They just made this new revision to the White Handbook where as missionaries we can write to whoever we want and there is no time limit on emails.. So everyone can feel free to write me:). I just got my visa this week! It is super cool! It looks like a mug shot on my card though because you can't smile in it and the picture was from my first day in the country and that was when we were super tired! ha so it is really funny looking! Sarah is rocking it in the philippines! I am super excited for her!
How was Easter? In Romania Easter is not for another month and I guess that it is a really big deal. They let the missionaries go to the midnight mass and everything so I am excited for that! I am also really excited for General Conference! I am very fortunate to be in Bucharest because it gets broadcast here! They try to match up with America so when you guys are watching the morning sessions.. I will be watching them at the same time but it is at 7:00-9:00 pm. Then they rebroadcast the afternoon sessions and the young women sessions so I am really excited for that! It is so cool that we have a living Prophet today to lead and guide us! I can't wait to really listen to General Conference.
This week has been pretty interesting for us! It is for sure a triall of our faith to put 2 missionaries that have been in the country for 10 weeks together in one of the biggest city's in the country! We are still making it but sometimes we just wish and pray that the language would come faster! Every phone call is on speaker and we try to translate and answer it together! ha it is pretty fun.. we are trying to learn to just laugh some things off.. On wednesday we were able to meet with one of our less active sisters.. She is the one that we are teaching her God daughter.. anyways so we get there and she says that the girl is not coming for an hour or so.. ha Sora Kelly and I looked at each other.. we did not know what we were going to talk about for one whole hour with a Romanian women that did not speak any english.. ha So we just started talking about random things and then we saw that she had nail polish on the table to we were asking how you say some of that vocab.. then she decides to give us manicures... it was so funny .. if you would have asked me a year ago.. if I would have thought I would ever be sitting in a Romanian woman's house with her giving me a manicure trying to speak sentences in Romanian I would have told you that you were crazy! it was pretty funny! Then the girl showed up and we were able to teach her some English.. while at the same time she helps with our Romanian and then we gave her a book of mormon and we challenged both of them to read Alma 32-- we are hoping that they will do it together.. and we can get Nan back to church!! I wish people would not get offended!! ha but its ok.. she loves us missionaries! So we will keep trying! After that we had a pretty cool experience where I just started talking to this lady on the bus and it was a blizzard outside so I was just giving some small talk about how cold it was.. then we started talking about our English class. we gave her a card and then she got off the bus. Well we kept riding the bus home and then we got off.. behind us we hear this girl in broken English asking us to stop so she could talk to us. Her name was Miley and she was super cute and wanted more information about English class. We gave her all the information and told her to come to class! It was cool because she had heard me talking to the other lady on the bus... neither of them ended up coming to English on Saturday but I still have hope that she will this Tuesday!! It was also cool because you know our investigator - Marianna from the newstand .. well we made it a goal to see her everyday.. so on Wednesday morning we were visiting her and we gave her some scriptures to read and it was cool because she had the Book of Mormon with her and she was reading it while she was at work! She had a friend at the magazine stand with her and she was like.. "come to church with me with these girls on Sunday.. there are good people there and I really liked it!" The friend whose name is also Marianna said that she would come! She was really nice and said she would come to English class also! It was cool because Marianna 1 was like "look I am a missionary for your church!" ha we were so happy! We kept visiting her during the week.
The rest of the week was a little bit rough.. we keep trying to set up with people and they keep turning us down or standing us up... I think we are both kind of frustrated together because we just wish that we were better at the language and more experienced! we love each other and we are like best friends but it is stressful at times! I am trying to stay really positive about everything!! It was just hard because on Sunday we were supposed to have both Marianas there and then we had planned to teach the restoration to them after church! We were so ready and had the lesson all prepared.. we stopped by her magazine on Saturday and she was all ready to come to church the next day. Well church is starting and I get a text that says "nu mai ajungs.." ah the text that no missionary wants.. which means she is no longer coming. I was so shocked she was so ready to come.. we text her back asking her if everything was alright because we know that her mom has been pretty sick but she didn't text us back... so we will have to visit her and see what is going on. But what was cool is that Marianna 2 (her friend) did show up to church! She only stayed for Sacrament meeting but she said that she liked it and she is for sure coming to English so we will see!
There are little miracles that we are seeing everyday-- one day we were out contacting and a guy came up to us speaking English and he started talking to us. He was like "you guys do know that this whole country is orthodox right?" ha we just looked at him and said yes.. we know.. he talked to us for a while and I guess he is from other country in Europe.. but he said he really admired us and our dedication.. he didnt have a religion.. so we gave him the book of mormon and some pliants and told him to give our Elders a call. It was cool.. we only had a Romanian book of mormon so we told him to order on in his native tongue and he said he would give the book of mormon away to his friend!
This mission is exactly where I am supposed to be.. it is teaching me lessons I will need for the rest of my life.. I am learning to be happy no matter what. I just have to be content with the little things in this mission.. I am truly learning to be happy with myself. Eastern European missions are way different -- i just can't compare my mission to others... I know that once it is summer the work will pick up .. it is really nice outside today and I think that Sora Kelly and I are just going to go shopping and hang out for the day so it will be really fun! I love you guys! I know that this church is true.. Sorry I don't really have cool stories for this week! I do love my mission- I know that this is the best decision I have ever make.. it is just truly humbling to know that I am 100 percent realiant on the Duhul Sfant and God because the message will not be able to go into the hearts of the people we talk to any other way! I am thankful for the trials that I have which are making me into a stronger person. I know that I will come home a better person because of this mission.. I will be a visiting teacher.. member present in missionary lessons, and magnify my callings! I listened to Elders Hollands talk today about the first great commandment and it really does send shivers up my spine when he talks about how Jesus Christ needs disciples FOREVER.. we can't go back to our old ways.. we have to always be progressing! I am so thankful for the honor and privelegde it is to be able to be with the Romanian people they are amazing.. :) I love you all so much! Keep up the great work! I am so blessed to have the best family in the world!
va iubesc!
Love Sora Abby Polatis
 |
| french tipped nails with food coloring!! |
 |
| Our living /study Room |
No comments:
Post a Comment