What awaits for me in Bucharest.....the world may never know.....
But it's basically for the doctors there. And Bucharest has public transport. Me thinks my knee problem will be a lot better.... hahah!
I also get to be in the same district as Sora Parr and Sora Bastidas! My MTC sisters! I am SO PUMPED!
I am super sad to say goodbye to Sora Bynum, she has been such an incredible companion and she made this transfer amazing.
Deci în această săptămână.....................
So this week..........................
1.) HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY POTTER
As all crazed Harry Potter fans would, we celebrated Harry Potter's Birthday by dressing up in our house colors (I'm a Hufflepuff, hold the laughs) and doing some fun Harry Potter contacting. We contacted people who were wearing our house colors. It was INCREDIBLE. We also made some short "Harry Potter themed" films during our lunch hour.
2.) LATIN NIGHT
We threw a big branch activity this week. The theme was Latin night. We found some tortilla chips and made some Romanian-tasting salsa. The elders whipped up some Horchata. The other sisters made pinatas and we had our zone leader's investigator, Ionuți teach us all how to Latin dance. Since he is a dance instructor he showed us all how to Tango, ChaCha, Samba and Merengue!
Who thought I would be Latin dancing in Romania! Haha!
It was a hit! We had tons of less active members come. The ward members thought it was a blast. Success through chips and salsa. I call that a win.
3.) GIRLS NIGHT
We had "girls night in" with the students from BYU and our less active young women. It was such a great experience. We share a little message in the beginning about being the best you can be, loving yourself and using your talents to make the world a better place. After, it was alla bout nails, hair and eyebrows! The BYU girls told us they would plan all of the activities. I have never seen these ward members look so happy. It was great.
4.) CONTACTING EVERYWHERE
Sora Bynum and I headed to the post office to mail a package for the sisters in Moldova. So we head to the post office and hand the lady the package, which is about 7'10 inches and weighs next to nothing. She looks at it and says, "That'll be 80 lei" (All in Romnanian though). And I'm like, "That is expensive". So we head outside and call a reliable source and ask them if this lady is ripping us off. He tells us no so w head back inside the post office to mail this package.
So we head back in and this lady gives us the dirtiest look and I'm just like "Buna din nou! Suntem gata acuma" "Hi again! We are ready now" And I just smiled and put the package on the counter. The lady just looked at me like, "Okayyyyy" hahaha.
The lady asks me what is in the package and I was like...."uhhhhh candy, a necklace and a letter". The contents inside were actually herbal tea, a necklace and a letter. I had to fib on the tea part because for whatever reason, Romanians have a problem with sending tea to other countries (when I carried this package over from Moldova a security guard questioned me all about the contents of it and gave me a hard time for having herbal tea). So this grumpy lady is like, "I need to open it and pulls out an exacto knife and cuts open this package.
So I start sweating bullets haha.
The first thing the lady pulled out was the box of herbal tea hahaha. And I just start busting up. And she looks at me and says, "This isn't candy". And I just apologized and said it was a gift and all that jazz. The lady was really skeptical. So then, inside the package was this little necklace wrapped up in about a half of roll of toilet paper, to keep it from breaking. It was very delicate and breakable-it was a tiny glass bottle with a note inside.
So the lady holds up this roll of toilet paper and is like, "What is this?" And I'm like, "The necklace is in there". And she gives me this look like, "We will see about that". So she starts unrolling this roll of toilet paper.
This package of ours had attracted the attention of EVERYONE in the mail room. Haha these two dumb American girls trying to send herbal tea to their friend in America. So finally, she gets to the necklace and her eyes get super big and she hold it up for all of the mail room to see.
"Look!" She said, "How cute! It is this tiny glass bottle....oh it is cute! Look! There is also a little letter inside!"
I told her that my friend had made it for her friend and so on...and this lady was just tickled pink by this necklace hahaha
So I'm just smiling and I start busting up because she is so amazed by this little necklace and everyone else in the post office is so amazed by this necklace. Then, this other lady from across the mail room yells out to me, "Why are you so happy?"
And I just bore a mini testimony right then and there. "I have a great family. I'm living in Romania. I can understand what you all are saying. I am happy, I am healthy. Life is beautiful, God loves us-why shouldn't I be happy?" The lady got up and walked closer to me, looked at my name tag and said, "Who are you?". So we told them all about us and how we are missionaries....They just couldn't believe it.
So as this woman is wrapping up the package, she and her coworker continue to talk to us. There attitudes towards us had totally changes. Granted, they probably thought that we were the weirdest, cutest, dumbest American girls on the face of the earth but they also knew that we were dedicated, faithful and happy missionaries, representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We left that post office laughing and joking with these once grumpy Romanian ladies.
It was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life.
5.) YOU WILL IGNITE A FIRE OF GOODNESS
One night, while walking home from the church this man on the street called out to us, in English. Usually, we are encouraged not to talk to men here, because they are very...inappropriate and creepy. However, we thought we would give it a shot.
This guy asks us who we are and we answer him back in Romanian that we are volunteer missionaries here in Romania with our church. He asked us what we do so we told him, "We help people and serve people, in any way we can". We got talking some more and then he said,
"I just can't believe that there are good people in the world. People who just want to help others. Who are just good. The world needs more people like you. You are this small flame but you will ignite a great fire of goodness here in Romania"
Wow.
We couldn't stay and talk with him, it wasn't allowed and plus it was almost 9pm and we needed to be home. We told him we could speak to our colleagues (the elders) who lived at the church next to his house.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
When you are a good person, PEOPLE NOTICE. Everywhere we are, in everything we do and say, we can represent the Savior Jesus Christ. People are drawn to that light.
"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Mathew 5:14-16
"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12
I am SO GLAD that I can be a representative of Jesus Christ and live my life in harmony in the teachings of his gospel. People notice our light, and we stand out from the crowds.
I LOVE this gospel. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. It is the Jesus Christ's church. I know that by living my life in harmony with His gospel, I will be happy.
LOVING the work, LOVING the people and LOVING the Lord,
:) Sora Lee
Photo 1: All of us sisters
Photo 2: Hufflepuffs are good at Herbology. Dirt cups for District Meeting!
Photo 3: Representing our houses.
Photo 4: Horchata!
Photo 5: Pinata!
Photo 6: Bye bye Iasi!
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