Brown Eyed Girl Takes on the World

Saturday, October 25, 2014

Being BOLD

BUSY WEEK!

WEDNESDAY: We got invited to a girls' luncheon with Sora Ivory and the sisters from Ploiesti sisters. It was really a fun opportunity to discuss some new changes that will be implemented into this mission.

We also met with the Verdeata family from the branch. They have the 2 cutest granddaughters ever (the ones that think I am a Disney Channel star) and we went over to get to know them and share a lesson with them. So we beep into the block and we hear this little "Flip, flap, flop" sound coming down the hall. As we turn down the hallway we see little six year old Bianca running towards us. She looks up and smiles and starts laughing and says, "Uite! Am piciorele guale!" (Look! I have bare feet!) And then her grandma, Sora Verdeta, comes around the corner and yells at her so she kisses us and then runs back inside. Hahahaha. In Romania, if you go around without shoes on you'll go sterile and not be able to have kids. #nono

Haha so we go inside and Bianca is tackling me from the side and I'm busting up because she is adorable. And Andreea, who is nine is just talking to us and participating in our lesson. Eventually, Fratele Verdeata gets annoyed at Bianca and sends her out on the patio because she was being too disruptive haha.

When we get ready to go I tell Bianca to come in and hug me and she makes a frowny face and says she cant, that she has to stay outside. So I walk up to the window, open it up and bend over and kiss her goodbye! She started cracking up and the Verdeatas thought that was the funniest thing they had ever seen!

THURSDAY: We met with Luana again and we have been working with her. It is hard to work with someone who has no self confidence in herself. She has faith in God but none in herself. We have been fasting and praying for her constantly to know how to help her. She is unsure about baptism because she says she hasn't gotten a clear answer from God- no "yes", no "no".

President has encouraged us to be more bold in our missionary work so while I sat in that lesson, I was asking and praying that I could know how to help her, what I could say. And asking, "Help me know how to say what I want, in Romanian, so that she will understand me".

So then comes this pause in the discussion. Merkley looks at me and words just start pouring out.

"Luana, we have all been given our agency. God gave us that gift so that we can make our own decisions. Imagine you are in the middle of a road. Then, it separates into two roads. One on the right, and one on the left. We have to make a decision. Which road to take. We cannot just sit in the middle and think about what to do. You need to pick one and go with it. If you pick one road and it stops, walk back to the middle and choose the other one. You won't know which road to take if you don't take one. Luana you need to make this choice, the choice to be baptized for yourself. No one can make this choice for you".

Then, Sora Merkely said, "Next time we meet with you, we will ask what your decision is".

#GOBOLDORGOHOME

FRIDAY: BACKSTORY. The apartment next to us is getting completely remodeled so constructions works are out and in out day long.

During our weekly planning session we heard the construction workers on the balcony next to us make goat sounds. For those of you who know me well know that I can make a REALLY good goat sound. Merkley was begging me to do it. So I walked up to the balcony, threw my head back and made the loudest goat call. The construction workers started busting up.

We made goat calls back and forth to each other for a few minutes. It was rad.

We also received a prompting that we needed to change our water filter early. Weird we thought, but we went with it. When we opened up our filter we saw that our filter was a deep dark brown color (normal) but that we had 2 INTESTINAL WORMS living on it! EWWW! At least they never made it INTO our water. We also had to take a mini photo shoot with the worms. Normal.

My name is Sora Lee and I am thankful for water filters.

SATURDAY: We cleaned the church and went over to do some cleaning for Sora Gorzo, the absolutely CUTEST Romanian woman in the world. I love her and she loves me. :)

I LOVE ROMANIA!

Loving the work, Loving the People and Loving the Lord,

:) Sora Lee

Photo 1: Sora Gorzo and I! I am obsessed with this woman!

Photo 2: Merkley and I!

Photo 3: My Capella! (Chapel!) It's the first chapel I have served in!

"Just Get A Cute Guy And Go To The Club"

This week we had some very interesting conversations while contacting people haha.

I also don't have a lot of time so I can't go into depth about all we did this week but I did want to share a little thought with you all.

Firstly: Romanians, and probably everyone else in the world, have a very hard time understanding WHY I would willingly give up 18 months of my "young, beautiful life" to go to a foreign country, have to struggle with a foreign language and talk to people about Jesus. They just don't get it. Why I would leave behind my family and friends and have to live a life with so many "restrictions".

People tell us to just go home, or to just stay here and go to the clubs and party with boys haha. It always makes me laugh. Some people think that we are dedicated but others just think that we are idiots and that we are wasting our time. It's always a toss up what people will say to us so we always look forward to our interesting conversations with people here.

Every opportunity I have to tell someone about the gospel and to bear my testimony about why I am here and why I am SO HAPPY to be here, to be a missionary. I LOVE this gospel and I definitely wouldn't be in Romania if I didn't know that this church was true and that this gospel blesses lives. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only 100% way that we can experience true and everlasting happiness in this life.

I have been able to meet the most incredible people out here and be able to establish the strongest friendships, with people that don't even speak the same language as me.

We are all brothers and sisters here on this earth. Heavenly Father loves all of us. He wants us to be happy. He has blessed my life and my family's life because he knows we re trying our very hardest every single day to come closer to Him and His son.

These might be the hardest 18 months of my life but I can honestly say that they will be my happiest too.

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

:)Sora Lee

Funny stories: While contacting this week, I decided to say, "Buna Ziua!" And "Ce mai faceti?" (Good day! and How are you?). She stopped walking and turned around and asked if she knew me, that I looked familiar to her. We started talking to her and I told her about who we were and why I am here. I showed her photos of my family. We tried to go into Eternal Families and how we can all live with our families after this life. She rejected that and then told us we were wasting our time. No problem though. So as we say goodbye and walk away she says, "Can I have one of your photos?" And I'm like, "WHUT?" Hahaha. So it was kind of an awkward position for me, I didn't want to tell her no. So I pulled our a photo of me in front of the Newport Beach temple. I wrote my name and a small testimony on the back of it and gave it to her. She told me that I was the prettiest and nicest girl she had met. It made my day and kind of creeped me out haha.

Photo 1: Half of the Fabulous Nine at our Zone Conference! Bastidas, Sayre, Parr, Me, Barrera

Photo 2: Us with our "Nine Gang Sign"

Photo 3: Merkley and I at "Ziua Limbii Romane" or "Romanian Language Day". I LOVE LIMA ROMANA!!!!! :)

Worms on Worms on Worms (Gross)

This week we had a prompting to change our filter....GOOD THING WE LISTENED TO IT! We had 2 intestinal worms growing on our filter!!!!!! Water here is GROSS.

Listen to your spiritual promptings.

Amen.

Photo 1: Me and the WORM!

Photo 2: Clean Filter VS Dirty Water Filter

Photo 3: There is our little friend!

What Is My Life?

1.) I came in contact with the most amazing individual ever. He absolutely LOVES eating- he is such a foodie. HE was kind of weird though because he would never leave me alone and he always made unwanted contact with me. You could say he kind of "latched on to me". Even though I didn't want to "pick him up", I ended up forming a bond with him. We kept in contact in him for a week and then I had to force him to leave me alone.

He was an intestinal worm.

SO YEP! It happened! I had an intestinal worm and it has been reeking havoc on my first two weeks here. I had to take some de-worming pills and badda-bing-badda-boom- the problem was resolved!

But it's gone now, so no worries there.....

ALSO.......

2.) While visiting one of our investigators in the park this woman came up and talked to us. She was like, "You're Mormons" and we were like, "Yeup!". She sat there with us for 15 minutes telling our investigator how amazing we are and how more young people should be like us. She just sits their and praises the Mormon youth because we are actually devoted to our religion. She was being so nice to us and that never happens in Romania. She also tells us how her son is meeting with our missionaries in California.....super cool!

3.) We had a lesson with Luana, one of our investigators who we are preparing for baptism. She is really struggling with some personal issues in her life and we really are trying to help her in every way possible. Hopefully, she will be baptized in September.

4.) We go visit for Vaduva, a less active member and her house is about 100 degrees inside. She has fans and AC but she won't use it because she doesn't want to get ill from "current". So we are dripping sweat. And then, as all Romanians do, she insists on feeding us lunch. And of course, we cannot decline because it is terribly, incredibly RUDE. The worst part was, Sora Merkley and I had just eaten lunch. So we sit in her kitchen. Which is about 20 degrees hotter because the oven is on and we are roasting. She takes out the biggest plates I have ever seen in my life, they look like serving trays, and starts piling on the food. So she feeds us piping hot rice pilaf and two huge slabs of pork. The pieces of pork were probably the size of a ping pong paddles. And I just look at Sora Merkley and we both give each other the:

"OH CRAP!" look.

SO we start eating. And when we stop, Sora Vaduva would yell at us to keep eating. Hahah. The food was good but it was just so much food. So I eat it all and I am like buldging and I wan to throw up. I could barely walk, I felt like I was waddling.

So I feel like a fat fat fat cake and to make it worse, Sora Vaduva tells me, "Sora Lee, you would look way better if you lost 20 kilos". And I just wanted to cry haha. So I'm on the Sora Vaduva diet, a diet plan that she gave for me to follow. Every week I will follow up with her haha.

I hate my life.

It doesn't make my cause any better that all of the Romanian girls are twig skinny and petite.

It was just a bad day haha.

5.) We baked loves of carrot cake for the ward members on Saturday. It took forever. I absolutely love Sundays because we have the most incredible branch ever.

I never thought some of my best friends would be Romanians. There are 3 little girls in the ward and I am obsessed with them. They think I am a Disney Channel Star hahaha. Umm I'll go with it?

We all have had times now and then but they DO pass. They will ALWAYS pass.

Loving the people (even if they think I'm obese) , Loving the work, and Loving the Lord,

:) Sora Kendall Lee

Photo 1: A Good Quote

Photo 2: Watermelons! Romanian watermelon is SO DELICIOUS

Photo 3: My favorite ladies! Bianca, Andreea and Maria! And Sora Merkley too!

The City of Joy - Bucharest

This week was craziness and I am still trying to adjust to big city life!

This will be a short email! I don't have a lot of time!

I am loving this big ol' city! It is definitely completely different than what I am used to!

The branch here is the biggest one I have ever served in! 40 people! It is SO INCREDIBLE!

I live in "the hood" area of Bucharest so every day is an adventure! Haha crazy stuff happens here and I just love it.

Everyone needs the gospel. Everyone needs it, whether they know it or not.

I am so glad that I have this gospel in my life, it makes me incredibly happy.

Loving the people, Loving the work, and Loving the Lord
:) Sora Lee

Photo 1: Sora Parr and I in Mihai BravOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

OHHHHHHHH!

My Favorite New Word!

Big Changes----I'M GOING TO BUCHAREST!

So Transfer Boards came out and I will be going to Bucharest this upcoming transfer! Super crazy! I'm really sad because I just spent one transfer in Iasi and I was gone for most of it on exchanges. As soon as I was "in" with the members and really beginning to see my investigators progress-to baptism- I get the boot! Gah!

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.

We would like to thank https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://pottermore.com/&k=wlPCrglRP6kzT4RbABWMaw%3D%3D%0A&r=zRAQO2XdzU4BZZwNY37GB92ChPMmZRYYkgYBbotGj9s%3D%0A&m=hu9FqxjvaAykksTQJSdCNVma%2FOP0SHttQuBCO6FO7RY%3D%0A&s=b8fbd16513a44a1953012b03cb60b5d96734e74a4e47b00a5b5c78c5e186408b for helping us determine what classes we were in. Don't worry, we all took this quiz BEFORE our missions.

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!

I HAVE A COOL MISSION STORY!!!!!!!!!! 6 MONTH MARK MIRACLE!

Well this week I had the WONDERFUL opportunity of celebrating my 6 month mark on my mission! Time really does fly!!!!!!!!!!! And being Sister Training Leader really makes it go so much faster!

MONDAY NIGHT: I high-fived the CUTEST gypsy boy. I'm a gyspy boy magnet and I'm kind of loving it. I can't give them food or money but I can give them high-fives!

TUESDAY: It was our first day of English class here in Iași and Sora B and I teach the advanced class. Basically, we get to talk in English for an hour so that is kind of nice! We played fun getting to know you games involving a bag of Skittles. Who doesn't like eating Skittles and talking about themselves?

After English, I went out on the church's balcony to take a photo and I found that someone had thrown us back one of our CLMs...at least they had the decency to put it in a bag. Hahaha...oh Romania....the work rolls forth...

We celebrated my 6 month mark that night with a prajitura (cake/dessert thing) and by drinking "kiddy alcohol" aka sparkling peach juice hahaha. We also wrote "6 months" across our shins so that we could take a cool photo hahaha. Sora B is teaching me how to do a handstand. Right now, I'm still against the wall but..... Eu am credința! I have faith!

WEDNESDAY: We contacted it up all morning and also went with the other sisters to look at apartments for them. We found a great apartment but when we called president for permission to make a contract he said no.......It's a lot of drama and kind of a hard subject to talk about. The other sisters really want to move out of our apartment because we have zero room in our apartment for them. It was supposed to be a temporary stay but now they will be staying the whole transfer...I feel so sorry for them!

That evening we hopped on a train to Bacău for our exchanges and it was a sauna in there. No one believes in opening windows for a breeze because they say that it will make you sick. They call this "current". I hate current haha. So I fall asleep in my sweat and when I wake up there is this little boy and his mom sitting next to me. He is going off about how he loves Angry Birds. Sora B and I are eavesdropping on their convo, which no one knows we can actually UNDERSTAND what they are saying but alas, we can. So Sora Bynum and I start talking in Romanian about our favorite iPhone app games and this little boy looks straight at me with a shocked face. "Wait, you speak Romanian?!" was written all over his face. So I start talking to him in Romanian and he just starts laughing and laughing and we start laughing hahaha. We would ask him questions in Romanian like, "How old are you?", "What is your name?"...etc. So after every question we ask, he would respond to us then lean over to his mom and whisper in her ear how to say that question in Romanian. So we would say, "Ce faci?" (How are you) and he would say "Bine" (fine) and then he would ask his mom how to say "How are you?" in English. He would turn back to us, smile and say with the cutest, thickest Romanian accent "Haaahhwww airrrrr yooooo?" Hahahaha! It was so cute! We did this for about 10 minutes back and forth.

Then, his mother started talking to us and she asked us who we were and all of those golden questions missionaries are just waiting to answer. I actually misunderstood one of her questions but it turned out to be super cool! She asked "What do you study?" And I thought she meant, what do we study as missionaries so I just went off and bore my testimony about the Bible and the Book of Mormon and how we study for 3 hours every day hahaha. Then she cuts in and says, "No, at university" And I just started busting up.

But hey, I got to bear my testimony!

THURSDAY: We had our exchange with the sisters in Bacău.

BRACE YOURSELVES FOR MY COOL STORY.

So while we wen out contacting we decided to stop at the Piața (open air market) and buy a watermelon to eat for dinner. I had a Book of Mormon and a Bible in my arms as we were walking through the Piața. A woman shouts out to me in Romanian "You read from the Bible?!" and I look up at her and tell her yes we do, every day. And then she asks, "What is that other book behind it?" And I tell her it's the Book of Mormon, another testament of Jesus Christ. She asked questions and I answered them, all of these Romanian words coming to my brain that I had no idea I knew. All of these vendors also joined in the conversation. We were talking to about 6 ladies. They couldn't believe that we were so young, so far away from home and that we wee here just to serve people. They keep asking if we were getting paid to be missionaries and every time we said, "No, we are volunteers" they just freaked out. They thought we were the cutest people ever.

Then, this man comes up behind me and taps me on the shoulder and starts talking to me about if we believe in the trinity. Haha so I say no, we don't, we believe that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are three separate people. And then he takes me Bible and inspects it. He tells me it is the one he reads too. He opens up to this scripture in John , the one that says "I am my father and my father is me.." And I tell him that we believe that we believe that they are united as one, that they are more like one team, than one person. He understood but didn't like my answer. No biggy. He was really nice about everything though. We gve him a CLM and he said he wanted to read it. The Bacau elder's phone number was inside it and we said if he had questions he could call them and meet up. His daughter though was actually super interested in the Book of Mormon though and we got to talk to her for a few minutes about it. She asked if she could have one and we were like YES WAIT YOU JUST ASKED US FOR A CLM! Best part was...SHE LIVES IN IAȘI! We were so excited about this happening that we forgot to get her number. Ooops. ......But it is in the book......

That night we ate sarmale with the Bacău elders (Morby and Ormsby who I served with in Timi) and it made Sora B and I super sick. We have food poisoning. Fun stuff. Instant diet.

We also slept on the couch/love seat in the Bacău sister's apartment that night. SUPER UNCOMFY. The reason why was because the previous night we had gotten eaten alive by bed bugs in the guest bed. We had Sora Case spry bug killer on the mattress but it never dried in time for us to go to bed. We layed on the wet bug spray and we got really itchy (not a good idea) and we exiled ourselves to the makeshift bed in the living room ahahah.

It was an experience.

SUNDAY: I translate for the BYU students during Relief Society. It really surprises me that I know more Romanian than I think I do.

I AM BY NO MEANS GOOD AT ROMANIAN. I definitely eat the humble pie every day here. Trust me.

---- I LOVE the work here! I have never been more happy in my WHOLE life!

Loving the people, loving the work, loving the Lord!

:) Sora Lee

FRIDAY: Home sick with food poisoning.

Photo 1: Black Man!

Photo 2: What the candy bar looks like . . .

Photo 3: (Fun) Transfer Goal: Handstands!

Photo 4: Celebrating my 6 month mark!

Photo 5: LOVING my companion

photo 6: Someone threw our CLM back...

Photo 7: Sunflowers on sunflowers...LOVING these train rides through the country

Photo 8: The cathedral in Bacau!

Photo 9: Our sleeping situation in Bacău . . . #death

Friday, October 24, 2014

больше фотографий . . . More Photos . . .

Photo 1: Schwab mama and me!

Photo 2: Photos in the street as we wait for the Maxi. Sora Schwab, Me, Bynum and Bird

Photo 3: Tall flowers!

Так что я пошел в Молдову . . . So I Went to Moldova . . .

So I went to Moldova . . .

This week we got to go on exchanges with the gorgeous sister missionaries in the Republic of Moldova! It started with a super bumpy maxi taxi ride that lasted 4 hours. I have never laughed so hard in my life, everyone was bouncing out of their seats haha. It was a sight.

So we started our exchange in the gorgeous city of Chișinau where it rained cats and dogs haha.

We had a lesson with one of Sora Uhl's investigators and it went incredibly well. Gosh, the gospel of Jesus Christ really is amazing!

That night, we head to Orhei, about 45 minutes away via maxi taxi. When we arrive at the sister's apartment we discover that they have constructed a fort like structure in their living room for us to sleep in! Hahaha they had ties all of the curtains up around the light fixture and had pulled all of the mattresses in on the floor for us to sleep on.

It was amazing!

AMAZINGNESS IS COMING UP . . .

So the next morning we wake up and decide to hunt down some less active members who are living outside of the main city in the countryside. We hopped on a taxi and got talking to some cute ladies in front of us. We arrive in Pellivan and the work gets going!

We played "Villa Wars" which consists of a series of point values for things that happen. For example, "Door slammed in your face- 5 points" or "Teach someone a lesson- 80 points" and we wanted to all regroup in 30 minutes to discuss our scores haha.

THIS IS ALL FOR FUN. We love missionary work but these little games just make it so much more awesome when we have failure or success because well, we get points for it!

Well, long story short, Sora Schwab and I killed it. Everyone was responsive to us and our message-EVERYONE. That NEVER happens here. Several people wanted us to come back and teach them again. We even had a lesson with this cute old lady. After closing with a prayer she gives us the wisest counsel I have ever received, "Marry a Moldovan man, they are great at producing-they have strong semen" HAHAHAHAHAHA. I did everything ion my power not to start busting up laughing. We probably won\t be taking her advice.....

So after that lesson we met up again with the elders and the other soras and compared scores- we WON! WHOOP!

After, we decided to focus on the less active members so we bounced around this little town and tried to locate their addresses- they didn't have street names. People weren't sure where these people lived or who they even were. We finally found this address and when we knocked on the door and asked about if he knew where this woman lived, we knew it was in this block, he said he didn't. So we knock on the neighbors door who is just across the hall and this guy answers the door so we ask him the same question. The guy looks at us and says, "YES! She lives right across from me. She is my neighbor" So we are pretty sure that the guy across the hall straight up lied to us. He might be her husband but we don't know.....

So we were hot and frustrated and we missed the maxi taxi back into Orhei and we didn't know what to do. Sora Schwab and I were thirsty so we took a leap of faith and decided to walk to the well at the end of the street and get some water. SUPER SKETCHY but we were so thirsty.

So we drank the water. Straight from that metal bucket.

It was delicious.

So while we are at the well this ward member comes out from her villa. We had no idea she lived there. We get to talking to her and she completely breaks out into tears and tells us that her husband had walked out on her the day before and that she had been praying for someone to help her.

We sat and talked with her, hoping to give her some peace. At the moment I realized that we were working in a miracle, that we were instruments in God's hands at that moment. Had we not missed the maxi, had we found the less active member, had we not gone to the well, we would have not been able to help this ward member in her time of need.

God DOES hear our prayers and I know that he answers them through other people.

This I know.

On the way back into town we decided to walk through a field of sunflowers and it just reminded me once again that God does exist, that he lives, and we can see that when we look at the beautiful world around us.

Our Heavenly Father loves us all so much and he will ALWAYS help us when we need him.

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

:) Sora Lee

Photo 1: Sora Uhl and Me

Photo 2: Our fort in Orhei....

Photo 3: Me and the well......

And in the link...The floods in Moldova and Sora Schwab and I drinking from a well......

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/13hb0muwtb45czo/AACa-fgQda3hZwzAt54H1BJUa

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

All the cute old ladies carry around axes right?

TUESDAY- WEDNESDAY- THURSDAY:

So this week we were SUPER OCCUPATA (busy)! We had an exchange in Galați which is 5 hours away by train. No AC. DEATH. I fell asleep for a little bit but then the sweat dripped off my nose and pooled into a little puddle on my chest and eventually, that puddle of sweat had woken me up.

Ha.

Gross.

So we had the coolest exchanges EVER. Sora Bynum served in the same MTC district with Sora Hovey in the MTC and I had served with Sora Parker in the MTC as well! It was like a little reunion!

While contacting we see this cute little old lady walk up to us and we were like, "Awww she is adorable". She starts playing with this little stray cat and we are just awed by her cuteness. We start having a conversation with her. So then the lady turns around and there is this HUGE axe in her hand hahahaha and we all just walk away really slowly.

Welcome to the Romania/Moldova Mission were we contact old ladies with axes. Beat that.

We also had several activities with the branch in Galați and one of the elders taught Sora and I how to tie a tie! Yay!

We headed back with all of the missionaries from Galați because they were heading to Iași for Zone Conference the next day. We contacted the conductor of our train! He was SOOO nice!

FRIDAY:

Zone Conference! It was basically the same thing I heard in Missionary Leadership Council and Zone training so nothing new to report here!

It's all about ENERGY, INTELLIGENCE and BALANCE!

SATURDAY:

We had English class and then after we had sports night with our students and investigators. We went and played futbol (soccer) in this field. I saw this cute little family and I thought, "How can I not awkwardly contact them?" So I grab a Frisbee and start playing with the other sisters next to this family.

They had 5 children, 2 babies and three little girls. So I called out to the little girls and asked if they wanted to play with us, because they had been eyeballing me for about 5 minutes. They all ran up and started playing with us. They were 10 (Maria), 8 (Anastasia) and 5 (Sophia) years old. They were SO CUTE. The cutest little girls. We played with them for about an hour and a half all laughing an talking to each other in Romanian. Sophia was always right beside me and staring at me and then she asked me where I was from and where my parents were. She thought it was so cool that I was American.

Their parents left and left the girls with us because they lived in the block right next to the field where we were playing. I told the parents that they had a cute family and beautiful daughters. They said thanks and left.

So then I think, "CRUD, I never contacted them!" So I start writing a letter for the girls to give to their parents about our English class. The girls went home and later we headed home. When we walked by their block they called out our names, "Surori! Surori! Pa surori!" (Sisters! Sisters! Bye sisters!) We walked backwards and waved goodbye to them until we couldn't see them anymore.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Final Thoughts - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I have so much hope for these people here. That experience with the three little girls helped me realize that those little girls will grow up to be people who are more open about the gospel and about missionaries in general. I just kept thinking about how cute and kind they were to us. I think we will leave a good impression of missionary work and the church on that family.

I am finding more joy in the work as I can speak and understand the language much more know. The most flattering comment is when Romanians compliment my accent and my grammar. I love seeing their faces light up when I say that I have only been here for 5 months.

I know that Heavenly Father is blessing me. I can hear it (and understand it! haha!) when the Romanian people talk to me. I know he loves me because he is helping me every day here.

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

:) Sora Lee

Learned how to tie ties!

My home slice and Galați exchanges, Sora Parker

Sora Bynum, Sora Me, Sora Parker, Sora Hovey at Zone Conference

I HAVE A COOL MISSION STORY!!!!!!!!!! 6 MONTH MARK

That evening we hopped on a train to Bacău for our exchanges and it was a sauna in there. No one believes in opening windows for a breeze because they say that it will make you sick. They call this "current". I hate current haha. So I fall asleep in my sweat and when I wake up there is this little boy and his mom sitting next to me. He is going off about how he loves Angry Birds. Sora B and I are eavesdropping on their convo, which no one knows we can actually UNDERSTAND what they are saying but alas, we can. So Sora Bynum and I start talking in Romanian about our favorite iPhone app games and this little boy looks straight at me with a shocked face. "Wait, you speak Romanian?!" was written all over his face. So I start talking to him in Romanian and he just starts laughing and laughing and we start laughing hahaha. We would ask him questions in Romanian like, "How old are you?", "What is your name?"...etc. So after every question we ask, he would respond to us then lean over to his mom and whisper in her ear how to say that question in Romanian. So we would say, "Ce faci?" (How are you) and he would say "Bine" (fine) and then he would ask his mom how to say "How are you?" in English. He would turn back to us, smile and say with the cutest, thickest Romanian accent "Haaahhwwwairrrrr yooooo?" Hahahaha! It was so cute! We did this for about 10 minutes back and forth.

But hey, I got to bear my testimony!

THURSDAY: We had our exchange with the sisters in Bacău.

BRACE YOURSELVES FOR MY COOL STORY.

Then, this man comes up behind me and taps me on the shoulder and starts talking to me about if we believe in the trinity. Haha so I say no, we don't, we believe that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are three separate people. And then he takes me Bible and inspects it. He tells me it is the one he reads too. He opens up to this scripture in John , the one that says "I am my father and my father is me.." And I tell him that we believe that we believe that they are united as one, that they are more like one team, than one person. He understood but didn't like my answer. Nobiggy. He was really nice about everything though. We gve him a CLM and he said he wanted to read it. The Bacau elder's phone number was inside it and we said if he had questions he could call them and meet up. His daughter though was actually super interested in the Book of Mormon though and we got to talk to her for a few minutes about it. She asked if she could have one and we were like YES WAIT YOU JUST ASKED US FOR A CLM! Best part was...SHE LIVES IN IAȘI! We were so excited about this happening that we forgot to get her number. Ooops. ......But it is in the book......

That night we ate sarmale with the Bacău elders (Morby and Ormsby who I served with in Timi) and it made Sora B and I super sick. We have food poisoning. Fun stuff. Instant diet.

We also slept on the couch/love seat in the Bacău sister's apartment that night. SUPERUNCOMFY. The reason why was because the previous night we had gotten eaten alive by bed bugs in the guest bed. We had Sora Case spry bug killer on the mattress but it never dried in time for us to go to bed. We layed on the wet bug spray and we got really itchy (not a good idea) and we exiled ourselves to the makeshift bed in the living room ahahah.

It was an experience.

SUNDAY: I translate for the BYU students during Relief Society. It really surprises me that I know more Romanian than I think I do.

I AM BY NO MEANS GOOD AT ROMANIAN. I definitely eat the humble pie every day here. Trust me.

---- I LOVE the work here! I have never been more happy in my WHOLE life!

Loving the people, loving the work, loving the Lord!

:) Sora Lee

FRIDAY: Home sick with food poisoning.