Draga Familia Mea, 

Sounds like you have had a BUSY week! Tell the Grandparents Happy Birthday from me!! I love them! I was in the mission office today and I brought up the video of grandma doing her cheer for Sam-- They absolutely Loved it!  Tate I am glad that your talk went well--  This week has been one big roller coaster of a week!  

So to start off the week: Tuesday is are service day and we got hooked up to go help at this after center school program! It is a lot of fun! There is like 20ish kids and we taught them the words and actions to head shoulders knees and toes.. they LOVED IT! We then taught them some English and made play dough figures with them. It cool though because we are not supposed to talk about religion but all of the teachers that work there are really impressed by us so they are asking us about what we are doing and why we are here so it really fun. We will do it again tomorrow and I am excited. I had this cute little gypsie kid named Sam sit by me and he was so cute.. talking to me in Romanian! I get so jealous of the little kids! if only I was born here.. ha just kidding. But ya that was really fun! Then we had a lesson that night with a couple. The girl is 20 and the boy is 24. They had met with them once before and they taught them the restoration. I guess at the end of their last lesson they were like.. "We don't have faith.." So this lesson we went through Alma 32 with them (This is in English by the was.. they have perfect english) They have SO MANY questions. They are really into "logic" So they were asking us about dinosaurs.. and evolution... and blah blah.. they are really cool and they like us so we let them ask their questions and then we just bear testimony back to them. The boy does not believe in God at all and the girl doesnt know what to believe. They know that something is missing in their life they are just kind of stubborn. It made me sad though because after about 1.5 hours I just had the feeling to ask them "how would your life change IF all of what we are teaching you IS true?" And they both were like.. ya it would change my life 110%, I would be happy, I would get a better job, I would do what I wanted with my life, We would get married, we would be happy." They both really dislike Romania and they have a hard time understanding why God would let them suffer so much as a country. Anyways after this we told them to come to church and they said that they would for sure come! We then asked them if they would read the Book of Mormon and they were both like..."ah well maybe..." I just sat there.. I just didn't get it... if something had the potentential to change your life 110% why wouldnt you read the book that PROVES everything we are telling them is true! So ya and then they both didnt come to church yesterday so our next lesson we are going to have to have the do or die lesson. They either need to start making commitments or we have to drop them.. I think they kind of just look at us as cool american friends they can practice their english on. So I will let you know how that goes! 

Wednesday we met with one of the ladies in the ward.. because for some reason they think we cant cook or we dont have enough food so they are always inviting us over. So I led the lesson and practiced my Romanian with her as I talked about the blessings of prayer. It went pretty well and she told me that I looked more Romanian then American and she said that I sounded really good ha She asked me if I had a boyfriend because I think she wanted to hook me up with her grandson that lives in Texas.. ha I told her that my first name was Abby though so at church I hear this lady calling my name.. "Abby" ha so I go over there and she can't stop kissing me and hugging me... so I guess I made a really good impression on her.. she was like "are you sure you have enough food... come over this week so I can feed you... o Romania.. anyways back to wednesday night so we were supposed to meet with our 12 year old investigator but she ditched out on us. She lives with her grandmother and I guess the grandma doesnt like that the missionaries switch out so much.. she does really trust us. So she didnt come but it was good because we were at the Godmothers house waiting so we then had a little lesson with her and her son who is like 27- They are both super inactive so we are trying to get them to come back to church... people get easy offended.. its so sad.. they are only hurting themselves! 

Thursday we had district meeting and then we met with our other less active-- She is the sweetest lady ever and she also fed us... of course potatoes and bread.. I feel like I am right back at home.. potatoes are super cheap here. We taught her a lesson on the Book of Mormon and she is really good about correcting our Romanian. We then have extra time to go on the internet each week and I can honestly say that the lds website is amazing.. Have you guys all watched all of the mormon messages??? you should.. seriously mom watch them for FHE the new 2013 youth theme video.."stand" is so good and "Sanctify yourself" I recommend starting off with those two and just keep going... our church is so smart! Then we had a member visit with that Elena girl who is coming to BYUI and she is super excited to meet you guys-- She said that she would bring stuff from Romania to you guys so I might get something and send it with her for you guys for Christmas.. I think she is going in August. Brandon Cox is bringing your guys something from me when he gets home also:) I never saw it... but I know what it is:) 

Friday was like mothers/ Womens day in Romania... So we went around visit all of our ladies with these flowers that we bought. Everyone loved them! Sora Dragu our less active member who is smoking has committed to stop smoking and is committed to coming back to church on march 31st! We are so excited -- I feel like it is a baptisimal date! She is so great! We then went to visit this other less active lady... she kind of has this love/ hate relationship with the missionaries.. she gets mad at us all the time because we never visit her.. but the reason we dont is because she is kind of mean.. ha but we went and took her flowers and she was so happy! I guess her husband and son didnt get her anything so she really appreciated us! She talks so fast.. it is hard for Sora Lund and I to understand her but I think we are going back and helping her wash her windows or floors or something next week.. ha we will see.. Sora lund has been in the country 6 months so she is pretty good with the language but this women just talks like she is running the Romanian auction! Then we went to Sora Gorzo.. and took her flowers and she fed us... Then we went to visit another lady.. I am so full at this point.. all of this little old ladies love giving us food.. so we are at this house and we tell her that we are NOT hungry.. well it doesnt matter she brings out this big pretzel things... but they are like doughy... I could only eat half of it.. I had two options... try finishing the other half and throwing up or potential offending this member... I couldnt eat it so I put out my best Romanian telling her that it was the best thing ever but I am just so full... and asked if I could save it for later... she knew that I was a new missionary so she didnt seem too upset! It was a relief.. This people here are just like grandma rounds where you have to eat everthing on your plate.. the problem is is that they dish it out for you... but I will get better at just like not eating any breakfast if there is a chance we will get fed through out the day! ha 

Saturday we went scavenger hunt contacting which was fun.. No one really listened to us but it was still fun.. we were contacting everyone with glasses, walking a dog, or in a skirt. ha so we had fun walking around. Then two Elders in our district were having a baptism and we invited our lady that we met from the magazine stand to come with us and she said YES! so we were waiting for her and she didnt show up and I had to play the music for the baptism so we had to hurry.. we were discouraged because we really thought she would come... then right when we got to the church.. She called us! AND SHE CAME! We were super happy and she seems to really like us.. I think she enjoyed the baptism also. She really liked that I could play the piano:) We gave her a book of mormon and invited her to come to church the next day.. well she didnt end up coming but its ok-- she is so cool I think that she is golden and she loves her family so it is a win win situation. 

Sunday... well I found out Saturday night that I had to give a talk the day in sacrament! yes so while you guys were speaking english and giving your easy talks back home I was speaking Romanian! ha I was super nervous! more for like the missionaries in the crowd... we have 6 elders in our ward so I didnt want them thinking my language skills were horrible. So sorry Lund helped me write out my talk about the Book of Mormon and then I met with our friend Elena at 9:00 sunday morning so she could correct all my grammer before I gave the talk at 10. Well I thought I would be the first speaker but no they put me as the last speaker... which it worked out because Romanians love to talk.. so I didnt have that much time to close the meeting but it was really cool because everyone was kind of snoozing off during the other persons talks but when I stood up everyone perked up and was smiling at me as I was trying to speak Romanian. I stood up and told them about myself and then I bore my testimony and then I talked about how much the Book of Mormon is a blessing in my life. I talked about how every morning my family would read in the scriptures together and it brought us great blessings. I then read a quote from Richard G. Scott and read a verse out of the scriptures.. ALL IN ROMANIAN.ha I prayed so hard before I walked up there... and it worked .. I did it.. Heavenly Father truely loves me... He helped me deliver my talk... and actually sounding like I knew some Romanian. After I was done Sora Lund came and gave me this big hug and then all the little old ladies were coming up to me telling me how great and beautiful it was... Even all of the Elders after came up to me and were like.. you did such a good drop.. we didnt really start speaking full sentences until like our 4th transfer.. so it was good! I just need to keep going.. I am trying to learn this language fast it seems like it is going slow.. I feel like it will start clicking soon. (sper) "hopefully" ha but yes I played the piano in sacrament meeting, sunday school, and then in relief society, after church I was then promoted to be the pianist for the ward choir (They made the ward choir because I am there and able to play the piano) ha but then this old guy came up to me afterwards and was like can we do a duet sometime? and he pulled out his flute-- ha so my advice.. Sam and Maddy practice the piano.. so when you go to a foriegn country and can't speak the language people still love you and you contribute to the ward. So sunday was a very busy day during church.  

Today has been fun we went to the ZOO this morning! It was really fun! We went with the office Elders and then the other sisters in Panduri.. They actually had some cool animals and big Tigers, wolves, monkeys, and even some rats... ha so it was a quality Romanian Zoo.. it was super cheap.. and it was raining pretty good so it was fun. Then we just got done eating at this cute fancy restaurant in Bucaresti. It has all the classic Romanian food for pretty cheap.. The inside is so cool it looked like an old orthodox church and there is a guy playing the violin in the corner.. AND they had cheesecake so it was so good! 

Other random stories for the week.. I cant really remember the days that they land on but we were in the grocery store and there was this girl and she just started randomly talking to me.. She then just starting talking to me in english... (Bucaresti everyone speaks english.. so annoying.. ha I want to speak romanian) anyways I asked her if she has heard about us and she said yes... then I asked her if she wanted to learn more and she was like ya ya here is my number! It is way cool.. she is 32 and a personal trainer so we will hopefully get to meet with her this week. Then another day no one was really listening to us as we were contacting so we tried the "sit on the bench and look interesting approach" IT WORKED! well first we had this crazy guy come talk to us.. Normal.. but then this sweet little old orthodox lady came and sat by us.. She wanted to learn more so then we got her number too! Another day on the bus this guy was interested in the book of mormon so we started talk to him and the girl next to him.. well it was funny because then this crazy lady all comes and and is like "We worship Jesus not Mormon.." It was so funny that she felt threatened by 2 - 21 years old girls that can't really speak their language.. anyways we bore our testimonies that we are christians.. ha anyways it was funny. O ya and today ok.. this story is priceless.. We are on the metro and because we went to the zoo we didnt do our language study so we were reading out loud to each other on the subway.. ha (it forces people to listen) So this lady comes up to us and she is like.. "you guys speak Romanian?" we said yes and then she hands us this little romanian book that is titled "Come unto Christ." and she started talking about how we are going down the wrong path and she is worried about us. We asked her if she read the book of mormon and she was like " I had a friend who was mormon and that is bad. There is only ONE BIBLE" So we tried explaining to her that we use both.. but she just grabbed my hand and was like "God be with you." ha Sora Lund and I were dying.. this lady was legitamently worried for our salvation.. So that was fun. Then another day this week we had this gypsie guy come up to us and he was like "I want to repent... and he wanted to talk to us... so we referred him over to the Elders so we will see how that goes. ha 

I think this week has kind of just been a roller coaster because we have had some good moments and then our investigators let us down. Sometimes I am way to hard on myself.. I want to know this language now and be able to be the best. But I was reading a talk this morning and it talked about how this mission is our training ground for the rest of our lives.. so I just have to be patient.. crazy that I have already been gone for 4 months!! 

Love you all!!! VA IUBESC! Sora Abby Polatis

disney wall--even here!!!

huge tiger at the zoo (in the background)

luckily someone had an extra sweatshirt!!!