1st Week in Galati

My last week on the Black Sea...reminiscent of our Coy family reunions



Hello everyone! So to start of, the way you say the city I am now serving in is Gahlots, it is not galatee...although we make fun of it like that. But what we usually say is "it's gahlots of fun!" hahahahaha.

Anyways, I'm doing great, how are all of you? I arrived at my apartment here, and to our amazing joy, we found the cockroaches that we were expecting - yup, we have cockroaches. Not too many, and they're not too big, but they are still present and accounted for. Don't worry, we have a sword that protects us that we use to kill them and keep ourselves safe. I'm not joking. If I can get my camera to work on this computer, I will send you a picture, because it is my new way of life. Or I guess I could use a shoe, but that's just not as exciting, and then our sword would just collect dust, and that probably would make it not as shiny and pretty.

So I am here with Sora Hardy, and we are already having a blast. She is from Utah and reminds me a lot of Cherisse - just some of her mannerisms are so similar, and it makes me smile very often. I haven't yet pointed it out to her, but that's mainly because I know that as soon as I do, I won't stop pointing it out, and I'd rather just have fun without her thinking that she's my sister, even though that wouldn't be a bad thing at all. It just is one of my silent pleasures that I get to serve with her. The funny thing is that she's about as short as Cherisse, too, so the resemblance is enough to laugh at inside.

Church was good, the Elders had one investigator there, we had one potential investigator there (we're meeting with her later this week) and we had 5 members and 6 missionaries. We have a lot of space that can be used to hold people that can come closer to Christ, which is exciting. And it's great –

I don't remember if I told you or not, but we have a mission goal for this year - 200 baptisms. We had 90 something this past year, so we're doubling it. Plus this year it will be in honor of the 20th year anniversary of Romania being dedicated to the work of the Lord (that anniversary is tomorrow) and in honor of our 2 Elders that gave their lives to this work. We are all fasting, working, praying, and loving our goal for bringing 200 children of God to a knowledge of the truth that He has restored to us on this earth. For the past 2 months so far we have 15. It's exciting. The neat thing is that we're not just trying to get 200 people to join the church so that we can have more people and say, "Oh, we had 40 people come to church instead of 5," although that would be a great thing to say - that's not the point. The point is that we know something, and we know that it is true, and our desire is that everyone can come to a knowledge of that so that they can find everlasting, salvation and everlasting happiness. Eternal happiness can not come without knowledge and a life lived in accordance with that knowledge. I know that God lives, that He loves us, and that He has restored His priesthood power to the earth so that each and every person who would believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, to the point of action can get baptized in His name, by His power and authority, so that they can inherit His joy. I know that through that power, families can be eternal, and we can be cleansed from sin and healed from heartache. The plan of God is so perfect and amazing. I love it.

So cool story, last week the ambassador of Romania went to the US last week with his wife, after receiving an invitation from Sister Burrows (the mother of one of the Elders who recently died) I believe, and He went and they had dinner with them, went to BYU, U of U, Temple Square, and other things, and enjoyed his stay so much and felt the Spirit of what we are trying to do, he is now back and wants to work with the leaders of the church to make family history an available resource to the Romanian people. Before hand, it was near impossible to do family history here, because you have to search the primarea (government building) for the records and certificates, and it costs money to search and is near impossible to find anyways, and it is just hard for the people to get involved in that. But now he wants to start working to fixing that and make the records more accessible. It will probably take a little bit, but hey, it's a start, and that's cool.

I wanted to explain the Ziua Femeilor because I learned more about it. The red and white actually is a symbol for the difference between purity and evil - good and bad, and it gives the person more strength to find the beauties and goodness of life. They call the little trinkets "the sign of spring" and it's supposed to be an invitation to the new year of growth and goodness. So last week was just the beginning of the signs of spring, and the "celebration" that has been all this past week of gift-giving and well-wishing- for the "new year" ends with today as a celebration for women. Fun times.

Oh, and my old email will be done in its use the end of this month. My new email, to repeat it, is karina.coy@myldsmail.net so that should work.

And the vorba (saying) for today cracked me up when I heard it: the meaning is "well, that's pointless" and it's said "frectie la un picior de lemn" and the literal translation is "massage a wooden leg". HAHAHA! I laughed so hard I could hardly write it down when I heard them say that. So instead of massaging a wooden leg, go and make yourself useful. haha.

Well, I love you so much, I hope that you are all safe, healthy and well, and I will talk to you more next week.

Always, --Sora Karina

This is me stabbing a cockroach with our sword. Fun times!

ch ch ch changes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

counting our blessings

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Valentines Day!

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

In the first place, Fericit sa fie ziua indragostitilor! Or happy Valentine’s Day! Or if I translate it literally, happy to be the day of those in love! Ha, I love Romanian. And although it is an American holiday, they still use this day as a good pull for getting more business; "find the perfect gift" and whatever. But it's not nearly as big a deal here as it is at home. I had 2 lovely valentines - they're called my companions. lol.

Anyways, this week was super busy. We found out on Monday that we were going to Bucuresti again on Wednesday for our Zone Conference which was super exciting that we were going, but we had just gotten back, it seemed like, so it was kinda exhausting to travel some more. Especially since it snowed - again - and the busses weren't running, so we had to take a train (which is probably safer anyways, but it adds 2 hours on the travel time). Needless to say, we were all really tired for zone conference, but it was a really good one, and I learned a lot. It was fun.

We came back to a city partially flooded from the snow and ice beginning to melt and not really having any place to go. Now it is raining quite steadily and walking is more like jumping from dry patch to the part of the ground that doesn't have a lake on it. It’s fun. I would go puddle jumping, but walking outside gets you wet enough.

We also had English sign-ups, cuz we're starting our program again this week, which should be fun; the "new and improved" program that our assistants have been preparing for the past 2 transfers. It should be good.

And we had a branch activity where they all came and got dirty cleaning out the back courtyard of the church so that we can eventually have a lovely garden back there with fruits, veggies, and flowers. The idea is to eventually have a source of food owned by the church for the families that don't have the means to purchase their own food. Neat stuff. We had all types of junk back there that I didn't even realize - poles and wooden beams and broken windows and old doors, complete with an old toilet and a dead rat. It was fun.

We are also trying really hard to institute visiting teaching and home teaching more in this branch, because it hadn't really been done at all before, and the members really don't know what they're doing. But some of them are at least very willing to try and do what they've been asked to do, which is good. Like Aurora Boboc. She has been inactive for the past while; I hadn't seen her come to church since I've been in Constanta for the past 5 months until she came 2 weeks ago. As sister missionaries we have some companions for visiting teaching and Sora Boboc is one of them. She was sooooo nervous to teach Sora Nitica who is the relief society president (who knows the scriptures so well, and Sora Boboc said that she doesn't know the scriptures like that, and what could Sora Nitica possibly learn from her? ) and so on, but she was excited to try, and she did so good. It was so neat to see her sitting there saying "I don't really know you, but I was called to come and be your friend, and I don't know what I can teach you, but I hope that I can be here for you when you don't have anyone else here...and I tried to prepare a short message that the first Presidency put out for the sisters of the church to hear, and I want to tell you that I know what they tell us to do will bless our lives...." and she just kept going. It was amazing the love that she put into her studies in order to prepare for that lesson.

She also teaches with us Sora Beere who is from England and is currently trying to learn Romanian, so really the lesson is me translating for the two of them instead of teaching. And Sora Boboc just taught simply the principles and the blessings and then testified how she had seen it in her life, and it was really neat.

This church is not filled with any perfect people, but it certainly helps us learn how to perfect ourselves so that we can become greater tools in the Lord's hand to the blessing of His children and all those around us. That is the main principle between home and visiting teaching, and it is something exciting to see how the members here are starting to learn about that.

This week Ion had a slight break-through. He finally said that he would pray to know what he wants! Yes! He doesn't know if he wants eternal life because he doesn't really know what it will be like, especially since his earthly family is broken, so why would he want them for eternity? and so on and so forth, but now he is trying to figure out what the celestial kingdom would hold for him, and he's praying to know if he wants it, so we are excited for that. And Vatuta talked to her husband again, but he still doesn't like the idea of her getting baptized, so now we are in an effort to strengthen her faith that God can change his heart. She believes it's possible, and is now going to be praying that he will receive that change and allow her to get baptized. The wait will be hard, but it will also be worth it.

Well, I don't have much time to write anything else, but I love you all so so very much, and I want you to know that God loves you, too. He is our Father and everything He does is for our benefit. I know that He sent His son to be the Way that we can return to Him. Through the suffering of Jesus Christ, He knows us perfectly, so He can help us perfectly, and through our imperfections He loves us perfectly. I know that through this love can we find the strength to get through any challenge that comes our way, and we can trust that God will not give us anything above our capacity - as long as we rely on Him and His strength we can do anything. He did not send us here on earth to fail, but to succeed and win. He awaits each of us in every moment with open arms, and I know that as we turn to Him, He will be our strength and support.

I love you all so much, and I hope that you have an amazing week!

Love always, --
Sora Karina

memorial

Hello dear family and friends,

How are you? Suffering from snow as well? Apparently with us being in the middle of another blizzard, this is the most snow Romania has gotten (country wide) since 1938. Lucky us. It is making some of the work a bit more difficult, but no worries, it will continue on.

There really isn't much to report on with Vatuta or Ion yet, they are both still sitting where we've been at for the past little while, and we are praying for a break through where some progression can occur. They are both progressing individually in their own ways through studying the words of God and praying and growing in their desire to act, but there are obstacles that we are still beating our heads against - soon they will hopefully be overcome with much prayer, fasting, and diligence.

Our week was focused mainly on the memorial that we had for Elder Davis and Elder Burrows on Thursday. It was a beautiful service. Elder Lyon called me - he's an Elder who served with Elder Davis in the MTC and he and I have performed many musical numbers together, including the one you have the tape of from the MTC, and we've performed since then in the field - and he asked me if I would accompany him on a song for the memorial. It was beautiful. Well, that could be a bit biased.

He told me that he wanted to sing an arrangement of "Be Still My Soul" that was done by the BYU Men's Chorus who changed the text and is called "I Love the Lord" and it is a beautiful text. But he didn't have the sheet music for it and asked if I could just play it by ear. Ummm....not really my forte, but ok. That ended up not working anyways. He told me the keys that it was in (for those of you who care and understand what I'm saying, the first vs. was one step below the original music in the hymnal, the second vs was a step below that, and then the third vs was in the regular key, so it went from E flat to D flat to F - yeah, none of those keys are related) So then he asked "could you just transpose the music like that and then make it pretty?"

I don't think he realized that what he was asking me was to write a completely new piece. So that's what I did. I had less than 24 hours before we left to go to Bucuresti, and I somehow needed to write this song. I tell you that I did it and it was only possible with the help of all the angels in the heavenly chorus. And they were present. They helped us in the writing, practicing, and performance of it, and it turned out really well. I was so blessed to be able to witness that miracle.

At the memorial we started with the hymn "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go" and wow, I have never thought of that song in such an eternal perspective before. President Lundberg spoke to us about the plan of salvation and the blessing we have as missionaries and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to share this great message with the world, and how we will do that mainly by living it. He also spoke about how the windows of heaven will be opened to us in this mission as never before. In the dedicatory prayer, Romania was blessed to be a beacon to all the nations, and how this event - however tragic - did that like nothing else could. People who didn't know where Romania was now know and those who before would never have listened or opened their doors are now opening them and eager to listen to our message.

Sora Lundberg talked about how the year 1989 would hold great things for Romania, for that is when the communist regime would fall and the revolution would open the doors to the restored gospel to this land. In January 1989 and in December of 1989, Elder Davis and Elder Burrows were born into families where they would be raised with the knowledge of that gospel so that they would one day play a major role in that knowledge being shared with the children of God in Romania.

Elder Kopieshka, our area president of the 70 over Europe came and talked about the love and plan of God, how everything is done for the benefit of His children, including the life, ministry and mission of His firstborn son who came to the world only to die so that we could all live again.

The closing song was a musical number "Consider the Lilies" with Sora Kimball on the piano and Sora Jones on the flute. It was also very beautiful.



Oh, and I forgot to tell you, that in the morning we all got together and for 3 hours before the memorial we went out as an entire mission and flooded the streets of Bucuresti to talk to people about the gospel. It was cool. They organized us into groups and had us go to different areas of the city to proselyte and to work in remembrance and honor of our friends.

Elder Barclay and Elder Worthlin were soap boxing and they were stopped by the police because apparently you need permission from a local priest to be able to proselyte like that - yeah, like we're ever going to get that permission haha. But after it was settled that they wouldn't do that anymore, Elder Worthlin wouldn't let the police officers leave until he testified to them about the plan of salvation and invited them to learn more. Neither of them were interested, but they sure left a lot faster after they got out of Elder Worthlin's grip. It was a great morning.

So now we are back in Constanta, enduring the snow and ridiculous winds.

This is a picture of me and my "mission sisters". We were all trained by the same wonderful trainer

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This is our MTC group, reunited at the memorial service.

Funny story, on our way out this morning to come to internet in order to write to you, we made it nicely out our apartment door, down to the main level entrance, we unlocked that and locked it up nicely, only to find that we were locked inside our courtyard because the gate wouldn't unlock.....so we called our landlord to see what he could do about it, he came, couldn't figure it out, left, and came back with a big hammer to break off the bolt lock that was on the gate a little down the way. It was pretty funny. But he also said that he'll fix the lock when it gets warmer. For one of many reasons, pray that it will get warmer and soon!

Well, I will leave you with a Romanian tongue twister: stii ca stiu si stiu ca stii si mai stiu ca stiuca-i peste. (prounounced: shtee cuh shteew she shteew cuh shtee she maee shteew cuh shteewcuhee peshtay) which means: you know that I know and I know that you know and I still know that pike is fish. Say that 5 times fast in Romanian - I can! haha.

Here I am standing in the middle of a frozen lake!

Well, I love you all so very much, I hope that you are safe and warm, and I am trying to do the same - don't worry, I am succeeding. Keep going forward in the love of the Lord, in the confidence that He is aware of us each individually and He truly is doing all that He can to ensure our joy and well being. May we each work side by side with Him in that same work - for the salvation of all His children- and have joy in the glory of our God. I love you again, and I'll talk to you next week!

Always --Sora Karina

The greatest cause

Dear family, friends, and all of you whom I love,

Hey! How are you? I'm doing pretty great. I'll start the email off with the sad stuff so that I can end on the better end, but for those of you who haven't heard, two of the greatest missionaries that ever lived or that were a part of this great work passed away this past weekend. Elder Davis and Elder Burrows were serving in Timisoara and had a gas leak in their apartment when they were away for Zone Conference. When they came back they didn't notice the difference because the apartment was already filled with the CO2, and you can read the rest of the report from the news. You can find it on the internet in Deseret News if you're looking, along with Sora Lundberg's blog if you want to read that.

But we are all really feeling the loss of those two amazing Elders. They were good friends to all they served with, and always had their shoulder to the wheel with their whole heart into the work of the Lord. I will miss them both. We don't always understand, but we have faith that this truly is the Lord's work, and somehow all of this works together for our good and the good of the Kingdom of God. I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ is a tangible thing, and that it is personal - He reaches out to each and every one of our hearts when we suffer, and He will not hesitate to succor us now.

The families, from what I hear, are doing well and are living in the faith that they will once again be reunited with their sons at the day of joy. I know that their faith will be rewarded. I want to tell you that the Lord never asks more of us than we are capable of doing, and He never asks us expecting us to do it alone. He is always there eager to help us, push us, comfort us, encourage us, guide us, and rejoice with us when we succeed. He also sorrows with us when we sorrow.

This is the essence of the Atonement of Jesus Christ - that God sent His only Begotten Son to suffer and die in His work knowing that it would be hard, but that it would be worth it for all of us to be able to return to Him in joy and safety. But not only that, also the worth is found in the availability of the love and understanding that readily comes from the One who suffered exactly what we suffer, and He did this so that he could know how to comfort us and heal us in our afflictions. I have felt this cleansing and healing love engulf me many times, and especially in these past few days. Nothing will ever be able to describe the feelings, or the hurt, but neither will words ever be able to describe the hope and joy and relief that comes, and will always come, from the Spirit that conveys to us the ever-presence of our Savior and Redeemer, our Lord and our God.

On their own time-table and according to our individual faith, two things will always come: comfort and compensation. I know that God lives and that through Christ all men who will believe will be made alive, never again to die. How grateful I am for the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us the ability to understand more fully the perfect plan of our loving Heavenly Father. We will continue to go on in so great a cause. It is the only cause that is worth the suffering, hardships, and work/effort. And I wouldn't want to be doing anything different.

But now I will tell you a little about how the work is going. Ion is doing better - willing to believe, just scared to do so, and we are SO close to getting a date with Vatuta. At church, President Alin (the branch president) came up to her and said "so, I hear that you're getting baptized?" and she said "Yes, but I don't know when yet, because my husband just won't listen." But she's trying really hard, and I know that the Lord will bless her and help her husband understand. Hopefully this next week that news will be available to give.

Lately it's been extremely cold; cold enough that the lake froze over. Yes, the lake, not the Black Sea, although I have seen pictures of that happening about 4 years ago. But now there are ice chunks in the sea. The lake is frozen over, so we went and stood on it, and Sora Owen made a snow angel on it - it was fun.

It is starting to warm up today though - it rained all day yesterday which means the snow is melting and becoming huge ice patches. This is slightly annoying. My back has been bugging me a little because of it, but it is fine.

Funny story time: we were at Ion's house, and he was showing us something on the computer, and after he needed to close out of the screen and went to hit the "escape button" but instead of saying "escape" he said "esc" which made me and my companions laugh. He said "what, what's so funny" and we said "Oh, nothing, you just said esc. We usually say escape, but from now on, I think I will say esc when I need to hit that button." we had a good chuckle over that one.

The other one was that we were block knocking and I went to knock on the door cuz the door bell didn't work, and I tapped on it once and the door started opening cuz it wasn't latched shut very well. So I grabbed the door handle to pull it shut, but it didn't and started opening again, so I pulled it shut again, harder that time, but it still didn't work. By the time I went to pull it shut the third time, there was resistance because the owner of the door was behind it pulling it open to see what was going on. I apologized, saying "sorry, I tried to knock on the door and it opened, but anyways we're here because we know that we have a living prophet on the earth," and he just looked at me funny and slowly closed the door and locked it so it wouldn't open again. My companions gave me a hard time for "breaking in" and said I should have just finished it by entering. Ha! I laughed.

Oh, and one story that I forgot to tell you about transfers. We were on our way back from Bucuresti to Constanta on the bus, and we were just talking and talking like we do for 3 hours until we had the pit stop that they take about 45km. outside of the town. So we got off and relaxed, breathed the freezing air and got back on the bus. The driver came back to count everyone, and then just to check asked, "are we missing anyone? cuz we wouldn't want to leave anyone" and someone responded "meh, it doesn't matter, there should be another bus coming this way in a few hours" and we all laughed (remember this is all in Romanian) and so someone else added "yes, and if you're going to leave anyone, leave the English people" and I laughed and responded to him in Romanian "sure, you can leave us if you want to" Which made him get way taken aback because we understood and spoke Romanian - guess he wasn't counting on that one, and the whole back of the bus just started roaring with laughter as he tried to save himself by saying "oh, well you understand Romanian, so that's ok, most don't. But you're just sitting there going 'takakakakakakakakakakakakak' " and I said "well, we like to talk what can we say" and the man sitting next to the one who wanted to leave us said "ai voie" which means "yes, you're allowed to talk" and we were just cracking up. Good times.

As for everything else, how are you? I hope that all is well back home and that you are having fun in all of your endeavors. Don't worry about me - we are safe and working hard.

Mom, we have a CO2 detector in our apartment and though we'll probably be checking it more frequently, all is well and safe. The Lord has called us to this work, and He will help us accomplish it, regardless the challenges that we face. I love you all so so very much. Have a great week! And please keep the families of Davis, Burrows, and Lundberg in your prayers. Thanks! Always, --Sora Karina

Blizzards, floods and dogs with pretzels

This is a sunset over the Black Sea.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love always, --Sora karina