Polatis Missionaries: Snow storm --still

FAMILIA

It feels like it has been forever since I have written you! This week has been crazy! Because my apartment is in Bucharest we house half of the sisters that come in during transfers and everything... Sorry we had to buy blankets and food for the girls that were coming with us and one night during transfers we had 10 people there.. then we had people stay with us all weekend. I am starting the fitness competition for the whole mission so I will be a lot better about not eating out..

Thank you everyone for writing I love hearing from everyone!

So this week has been great.. like I say we have been hosting people all week! SORA KELLY and I are so happy to be together! We get along great! We have all the same goals and want to be exactly obedient... it is SO SO nice! We both kind of had rough first trainers so we are loving being with each other and we hope we stay together for 2 transfers!! or more... It is so great! So the Mihai Bravu apartment is one of the oldest in the mission so when people leave they sleep there and then just leave all of their stuff.. so we started trying to clean it up and we opened a big can of worms!!! 5 HUGE garbage bags later we were able to get all the of the stuff that people had left in the apartment! But now our apartment is so clean and homey! We love it! I am sending pictures home this week of how much clothes and garbage we had to throw out! We were just laughing as we were cleaning it out though because we are so happy to be together!

We have been able to already experience small miracles with each other! We get so excited! We had a lesson with Sora Dragu.. our cute less active women.. AND we understood basically everything! It was so cool.. we just walked out and we were like.. "wow the gift of tongues is amazing.. we can do this!" We have so much fun calling people in Romanian and I even was able to text some of our investigators in Romanian! It is so fun! we get excited every time! We are starting English class this week on Saturday so we are really trying to contact hard core because you get a lot of good investigators out of English because people are there looking for ways to improve their lives so we are excited to see how many people we can get to come!! We had a really good weekly planning session and it is cool to see how much we can do and accomplish as missionaries so young in the mission. Heavenly Father truly does qualify us for the work. We are still working with Marianna from the news stand and then we went and met her daughter at her work in the mall and they love talking with us and they are reading out of the Book of Mormon! Hopefully we can teach them this week! The work here is different then what I ever thought missionary work would be... People in this country just need to feel Gods love for them.. they have been through so much... I was contacting on Sunday and I went on an exchange with a different missionary and we talked to this lady and she was so great.. we gave her the pamphlet and she said she would read it.. as we were walking passed her she was reading the pamphlet and then she saw us and jumped and and walked with us around the park.. she was so interested and so we gave her a brief restoration explanation and she gave us her number so we will see how that goes this week. This country is young in building the gospel... We are here helping with everything.. working with members is A HUGE part of the work here.. they are so young in the church... It was amazing on Sunday was the big area conference and we filled the Panduri chapel with people from Brasov, buc, Ploiest, constanta, it was really cool because I looked around and thought to myself.. "everyone here in this room is a convert of less than about 15 years! crazy! I know that we are kind of in the "planting stage of missionary work..." but I know that someday Romanian will take off! It may be when I send my kids on missions but hey it is promised to be a successful land and God ALWAYS keeps his promises! So everything is going really great!

I have really started focusing on studying. I am still working on my Christlike attributes Book of Mormon. I am obsessed with that Book... Sora Kelly and I love study hours so we have so much fun! We went and bought these bigger journal to compile our topics that we study into one book and it is going to be so so cool.. probably one of the best souvenirs I will get out of the mission. I have also been working on my prayers.. so I got this idea from another sister in the mission... its a prayer journal.. I realized that I need to take more time to think about my prayers so before and after my morning and nightly prayers I write down my goals and what I am grateful for and what I am nervous about or happy about and then I pray... after my prayer or during I write down the thoughts and impressions that come to my mind....IT IS AMAZING! Heavenly Father is waiting to hear from us.. He wants to help us and I think He takes me more seriously as I am readily waiting to right down the answers I recieve as I pray. I am thankful for that! I am thankful for a Heavenly Father who knows me personally. I know that I am growing up and learning so much on this mission. Sora Kelly and I talk about it all the time.. how far we have come since the MTC (We all know that those days were a little rough ha) to now.. It is amazing!

I am so glad that I made this decision. The best decision I have made in my life so far! It is so much fun! Sora Kelly and I laugh and have fun doing missionary work all day long! It is amazing how much joy the mission can bring to my life! I know that it can only keep getting better as I continue to improve on the language and my teaching skills! I know that there will be hard times.. but that is how we grow. Everyone always asked the question "if God is so loving why do people suffer?" I am so glad that I know that answer in my life... God wants us to become like HIM! So he has to give us trials to shape us into the person He wants us to be for this life and eternity! I know that this gospel is true! I know that the Book of Mormon is true. I am thankful for it! I am so thankful for my family! For all of you guys! It means so much to know that I have a support system back at home! I know that Heavenly Father will take care of me. I hope that you guys have a great week! continuously study the gospel everyday it will bring a difference into your life! I love Romania. I for sure still miss the family.. you guys are just too great and such a big core foundation of my life.. but I am loving it here.:) I am now Romanian... haha So you know how on the best 2 years kirby never thinks he will learn the language and he trainer was like.. before you know someone will come up and talk to you and you will reply back just like a dutchman! WELL.. that happened to me!!! so cool.. I just got off the metro and this random girl walked up to me and asked how to get to subway.. and it was super cool because first off I actually remembered where it was and I was able to give her directions in my broken Romanian! yahoo!! :) ha

Well I love you guys! Stay strong! Work hard..

va iubesc!! foarte foarte mult!!! Mi-e dor pe voua!

Dragostea, Sora Abby Polatis