Welcoming President Ivory

TUESDAY:

      We went to Piatra Neamt, this cute little village up in the mountains.  It is super scenic and beautiful and we even got to take a gondola up the side of the mountain!  

WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY: 

       So we got to spend 3 days in Bucharest this past week for Missionary Leadership Conference.  

                                        PRESIDENT IVORY HAS LANDED.  

    He definitely has a new vision for this mission and he left us all inspired!  He wants us top be more "balanced" as missionaries: placing more emphasis on working with ward members, less active members and investigators.  I totally agree with this new program!  Our three mission "power words" are "Energy, Balance and Integrity".  As long as we have those three things, we will be great missionaries.  

    The Ivories also threw a great 4th of July party for all of the leaders at the conference.  

                                                    It. Was. Amazing.  

     We got in some amazing contacting in Bucharest.  I actually love contacting.  As STL we don't really have tons of time to contact but I am really learning what it means to "teach as you go".  

SUNDAY:

        I got to translate in church!  It only took 6 months but I can now totally understand what is going on in church!  Haha!  In Iași, we have 12 BYU students who are volunteering in the children's hospitals and orphanages here.  They don't speak a lick of Romanian so it was very flattering when they asked me to translate for them!

                                                         So funny story. 

        In Romania, there are tons of gypsy children who will come up to you and beg for money, candy, food... just about everything.  While coming home from church we ended up right in the middle of a huge swarm of gypsy children.  They kept begging for gum (that was a new one).  They followed us for about 5 minutes and I just got tired of saying, "Îmî pare rău, nu am voie, nu pot" (I'm sorry, I don't have permission, I can't).  So I turned to the little boy and smiled and said, "Cum a fost ziua ta?" (How was your day?) an the little boy looks right up at me and smiles and says "Bine!" (Good!).  Hahaha it was super funny and cute.  Haha after that they left us alone.  

SPIRITUAL NUGGET FOR THOUGHT:  

        Sora Bynum said something really cool to me and I thought I would share it with all of you.  One morning, during our companionship study, we had decided to study prayer.  While we were discussing prayer, she said: "Every week, we only have an hour to communicate with our families back home, but we can communicate with our Heavenly Father as much as we want".  

Prayer is how we communicate with God, our loving father in Heaven.  He is ALWAYS there for us and he WANTS to here from us.  I am so grateful for prayers and I know that honest, sincere prayer can change your life. 

LOVING MY MISSION

LOVING THE PEOPLE

LOVING THE LORD!

:) Sora Lee

 AVOCADO BURGERS

We bought a fan.  Dying of sweat.  No AC in our apartment.  My arms are also being eaten by bugs...and my legs...and everything else covered in skin....So they bandages help me not scratch them......

Sora Bynum, Eu and Sora Ivory!

Sora Sayre and our baba scarfs!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SORA!  (She is from my MTC district!)

Inspirational quote on top of the mountain at Piatra Neamt!

4th of July Party!  Thank you Ivory Family!

AMERICAN WEEK AT LIDL. Every week they have a different "country" that is highlighted and they sell food that corresponds to that country.  The marketing for it is hilarious...

View from the gondola in Piatra Neamt!

This Is Gonna Be A Good One...

So this transfer is going to be amazing.  I am loving the city I am serving in Iași (that's a capitol "i").   Iași is pronounced "ya-shhh" so all of you can say it correctly!  

My companion is amazing and super hilarious, we get along so well!  Her name is Sora Bynum and she is 20 years old, from Georgia, is crazy good at accents and 2 transfers ahead of me.  We served in the same zone while I was in Timi.  We get along so well, it'll be a great transfer serving as STL with her!

Currently, we have 2 other sisters living with us because they have not found an apartment for them yet.  They are sleeping in our living room, which is also our study room/kitchen.  It's pretty cramped.  I'll send photos once our apartment doesn't look like a tornado just swept through it.  It's very small compared to Timi (just about the size of my downstairs in Timi) so it's different haha but I LOVE IT!  

Sora Bynum and I planned out our whole transfer.  We will be home on Sundays and about half of the Saturdays...and that's about it.  Our whole transfer is travel and exchanges!  Pretty exciting!  We are working with an investigator who is preparing to be baptized in a month!  We have to give her to the other sisters because we just won't be home.  

We have a great district, there are 4 elders and 4 sisters so they call it a "dating district".  Ha. Far from it!  We all get along super well!  We had a birthday party for one of our elders and then hit the streets for some group contacting!  We did English chalk contacting and we wrote a bunch of fun phrases in English all over the ground!  I love talking to Romanians and we got to meet some really cool people!  

This week I will be in Bucharest for 4 days for training for STL.  It will be a great experience being at the leadership meeting with the other Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders and District Leaders!  Tomorrow we get to go on a "traveling Pday" and we get to go see Piața Neamț- a beautiful city up in the mountains.  We have permission to email today because we won't have time tomorrow.  

PRESIDENT IVORY HAS LANDED.  I am excited to meet him this week in Bucharest!

SHOUT OUT TO MY BRO CONNOR FOR GRADUATING!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM I LOVE YOU!

Loving the work. loving the people and loving the Lord,

:) Sora Lee

The Palace (ugly side)

Funny Face cookies with my silly companion Sora Bynum!  (These cookies look creepy...)

Baking a cake for one of our elder's birthday!  We did our comp study bu the stove because we didn't want to burn the cake (it was from an American cake mix).  The cake baked completely in 6 minutes.  Romanian ovens be crazy.  

Love her!

Chalk contacting and this crazy guy was a hit!

Our district!  And yup, it's a Russian book of Mormon! #learningsomerussian Книга Мормона.