Wonderful Journey

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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