Holy Cow!

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

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)!

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

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!

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

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

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!