Brown Eyed Girl Takes on the World: Spoilled Smâtână Sandwiches and Crazy Communist Towers

Ah this week was just so great! My keyboard is in Romanian and there is no way to change it so just get ready for a lot of typos!!!!!

Well I just love it here in Chișinău, it is really weird thinking that my mission is winding down for good but I hope I will get to spend my last few months here in Chișinău and send Sora Barrera home next transfer! Transfer boards come out on Saturday and we are really hoping we will stay together! We shall see!

Confession- Even in my 11th transfer I still make language mistakes haha. And this week during English I made a big one! During our spiritual thought after class, one of our elders was reading a scripture that was filled with tough words. He struggled past his limit and handed it over to me, and I finished the scripture boldly (and with too much self pride). Now it is my turn to extend a challenge to our students, to put into practice the message we had just shared with them. I wanted to say a simple statement- what can you do to strengthen your foundation? Seriously so simple but I butchered it, so so hard. I couldn't even think in Romanian for about 10 seconds and it was like my brain and mouth weren't connected. I finally got the words out, after much struggle, and the class clapped for me at the end. Wow, it was such a struggle. I need to be super humbled in that moment I guess.

I also ate the most nasty thing in my whole mission....it was a sandwich which had smâtână on it, covered in different types of cheeses. It tasted like it had gone bad or was not pasteurized...I cannot describe it but I just could not get myself to finish it. I wrapped it in a napkin and shoved it in my purse as soon as he host left the room. I felt soooo sneaky.

I also cliimbed up an old communist ski lift tower today....I have never been more scared in my whole life. It is a series of 3 rusty set of stairs which are positioned a couple hundred feet in the air, followed by one vertical ladder, complete with the safety bars that wrap all the way around. The final ladder was about 100 feet long says the expert climber Sora Koth and man was I was gripping to that ladder as hard as I could. I had completely worm out my muscles by the time I reached the top. The view was incredible and I had Sora Elliot and Sora Koth rooting me on as I climbed down. It was scary but worth it! Probably the wildest thing I have done in my life.

We also discovered that there is a flower here named Elder so Sora Barrera and I had a fun time doing things with the quote on quote elders hahah! Pictures attached!

We have been so busy preparing Zina and her daughter Rafaela to be baptized this week. We are so happy to be teaching them and they truly have been prepared for this message. I know that SoraBarrera and I are just the lucky ones who get to help her to this next chapter of her life. She already understands everything, our lessons are more of conversations and she already has a testimony of all of the gospel principles. It is incredible, Sora Barrera and I are so amazed by her and her daughters. I love them so much and this little family is changing my life.

I am just so happy and looking to Heavenly Father to bless me and help me be my best every day. I just want him to mold me into my best self. So I am allowing him to make all the changes he sees fit! I LOVE MY MISSION!

Loving the work, Loving the people and Loving the Lord,

-Sora Lee

Me and Sora Barrera after a park contacting session- it is hard to see how my hundreds of stairs are behind us. We had just done a crazy cardio workout the day before and were struggling very hard as we walked up all these stairs!