Well Talking was AWESOME! Even if it was short! You all look fabulous and I will be honest I wanted to talk to you all day!!! I miss you guys but I am glad that you are all doing great and had an awesome Holiday season! Well it is almost 2014, (I almost gag everytime I say it, because bout silingon, I will be 24) I dont really like that idea! But all is great!!

So after our skype, we kind of just got right back to it! We had the Baptism of Brother Arjelo! He was so excited! He forgot his testimony! Just kept saying how happy he was and that he gave this gift to Jesus! So I was happy with that! We went with one of our ward missionaries to have our Christmas Feast before we worked, so we got a pizza and a mango shake!! HAHA not really a feast but we laughed and got a lot of pictures! We went out and saw all the lights! We talked to about everyone that we saw, I dont know what got in me, this big "Language confidence" Booster just got in me and before I knew It I was talking with some random people! So lots of laughs! 

Our week was just kind of back to normal after that! We worked and worked and we are constantly trying to find people! We have our baptisms that are all lined up and we are just trying to make sure that they are ready but at the same time finding people to take their spots to keep the cycle going! 

On Friday, our ward missionaries had a "Missionary Fireside" So we went to the church and they fed us and we played games and heard some inspirational talks about missionary work! We had a little gift exchange, HA i got a mug!..............For all the hot chocolate that I drink here haha! 

Saturday we hit up all our areas, Well one family wasnt home, just a bunch of little kids around! And in this area, they all have a really hard time reading and what not! So I took our my English Book of Mormon! HAHA they would copy me word for word! But of course they have an accent! But it was so cute! We went back on Sunday and they were all begging me to read english with them again! HAHA it was so cute! Sunday we taught our investigation JunJun! We taught him about the "Word of Wisdom" He has issues with almost all of them, but, he prayed at the end of the Lesson and it was the most sincere prayer! He really was so specific and he got teary eyed, and that made me cry! He has such a strong desire to change! His life has been hard and this really is his chance! I was so happy for him!! Hopefully he can stand strong and just move forward!!! I know that Heavenly Father prepares these people and he will help them! I love seeing the spirit just take over and work in their hearts! 

I love you all! The Church is True! I love the Book of Mormon and the way that it has influenced my life! Even though the holidays are a little bit rough here, this is where I am supposed to be!! No doubt!!! Sister Manosig was telling me the other day, "Sister Polatis, you live a fun life"and that I am carefree all the time with an attitude that "things will work out" I was appreciative of her! It made my day to hear that, because sometimes I dont feel like that! But life is fun! I dont think I have been this happy in a long time!! BOMB BABY!!!! HAHA miss you all! Keep going!! I will see you all soon! MWAH!!!! LOVE YOU!!!! Happy Holidays!!!

Love Sister Polatis

Hey Everyone!!! 

  Well it was so great to see all of your faces! I loved seeing you all on skype! I do love skype... God inspired invention! :) You all looked great! I loved hearing Tates reaction when I talked to him... me- "hey tate... this is Abby!" Tate-"ABBY! hey this is Elder.. I mean Tate!!" ha It was a good time! What a fun night that was for me! You are all the best! Yes Elder French is in my mission!!! He is in my city! I played soccer with him today! 

This week was super fun! The holidays are great on the mission! You get to do all this fun missionary stuff in a foreign country and skype my family! ha it was perfect! This week stories: 

Christmas Eve: I know I talked about Sora Dragu on Skype but she deserves to be on the blog. Christmas we went over to my sweet little old lady Sora Dragu who has absolutely nothing and we walked into the Christmas spirit! She had set up a table for us with juice, chocolate, and candy! Her house was all decorated and she was all dressed in red! I love her so much! We sang through all of the christmas songs in the hymn book! It was one of my favorite parts of Christmas! We were her family for christmas!!

Christmas Day: Christmas day was amazing! We woke up and opened our present! I loved my package! We had breakfast at the mission office as a district and then we had a gift exchange! We then went over to President Hill house and had an amazing lunch! I love the Hills so much! After we all went up to the living room and watched the Hobbit one! ha I loved it! We had caramel popcorn! I felt like I was right at home!  After I went and skyped the family! It was the perfect christmas away from home! 

Talk at church! : So I go to district meeting and a person from our branch comes in and says.. "We are so sorry but we just found out that our main speakers can't come tomorrow- so will you all speak?" ha So I found out Saturday night that I have to speak on Sunday! I of course said yes and I wrote my talk in about three hours! It went pretty well- I just talked to them about how to be member missionaries! I still surprise myself that I know a foreign language! They used one of my stories I told as an example in the sunday school class! I loved it and  One of our missionaries is romanian in my district and he talked to me sunday night and thanked me for my talk and said that my Romanian sounded great! it made my day! 

Block Knocking: We went block knocking Sunday and it was so much fun! We met some cool people! A couple of people were crying to us because of their hard lives.. We assured them that God loves them and really testified about God plan of happiness for us! but It was funny after we just said hi to a couple walking by and then they turned around and were the nicest people I have ever met! They brought us right into their house and sat us down for cakes, grapes, and some mineral water. It was so funny! They had a boy there that was 25.. we could tell that they were trying to set us up with him. He walks out and sits down and chats with us! ha The dad was asking me if we would be in trouble if we fell in love with a Romanian guy! ha It was super funny! But they invited us back over to sing and talk tomorrow so we will see how it goes!  The kid then walked out with us and it was super funny because the other elders were walking home from a lesson and were about to pass us... ha he turns to me and says "o those are your colleagues huh?" He then left us! ha it was really fun! 

Hobbit 2: We went to the Hobbit 2 on Thursday (Our Christmas present from President Hill) We went to the imax theater and watched it in 3D. It was a lot of fun! I really liked it! I never thought I would say this but I think I will have to come home and watch all of the Lord of the Rings! My companions love them and Star Wars so it is looking like I need to come home and get cultured! ha Sora Stapley is obsessed with Star Wars and Hunger Games!

Companion Situation: 

I am LOVING my companions! We are getting along great! I am loving being in a trio! We get along so well! They have been great! They even let me sleep with a fan in the room so I sleep super good at their house! Sora Peterson who is my replacement for next transfer came to Buc for a few days and I trained her on the city! I love her! it was a bummer to only get to serve with her for 2 days! But she will be great!

That is about it for this week! Time is going by super fast! I can't believe that it is almost january- That makes no sense in my mind! ha but it will be another great year! I am excited to make some new goals and always continue to improve and become more and more like my Savior! We also find out about transfer boards this week.. Wish me luck! Have a great week! The church is true! 

Va iubesc!
Sora Abby Polatis 

Sora Dragu--has nothing but gives all

Got "farmville" for Christmas

Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve

Our Tree/stocking

Christmas Dinner at Pres and Sora Hills'

Gifts from Sora Hill and Sora Baker

Pez from the Prez/ and Elder Baker

Skypeing fam!

Skyping Lou and Family

Christmas day "Hobbitt" at the movie in 3'D

Happy New Year!!

 

      Wow I can't believe that it is going to be 2014! Time really does just fly by!   But yes I did get to talk to Abby for about 5 minutes over the phone. It was so good to get to hear from her. She sounds like she is doing awesome. She just called the members number and so it was sweet! But I didn't get to hear from Sarah. Ha but she had a baptism on Christmas so she was probably just loving life. You all looked so good and happy and it made me want to be there with you because of all the good times we have had but that can wait:)

         So yea we had a pretty rough week last week that's for sure. Our numbers were not looking so hot ha. But this week is looking a lot more promising. We have been doing a lot of finding lately and have quite a few potentials that we need to go back and invite to be baptized. We are really focusing on the members and trying to get them going. We have been giving them all family mission plans to help them in their missionary responsibilities. So far not much has happened, but I know that the Lord will bless these members as they pray for those opportunities to share the gospel. Transfer calls are today and we still have not gotten our calls. I really have no idea what is going to happen so I'm pretty excited to get the call. Ha I pranked Elder Ragozzine this morning. I set an alarm for like 9:30, and then when it went off I answered it like I was talking to President and then I told him that he was getting transferred:) Haha he was like Ahh I knew it!!!! And was pretty much ready to start packing right then and there, but then I had to break the news to him that I was just messing with him. Ha poor little guy.

     Hmm.. I'm trying to think of what else went on this week. There wasn't a whole lot. It did get to be like 40 degrees so that was really nice. But now it dropped back down to -7 and stuff so it's back to normal yay!!! Not! The thermals are great though. I really didn't even know that they existed. So thank you so much for them. But yea I guess to tell you about a really weird thing that happened that I can't understand is that we went and contacted this former investigator, and man she just LOVED the Elders that tracked into her. She said that she was about to start drinking and just ruin her life until some Elders knocked on her door. So basically they taught her and I guess she thought that the church was too strict so she just went and joined this other church that she found online. Ha she said that after she was baptized in that church that she bore her testimony afterward and included how some Mormon boys saved her life and brought her to God.. Ha I was just blown away!!!! I tried and tried to tell her that the "Mormon boys" were sent to you to come to the true gospel. But she was just really comfortable with this relaxing church. Man it was very frustrating. So that is my crazy story for the week. So we'll see if we can get working with her to help her understand why her church doesn't have the fullness of the gospel. But I love you all so much and hope that this new year brings great blessings and lots of things to look forward to. Thank you for everything.

Love, Elder Polatis

I first want to say Merry Christmas! How are you all? I cant believe
how fast it really has gone! Only 2 more days and it is here! I wont
lie, Christmas music is getting played here like crazy and I just sing
along to myself! HAHA I heard the song from Elf and we might just have
to watch it when I get home, biskan July!

It sounds like you had a great week! I had no idea that Cameron was
getting married! That is great! Tell him congrats! Who did he marry? I
got your package....It was everything that I wanted for Christmas, so
thanks:) Haha Ole, Jarry, make up your mind, ambot sa imo! palagpat
ikaw huh!!!! Pero pasensya, nagkadlawan ako sa imo, tungod kalipay gid
its you and not me:) Oh............medyo annoyed ako right now!
Something is wrong with my card reader! I think she got a virus so
once again.,....no pictures:( I took a lot to!! Darn it!  Um, no I
dont think I will call before! But I am sure it will be around 10:30
here (I am thinking that is 7:30 your time! Basta.....Just be ready!
Remember that is Christmas EVE for you!!!

So really, what a great week it was! Monday after all our P-day
activities, we went out and we had been trying to find this part
member family for a little while now and we were about to give up when
all these sabad little kids came up to us yelling "mormons, mormons,
mormons" So me, of course I start talking to them, come to find out
one of the girls with them was who we were looking for! So we found
her and her mom and dad and the mom is a member but the dad is not! So
we have been trying to get all of them involved. Awesome! It really
was just a good week of teaching and finding! Wednesday we had
exchanges with the Cadiz Sisters. But this time I stayed in our area
and worked with Sister Peacock! She is from Provo. Cool girl! We had a
good time! She did laugh at me, because even though I have lived here
a while I still eat PB&J and still can just cook the basics! I think
that is how it will be! So here, when there is a birthday, they always
invite the missionaries! So we celebrated with Sister Analiza! She
introduced us to her Son JunJun! He is 19, and in some ways reminded
me of Tate! Just a goof! Her husband is not around so JunJun kind of
takes care of the family with her! He is cool, kind of shy of Sis.
Manosig! HAHA usually they are shy of me, so I kind of had to laugh!
But we found more people, or really they found us! I have never had a
time really in my mission like this week! People just came to us and
we have received referrals from our investigators. So really it is
Blessings!
Saturday, Was crazy awesome! Sister Ailyn, she has been a long time
investigator and she was finally baptized!!! She bore her testimony
and I was so touched! She started out saying that she would read just
because we would tell her to, she didnt really understand but she told
everyone that when I got here. Every lesson I would  promise her that
if she would pray before and after God will give her understanding!
She said it happened and she thanked us as missionaries! I will admit!
I started to cry!!! The spirit was super strong! I loved it!  We had
11 investigators attend and enjoy the Christmas party! We are trying
to be better about helping the members helping them feel welcome and
part of the ward! It was a really good week! I will tell you more of
the details when I call!

I hope that everything just goes smooth! I really am so excited to see
you all!! Thanks again for the package!! It made my day! Elder and
Sister Sinema, one of the couples made all the missionaries a
Christmas pillow case! It was super nice of them!! Bring some
Christmas spirit into our apartment! Sister Manosig and I have plans
for our Christmas feast...........meaning she will probably be doing
the cooking and I will be learning how! All is well here!! It will be
a great holiday!!  Enjoy your time together!! Just pretend I am there!
Is there any snow??? I love you all! Love you all! See you soon!!!! Oh
and if the skype doesnt work I will go buy a calling card and just
call! You see, Christmas around here is just like anyother day,,,,haha
so things will be open!! But be good and be safe!!! I AM SO
EXCITED!!!!!!!   LAPIT SIA!!!! MWAH!! Merry Christmas!
Love. Sister S Polatis!!!

Buna familia mea!!! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! 

Sorry this is going to be super super short! I just got off the phone with mom to set up skype and she said it was ok if I just tell you over skype about this week because I am low on time! But I am super excited to see and talk with everyone this weekend! I have the best family ever! I just thought I would bear my testimony to you all for the season. Last year in the MTC we only had time to bear our testimonies over email so I thought I would keep the tradition up. 

First off, I am so so happy right now! I love being a missionary! I cant imagine what my life would be with out me first experiencing everything that I am experiencing here in Romania! Seriously I have changed for the better! We are never intended to peak so I am excited to just keep learning and growing for the rest of my mission and when I come back home! This gospel is true. I know that it is. Heavenly Father is literally our Father in Heaven who loves us all very very much. He knows our weaknesses and strengths. He is there for us every minute of every day if we allow Him into our hearts. He wants us to succeed and be happy. That is God's purpose. Jesus Christ is our Savior. He loves us and really is our perfect example. The enabling power of the atonement is amazing and benefits us everyday! I know that the enabling power of the atonement has helped me here in Romania and I am so thankful for it! President Monson is a true prophet! I love listening to him! He makes me smile and gives me so much hope for the future! The scriptures are true! I love reading them. Sometimes I feel like a nerd because of how much I love studying and knowing the stories in the Book of Mormon! This gospel has been restored! Joseph Smith was truly a prophet! He is a great example for me! We are here now at this wonderful time on Earth for all of us to be missionaries! That is the most important thing! Doing God's will. We are here to be used as instruments in helping God with his scop! I loved the talk from Elder Holland last year when he said. "All of the ancients prophets kept going strong in the faith even when they knew that their generation was going to fall into apostasy because they saw OUR DAY and knew that we would hit it out of the park!!!" It is so cool that all of this is happening now!!! I love you all so so much!! 

Merry Christmas! 

va iubesc! 

Block Singing

Sora Abby Polatis  

New comps:  Sora Stapleys and Deruvo

More new comps: Sora Rivera and Heim

Kajidsuren and Omandakh

Heyyyyy ha well I'm not that freezing... I get numb quit enough to not feel it so its all good:) haha JK!! No members are great out here so they let me borrow quite a few things so they are taking care of me:) but I bet those thermals are going to be amazing so I can't wait. Annnnd I really can't wait to talk to everyone!!!!! It's going to be soo great to see you all. I'm pretty sure that I am skyping around 1 or 2... I'll probably call you before though. I think that's what we're supposed to do. But believe it or not but it is just me and one other visa waiter here now.. haha of course I'm one of the last ones, but it's pretty exciting because they have been sending two out every transfer so we'll see what happens in the upcoming month. We had a great week of baptisms and I will tell you more about them when we Skype but I'll send some pictures:) 

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Talk to you in a couple of 

Kajidsuiran and Odmandakh

Mike Dillon being baptized

Well, Sorry!! I took so many pictures this week, but it is saying that I cant send them! Bummer Deal! But that is life here, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't! But awesome week! Really tired, so that means success......Or I hope that is what it means! But as you are all freezing and wearing coats, and pants and driving on ice and what not, amo man gihapon diri!! Sweaty Sweaty gid ako!! 

Well to start out! This week was a busy week! Lots of meetings! We went to Bacolod on Monday for MCL! We stayed in Bacolod 5th ward, so my old apartment! Oh my, there was 3 other sets of sisters who stayed there, so we ordered a huge pizza, and just kind of hung out after P-day! It was super fun! Tuesday we had MLC at the mission home! I love MLC, lots of good training's and ways to improve ourselves, budlay sa akon para sa pagimprove, tundgod lapit ako sa perfection! haha jokes!! But it was good!  Wednesday we went to Cadiz for our zone training! I love it!! We just relate what President trained us on and hope that they take it and apply it! We have some pretty outspoken people in our district so it was funny to just sit back and listen to them haha, some positive and some negative ha We had some really good teachings this day! Something about it just really flowed. We did member-missionary exchanges. So one sister came with me and the other with sister Manosig. They went visiting teaching and we went to investigators. We have this couple right now, they send their daughters to church but they wont come. They say that they have trust in God and he is helping them and they dont go to church, haha I must say, I was stumped. I had no idea really what to say to this guy, challenging me. But I had him take out his wallet and he had some money, (dont ever take a filipinos money, haha) Anyways, I had him give me some, and to keep on giving me it, and then just other random things, he started to get kind of annoyed like wondering when I would give it back! So I related it like that, God will give us stuff, and he will bless us. But maybe he is up in heaven getting annoyed that he keeps getting and we do nothing to show our thanks! He started laughing and then committed to go to church! HAHA then kind of hesitant I gave him back his money! HAHA for a second I was kind of rich! ha joke! 

THURSDAY:  THE BIG ONE YEAR MARK!! And YES!! We celebrated! After work of course! Bought a little Ice cream bar and a brownie and we called it a celebration! I didn't really have anything to burn, but I found in my suitcase a tank, it was pretty nasty and had a permanent stench so we lit it on fire and tried not to get burned! 

Friday we had zone conference! This was like our Christmas Party! President came and trained us! We had lunch and then watched the Christmas devotional! It was really good! All about service tied into missionary work!! It was good! I liked it! We had the baptism of Sister Rubi! She just turned 9! We have been teaching her for a little while and she was so so excited for her baptism! Her mom came and said that she felt "something" then she came to church the next day and felt "something' again!! That was what we needed to soften the heart of the mom! So we will continue teaching them and hopefully get sister to commit and support her daughter! We had a really good week! Sister Manosig is pretty quiet but little by little she will open up! Pretty quiet around our house haha but she is good! We found a lot of new investigators this week and we are excited to start teaching them and helping them come unto Jesus! We have a baptism this next Saturday for Sister Ailyn! She has been an investigator here for a long time and she really has made steps this last little bit for baptism! So I am excited for that!! I love this work! Seeing people change is awesome and seeing the desire that they have! But for Christmas, it will be pretty much a normal day! We have some appointments but really it is a day to be out! I know that this Church is the true church! That we have the Book of Mormon as a guide and we need to read from it everyday!! I love you all and miss you! 6 short months and I will be home!! Crazy!! I will be waiting for my Christmas surprises haha. Be good and be safe, Maddy, Stay off the road hah, or just be safe! Tell everyone I say HI and love them all! 

Palangga ko kamo!!! 

Love Sister S. Polatis

Buna Frumosilor! 

Well this week... ha There is a word that describes my week--- unbelievable  :) 

Some highlights from the week! 

1- My investigator is STILL an investigator. We were not able to have a lesson with her this week.. but she came to our Christmas concert and she brought her boyfriend! She loved it! Even brought out her phone and recorded a lot of it! 

2- I have the best mission President in the whole wide world! So this week we worked so hard on our christmas concert. Invited tons of people... had practices. It was going to be all the missionaries in bucuresti. (There is like 22 of us in this city) It was all set up. Well we wanted President Hill to be part of our program.. normal... so we invited him to do his "If I was a rich man" He had been traveling all day across the country and he still showed up to our concert. just picture this... My mission president... fake beard... with a little broom... singing out "if I was a rich man" and dancing with a little broom!!!!!! ah It was so cool. I loved it so much! I mean it doesn't get better than that! Sora Hill came and sang with us also!

3- So I have already make reference to the concert we had saturday night.. but honestly it was amazing! The spirit of all of us singing was amazing! We only had about 50 people in attendance... which was ok.. I mean not considering that we invited all the members in Bucuresti and handed out flyers.. but it was cool for the people that were there! It was honestly a highlight of my mission! I loved that night! 

4- I went to Cluj and Oradea this week!!! It was a lot of fun! and a lot of work! I slept three nights straight on trains!!! (I am now sick) but it was so worth it! We got on a train monday night.. arrived in Cluj Tuesday morning... Such a cute city! We were contacting... 

FUNNY STORY

So all four of us were contacting in Cluj and this random guy comes up to us and says how beautiful we are.. then he asked if we will come over and he could sing "All I want for Christmas is you." Then whichever one of us liked him the most he would take us out for suc... ha we all just started laughing.. He said he was confused why his charm wasn't working on us... He then takes off his hat and shakes out his hair to show us how good looking he was.. haha 

We then had english class and then did a service project to make blankets for kids at an orphanage.. it was super funny.. that night we then got on a train to oradea! 

5- three hours later we arrived in Oradea... so about midnight... made it to Sora Gerhartz (my companion from the mtc) apartment... woke up more contacting... with some choir practice... goal setting sessions.. picture sessions and then back on a train at 630.... it was a lot of fun to serve with Sora Gerhartz ha I have missed seeing her! 

6- Well our train was then 16 hours long!!!! it was only supposed to be 12 hours.. but we woke up at like 7 the next morning and I was sure that we were in a nearby city because we were suppoosed to get in at 8-- I opened the window.. ha we were still up in the mountains by this ski resort! ha we got into bucuresti at 11 am! So crazy! but it was really fun! My last exchange with Sora lund! 

7- Sora Lund goes home this week! ah it is so crazy we have been together for 3.5 transfers so it is going to be rough sending her home for christmas but I am happy she gets to be with her family! 

This week I will be living with a set of sisters for one week across the city..  then I will go with Sora Peterson who I am training to be the next sister training leader for one week... and then I will stay with a different set of sisters for my last week of the transfer and then we will see what the next transfer board brings! We have 4 girls coming in in January and then 9 in February- So it will be quite the party! Christmas is so soon! I am excited to see all your lovely faces!!! We are planning on doing a lot of service and singing for the next couple of weeks so it will be fun! I know that this church is true! I am so thankful for it in my life! I love being a missionary! I am excited to be a missionary for Christmas! I will make it count! 

va iubesc atat de mult!!!! va pup! 

cu mare drag, 

Sora Abby Polatis 

All of us in Cluji

Cluji

Oradea

Sora Gerhartz and I

Oradea

Oradea!  So Pretty

Add caption

Oradea

Scarf we gave Sora Dragu--She loved it

Merry Christmas at the mission office

Our nightly juornaling session!

HI Everyone!!

       How's it going?? Man it sounds like you all are having a lot of fun and making this Christmas season fun. We are trying as well.. just got informed that we get to sleep in until 8 on Christmas day1!!:):) What a good little treat that will be ha. This week has been really fun though!!.

      We had Zone Conference on Wednesday last week where we had all those skits and things. It went great. First we started out with a few trainings from President and Sister Jensen and then from the AP's. Then we had a driving training to make sure that everyone knows how to drive on these slick roads. Which I'm not sure if I got approval to drive yet, doesn't really matter right now because we don't have the car so it's all good. But yea, so then at zone conference we went to eat lunch in the gym and then after that every district did their skits and songs. Haha I will have to send you a copy of the skit that we came up with. There was a lot of funny ones. After that though, President surprised us and said that we were going to get to watch a movie, so we got to watch Ephraim's Rescue. Have you seen that? It's really good!! It felt kind of weird being able to watch a movie but I enjoyed it a lot. After zone conference was done I had to give an interview to a kid about my age who is getting baptized in the YSA ward and man this kid was awesome. It was definitely a great first interview for me. He likes basketball and all that great stuff and he asked me to baptize him so I am really excited to do that. I guess that he is getting baptized Sunday morning at about 8:30 because he can't do it Saturday and he didn't want to wait a whole week to get the Holy Ghost.

       Khajidsuren and Mike got all interviewed for baptism last week and are now just waiting for this Saturday:) Ha its going to be a little tough to get this put together because they are going to be at the same time, but Mike doesn't really want a lot of people at his so we are going to split them up and kind of set it up so we can alternate their baptisms. Ha I know its a little confusing, and now we need two of everything, but we will get it figured out. Anything to make it a great spiritual experience for them. So yea it's going to be a great weekend!!

       We also went on two exchanges this week; one with the belle plaine Elders and another with the Zone Leaders, so there goes all of our exchanges for the transfer. But yea the Belle Plaine Elders had some one that was preparing to be baptized that I needed to interview so we had to make the hour drive to go and interview her and then I found out that she was not completely ready, so that was kind of a bummer, But they will keep working with her. The Zone Leaders are great! We get along really well. Elder Bates is trying his hardest to get me set on going to BYU. He says that he already has a place for me to stay and everything. Haha it's just a lot fun out here. So as for our other investigators they are all moving along. We did a church tour for this guy named Jason so he could get more comfortable and be able to come to church but he still didn't show up for church yesterday so I guess we will have to push his date back and he probably wont be able to be baptized in 2013 darn it. But yea we are still finding a lot. We knocked into this kid named Nick that plays for his high school team at west high school( right by the church) and me and him just automatically connected haha. So he let us in and we taught him the restoration, and right when we were going to invite him to be baptized his mom came home. She was really nice, but it seemed awkward to still do the invite with her just barely getting there for the last part of the lesson, so we will for sure next time.

        Ha yesterday at church Elder Ragozzing and I participated in the little Christmas program with the choir and had a good time singing with them. I think that my singing has improved a little bit. It was fun though. Oh and yes I got your package and I couldn't wait until Christmas to open it I'm sorry:) But those $100 bill pants are JUST what I needed to wear under my slacks haha. My legs have been freezing lately riding bikes so I'm glad that I opened it. But thanks soooooo much!!! I watched the little slide show that you put together and it was really great to get to see all of you in all of those pictures. And for Christmas we are so far planning on going to the Moons for lunch and then to the Crawfords for dinner... I think that we will probably Skype at the moons so around lunch time, but if that doesn't work for you then we can do it at the Crawfords. Well I could write a lot more but I am running out of time darn it. I can't wait to talk to you all and see you. Thanks again so much for everything!! I couldn't imagine doing this without the support of my family:) love youuuu

Love, Elder Polatis

How is everyone this week! Oh my gosh, I cant believe that about STG, Snow? 

Alright, Well this week wasn't as horrible as I had expected it to be! My new companion is Sister Manosig, She is 24 and from Quezon City! We both arrived here in the mission the Same batch. We so far have gotten along super good! She told me she was nervous to be my companion because she heard I was strict, hahahaha I just bust out laughing, gotta love mission rumors! But we were actually really successful this week! So it was the start of good companionship! But for traveling I was a little bit sad, but kind of relieved, There are enough sisters in our mission to have STL;s in every zone! So for us, we just stay here in Cadiz zone and that is as far as we travel!! 

So so many tender mercies this week! I have been so grateful! So I was back to leading the area again! Well we were running out of people to see. And the people that we would always see before, kind of stopped progressing. They started to hide from us and of course say "Dason na lang Sisters" which basically means like never! HAHA But we met a few ladies just on the street who told us they were baptized a long time ago, they have families and they are just less active gd! So we started teaching them and their families! Nothing really promising yet, because they didnt come to church but at least we are finding those that are lost! We got a couple referrals from the ward, so our finding efforts are coming together! That is what we really struggled with last transfer, but now, I feel good about it!! Amat-Amat lang! 

So this week, we looked at our huge ward list and decided to find more less actives. Well we ran into Brother Belarma! He was baptized in 2006 by the Elders. But he stopped coming about 5 years ago! So we were walking and trying to find his house, but no one was home! But all these little kids pointed us to where he was! Well he tried to not let us share with him, but I am kind of pushy! HAHA I kind of begged for just 5 minutes! He is in his late 30's! So we shared with him, just about covenants and his promise when he became a member! Well it was alright, it was just on the street so it was loud! But he promised he would come to church and HE DID!! I was so excited to see him! He was a little bit shy but he stayed to all the meetings!  I felt so good to see him! It made me have so much love and hope for those that are new in the church and then fall away but then come back! They are just shy and still trying to figure out how we do things! So I was way happy on Sunday! 

Really this week we just tried to talk to everyone that we knew! We have had a lot of people approach us! We met one guy who of course started talking to us and we thought he was kidding, he seemed a little probing, but we ended up visiting him and he has desire! Really so many tender mercies! I have found that despite what I think, if the spirit is telling me to go, I go! Because The Lord knows who needs us and when! This week was a little bit long, but I really liked it!! I love the Book of Mormon! Abby is always saying that and I laugh, but I am now like her! All the stories apply to any situation, anytime no matter where you are in life! I am grateful for this opportunity! Really my appreciation for the gospel has grown! I love you all and hope you are making the best of the Christmas Season! I miss you all and hope you have a fantastic week! 

Oh mom, I am sorry! I know I told you I didnt need anything! BUT there is a little girl in this ward, she keeps asking me to teach her piano, But we cant it is Ba wal! So it isnt urgent or anything but if you have a little easy book or something, if it is a hassle dont worry about it!! But amo na!!! Pasensy gd slow slow gd ako! You are the best!!! Salamat sa inyo tanan sa mga pangamuyo!!! Nahidlaw ko sa inyo pirme! Pero Dasig ba ini!!! Promesa!!! Halong kamo pirme!!!

Sister Hogge, from the Tacloban mission

Me and EMMA

Sister Manosig

Dragii Mei! 

Well this week has been great!! Some highlights! 

- Remember that crazy lady that was yelling at me last week? Well I found out why! She was sitting on the other side of the stairs when I walked out from internet. I was standing on her spot where she usually begged for money... So Sora Lund and I were walking up the stairs and she is asking everyone for money then we show up and she then called us a choice word in Romanian that I rather not write but super funny! ha 

- Tuesday Train to SIBIU! My lanta! Such a pretty city! And such a pretty train ride! It is so crazy.. so picture us on the train.. playing some monopoly deal.. (in romanian for language study!) ha at a couple of the stops little kids hop on the train and sing christmas carols and ask for money then they hop off! I had never seen anything like it! As we were passing cities I felt like I was on the HUNGER GAMES going through all of the districts on my way to the capitol! 

- Exchange with Sora Merril! She is amazing.. high jumper on the BYU track team! 19 years old.. such a good missionary! We went to the center of Sibiu it is amazing! I felt like I was in a fairytale! We did CONTACTING FOR 6.5 HOURS STRAIGHT! ha but we switched in up and made it really fun- We sang carols in the park... bus contacted.. picture contacting.. english contacting.. We then went Block Knocking.. She was kind of nervous and I still get nervous knocking on random peoples doors also.. (but she is looking to me as the fearless example) So we did it.. knocked some doors got yelled at a little bit.. but some people did take our survey AND we had a lady say she was actually interested!! We got her number and everything!! We then went and did a HAPPY DANCE IN THE END OF THE HALLWAY:) We stopped after that! We didnt want to ruin the moment! I loved serving with her! She called me a few days later and said how much I helped her! ah it made my night! I love her!!!! 

- Thursday we had another lesson with Raluca! She is amazing and has great questions. She said she knows baptism is a huge step so she wants to make sure she is doing it for all the right reasons and at the right time! We are planning this amazing lesson all about baptism and covenants for her this week! Wish us luck! 

- ZONE CHRISTMAS PARTY! So much fun- basically half of the mission came to Bucuresti! We had some great christmas messages! Amazing food made by all of our awesome senior couple and we had this slide show that lasted like an hour! It was so fun to see! We then got little goodies bags with Rootbeer and american stuff in them! delicious!! I didnt not realize how much I missed a good cold Rootbeer! Sora Lund gave her "dying testimony" It was really good! I realized as she was giving it that I give MINE the next zone conference!!!!! Crazy! because zone conference is every other transfer and after this transfer I only have 3 transfers left!!! I can't believe it! 

- Tonight I leave for Cluj and Oradea-- I will arrive back in Bucuresti Thursday morning! then it will be crazy getting Sora Lund ready to leave... I get put in a trio for the week of Christmas and then I think I get to go with a girl I am training to take my place next transfer for a week and then I think I get put back into a trio in another sister apartment in Bucuresti. Basically it will be quite the party until January 7th.. and I have to move out of my old apartment into a new apartment! ha my life.. President came up to me at the Christmas party and said "Sora Polatis thank you for being so flexible and willing to do anything." ha I guess he can count on me to just do what I am told. So I will let you know how it goes!

- I love you all! really and truly thank you for always being there for me! You guys are great! Enjoy the holiday seasons! Sora Lund has all these Christmas songs on her ipod- favorite song is "my grown up christmas list" so good! Yes I am sad that I will not be there for Christmas.. I wouldnt be human if I wasn't sad about not being home for chirstmas.. but I will only have ONE christmas in Romania so I am going to make it the best! This church is true! Have a great week! Be safe on those icy roads!! :) 

cu mare mare drag! Sora Abby Polatis 

Hi Everyone!!

   Umm... There hasn't really been an ice storm yet? There was a good snow storm yesterday that put about 4 inches on the ground but that's about it. Iowa weather really reminds me a lot of Idaho weather to be honest. Just a lot more humidity, but it's always windy here too so I'm definitely used to that. I pulled up my driving record and it is clean as a whistle. Oh yea, and it cost like 9 bucks so make sure that gets paid. They are still putting me into the system to be able to drive so I'm just waiting. For now I just pray to live with my companion driving;) ha jk he's not that bad. But he is from Hurricane Utah so he's not that experienced with driving in the snow.

     Well we've had some pretty great things happen this past week. The Mongolian lady is set to get interviewed this week and will be ready to be baptized next Saturday. A great miracle that happened this week, was that Mike Dillon( father of recent converts) has accepted the date of the 21st to be baptized also:) I am so excited for him!! He really has changed so much and really did need that couple extra months after his family got baptized to really figure things out. We've basically been reading out of the Book of Mormon quite a bit and have started from the beginning. He really likes it and has finally started keeping those commitments to read the chapters that we leave with him. So that is my testimony, that the Book of Mormon is that springboard to testimony and personal revelation. He asked me to baptize him, I was kind of hoping that he would've wanted a member to do it, but I'm excited to do that. We are also still teaching their neighbor who told us that if we came to an hour of the Catholic church with her that she would come to all three hours of our church. Well she lied!! haha I guess that she picked up this new client or something and had to go and see them. So I told her that next week she had to fulfill her end of the deal. Ha... yea that was my first time going to a different church. Really really different that's for sure. Ha there was definitely an apostasy that occurred over the centuries. But yea Mike used to be Catholic and he just looked disgusted when he was in there. And the mom was telling us how he already refers to himself as a Mormon anyway so it's time.

      So we have been doing service at the library every Tuesday for a long time and the librarians are always really nice to us and are just good people. So finally last Tuesday I decided that I would ask one of them if they ever wondered what we actually did. Turns out that we taught her grandma rose awhile back!! Ha I remembered teaching old Rose:) She kind of just fell through the cracks on us and was too lazy to progress but she was really nice. So yea this librarian just straitway gave me her address just like that. Ha man I should've done that like 3 months ago. But we went and taught her last night and she accepted the invitation and everything. It was very cool. Her husband is a Muslim I think, so that might be a little difficult, but I'm just excited that we have a new investigator. We have kind of been in a drought lately so we were truly blessed.

      Zone conference is coming up this Wednesday and President Jensen has asked each district to either come up with a song or do a skit from the Book of Mormon. Of course my district is doing a skit:) ha we have a lot of great ideas and I wish that I could film it for you because it is going to be sweet. We are doing the Sons of Mosiah and kind of just acting it out how their 14 year planning session was and how their goals for baptism were like in the thousands! Haha its funny. Then they have to order like 3000 Plates of brass for the lamanites and stuff. ha just stuff like that. It should be good.

     Well I'm glad everyone is safe and that you all get to enjoy the Holidays!! We watched the Christmas devotional last night and it really is true that what makes you the most happy is making others happy. I love you all so much!!! Keeping being so great!!

Love, Elder Polatis

Hey everyone!!! 

-Sora Lund is from Maine currently. Her dad is in the Navy so they move around at least every 2 years! I love Sora Lund- We get along so well! This is our fourth transfer together. We have been together longer than any other sisters in the mission. She goes home on the 18th of December. I will then get a new companion.. still not sure yet... but I will train her on the city and we will do an exchange together then I will be out of Bucuresti! I have been here for 6 transfer so I am technically called a "Buc Rat!" So the little Idaho Girl-- Makes her way in the big city! ha I will probably get to go to one more city and I will probably die there! 

- We now have around 30 sisters in the mission! So crazy! We still have about 5 cities to open for sisters so I still have a possibility of doing that. By February we will have 40 sisters here. Which is crazy! Yes I am the old lady in the mission. I am in the top 5 sisters. 

Well thanksgiving sounded great! I am glad you guys had fun. Catching fire family movie night in my honor! Sounds great I am glad you all liked it! I am super excited to watch it in 5ish months! I am glad everyone is doing good! that sounds fun! That is so cute that little Dawson Prays for all of us! I love it! 

Well this week was very busy! Here are some highlights! 

Tuesday: 

MEMBER PRESENT LESSON! I was so excited! She came and so did our member present. We taught the plan of Salvation. Gave her a baptismal date that she said she would pray about! Wahoo! Our member present ROCKED! you guys all need to try to be members presents. They help so much! She bore testimoy and wow.. it was just great! We are meeting with her again on Thursday.. another member present! wahoo! We then got stood up for our next lesson.. but then we went to Presidents house to pick up the newbies. I love being a God mother! That is what we call them in the mission. If you take care of them the first night.. God mother! I have about 5 God daughters in the mission. They were super cute and fun! So dead tired. I forgot what that was like. 

Wednesday:
Transfer day! Well this day is always crazy and usually no missionary work really gets done.. we are helping people around the city.. dropping people off at where they need to be.. doing our STL duties and helping girls relax about training. it is a crazy day! We then had people stay with us again! I love hosting people! It is alot of fun.. but we had 6 of us so we have to wake up early to shower and so basically we don't get sleep.
Thursday: 

Missionary leadership council! and Thanksgiving day! Today was super fun! We had to wake up early and get to Presidents house on time. Good breakfast. Then we had to present it was so funny! We did it in Romanian to President and Sora Hill. Their role play names were Ritta and Bogdan! haha It was super funny! But it went well. They loved it! The meeting in General was super funny though! We had to redo all of our Key indicators ... again.. President was just like "these are standards of impossibility for our mission" which is kind of sad.. becasuse we can't really bring out numbers down because they are all ones. So we talked about it and switched our goals to not be weekly but for the whole transfer! So we will see how they go. It was just really funny we were talking about how we could help new missionaries.. and I don't know if you guys remember but I kind of had a rough start.. so I gave my personal experience of what really helped me and Sora Hill Says " Yes, exactly... Sora Polatis is who you can all look to as an example.. if she can do it then anyone can do it!" haha I could have been offended.. but everyone knows me in the room so it was just super funny!!! I know that Sora Hill loves me. Afterwords basically the whole mission was still in Bucuresti waiting for their trains so we all had permission to watch a movie... monsters university on the projector at the church! it was so much fun! 

Sunday: 

Well sunday was the national day for Romania! The day they became free! It was really fun. We were at church at we sang the national song. One guy in our branch is pro communism... he made quite the scene by standing up before the song.. leaving and making his son leave.. then coming back in after the song was over.... but it was still good! Relief society was filled with the women talking loudly about what to make for the christmas party. haha so funny... if you didn't understand the language you would think they all hated each other and were yelling! Well after church was a little rough.. we got on our normal bus.. to keep the story short: creep guys.. asking us to teach them how to repent... we just tried ignoring them.. we decided to get off at the next stop.. they got off with us... kept following us.. We keep saying leave us alone.. they finally did... then a couple minutes they ran up to us again... we then went the other way.. flagged down a taxi.. and made it home safe. Ate a candy bar and mac and cheese. I was not worried for my life or safety but I was just SO ANNOYED! ah serious lasa ma in pace!!! (leave me in peace!) We had a big vent session. Seriously it is just because we are so different! But ya really annoying!!! I will make sure I have my pepper spray with me always. 

Today: We were just out english contacting- First off I had to really pray for some good love of everyone around me after yesterday.. so anyways.. rollercoaster.. first 50 cards passed out .. normal people just take it and keep walking... TWO girls are really interested and said they want to come!... NEXT this old old women probably 80 years old with her cane... comes up to me and just starts YELLING AT ME! "WHAT IS THAT? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" I just smiled and said "its a free english class" She then keeps yelling at me.. I kind of thought maybe she said something like "HELP ME DOWN THESE STAIRS." so I kind of try to come and escort her down... well clearly that is not what she said - she then yells "LEAVE ME IN PEACE... GET OUT OF HERE!" I just looked over at Sora Lund on the other side of the stairs and I just start busting up laughing... it is sad when It just gets to the point that it is funny-- I have no idea why she hated me.. Her glasses were super thick and broken I am surprised she read my tag still.

I was not discouraged. I think I will be tough as nail when I get home... I mean after that we got with our zone leaders and he played the guitar and we walked by him and handed out cards. I realized even if 99 percent of everyone hates us.. I guess I have to at least try for 100 people so I can get the nice ONE! So it is great! I really do love being here. I mean I was really thinking about Elder Erying talk last general conference. He talked about how that person had a wayward child and she felt like God said "I trusted you with him.. because I knew you could and would love him." That is how I feel about my mission. I am really glad that God trusts me. He knew that I could and would do this mission no matter what. No matter how much people don't love us here. I will still try to love them and continue to work hard. I am so thankful for this experience to learn and grow. I know I am here for a reason. I think the things that we work the hardest for are what will mean the most in our lives. The church is true. I am loving the Book of Mormon! I am getting so much out of it as I have been using my study journal!!! it is great! Well i love you all! va iubesc!
cu mare drag! Sora Abby Polatis 

snowing

more snow and freezing

Sora Dragu I LOVE HER!!