Hahahaha I just LOVE Romania and all of the craziness that makes up my mission.
I have a crazy story, go to the exclamation marks to read more:
Where do I even start? Today I only have 5 months left here and it smacked me straight in the face. Someone threw some more wood in the fire under my butt and now, it is blazing! I just want to give everything I can to the work! This week was so busy and Sora Wright and I are so united and we are going to give Galați everything we can!
1.) GAS IS ON AGAIN!
No more cold. We get a call on our inter phone one morning and we are like, "Cine?" and then I heard the most glorious word ever "Gaz" I screamed into that inter phone and let that poor man inside haha. We opened the door giggling and just smiling. He's like, "You must be glad the gas in on!" And I was like |Yes but we are happy all the time too!" Hahaha. Yes. So we have heat now...
2.) 3 NEW FRIENDS
We have a new investigator this week named Vasilica and we found her through English. She is about 60 years old and SMILES. We do 30/30s with her and she loves it. She plans on visiting her daughter in Dubai, so we are teaching her useful phrases to use in the airport like, "I am lost", "I want a sandwich" and "Where is my seat" Haha. It is awesome. She loved the gospel lesson and told us she wants to keep meeting with us! She even brought her granddaughter with her to the next lesson!
We also had to take a train into Bucharest for Missionary Leadership Conference (MLC) so it was us and our Zone Leaders in a cabin with 2 extra seats. Well this college girl comes in and sits down next to us and we chatted with her, she new English like a boss. She also was in love with owls- she had an owl phone case, owls on her nails, owl pencil and an owl folder haha. She was cool and we bonded with her. Then this other woman comes in, a bit more boisterous who had her own opinions of us but by the time to get to Bucharest and a couple of questions about the Romanian language later, we had made a connection. I've just learned that it is important to help people see that Mormons aren't weird people....and if I can leave someone with the belief that we are average people with a desire to be close to God, that is the most rewarding thing ever.
If you are their friend first, a gospel desire will come second.
3.) BUDDIES WITH THE TRAIN CONDUCTOR
While getting on the train to head back to Galați the train conductor is like, "You're Mormons" and our tags had been buried under our scarves. How had he known? I asked him. "Is it because of how we are dressed?". "No" he said, "It's because of the smiles on your faces. You glow". Ahhhhhhh. SO awesome. Well, he comes over and sits next to all of us missionaries and just starts asking about the church and what we believe. He sat by us for the whole 5 hours back home. We taught him about the Restoration of the gospel then and there and he loved it. The elders got his number and are trying to set up with him.
4.) SADDEST MOMENT
The saddest moment on my mission happened this week on my mission. While visiting a member one night, we walk into the bloc to hear a child screaming. It was loud. We heard a man and woman yelling and the loud whacks and smacks of child abuse. I burst into tears, I had never heard something so violent in my whole life. I burst into tears and Sora and stood outside of their door and offered a silent prayer for the family. I was so shaken up I said nothing the whole lesson and just cried. The worst part was, the abuse continued and the screams and yells echoed through the pipes in the member's home.
As we left, I felt prompted to leave "A Family: A Proclamation to the World" pliant in their door. We slipped it into their door, and then ding donged ditched them! We plan on going back another day to check on this family.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5.) 25 YEARS IN ROMANIA
This year the church marks it's 25th Anniversary here in Romania. All of us missionaries decided to throw a secret party for the branch after the Sunday devotional. We decorated, baked food and got it all ready. Members. less active members and investigator friends all showed up and we were so happy. While watching the satellite broadcast from Bucharest, I was sitting in the back row, near the door the lets out by the stairs to the first level. I hear the front door fly open, feet scattering and then I hear it slam shut. I look at the elder next to me and he gets up and runs out, to discover two men running away form the church, carrying the portrait of Jesus Christ in their hands. Already too far away to chase them, and with a corrupted police system here, we knew that there was nothing we could do.
When I heard this, I bursted into laughter. Someone just committed the biggest sin: stealing a picture of Jesus, from a church, on the Sabbath!!!!!! Hahaha I just love Romania. We are convinced that this picture will show up in an orthodox church somewhere or that the thieves will feel so guilty that they will return the painting and began taking the lessons with us missionaries.
I had always wondered if people really wanted Jesus in their lives and this heist has proved to me that yes, they sure do.
Haha. My life!
Loving the work, Loving the people, and Loving the Lord.
:) Sora Kendall Lee
Photo 2: Loving Galați
Photo 3: "Hey Sora" My rendition of the "Hey girl" Ryan Gossling meme
Photo 4: Elders and the awesome cake they made all by themselves!
Photo 5: Vasilica, Me, Sora Netti, Maria and Anca!
Photo 6: The whole Galați gang!
Photo 7: I'm a little proud of the decorations.
Photo 8: The stolen Jesus picture
Photo 9: My study mural
Photo 10: The awesome elders: Vârstnicul Soelberg, Vârstnicul McArthur (zone leader), Vârstnicul Lybbert (zone leader) and Vârstnicul Degraw (district leader)
Photo 11: Gettin the balloon arch ready!
Photo 12: Sora Wright and I walking to a lesson in the SNOW that came over night.
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