Draga Familia

I LOVE BUCURESTI!  I LOVED Grandmas video!!!  that was priceless! I am not going to lie though.. I was getting a little teary eyed when I saw grandma! I love that women! We visit this little old lady named Sora Gorzo every Sunday and she feeds us and she reminds me of grandma! So that is the closest thing I get to grandma in Romania! ha But I loved it! Sarah I am glad that you are ok.. sheesh.. you had me worried! Man you are losing all that weight.. I am super jealous! Its hard in Bucharest because we travel everywhere by bus and subway.. it takes us like an hour to get home for lunch.. 

Ok so after I emailed you guys last week I was still in that foursome thing! Which was super fun it was just weird because we were hanging out with them so much it kind of felt like I was going home haha I was thrown off for a little bit but then I realized I have not been gone long enough for my family to really miss me...but it was good they left Wednesday morning super early so then it was just Sora Lund and I. On Wednesday we had our zone conference and it was really really good- We talked about how obedience is key! and it really motivated me to be 100 percent! All the decisions that we are making in life have the potenial of bringing us closer to God or away from God. It was a really good presentation! We then had a lesson with this way cool 13 year old girl. We are teaching her English and she seems really interested.. the problem is is that her Godmother is an inactive member of the church because she was offended or something.. so she wants the 13 year old girl to learn more but she doesn't want her attending church.. So when we asked her to attend church the Godmother was like "NO" with out even letting her speak.. so we are meeting again this week on Wednesday and we are going to have a nice little chat with the Godmother and tell her that she has to come to church!  Right now in our area we are in the "finding stage" like usual.... ha So Sora Lund and I... We love having fun together so everyday is a different theme... and our verbs and words for the day match up with that theme! so on Thursday our theme was "spy day" and we really focused on listening and my verbs were to listen and to find! Wednesday of course was HUNGER GAMES DAY! It was a day full of contacting! First we visited one of the ladies in our ward that is basically on bed rest for the rest of her life so we visit her every week and she absolutely loves us.. she is always apologizing for not knowing English! we are like.. NO we need to be better at Romanian! But she is super sweet and helps us with Romanian! WE then had no fear contacting! We talked to everyone! we went to the park.. we walked along the streets! We got rejected by at least 15 people in a row! it is so crazy... "sunt Orthodox.." or they pretend like our Romanian is so bad that they can't understand us.. or they just say "No I don't want to listen to you." ha For some crazy reason though Heavenly Father gives us this amazing power of optimism... because we just kept going... and then we passed a magazine stand and Sora Lund saw the Lion King 2 in Romanian (she is collecting movies ha) so we went and started talking to the lady to buy the movie and it was weird because she was so nice to us! So we started talking to her-- and she was like "yes I see you girls walking around my stand all the time!" (missionaries really do stick out in this town) ha So it was the perfect opportunity! We started talking about the restoration and how great it is! I then showed her the Book of Mormon and she was like O you are the Mormons.... So then we had to testify against all the rumors she heard about the Mormons.. she was like "isn't Tom Cruise a Mormon?" We just starting laughing.. So we testified about what we knew was true and invited her to church! She said she would come. We gave her a restoration pamphlet also and we know where she works so we will for sure be visiting her again! We were really excited about that! It is funny because people notice us I walk around purposely with the Book of Mormon title showing so just maybe someone will google it on their phone! We then just kept on contacting that whole day! I was so tired that night I think I fell asleep at like 930.  Saturday was time traveler day and we tried to talk all day in past tense! We went to the relief society activity and helped them make cards for everyone in the ward and then we went and visited this sweet old lady! She is a less active member and she started smoking again. We visit her once a week! She lives on the out side of town so it is pretty sketchy... She doesn't allow us to come in the evenings because she is worried about us! ha but so she wants to come back to church.. so we are trying to help her! I figure it President Monson took time to visit 85 widows then I will do my best to follow the prophet and make sure that all these old ladies know that Heavenly Father loves them. So the day before we were going over to her house we called and told her what we would be reading together and it was a talk from last conference about how God doesn't forget you.. well she is so cute because she said she read the talk and she was having trouble sleeping so she turned the tv on and it was something scary so she said that she just laid there and was so frightened... She then said that she was reminded of God love for her because we had her read the talk... so she said that she began to pray... and she was like "I don't know what happened after that because I fell right to sleep!" It was so great... she is so cute.. she doesn't have any teeth and wears these big thick glasses.. she is a gem. I was humbled as we walked into  her apartment.. it was literally the size of my bedroom back at home.. I asked Sora lund where she slept and she was like... "we are sitting on her bed right now" it was this little half couch thing.. I walked away from her house truly grateful for all that I am blessed with. That night we met with one of the youth that is in our ward she is 20ish and she speaks perfect English! she is actually going to BYUI so she instantly was best friends with me and she wants to met you guys and help you make signs for me when I come home! ha Sunday was great... o man fast Sundays in Romania are even better then the USA. I again played the piano and I can honestly say that I am getting pretty good.. way better than I was before! But k this random guys stands up and I don't even know if he was part of the ward but he starts going off  swearing... he forgot the churchs name.. he talked for like 30min... he then started talking about how america is so much better then Romania.. o man the old ladies section in the chapel was going crazy! people were getting up and walking out.. it was rough! ha but then this sweet little old lady got up and set everything straight and then it was really sweet because she was like.. will all the missionaries please stand up... and she just said how much she loved us! And also this week is fun because it is martisur... which its celebrating that first week of spring! so everyone gives out broaches and bracelets and flowers and yes the list keeps going on.. and then on the 8th is mothers/ womens day so then everyone gets flowers and broaches that day too.. So i came out of church with a little thing of flowers and this lovely turtle broach! ha it was alot of fun! But this week has been good we have just been focusing on really talking to people. The other day in the subway this guy was like"you are Mormon right?" in English.. and I told him I was and you could tell he had read something online.. he was like poligamy... you hate black people... you do human sacrifices... ha I just listened to him vent and then I simply said.. none of that is true.. have you read the book of Mormon? and he said no.. so I was like... If you want to find out what our church is really about read this book and then call us. So I gave him a Book of Mormon and the Elders number! ha it worked out well. My language skills are coming.. not as fast as I would like.. but I can get around. I started talking to this girl today and she spoke English so I kind of was talking to her and half and half and I think I butchered it.. but I tried so hopefully she got the message! ha Today was fun though we all went to casa poporului! which is that big huge government palace thing that was built during communism!! It was so crazy! I cant believe how big it was!  anyways that building is insane!! So there were these two guys and they were asking what we were doing in Romania and we told him.. I guess he was born in Romania but moved to Austria.. He was just back visiting.. I told  him I was going to be here for another 14ish months and he was like - why? why would you come here? ha perfect question:) He was like if you dont mind me asking? So I started to tell them about the church and then gave them some mormon.org cards! They seemed way nice and they acted like they would check it out! I told them to just go to this website!!! ha this one has the truth about the Mormon church! They said they would so we will see! Missions are amazing... I am started to figure out this whole missionary lifestyle-- Sora Lund is great! I might not get 100 baptisms but I will find myself out here. It is amazing to see how much I have already learned. At the first of my mission I was way to hard on myself. I thought that I had to be perfect and then I was upset when I wasn't. I have now found out that Heavenly Father is not asking for perfection on this mission. He wants to me to try my best and that is all I can do! I am finding the joy out of the little things during the day. like understanding half of a conversation. Or someone smiles back at me... we dont get harrassed on the bus... a little old man stick up for us when we are getting harrassed on the bus! ha its great! It is one of my goals to just learn to be happy in every situation! Romania is a great place to learn this needed attribute! I had a lot of people write me this week! thank you so much!! it makes my day unfortunatly I cant write you back!! but send me your home address and I will try to get a letter to you!  I am really starting to love this place! Romania has some great people in it! I feel really priveledged to be here! I feel the love that God has for these people! Life is great.. I still walk down the streets and say.. "I cant believe this is my life..I cant believe I am walking down these streets of Romania!" I love it and I will continue to do my best!! I love you all! va iubesc foarte foarte mult! eu stiu ca familia mea poate sa fie impreuna pentru totdeuna! :) I love you all very very much! I know my family can be together forever! Have a great week! I love you! 

Love Sora Abby Polatis

Sora Lund

Huge Communist Building