you couldn't tell, so it was fine.

And mommy, I am so proud of you for learning to play the organ. Isn't it fun? I had so much fun learning how to play it, but it is scary playing it in front of people because the organ isn't like the piano at all except the notes are called the same thing. But it sounds like you're doing great, and I'm excited to hear you play when I get home - we should do an organ duet cuz that would just be so much fun! And how is the lacrosse season going so far? I hope it's going great.
And now some questions. I was studying out of Preach My Gospel the other day and there is an activity that talks about looking forward to the end of your service to see what you want to be and such. And I have done that activity many times, and it never fails to make me think. But this time, when I was thinking of what I wanted, I wondered what you all are expecting. Ok, these are the questions: 1) What do you want to say I have done as a missionary? 2) What do you want me to have become? 3) What differences would you want to notice in me? So those are the questions edited so they make sense on your side, and I would appreciate it if you would answer them so that I can stop wondering your side of it. Anyone who wants to can answer, it's not just a family thing, But don't respond to the blog, cuz I don't have any part with that. Just send your response to karina.coy@myldsmail.net if you would like, and I would love to read it. Thanks.

Other than that, The funny Romanian language tip of the day isn't a saying, but still rather funny. When you are reading in fairy tales you read about "once upon a time", "treasure and gold coins" and "happily ever after." Well, in Romanian you have "A fost o data ca niciodata "(there was a time like no other time), "bijuterii si galbeni" (jewelry and yellow - they say galbeni which is the color yellow instead of saying gold coins) and "Ei au trait fericiti pana batranete" (and they lived happy until their old age). Ha! I love it! Well, I love you all too, more than Romanian fairy tales, and I hope that you are having a great day - I know that I am.

Keep having fun, keep finding those little reasons to smile. I know that God lives and that His one true desire is for us all to be happy, and it is just so great to be happy. Love you! Always, --Sora Karina

1st Week in Galati

2010-03-08T18:35:00.000-08:00

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!

ch ch ch changes

2010-03-01T08:40:00.000-08:00

Just a random picture of me, with my companion in the background.

Dear family and everyone that I love so much - how are you? I'm doing great.

This week is transfer week, and I am leaving Constanta - I am so sad to leave, although I am really excited to go to Galati which is also on the East side of the country but more north of Constanta. I'm going to be serving with Sora Hardy who was in the MTC with me, but not as my companion, and I am so excited. It will be great. And my companion Sora Owen is leaving to Brasov, so they are closing sisters here, and 2 Elders are coming in our place. It should be interesting, but all will be well.

Just a quick update on Vatuta, she still hasn't gotten the word from her husband, but is not giving up, just being patient, and we found out this morning that she is still drinking coffee - we explained to her that if she wants the Lord to make a way for her to be baptized and work a miracle, she has to be willing to do everything that He has asked her to do, and so she needs to be completely obedient. She committed to do that, and has once again renewed her determination to serve God and to follow Him how He has established that she should do. She is an amazing woman.

And Ion is starting to accept the idea of baptism - we had a great lesson with him where we had twine on the floor-two pieces both at the same starting point but going in different directions in a V shape. We told him that one was the iron rod or the way of God towards eternal life, and the other was the way of the world which leads only to temporary satisfaction. And we need to choose which one we will follow. There are some steps that need to be taken, and we had them laid out in opposites such as 1. faith versus doubt, 2. repentance versus pride, 3. baptism versus fear, 4. receiving the Holy Ghost versus a closed heart, 5. enduring to the end versus disobedience. He was able to have his feet on both parts of the twine until he got stuck on step 2 and said "I can't make the third step, I'm stuck" so we told him that he couldn't make the third step on both paths, so he would have to choose one path - and after sitting there for a few seconds, he actually walked towards baptism! He is so close to accepting the fact that he needs this in his life - and when he came to church he was so happy and loved it. I'm so excited for him to be making these changes in his thinking, and I am confident that the missionaries that will continue working with him will help him get there for real. Church was also exciting because 5 of our less actives that we've been working with came! It was so fun. And the Spirit was so strong. Everyone talked about how we can make goals of eternal value, and how we as a mission have a goal this year to help 200 souls come unto Christ, and with faith, obedience, diligence, and the help of all the members, we will succeed, for the Lord is at the helm of this work, and it will be amazing.

My mom asked me to share a memory of Grandma Coy in my email today. Probably my favorite thing to remember about her was how much fun we had reading together. We were always in our books. I remember one time when Dad and Grandpa were out doing something together and Mom, Cindy and the girls went out to go shopping or something, and Grandma and I stayed behind to spend time together. When Dad and Grandpa came in, they saw the two of us reading our separate books, and my Dad said "so this is spending time together? reading?" and of course we both looked at each other, Grandma and I, and looked at my dad and Grandma just said "well yes, of course. Why wouldn't it be?" and we went back to reading. And she would always recommend the best books, too. I also remember how at Christmas when we had it at their house in California, we would get a puzzle, and the dining room table would then become our project place, and we would just work on the puzzle for hours with her, and even though we didn't always finish them, it was so much fun discovering the picture with her, laughing with her, and just talking about how beautiful it would be when we would finish it together. That always seemed to me to be a theme of hers - accomplishing whatever task together. I know that through the Atonement and love of our Savior, and through the plan and Priesthood of God, we will all be together again, and we will be able to finish the work of the eternities together with her, and with Grandpa, and with each other. How wonderful that will be. Only now we are preparing ourselves to be ready for that day, and she will be anxiously waiting.

Here in Romania when someone dies, they hold a funeral 3 days after the death, and then they hold what's called a "pomenire" or a ceremony to remember the death 40 days after, 3 months, six months, nine months after, and on the year mark to remember their life and how they are now living in spirit. To me this defeats the point. We celebrate their life in our memories, and in our actions. Of course a service after their death is appropriate. But to always remember their death is not what should be remembered. Because Jesus Christ suffered for us in the flesh and through His death, He will help us in all our doings in this life. And because He resurrected, and took up His body again never again to die, He prepared the way for us to be able to do the same thing. There will come a day when all of us will reunite in body and in spirit, never again to part, and as we remember our life and the lives past from this earth, we should also always remember the beautiful day when we will have the greatest family reunion with all of our loved ones, returning to continue the works of eternity. I am thankful for the knowledge I have that that day will come.

Today is the day called "Martisoara" which is a fun day where we celebrate women. They have these little trinkets that you can wear that someone gives to you as a gift - boys will give them to girls, and girls to girls but not boys to boys - and they are a symbol of luck, friendship, and prosperity. They all have a braid of red and white string that is somehow connected to the symbology of the Orthodox religion, but I don't know exactly how - I think that it has something to do with the virgin Mary, her purity and our sin, all somehow in the beauty of women, but I'm not quite positive on that yet.

Ion came over this morning at 8:15 to give me and Sora Owen one of the gifts which was so nice of him. He said that he wanted to make sure that we didn't go around all day with out a martisoara, because that just would not be ok. It was fun. and then next week on the 8th is the Ziua Femeilor or the Day of the Women which is their equivalent to Mother's Day, even though it's more of a holiday for all the girls to have a "girl's day out" It's fun.

But anyways, I love you all so so very much. As much as I wanted to be with all of you this week, I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here in Romania sharing the precious truths of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ with all of God's children. Each child is precious to Him, and He desires for us all to find the joy that is available to each of us in this life made possible through His Son and our choices, and for us all to return to His everlasting presence again.

I love you, and I know that together we will have joy. I pray for you all to have this joy every day. Know that I am doing great, and all is well in the work of the Lord. Have a great day! Always, --Sora Karina

counting our blessings

2010-03-01T08:17:00.000-08:00

Sorry that the pic is so dark, but this is a pic of my district, the day before Sora Gibbons left. It goes left to right, Elder Toronto, Elder Vogelsberg, me, Sora Owen, and Sora Gibbons.

Hello family and everyone! How are you? I'm doing pretty good.

The work lately has been stressful, but at the same time very rewarding even if all the rewards are yet to come. We are sitting here counting our blessings - the first that it has gotten up to 22 degrees Celsius! w00t! (that's around 71 F and it was exciting).

Our investigators are now at the hardest part of the fight. Yesterday we fasted with Vatuta along with some of the members that know her that she will know what to say to her husband and that he will be on the positive side to her getting baptized. We talked about how it takes faith for miracles to occur, but that it is possible through our faith and with the power of God. "Right now we are in need of a miracle" we told her, and she agreed and has such great faith that this will work. So do we. We need a miracle, and with consistant actions of faith, we believe that we will get one.

With Ion, we have eliminated the middle ground. We talked to him about God's desires and how God wants him to recieve salvation through baptism, and how Satan's desires for him to not do this. Our life on earth consists of us choosing if we will follow God and fulfill His desire, or if we won't and will fulfill Satan's desire. Disclaimer: fulfilling Satan's desire doesn't mean that you are following Satan, because you might still be trying to follow God, but you're just not doing all that is necessary. And when you know the things that are necessary and you don't do them, this gives Satan more power.

After all we do to teach, ultimately, it is their decision. Our prayers are poured out continually for them, and we pray that they will see the blessings.

I have been blessed to be able to see the blessings of living this Restored Gospel in my life. It truly is the source of every single joy in every single day that I live. I was so sad to hear about Grandma Coy's passing. Yes, my mission President was able to relate the news to me, and in so doing expressed his love and condolences to me and all of you. But even though I will miss my Grandma dearly, I have so much joy in the knowledge that through the power of the Lord's priesthood, we will be a family for eternity, and that this is not the end.

Even though we will feel like we lack so much now, our Father in Heaven has promised us that we will have all that we miss, all that we lack, and so much more if we live faithfull to His word. This is my goal: to live faithfully so that when I meet with my God and my family again on the other side of the veil, I will not be denied the eternal joy of living with them forever in the kingdom of God. This goal is possible to achieve through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Through His love, we will be able to conquer death in His footsteps and rise to a fulness of joy that never again will pass away.

Also possible through His atoning sacrifice is healing. The fact that we hurt now is understood by Him who passed through all manner of suffering - including exactly what we suffer now. He understands us and is standing with His arms open trying to gather us in so that He may heal us. I have felt the healing power of His loving embrace, and I know that it has power to give us strength when we have none.

It has the most amazing feeling of peace, and if you have not yet experienced this peace and this love, I invite you with all my soul to turn to Him in prayer so that He might carry your burden and take away the pain. Just as healing is possible, so is the hope of eternal joy. This is what matters - eternity. And we are here building the foundation of this great work of our eternal lives.

Some crazy stories for this week:
On Tuesday at about 8:05 am we got a call and learned that Sora Gibbons, a member of our companionship was needed in Bucuresti ASAP to finish serving the transfer over there. So we dropped everything, and within 1 1/2 hours we were on a bus to Buc. It took 4 hours to get there, we got off, and with only a 1/2 hr at our disposal, dropped her off with her new companion, scarffed down some McDonald's and ran down the street to the next bus and were on our way back to Constanta which took another 4 hours. We got to the church 1/2 hour into our first English class. Luckily our branch president and his wife were available to teach our class for the first little bit, and they were a great help, so we got there and said "sorry we're late, but we're your teachers for this class..." and taught. It is amazing.

With the first English class, we have close to 40 students in our beginning class (which is what Sora Owen and I teach) and the Elders have 10-15 students in advanced. It is the most successful English program I've seen so far out here, and everyone stays for our spiritual thoughts that are held afterward. That was exciting.

This week also, the Humanitarian aid missionary couple came down to Constanta and invited us to the celebration of the church putting in heaters into a building that is used for a company called Holt Romania. It is a business that does children and family counseling to help discouraged children to have better opportunities, helps repair marriages, and offers really really cheap parenting classes. They do some neat stuff. And while they were building the vila that it's in, they ran out of money and couldn't use the upper floor for all of their classes because of the lack of heating, so the church, through the Humanitarian aid projects, put in a heating system. There was news coverage and everything. It was neat. This same couple also went to check up on some families la tara (in the country) that had been given goats from the church as their mode of survival, and are now getting off pretty well. It's cool.

On Sunday we had a branch fireside to help the members learn how to share the Book of Mormon with their friends, which went really well. They are excited to do so, and we are excited to hear their success stories. Sora Owen and I were in charge of refreshments, and so we decided to make American style doughnuts, and the Romanians loved them! It was exciting because they are so different from Romanian Gogosi (doughnuts) which includes the ingredients of mashed potatoes, flour, sugar, scalded milk, sugar, and a couple other things. Sooooo yummy, and I'll make them for you when I get home, but the point was that they like the American style ones and it was a success.

Funny funny story, during Sunday School, Sora Boboc (less active) said a comment in class, and another less active Sora Lidia, agreed so much with the comment that she did a kind of attitude snap, like "oh snap!" type of thing, and it was so funny! Comment, blah blah blah, - oh snap! and we laughed...or at least the missionaries. I don't know if the Romanians found it funny, but I've never seen anyone agree with a comment in church like that before..

Ok, last two items of important business, my email address changed - it's getting my old emails forwarded, so don't worry, I got all your emails, but for future reference (because I don't know how long it will forward them) my new email is karina.coy@myldsmail.net. not too different, but good to know.

And Jenna, I looked so hard for how to say "liar, liar pants on fire" and I even asked a couple people, but they didn't know an exact equivelent. So I have a few choices. If I were to directly translate it, it would be : mincinosule, mincinosule, cu pantaloni pe foc. But I don't think Romanians would actually say that. What they do say is either : mincinosul roade osul which means the liar chews the bone, or minciunea are picioarele scurte which means the lie has short legs. There you go.

I love you all so so very much, know that I am doing great and all is well in the work of the Lord. This work can not be stopped, and as we strive to be a part of it, the Lord will bless us greatly. I know this is true - I see it happen every day, and i know that He is holding you in His hands for me. I love you all so so much, and I'll write more next week. Always, --Sora Karina

Happy Valentines Day!

2010-02-15T07:45:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-08T07:47:00.000-08:00

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

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

2010-02-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

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

Blizzards, floods and dogs with pretzels

2010-01-25T09:13:00.000-08:00

This is a sunset over the Black Sea.

Dear family and everyone else that is just simply amazing back at home, how are you? I'm doing great.

Transfers went relatively smoothly...sorry, no crazy stories to tell about insane taxi drivers or men that I need to chase down, it was actually rather calm...except for the fact that we had a 48 hr. blizzard here in Constanta, and so the bus drive took forever! We were supposed to leave at 8 in the morning, so we got to the station at 7:45...the bus didn't get there until 8:30 and then we didn't leave until 10.Then, instead of the normal 3 hours to get to Bucuresti, it took 4 1/2 hours. Wonderful. And it was so hot because they had the heater blasting, with no open windows and about 60 bodies that made the bus full to overflowing with almost not enough seats.

We get to Bucuresti and all was well. We saw some people that I hadn't seen in forever and they're doing good, which was really fun, and then I had to turn around and get back on the bus again to go home. - Again, it took forever and we didn't get into Constanta until 8 pm. Yuck. But now the three of us are settled in and working together.

The AP's never gave us a solution for her sleeping arrangements, so Sora Gibbons is just sleeping on the couch, but she says that she's quite comfortable and doesn't mind, so we'll probably keep it that way I guess. And as for making decisions, we just kinda go. One of us makes the decision and we make sure we're all in accord with that, and then we go. It works out pretty well I guess. So now we are dealing with the aftermath of the blizzard = snow and ice everywhere, and it is very difficult to walk without falling. However, I have succeeded pretty well considering that this past Friday is the first time I have fallen in a very long time. I'm fine, just had to ice my wrist that night and now it's all good. But man is this ice killing me! But not as much as the cold. It is currently -24C which is around -11F and that is without the wind that comes fresh off the Black Sea. Yeah, we're freezing, but alive and still doing good. The best part is that it's supposed to get colder and we're getting yet another cold front (supposedly) this week which probably means more snow in -14C weather. Joy.

But to be honest, it is a joy being here regardless how many layers and scarfs I need to wear in order to have motor ability outside of any heated building. I love being here and love being able to share with the Romanian people the things that mean the most to me, and helping them come to a knowledge of these precious truths for themselves.

Vatuta should have a date this week for her baptism. Satan is just trying so hard to keep her preoccupied so that she can't think about it, and we are fighting just as hard, so I know that we will eventually win. She however is doing great, and is loving the Book of Mormon more and more.

And Ion ...we are just trying to have the Spirit with us as much as we possibly can so that we can know how to help him get over his fears. Good news is that he finally admited to some of them, so now we at least have something sure to go with. This is good. But other than that, I don't know what we can do. His fears are understandable; I just don't know how to fight them. He knows that what we teach him is good, but he sees the suffering and opposition that he will face if he continues on this path and he's afraid that a celestial glory doesn't exist after this life, which is what makes everything we go through in this life worth it. And without that hope, how can you act on your faith? All I know is that God loves each of us so much that he has already prepared a place for us with him so that we can have this hope, and that we can have the strength to get through anything that life brings our way. He will never give us anything more than we can bear - even if sometimes it feels like we just can't go on anymore - Jesus Christ, through His sacrifice for us, understands exactly what we are going through, and He would not have done that if this is all there was. There exists a better world that we can receive after our faithfulness. After the trial we will receive the joy.

It also helps if you can laugh at the situation (not always a possibility, but nice when it's available) like this past week, we had a flood in our apartment. We live on the 3rd floor, but there is a balcony that at one point was covered with snow from the blizzard. It started to melt because of the heat of our house, and it did this in the dead of night and seeped through our tiling between the door to the balcony. This caused a small flood that we didn't notice until we woke up because "luckily" Sora Owen’s matress was there to act as a sponge/conduit for the water to spread to our carpet and to be held all in that one place. It was really fun cleaning that up in the morning, especially since we have one of the worst mops I've ever seen in my life. And our landlord was out of town, and so we just put towels up against the door (which are now frozen to the ground) and we'll just worry about it later. We definitely had a lot of laughs about that one, though.

Romanian phrase time! "The grass is greener on the other side" is actually supposed to be told in this way: "Alearga cainii cu covrigii incoada" or to translate the gibberish for all of you English speakers, “The dogs run back with the pretzels”. So, if you see dogs running with pretzels, then you know where the green grass is. Ha, ha! Anyways, I don't have much else to write, but I love you all so so very much, and I'll ttyl!

Love always, --Sora karina

Holy Cow!

2010-01-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! How are you? I’m doing great. This week held a lot of surprises for us, and I know that I'm not going to be able to fully express it all through the black and white type, but I hope you can at least get the feeling of it.

This week was good - a little slow, but it was still good. We did a lot of searching for things that didn't really work. For example, we were street boarding last week (where you stand on a corner of the street and talk to people about the Book of Mormon) and some cops came by and told us that we needed to get permission to be there. So myself and Sora Owen went to the Primarie, or the government building, to go and try to get permission.

Well they sent us to a smaller building who then sent us to a business foundation who then sent us back to the first building we went to with a specific office to ask for the permission, but then that office didn't really know what to do with us since we're a non-profit organization, and they decided that they don't need to give us permission, and sent us to a Priest for the Orthodox church to ask him......uh, yeah. We decided that if the government didn't need to give us permission, we were not going to go to a Priest in his church to ask him if we can stand on the street and talk to people about the Book of Mormon. I don't think that would have gone very well...so we just left it at that. But it was fun walking around the whole city, kinda, but it was a pretty day so that helped.

Also, we're re starting the English program in the middle of February, so we have started advertising which is just fun. It will be an interesting program of 9 weeks of teaching and then 3 weeks of advertising, and we have a spiritual thought plan which is going to be taken directly from Preach My Gospel. It looks like fun; we should be getting the program this week.

As for the missionary work, Daniel's mom ended up getting scared about his baptism and took him la tara on Wednesday and he isn't getting back until the day that he was scheduled to be baptized, so he's not getting baptized on the 23rd, but he still wants to be baptized, and I think that her heart will soften up to it in order for us to be able to set another date with him. Also, because of certain situations, we decided that the Elders will be the ones to continue to teach him and help him to reach the waters of baptism.

This situation really took me aback because he loves the things we teach him so much. So we were excited to go and teach him a lesson with Alin, our branch president here in Constanta who was a missionary in England, and is just an amazing help to us when he can come. So we go in and get ourselves settled, talk for a little bit, and then we said that we would start with a prayer. Daniel offered to say it (awesome) and he started praying. All of a sudden he said something which I thought that I had to have misheard, but Alin just busted up laughing in the prayer, apologized and told Daniel to keep going, which he did, and quickly finished the prayer. Alin just looked between me, Sora Owen and Daniel and couldn't even completely stutter out the question if we understood what he had said. Sora Owen didn't understand anything, and I was in denial that he had seriously just prayed to Heavenly Father that he would be able to marry me. I told Alin to tell Sora Owen what he said, because I couldn't repeat that, and Alin turned to Daniel and asked him bluntly what his motives were. Daniel said that he wanted to marry me and turned to me and said, "Can I?" Ummm, no. So then it turned into a discussion about how eventually I'm going to leave Romania – “Well, you could come back.” “No, I need to go home and finish school”. – “Well, you can do school here, and you can just talk to your parents through email and it will be ok, just stay here with me”. “No, I have to go home. That's life” . Sora Owen whispered to me to tell him that I have a boyfriend back home. I told him that I'll go home and probably marry someone over there – “But he's over there, and I'm right here, and I'm asking for your hand in marriage.” That is exactly what he said, and I'm not only horrified but also embarrassed that this is even happening, and I just had to look at him and tell him, "Daniel, I will not marry you." Thankfully, right then, Alin jumped in and saved me and started talking to him about how he knows that I will go home to America and eventually forget about him and that it should not be pressed.

Then he started asking Daniel what his opinion was about the church. This is where it became ok. He believes the Book of Mormon is true, he believes the church is true, he wants to get baptized because of that (not because of me, don't worry). . Alin said that it would be fine for him to be baptized if his mom would be in accord. She's not yet, but it will happen. And he'll get there, it will just take patience. Always with the patience. This is the same with Ion and Vatuta - Vatuta is still praying for her husband to be in accord with her decision to be baptized, and Ion is still not admitting that he knows these things are true. But he is still progressing and is reading more from the Book of Mormon, and is understanding more the need for baptism. I really do think that he will be baptized this transfer, and I am so grateful that I will be here to see that.

This is where I tell you the new transfer situation, which is also really crazy. I'm staying here in Constanta (the first time that I'm staying in an area for more than 2 transfers) and I'm staying with Sora Owen, but we're also having an addition which is that Sora Gibbons is also going to be in our companionship. This is going to be really interesting, but I also think it will be fun.

Sora Gibbons is Sora Owens trainer, and one of my mission sisters. I will now have served with all 3 of my sisters (missionaries who were trained by the same trainer as me) which is super cool. The problem is that we only have 2 beds, and I don't know how we're really going to accommodate a 3rd sister in our apartment, but we'll figure it out somehow. Wow.

But I am so excited that I received the tender mercy from the Lord to be able to continue working with Ion, Vatuta, and all the other amazing people that are here that are so close to being able to come unto Christ in the way that He has shown is necessary. And this gospel is amazing, it truly changes people's lives. Example: the Elders met this guy names Stan. When they met Stan, he was an atheist and didn't believe anything about God. But they got to talking and he agreed to meet with them to see what their opinion was. So they've been meeting for about 2 weeks. He said it was weird praying to see if there was a God - imagine praying to something you don't believe exists, and yes, that would be weird, but he kept trying even though he felt like he was talking to himself, and he decided to experiment on the things that the Elders told him. A few days ago, he called the Elders and told them that he had conducted an experiment, and he knows that everything that they're saying is true, and that there really is a God, and he would explain it all when he came to church.

Apparently he has a problem with his short term memory - it's kinda like a weird amnesia thing where sometimes all of a sudden he'll just forget. Like he'll be on his way to school, and then he'll get off the bus and suddenly doesn't remember how to get to the school. It just leaves his mind. So his experiment was that when things like this happen he prays "God help me" and tries to continue doing whatever it is that he needs to do, and every time he has done this, he has been guided by the Spirit to find different ways to the school or wherever than he normally goes. So he knows that it's not him just remembering, and he recognizes that same feeling when he reads the Book of Mormon or comes to church. So cool. Stan is no longer an atheist. He wants to get baptized, but is now tackling the stop smoking program in order to get baptized. But don't worry, he'll be baptized this transfer.

The Lord loves us so much, and God does help us and answers our prayers. There are too many proofs of that to disbelieve, and I don't even want to disbelieve because aren't you just so much happier when you have faith in something? This joy is not just a fake comfort of something that doesn't exist, it is the joy that comes from learning and understanding truth. It is the joy that our Father in Heaven desires us all to have in this life and in the life to come, and He invites us to come unto Him through prayer, faith, and baptism from someone who holds the authority of God so that we can truly come into His arms again someday. It will be wonderful.

As for other random news, I bought a caciula! I was so excited. A caciula is one of those Russian furry hats, and they use them all the time here in the winter, and I have been wanting one, but I couldn't find one that was less than 300 RON until this past week, I found one for 30 RON which with 3 RON to the dollar (on avg.) it was a great deal. I was excited. And I'm getting in my good use of it while it's freezing again. It's funny because you feel slightly ridiculous wearing it, but at the same time you don't care because everyone around you is wearing them and you're warm. So it works.

Me in my caciula during a blizzard.

And the phrase to learn today is how to say "tattle-tale" which is "cineva cara baga limba in urechea" which laterally translates to "someone who places the tongue in the ear" isn't that a lovely visual? But I thought it was hilarious.

I really don't know what else to say right now, but I am glad to hear that all is going well at home. Jenna, I am so happy that some of your friends came! So cool - keep it up, and Shaley, just keep having fun. Tamara, I'm glad that you're enjoying the piano again, tell Brother Larsen that I say hi, but don't forget to keep doing good with the violin, too. It's good to keep an equal balance of both.

I'm so happy that the Stotts came to church again! That is so awesome, and that in general all is well. How is Brother Kemp's health doing, and how was Brother Brown's birthday? I love all of you so very much, and I hope that you have an amazing week! I do not doubt that we all will - with the love of the Lord in our lives, it's hard to not have joy and goodness in all that we do.

Love you! Always, --Sora Karina

La Tara

2010-01-11T10:40:00.000-08:00

Hello family and everyone that I love!

How are you? I'm doing just wonderful. This week was really good, full of hard work, but the Lord truly showered us with blessings this week. It was amazing. I'll just start at the top.

So for one of the many miracles this week, we have a baptismal date. We were teaching Daniel about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how each part is important for our salvation. When we got to baptism, we explained that it is necessary for baptism to be our choice, and that the reason baptism is a choice is because we make a promise with God about how we will live our life, and then it is sealed by the authority of God on earth (by the power of the Priesthood) so that we can again enter into His presence after this life is completed.

Then we asked him if he would follow Christ’s example and be baptized, and he said "Yes. When?" "January 23?" "Ok, who will do it for me? What will it be like? Where will it be?...." and so on. He's so excited to be baptized, and when his mom came in from the other room to give us drinks, he said "Mom, I'm going to be baptized on the 23 of January!" with the biggest smile on his face. She told him not to rush himself and how can you be baptized for the second time, and the priest would never approve, and so on. But he held his ground and told her all the things we had just told him about baptism and how he needs to follow what the messengers of God tell him to do so that he can arrive in heaven safely. It was a great night. I think she's not too happy about it, but she loves us, is curious about what we have to say, and I think it will be fine.

The funny thing about the both of them (Daniel and his mom Ioana) is that they both think Sora Owen and I are sooooooo beautiful. Really it's just the spirit and light of the gospel that they see, but they can't stop talking about it, and it is so funny. Every time we walk into their house, Ioana says, "Oh, here are those beautiful girls again. How are you beautiful girls?" And then if they have company over (which is often), they introduce us and then say to the guests, "Aren't these girls just beautiful?" The other day was the funniest when someone called them on the phone at the beginning of our lesson. This is the side of the conversation that we heard: "Hello? Yes, how are you? Well, I'm here right now with two beautiful girls. We're talking about God. Yes, about God. They’re from the Church of Jesus Christ. No, the church of Jesus Christ. No, the Mormons are the Church of Jesus Christ, and I'm with two of their American girls, the beautiful ones." By this time, I'm telling them to just leave it alone (las-o!) and to stop talking (taci din gura) because we're really not THAT pretty, we just have the truth. They just smile and keep going. Sora Owen was doubled over with laughter. It was funny.

On to other people, Vatuta wants to be baptized, but her husband doesn't like it, and she can't get baptized until her husband is in accord. It's so hard. But she had a cool experience. She was praying to know if the Book of Mormon is true and if she needed to get baptized, and she had a vision. (This actually happens a lot with Romanians. I swear that as a people they just have a gift for visions. They have the faith for it because people here have visions all the time) So, she had a vision that her mother in law came to her.

Vatuta said that her mother in law died somewhat recently, and that before she died, she didn't like girls. She liked Vatuta, but had a hard time showing her that she loved her or approved of her. However, they’d had a decently good relationship. Also, since she's passed on, Vatuta has had a few visions or dreams of her, and she was never happy in any of them. But in this vision during her prayer, she came to her smiling and gave her a huge hug. That had never before happened in life, or since her death, and Vatuta was quite amazed by it. I told her that that could happen during their reunion after this life. Vatuta looked at me with hope and said "So that's when she'll hug me? " and I said "In this church we have the blessing of doing the work of salvation for those that have passed on, and after you are baptized in this church, you can be sealed to her and to the rest of your family for eternity. Why wouldn't she be happy that you found this, and why wouldn't she hug you?" Vatuta really liked that thought and said she would get baptized as soon as she can. She knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet, but is now trying to get an answer to know if Thomas Monson is the living prophet today. She's reading the Liahona General Conference edition and is loving it so far. She's awesome.

Ion is doing a lot better. He is still being stubborn and difficult, but he has something in his head, and I hope I'm right in what it is. Two lessons ago, we didn't bring up baptism (for once in like 3 weeks), so he brought it up. It was in a slightly negative context, but he was the one that thought of it. So then this past lesson we taught him about John the Baptist, because of the holiday that just passed. (In the Orthodox church it's called "Bo Boteaza" which is supposed to be the holiday when Jesus Christ was baptized, and a priest goes around to all the houses and asks if you want your house to be blessed. He goes through and blesses your house and then gives you the "holy water" that is supposed to help you have luck throughout the year). Well, this made Ion think "Why is John the Baptist so important?"

So we taught him about his life, ministry, how he prepared the way for the Savior, and how he came to earth again as a resurrected being to restore the Priesthood authority to Joseph Smith. This got us on the topic of the Priesthood and why it's necessary, and Ion put two and two together: “So, John's priesthood allows us to get baptized the way that God wants, and Jesus' priesthood gives us the Holy Ghost, and they complete each other.” “Yes, yes they do”. It was fun to watch him make connections.

I noticed that he's starting to use a highlighter as he reads the Book of Mormon and the Liahona, and he's starting to like it more and isn't arguing as much as he is wanting to know more. This just goes to show that as you repent of your sins and open your heart to the desire to be close to your heavenly Father, you will feel His Spirit in your life more, and your heart will change. Hearts do change. We're going to ask Ion AGAIN this week if he'll get baptized. We'll see if this change of heart has gone deep enough, but it's exciting regardless.

Funny story about him, though. We were talking about the 10 commandments a little bit ago, and one of the commandments is to not commit adultery. The way it is said in Romanian is: "preacurvesti". This comes from the word "curve" which is the word for harlot or prostitute, and then they just made it into a verb with the prefix of "prea" (which when standing alone means "too".) It's usually put like this "prea mult" which means too much. So now that you understand some of this, we were talking with Ion about the commandment and related it back to the law of chastity, or the importance of being faithful to our spouse and not having inappropriate relationships outside of marriage, and Ion said "I don't think that's right, it says not to preacurvesti, which means you can curvesti just not prea mult "(you can commit adultery, just not too much). I just looked at him and said, "ION!" and he started laughing. He was only making fun, and he loves playing on words, which is really fun when we don't understand anything. I honestly leave every lesson with a page full of new vocabulary. But it was funny when I realized that he was just joking.

Andrei is someone who doesn't joke, and still has ridiculous ideas. We're not meeting with him much anymore, but I have to tell you this story. He is a vegetarian, and the only Romanian I've met who doesn't eat meat. Romanians love their meat. So one time he was talking about repentance, and how it's a sin to eat meat because you take the life of a living being that was created by God. Because of this, we need to be made clean after each time that we eat meat. We do this by washing our dishes. (I didn't know that basic cleanliness was also a way to repent, but ok.) He went on to explain that because the dish is dirty, (not only dirty physically, but dirty spiritually because it allowed us to eat a creation of God on it) that as we wash the plate, we clean our sin (and the plate's sin) physically, Then as it dries over night, it becomes whole again through the grace of God. So the spiritual side of us (and the plate) is healed. Sora Owen and I were trying so hard in that lesson to not just burst out laughing. It was pretty ridiculous!

Ok, I know that this letter is already ridiculously long, but I wanted to tell you a bit more about Romania.

Romania has this thing called "la tara" said lah tsahrah which means "the country side". That's really not a good definition. You have the big cities with blocs and paved roads and stuff, and then you have la tara, which is a more rural area with a bunch of little houses, dirt roads, wild turkeys, and the"old fashioned" way of living. It's where a lot of people from the city go for a weekend out of town. And a lot of people still live there. Usually you have family households that grew up la tara and the parents still live there when the children move away. Then that's where the family gathers to be together.

So we have some members of this branch that lives la tara, and sometimes we as missionaries go out there to help them and do some service. It's only about 30 minutes outside of Constanta. We just take a maxi taxi ( like a van service type thing) out there. So we go and the Elders chop wood, I collect the wood and stack it up wherever Fratele Vitel (Brother Vitel)tells me to, and my companion grinds corn into cornmeal. Fratele Vitel and Sora Vitel compliment us (the sisters) for the good job we're doing, while they tell the Elders that they're weak and aren't doing good. It's funny because Fr. Vitel is so buff and can chop wood like you wouldn't believe when he's in his late 70's. He out chops both of the Elders combined. The Elders do pretty good, though.

When we have finished our work, Fr. Vitel has us go inside so that he can chop off the head of a chicken and feed it to us......"ce sa fac, asa e viata la tara" (What to do, this is how life is la tara) Fr. Vitel says that to us ALL the time. It's funny.

So here is Sora Kiriyama and Sora Vitel grinding corn into corn meal with a haystack in the back, it had rained the night previous, so it was really muddy.

This is me standing in front of "la tara". Yes, it's only one street, and the street is only 10 houses deep or something. But the next section of la tara is about a 20-30 min drive away. That's how it goes.

I won with how dirty we got!

This is me carrying the wood.

This is how much wood we chopped and carried in the 2 1/2 hours that we were there. It was fun though.

So, I guess I'll end this with another saying: “Dumnezeau iti da, dar nu iti da in traista" which means, “God will give to you, but He won't put it in your purse”. So true.

I know that God loves us and wants us to be happy. He is just waiting to bless us, and to forgive us and help us, but He will never take away our choice to allow these things happen. Also, He will never take away the opposition that helps us to learn to become more like Him. These things will be for our good, especially if we apply the principles of the Gospel during those times. He will bless us and help us rise to the occasion. He has called us to shine, and shine we will. I know that this is true and that nothing is impossible with the Lord on our side.

I love you all so so very much, and I'll have much more to tell you next week! Keep smiling and doing well in the work of the Lord in your daily journey.

Love always, --Sora Karina

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BROTHER BROWN! I wish I could do more than that for you, but I'm kinda far away. However, next year I'll be able to say it in person. I hope that you have a great day remembering the blessings of the Lord and the great times that have come, gone, and will surely keep coming! I miss you and hope that you are well. Have a great one!

La Multi Ani (Happy New Year)!

2010-01-04T08:51:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, and la multi ani! (or happy new year! Their way of saying happy birthday is the same as happy new year, but it works!) Ii am doing great.

This past week was really fun and we got a lot of work done. We still don't have any baptism dates, and it's starting to frustrate me, if i don't lie about it. But we have 2 investigators that are praying about baptism (Vatuta and Daniel). So hopefully that will be set in stone this week. I just wish that people would understand how much easier and happier it would be if they would accept sooner rather than later.

Vatuta is amazing and wants to get baptized, she just doesn't think that she is prepared, even though she is so ready, and she will be baptized. She's praying for the 16th. And Daniel is amazing. We met him on the bus a few days ago, and he was really excited to come and see how church was. We had a lesson with him on Saturday and he told us a story about how he got hit by a car when he was 15 years old, and was in a coma for 3 or 4 months. While in his coma he had a vision that he was on the road to heaven. On his way an angel of the lord came and told him it wasn't his time yet, but that one day he would arrive there in safety as long as he kept the commandments of God and listened to the council of His servants on the earth. It was cool. So after he woke up, he quit smoking, and he has read the Bible 3 times, and tries to read any religious book he can get his hands on. He was excited to get the Book of Mormon, and he said he'll get baptized when he finds out it's true. Actually, he said yes, then asked where the baptism will be, and who can baptise him. It was a fun lesson.

We think that Ion believes the things we are teaching him, but he is scared about something. After last weeks reasons, this week he only gave us excuses. I just don't know how to find out what he's scared of so that we can help him. But the lord is in this work, because it's His work, so He will help us. Thank you for your prayers in his behalf...I know that he wants what we have, he's just the most stubborn person on the face of the planet. I know the Holy Ghost has the power to soften hearts and heal souls, so we are praying for him to feel the Spirit so as to have a stronger desire to be baptized.

Other than that, this week was busy and went really well, especially considering the business of new year's and how many people were annoyed that we wanted to talk to them before the holiday. But we still got some good work done, and now have even more possibilities for the new year. I'm excited.

So you heard about the "bear dance?" It's really funny, because they don't really look like bears. Elder Harley calls them the muppets from hell because they are like colored paper mache creatures, (they are costumes people wear that are supposed to resemble bears). They come and they dance around, and yes, it is good luck if you allow one to dance in your house or in your courtyard.

For New Year's eve, we got together with some of the members and danced and waited, and ate lots of food, and then when it was almost midnight we went outside where there were tons of fireworks going off, counted down, and then you go to each person and instead of toasting with your glass of whatever drink, you kiss each other on the cheek and wish them blessings for the new year, like health, luck, success, the lord to be with them, and all good things. ( these are litteral translations for the blessings of sanatate, noroc, succes, Domnul sa fie cu voi, si toate cele bune) It was fun.

We left, but the members stayed, and stayed, and fell asleep. They were there sleeping until 11ish am, and then at 12:30 they were still there, and invited us to eat with them. It was hilarious. Some of the members left earlier than that - like 6 am. Here in Romania the actual day of new years is bigger than the eve of it. So they celebrate as long as they can. And lots of people get drunk, apparently leading up to new year.

Two days before the new year, Sora Owen and I wanted to buy some flowers for someone that we were going to be visiting, and there was a drunk man at the stand who asked if we would buy his flowers, and we said no, and he said, "oh, it's ok, i'm just joking." But then he saw my name tag and he said "oh, you're with the church? here, let me buy your flowers..." and despite us saying he didn't have to, he wouldn't let us refuse and so he bought our flowers for us and just praised us for being with the church. We left as fast as we could to get to the bus stop, where there happened to be another drunk man who came up to us, and asked us if we were Romanian. We said no, and in English he started proclaiming his love to us "I love you, I love you , I love you...Do you understand when I say that I love you?..." and so on. Unfortunately we understood. Well, it started getting rediculous, and a woman near by came up and started talking to us...she works at a little store near by where we buy our bread, and we talked to her for a little about how her Christmas went and so on, until she finally said, " I just thought that you needed someone to save you from that man, and I thought I was perfect for the job." Right she was.... All the while the drunk man was hovering over her back, still wanting to talk to us but not being able to interrupt... Then the bus came and he got on it. (We wanted a different one, thankfully.) He looked back and one last time said "I love you, English!" before the doors closed and he drove away. It was so funny. We had fun.

Oh, and with the fireworks, they were right above the blocs and right outside houses and everything. One of the Elders made the connection that " It was a good thing that everything is made out of cement here, because otherwise they would all be going up in flame..." which is so true. Some people were even lighting the fireworks off of the actual roof of their bloc...so illegal, but it made a great show for us!

Anyways, I wish that i had more time to tell you more stories, but I don't, so I'll just have to tell you more next week. A quick vorba (saying) is this ;" nu e o mare branza" which you say in our terms, "it's not a big deal", but literally it translates into "it's no big cheese". I love using that one! It's hillarious, and it works. People actually don't think it's weird even though it sounds so funny in my brain.

But anyways, I love you all so so very much, and I can't wait until I can rejoice with you when the people we are teaching decide to come unto the lord through baptism by someone who holds the restored priesthood authority of God. There is no greater joy than giving yourself unto the lord in His work. It truly is amazing. (And at church we had 25 Romanians!!! That is close to a record. I'm sure it's 2nd place since I've been here with everywhere that I've served. And 7 of those were investigators between the Elders and us. ) Yes, it is a great blessing to see people choose to change their lives for their Savior. I love it, and I love you!

Have a great week! Love always, --Sora Karina

When it rains pretzels

2009-12-28T13:15:00.001-08:00

This is me and my new companion, Sora Owen, on a day that didn't get above -5 degrees celcius.

This is a picture of our Christmas Eve feast, with all the different types of meats and of course, the pork fat!

Hey family and everyone!!! How are all of you? I'm amazing.

I hope that you all had an amazing Christmas...mine was just great. I have a lot to write today so I'll try to get through everything that I have on my list...First, the work.

Our Area Presidency for the mission gave us a challenge/invitation to ask all of our progressing investigators to be baptized before the end of the year. And we are taking the invitation literally and are inviting everyone to be baptised - including some people that aren't even investigators yet! It's been really fun, and we'll see how it ends up going, but hopefully we'll see success.

Vatuta said that she wants to and will get baptized, but she is praying right now to know when, because she didn't feel prepared for the date that we gave her (Jan 9) but we told her to pick a date and pray for that date within the three week period, and she said that she would. She came to church on Sunday, loved it as always, and said "Don't call me until Tuesday - I still have some time to pray, right?" Of course she does. So we'll meet with her on Tuesday and watch the Lord work miracles.

Also, we invited Ion to be baptised for the upteenth time, ok maybe it's just the 3rd. And he said "no, I've told you many times" and I responded by saying "yes, and we've told you many times that as long as we meet to teach you, we'll keep asking you." He said, "it's just not something I want. If I wanted it, I would come to you and say 'hai, when is my baptism, hai fill up the font, faster, faster!' " ("hai" means "c'mon!" in Romanian) so then we talked about why he doesn't want it and were able to give him some commitments that he accepted that will help him continue to progress towards baptism. One of his reasons was the fact that he didn't feel clean enough to make a covenant with God. Wow. I wasn't expecting that answer and compared to the many other answers/excuses we get (I'm already baptised, I don't believe it's true, I don't get why this is so important, and so on) it was just really sincere. He is still making progress, and it's exciting to see that. I still have confidence that he will search for the waters of baptism before too long.

In other news, we are enjoying trying to find the people that God has prepared out here for us. it's going well as far as our enthusiasm goes. The actual finding of people is on a roller coaster down-slope, but that just means that we'll be shooting up here pretty soon. We're still looking, and God is still guiding our steps.

Ok, Christmas traditions = food and lots of it. We went over to a member's house for Christmas Eve and feasted a Romanian feast which includes lots of meat - mici, sunca, carnac de porc, liver, all of these are different forms of meat that comes from a pig. Then you have bread (and lots of it...you can't eat at a Romanians without eating tons of bread) Sarmale which is delicious, meat wrapped up in cabbage and prepared so that it is delicious, Then you have lots of what they call salads, but it's more like spreads for bread - salata de beuf, salata de ciuperci, and salata cu mere = a french spread which is good, but I really don't know what's in it, a mushroom spread, and a spread with apple and celery. Then you have the "side condements" which on that night consisted of shredded sugar beets and pork fat with the consitancy of jello...yummy? not. Of course you have suc (juice/soda),

and then lots and lots of cookies and cakes at the end.

Some other traditions are that they have carolers (usually gypsies) that sing and if they sing for you you give them money...that's just how it works. Or, you have gypsies that dress up as "bears" but they look like rainbow paper mache puppets and they dance around with other gypsies that "play" or rather hit drum type things and blow in trumpet type things and they go around the streets and busses clapping and clicking and not really doing anything too special, but they collect money off of it.

As for New Years traditions, basically all the Romanians just get together and get drunk. That's all it comes down to - unless it's members of the church and we just get together for some karaoke and party and music and food and just good ol' fashion fun.

Random fun things, there is a lady that is inactive here, and me and my companion have been trying to figure out how we can get closer to her, because she's kinda distant and cold. But she LOVES to emroider and is really good at it, so my companion suggested that we ask her to teach us. She's done cross stich before, but I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to that type of stuff, but I said "ok, lets try" We asked her and she loved the idea. She's really proud that she can teach us something, and it's been fun. She even offered to give us some of her patterns so that we can do it, and I told her I wanted something little to start with. She gave me a really hard pattern that has 42,578 or something like that stiches! ....that's easy? I at first wanted to try to finish it on my mision, and I figured out that would mean 200 stitches/day. I tried and by day 7 with only 300 stitches done, I decided that probably won't work...I think my new goal is to finish before I get married lol! I asked her how long it would take and she said it would take me a year if I did a little bit each day...crazy! But fun.

I'm kinda getting it, but there are still times when I need my companion to come and fix whatever mess I created somehow hehe.

Cool history for whoever wants to know, this year marks the 20th year of freedom from Communism for Romania. 20 years ago on the 23rd of December the Revolution broke out in the streets of Bucuresti, Constanta, and Timisoara. Hundreds of people died within the next few days until the Communist leader, Cercescu was killed on the 25th of December, 20 years ago. The 26th of December is the day that they celebrate their first day of freedom from government. But their 4th of July equivelent is on the 1st of December where they celebrate the unity of the country of Romania - still under communism at that time, but they were officially a free country from the oppression of outside countries and the Romanian borders as we have them today were established. It's a really cool time. Ok, history lesson over...

So my family informed me on the phone that I don't tell enough "fun" type stories in my email, so I'll try to do that more.

Todays story: About a month ago, my companion and I were bloc knocking around 7:30pm or something. Sometimes people get mad when you knock on their door. At one door, we knocked and from behind the door they asked who we were and then yelled at us to go away, so we said "ok, have a good night" and went to the next door. But before we could knock on their door, the door we just left opened rather violently, and the husband yelled at us "what do you want!?" "We have a message to share..." "no, we don't want it, go away" ok. and he slammed the door. We talked to the next door and then moved on to the next after that, and realized that the wife from the "angry door" was spying on us, and when she saw us move to the next door she got her husband and he came out and started yelling at us again, and we calmly tried explaining to him that we were no longer at his door and that we weren't trying to bother him. "How dare you come here at this hour, at 10 at night" "sir, it's 7:30" (But honestly that doesn't matter...if the sun is down it's late and qualifies for "at this hour?")

And then he kept going and again we said "sorry, but we're trying to talk to them now, we're not bothering you" and then he interjected with "do you want me to beat you with a stick?" what? and then he reaches behind his door and shakes in our faces a long wooden rod and says "this stick? Do you want me to beat you with this stick?" "no, not really" (picture him yelling with a red face, and me and my companion talking as quiet as possible and you'll get the hilarity of the difference). When we said no, he got confused a little bit, and then said "oh, well, do you want me to call the police?" "no, we don't" but his wife in the background said, a little too excitedly, "I'll call the police!" and by this time, he's made enough noise that people from floors above and below are coming out of their houses to see what is going on.

They finally got him to stop shouting long enough to ask us what on earth we were doing. We told them that we were missionaries trying to share a message of joy about the restored Gospel, but if people didn't want it we continued on, and we weren't trying to bother anyone and had tried to leave but he kept yelling. They just said "yeah, you better go" all the while with the angry man yelling at me "aren't you ashamed? aren't you ashamed?" and I looked at him and said "no, i'm not and never will be, but you have a good night" and then we turned around and walked away with him still confused and red in the face. It was one of those experiences where you get out of it, you look back and you just can't help but laugh your head off. I mean, who randomly had a wooden beating rod behing their door? HAHA!

Don't worry, we weren't once in danger, and I wasn't scared at all because they might get loud and mad, but I don't think I've ever seen a Romanian actually act on it. But it was funny.

Ok, and my sisters wanted me to keep teaching you vorbe, or Romanian sayings, because their favorite is still "suntem prieteni de catarama" which means "we're friends of the belt buckle" or in other words, we're tight. I told them on Christmas the equivelent to I'll believe it "when pigs fly" which is "cand o ploua cu covrigi" which translates litterally to I'll believe it "when it rains pretzels". And a new one for today is "intr-un ceas" which litterally translates to "in a watch" or "in a little bit/in a short time". I love it.

So now that this letter is forever long, I just want to tell all of you thanks for thinking of me on Christmas - my parents told me that you all said hi, and I appreciate it. I love being out here as much as I would want to be home with you all, I know that I am doing what God wants me to do by being out here to share the greatest message with His children - that is the fact that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that He still lives, that He loves us and we can find the fulness of that love through the Restored Gospel. We have a living prophet which proves that God's love for His children doesn't change - He loves us just as much now as He loved His children in the Bible. I know this is true, and I know that it is by living the principles of the Gospel that we can find true happiness regardless of our circumstances.

I love you all so much, and I'll talk to you again next week.

Always, --Sora Karina

Snow!

2009-12-14T05:47:00.000-08:00

Heres a pic of me trying to hang up the Romanian Christmas lights so you can see how confusing they are. They are just a big circle with only one plug.

This is me after contacting in the snow outside for an hour.

This is our view outside off our balcony the morning after the snow...so pretty!

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

This week was full of adventure and good stories, and I'm sorry that I probably won't be able to tell you all of them, but I'll try. So first, transfers... Sora Kiriyama and I had a good beginning of the week, and then on Tuesday night we needed to go to Bucuresti for us to get our new companions and such. So we went to the auto gara, or the place where we pick up the bus to go to Buchurest. We were the first ones there, and the driver put our bags in the hold under the bus and we got on. Sora Kiriyama was paranoid about someone stealing her bags so she picked a window seat above the hold and voiced her determination to be aware of whatever could happen. I told her she shouldn't worry, no one would take her bags (in this time, the driver was standing outside of the bus kinda walking around waiting for more riders). She said "ok, but if someone does come, I'll run off the bus and tackle them." I reminded her of how she had tripped onto the bus moments before and that she would probably trip off the bus and land on her face and she laughingly agreed, and said " well, what would we do then?" and I said "fine, if someone steals your bags, I'll run off the bus and chase after him."

No sooner had I said that then someone came up to the bus having noticed that the driver was on the other side and not in sight. Sora Kiriyama said "Oh no! He's taking my bags!" I said, "No, he's not." and she said "Yes, It's happening! It's happening!" and I look out the window, and sure enough he's got her largest suitcase and is booking it away. So I ran off the bus and started chasing after him. He got about 10 yards away and heard me about 3 feet behind him so he turned to look which tripped him up, so he dropped the bag and kept running. I got her bag and ran to the bus with it where Sora Kiriyama was waiting watching the other bags in case there were more people in his group. Luckily, it was only him. I said a prayer of thanks for Heavenly Father's help, and then we laughed hysterically that we had JUST talked about it, and then it happened! So funny. We made tons of jokes to wear off the adrenaline about how it's a good thing we're missionaries who know how to plan well so that we can accomplish our goals, and how of course that would be the end of our transfer together and so on.

Needless to say, I stayed outside the bus until the cabs were closed and we left while she stayed on board to watch our carry-on bags/purses as people started boarding. It was an exciting experience. Then I told my zone leader at mission counsel the next day what had happened cuz I knew he would laugh, and not 1/2hour later, somehow in the story amongst the zone leaders I had num-chucks and brass knuckles...I don't know how that happened, but it was really funny. Anyways, we were fine, and the Lord helped us, and know we know to be better prepared. All is well.

Anyways, about the work, we still haven't managed to get a baptismal date for Ion. he's just so stubborn, and gets caught up on the little things. We have talked so much with him about faith, action, praying to know the truth, and the Book of Mormon. He believes the Book of Mormon is a good book, and maybe even that it's true he just won't admit it, and doesn't understand the need to change his life for it. I am positive that it will happen, but he might be one of those people that just takes a while of learning and having spiritual experiences, and then one day just wakes up and says, "hm, I should get baptised" and then does it. We're still trying, but forcefull and pushy action is not a good idea. We are praying fervently always for the Lord's help and inspiration to know what he needs and how we can help him come closer to the Savior and to have a stronger conviction/desire to do what is right. We are praying that he will get baptized this Saturday before Christmas if he is prepared, and we are sure that the Lord will help it happen. If it doesn't, I am confident that there will be a miracle in there somewhere even in his amount of progress even if that's not baptism. Realistic, but still with a higher vision.

We found 2 new investigators this week, and it's just always fun to find people to teach. I am having a blast with Sora Owen. She's awesome. She's been in the country for 3 months and is from Maine. We are contacting in freezing cold weather, and somehow still finding success. Even in the snow that happened, that's right, IT SNOWED!!! I was so excited. The wind makes it freezing, and it's great. We are very much looking forward to the transfer to see what this amazing time of year can bring.

One fun story is that a Muslim family actually let us in while we were bloc knocking...they don't speak any Romanian and the husband kind of speaks English so it was interresting, but they were so nice and open, and it was just a great opportunity to set aside differences and testify of what we know to be true. And they gave us turkish delight. The only time I've ever known about it is from the Chronicles of Narnia, but they served some to us, and I told them that it was delicious so they gave us a box for Christmas! Now we will be eating Turkish Delight on Christmas, so fun. Oh, and we decorated for Christmas this week! It is so much fun improvising on the things that they just don't have here in Romania. Dad, you'll laugh at this- the way Romanian Christmas lights work is they have a string of lights which is really just a circle that connects to only one plug. No inlet, only an outlet and it's all connected into one circle. I don't know why or how it's supposed to work, but that's what they do.

And I got your package, and Cherisse and Alley's package which is good, thank you so much! We have a little Christmas corner in our house with our presents stacked up and such and it's awesome...feels so much like Christmas and we're having fun. I love listening to your tape that you sent me...I haven't finished it yet, but I have laughed so hard and it's awesome. And Jenna, it did work to listen to dad through mom's phone...it was quieter, but I heard it and it was awesome, thanks. And I'm loving the stories, and it's just a great pre-quil to Christmas!

Oh, and thank you so much Grandpa for your email! I loved it and love hearing from you. I'm glad that all is well and that you enjoy my letters...I enjoy writing them. Well, I know that there was more I wanted to write, but I forget now. I'll be sure to not forget my story list at home next week and I'll write them then. But the work is going great, I'm staying as warm as is possible and I'm loving what I'm doing. My companion is awesome, and this transfer is going to be great, I'm excited. I love you all so so very much, and I hope that all is well with you.

I would challenge you all to share the gospel, even if it's just through service, somehow this Christmas season. It would be a great gift to Christ if we could each share with someone what He gave to us. I love you all so very much, and I'll write more next week!

Love always, --Sora Karina

Pics

2009-12-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures - a picture of my district, and a picture of me soap boxing. I know the Elders look bored, but I think it was really that they didn't know what to do and were amazed that I actually got up and just started going. It was funny. Love ya!

la bomba and a soapbox

2009-12-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

Hey! How are you all doing? I'm doing amazing. This week was just great. where to start?

The 1st of December was a Romanian holiday where we celebrated Romania being united as a country, and we had a branch activity that was sooooo much fun. The branch president read some of the dedicatory prayer that was given when the mission was opened, to show what the Lord thinks about the greatness of Romania. It was neat. Then we ate a bunch of traditional food that was delicious, and then we had a dance party, Romanian style. You know on the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" how they all hold hands and dance in circles? Well, they actually do that here, and it's really fun. I know it doesn't look like fun, but when you join in, it is a lot of fun. And they have different types of dance steps depending on the type of song, and yeah...it was great. It included the "Numa numa" song which is in Romanian. Amazingly, I can understand all the words now, which is interesting. It's a love song (go figure) and it is a really fun song to dance to.

Another side note, apparantly the Romanians love the "la bamba" song and know all the words when all that I know is "la la la la la la bamba" and it's funny.

Funny story: Sora Kiriyama and I were knocking vilas and this girl about 10 or 11 years old came up to us and asked me if Sora Kiriyama was my daughter....uh, no? First of all, she's a year older than me, and she doesn't look that young. Second, she's Japanese, and yeah. But in discussing how she could think that, we decided that it's in the eyes...plus, they put last names first in this country, and we both have the word "Sora" on our tags like a family name, and both of our names are spelled with a K which letter doesn't really exist in their alphabet unless it's a borrowed word. We were laughing really hard. The thing is though, is that this is the second time in my mission that I've been asked if my companion was my child...the other time was when I was with Sora Jones in Brasov. I don't think I look that old, but whatever. We laughed.

Cool culture thing, yesterday (Sunday) was ziua mosului nicolai, or the day of father nicholas who is a saint in the Orthodox church. It's the day where they shine their shoes the night before and leave them out by the door, and then St. Nick comes and puts candy and goodies in their shoes. He's not the same as Santa, but is like a prequil to him.

Ok, now for the cool stories about missionary work. We found some investigators! I was really excited, and it was cool how, too. We decided we (Elder Harley and I) wanted to go soapboxing. So we went as a district to centru (downtown) with a stool and a box of Books of Mormon. But we really didn't know how to start it up, so we tried street boarding style for a little bit,(where you just stop people walking by to talk to them) but that wasn't really doing anything. So I finally decided that you just had to get up and do it, so I did. I got up on the stool and just started testifying to the people who were walking past and trying to not listen to me, but you know that I have a loud voice, so they couldn't help it. There was even a guy that was riding on his bike that passed, came back, and started taking pictures of me on the stool projecting my voice for all to hear about a book. It was really fun, and there were some people that stopped to talk to the missionaries who weren't up on the stool bearing their heart out.

One of the girls that stopped set up with us, and we had a lesson with her. She is a really cool girl, and in our lesson mentioned that her brother might be interested in our message, too. So the next lesson she brought him along, and we taught them the plan of salvation, and they took it really well considering they both believe completely in reincarnation. They will be la tara for Christmas, but they live near the vila during school and said that they will be coming to church in January when they return, and I am really excited to continue working with them. But soap boxing was a really fun experience to just use the Book of Mormon as a tangible tool to proclaim to the world that we have a mesage of truth. I loved it.

Other than that, this week was just filled with work, and everything is going well. Ion is doing ok...he's thinking about baptism, but he has some concerns that will only be resolved through his faith, so we are praying that his faith will continue to grow, and that he will have the courage to do what is right and what he knows to be true.

And today we got the transfer board...and I'm staying here in Constanta and I'm getting Sora Owen as a companion. She was trained by Sora Gibbons who is one of my sisters in the mission, and she's going into her 3rd transfer...and I'm going into my 7th! Crazy stuff. But it's good...I'm excited for this transfer. It should be fun! Well, I can't really think of what else to write to you, but I love you all so so very much, and I hope that you're having fun getting ready for Christmas...It's so close! We're listening to Christmas songs and the city is putting up lights and decorations...and they really don't know how to decorate a Christmas tree here...they try, but at the mall it just looks like a mess. But they try, and it's Christmas, so ok.

But have a great time, smile lots, and I love you! --Always, Sora Karinaps. I can't believe that Christmas is in just 2 weeks-ish! nuts. Also can't believe that Elder Pardus gets home next week. That is crazy. But I love you so so very much, and I hope that you have a great week!

Thanksgiving in Romania = Chicken?

2009-11-30T08:59:00.000-08:00

This is me and Sora Kiriyama in front of the run down Casino on the bank of the black Sea.

Her I am in front of the Black Sea on a cement port thing.

Sora Kiriyama and I with the boys on bikes that came to our Thanksgiving activity. (Joey Donner who's name is acutally Ionut is in the gray and striped hoodie, Bogdon is on one knee, Tika (said tseecha) is in the gray hoodie, and Alin is in the blue.) Fun stuff!

Hey family! How are you doing? I'm doing just great. We had some fun times - a lot of contacting which makes for a lot of things to learn...

So this week was hard, but it was good. Ion came to church again, and we are slowly figuring out what is keeping him from accepting a baptismal date. We can tell that he believes in what we're saying except for the occasional question which is normal. And when he participates during Sunday School he says some really good things and has good questions. And when he prays...they are so sincere and amazing. But there is still something there that we just can't catch quite yet that is making him evade our direct questions and commitments. He accepts our commitments when we pry and dig for him to give us a direct answer (which we do) and then he keeps the commitments. I don't know what the problem is, but the Lord will help us to find it so that he can enter into the waters of baptism. We are praying for him to accept a baptismal date, and I am confident that he will soon.

What else happened this week...Oh, we had a thanksgiving activity where the branch wanted us to put on a thanksgiving dinner and a presentation and such. So we tried. Romanian style thanksgiving is interesting...turkey here is rediculously expensive (40 RON/kg = around $13.50/2.2 lbs.), so we had chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, rolls, and home made root beer (they don't have root beer here so you have to make it with root beer extract, sugar, and mineral water) but we had root beer floats and it was really yummy. Not really a thanksgiving food, but all the romanians connect it with anything American, so you just go with it.

It was one of the most successfull activities that I've seen here in Romania though, tons of people came. Around 14 members, and 10 non-members plus the 4 missionaries, and it was awesome. Cool story about that: The night before the activity, Sora Kiriyama and I were out and we decided to sit on a bench real quick for a short break, and while we were talking a group of boys on trick bikes rode past us. Sora Kiriyama recognized one of them from around the town or the skate park where she had seen him riding and just playing around. She and Sora Ostler last transfer had named him Joey Donner from the movie 10 Things I Hate about You (I haven't seen it, so I can't explain why, but they did) So when he passed, she said "Hey, it's Joey Donner." About 30 seconds later, they all came back and one of them asked us what nationality we were from and we told him we were Americans. They started talking to us in English, and the one who asked expressed dissappointment that Sora Kiriyama doesn't know Japanese because he lived there for 5 years and wanted to talk to someone in that language. After talking to us a little bit more, they asked what we were doing in Romania, so we told them that we were missionaries. Since it's a lot easier to talk about the church in Romanian, we automatically switched over to Romanian and they were all shocked, "wow, you speak Romanian, too?" of course we do. So we invited them to the Thanksgiving activity and they said they'd see if they could. And they came!!! It was super cool, and they participated and they loved it.

Now some of them are meeting with the Elders to learn more about what we believe.

It was really fun.

One more funny story which really isn't a story but more of a statement. We were eating chocolate, with the brand name of Kandia, and Sora Kiriyama was reading the back of the wraper and started laughing...in my confusion, I read it and started laughing, and I wanted to share the statement with you cuz it's funny. It is the only thing in English on the wrapper (among Romanian, czech, and Russian) and it states thus: "Since forever the real chocolate was prepared only with pure cocoa butter, undoubtedly the secret of its pleasant melting. Kandia recipe contains only pure cocoa butter for you to enjoy the smooth melting of the true chocolate." HAHAHA! I thought it was funny, because that works in Romanian, but the direct translation into English just doesn't work and it's hilarious...plus the fact that it actually states that on a chocolate bar...enjoy the smooth melting of the true choloate.

Ok. Anyways, we're having fun and doing what we can to laugh. Sora Kiriyama likes to laugh, so we do it a lot ;} Anyways, I'm glad that you had a good Thanksgiving. I love you all so so very much and hope that you have a great week!

Love always, --Sora Karina

ps.

Debbie - sa nu-ti faci grij, e bine. Stiu ca esti ocupata, si te inteleg. Si multumesc pentru pozele electronice...imi plac foarte mult, sunteti draguti pe bune. ai o septamana perfecta, si mai auzim! Te iubesc...Si pe tine Ali, sper ca totul merge bine pentru tine!!!

lighthouses and fog

2009-11-23T06:42:00.000-08:00

Dear everyone,

How are you?

I'm doing just wonderful, and I hope that it is the same back home. The only difference is that you have snow, and I don't. That actually makes me kinda sad because I miss the snow. Every morning I wake up and look outside and it's all foggy the way it gets in Colorado right before or after a snow storm during the night, and I get excited, and then I get up and there is nothing on the ground except slightly moist dirt. Grrrr. But it's ok. The fog always lifts by about 10 am and then I don't miss the snow as much, but I still wish it would snow. It's just harder near the sea, but not unheard of. And there's still time.

Anyways, this week was a good one, just filled with a bunch of work and good times. There's not too much to tell you...Ion is progressing and hasn't accepted a baptismal date yet, but I have no doubt that he'll get there eventually. However, someone the Elders are teaching has decided to be baptised. I'm hoping that Ion will come to it cuz it would help him so much to be able to see what it's like, and I know he will feel what the Spirit is like. There is something about a baptism that just helps us to remember and know why this is true and right, and why we would want to be a part of this.

Also, we have another investigator who is the friend of a member, and she is loving the Book of Mormon as she reads it...and who wouldn't, I mean come on. I love that book, and I always just get so excited when others find out why it's so important to read it daily. Cuz when they do they feel the Spirit and love of God more fully, and they learn about their place in God's plan. That knowledge means everything. It's wonderful.

I think the miracle of the week was that we had 19 Romanians at church! That included our 2 investigators, the Elder's investigator, and a member's mother who isn't a member and is visiting for the holidays. It was really exciting, and the meeting was very spirit filled. That's what happens when anyone testifies of the Restoration of this church, Joseph Smith's first vision, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Those things invite the Spirit so powerfully because they are the root and foundation of all truth. It is amazing. Actually, the amazing thing about it is that we can all know for ourselves this truth, and if it in fact is truth or not. We can know from the source of all goodness and truth, the One who knows all things. He wants us to know because He wants us to be happy, and it is through the knowledge of these things that give us the ability to act upon the things that will eventually lead to our happiness now in this life and the fullness of joy that will last for the eternities. And right now is a part of the eternities. He wants these things for us because He loves us. He is God, the Father of us all. And He sent us His Son, Jesus Christ to make posible these things to happen and for us to receive so much more that we can't even comprehend. But He promises that it is possible, and I believe Him. I know that these things are real and they are the beautiful facts that make life worth it.

God has a plan for each of us individually and it is a plan that will give us joy and lead to our exaltation if we would do our part. He has given us everything, let us take it and walk in His ways, for His paths are easy and His burden light. This is what He wants for us. How great it is to know of the love of our God, and if we don't know it, we can find out, for it is there to find always regardless of time or circumstance, past or present. He is there. I know He is. It is made apparent to me in every day when I go out pleading for His help to tell His children these truths, and this work goes forth only because His hand is in it.

I'm excited because we're going to go and see a lighthouse after we eat lunch today, and I love lighthouses, so that will be amazing. I am really really glad to hear that Brother Kemp is doing better...miracles happen in every day, even in the midst of tragedy. And it takes faith for the miracle to happen, and sometimes faith to see the miracle, but it is always there.

But I love you all so so very much, and I pray for you always and can feel your prayers for me. Thank you. Have a great and amazing week, and I'll write next week about the amazing things happening in Romania.

It's still really cool to say that I'm in Romania. The language is coming along and getting better every day, even if I don't recognize it. There are still times when I finish talking to someone on the street or finish a lesson or even just on the phone, and once it's done I think, "Wow. I just had a conversation in Romanian with someone who doesn't speak English... Crazy." and then I laugh and think, "Well, of course I did, I am living in Romania, silly!" and its just a funny realization that comes slightly often, if that even makes sense.

But things are good...keep up the good work! ... and have fun!

ps. congrats Austin!!! (on his engagement) I'm so excited for you!

Love you all,

Always, --Sora Karina

new way to block knock

2009-11-16T05:55:00.000-08:00

Dear family,

How are all of you? I'm doing great.

This week was an interesting one full of just funny stories. But the good one first, and then the funny stuff... We had an investigator that came to church today! Ion is his name and he is the one I told you finally prayed in our lesson after saying in our very first lesson that he would never pray. So on Saturday night we called him to let him know that we were going to go to his house to pick him up for church (he lives real close) and he didn't like that at first, saying that he was way too busy, but he finally agreed saying that he would probably leave sometime during the first hour because he had way too much to do. bine.

So we went and picked him up, and he came and really listened to all of it...the speakers were perfect for him and what he needed to hear about the spirit, about what it means to be a member of this church, and about how happiness is possible in this life by living the gospel as seen in the Book of Mormon. So after the meeting, Sora Kiriyama asked him how it was, and he said "it was good, it was different... but I'll have to stay more to see what I really think." Sora Kiriyama said "You know, you're right, you'll just have to stay." Then the branch president came up and explained to him that the next hour is more interactive and would he please stay, and so of course he did, and he stayed for all three hours. He felt the spirit, and it was a great experience.

He said at the end of church that "I'll have to change my way of thinking, but it was good." and I said, "Well of course. This is a new way of living, but it's the way that gives us happiness." He said he would pray to know if that was true. It was a great miracle that he came and stayed, for which I was very grateful.

We weren't able to find any new investigators this week, but we started receiving some pretty creative rejections. But it's ok. I'll just tell you 2 because they were hillarious purely by the fact that they were overly rediculous.

We block knocked into some girls that were muslim, all speaking fluent Arabic and French. One spoke a little English and only one knew Romanian. so it was interesting trying to teach them, and I really don't know why they let us in. They eventually told us they didn't want to hear what we had to say and that we were the ones that needed to search for the truth. It was a very odd experience.

Then last night we were block knocking. In order to get into the block they have an interphone and you dial the room number and they answer, you ask them to open the door for you and they either do and you knock on the doors, or you don't and you keep ringing in. So last night we were outside of a block and rang in and every single person rejected us on the interphone. I've never had that happen before. Usually someone lets you in even if they don't want to listen, but every one... Some of them thought about it before they hung up, and there was even a couple that conversed for a few minutes over the interphone with each other about if they should let us in or not, and then decided not to. But it was so funny.

There was a man who answered the interphone but then started to talk to us out of his window (Romanians do that a lot) and yelled at us and told us that we couldn't talk to anybody else in that block. We only had one door left, but he kept yelling at us. Finally he shut his window. Then a man accross the street came out and we started talking to him, and the man in the window yelled at us for still talking to him. I told him that we were talking to the man accross the street. "well, talk to him, not to me." That was funny because I was only talking to him cuz he yelled at me, so I responded. H e sat there for about 5 more minutes at his window, so we walked away for a little before we went to the last door...and the interphone decided not to work. We'll go back to that door, because that block was just sooo funny. We were laughing so hard about it. It is the new way to do block knocking with out climbing all the stairs, ha ha ha.

But we found some good people who will hopefully become investigators and progressing investigators in this next week. But it was a good week full of work.

I have a question for Ross - how did he go about talking to Muslim people so that they would listen? There are a lot of muslim people here in Constanta and it's tricky when you're used to talking to people who are Orthodox and then you switch to Muslim mode, and I don't know what to do. So if he has any advice he could email me that would be great.

Oh, and a story for shaley...we teach english classes here, and the subject the other day was on decisions...so I decided to teach them about your decisions making kit that Cherisse gave you as a gag-gift, and the process of how to make a decision. They actually really liked it, and it reminded me of you, and it was funny that they needed it so spelled out. They took it pretty serious, too...it was great.

Oh! and yes, Jeri, I get all of your letters and thank you so so much. I love hearing about your friend, Francie, and I've been praying for her to be accteptive to the gospel message when you are able to meet with her. But yeah, I'm doing good, and I'm loving it here.

I'm glad that brother Kemp was able to go to church on Sunday.

Tam, that's awesome that you're in the advanced part of your violin book, that's so cool. and piano will help you with your violin to know the theory better if you want to do that that would be neat.

I love all of you so so very much. I know that the plan that God has for us is perfect, and it is true. It is revealed to us in its perfect form through a prophet on the earth today, and that is one of the ways that we can know that God loves us so much. I know that God loves us, and that he has prepared the way for each of us to be able to return to him, and that way is through Jesus Christ. Like it says in Revelations, He opens the door when we knock on it. This is His desire... for each of us to come to him, and when we do, He is able to heal us and to lead us where we can be with our family for eternity.

I know that these things are true, and these truths are what change your life so that you can have happiness now and later...the purpose of the gospel is to give us joy now and to prepare us for the eternal joy that is to come. These are the things that I'm praying for the people of Romania to receive a testimony about, because once they receive a spiritual witness and act upon it, that is when they will be able to come to know Jesus Christ and receive the promises that He has given to us all.

I love you all so so very much ,and I hope that your week is just fantastic! Love you lots!

Always, --Sora Karina

open arms

2009-11-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of Sora Kiriyama and myself with an American family that was in our branch. They have left to go home, but their kids were all so cute! I forgot how much I love little kids. The little girl in the pink dress is Olivia. She really reminded me of my sister, Tamara.

Here is a picture of the fall colors near Simiu. They were so beautiful!

Hey everybody! How are you all doing? I'm doing great.

This week was a good week. We are seeing progress, even if the progress isn't going as fast as I want it. But when we are doing all that we can to help the people, God helps us to move forward in His work. We are hoping to give Ivanka a baptismal date today, and hopefully at the end of the week if the opportunity shows itself to be a good one. He's progressing slower on his own pace, but it's been neat to see the progression he has made in a short time to the extent of just being happier. (When we found him, he was a generally depressed person.) But reading the Book of Mormon changes lives. It's neat.

I really enjoyed zone conference, it was good to learn more about how we need to focus on these people individually, which we have been trying to apply this week, and it's been going well. Elder Shute from the 70 and his wife came and taught us about how the Savior focuses on each one, and how as his servants, that is what he asks us to do, too. You help each person to feel the individual love of God for them. You help the each person understand what he or she can do to have a happier life through the gospel and atonement of Jesus christ. You help each individual come to Christ through the waters of baptism. Here in Romania, where the effects of communism are so great, they are used to having tunnel vision for the masses where they as an individual don't matter. So when you tell them that God loves them, they say "of course, he loves everyone" and you try to help them understand that he loves them individually. It's hard sometimes, but it is something that brings about great miracles when they understand.

I know that God loves each of us individually and that Christ knows us individually, and His arms are open to each of us personally if we would only turn to him and allow him to heal us. He promises us that he will heal all those who will come (3 Nephi 17). It is a promise that I know that He keeps.

Anyways, the weather is slowly getting colder and colder, but it's ok. It will also get randomly warm like today where I'm not wearing 50 layers, but am ok with just a jacket. But when it is cold outside, we're still doing ok, still working, and people are still listening to us. It's so fun to have someone actually listen to what we are testifying about, and even neater when they are willing to put what we say into practice in their own life to find out for themselves if it is true. And it is true.

All is well, things are good, I don't have too many exciting stories this week and I'm sorry, but next week will be better. It helps when you're actually in your city for the whole week. Being gone for 2 days really does kill alot. But it's good!

Anyways, I love you all so so very much! And I hope that all is going well.

ttyl! --Sora Karina

ps. Brother Kemp, I hear that you are under the weather. Ok, well maybe that's an understatement. But I hope that you are doing ok for what you can. I want you to know that the atonement of Jesus Christ is something very special to me. Through it, I know that my Savior knows me and my pains and my questions, my doubts and my fears. It also means that there is always someone there looking forward to the time when it will all be better. God has a vision for us, and it is the vision of a loving Heavenly Father who wants only our happiness and exaltation. He understands that we find that happiness as we are able to overcome the trials and hardships of life with faith in His Son. He is there helping you along and as we strive to live faithfully so that we can receive the promises, those promises of joy and glory will come to pass. I know that you are doing great, and I know that Christ is there with you every step of the way. He has to be, not only out of His love for you, but also because of the many prayers, mine included, that are uttered daily from the hearts of those who love you. I hope that you are able to have a great day and find something to smile about. I find that even when nothing is going for you, a smile will always help. Have a smile, and tell your family that I say Hi and I love you all!

ps. sora thompson, pot sa am adresa ta? Am realizat ca nu am si ar fi mai bine sa-ti scriu in loc de email. si ma bucur ca esti fericita, asa trebuie sa fie! Te iubesc!!!

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-02T05:16:00.000-08:00

Dear all you who live not in Romania, Happy halloween!!!

I am now in Constanta and I live 5 minutes away from the Black Sea...it's really cold. The wind is definitely killer, and it is still "warm" for this season as far as people tell me. Great. But it will be great. And yes, I am with Sora Kiriyama which is so fun because we were together in the MTC and now we get to remember the good times and create even more good times. It's been a blast already.

She and I are about on the same page on the language, just with different vocab cuz you learn different things in different situations and I've spent my whole mission thus far on the west, and she's only been in the East (Chisinau in Moldova, Bucuresti, and here in Constanta). This is her third transfer in Constanta so she knows her way pretty well, although we joke about how she has a defect when it comes to directions...it's fun though.

The branch here is cool. We meet in a big vila, and we as sisters actually live in the apartment on the 3rd floor of the vila where we meet for church...it's conveniant. so This branch has a bunch of Americans here...they all work for this big construction company and have been working on a project for the past year. But they're almost done so they leave in 2 weeks. Sad.

I didn't realize how much I missed kids until I taught primary yesterday to the family and it was so cute. They have 6 kids. There's another family with 2 boys, a couple that's pregnant, and a family with a 19 year old girl. So fun. And one of the girls, Olivia, looks EXACTLY like Tamara. Not kidding. I'll show you a pic sometime, but she even acts like Tam in different ways...like running and sliding accross the floor on her shoes and when she stops, bobs her head a little before running again in the opposite direction. I showed them family pictures of Tamara and they all thought I had been exaggerating about the similarities until they saw the pics. The only real difference is that Olivia is 5. But they are a cute family.

We had a huge halloween party with the branch...about 25-30 people were there which is a huge turn out, and I felt like I was in the states again with a functional activity and kids running everywhere. But it was fun. We told scary stories, played musical chairs, watched Thriller, had a pie eating contest, ate food, and played lots of other games. I didn't win the pie eating contest, but that's ok. It's not even pie, since pie doesn't exist in this country. It was sweet crackers with chocolate pudding and whipped cream on top with some gummy worms put in with it. Messy, but fun. Anyways, it was a good night, and the members dressed up real good, too.

Church was good...not as many people come to church as to the activities, but the Spirit was super strong for the fast and testimony meeting. It was so cute to hear a child's testimony again "I love my family and I know they love me too, and I know the book of mormon is true because Joseph Smith translated it, and I know that families can be forever because of the temple, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." So simple and it was just adorable. I haven't heard a testimony like that in a while. But everything that she said is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and it is a book full of amazing truths. I know that families can be eternal, and it is amazing to see a family work and work to do that together and see the hand of the Lord in their life. It changes everything, and it is worth everything that is required.

Anyways, our branch president is amazing, and I'm really excited to work in this branch. Our new investigator that we found this week is Ivanka and we knocked on her door and she opened it, gave us a huge smile and invited us in. Usually people do that without knowing what we want and so I'm weary about it to the point of trying to explain what my purpose is there so they don't get mad that you're in their house which happens sometimes. But she insisted and invited us to sit down to talk and appologized that she was in her pajamas. But we went into a lesson as if she was expecting it. At the end Sora Kiriyama asked her if she would pray to know if the message is true and she said she already knows it's true. So Sora Kiriyama asked if she would pray for a confirmation to know if it really is, and she said "the confirmation is that you came here. I've had elders come here 2 years ago and 1 year ago, and now you're here. God sent you here, and God led me to open the door even though I was already in bed not feeling well. But now I feel fine, and it's because God did it." So I of course asked her, "well, if you know it's true, will follow Christ's example and be baptized?" and she thought and said, "well, I've already been baptized once, but I'll read the book first and then I'll tell you." She leaves at the end of this month to go to Italy until January. I don't like time limits, but the Lord created time, so He can work with it.

I'm in Bucuresti right now because Zone Conference is tomorrow and a general authority (70) is going to be here with us. I don't know who, but you'll hear about it next monday. I'm excited.

So to answer my sister's questions, Jenna, I am definitely happy, no need to worry. Shaley, I didn't forget about Halloween, though we were lacking in the snow that I'm used to, and Tamara, I would love to have a tape of your violin music for my tape player. I haven't read that book, but it sounds like a good one. A book I remember reading in school (can't remember if it was 6th or 7th grade) was the book "The Giver" and it's still one of my favorites.

But your halloween sounds like it was so much fun...spooky and full of fun stories. Your costumes all look amazing, I loved it! And Jenna, your moaning ghosts and stuff you decorated in the bathroom made me laugh really hard. I wish I could have seen it. And Cherisse, it sounds like you put on quite the party. And 4 out of 31 less actives coming is a really good number. I would have been beaming if 4 of our less actives came to an activity, and we did have 3 with 3 non members that came to the activity on Saturday. One of them came to church, and she's a sweet lady. We're hoping to teach her soon! But I'm sorry Allen is sick...tell him I say to get better!

Oh, and tell the Stotts I say hi, and tell Brother Lee, and everyone else that I say hello and I love them all. Have fun in the snow, and I love you lots and lots!

ttyl Always, --Sora Karina

Oh, and I forgot to write earlier, Lenuta, our investigator from Sebiu that i mentioned last week about giving her a baptismal date, she's getting baptized on the 14th of November if things keep going well with her, and she's amazing so I'm not worried. Sora Staley promised to send me pictures. Anyways, I love you all so so much--Sora Karina
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Transfer to the Sea

2009-10-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

Dear family and everyone who is awesome and reading this,

Hello! how are you? I am doing pretty good. I can not believe that this transfer is ending on Wednesday...it feels like it's only been about 2 weeks or maybe 3 at the most, but it's been 6!

And I am leaving Sibiu ~sad~ I am not excited to leave, because I don't feel like I've done enough here, but I am very excited to go to Constanta with Sora Kiriyama. She was one of my companions in the MTC and so I get to be with her again which will be cool, and I'm leaving Sora Staley behind to continue the work in Sibiu with a Boboaca! ha,ha. She's training and scared, but she'll be amazing and I'm excited for her. And going to Constanta will be new and interesting because I've been in the west and in the middle of the country, and now I'm going to the east on the south side, next to the sea! That's right, Constanta is the city that goes right up to the Black Sea, so that will be really, really cold in the snowy times of the winter, but that's ok. I'm excited to see how this goes.

This past week we have been learning a lot! One of the things that we decided we needed to learn how to apply better is how to ask questions and help the investigator participate more in the lesson so the Spirit can work in them more. And when we did it, the outcome was amazing and Lenuta became a new investigator. She is so cool, and wants to be baptized...we are giving her a date today so that she can better prepare for it. Another miracle from this week is that our relief society president came to church today, and she did her calling! ...Two things that haven't happened this entire transfer. So that was really exciting...and 2 women stayed for Relief Society outside of us and the president. So it almost felt like it was for real, and it was uplifting and the spirit was strong. That was definitely something to be grateful for.

Also, I should give you an update on Mariana, the cool lady that we found last week. We started the stop-smoking program with her, and she's doing pretty good with it. She didn't smoke at all for 2 days, and then smoked 2 halves of a cigarette the next, and then as far as we know she's still doing pretty good and not smoking at all or only one. (she started out having smoked an avg of 15-20 cigarettes each day) But her husband isn't helping her and is smoking more than ever. But any time he goes to light one up, she yells at him to get out of the house. "If I'm going to quit, and I am going to quit, then you are going to help me and you get out of this house to do whatever you want!" It's so funny. They are an amazing family, and I have been praying that after she quits smoking, if not before, that her whole family will become investigators. But we'll see. She is an amazing woman though, I love her.

But anyways, everything is going great, thank you so much for your prayers...I know that it is helping our investigators have more strength in their faith and it is amazing to see. I wish you could see the outcome of your faith, but instead I am the one blessed to see it. Thank you for everything, and I love you lots and lots and lots!

Oh, and Happy birthday Grandma Curtis!!!!!!! Have a great day!

Always, --Sora Karina

2009-10-19T06:43:00.000-07:00

Dear family,

This past week was a blast, and I'm going to tell you only a few of the miracles that made it so fun because unfortunately, I don't have time to write all of them, that and I figure that I need to save some things to share with you when I get home. But man, this week was just full of cool things that the Lord made possible for us.

So we decided that we were not being passionate about our goals and that we were just setting goals that were realistic according to what we have already here in Sibiu, and we decided that was really stupid. Just like that quote from Zone Conference said, we need to get emotionally involved in our goals, and then go forth and do all you can to fulfill those goals. So we are officially done setting realistic goals, and instead we are going to set what we want and allow the Lord to work miracles, because nothing is impossible for Him to do.

We witnessed this in this past week when we found 11 people who were willing to listen to our message and have a desire to continue to learn. We have already seen to a small amount the effect these things will have as we went to work with this attitude starting Friday, and I am so excited to continue to go forth and see what the Lord has in store, not just seeing if we can meet midway goals.

This week was really fun to the extent of literally running up the stairs of a bloc one night (we started at the bottom that night to find the first person who would let us in because we had 20 minutes to have a lesson, and someone did let us in - they didn't become new investigators, but the lady said she knew that God sent us to her so that she could feed us (she fed us deep fried pig fat with apples...yummy?) and take care of us because she doesn't have any kids and she was taught to always accept and take care of the servants of the Lord, and she was just sooo happy to serve us. Even though she and her husband weren't willing to listen to the message of the fullness of the Restored Gospel, I saw it as a tender mercy from the Lord and an answer to our prayers to be let in and still make the bus(which we did) and also that woman's prayers to be a service to the Lord's servants. It was so cool.

Another night we had planned to go and find a former investigator for whom we only have an address and so we went off, but you have to cross the street at a certain point or follow the curve of the road, and we didn't cross the street which took us all the way down to a point where if we would have climbed the stairs to our left of the cross walk we would have been right back where we started. Because of this, I kind of teased Sora Staley, talking about how we were walking around in circles and it was silly, but neither of us felt bad about doing it. So we kept walking in the general direction of the former investigators, and then Sora Staley got the thought that we should vila knock right there in the middle of the street. To me it just looked like she was pacing in front of a vila until she said, "maybe we should knock this vila" ...ok, but it didn't have a door bell on the fence. So we went in and knocked on the first vila (inside this fence is a group of 4 vilas) but the first lady didn't want to listen.

We started walking out, but again Sora Staley got the thought that we weren't done. Then we noticed a lady hanging up her laundry in the cold and we went to talk to her. She said she didn't have time right then, but set up a time for us to come back. We asked if we could have her phone number. She said yes, but had to go inside to get it. She invited us in out of the cold, and then we gave her a pliant (pamphlet) to read and she asked what it was about...20 seconds into the explanation she said, "Oh, I have 10 minutes, sit down and we'll talk."

So we sat down with her and talked. It was so cool. She opened up a ton and started crying saying that she knows God loves her but doesn't know why because she smokes and sins and doesn't go to church. Also because she feels like everyone else know all the prayers and what to do, and she doesn't. She felt it would be shameful for her to go in to a church not knowing how to "properly" do everything. She wanted to know how we could have such conviction about our message. We told her it was through prayer, and taught her how to pray. She had a hard time believing that God would answer her prayers until the end.

In the middle of this, her 21 year old daughter came in and loved what we were saying. Towards the end they both said that they would pray about our message and if God really does want them to have a Prophet on earth, and if He loves them.

Mariana (the mom) told Adina (the daughter) "you know, I didn't even want to talk to these girls, and then something happened and I thought, well, why not, so I let them in and now they're telling me they can help me stop smoking and that I can pray to God to know about Him" and her daughter smiled and said "you need it mom, do what they say" and they were just so grateful and awesome. It was definitely a miracle to prove that the Lord does know where His children are, and that He will lead us to them if we are doing all we can to heed the promptings of the Spirit.

-It just brings you so much joy to share that truth. And the neatest thing is that it is not just me and Sora Staley that have been having successes like this. About 3 weeks ago, Elder Tilbey found 12 new investigators because of a guy they talked to on the street, and he told the Elders that he goes to a Bible study class every week, and Elder Tilbey said "oh, that would be fun, can we come too?" the guy said that would be fine, so they went, it turned into a discussion about the Restoration, and Elder Tilbey and his boboc companion (boboc = brand spankin new in the field) taught them all there and 12 of them set up again to meet. The following week, Elder Harvey and Elder Shwartz called a number from someone they met on the street, but it was a wrong number (happens very often) but they decided to invite the person on the other line to learn about their message. Set up, met with the family, got 8 new investigators from that family with 5 people in that group that set up baptismal dates.

This week, as in the week in which Sora Staley and I found 11 new investigators, the Elders in my district found 4 new investigators, there were probably lots of others with high numbers, but no one beat Elder McBride and Elder Brian who found 18 new investigators. They found a family who referred them to another family who referred them to another family and all three families are now learning about the restored gospel and how they can have their families for eternity. So cool!!! A side note that makes it better, Elder McBride completes his service as a missionary in 1 1/2 weeks, so that's just crazy, and he is just sprinting to the end.

The work of the Lord is going forth and we are having a blast doing it. The only thing that is kinda yucky right now is that it turned cold REALLY fast, and it is freezing. There is apparently a cold front over all of Europe and the highs in Romania are around 8-12 degrees Celcius. I don't know what that equals in farenheit, I just know that I have to wear around 4-5 layers when I go out so I don't freeze.

Funny story. The first day it got cold it was 14 degrees Celcius here in Sibiu, but all I saw out the window is that it was sprinkling lightly, so I didn't put much on under my coat and I had a light scarf and my umbrela. Well, we went out, it was soooooo cold, and it started POURING rain (in Romanian they say "raining buckets" instead of cats and dogs) and it was, my umbrella broke in the middle of it, and me and Sora Staley were numb from just above the knees down plus our ears, hands, nose, and we were sopping wet. So we went to the church after lunch to get warm, and the heaters were broken there, so we turned on and lit the four burners on the gas stove and huddled around the stove for warmth...and realizing the fact that our clothes were soaked through, we started holding up different articles of clothing over the stove to dry...our coats, scarves, socks/nylons, shoes, and I finally took off my skirt and held it up to dry after wringing it out over the sink because it was dripping wet from mid-thigh down. It was so funny...I took pictures. Anyways, it was a fun day, and we were still wet for a lot of it, but that's ok. I learned and wore a lot of clothing for the rest of the week. I have been comfortable for the majority of it. lol!

Anyways, I think that's about it for this week, and I know that that is really long, but I hope you enjoyed it. I sure did! And I hope that everything is going well back home, that you are having fun getting ready for Halloween. They don't really celebrate it here, so we already have Christmas decorations in the stores because they are lacking both Halloween and Thanksgiving, and it's weird to see Christmas being put out in October. But that's ok.

Anyways, I love you all to pieces, and I'll ttyl!

Love you!!!!!!!!!

Always, --Sora Karina

ps. I hope that you have a great week, Shaley and Jenna and Tam good luck in your meets and other things, Cherisse and Alley, keep having fun.
Grandma Coy I love you and hope you are well.
Grandma and Grandpa Curtis, I love you lots and lots, and everyone else too!!!

garbage cans are blessings

2009-10-14T06:56:00.000-07:00

My dearest family and friends and wonderful people,

How are you all doing? I am doing great...I am working hard even though it's starting to get cold, and it looks like it's going to be a freezing winter, but right now it's just a decently cold fall...and the colors are so pretty! it's fun.

I don't really know if there is any new news to tell, most of it is all the same. This week was better than last week, as far as effectiveness and work goes. Well, pretty much everything...
there wasn't anything worse about it. But each week is getting better, and that is very exciting. I know that we are doing exactly what we have been asked to do, and because of that, we will find those who are ready to do what they need to in order to receive a witness from the Holy Ghost about the truth of the Restored Gospel. It is hard, but there are many blessings that occur from it. It takes faith sometimes to see the little miracles, but when you look, the love and gratitude you feel is more than can be expressed.

This week we had interviews and zone conference, and it was fun. We went up to Cluj-napoca for zone conference which from us is about a 4 hour drive in a maxi-taxi which is like a mix between a van and a bus, and really is not comfortable at all. But that's ok. Cluj is big, and from what I saw of it, it's pretty. They have a singing fountain that has 12 different songs that it will play according to how the water is coming out - the taxi driver kinda gave us a mini tour as we passed the main city center area, and that was cool. But I learned a lot about the work that we are doing here and how important it is to give EVERYTHING you have to the Lord to do it. It is amazing how much you can give to Heavenly Father, and still He is able to give us more than we gave, and we just can never make it up. But we keep trying because we love Him, and so He keeps blessing us because He loves us and it's an amazing cycle.

Central to this cycle is the Atonement of Jesus Christ, without which we would be lost and there would be no point in trying, no point in giving or receiving because it would only be for this short time here on earth. But everything is eternal, and that is a blessing that I am trying to understand even more. Even the time we spend with our friends or family, or the time we spend learning something, it happens in a temporal sense, but the effect of everything we do is eternal and we will reap the eternal reward, not the temporal one, in the life for which we are preparing right now. That is why it is important to use the Atonement every day, and to not give up regardless of what has happened, or what is going on now. The Atonement applies to everything on a personal level, and there are no exceptions...the only thing that stops the Atonement from working is if we don't want to do our part, and how sad is that to not be able to reap the eternal blessings of our Heavenly Father's eternal love for us because we simply would not try.

I know that he loves us, and I know that it is possible for each and every one of us to attain the perfection talked about in the scriptures. Jesus Christ did not say "the power of faith could move mountains, but you're not ever going to receive that type of faith" or "if only you could be perfect like me and your Father in Heaven are, but too bad you'll just have to settle for whatever is second best." No. He told us the power of faith because He expects us to work for that, and he knows that we can attain that kind of faith by relying on Him. When we try to go forward, He is immediately there walking with us and helping us to get where He knows we should be. Even if we can't pay back what we've missed, the Prophet's counsel is clear: "go forward, start today." make the choice to give everything to Him, including your trust and your fears, and the Atonement will give you strength sufficient to overcome and take one more step towards him. And that step is worth it.

It is so amazing to see the love that the Lord has for us on a specific and individual level, and it is so sad to see the people who believe that He died for everyone, but don't think that they can have a personal relationship with him. I know that we can. I know that he wants us to, and I know that I want to. How amazing is it to have a testimony and KNOW that God loves you, and that He has done all he possibly could to give us the way to be with Him again. It just gives me even more motivation to do all that I can. And we are promised in the scriptures that "I will go before your face, I will be on your right hand and on your left, my spirit will be in your heart, and mine angels round about you to bear you up" for "victory is of the Lord". I know that this is true and it is possible and as we look to Him, He will help us in everything.

Anyways, on a completely different note, we have this really old woman neighbor who is obsessed with where we put our garbage can, when we put our garbage in our can, when we roll our garbage can out, when we roll it back into the parking lot, and if we really know which one is our garbage can. Oh, she also asked me if I know how to lock the door to the complex. She knocked on our door this morning three times to make sure we know about the garbage schedule and told us how to lock the door (just in case) and told us to open our windows during the day because apparently it is a new building and fresh air is good for the walls??? That's ok. They also say that eating ice cream on a cold day will give you a cold, and sitting directly on cement effects your ability to have children, especially if it's windy. She really has taken upon herself to regulate the garbage cans of the block. Is everyone putting their own garbage in their own cans?? Today she asked me to please write our apartment number on our can. One time I set the garbage out by the front door to take when we left the apartment. She knocked on the door and informed us that the garbage can't be there. I told her I was just about to take it out. She's really cute...just kinda bored and I think a little lonely. I should suggest knitting to her or something. I love it so much, we definitely are not lacking smiles every day.

But anyways, I am so glad that you had a good birthday mommy!!! I'm hoping to send something in the mail soon. Oh! And I got your package finally!!! And thank you so much, it was awesome. The food is being much enjoyed by all of us (the missionaries) Tamara's pictures are so fun - they will become the best p-day ever! and you were inspired about the pens that I needed...I know it's silly, but you gave me the kind that I needed/wanted/like. It was perfect. And I loved the pictures! And I got your package too, Rachel, thanks a million, I loved it! ...especially the stuff for smores, the scarf, the candy, that's pretty much all of it. Yeah, it was a good late birthday celebration.

And while I'm on that topic, the office told us to forward this: The office elders have asked us to pass along some information that should help you receive mail and packages from home more quickly (a good thing as Christmas time is approaching). We are recommending that all mail and packages sent to missionaries serving in Romania and Moldova be addressed as follows:

[Name of missionary]
Sos. Pipera Nr. 41, Et. 7 (Posta 41)
Bucharest, Romania 014254

The name of the missionary should NOT include “Elder” or “Sister.” Also, DON’T include the name of the mission or anything like that in the address. Please pass this information along to families and others that want to send you things by mail.

But I love you lots and lots and lots, and Shaley and Jenna, you look GORGEOUS in your homecoming dresses, I loved it! And Shaley, congrats on winning homecoming queen! I knew you would! But it sounded like a lot of fun. Keep enjoying your sports, the three of you, and tell Cherisse and Allen that I love them - the whole star trek guy thing made me laugh for about 20 minutes with my district, and your house looks so cute! I love you lots, and ttyl!

Always, --Sora Karina

tender mercies

2009-10-05T06:04:00.000-07:00

This is my companion, Sora Staley and I - she is amazing I love her so much. She's acutally taller than I am, but it was cold on the top of the "mountain" which is like a hill to us, but it took a good hike, and it was so pretty.

The one of the baptism is Casia with her dad who baptized her and her mom...the dad is the branch president here. we have about 8-15 members who come to church depending on the week, and the leadership is shaky, but it's getting better. Ps. I love this family they are so amazing.

Hi family and all the people I love so much! How are you? I'm doing great.

This week was good, but everything that happened was only possible because of things Heavenly Father did. And He made sure that we knew it was only possible through Him. We actually had 17 lessons set up for this past week (not all from contacts, but still a decent amount) we had 8 lessons total, but only 4 of them were from the original 17 and only 3 of the 4 were non-members. It was amazing.

Some other amazing miracles - we had planned to take the bus to the church, and we have a copy of the schedule, but when we got to the stop, the bus didn't come. With the bus it takes 10 minutes to get to the church, without it, it takes usually 45 minutes to walk. We had 20 minutes to get to church on time once we realized that the bus wasn't coming and the next bus wouldn't get there for 25 more minutes, so we started walking as fast as we could. We got to the church exactly in 20 minutes. I know it's good to be early, and we were sad that we couldn't be, but it was amazing that we took the same amount of paces as usual, but with 25 minutes less time than it has alway taken before, and it was definitely something to be grateful for. One of the many tender mercies from the Lord.

Another tender mercy is that we found 3 new investigators this week, and they are all really amazing people, really willing to learn, understanding what we say, and the Spirit has been so strong lately. I am blown away at the way that the Lord can put His hand in our actions and change everything - someone who looks annoyed when we first talk to them leaves after telling us to call them in 2 days so that we can meet. After a day full of bungs and nothing working out, everything falling through. But just because we won't go home early, the Lord places someone in our path, or leads us to a block where the door is open so that we can go and find someone who was just about to leave to go somewhere and now all of a sudden they want to talk. Or with Maria, we were talking to her at her door, and you could tell that she didn't know why she was letting us in, but she did and was confused by it that she tried to give it purpose by giving us a mini tour around her house and showing us things. Then we taught her the restoration, and she was excited for us to come back (we're going there tonight) and it truly is by small and simple things that we can see the miracles in the larger scope of God's eternal perspective in this work. It was really fun.

So that was my week. Everything is going really well. A crazy person story...we talked to a lady at a bus stop, and after trying to testify, we ended up just listening to her talk about how it's a sin to wear makeup, its a sin to use product in your hair, it's a sin to wear pants (which she was wearing and used her pants as an example of that sin) and said that she wishes she could be muslim because they are the ones who please God. We tried saying that we are all God's children and He is pleased with us when we keep His commandments and such, but she would not listen, saying "no no, I'm a sinner...see these pants? and you are sinners too. Please don't get mad, but I have to tell you you are sinning. Just look at your face. That stuff on it is not pleasing to God." We finally just looked at each other, left, and laughed the whole way home. Later that night Sora Staley washed her face and came up to me and said "look sora! I'm not sinning anymore!" and we laughed some more.

Another funny story, Elder Bernier (an elder from my MTC group that i'm serving with right now in Sibiu) his mom googled his name and she found my blog because of it! Funny.

But other than that we are working hard, we are having fun - we actually had one sister stay for Relief Society this past sunday, so that's progress right there! The Lord is helping us in this work, and it is His work, and I am so happy that I can be a part of it here in Romania.

Well, I love you all so so very very much, and I'll write next week! Love always, --Sora Karina

ps. Assistants acum sunt Elder Anderson si Elder Collier - te iubesc mult si ai o zi buna!!!

working hard in Sibiu

2009-09-28T10:56:00.000-07:00

Dearest family and everyone,

Hello! How are you? I'm doing well...Sibiu is still gorgeous and we are working hard.

This week was a week full of lessons - though it wasn't with other people, but I sure learned a lot. Even though it was a hard week, it was a good one. I learned tons from our lessons with Casia - she's the 8 1/2 yr old that got baptized on Saturday and the service went great. There were small amounts of people there, but it was good - Sora Staley and I had 2 investigators there and the Elders had one of their investigators that came, and the Spirit was soooo strong.

And teaching her this past week to make sure she was ready was amazing. We would teach her a lesson and the things that she comprehended amazed me. We taught her the Plan of Salvation with a semne (puzzle), and after we went through the whole thing her mom suggested that Casia put the semne together herself to see if she understood. So we mixed it up, and she cleared her throat and began to teach us what we had just taught her starting at the Premortal life and all the way to where we want to be with God in the Celestial Kingdom. She had all the information right and it was stated so simply as if it were fact - she has great faith. It just proves that the gospel of Jesus Christ is simple enough in it's truth that even a child can understand and believe. It was wonderful.

As for everything else, we had a couple of lessons with our other investigators, and they are doing well...not quite understanding everything enough to come to church or commit to baptism, but they are keeping their commitments and we had good lessons there. We found a lot of good potential investigators this week, but all of the lessons that we had set up fell through unfortunately, but we are still trying to find in the situations in which we find ourselves and are begining to understand what more we can do in order to do all that we can do for the Lord to help us with this work.

One thing I learned this week is how pride really does become a stumbling block to the road of happiness in your living. I have been studying a lot about faith, and how pride is what gets in the way of our faith. Ultimately, it gets in the way of us being able to have a good relationship with our Heavenly Father. This was a good week for me to get back in line with the expectations of the Lord and to remember why I wanted to be here, why I am doing what I am doing. It is because I love the Lord, and I have a desire to love His children enough to share with them the knowledge that I have about their salvation. In short anyways, that's what it is.

This branch is really disfunctional and Sundays are more of a day of stress than a day of rest for us missionaries - Relief Society consisted of me and my companion because no one is used to staying for all 3 hours - including the RS president, and we were joined by Serban who is 13 and is in the young mens program, who didn't want to be in Priesthood, and so he came up with us and we had a lesson on Christ-like attributes. It was good, but the whole thing is crazy. But hopefully it will get better each week.

Other than that, I don't have too much to say. I got jenna's letter and I loved it! Thanks love. I will be getting my package probably at this zone conference which is on October 10th. Which reminds me, Mom, can you please call Brianne for me to tell her I wish her a happy birthday on Thursday? That would be awesome. Tell her I love her! And no I don't get to see the RS broadcast, but it sounded good by the notes you sent me. I'll be able to read it in the Liahona that I will get of the conference session in a couple of months. And thanks for taping conference for me again - this time I'm not even going to be able to listen to it in Romanian unless we get the dvd's from the headquarters in germany soon after. But it will be good. Take good notes for me ;}

Anyways, I hope that you are having a good week, I am excited to tell you more things that I learn about the Lord's hand in His work next week, and until then, smile lots! I love you all so so so much!

Love Always, --Sora Karina

Jenna and Shaley and Tamara - congrats on your matches/meets. It sounds like you are doing great! And I love hearing about it. I love you three soooo much. And of course tell Cherisse and Allen that I love them too :D ttyl

Sibiu

2009-09-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

Hello family and everyone!!! How are you all doing? I am doing great.

So I'll start out by telling you a little about the city that I am now in. Sibiu has the reputation as the prettiest town in Romania. I can see why. It is one of the oldest towns, and it is beautiful. It is not too big, but it's not as small as Arad where I was for my first 2 transfers. We usually walk everywhere which gets kinda annoying sometimes, but we haven't quite figured out the bus systems yet for that to be a help. But we get by and all is well.

The work is going well, too. Sora Staley is awesome. She is someone that I've wanted to be companions with since I first got in the country and met her, and now I'm blessed to be able to do that, and we are just getting to work and running and proving our faith, and smiling the entire way while we do it. And the Lord is already blessing us. We got one new investigator referred by a member, who came with us. - That was cool. The relief society president wanted us to go over and meet with the sick mother of a less-active member, and we went, taught her about faith, and she asked us to come back to teach her more about what we believe in. Super cool.

Another something amazing is that one of the goals that Sora Staley and I set right from day one is that we want to find a family to teach, a family that will all be involved in the gospel, and we have been praying for it and working to do all that we can in order to find a family and anyone else that will listen. So we were vila knocking the other night and it started to get cold so we went down a street to find a block (an enclosed apartment building) that we could go and knock. We both felt good about going into a green block that looked decently lit. In it we were rejected at every door that opened except for one where a little girl opened the door, and went to get her dad for us to talk to. He listened to us, all the while in the back ground we see his daughter (9 years old), his son (almost 11 years old), a grandma figure, he told us how they have a 4 month old baby, and his wife who is not against us coming again, but also isn't as interested as he is to learn more. He set up with us to come back the following night.

So last night we went over there, and to our surprise the kids weren't there, but he had invited 2 of his friends over there to listen to us, one who had been an investigator about a year ago but who hadn't been talked to since then. We had an amazing discussion, and it went so well, the Spirit was so strong, and we are meeting with them on Wednesday, this time with his kids. This is the family that we've been praying for, for only a couple of days, but the Lord has blessed us greatly even with the people that we have met on the street that we haven't yet been able to meet with.

It is amazing to see the Lord's hand here in the work. When you don't know what to do or even where to begin, He puts you on a good path and leads you when you just go. And that is what He is doing with us right now. It is so cool.

I know that this church is true and that God really does help us do whatever needs to get done if we will just be willing to take the steps that will get us started - He'll give you the extra pushes you need and carry it the rest of the way.

So the branch here is really interesting. It is small and doesn't quite function properly, but it is here. We have one set of Elders here with us which are amazing - Elder Johnson and Elder Bernier (who I served with in the MTC) and it is going to be such a fun transfer. Elder Johnson is the 1st counselor in the Branch Presidency, and the Branch President is cool, but he's not the most forward "get her done" type guy. Like yesterday when the Sunday school class went on for an hour and a half, (it is only supposed to last 45 minutes) the Branch President just sat there, and Sora Staley and I were with the 2 kids that are there Serban and Casia and the Branch President came to where we were talking with them and just said, "They're not done yet, but I couldn't listen anymore - it was boring." and I was thinking, “ok...you are the one that can stop it...” but it will get better in time.

Funny story, Casia is 8 1/2 years old, and she didn't want to get baptized until yesterday when Sora Staley said "Why aren't you baptized yet?" Casia said, “I don't want to." Sora Staley said, “Why not? You could be a sister missionary someday you know.” Casia just shrugged her shoulders. Then at the end of the lesson, Casia said, "Yeah, I guess I could be a sister missionary someday." and Sora Staley said "Well then, when do you want to get baptized?" and Casia said, "This Saturday! It will be my day!" It was so cute.

So now we are teaching her what her parents (who happen to be the branch president and his wife) asked us to teach her to make sure she's ready, and we'll see - we might have a member baptism this Saturday. But what a great start that will be.

Something interesting about opening an area is how you come here and you have nothing. We have an apartment, but that apartment didn't even have dishes, a broom, a mop, pillows, hangers, food of any kind, and things that you usually don't think about because every apartment has them, we didn't have - like a drying rack to dry our clothes on, an area book, any missionary supplies, yeah. It was kinda crazy trying to get that ready. We also didn't have a filter, so we're buying water so that we don't get sick, and that's more money. Fortunately, Sora Staley doesn't always use the monthly sums that we get for food and other essentials, and so she has plenty to get us started, and then I have enough to help us get by. It will work, but until we get it all figured out, it will be interesting. We keep finding things that we don't have when we need them and realize it's not there. he he.

Our first morning of breakfast, Elder Johnson had bought a couple of things for us the day before so that we would have something - we had cereal in plastic cups that we ate with the measuring spoons Sora Staley had brought that were extra at her old apartment, and then ate yogurt with plastic knives, and bread and jam. Wow. I took a picture cuz it was so funny, but I don't have time to show you all now. Anyways, life is great, I'm happy, and all is going well. So much happened in just these few days, but I can't think of what else to say.

Just know that God loves you, I love you all so so very much, and I'll tell you more next week! --Sora Karina

ps Sora Thompson - Felicitar!!!!! Sunt foarte entusiasmata pentru tine! Sunt putin trista ca nu voi fi acolo, dar, sunt sigura ca va fi minunata. Si da, am aflat direct inainte am plecat la arad ca ani a avut 2 fete inainte ea a fost cu lica, si ele si mama anei au fost botezate, si am auzit ca a fost minunat. crazy, huh? am crezut asa, dar totul e bine. Este ciudat ce el a facut, dar nu stiu de ce. Nu am crezut ca a fost o problema...ori cum, ai o zi frumoasa, si sa-l dai pe Eric salut pe partea mea! Si vreau sa stiu cum el te-a intrebat te rog. te iubesc si te-am pupat! --sora Karina
ps. Sora Poulsen - Multumesc pentru email. Tot timpul este bine sa te aud. Ma bucur ca totul merge bine pentru tine. Merge bine pentru mine deasemenea. Si acuma am o opertunitate sa fac ce n-am facut inainte cu un oras nou - sa deschid! Este putin diferit si este greau, dar este posibil, si ma distrez deci este bine. Te distrez cu Castro, Si sa-mi spui ce s-intemple! Te iubesc --Sora Karina

La Multi Ani

2009-09-14T06:29:00.000-07:00

My dearest family and friends and everyone,
How are you? I am doing amazingly.

This week was a really good one. On Saturday the baptism went great. Cristina was a little nervous, but she was so happy, and all went well. She even brought a friend of hers who said she's not interested to learn more, but is curious enough that she'll come to church in a few weeks after she finishes a project of some sort. So that's cool.

I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost and why it is such an amazing gift, and because other things fell through I also did the special musical number and I played the hymn arrangement with the Savior songs that Mom picked out - you know which one I'm talking about. But everything went great.

The turn out at the baptism was mostly from our English students - there were only about 5 members there and 30 people there all together, and a lot of that number was made up by investigators too which is always exciting.

But she is sooo happy and she gave a really sweet testimony at the end about how God helped her to make this choice, and how she knows that He'll continue to help her in this gospel, and she knows it's true and that because she has the gospel in her life that she will be happier. It was awesome.

And we got some baptismal dates with Elena and Marian her son. Catalina, the daughter, doesn't want to get baptized yet. She says she doesn't like the Book of Mormon, but it's because she's not used to it or "obisnuita" is the word she used, but she came to the baptism with her mom and brother and she sat outside on the couch during the talks and such to read the Joseph Smith pliant, the Gospel pliant, and started the Book of Mormon a little bit. She also said she really liked the ceremony part of the baptism "it was simple, but pretty" she said. I think she'll catch on quick to the desire that her mom and brother have to become a part of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and to come closer to God. Their dad might take a little longer, but I think that if he comes to their baptism on the 26th, there will be no more doubt with him wanting to take the lessons and to join his family.

It's funny because Elena tells her husband every time, "hai, si tu!" come on, you too! and he just says ok, ok, I'll catch up later. And I really think that he will. Last night we were out bloc knocking, and we met this cool guy in his 80s named Dumitru. Cutest old man ever! He got off subject so much telling us stories and helping us understand why he thinks certain things about God and religion, and then when we finally were able to get a word in he said "da! te ascult" or Yes, I'm listening to you. And then he was so attentive until we mentioned something that reminded him of another story. But it was fun teaching him - he gave us some raspberry jam that he had made and it is really good, and I don't know if he'll catch on to the message that we have for him, but we're still trying

And I know you're all dying to know how my birthday went - and it was AMAZING! On Tuesday we have English class, and my class put on a huge celebration for me. Mariana, the loud crazy lady that I have a love/hate relationship with, was the founder of it. Apparently she found out it was my birthday, called our whole class and put on a party for me. She put balloons up, wrote birthday messages for me on the chalk board, lit candles around the room, and covered the floor with rose pedals. She also got me chocolate, a huge 3 liter thing of Pepsi (which is better than the wine she's given us missionaries as gifts the past 2 occasions) and a box of chocolates to share with the whole world, along with a stuffed stag from the "stag of gold" festival that's been going on lately. There's a sound button in the stag that sounds like a baby dinosaur. So funny.

So she gathers our class together to take a picture and positions me on how to hold my flower and the stag, Sora Campbell takes a picture and then Mariana lights a firework in the church building for Sora Campbell to take another picture. Yes, a firework. (If you don't believe me, look at the pictures - Mariana is the bigger lady behind me with reddish hair) And then shoves the firework in my hand for a solo picture, then grabs my camera from Sora Campbell and pushes her to be in my picture. She's crazy and I was laughing sooo hard. Veronica bought me chocolates and Isabella gave me a skirt that is really pretty - very Romanian, and Audi says it makes me "batrana" or old, but everyone else seems to like it lol. And then they sang La Multi Ani. After the spiritual thought Mariana told me it was an obligation I had to play the piano for everyone, so then I had to perform. But it was good.

After that exciting day, I didn't even know what to expect on my real birthday, but it was good. Sora Campbell made me banana clatite for breakfast (something in the middle of a crepe and a pancake) and I got a lot of texts from the members saying happy birthday, and Audi called me at 12:00 midnight which is something they do here in Romania to wish me happy birthday - I was so tired, and she laughed at me, but it was fun. She also bought me a present, and when we went over to her house for a lesson, she put on "happy birthday" by New Kids on the Block because she says she doesn't have a voice for singing and gave me a necklace and a children's Romanian story book. It was awesome.

Other than that we had a service project, and a lot of contacting that we did which was fun, Oh, and President Lundberg and his family called me and sang me a version of Happy Birthday that was really fun but that I had never heard before. All in all, it was an amazing day. (And no, I didn't get the package. It might have gotten there on time, but the Assistants and President were on tour so they didn't have a chance to go to Buc to pick it up. So I'll get it in the future and it will be my birthday again! Yay!)

Also, on the 12th it was Audi's birthday, but we had the baptism, and so Alina put together a surprise birthday party for her on Friday, and it was so fun. She turned 29, and this is the first party she has ever had in her life for her birthday. She was so surprised, and she loved it. It went very well, much to the stress of Alina who was sooo nervous. It was funny. But it went well.
And now for the suspenseful moment...transfer board. Duh du du duhhhhh! I am getting transfered to Sibiu!!! You don't know what that means. Sibiu until now has only ever had 2 elders there, never sisters, and never more than 2 (one companionship) which means that I am opening an area for sisters, and I'm going to be with Sora Staley who is one of my sisters!!! (meaning that we all had the same person who trained us at different times.) I served with Sora Jones last transfer, also one of my sisters (I have 3 sisters in the mission) and so this is going to be crazy and I am so excited. I'm really sad to leave Brasov, but I know that this next transfer is going to be an adventure! Also, for those who might be interested, they closed Timisoara to sisters and are also opening up Deva to sisters, which is in the same position as Sibiu, only ever having one companionship of Elders there. So this is exciting and it will be interesting. I leave and arrive on Wednesday, so next week you'll be hearing from me in a different city! Fun times w00t w00t!

Other than that, this week was great, next week will be great, and I love you all so so so very much! ttyl, Always, --Sora Karina

ps. Sora Thompson! Nu pot sa cred ca o sa merg la Sibiu! wow. Dar oricum, ce faci? Cum merge scoala? Sper ca totul merge bine pentru tine, si tu nu poti sa-mi spui ca crezi ca o sa te casatoresti fara detalii! Vreau sa stiu despre ce ati vorbit! Si, ce s-intemplat cu j.w. Stiu ca stii despre ce vorbesc. Nu o sa vad peste un ani si vreau sa stiu despre ce sa ma rog. Dar, fac bine, si sper ca tu faci bine deasemenea. Te iubesc atat de mult. Succes cu tot, si mai auzim! Te-am pupat! --Sora Karina

difficult, but not hard

2009-09-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

Dear family, friends, and everyone,How are you all doing? I am doing great.

This past week was really good, and I had a bunch of fun with it. WE HAVE A BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!!! I am so excited for her. And Satan is working soooo hard to not let this happen. I know he does that with every single miracle that the Lord performs, but it is so apparent here. Not only are her parents against it and she has decided to do it regardless, on Saturday we were supposed to have a lesson with her, and she called saying that she had just found out that she had to go to Bucuresti right then for an emergency with her sister and wouldn't get back until Thursday and her interview is on Friday...wow. But it's ok because her determination to do what is right for what she believes and our prayers are stronger than Satan's annoying plans to get in the way. All will be well. She went to church on Sunday in Mihai Bravu and we fasted together from Saturday to Sunday.

I know that the Lord will hear and answer our prayers. And in the mean time, we're just planning on teaching her the last couple of things over the phone, which she said is perfectly fine. Phone lessons are so weird sometimes, but they work, and the Spirit can be present anywhere with the prayer of faith.

Our other investigators are doing pretty well, too. Elena and her family are awesome. We have had 3 lessons with Elena, 2 of those lessons with her kids Catalina and Marian, and they love our lessons. They are all involved and love coming to church. At Saturday's lesson we invited them to invite their dad/husband to join in our lessons, and she said that he's not very interested, but she called him on speakerphone to ask him to come to church with them the next day, and he said that he would, and she asked 2 or 3 times to confirm to us and him that he would and he said "Alright! I promise, I'll be there, no need to ask me all night" funny. And he did come! He is a great man, and he really liked church.

Their whole family stayed for all three hours, and he said he doesn't know his schedule, but if he's not working he'll come to our lessons. And I found out after church that Elder Lainhart had talked to him before church started and Gheorghe (the dad) said "I'm here because I promised them I'd come...I just hope they don't ask me to make another promise" so Elder Lainhart said, "Well, I know that you'll like church, I know this is true, so instead of promising them, will you promise me that you'll come next week, too?" He thought for a second then said "all right." It was awesome. I'm so excited for them to continue progressing and becoming a stronger family because of it.

We finally had the talent show from Bucuresti that failed last time and we had to come up with something, and so they rescheduled for Friday and it turned out pretty fun. There is a member who plays the electric violin and his pianist couldn't come, so I found out 20 minutes before the thing was supposed to start that I was now playing with him for the show...and we made something up and it was fun and the people liked it.

We also had Zone Conference this past week and it was so good. I learned so much, and it was super fun seeing more of the missionaries and hearing some of their success stories and good experiences that they are having. Always an amazing thing.

This week the VanNoy's are leaving...they are the senior couple here in Brasov, and they are now finished with their mission so they are leaving to go back to California on Thursday...a lot of things will have to change when they leave, but sometimes change is a good thing.

Oh, and something I thought you would think is fun...in English class the other day, the subject was on sports and exercise, and so we were teaching them about the English vocab for some of the sports, and I decided to teach them some of the cheers that we sing at sporting events. We sang them "Take me out to the ball game" and talked about what cracker-jacks are because they had no clue, and then I taught them the volley ball cheer "bump, set, spike it, that's the way we like it....ACE!" type thing, and they thought it was hillarious (including my companion who had never heard that before) and they asked me to write it up on the board so they could have it. So fun!

Which brings me to a congrats for Jenna! That's awesome that you did a 5k in 28 minutes! That just amazes me...and Shaley, I didn't hear about your game, but I'm sure you did amazing as always. Tamara, good job on riding your bike for 6 miles! I don't know if I could do that. And I loved the pics from Winter park...So much fun! Thanks for sending those to me.

So mom, I wanted to respond some to your question from last week about the relationship between doing hard things and being happy. My thoughts had been on that question this past week, and I studied quite a bit on it. Something really interesting is the difference between the definitions of "hard" and "difficult".

Something hard is "something difficult to do, understand, or deal with" and something difficult is "something hard to do or understand." Things might be difficult, but they are only hard if you can't deal with it, and that is where the Atonement of Jesus Christ comes in. If we rely on Him, and trust in His promise to us that we will receive of His joy, then we will be able to "deal with" anything, and nothing is hard, but just difficult.

And so we will be able to do hard things, because with the Lord, nothing is impossible, for is anything too hard for the Lord? No. But Romans chapter 4 brought a lot of neat insight about how faith helps us get through, and the way that faith is persuasive and how when one is persuaded, action is required. But I really liked those thoughts.

I know that the Lord is with us in this work. I also asked my mission president out of curiosity for what he would say, and this was his response: "As to the question you asked me to ponder, I think there is a link between those two things: doing hard things and happiness. The first thought I have is that doing hard things makes us more humble. Humility inevitably leads us closer to God and getting closer to God will bring happiness into our lives. Several years ago, on a trip home from St. George, Sora Lundberg and I penciled out a list of things that our family does - a sort of mission statement. One of the items on the list was: "Lundbergs do hard things." We are, really, no different than most. However, we do not shrink from doing what is right and that is, on occasion, hard. At the same time, though we are not always in a perfect state of harmony and bliss, we are, by and large, a happy family. I attribute at least part of that to the fact that we do hard things."

His statement about being in harmony and bliss reminded me of something we learned in Zone Conference about how we need to learn all we can, work all we can, and get all the experiences we can with the opportunities God gives us. "ignorance might be bliss, but it's not salvation" and sometimes we just need to remember that God knows us, He knows we can do these things, and He'll be with us through all of it.

Anyways, I got to go now, but I hope that you all are having a great week, I'm looking forward to a great week, and I love you all so so so very much! Always, --Sora Karina

Pe bune (for real!)

2009-09-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!!! How are you? I am doing great. Things are going well here in Brasov Romania, and I hope that they are going well over there wherever you are, too!

This week was a good one. We got 5 new investigators this week which was so fun - 3 of them is a family, a mom and 2 kids and they are such cute kids. Catalina is 14 and Marian is 11. The mom is Elena and she says that she knows the Orthodox church is not true and wants to change her religion. Her husband isn't involved and I don't think he cares too much, but she is still willing to learn and is excited about reading the Book of Mormon.

The other 2 are a mom and a daughter who were former investigators and we called them up and they said that we could teach them again. I have never really taught a former investigator before and it's a little different, but it's still good to have people to teach. I love teaching, it is so fun to see people change their lives. But it's also very enjoyable to go out and find those people who are willing to listen to your message - it is hard work, but it is a good work, and when you have the Spirit of the Lord with you, it is always fruitful even if no one listens to you. I love it!

All of our other investigators are doing well. It is difficult that Cristina still doesn't have a baptismal date, but she's doing good. Her mom doesn't want her to get baptized because she doesn't understand why she needs to get baptized again and can't just go to the church she likes without "joining", and she isn't really willing to listen to the reasons. But we talked to Cristina and she wants to get baptized, has a strong testimony, and in reading the interview questions with her, she is prepared to be baptized and we told her that. So now we are praying for her faith to be strengthened enough for her to take that step and overcome the fear of family problems. She also has her baptismal calendar and we are going to fast with her this next sunday and we told her to fill out the calendar when she's ready in a way she feels comfortable. Anyways, she's doing well enough, and is still progressing. So hopefully we'll get her going sometime soon.

Also, Audi is one of the less actives here and I love her so much. This past Sunday she substituted for the youth sunday school class and she actually brought her own scriptures and taught a decent lesson. It was awesome to see. I also gave a talk and it went pretty well. Audi knows English really well, and so she helps us with our mistakes that we make in Romanian. A week ago, she decided that she was tired of repeating the same mistakes to us and so now if she corrects us on something that we needed correction on before, we owe her a piece of candy. Funny! But she's racking up the goods, I already owe her around 7 or 8 pieces from the past 3 days. But she helps me a lot with the language, and she helped me with my talk. After I translated it she looked over my mistakes and said "Vie, Sora, who ever taught you to speak Romanian like this?" (Vie = Woe) But I really didn't do that bad, she just enjoys making fun of me. It's all right - I get her back all the time.

So for anyone who wants a fun language tip, Romanians love vorbe, or sayings. "Pe bune" is one of them, and it literally means "on goods" because bune is the plural form of good. If you have many questions that are good, you use bune to describe them. But the meaning of pe bune is "for real". I love it. Another one is "Vie de capul meu." which means "woe is my head" or "Oh my goodness" with a slightly negative connotation. There are so many more, but I'll share them another time. Pe bune ;}

Oh! And I got a package from you mom! Not the birthday one yet, but the one with the letters and pics of Cherisse and Alley, and CHERISSE IS SO PRETTY!!! I love those pictures they are awesome. And Tamara, thank you so much for my P-day fun package in the letters, I am excited to do them one of these p-days when it's raining so we can't go out to do stuff. I will have to think hard of another Romanian song that I can send you - But I'll figure it out eventually.

Today for Preparation Day we went to Adventure Park. I went there last transfer too, but I don't remember if I told you about it or not. It is like an adventure course up in the trees that you are connected to safety wires by a harness and there are obstacle courses in the tops of the trees and zip lines and puzzle type things that you need to do to finish a number of courses and it is so fun! (Mom and Dad if you are able to come out here in the end we are going there because I know you'll love it!)

Today was Elder Harvey's 20th birthday so we went there to "celebrate" and he had a blast! Something fun that my companion and I have been doing lately is at the end of the day we name the miracles that we saw in that day. It has really been fun to reflect together the tender mercies of the Lord that we have seen, and to better recognize His hand in our daily lives and in the work where He is ever present.

I really don't know if I have much else to tell you, but I know that this Gospel is true, and I know that God loves each and every one of us. He wants so much for us to return to Him, and the instructions of how to do so are in the scriptures. Our decision is to study them, treasure them, and follow them steadfastly and unflinching so that we can receive His help in all that we do on the path that leads back home to eternal joy.

I love you all so so very much, and I pray for you all always. I have felt your prayers and I am so grateful for them. Hope that you have a great week! Always, --Sora Karina

ps. Debbie ( cred ca timpul este destul ca sa-ti chem Debbie) succes cu scoala!!! Sper ca totul va merge bine cu tot! Si Sora Jones mi-a spus ca ai ceva sa-mi zici? Ceva bun? Vreau sa stiu!! Dar ai o zi buna si mai auzim!ps. Sora Poulsen (timpul nu este distul inca lol!) Ce faci? Hey, Ap's mi-a zis ca daca poti, Sora Oraz vrea sa stie daca pachetul ei a ajuns in siguranta cu tine...nu stiu despre ce vorbesc, dar daca poti sa vorbesti cu ea, sau sa-mi spui si pot sa vorbesc cu Ap's ar fi minunat. Multumesc, si sper ca ai un weekend minunat!!!

Ps. Mom - you had questions for me:Question: Do you get to print out your e-mails and read them at your leisure, or do you have to sit at a computer and read everything at once? I can print them out, but it costs more and it's just easier to read them at the computer, so that's usually what I do. Is your time on the computer limited? My time is limited to whatever schedule we have for the day - I pay by how much time I'm here, so it usually is just 1-1 1/2 hours. What if you get lots of mail, and your companion doesn’t? Is that akward to make her sit and wait for you to read everything? We usually get equal, plus, I read and type faster so it's usually not that much of a difference. Can you print out pictures, or do you just get to look at them that once?Again, I can print out the pictures, but I usually don't and just look at them once, but I love looking at them! And your trip sounded like so much fun! Brought back memories of my Senior year of HS when we went to DC for choir festival and I saw a lot of those things. I didn't go to the spy one which is really the only one that I was sad to not have time for. But it sounded awesome! And that is crazy that Scott Varley and Patrick Laing both got married! Tell them congrats for me. And also, thanks for your thoughts on Stake Conference. I want to study that question a little, and if I have time I will tell you what I come up with ;} That's neat about Cherisse's and Alley's callings - I know that they are the perfect people for that calling. They will do awesome. And if you want to print off my letters for Cherisse, that would be great, although I do want to surprise her with a stamped letter from Romania at her new house when I get the time. Oh, and can you please get a valid address for me of Lindsey Kemp? I sent her a letter and it got sent back to me grrr, so let her know I'm trying and I want to hear from her how things are going. Thanks! And I love you so much mom...have a great day! --Sora Karina

Every step of the way

2009-08-28T06:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! How are you all doing? I'm doing great. This week was a good one with lots of things to do and lots of people to talk to like always.

Our investigators are doing pretty good. Christina is one of our investigators that we want to have a baptismal date for, but Satan keeps getting in the way and we haven't been able to meet with her for 2 weeks! Grrr....but while she was gone and away we talked on the phone a lot and she read the book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon - wow - her favorite part was Abinidi's story and how God protected him until he finished his message. She said "It just shows that God helps us to do what we need to whenever we're doing what's right." Exactly. We finally extended the invitation for her to commit to baptism, and she wants to but needs to talk to her mom first (she's old enough but obviously doesn't want to do it behind her parent's back) so she said that she would pray about the date, ask Heavenly Father for help to talk to her mom, and we are planning on talking to her today or tomorrow depending on her schedule and setting up the baptismal calendar. We are excited.

As for everything else, the work is going well, I am having fun every day, and we are going out and talking to people with the expectation of success. Even though sometimes it is hard to go out every day thinking, "I will succeed," we are working on having that daily attitude and mindset, and we are gradually doing better with that. It's good.

We got a new investigator this week names Viorica. She is 60 and has had a hard life but is so cute. We had a good discussion with her, and her and her son came to church yesterday. :D When we were talking to her she kept talking about how she prays to God, she goes to church, but she just doesn't know if it is enough or not. She wants to know if it is enough and do everything that she needs to, in order to please God. So we told her that our message would help her to see what God requires of us, and that we can help her do "enough" and even more, and that when she does that, she will be truly happy. I know that that is true. When we try our best to do what God has asked us, He will help us along the way and at the end we will find true joy and all will be well. Obviously this is a process, but Christ has promised us happiness in this life and joy in the next as we rely on Him and engage our selves in this work. And He will be with us every step of the way.

I definitely saw this promise come to pass yesterday when after sacrament meeting I was going to the sunday school class with the youth and Sora Van Noy (senior missionary) told me that there wasn't a teacher for the adult sunday school class and that I was now the teacher. It was supposed to be starting right then, and I didn't even know what the lesson was supposed to be on! This year they are learning about the New Testament, but I didn't have a manual nor can I understand the Bible in Romanian because the language is different (it's an older language just like ours in English, but it's very different in Romanian). So I went up to the front of the class and got it started with a prayer. As Brother Manzatanu was coming up to the front to pray I sat next to Audi (a less active member who is now on her way to being very active and one of my good friends here in Brasov) and she said "You're teaching?" And I told her how I had just found out 2 seconds ago and to please pray for me really hard. I know that she did.

Anyways, I got up and looked behind one of the curtains and found a Gospel Principles manual luckily, opened it up and it was talking a little about Christ's life and so I started the lesson "today we are going to be talking about having faith in Christ and why it is so important in our lives to focus our faith in Him." And I went. I know that God was helping sustain me and the Spirit was speaking the words that I didn't know how to say. It was amazing. My language skills are coming along fine, but that's with daily language study and preparation in every personal and companionship study time...I hadn't had time to prepare for this lesson, but the Spirit carried me and I was able to find the words that I wouldn't have known otherwise and it was a great blessing from the Lord.

I don't really remember a whole lot of the lesson, but a lot of people told me they really enjoyed it, and afterwords Audi told me that she was proud of me. I asked her if I even said half of that stuff correctly, and she smiled and said "no, but we understood, and the Spirit was there." What a great tender mercy of the Lord. It was really exhausting, too, and I didn't have as much energy as I would have liked when my companion and I taught the young women about how the value of divine nature helps us to prepare to go to the temple. It was a fun lesson to teach, and I think that they learned a lot, and again, the Spirit helped us and led us to what to say and how to help these young women grow in their testimonies of the gospel.

I can't really think of anything else amazingly interesting to tell you about the work, except that it is progressing. In the month of July our mission had 12 baptisms! And it was awesome. Each month is getting better and better.

So congrats to Shaley for making the varsity team w00t! And Jenna, congrats for trying and making the best out of it by going for something new. w00t w00t! Really though, I'm proud of both of you and I know that you will both have a blast doing it. I'm excited to hear about your cross country adventures Jenna, and I know that you'll do great! Tamara, I'm happy that you are still having fun with Volley ball, and I know that you are probably once again the life of the team! It's just crazy that it's already volley ball season again - time flies way too fast it seems. But it's all right as long as we enjoy the time that we're given. And please tell the Gatrells congrats for me! That's so exciting that Flint is engaged! To Cherisse and Alley - Welcome to your new home! Even though it will take forever for you to get this welcome statement and you will have been there for a month, your house is not yet broken in until I have welcomed you into it. lol. But really, I hope that all is going well, I miss you and I love you!!! I love all of you so so so much, and I hope that all is going well wherever you are. Please give Sister Koster a big hug specially from me when she gets back, and you can give that big hug from me to anyone who would like it - it's available ;} I love you all and I will talk to you more next week!

Always, --Sora Karina

PS pentru Sora Thompson, sau se poate pot sa incep sa zic Debbie, dar mai este ciudat putin. Oricum, ma bucur foarte mult ca te ai distrat cu Eric la Lake Powell...ai naroc pentru ca mi-e dor de acolo. Dar e ok. Ma rog pentru tine si apartamentul tau, si totul va fi bine sa stii, si sper ca primul septaman de scoala va merge bine fara probleme si ca vei fi fericita acolo. Te iubesc mult, si ai o zi buna! Cu drag, Sora Karinaps pentru Sora Poulson, chiar pot sa zic Alison, dar exact cum este cu Sora Thompson, mai este foarte ciudat! Dar ma bucur ca esti bine si faci bine si ca ai avut un timp bun cu Elder Castro - nu stui prenumele lui, dar nu contiaza prea mult. Ma rog, este bine sa te aud, si multumesc pentru sfatul tau...Colega mea nu are prea mult energie, si este greau din cand in cand pentru mine sa nu fac toate - ea nu ii place cand incerc sa fac toate cu energie deci mai incerc sa fiu linistita chiar atunci cand ea este prea linistita. Dar totul este bine si mai imi place aceasta lucrare foarte mult si mai lucrez in continuare. Dar sper ca ai o septamana plecuta, si mai vorbim! Te iubesc mult, cu drag --Sora Karina

Talents galore

2009-08-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

Hello family and everyone! How are you all doing? I am doing pretty good.

I don't really have too much to write about today...we finally finished moving and it was super annoying because the move and all the other necessary things that we had to do for it got in the way of doing productive missionary work, but it's ok I guess. We finished, we are now settled in our new place and it's nice cuz it is super close to the church, some of the members that we work with a lot, and lots of other important places (like a huge piata and centru). So that was good.

Another fun thing was the talent night that we had. About a month or so ago there was a huge talent production that was put on by some members in Bucuresti and it was apparently amazing. Well, they asked if they could come and do it up here in Brasov, so we planned for it to happen on this past Saturday. And Friday night they called and they canceled! Not cool. But we had invited a bunch of people and we didn't know what to do, but we did not want to just cancel and say "sorry, come back another time" so my District Leader Elder Herrick decided that we should still try to have an activity and he put myself and my companion in charge. Thanks...

It was on the day that we had to finish closing our other apartment, and lots of other stuff was going on, too, and it was crazy. So we got to the phones and came up with a talent show ourselves using all the missionaries and some of the branch members. It was hilarious. It actually turned out not too bad though. Not as good as the professional show everyone was expecting, but it was better than nothing, and the Lord definitely helped us out with it not falling through.

It's kinda funny how as missionaries you need to be ready to pick up anything that might fall through. Like Sunday how the teacher for Young Womens decided to not do it anymore and didn't call anyone, and so my companion and I gave an unplanned lesson on divine nature based off the story of Moses and how he saw God who taught him who he was, that he had a work to do, and then after God left, Satan came and said "son of man, worship me" and because Moses knew his divine nature and that he was a son of God in His image, he said "who are you that I should worship you, for I am a son of God." It was a good lesson and the Spirit really helped us a lot, and I think that it was a really good lesson for the girls that were there. Two less-active young women were there, Raluca (15) and Simona (16) so it was really neat.

Other than that, I can't believe that we are already in the middle of August, it is really hot and humid here right now, the leaves are starting to fall (crazy!!!) and the work is going forth. This past week there were 5 baptisms that happened and 2 others planned for Sunday (I haven't heard yet if they went through) throughout the mission. THAT'S SO COOL! I love this gospel so much and I know that it is truly the only way to find happiness that will last us through this life, carry us through any difficulties, and bring everlasting joy in the eternities.

Hey Mom, can you please email me the address for Cherisse and Alley, the Gatrells, and Monty Nuss Photography Studio? Thanks, that would be great. And as for my birthday and things that I need, not really anything. Stuff that I want - american food! stuff like Kool-Aid packets, fruit snacks, marshmallows, gramm crackers, smarties, starbursts, skittles, lemonaid packets, just don't exist here in Romania. You don't need to buy me all of that stuff--I don't know what I would do with ALL of it, but it's just a general idea. As for clothes and supplies, I think I'm still good with all of it. A tape to hear you guys and what life is like would be fun and maybe Tamara playing the violin, ( and just to be thinking ahead, I love my conference tapes, and it would be awesome to have those again!) and Oh, I thought of something. Pens. Romanian pens are awful here, and you know how much I love to write! some more blank cards or sticky notes would be fun too. And of course wedding pictures. (my English class is patiently anticipating all of the pictures too lol). Anyways, I think that's good. Just whatever you want to stuff in a package sounds good to me. Yup.

Oh, and those pictures you sent me are soooo cute! Everyone looked gorgeous at her wedding, and I can not believe how big Tamara is getting!!! Wow. Yup. But I am doing really good, and I love you all so so very much! Talk to you next week!Always, --Sora Karina Ps. Sora

Thompson....LA MULTI ANI! ~in the tune you know so very well~ La multi ani cu sanatate sa iti dea Domnul tot ce doresti; zile senine si fericire la multi an sa traiesti! Multi ani traiasca, multi ani traiasca, La Multi Ani. Cine sa traiasca, cine sa traiasca, La Multi Ani. Jebs sa traiasca, Jebs sa traiasca, LA MULTI ANI!!! He he. Stiu ca este un pic tarziu, dar am crezut ca astazi este mai aproape decat celalta Luni. Dar sper ca a fost o zi minunata si ca ai avut un blast! Felicitar, Dumnezeu sa fie cu tine, si spune-ma toate poveste despre cum a mers si cum merge viata ta acuma. Succes cu tot, mai ales prietenul tau si scoala (cred ca esti aproape la inceputul) si ai o zi frumoasa. Te iubesc ca deobicei. Cu mult drag, Sora Karina

4th transfer period

2009-08-10T07:30:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow I can't believe that I'm already in my 4th transfer! Crazy stuff how time just goes whether you're ready or not. But it's going well.

This week went really well, but Satan has really been working against some of our investigators. They are progressing and we have been wanting to give them a baptismal date for about 1 1/2-2 weeks but it keeps not working out and it's kind of really annoying. But they are still progressing and I have faith that soon our perserverance will be greater than Satan's abilities and it will happen.

Carmen is coming to church and loving it, and is starting to participate and become a part of the branch which is so neat to see. Cristina has been a part of the branch, and now she is starting to realize the answers to her prayers that she is receiving and she's getting excited about that and loves reading and studying the Book of Mormon which is so cool. Alina is truly studying the scriptures and understanding them and getting a lot out of them. She's reading through the Book of Mormon for the 2nd time and is currently in Alma, and it's fun to see how excited about the things that she is learning. She's even color coordinating the things she is learning which is super fun. (I don't know if I ever studied the scriptures like that when I was her age.)

Anyways, we have other investigators that are on their way to becoming progressing, and we pray for them every day. So the work, like always, is still going forward and I love it!

Church was amazing yesterday - we had 45 people there! It was so awesome. Audi, a girl that has been a member for 10 years and mostly inactive for 4 or 5 years, has started coming back to church, and it's great. Adrian, the Nuti (pronounced Nootsey) family came, the Manzatanu family came (pronounced Munzuhtsahnoo), Sora Herghelegiu came, and then we had 3 of our investigators and 2 other investigators that came. It was so exciting, and the spirit was so strong. I loved it.

We taught Relief Society from the conference talk "Sacred homes, Sacred Temples" and how important it is to prepare for the temple, and how one of the best ways we can do that is by preparing our homes to be like the temple so the Spirit can live there with us and our families. It turned out to be a really good lesson. (There were 13 women in Relief society...a new record for our branch!) Yup, exciting things are happening.

So we are moving in to our new appartment on Wednesday which is slightly annoying because it takes us away from the more important work, but such is the situation that it needs to work like that. And I guess it is important for us to have a place to live and such for us to work our best...lol. But it will be over soon and it will be ok.

And I love my new companion. Sora Campbell is awesome and she is from Ohio. She was actually one of my nashers (one of the missionaries that I stayed with on my very first night in the country before I had my companion that kinda showed me around and helped me feel welcome and confident in the country.) So that's cool, and she just finished serving with Sora Larsen, one of my MTC companions and that's kinda fun, too. She and I talk so easily and whenever we're not working, we're just telling stories and laughing and enjoying our time together which time flies by. So it's good, and I'm excited for our goals that we made for this transfer and to continue to see the Lord's hand in all of our efforts. That's always the neatest part is doing all that you can and then seeing how Heavenly Father just takes it and makes it the way He needs for His purposes. And when you don't feel like it's going the way it needs to, or when you're having a hard time getting it there, the Atonement and Jesus Christ are on the other side right next to you waiting to help us overcome those hardships. And always they are both there smiling and rejoicing in our successes together.

I was studying the other day in 2 Nephi 26:30 about charity, and the question I have is who is the laborer in Zion? Mom, maybe you can find a sweet talk about that or something, but I would like to learn more about that if you have time to study it. Thanks!

Also, Mosiah 5:15 says that we are to "stand firm" in the work of the Lord and that as we do that, the Lord will "seal you his." This scripture to me is such a happy scripture. When we have a desire to stand firm for what we believe and when we put all our efforts into it, then we will be with the Lord and He will be with us, and Satan will have no power over us because of the strength of our relationship with the Father and the Son. You can keep going with that thought, but I liked it.

I am so happy to hear that the wedding went well and that all the little miracles fell into place. God is amazing like that. I can't wait to see the pictures!

Oh, and they are guessing that my zone conference will be on Sept. 1, but it might change, but for now that's the plan. I really don't know if I have anything else to say right now...I will probably get pictures of me and Sora Campbell to you soon, we just need to take some together first lol!

But yeah, all is well, I love being here and doing the work of the Lord. Keep searching for opportunities to forward the work wherever you are...the Lord has need of all of us. And continue to reflect on the greatness of His love for you - it is something that brings me joy every day.

I love you all so so very much, and I pray that all will continue to go well. Talk to you more next week! Always, --Sora Karina

WOW

2009-08-03T09:06:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

This week has brought a lot of changes. First of all, MY SISTER, CHERISSE, IS MARRIED!!!!! That is so crazy for me to think about. Not only is she no longer in Colorado or living at home, but her name is even different, and I kind of keep having little "holy cow" moments when I realize the differences that are happening. But I'm so excited for her and Alley--you were wondering if I was sad that I couldn't be there, and kind of yeah. It would have been AMAZING to be there in the temple with her and all of you, but at the same time, if I weren't here then I wouldn't have even been able to be in the temple at all, and instead I had a blast telling EVERYONE about her wedding and how she was getting married in the temple and how that was so important and so on. I was planning on singing "la multi ani" with my English class, but then I forgot and I was SO mad, but it's ok. I've promised to show them the pictures of her wedding when I get them (which I won't know for another 2 weeks when zone conference is, just send it and I'll get it) and they are all pretty excited about that. So conclusion: I had fun celebrating her wedding here in my own way with everyone around me whether they wanted to celebrate it or not ;} But it was fun, and i can't wait to hear all the details, and am so happy that it was all perfect.

Cherisse sent me a mini email telling me that she was at the airport on her way to Mexico and that the whole day was perfect! I am so glad. Ok, but enough of wedding talk, as for the mission we had a few changes here too.

Usually we get transfer calls on Saturday and then go to Bucuresti to find out where we're going but we're not doing that anymore. President Lundberg announced that we are never getting transfer calls ever again. Instead we had to wait til today and receive the transfer board by email. (Yes, Sora Thompson, I know it's crazy!) But that's what is happening now, and so we each have our individual travel arrangements which is really weird and I'm still trying to figure out how it all works, but that's ok...it's all gonna work out somehow. So to keep the suspense, or actually to kill it, I am staying here in Brasov and my companion is leaving to go to Arad! She'll be serving with Sora Slaeman who is one of the girls from my MTC group. I'm really excited. I'm kinda nervous because I still have the hardest time with the bus system here which is the only way to get around, and we'll probably get lost quite a few times in the next week or so, but it's ok. Sora Campbell will be getting here Wednesday morning so you'll hear more about her next week.

As for the work, the work is going. This has been the best week for the work this transfer, and I have had so much fun. But the work is continuing and the gospel is amazing. Families are so important in this gospel, in the whole plan that God has for us. And it is amazing the love that we feel from Heavenly Father in every single day.

But I need to run...we just found out we need to meet a less active with a wheel chair in an hour. But I love you lots and lots and lots, and I can't wait to hear from you next week!

Love always,--Sora Karina

6 month mark

2009-07-27T11:26:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

I had a pretty amazing week...it was really fun. We had Zone Conference which is always a good thing, and I learned a lot about what I can do to do better than I'm doing right now. So Sora Jones and I are trying to learn how to do a few things different and it's been fun.

Some fun experiences from this week - we got 3 new investigators in one lesson, Elizabeta and Stefan and their son Catalin. Catalin has had a baptismal date 2 times, but both times he fell off the map during his school for his Ph.D. And Elizabeta has come to church many many times, so we finally got to talk to her and asked if she wanted to take the lessons again. Before this, her husband was against the church, but this time he sat in our first lesson with us and complimented the church up and down. "You teach out of what you believe in the Book of Mormon. You teach respect, you teach to not smoke or drink, you teach that families are important, and then you live it, too!" He thought that was the coolest thing, and it is (lol). But the funny thing is that he doesn't yet have a desire to come to church. He says he'll listen to us, but "I'll just send my ambassador (aka wife) over to your church, she'll tell me what you said to do there, and I'll do it!" Well, we'll work on that, but let me testify that when you teach someone true principles, if their heart is open, their desire to do the right thing will grow, and they'll start to want to do it. Anyways, that was fun.

Another fun thing was we went to a member's house, Sora Matei. And while we were there she needed help cleaning, and the way they clean here is so weird, but it works for them. And instead of using vacuums, they take their rug outside, hang it over a bar, and beat it. So Sora Jones and I got to take turns beating her rugs, and it was really fun! Oh, and I also got the package you sent - thanks! I love the pictures, and it will add color to our new apartment when we move there.

Oh and another thing...On Saturday we had a baptism! It was Violeta who had been taught by Elder Herrick and Elder Lyon, and it was really good. Her mom is a little crazy and wants to burn our church down because "you took my grandson away from me" who is Violeta's very cute son, but Violeta is 26 so I think it's ok, and we're not too worried about her mom. But the baptism was so good - we had 6 investigators and 5 less active members there, and the Spirit was sooooooo strong. And Violeta couldn't stop smiling, she was just so happy. It was awesome.

Other than that, not too much is going on other than the fact that I'm working, and it's really hot out here right now, and tomorrow is my 6th month mark! Crazy stuff - I can't believe that I've already been a missionary for 6 months!!! But it has been an amazing 6 months. I love it.

This gospel is true, and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else in the world right now...although going to the Temple with Cherisse this week is EXTREMELY tempting, but it will be ok. Her and Alley going to the Temple together is furthering the work of the Lord, and it is an example of what I have been teaching the people here in Romania about the gospel.

My companion and I have been working on getting the Young Women's program more organized here because it was just a social hour, and now it is a temple preparation learning area. We are taking each month and teaching the values of the YW and the last week of each month is us teaching how that value relates to the Temple and how it will help them prepare to go there eventually. It is really neat how everything in the gospel is centered on the Atonement and points to the Temple which is centered on the Atonement, and it truly is amazing. It is true.

I hope that all goes well this week - I am there in Spirit and love, and I am praying for all of you always. I love you so so very much. Good luck, have fun, do good, be happy, and may the blessings of God be upon you!

Love Always, --Sora Karina

ps.Sora Thompson - Ma bucur foarte mult pentru tine! Yay! Acea poza cu tine si Eric a fost foarte draguti si ma bucur ca sfaturile mele a mers pentru voi ;} Dar eu sunt foarte bine aici in Brasov si aceasta lucrare merge mai departe intotdeauna. Sora Jones a zis "buna si te iubesc!" Si zic eu de asemenea ca mie dor de tine, si astept acea zi cand pot sa fac cunostinta cu Eric si o sa fie foarte distractiv. Pana atunci, slujesc cu toata inima mea, si ma rog pentru voi. Sper ca totul mai este foarte bine si ca va distrati impreuna. Ai o zi frumoasa si mai vorbim! Cu drag intotdeauna, Sora Karina

Bloc knocking and other fun stuff

2009-07-13T05:50:00.000-07:00

Hello family!

First I'll tell you about how hard the work is right now, but we've had some neat experiences with it. We went bloc knocking and it was really hard. (Blocs are the apartment buildings people live in.) We got kicked out of one bloc (somewhat nicely) and no one wanted to look at us, let alone give us the 2 seconds needed to start testifying. But the last bloc we went to for the night, I rang into it and I was struggling with the language after the lady who answered started asking me questions like who I was and who I was trying to see. She recognized that I was saying things really wrong (which was giving Sora Jones cause to look at me funny while she tried to figure out what I had just tried to say) and she asked me what language I speak, so I answered in Romanian that I speak English but I'm trying to learn Romanian. She responded in close to perfect English saying, "Ok, I'll let you in, but only because you speak Romanian." And opened the door. Holy Cow.

She wasn't interested in our message, but she took a pliant (pamphlet), was really nice and said maybe she'll come to church to see how it is. I hope that she does some day. But after talking to her we prayed to thank Heavenly Father that we got into that bloc, that someone was nice to us, and to ask for the spirit back because with the past 2 blocs, and the most recent getting kicked out of, the spirit of contention was a lot stronger than the spirit of God. So we prayed for that, and from the top of the bloc to the bottom, still no one wanted to listen to our message, but the Spirit was burning stronger and stronger in our hearts with each door, and I know that the Lord blessed us with that. It's like it says in Alma 31:38 - If we go to work and do everything that we need to do, the Lord will not suffer us to have any afflictions save they be swallowed up in the Atonement of Christ. This doesn't mean that we won't have afflictions, or that it won't be hard, but that His Spirit will be with us and help us to not see the sorrow, but to focus on Christ in all that we do. It was a neat experience.

Another neat experience we had was one night we were bloc knocking again, and were at the last door (most of the people hadn't been home) and a lady came into the bloc and started unlocking her apartment next to us. Sora Jones started talking to her, and she invited us in and we were able to teach her the Restoration. The neat thing was that Sora Jones started the lesson by telling her about the Book of Mormon, that we believe that it's scripture, and that we were there to tell her about that book. So we started our lesson, and all through the lesson, she kept asking us "ok, but what about that book?" "Yes, I understand God works through a Prophet, so how does that relate to that book?" And then we got to the Joseph Smith story, and told her that she could know if it was true by reading the Book of Mormon, where she replied by saying that she didn't have one. We told her the one that was on the table was for her to have, and she lit up so bright. "Really!? Oh, thank you so much! I can't wait to read this!" and then went on talking about how she knew that it was going to bless her life and she was so excited. She was just so hungry for the Book of Mormon, and it was a great lesson. We have found that the most effective contacting we do is when we use the Book of Mormon in our contacting. We read them a verse, or introduce it to them as a part of the message that we want to share with them, and it's been hard, but really neat to see how people's hearts are softened (for the most part) when we open up the Book of Mormon to them. Even if they're not willing to accept our message or learn more, they are always willing to listen when we start talking about the Book of Mormon. It's because it's true, and because we as missionaries love it, and we go out to tell people about something we love. It's amazing.

Also, it's been raining almost non-stop, which makes it really hard to work some days, but it's making everything here so green, and we're having fun. On one particular night we were frustrated and going home after a long day without any success, it was raining really hard, and spontaneously Sora Jones and I both started puddle jumping. We were out waiting for our bus to come at 8:45pm, huddling the 2 of us underneath a small umbrella that was starting to break, while standing in the middle of a big puddle that we had just jumped in (after many other puddles on our way to the bus stop) and the umbrella was kind of keeping all of us dry. But the puddle jumping caused everything from my knees down to be soaked. But it was really fun, and we had a good laugh over how ridiculous we were being. It was fun.

On Sunday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on how the Temple blesses our daily lives. It was fun to prepare, and I think that most of it made sense. I probably made some gramatical faux-pas, but oh well. The branch members understood what I was trying to say. But the 3 points that I gave were that the Temple helps us to focus on the Atonement of Christ, understanding that it is only through Him that we can return to the presence of Heavenly Father (and it's in the Temple that we begin to learn how to understand what it means to be in God's presence), the Temple gives us a pattern to help our homes become a heaven on earth, and when we strive to make the Temple a part of our lives (even if we can't go regularly but we are always worthy and keep it as our goal) we will be endowed with power, knowledge, protection, and love from our Heavenly Father.

It was really fun to study and prepare for that talk - and then translating my notes into Romanian for 4-5 hours was another blast. lol But it was good. Also, a lot of people in Romania don't really know how to be parents, so I love using examples of my mom and dad to help them understand that things always need to be done out of love even when a child does something bad, or even if it means to discipline the child instead of sitting and just telling them that they're not allowed to be doing what you are watching them do. It's interesting.

Sora Jones (who is amazing and I love her) and I taught Relief Society and in it I used an example of something that mom does to help us around the house. One of the members from thenceforth started describing mom as "draguta" (said dragutsah) which means "cute" in our sense. So now because my mom is a good mother, she is known to the women in Brasov as the "mother so cute". It made me smile.

The family reunion that you had sounds like so much fun! I'm glad that Jenna didn't get too lost when you went mountain biking, but got found again, and that everyone had fun.

I hope that everything keeps going amazingly for you all. I am doing great. I am loving the work regardless how hard it is sometimes, and every day I go home knowing that this is the truth, and everyone needs to know it. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have about the truth of the gospel. I am so so so thankful for you all, for my family, and I love you all so very much!

I love you always, and I'll write more next week! Always, --Sora Karina

Ps. Mom, can you please send me an email with the story about how Grandma and Grandpa Curtis met, and how Grandma and Grandpa Coy met and how they got married and such? We were talking about it as missionaries, and I realized I don't know those stories, and they would be fun to know. And I want to see pictures of Maudie's wedding if you can. Thanks! Love you!

psps- Sora Thompson - Ce faci? Fac eu foarte bine exact cum ai citit deja, dar, cred ca esti bine deasemenea. Este foarte distractiv ca Eric vine in curand, si familia ta este frumoasa. Familia mea a avut o petrecere impreuna septamana trecuta, si a fost bine sa ascult cum a mers pentru tine. Felicitari pentru scholarsipul tau (nu stiu ce este cuvantul, dar stii ce incerc sa zic). Va fi foarte bine. Si cand incepi scoala din nou? Stiu ca este prea repede, dar sper ca esti pregatita si entusiasmata. Te iubesc foarte mult, si ai o septamana plecuta. Distractia plecuta intotdeauna! Cu dragi, --Sora Karina

Happy Birthday, America!!

2009-07-06T14:07:00.001-07:00

Me and my companion, Sora Jones

This is our district, two other sets of missionaries.

This is me on one of the seven sets of stairs that we climbed to see the waterfalls.

My dearest family,

First off – HAPPY INDEPENDANCE DAY!

We had a fun time celebrating that here in Romania. We got together and made some good American food – chili cheese hot dogs with a vegetable platter with Ranch dressing and home-made root beer. If you didn't know, Ranch doesn't exist in this country (we made it from Ranch packets that people's moms had sent from home) and neither does root beer (you make it from root beer extract, add it to mineral water and then add sugar and you're good to go) and they definitely don't make hot dogs the same way we do. But we invited the branch to celebrate with us and a bunch of people actually came up and we had 3-legged races, wheelbarrow races, water mellon eating contests and seed spitting contests, duck-duck goose, musical chairs, and twister. So much fun!

Earlier that day we had our English class, and before the spiritual thought that we invite everyone to join each time, this crazy lady that is a beginning student had everyone stand up and sang us “La Multi Ani” or their happy birthday song, to America, and then presented us (the missionaries) with refreshment and wine. Funny! I don't know what happened to the wine because we considered lighting it on fire for our fireworks, but that of course didn't happen, but it was a good laugh!

Second – Happy Wedding Aunt Maudie! I hope that it was beautiful weather and lots of fun and good times, I missed you all and thought of you and I know it was just great.

Third – Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad! I love you both and miss you lots, but hope that you were able to have a fun anniversary together, and that you actually got to do something since the past couple tries haven't really worked out too well lol! But I hope it was a great day.

Ok, now for me. The 7 stairs place that we went last week was really fun – it was quite a hike, and it was gorgeous right in the hearts of the greenest forests I've ever seen. It's so easy to see how the fairy tales were created when you look at these landscapes. But I'll try to send pictures of that if the computer here at internet is cooperative ;}

Today for fun we are going up to the ruins in Rasnov and to the castle in Bran. The castle is only open on Wednesdays so we won't be able to go inside, but this past week we ran into 2 Australian boys who were touring Eastern Europe for “holiday” and went up to Bran Castle (they were lost at the bus stop so we helped them to find their way) and we ran into them again after they came back and in their own words “It was nothing but a bunch of rooms filled with uninspiring wooden furniture” so apparently we're not missing much by just looking at it from the outside, but it will still be fun.

As for the work, it is going slow and steady and hard, but it is going, and I am enjoying so much my time with Sora Jones. We are learning a lot and working hard and I wouldn't have it any other way right now. Even when big things aren't happening, you can still see the hand of the Lord in your life and in this work, and we can know that He loves us so much, and that is what gives us the motivation to keep going: love. Love from God for us, for His children that we're talking to every day, our love for this people, and our love for the Lord. It truly is a blessing to see the relationship that you can have with God when you try to do all that you can in what He has asked of you. It is so wonderful.

But I love you all so so very much! I hope that you're having fun and taking care of yourselves. I pray for all of you always, and I'll talk to you next week! Love you!Always, --Sora Karina

P.S. Don't forget that this Wednesday is Zack's Birthday, and this Sunday is Elder Pardus' Birthday.

Psps – Sora Thompson: Stiu ca nu mai sunt in Arad, dar ma distrez foarte mult cu Sora Jones, si mie dor de tine. Sper ca vara merge foarte bine si ca esti fericita cu tot. Te iubesc! --Sora Karina

Guess where I am

2009-06-29T06:10:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

First of all, thank you for the emails, the recipe, and for forwarding all of those things for me...I really really appreciate it!

So, now I bet you're all wondering where I am at now, so I'll tell you. We had a good time in Bucuresti for transfer meeting, and a lot changed in transfer meeting. And I am now in Brasov with Sora Jones! Brasov (said brashove) is in the middle of the country in the middle of the mountains, and it is so beautiful here.

Sora Jones is actually my sister, meaning that Sora Thompson was also her trainer, and I have two other sisters - Sora Staley and Sora Gibbons and they are serving together in Iasi (said yash) and so our whole family are working together right now, and it's really fun. Sora Jones has been here for 3 transfers, and this will be her 4th, so she'll have served here a total of 6 months by the end of this transfer which is a long long time here. But we're already having fun.

One of our investigators here, Alexandra, is getting baptized on the 18th, so that's exciting, and another investigator, Alina, is like a mini version of Shaley. She is 14 but acts a lot like Shaley except she talks in Romanian, but she is so cute and it's fun to be with her a lot. Her parents currently won't let her get baptized, so we are working with her just to keep her progressing until either her parents soften up and say it's ok, or until she turns 18. But it's hard to help someone progress when they can't take the necessary steps according to the knowledge they've already received.

Anyways, we have a lot of work to do here. President Lundberg has asked that we make a goal of getting 5 new investigators a week. Difficult, but doable, and so we're trying to do that.

It rains pretty much every day here in the mountains, but again, it's beautiful, so we're just trying to learn how to adjust missionary work to rainy weather.

Also, my back is doing pretty ok - it's been starting to hurt about half way through the day until the end, so I'm going to get a different type of bag to hold everything to see if that helps, but it's not too bad, and I'm doing all right.

I'm so excited that the Bunkers are taking the lessons! It's so exciting when people are willing to do the things that will allow God to bless them in their lives. He wants to bless us, but we have to do what we can in order to give Him the opportunity.

And Brittany got sealed! that is also exciting. I'm glad to hear that everything is going well at home. Congrats to Shaley and Jenna on having a successful girl's camp, I'm so glad that you had fun!

Oh, and if you didn't know that Michael Jackson died, I did. All I've heard for the past couple days is about him - people we're contacting on the streets when they find out we're from the USA they say "oh, yeah. Michael died, did you know?" Yes, we know, and we don't care. We have a more important message than that...but it's funny. And pretty much every restaurant and bus has been playing all of his music for the past 2 or 3 days. It's funny.

Anyways, today we are going to sapte scari (the 7 stairs) which is kinda like stairway to heaven except it's 7 sets of ladders on a big mountain with waterfalls the whole way up, so I'll tell you about that next week.

I love you all so so very much, and I hope that all continues to go well with all that you are doing at home. Tell everyone at Maudie's wedding that I love them very much and I think about them often!

Have fun, and I'll write again next week!

Love always, --Sora Karina