Big fire in our area!! So Sad

Well Well, can you believe that I really have almost made it 12 weeks! GRABI!!! But what a different week it was! So Monday we really a good day! We emailed and then went home to clean our apartment! We had a feeling apartment checks were coming and we were right, they did! The Elderly couple who checks are the Neffs! They are older but so tight! Elder was a custodian or something so he always makes jokes that his white glove would be ruined hahaha but tells us that we live in Bacolod so he will let it slide. We really aren't messy, it will always just be dirty! But we had family home evening with the Palis family! It was fun! We taught about the importance of gratitude and of course she fed us! Oh my food! I love it! I always still have to go slow, my stomach still just gets a little upset every now and again! But we had our district meeting on Tuesday and it was actually a training with President Lopez! So it went for a couple hours. We talked about the importance of teaching the restoration and how we need to have it memorized. He also told us to be excited if we are ever asked at the last second to teach sunday school or relief society because we should be the best teachers! Everything in the gospel we can relate it to something in PMG and since we are supposed to be scholars of that book we should be able to come up with something! We got back and headed out to teach! One of our Recent converts bought us these CUTE philipino purses! He is tight, 2 each!! I guess they are pretty expensive but we were so grateful! We taught our regulars, everyone seems to be progressing great! Antony is still pretty shy with us but he is cool. I like teaching him!

 We had another FHE scheduled and that was with the Hoyo-a's! They are so cool. We did the lesson again on gratitude and Brother H was giving the closing remarks and he just told us that he didn't feel like doing a FHE because they didnt have any money (around here they always feel like they have to feed you when you do FHE)  but he prayed and prayed for work and it came! And he was so stern in his voice saying that as long as you do your part and trust in the lord he is going to bless you. You cant sit around doing nothing and then being mad at the lord when you have nothing. So it really strengthened me! I need to study the best I can with this language and then continue being prayful that I can learn and it will come! I need to be patient! But we ended up eating and that again was good, It is funny around here all the chicken has skin and bones and to be honest ever since doing chickens at grandmas I kind of have been scarred for life. I liked going to the grocery store and asking for boneless/skinless. Well here I usually avoid the chicken if I see the bones and Sister Arnold knows that but Sister Hoyoa noticed that I missed it and she comes over later and slaps this huge piece on my plate with the nastiest bone and so much rice! She was so worried that I wasnt eating enough, so I had to just get over my fear because I didn't want to offend her by not eating it! So i picked it apart the best I could and right as I was done before I even knew what was happening Sister Arnold goes (In hiligaynon) "Sister Hoyo-a, Sister Polatis has finished and says that she wants more!" AHHHHHHHH I was dying so another skin-ny and boney chicken gets on my plate! I about died! It was good but still! Weird! HAHA funny but i was so FULL!

! Well Wednesday we were headed to our area and we saw this huge black smoke cloud and heard fire trucks, it was our area! I guess this crazy guy stood on his roof top and yelled "We are all going to Hell" and he lit this fire. Well it burned OVER 200 houses!! Killed at least 3 people! What a whack! I wanted to burn him, not really but now these people who really have nothing, really have nothing!! It was so sad! But it was weird all the people who were active--no fire to their houses. But the less actives--yep lost their houses! Coincidence, I think not! The lord knows what he is doing! Well skipping to Sunday  3 of the ones who were LA were at church! They knew that what had happened was because they were falling away! But Thursday we got permission from President to go and help a family clean up! So Thursday we left at about 8 am and started, We helped the Deasis family! Our job was to pick up the clothes and put them in bags, they were all burned but they needed it clear so that they could scrape. Then we had to sift through the ashes to find the nails. It was fun getting back into some physical labor! But we did what we could and hopefully it helped! We had to head back to the church, sister fatima had a baptismal interview. I wasnt worried about her for one second! She is awesome and she passed! So she was baptized on Saturday! But Friday we Did cleaning with the missionaries again and got the font all ready for Saturday  I still just stare at the brown water and it makes me sad hahaha I always think "how can your sins be washed away in dirty water" haha I know it doesn't really matter but it still grosses me out! Saturday it was "National Service Day" here so we met at the church and put on our "Mormon helping hands vests" and headed out. We were supposed to do it at a local school but since the fire we went to Katilingban! We found all the members and we made lists of what they needed and other things we could do to help! It was pretty fun! We went back to the church where there were bags of clothes and things that members had donated and we separated them and they had some rice and we divided that all up for the families. It was raining like crazy! It was weird because here is is summer. Rainy season doesn't start for a few months but it was pouring!! It was really cool to see that the church is really the same no matter where you are in the world. I really felt at home doing all that stuff. I liked it. Well the baptism of Sister Fatima was great! We had support of our bishopric and everything! It was fun! She really is a cute girl and she seems to be doing great so far. She says the confidence of the girls in our church really impressed her. So i guess I better get my confidence level up! HAHA Well saturday night we went out and got Ice cream and while I was getting a napkin I look over and see this guy talking to Sister Arnold, he was asking all about our religion and why we thought it was right. He seemed to be one who is always switching religions, anyways his name is Fred and he kept saying "convince me of why your religion is right" Well he had alot of questions about everything and if God is a just God why are there people in Africa starving? So we talked about trials and having faith and it never turned into a debate which was good but we ended up giving him a book of mormon, oh he lived in texas for a while so he spoke dang good english which was nice because I was able to respond. But we told him to just start reading and to pray about it. Well it was about 45 minutes of chatting and we invited him to church well HE CAME! He had so many questions and he really is like a real investigator! He has questions because he really wants to know!! I loved it! I hope he progresses! He said he wants to learn more and he said he would come to church next week! We were so excited! So we shall see! But all in all it was a good week! Really sad to see what the people were going thru but a huge testimony builder to know that God is really the one in control! We need to make sure we are doing everything we can to obey him and always do our best to keep the commandments. He will strengthen us! But I miss you all and love you so much! Thanks for all the emails! Until next week!! MMUUAAHH!!! Oh remember we really are so blessed and we need to be grateful for what we have!!! :)

Love Sister Polatis!

Our "Helping Hands" vests

Me doing a heel click!!

Photo opp!

Now we know how cheap those shoes are!

Giving Bro. Cruz some bags

FHE at the HOYO family

At the HOYO'S

Cleaning up after the fire

A man lit the town on fire and told them they were all going to HELL

The fire burned over 200 homes--Now they have nothing

Transfers!! We are still together!!

Transfers!!!...... Drum roll..... "I said Drum Roll...." - Christmas Vacation... haha I AM STAYING IN MIHAI BRAVU ....... Drum roll.... WITH SORA KELLY!! wahoo... We are super super excited! They really did not switch up the girls in the mission at all because we have all the youngsters.. so everyone is staying with their trainers.. and Sora Kelly and I are now Co - Seniors! I am really excited to be staying here.. yes it is not the prettiest city... . but here there is literally millions of people... which is perfect for missionaries! Secondly, they talk so fast here! so this is a perfect place to learn the language because anywhere I go after this will be a piece of cake.. everyone here slurrs all of their words together.. But it is so cool.. I am understanding ALOT! which is a miracle... some one came over and told us to do something in Romanian.. and with out even thinking I answered right back.. Sora Kelly was like "how did you know what she was saying.." ha I just looked back and shrugged.. ha wahoo.. the language is coming.. no worries I am NO PRO but it is great being with Sora Kelly because we have to figure it out.. We are going to make some solid goals for this transfer to boost our language... even if Sora kelly and I get transferred after this transfer.. we will have been TOGETHER.. 5 out of the 7 months on the mission.. ha good thing we really like each other! My District is so cool.. Remember Elder Poulsen from the MTC and Elder Whitehead they will be in my district.. so now 5/6 of us from the MTC are in Buch (gerhartz stayed on the Panduri side) It is going to be so much fun.. In my district there is 8 elders.. we have the office elders and now zone leaders in our district.. everyone is so cool!! This summer is going to be amazing!! 

If you guys are wondering about how the weather is here.. well it is HOT!! ha we went from one week of spring to now it is blazing.. I will now be able to kind of compare to Sarah mission! ha my body is not used to this humidity.. but it will be good.. we are going to get some nice tans!! We tried turning on our air conditioner.. and it was working great.. and then like 10 min later it started smelling like melting plastic.. and then it sounded like a gun shot.. and then our fire alarm started going off.. haha so I guess we will be calling our proprietire.. ha and we were having a serious mold problem in our bathroom we found this amazing stuff that kills it in 2 seconds.. it has to be illegal.. it is so amazing! 

So this week has been good... We learned self defense on Monday from Elder Hollist (our marine man.. now district leader for next transfer) Sora Hill came to observe and it was so much fun.. I can basically take any one out that tries to mess with me.. ha I think that Sora Kelly and I will now be assigned in teaching other sisters in the mission:) So it should be super fun! 

Tuesday we went and did our service.. we are going to cut down on going to that place every week.. the kids are crazy in the heat and no one wants to learn english when it is so fun outside.. and it is really sad.. we were trying to talk with the kids and they starting messing with us.. trying to get us to swear.. sad.. so young... we then also went to english and we asked our class what they thought the purpose of life was.. it was crazy how many "eat drink and be merry" answers we recieved.. they were all like.. I think we are here to just be happy and enjoy ourselves... Sora Kelly and I had to testify about the importance of the fact that we are here to prepare to meet God. This day we were also walking home and there is a lot more gypsies and homeless people out now that it is warm... so this little gypsie kid starting following us and giving his recited lines "you are both beautiful.. please give me money" he kept repeating it and followed us all the way to our block.. I didnt know what to say.. as missionaries President Hill told us not to give out anything because as a church we pour a lot of money into this country... and it is not using our funds wisely.. so all I could say was "I am sorry.. and God loves you..." He then left after he realized he wasnt getting anything. I felt bad! 

Wednesday our girl that was basically telling us she wanted to be baptized last week stood us up.. such a bummer.. we planned our whole day around her and even canceled one of our less active appointments for her... now she won't pick up or text us back... so not sure what to do about that?? I guess we will just keep trying until she tells us to stop! ha but this week we were really trying to have a good turn out at this easter family night thing we planned.. we invited the ward and then we passed out like 500 flyers to families.. we had an easter egg hunt and games and some food... I thought that it went good because some of our people from our English class came and a lot of people from the ward came.. no new families came to it.. but it was ok.. I still had a lot of fun that night! 

We had a funny thing happen when we were waiting to get on our tram.. this lady was sitting there so we went over and started talking to her.. it was cool.. she make it clear she was orthodox and then our tram came.. We are riding on the tram and she comes back to us and gives us her grandsons number and tell us to call him.,. she was like.. "he speaks english" So we called him right there and he was very confused.. we invited him to church though and asked him if he wanted to know more.. He then called us the next day to say that he really thought it was a joke.. we gave him the mormon.org website to look up more about our church.. it was just funny because it was so random.. because we realized that his grandma was probably just trying to set us up with her grandson!!! hahaha but who knows.. he really might come to church!!! 

On Sunday it was fun.. I am meeting with this guy in the ward because.. ok get this he is like a professional FLUTE player.. or he thinks he is haha He has been asking me for a while to get together and practice... he even brought out his phone and showed me all of the videos that he has done of him self playing.. this guy is like 60 years old.. ha so Sora Kelly had to give a little talk on Sunday in Romanian and she was very nervous and trying to rehearse with a girl in our ward.. well we have to be in the same room so she is there.. kind of freaking out and then I have to practice with this guy playing the flute!!! So funny.. I was laughing as I was playing.. haha it was funny to because I didnt have to play the piano in church so then I ended up leading everything and then a lady came up to me and asked if I would come play in primary.. ha so I went up there.. so now my schedule for sunday playing the piano will be - sacrament..sunday school- relief society and then run up to primary. then run back down to relief society.. hilarious.. but I must say it is making me improve... and it was hilarious so I am playing the "do as I am doing song" and it was so funny because the little boy had a toy gun.. so then the primary teacher gave a gun to the other boy and they started shooting each other in the song.. "high or low... fast or slow..." haha 

That night we also met with one of our English students and she really really needs the gospel in her life... She doesnt have any hope and she says she only feels piece when she is with us.. She came to the church because she also loves to play the piano.. so she printed me out a song and really wants to teach it to me.. so that will be part of our lessons! We will see how it goes.. she thinks the bible is scary and corrupt so we just tell her to read the Cartea Lui Mormon!! 

I love you all so so much!!! Have a great week!! We are so so blessed.. wow I can't say that enough! 

cu drag, 

Sora Abby Polatis 

This Elder is happy he is having a birthday!

My own little Sacred Grove

Serious Mold problem, but with this magical stuff, it will be gone in 2 seconds!

Amazingly huge city!

Sister Kelly  and me!!  downtown

Elder Poulsen and me

Sister kelly, Sister Dragu and me

Advertising the Church!

Iowa is the Bomb

Oi minha mai, e minha familia,

    Haha there is alot of things here in this mission that are cool to find out and really amazing. Ha to start, I met sister Broome. She is a way cool girl. She actually just barely told me that Brenan is getting married and she told me to tell Abby hi. yes I met Sister Hill. Ha she came up to me and was like to you know Austin???? I was like of course I know that little guy, We were best buds back in High school.  But I got put into a tri-companionship. I with Elder Lewis and Elder Wright. They are way fun guys and love to go tracting, so we've been doing a lot of that recently. I love teaching to people that really want to know the truth, its great. We are in the West Des Moines area, and there are a ton of apartment complexed with a lot of african families. Its almost like being on a foreign mission ha. Studying the language is pretty tough by myself buy I make one of my companions help me so it works out.

   We we're knocking doors the other day, and we got to this apartment with a Spanish family in it. The mom said that she could not understand or speak English very well sooo... I started speaking Portuguese to her:) I was pretty proud of myself, but she still didnt really get the point so i guess I need to start learning some Spanish too. Its so nice to be out of the MTC though, a lot of my friends were telling me how I was going to miss the MTC, but I love being out of there. It was so nice to go to church yesterday and then have a good lunch with a member!! Oh and the ward we are in is big on Missionary work. The bishop is Great!. He announced that we are going to fast for the missionaries, and he said that each family should strive to give out one book of Mormon. I though that was way cool.

      Its starting to warm up here a bit. I cant wait until it hits 70 because thats when we can start going without our suit coats. It stinks having to wear it all the time, and it gets way hot having to walk every where. We share a car with the East Des Moines Elders so we'll get the car this week thank goodness. I love my shoes though. They are getting me around great. The good news also is that everyone here has told me that usually the visa waiters are here for only a month and then take off, so that was really exciting to me. Aww I feel like I have so much more to tell you but i'm short on time.. I'll try and write you a letter one of these days and we'll see how long it takes to get to you. I love you family!! . Thanks for everything Mom and Dad. I love having this gospel in my life and being able to share it. Until next week, Love Elder Polatis

On his way to IOWA!

No letter from Tate---He got to call us on Friday.  He has been re-assigned to Des Moine Iowa.  He will  be there until his VISA comes.  He sounds good and excited to be leaving the MTC.  I don't think that it mattered where he went!  He leaves Wednesday morning at about 4:00 a.m.  

Two major rainstorms this week!! Drenched!

Oh my word, what a BOMB week!! Haha seriously we are awesome but kind of dumb at the same time! Well after we left the internet cafe last week we were feeling a little bit down, Grabi, us feeling down well we went to a FHE at the Desaldes home! Oh my fun, they really are funny and Sister always makes us such good food and TANG! Hahaha so we were feeling better. 

Next comes Tuesday, and DONT judge me haha well we went to district meeting and couldn't kick our sad-like attitudes and we decided that it was because we were feeling UGLY! ya we understand that we are daughters of our heavenly father kag missionaries pero we are still girls and American kind of high maintenance so what did we decide to do, even after Abby's experience, YEP we did it, We DYED our hair! It is dark brown, Pops probably a little darker than you prefer but it will lighten and we now feel like we are on FIRE! Nothing can stop us now haha jokes, I must be in a super funny mood because I am like dying as I write this! Well we went out and we Taught Sister Mary Grace. She is the mom of MakMak, the 16 year old boy that we just baptized. She has been taught before and always seems really excited to see us. We have just been reading the Book of Mormon with her because she claims that she has been reading but we get the jist that she hasn't! Bummer:( Anyways funny story and I forget if I told you or not, But last week we are teaching her and we asked what she has read, well sometimes the people dont want to disappoint us and tell us they didnt so they pick a place and hurry and skim so that they can answer our question. Well usually they pick like 1 Nephi or something but she ended up picking the beginning of the BofM and it was Joseph Smiths testimony of the Book of Mormon. Well neither of us had an Ilonggo BofM because we were just going to stop by real quick and the language is deep well instead of telling her we were sad she didnt read we encouraged her to continue with us there, well we were both lost, Sister A was like, "Sister Polatis she is here", but I felt like she was somewhere else and both of us are trying not to laugh and we are searching like mad to find a word we know and can help us pinpoint where she is at. Well we never really found where she was so at the end of her reading we just asked "And how does that make you feel?" Haha  we really felt super dumb but we had to laugh! Hopefully she couldn't tell! So anyways guess we better just help her to start in 1 nephi so we can follow! First dumb moment right there!

Wednesday: Here was a full day of our "spontaneous attitudes" HAHA Sometimes here it looks like it is going to rain, but doesnt. Pero sometimes it looks as tho is won't rain but then all the sudden it is like a typoon. But we HATE carrying our umbrellas if it isn't necessary! Well it was kind of debatable whether it would or not so Sister Arnold goes "how bout we just take isa lang (1) umbrella, think of the adventures that we will have, scrunching underneath one" Well me being the dumber one AGREED! Oh my heck, wrong answer! HAHA It was horrible. We Made it just far enough from our house and it was pouring like there was no tomorrow. I thought back to myself and was like Oh my word that was the dumbest decision of my life! But we laughed and stopped to buy another one but the second we went to pay it stopped and we were blessed! But we thought NEVER again would we do that! We stopped in, to all our teaching appointments and it is getting better! We are getting better at me doing more than bearing testimony! It is all about knowing what to say and just spitting it out!

Thursday! Today we had a really good companion study! We wanted to make sure that we had goals set for ourselves other than just converting people. Like making sure we were becoming the best that we could be. So we read over our Patriarchal blessings and picked out things that we felt needed improvement. Well as you already know it is my self confidence that is lacking and It said something about building my talents. Well sometimes the devil gets the best of me and I couldn't really think of some that I had, but I made a list of things I wanted for myself and I will continue to work on those and Improve. We both had a really emotional study but it was what we needed.  One of the girls that we are teaching Fatima. She is 16 and dating one of the members in our ward! She is so cute. We had to go to her house and meet her mom. The mom wants nothing to do with it but said that she saw a change in Fatima and said if it is what she wanted and would make her a better person that she could be baptized. So she will be baptized on April 27. Really it is good to see the change in people. I like it! I like that as a people we are all constantly changing and that is how we grow. Dad and Mom you always told me that if I was feeling like I was stuck it was because I probably was and now looking back I can see it. I really needed a change in my life to improve not only my relationship with others but with my Savior as well. It is actually really fun finding who "sarah polatis" really is. I have been studying in Alma about captain Moroni,  Only being 25 he was bomb. Took on his leadership like a champ. So that is my goal, being confident to do what the lord needs me to do and doing it now with my whole heart. 

Friday: One of our Members gave us a dried squid that he wants us to fry up and cook! We are a like nervous but hey, it is all about the experience. We want to try chicken feet one day. I cant continue eating American food and expect to come home with some good stories. HAHA no worries mom, we will make sure that it is safe! But they gave us a ride on their little motorcycle cart thing to get us to a different appointment. It was quite fun. We stopped to see Sister Mary Grace again and she fed us "Boiled Bananas" Um...........Yum?? I guess! HAHA or they are supposed to be. Sister Arnold said that is what I will get fed alot or that is what she got in Escalante but to me they had the texture of a potatoe and no flavor really, but it was the thought that counts and I still am getting used to the different things! But you dip it in this sugar stuff, maybe it will grow on me. Who knows. We did cleaning with the missionaries, and once again it really was basically just the missionaries. HA we have maybe 2 that show up to help us but that is alright. We get it done either way!

Saturday: We had the baptism of Sister Sarah. She is one legit girl. Holy cow! I love her. She is 16, has no parents her grandpa is her guardian. She really has a strong testimony. She was the one who would do personal progress with her boyfriends sister before she was even baptized. So we got her her own PP books and hopefully she will continue on. But of course as something always has to go wrong or make it stressful. So the water here in the pines is a little brownish yellow so that is what they get dunked in. Anyways we had a "Brown Out" it is where the electricity just goes off and it is horrible but it really happens here like daily and depende sa day for how long it will last. But the water pressure was going so slow, so the baptism was scheduled for 6 but since the font wasnt full we all just hung out until the pressure kicked back up, it didnt start until 7:15 or so. We felt bad but there was really nothing we could do to help the process. But she was happy and bore such a good testimony  of this being the restored gospel.

Sunday: So today, we get to church and we are always so excited because that is 3 hours of AIRCON and that is like the best ever. Well to our Disappointment......"BROWN OUT" we were so bummed. It was so stinking hot. But we did our best to stay alert and focus on what was going on while using our pamphlets to fan us....they do come in handy hahaha well we had a good turnout for gospel principles and it was about the law of chastity, and to some that can be a little bit awkward, well sister Arnold sat with sister Sarah, who was just baptized and I sat with Sister Fatima who will be baptized next week and the whole time during the lesson she a little embarrassed at things that were being said and she was laughing and that made me laugh and as missionaries we are supposed to always set the best example but I totally had the giggles just from her, and It was funny, but she cracks me up. We proceeded to sacrament meeting we greeted as usual and about 3 minutes before it started the 1st coun. comes to us and says sisters come sit on the stand, we have no speakers and we need you. Um my stomach totally dropped, I hate spontaneous talking, so I pulled it together with bits and pieces from my farewell talk. Holy Stressful but it was about true conversion. Hopefully is made sense. Jenboi our recent convert was giving me language tips after church he really is super nice and he says that I will get it. So I will keep my head up and padayon on.

 But all is well. Still just keeping on going. It really is fun and we are teaching we just need to continue to find more referrals and continue our streak of baptism and helping people come unto Christ.,  I love and miss you all. A little to much sometimes. I really do have the best family in the whole entire world. Continue on and be safe. MIss you!!!! MMUUAAHH I cant believe that it is going this fast, transfers are in 2 weeks and we are praying for one more but really have no idea, hopefully it continues to be great. We will miss each other if we do get moved but that is life, we need to grow!!! Until next week! Love you
Sister Sarah Polatis!

Preaching to the boats in the ocean

Our friend Mak Mak

This sign says,"Don't Pee here"

My friends

2 major rainstorms this week!

This is their "drinking fountains"--we are not allowed to drink the brown water!

Baptism of Sister Sarah

We have to wear these signs to keep everyone off---ha

First ride in a Jeepney

Mak Mak giving me some pointers on the language before Church

PAINT BALLING!! What a blast!

Familia mea!! este foarte bine septamana pentru noi!! imi place mihai bravu mai mult! (It was a great week for us... I like mIhai Bravu!) haha 

Congratulations to Tate!!! wahoo!! That will be so great for him.. he can really take this time to learn everything really well in English and then he will easily be able to switch it all into portuguese.. So exciting   Greg good job on all of your stuff!! I am so proud of you!! Good luck finding a job!   Jaron good luck selling!! Make some money and send it my way.. I will pick up a nice European suit here for you... this place looks like it is your style! 

I finished the Book of Mormon this morning!!! yahoo!!! I loved it.. honestly I feel like it was the first time in my life that I truly READ the Book of Mormon.. I always read with pencils and pen next to me and I tried to apply every page directly to my life.. so amazing!! Reading scriptures everyday is a very basic thing that we need to do everyday to keep up on the right path! I know that the Book of Mormon is true!

This week was so much better than last week!! first off paint balling last monday was so much fun!!!.  I am not that great at paintballing but it was fun.. we had suits and pads and everything so it worked out well.. we did this "dumb" fun thing kind of at the end call the "civil war" and so basically we get on teams and shoot at each other just standing there and you couldnt flinch.. well of course I had to be on the team.. so our team shoots and then they shoot.. if you got hit in the chest or the face you were out but if your arm got hit you just couldnt use it.. well.. I was the LAST one in on my team.. the other team still had 5 players.. so yes I just got shot at by all of them! it is a way cool video.. haha I got nailed in the face.. but I had a mask on.. ha it was fun!! 

Tuesday we had our service day and I loved it! I taught these two little girls how to do a basic ballroom dance (probably something lora hill taught me years ago) and we had to do it at least 20 times.. this girl is like 3.5 ft tall so bascially all of the spins and everything were hilarious when I had to do them back with her.. and then I taught Sora Kelly and another little girls and then we preformed for their mothers when they came to pick them up! haha I love it.. they love when we show up.. this little girl named Denisa.. is always like "Abby!!!" haha we have so much fun! and then we have this really nice senior humanitarian couple in our ward and they invited us over for dinner that night! they are from Preston Idaho .. the Francoms..  but it was the best meal I have since I have been in the country! home made raspberry jam.. i felt like I was right back at home and the dinner table! they love us and she is just with her husband all day everyday so I think she really loves Sora Kelly and I. She hooked us up with some nice pots and pans so she is a very good person to have around! 

Wednesday was such a great day! GREAT STORY! So basically remember that girl that I contacted in the mega image about 2 months ago.. well she is so so cool and wants to change the world.. but she has always been way to busy to meet.. we finally met with her on Wednesday and it was awesome! We sit down and the first thing that she says is "ok so how do I become just like you guys?" ha She was like "I want to be a missionary!" Sora Kelly and I just looked and each other and we were like well.. "You have to be baptized in our church .. be taught these lessons... etc etc" We then explained all about baptism and the need to be baptized (this lesson is in English by the way.. She went to Germany to school for like 4 year so her english is perfect she is 32 years old) And she was like perfect! sounds great!! She then asked how much the lessons cost?? ha we were like its free. she was very surprised! So we are meeting with her again on Wednesday! So wish us luck! We are way excited to meet with her.. she is so great.. she kept saying "it was no coincidence that we met that day in Mega Image! 

Friday we had zone conference all day long!!! It was so good though.. First off I had to play the piano for everyone!! ha seriously though I am improving so much on my skills.. I don't really get nervous anymore because I have to do it so much!! but President Hill is amazing! But it was just awesome because he talked about giving ourselves 100% to this mission.. it was so inspiring.. the Assistants gave a good presentation on what we have promised to do on our missions and then what the Lord promises to bless us with! The blessing are endless as long as I do my part! I mean everything is worth it on the mission if we are promised "greater happiness forever".   We then had the "dying" testimonies of the missionaries leaving at the end of this transfer and I cried through them all..  I have grown close to some of the people that are leaving and they are so cool! One elder reminds me so much of Tate and I couldnt not help but just cry! They just talked about how it was the greatest experience of their lives and every thing is worth it and yes.. it was so so cool! Sora Kelly and I came out of the meeting very determined to love everyday of the mission and give ourselves 100%! 

Saturday was a very fun day we had our English class and then we had permission to go out and eat as a district for Elder Cross birthday! We then got to participate in this promotion sort of thing for our humanitarian missionaries. We as a church donate thousands of wheelchairs to the people of Romania.. so we got to compete against one of Romania wheel chair basketball team.. It was so much fun.. at first I didnt know if I wanted to play.. but I told myself on this mission I am going to do everything I possibly can! so I put on my sweats and got into the game! Even PRESIDENT HILL got in a wheelchair and played! ha It was so fun! He is the coolest mission president every!! We then had our big evening  for family history in Romania and we passed out thousands and thousands of flyers and 12 people showed up!! ha not the turn out we were expecting but it was cool because one guy showed up and he has been trying to put together something like family search for years.. and I guess he has a big facebook group that follows him so maybe we did all that work for that one man?? who knows..  but it was good! Sunday was kind of our normal Sunday.. our investigators didnt show even though we saw Marianna the day before and she was 100% coming?? we again don't know what happened?? we might have to drop her after this week.. sadly... we just need to focus on others if she isn't going to keep her committments.. sad hard truth of missionary work! 

Other random story.. I had my first encounter with the Jehovah Witnesses! The first lady was this little old lady and she just started going off on us about something.. (the perks of not knowing the language yet..) we really didnt know what she was yelling.. I then just starting bearing my testimony and she said something back and then we left.. ha but then I think it was that same day we ran into another one on the bus.. she wanted to argue with us but then she noticed we didn't understand everything she was saying and she was like.. you guys don't know romanian? ha "why are you here?" ha she was like "do you at least know Spanish?" ha you could tell she was sad she didn't have a chance to argue with us... ha but it was good! We are just friendly! kill them with kindness right:) 

But everything is going great! I am really loving being a missionary! I mean this is a once in a life time opportunity!! so so cool! I am starting to love the people more as I am able to talk to them and I am figuring out who I am:) I am happy to be here! It is getting really nice outside too, so am loving that.. it is going to be getting super hot soon.. today is super nice.. the humidity kicks everything up:) I am excited for it! I love the seasons!! :) just like good old Idaho! I love you all! have a great great week!!! :) Be safe and healthy! I love you guys so much! thanks for everything!! good luck with all!! 

 

I love you all!! ve iubesc!! 

cu drag, Sora Abby Polatis

Trying to Say POLATIS

at the Children's Center

Paint balling in every country!!

Believe it!! I was the last woman standing--until they ganged up on me!!

Someone donated alot of wheelchairs

We got to help give them out and then had a BB game 

My cool mission President Hill

Conference was GREAT--we must REPENT!!!

Hey Everyone! First Off, mom I got my package!! Salamat gd!! I needed them all!! So feel free to send whatever you want! Just in an envelop and it doesnt need to be expensive. But everything was in there! It is nice eyeliner and all that stuff is kinda expensive, cant afford to buy that when I spend all my money on clothes hahaha jokes! (sort of) We budget really well we just use our extra when we find good deals which seems to be pretty often but that will stop this week!! We found 89 peso shirts ($2 in the states) so we got a couple and that way we wont feel bad if we wear them to death or if they get ruined.

 Well this week was pretty legit actually! Wednesday we had our Follow up training with President Lopez, we learned the importance of learning and that it doesn't necessarily happen during meeting but learning happens in-between meetings or in between appointments because that is where you can evaluate what you did good and what you did bad! So we talk more about what happened previously and how we can improve our teaching skills! It was fun to see all of my batch! One of the filipiono Well with the language, ha it gets better all the time I guess. I still am slow at following what people are saying. This girl was talking to me in English and I looked at Sister A like "oh my word what is she saying" Sister A just bust out laughing and was like "Sister, she is speaking English, you know English" so it is all about my confidence level and really how well I am paying attention! I cant just coast by expecting to know, I listen but do I really listen! That was my goal this week and to come out of a lesson feeling confident with the things that I have said in Ilonggo! It worked so I will padayon lang!!! So we visited a Sister from our ward who is in the hospital and it appeared to be the rehab floor well there was 4 PEOPLE IN A ROOM!!! It was kinda sad but I felt for a little bit like I was in my "hospital element" I almost wanted to throw on some scrubs and help out! Oh so weird but kinda cool, my new Zone Leader is Elder Wilstead, he is from STG. We were talking on Saturday while we were waiting for conference to start and I found out that I knew his dad! He works with the Parrys and Elder W knows Bruce! So it is just crazy how small the world really is! He is a cool kid tho! But this week we have been contacting referrals like crazy! The ward has been so great in helping us with this work! Love is definitely in the air! haha Our purpose in this ward must be to baptize everyone's boyfriends and girlfriends because that is what teaching appointments consist of! Glad to know they trust us with their close close ones!:)  Well we have been teaching this guy His name is Antony, anyways we taught him for a little while now and he wouldn’t commit to a baptism date, like we committed him then all the sudden he got really busy so we stopped going and just thought that maybe he wasn’t ready! Well his G/F who is a member came up to us at church on Sunday and was like “Antony is wondering why you aren’t coming back, he really does want to learn” so we made a plan to see him on Thursday but he ended up having to work which was frustrating to us, but Friday came around and we did our weekly planning and decided to commit him to a baptismal date of May 11, that gave him time to have a teach and hopefully he would say yes! Well we go to the house and he didn’t read so instead of teaching the law of chastity we went back to the basics and read like 6 verses from the Book of Mormon , starting from the beginning and explaining how he can apply them to himself, at the end of our reading he was like, yes I learned so much! But we wanted to know what was making him so nervous of being baptized, well we just came out and asked him and he was like “Sisters I want to know everything before I get baptized” Both of us just stopped and smiled (we LOVE that reason) and explained to him that even us as missionaries we don’t know everything about the gospel but it takes faith to push forward! So we recommitted him and Sister A could only thing of April 27 as the date so that is what we said, but he stopped and looked at the ground and was like “actually could I be baptized on May 11 it is my g/f birthday!!!! WHAT!!!!!! OH MY GOSH!!! The Lord really does work in mysterious ways! That is the date we planned for him during weekly planning! I really need to work on my being emotional! HA I got a tad teary eyed and was so happy! Everything happens for a reason and had we been able to teach on Thursday he probably would have told us “No” again! So blessings!! It really was the best feeling ever! That is what makes missionary work so great! But things really are going good. Sister Sarah was who we were going to baptize on Saturday after G.C but there was a mix up during her interview but she is the sweetest and she will be baptized on the 20^th instead, which is good as well. She reads and prays and from what I can understand she really prays sincerely and knows who she is talking to! I loved General Conference! Holy Cow, do you think we all need to repent and follow the commandments or what?! I really bet they feel like we do, we tell people things all the time but no one listens it is crunch time! We really have to step up our game and become the best we can! Listening to them tell people to not pick and choose which commandment that they thought were important but to follow them all reminded me of the Nephites in the Libro ni Mormon,  how they knew what they had to and who to follow but still they were weary and becoming of the world! So that is my goal, being strict to obey the commandments of God, just like it says in the Libro ni Mormon! Well funny story of the week! But mom, you can take this out of the blog post. So Tuesday, we go out after District meeting and studies like normal 2. So Sister Herminia who we just baptized a couple weeks ago, well usually we would teach her at 5 and brother would always be at work but the area we were going to focus on was way far from her and we didn’t want to go far and come back then go back to the far area again. Well it was 2 in the afternoon and we stopped by and one time before when we stopped by her music was super loud and we peeked in and she was asleep, well we tried that again and let’s just say that we won’t be peeking into anymore houses from now on! HAHA happy hour had begun and poor Sister A is going to be scarred for life! HAHAHA she like slapped my shoulder and was like “AH go go go,” I knew exactly what had happened and I was dying laughing so needless to say our next teaching will be at 5 p.m sharp!! HAHA whew, I am almost crying as I write it down for you!  Oh one more, well as part of my language learning I try to open my mouth to everyone as much as I can, well we see this lady walking and she is pretty dirty, and she is a little off her rocker, actually full on crazy!! Sister Arnold knew she was crazy but I didn’t!  But I was like (in ilonggo) “how are you sister? She responds oh I am fine so we were like “Diin ka makadto” Where are you going? She says oh just over here and in the calmest voice says, I am hungry and looking for food! What did you bring me!! HAHA sad but we apologized told her we didn’t have anything, but just how it all went down! People always think we are these rich Americans! But other than that, nothing that crazy! It really is fun and we just still make the best of everyday! It really is going fast! I cant believe that I am a few short months away from being out 5 months! Insane! Well everyone sounds great! I always love hearing from you guys! Keep on keeping on! “Where e’re thou art, act well thy part” that is my new motto! Being here is different but it is good! I will continue to do my best with everything and laugh at myself! It is do-able!! I think of you guys all the time! Greg,  Eh Eh, oh and Ps, I didn’t run out of toilet paper but we did have to stop at one house and I had to use a Napkin that I stashed away in my purse for emergencies hahahah!  Mom and Dad! You are the best!!! MMUUAAHH! Miss you be good and be safe! Until next week!

Love Sister Sarah Polatis!!

At the internet lab BEFORE it all shut off!!!

Spring has sprung in Romania!!

Familia Mea, 

Well some sweet things that happened this week.. So the first day that Sora Kelly and I were together at the train station as we were switching companions this random lady came up to us.. she was gypsie and we kind of just thought that she was goiing to ask us for money (it is not good to judge:( ) so anyways we kind of had some small talk with her and she was then like "Can I give you my number to learn more about your church?" So we did and then we found out that she lived closer to the other sisters in Buc so we just handed her number over to them.. We didnt really think anything happened from it but we found out yesterday that she really was interested and that she and her 5 kids went to church on Sunday!!! So cool huh! So I guess I learned 2 lessons that day.. don't judge.. and that I can actually make a difference in this country! So I was really excited about that! 

The language is coming still slower than my liking.. but I guess I just have to get used to it! people tell me that it is kind of like a switch that happens in your brain and it kind of just starts to make sense.. well I am still waiting for that switch:) ha but it was cool the other day we were all at the church and one of the old ladies was inviting President Hill and his wife over for dinner and they didn't understand her.. so then the sister pulled me over and had me translate.. It was pretty cool and mean it was some simple phrases but I was happy.. so the language is coming.. Greg was saying that he thinks that my language must be coming because I make a lot of mistakes in my emails... ha Sorry hopefully you guys can still read them... :) 

This week has been a very interesting faith testing week for Sora Kelly and I. We got stood up by ALL of our investigators. Every single one of them bunged us. I just don't get it? I heard that it is hard for missionaries in the city because everyone is so busy they said it is alot better up north and out of Bucharest. So it happens to all of us here. But it was weird like we call one lady the day before and she was all "yes.. of course I would love to meet tomorrow" .. the next day we are waiting and waiting.. we call her up and she was like " O ya.. well I dont have time for that today..." and then yesterday we set up to meet with our girl we are teaching and we called her as we are waiting and then she calls us back an hour later and was like sorry but I left buc 2 hours ago. ha So yes 0 other lessons for the week. It was very frustrating but our recent converts and less actives never less us down so we still have those lessons during the week! One of our less active sisters taught us how the Romanians cook their fish.. I don't remember how we do it in Idaho because I am not a huge fan of fish.. but it was crazy she was just like chopping it up bones, fins, head and all went into the pot! I am glad we are NOT aloud to eat fish on the misison:) We also went and visited Sora Gorzo this week because she wants to help us with the language.. we knew she would try to feed us but we tried telling her we didnt need food.. anyways... so we are sitting there eating..and she ALWAYS has a 3 course meal.. full of soup and that was fine until we got to the main course with some sort of meat and rice and these bright red sausage things.. you would be proud.. I did eat it.. o man but we were kind of feeling sick after! ha We also had our English class this week and we thought that it would be cool to talk about success.. well not such a good idea.. because our people in class really don't like Romania and they don't feel like they are successful in anything.. so lesson learned! So this week struggled a little bit but  We will continue to mergam inainte! (go forward) ha It can only go up from here right? It is not starting to get very warm so the parks and everything are amazing! 

Kind of funny story for the week.. So we are park contacting and we pass these two random guys sitting on a bench.. well they start trying to speak English to us and we just ignore them... (as usual) but then like 5 minutes later they are right behind us and they want to talk to us.. so I naturally start talking about the Book of Mormon in my broken Romanian.. ha and we give them some pamphlet.. well they kind of just kept walking with us and they were like "come have drinks with us.." after we explained that we don't drink they asked us to come get juice with them.. after we said no to that they were really feeling beat up.. they then said "how about if we bring juice to church then will you drink it with us" ha we again told them no and we said that we had boyfriends and that they can come to church if they want.. but not to hang out with us.. ha I thought that it was really funny.. because they guy was like "you look just like my ex- girlfriend.." I get that all the time back in the states so I was laughing about getting it here in Romania too. He was like " I really like you.. not like you like you .. but you are really cool and nice.." his English struggled a little bit so he was just throwing stuff out there.. well we told a kid in our district the story and he is in the military.. his name is elder Hollist.. he did not think that the story was funny AT ALL... he was like "if they show up to church I will beat them up..." so he is now going to teach us self defense and make us pepper spray.. ha so family I will be safe...we usually go contacting with the Elders anyways.. or have them close by... :) I know that as long as I am following the spirit and not being stupid I will be protected! There was a lot of people in the park we were at and it like like at 2:00 in the afternoon! So we are smart!!! 

Sunday was a cool day for us though because we all fasted to find families! We really need families in our branch! So it was cool because we all went to the park.. all the elders and sister in buc went to a park and we had like 8 of us singing hymns and then 4 were passing out stuff and then we had like 6 others with chalk explaining the plan of salvation!! The assistants and office elders and the zone leaders were all there so it was really fun! It was really cool and the parks are amazing.. I didnt realize all of the cool lakes that Romania has! so pretty! we are going to go contacting in all these pretty parks a lot more often!! :) So it was really fun all fasting together.. we didn't see results right away but we know we will be blessed for our efforts! 

Well family have a great week! I love hearing from you all!! I will back on the internet at like 10:00 AM your guys time today! love you all! I am going to be getting off soon because we got permission to all go paint balling today! People of coming from some surrounding cities so I think we will have about 25 missionaries playing so it should be a good time!! And this week is looking good also! The church is true! I love you guys so much! read your scriptures every day.. I am almost done with the book of mormon.. amazing.. amazing.. :) You guys are the best! 

Va iubesc! Cu Drag, Sora Abby Polatis

preparing fish!!

Luckily we cannot eat FISH!

One of the Parks

So Happy we can't eat FISH!!

Tracting in the park

Singing Hymns with the Elders in the Park

Me wishing I could row one of these babies!!

teaching the Plan of Salvation on the sidewalks in the Park

My Great package--Yeah! American food!!